Is the sorcerer MC considered to be strong?

[Tomucci]

Lifegiver / blood mage looks pretty strong on paper but I feel like no one really talks about it when considering multi class options for blood mage, or just the wizard / druid MC in general.

Is it considered weak, objectively or relative to other options?

[dgray62]

You should check out Not So Clever Hound's Thundercat 2.0 build. It's definitely not weak; you can solo the game on PotD with a well-designed sorcerer.

Edited February 11, 2022 by dgray62
Minor correction

[Tomucci]

36 minutes ago, dgray62 said:

You should check out Not So Clever Hound's Thundercat 2.0 build. It's definitely not weak; you can solo the game on PotD with a well-designed sorcerer.

I've seen this, looks really strong but I'm wondering whether it's because it's a specific build, like with the way it extends the lifegiver cat shift with wall of draining to spam heaps of high level rejuvenation spells while you cast with blood mage.

Is the multi considered to be strong in a general sense the way some others are when they're not tied to very specific builds?

[Boeroer]

It depends. There are builds that use some cool synergies between Wizard and Druid. Mostly it's about combining self buffs and healing with Wall of Draining. Also you can use Spiritshift forever with the help of Wall of Draining. Even building a cool melee Sorcerer monster is possible with a Bloodmage/Shifter Boar (Shifter Boar has an extended DoT duration on the tusks which does tremendous DoT + stuff like Zandethu's Draconic Fury, Citzal's Martial Power, Wildstrike and so on + Wall of Draining).

If it's more about general casting and the non-late parts of the game: If you have only one spot left for a caster and want to cover all sorts of spells like for damage, self buffs, CC and healing (and also some melee and summons) it can be good. Very versatile. This is especial useful in runs with little to no knowledge about what's coming to you. 

If you have more free slots in the party, then a single class Wizard + a single class Druid is often the better option than... let's say 2 Sorcerers.

Mostly because a) you'll get to the good spells earlier due to SC power level progression and b) because you will reach the highest Power Levels 8 and 9 - and some of those spells that await you there are just fantastically powerful (Great Maelstrom, Meteor Shower or Missile Salvo, Avenging Storm with some tricks...) 

Another point is that if you have two specialized casters (wizard + druid) - instead of one who is more of a jack of all trades (sorcerer) + some other party member - your action economy will be a lot better. Just because two caster can cast two impactful spells at the same time, while the sorcerer has to cast them one after the other with recovery in between. Casting speed is crucial most of times. 

Obviously this last point is completely moot when going solo.

Advantages of a Sorcerer over a single class caster ate that there will be more spells to cast. They will have lesser impact due to lower PL and later access, but there will be more of them.

Also, most likely you will be more flexible.

When using Bloodmage the Druid part can heal, which fuels more Wizard spells. 

Tl;dr: specialized Sorcerer builds can be very cool, generalized Sorcerer builds are not great, but not bad either (imo).

Edited February 11, 2022 by Boeroer

[Tomucci]

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

When using Bloodmage the Druid part can heal, which fuels more Wizard spells. 

2 hours ago, Boeroer said:

If it's more about general casting and the non-late parts of the game: If you have only one spot left for a caster and want to cover all sorts of spells like for damage, self buffs, CC and healing (and also some melee and summons) it can be good. Very versatile.

These were the basic ideas I had in mind.

 

1 hour ago, Boeroer said:

If you have more free slots in the party, then a single class Wizard + a single class Druid is often the better option than... let's say 2 Sorcerers.

I think I always overlook this option because I only play multiclasses, at least for my main, they just seem more flavorful thematically. I think I also get stuck in the mindset of wanting synergies to be contained within individual characters. Both obviously limit me in a tactical sense. My last shot at a party synergy character was my black jacket swashbuckler that used weapon modals to debuff enemy defenses but didn't end up liking it.

 

But yep what you're saying definitely makes sense.

[Boeroer]

35 minutes ago, Tomucci said:

I think I also get stuck in the mindset of wanting synergies to be contained within individual characters.

Yes, that's a pit we all fall into.

Self-contained builds are just more appealing due to the planning and tinkering which might result in some cool synergies amd then seeing that stuff in action.
That's not necessarily more potent in a party-based game because of inter-character synergies (solo is a different story ofc.), but for most of us it's just more fun and feels more rewarding. And imo playing a game is all about having fun - so we're doing everything right, right?