Guide to being a Sorcerer
by Hadiar

If you're reading this, that means you’re interested in being a Sorceror, or interested in what I have to say about Sorcerors. Well, first and foremost, being a Sorceror is *NOT* easy! In fact, some people consider it to be the hardest profession to manage in the game! If that makes you queasy, and you’re not a patient person, read no further. Also, what I say in this guide is *NOT* law. Many people will disagree with me, many people will agree with me. I’m just writing this to give you an idea of what a Sorceror is like, and how to effectively play one, instead of running blindly into the fire. 
If you’re still reading, good. I blatantly left out in that first paragraph that Sorcerors also become one of the most powerful professions in the game. Sounds good, right? Well, it is. (g) It was Sorcerors who originally saved Elanthia from the hordes of undead by unleashing their new magic of demons upon them. Even though we may be the weakest profession in our early years, it’s actually quite the opposite once we reach our older ones. Keep in mind it won’t be easy. In fact, many times you’ll think of quitting, but just think of what you’ll be giving up by doing so. 
Rolling Up The Sorceror 
Rolling up those perfect stats is probably one of the most important and at the same time frustrating parts of the game. Do NOT auto roll. It may be easy, but if you stay with the rolls the system gives you, you may end up regretting it. Instead do a full generation. When rolling up the numbers, try to keep the total of the numbers around 620 or so. It might take a very long time to get that, it might not. 
A Sorceror has 3 important stats. Those are Aura, Wisdom, and Discipline. This is because Aura determines how much mana you have, and your Wisdom and Aura bonus works together to determine your Casting Strength (CS). Since your CS is a Sorcerors main attack form, you want this high. Try to put your high rolls into these three stats, while considering that some races have good Aura and Wisdom bonuses, while others do not. Considering what race you’ll choose to be, try to make it so the rolls are in the 80’s or 90’s. 
Aside from those 3 rolls, the rest is really up to the rollers discretion. I’ve seen many Sorcerers who had varying rolls in the rest of their stats. A good order to put your other rolls in from highest to lowest would be : ST, IN, LO, RE, CO, DE, and CH. Keep in mind, though, that CH *might* have a hand in the soon to be implemented spell Demonic Summoning. Hopefully it will not, because many existing Sorcerers have used the CH roll to dump their low numbers, including me. Hopefully it will not. We’ll just have to see. 
Training the Sorcerer 
Training the Sorcerer is rather easy. Try and train like this, though if you want to do if differently, feel free. 
Spell Research- Learn two spells every year. One of those spells should always be from the Sorcerer Circle. Your other spell is really up to you. Get the spell lists for the Sorcerer Circle, Minor Elemental, and Minor Spiritual, and study them, and see which spells would be most useful to you. 
I recommend training in Minor Spiritual your first three years, to get spells 101-103, which are a necessity to a Sorcerers defense. Then training in Minor Elemental up to spell 414, giving you some VERY useful spells, such as Elemental Defense I-III, Unlock, Disarm, and E-Wave. After you have 414, it’s really up to you again. I suggest switching back to Minor Spiritual to get 107 and maybe 108, and then returning to Elemental to get Imbed. The choice is yours. 
Edged or Blunt Weapons- Train in either edged or blunt weapons every year. Choose one and stick with it. I recommend edged, since edged weapons are easier to come by. But either way, choose one and always train in it every year. Keep in mind, though, a Sorcerer will rarely use their weapon after year 8 or so, because from there-on-in you’ll be using mainly magic as your weapon. Training in your weapon however, will keep your defense up, which is very important. 
Shield Use- Train in it every year. Keeps your defense up. Very important. 
Physical Training- Important, but can be skipped every now and then because of its expense. Remember to train in it though, because you need to get your HP’s up. 
Perception- Useful, not necessary, though a very cheap skill, also. Try and train in it every year or so, but only if you can. 
Mana Sharing- Very important and useful skill to have. Try to get your skill in Mana Sharing up to 100 as soon as possible, but definitely have it up to 100 by level 19. Should train in this every year, but can be skipped. 
Scroll Reading- Very useful. Let’s you read scrolls. Every year if you can. Can skip a year here and there. 
Magic Item Use- Lets you use wands and rods and the such. Also works in coordination with Scroll Reading with invoking the spells on the scroll. Every year if possible. Can skip a year every now and then. 
Spell Aiming- Pretty much useless to a Sorcerer. Increases your power with elemental spells from things like Wizard wands (Silver, Iron, Metal, Gold, Aquamarine, Slender Blue). But since a Sorcerer will have spell 102 up most of the time while hunting with magic, their AS will be decreased by 50, INCLUDING their AS with Wizard wands. Don’t bother with this skill, unless you want to use Wizard wands effectively. But remember, spell 102 *does not* effect your CS with Sorcerer spells. 
First Aid- Very helpful. Lets you tend bleeding wounds, diagnose people to see their health status, and increases your skinning skill. Also useful if you plan on or are required to skin a lot. (Doo bee doo bee doooooo). Every other year or so. 
Climbing and Swimming- Not very useful except in a few situations, and expensive skills. Only when you can, but not a priority skill. 
Lockpicking and Disarming. Lockpicking is not very useful to a Sorcerer. Disarming, on the other hand, can be. Sorcerers get spells (Unlock 407 and Disarm 408) which lets them Disarm and Unlock a locked container. Some Sorcerers choose to train in disarming so they can check for traps on a container on their own, without wasting the 8 mana it costs with 408, and 408 can easily miss a trap. The choice is yours. 
What to Hunt 
This is a hard choice for Sorcerers. Because we won’t be able to effectively use magic for our first 7 or 8 years, we must use our weapon instead. The problem with that is Sorcerers aren’t the best weapon users. 
Levels 0-4- Level 0 is a snap. Just visit every location on the DIR list. Soon you’ll have enough to get to level 1. As a sidenote, download maps! For level 1, visit old warrior Thraak in the inn. If you answer his questions correctly, you’ll get a beefy amount of free EXP. After that, deliver messages for the clerk in Moot Hall. This will get you EXP and money. In between notes, rest at a node, and if your mind drops below muddled and the clerk won’t give you another message, hunt rats in the sewer nexus. This should get you to level 4 soon enough. 
Levels 4-7- No more notes here. Not allowed. I personally stuck with rats. I simply wasn't strong enough to hit anything else. Others may want to try creatures like cave gnomes or lesser orcs or goblins. Maybe even a few skeletons and lesser ghouls. Kobolds are also there, along with hobgoblins. These are basically the hardest years for a Sorcerer, simply because of the difficulty of finding a suitable creature to hunt. It gets easier though. Trust me. ;) 
8-14- Eight is the turning point for a Sorcerer. We get mana disruption with no prep time. A good place to hunt is manticores and thraks. If you stay in guarded, and simply mana disrupt every manticore and thrak you see that is not engaged with someone else, you’ll claim the EXP for it (as long as you hit it hard). Don’t bother with killing it, takes too much time and mana, and is dangerous. When you run out of mana, and you think you’ve hit enough separate creatures, head back to town and let other people finish off your wounded ones. While resting in town, you’ll have your mind go from clear to muddle to numbed. I’ve personally had my mind go from clear as a bell to needing rest while sitting in the tree house. =) This is a very good hunting strategy for any situation. Once you’re too old for mants and thraks, give Shelfae Soldiers and Chieftans a try. They’re pretty easy, and the only thing you need to worry about is the Chieftans quake. Also, you can pick up the Soldiers tridents and sell them at the pawnshop for around 100 coins a pop. Crystal golems are also an option, and they LOVE to swarm. Their quake is also dangerous, though. Cave trolls are also an option. They take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’, though, and you may find yourself using your whole mana supply on a single cave troll. 
15-19- Wraiths are pretty good to hunt at this point. Though somewhat frustrating. If you don’t like wraiths, try experimenting with pumas and maybe Krolvin Mercenaries. And also, if you’ve been sticking with First Aid, pumas hides are valuable. Crystal golems are still pretty good at this point, as are cave trolls. When you get older, advance to Krolvin Warriors, and Fire Rats and Cats. Again with the First Aid, fire rat tails and fire cat claws a very valuable. Soon you can advance to the Spider Temple if you wish, though that area may still be a bit hard. If you find that to be the case, Nedum Vereri are a valuable hunting asset to a Sorceror. Low TD, and they have an excellent gen rate. 
20-25- Spider Temple is pretty much the only place a Sorcerer can go to, now. I personally hate this place. The gen rate stinks, and the hunters in there don’t act any better then the hunters in the catacombs. And because Spider Priests are so rich, A LOT of people hunt there, and it’s not exactly the largest area. I’ve been begging Simu to expand this area, but no such luck so far. Just keep up as strong a resistance as you can, here. Hunt with Mana Disruption, and Dark Catalyst once your prep time for it goes down. It’s hard to get a fried mind here, so this is a somewhat slow going time. You’ll get pretty rich, though. Think of it as compensation for having to put up with the attitudes you’ll encounter here. (No offense to the Spider Temple hunters, of course. You probably feel the same way. (g)) 
26---?- From here there are many options you have. You can hunt in the Blasted Lands, and Hooded Figures are good for Sorcerers. Some Sorcerers move to Teras Island, as there are many fun creatures to hunt there. By the time you’ll reach these levels, though, I assume Simu will have opened up MANY new areas, so your choices will be much wider then what they are at the time of this guide. You’ll have to see what there is at the time. 
The Sorcerer Spell List 
Sorcerers get one of the most fun and exciting spell lists in the game. 
Blood Burst- Causes a jagged wound across the targets jugular, giving it a 1 per bleeder. Casts after this will increase its bleeding some more. Good when soloing, but takes a long time to effect the creature. Since many creatures have a lot of HP’s, it will take a long time to kill it. Good for show and to torture. Bad for killing. Doesn’t work on undead and golems. 
Mana Disruption- A Sorcerers main attack spell for much of its early life. This spell inflicts damage upon the creature as if it had fallen a long distance. A devastating spell, doing around 7-70 points of damage in a single cast. Can also knock off arms and legs, lowering the creatures AS and DS. 
Forget- Useful in a few cases. Causes a target to forget whatever spell it was prepping. Good for when you see a creature prepping a big spell, such as Arch Wights and Tree Spirits with Boil Earth. Also good for self defense if you can cast it on the target before it’s prep time is over. Many targets have no prep time for a spell, though, and you won’t be able to cast it at the target before they shoot off their spell. 
Phase- Good idea, just not very useful. Lets you walk through doors and the such, as long as they can be opened by another character. That means you can’t walk through a locked door, except in a few cases. This also works on locked containers. You will be able to plunge your hand into a locked container, pulling anything out you can get a hold of, as long as the container doesn’t get a hold of your hand first. ;) Also, this spell can detect glyph traps on containers, and glyph traps mean that spells like 407 and 408 will not work on it. You’ll know it’s a glyph when the container resists your magic. 
Breaklimb- Causes a 2 per round HP loss on the target. Will snap the targets limb, causing it to drop anything it was holding in that hand or arm, or collapse to the floor if it was a leg. Good for lowering a targets AS and DS. 
Mind Jolt- Very useful spell. Will stun the target depending on how badly it failed it's warding roll by. It will lower the targets AS and DS, along with keeping it from attacking you. 
Eye Spy- The trademark of the Sorcerer. This lets us pop our own eye out where it will grow wings and start to hover around. You can then control the eye through the syntax of "Tell Eye to Go " and "Tell Eye to Look". This will let you see what’s in rooms away from you. And to make the eye return to you, bring it back to the room you’re in, and "Tell Eye to Return". Since the eye is not effected by clouds, it’s useful to send it into a clouded area and look for bodies, without causing damage to yourself. Not as good as a Wizards familiar spell, but it costs only 7 mana, and looks cooler. ;) This spell is sure to get a few "Eww! That's disgusting!" from people who see you cast it. 
Pain Infliction- Causes a 25% HP loss in the target, cannot be cast on a target already suffering from Pain Infliction. Lasts about two minutes. 
Quake- Very useful spell. Will cause the illusion of an earthquake in your room and in rooms adjoining to you, knocking down creatures (and people). A knocked down critter is pretty helpless, as long as it stays down. 
Energy Maelstrom- Very powerful and devastating spell. Also *extremely* dangerous! This spell will allow you to call dark energies to form a raging tempest to swirl around you and your group. The tempest will then shoot out lightning, hail, and debris at all the critters (and people not joined to your group) in the area, usually stunning them. NEVER use this in a crowded area, and if you MUST use it, YELL that you’re using it, so people in your area won’t bumble into your room just in time to get blinding by hail! Last ditch spell for swarms. 
Limb Disruption- One of my favorite spells. Causing a targets limb to painfully explode in a beautiful display of bone, flesh and blood, causing the exploded limb to fall to the ground and twitch. The target will get a 3 per round HP loss, and a severed limb. Again, anything in the targets hand or arm will fall to the ground, and if it’s a leg, the target will collapse. 
Throes of Pain- Same as Pain Infliction, but can be cast on top of each other. 
Nightmare- A fun spell. Will cause an imaginary creature to fade into existence and do battle with you, kicking your butt in the process. You’ll find many people asking you to cast this on them, because it’s a way for someone to get killed, without dying. Much more potent then it used to be, though. This spell will take away 40-60 HP’s now, so make sure the person asking for it has well above 70 or 80 HP’s. 
Life Burst- Not implemented. Because it's not implemented, that means Simu doesn't like what it was originally designed for, so I won't try to explain what it's supposed to do. 
Curse- 3 or 4 spells in one. The curse you cast on a person is dependent on your stance. The various curses I've seen are fleas, clumsiness, damage, AS reduction, DS reduction, and TD reduction. When cast on an object, it will make it so the person holding it can’t drop it or put away, and if on a weapon, will lower the stats of it. 
Disease- Will also cause people who see the results of it to turn green, just like Eye Spy. Causes an extremely harsh disease to form on the target, and the amount of HP loss per round is dependent on the amount the roll was failed by. It has a dissipation rate of 1. Very fun to watch. (eg) Though kills very easily, so don’t cast it at people freely. 
Evil Eye- A fear spell, pure and simple. Will cause the target to run into an adjoining room, or sometimes much farther. Can also stun them, cause them to fall, or kill them. When cast on a person, will do the same, so don’t cast this spell for fun. I learned that the hard way. This spell can also be coupled with Eye Spy. You can send your eye into a room, prep Evil Eye, and then just Cast it. Everything and everyone in the room with your eye will get Evil Eye cast upon them, but because of the distance, the power of the spell will be significantly reduced. 
Torment- A fun spell. Will call upon a dark force to do battle with the creature, but if the dark force can't hit the creature, it will rebound on you. This makes it a very dangerous spell. Doesn't stop until the creature, or you, is dead. 
Dark Catalyst- A Sorcerers main attack skill when they have the mana to use it. Will cause the target to be swarmed in flames of essence, ripping the mana out of the target and turning it into attacks of heat, cold, and electricity. Also, depending on your Mana Sharing skill, you’ll receive some of the mana that was torn out of the creature. Usually around 9 mana back from living creatures, 4 back from undead, and sometimes 0 back if the creature isn't magical. The number of mana points back varies, though. 
Implosion- Another mass attack spell, like Energy Maelstrom, which makes it *very* dangerous to bystanders. Will cause a dark void to appear, sucking out all the air from the room, doing horrifying things to the critters. I’ve personally had a creature explode all over me through this spell. Not very powerful when you first get it, and also not very powerful against "large" creatures like warfarers. Again, when you cast this spell, yell it, so people don't walk in on it. Group friendly. 
Demonic Summoning- Not implemented at the time of this writing. Will allow the Sorcerer to call upon demons to do its bidding. As I said earlier in this guide, this spell may be dependent on the Sorcerers charisma roll, because if you don’t have a high charisma, the demon may turn against the Sorcerer and do some pretty nasty things to it. Hopefully this isn't the case. Only the GM’s working on this spell know what it will do, though, so I won't begin to speculate. 
Being the Sorcerer 
Many people believe that Sorcerers should be insane maniacs that run around doing nothing but causing pain and strife. This puts a stereotype upon us Sorcerers. DO NOT fall for it. Just because people THINK you should be evil, and just because Sorcerers have evil powers, doesn’t mean you HAVE to be evil. If you want to be evil, do so, as long as it’s within game policy. But don’t start thinking that you have the right to be excessively evil just because you’re a Sorcerer. Role play your character how you want, it’s really up to you. I just had to get that point across, because I’ve been seeing way too many new "evil" Sorcerers in the lands, and it’s really not that healthy. 
There you have it. My ideas and designs on the Sorcerer. Whether you choose to use all of my ideas or parts of my ideas, that’s up to you. It’s *your* character and *your* Sorcerer, and remember, what I’ve said is *not* law. Feel free to disagree with me. Just don’t start cursing me off because you disagree with me. I wish you luck in your venture to become a Sorcerer, and hope you have an exciting and fun time doing so. 
-Hadiar-