Player’s Handbook 2 – Sorceror analysis

Next I’ll analyze the sorceror, comparing a Cha/Dex wild sorceror with a Cha/Int fey warlock.

Same hit points and healing surges.

And Unfettered Power is a cute ability which gives you a useful benefit 10% of the time. I’d judge it slightly better than Prime Shot, which is a nuisance to use (we’ll say 2.5% to turn a miss into a hit). And the sorceror has a better initiative because his secondary statistic is Dex. But the warlock has Shadow Walk, which seems slightly better than Chaos Burst. And the warlock has slightly better special defenses (+1 Reflex is better than +1 Will). So I’ll judge this about even.

The warlock’s strengths seem to be defensive. Misty Step is really cool, much better than Wild Soul. And the warlock gets leather armor proficiency for free.

The sorceror’s Chaos Power striker ability is substantially better than Warlock’s Curse.

The warlock has only one interesting at-will power, Eyebite. The sorceror has Chaos Bolt, which is awesome, especially for a striker. This power can cause a lot of damage!

The sorceror has a much broader spectrum of encounter powers than the painfully restricted choice of the warlock. The warlock’s powers aren’t bad, though, so I don’t know whether to say the better selection is an advantage for the sorceror.

Both have respectable utility powers. The sorceror has a really cool class feat which allows him to use ranged attacks in melee, neutralizing the biggest weakness of ranged characters.

The low-level fey warlock has some of the worst daily powers of any class. The sorceror’s daily powers seem just fine.

So we have the warlock’s superior defensive powers against the sorceror’s stronger striker ability and better at-will and daily powers. Considering my play experience that the fey warlock has too much defense and not enough offense, I’d have to say that the sorceror is better than the fey warlock by a noticeable margin.