It also means you can no longer read magic ... but different and fun, I can buy that. Gives the character a bit of a bull in a china shop feel, maybe - great cosmic blasting power without a chisel. Treantmonk's guide to Evokers, in case you have not read it - http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=394.msg8049#msg8049.
That was pretty much the idea: A straight out evoker-blaster, with a real penchant for fire spells (I must say: Combust combined with spectral hand is a great single target blast!). The fire theme is enhanced with the Calishite Spellcaster feat (or whatever it's called), which ensure that my fireballs go all the way up to 11(d6).
It's very thematic, and it's been great fun playing a traditional fireball toting mage, and managing to make it work well.
Yup. Already had a look at the guide. It's good stuff.
I'm predominantly burning sorc spells for metamagic, although I'm being fairly restrained and attempting to make 'em last rather than metamagic-ing every spell, due to the nature of the campaign at present and my hatred for 15-minute-working-days. Impromptu metamagic (Dragon magazine) is essentially giving me three free Empowers per day, and Searing Spell sees a lot of use. I've just picked up Twin spell, but not used it yet. The Spellshield sorc class feature is also powered by sorc spells. The common theme at the moment is for my 1st and 2nd Sorc slots to be mainly used for metamagic and spell-shield, while my 3rd level sorcs seem to be getting used for 'many jaws' a lot.
Caster level on Evocation spells is through the roof at present (about 20), thanks to Theurgic Specialist (My GM has a big wodge of Dragon magazines...), which stacks my Sorc and Wiz levels on my specialist school. So Blade of Deception seemed like a good plan, thanks to the huge CL for both the attack bonus and cutting through SR and the great way that it scales with level. And it's not a spell that I've used before, which is always interesting.
I actually had Benign Transposition memorised for the first time in ages last night and it proved its worth and right to remain on my list forever more. And yes: I had Heart of Water running.
Brilliant combination for bailing out grappled party members. Lightning Leap looks interesting and quite fun. It might work well with a twinned greater fireburst, if I can get my hands on that one, too.
I'm praying for Haste to turn up in scroll format soon. Especially now that we've got three melee types in a four-man party [having had a couple of deaths a couple of sessions ago]. I'm very sorely temped to take it as a level spell, but the character is pretty selfish, so Heart of Earth would likely feature first.
I hear you on the spell exchange for primal instincts! It does seem a heck of a waste to use a known slot for such a spell, but that +5 Initiative is solid gold, and I tend to use fireball and many jaws excessively, so it's less of a problem. An item of it would be a great idea. One for the top of the list, as soon as we get out of Ravenloft! Primal senses is great, too... but I don't even know where to start with my other 4th level sorc spells... Enervation obviously...
Greater Blink looks to be a nice one. Certainly a potential for a level 5 sorc spell known... although I think I may end up with only two of those, and because I really want to give Arcane Fusion a try, I need to think *very* carefully about the other one. What would you go for?
I believe that improved mirror image is a swift-cast, which is one of the main reasons I selected it: Awesome defensive buff, which doesn't delay the smack-down! I was pondering the potential of wasting a feat on Conbat Caster at 15th and dabbling in Abjurant Champion, just to get my low-level defensive buffs up faster.
Voice of the Dragon looks very solid, especially as I'm the party's diplomat. It might be of limited use in Ravenloft though, but I'd rather like to pick that one up later when we're somewhere more civilised, and most things aren't undead.
Spell enhancer looks great, but is a bit high-slot, as you say. Spell resistance has only been an issue on non-evocation spells such as ray of enfeeblement, so the orb spells are loosing perhaps their greatest advantage. Still: Massive single target damage and a daze effect is good stuff. I do seem to be rather struggling recently against single targets, due to their sheer number of HP. Empowered Searing Combust does a great job, but I struggle to hit some targets, and Spectral Hand takes a round to get running.
Caustic Mire looks good, especially with the fire bonus. For battlefield control I currently tend to load up a Glitterdust, a Grease, a Wall of Fire and a couple of Frost Breaths. The Grease doesn't tend to see much use and often gets burned to empower a sorc many-jaws. I also tend to load up a Storm Mote for delivering steady damage to casters and screwing them over a bit. I don't think I'd be bothering with wall of fire were it not for my high CL and the double damage against undead. It mainly seems to sit there in order to power Fiery Bursts after I've spammed all my explosive cascades!
How the hell had I missed Ruin Delver's Fortune?!! Amazing spell. I must have just scrolled by it, assuming it to be Divination.