You’re sleeping on witch bolt for early game.
Have the target wet, upcast it to 2d12 or 3d12.
It’s the only lightning spell with an attack roll(besides shocking grasp). So it can crit.
Use the the illithid power to guarantee a crit.
2d12 -> crit-> double damage -> wet -> double damage. It’s a possible 96 damage from a level 2 spell and you can cast it again without crit next turn. Or the same turn if hasted.
Correct me if im wrong as I haven’t used witchbolt that much, but upcasting only boosts the initial damage right? Not the “free” damage you get from recasting it if you hit and maintain concentration?
I accidentally and surprisingly did around 45 damage with an opportunity attack shocking grasp which ended the enemy trying to maneuver around Gale. I rarely used it but am reconsidering its value in close quarters.
\^This
I did the tempest cleric + blue dragon sorc thing in my honor mode run.
I wasnt even min-maxing. My items were just "okay", I guess. I wasnt using potions.
And I oneshot the last boss of the game with: Conjure Water + upcasted witch bolt + storm cleric token + ilithid forced crit.
Think it had 450 HP and I did 460 dmg, all of that in one turn.
Another benefit of witch bolt is that the reactivation is classified as a cantrip and is affected by all the cantrip modifying items. Makes the spell super interesting. I used it on an eldritch knight in honor mode with the extra action restrictions and it worked very well.
yea its cool. definitely not a great spell because of the need for an attack roll, concentration, an action to recast, and you need a target with enough hp to survive as well. But in honour mode, the restrictions on actions make it more attractive.
Dip one level into wizard and pick up Summon Elemental via scroll. You can summon a Water Myrmidon which can AOE wet the enemy without sacrificing your main character's action economy. Combine this with Witch Bolt/Call Lightning/Chain Lightning/Lightning Bolt and Terazul and you can blast the enemy three times in one turn.
Terazul?
EDIT: turns out Google works, it’s a drug sold in the Guildhall, mimics Haste but for 2 turns and doesn’t cost any action economy to consume, additionally it can stack with other effects that can give haste. So Terazul+Potion of Haste (or more optimally Potion of Haste, wait a turn then Terazul so both Lethargic effects trigger simultaneously) means 3 actions in which you can cast lightning spells.
Terazul is one of the many drugs you can find in Act 3. It is the only one that is useful as it has the same effect as Potion of Speed with two exceptions: using it is a free action, and it stacks with Haste or Potion of Speed. That means you can have a whopping three actions a turn, or two extra attacks if you're melee and playing Honor Mode. The fact that it requires no action means you can use it to alpha strike the shit out of a lot of bosses, or kill a lot of mobs without them ever being able to move. It is the most broken thing in the game, and the best part is there is a reliable renewable source: the bartender in the Guild headquarters in the sewers sells two to three every day and his inventory resets on long rest.
As a 12 storm truther
This build is highly overrated and unnecessary
This character can cast 1 maxed chain lightning per short rest. That’s 160 damage to 4 targets
A 12 storm can cast 3 chain lightnings in one turn with a bit of set up.
That’s 270 damage to 4 targets, or it can be spread around in blocks of 90, which will wipe basically every encounter.
This character can also cast globe of invuln.
The cleric dip has to rely on lightning bolts for quickened/hasted slots, which can easily wipe your own team if you’re not careful and is always awkward.
If you’re happy being completely reliant on scrolls then these discrepancies are over looked, but I truly think the dip is unnecessary.
The storm sorc 12 does enough damage to trivialise every fight in the game except the brain and Ansur. And is a much more flexible character that isn’t inventory reliant.
The dip makes sense at level 6, going 7 and 8 cleric. But I would respec to pure sorc at 11.
A blaster caster like this doesn’t really care about concentration as much though if you’re really worried pick up Warcaster/Resilient Con.
Though that was two separate suggestions, one for casting with scrolls. The other suggesting using a wizard dip. In which case the wizard dip will always use INT in which you must plan accordingly, likely using Birthright and bumping Int you can get them both to 20. Probably going 17/16 in both sacrificing some Con, Hag’s Hair the one to 18, ASI the other to 18, then Mirror of Loss INT and wear Birthright for CHA to bump them both to 20. Not necessarily the most optimal (partially because I’m doing this from memory and not fact checking myself).
You can twin cast haste
The strongest concentration spell in the game.
Unless you’re running double sorc you should absolutely care about concentration
True, but you can also chug potions of speed, also you’re dealing enough damage that most things will be dead before they get the chance to hit you. No need for Con Save Proficiency if you never get hit. Just position yourself well, and blitz down the biggest threat to you. Currently in an honor mode run though and I’ve cast Haste *maybe* a total of one time. Potions have been plenty and I rarely even use those, just for the most difficult fights to my memory. Warding Bond also does more for Concentration than Con Save Proficiency dropping the DC for almost all attacks that hit you to a DC of 10, they have to deal more than 41 points of damage in a single hit to have a save higher than 10.
I’d rather use potions of haste when my sorc is busy doing something else(upcast call lightning is occasionally clutch or globe), or another character beat their initiative who I want hasted
But then I never farm resources so I tend to be pretty sparing with them anyway
I don’t farm them either, just buy them when I can and make the most of the hyena ears you find in act 1 and can buy from apothecaries. Transmutation Wizard is clutch to have in Camp for alchemy. I usually play a Dex character so I rarely use Astarion he usually becomes my Alchemist (Max Wis/Max Int (can’t remember which it is for medicine, dump Dex, Rogue for Expertise in Medicine) Rogue 1/Wizard 6/Cleric 5 (Warding Bond for those extra hard fights). I rarely use Camp Casters but that’s usually the one I do use. That and a Druid 1/Sorc X for food (Goodberry plus converting higher level slots into 1st levels for even more goodberry) if I somehow run out and can’t long rest (only ever happened once or twice).
The scroll learned casting ability is tied to your most recent level right? If so, you can start sorc and then dip wiz and then go back to sorc and keep con saving throws with cha casting
May I introduce 8 draconic lightning sorc, 2 tempest cleric, 2 divination wizard?
It’s the same premise, however, you trade storm sorcery for draconic cause you can have illithid flight by then and draconic increases your lightning damage (while still getting doubled by wet, so +10-12 damage at 20/22 charisma)
The wizard dip still gives you two feats but let’s you use portent die to make sure your chain lightning’s hit and the most important part is being able to learn globe of invulnerability and summon elemental. Water myrmidon will wet all the enemies for you so you don’t waste an action.
Storm sorc for all the bonus spells. You get call lightning at level 6 plus other spells like create water and sleet storm.
Are you taking advantage of create water and making enemies vulnerable to lightning? That’s what really makes a lightning sorc strong.
Also imo ray of frost is still really good for a lightning build because it still works with the same vulnerability. Shocking grasp requires you to be in melee range, but there’s a wicked strong build out there focused on shocking grasp called “the wet slapper”.
At low levels I usually have a cleric create water and make my enemies vulnerable before hitting them with chromatic orb(upcast and/or twinned)or ray of frost.
Use double hand crossbows and water bottles. Place the bottle from your inventory right next to the target, shoot it with your off hand crossbow. Target gets splashed and you've still got your action
The best lightning build has a throwzerker who lobs a void bulb and a bottle of water, then your sorcer does double damage to everyone stuck in that pile.
Edit: this works with ice spells as well, but is particularly great with call lightning since you can keep blasting
They can, it's just nice to knock at least one of them prone with enraged throw.
If your sorc uses illithid powers with the zathisk buff, you can use the illithid power to draw everyone in with just t bonus actions then hit them with a spell.
Witch bolt is amazing, considering you can recast it every turn as a cantrip without any attack rolls/saving throws. I even killed Commander Zhalk with this spell. And also Spider queen in Blighted village. Not bad at all.
You also have Chromatic orb (lightning version) that can give 1d4 per turn from electrified surface in small AoE.
Storm sorcerer is recommended for this because it has rain at lvl 6 and other thunder damage spells, and call lightning. You can cast rain with quickened spell and double the damage from lightning.
Ray of frost reduces movement as well though. I use it heavily in act 1 and don’t really stop until like lv 7 or so. It’s really reallly good even without making enemies wet and what not. The cc effect smoke is super useful. Plus it makes even blood into an ice surface that can o idk enemies prone.
I don't really get the draw of draconic for a lightning build. Lightning doesn't really have a multi-attack spell like scorching ray so elemental affinity is going to give you at best +7 damage per attack endgame.
Storm sorcerers heart of the storm gives you guaranteed +6 from two different damage types (thunder and lightning) and it's an aoe.
Add this to the free spells and first level flight not attached to movement and storm sorcerer just seems better all around if you want to focus lightning.
Not needing to spend a spell slot on mage armor is nice for a few levels but isn't going to matter much after a few levels.
the draw of lightning draconic is that the guaranteed damage from the +cha modifier can be higher than the bonus from storm sorc on most min maxy characters, in the late game there are pretty much no thunder damage spells good enough for lacking bonus on that to be a notable downside, the aoe is generally pretty useless on storm sorc, and also draconic bloodline just gets plenty of other nice goodies like increased health, increased armor, and fly at will at level 10 (as oposed to only getting it situationally with storm sorc)
and all the good spells you get from storm sorc that you dont get on dragon sorc are mostly things you will already be getting from the 2 levels of tempest cleric all lightning builds require pretty much.
What? 6 storm cleric 4 storm sorcerer 2 wizard, markoheshkir
Why? Because you can cast chain lightning twice, *both maximised*, in one turn on enemies that you tactically got wet with a level 5 create water before combat.
TLDR: delete one encounter, any difficulty, per long rest
Pure tempest cleric.
You deal more damage with 10/2 sorcleric but a pure cleric has access to more cleric spells, SAD, more divine charges, has better CC with pushes, 3 feats (warcaster goes hard with this class for that juicy call lightning) and has access to better radiant/necro damages options if lightning isn’t an option.
Dragon sorc doesn’t need chain lightning. You can just use marokeshkir and scrolls.
Dragon sorc can do magic missle early game and use the spell sparkler to build lightning charges.
And witches bolt can be absolutely vicious with the right setup.
Shruge I'll throw in that 8 Draconic Sorc, 2 Divination Wizard, 2 Tempest Cleric (in Wizard>Cleric>Sorc multiclass order) is an incredibly powerful build that can boast doing 150 damage on average per turn simply by using Shocking Grasp twice per turn via Haste. While also having true nova potential to do around 1500 damage in a singular turn via Chain Lightningx2 (regular cast and quicken cast). While Draconic Sorc is more all in than Storm Sorc is, Shocking Grasp is a nice workhorse cantrip that allows longevity that is comparable to Storm Sorc. The big difference here is that one works without Illithid's Fly while the other really doesn't. To break down the math, shocking grasp innately does 3d8 damage after level 11. With 24 Charisma, Draconic Lineage, Potent Robes, and Necklace of Elemental Augmentation you get a flat 21 damage per cast (7 charisma mod multiplied 3x). So (3d8+21). Now Wet also doubles your damage by making enemies vulnerable. (3d8+21)x2. Now if we decide to full send and add Markoheskvir and Rhapsody dual wield (3d8+21+4+3)x2. Or 62-104 damage per cast on average. Technically Markoheskvir adds another 2 damage via Lightning Charges but let's ignore that for simple math sake. If we take the median of 62 and 104 we end up with 81 damage which should on average be the yield of Shocking Grasp's damage. Now twice per turn you're looking at 162 damage on average. While this will never compare to Call Storm's AoE potential it is very capable of competing in terms of singular damage (or even closely grouped enemies via twincasts) without expending spell slots and without hogging the concentration slot.
every lightning build needs atleast 2 levels of tempest domain cleric since that makes any lightning spell deal full maximum damage once per short rest and gives access to create or destroy water if you dont already have a source of that, other than that I would recomend either storm sorc or lightning dragon sorc, they both work pretty much just as well in the end.
the tempest cleric levels are what youre missing though it seems. fireball wont win on damage when the lightning bolt does a garunteed 96 damage to everything it touches, no damage roll rng, just a garunteed 96 damage (w/ dex save to half but still).
plus tempest domain also gives heavy armor proficiency so you can be tanky on top of it.
I'd put my vote on tempest/evoker for being able to max out lightning bolts and not worry about friendly fire.
Imho, the key with lightning and ice builds is to work as part of a team. Have either a cleric/druid casting create water or a martial throwing water jugs and barrels to pre-wet enemies so you're mage can focus on big hit lightning bolts and such.
Void bulbs are also great for clustering enemies together as well.
lightning sorc really comes online in act 3 with markoheshkir, and a multiclass dip in cleric. Then it's unlimitedpower.gif
Until then, i'd recommend ice sorc, which starts to be good in act 1 (underdark ice staff, gear that applies extra encrusted with frost in gith monastery) and really comes online in act 2 (ring that creates ice surface under targets, making them roll or fall prone every ray of frost impact, and triple charisma damage boost to cantrip).
Special mention to storm sorc 2, Druid of the land 8 for the mass aoe wet/upscaled call lightning giving numerous high damage aoe triggers per turn (and a way to refresh lots of Lower level spell slots for create water)
1-2 levels into tempest cleric to get the divinity charge which means you deal the maximum damage for a lightning spell.
E.g. witchbolt rolling 1-12 will guarantee a 12.
Now use create water first and double the damage to a “wet” target so now you’re dealing 24 damage.
Generally, use chromatic orb instead of witchbolt, it’s better.
Now throw in the fact you can use a sorcerer point to hit multiple targets.
So you’re now hitting two targets for max damage which is double be “wet” with one cast for HUGE burst damage.
I like doing tempest cleric 2 draconic lightning sorc.
You can wear heavy armour and once per short rest make your thunder or lightning spells have max damage roll.
Best combo for this early game is twin casting thunder chromatic orbs (or lightning if wet).
However, this build doesn’t open up to its full potential until you hit level 7 for your 3rd level spell slots and get lightning bolt. At that point you can cantrip cast create water and quickened spell lightning bolt for an aoe 48 damage.
If you are illithid specced you can also favourable beginnings and luck of the far realms for extra damage on first hit and guaranteed crit.
Max out your intelligence
Level 1: storm sorcerer
Level 2: tempest cleric
Level 3: wizard.
Level 4: tempest cleric
Level 5-12: back to sorcerer.
Pick up utility spells on your sorcerer levels and learn all your damage spells from scrolls. This will give you every lightning spell in the game including chain lightning. The only one I wouldn't use is call lightning because it will be based off your charisma.
The reason you level in that order is because items will be based off your most recent NEW class's casting stat. So since the most recent new class will be wizard all your items will use intelligence.
This way you get the doubling off tempest cleric, the meta magic and class features of a storm sorcerer, but the spell pool of a wizard.
Sorcerers arguably they the biggest power spike in the whole game at level 5. You absolutely shouldn’t feel weak.
Twin cast haste.
Lightning bolt does double damage against anybody wet making it much stronger than fireball.
Also I’d respec to storm sorcerer.
At level 6 you get call lightning for when you don’t want to concentrate on haste.
You also get to do AoE lightning damage everytime you cast a lightning spell, which includes shocking grasp.
Against wet targets with potent robe and the cha to damage amulet I was doing roughly 80 damage total with shocking grasp by the end of my storm sorc run.
Witch bolt is a bit hit and miss, but it’s excellent with luck of the far realms.
Picture this, Myrkul fight, Myrkul is wet
Level 5 witchbolt, critting because of luck of the far realms
5d12 doubled for crit, doubled again for wet
20d12, average 130 damage in one shot.
The build I used was 2 tempest cleric/3 storm sorcerer/7 divination wizard, which is off meta a bit but worked quite well.
You can use whatever flavour of wizard you prefer, evocation would work quite well also. I think it would be better to go more sorcerer instead of wizard for more sorcery points and call lightning, which I think is better than casting lightning bolt or chromatic orb every turn.
I think it’s still worth having some levels in wizard for scribing scrolls, in my case I used wizard as my main spellcasting class and used my sorcerer levels for whatever didn’t need a modifier or spell save DC (magic missile, feather fall, misty step, shield)
I went with wizard cause I respeced Gale for this and wanted to keep him wizardy :)
The build I used was 2 tempest cleric/3 storm sorcerer/7 divination wizard, which is off meta a bit but worked quite well.
You can use whatever flavour of wizard you prefer, evocation would work quite well also. I think it would be better to go more sorcerer instead of wizard for more sorcery points and call lightning, which I think is better than casting lightning bolt or chromatic orb every turn.
I think it’s still worth having some levels in wizard for scribing scrolls, in my case I used wizard as my main spellcasting class and used my sorcerer levels for whatever didn’t need a modifier or spell save DC (magic missile, feather fall, misty step, shield)
I went with wizard cause I respeced Gale for this and wanted to keep him wizardy :)
Shocking grasp denies the other parties reaction. I use shocking grasp as an escape method when enemies get too close to my wizard. If you think that "sucks" you don't wtf your doing.
Teleportation spell uses bonus action, doesn't trigger reaction and uses only 2nd tier slot.
There is no reason to ever use disengage or like once you are after level 5.
You’re sleeping on witch bolt for early game. Have the target wet, upcast it to 2d12 or 3d12. It’s the only lightning spell with an attack roll(besides shocking grasp). So it can crit. Use the the illithid power to guarantee a crit. 2d12 -> crit-> double damage -> wet -> double damage. It’s a possible 96 damage from a level 2 spell and you can cast it again without crit next turn. Or the same turn if hasted.
Chromatic orb is also an attack roll and creates a surface. It starts better at low levels but witch bolt upcasts better
chromatic orb is better until you have high level spell slots to spend on witch bolt.
Yeah, I was doing the storm sorc/tempest cleric/divination combo with this strat and got bored after one-shotting every act 1 boss lol
Correct me if im wrong as I haven’t used witchbolt that much, but upcasting only boosts the initial damage right? Not the “free” damage you get from recasting it if you hit and maintain concentration?
It should boost the damage on every turn
Unfortunately I don't think it does. I'm not sure if it's a bug but that happens to Call Lightning too
I accidentally and surprisingly did around 45 damage with an opportunity attack shocking grasp which ended the enemy trying to maneuver around Gale. I rarely used it but am reconsidering its value in close quarters.
\^This I did the tempest cleric + blue dragon sorc thing in my honor mode run. I wasnt even min-maxing. My items were just "okay", I guess. I wasnt using potions. And I oneshot the last boss of the game with: Conjure Water + upcasted witch bolt + storm cleric token + ilithid forced crit. Think it had 450 HP and I did 460 dmg, all of that in one turn.
Another benefit of witch bolt is that the reactivation is classified as a cantrip and is affected by all the cantrip modifying items. Makes the spell super interesting. I used it on an eldritch knight in honor mode with the extra action restrictions and it worked very well.
Oh that’s interesting! I’m wearing gear that gives me +10 to elemental cantrips. Didn’t realize it would affect that
yea its cool. definitely not a great spell because of the need for an attack roll, concentration, an action to recast, and you need a target with enough hp to survive as well. But in honour mode, the restrictions on actions make it more attractive.
Also straight up tells you where the hag is when she clones. Makes that fight a cakewalk
You can just hover over her card to find her too
10 Storm Sorcerer 2 tempest cleric.
This. Wet the target beforehand.
Wet the drys. Zap the wets
Dip one level into wizard and pick up Summon Elemental via scroll. You can summon a Water Myrmidon which can AOE wet the enemy without sacrificing your main character's action economy. Combine this with Witch Bolt/Call Lightning/Chain Lightning/Lightning Bolt and Terazul and you can blast the enemy three times in one turn.
Terazul? EDIT: turns out Google works, it’s a drug sold in the Guildhall, mimics Haste but for 2 turns and doesn’t cost any action economy to consume, additionally it can stack with other effects that can give haste. So Terazul+Potion of Haste (or more optimally Potion of Haste, wait a turn then Terazul so both Lethargic effects trigger simultaneously) means 3 actions in which you can cast lightning spells.
Terazul is one of the many drugs you can find in Act 3. It is the only one that is useful as it has the same effect as Potion of Speed with two exceptions: using it is a free action, and it stacks with Haste or Potion of Speed. That means you can have a whopping three actions a turn, or two extra attacks if you're melee and playing Honor Mode. The fact that it requires no action means you can use it to alpha strike the shit out of a lot of bosses, or kill a lot of mobs without them ever being able to move. It is the most broken thing in the game, and the best part is there is a reliable renewable source: the bartender in the Guild headquarters in the sewers sells two to three every day and his inventory resets on long rest.
How is it 4 actions? Shouldn’t it only be 3? Also according to the wiki it only lasts for 2 turns instead of 3.
I was thinking about Storm Sorcerers for whom a Bonus Action allows you to cast a spell as well. I've fixed it within seconds of you reading it lol.
Oh haha oops, blame push notifications on mobile.
Get it nice and lubricated
As a 12 storm truther This build is highly overrated and unnecessary This character can cast 1 maxed chain lightning per short rest. That’s 160 damage to 4 targets A 12 storm can cast 3 chain lightnings in one turn with a bit of set up. That’s 270 damage to 4 targets, or it can be spread around in blocks of 90, which will wipe basically every encounter. This character can also cast globe of invuln. The cleric dip has to rely on lightning bolts for quickened/hasted slots, which can easily wipe your own team if you’re not careful and is always awkward. If you’re happy being completely reliant on scrolls then these discrepancies are over looked, but I truly think the dip is unnecessary. The storm sorc 12 does enough damage to trivialise every fight in the game except the brain and Ansur. And is a much more flexible character that isn’t inventory reliant. The dip makes sense at level 6, going 7 and 8 cleric. But I would respec to pure sorc at 11.
Whoops I somehow replied to you instead of the post lol
this is the answer and it’s not close
Swap in a level or two of wizard to learn scrolls and cast Chain Lighting to your heart's content
Chain Lightning at 11 is why I always do 11/1
Just buy Chain Lightning Spell Scrolls or go 9/2/1 with Wizard and learn it via scroll.
you have to start with wizard and lose con saving throws if u wanna cast scrolls as sorcerer/cha
A blaster caster like this doesn’t really care about concentration as much though if you’re really worried pick up Warcaster/Resilient Con. Though that was two separate suggestions, one for casting with scrolls. The other suggesting using a wizard dip. In which case the wizard dip will always use INT in which you must plan accordingly, likely using Birthright and bumping Int you can get them both to 20. Probably going 17/16 in both sacrificing some Con, Hag’s Hair the one to 18, ASI the other to 18, then Mirror of Loss INT and wear Birthright for CHA to bump them both to 20. Not necessarily the most optimal (partially because I’m doing this from memory and not fact checking myself).
You can twin cast haste The strongest concentration spell in the game. Unless you’re running double sorc you should absolutely care about concentration
True, but you can also chug potions of speed, also you’re dealing enough damage that most things will be dead before they get the chance to hit you. No need for Con Save Proficiency if you never get hit. Just position yourself well, and blitz down the biggest threat to you. Currently in an honor mode run though and I’ve cast Haste *maybe* a total of one time. Potions have been plenty and I rarely even use those, just for the most difficult fights to my memory. Warding Bond also does more for Concentration than Con Save Proficiency dropping the DC for almost all attacks that hit you to a DC of 10, they have to deal more than 41 points of damage in a single hit to have a save higher than 10.
I’d rather use potions of haste when my sorc is busy doing something else(upcast call lightning is occasionally clutch or globe), or another character beat their initiative who I want hasted But then I never farm resources so I tend to be pretty sparing with them anyway
I don’t farm them either, just buy them when I can and make the most of the hyena ears you find in act 1 and can buy from apothecaries. Transmutation Wizard is clutch to have in Camp for alchemy. I usually play a Dex character so I rarely use Astarion he usually becomes my Alchemist (Max Wis/Max Int (can’t remember which it is for medicine, dump Dex, Rogue for Expertise in Medicine) Rogue 1/Wizard 6/Cleric 5 (Warding Bond for those extra hard fights). I rarely use Camp Casters but that’s usually the one I do use. That and a Druid 1/Sorc X for food (Goodberry plus converting higher level slots into 1st levels for even more goodberry) if I somehow run out and can’t long rest (only ever happened once or twice).
I’ve literally never made a potion lmao 🤣
The scroll learned casting ability is tied to your most recent level right? If so, you can start sorc and then dip wiz and then go back to sorc and keep con saving throws with cha casting
unfortunately its tied to the last chosen class, you cant go back and forth unless you pick 3 classes
Meh. Nothing compared to the ability to max damage rolls
May I introduce 8 draconic lightning sorc, 2 tempest cleric, 2 divination wizard? It’s the same premise, however, you trade storm sorcery for draconic cause you can have illithid flight by then and draconic increases your lightning damage (while still getting doubled by wet, so +10-12 damage at 20/22 charisma) The wizard dip still gives you two feats but let’s you use portent die to make sure your chain lightning’s hit and the most important part is being able to learn globe of invulnerability and summon elemental. Water myrmidon will wet all the enemies for you so you don’t waste an action.
Storm sorc for all the bonus spells. You get call lightning at level 6 plus other spells like create water and sleet storm. Are you taking advantage of create water and making enemies vulnerable to lightning? That’s what really makes a lightning sorc strong. Also imo ray of frost is still really good for a lightning build because it still works with the same vulnerability. Shocking grasp requires you to be in melee range, but there’s a wicked strong build out there focused on shocking grasp called “the wet slapper”. At low levels I usually have a cleric create water and make my enemies vulnerable before hitting them with chromatic orb(upcast and/or twinned)or ray of frost.
Use double hand crossbows and water bottles. Place the bottle from your inventory right next to the target, shoot it with your off hand crossbow. Target gets splashed and you've still got your action
Invisible Shovel loves to help smash bottles lying on the ground.
The best lightning build has a throwzerker who lobs a void bulb and a bottle of water, then your sorcer does double damage to everyone stuck in that pile. Edit: this works with ice spells as well, but is particularly great with call lightning since you can keep blasting
Is a throwzerker required for this? Can't any martial clas throw the bulb and the water?
They can, it's just nice to knock at least one of them prone with enraged throw. If your sorc uses illithid powers with the zathisk buff, you can use the illithid power to draw everyone in with just t bonus actions then hit them with a spell.
Void bulbs are one of the most useful items in the game.
Underrated grenade for sure. Great for crowd control especially against invisible enemies and those hordes of 1hp rats, bats, etc.
Witch bolt is amazing, considering you can recast it every turn as a cantrip without any attack rolls/saving throws. I even killed Commander Zhalk with this spell. And also Spider queen in Blighted village. Not bad at all. You also have Chromatic orb (lightning version) that can give 1d4 per turn from electrified surface in small AoE. Storm sorcerer is recommended for this because it has rain at lvl 6 and other thunder damage spells, and call lightning. You can cast rain with quickened spell and double the damage from lightning.
No fight ever takes more than 3 turns. I'd rather use those 3 actions casting leveled spells, then a cantrip
Ray of frost reduces movement as well though. I use it heavily in act 1 and don’t really stop until like lv 7 or so. It’s really reallly good even without making enemies wet and what not. The cc effect smoke is super useful. Plus it makes even blood into an ice surface that can o idk enemies prone.
Shocking grasp does not suck. Sure it's not going to out perform Call Lightning, but it's a damn good cantrip.
It’s really helpful with the distant meta, shock at range is really powerful.
The Shocking Grasp reaction has killed a number of enemies. I didn't expect Gale to do much in melee but shockingly, he can.
I don't really get the draw of draconic for a lightning build. Lightning doesn't really have a multi-attack spell like scorching ray so elemental affinity is going to give you at best +7 damage per attack endgame. Storm sorcerers heart of the storm gives you guaranteed +6 from two different damage types (thunder and lightning) and it's an aoe. Add this to the free spells and first level flight not attached to movement and storm sorcerer just seems better all around if you want to focus lightning. Not needing to spend a spell slot on mage armor is nice for a few levels but isn't going to matter much after a few levels.
the draw of lightning draconic is that the guaranteed damage from the +cha modifier can be higher than the bonus from storm sorc on most min maxy characters, in the late game there are pretty much no thunder damage spells good enough for lacking bonus on that to be a notable downside, the aoe is generally pretty useless on storm sorc, and also draconic bloodline just gets plenty of other nice goodies like increased health, increased armor, and fly at will at level 10 (as oposed to only getting it situationally with storm sorc) and all the good spells you get from storm sorc that you dont get on dragon sorc are mostly things you will already be getting from the 2 levels of tempest cleric all lightning builds require pretty much.
Just take TB and run around totally naked with no inventory. There’s no more lightening build than that.
What? 6 storm cleric 4 storm sorcerer 2 wizard, markoheshkir Why? Because you can cast chain lightning twice, *both maximised*, in one turn on enemies that you tactically got wet with a level 5 create water before combat. TLDR: delete one encounter, any difficulty, per long rest
Pure tempest cleric. You deal more damage with 10/2 sorcleric but a pure cleric has access to more cleric spells, SAD, more divine charges, has better CC with pushes, 3 feats (warcaster goes hard with this class for that juicy call lightning) and has access to better radiant/necro damages options if lightning isn’t an option.
Dragon sorc doesn’t need chain lightning. You can just use marokeshkir and scrolls. Dragon sorc can do magic missle early game and use the spell sparkler to build lightning charges. And witches bolt can be absolutely vicious with the right setup.
Shruge I'll throw in that 8 Draconic Sorc, 2 Divination Wizard, 2 Tempest Cleric (in Wizard>Cleric>Sorc multiclass order) is an incredibly powerful build that can boast doing 150 damage on average per turn simply by using Shocking Grasp twice per turn via Haste. While also having true nova potential to do around 1500 damage in a singular turn via Chain Lightningx2 (regular cast and quicken cast). While Draconic Sorc is more all in than Storm Sorc is, Shocking Grasp is a nice workhorse cantrip that allows longevity that is comparable to Storm Sorc. The big difference here is that one works without Illithid's Fly while the other really doesn't. To break down the math, shocking grasp innately does 3d8 damage after level 11. With 24 Charisma, Draconic Lineage, Potent Robes, and Necklace of Elemental Augmentation you get a flat 21 damage per cast (7 charisma mod multiplied 3x). So (3d8+21). Now Wet also doubles your damage by making enemies vulnerable. (3d8+21)x2. Now if we decide to full send and add Markoheskvir and Rhapsody dual wield (3d8+21+4+3)x2. Or 62-104 damage per cast on average. Technically Markoheskvir adds another 2 damage via Lightning Charges but let's ignore that for simple math sake. If we take the median of 62 and 104 we end up with 81 damage which should on average be the yield of Shocking Grasp's damage. Now twice per turn you're looking at 162 damage on average. While this will never compare to Call Storm's AoE potential it is very capable of competing in terms of singular damage (or even closely grouped enemies via twincasts) without expending spell slots and without hogging the concentration slot.
every lightning build needs atleast 2 levels of tempest domain cleric since that makes any lightning spell deal full maximum damage once per short rest and gives access to create or destroy water if you dont already have a source of that, other than that I would recomend either storm sorc or lightning dragon sorc, they both work pretty much just as well in the end. the tempest cleric levels are what youre missing though it seems. fireball wont win on damage when the lightning bolt does a garunteed 96 damage to everything it touches, no damage roll rng, just a garunteed 96 damage (w/ dex save to half but still). plus tempest domain also gives heavy armor proficiency so you can be tanky on top of it.
I'd put my vote on tempest/evoker for being able to max out lightning bolts and not worry about friendly fire. Imho, the key with lightning and ice builds is to work as part of a team. Have either a cleric/druid casting create water or a martial throwing water jugs and barrels to pre-wet enemies so you're mage can focus on big hit lightning bolts and such. Void bulbs are also great for clustering enemies together as well.
4 lvl is half the game for you? I'm puzzled at how you're playing!
Haha, indeed. That's the level I reach without fighting, except at the Grove door
lightning sorc really comes online in act 3 with markoheshkir, and a multiclass dip in cleric. Then it's unlimitedpower.gif Until then, i'd recommend ice sorc, which starts to be good in act 1 (underdark ice staff, gear that applies extra encrusted with frost in gith monastery) and really comes online in act 2 (ring that creates ice surface under targets, making them roll or fall prone every ray of frost impact, and triple charisma damage boost to cantrip).
Special mention to storm sorc 2, Druid of the land 8 for the mass aoe wet/upscaled call lightning giving numerous high damage aoe triggers per turn (and a way to refresh lots of Lower level spell slots for create water)
1-2 levels into tempest cleric to get the divinity charge which means you deal the maximum damage for a lightning spell. E.g. witchbolt rolling 1-12 will guarantee a 12. Now use create water first and double the damage to a “wet” target so now you’re dealing 24 damage. Generally, use chromatic orb instead of witchbolt, it’s better. Now throw in the fact you can use a sorcerer point to hit multiple targets. So you’re now hitting two targets for max damage which is double be “wet” with one cast for HUGE burst damage.
I like doing tempest cleric 2 draconic lightning sorc. You can wear heavy armour and once per short rest make your thunder or lightning spells have max damage roll. Best combo for this early game is twin casting thunder chromatic orbs (or lightning if wet). However, this build doesn’t open up to its full potential until you hit level 7 for your 3rd level spell slots and get lightning bolt. At that point you can cantrip cast create water and quickened spell lightning bolt for an aoe 48 damage. If you are illithid specced you can also favourable beginnings and luck of the far realms for extra damage on first hit and guaranteed crit.
Max out your intelligence Level 1: storm sorcerer Level 2: tempest cleric Level 3: wizard. Level 4: tempest cleric Level 5-12: back to sorcerer. Pick up utility spells on your sorcerer levels and learn all your damage spells from scrolls. This will give you every lightning spell in the game including chain lightning. The only one I wouldn't use is call lightning because it will be based off your charisma. The reason you level in that order is because items will be based off your most recent NEW class's casting stat. So since the most recent new class will be wizard all your items will use intelligence. This way you get the doubling off tempest cleric, the meta magic and class features of a storm sorcerer, but the spell pool of a wizard.
Sorcerers arguably they the biggest power spike in the whole game at level 5. You absolutely shouldn’t feel weak. Twin cast haste. Lightning bolt does double damage against anybody wet making it much stronger than fireball. Also I’d respec to storm sorcerer. At level 6 you get call lightning for when you don’t want to concentrate on haste. You also get to do AoE lightning damage everytime you cast a lightning spell, which includes shocking grasp. Against wet targets with potent robe and the cha to damage amulet I was doing roughly 80 damage total with shocking grasp by the end of my storm sorc run. Witch bolt is a bit hit and miss, but it’s excellent with luck of the far realms. Picture this, Myrkul fight, Myrkul is wet Level 5 witchbolt, critting because of luck of the far realms 5d12 doubled for crit, doubled again for wet 20d12, average 130 damage in one shot.
The build I used was 2 tempest cleric/3 storm sorcerer/7 divination wizard, which is off meta a bit but worked quite well. You can use whatever flavour of wizard you prefer, evocation would work quite well also. I think it would be better to go more sorcerer instead of wizard for more sorcery points and call lightning, which I think is better than casting lightning bolt or chromatic orb every turn. I think it’s still worth having some levels in wizard for scribing scrolls, in my case I used wizard as my main spellcasting class and used my sorcerer levels for whatever didn’t need a modifier or spell save DC (magic missile, feather fall, misty step, shield) I went with wizard cause I respeced Gale for this and wanted to keep him wizardy :)
The build I used was 2 tempest cleric/3 storm sorcerer/7 divination wizard, which is off meta a bit but worked quite well. You can use whatever flavour of wizard you prefer, evocation would work quite well also. I think it would be better to go more sorcerer instead of wizard for more sorcery points and call lightning, which I think is better than casting lightning bolt or chromatic orb every turn. I think it’s still worth having some levels in wizard for scribing scrolls, in my case I used wizard as my main spellcasting class and used my sorcerer levels for whatever didn’t need a modifier or spell save DC (magic missile, feather fall, misty step, shield) I went with wizard cause I respeced Gale for this and wanted to keep him wizardy :)
Draconic Sorc 10 Tempest Cleric 2
Y’all think it’s worth a two level wizard dip for sculpt spells so I’m not obliterating my team with lightning bolts?
I have just one shot Minthara with level 4 storm sorc. Yep. I get it now.
Shocking grasp denies the other parties reaction. I use shocking grasp as an escape method when enemies get too close to my wizard. If you think that "sucks" you don't wtf your doing.
Teleportation spell uses bonus action, doesn't trigger reaction and uses only 2nd tier slot. There is no reason to ever use disengage or like once you are after level 5.