Sorcerer Handbook: PF2 Class Guide

Introduction

Back in 3rd edition DnD, the Sorcerer was a twist on the Wizard, trading theWizard’s spellbook for the equivalent of a Spell Repertoire. We’ve come a longway since then, and now the Sorcerer is a go-to option for a spellcaster ofany spell list. With a well-curated Spell Repertoire and access to a spelllist of your choice, the Sorcerer is a diverse, capable, and exciting classcapable of filling any spellcasting-based role in a party.

Since the Sorcerer is Charisma-based, they make a natural Face. Beyond that,their capabilities are defined by your choice of spell list and your choice ofspells.

After reading this article, I recommend reading mySorcerer Bloodlines Breakdown.

Introduction
Disclaimer
Sorcerer Class Features
Ability Scores
Ancestries
Backgrounds
Skills and Skill Feats
- General Skill Feats
Feats
- sorcerer Feats
  - 1st Level
  - 2nd Level
  - 4th Level
  - 6th Level
  - 8th Level
  - 10th Level
  - 12th Level
  - 14th Level
  - 16th Level
  - 18th Level
  - 20th Level
- General Feats
Weapons
Armor

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
Green: Good options. Useful often.
Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Sorcerer Class Features

Key Ability: Charisma is the Sorcerer’s Key AbilityScore.

Hit Points: 6+Con hit points. Fortunately youhave plenty of room to boost your ability scores so your Constitution bonuscan compensate.

Initial Proficiencies: The Sorcerer’sproficiencies are terrible. Except to get by on spellcasting and charm.

Perception: Start at Trained, and one ofthe worst Perception proficiency progressions in the same.
Saving Throws: Your best save is Will,and the Sorcerer’s Will save progression is still below average.
Skills: One or more skills from yourBloodline, plus 2+int Trained skills at 1st level, for a total of at least3+. That’s standard, but with no other need for Intelligence you may findthat you’re short on Skill Increases. Every bloodline in the Core Rulebookprovides two, so it’s likely that you’ll get 4+ unless Paizo comes up withbloodlines that don’t get two skills.
Attacks: Only Simple weapons, and among theworst proficiency progressions in the game. But you’re going to use spells,so it’s no great loss.
Defenses: No armor, and the worst unarmoreddefense progression in the game.
Spells: Standard progression for every full spellcasterwith the exception of the Warpriest Cleric.

Bloodline: See mySorcerer Bloodlines Breakdown.

Sorcerer Spellcasting: The Sorcerer’s spellcasting is unique in several ways. The Sorcerer gets one more leveled spell slot and one more spell known of each level than other full spellcasters at each spell level except 10th. Considering that most spellcasters get just 3 spell slots at each spell level, that’s fully a third more spells than anyone else.

Heightened Spells: Heightening spells isan important mechanic in Pathfinder 2e. Many spells scale them. Since sorcerersuse a Spell Repertoire, you need to learn spells at multiple levels tohighten them in most cases, though Signature Spells are an exception.
Cantrips: Fantastic every time, on anycharacter, in any amount. Sorcerers learn 5 cantrips at level 1 and neverget more, but you can replace them by retraining or when you gain a level soyou’re not locked into whatever you pick at first level.

Spell Repertoire: Spell Repertoires areless versatile than spellcasting like the Cleric’s or the Druid’s. You know afixed number of spells which grows as you gain levels, and while you don’tneed to prepare your spells ahead of time you also lose the flexibility ofchanging your spells every day. You also need to learn the same spells asmultiple levels if you plan to heighten them, which is a difficult cost topay. Fortunately, the Sorcerer’s Signature Spells feature (see below) allows youto heighten some of your spells without learning them multiple times.

Skill Feats: Standard for everyone except the Rogue.

Sorcerer Feats: See Sorcerer feats, below.

General Feats: Standard.

Signature Spells: A powerful and importantfeature, this allows you to heighten a small set of spells without learningthem multiple times. As their name suggests, these spells will be your go-tooptions in most situations, and choosing good spells will be absoutelycrucial.

Ability Scores

Str: The Sorcerer has no meaningful use forStrenght. Dump it to 8.

Ancestries

Charisma boosts and boosts to the ability scores which support your defensesare all great, and with low hit points it can be helpful to pick an Ancestrywhich gives you high starting hit points. The Sorcerer is also uniquely suitedto explore innate spellcasting due to their ability to pick their own spelllist and becuase the Sorcerer is Charisma-based, making innate spellcastingessentially an extension of their class-based spellcasting.

Catfolk^APG: The Ability Boosts/Flaws work great, but the only appealing Ancestry Featsare the Cat’s Luck feat chain.

Dwarf^CRB: The Dwarf’s ability boosts and high hit points, coupled with feats likeMountain’s Stoutness, do a lot to address the Sorcerer’s poor Defenses.Unfortunately, The Dwarf also comes with a Charisma flaw which will beexpensive to offset.

Elf^CRB: The Elf is frail and offers little that directly complements the Sorcerer.The Ancestral Longevity feat chain might help compensate for the Sorcerer’spoor skill options.

Gnome^CRB: Perfect Ability Boosts and Flaws, and several options for innatespellcasting. You can start with two additional cantrips at 1st level (thoughthey’ll be from different spell lists). You can get a familiar to saveyourself a class feat. Energized Font and First World Adept are both greatadditions as you gain levels.

Goblin^CRB: The goblin makes a decent blaster thanks to Burn It, and their AbilityBoosts/Flaws work reasonably well, but the Goblin’s 6 hit points won’t solvethe Sorcerer’s frailty problems. Goblin Song is a helpful way to lower foes’save DCs, similar to Demoralize.

Halfling^CRB: The Ability Boosts/Flaws work great, but the only appealing Ancestry Featsare the Halfling Luck feat chain.

Human^CRB: Easy to fit to any build. The Adapted Cantrip feat chain is a great way toget some extra spellcasting, and Multitalented can help you multiclass intoother classes to expand your spellcasting.

Kobold^APG: Hard to match for sorcerers with the Arcane spell list, the Kobold getsaccess to innate spellcasting, can complement their cantrips with KoboldBreath, and has options like Cringe to defend them. The Kobold’s AbilityBoosts are excellent, but a Constitution flaw is hard, especially when pairedwith 6 hit points from the Ancestry.

Orc^APG: The Orc is too locked into melee combat.

Ratfolk^APG: The Ratfolk makes a passable sorcerer, but all the things that make theRatfolk appealing for the Sorcerer can be done better by the Gnome.

Tengu^APG: The Tengu’s two Ability Boosts work fine, but your feat options are verylimited. I recommend the Skyborn Tengu heritage, Storm’s Lash, and SoaringFlight as go-to options, but you may want to take Adopted Ancestry to broadenyour options.

Backgrounds

All that you need from your background is Charisma, and since everybackground includes a Free Ability Boost, you can always get the Chasrimaboost. Look for backgrounds with useful skills or which get you a skill featthat you had your eyes on.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

Barrister
Emissary
Gambler
Merchant
Noble
Warrior

Skills and Skill Feats

You get Skill Increases at 3rd and 5th level to raise skills to Expert, increases at 7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th level to raise skills to Master, and increases at 15th, 17th, and 19th level to raise skills to Legendary. That means that you can maximize at most three skills, and the rest of your skills might not advance beyond Trained.

You get Skill Feats at even-numbered levels, giving you a total of 10 Skill Feats (and maybe another from your Background) by 20th level. Generally, you want to invest these feats in the same skills which you are choosing to maximize, though in some cases you may want to grab feats from skills which don’t require that you be more than Trained.

Acrobatics (Dex): Surprisingly importantbecause it’s used for maneuvering while flying.
- Cat Fall: Being knocked prone whileflying is an easy way to counter flying creatures, and enemies can do itjust as easily to you as you can do it to them. Cat Fall will reduce theeffective distance you’ve fallen, allowing you to take less damage froma fall. However, the effects of Cat Fall scale based on your Proficiencylevel, so it may not be worth the skill feat unless you plan to increaseyour proficiency in Acrobatics.
Arcana (Int): An essential knowledgeskill, and it makes sense that the Sorcerer would be proficient, but withouthigh Intelligence you may not be very effective with it.
- Arcane Sense: Getting Detect Magicas a regular cantrip will be both easier and more effective. If you’rehaving trouble fitting Detect Magic into your 5 cantrips, considergetting more as innate spells from your Ancestry or take the CantripExpansion class feat.
Athletics (Str): You have little use forAthletics. Most problems which you might be forced to solved with Athleticscan be solved with spells.
Crafting (Int): You don’t have theIntelligence to thrive with Crafting, and you won’t depend enough on itemsthat require repair to make Crafting necessary.
Deception (Cha): An essential Face skill.
- Lie to Me^CRB: The Sorcerer’s Perception progression is bad, so Lie to Me will makeyou much harder to lie to.
Diplomacy (Cha): The king of Faceskills.
Intimidation (Cha): An important Faceskill, and Demoralize is very appealing in combat.
- Battlecry: Demoralize for free whencombat starts. It might not be a good option if you’re hiding, butotherwise it’s a free debuff at the beginning of every fight.
- Intimidating Glare^CRB: A frustratingly large number of enemies won’t understand Common, soremoving the Auditory trait makes Demoralize much easier to use.
- Terrified Retreat: Counting on acritical success is hard, but if your Charisma is very high it mightwork.
- Scare to Death: Spend one Action topick out the creature in the room the lowest Will save and kill them orsend them fleeing. Repeat until the room is cleared. At this point youonly need weapons for things that are strong enough to threaten yourwhole party on their own, and even then this can still replace theDemoralize action almost entirely.
Lore (Int): Lore skills are too vague andtoo numerous, and you likely don’t have enough skills to throw about tojustify going beyond Trained.
Medicine (Wis): You don’t have the Wisdomto make Medicine appealing, and you don’t have the abundance of skills tomake it effective. If you need healing, you’ll need to do it magically.Someone in your party should be good at Medicine, but it likely shouldn’tbe you.
Nature (Wis): A helpful knowledgeskill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Wisdom toback it up.
Occultism (Int): A helpful knowledgeskill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without theIntelligence to back it up.
Performance (Cha): Too situational.
Religion (Wis): A helpful knowledgeskill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without the Wisdom toback it up.
Society (Int): A helpful knowledgeskill, but going past Trained may be hard to justify without theIntelligence to back it up.
Stealth (Dex): The Sorcerer isn’t builtto be a Scout, but using Stealth can keep attention away from you and yoursmall pool of hit points, and with poor Perception you may find thatStealth is a better option for Initiative.
Survival (Wis): Too situational.
Thievery (Dex): Solve these problems withmagic, or leave it to someone who focuses on Dexterity.

General Skill Feats

Recognize Spell: Helpful if you have theskills to back it up, but you won’t be as capable with knowledge skills as awizard, so this won’t be as reliable.
- Quick Recognition: Using a FreeAction means that you can identify spells multiple time between turns,which is crucial against multiple enemy spellcasters or if you need yourReaction for something else.

Feats

sorcerer Feats

1st Level

Ancestral Blood Magic^APG: For ancestries which provide abundant access to leveled spells, this canbe very effective. But unless you’re planning to spend your Ancestry Featson spellcasting to the exclusion of anything else, I don’t think that you’regoing to get much use out of this, and even then it may be difficult tobenefit from this feat often enough to justify the cost. The Kobold is agood example of an Ancestry which would do well with this feat, but eventhen I’m not sure that the benefits are worth the feat. This eventually getsyou access to Ancestral Mage, which will allow you to expand your spellrepertoire a bit, but it’s still dependent on your pouring Ancestry Featsinto innate spells.
Counterspell^CRB: Countering enemy spells is great, but you need to have that same spellprepared just to have the opportunity. It’s hard enough when you have aspell repertoire and can burn an appropriate spell slot, but when you’re aprepared caster your ability to counter spells drops precipitously as you gothrough the day casting spells.
Dangerous Sorcery^CRB: Essential for blasters. This is a small damage boost per spell, but thetotal damage over the course of your career will be considerable.Spellcasters not planning to focus on blasting likely won’t get enough outof this to justify the feat, and even blasts might wait a few levels sinceyou’ll have so few spell slots at low levels.
Familiar^CRB: Familiars are really good. For help with your familiar, see myPractical Guide to Familiars.
Reach Spell^CRB: Wonderful if you like touch spells, but there aren’t enough touch spellsto justify the feat when you can choose Familiar and use the Spell Deliveryability to accomplish the same thing.
Widen Spell^CRB: Essential for blasters. Even a minor boost could mean one or twoadditional targets with a single spell, which can dramatically improve howmuch you get out of your spell slots.

2nd Level

Anoint Ally: Potentially useful forbloodlines which get a benefit which they can’t use to great effect or forbloodlines which provide things like an AC bonus which will be more usefulon your party’s Defender. The 1-minute duration will theoretically limit youto using this as-needed in combat, but since there’s no usage limitation youcan repeatedly apply the rune while you move through dangerous areas so thatyou have it running when combat starts.
Cantrip Expansion^CRB: You only get to prepare 5 cantrips, and at low levels that’s not a lot ofoptions when you only have a few spell slots to throw around. At higherlevels you might retrain this when you’ve got more leveled spells to relyon.
Enhanced Familiar^CRB: Familiars are really good, and expanding their limited number ofabilities can make them even better. For advice on what to do with the extraabilities, see myPractical Guide to Familiars.
Entreat With Forebears^APG: The utility of this feat varies wildly depending on your choice ofbloodline and on the campaign you’re playing. In a best-case scenario, youmight get these bonuses frequently so the +1 bonus will be worthwhile, butif you can’t guarantee that this will be frequently useful I recommendskipping this feat.

4th Level

Arcane Evolution^CRB: (Bloodline with Arcane Spell List) The wording of this feat is brief andprecise, but it may be difficult to grasp exactly how it works until you’vegot your head around your Spell Repertoire, your Signature Spells, and howthe two features work together. The feat gives you a spellbook as its firstfunction, and in addition after completing your daily preperations you pickone spell in your spellbook and gain one of two benefits.
The spellbook itself works much like the Wizard’s. As you gain levels andadd more spells to your Spell Repertoire, they’re added to the spellbookfor free. In addition, you can use the Occultism skill to add additionalspells to your spellbook. Just like the Wizard, you need to add the spellat each spell level that you want to be able to cast that spell. Forexample: If you wanted to add False Life to your spellbook, you could usethe Occultism skill and the “Learn a Spell” activity. This spell is notadded to your Spell Repertoire when you learn it this way.
Once you have spells in your spellbook, during your daily preparationsyou can pick on spell in the spellbook and gain one of two benefits. Ifthe spell is already in your Spell Repertoire, it becomes a SignatureSpell for you for the day. This allows you to Heighten the spell withoutknowing the spell multiple times at different spell levels. For example:If you has False Life in your Spell Repertoire as a 1st-level spell, youcould select it from your spellbook and it would become a Signature Spell.This would then allow you to Heighten it to any level of spell which youcan cast.
If you instead choose a spell which is in your spellbook but not in yourSpell Repertoire, you add the spell to your Spell Repertoire for the day,effectively learning one extra spell. For example: If you added False Lifeto your spellbook as a 2nd-level spell and did not also have it in yourSpell Repertoire, then selected that spell from your spellbook, you wouldbe able to spend spell slots to cast False Life as a 2nd-leve spell.
Oh, and you become Trained in one skill.
Bespell Weapon^CRB: This would be a decent feat on a gish character, but sorcerers get nomeaningful capability with weapons, so they have no meaningful way to makethis useful. You might use this in multiclass builds, but spending a spellslot to activate it for just 1d6 damage will become both expensive andineffective as your level advances.
Divine Evolution^CRB: (Bloodline with Divine Spell List) If you’re going to heal someone incombat, you need the Action cost to be justified, which means that you’regoing to use a high-level spell slot. This removes that cost once per day.You won’t be able to match the capabilities of a high-Charisma cleric, butthis is still a decent source of healing.
Elaborate Flourish^APG: Too situational and the Action cost is too high. Most enemies won’t beable to identify your spells, and even when they can they may not have aspecific way to apply that knowledge. If you want something similar and lesscostly, consider the Bizarre Magic skill feat.
Occult Evolution^CRB: (Bloodline with Occult Spell List) The flexibility offered by this featis enticing, but remember that it’s limited to mental occult spells, whichmeans spells that are on the Occult spell list and have the “Mental” trait.There are several such spells, generally from the Enchantment or Illusionsschools, though there are some other options like Bane and Bless. OccultEvolution is great for getting access to situational spells within thosenarrow restrictions, somewhat expandng your spell options beyond the usualconfines of a Spell Repertoire.
Primal Evolution^CRB: (Bloodline with Primal Spell List) Summon spells are reasonablyeffective, but since they only last a minute and they’re Sustained, they’recostly to cast. Giving you a free spell slot and your choice of two sets ofcreatures offers an easy, reliable option in most combat situations.
Split Shot^APG: Unless you have some external damage boost which isn’t going to be splitby Split Shot, there is rarely a reason to use this. It’s much moreeffective to use the qualifying spells to focus on a single target andeliminate them before switching targets.

6th Level

Advanced Bloodline^CRB: Another Focus Spell and another Focus Point. The Focus Point isuniversally good, but how good Advanced Bloodline is will depend on yourbloodline.
Diverting Vortex^APG: Raise a Shield provides double the bonus at the same Action cost (thoughit’s a different bonus type, which matters sometimes), doesn’t require youto cast a leveled spell to have the option to use it, and applies to allattacks rather than just some ranged attacks (Diverting Vortex doesn’t workagainst spell attacks). Sure, maybe Bulk is a problem so you’re using abuckler and only getting a +1 bonus, but at that point consider casting theShield cantrip. Situations where Diverting Vortex is a better option than aphysical shield or the Shield cantrip are basically non-existent.
Energetic Resonance^APG: Too situational, too costly, and not effective enough to justify thecost. Use that same spell slot to make the caster regret their life choiceson your next turn.
Spell Relay^APG: In the right party, this can be very effective. If you have one or twoother spellcasters, this can dramatically simplify positioning for yourparty by allowing your allies to cast spells from either of two places.
This is especially exciting for multiclass builds who are primarily builtfor front-line melee combat. Imagine this spell on a Champion with anallied spellcaster who has powerful spells with Touch range or spells thathave an Emanation as their area of effect. Casting those spells from asafe distance (you’ll need to be within Touch range of the Champion inthis example, but that’s not necessarily within Touch range of yourenemies) makes those spells much more appealing since they’re not so riskyto cast.
Steady Spellcasting^CRB: The Flat Check is too difficult to make this feat an easy choice. Youhave a success rate of just 30%. If you’re in a situation where you mightlose a spell, cast a cantrip so that losing it won’t cost you anything.

8th Level

Bloodline Resistance^CRB: Spells and magic effects, when taken together, are very common. A +1Status bonus isn’t much, but it will apply freqently and at no furthercost.
Crossblooded Evolution^CRB: Most bloodlines will have some spells which aren’t great, and the abilityto trade one for one from another bloodline allows you to replace the worstspells on your bloodline’s spell list or to replace spells which have becomeobsolete as you gain levels.
Unfortunately, if you want to change the spell level at which you useCrossblooded Evolution, you’ll need to do it in two steps. If you have acrossblooded spell, you must first retrain it back to your own bloodlinespell list. You can then retrain again to get a crossblooded spell of adifferent spell level.
Safeguard Spell^APG: This is obviously tempting for blasters, but the effects go far beyonddropping a fireball on your own feat. You are not affected by the spell forthe entirety of the spell’s effects. If you drop an area control spell,you’re free to walk through its affects unhindered. It’s not clear how thisworks with things like Fog Cloud (are you somehow visible to everyone? canyou see through the fog?), so talk to your GM about how to handle thosesituations before you take this feat.
Soulsight^APG: An excellent counter to stealth, invisiblity, and a bunch of other sneakybut less-common things like Project Image. You’re a sorcerer, so once youfind creatures you’re well-equipped to drop AOE spells on them rather thansuffering through a series of ill-concieved checks to Seek the creature.

10th Level

Ancestral Mage^APG: If you’re investing a lot of feats to make Ancestral Blood Magic work,this is a huge asset. Your innate spells can offer access to powerful spellsoutside of your spell list, diversifying your spellcasting optionsconsiderably. More spells in your Spell Repertoire also helps address thebiggest limitation of Spell Repertoires.
Energy Fusion^APG: The additional damage is far too small to use this oninstantaneous damage spells like Fireball, which are also the most obvioususe case. Let’s say that you cast Fireball at 3rd level, dealing 6d6 damage.You decide that you want some extra damage, and you know Lightning Bolt at3rd level. You spend an Action and a 3rd-level spell slot to add 3 damage toyour fireball. Sure, the damage applies to all of the targets, but if youcan’t get more than 3 damage per target out of that same spell slot you’renot trying hard enough.
This might be worthwhile for certain area control spells like Wall ofFire and ongoing spells like Flaming Sphere, as it appears that the damageapplies to each damage roll. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many ofthose spells, and even for the ones that qualify it’s almost certainlymore effective to use the spell slot to case a spell.
Energy Ward^APG: Not a ton of damage resistance, but it’s still useful and the Action costis basically free. Unfortunately, creatures which deal energy damage arefrequently resistant or immune to whatever damage they deal (e.g. reddragons and fire damage), so this is most useful against enemies who candeal multiple types of energy damage, such as other spellcasters.
Greater Bloodline^CRB: Your final Focus Spell and your third Focus Point. It’s usefulnessdepends on your bloodline.
Overwhelming Energy^CRB: Crucial for blasters, but you can always change tactics and cast spellswhich don’t deal energy damage.
Quickened Casting^CRB: Even though it’s only once per day, this is still really good. Mostspells have a 2-Action casting time, so getting two spells out in a singleturn means that you’re doing the most important part of two turns in asingle turn.
Signature Spell Expansion^APG: Signature Spells are a huge asset and you get very few of them. Thisallows a great deal of additional flexibility, allowing you to more easilycapitalize on low-level spells which scale well like Heal and Fireball,leaving more room in your spell list for spells which are less consistentlyimportant.

12th Level

Blood Component Substitution^APG: Too situational. Even without the hit point cost, this isn’t useful oftenenough to justify such a high-level feat.
Bloodline Focus^CRB: If you’re relying on Focus Points in any significant way, you need this.The rules for Refocus are written specifically so that you can’t Refocusmultiple times in succession: After you regain a Focus Point by any means,you must spend a Focus Point again before you can Refocus. So: If you have aFocus Pool larger than one point, you almost certainly need this feat.
Greater Physical Evolution^APG (Arcane or Primal):Effectively makes polymorph spells which grant you a battle form intosignature spells. Polymorph spells can be very powerful, but you generallyneed to cast them with your highest-level spell slot to be consistentlyeffective, so making them signature spells guarantees that you can use thebest spell slot available at any given moment.
Greater Spiritual Evolution^APG (Divine or Occult): Toosituational unless you’re in a game which features ethereal creatures orhaunts frequently.
Magic Sense^CRB: Situational. In most situations, you can rely on casting Detect Magicnormally. It’s a cantrip.

14th Level

Consume Spell^APG: Too situational and the effect is too small.
Interweave Dispel^CRB: Situational. The vast majority of enemies won’t have ongoing magiceffects which you can dispel. Against enemies who do have such spells, theAction savings is nice, but likely not enough to justify the feat.
Spell Shroud^APG: The effect is good if you need to defend yourself or nearby allies. Thefeat doesn’t list a duration and we haven’t seen errata for the AdvancedPlayer’s Guide (as of July 5th, 2021) so it’s not clear when the effectexpires. RAW you’re stuck in the shroud forever, but I imagine that it’ssupposed to last one round.
Reflect Spell^CRB: If you’re going to counter spells, you’re probably countering somethingoffensive and dangerous enough to justify spending a spell slot to counterit. If that’s the case, turning it back on the caster is really great. Thisdoesn’t fix any of the problems with Counterspell, but it makes itconsiderably more exciting to use.

16th Level

Effortless Concentration^CRB: If you rely on spells which require you to sustain them as an Action(entirely possible at this level), this could be a free action every turn.Get a bunch of spells going, sustain two or three, then roll them into afight and wreck things without casting more spells.
Greater Mental Evolution^CRB: A significant improvement to your number of known spells. Sorcerers knowmore spells than most other Spell Repertoire users, but since your number ofspells known is the biggest limiting factor of a Spell Repertoire, improvingthat number is powerful.
Greater Vital Evolution^CRB: Realistically this means two spell slots of your highest-level spellslots. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with 10th-level spells because therules for 10th-level spells (see Bloodline Paragon) specifically say thatyou can’t cast 10th-level spells with options which allow you to cast aspell without spending a spell slot.
Scintillating Spell^APG: There are a ton of excellent spells which qualify for this, includingcantrips like Electric Arc. Dazzled imposes a 20% miss chance (see theConcealed condition), and if you get lucky and blind your target(s) you’reat a massive advantage.
Terraforming Spell^APG: Situational. You might be able to use this effectively in conjunctionwith polymorph spells which give you a combat form, but otherwise you’rejust leaving a donut of difficult terrain in some random spot.

18th Level

Bloodline Wellspring^CRB: If you’re relying heavily on your Focus Spells, this is essential.
Echoing Spell^APG: Similar to Bloodline Conduit, but less flexible. The obvious use case forthis is to cast an echoing version of some combat spell like Fireball orsomething, but be sure that you’re using a spell which will still betactically effective on the next turn or you may find that you’re chosing tofireball your party or let the echo go to waste. Also be cautious aboutspells which must be Sustained since they’ll eat into your Actionsseverely.
Greater Crossblooded Evolution^CRB: Trade some of your own bloodline spells for the best options from otherspell lists. Three is fully a third of your bloodline spell list, so this isa ton of flexibility, and you’ll want to spend some time exploring otherspell lists to see what your options are.

20th Level

Bloodline Conduit^CRB: Out of combat, you can use this to cast Heal or similar spells to healyourself and your allies. This also turns your spells at 5th-level and belowinto a bottomless well of utility. Given a few minutes and a diverse SpellRepertoire, there are few problems that you can’t solve at almost no cost.This isn’t as flashy or exciting as a 10th-level spell slot, and it won’t beso effective in combat, but the ability to cast spells of up to 5th level atfunctionally no cost makes you incomparably powerful anywhere outside of thenarrow confines of combat.
In combat, a free 5th-level slot once per minute likely only matters onceper encounter, but a 5th-level fireball is still a decent source of AOEdamage even at high levels.
Bloodline Mutation^APG: You can get the same benefits from spells when you need them.
Bloodline Perfection^CRB: The coolest thing you will ever do is to cast a 10th-level spell. You getone slot, so this doubles how many times you can do the coolest thing yourclass is capable of doing.
Metamagic Mastery^CRB: Really tempting, but there just aren’t enough good metamagic feats tomake this worthwhile.

General Feats

Adopted Ancestry^CRB: Numerous Ancestries offer access to innate spellcasting, which is a greatfit for the Sorcerer.
Armor Proficiency^CRB: The Sorcerer’s AC is awful. Each step up in armor proficiency increasesyour AC by 2 and reduces your reliance on Dexterity. Unfortunately you’llnever advance past Trained in the additional proficiencies, but the Sorcerernever gets past Expert in Unarmored Defense, so if you take ArmorProficiency twice you’re in medium armor with +2 more AC than any othersorcerer. Take one more feat and you’re in heavy armor with +4 AC comparedto other sorcerers. If you spend all of your General Feats on armor, you canget heavy armor at level 11 (7 if you’re Human), several levels before theSorcerer’s proficiency in Unarmored Defense advances to Expert and makeslight armor unappealing.
Of course, investing feats is expensive, and using manufactured armormeans spending gold to enhance the armor. That’s very expensive comparedto casting Mage Armor, but a suit of armor that’s several levels belowyour actual level may be well worth the cost compared to spending one ofyour highest-level spell slots on Mage Armor.
Canny Acumen^CRB: Sorcerers have poor saves and poor Perception. The only problem with thisfeat is that you can’t take it more than once.
Incredible Initiative^CRB: Casting an area control spell before anyone else acts can win a fightbefore it begins, so rolling well on initiative is often crucial forspellcasters.
Toughness^CRB: Sorcerers have few hit points, so more never hurt, but you should also beworking really hard to avoid being targeted by things that deal damage.

Weapons

Crossbow (Any): Crossbows are expensive,you’re not very good with them, and it takes ate least one Action to load soyou can’t fire them every round while casting spells in most cases. Cantripsare a much more appealing offensive option for the Sorcerer, and if you havean extra Action to spend you’ll often do better to use something likeDemoralize.
Dagger: Your best weapon option, but doyour best to never actually use it.

Armor

Explorer’s Clothing: Basically just afancy outfit that you can apply magic runes to. Mage Armor is probablyenough, but if you want property runes you’ll need a permanent suit of“armor”. Don’t worry about the Dexterity Cap, either; if you’re exceeding 20Dexterity you’re probably doing something unusual.

Sorcerer Handbook: PF2 Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

Sorcerer Class Features

Ability Scores

Ancestries

Backgrounds

Skills and Skill Feats

General Skill Feats

Feats

sorcerer Feats

1st Level

2nd Level

4th Level

6th Level

8th Level

10th Level

12th Level

14th Level

16th Level

18th Level

20th Level

General Feats

Weapons

Weapons

Armor