Draconic Bloodline Fire Sorcerer Build - Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)

Draconic Fire Sorcerer Build

With this build the aim is to use the Draconic's Bloodline unique effect of Elemental Affinity: Damage. It allows adding bonus damage to fire spells based on the Charisma modifier. Although this may not seem much, there is a trick. Each of the enemies affected by the fire spell or each projectile that hits activates this effect.

So imagine releasing Fireball on 6 enemies and having a +5 Charisma modifier. That is in total 30 bonus damage. But this is just the beginning. Now imagine, you have Scorching Ray as a level 5 spell. This is 6 rays released. each of these rays will deal a bonus of 5 damage. You will easily do 80+ damage with a single spell to one target. Include some critical hits and they will be deleted from the battlefield.

On top of this add Sorcerer metamagic actions, and you can multicast spells per one turn, cast spells with a bonus action, etc. We will also have a wide arsenal of spells to be able to combat enemies that have resistance to fire spells. We do not want to be useless in case this kind of situation arises.

If this sounds like what you are looking for and want crisp enemies to ashes, read on!

Short overview

This is a short overview and progression of the build. Use it to get a quick glance if you want to pick the best options without going deep into the explanations. A more detailed description with texts, suggestions, and improvements can be found in the next sections.

Draconic Fire Sorcerer leveling overview

Level	Category	Choice
1	Abilities	Str 8, Dex 16 (15+1), Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 17 (15+2)
	Class	Sorcerer 1
	Cantrips	Friends, Minor Illusion, Fire bolt, Ray of Frost
	Spells	Magic Missiles, Chromatic Orb
	Subclass	Draconic Bloodline
	Dragon Ancestor	Draconic Ancestry: Red (Fire)
	Skills	Athletics, Acrobatics, Intimidation, Persuasion, Performance
2	Class	Sorcerer 2
	Spells	Thunderwave
	Class Passives	Metamagic: Twinned Spell, Metamagic: Distant Spell
3	Class	Sorcerer 3
	Spells	Scorching Ray
	Class Passives	Metamagic: Quickened Spell
	Replace Spell	Chromatic Orb -> Misty Step
4	Class	Sorcerer 4
	Cantrips	Bone Chill
	Spells	Shield
	Feat	Ability Improvement - Charisma +2
5	Class	Sorcerer 5
	Spells	Fireball
	Replace Spell	Magic Missiles -> Haste
6	Class	Sorcerer 6
	Spells	Counterspell
7	Class	Sorcerer 7
	Spells	Wall of Fire
8	Class	Sorcerer 8
	Spells	Blight
	Feat	Elemental Adept: Fire​
9	Class	Sorcerer 9
	Spell	Lightning Bolt
10	Class	Sorcerer 10
	Cantrips	Blade Ward
	Spells	Telekinesis
	Class Passives	Metamagic: Heightened Spell
11	Class	Sorcerer 11
	Spells	Sunbeam
12	Class	Sorcerer 12
	Spells	Disintegrate
	Feat	Dual Wielder​

Starting the Game

We start with the early game. I would go into what are the best Races, Abilities, and Skills for Draconic Sorcerer. Some of these choices are impactful as you cannot respec them.

Races

Picking a race provides various benefits - abilities, dialogue options, looks, etc. I think races that have shield proficiency benefit the Sorcerer build.

Race	Features	Description
High Half-Elf	Civil Militia - You have weapon proficiency with Spears, Pikes, Halberds, and Glaives, and Armour Proficiency with Light Armour and Shield Darkvision - Grant a creature the ability to see in the dark out to a range of 12m. Fey Ancestry - You have Advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.	I think this is the "optimal" choice. High Half-Elfs get a cantrip, Darkvision, and also shield proficiency. More or less everything that you need for a good Sorcorer
Human	Civil Militia - You have weapon proficiency with Spears, Pikes, Halberds, and Glaives, and Armour Proficiency with Light Armour and Shield Human Versatility - Select and additional Skill to be proficient in. Your carrying capacity is increased by a quarter	This is one of the rare occasions where I would recommend going with a human. You can get Shield proficiency that will be valuable throughout the game for various bonuses and increased Armour class.
Githyanki	Martial Prodigy - A lifetime of relentless training gave you Armour Proficiency with Light and Medium Armour, as well as Proficiency with the Shortsword, Longsword, and Greatsword	They have a few unique actions like Misty Step and Psyonic Jump. Moreover, they get Medium armor proficiency for higher AC.

Class

We start the build with Sorcerer. First, it will give us Constitution Saving Throw proficiency. Second, we want to get level 3 spells as soon as possible. They have very powerful options like Lightning Bolt. After that we can dip into Cleric.

Overview
Sorcerer
Features
Spell Slots	These can be used to cast spells and are restored each long rest.

Cantrips

The sorcerer gets 4 cantrips. This is a lot, allowing us to make some good choices:

Cantrips	Description
Friends	If you are the main character and do most of the dialogues, this is also a good choice as it gives an advantage during rolls.
Fire bolt	Use this cantrip to deal moderate damage or light up barrels with oil. Perfect if you want to save spell slots. Note: Take this Fire bolt even if you have the one from elf or half-elf. The other scales with Intelligence and we need Charisma
Ray of Frost	Opposite to Fire Bolt, you can deal ice damage if enemies are resistant to fire damage.
Minor Illusion	Lure enemies together from stealth with the cantrip. Then use Shatter, Thudnerwave, or any other area of effect spell, to deal huge damage.

Spells

Sorcerers cannot prepare spells. This means that what they choose during the level-up screen - is what they can use. This can easily cause paralysis especially if you are new to the game. Here are my recommendations for what to pick early:

Spells	Description
Magic Missile	I recommend this spell. It is not very powerful, but it can hit multiple enemies and does not miss. You can easily finish off a straggler with a few HP and damage the second foe
Chromatic Orb	This spell can be changed to any element. It is a powerful early game choice, as you can use whatever the enemy is weak to.

Subclass

Overview
Draconic Bloodline
Features
Draconic Resilience: Hit Points	Your Hit Point maximum increase by 1 for each Sorcerer level.
Draconic Resilience	Dragon-like scales cover parts of your skin. When you aren't wearing armour, your Base Armour Class increased to 13. Together with +3 AC from dexterity this is 16 armor class, the same as heavy armor.

Dragon Ancestor

As Draconic Bloodline, we can pick our Dragon Ancestor. These give additional spells and at level 6 will give bonus elemental resistances and damage on the chosen ancestry. I recommend:

Ancestry	Description
Draconic Ancestry: Red (Fire)	Although any Fire Ancestry works, I recommend this one. Burning Hands is a perfect spell in close range when starting the game. The other choices are subpar, and Sleep scales well until level 3.

Abilities

Now let's take a look at the abilities of the Sorcadin build. Correct allocation will allow us to maximize the early gameplay and get good modifier bonuses.

Ability	Value	Description
Strength	8	We do not need strength as we will not be in close range often.
Dexterity	16 (15+1)	High dexterity will give a bonus Armour Class and higher initiative. This can be used to go first during combat encounters and take out a few enemies before they get to do anything.
Constitution	14	The constitution will give us bonus HP and increase the success of Constitution Saving Throws
Intelligence	8	Not really important stat for us
Wisdom	10	We get 10, to not get any negative modifier for Wisdom Saving Throws, as there are many of them.
Charisma	17 (15+2)	The main ability of Sorcer build. It determines our spell success, and spell difficulty. Moreover, it is used for many dialogue checks, ensuring that you can trick or persuade NPCs.

Skills and Expertise

Overall, the skills should be impacted by your roleplaying and background decisions. However, you would still want those that will give you the best benefits. My recommendations are to pick those at which you have a high ability modifier:

• Acrobatics
• Persuasion
• Deception
• Performance
• Intimidation

Detailed Leveling Progression

Here is the detailed progression for the build to get you started. You can use it as a guideline because early games can be daunting and overwhelming. Later on, once you get the feel for the class you can start picking your own options

Level 2

Instantly at level 2, we get a lot of improvements. First, Sorcerer gets an additional level 1 spell slot, and second 2 sorcery points are added. They can be used for creating spell slots, additional spellcasting, etc. Last, we unlock special metamagic mechanic

Actions	Description
Create Sorcery Points	Spend Spell Slots to gain Sorcery Points. Once you get some more metamagic options, you could sacrifice spell slots, to cast two spells in one turn or increase your range
Create Spell Slot	Spend Sorcery Points to unlock a Spell Slot. You could create a higher tier spell slot, to increase the damage over what you can at the current level

Spells

Although we are doing a Fire Sorcerer build, the spell below is too good to pass.

Spells	Description
Thunderwave	Do you see an enemy close to the ledge? Or they are close to you? Use Thunderwave to knock them back and deal thunder damage. It can instantly kill foes that are thrown from the ledge.

Class Passives

Sorcerers get access to unique actions - metamagic. They allow to consumption of sorcery points to enhance spellcasting. New metamagic options will be unlocked as we level up as you have more and more Sorcery Points.

Passives	Description
Metamagic: Twinned Spell	Spells that only target 1 creature can target an additional creature. Later on, you can use this to apply Haste on two allies
Metamagic: Distant Spell	Increase the range of spells by 50%. You can easily now avoid the penalty for the lack of range if this situation happens when spellcasting

Level 3

We unlock the level 2 spell slots and spells. We also gain another option for metamagic, this time much better

Spells and

Level 2 spells are okay, nothing that is groundbreaking. Here are a few recommendations of what you can take. You also can replace spells, but I do not recommend doing that yet at this stage.

Spells	Description
Scorching Ray	Oh, baby! This spell will get very powerful as we level up. For now, it is a decent one, and can definitely be used to target multiple enemies. However, from level 6, it will start wrecking foes

Class Passives

We are getting another metamagic selection. The good thing is that two new options are introduced. Here is my recommendation:

Passives	Description
Metamagic: Quickened Spell	By consuming 3 Sorcery points a spell can be cast using bonus action instead of action points. You can cast two damage spells one after another. Or later, you could use Haste and then two spells at the same turn. This unlocks tactical possibilities.

Replace Spell

This will be a tough decision, but I would recommend removing (if you are Githyanki) either Magic Missiles or Chromatic Orb. These are great spells, however, we are able to obtain Misty Step, which provides crucial mobility that the Sorcerer needs:

Spells	Description
Misty Step	You can move away without triggering opportunity attacks. This only costs bonus action, and you can position yourself on a higher ground easily. Also, you can use it in stealth.

Level 4

We get our first Feat selection that will greatly improve both offense and defense. The Sorcerer also unlocks another level 2 spell slot and can select an additional spell.

Cantrips

We can choose another cantrip. Here is my recommendation:

Cantrips	Description
Bone Chill	Can be useful in some encounters as you can disable enemy healing and greatly weaken undead enemies.

Spells

Spells	Description
Shield	I cannot stress enough how powerful this spell is. You can use the level 1 spell slot, to increase your armour class by 5. The result is that you can avoid most of the attacks during the turn.

Feat

For the first Feat, there is nothing much to recommend. You really only want to improve your ability score for a higher spell success chance and more damage

Feat	Description
Ability Improvement	Allocate 2 ability points to Charisma. This will increase the modifier by 1 resulting in higher spell success.

Level 5

And we finally reach level 3 spells. Moreover, we get 2 level 3 spell slots for upcasting.

Spells

There are a lot of good spells at this tier, so it's hard to choose what to pick. For Fire Sorcerer, the plain choice is:

Spells	Description
Fireball	A very powerful and trustworthy fire spell. You can hit enemies in a decent area of effect for 8d6 damage. At the next level, it will also get a little damage boost

Replace Spell

Because we also unlock Haste, I would try getting it as soon as possible. I recommend removing either Thunderwave or Magic Missiles, the one which you use less.

Spells	Description
Haste	A very powerful spell that gives an additional action point. In a sense, you can cast two spells. Add Metamagic: Quickened Spell, and you can cast 3 spells per turn!

Level 6

We gain an additional level 3 spell slot and reach new subclass features of the Draocnic bloodline.

Spell	Description
Elemental Affinity: Damage	When you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you add your Charisma Modifier to the damage. Your fire damage spells will not get bonus damage.
Elemental Affinity: Resistance	When you cast a spell that deals damage of the type associated with your draconic ancestry, you can spend 1 Sorcery point to gain Resistance to that damage type.

Spells and Replace Spell

We are still able to choose between level 3 spells. There are two main contenders in my opinion

Spells	Description
Counterspell	Another powerful spell that can counter almost any spell that foe casts. Even if you don't use it often, it is good to have it as it will notify you of what enemies are casting and let you decide the next steps
Slow	You can target up to 6 foes to slow them down. If most of them succeed the combat will become drastically easier and you can overwhelm almost anyone

You could also take Counterspell as a spell, and Slow as a replacement to something that you do not use. I removed Thunderwave

Level 7

We reach level 4 spells. Besides that nothing much

Spells and Replace Spell

Spell	Description
Wall of Fire	You can create a straight wall of fire, that allows targeting enemies in wider positions. It also damages nearby foes but for less damage. The downside is that it requires concentration, meaning something like Haste will not work at the same time.

I do not recommend replacing any spell. All of them serve a different purpose.

Level 8

We further increase the arsenal of Sorcerer spells and we get access to the second feat.

Spells and Replace Spell

Spell	Description
Blight	A very strong single-target spell, it has 8d8 rolls and can one-shot most medium enemies. I would personally recommend this. It does not take concentration slot and you will have alternative spell damage at your disposal

For replacement, it's your choice, you can pick something you want to try or discard a spell you do not use.

Feat

Feat	Description
Elemental Adept: Fire​	The feat ensures that you can deal adequate damage against enemies resistant to Fire. These will be plenty in Act 3. Another choice would be to have someone with Arsonist Oil coating.

Level 9

And we get to Level 5 spells. To be honest, I think they are not useful for our Draconic build.

Spells and Replace Spell

If you are interested you can take level 5 spells, but I do not recommend them. My options would be these:

Spell	Description
Lightning Bolt	Targets enemies in a straight line giving a good spell range. If enemies are wet the damage is doubled
Ice Storm	Release icicles that also deal bludgeoning damage. Although this is a fire sorcerer build, you can go for the option above. However, Bludgeoning damage is a good alternative to expand your sources of damage.

Level 10

We get a new cantrip option, an additional spell, and the last Metamagic.

Cantrips

You are free to take any cantrip that you find useful. More or less the build has been finished, so this is just a good addition:

Cantrips	Description
Mage Hand	Quality of Life spell, that you can use to summon a hand. It can solve some puzzles, pick and throw objects. It can also shove enemies from ledges.
Blade Ward	Reduce incoming piercing, slashing, and bludgeoning damage by half. If you are fighting against enemies that use physical attacks this in theory doubles your HP.

Spells and Replace Spell

Spell	Description
Telekinesis	I love this spell. First thing it allows you to play with enemies and throw them around the battlefield. Second, it can be recast without using a spell slot, which is another huge benefit. However, it requires a concentration slot.

Class Passives

Passives	Description
Metamagic: Heightened Spell	Targets of spells that require Saving Throws have a Disadvantage on their first Saving Throw. It will give a higher success of spell success. But overall, at this point in the game, it will not matter much.

Level 11

At level 11 we reach the highest tier of spells in the game. We also unlock the unique actions of the Draconic bloodline subclass

Action	Description
Fly	You can now Fly instead of running utilizing the movement speed. However, this still triggers opportunity attacks, so it does not replace Misty Step. Just makes it easier to traverse places.

Spells

Because we are doing Fire Sorcerer there are no options for level 6 fire spells. However, we can still a take a few very powerful options:

Spell	Description
Sunbeam	An interesting spell that is similar to Lightning Bolt. However, this deals Radiant damage. Unfortunately, it requires a Concentration slot, so you may lose something like Haste

Level 12

We reach the last level of Draconic Bloodline Fire Build. We get our last spell pick and a new Feat option.

Spells

Spell	Description
Disintegrate	A very deadly spell that can do a maximum of 100 damage without a critical hit. It only targets a single enemy, but deals force damage which not many foes can resist.
Chain Lightning	You can use it to target multiple enemies with lightning damage. Add Metamagic: Twinned Spell for even more targets.

Feat

Feat	Description
Dual Wielder​	With this feat, you can wear two caster weapons. The strongest setup would be Markoheshkir and Staff of Spell Power for double Arcane Battery and Kereska's Favour.

General Tips

Now I would like to cover some general tips on how to play Draconic Fire Sorcerer Build.

Utilize Elemental Affinity

The Draconic Sorcerer gets a unique mechanic at level 6 that allows getting bonus elemental damage based on their ancestry. Because we took Fire, our fire spell damage will get buffed by the Charisma modifier.

At first glance this would not seem much, however, pair this with high-level Scorching Ray and each of the projectiles gets a bonus charisma modifier. Later on, you will be able to get some powerful items that further boost the damage.

Twinned Spell and Haste

Even if you did not plan this, Sorcerer can be extremely powerful support. At level 5 you gain access to level 3 spell slots and Haste. This spell gives 2 action points per turn, meaning you could double your damage output.

To do this you need to activate Metamagic: Twinned Spell and then cast Haste. You can now target two targets. I recommend doing this on yourself and another group member. This way two members in your party have double amount of actions. This will make your combat encounters much easier.

Use metamagic to empower your first turn

You can use the Metamagic mechanic to create some powerful spell combos. My favorite would be Quickened Spell. It allows casting a spell via bonus action. Here are some good combos:

• Haste and then cast two spells on the first turn and three on the second.
• Hold Person or Monster, and then cast spells for guaranteed critical hits.

Moreover, you can use Metamagic: Heightened Spell to create a disadvantage on Saving Throws on enemies. Meaning your spells have a much higher chance of success

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Draconic Bloodline Fire Sorcerer build for Baldur's Gate 3. We went through great details on how to build Fire based magician that can utilize Draconic Bloodline's unique elemental effects. Moreover, we make use of Metamagic to maximize what our spells can do

Cheers!