The Sorcerer's Apprentice
by Kasreyn

Class: Sorcerer
Tag: SAP

Introduction

The Sorcerer's Apprentice is a callow youth who naively believes he has sufficiently mastered the forces of magic to oppose the minions of hell in the battle against Diablo. One day after finishing drawing his master a bath, he sees his master's hat sitting unattended. Timidly, he places the magical artifact on his head and is filled with confidence that now he will surely be a mighty wizard. And he'll be able to summon the djinn and the elemental powers to do his bidding, as he has oft seen his master do. He strides boldly into the dungeon, thinking to prove his worth by defeating the menace of Diablo before his master wakes up and finds the hat missing. "How hard can it be?" he thinks. The poor apprentice is in for a rude awakening as he strives to survive with his underpowered spells!

Rules

Since your starting staff is in violation of the item rules (you do not know level 2 CB!), you should sell it immediately.

The apprentice focuses less on full clears than on descending as deep into the dungeon as he is capable of surviving.

While in normal difficulty, you may buy no full potions of any kind. You may not buy elixirs until after your first 3@30 attempt.

If you go through Normal difficulty and get your first dot while only ever having used the bolts, Inferno, and Flash for damage, you get a reward: unlimited reading of teleport books. If you use any other damaging spells before your first Diablo slaying, you cannot get this reward. (Not that there are many, but these are Blood Star, Fire Wall, Lightning, and Golem.)

You must try to kill all bosses with bolts. The apprentice yearns to prove that his mighty bolts are the superior form of magic, and is incensed when he marches jauntily to the dungeon only to find the monsters snickering into their sleeves at him.

Before moving on to the next difficulty, you must slay Diablo in the previous one.

You must at least TRY a 3@30. Success is, of course, not required. You may make one 3@30 attempt even if you have never slain Diablo at all, or only in Normal. You must proceed immediately to hell and not dilly-dally about getting down to 15. However, you only get one such free attempt... After that, you can only attempt a 3@30 if you have 2 dots.

Holy Bolt and Firewall are not allowed vs. Diablo. If you want to lure him, lightning and charged bolt are excellent. =)

Laz runs are fine, since that's an excellent source of bolt books. =)

Items

Armor
No Heavy Armor (i.e. No Plates)

Jewelry
+Resistance and +Light Radius only. No other enchantments, except curses, may be on the item.

Shields
None

Weapons
Spell Staves only. No Staves without spells.
Spell Staves must be of allowed spells, and you must know the spell on the staff at slvl 2 or higher in order to use the staff.

Enchantments
+Magic, +Mana, Balance/Stability/Harmony, +All stats, and +Spell Levels may NOT be used.

Cursed items are encouraged. =P However, -Light Radius is only allowed if you enter the dungeon with it OFF. This was the monsters don't have any harder time seeing you, but you can't see them. Along a similar vein, +Light Radius is encouraged as valiant and naive apprentices glow with a magical light, which is like a big neon sign to monsters that says, "Come eat me!" Arnold Layne's "Blind Searchlight" idea is highly enjoyed.

"Blind Searchlight"... Enter dungeon with +Light Radius equipment on. Take off +Light Radius equipment. Equip -Light Radius equipment. Do this every time you enter the dungeon.

Uniques
Uniques are restricted to Constricting Ring, Leather of Aut, Torn Flesh of Souls, and Fool's Crest.

Shrines

The apprentice is cockily confident in his magical capabilities, and he feels that he needs no help from the gods. He will thus only learn the folly of his pride at the hands of the monsters.

The only allowable shrines are FOS (Fascinating, Ornate, Sacred) shrines, which the apprentice may or may not choose to foolishly use to increase his skill with the bolt spells he so loves. If, however, an apprentice is stupid enough to use at least one of each of the FOS shrines, the gods bless him with the ability to use Enchanted Shrines ever after. Otherwise he cannot use Enchanted Shrines.

Spells and Books

Any page 1 spell is allowable. (These are Staff Recharge, Fire Bolt, Charged Bolt, Holy Bolt, Healing, Heal Other, and Inferno.) You are encouraged to continue using the three "bolts" as long as you can effectively do so, especially throughout Normal difficulty.

The Apprentice learned Firebolt first, and his untutored mind has the easiest time summoning these simple magicks - he simply lacks the training to pull off splash damage or chain lightning autotargeting.

You may buy only the following books from Adria:

- Fireboat
- Holy Bolt
- Charged Bolt
- Town Portal
- Telekinesis
- Blood Star

Other Allowed Spells

Town Portal is allowed.

Stone Curse may ONLY be used on triple immunes (i.e. monsters immune to Fire, Lightning, and Magic).

Lightning may only be learned once your Charged Bolt reaches at least level 12.

Fire Wall and Guardian may only be learned once your Firebolt is maxed and your Inferno at least level 8. You must also have at least one dot to learn Fire Wall. (One Dot = Normal Difficulty Diablo Kill) An apprentice enjoys surrounding himself with Guardians, then switching to firebolt so his enemies face a withering storm of firebolts.

Blood Star is the closest thing to a magic damage "bolt" spell (though not considered a "bolt" spell for purposes of learning Golem), so the Apprentice may use it. However, he may not use it from Staves.

Flash requires at least one dot to begin learning. Can you say, Nightmare/Azure Drakes? =) That's enough reason to learn it, alone.

Golem: All the bolts must be maxed before you may invest in Golem. Once you learn Golem, you must keep a Golem active in the dungeon at all times. If it dies, immediately raise another - even if you're surrounded by Witches. =P
Anyone who's seen Disney's "Fantasia" will know why I included this rule. Summon Golems and hum Dukas's "Sorcerer's Apprentice" all the while. =P This is the theme music for this variant. Apprentices, often being downtrodden servants themselves, usually let the power of having a servant go to their heads... ;-)

Teleport: You may read ONE book of teleport. And that's the end of it. If it gets reduced to 0 by an Enchanted Shrine you'll need to find another Enchanted to raise it again, now won't you? =)

Telekinesis: This is a much loved spell of Apprentices, who enjoy showing it off. They love to think of creative uses for it in the dungeon. "Whee, let's see how long TK can hold off a pack of 8 goats!" ;)

Mana Shield may not be cast unless you have high enough life to be stunned regularly wherever you are venturing.
You may not cast it in Normal difficulty, not even from a scroll or Magical Shrine. Of course, if you have the guts to use a Goat Shrine/Cauldron and get a mana shield off it, enjoy it while it lasts.

Stun Rules of Thumb

| Church | Catacombs | Caves | Hell
Nightmare | 24 | 54 | 48 | 64
Hell | 46 | 86 | 90 | 126

These numbers are the highest average physical damage (from non-boss monsters) you'll face in these areas.

Titles

No Diablo Kills: Apprentice
1 dot: Apprentice Adept
2 dots: Dedicated Apprentice
3rd dot: Journeyman Apprentice (the journey never ends...)
Clvl 50: Master Sorcerer. =P

If anyone ever does 50 with this variant, I'll be quite surprised. Hell, I'll be surprised if anyone bothers to take one to 35.

Good luck, and may the Force be with you... my young apprentice.