>>15836850well sure casters would be totally unplayable if every spell were disintegrate but low rolling is still way more miserable on a caster than a martial. power gaming aside i feel like having niche options or big effects are the fun parts of being a caster so it's really lame that the best option is to pick something that still just does a bunch of damage on average when you inevitably fail
divine soul is fine if you're planning on playing a more supportive role but i feel like you're still better off just playing cleric at that point
i agree shield, misty step, and dimension door are must haves for anyone that can take them, though i think the party only really needs one dimension door as a whole if you have multiple casters. sunbeam is probably also best in slot for sorcerers since they don't have a ton to do with concentration
absorb elements is good but starts to get into the realm of too many defensive options unless you have a really squishy party. it just seems excessive to take on top of shield and misty step as long as you're not expecting to have to bunch up with other ranged characters or don't have any tankier martials to get in the way
banishment is good especially in the context of a campaign where you can guess what sort of things you're going to be fighting, but i still think it's a bit too situational and high risk to necessarily call essential. pretty much the same goes for synaptic static
my issue with crown of stars is that 7 is so many. it's obviously a really good spell in that it's extremely damage efficient, spreads out your attacks so you're less likely to get cucked by low rolling, and it gives you something to do with your bonus action, but in order to get all of that value you pretty much have to start using stars on your very first turn and even then 99% of the time it's going to need to carry over into a second encounter. i feel like at that point you'd rather just upcast disintegrate and pray for the best
