I could still try and build sorcerers around other themes — especially draconic bloodline incentivises this — but everything else seems objectively weaker:
Unironically, Fire Sorcerer is one of the strongest classes in the entire game.
Quicken Spell Scorching Ray + Regular cast Scorching Ray upcasted to the highest level with Draconic Sorcerer's bonus CHR modifier (On every single projectile) absolutely deletes targets.
Sure, you lose out on the double damage from Wet, but instead you just deal raw damage without need of any set up. You just fling a billion projectiles each doing a bunch of damage at targets (Of course, you can still add more damage with set up... Amulet of Elemental Torment while stood in Fire (Or Lava) also adds damage to each individual projectile)
Looking at other classes, wizards are usually outmatched by sorcerers when it comes to raw damage dealing. My question was originally, “Why play anything other than Evocation wizard?”
To be fair, there's more to the game than raw damage output.
Wizards have several subclasses that can provide significant features to a party.
- Abjuration Wizards can be the best tanks in the game. As Arcane Ward can provide a ton of damage reduction making you take 0 damage from most attacks when set up properly (Warding Bond, Heavy Armour, Heavy Armour Mastery, all the magical equipment that gives you an Abjuration spell cast to let you stack up your Arcane Ward for free)
- Divination Wizards have their Portent Dice which can completely warp the game. Making deadly enemy attacks fail or enabling your party to use powerful abilities that are guaranteed to work. This feature can actually vastly outstrip the raw damage of a Sorcerer when used correctly (Such as landing Hold Person and then having your party get guaranteed critical hits on a target for at least 1 turn)
And for Bards, Alfira is mainly just shooting her two hand crossbows and using Slashing Flourish, with the occasional Glyph of Warding for ice or lightning when enemies are wet. Playing a Bard Tav would feel more like playing a charismatic Rogue to me.
To be fair, that just stems from your outlook on playing Bard.
Bard itself offers a number of playstyles in the class. From the Lore Bard being basically a Sorcerer (Just instead of Metamagic you get access to Magical Secrets allowing you to use powerful spells from Divine casters), Swords and Valor Bards can be played like Fighters or Rangers. Then there's a supportive playstyle focused around buffing allies (And/or debuffing enemies)
Was I just somewhat unlucky perhaps that I tried one of the strongest archetypes on my very first run (even though nowhere near optimised back then)?
Not really. It mostly comes down to your outlook of "Damage > All" and the limitations you impose on yourself because other classes are found as default classes on companions (As well as lack of understanding on optimal builds)
Like, you dismiss Monk as a class, despite it being literally the strongest class in the game for damage (Something you value highly). Due to how you're building it, with a focus on Dexterity instead of dumping everything but Wisdom and Constitution while using Elixirs of Strength to boost Strength to 21/29 and using Tavern Brawler, Manifestation of Soul and Fast Hands to pump out absolutely absurd damage.
Fighter is another top tier class for damage output due to Elixirs of Strength, Tavern Brawler and thrown weapons (Pike of Returning, Lightning Jabber, Nyrulna) and associated equipment can push out obscene damage with their Improved Extra Attacks and Action Surge.
Paladins can be rather powerful as well. With one of the best damage output builds being Oathbreaker multiclass with Warlock to access Improved Pact of the Blade to provide a weapon that scales with CHR, an extra attack that stacks with Extra Attack bonuses (For 3 attacks per standard action) along with Oathbreakers Aura of Hate for CHR modifier as damage on attacks (So you get your CHR modifier twice for damage) and Divine Smites to spend all your spell slots on for even more damage.
Barbarians can also do quite well with Elixirs of Strength, Tavern Brawler and thrown weapons with Berserker giving them bonus action throws (Which can be boosted with Thief dip for Fast Hands) but it's not quite as potent as Fighter given the debuffs from Enraged Throw.
Then of course there's other casters that while they don't output as much raw damage as a Sorcerer (Or Evo Wiz) can still provide bunches of power to a party;
- Druids have their Call Lightning which is a super powerful spell that is very spell slot efficient while being able to summon support with Conjure Elemental and Conjure Woodland Being providing more damage and control to a party. Spore Druids also can access the chest armour in Act 3 that lets them use spore buffs at will, enabling full uptime on Haste Spores that can give your entire party Haste (Without need of Concentration like a Sorc using Twin Spell Haste does to provide the effect to only 2 characters). Of course, Haste is less potent on Honour Mode but is still very good (And is outright OP on any other difficulty)
- Clerics have great support, synergies with Radiant Damage which when combined with Radiant Orb items can debuff enemies severely. Then there's also Tempest Domain which has hilarious power of control, namely things like using the Watersparkers (Plus the Sparkswall) to stand in pools of water, electrifying them and then in combination with their 6th level bonus making it so anything that touches the electrified water gets knocked back, creating impassable terrain for enemies (Or outright gluing them to a wall/corner constantly taking damage and being pushed back into the wall)
- Warlocks have potential for some very strong damage that doesn't rely on spell slots. Eldritch Blast with the Agonizing Blast invocation will add your CHR bonus to each projectile. Add on the Potent Robe from Act 2 and you're now dealing double your CHR bonus on each projectile. From there you can multiclass Sorc for Quickened Spell (Or Twin Spell) for more Eldritch Blasts per turn. Or Evo Wiz and get INT bonus on all damage types (Including Eldrich Blast's Force damage). Sprinkle on some Hex for more damage per projectile or you can use your Concentration and spell slots on control with things like Hunger of Hadar or Hold Person... Or even more damage with Wall of Fire (Which is super funny when you also have the Repelling Blast invocation and can toggle it on to knock enemies back into the flames if they leave them)
Really it's mostly just Rangers and Rogues that kind of pale in comparison to other classes. Not that they're "Bad" just that they don't offer the same level of power as other classes if focused on (Rogue is often multiclassed in powerful builds because of Fast Hands providing extra bonus actions - Especially for classes that can make good use of them like Sorcerer Quickening 2 spells out to cast 3 leveled spells in one turn, Monk having their bonus unarmed attacks and most builds that use Great Weapon Master or Polearm Master feats or dual wielding for bonus action attacks)
