A Favored Soul question (class)

My DM and I have come across a rather interesting dilemma. I bring the topic here for more insight from others in hopes to come to a definitive answer.

Just bought "The Complete Divine" and came across the Favored Soul class. As my DM wanted to start a small side campaign outside of our regular game, I decided to roll up a Favored Soul PC. As I read through the description, it seemed to me that the Favored Soul is the divine equivalent of what a sorceror is to a wizard. No need to prepare spells ahead of time and the ability to cast up to the daily max of spells for that particular level, not necessarily based on what was prepared. The text specifically refers to the divine gift being an innate one, much like how a sorceror is able to cast arcane spells, being innate and all.

Here is the dilemma. According to the text as a preamble to introducing the 3 new classes in "The Complete Arcane", the classes may either supplement or replace those found in the PHB. The problem or rather the debate between my DM and me is whether or not the Favored Soul innately gains the "turn/rebuke undead" ability. The beginning text of the Favored Soul description states, " The Favored Soul follows the path of the cleric but is able to channel divine power with surprising ease." (Pg. 6 of The Complete Divine)

This disagreement led to stopping the new campaign to wait for further verification. Thus, I bring the dilemma to the more learned board members (players and DM's alike). What say you all?

Thank you all in advance!

*Edit: Just found a similar thread that debated on this and a couple other features of the Favored Soul class in comparison to being a Cleric. A couple of posters stated words to the effect that the Favored Soul didn't get healing spells. According to pg. 8 of The Complete Divine, the text states, "A Favored Soul casts divine spells (the same type available to clerics) which are drawn from the cleric spell list." Thus, this includes the availability of healing spells, which some of the posters on the other thread mentioned as one of the limitations of playing a Favored Soul. The impression I got from that particular thread was that the Favored Soul were limited in what spells they could learn, which contradicts the text in The Complete Divine and that the ability to turn/rebuke undead is solely the realm of a Cleric. I am still quite perplexed and thus am leaving this post to gain more insight. Thanks again.

Favored Souls do not turn/rebuke undead.

Yah, bummed me out when I first figured that out, too.

Ack!

That truly is a limiting factor for this new divine class then.

The favored soul can learn healing spells if it wishes to. It -cannot- exchange some other spell for a healing spell automatically, as the cleric can. This is only important if you don;t select healing spells, since you can cast them without preparation anyway.

And no, favored souls do not turn undead.

Ack again!

Thank you both so much for your input.

It seems I may have to simply roll up a real cleric and wait out playing a Favored Soul when the group has another healer that can be the primary healer.

The favored soul doesn't need to have the cleric's ability to spontaneously cast cure spells instead of prepared spells, because so long as the cure spell is one of the spells she knows at that level, she can cast it as many times a day as she has available spell slots. Favored souls are very versatile. Much like the mystic from Dragonlance (which is also a spontaneous divine spellcaster) the favored soul doesn't gain the turn/rebuke undead ability but it has a number of other potent qualities, not the least of which is all of its saving throws being good (like a monk).

In my campaign I allowed a player to choose his favored soul's spells known from the druid list instead of the cleric list. It's a nice way of handling favored souls of nature deities.

Cheers,
Cam

Thank you for the input. Much appreciated.

As others have been kind enough to explain, the FS seems more akin to a fighter/cleric hybrid. I simply have to get past this hang-up that, given the ability to cast divine spells and the affinity with a deity, imbues the PC with this aura of holiness/unholiness that, in itself, would turn/rebuke undead, even if to a small degree (percentage roll). If so, this particular class is better suited for inclusion in The Complete Warrior rather than The Complete Divine.

Strange, that a class whose descriptive text states that the innate (natural) powers may have been perhaps granted by the gods themselves and have even been lauded as messengers/manifestations of the gods, cannot inherently emit the slightest aura representing the god whose gift allowed them inclusion into such a class. Perhaps I am being nitpicky about the text for its RP value rather than the numbers. I just think it's a severe penalty in exchange for the bonuses, given that there is already the disadvantage of less spells learned.

AelyaShade said:

As others have been kind enough to explain, the FS seems more akin to a fighter/cleric hybrid. I simply have to get past this hang-up that, given the ability to cast divine spells and the affinity with a deity, imbues the PC with this aura of holiness/unholiness that, in itself, would turn/rebuke undead, even if to a small degree (percentage roll).

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If it helps your thinking about this: technically, the ability to turn / rebuke undead isn't channeling the power of your deity, but channeling positive (turn) or negative (rebuke) energy. That *ability* is undoubtedly granted by the gods, but, IMO, it is a distinct ability from being granted spellcasting power.

As a further example: druids and rangers are granted the ability to cast divine spells by whatever higher powers they serve, but they aren't granted the ability to turn / rebuke undead, either.

I think of favored souls as divine sorcerers, frankly. And, you should also keep in mind that favored souls are granted a few other abilities that clerics don't get (though I don't have my book in front of me, so I can't name 'em), too. They're one more example of how a deity can empower his or her servants; I wouldn't think of them as being meant to be an absolute replacement for clerics.

kenobi65 said:

I think of favored souls as divine sorcerers, frankly. And, you should also keep in mind that favored souls are granted a few other abilities that clerics don't get (though I don't have my book in front of me, so I can't name 'em), too. They're one more example of how a deity can empower his or her servants; I wouldn't think of them as being meant to be an absolute replacement for clerics.

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Agreed. The flavor text for Favored Souls even sounds similar to that of Sorcerers. Instead of rumors of having dragon blood, there are rumors of having celestial blood. I think they're meant to be Divine Sorcerers, although due to the spell list, they aren't as good at damage spells. Also, since they have to choose Cure spells, they aren't always as useful healers. I guess they'd make a good alternative to the Healer class (lots of spells/day - I don't use the Miniature's Handbook so if someone wants the Healer class, I could point them here), but that seems less useful than most Clerics.

Their class abilities are kind of unique, so they'd do better to fall into the secondary-fighter spot than the Cleric spot. Maybe even like a Divine Psychic Warrior.

Personally I'm a bit fan of Paladin/Favored Souls. 4 levels of paladin gives you the turn undead ability to power divine feats, and you get better spellcasting than a straight Paladin, with less MAD thanks to using Charisma for spells/day. Just stay away from spells which have saving throws.