Applying ASF to Divine Spells

[Viktyr Gehrig]

I'm all for that, I just dont understand the part about letting clerics automatically ignore spell failure of any sort, unless theres some sort of in game reason for it

Well, as far as I can tell, there's two precedents for why classes can ignore spell failure-- divine somatic components are just too simple and easy for armor to interfere with, Bards are a combination of simpler components and being accustomed to armor, and Warmages, supposedly, are just vigorously trained in armor usage.

I consider the first explanation fairly dubious; if the gestures are that simple, why include a somatic component at all? Is it simply to prevent grapple-casting?

And if the second explanation allows a character to cast complicated arcane spells in up to medium armor... why can't other arcane casters do it with some combination of feats?

It still continues a precedent that Clerics and Druids somehow have an easier time with armored casting of somatic component spells than other classes.

True, but there's a big difference between "easier" and "effortless".

Thinking about it, I may want to go the Warmage route and delay the improved battlecasting for Clerics to a higher level-- preferably a level or two after PrCs start becoming available.

 

[Merlion]

Its certainlly better than the standard system...I just dont think "divine" casters should be *any* better at casting in armor than anyone else.

The only class I see as having any sort of logical advantage in that is the Bard, mainly because I think most or all Bard spells should be Verbal only.