Clerics and Spell Acquisition

[shilsen]

Wheeee - that might have been me you yoinked it from!

Of course, it might not have as well. . . but it's the system that Sagiro and I both use as well.

I definitely yoinked it from you. Needed something to do between updates, you see

 

[DungeonmasterCal]

Thanks for all the input. I've decided that once I start DM'ing again, I'm going to limit clerics, priests, and druids to a "spells known" system like arcane casters must adhere to. Call these "prayer books". Druids would use something like the Incan quipu, a series of complicated colored knots and patterns on cords as their method of recording their known spells (http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931/seminar/quipu.html).

Spontaneous divine spellcasters must use this system too, like sorcerors, but how do they "learn" new prayers? Perhaps they find ancient religious writings in abandoned ruins, or once they've reached a new level and can now cast more spells, they either mediate, pray, or do a little dance, make a little love, and get down tonight to learn it. There are just too many great divine spells out there to not be used, and since 99% of my players don't have access to every publication available, I figure this is a great way to introduce new spells a bit at a time, as well as satisfying my own selfish urges to tinker with the system. The only exception to this are domain spells, which they will still get the "normal" way...the just "know them" because the divine speaks to them, etc.