D&D 3.5 Spell Compendium -> Pathfinder

[Matthias]

Suppose one wished to import as much as possible the 3.5 Spell Compendium into a Pathfinder campaign.


#1: Are the spells in the SC mostly compatible with Pathfinder rules?

#2: If the answer to #1 is 'yes', how much conversion work would be needed to port them over? I would think there may be many spells that would need to be "rephrased" in order to mesh better with Pathfinder rules, such as anything that might invoke the Combat Maneuver rules, spells that affect clerical powers dealing with undead and negative energy, and the rules that pertain to consuming XP for magic item creation, just to name a few examples that come to mind.

#3: Assuming you've allowed SC spells into a Pathfinder campaign, are there any spells in the SC which you would recommend against allowing in due to game balance? (SC spells are designed to work in D&D 3.5 rules, but there are a few differences in the rules of magic for Pathfinder that could lead to unforeseen and undesireable consequences, or simple mechanical problems related to the differences between the two game systems.)

 

[Stormonu]

There's two big problems with the Spell Compendium, and neither is really compatibility. As a whole, introducing the SC makes the utility-belt caster overpower the non-casters with the options that become available (especially Clerics, who essentially get unrestricted access to every blinking divine spell in the book, versus wizards who have to acquire the spells individually). The second is power level - while most of the spells are relatively weak or too niche compared to the spells in the Core book, there are those are simply too useful to pass up (Body of War, for ex.).

 

[delericho]

Yep, what Stormonu said.

One of the 'hidden' fixes that Pathfinder applied to the game was that a lot of the spells got subtle (or not so subtle) rewrites. This isn't obvious from a skim of the book, and even a read-through that omits the spells (like my read-through) won't catch it, but it is quite significant.

The 3e "Spell Compendium", in addition to being an overpowered 3e book in its own right (IMO), obviously won't have benefitted from that sort of careful revision, so may well prove gamebreaking.

But, to answer your questions as they were asked:

1) It appears to be mostly compatible.

2) There really isn't too much work required, and can probably be done (for a given spell) on the fly.

3) Any spell that has a casting time of a Swift or Immediate action is suspect. Any spell that gives extra actions is probably broken. Beyond that, the big problem is the explosion in the number of options available to casters - personally, if allowing this book, I would require the Cleric to maintain a "prayer-book" of non-Core spells that he has discovered, rather than just allowing full access (and something similar for the Druid, of course).