Voadam
Legend
Dragonblade said:I disagree with the notion that limited spell selection equals balance for a cleric. The balance factor comes from the fact that the cleric can only pre-select so many spells per day. As long as all the new spells themselves are appropriately balanced for their spell level, then who cares if the cleric list is 100 spells or 1,000,000 spells?
As a DM, you should of course ban spells that are clearly unbalanced for their level. Heal should not be a 1st level clerical spell of course. But if a WotC product introduces more spells comparable to Heal, but have the same level as Heal, what is the big deal?
The big deal is when they do new things that are balanced but could not be done under core rules. Divinations that reveal more types of information for example. If every cleric can do them that has plot implications. Reveal cause of death may be a reasonable first level spell but it would give substantively different powers to clerics of the world and has implications for running murder mystery type of games.
Clerics can't do everything that would be balanced for their power level. Give them a big enough spell list and they can. Plus the DM should be aware of class powers for adjudicating the PCs actions and creating a reasonable and enjoyable scenario. Ever expanding full access means considering an ever more huge array of powers that any cleric can do in a day. A sorcerer knows a finite number of spells. Compare how many spells a 20th level sorcerer knows compared to the 0th and 1st level cleric lists. Given enough of a list expansion it can be easier to keep a handle on the 20th level caster PC's known spells than the list of choices that can change daily for a 1st level cleric.