Favored Soul From Cleric

Hey all. I am currently playing a Cleric Lvl 16. Call me slow if you want (but you don't have to) but I am having trouble selecting my daily spells. Seems that there is always a spell that would have been good that I don't have and it takes me a really long time to make up my spell list. Now this has caused some frustrations from the other players (Example: What do you mean you don't have Dimensional Anchor. You should always memorize it! or a Summon monster, or Blade barrier or whatever other spell would be usefull at the time.). It is also frustrating to me because honestly there are so many spells out there that picking the right ones seems a huge task.

So my co-players thought that mabey to help me out and increase my gameplay experience they suggest that I convert to a Favored Soul instead (an in-house conversion allowed as a one-time thing. not to be taken lightly). They mean well and they only want to increase gameplay and decrease my frustrations/complexity of cleric.

So my question is as follows. I would be taking my current cleric and turning him into a favored soul lvl 16 right off the get go (with minor feat changes). What do you guys think...good move or bad move?

Either that, or does someone have some common everyday memorized spell lists handy that they can share with me to "show me the way" lol!

Thanks for your input

Alex

Well... here's one thing to think about. Look at the number of spells you would know per level as a Favored Soul. Figure out, roughly, what those spells would be (ignoring healing spells).

Are these spells you normally prepare as a Cleric? How would it work if you always prepared these spells as a Cleric - and used your other slots for things that are specific to the current happenings in-game?

I'm in a very similar boat to you, by the way. I hate daily spell choices. I tend to have the core spells I always prepare and then a few minor add-on lists depending on our environment and the likelihood of various sorts of encounters.

-Stuart

Personally I don't like Favoured Soul but that's just me. It's a solution, certainely.

An alternative which might be worth considering would be Scribe Scroll. Write a couple of scrolls of the "must have because they're useful once in a while" spells, go ahead and ask the other party members which scrolls you need in case you've forgotten Dimensional Anchor. Then if you've not got something then it's as much their fault as yours, and you can play your cleric with minimal changes.

afata5 said:

What do you guys think...good move or bad move?

Either that, or does someone have some common everyday memorized spell lists handy

Click to expand...

Well, the Favored Soul idea is not a *bad* one, but personally I find the class weaker than the Cleric, and unless you have both high WIS and CHA scores the switch will really hurt you, since it relies on both abilities. It is also more focused on combat than a traditional Cleric so it might not fit stylistically.

That said, I also hate preparing spells, so agree that spontaneous casting makes life easier. If you are able to convert your character to another class, how about instead doing a Cleric variant? You can get the rules for a Spontaneous Cleric either in Unearthed Arcana or here online:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm

Some spells I use a lot, for my 16th level Cleric (clr7/SaE4/DivD5)... I like frontline duty.

8th
greater spell immunity
Stormrage (optional)

7th
mass spell resistence
persistent divine favour
holy star

6th
harm heal
greater dispel
energy immunities all, if possible

5th
righteous might
true seeing
extended freedom of movement
righteous wrath of the faithful, divine meta'd persistent
revivify

4th
divine power, divine meta'd persistent
assay resistence
death ward
recitation

3rd
magic vestments
shield of warding
holy storms
magic circle v/evil
dispel
battlemagic perception

2nd
silence
status
spiritual weapon
hold person
various buffs

1st
divine favour
bless
shield of faith
entropic shield




Mike

I'm not sure how your cleric is built, but I'll throw some clr->FvS conversion notes.

BAB: Same.

Saves: Your Reflex is going up.

HD: same.

Skills/SP: Points remain the same, but some class skills go away (suprisingly, know: religion and know: planes) So your ranks in those would become cross-class.

Turning/Rebuking: Gone. You have no more control over undead than the fighter or wizard does.

Weapons: You gain proficiency + Wpn Focus + Wpn Specialization in your deities favored weapon. This will make you a better combatant, unless your cleric wasn't one to begin with.

Armor: You lose heavy armor prof. Without picking up a feat, you're penalized in full plate.

Domains: Gone. This can affect spellcasting (healing, good, etc) but worse; it could affect skills (travel, trickery, knowledge) or feats (elf, time, dwarf). It also might remove that "cool trick" ability you used a while ago (greater turning, elemental turning, death touch). It can also remove "neat" spells you can't get normally (Identify, Chain Lightning) The good news is you really don't lose the war domain powers, if you had them.

Divine Feats: No turning, no divine feats (comp war, comp divine, PH2).

Spells: Ah, the big one. You'll be making a one-time list of about 30 spells, and thats what you got. Not many choices for high level, so you need to pick a theme. Are you a battle-priest? Go with divine power and righteous might. A diviner? Augery and divinatiaon. Healer? Cures, Removes, Restores. Necromancer? Animate Dead and its ilk.
You will be losing some of those wonderful "niche" spells: gentle repose, cure blindness, animal-buff spells. Realize that before coming in; while you might never have cast it before or rarely memorize it now, it sucks in the middle of the woods with a blind fighter and no cure blindness spell.

FvS Abilities: What do you gain for all this sacrifice? Energy resistance, wings, DR, and weapon specialization.

Think it over, based on your party role and group dynamics.

Scribe Scroll and an Infinite Scrollcase

If you ask me, going from Cleric to Favoured Soul is pretty much the last thing you should do in your situation.

Your concern is that you never seem to have the right spell memorized for the occasion. Well, you can always memorize a new one tomorrow, right? But if you're a favoured soul, you're stuck with what you have. If the problem was "What do you mean you're out of *blank*" then this would be the right move, but that doesn't seem to be the issue.

I like the Favoured Soul as a class, but it doesn't look like it's the right choice for you.

At that level, selecting spells can be arduous if you are not extremely comfortable with the task.

What players in my group usually does is to create ~2 standard lists. Every morning my Wizard would wake up and ask, "Is there something about today that means I should pick some specific spells? Am I fighting Elementals? Undead?" If the answer is no, then just pick one of the standard lists.

I have 3: In Town, On The Road, Dungeon Crawling.

Even when the standard lists are not correct, it is usually just a matter of starting froma standard list and substituting 1-3 spells.

Wow, thats alot of quickend support! lol

Alright, lets see what I can do to answer in more detail all the points:

Regarding the Scribing of Scrolls:
Sure I can ask (and should always have some, i admit i don't have enough) but most spells require some type of save...and as far as i know, the DC would be really low no? But for the utility spells, yes it could be a really good thing

Regarding the high Wis + high Char:
I have 26 of Wis and 20(or 22) of Char. So it isn't so bad Still though...i find it limiting for the spell selection..especially if it is errataed (i use Complete Divine one)

Regarding Alternate Spontanious casters, i'm going to look into it tonight

Thanks for the Spell list Mikebr99! I have similar spells that I use, however there are some that I never use..i will look into them more..thanks for the advice!!!

By the way, my character is more of a spellcaster and less of a fighter style However, if needed I can buff myself up (as all cleric can)..however its really rare that I do that..

I would agree that My problem is more with spell selection than missing spells. Thats why i need to develop a few spell lists...but there are so many many spells!!!! Love it nad Hate it at the same time..know what i mean? lol

Ridley's Cohort:

Would you have those few spell lists depending on city/road/dungeon?

Also, i've been playing this character for about 2 years, so i'm pretty attached..so feels kinda like a letdown to change him so much...at my lower level games i'm playing a bard so i'm used to the spontanious casting part....but this guy is going Epic it seems so i don't wanna change unless i have to..although it is slowing down the game and getting frustrating..especially since the spell compendium is out... lol

Any other thoughts? And thanks so far for all the support !!!

-Alex