A *Balanced* Radiant Servant of Pelor?

[Crothian]

I agree, I allow it as is but since the OP wants options I gave him what I would do.

 

[NilesB]

Read the glossary people, domain spells aren't spells on your domain list. They are spells cast with domain slots. The free metamagic for healing domain spells thus isn't that good.

Because:

>Even at 20th level you only get 7 spells per day at which benefit (and free maximized empowered Regenerate still cures fewer hit points than Heal one level lower)

>You have to prepare Cure Wounds spells to use the ability, rather than the better option of preparing spells that may be more useful than Cure Wound spells and converting them as needed.

>You need to pick Healing and Sun as your two domain picks in order to benefit at all. No one has ever accused either of them of being a power domain.

The Radiant Servant is balanced as is.

 

[trav_laney]

The ultimate in balancing this would be to remove 1-2 levels of spell progression
Even taking spell progression down to half would make people avoid this class.

My philosophy is that if you want the special class features of a particular prestige class, then you should be required give up something else of equal value. In this case, I think spellcasting should be sacrificed. It just doesn't belong.

The question is, how many levels of spellcasting progression need to be cut, to balance the class abilities?

But players want PrCs that give the most and require the least, and the most popular prestige classes are the ones that don't require any significant sacrifices at all (like this one, for example, but also the Sacred Exorcist). I'm not interested in making popular prestige classes...I am interested in making good ones.

 

[trav_laney]

A few lost levels of spellcasting progression can do wonders to balance almost any spellcasting prestige class. Just drop spellcasting at 1st and 5th level and you're good to go: you're an awesome healer and undead-hunter, but you still cast spells of a whole level lower than your more conventional friends.

This is a good idea. Perhaps dropping spell progression altogether was a bit harsh.

Hmm. You've given me food for thought.

 

[trav_laney]

>The Radiant Servant is balanced as is.

*cough* True, the Healing and Sun domains aren't exactly the best in the game. But they don't suck, either. A cleric who chooses these two domains isn't necessarily sacrificing anything...at least, not enough to justify all of those added abilities.

What about increasing the number of ranks in Knowledge (religion) to 13 ranks instead of 9? This would require a character to achieve 10th level before qualifying for the class. Do you think that would be a step in the right direction as well?

 

[Nifft]

What about increasing the number of ranks in Knowledge (religion) to 13 ranks instead of 9? This would require a character to achieve 10th level before qualifying for the class. Do you think that would be a step in the right direction as well?

I think it's a bad idea to give something cool "at the cost" of having to do something which doesn't really reduce your ability at all. A lot of Kn(Religion) ranks won't hurt the Cleric's effectiveness one tiny bit.

Classes should be internally balanced. Pre-reqs which require you to gimp your build are an exception: the Arcane Trickster or Mystic Theurge are balanced, because the builds leading up to them totally suck.

For RSoP, you could require that the dude take two levels of Paladin, or some other non-cleric advancing class, but otherwise, higher pre-reqs are not going to balance the cheese -- they're just going to say, you should take this class after you take some other PrC from levels 5 to 10.

Am I making sense?

Thanks, -- N

 

[Quartz]

The lower BAB is a false loss, though, because divine power exists.

I disagree: Divine Power doesn't affect the BAB; Divine Power boosts the AB. So the character should have his iterative attack severely delayed.

 

[DarkKestral]

Divine Power

Evocation
Level: Clr 4, War 4
Components: V, S, DF
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Personal
Target: You
Duration: 1 round/level

Calling upon the divine power of your patron, you imbue yourself with strength and skill in combat. Your base attack bonus becomes equal to your character level (which may give you additional attacks), you gain a +6 enhancement bonus to Strength, and you gain 1 temporary hit point per caster level.

Actually, by the bolded text, everyone who's weighed in on Divine Power in this thread is wrong. It's still BAB, but worse, it's not even tied to caster level, which means that Nifft's idea of limiting his caster level enough to prevent the Divine Power BAB boost is almost impossible to do without hitting the cleric in question with enough level drains to make one think the DM's trying to punish the cleric for being a cleric. Unlike Quartz's belief, the spell DOES affect BAB, which makes it's AB boost largely eligible for Power Attacking, though not completely so, because some does come from STR rather than just BAB. (Interestingly, this makes the spell better for cloistered clerics than for the normal version, as it gives them an instant +10 BAB at level 20.)

 

[Wik]

A few lost levels of spellcasting progression can do wonders to balance almost any spellcasting prestige class. Just drop spellcasting at 1st and 5th level and you're good to go: you're an awesome healer and undead-hunter, but you still cast spells of a whole level lower than your more conventional friends.

That's what I do for a lot of PrCs. This is the smartest and easiest way to go.

 

[Nifft]

Actually, by the bolded text, everyone who's weighed in on Divine Power in this thread is wrong.

Ack! I've been using that spell wrong forever! Thank you!

To mildly defend my position, then, that a caster level reduction will make the PrC more balanced: at least your divine power will last less long, and will be easier to dispel, unless you take another feat to compensate. Also, he will have fewer spell-slots each day with which to cast that spell.

I guess you could say that taking the PrC removes certain spells from your spell-list, including divine power?

A spell list reduction could balance the bunch of neat-o powers.

Thanks, -- N