A few (fairly minor) cleric variants

[brehobit]

A few cleric variants I'm thinking of using. I just want to know if people find them balanced. I'm less worried if people think them too weak than if too powerful.

#1 -- Cleric of Magic God
Restrictions:
Change HD to d6, remove heavy armor prof., remove all domain abilties, must have one level as sorc or wizard before can take a level in this class

Advantages
Add 1/2 cleric level (round down!) to level as wizard or sorc for all spell-casting purposes (spell acquizition, caster level, etc.).

Other possible tweeks
4 skill points, only good save is Will, require some metamagic feat to take class.

#2 -- Cleric of LG paladin god.
Restrictions:
No domain abilties, must have at least one level of paladin to take 1st level in this class.

Advantages:
Can freely swap between paladin and this class when multiclassing.
Add cleric and paladin levels for the following abilties ONLY if the character's paladin level is high enough to grant the abilities initially: Smite evil (cleric levels can not give additional smites) Lay on Hands, Special mount.
Can chose cleric spells from the paladin list but only spells of a level less than or equal to cleric level/3 (round down). (so 1st level spells at 3rd level of cleric up to 4th at 12th level)

#3 Cleric of Chotic/trickster God
Restictions:
No Domain spells (but see below), turn undead as cleric two levels lower

Advantages:
When recovering spells for the first time in a day the cleric may select any one core domain (from PHB) other than Law, Evil, Sun, and Fire (these restirctions are campain flavor). The cleric then has that domain for all purposes until he again changes domains.
Disguise is a class skill. 4 skill points/level.

Thoughts?

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Cleric of a Magic God:

That's not minor. Maybe give him ASF on ALL spells (not just cleric) and it'd be balanced, but otherwise, I'd probably look to Mystic Theurge before this. Alternatively, Monte Cook's Hallowed Mage (Book of Hallowed Might) or the BoED sorceror prestige class could be good alternatives.

Needless, to say, combining Mystic Theurge with this class would have the potential to be hideously broken. (The character would qualify at sixth level).

Paladin-type god:
This is a lot more balanced if only because the abilities (lay on hands, warhorse, smites) are more minor than spellcasting. I'd require two levels of paladin to be taken at some point in time though. The last ability is pretty strangely worded; I've no idea what it means. Giving the character spells like Bless Weapon, Heal Mount, and Holy Sword as cleric spells wouldn't break anything the glory domain hasn't already broken though.

Trickster God:
I suspect that domain switching like you're suggesting would have less of a flavor effect and more of a potentially unbalancing effect than you think. That's less flavor because, other than domain abilities and focusses (melee cleric, etc) that include them don't make clerics that different from each other. A cleric with Ice Storm (Water Domain) in the domain slot isn't necessarily that different from a cleric with Flame Strike there. (Sun Domain). So the trickster clerics won't get too much flexibility out of this.

However, the real potential exists for some abuse. Divination indicates fire elementals. Let's take the water domain. Earth Elementals? Earth Domain. Evil Outsiders? Good Domain and see how they like Holy Smite. I think I'd like to be a fighter today, how about I take the war domain.

It's not clear how this helps the clerics be more trickstery and it has potential for abuse. I'd go for requiring rogue or bard levels instead. If more than one such level is required, the lack of synergy between the two class types might justify the 4 skill points/level too.