Archivist - long live the wizard, the wizard is dead.

[Saeviomagy]

Ok, so basically the archivist from Heroes of horror is a divine spellcaster that uses a spellbook. He's a fairly useful replacement for the traditional cleric - some monster busting powers, some bookish nerdyness. Good fort and will saves, medium armour, bad BAB, 4 skill points per level.

However - he has a spellbook. Like a wizard, he gets free spells in that, from the cleric list.

Additionally, like any spellbook-caster, he may copy spells in from scrolls.

Only, someone in their infinite wisdom has decided that the spells he may copy in may be taken from any divine spell scroll at all.

Any of them. So druid, paladin and ranger spells are all there, as are any scrolls of domain spells that anyone happens to write out. That's pretty powerful in and of itself. Too powerful for my tastes, although somewhat tempered by the classes dual-stat dependancy, and the price of finding scrolls to scribe.

However, as we all know, if a cleric and a wizard get together to make a scroll, it's entirely possible for us to designate the cleric as being the creator of a scroll (as long as he contributes something, such as the scribe scroll feat, which the archivist gets free), while scribing a wizard spell. Usually this results in a useless curiosity - a divine scroll of an arcane spell, useable by none who have no access to use magic device.

In this case, however, the archivist is given free range to scribe any divine scroll they can get their hands on without care as to what spell list it's actually from.

Helloooo divine wish. Or whatever. Goodbye wizard.

 

[Eloi]

Wow. Druid, Paladin, and Ranger spells.. there are so many great 4th level Paladin spells that never see the light of day. This is wonderful news.

 

[gabrion]

Not just those clases, but any divine caster list in the game (including domain spells). One of my favorites is having Polymorph from the Adept spell list. Of course that's just one (very limited) example. Pretty much evey arcane spell in the game has been reprinted somewhere as a divine spell though, so you don't even need to worry about co-creating a spell.

And if you are really worried about not having scrolls to learn from, just get a Warlock cohort and they can make you any scroll in the game.

Really, the wizard is dead.

 

[Thanee]

As long as you leave out the silliness of creating divine arcane scrolls, I don't see such a big problem there. They don't have domains/domain powers and turning ability, right?

Maybe it would be necessary to remove the access to domain spells, dunno.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Mouseferatu]

As long as you leave out the silliness of creating divine arcane scrolls, I don't see such a big problem there.

I'd agree. Even if the rules do allow such a loophole, I cannot imagine it was the designers' intent to include it. It is, quite frankly, a silly possibility, IMO.

 

[gabrion]

As long as you leave out the silliness of creating divine arcane scrolls, I don't see such a big problem there. They don't have domains/domain powers and turning ability, right?

It seems like one problem is that the game designers have reprinted most arcane spells as being part of some divine spell on some list somewhere, so it's just a matter of finding the right source.

Maybe it would be necessary to remove the access to domain spells, dunno.

Bye
Thanee

That would probably be a good idea, cause it seems like domain spells, being a gift from a diety to a cleric, would be tightly guarded.

 

[Thanee]

It seems like one problem is that the game designers have reprinted most arcane spells as being part of some divine spell on some list somewhere...

I don't think this is true.

That would probably be a good idea, cause it seems like domain spells, being a gift from a diety to a cleric, would be tightly guarded.

...and those are the spots, where the 'arcane spells' lurk.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Daywalker]

Looks over new class....

So, he's got spell books and does research, and that research allows the members of his party to be more effective at fighting the evil in the world if they listen to him.

Great. It's Rupert Giles, the D&D character.

 

[Jarrod]

The real problem with "any divine" is that it includes classes with partial (and delayed) spellcasting ability. Ranger 1 spells can be more powerful than Cleric 1, because the ranger gets them later. Heck, Bless Weapon... 1st level spell that makes crits auto-confirm? Sign me up!

I'd keep them to clerics in my world, with any other spell going through DM approval first. I love the idea, and it'd work great with a _lot_ of stuff but... man, potential for being broken.

Spell lists are balanced within themselves, not between multiple lists.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Give 'em a half measure: they know the spell but cannot cast the spell. They can put non-cleric divine spells in their books which lets them a) use spell-completion items with that spell, b)use spell-trigger items with that spell, and c)make magic items that use that spell.