Checking : Favored soul's spell DC is based off wis?

[Victim]

Please. A class with built-in Weapon Focus / Specialization is certainly expected to fight.

Just like wizards are expected to either Metamagic or Item Create, given their bonus feats.

Or they're 'free' flavor abilities because they aren't important. However, FS probably are expected to pick up the cleric buffs and go to town in melee.

MAD isn't really an advantage for the FS since it doesn't so much get extra abilities that work with multiple high stats as it splits up the normal spellcasting benefits into two different stats. It's entirely a penalty for the FS.

 

[Drowbane]

Oh, FYI, IMC...

Say so long to wildshape, and hello to shapeshift. Thank you, dice gods, for the PHBII.

Ahh, poor Waljan. :/

I wonder how the PHB II Shapeshift would've worked with Sainrith and his Master of Many Forms levels?

btw, how is the Hagenwald going? Andy mentioned in email that it was put on hiatus for awhile? Damn, I miss Eriador!

Even the anemic 3.0 Monk is very strong in a way a Fighter is not if you roll enough 18s. Personally I would be inclined to play neither a 3.5 Paladin nor a 3.5 Monk with less than 36 point buy.

Agreed. I've seen both Monks and Pallys on 28pts... not all that impressive. Give a monk enough stats to shine and he can almost stand up there with the Fighter (who can get by on 25pts easy)

It looks to me like a class more designed to fight in melee than a Cleric or Druid.

FWIW, if it were up to me all spell DCs would be based off of Charisma..

Awhile back I was "working" on changing all the Casters so that thier Spells Known / Per Day was governed by either Int (Arcane) or Wis (Divine) and DCs were governed by Cha. I hate MAD issues though...

Turn Undead is a lame ability in terms of its mechanics. It is a very fussy ability with weird mechanics, scales up strangely, and has oddball multiclassing issues.

Seems like something that really ought to be either a Feat chain, a Domain ability, or both. IMHO the designers giving it to all Clerics by default seems like almost an admission of its lameitude..

I really like Complete Divine's (and Forceuser & Co's updates) Variant of Turn Undead.

 

[ForceUser]

Ahh, poor Waljan. :/

I wonder how the PHB II Shapeshift would've worked with Sainrith and his Master of Many Forms levels?

I didn't force Waljan to switch, merely offered. He kept wildshape. But going forward, no more wildshape. It's just too much of a headache, and besides, we all know that druids are one of the most powerful classes in the game anyway. Shapeshift is both a fix for the throbbing headache that has been wildshape and its multiple revisions as well as a toning down of the class. I think. Andy's playing a shapeshift druid/nature's warrior and he kind of owns.

btw, how is the Hagenwald going? Andy mentioned in email that it was put on hiatus for awhile? Damn, I miss Eriador!

Andy was on hiatus, and I put the game on hold for finals. But now that school is out we're playing every week.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

MAD isn't really an advantage for the FS since it doesn't so much get extra abilities that work with multiple high stats as it splits up the normal spellcasting benefits into two different stats. It's entirely a penalty for the FS.

True. Most MAD classes have special class bonuses that key off that class. Bonus spells and DC are not bonuses when it comes to spellcasting classes in the normal sense of a class bonus.

I would say that the vanilla FS is probably intended by the designers to primarily use spells for buffing and sundry utility effects, so the DCs become irrelevant. Whether the class is reasonably balanced or fun to play that way is another question.

One could look at this character class as an original approach to the generic Paladin -- a divinely chosen character with basic melee competence, good defense, and some "miracles" (spells) as pseudo-innate abilities as gifts from the gods.

 

[ForceUser]

One could look at this character class as an original approach to the generic Paladin -- a divinely chosen character with basic melee competence, good defense, and some "miracles" (spells) as pseudo-innate abilities as gifts from the gods.

Throw in turn undead, remove the cleric, and the FS easily becomes a campaign's primary healer. Especially if the PHBII variant ability--deity's favor, which adds levelx3 temporary hit points to each buff or heal cast--is used.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Ditto what ForceUser said. Although I would only throw in Turn Undead for the FS as a means to power Divine feats -- I wouldn't actually give him the ability to affect undead unless he worshipped an appropriate deity. But, now we are talking house rules, so I'll shut up.