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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spatzimaus" data-source="post: 716069" data-attributes="member: 3051">Originally posted by retan 1: The domains are more or less balanced for the present cleric. If clerics swap for domain spells, do some domains become much more powerful than others? (The knowledge domain, for instance, seems a very weak choice in such a system because you wouldn't need any of those spells more than once per day.)Well, in general the domains with the semi-useless spells are the ones with good granted powers, so it's not that bad.  And, since every Cleric has at least two domains, you can always pick the other one as your swap for the day.For example, if you took Knowledge and Healing, you might pick all healing spells except for Detect Thoughts (2), Clairvoyance (3), and True Seeing (5).  Never underestimate those three spells; besides, it'd still leave you plenty of healing spells.  Also, Knowledge has a pretty good (IMHO) domain power (+1 caster level on all divinations, and all Knowledge skills are class skills).  Leads to Loremaster pretty easily.Or, try combining things like Air and Travel (it's United Airlines, god of airplanes); while each has a bunch of spells you'd never want, they combine nicely.  Forget swapping for Control Winds when you can take Teleport, for example.  Instead of the sissy Find the Path, take Chain Lightning.  Gaseous Form versus Fly is a tough one, though.It changes the balance a bit, but I actually like the new balance better.  Some domains that no one bothered with before now become popular, just because being able to cast the spells more than 1/day makes many of them more useful.2: Does clerics with some domains take over the sorcerer's role? A cleric with for instance the sun and war domains strikes me as a fairly effective "combat mage". (He can swap for searing light, flame strike, blade barrier, power words and sun burst) Tough one to answer.  You see, IMC we combined Sorcerer and Wizard into one class that casts sort of like a Sorcerer.  But, even compared to the stock Sorcerer it's still fairly balanced.  Here's why:> A Sorcerer can cast more spells per day than a Cleric, no question.  This isn't something you can overcome easily, especially since by removing the extra domain slot you've reduced Cleric casting to be identical to Druid in number of slots.  Sorcerers can afford to burn spells on practically anything.> Sorcerers can metamagic the swapped spells.  The extra casting time hurts a bit, but it's not too prohibitive.   Note that in the changes I mentioned, Clerics can't do this.> Sorcerers don't have to follow a theme.  While it may sound cool to pick the Fire domain, one Protection from Elements can really hose you.  A Sorcerer, on the other hand, mixes elements up even without things like Energy Substitution.> A Cleric still only picks one spell per level to swap to.  A Sorcerer with a level 5 slot can use it to cast Teleport, Empowered Fireball, Cone of Cold, Fabricate, Extended Empowered Endurance, whatever.  A Cleric with a level 5 slot can either cast one spell from his general list (chosen at the start of the day), or swap it for one preset spell.  Not nearly as much flexibility.In exchange, Clerics get armor, turning undead, better HP/BAB, and a LOT more known spells.Looking at the Sun/War combo you mentioned, there are plenty of good spells there, but not at every level.  Which would you rather swap your level 1 spells for, Magic Weapon (+1 enhancement... which stops being useful before level 10) or a nerfed Endure Elements (heat or cold only)?You'd end up with a Cleric that can swap practically any prepared spell for an offensive spell (which is good), but you wouldn't have any choice in WHICH spell to swap to, and many of those offensive spells are either inferior to a Sor/Wiz spell or are very specialized.  For raw fire-chucking power, I'd still want an arcane caster.  Great soloer, though...Oh, and I forgot to mention earlier: if you want to make a system like this, you need to increase the number of domains each deity has access to.  Especially, Healing needs to be a much more common one, so that Clerics can still swap for heals if they want.Of course, you could make an evil god with a Healing domain, so suddenly the bad guys can swap for heals too... it really tends to surprise PCs.Whew.  Long post.</blockquote>

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