cross class spells?

[fba827]

Thought I'd toss an idea in there...

If you use something like the draft-feat that Paladin wrote (above) how about it not being an exactly equal spell.

Maybe caster level of the new spell is reduced (by 1, or 2 or some other number). (so a 9 level cleric casting fireball would be doing 8d6 damage rather than 9d6 as a sorcerer would - and adjustment to any other caster level dependant effects like range)

-or-

the spell uses a spell slot one level higher than what it would otherwise (i.e. a wizard taking cure light wounds would have to use a second level spell slot for it).



I think either of those would keep the caster from stealing the spot light off the other caster-types that would normally be able to cast said spell.

Anyway, just some rambling/random thoughts to add to the fires...

 

[Li Shenron]

A feat for a single spell sounds pretty tame. I'd consider making the minimum spell ability to cast level 2 spells and require that the spells you are learning be 1 level less then your max spell casting ability.

IE a 3rd level wizard can only take cure light wounds instead of the level 2 varient.

I don't think 1 level less is enough. Compare the feat with Extra Spell (mostly for Sorcerers), which lets you learn a new spell FROM YOUR LIST, but the spell must be of level less than your highest current spell level. So a 4th level Sor or 3rd level Wiz could choose a 0th or 1st level spell only. I like the idea of a feat that lets you learn a spell from someone else's list without multiclassing, but I'd make it AT LEAST 2 level less than your highest spell level. This would also prevent Clerics with Wish or Wizards with Miracle, or other similar powerful spells. I think the cost of a feat is high enough to prevent spellcasters too much crossbred (not more than 8 feats/spells in 20 levels, who's going to spend more than 1-2 for extra unavailable spells if they are 2 level less than their max?).

I really like this idea, I never thought about it before... also the extra requirement of appropriate Knowledge (with ranks depending on the spell level) makes very sense and force the PC to follow a general concept.

 

[yennico]

I dislike the idea of cross class spells.
Thinking of clerics with haste, disintigrate or teleport

If a cleric of Kossuth in your campaign should can cast a fireball, then replace one spell of the firel domain spells with fireball (e.g. wall of fire) in a higher slot. I would not allow this IMC, because normally all cleric spells are not wide area spells.

Just my 2 cents
yennico

 

[Drawmack]

how about this. You have an excellent idea for why color spell should be a druidic spell. This includes material components and all, so make a variant form of the spell for druids.

 

[Draugin]

I don't think cross classing spell is generally a good idea... you could create some abominations

At least, as someone else said, you should raise the level of the cross-list spell by one (or two).
Or, even better, rewrite the original spell in a way that is more class-specific (this could be a reasearch).
I mean, this is a lot more work, but from what I've read you're not going to do that for more than a few spells.

And specific spells add a special flavour to your campaign.

 

[alsih2o]

great advice all around.

one of the problems with my tuesday night game is that all of my players are from enworld, so i have trouble sharing secrets....and i got an im from my druid wanting to know when he would get color spray

 

[Desdichado]

I'd allow things on a case by case basis. Balance isn't as important to me as flavor, but I'd still not allow any wholesame cross polination of spells.

 

[diaglo]

Meh. This'll make Clerics run around...

some clerics do this already. just look at some of the domains.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Have them conduct spell research as per the DMG.

Then give it to that one character at one level higher than it's lowest appearance.

And you're more than balanced. Enjoy!

 

[Centaur]

Have them conduct spell research as per the DMG.

Then give it to that one character at one level higher than it's lowest appearance.

And you're more than balanced. Enjoy!

I think this is a more than fare method of applying balance and flavour. There are plenty of spells that could easily go either way. As a general rule, if there is a spell that one class has and nobody else does, allow a variant of it (works the same) to be researched and implemented for another class.

For example. I see nothing wrong with the 1st level Druid spell of "Bark Skin" becoming a 2nd level arcane spell called "Dragon Scales" or some such. All other details of the spell would be the same, just the level (an maybe the material component) are different.

Judge it on a case buy case basis as needed to maintain your campaing flavour. Maybe a wizard can't use healing spells, or maybe he can but they are 2 or 3 levels higher than the clerics.

Maybe wizard healing spells use necromatic methods to trasfer HP from a captured enemy to the person being healded, similar to Vampiric touch.

As an option (big potential for abuse here) you could allow a sorcerer to select his spells from any of the primary spell caster lists. I think the sorcerer gets a little shafted at times and this could open it up a bit. Imagine a sorcerer who has only healing spells. Or one that has only nature spells from the druid lists. Could make for quite the flavour.