Customized Spell Lists

[eris404]

Hello all!

I play a character who might decide to take a few levels of cleric sometime in the near future. Domains, religion and roleplaying aside, I was looking at the generic cleric spell list and realized how, well, generic the spell list really is. Even when adding the domain spells into the mix, I'm still not happy with the spell choices. It's not that I want or need kewl uber-powerful spells, just something a little more flavorful. In fact, I'd rather have a shorter spell list of spells that made sense to the religion/god than the generic one presented in the SRD.

I realize that this is what the domain spells are supposed to do, but they don't feel like enough to me. Has anyone made customized spells lists like this? Do they work well with the domains or is that just redundant? Is this just a bad idea for some reason I'm not thinking of?

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Nope, I'm with you on that sentiment. Working on a 3E version of the Spheres of Influence from 2E in my little spare time. Haven't tried it out yet, but I'm pretty sure the "spontaneous casting" of healing spells, or any other spells, should be dropped, and the cleric reorganized a little for the domain powers to stay.

Just my 2 cents, though.

 

[CaffeineBoy]

Exactly!

One of the few things I really really liked about 2nd edition was the idea of clerical spheres. They really helped to individualize priests. IMHO clerics in 3.x are, by comparison, genericized.

My solution (still early in the implementation phase) is to revamp the domains (again, IMHO, some utterly nonsensical spells have crept into some of them) so there is little to no overlap in spells (at least in the 50 or so I intend to use), add in the Spontaneous Divine Casting stuff from UA, and supply some more unique, feat-sized powers specific to each god. Customized spell lists would be another great enhancement.

Gothmog (IIRC) posted his take on sphere-like domains a month or so ago. Some search-fu will dredge that up pretty easily.

 

[fba827]

It's a matter of how much detail you want but understand it adds some level of complexity as well; it requires more effort on the part of both the DM and player to keep track of what spell list each clerical faith has...

in my mind, generic is bad, specialized is good.. just a matter of whether or not your game can handle the added complexity.

I say go for it if you want.

(as for me? customized spell lists, unique class progression -- basically, a _slightly_ different cleric class for each faith.)

 

[Bendris Noulg]

Gothmog (IIRC) posted his take on sphere-like domains a month or so ago. Some search-fu will dredge that up pretty easily.

Damn, I missed that thread... Someone with search-fu care to post a link?