divine spontaneous casting class ???

[melkoriii]

In one of my games we just have the Sorcerer class pick a Full caster classes spell list as your class list.

So you pick Cleric or Druid.

 

[Falling Icicle]

The Dragonlance Campaign book has the Mystic Class (spontaneous cleric) but is much more balanced than the UA version, ack.

The one in Unearthed Arcana seems just fine to me. Out of curiosity, what is it about the UA version that you find unbalanced?

 

[welby]

And ya know, it's funny. I've tried this with the Wizard to get a Sorcerer and it doesn't seem to be working.

Why not?

 

[Eolin]

If I read the UA class right ...

Do you get, in additional to the known spells, a domain spell known each spell level? So, if I've got Healing and Sun, each new spell level has, sort of for free, either a Healing spell or a Sun spell?

Is this correct?

 

[PaulGreystoke]

If I read the UA class right ...

Do you get, in additional to the known spells, a domain spell known each spell level? So, if I've got Healing and Sun, each new spell level has, sort of for free, either a Healing spell or a Sun spell?

Is this correct?

No. The character gets both domain spells at each new spell level. At the odd levels, these domain spells are the only ones he knows.

 

[Trainz]

The one in Unearthed Arcana seems just fine to me. Out of curiosity, what is it about the UA version that you find unbalanced?

I personally think that it's a tad underpowered for a PC. Great for NPC's and cohorts, but the cleric's spells are usually a lesser bang for the buck compared to arcane spells of the same level.

What makes up for this is that the cleric has access to ALL spells. With the spontaneous variant, you force the cleric to limit that access to about 4 or 5 spells per level, reducing his defensive effectiveness.

So, IMO, if anything, it's certainly NOT overpowered.

 

[Liquidsabre]

Why not?

Lol, because if we go by the UA spontaneous caster we take a wizard with their scribe scroll and bonus metamagic feats, and just add spontaneous casting to it instead of prep.

Walla, we get a Sorc with scribe scroll and bonus feats. I don't know about you but that doesn't look the same as the core Sorc.

 

[welby]

Walla, we get a Sorc with scribe scroll and bonus feats. I don't know about you but that doesn't look the same as the core Sorc.

ah, I misunderstood what you were saying before.

Currently having a great time with my own spontaneous casting wizard necromancer with optional skeletal companion instead of familiar

 

[uzagi_akimbo]

Another outside "core" divine caster class - "Shaman" from Green Ronin's 'Shaman's Handbook' . Interesting concept but is very dependent upon cultural/campaign background and _may_ need some retooling by the GM. Works fine in one of my campaigns, not allowed in another (due to a house rule/camapign setup ), can be hard on the player, too.

Likewise the "Witch" from Green Ronin's 'Witch's Handbook' might work for you, if you treat her as a divine caster, as optionally recommended. Unfortunately, much of her spell list is on the sorcerer's spell list anyway.

As for Mystic Theurge - they have always been very strictly handled IMCs, usually restricted to clergy of the god(s) of magic or rare and ancient secrets. And a cleric (or even the cloistered cleric variant from UA ) is a pretty good choice for the divine side, anyway.

 

[Nifft]

One thing to watch out for is Domain spells. They're often taken from the more-powerful Wizard list, but equally often they're lame spells that don't scale with level (e.g.: Magic Weapon vs. Greater Magic Weapon).

I've tried to address both of the above issues, prefering to take spells from the Cleric and Druid lists before looting Arcane magic, and avoiding non-scaling spells, or spells with HD caps that will be useless at higher level, in my homebrew Domain listing:

http://klimt.cns.nyu.edu/~fishman/DnD/domains3.5.shtml

They're balanced specifically for spontaneous casters, since Clerics IMC convert prepared spells into Domain spells.


Also take a look at my version of a spontaneous cleric, called the Mystic (and published pre-Dragonlance, I might add):

http://klimt.cns.nyu.edu/~fishman/DnD/new-classes.shtml#mystic

It's never been playtested, so I don't know how balanced it is. It's got a wide selection of top-level spells compared to other spontaneous casters, but it's spells are primarily drawn from Domains, and therefore its spell selection is significantly more limited.

Even if you skip my Mystic, do give the Domains a try. They're kid-tested and Dragon-approved!

-- N