Exclusive spells: Yea or nay?

[I'm A Banana]

Heck, I'm a huge fan of GREATER exclusivity in spell lists.

If you want to cast every spell in the game, use UA's Generic Spellcaster. Otherwise, get yer paws offa my archetypes.

 

[Steve Jung]

Exclusivity is fine by me. Heck, I liked the 2nd ed idea of spheres for clerics. So a cleric of a war god had a different selection of spells than one of a peace god. The 2nd ed Forgotten Realms book Faiths & Avatars even had spells that were exclusive to one deity.

 

[Nifft]

Exclusive spells YAY!

I wish there were more Sorcerer exclusive spells.

-- N

 

[Gez]

Yan! Neither yay or nay.

I like the ideas of spells that are restricted, but not necessarily exclusive. I want restricted spells to be buyable throught feats, and said feats may be granted class abilities of certain classes...

At least, that's how my houserules work.

 

[Psion]

I like the ideas of spells that are restricted, but not necessarily exclusive. I want restricted spells to be buyable throught feats, and said feats may be granted class abilities of certain classes...

I allow players to use the spellblending rules in Bow & Blade (which the party druid exploited to get detect evil back on her spell list...). Most characters can use the rules to get low level spells through a research like procedure, but higher level (higher than 2nd IIRC) require feats.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Exclusive spells are good for several reasons.

1. Flavor: Not every spell cast needs to be the same.

2. Variety: In addition to background elements and historical significance in a campaign, having classes with different spells insures that not every spellcaster is played the same. This is good for campaigns with a lot of wizards, but not so important if all you're using is sorcerers, due to the sorcerers limited number of spells known.

3. Game Balance: There may be some other factors involved in the background and flavor of a spell that limits it's use and with those factors removed, it may become more 'common' or accepted.

4. Control: By allowing only certain spells to be used by certain classes, the authors have installed a control device on said spell preventing any one caster from being a do it all.