Ogrork the Mighty said:
I don't. And therein lies the difference of opinion.
You don't see that the core rule 56.5D6 area effect damage from 3 13th level PCs and even more damage from 5 other 13th level PCs multiple times per day is
larger than your companion example of 56D6 area effect damage from 8 13th level PCs once per day (i.e. a molehill in comparison)?
The latter is minor compared to the former and the former is easily achievable just using core rules.
Or, let's take Cure Light Wounds at 4th level.
One 4th level PC gives up a Cure Light Wounds spell: -1D8-4
Four 4th level PCs each gain a minimum caster level Cure Light Wounds spell: +4D8+4
Overall curing gain: 3D8
But, they paid 1200 GP and 1200 XP in order to gain an addition 3D8 curing each day. That's the same as 1.6 Wands of Cure Light Wounds plus 1200 XP to boot.
It would take them 33 days of combat to gain the same amount of healing that they could gain from the wands and they still gave up the XP.
Sure, there is the versatility of any character doing a small amount of healing, not just the healers of the group, but you can gain that with Potions of Cure Light Wounds already. On the other hand, if a Cleric adds the Cure Light Wounds spell to the companion, the Cleric is giving up some other first level spell that s/he could cast instead of a Cure Light Wounds. Pros and Cons.
Cure Light Wounds is a good example since Cure Wounds spells vary very little with caster level, hence, you get considerable bang for the buck with this type of spell compared to damaging spells. If the 4th level party put Burning Hands into the companion, they would get:
One 4th level PC gives up a Burning Hands spell: -4D4
Four 4th level PCs each gain a minimum caster level Burning Hands spell: +4D4
Overall damage gain: 0
Ditto for many other damaging spells at low levels. There are exceptions. Magic Missile would double the amount of damage from 2D4+2 to 4D4+4. Hardly a huge gain at 4th level. I just do not see 7 points of damage at 4th level as earthshaking.
The point is, sure, this gives the party versatility at the cost of gold and XP. But, you are claiming that it is overpowered and you have yet to illustrate an example of this. You put up big numbers, but I illustrated that a same level same sized party could put up even bigger numbers in a single round just using core rules.
