Lets Talk Archivist!

[Rystil Arden]

So, not a party player.

Your fighters are the ones most likely to suffer from poison and they are the meat shields between you and the monsters. If you want to make them unusable and dead then bad healer.

Oh, I'm a party player--I load up entirely on party buffs and save the party's butt while everyone continues to make fun of my Archivist for her personal ineffectualness in combat. I just think that Delay Poison is a waste of a slot more times than not--against most reasonable poisonous monsters, they can make the Fort save themselves. The only guy who missed a save against poison was asking for it by refusing to let us help him fight the evil halfling Wizard's monstrous spiders after the Ranger, the Mountebank, and I had already fried the main enemy, his giant Harpoon Spider, and all their Ettercaps.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Me too, FWIW.

Me three!

 

[Someone]

I like it too. The only thing that bothers me is the "polymorph effect": that the class becomes a little better with each sourcebook that comes out, the same way as the polymorph spell becomes (even) better with every monster manual that hits the shelves. Though it's really only a problem if the Dm allows buying every imaginable scroll if the PC has the cash. The chance of a magic shop having a divine scroll of magic missile must be very, very low...

 

[Seeten]

But thats no problem, because you learn 2-4 spells per level, so anything bizarre, or out of the way, you can just snag at level up, and then go find "Cure Serious" scrolls.

 

[Rystil Arden]

But thats no problem, because you learn 2-4 spells per level, so anything bizarre, or out of the way, you can just snag at level up, and then go find "Cure Serious" scrolls.

The designers covered that to prevent you from doing it--the level up spells must be off the base cleric list.

 

[smootrk]

I made a HouseRule that if a spell is not on the Cleric or Druid list, then the costs for scribing the spell are doubled... just another little layer to moderate domain spell abuse.

I also state that if a spell is on the cleric or druid list, yet is also on a domain list, but is a lower level spell on the domain, then that Archivist will learn the spell at the higher level 'clerical' version. There is a heriarchy of Cleric, then Druid, then Domain/other, for purposes of determining the spell level. The rationale for this is because the Archivist does not have the normal access to these alternate divine sources of power (ie. he does not truly have the domain in question), so his ability with the particular spell is not going to be optimal like a true devotee of the particular domain or other divine spell source (like PRC spell lists).

But I don't think you are looking for balancing HR's that limit the Archivist... you are looking for optimizations within the official framework of the Archivist's rules.

 

[Mouseferatu]

For what it's worth...

The author of the archivist, C.A. Suleiman, has confirmed that he did not intend the class to be able to pull from the domain spell lists, only class spell lists. Alas, he neglected to make that clear in the class write-up.

This is not official erata, just something I feel worth mentioning, since I'm (for rather obivous reasons, I should think ) a big proponent of author intent.

 

[Rystil Arden]

For what it's worth...

The author of the archivist, C.A. Suleiman, has confirmed that he did not intend the class to be able to pull from the domain spell lists, only class spell lists. Alas, he neglected to make that clear in the class write-up.

This is not official erata, just something I feel worth mentioning, since I'm (for rather obivous reasons, I should think ) a big proponent of author intent.

That's an interesting modification, and I could see how he might intend that--I initially thought that this was true for the Archivist as well until I read more carefully. I think, though, that most of the best spells and levels for the Archivist come from grabbing off the lists of other divine classes like Adept, Healer, Paladin, Ranger, Shugenja, and Nentyar Hunter anyway, though, so removing domains probably wouldn't weaken it much (for instance, the Force domain has Magic Missile at level 2, but Nentyar Hunter has it at level 1). Of my personal favourites, I think the only one that would suffer from removing domains is Black Tentacles.

 

[Seeten]

I didnt really take anything from domains anyway, mostly from: Paladin(Lesser Restoration), Ranger(Delay poison) Cleric(Too many to list), Druid(See Cleric), Shugenja(See Cleric). I think thats about all I took, on just those lists alone there is some tasty stuff.

 

[satori01]

For what it's worth...

The author of the archivist, C.A. Suleiman, has confirmed that he did not intend the class to be able to pull from the domain spell lists, only class spell lists. Alas, he neglected to make that clear in the class write-up.

Funny part is thematically it is appropriate for an Archivist to try to learn
spells off the Domain Lists.... it also could get a PC Archivist into deep water by using Heretic magic. As an aside I would charge at least double the going rate for a caster to cast a Domain spell on a scroll for an Archivist. In terms of real world application, Domain Spells would be the secret religious prayers of the particular religion.
It seems plausible to me that religious spell casters might be reluctant to part with that information.