Limited Clerical/Druidic Spell Lists?

[Greybar]

Okay, opinions please on this chain of thought:

a) Clerics and Druids get full access to spell lists, unlike Wizards which must learn (and carry a spellbook) or the Bard/Sorcerer who has a short "known" list, or the half-divine (Ranger/Paladin) that have limited lists.

b) The more supplements you bring into your game, the longer all spell lists become.

c) The "known" casters are not effected heavily by this, since they still have a strict limit of spells. The learned casters gain some benefit. The half-divine grow towards the "full" casters as their lists expand. The "full" casters blossom into wider and wider power.

Seeing this pattern, should GMs place a stronger limit on the "full" and "half" casters to give them a maximum number of spells they might choose from?

Should this also apply to the "learned" casters?

John

 

[kengar]

I'm of the very firm opinion that the DM needs to look long and hard before adding any spells, skills, feats, items, races or classes to the campaign. There's no law that says you can't pick and choose from the supplements either, allowing one spell and not the next.

 

[Nifft]

IMC: Everything in the Core Rules is instantly available, albeit as modified by the House Rules.

Suppliments can be brought in, but you have to find someone to train you in that spell -- similar to a Wizard questing for spells, but without the high scribing costs.

-- Nifft

 

[Greybar]

One of my players saw the thread and immediately offered the suggestion that all new magics have to be researched/discovered, just to throw that out to the general population...

john

 

[Pirotess]

Just a thought...

The more spells a Wizard or Cleric knows, the less likely that the ONE spell that would make a differnece in an encounter will actually be memorized. Having too many options is not always a good thing.

PC1 - "Dude! Hit this thing with a Greater Dispelling to de-buff it!"
PC2 - "Sorry, I don't have it memmed..."
PC1 - "What??? Why not?"
PC2 - "Well, I got this new book and it had all these kewl spells in it, so I memmed <spell x> instead..."
DM - "Mwahahahaha!!!!!"

 

[Alchemist]

PC3-I don't care what you've managed to memorize, what have you got prepared?

Yeah. Pedantic. But it bothers me nonetheless.

I like the idea of having to "discover" spells that are in new supplements added in mid-game. It's a little weird having the cleric wake up one morning and go "Guess what? I just got a memo from the Big Cheese that he's releasing 25 more spells into circulation! Cool!" Approve it for addition to your game and make 'em work for it if they think it's too cool not to have.

 

[Greybar]

Could really work well into my campaign (cities lost to invaders have info to be recovered and the like)

I am reminded of a 2E game from long-long ago. Based on information from a patron of the group, we delved into a deep library that had been ruined and cursed. There we discovered the magics from Unearthed Arcana.

We emerged from the library beaten and hurting, only to find ourselves surrounded by Black Trolls at the command of our erstwhile "patron". We were forced to surrender the scrolls and then sold off into slavery. I seem to remember that we never were able to deal out the payback for that one.

John

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Actually the problem I have is with other non-core spellcasters.

Try a spellsinger from Kalamar or a Shaman from Oriental Adventures.

What spells get put on their list? Everyone who creates a spell tells you what level wizard, cleric, or druid level it is. But with other supplements it becomes much more difficult.

 

[Particle_Man]

hmmm

I may be wrong, but I thought that Spellsinger used the sorceror spell list, without any level changes to spell levels, and shamans did the same for the druid spell list. Thus any new sorceror or druid spell would become a new spellsinger or shaman spell, respectively.

Seems like a good way to handle it, even if it is not official (if nothing else, it will save a lot of time).

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Re: hmmm

I may be wrong, but I thought that Spellsinger used the sorceror spell list, without any level changes to spell levels, and shamans did the same for the druid spell list. Thus any new sorceror or druid spell would become a new spellsinger or shaman spell, respectively.

Seems like a good way to handle it, even if it is not official (if nothing else, it will save a lot of time).

If that is true then that does make it easier. Does that mean the Shaman gets every Shaman spell in Oriental Adventures as well as every druid spell in the PHB automatically?