Spellfire Wielder feat - usable?

[Humanophile]

Just offhand, what is the reasoning behind this? Apart from no armour check penalty for spellcasting, what else is there?

...I was referring specifically to the fact that they can cast more low level spells per day than an equal level wizard (domain spells at low levels, and domain spells plus one at high levels, giving them the same spell volume as a sorceror). More spells known than any realistic wizard too, without spellbook vulnerability. The rest of the class abilities I'm leaving alone, since they've been brought up by other people already, on many threads.

But on the balancing clerics topic, does anyone else out there think that giving clerics a lay on hands style ability/bardic music-esque prayer, or both would help dispel the "they need these extra slots to heal" story? I mean, I'm all for spreading the burden of healing too, but the healmaster class should be more focused on healing than "well, we'll give them this and hope they heal with it...".

 

[Humanophile]

Of course, IMHO, clerics NEED those bits of added edge.

I mean, they have more spells/day and little powers and such, but a spell list can define a class as easily as other abilities can. The cleric spell list is mostly only useful to help other people save the day. Without a little bit o' butt-kickin', they'd be healing machines, and would loose playability. My group of newbies would still rather have a druid than a cleric, because then they're not so...healing-based. No so supportive. Able to do heroic stuff, and not just help other people to do it.

I think that if you want a healmaster class, it should be aimed at the kind of people who like playing supportive characters instead of being a cobbled together bunch of powers to ensure that every party has one. One of the many things that irks me about the cleric is that they're never required to actually ever heal anyone, even if they're good clerics. If you're going to power them up that much, at least make sure that they'll do their duties. (Or that if they don't, some force other than DM fiat applies. Like I said above, they wouldn't be required to use Lay on Hands if they had it, but if they didn't, it'd be wasted instead of becoming another spell to use for personal glory.)

So I'd prefer either that healing abilities were spread out more, and/or that clerics were forced a little more into the healer/buffer role. Preferably both. It shouldn't be a burden someone has to take, it should be a role for the people who like it.

Anyhoo...

As for the spellfire wielder feat....if the feat is overpowered (as I've said, I've had it in my campaign, and it doesn't seem to be, even without the roleplaying aspect thrown into it), and the PrC is underpowered (haven't seen it in action yet, but...okay), what about granting the feat as a 1st level Spellfire Wielder PrC ability, and requiring some other potent feat (like, I dunno, Skill Focus (concentration) or something) for the prereq in it's place? Would that "balance" everything? Power-up the PrC, make the feat less available, and still not make the PrC too easily accessible?

Just an idea.

I still hold to my original opinion. It's a little overpowered for a lower powered game, and it seems a little on the weak side for such a kewl arcane ability. So I'd say pump it up a little, and make it a template. And to the people saying that you couldn't come into game with it then, I'd say that makes it better balanced for first level parties (and if you start at first, your games will tend to be lower powered, IME), while FR games and other games by people who like more heroic settings will start with a few levels already. Again, all IMHO.