Spontanous Casting Cleric

[FormidableDice]

I'm starting a new campaign with my normal group. One of my players wants to play a cleric with no memorization. "Like a sorceror" he says.

Does any one have any sources for such a class? How do they play? Are they balanced? Any reason not to allow such?

Thanks in advance,

FormidableDice

 

[JimAde]

Apparently there's at least one from WotC (called the Favored Soul). I believe it's in the Miniatures Handbook? Before I heard about that, I cooked up one of my own. Feel free to mine it for ideas (or even use it if you like it):

The Chosen

One player is using this in my game currently and I think he might be a bit overpowered. The jury is still out, though, so it must not be too bad

 

[Tessarael]

There is a rules variant in Unearthed Arcana for spontaneous Druid and Cleric casting, without spell memorization. It looks reasonable.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Favoured Soul also appears in Complete Divine.

They actually have class abilities, unlike the sorcerer. I guess WOTC felt that they needed to make up for the loss of Turning Undead and automatically being able to spontaneously cast healing magic (where as the cure spells actually have to fill a spells known slot for a Favored Soul).

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm starting a new campaign with my normal group. One of my players wants to play a cleric with no memorization. "Like a sorceror" he says.

Does any one have any sources for such a class? How do they play? Are they balanced? Any reason not to allow such?

If you want the most balanced and simple to use in the campaign (for both you and the player), use the spontaneous cleric and druid from Unearthed Arcana. It is actually so simple that you don't even relly need the book :

1) Spells per day: take the PHB Cleric/Druid table (without domain spells slots) and add 1 more spell/day for each spell level.

2) Spells known: use the Sorcerer PHB table as a basis, but clerics choose their spells from the cleric list, and druids from the druid list obviously.
In addition, clerics learn the domain spells (2 domains as usual, 9 spells each) automatically, while druids learn all the Summon Nature's Ally spells (9 at all).

Everything else remains exactly the same.

There is only one possible consequence that you may not like, and that's because of the cleric domains. A player may choose two domains with lots of non-cleric spells (such as Trickery, but also Magic, Knowledge, Travel...) and end up with a character whose spellcasting abilities look more like the one of a sorcerer, only better and with much better non-spellcasting stats. The downside will still be that once you choose the domains, you are stuck with those 9 preselected spells, so you'll rarely be nearly as versatile as a real sorcerer.

 

[Turanil]

Official sources: besides the Unearthed Arcana, there is the Mystic from Dragonlance Campaign setting. Basically a cleric, no special abilities (so no Turn Undead), spellcasting like a sorcerer (spell per day and spell known) but wisdom, and access to a domain: additional spell known. I suppose this could make for an unbalanced sorcerer...

 

[JRRNeiklot]

A much better (imo) option, is the evangelist from Dragon - not sure which issue, though.

He gains spells like a sorceror, but from the cleric list, plus 2 domains, and gains extra domains at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Pick the right domains and you have some pretty nice abilities along with a pretty good list of spells.

 

[cidak]

A much better (imo) option, is the evangelist from Dragon - not sure which issue, though.

He gains spells like a sorceror, but from the cleric list, plus 2 domains, and gains extra domains at levels 5, 10, 15, and 20. Pick the right domains and you have some pretty nice abilities along with a pretty good list of spells.

#311. It's a great class.

 

[Cheerful Coffin]

Hell's bells, WOTC is so abusive to the sorcerer itself.

Anyway, Unearthed Arcana was the only source I remember with a instanous-casting cleric. They used a psionic based system called spell-points and has an sp equal to to thier amount of spells per day. (In comparison that's a fraction of what the average psion would have.)

Monte devised two decent I suppose means of upping the sorcerer class in these all instant-caster cases. 1: They got +1 spell-point per sorcerer level more or less, 2: Better sorcerer class overall like the warmage.

 

[diaglo]

or the player could just cheat. and not write down the spells he prayed for that day.