The Cultist

[Jeph]

Okay. Start with the Bard. Make the following changes:

BARD: Change to Cultist.
FORT save: Change to Good.
REF save: Change to Poor.
BARDIC MUSIC: Rename Tempting Whispers, switch key skill to Knowledge (Religion).
BARDIC KNOWLEDGE: Rename as Forgotten Lore.
SPELLS: Switch key ability with Wisdom. Make them prepair spells. Grant 1 Domain at 1st level. Grant one extra domain spell per day per spell level. Switch spell list with the 1st 6 levels of Cleric spells. Give access to the entire spell list, instead of making them learn spells.
SKILL LIST: Change to Bluff, Concentration, Craft, Decipher Script, Disguise, Forgery, Heal, Innuendo, Intimidate, Intuit Direction, Knowledge (Religion), Listen, Profession, Scry, Sense Motive, Spellcraft, and Spot.

Whaddaya think? Good cultist? Bad cultist? Unbalanced (in either direction) cultist?

 

[Sollir Furryfoot]

Hrm, compared to a cleric (off the top of my head)

Cultist's HD is worse by 1 step (d6 vs. d8)
Cultist has less armor profs.
Cultist has more skill points to distribute
Gain Tempting Whispers (a morale bonus?)
Gain Forbidden Knowledge
Gains spells at a much more slow rate
Has 1 less domain than your standard cleric

Hrm, it seems they have 3 bonuses (nothing that special) but loses 4 things vs. the cleric, some of them kinda nice (spells/domain) and some nothing special (20 extra hitpoints by level 20, a little extr armor profs). So it seems a bit underpowered, but bards are a bit underpowered to begin with.

Not to mention, a cleric could easily take the Loremaster class to get something similar to Forbidden Knowledge, albeit slightly weaker, but also more abilities.

To make this class a little better, I would suggest tailoring their spell list a tad bit more. For instance, give them some spells like Lesser/Normal/Greater Planar Binding as well as some, select spells from the wizard list, and maybe the druid list.

 

[Al]

It's balanced against the bard, but clearly weak compared with the cleric.

Comments on one side of A4 please...