Why are Favoured Souls so Popular?

[Victim]

At higher levels, the rather limited cleric list means that the FS can take pretty much all the good spells, cast them more often, and cast them spontanteously. Oh no, the 18th level FS can only cast Miracle, Gate, and Mass Heal for his 9th level spells... Also, having some spells like Heal on demand is huge. Clerics can't swap for that spell. It's rather difficult to keep the favored soul from healing his allies, while a cleric likely only has a few Heals.

On the other hand, making a generalist favored soul is rarely going to be awesome. Focusing on utility, heals and buffs lets the FS mostly ignore Wisdom, but the lack of sweet spells like destruction hurts. Of course, the favored soul in our game TRADED OUT his DIVINATION and COMMUNE!!! Nooooo.

The FS is probably close enough to a cleric in power that it's mostly about prep versus spontaneous casting.

 

[Thanee]

It makes sense conceptually, but it's broken mechanically. A favored soul is a sorcerer that gets d8 hit dice, all good saves, knows more spells, gets to wear and cast in armor, and has a number of other class features such as energy resistance and weapon feats. Start letting the FS tap into domain spell lists, many of which cross over into the area reserved for arcanists, and things start getting ugly.

Didn't notice that yet. They still have to learn the spells, and there are only a few more spells available this way.

I'm playing a favored soul of Kord (combat heavy with buffs and utility spells mostly and some healing) with this house rule, and she's strong (doh), but nowhere near broken.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Victim]

Didn't notice that yet. They still have to learn the spells, and there are only a few more spells available this way.

I'm playing a favored soul of Kord (combat heavy with buffs and utility spells mostly and some healing) with this house rule, and she's strong (doh), but nowhere near broken.

Bye
Thanee

I'd consider casting from domains more problematic when the domains include a few arcane attack spells. As a 1/day thing, there's not too much overlap, but with unlimited access the favored soul may end up with many arcane spells plus armored casting and other benefits.

 

[Thanee]

Yeah, but you quickly run into trouble with MAD when you use attack spells, and the choice is still extremely limited.

Going by the standard domains, you can get, for example: Chain Lightning at 6th, or Disintegrate at 7th, or Ice Storm at 5th. At these levels clerics have Flame Strike themselves already.

So, not exactly problematic.

And I don't really recall any non-core domains either, which add good, low-level offensive arcane spells, which could become a problem there.

Bye
Thanee

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

... but with unlimited access the favored soul may end up with many arcane spells plus armored casting and other benefits.

But what is "many", like three arcane crossover spells that any favored soul might ever pick from? And are any of those crossover spells ones which make a sorcerer great?

 

[JustKim]

Sorcerers are great?

 

[The Cardinal]

I'm playing a Favored Soul of Nemorga (deity of death, knowledge, travel/gates) in a Scarred Lands campaign right now (started at level 1, right now at level 5) - and it's truly a wonderful class to play...

 

[Herobizkit]

Yeah, but you quickly run into trouble with MAD when you use attack spells, and the choice is still extremely limited.

I'm not functioning properly this morning... what the heck does MAD stand for in this context?

 

[shilsen]

I'm not functioning properly this morning... what the heck does MAD stand for in this context?

Multiple Ability Dependency. Favored Souls get bonus spells based on Cha and set spell DCs based on Wis.

 

[Herobizkit]

Pah. Any Favored Soul worth their salt would have high Charisma, if only for the turning bonus... oh, wait... Ah well, all my characters usually have high Cha anyway.

Still, I never realized that before. Certainly would make a Paladin/Fav Soul multi-class an option. It's just a shame that Paladin's don't also cast spontaneous magic.

My friend is currently playing a 5/5 Sorcerer/Favored Soul. That's fun-and-a-half right there. So would be a Bard/Favored Soul.

But then again, I'm more into multi-classing than most... and Gestalts above all else.