Would this be overpowered?

[Alabenson]

I'm currently debating whether or not to institute a houserule that would have sorcerers use the favored soul spells known table. On one hand, this would obviously be a buff to sorcerers, giving them more spells known, espcially at higher levels, and I'm wary about buffing a Tier 2 class. On the other hand, sorcerer's get very few spells known using their current table, which greatly restricts their versitility, and I don't think switching to the favored soul table would significantly unbalance them.

Any thoughts on this?

[gbprime]

That's not overpowered on it's own, no. And it gives a sorcerer freedom to pick a feat OTHER than a Bloodline feat for more spells known, and to actually make use of Battle Sorcerer or Stalwart Sorcerer options.

But like most forms of cheese, it's not the class itself that is broken, it's what you can COMBINE it with. Just make sure your players don't get abusive with it.

[DeAnno]

It really depends on what you want your campaign balance point to be. If you want to make Sorcerers a more viable option compared to Tier 1 classes, this is a good move. If you want to encourage a Tier 3 level of play, then obviously its a bad move.

Also, remember Sorcs' level of optimization is strongly dependent on availability of sourcebooks like Complete Mage, Dragon Magic, and Races of the Dragon. Going from having just those three sources not included to included is probably a bigger buff than adding the spells known.

[Pigkappa]

It would be ok. They are still worse than wizards, so this won't help players who want to break the game via spells.

Another idea could be deleting line 3 in the spells known and spell/days table. This way they learn level 2 spells at level 3, level 3 spells at level 5, and so on. This makes them even better, but again, not much better than wizards. Though they would finally be playable without thinking "I could be a spell level ahead!" on every odd level.

[Optimator]

That's a fine house rule. Not overpowered.

[Alabenson]

Reading the replies so far, it seems the consensus is more or less what I thought, i.e. it would be an improvement to versitility, but the overall power increase would be fairly minor when compared to the effects sources allowed and spells actually chosen have.

For the record, the people I've played with in the past have typically been very low op; for example I had to argue with the person playing the druid that natural spell was a useful feat. My main goal was to balance sorcerer with favored soul and the rest of Tier 2.

[DeAnno]

My main goal was to balance sorcerer with favored soul and the rest of Tier 2.

Even without a lot of the heavy hitter sources, Sorcs are already near the top of Tier 2 due to their generally powerful spell list. I would say only the Psion has a significant advantage, and that advantage disappears in a game with all of the important sources allowed.

[Lateral]

Psions are far better designed than Sorcerers, though- Sorcerers have some basic problems with their design, which is why Psions surpass them unless you have enough extra sources that the wealth of spells lets the Sorcerer destroy the Psion simply by choosing the most powerful ones. This would help alleviate some of those sucky design choices (namely, the problem where, at any level they gain a new spell level at, that new spell level is cast 'spontaneously' from one spell known), and makes bloodline feats less of a necessary thing.

[dspeyer]

While not a power issue, favored soul has odd levels dead. Nothing like finally leveling and getting nothing for it. A better rule might be "increase spells known by 1 for each spell level".