minor annoyance

[Azoth]

I am sure every homebrewer has had this annoyance atleast once in their career. When designing a class with a spell list (other than trying to fix an existing one...and even then) pouring through countless books to try and find the spells you want to make up the list and deciding their appropriate levels for your class. A question that is bugging me right now in this regard is what to do when a spell fits the play style of class but not its fluff/or intent? (I.E. you are designing a casting class with sneak attack. Grease fits the mechanical synergy beautifully, but what if the class isn't intended to be good at materializing objects/creatures/substances? Do you mute your own fluff and add the spell to their list, or pass up a casting staple that fits mechanical synergy perfectly?)

[Debihuman]

I am sure every homebrewer has had this annoyance at least once in their career. When designing a class with a spell list (other than trying to fix an existing one...and even then) pouring through countless books to try and find the spells you want to make up the list and deciding they're appropriate levels for your class. A question that is bugging me right now in this regard is what to do when a spell fits the play style of class but not its fluff/or intent? (I.E. you are designing a casting class with sneak attack. Grease fits the mechanical synergy beautifully, but what if the class isn't intended to be good at materializing objects/creatures/substances? Do you mute your own fluff and add the spell to their list, or pass up a casting staple that fits mechanical synergy perfectly?)

If conjuration doesn't work, you find another spell that does work or you create a new spell that fits what you want, even if all you are doing is refluffing the spell. Grease is such a low level spell that even if the class isn't good at conjuration, unless it is actually barred, the class should have it. If it is barred and you need a suitable replacement, how should the spell manifest?

Debby

I tend to wade through a ton of 3rd party stuff and all the homebrew stuff I've collected over the years (here, on EnWorld, on WotC's site and on Paizo's site).

[Reluctance]

Sometimes giving someone all the best synergistic tools isn't in their best interest. Even your quintessential Sneak Attacker, the Rogue, is built on the assumption that he'll have a flanking buddy.

Not that I'm averse to refluffing something if the bit of 'brew needs a touch more power. In general, though, I'm happier with tightly themed classes that need other tightly themed classes to reach their fullest potential.