Rainbow Servant

[questionmark693]

So I looked through some rainbow servant handbooks, and I saw the claim repeated that you get full access to the cleric list if you automatically know your spell list (i.e. beguiler, warmage, etc.). But as I read it, you only gain the ability to learn them, and for those three classes I mentioned, you only know your spell list. The cleric list isn't added to yours. So am I reading something wrong?

[ShneekeyTheLost]

So I looked through some rainbow servant handbooks, and I saw the claim repeated that you get full access to the cleric list if you automatically know your spell list (i.e. beguiler, warmage, etc.). But as I read it, you only gain the ability to learn them, and for those three classes I mentioned, you only know your spell list. The cleric list isn't added to yours. So am I reading something wrong?

The cleric spell list IS, in fact, added to yours. That generally means that you can use use-activated items, and can scribe those spells into your spellbook if you are not a spontaneous spellcaster. Most spontaneous casters would then be able to select them as Spells Known.

However, Beguiler et al. have a slightly different way of doing things. They get to automatically know their entire spell list. The Cleric list is tacked onto the list and can then be accessed freely.

[Aracor]

The problem is that the beguiler (and other fixed list casters) have no way to add other spells to their list except for the advanced learning ability. So the quote
When you gain access to a new level of spells, you automatically know all the spells for that level on the beguiler's spell list.
Which basically leaves us with two options. Either the 10th level ability of Rainbow Servant gives them all of the spells on the cleric list, or it's completely useless because the class has no ability to actually learn spells that are added to their spells by another class feature.

~Aracor

[questionmark693]

Cleric Spell Access: A 10th-level rainbow servant can learn and cast spells from the cleric list, even if they don’t appear on the lists of any spellcasting class he has. Such spells are cast as divine spells if they don’t appear on the sorcerer/wizard or bard spell lists. This class feature grants access to the spells, but not extra spells per day. The 10th-level rainbow servant can likewise read scrolls with cleric spells on them and use wands and staffs that contain cleric spells.

As I read that, it doesn't say you add the cleric list to your own. I very much want it to say that, but I also really want this to be rules legal :/

EDIT: Does that leave us in the realm of DM decision then?

[Aracor]

Does that leave us in the realm of DM decision then?It depends on how strictly you want to read RAW. From a pure RAW perspective, the beguiler DOES have the ability to add spells to its spells known (through Advanced Learning). And as you say, Rainbow Servant does not explicitly say that you add all of the spells to YOUR spell list. It just says you can also learn them as well.

If you compare the wording of Rainbow Servant to the wording of Sand Shaper in Sandstorm (which explicitly the spells are available to you like any other spell you know), it makes me think that from a very strict RAW point of view, Rainbow Servant's 10th level ability doesn't actually help beguilers. This does (of course) make the class pretty close to useless for them.

At the very least, I would certainly ask the DM for a way to add the spells from the cleric list to my spells known, even if I didn't automatically get them all immediately.

~Aracor