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View Full Version : Rangers/Druids/Paladins = Spontaneous Casters?



The Orange Zergling
2007-02-13, 09:30 PM
I *think* this is the right forum, anyway.

Well, I've started homebrewing a campaign setting, and being new to magic in general, I'm getting rid of all non-spontaneous casters. However, this would mean that I'd have to cut out rangers, druids, and paladins, which I dont want to do.

So my question is, would it be terribly game-breaking to allow all three of said classes to cast spells spontaneously? I'm banning Natural Spell for the druid, so that may help.

SpiderBrigade
2007-02-13, 09:34 PM
I'd say it's fine for rangers and paladins...druids you might want to cut either their spells/day or their spell list. Maybe let them cast as sorcerors, but they have to pick their spells known from the regular druid list?

Ramza00
2007-02-13, 09:44 PM
Off subject, but I noticed you have a personality test for MtG, I was wondering if you have a link?

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-13, 09:50 PM
Hmm. The sorcerer thing may work... but I'm kind of 'meh' about it, because the favoured soul is replacing the cleric, so I already have a class that casts spells as a sorcerer.

<offtopic> Turned the image into a link, click on it to get to the quiz. </offtopic>

ZekeArgo
2007-02-13, 10:04 PM
Hmm. The sorcerer thing may work... but I'm kind of 'meh' about it, because the favoured soul is replacing the cleric, so I already have a class that casts spells as a sorcerer.

<offtopic> Turned the image into a link, click on it to get to the quiz. </offtopic>

If your having the Favored Soul replace the cleric, why not let the Spirit Shaman replace the Druid?

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-13, 10:22 PM
If your having the Favored Soul replace the cleric, why not let the Spirit Shaman replace the Druid?

Because while the Spirit Shaman is druid-like in several respects, the flavor isn't right. It focuses around spirits, while the druid focuses on animals and such.

Leon
2007-02-14, 12:01 AM
I't not affect Pallies or Rangers to much since they are limited in spell numbers anyway but for the druid why not alter the Favoured soul to suit the Natural Aspect

ZekeArgo
2007-02-14, 12:04 AM
Because while the Spirit Shaman is druid-like in several respects, the flavor isn't right. It focuses around spirits, while the druid focuses on animals and such.

True... well then mix and match the druid abilities and flavor with spirit shaman spellcasting? That would at least give you a spontaneous system to work off of.

The Orange Zergling
2007-02-14, 12:28 AM
Hmm... swapping out spells does seem interesting*... I'll look into that.

@Leon: I kind of want there to be a nice variety of divine casters, so a merging of the druid and the cleric (aka: favoured soul) would limit that... nice idea for a new class, though. I might try to stat that out anyway.

*I have no idea where the swapping out idea came from... looking over the SS, it cant do that.

adanedhel9
2007-02-14, 12:31 AM
A general guideline (power-wise) with all the spellcasting classes is that a character can have access to a wide array of spells, or can cast a lot of spells per day, but not both. If you just made these classes spontaneous, with no other changes, you are giving them a boost in the access department without taking anything away.

That being said, paladins' and rangers' spellcasting is such a small part of the class that there's little you can do to make it over- or under-powered. The hexblade from Complete Warrior is a spontaneous caster on the same power level as the two core classes; you could just sub in the spells per day and spell known from that class into the paladin and ranger. Note, however, that the hexblade's spell list is considerably longer than either the paladin's or ranger's, so boosting the numbers a little bit wouldn't be out of line. Alternatively, you could use the no-spellcasting paladin and ranger variants presented on page 13 of Complete Warrior.

As a full caster, the druid does present a more difficult problem. Simply making their spellcasting spontaneous would give them a huge boost in the spell access department, which would be a big boost for the class (Wild Shape or not). You'll have to keep their access in line; the easiest way to do that would be simply by giving them a spells-known list (as SpiderBrigade suggests). The Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm) variant does just that. Another way would be to replace the druid's spellcasting with the spirit shaman's. If I did that, though, I would probably keep the druid's spells per day intact, since the spirit shaman's spellcasting is tuned for multiple attribute dependence, while the druid is a single attribute caster (A SAD caster carries a not-insignificant edge in spellcasting power over a MAD caster; this is especially noticeable in the middle levels.).