So, any other convoluted methods of obtaining spells?

[SangoProduction]

I was reading the Dragon Compendium, and one of the classes called the Sha'ir use their "gen"s as a source of their spell. But...it's not just like "hey, all-powerful thingy, gib me powah!" Just read this.


A sha'ir decides what spell might be useful
and sends out his familiar to retrieve it from the
elemental planes. To do this, the sha'ir must summon
his gen and tell it the name of the spell he seeks. The
gen immediately plane shifts to seek the spell in the
elemental planes.

And the section about Spells goes on for 3 pages. lol. This is just a tiny snippet. This was really worth a great laugh.

Are there even more convoluted ways of getting your daily spells?

[DrMotives]

Are there even more convoluted ways of getting your daily spells?

Ever played FFVIII?

[A_S]

Sha'ir is probably the most ludicrous, but Blighter deserves a mention:


The blighter gains access to her daily spells through deforestation (see below). If she goes more than 24 hours without deforesting a wooded area, she cannot cast spells until she does so.

Deforestation (Sp): A blighter can kill all nonsentient plant life within a radius of 20 feet per blighter level as a full-round action once per day. If a potentially affected plant is under the control of another (such as a druid’s liveoak or a dryad’s home tree), the controller can make a Fortitude save (DC 10 + blighter level + blighter’s Wis modifier) to keep it alive. Affected plants immediately cease photosynthesis, root tapping, and all other methods of sustenance. Like picked flowers, they appear vibrant for several hours, but within a day, they turn brown and wither. Except for plants selected by a controller, nothing can grow in a deforested area until it has a hallow spell cast upon it and it is reseeded.

Deforestation enables a blighter to cast her daily allotment of spells. This ability works in any terrain, but deforesting a sandy desert, ice floe, or other environment with only sparse vegetation does not empower the character to cast spells.

[A.A.King]

The closest thing I can think of is the Spirit Shaman, which similarly to the Sha'ir is an unique mixture of prepared and spontanous casting. But where as the Sha'ir can spontanously prepare spells, the Spirit Shaman prepares the spells that he will cast sponanously. They also both do it through a Medium, the Sha'ir has a Genie and the Spirit Shaman has his Spirit Guide.

I would explain the Spirit Shaman as "A Druidic Divine Sorcerer who each day gets to prepare a tiny list of Spell's Known"

[Falcon X]

I remember reading somewhere about the Kuo-Toa. They are so delusional as a society that they sometimes believe something so hard, like a stick of butter being a god, that the stick of butter actually becomes a god and grants them spells.

Or how about Ur-Priests (http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Ur-priest):

While the vast majority of divine spellcasters gain their powers from a deity, there are some who despise the gods. The ur-priests have learned to siphon off the divine or unholy energies granted by gods to their divine spellcasters, using it for their own needs without giving even lip-service to any god.
These guys find a way subtly siphon off the power of the gods without the gods realizing it. They are like metaphysical Spell-thiefs.
Speaking of Spell-thiefs... they might be interesting enough for this post.


I also think I remember some class in the "Book of Erotic Fantasy" about, um... lustful actions giving spell slots. I'm not going to look it up or quote it though...

[ellindsey]

In order to learn new spells, other than the free ones you get from leveling up, a Pathfinder Witch needs to buy a scroll of that spell, then burn it and feed the ashes to their familiar.

There are Witch archetypes where the familiar is replaced by a mask or a doll. I'm not sure how the process works with them.

[barakaka]

There are no RAW gods in Eberron. They might exist, sure! But in some campaigns, clerics just believe in something and get their spells.

It's the best with Warforged who believe in The Becoming God. A cleric of that one would be getting spells from something he hasn't even built yet!

[SangoProduction]

There are no RAW gods in Eberron. They might exist, sure! But in some campaigns, clerics just believe in something and get their spells.

It's the best with Warforged who believe in The Becoming God. A cleric of that one would be getting spells from something he hasn't even built yet!

Yeah. Power of belief. That's in 3.5 clerics as well.

[Mordaedil]

Yeah. Power of belief. That's in 3.5 clerics as well.

Greyhawk clerics. Forgotten Realms clerics have to worship a deity.

[SangoProduction]

Regardless, not incredibly convoluted.

[Necroticplague]

Erudites aren't horribly convoluted, but they are a bit odd. They spontaneously use powers, like most manifesters, but once they use a power for a day, it uses up what's basically a spell known slot (Unique Power per Day), restricting what they can use later. When all their UPD are used up, they essentially become spontaneous casters. Basically, it's like the Spirit Shaman someone mentioned before, except they retroactively choose which of their powers they prepared.

[Inevitability]

There are no RAW gods in Eberron. They might exist, sure! But in some campaigns, clerics just believe in something and get their spells.

It's the best with Warforged who believe in The Becoming God. A cleric of that one would be getting spells from something he hasn't even built yet!

I choose to believe that the warforged will eventually succeed at creating their god, whose power will be so great it'll be able to grant spells even to people in the past.

I like the idea of divinity being closely interwoven with paradoxes, so this wouldn't even be too ridiculous.

[Afgncaap5]

I choose to believe that the warforged will eventually succeed at creating their god, whose power will be so great it'll be able to grant spells even to people in the past.

I like the idea of divinity being closely interwoven with paradoxes, so this wouldn't even be too ridiculous.

The best part is that the process of creating a god has already canonically happened in Eberron if you accept "The Undying Court" as a being "a god" instead of just being a source of divine power. Not everyone plays it that way, but I believe Keith Baker said that that's more or less how he envisions it.

So... not only might the Becoming God be a thing some day, the Undying Court sets a precedent indicating that they're probably on the right track.