Southern Magician v Alternate Source Spell

[weckar]

Is either of them strictly better than the other?

Alternate Source Spell

- Requires an existing ability to cast both Arcane and Divine spells
- Take a CL penalty to the converted spells
+ It's a pseudo-metamagic feat, allowing you to qualify for other metamagic feats without additional tax.
~ Can qualify earlier, as a 3rd level feat


Southern Magician

- Limited uses per day
- Lore requirement may be an issue in some games
+ Easy qualification
+ Additional bonuses besides conversion

[Necroticplague]

If you have to ask if something is strictly better, it's probably not. In this case, neither is strictly better. However, I find that Southern Magician is generally significantly more useful, because the point of it is to grant access to arcane and divine without dipping. Since Alternate Spell Source requires that in the first place, it is of no help for these purposes.

[Venger]

Is either of them strictly better than the other?

Alternate Source Spell

- Requires an existing ability to cast both Arcane and Divine spells
- Take a CL penalty to the converted spells
+ It's a pseudo-metamagic feat, allowing you to qualify for other metamagic feats without additional tax.
~ Can qualify earlier, as a 3rd level feat


Southern Magician

- Limited uses per day
- Lore requirement may be an issue in some games
+ Easy qualification
+ Additional bonuses besides conversion



If you have to ask if something is strictly better, it's probably not. In this case, neither is strictly better. However, I find that Southern Magician is generally significantly more useful, because the point of it is to grant access to arcane and divine without dipping. Since Alternate Spell Source requires that in the first place, it is of no help for these purposes.
This analysis hits pretty much all the salient points.

One other thing to consider is that southern magician is actually first party and not from dragon magazine like alternate spell source is, so you're much likelier to actually be able to use it in a game. For that reason alone, I'd say it's better, in addition to Necroticplague's points.