Jervis
2022-01-23, 11:30 PM
This is a bit of a weird discussion but it was born from a bit of theory crafting for a possible upcoming 3.pf game. I was poking around the pathfinder srd and came across the Theurge class (Kobold Press) https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/kobold-press-open-design/theurge/#TOC-Spell-Synthesis-Su-. At first i thought it was completely broken, because well it is, but it made me think. The character i was making was a early entry mystic theurge using Improved Sigil Krau Illumian with Wizard and Archivist to hop into Mystic Theurge at level 4. That character has the same double bonus spells and same spell access with double the base spell slots, all i really loose is a level of casting in one class and two in another, and with Inner Sea guild affiliation rules being probably available that stops being a problem as early as level 8.
So it made me think, which of these is stronger? The multiclass character has a feat tax of 1 and ends up with double the spells while being Int sad at the cost of being 1 level of spellcasting behind, not even CL because Illumian things, until level 8 where they catch up. That Theurge class means that, if it was allowed, i could potentially hop into other PrCs and not loose CL but have fewer spells per day. The theurge would let me keep my concept in place and hop into a Gish or weird casting class, or maybe even finally get to play a Durthan, but over all is that really a power bump over the absurd amount of spells a early entry theurge gets, especially when a affiliation benefit exists that fixes lost spellcaster levels up to a cap of character level?
That's mostly the question id like to posit. If given the choice between these two, which would you pick and which do you think is the better of the two? Assume pathfinder base rules (so decrease skill point requirements for everything by 3) with official pathfinder (plus the other stuff i've mentioned) and 3.5 content allowed for the purposes of discussion. Treat things that are different in both as alternate base classes or alternate choices with the same name.
So it made me think, which of these is stronger? The multiclass character has a feat tax of 1 and ends up with double the spells while being Int sad at the cost of being 1 level of spellcasting behind, not even CL because Illumian things, until level 8 where they catch up. That Theurge class means that, if it was allowed, i could potentially hop into other PrCs and not loose CL but have fewer spells per day. The theurge would let me keep my concept in place and hop into a Gish or weird casting class, or maybe even finally get to play a Durthan, but over all is that really a power bump over the absurd amount of spells a early entry theurge gets, especially when a affiliation benefit exists that fixes lost spellcaster levels up to a cap of character level?
That's mostly the question id like to posit. If given the choice between these two, which would you pick and which do you think is the better of the two? Assume pathfinder base rules (so decrease skill point requirements for everything by 3) with official pathfinder (plus the other stuff i've mentioned) and 3.5 content allowed for the purposes of discussion. Treat things that are different in both as alternate base classes or alternate choices with the same name.