Save the Mystic Theurge!

[Grey Watcher]

Alas, the poor Mystic Theurge. Such a fascinating and noble ideal for a class, a caster that wields the power of Divine and Arcane magic in equal measure. Still, by loosing all the benefits of striaght-up Clerics, Druids, Wizards, and Sorcerers beyond spellcasting, they can't quite justify casting spells a few levels behind their purist counterparts.

So, what I would like to see is class abilities that one could add to the SRD Mystic Theurge to make it a bit more competitive. Here are a couple of my initial ideas:

Spontaneous Casting from Arcane Slots: The Mystic Theurge can use up prepared Arcane spells (or castings, if the Arcane base-class is spontaneous) to spontaneously cast Cure Spells, just as they can do with their Divine spells.

Interchangeable Spell Slots: The Mystic THeurge can use Arcane Spell Slots to prepare DIvine Spells, and vice versa. The spells do not change nature, but all spell slots efffectively become commonly available to both Arcane and Divine spells.

[TheOOB]

I'd give it the spell versitility ability that geomancers gain (Complete Divine), which allows you to exchange aspects of one type of magic for the other.

[Hario]

Spontanious casting takes away from sorcerers... no seriously... why be a sorcerer/cleric/mystic thurge if a wizard gets better at it and gets spontaneous casting :/

[Fax Celestis]

Spontanious casting takes away from sorcerers... no seriously... why be a sorcerer/cleric/mystic thurge if a wizard gets better at it and gets spontaneous casting :/

It'd only get spontaneous cures, not spontaneous everything.

However, the problem there is divine classes that don't get spontaneous spells to begin with, like the favored soul.

Perhaps a series of metamagic feats would be good, considering they could be applied to anything.

[Fizban]

I'll second the spell versatility from the geomancer. Helps remove the MAD problem, and even with that, the class feels a bit weak (what with the being 3-4 levels behind in each class).

[TheOOB]

Heck, you could just fully combine the geomancer and mystic theurge if you wanted. Neither of the classes are very powerful (except geomancer in gestalt, but thats a different story), just make it so the caster can choose knowledge(religion) or knowledge(nature) as a required skill. Hmm, i think I'll draft a class of this.

[ghost_warlock]

Going the druid/wizard route, I'd never take the Mystic Theurge. The Arcane Hierophant in Races of the Wild is SOOOO much better!

Maybe, for inspiration, look into some of the things the True Necromancer gets. They're like an extremely focused Mystic Theurge (and it's a 14-level class so it'll take a character all the way to 20th).

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I never saw the class to be all too weak, honestly. It's good for those who like to multiclass between arcane and divine and not give up much. If you really like flavor and don't wanna give up power go for the true necromancer. And if you don't wanna be a necromancer i'm sure it'd be easy to make a divine/arcane combo class that has other forms of spell focus.

[ghost_warlock]

I never saw the class to be all too weak, honestly. It's good for those who like to multiclass between arcane and divine and not give up much. If you really like flavor and don't wanna give up power go for the true necromancer. And if you don't wanna be a necromancer i'm sure it'd be easy to make a divine/arcane combo class that has other forms of spell focus.

I made a conjuration-based one, once, that got similiar benefits to the thaumaturgist. Can't find it now, though... :(

[Fizban]

The main problem I see is that there are so many new theruge-like classes that get extra abilities just for having a specific combo, such as the arcane heirophant mentioned. I was thinking about combining the geomancer and mystic thergue as well, but the drift and ley-lines are obviously nature based. Maybe if you made some celestial/fiendish options to go with them. Hmmm, yes, indeed.
@TheOOB: make that class please.