divine sorcerer? (3.5)

[rollfrenzy]

So I am in the process of designing a world and the basic concept is this.

Many years ago, human civilization had advanced to the era of steam and magic when a war erupted and wiped out all life except for a few small barbarian tribes and a few isolated dwarven and elven cities. The elves, dwarves and Dragons made a pact to not let the humans nearly destroy everything again and kept the human tribes isolated and ignorant. Recently humanity has advanced back into dark age technology and a strong king is beginning to unite the warring feudal states. The three ancient races have been keeping magical and divine power away from the humans.

So I was thinking given this back story (which is in it's infancy so don't judge too harshly), I was planning on banning Wizard, druid and Cleric. I was going to leave in the sorcerer and the "other" casters (ranger, bard, etc).

I was wondering if given these circumstances i could have a divine sorcerer. basically just use the sorcerer exactly, just allow them to pick from divine list instead of arcane.

What do you think?

Forgive me if this exists somewhere i don't have access to too many of the splat books and things...

Also, I apologize if this belongs in the homebrew section. I am looking more for broad reactions than specific design tweaks.

Thanks in advance.

[JaxGaret]

The class you're looking for is called the Favored Soul.

[Woodsman]

Yeah, it's Favored Soul.

They're better than sorcerers in some ways, as they're proficient with their patron deity's favored weapon, and they gain Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization with said weapon.

They also gain wings.

[Baron Corm]

Complete Divine has the favored soul, which is a spontaneous caster with the cleric spell list. It doesn't receive Turn Undead or domains, but it receives energy resistance, and eventually wings (at level 15-20, don't remember). Its flavor is that it was chosen at birth to be the favored one of a god, kind of like sorcerers are born with magic essence.

The divine spell list is not as good as the arcane one, so I don't think a straight change would be balanced.

[rollfrenzy]

Thanks for the quick response. I will have to look into it. That's kind of the exact flavor i was looking for. Basically humans finding a way to kind of "evolve" past the control of the ancients.

[Jack_Simth]

I was wondering if given these circumstances i could have a divine sorcerer. basically just use the sorcerer exactly, just allow them to pick from divine list instead of arcane.

What do you think?

Forgive me if this exists somewhere i don't have access to too many of the splat books and things...

As exists, you want the Favored Soul (Complete Divine, spontaneous Cleric, with some bonuses) or the Spirit Shaman (spontaneous Druid, with some penalties).

You could also check out the Spontaneous Divine Casters variant from Unearthed Arcana.

[Zaq]

So you basically want the Favored Soul, then, from Complete Divine. They pick from the cleric spell list, but they cast spontaneously (with the same spells known and spells-per-day as the sorcerer). They have more class features (including medium armor proficiency, cleric BAB, a few free minor boosts with their deity's favored weapon, some energy resistances, and so on), d8 HD, and all three good saves, but their spellcasting has split attributes (Charisma for highest spell known and for bonus spells, Wisdom for save DCs). They also, obviously, don't get a familiar.

If anything, a sorcerer who simply chose from the cleric list without any of the favored soul's benefits (but kept their single-attribute casting) would be arguably a little underpowered, probably about on the same level as the favored soul (less powerful at low levels, more powerful at high) and a little weaker than the sorcerer proper. I personally am quite fond of the favored soul... they're flavorful, and while they're still very powerful (they're full casters who get 9th level spells, after all), they're definitely a step down from the Big Five, so they're less likely to steamroll everything in the game. Weaker than a cleric, undeniably, but by no means actually weak.

If you're making a sorcerer divine rather than using the favored soul, you should consider carefully whether or not you should allow them to take domain spells. That greatly changes the power level, or it can in the right hands.

Also, if you have access to Complete Champion, there are some ACFs for the sorcerer to make them more divine-feeling (one I believe gives domain access, and one trades your familiar for a "Divine Companion" that can heal or protect you by absorbing some of your spells and spitting the energy back out.)

What level you're playing at also makes a difference. At low levels, the fact that divine spells have no ASF chance and can thus cast in armor (with which most divine casters are proficient) is, if not exactly amazingly powerful, still an edge that arcane casters just don't get. At higher levels, AC in general and especially AC gained from actually wearing physical armor becomes way, way less important, and thus that benefit kind of dies out. At level 2 or 3, though, it can be a big thing.

Remember that, while divine spells are very powerful, they're generally considered to be less powerful than arcane spells. Consider the wizard and the cleric... the cleric has better HD, saves, BAB, proficiencies, and armor than the wizard, as well as bonuses from their domain granted abilities, the ability to spontaneously cast cures, and they know all of the spells on their list rather than having to seek them out. The wizard is still, nevertheless, considered to be on an equal (or often greater) power level with the cleric, simply because they get wizard spells instead of cleric spells. So, before you simply swap the sorcerer and cleric spell lists, consider how this will affect the power level of the characters in question, and ask yourself if you want to try to change that.

You can also check out the "Spontaneous Divine Casters" variant in the SRD which gives rules for clerics with spontaneous casting, closer to a sorcerer than to a wizard. You can file off the serial numbers and simply call them "divine sorcerers" if you want to do so... I don't know how well that would fit with your world, but it's an option.

Finally, consider how this will change with the fluff of your world. Will divine sorcerers know that their powers come from a different source than that of their arcane comrades, or will they simply know that their powers are different because magic is unpredictable? Will they need divine foci to cast spells, and if so, how will they know this, just innately? Will they be looked down upon by the arcanists, or viewed as equals? Will they know that their powers are divine? How will they feel about that? Will they still call themselves "sorcerers?" Lots of things to consider.

Hope this helps.

[Bluebeard]

I find the Generic Spellcaster comes a lot closer to what I want the sorcerer to be anyway.

And making a Sorcerer draw from the Cleric list instead of the Wizard list is -- if anything -- a nerf.
Go for it.