[3.5] Archivist: Where from?

[Kansaschaser]

The post says it all. What book is the Archivist from? I've looked through many different posts and no one mentions where the class is from, but they tout it's abilities and usefulness.

[Godskook]

Heroes of Horror

[Kansaschaser]

Wow, really? I have heroes of horror and I never really read through that book much. It never really impressed me much. Thanks.

[0Megabyte]

I must admit, that made me laugh. Not in a mean way, just in the way you laugh at someone asking you where their glasses are... while they are wearing them.

[Kansaschaser]

I must admit, that made me laugh. Not in a mean way, just in the way you laugh at someone asking you where their glasses are... while they are wearing them.

I'm so glad I could amuse you.

Sadly, I also wear glasses and I have put them up on my head before. Then I walked around the house looking for them for 10 minutes before someone told me they were on my head.

I'm now looking over the Archivist class and it seems decent. I'd have to build and play one before I can really get a good grip on what they are capable of.

[sreservoir]

short version: everything.

long version: any divine spell by design, and then mostly everything else with enough cheese.

[Trekkin]

They are to clerics as clerics are to favored souls; a wider list with more preparation involved.

If your DM balks at the sheer versatility of every divine spell in the game being available, it's worth asking if you can just have the cleric list; the thing that makes Archivists interesting (Dark Knowledge) can be separated from the headache-inducing part.

[Lateral]

Yeah, there's a reason that Archivist is one of the big 5. Namely, it's possible to get EVERY SPELL OR PSIONIC POWER (I think) THAT EXISTS ONTO THEIR SPELL LISTS.

[Leon]

And it all rests on your DM being able to supply you with / let you learn the other classes spell types, if that doesn't happen you are playing a stupidly restricted cleric with a different skill set

[FMArthur]

Dark Knowledge and the Cleric's spell list already make it awesome, and not really much more restricted than the Cleric. It should be very easy to get Druid spells at least, and not much harder to get Cleric domain spells - from which Archivists seem to be the only easy way to cast more than 1/level/day of. Clerics can spew feats into Domain Spontaneity to get all their (limited) domains into their regular spell slots, and take an ACF for one domain as well. Divine Crusaders suck and their entry requirements suck. Archivists? Archivists get to do it for no investment.

[Trekkin]

Yeah, there's a reason that Archivist is one of the big 5. Namely, it's possible to get EVERY SPELL OR PSIONIC POWER (I think) THAT EXISTS ONTO THEIR SPELL LISTS.

I know it's possible to get spells as psionic powers, but how do you get psionic powers as divine spells?

[Gavinfoxx]

Be sure to ask your DM if you will have access to scrolls of the following classes:

Cleric
Adept
Druid
Divine Bard
Paladin
Ranger

and the various variants thereof?

Can you ask for a list of what the easily findable domains, as far as scrolls go?

You also might want to come up with a list of divine prestige classes to ask about if scrolls of those spell lists are findable.

[Gabe the Bard]

Archivists are really great as buffers. They get access to lots of different buff spells from the cleric and druid spell lists. Their dark knowledge ability is also just a move action, so you can do quite a lot in a single round.

[Zeta Kai]

I've never understood the exact mechanism that allows them to gain the entirety of other lists. How is that done? It seems like wishful thinking more than an explicit ability, the spell-to-power erudite.

[Lateral]

I know it's possible to get spells as psionic powers, but how do you get psionic powers as divine spells?

I don't remember how, but I'm pretty sure it's possible.

[sreservoir]

plenty of arcane spells exist in domains; all necro, conj, div can be taken by a hypothetical divine magician; sor/wiz under 5th can all be greater anyspelled. and then you can just collaborate on a scroll and designate yourself the creator, to have a divine scroll of an arcane spell.

there's also the thing about archivists learning spells on scrolls with divine spells, not just divine spells. but nobody should use that reading.

[Greenish]

I don't remember how, but I'm pretty sure it's possible.

I think you're confusing Archivist with Spell to Power Erudite.

[Lateral]

I think you're confusing Archivist with Spell to Power Erudite.

No, I'm not. That's a completely different cheese.

[Gavinfoxx]

Here's a yummy (But incomplete) Archivist spell thread:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thre...ions_of_spells

There are a few Prestige classes that they missed out on... I think Runescarred Berserker gets divine spells, maybe? Cure Moderate Wounds at level 1, I think??

[TheCountAlucard]

On that note, a friend of mine's going to be running a D&D game soonish. I decided I might go with an Archivist, myself. Said game will be at first level; any suggestions for feats, race, et cetera?

[MrRigger]

Knowledge Devotion, always Knowledge Devotion. Your Int is already going to be high, and you're going to pump those skills anyway, so why not use it?

MrRigger

[Trekkin]

Any of the Dark Knowledge expansion feats are nicely flavorful, albeit situational. Since you're already going to be making use of Knowledge skills, Knowledge Devotion can help supplement your abilities. EDIT: as pointed out above.

As for race, humans are nice; Archivists can really use that extra feat and skill points. Lesses Aasimar also helps ease their MAD.

[Nohwl]

hexer can make any wizard spell divine, and there's divine bard for all bard spells. geomancer is another way to make a whole bunch of spells divine and there's a feat in dragon magazine called alternative source spell that just makes any arcane spell divine.

[Thurbane]

Knowledge Devotion, always Knowledge Devotion. Your Int is already going to be high, and you're going to pump those skills anyway, so why not use it?

MrRigger

Knowledge Devotion is of limited use to the Archivist with his poor combat skills, though. I suppose it's still OK for spells with attack rolls and such, or when you use Divine Power.

The Collector of Stories skill trick (CS) is handy for Dark Power and Knowledge Devotion...

A Gnome with the Trivial Knowledge feat gets to roll all Knowledge checks twice and take the best result. I'm hoping to play a Gnome Archivist/Paragnostic Apostle at some point in the future.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Knowledge Devotion is of limited use to the Archivist with his poor combat skills, though. I suppose it's still OK for spells with attack rolls and such, or when you use Divine Power.

The Collector of Stories skill trick (CS) is handy for Dark Power and Knowledge Devotion...

A Gnome with the Trivial Knowledge feat gets to roll all Knowledge checks twice and take the best result. I'm hoping to play a Gnome Archivist/Paragnostic Apostle at some point in the future.

Archivists take Knowledge Devotion for the same reason clerics take Knowledge Devotion.