Community Tiering for all 3.5 Base Classes

[Zanos]

Do nothing? Easiest thing I've ever been asked. I'm going to sleep.

[eggynack]

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Why would we know what your system's problems are before testing it? You can theoretically anticipate some problems, but I'd never have guessed we'd be able to convince enough people who originally voted of a change in tier that it'd actually change that tier. Convincing someone that their already stated opinion is wrong is about as rare as, well, knowing all the problems in a system before testing it. And, actually, beyond my never guessing that we'd be able to convince people, I would never guess that you'd hold so tightly to more or less unlisted procedures that you'd refuse to even consider a tier change or revote even with this much evidence that the initial tiering is, not just wrong, but also not reflective of the community opinion. Why would I ask for a rule change in favor of something I'd think a reasonable person would just kinda do? Tell the me of the thread's beginnings that you'd react like this, and I'd seek the rule change even not knowing which side of the tier dispute I'd be on.

You keep acting like this is some personal opinion thing, meanwhile. I don't think you should change the tier just because I don't like it the way it is. If it were me against the world, I wouldn't even think to suggest such a change. Might still argue with people on an individual basis, but I wouldn't seek a recount if it weren't close, and I wouldn't seek a retier if I weren't clearly winning. I think you should change the tier because the majority of people in this thread, even if you limit to people before the deadline, think the tier should be what it currently isn't, and your thread's ostensible purpose is to create a tier system reflective of the community's views

For someone who complains a lot about people assigning you motives you don't have, you sure do assign us motives we don't have a whole lot.

Edit:

How can you tell what the correct tier - absolute or relative - is without comparison to other classes? JaronK's tiers don't have any empirical standards for placement, so either you compare to other stuff or you rely on a priori arguments, which don't have a great track record as far as "producing truth" goes.

I'm still pretty firmly convinced that what you want is a sort of relative personal assessment. You keep the advantages of relative measuring, the main one being that you can arrive at meaningful results, but you're not bound to the whims of this particular tier list in its eccentricities (or, if we're measuring eccentricity by distance from the original, lack thereof). You might get silly results, but your votes are at least all self-informed and consistent.

blasphemy specifically is kind of a turd because it hits people who are good (your friends) and not people who are evil (your enemies). holy word is better but incompatible with undead creation (IIRC, Favored Souls might not have the alignment restrictions). You're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Fair. I was kinda assuming, perhaps baselessly, that this evil cleric was going against mainly good targets. If they're not, the list'd probably change to reflect that.

It's true that the Beguiler list is kind of weak at this point, but you get Advanced Learning which you probably spend on either simulacrum or greater shadow conjuration, either of which is kind of nuts.

Yeah, that is nice. Forgot that advanced learning is lining up at that spell level.

[Cosi]

Why would we know what your system's problems are before testing it?

I assume the same way that we're supposed to tier classes without comparing them to other classes.

Fair. I was kinda assuming, perhaps baselessly, that this evil cleric was going against mainly good targets. If they're not, the list'd probably change to reflect that.

As an evil Favored Soul, the list works, but evil campaigns aren't exactly common, so it doesn't seem right to build a spell list for one. I agree that if you're fighting good people, it works, although it still has the same problem with the HD cap being pretty bad for you.

[Pleh]

If anyone thinks this procedure is inferior to one they'd like to see used, we can always make another thread that uses a different procedure.

[Jormengand]

Druid 12X sorta stands on its own - druid is pretty much T1 poster-child material, and for good reasons. They cannot fail to have access to spells which will make them win every combat, and which provide them with utility abilities from relatively early on. This is ignoring all of their abilities which aren't summon nature's ally, too - wild shape allows them to travel pretty much anywhere, and do most things once they're there, and they have a decent spell list backing it up.

Duskblade: 43. I see very little on this list which isn't ultimately an expression of your ability to make things die before they make you die - dimension door and dispel magic come online too late to impress me (at that point, dispel magic is probably going to fail to dispel most of the spells you could aim it at anyway) and disintegrate destroying walls isn't a big deal by level 17. The SLAs you start with are almost useful. I still see this as far more 4 than 3 - you're going to find yourself severely lacking when breaking things (or people) or preventing things (or people) from getting broken are not on the agenda.

Expert NPC: X54 depends too much on optimisation. At low-optimisation, they're essentially awful, probably taking many of the skills the rogue would have outdone them at. At high optimisation, they're among very few classes in the game with access to powerful skills such as lucid dreaming and iajutsu focus. Access to any 10 of a massively varied list of skills is going to get you interesting places.

Expert Generic: 4X3. By my count, this is basically a build-a-rogue, with its selection of feats-not-feats allowing you to rank up 9d6 sneak attack, trap sense and trapfinding, and evasion and improved evasion. In fact, I can't see much of a way in which this is at all worse than a rogue, even if you just spend your time trying to do the same sorts of things that a rogue might have been doing. Access to lucid dreaming basically seals the deal (being able to murder people in their sleep at any distance never really goes out of style), and I can see the argument that it's amazing at murdering people in their sleep, and capable of just about anything else, bringing it up to tier 3.

Factotum: 3. This has basically everything it could have without edging into tier 2. It's almost as though the designers stacked iconically T3-4 abilties onto it - 7th-level spells, check; hit point healing, check; skills forever, check; ability to kill almost anything, check. Cunning brilliance comes online too late to matter, but is also exceptionally powerful - I recommend stealing the "Bonus feats" feature from the fighter and enjoy benefitting from the feature as though your fighter level were 19, thereby netting you 10 bonus fighter feats of your choice (albeit only for 1 minute). Really, factotum is able to contribute to almost anything.

Favoured Soul: 2. The cleric list is definitely a T1/2 list, depending on how you cast from it, just like the wizard/sorcerer list. Favoured soul is a spontaneous caster from one of the best lists in the game, and the fact that dual-ability dependency sucks and class features are fun and dear god, I have all good saves what is this madness, isn't really enough to change that. Can the favoured soul construct a powerful spell list which allows them to break the game in multiple situations? Yes. Does that make them Tier 2? Absolutely.

[Lans]

Duskblade: 43. I see very little on this list which isn't ultimately an expression of your ability to make things die before they make you die - dimension door and dispel magic come online too late to impress me (at that point, dispel magic is probably going to fail to dispel most of the spells you could aim it at anyway) and disintegrate destroying walls isn't a big deal by level 17. The SLAs you start with are almost useful. I still see this as far more 4 than 3 - you're going to find yourself severely lacking when breaking things (or people) or preventing things (or people) from getting broken are not on the agenda.

What about spells that aid in mobility like expeditious retreat, jump, dimension hop, swift fly, spider climb and regroup? I am on the fence on whether what is basically barbarian with some range and movement powers is enough to go to tier 3. Would you say that is not enough, or that what the duskblade gets in this area isn't enough?

What about the synergy with Arcane Preperation giving access to Sanctified and vile spells?

[Karl Aegis]

Just a few things that need to be cleared up:

If having the best skills in the game can't bring your class up to tier 5, then do skills have any effect on the tiering of a class at all? I'm convinced that if the community can't agree unanimously that Expert does not belong in tier six then there is no point to discussing skills at all. No Use Magic Device, no Diplomacy, no Knowledges. In fact, I may be convinced to believe that the chassis of the class does not matter at all.

Which tier four classes have the ability to see in the dark or see invisible things? I know Adepts have See Invisibilty, but not Darkvision, but Adepts don't really have anything to DO once they've used their one second level spell to find their opponent. Barbarian has to pick up Blind Fight to deal with invisible/total concealment in darkness creatures, but that isn't a sure thing. See Invisibility seems like it would be a Tier 3 solution to a problem and Adept isn't Tier 3 because it doesn't get enough Tier 3 solutions. Does Duskblade not get enough Tier 3 or Tier 4 solutions that when combined get them into Tier 3?

[AvatarVecna]

Firstly, I'd like to point out that nobody has any right complaining that they didn't know about the potential issues with a democratic voting system (namely, that the curve can get skewed by a bunch of people making less-than-fully informed votes), considering that this is a problem with democracy that's been known to be a problem since the times of Socrates. That you got this far in life without ever being exposed to the possibility that a system that gives everybody a vote can give results based on a stupid majority isn't really the OP's problem. Your privilege of being so consistently in the majority is a blessing, but that bubble's gotta pop sometime. I'm personally of the opinion that Beguiler's gamebreaking nature can vary a lot depending on what skills/feats/PrCs they take, but my vote could easily have gone 2/X/3 instead of 3/X/2, because it's a class that hovers on the border to me. Whether it's declared T2 or T3, I'd be sure to inform DMs that it's a class that can straddle the border hard depending on the specific build and playstyle being used...and that's what I'm going to do here, instead of whining about how democracy works.

Given the nature of this thread, and how difficult things would be to keep track of, my only possible suggestion for a way that the OP could've improved accuracy and discourse was to leave discussion open a bit longer on each round; I don't know how this would've changed various tiers, but I can only assume it would've at least resulted in a lot less whining. I've been avoiding this thread because I don't wanna get drawn into the endless pointless discussions people have been having about thread procedure and a round that's now multiple rounds in the past, but I think the better solution would just be to cast my vote with a bit of explanation and just avoid the old discussions. As a possible compromise, I saw a suggestion a few pages back about the possibility of, at the very end, taking maybe 12 classes that people think were mis-tiered and rediscussing them for double the normal length. I think that this kind of "save it for the end" discussion would allow thread procedure to be maintained, would cut down on the amount of conversation that's irrelevant to the current round, and would still allow for a potential re-tiering of things you think were put in the wrong tier.

Spoiler: Druid: 1/2/3/X

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A druid with no items, no skill ranks, and no feats (yes, that includes Natural Spell) is still a character with the best casting method off one of the best spell lists, who can also turn into a wide variety of creatures and has an ally as a class feature even in a game where Leadership is banned. Druidzilla exists for a reason.

Spoiler: Duskblade: 3/4

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A quick glance through the Duskblade spell list showed a list that had some solid utility and a good bit of combat stuff. The severely limited number of spells known, though, makes it hard for me to put this at a solid T3. What I will say is that a carefully-made Duskblade can be solid enough at combat and utility to be a solid T3, but I imagine that most Duskblades will focus around combat - in which case they're a solid T4.

I would also like to point out the travesty that is a partial-caster getting full BAB while the Monk is left out to dry.

Spoiler: NPC Expert: 6/4/X

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The vast majority of experts won't have any broken skills, and will be terrible at every role. Those that choose broken skills to master will likely be one-trick ponies, albeit with a very good trick. Ultimately, how good this class can be is highly dependent on your DMs tolerance for skill cheese, which I imagine can vary wildly.

Spoiler: UA Expert: 5/4/6

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A UA Expert that uses their bonus feats as actual feats and nothing else, and chooses poor skills, is objectively worse than a monk in basically every way at all levels. A UA Expert that tries to be a Rogue clone will end up with a wonky SA progression that's still slower than a rogue's, less skill points than a rogue, no special rogue abilities past 10th lvl, no Improved Uncanny Dodge, and no access to rogue-specific feats/ACFs/PrCs - in other words, a rogue clone that's pretty terrible and hovers somewhere between T4 and T5 depending on whether you can make them competent enough at something to contribute. A UA Expert that pulls the same tricks the NPC Expert did can be a one-trick pony, or maybe even a two-trick pony.

EDIT: It's been pointed out to me that Uncanny Dodge grants IUD at a certain point for this class, but the rest of my points still stand. I think the UA Expert loses too much of what makes a Rogue a Rogue for the upgrades to overcome, and they lose enough that it knocks them down a tier. If they could pick certain rogue special abilities, and got 8 skill points per level, and the SA progression was less wonky, I could probably see them being T3 with the Rogue pretty easily.

Spoiler: Factotum: 3/4

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Factotum has a lot of potential, and while it can be easy to screw up while playing one (by making terrible choices about how you use your inspiration), it's harder to screw up building one (I guess you could avoid Font Of Inspiration and focus on Dex over Int? I dunno...). I don't feel comfortable just rating this a 3, though, so I guess one that focuses too hard on skills could lock themselves into a skillmonkey-only mindset, but that just makes them a high T4 instead of a mid-low T3, so ultimately doesn't make a huge difference.

Spoiler: Favored Soul: 2/4

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Higher ceiling but far lower floor than most fixed-list casters, and the advantage here is that they can be built to focus around breaking the role of their choice, rather than being locked into particular roles. The chassis and non-casting class features are pretty meh, but that's usually the case with casters (with the possible sole exception of the druid), so I won't hold that against them too much.

[Jormengand]

What about spells that aid in mobility like expeditious retreat, jump, dimension hop, swift fly, spider climb and regroup?

I feel that all of these abilities are essentially still just ways of causing combat to go your way in most situations. Sure, there's the odd case where that one round of flight will be really helpful, or where you really need to climb something that the barbarian having the climb skill couldn't have solved, but ultimately it's not enough to reach the tier 3 standard of general ability to do something even when your niche isn't being played to - that is, I don't see that "I go places and kill things, but am otherwise essentially useless" is T3 material.

[Troacctid]

If having the best skills in the game can't bring your class up to tier 5, then do skills have any effect on the tiering of a class at all?

I'm pretty sure nobody is voting Factotum into T5.

[Karl Aegis]

I'm pretty sure nobody is voting Factotum into T5.

That's not helpful.

[ComaVision]

Druid 1 I don't think anyone's going to argue this point.

Duskblade: 34 I think there is enough utility on the Duskblade spell-list to warrant T3.

Experts I'm going to abstain from commenting on the Experts. It's pretty much all about what you do with the skills.

Factotum: 345 As many others have said, Factotum is practically a definition of T3. Their floor is pretty low though, so I can understand an argument for T4. They can easily be made to not function well in any area.

Favoured Soul: 2 As everyone else has noted, they get to pick (fixed) spells off a strong list. That's pretty T2.

[Troacctid]

That's not helpful.

That's the class with the best skills in the game. You're not going to tell me that the Expert is anywhere remotely close to as good as the Factotum at skills, are you?

[Lans]

If having the best skills in the game can't bring your class up to tier 5, then do skills have any effect on the tiering of a class at all? I'm convinced that if the community can't agree unanimously that Expert does not belong in tier six then there is no point to discussing skills at all. No Use Magic Device, no Diplomacy, no Knowledges. In fact, I may be convinced to believe that the chassis of the class does not matter at all.

I disagree slightly, the expert may not have the best skills. Classes like the Marshal and incarnate can do skills better than the expert some of the time at least. That aside it could be that the Expert is a HD and a few proficiencies, or 2 skills known short of being tier 5.

I feel that all of these abilities are essentially still just ways of causing combat to go your way in most situations. Sure, there's the odd case where that one round of flight will be really helpful, or where you really need to climb something that the barbarian having the climb skill couldn't have solved, but ultimately it's not enough to reach the tier 3 standard of general ability to do something even when your niche isn't being played to - that is, I don't see that "I go places and kill things, but am otherwise essentially useless" is T3 material.

What would the duskblade need to get into tier 3 for you?

[Jormengand]

What would the duskblade need to get into tier 3 for you?

A way of meaningfully contributing to any encounter, even if that encounter can't be solved by going places and hitting things.

[Troacctid]

If Adept is what a T4 looks like to you, then putting Duskblade in the same tier has to be madness.

[Cosi]

Is this going to get a Why Each Class is in its Tier companion piece? If so, I call dips on Beguiler.

Firstly, I'd like to point out that nobody has any right complaining that they didn't know about the potential issues with a democratic voting system (namely, that the curve can get skewed by a bunch of people making less-than-fully informed votes), considering that this is a problem with democracy that's been known to be a problem since the times of Socrates.

The primary contention is not that voting was skewed per se, but that since voting closed, it has become clear that community consensus (which this thread nominally measures) is not consistent with a T3 Beguiler.

It should also be pointed out that the original post has a provision that "troll votes" will be thrown out, and I personally consider someone who can't dig up a sentence's justification for their position to be trolling.

the best casting method off one of the best spell lists

It is not the best casting method. The best casting method is spontaneous casting. Prepared casters are overall better than spontaneous ones, but that's because they have bigger spell lists rather than because prepared casting is good.

Factotum has a lot of potential, and while it can be easy to screw up while playing one (by making terrible choices about how you use your inspiration), it's harder to screw up building one (I guess you could avoid Font Of Inspiration and focus on Dex over Int? I dunno...).

It is insane to call a class dependent on a feat from a setting specific web enhancement hard to screw up. 99% of people building Factotums have no idea Font of Inspiration even exists. Also, by RAW the one good trick they have (extra actions) doesn't work, and they don't need Font of Inspiration by RAW because they gain (rather than reset) inspiration by starting encounters with rodents or allies.

Honestly, the Factotum is a tire fire of a class that doesn't do anything worth having. You gain a lot of abilities way after anyone cares, and your big trick is a non-functional mess that gives you more actions you can't do anything with. It's good as the second half of a Tome of Battle (or arguably caster) Gestalt, but in standard D&D it's garbage.

[noce]

Regarding Favored Soul, can someone help me to better understand the class intent/role?
I mean it in a constructive way

Let's see what he has and what he lacks (wrt Cleric), and support he gets from books:

• He lacks Domains
• He lacks Turn Undead
• He has split casting stat, favoring CHA and seemingly discouraging DC spells
• He gains three melee feats (proficiency, focus and specialization), but limited armor proficiency
• He can use any cleric scroll, somewhat covering utility out of combat spells
• He can cast more spells per day than a Cleric, but from a limited list (although not so limited)
• According to Dragon Magic, he can benefit from any cleric Initiate feat
• He lacks K(religion), limiting prestige class choices

1) Speaking in broad terms, which roles can a Favored Soul cover and to what extent?
You already posted a list of BFC and buff spells, so the buffer/debuffer/controller seems covered, at least.

2) How easily can a Favored Soul gain Domain powers and Domain spells? It seems to me that most PrCs add Domain spells to class spell list, not known spell list, and he could have troubles qualifying in many PrCs.

3) How much can you vary a Favored Soul build if you want to include Turn Undead? In other words, in how many ways can you gain Turn Undead? Can you qualify easily?
In my knowledge, Sacred Exorcist, Master of Radiance, Bone Knight and Death Delver are the only classes granting Turn Undead, and Sacred Exorcist is hard to get in for a Favored Soul given K(planes) 10 as a requirement, while the other three lose a caster level.

3.1) How much do you loose without DMM? Are there workarounds?

4) Is this class supported by prestige classes regardless of your Deity or alignment? Or are you somewhat forced to play certain concepts?

I know Tier system doesn't properly concern those aspects, but I think it might be helpful to discuss those things.

[Karl Aegis]

That's the class with the best skills in the game. You're not going to tell me that the Expert is anywhere remotely close to as good as the Factotum at skills, are you?

Evading the question does not give me answers.

[Jormengand]

If Adept is what a T4 looks like to you, then putting Duskblade in the same tier has to be madness.

Care to explain, rather than just insulting people?

Wait, my mistake, no, you probably don't. Never mind.

[AvatarVecna]

It should also be pointed out that the original post has a provision that "troll votes" will be thrown out, and I personally consider someone who can't dig up a sentence's justification for their position to be trolling.

Because "trolling" is now defined as "casting your vote and leaving rather than staying to have a nerve-wracking argument with *******s who yell at everybody". Has it occurred to you that some people might not have the passion for argument that you have? That they came into this thread to add their opinion to the list of opinions, rather than campaign to others about how their opinion is the only correct opinion?

It is not the best casting method. The best casting method is spontaneous casting. Prepared casters are overall better than spontaneous ones, but that's because they have bigger spell lists rather than because prepared casting is good.

That's part of what I refer to by "casting method". I consider day-to-day list access part of your casting method, and in that regard, Druid has the best, even better than Wizard, who has even better than Sorcerer. but yes, if you ignore the limitations of spells known, you can consider a spontaneous caster better than a prepared one. Congratulations, you got me to agree with you on something.

It is insane to call a class dependent on a feat from a setting specific web enhancement hard to screw up. 99% of people building Factotums have no idea Font of Inspiration even exists. Also, by RAW the one good trick they have (extra actions) doesn't work, and they don't need Font of Inspiration by RAW because they gain (rather than reset) inspiration by starting encounters with rodents or allies.

Honestly, the Factotum is a tire fire of a class that doesn't do anything worth having. You gain a lot of abilities way after anyone cares, and your big trick is a non-functional mess that gives you more actions you can't do anything with. It's good as the second half of a Tome of Battle (or arguably caster) Gestalt, but in standard D&D it's garbage.

I guess I'll go tell my friend he was having badwrongfun playing a Factotum 15, that most of the people discussing it online are wrong about how it works, and that he was only showing up the Rogue and Bard because he was cheating by using his class features. *rolls eyes*

EDIT: To be clear, he didn't take Font Of Inspiration even once, he was just being smart and using his points to cast useful spells at opportune moments.

[Troacctid]

Evading the question does not give me answers.

Experts do not have the best skills in the game. Not even close.

Care to explain, rather than just insulting people?

Wait, my mistake, no, you probably don't. Never mind.

Is it an insult to say that your position doesn't make sense?

I don't see how you can look at those two classes and say "Yep, these meet roughly the same power benchmarks, let's put them both in the same tier." The Duskblade is vastly more competent and can handle a much greater percentage of encounters than the Adept.

[javcs]

Spoiler: UA Expert: 5/4/6

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A UA Expert that uses their bonus feats as actual feats and nothing else, and chooses poor skills, is objectively worse than a monk in basically every way at all levels. A UA Expert that tries to be a Rogue clone will end up with a wonky SA progression that's still slower than a rogue's, less skill points than a rogue, no special rogue abilities past 10th lvl, no Improved Uncanny Dodge, and no access to rogue-specific feats/ACFs/PrCs - in other words, a rogue clone that's pretty terrible and hovers somewhere between T4 and T5 depending on whether you can make them competent enough at something to contribute. A UA Expert that pulls the same tricks the NPC Expert did can be a one-trick pony, or maybe even a two-trick pony.

That's mostly, but not entirely accurate. The UA Generic class "Uncanny Dodge" includes normal Uncanny Dodge and Improved Uncanny Dodge, and runs off of all class levels, not just the class you gained it from.
The lack of most of the Rogue 10+ special abilities* and the weaker sneak attack progression hurts, but I do not think it's enough to drop the Expert(Generic) out of T4 to T5, especially with the second good save.


Edit: Tiers 3 and 4 are a lot broader than the other Tiers.

[Cosi]

Because "trolling" is now defined as "casting your vote and leaving rather than staying to have a nerve-wracking argument with *******s who yell at everybody".

The people yelling are the ones complaining about the argument, not the ones having it.

Of course, I wasn't calling for prolonged engagement. I was just saying that If you can't find it in you to look through the thread for a sentence that supports your position, you are not putting enough thought into the exercise for your opinion to deserve serious consideration.

I guess I'll go tell my friend he was having badwrongfun playing a Factotum 15, that most of the people discussing it online are wrong about how it works, and that he was only showing up the Rogue and Bard because he was cheating by using his class features. *rolls eyes*

Well, also because straight Bard is bad and most people apparently don't realize that flasks and Rings of Blink are things Rogues can use. For a more detailed discussion, take a look at this thread.

[noce]

If having the best skills in the game can't bring your class up to tier 5, then do skills have any effect on the tiering of a class at all?

My opinion:

Tier systems assumes moderate optimization, so I don't think it's fine to assume that an expert has diplomacy, umd, autohipnosis, iajutsu focus and whatever else.
How are you going to motivate your build and to roleplay such a varied skill list? You're an expert, but what is exactly your field of expertise?

[Jormengand]

Is it an insult to say that your position doesn't make sense?

I don't see how you can look at those two classes and say "Yep, these meet roughly the same power benchmarks, let's put them both in the same tier." The Duskblade is vastly more competent and can handle a much greater percentage of encounters than the Adept.

Well, the adept's spell list has stuff that doesn't just go places and kill things (create water and mending are both cantrips with more combined versatility than almost the entire duskblade list). It can contribute in almost any encounter with a little thought and the right spell prepared. The duskblade is great at the two things that it does, but doesn't really do anything else.

I don't see yelling "Madness!" at things to be fair, polite, or frankly very productive.

[Cosi]

My opinion:

Tier systems assumes moderate optimization, so I don't think it's fine to assume that an expert has diplomacy, umd, autohipnosis, iajutsu focus and whatever else.
How are you going to motivate your build and to roleplay such a varied skill list? You're an expert, but what is exactly your field of expertise?

Diplomacy, Autohypnosis, and Iajutsu Focus seems like pretty much exactly the skill list I'd expect from some kind of minor noble, courtesan or samurai in a Japan-ish setting. UMD doesn't exactly fit, but I'm sure you could justify it by being a from the noble house that gets UMD for some reason. Maybe you're Beaver Clan and as such are one of the craftsman of the empire or whatever.

[GilesTheCleric]

Regarding Favored Soul, can someone help me to better understand the class intent/role?
I mean it in a constructive way

Let's see what he has and what he lacks (wrt Cleric), and support he gets from books:

• He lacks Domains
• He lacks Turn Undead
• He has split casting stat, favoring CHA and seemingly discouraging DC spells
• He gains three melee feats (proficiency, focus and specialization), but limited armor proficiency
• He can use any cleric scroll, somewhat covering utility out of combat spells
• He can cast more spells per day than a Cleric, but from a limited list (although not so limited)
• According to Dragon Magic, he can benefit from any cleric Initiate feat
• He lacks K(religion), limiting prestige class choices

1) Speaking in broad terms, which roles can a Favored Soul cover and to what extent?
You already posted a list of BFC and buff spells, so the buffer/debuffer/controller seems covered, at least.

2) How easily can a Favored Soul gain Domain powers and Domain spells? It seems to me that most PrCs add Domain spells to class spell list, not known spell list, and he could have troubles qualifying in many PrCs.

3) How much can you vary a Favored Soul build if you want to include Turn Undead? In other words, in how many ways can you gain Turn Undead? Can you qualify easily?
In my knowledge, Sacred Exorcist, Master of Radiance, Bone Knight and Death Delver are the only classes granting Turn Undead, and Sacred Exorcist is hard to get in for a Favored Soul given K(planes) 10 as a requirement, while the other three lose a caster level.

3.1) How much do you loose without DMM? Are there workarounds?

4) Is this class supported by prestige classes regardless of your Deity or alignment? Or are you somewhat forced to play certain concepts?

I know Tier system doesn't properly concern those aspects, but I think it might be helpful to discuss those things.

Comparing the FS to Cleric is probably what's confusing you here. On the face of it, the FS and Cleric are very similar. In practice, they're pretty different. First, you need to consider the list they cast from: it's mostly buffs, various types of healing, or niche solutions to problems (Remove Disease? Not useful when prepared). The FS can't rely on the same approach to the game that the Cleric enjoys, that is, asking your deity what tomorrow's forecast looks like, and then bringing either an incredible parasol, or impressive umbrella. The FS must hedge, must pick their spells closer to the middle of "this can work in lots of situations" just like a Sorcerer does.

Trying to staple all the old Cleric class features onto the FS is something you could reasonably do, and it would definitely improve its utility, particularly via expanded spells known and Devotion Feats. But that's like trying to put the Genie back into the bottle. It's just not going to be the same.

I think you can see the class in a more positive light by considering it on its own merits, rather than comparing it to Cleric. If you scroll back through the last few pages, I've made a few posts about it.

1) FS can cover every spell archetype. I posted a list that can do that, see above.

2) FS is one feat away from having a domain power, and probably also one feat from domain spells. I'm not sure what ACFs are valid for them.

3)Turn Undead has a lot of powerful uses, but most of those are lost in significant power when your spells known picks are permanent, and if we're discounting WBL (which we seem to be).

3) DMM is the easy-bake Cleric build, and though it's powerful, it's by no means the most powerful that the class or spell list gets. More op gets better results.

4) Yes, there's full casting PrCs, and PrCs that expand your spell list. FS can play any concept, but you're going to have a weaker spell list and accordingly tier if you do.

[Troacctid]

Well, the adept's spell list has stuff that doesn't just go places and kill things (create water and mending are both cantrips with more combined versatility than almost the entire duskblade list). It can contribute in almost any encounter with a little thought and the right spell prepared. The duskblade is great at the two things that it does, but doesn't really do anything else.

I'll bet that if you took a sample of four or five encounters, the Duskblade would be able to contribute effectively to more of them than the Adept pretty much every time.

[Cosi]

3) DMM is the easy-bake Cleric build, and though it's powerful, it's by no means the most powerful that the class or spell list gets. More op gets better results.

Yeah, the Archer Cleric (and its descendant, the DMM Cleric) are not fully optimized builds. It was originally formulated as a proof of the inferiority of the Fighter, demonstrating that you could make a Cleric that fought better than a Fighter and could still see the future and summon angels.

It's good, but by no means the best.