Balanced & Simplified Favored Soul Fix

[Biscuit]

This is a simple fix to make the Favored Soul class more viable with 5 easy additions to their mechanics.


Step 1 Change the Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a favored soul's spell to 10 + the spell's level + the favored soul's Charisma modifier (instead of their Wisdom Modifier).

Reasoning: This centers casting around a single stat (Charisma) like every other full casting class instead of splitting it between two stats and guaranteeing that Cleric is the 'obvious' choice over the two options.



Step 2 Give them all the Knowledge skills that a Cleric has as class skills, and grant Eschew Materials as a bonus feat at level 1.

Reasoning: The entire point of a Favored Soul is being the Sorcerer version of a Cleric. Without something to emphasise 'spontaneous casting' right out of the gate, using the Spontanious Divine Casting variant of a Cleric is a far better option than a Favored Soul because it is frontloaded with 2 Domains that grant spells known and extra Domain powers and nets you Turn Undead and 3 more Knowledge skills as class skills (which help to enter a variety of prestige classes).



Step 3 Replace Deity's weapon focus (at level 3) and Deity's weapon specialization (at level 12) to instead gaining an instance of Favored Domain at 3rd level and again at 12th level:

Favored Domain - At level 3 and again at 12st level, you gain access to a single of your deity's Domains of your own choosing (or a DM-approved thematic domain of your choice if playing a variant that worships a concept instead of a deity). You are granted the Domain's Granted Power, and all of its Domain Spells simply become Bonus Spells Known in addition to your normal number of Spells Known, rather than gaining 'domain slots' like a Cleric. Higher level Domain Spells are added as Spells Known as soon as you unlock spell slots of the appropriate level.

Reasoning: This gives Favored Souls 'access' to a single Domain, qualifying them for a lot of prestige classes that are great fits for them, but they could normally not take unless they dipped a level in cleric. The goal is to make the class appealing enough to take fully without 'having' to dip.



Step 4 Add Energy Resistance 10 (Universal) to level 20, replacing the 3 existing separate energy resistances and change DR 10/Silver or DR 10/Cold Iron to simply be DR 10/-.
Reasoning: It continues the existing theme of getting 10 points of resistance at every 5th level, and would flesh out the capstone since it normally only has a craptastic DR 10/Silver or DR 10/Cold Iron as the final benefit for staying true for 20 levels. This makes the capstone actually decent, allowing it to compete with the more front-loaded Cleric.


Step 5 Replace the Wings feature at level 17 with Divine Transformation.

Divine Transformation - At 17th level, a favored soul gains wings and can fly at a speed of double their base land speed with Good Maneuverability (a good-aligned favored soul grows feathered wings, and an evil-aligned favored soul gains batlike wings, while a favored soul who is neither good nor evil may choose either type of wings), as well as an aura that radiates 20' from their body. If the Favored Soul is Good-Aligned, the aura causes those of Evil Alignment to receive 1d8 Sacred damage upon entering the aura and at the start of their round ever round that they start within the aura. If the Favored Soul is Evil-Aligned, the damage is 1d8 Profane damage to those with a Good Alignment instead. If the Favored Soul is neither Good or Evil-Aligned, their Aura does 1d6 Nonlethal damage to those of any alignment other than Neutral (this damage is not negated by those normally immune to nonlethal damage like Undead and Constructs). The aura can be suspended or resumed as a standard action.

Reasoning: Just wings at level 17 is laughable, and the auras guarantee at least 2 damage dice (one for entering, one more before leaving) if anyone applicable gets within 20' of the Favored Soul, which I think is just useful enough to be balanced. This allows them to stay at range (fly) or wade into melee to assist (extra damage), complimenting the 'pick your role' style of gameplay that the class offers.

[nonsi]

Why not just give it one domain at 3rd and another at 12th?
The Cleric is still better even with that addition.

[Morphic tide]

Why not just give it one domain at 3rd and another at 12th?
The Cleric is still better even with that addition.

Honestly, it'd be fitting to give the Favored Soul more Domains than the Cleric, given they run on an involuntary hotline to the divine force in question. That mitigates the spontaneous caster problems without reintroducing the decision paralysis, as well, in a way that brings built opportunities from Domain Powers.

[nonsi]

Honestly, it'd be fitting to give the Favored Soul more Domains than the Cleric, given they run on an involuntary hotline to the divine force in question. That mitigates the spontaneous caster problems without reintroducing the decision paralysis, as well, in a way that brings built opportunities from Domain Powers.

Of course.
How many domains would you give the FS and at which levels?

[Morphic tide]

Of course.
How many domains would you give the FS and at which levels?

I'd say starting with three, one deity-independent off a list of "basic" gish-bait and party support, like Healing, Protection, and War, following the function-based vein of PRCs like Warpriest and the Cloistered Cleric. Then the list at 5th, deity at 10th, a floating Domain from either at 15th, and capstone being a way to alter the deity's Domain list for everyone. Makes the base class match a Cloistered Cleric Contemplative for raw number of Domains, but with far less quality access until Epic blows open the deity-tweaking.

Oh, also give them Domain bonus slots to mirror the Sorcerer's slot advantage over Wizard. And make "Deity's Weapon Focus" into a somehow-scaling thing so that hard feats, Fighter dips, and War domain speed it up instead of being stuck getting a 4th-level feat at 12th. Plus Wings at 11th when Wizards can cast Extended Overland Flight to nearly strictly superior effect.

[nonsi]

OK, things start making sense regarding what should be done:
1. Wings at 11th.
2. Definitely for removing Wis from the equation.
3. Definitely Energy Resistance 10 (Universal) at level 20 over DR.
4. Domains access should be gained according to Morphic tide's suggestion, but at levels 2, 7, 13, 19.
5. The added Knowledge skills are a good call
5. Leave the other class features as they are. FS is no warrior, so Spec at 12th is OK I'm guessing.

I'll remain on the fence regarding domain bonus slots.
If you think that the above changes are not enough, then given the power gap from clerics at 1st, I'd allow another domain at 1st (with or w/o bonus slots).

[Deepbluediver]

Step 1 Change the Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a favored soul's spell to 10 + the spell's level + the favored soul's Charisma modifier (instead of their Wisdom Modifier).
Reasoning: This centers casting around a single stat (Charisma) like every other full casting class instead of splitting it between two stats and guaranteeing that Cleric is the 'obvious' choice over the two options.

I just want to say that, when it comes to "balance" in 3.5e, I prefer to make all the primary casters dual-stat instead of making classes like the Favored Soul or Archivist more SAD. Dual-stat casting, IMO, is something to be emulated, not discarded.

Why not just give it one domain at 3rd and another at 12th?
The Cleric is still better even with that addition.

I approve of doing this for both the FS and the Cleric- spread the goodies out so that you don't dump everything on the class right in the first few levels.

[Biscuit]

I have taken feedback into account and replaced the normal level 3 & 12 Favored Soul abilities with full Domains, adding the domains spells as bonus spells known at each respective level and changed the DR 10/Cold Iron or DR 10/Silver to a flat DR 10/- as a proper capstone ability.

And while on one level, I agree with Deepbluediver that 3.5 would be more balanced if casters used dual stats for casting, I'm seeking to 'fix' or 'rewrite' the outlying 'underperforming' classes to be more in-line with existing commonly used classes, and not rewrite the foundation of all casting classes as a whole, so am sticking with nixing Wis from the equation for Favored Souls and make them single-attribute focused for casting.

I agree that Wings is a 'meh' feature at level 17, but I believe that moving it to a lower level would simply incentivize prestiging out of the base class. Instead, I changed the name to Divine Transformation and added a useful Aura effect on top of the wings to help with incentivizing the late levels at least a little.

[Deepbluediver]

And while on one level, I agree with Deepbluediver that 3.5 would be more balanced if casters used dual stats for casting, I'm seeking to 'fix' or 'rewrite' the outlying 'underperforming' classes to be more in-line with existing commonly used classes, and not rewrite the foundation of all casting classes as a whole, so am sticking with nixing Wis from the equation for Favored Souls and make them single-attribute focused for casting.

That's understandable. Addressing all of 3.5s issues would likely require an amount of homebrew nearly as great as all of 3.5 itself.

[nonsi]

That's understandable. Addressing all of 3.5s issues would likely require an amount of homebrew nearly as great as all of 3.5 itself.

It depends. If you want only to have balanced classes, then it's doable with mixing and matching the existing classes.
If OTOH you want to fix and improve everything - yes, it's a long and bumpy ride. And still, I consider 3.5e to be the best framework to work with.