das schwarze Auge's page

Summon Earth Elemental spell-like ability. There's no usage limit listed for this ability in the class description in the hard cover. Is this really intended to be an at will ability? Being able to spam a 6th-level spell seems kind of powerful...

In my opinion, there seems to be a general consensus that the cleric class is overamped, a problem that has only been exacerbated by the glut of spells and divine feats from follow-on sourcebooks.

My modest proposal to curb one element of the CODzilla syndrome: revisit the Spheres mechanic of 2E. Under this proposal, each domain would be associated with a group of spells. Those spells would be added to the cleric's spell list.

The Spheres mechanic also had the concept of Major and minor access. This could be simulated in PFRPG by having each domain grant one group of spells for minor access, and another, potential more powerful or useful set for major access.

Major/minor access was determined by the deities relationship to the Sphere in 2E, and that could be extended to PFRPG, or, a cleric could be required to take a domain twice to gain major access to its spell set.

Like the 2E Spheres mechanic, there should probably be a "universal" sphere of fundamental spells that all clerics should be able to learn such as consecrate, hallow, etc.

Finally, clerics would be allowed to learn new domains either through feats or through additional class abilities (or both).

The domain powers of PFRPG would remain.

Discuss...

So I finally squeezed in a little time to start reviewing the Alpha Rules. The proposed rules for clerics and turning caught my eye. There are two objectives identified: help offset the heal-bot archetype of the cleric class, and, I'm guessing, help offset some of the weird swinginess of the all-or-nothing turning we see in current 3.5 rules and streamline turning. I think the alpha rules are good starting point, but I think you could go a step further.

1) base channeling on d8
2) 1 die/level
3) no save
4) each time a cleric channels, they can distribute their d8s however they see fit to any creature within the burst radius (whatever that ends up being); positive against undead deals dice of damage, and for living heals that much damage ; vice versa for channeling negative energy
5) turn resistance negates one die for each point (average of d8 is approximately 5 points)

Alternatively, set resistance to positive energy at 5 points per point of turn resistance, giving cleric a chance to do some damage against even resistant undead (I was trying to eliminate substraction during combat and negating dice seemed more elegant).

If you really wanted to get fancy, you could set up some "die-equivalent" effects which could be added on to give clerics some tactical flexibility, such as "stunning," "fear,", etc. This would probably need to bring the save mechanism back in, so it might be an optional variant.