Why is it that I see bad guy cleric types always seem to have Inflict Wounds on their spell lists? Can't they just take advantage of Spontaneous Casting and substitute as needed? I have seen this a few times, even with good NPC clerics in adventures.
Am I missing something? I can't see any downside. I would give a specific example but I am at work and don't have the magazine in front of me, but it was in three faces of evil I think.
From the SRD 3.5, ". An evil cleric (or a cleric of an evil deity) can spontaneously cast an inflict spell in place of a prepared spell (one that is not a domain spell) of the same level or higher."
The cleric I think you are referring to is Garras. A half-orc cleric of Hextor in 3FoE. That is the inflict spell I found and it is his 1st level Domain spell. So that explains why he would have that in his list, he can't swap it out. Other than Garras, I didn't notice anybody else who had Inflict Spells prepared in their stat blocks.
I'll have to check that when I get home, that might be it (and even the guy I was thinking of).
Creative Director
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When you see negative-energy channeling clerics (who don't HAVE to be evil) preparing inflict wounds spells, it's almost always because that spell is being prepared as a domain spell. Sometimes a cleric prepares a quickened inflict wounds spell, since you can't quicken a spontaneously cast spell. Good clerics sometimes prepare inflict spells as well; they're not inherently evil, and make great attacks against creatues with high AC but low touch AC. In this case, of coruse, they have to prepare the inflict spell since they spontaneously cast cure spells.
Its strange that inflict spells are not evil and cure spells are not good when the rules are that good clerics can only spontaneously cast cure spells and evil clerics can only spontaneously cast inflict spells. In my campaign, the gods allow their clerics to spontaneously cast cure spells or inflict spells based upon their portfolios rather than their alignments. Some can even choose one or the other, such as an evil god of death who is also a god of healing granting his clerics the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells if they are surgeons or inflict spells if they are death dealers.
Phil, I do the same thing in my homebrew campaigns. Glad to see that someone thinks like me.