I have a question about the DCs for spells cast by Favored Souls. The Complete Divine states that the DC is based on the character's Wisdom bonus. Is this correct? (yes)
I ask because if the Favored Soul is suppose to be the divine counterpart to a Sorcerer, which bases its DCs off Charisma (the same ability that governs spell level and bonus slots - same as the Bard, by the way), why is the Favored Soul different? I mean, even the assassin and shugenja uses the same ability for both features.
I concede that the spirit shaman has the same twisted (but opposite) ability score uses.
I guess I'm looking for the crunch and fluff reasons if anyone has any insights.
I have a question about the DCs for spells cast by Favored Souls. The Complete Divine states that the DC is based on the character's Wisdom bonus. Is this correct? (yes)
Okay, the reason behind the split ability score requirement is balance. A favored soul gets more spells per day than a cleric, can cast in armor just fine unlike a sorcerer, and has a heck of a lot more class features than either (and they're class features that actually work, unlike turning and familiars*) WotC pretty much assumes at this point that players are using point buy methods for generating characters. And I think that's good. Having to split your good ability scores between two, three, or four scores evens things out against the core classes. However, if you still use rolls for character generation, classes like the favored soul and dread necromancer usually end up being completely useless or totally overpowered. "It's all in the dice..."
*If you focus your character totally on turning, you can be effective in most circumstances - unless you're facing a zombie of equal CR at mid-high levels.
And familiars are pretty great - but the penalties for losing them are so strict that players will often elect not to have a familiar, instead having no class features.
TK