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It's incredibly frustrating to, say, take a Spell Focus as a prereq when playing a Druid or a Cleric. So much mindless digging to find out exactly which spells benefit! :(
My assumption on why divine spells aren't listed by school is because there are no transmuter clerics or conjurer druids, like there are specialist wizards. It is rather annoying that it is like that, but that is what I think.
Only wizards as a class treat spells differently depending on what school they are. No other class does this. If you want to do this easily, then you'll need to go to the d20pfsrd site and download their spells database and then use excel filters to see exactly which spells are where.
Only one class has abilities that care.
Feats don't care what class you are.
Let's not worry about the feat part and just worry about the class part, lololol. /facepalm
An alphabetical listing is far superior for all spell lists for all purposes except specialty schools and spell focus (and subsequent) feats. It might be nice to have both for all classes, but that's a ton of duplicated page count.
Here: Spell Database - easy-ish way of checking.
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And the fact it's been that way since before Paizo thought up Thassilon.
Yes, taow, but the wizards wouldn't care about them because they couldn't cast them. So why would they bother sorting them out into their schools?
Because they also created these things called "feats." In example, Spell Focus works for any kind of spellcaster, whether it's a Wizard, or a Cleric, or a Bard, or a Druid, or whatever. So let's go down the list of options:
•Wiz/Sor - Already separated by school.
•Bard - Majority Illusion or Enchantment, and Spont. Casting makes everything nice and easy (limited spells known to even worry about).
•Paladin/Ranger - Lists too small to even worry about, and neither one of these classes is very likely to sink feats into their spellcasting anyway. ;)
•Inquisitor - Same lack of concern as the Bard, albeit less "obviousness" when it comes to potential. But really, "spells known" list makes it a non-issue.
•Magus/Summoner - Uses Sor/Wiz list. They may have unique takes on it, but cross-referencing is super-easy to do.
•Witch - Starting to feel the pain. Specialized spell list, but at least you're limited to "spellbook mechanics." It sucks, but it's not the nightmare that is...
•Druid/Cleric - Every single spell that exists on your list is available to you. Holy heck, man! Hundreds of spells, for full-casters (who might want to focus on that casting), and when they take those feats like Spell Focus, there is no easy way to know what applies and what doesn't!
tl:dr - Shenanigans!
Divine spells aren't generally listed as schools because no-one could be bothered and just copied stuff from the previous edition. And AD&D (1st ed) didn't identify divine spells as any school at all - they were just 'cleric spells' and 'druid spells'.
Having said that, download the spells database and sort it yourself - and then you could post it as a google doc or something for the next person to use. Or, perhaps someone already has? (I haven't looked, but it is possible.)
The wizard list int he core rulebook is divided by school to assist new players: New players playing a wizard have the school specialties clearly spells out for them. So when they make a 1st level evoker, they know which spells they should look at immediately and which (opposed schools) they should ignore.
If you are taking Spell Focus as a cleric, you have more system mastery than the person that list is broken down for.
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An alphabetical listing is far superior for all spell lists for all purposes except specialty schools and spell focus (and subsequent) feats.
Wouldn't an even better listing be to do it alphabetically but have something marking school? It'd be like the superscripts put on spells with material components.
If you are taking Spell Focus as a cleric, you have more system mastery than the person that list is broken down for.
Why would you assume that?
Spell Focus: Conjuration is probably the dumbest feat prereq I've ever seen, since it does absolutely nothing for the feats it's a prereq for, but you still need it for Augment Summoning.And I seriously doubt it takes a lot of system mastery to suggest a Druid and/or Cleric might want to make their summons stronger. ;)
So now you have this Spell Focus, and it doesn't do anything to help your summon spells, but you have it anyway so it'd be nice to know what spells it does work with.
Looks like you've got a couple hours of perusing to do. :(
(And I would argue that the PRD list is incredibly unintuitive to sort with. It's given me headaches, so I imagine it's done the same to others!)
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For Android devices, there's a great free app in the Google Play store - Pathfinder Spellbook by Chicanery Games. It allows you to filter by any combination of schools. It's a great app for preparing/selecting spells, though it lacks a way to do the reverse and look up a specific spell.
The OGL is great, as people can make their own fixes for things that the published materials lack.
The spell database was not that easy-ish.
There should be an easy, quick reference for the schools of divine magic...without requiring an app.
Yeas, I am not sure if we need it broken down like that in print, but it'd be a cool extra bene on the PRD.
My assumption on why divine spells aren't listed by school is because there are no transmuter clerics or conjurer druids, like there are specialist wizards. It is rather annoying that it is like that, but that is what I think.
That is essentially it, yes, and I agree, they should be subdivided by school.
BUT! Check this out ...
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/tools/advanced-spell-search
With this, you can filter the spell lists, and say things like 'show me all level 1 cleric conjurations' and so forth.
If you are taking Spell Focus as a cleric, you have more system mastery than the person that list is broken down for.Why would you assume that?
Spell Focus: Conjuration is probably the dumbest feat prereq I've ever seen, since it does absolutely nothing for the feats it's a prereq for, but you still need it for Augment Summoning.And I seriously doubt it takes a lot of system mastery to suggest a Druid and/or Cleric might want to make their summons stronger. ;)
So now you have this Spell Focus, and it doesn't do anything to help your summon spells, but you have it anyway so it'd be nice to know what spells it does work with.
Looks like you've got a couple hours of perusing to do. :(
(And I would argue that the PRD list is incredibly unintuitive to sort with. It's given me headaches, so I imagine it's done the same to others!)
I must say you're woefully walking off in the wrong direction on that point. Ross's post was more a generalization on the point; taking a specific as a wholesome refutation seems a bit churlish.
In fact, I would say you are even wrong in your response. A person who knows that feat line is there and that it's worth taking does have notably more system mastery than the guy who needs the spell lists broken down.Actually, while I'm calling things out (and to be friendlier than that last point): Combat Expertise is the silliest feat prerequisite! I need 13 int to defend myself better? And I need to know this to trip people better?
But ho hum, I believe that's something grandfathered in (and off topic).
In any case; there is far less necessity for a Cleric player to know the schools apart than the Wizard, much on the back of that thing you do far more than take feats; Spell preparation. Taking a feat is a decision that, as part of levelling, a table presumably sets time aside for. Preparation should not demand that of players. More yet, if you are taking a feat for a school; as such a decision - wouldn't you be at least partially, consciously aware of what spells you're taking it for?
In any case - it would be a nice bit of website design change for those databases that exist but between;
No profits being made by the prd.
The srd having one.
I think there's little need. :)