New magic sub domain.


Homebrew and House Rules


is this unbalanced?

Allot of people i play with are barking for a Int based cleric so i thought a magic subdomain might do the trick. Does this seem balanced or potentialy game breaking?

Magic Subdomain: Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgist(ex): Through the teachings of your deity you learn to apply the trappings of magic and reason into your religious studies. Unlike most Clerics, whose godly magic is powered by empathy and wisdom, you use your intellect to understand and master your Divine spells. You use your Intelligence, rather than your wisdom, to determine spellcasting ability in your Cleric class, such as bonus spells per day, the maximum spell level you can cast, the save DCs of your spells. You gain a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft checks.

Replacement Domain Spells: 1st level—magic aura, 4th level - arcane eye, 6th—analyze dweomer.

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I'm not a big fan of abilities that let you swap casting stats unless there's a really good reason for it. I'm not seeing that here. I guess it's not too terribly unbalanced, but I find it it really lame. In addition, that's pretty much the only thing the subdomain does here.


Do any of the various stat swappers have a good reason?


Ability doesn't say what it replaces from the magic domain. And yes,it's too powerful.


I like the idea. Tying it solely to the Magic domain is a good move. You're giving up a domain ability to switch stats so there is some sacrifice for the change.

I'd remove the +2 bonus on Knowledge and Spellcraft, mostly because they will be better than a normal cleric with those skills (and have more skills available) anyway.


It would replace the first level magic domain power. Would the removal of the +2 to Knowledge arcana and spacecraft balance things out?


clff rice wrote:

is this unbalanced?

Allot of people i play with are barking for a Int based cleric so i thought a magic subdomain might do the trick. Does this seem balanced or potentialy game breaking?

Magic Subdomain: Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgist(ex): Through the teachings of your deity you learn to apply the trappings of magic and reason into your religious studies. Unlike most Clerics, whose godly magic is powered by empathy and wisdom, you use your intellect to understand and master your Divine spells. You use your Intelligence, rather than your wisdom, to determine spellcasting ability in your Cleric class, such as bonus spells per day, the maximum spell level you can cast, the save DCs of your spells. You gain a +2 bonus on all Knowledge (arcana) and Spellcraft checks.

Replacement Domain Spells: 1st level—magic aura, 4th level - arcane eye, 6th—analyze dweomer.

Way too powerful for what it does and what it replaces as a general subject. You might as well play a Wizard and give him access to a Necromancy Healing subschool, allowing him to learn Cure and Inflict spells 1 or 2 levels later than the spell level actually listed, or grant access to a Channel Energy class feature as a Cleric, getting 1D6 to the channel at 1st level, and then every 3 levels afterward, as that better represents the power level of the actual school/domain powers.

If anything, this would be an archetype thing, for example, a Sanctified Elementalist archetype from the Cleric class that allows Intelligence to serve as their spellcasting feature, they get Selective Channeling as a Bonus Feat at 3rd level (replacing a 1D6 Channel increase), using their Wisdom instead of Charisma for excluding targets, and instead of channeling to Heal Allies or Harm Enemies with Positive/Negative Energy, they get an Elemental Channel, able to channel 1 of the 4 primary elements at the time of usage, with a save equal to 10 + half level + Wisdom modifier for half damage. In addition, instead of spontaneous casting with Cure or Inflict spells, it works with spells that have one of the 4 primary elements as a descriptor. (I think it would be really fun to play now that I think about it.)

That being said, it's your game, so if you want to allow your players to use Intelligence instead of Wisdom to cast when playing a Cleric, then go for it.


Only one specific domain get this ability. an archtype would make thing much less limited IMO. I think a wizard with heals ontop of blastyness would be way unbalanced. all this does is replace one stat for another.

People are saying its unbalanced instead of saying why its unbalanced. I wanna know why this would be game breaking besides clerics with a couple more skill points and maybe mystic theurges with stap.

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