Flame Blade for a Cleric


Rules Questions


I am looking through Hero Labs at a caster level 3 spell to take when I am eventually level 8 I am playing a Cleric of Sarenrae with healing & Sun domain & the Deity's favoured weapon is Scimitar

So funnly enough I seem to be drawn to a spell called FLame Blade

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/spells/flameBlade.html

FLAME BLADE
School evocation [fire]; Level druid 2
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, DF
Range 0 ft.
Effect sword-like beam
Duration 1 min./level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
A 3-foot-long, blazing beam of red-hot fire springs forth from your hand. You wield this blade-like beam as if it were a scimitar. Attacks with the flame blade are melee touch attacks. The blade deals 1d8 points of fire damage + 1 point per two caster levels (maximum +10). Since the blade is immaterial, your Strength modifier does not apply to the damage. A flame blade can ignite combustible materials such as parchment, straw, dry sticks, and cloth.

Yes I can see there it says Druid 2 but what I am wondering is

why is it coming up in Hero labs as a choice for a Cleric ?
what book is this from ?
Can a Cleric take it ?

The Exchange

I would guess inner sea gods. I don't own that one though. Hero labs talks about it under Sarenrae's variant spell casting.


anyone else can contribute or confirm genetic drift's comment ?


Yes it's in inner sea gods as a variant spell casting for S. Clerics


I am a bit of a idiot (understatement) can you explain what you mean by variant spell casting in that statement & tell me what page number in that book it is on ?


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http://www.archivesofnethys.com/DeityDisplay.aspx?ItemName=Sarenrae

Follow that link for everything you could want for building a sarenrae worshiping character.

In the second-to-last section under unique spells it says that clerics of sarenrae can prepare Flame Blade as a 3rd-level spell.

What variant casting means is that some gods can grant their worshipers spells that normally aren't available for their class or level. So for example, if a cleric of sarenrae wanted to prepare flame blade, they are allowed to by their goddess.

However, if clerics of asmodeus wanted to prepare the flame blade, asmodeus would direct them to divine contract #3917 subsection #487 paragraph #3, stating that clerics cannot cast flame blade normally AND he has not been given clerance to grant his followers such a spell either, so that cleric cannot have flame blade.


Flame Blade can be surprisingly nasty due to the fact that it will receive bonuses due to a weapon. At level 9, Empowered Flame Blade will be doing 1d8+4 x 1.5, or around 12 damage - then if you use the usual Fate's Favored trait Divine Favor, that becomes about 16 damage. Not too bad for an elemental touch-attack weapon. If one were to go all-out on Flame Blade, then one level of Monk with Crusader's Flurry and Evangelist Cleric could bring it up to 3/4 18 damage touch attacks on a full attack by level 9 (Magical Lineage to make Empowered Flame Blade a level 4 spell).


My GM is very strict any chance that you can supply the page number it is in the book for the inner sea gods please ?

Never mind I looked at bottom of that page from the above supplied link
I see it says Inner sea gods page 139

Thanks angry wizard

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder PF Special Edition, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
BlackPickle wrote:
I am a bit of a idiot (understatement) can you explain what you mean by variant spell casting in that statement & tell me what page number in that book it is on ?

Every deity in Inner Sea Gods has a paragraph describing it's variant casting. For Sarenrae, Flame Blade is one of the variant choices.


Cleric of Sarenrae have it added to their spell list.

Otherwise, any divine Samsaran can take it from the Druid list with the Mystic Past Life racial feature.


It's interesting that the spell Divine Trident - which is very, very similar - is a level 2 spell for any Cleric. Kind of tramples on the value of bonus level 3 Flame Blade if it's available.


By Divine Trident I assume you mean the d20pfsrd sanitized version of Gozreh's Trident, which, as the name implies, is explicitly tied to Gozreh. So, no, not such a great example.


Ah, SRD strikes again.

Scarab Sages

Bob Bob Bob wrote:
By Divine Trident I assume you mean the d20pfsrd sanitized version of Gozreh's Trident, which, as the name implies, is explicitly tied to Gozreh. So, no, not such a great example.

While Gozreh's Trident was developed by the faith of Gozreh, per Inner Sea Gods, all spells listed in the chapter can be taken by members of any faith. It's available for any cleric as a 2nd level spell, not just clerics of Gozreh.

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