Alternate spells for Angelic, Demonic, Diabolic, and Elemental Sorcerers


Homebrew and House Rules


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So, there was a discussion in one of the other threads about the issues with Angelic, Demonic, and Diabolic sorcerers. The problem is that these bloodlines have a number of granted spells that have effects based on their deity or deity's alignment, and a sorcerer shouldn't need any external patron to provide juice for their spells. So, there are four possible options here:

1 - Rules as written: If you don't follow a deity, you can't cast these spells.

2 - The easy way: Sorcerers essentially act as their own deity, so the alignment-based effects of these spells use their own alignment. For Spiritual Weapon, just choose one weapon when you learn the spell, and that's the one you use.

3. The flavorful way: Angelics get the Good version of these spells, Demonics get the Chaotic or Evil version, and Diabolics get the Lawful or Evil version. This is more flavorful - you call upon your demonic blood to inflict divine wrath, that's going to carry the power of evil. Mechanically, there are issues however: if you're playing against type (and it's not like "fiendspawn done good" is an uncommon trope) your party will probably not appreciate being hit with a bunch of Evil damage from a demonic Divine Wrath while their foes are unscathed.

4. The complicated way: replace the spells with others. Since this is the Homebrew forum, that's what this post is about. So my suggested replacements are:

Angelic: 2 - Calm Emotion; 4 - Vital Beacon; 7 - Sunburst; 8 - Divine Inspiration.
Demonic: 4 - Confusion; 7 - Possession; 8 - Monstrosity Form.
Diabolic: 7 - Mask of Terror; 8 - Maze.

Another bloodline that's a bit boring is the Elemental one. Having all of them cast Produce Flame, Burning Hands, and Fireball but with different FX (and dealing bludgeoning damage) is a perfectly cromulent way of dealing with different elements while shackled by page/word count, but it's a bit dull (and at least in the case of Produce Flame, causes some weird stuff on a crit, since it's easy to imagine a crit with actual fire dealing persistent damage, but less so with a rock dealing bludgeoning damage). So these are my suggestions for alternate spells:

Cantrip:
Water - Ray of Frost
Air - Electric Arc
Earth - Telekinetic Projectile

1st:
Water - Hydrualic Push
Air - Gust of Wind
Earth - Grease (this is the one I had the most problem with)

3rd:
Water - Slow
Air - Lightning Bolt
Earth - Meld into Stone

So, does anyone have any other suggestions on what spells would work with these bloodlines?

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