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The thread about non-cleric divine casters and deities has been a fascinating read. It even made me do my own digging, just for fun.
I did run into something that I never fully paid attention to. The divine spell, Divine Aura.
Divine Aura is interesting in that out of all the deity/alignment reliant spells that I'm aware of, it actually has an effect that doesn't rely on a deity/alignment. It gives +1 AC/saving throw bonus with no strings attached. The only reason it can't be used by a caster with no deity or a neutral deity is because of this line:
You can't cast this spell if you don't have a deity or your deity is true neutral.
It's intriguing to think Divine Aura was even closer to being a functional spell for no deity/true neutral deity casters than Spiritual Weapon was before the errata. Just by removing that one line, the spell functions for all divine casters. A divine caster with a non-true neutral deity still comes out on top by having access to a fully functional spell, but at least it gives the no deity/true neutral caster the option to use it as well. Sure it's a limited version, but it works.
I truly hope future divine spells that are deity/alignment reliant become more mindful to this aspect in some way. Instead of completely locking out no deity/true neutral casters from a divine spell, allow the spell to have a functional effect for all casters but reward non-true neutral deity casters with additional alignment effects as normal.
Although, I also wouldn't mind seeing "flipped" versions of these deity/alignment spells. A divine spell only usable by no deity/true neutral casters instead would be wild. It screams wishful thinking but it would be fascinating to see.
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Immunity to alignment damage would be nicer if the current implementation of alignment damage wasn't so weird in general. Clerics getting to use either type of font (sometimes) is kinda cool, but not all divine casters are Clerics. I do think true neutral/no deity divines should be thrown a bone with some exclusive spells, the restrictions lifted, or guidance on "virtual" deities for classes like Sorcerer, Oracle or Witch given (a bit of text saying that they use one of the sources of their power as their deity if they don't venerate one would be enough).
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The basic issue is that true neutral casters gain essential immunity from a lot of these spells, so giving them extra spells as 'compensation' is a bit imbalanced:
- Divine Lance (Cantrip) - True Neutral characters are immune to any alignment damage this cantrip can inflict.
- Divine Wrath (Level 4) - True Neutral characters are immune to the aligned damage, and they are only sickened on a critically failed save due to the automatic upgrade).
- Divine Decree (Level 7) - The damage type of this spell is oddly unspecified, but it specifically states 'Those that neither match nor oppose it treat the result of their saving throw as one degree better and don't suffer effects other than damage' so it seems True Neutral characters will take less damage and don't have any chance of being enfeebled.
- Divine Aura (Spell 8) - While True Neutral characters are not immune to the base +1 AC/Save bonus, they are completely immune to the rest of the spell's benefits (additional bonus vs certain alignments and the possible blindness condition).
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Giving something equally powerful to Neutral characters basically makes them 'just as powerful as the aligned guys, but with fewer weaknesses' which would be a serious balance issue.
Strictly speaking, this is already a thing. A N follower of an LN deity still gets to deal Lawful damage with Divine Lance or gain bonuses against Chaotic creatures with Divine Aura while being immune to alignment based effects. An LN follower of an LG deity is only vulnerable to Chaotic effects, but can use either Lawful or Good variations of those spell.
Conversely, an NG follower of Nethys is vulnerable to Evil damage but can't use any of those spells properly either.
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Giving something equally powerful to Neutral characters basically makes them 'just as powerful as the aligned guys, but with fewer weaknesses' which would be a serious balance issue.
I think that's why Divine Aura interested me in the first place. If it didn't have its particular casting requirement, it'd still be a spell available to neutral characters but it wouldn't be equally powerful.
I imagine spells exclusive for no deity/true neutral casters would be rather niche. My best guess is a theme of "neutralizing" the other alignment effects, which would be even more situational than how alignment spells already are.