Domain spell at lower spell level

[Araya Mothas]

Our cleric has Remove disease as a 2nd lvl domain spell. Normally this spell is a 3rd lvl spell. Obviously he can prepare it to his 2nd level domain slot, and since it is on his list he can also prepare it in his normal slots.
But if he prepares it in a normal slot would he use a 2nd lvl slot or a 3rd? I can't see why it wouldn't use a 2nd lvl slot but is there any specific verbiage I can refer to either way?

[Belafon]

This is one of those cases where I'm going to lead with "this is how I read it, but I'm not going to claim this is the only possible reading."

Remove disease as a second-level domain spell is just that: a domain spell. You can only prepare domain spells in domain slots. If the spell is also on your normal spell list you use the normal spell preparation rules (so third-level).

The Theologian archetype allows you to prepare domain spells in non-domain slots, so that would allow you to prepare remove disease in second-level cleric slots.

[MrCharisma]

Yup, Belafon is correct.

You can prepare it in your domain slot as a 2nd level spell.

You can prepare it in your regular slots as a 3rd level spell.

Remember that you can prepare lower level domain spells in higher level domain slots, so you could prepare Remove Disease as your 2nd level domain spell and your 3rd level domain spell (and 4th/5th/etc) if you wanted to.

[Diego Rossi]

The fun part: you can prepare scroll, potions and wands of Remove disease with it as second level spell. As the utility of the spell increase with a higher caster level, that will allow you to get a spell that has almost 50% extra efficacy at the same cost.

Potion of Remove disease Spell level 3 CL 5 = 750 gp
Potion of Remove disease Spell level 2 CL 7 = 700 gp

[AwesomenessDog]

A little cheesy but that is technically RAW. Just don't ask to make a scroll from a spell on the chained summoner list.

[Diego Rossi]

AwesomenessDog wrote:

A little cheesy but that is technically RAW. Just don't ask to make a scroll from a spell on the chained summoner list.

Being a bit cheesy with Remove disease and Neutralize poison doesn't feel bad to me. In older versions they worked automatically, now they require a caster level check. That makes them very inefficient when used by casters with a low level or when cast from a magic item.

While 100% success seems too good, most common ailments and poisons fall in the DC 13-15 range. Burning a 3rd level spell for a 70% chance of curing filth fever or a 4th level spell for the same chance to cure medium spider poison seems a bit underwhelming when the healing skill plus an alchemical item can give a better chance to make a successful save.
For an adventurer, it can be still interesting, for normal people, the spells that should be most useful become too expensive to be worth using.