The idea of the favored soul is kind of interesting, but it falls way behind the cleric. The biggest two problems I can think of with the class are that they don't get Turn Undead (which shuts them out of cleric tricks) and they don't have enough spells known to fulfill the restorative duties of a cleric. Clerics as a class work because they're only ever 24 hours away from having the proper
Remove ___ spell prepared for long-duration debuffs.
I was tossing around some relatively simple changes that could deal with that. Also, I moved up some of the class features that are just granted way too late.
Skills: Add Intimidate and Knowledge (Religion) to the favored soul class list.
Spells: Use Charisma to determine spell DCs, bonus spell slots, and the highest level spell the favored soul can cast.
Damage Reduction: Gained at 2nd level instead of 20th; however, instead of 10 points of damage reduction, the damage is reduced to half the favored soul level (round down).
Deity’s Weapon Specialization: Gain at 6th level instead of 12th.
Wings: Gain this ability at 9th level instead of 17th.
Divine Focus (Su): at 1st level the favored soul can focus divine energy into her spells. Once per round, as a swift action, she may lower the effective level of a favored soul spell effected by one or more metamagic feats. She gains a number of “levels” of this ability equal to her Charisma modifier plus three.
When used, this ability lowers the effective level of the spell cast equal to a number of “levels” of Divine Focus spent. The effective level of the spell cannot be lowered below its original level. The maximum number of “levels” that may be applied with each use of this ability is equal to half the Favored Soul’s class level, round
up.
For example, a 3rd level Favored Soul could apply two “levels” of Divine Focus to cast an Empowered
Cure Moderate Wounds as a 2nd level spell. She could also apply two “levels” to cast a Maximized
Cure Light Wounds as a 2nd level spell. She would not be able to cast a Maximized
Cure Moderate Wounds because it would be a 3rd level spell, still beyond her ability to cast.
Uses of Divine Focus can be used to trigger other abilities (such as some domain abilities, devotion feats, or [Divine] feats) as Turn/Rebuke Undead attempts. This ability counts as Turn/Rebuke Undead for purposes of meeting prerequisites for feats and prestige classes. She may take the Extra Turning feat to instead grant four more daily uses of Divine Focus.
Restorative/Destructive Magic: At 1st level, the favored soul automatically adds several spells to her list of spells known, in addition to any spells she would already know. A favored soul that turns undead gains Restorative Magic and a favored soul that rebukes undead gains Destructive Magic.
- Restorative Magic spells gained: 0 – Cure Minor Wounds; 1st -0 – Cure Light Wounds, Remove Fear; 2nd – Cure Moderate Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Remove Paralysis; 3rd – Cure Serious Wounds, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Curse, Remove Disease; 4th – Cure Critical Wounds, Restoration; 5th – Mass Cure Light Wounds, Raise Dead; 6th – Mass Cure Moderate Wounds; 7th – Greater Restoration, Mass Cure Serious Wounds, Resurrection; 8th – Mass Cure Critical Wounds
- Destructive Magic Spells gained: 0 – Inflict Minor Wounds; 1st – Cause Fear, Inflict Light Wounds; 2nd – Hold Person, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Touch of Idiocy*; 3rd – Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Contagion, Inflict Serious Wounds; 4th – Enervation*, Inflict Critical Wounds; 5th – Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Slay Living; 6th – Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds; 7th – Destruction, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, Waves of Exhaustion*; 8th – Mass Inflict Critical Wounds
*From Sorcerer/Wizard list. Cast as divine spell.
Domains: At 2nd level, a favored soul gains one of the domains of her deity. She gains the granted ability for the domain and adds every domain spell to her list of spells known. These are in addition to the spells she knows for her class level. Any spell she learns with this ability that she already knows (either from having chosen it for through Restorative or Destructive Magic) is cast at +2 caster level. For example: if the favored soul has Cure Light Wounds from her Restorative Magic class feature and she chooses the Healing Domain, she could cast the spell at +3 caster level (+2 from this ability, and +1 from the Healing Domain’s granted ability).
At 7th level and 12th level, the favored soul gains an additional domain granted by her deity. She gains the granted ability and spells just as she did for her first domain.
So, evil favored souls still lack the wide access to the various Cure, Restoration, and Remove ___ spells, but they get some offensive ones in place. Personally, I could see dropping this feature, but the rest of the system seems to really like evil divine casters getting these types of spells, so I'm adding this for legacy reasons. They can always take CLW and get wands, like many other classes.
What do you think? Is this something you'd play? Do you see any abuses? I don't think it's better than the cleric, but I wanted to close the gap a bit.
