Here is something I posted in the forum of the BR campaign I currently play
in. Was this by intention or failure omitted from the 3E manual?

"The player of Caine mentioned the original idea what divine and arcane
magic should be able to do and what not.

They have been split into something like divine magic heals, protects,
cures, does nice damage against single targets (slay living?) but fails
doing massdamage against several enemys - that´s where wizards excel.
Starting with 3rd level fireball, or lightning bolt up to Melf´s Minute
Meteors, Delayed Blast Fireballs or whatever the wizards is the TRUE, FULL
spellcaster wielding mass-destructive power. But he can´t heal himself even
1 point...


My opinion:
The 3E manual of Travis Doom omitted one very important rule of 2E and
Birthright - the specialty priests!

2E rules balanced the armour-wearing, mace or other blunt martial weapon
wielding, relatively sturdy cleric (as compared to the relying only on magic
protection, being able to use only peasants weapons, physically frail
wizard) by restricting the clerics access to spells.

In 2E Birthright a priest had major access to some spheres of divine magic,
e.g. of combat (all 9 levels of spells available), but only minor access to
some, e.g. the sphere of divination (a priest of Haelyn could never cast
DETECT LIE as it is a fourthlevel spell) and even NO access at all to some
(e.g. a druid/priest of erik had no access to the sphere of combat).

This gave 2E Priests a certain flavour in my opinion - a priest of Nesierie
excelled at healing and divining, Haelyn´s chosen at battle...

The 3E manual of Travis Doom omitted this important rule. The consequences
are that the priest class in 3E Birhtright as compared to the other
spellcasters (wizard/sorceror) is not well balanced.

Already in 2E and in 3E continued are these factors:
====================================
Priests (temples) have an income of their own - wizard (sources) have to
rely on what they beg from others or have to burn regency to alchemy gold at
horrifying exchange rates.

Priests have the FREE Agitate action - Wizards have none.

Priests wield the power of Investiture which nearly all other regents need -
Wizards?

Priests may wear all armour and shields- Wizards none (except magical means
which the priest may wear also).

Priests may use a much wider range of weapons than wizards.

Priests pray for their conventional spells, they simply have to chose from
the list available for their spelllevel - wizards have to research their
conventional spells, burning gold and time (except those few spells that
come with gaining levels). And remember that as a wizard you need to know
the conventional version of a spell before you can convert it to a battlespell.

That was (as said above) balanced by restricting the clerics access to spells.

Now in 3E these unbalancing rules were added:
=================================

Wizards may not freely exchange researched spells (and they have to research
even conventional spells!), and do so only under the most dire circumstances
- Priests however have no problems trading or exchanging spells.

Priests gain 2 granted powers for the 2 domains they choose from their gods
list AND gain a +1 bonus for casting spells from that domains AND gain an
additional domain spell per spelllevel. Comparable advantages a wizard could
only gain if he would specialize in a school of magic, loosing access to
several other schools. And even then he would not have the same advantages.

Spell selectioin is restricted for priests now only that they may not use
spells from directly opposed domains (e.g. EVIL-GOOD) but to all other
domains they have full access (at least I have not seen any restriction
similar to 2E).

My suggestions for discussion as house rules are:

1) Restrict divine spell access as in 2E:
Full 9 level access only to the two chosen domains,
3 level minor access to the other domains of the clerics deity,
NO access to all others domains (similar to 2E specialty priest and not too
far strechted, as the 3E advantages of priests resemble specialization. This
would mean that a priest without the WAR domain would never cast a spell
from that domain (including battlespells as hammerstorm from the old combat
sphere which I see closely resembled in the new WAR domain).

OR
2) If Priests are capable of casting area-affecting massdamage spells on the
battlefield, then they meddle in affairs that only wizards/sorcerors should
be allowed (being the physically frail TRUE FULL spellcasters). Priests may
do so, but only if they chose the "Non-Militant" version of Priests
(forfeiting their heavy and medium armour feat, changing their d8 to a d6
hit dice, changing their attack bonus to poor like a wizard, see p. 5 of the
3E manual) AND do NOT gain the advantages of this type of cloistered cleric
- in fact they resemble wizards now, at least somehow. Priest who do not
chose this restriction, may cast battlespells, as heal, cure but no damage
spell, which affects more than 1 unit (no area spells). Priests in full
plate armour, wielding blunt martial weapons, casting massdamage spell
matching the massdamage of wizards in a whole area affecting lots of units
are overpowering.

OR
3) If we let the Clerics in 3E as they are, no restrictions, they are in
effect FULL spellcasters with few restriction - wizards and sorcerors are
TRUE FULL spellcasters with LOTS of restrictions. So they should then have
some noticeable advantages when it comes to the only thing they can do good
- spellcasting:
- at the very least CAST REALM SPELL and CAST BATTLE SPELL are bonus feats
for true (d4) wizards;
- each and every battlespell converted from divine spells costs at least 4
GB. Arcane battle spells cost 1 GB for spells affecting only a single unit,
2 GB affecting several units, 3 GB area effect.
- Priest without the WAR domain pay TWICE the amount for casting battlespells;
- wizards gain the same advantages the "non-militant" cloistered cleric
gains (see p. 5 3E manual). Why not? Wizards are not more better
spellcasters than priests and have lots of restrictions priests don´t have.
A few skill points an a skill focus feat are not too much;

AND
4) As clerics have not to spend time and money researching their
conventional spells which wizards have to (with the exception of the few
spells gaind by gaining level) it can´t be that wizards may not exchange
spells among each other, but priests may freely trade battle spells (they
have no need to trade conventional spells, as they know ALL of them!)
Priest should be unable to trade spells, tradition could be a reason, but
much better: Prayers to a certain god can´t be used by a cleric of another
god, even if it´s Cuiraceen and Haelyn - a priest of Haelyn praying for a
battle spell prayer to Cuiraceen will receive no response

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