Cleric PRCs and domains

[metaquad4]

All the PRCs classes Clerics can take with spell progression:

Stormlord (Talos Specific) - Good for combat
Silverstar (Selune Specific) - Good for combat
Shadow Adept (Shar Specific) - Good for Casting/DCs
Techsmith of Gond (Gond Specific) - Good for combat/summoning
Stormsinger (Shared between all casting classes) - Good for casting
Harper Agent (Shared between all casting classes) - Good for skills/utility
Blackflame Zealot - 'Good' for sneak attack/skills
Dragonslayer (Shared between all casting classes) - Good for combat (H. BAB)
Hierophant - Good for casting/DCs
Hospitaler - Good for combat (Bonus feats, H. BAB)
Master Alchemist (Shared between divine and arcane casters) - Good for utility
Thaumaturgist (Shared between divine and arcane casters) - Good for summoning
Morninglord (Lathander Specific) - Good for turning
Warpriest - Good for combat

Personally, I think they have a solid selection. However, one thing seriously hampers them: The fact that some PRCs are deity specific.

For this thought, we will be focusing on the following:

Stormlord (Talos Specific)
Silverstar (Selune Specific)
Shadow Adept (Shar Specific)
Techsmith of Gond (Gond Specific)
Morninglord (Lathander Specific)

Due to the shadow weave, I think Shadow Adept should not be considered for the following changes. Its a special little hidden thing in the point we are at now.

However, for the others: This is where lore actually turns into something that HINDERS these classes. Firstly, the work on the classes will be largely unappreciated because characters will be shoehorned into playing certain deities. Secondly, it prevents clerics from playing to their fullest due to again, not wanting to be shoehorned into playing as clerics of certain deities to be good at combat.

I propose the following:
Anyone with the moon domain or Selune as a deity can take Silverstar.
Anyone with the storm domain or Talos as a deity can take Stormlord.
Anyone with the sun domain or Lathander as a deity can take Morninglord.
Anyone with the knowledge domain or Gond as a deity can take Techsmith (rename to just Techsmith)

Ordinarily, if this were PnP, yes they would be restricted. But, this isn't PnP. We don't have a specialty priest for every single deity. We have one for each member of a select handful of deities and that really does work to constrict cleric's choices and make them that much more inferior to Favored Souls. By freeing up their classes, we can make their choices less claustrophobic and give clerics a little something in the way of PRCs to play with. This does, of course, leave a few other gods out of the loop too. We can try to make PRCs in a manner that they interact more with domains rather than specific gods in the future, in order to counter-act this.

Perhaps allow certain gods that particularly favor the class so as to stay in some part with lord (Gond doesn't have an exclusive line on Techsmith, but he'd have more of them than any other god and they'd probably be more famous for him, for example). This would also enable divine characters without the domain to have the ability to choose them, so long as they are the same deity as the god who might favor a particular PRC (thinking more about FvS, since clerics would have the choice of having either the domain or the god while FvS' would still need the specific god).

This does, however, bring up a concern: cleric dips to get domains, so that FvS can bypass the harsher, deity-only restrictions. There is an answer to this: pick a spell from the mid half of the domain's spell list that isn't ordinarily on the cleric/FvS spell list, and require that spell instead of the domain itself. That would serve to bar FvS' from that loophole whilst still empowering clerics.

Clerics aren't exactly suffering per-say, but they are certainly not as capable as their favored soul counter-parts. This would serve to even the playing fields a bit and allow a wider audience of clerics to enjoy these classes, without being constricted into a certain deity in order to play a certain role efficiently.

Anyway, this is just a thought. I wonder how many people feel one way or the other. I don't see any point to making deity specific classes. Race specific classes are slightly more understandable (but silly, if certain races have access to powerhouses in their area. Which, both races do, incidentally! Those two classes could be opened up to the public, and then new Arcane Archers and Dwarven Defenders could be made. But, that is another topic.), but the sheer amount of deities makes balancing such a system very difficult. Implementing cleric PRCs on a domain basis makes more sense for nwn2 (unless, of course, every single deity can have a PRC for it, and they are all implemented in one fell swoop). PRCs could even be implemented requiring 1 of several domains (a nature-ish PRC might require the plant or animal domains, for example), which would cut time to cover every domain down since there would be far less to do. Just makes more sense!