Arcane Disciple Info

[nolongerchaos]

I've been looking at Arcane Disciple for a while now, and I've been wondering if there are ways to gain access to a Domain that doesn't belong to your deity. For instance, a Dread Necromancer wanting to pick up the Deathbound Domain, without having to be NE and worship the god of bloody and horrific torture, or any of the more minor splat domains that would cause you to be pigeonholed into being able to worship one obscure deity whose flavor doesn't mesh with your character.

Any tips or ideas?

[nedz]

Well it doesn't say you lose access to the domain if you change deities, however it does say

Special

You can take this feat more than once. Each time, you must select a different domain available to the same deity you chose the first time you selected the feat. For example, a character who chose Heironeous and the Good domain with his first selection could choose Law or War with successive selections of the same feat. He couldn't choose Protection, since that domain isn't available to clerics of Heironeous.

So changing your deity doesn't help — also expect your DM to take action here.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

There could be additional minor deities which can only grant a few domains, or archfiends and demon princes who can be worshiped and grant domains, so if a new domain has only a single deity listed for it, that's never the only way to get that domain. Just make up some new minor deity that fits a solid theme and make sure your DM is ok with it.

[nedz]

Good point; also many of the domains were printed in later books than the deities, it's perfectly reasonable to add suitable domains to deities which have relevant portfolios. This is the DM's prerogative though.

[daremetoidareyo]

Planar touchstone to get access to the deathbound domain power. Or did you want all of the spells? Or did you want this at level 1 rather than level 5?

What alignment are you trying to keep? Why not just go evil?

[Darrin]

Planar Touchstone linked to the Catalogues of Enlightenment allows you to pick any domain and get the domain power, regardless of what deity you worship or what domains your deity has in its portfolio. You don't get the domain spells, though.

There's also the "Pantheon" option in Deities & Demigods: you worship the entire pantheon, so any deity with a domain in that pantheon could possibly be picked up as a bonus domain. Unfortunately, it's a 3.0 source so the existence of any 3.5 domains for the Asgard or Egyptian pantheon is a bit spotty, but a copacetic DM is likely to handwave a few.

Also in Deities & Demigods, Taiia has every PHB domain listed in her portfolio in either the Creator or Destroyer aspect. You could argue that since she represents everything in creation and destruction, she should have all the 3.5 domains as well.

Another possible loophole: Sertrous clerics can choose any two domains as if they were worshipping an ideal. So your Dread Necromancer can worship Sertrous and just pick the two domains he needs. Or you could argue that since all his clerics are presumably grabbing different domains, all possible domains should be considered in his portfolio. Another perk to worshipping Sertrous... wanna know what he would consider the the best possible "ideal" to believe in? It's this: "The earth vomits torrents of snakes and serpentine creatures."