I write with a serious problem regarding spell lists for classes such as:

• Witch,


• Shugenja,


• Shaman,

...and many other base classes that were added outside of core rulebooks (countless basically). Problem is there are dozens of books that add new spells for core rulebooks base classes while none of them directly mention classes that were added in other books. This creates insane discrepancy between base classes with ones such as sorcerer or cleric seemingly having millions of spells available to them while ones such as witch or shugenja seem to have nearly nothing.

Is there any official or semi-official material that resolves this issue? If not how am I supposed to pick which spells are available to those classes (obviously leaving them in UP state with spell lists the size of a peanut is not an option)?

Each base class seem to have some theme to them (like witch even though arcane have access to healing spells but no access to battle magic, dread necromancer having everything death and harm-related with no damaging spells and no buffs or warmage having only battle magic and nothing else) but I strongly prefer hard rules to making decisions based on "feel".

As for my own research in the matter: I didn't find anything on that topic in books. I didn't find anything in WotC Indexes (only PH spells are mentioned for most of those base classes and some classes aren't even listed there at all).

Only in passing did Wizards of the Coast consider this

The introduction to the Spell Compendium on Other Spellcasting Classes says

Spell Compendium deals exclusively with spells used by the classes and prestige classes introduced in the Player’s Handbook and Dungeon Master’s Guide, but even if you’re playing a different spellcasting class, you can still use this book. The advice below should help you decide how to adopt spells for your character.

If the spellcasting class or prestige class you’re playing isn’t mentioned here, find a similar class and follow its advice. Also, many new classes and prestige classes reference the spell lists of existing classes. If your spellcaster uses the spell list of a character class mentioned in Chapter 2, your character gains access to all the spells presented for that class.

When deciding if other classes should have spells added to their spell lists, consider the advice below. (3)

Then the Spell Compendium offers some advice for different classes, including, for example, the shugenja ("Add spells with strong elemental or weather themes[; t]he druid spell list is a good place to look" (4)) and the shaman:

Shamans have a spell list that is a blend of druid and cleric, but they should not get all the spells clerics and druids do. Examine the spell lists of both those classes for good choices. Also, consider using the cleric domains presented in this book as shaman domains. (ibid.)

In other words, the DM is supposed to—as is typical for D&D 3.5—use the blurbs provided in the Spell Compendium to inform his own decisions as to how to expand a particular class's spell list.

Spell Compendium is the only book that addresses the issue, and even then all it tells you is to have the DM figure it out.