Clerics and Alchemy/Herbalism

[Talir]

It is also interesting to note that EFUSS scores are not a locked value at 10. It can be raised for those we feel deserve it, regardless of class. So if your concept is all about alchemy/herbalism, be ambitious and proactive.

[GoblinSapper]

Clerics are supposed to get consecration later anyway.

[Egon the Monkey]

Here's an idea. Rather than open it up more, how about simply lowering the DCs a little or adding a bonus based on a fraction of character level  or another skill for all PCs? This way it's possible for any PC to reasonably reach the DCs of decent items without a shedload of gear and feats, but the requisite classes get to excel because of their particular training.

Oh, and another class advantage of Clerics over Rangers/druids/sorcs and often Wizards too is they have a larger selection of spells to experiment with using in the systems.

[MrGrendel]

Just to note, even without level bonuses, wizards would be the best at alchemy anyway: both skills are class skills for them, and they are the only class whose primary stat also boosts both these skills.
 
And I think lowering DCs would just have the primary effect of making alchemy and alchemists more powerful.
 
Alternative ways of "making up" for the class bonuses would be good, though.

[Gwydion]

Great points made by players and DMs alike.

Egon, your points that lore and spellcraft are class skills for clerics, along with the ability to self-buff makes clerics a viable option to have a high alchemy/herbalism skill are outstanding.  

That alone convinces me to leave it as is.

I really don't want to see the class levels removed.  

And for the record, I clearly did not say that clerics are inferior to druids.  I merely suggested that in my opinion, they might be roughly equivalent.  

Thanks for the feedback all!