Divine Power Review: More Options, More Powers
It's so annoying when undead attack the prom.
Divine Power is a toolbox for clerics, avengers, paladins and invokers. Each class gets a full suite of new powers and character options, plus a slew of paragon paths and even some new feats and rituals. If you divine character is growing a little stale, you could consider playing it in a whole new way.
The new options for the avenger are interesting in that they completely change the class’s purpose. The isolating and pursuing options in PHB2 are designed to focus on a single foe, pull it away from its allies and finish it off. The commanding avenger still picks a single foe to unleash his wrath on, but draws strength from every nearby ally. For example, the level 1 daily power Strength of Many gives you a +2 damage bonus for each ally within two squares of you. The level 23 encounter power Fearsome Fury packs a wallop and gives the target a negative to its attack roll for each of your allies adjacent to it.
This kind of position based bonus is great because it makes all those push, pull and slide powers so much more useful and interesting. I don’t think they used enough of them to really uphold the theme of the commanding avenger, but the new powers definitely offer a new play style.
The shielding cleric option represents the most drastic change to a class, and addresses a common complaint about clerics: they are often out-healed by other classes. Using the new options makes a cleric more of a pure support class. In the past, a cleric had to act as a front line fighter who could deal out buffs. A shielding cleric will work better standing just behind her allies, trying to stay out of the line of fire. It’s important to conserve hit points because a cleric burns off some of her own hit points to provide some serious healing. The level 2 encounter power Life Tranference is a good example – the cleric trakes damage equal to the value of one of her healing surges, but the target gains life equal to twice that amount. There are also some interesting tactical powers, like Font of Tears. This power creates a zone that gives a -2 attack penalty on any foes starting its turn there.
I’m really intrigued by the sacrificial cleric abilities. Actions in combat involve trading resources for results, and 95 percent of the time the resource being traded in 4E is the use of an encounter or daily power. Occasionally, action points and healing surges come into play. If newer powers can bring more of a character’s resources into play as potential fuel for combat effects, it makes for more interesting choices on the part of the players. Spending hit points is an interesting one, and something I hope the necromancer class makes frequent use of (except they would use it to summon things or cause debuffs rather than healing). I’m not sure what else could be used in 4E – ability score drain is too much of a pain to be worth it, just like level drain. Semi-permanent saving throw negatives could be interesting. Any thoughts, Vikings?
I’ll finish off the review with the invoker and paladin classes next week.
Related posts:
July 23rd, 2009 12:38 PM
First thing that pops into my head; Status. You Daze/Immobilize/Blind/Whatever YOURSELF, save ends.
Also, I’d like to see a way to draw Marks onto yourself. Evil Lich’s Vampire Bodyguard: “NO, Paladin; you must deal with ME first!”
July 23rd, 2009 1:19 PM
Ah, yes. Both excellent ideas! To some extent, marking an opponent acts sort of like putting a mark on yourself, depending on the class. But a catchall bodyguard ability that can remove a mark and take it on…flavorful and mechanically sound.
July 23rd, 2009 1:34 PM
Not about trading for results, but the gleemax Character Optimization boards have already gotten their hands on the buffed up Cleric healing in Divine Power. Simply beautiful.
July 23rd, 2009 2:07 PM
@mordicai & Ed: Actually they kind of hinted at doing that. There’s a new Invoker Daily Power, Silence of Malediction, that does a large amount of damage and stuns creatures in a considerably sized blast, but it dazes you until the end of your next turn.
I thought it was a super-cool tradeoff.
July 23rd, 2009 2:46 PM
The 4e team is on the ball, Thor’s, I find.
What would go a LONG WAY towards fixing what _I_ see as the problem is a “Book of Non-Combat” with lots of Daily/Encounter powers that DON’T deal damage; an ACTUAL Charm spell, or Illusion spell, or Rogue-y trick, or Ranger’s eye, or Fighter’s Stalwart Friendship or…something I could use outside of a fight.
July 23rd, 2009 3:20 PM
That’s our one major problem with 4E as well (well, that and combt taking forever, which we will hopefully solve this week). A handful of the utility spells are non-combat, mostly giving boosts to skill checks, but a lot more needs to be done in that area. A lot of our favorite memories from the 3e campaign involve these crazy things we did with spells and abilities outside of combat, but none of it is possible in 4E. And rituals just don’t cut it.
July 27th, 2009 7:53 PM
YES! The robot viking has spotted my main problem with 4e. IT’S ALL COMBAT! if I wanted that I’d play Warhammer or Heroscape. Give me a chance to have those crazy things outside of combat and I’ll back 4ed entirely.
July 28th, 2009 10:24 AM
Can you give a rough idea of what kind of out-of-combat powers you’d like to see?
July 28th, 2009 11:01 AM
My fellow Vikings, I’m pleased to introduce Owen K.C. Stephens, a man who has played a major part in the creation of many of our favorite games, including a ton of Star Wars RPG books. Check out his blog: http://owen-stephens.livejournal.com/ Lots of good stuff, including some unofficial and unreleased 4E material.
So what sorts of non-combat powers would we suggest? I’ll let you guys have at it for awhile, and I’ll be back later with my ideas.
July 28th, 2009 11:49 AM
Well I’d assume they’d be by class, & well; the Arcane & Divine (etc) classes don’t need much thinking– there are plenty of spells from former editions I’d like to see ported over; like I said, charms, illusion, all kinds of stuff like that.
Rogues are a bit trickier– maybe things that let you back date actions? Utility power: You already picked that guy’s pocket. Use it & declare you picked his pocket when no one was looking. Maybe Utility: Word of Mouth– make a Gather Info check without leaving the room; you’ve heard rumors of that in your carousing.
Fighting men are trickier still, but things like “1000 yard stare” immediately come to mind, as do maybe First Aid or maybe feats of Strength or Dexterity? Long jump, bend bars, lift gates…
July 28th, 2009 11:55 AM
Silent Image. Major Image. A daily utility version of Rope Trick. Flesh to Stone. Stone to Flesh. Enlarge Person. Reduce Person.
July 28th, 2009 12:19 PM
Gosh, I blush. And just call me “Owen,” folks — I eat Doritos and drink Mt Dew when I game just like any other geek, so I think we’re largely on a first-name basis.
I really like the idea of a Utility power called “Bend Bars, Lift Gates,” both because it could be nice for extra oomph when playing the brawny figher and because it’s a nice nod to older editions.
As for Word of Mouth, that’s a great idea too. There’s a feat a lot like that in Mutants & Masterminds (Well-Informed), that (as I recall) lets you make an immediate gather Information check when you first meet someone. Actually, M&M feats might be a great resource for people looking for non-combat powers (or even some new combat abilities — Master Plan would make a great Leadership-role power).
July 28th, 2009 12:33 PM
4E makes this an interesting question, because in past editions, non-combat stuff was sort of where non-fighter classes got to shine, and the fighters tended to keep their hands in their pockets. Now that all classes are equally active in combat, we have to try to make them equally active out of it. It’s easy to convert old arcane spells, but how to get everyone involved?
I think we should start with skill challenges. When run properly, a skill challenge is an awesome non-combat encounter. You’ve got to think on your feet and interact with NPCs – last week, our party ran this elaborate ruse on a group of duergar slavers, and the skill challenge was epic. So perhaps charms, illusions, inta-information gathering, things that boost intimidation, things that like that give bonuses to skill challenge rolls. You could introduce dex, str and con based ones for skill challenges revolving around chases or escapes.
July 28th, 2009 1:03 PM
If nothing else you could always just allow checks for skill challenges that are normally outside its parameters.
Mighty Flex
There’s nothing you can’t do with muscles, from flexing them to impress the other side in a meeting of diplomats, to lifting fallen trees with looking for clues. In any skill challenge, you may always make a Strength check at +4 for a single skill challenge check.
July 28th, 2009 1:31 PM
I like that one Owen, but I think the name should be, “Welcome to the Gun Show.”
July 28th, 2009 1:32 PM
LOL
I bow to your superior title-making skills.
July 28th, 2009 1:48 PM
Here are some ideas for bards or charisma-based classes:
Enrage Mob
Daily
CHA vs. Number of People in Crowd
Target group of sentient beings is consumed by anger toward any one specific person, group or object (ie, “Count Vorlan,” or, “The Knights of Aglafor”). Anyone with a class in the group can make a saving throw to avoid the effect even if it hits. The mob will delay and harass the target, but won’t overtly attack it or do any damage.
Shrewd Haggling
Daily
CHA vs. Will
Success: Target grants a 20 percent discount on any single purchase made within the next five minutes.
Flattery
Encounter
CHA vs. Will
Trigger: Ally makes a lore check based on streetwise, diplomacy, bluff or insight. The result of the check is one difficulty level higher than what is actually rolled, ie if you get an 18 on the check, you get the lore info block for a 20.
July 29th, 2009 7:19 PM
Ranger: “That’s not a knife. This is a knife…”
Add your weapon’s enhancement & proficiency bonus to any old skill check you feel like.
July 29th, 2009 9:10 PM
Owen, I’ve always been a fan of the random things that don’t do anything directly, but you can use to Macguyver your way out of stuff. Maybe it’s just my play group, but we don’t use skill checks so much as physics and logical manipulation. Some rules for Cantrip like skills for other classes would be great. I don’t have my books on me, but I don’t recall seeing any in the PHI. Haven’t gotten a good look at any of the other supplements, but I can’t imagine that it would change.