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Gralamin
2009-02-25, 06:05 PM
Would allowing clerics and paladins to use all of their Channel Divinity powers in a single encounter be considered overpowered (Instead of just able to use a single Channel Divinity)?

I'm guessing it probably wouldn't be, and make channel divinity a bit more useful.

Colmarr
2009-02-25, 06:52 PM
Depends on how you define "overpowered".

Would it make them more powerful? Yes. It at the very least gives them an extra encounter power with limited action cost.

In some cases (combining Divine Fortune with Righteous Rage of Tempus, and I'm sure optimisers can come up with a better example than that), it has the potential to have serious consequences.

Mauril Everleaf
2009-02-25, 07:09 PM
Would it be brokenly powerful? Absolutely not. It does however give the cleric no reason to not just say "I worship all of the gods" and cherry pick the best Channel Divinity feats. Because the feats were designed to be used singly, there could well be some powerful combinations of Channel Divinities. Yes, it does require a feat every time that the cleric/paladin/invoker/avenger wants a new one, so that might balance it out. Essentially, however, the divine character is paying a small fee for an extra Encounter power rather than paying the same fee to get just another option for the same encounter power. Instead of having two encounter actions at level 1, this cleric could have as many as four. It may not be brokenly powerful, but it would be a touch unbalanced. And with as little as it takes to tip the balance in 4e, this may not be the best idea. Playtesting might prove otherwise, but I am inclined to believe that this will be slightly overpowered.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-02-25, 08:11 PM
It would also give Clerics/Paladins an action advantage over all other classes.

Instead of one extra Encounter power, they start with two. And with a feat, they have three, good, Encounter powers to use. If you allow the silliness of worshiping all gods at once, then you can see the easy cheese potential.

Would it break the game? Unlikely, but why are you privileging Divine characters so much? :smallconfused:

trehek
2009-02-25, 08:13 PM
Since it's hard to say how much extra power the increase of encounter powers really gives, I tried thinking of an alternate way to handle them. Since there aren't really other feats that grant extra encounter powers besides multiclass feats, it might work if the Channel Divinity feats would be considered in a slightly similar manner:

Taking a channel divinity feat gives you:
*The ability to use the new given power as a Channel Divinity alternative
*A extra Daily Channel Divinity power slot, which doesn't stack with other Channel Divinity daily power slots or multiclass feat power slots. This daily slot can be used to activate any one Channel Divinity power you possess.

In other words, give some extra power with the ability to use a maximum of two Channels in an encounter, once a day, while maintaining the amount of possible power slots available from other similar sources. The new slot is a daily slot because Channel Divinity powers are encounter powers, and multiclass feats generally grant a power in a higher category slot than what the class would normally use.

Gralamin
2009-02-26, 03:17 AM
Thanks for the answers. As for why I'd want to this, I'm homebrewing a few tweaks for a Campaign to adjust it to slightly higher power.


Since it's hard to say how much extra power the increase of encounter powers really gives, I tried thinking of an alternate way to handle them. Since there aren't really other feats that grant extra encounter powers besides multiclass feats, it might work if the Channel Divinity feats would be considered in a slightly similar manner:

Taking a channel divinity feat gives you:
*The ability to use the new given power as a Channel Divinity alternative
*A extra Daily Channel Divinity power slot, which doesn't stack with other Channel Divinity daily power slots or multiclass feat power slots. This daily slot can be used to activate any one Channel Divinity power you possess.

In other words, give some extra power with the ability to use a maximum of two Channels in an encounter, once a day, while maintaining the amount of possible power slots available from other similar sources. The new slot is a daily slot because Channel Divinity powers are encounter powers, and multiclass feats generally grant a power in a higher category slot than what the class would normally use.
I'm not sure if thats enough, but I'll consider it.

Edit: Also this post would of been up a few hours ago had the power not gone out.

Yakk
2009-02-26, 11:43 AM
So, the design of Channel Divinity was an attempt to allow clerics to Turn Undead, but not 'tie up' their power quota in 'turn undead'.

Channel Divinity allows turn undead once per encounter, and it is a nice effect. But if you don't have undead to fight, you have one other free use of channel divinity -- and you can buy yet another use by burning a feat.

In 4e, you do not in general get a real power from a feat -- you get a slight static boost to an existing option, or you get to swap an existing power for a new power (flexibility and customisation).

So your changes would:
A> Make channel divinity feats seriously kick ass.
B> "Tie up" more of the clerics 'share' of power in undead turning.[1]
C> Produce a boost to all Divine classes that isn't symmetrical with non-divine classes.
D> Make 'situational' channel divinity feats relatively worse, and 'general use' channel divinity feats relatively better.

[1] And yes, even though it is a power boost, compared to (say) the Paladin, who has 2 more general-use channel divinity feats.

Mando Knight
2009-02-26, 02:29 PM
[1] And yes, even though it is a power boost, compared to (say) the Paladin, who has 2 more general-use channel divinity feats.

And the Paladin's two beginning CD powers are quite useful... add your STR to damage again for one attack (useful for Certain Justice, or really any power for a STR-Paladin...), or instead grant someone a saving throw with your CHA as a bonus.