The Divine Blade (3.5e base class) [PEACH]

[Schism]

The Divine Blade

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/2581/langwin.jpg

"You would stand in the way of my Lord's bidding? Very well then; I shall simply have to remove you from my path."

-Langwin Gahnal, Divine Blade of Heironeous



Races: Any. While Divine Blades most often come from especially pious races, anyone with a deep reverence for their god is eligible to become one.
Alignment: A Divine Blade’s alignment must be within one step of her deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful–chaotic axis or the good–evil axis, but not both). A Divine Blade may not be neutral unless her deity’s alignment is also neutral.
Starting Age: Moderate.
Starting Gold: As Cleric.
Hit Dice: d8


The Divine Blade
{table=head]Level | Base Attack Bonus | Fort Save | Ref Save | Will Save | Special | Divinity | Maximum Spell Level Known
1st | +1 | +2 | +0 | +2 | Aura, Weapon Proficiency, Divine Boon| 2 | 1st
2nd | +2 | +3 | +0 | +3 | Divine Link | 3 | 1st
3rd | +3 | +3 | +1 | +3 | Divine Channeling (Light), Weapon Focus | 5 | 1st
4th | +4 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Divine Boon | 6 | 2nd
5th | +5 | +4 | +1 | +4 | Zealot's Strike (1),| 8 | 2nd
6th | +6/+1 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Divine Channeling (Moderate) | 9 | 2nd
7th | +7/+2 | +5 | +2 | +5 | Divine Retribution (Physical)| 11 | 2nd
8th | +8/+3 | +6 | +2 | +6 | Divine Boon | 12 | 3rd
9th | +9/+4 | +6 | +3 | +6 | Divine Channeling (Serious) | 14 | 3rd
10th | +10/+5 | +7| +3 | +7 | Zealot's Strike (2), | 15 | 3rd
11th | +11/+6/+1 | +7 | +3 | +7 | | 17 | 3rd
12th | +12/+7/+2 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Divine Channeling (Critical), Divine Boon | 18 | 4th
13th | +13/+8/+3 | +8 | +4 | +8 | Divine Retribution (Magical) | 20 | 4th
14th | +14/+9/+4 | +9 | +4 | +9 | | 21 | 4th
15th | +15/+10/+5 | +9 | +5 | +9 | Zealot's Strike (3) | 23 | 4th
16th | +16/+11/+6/+1 | +10 | +5 | +10 | Divine Boon | 24 | 5th
17th | +17/+12/+7/+2 | +10 | +5 | +10 | | 26 | 5th
18th | +18/+13/+8/+3 | +11 | +6 | +11 | | 27 | 5th
19th | +19/+14/+9/+4| +11 | +6 | +11 | Divine Channeling (Full attack) | 29 | 5th
20th | +20/+15/+10/+5 | +12 | +6 | +12 | Zealot's Strike (4), Divine Boon | 30 | 6th[/table]

Class Skills (4+Int modifier per level; ×4 at 1st level)
Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Heal (Wis), Jump (Str), Knowledge (History) (Int), Knowledge (Religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Diplomacy (Cha), Gather Information (Cha), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int)


Class Features

All of the following are class features of the Divine Blade.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A Divine Blade is proficient with all simple weapons and with light and medium armor, as well as with light shields.

At 1st level, a Divine Blade gains proficiency with her god's favored weapon.

At 3rd level, a Divine Blade gains the Weapon Focus feat for her god's favored weapon.

Aura (Ex): A Divine Blade of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment.


Divine Boons: At 1st, 4th, and every four levels thereafter, a Divine Blade earns a boon of her choice from her god.


Divinity: A Divine Blade is imbued with the potential to gain a small amount of her deity's power, which she may use to fuel her class abilities. Each turn you may expend a total number of Divinity points equal to 1/2 your Divine Blade class level (minimum 1).

A Divine Blade's Divinity pool starts empty each day. Each time a Divine blade successfully deals damage against an enemy whose alignment is in opposition to the Divine Blade's god, she gains one point of Divinity. For example, a Divine Blade of a Lawful Good god would gain a point of Divinity each time she deals damage against an enemy that is Chaotic or Evil (or both). If the alignment of the struck foe is opposite on both axises, the Divine Blade gains 2 Divinity instead. In addition, the DM may award Divinity points for fulfilling your god's purposes in other ways. Your daily allotment of Divinity is listed on table: The Divine Blade. Divinity Points gained above this capacity are lost. In addition, if the Divine Blade ever falls to 0 hp or lower, her Divinity pool is reduced to 0.

A Divine Blade need not meditate or otherwise rest to regain her daily allotment of Divinity. Instead, she must spend at least five minutes in uninterrupted prayer at dawn each day, during which time she renews her vows to her god and strengthens her resolve to continue on the path set before her.

Neutral Divine Blades: A Divine Blade who worships a god with at least one neutral component in its alignment must decide whether she opposes good or evil, or law or chaos, as appropriate. Once made, this decision cannot be changed.

Spells: A Divine Blade casts divine spells, which are drawn from the Divine Blade spell list. However, her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. The maximum level of the spell that she can cast is determined by her Divine Blade level, as shown on table: The Divine Blade. To cast a spell, a Divine Blade must have a wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Divine Blade’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Divine Blade's wisdom modifier.

A Divine Blade need not prepare a certain number of spells for each spell level each day. She simply knows all of the spells on her spell list that are allowed for her alignment and current class level. To cast a spell, she must expend a number of Divinity points equal to the spell level. For example, in order to cast a 2nd level spell, she must expend 2 Divinity points.

A Divine Blade may modify her spells via divine metamagic if she has the ability to turn undead and the appropriate feats; however, the Divine Blade must expend additional Divinity equal to the one-half the increase in spell level that would otherwise occur when using metamagic.


Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A Divine Blade can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to her own or her deity’s. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Divine Link (Su): Beginning at 2nd level, a Divine Blade with a charisma score of 12 or higher can create a link between herself and one other to heal their wounds. Each day she can heal a total number of hit points of damage equal to her Divinity × her charisma bonus. Initiating the link is a standard action that requires the target to be within touch range. This link heals a number of hitpoints each round equal to the Divine Blade's charisma modifier, and requires a standard action to maintain each round after the first. The link is automatically severed if the recipient of the healing moves more than thirty feet from the Divine Blade.

At 7th level, a Divine Blade may affect up to two willing targets within touch range at a time. At 15th level, this number increases to 3. At 20th level, this number increases to 4.

Additionally, starting at 7th level, divine link may be used offensively. To do so, the Divine Blade must make a melee touch attack against her opponent. If the touch attack is successful and the target is of a differing alignment on the good-evil axis, it is dazed for 1 round with no save. Each use of this version of divine link consumes 2 x Cha modifier worth of daily healing.

Divine Channeling (Su): Beginning at 3rd level, a Divine Blade may prepare to channel an inflict light wounds spell through her weapon as a swift action. She may then make a single melee attack as a standard action. If the attack hits, she may cast an inflict light wounds spell and expend an appropriate amount of stored Divinity to cast the spell as a free action. She automatically succeeds on the melee touch attack to deliver the spell.

At 6th level, the Divine Blade may channel inflict moderate wounds through her weapon.

At 9th level, the Divine Blade may channel inflict serious wounds through her weapon.

At 12th level, the Divine Blade may channel inflict critical wounds through her weapon.

At 19th level, the Divine Blade may channel inflict spells through each of her attacks when using the Full Attack action. She must expend an appropriate amount of Divinity for each inflict spell cast.

Zealot's Strike (Su): Beginning at 5th level, a Divine Blade may channel some of her Divinity into her weapon as a swift action. At the cost of one point of Divinity, the Divine Blade may then make a single melee attack as a standard action that deals an additional 1d10 points of damage.

At 10th level, the Divine Blade may channel two points of Divinity into her weapon, increasing the bonus damage to 2d10 and forcing the target to make a DC 15 Fortitude save or be stunned for one round.

At 15th level, the Divine Blade may channel three points of Divinity into her weapon, increasing the bonus damage to 3d10 as well as increasing the DC of the Fortitude save to 18.

At 20th level, the Divine Blade may channel four points of Divinity into her weapon, increasing the bonus damage to 4d10, as well as increasing the DC of the Fortitude save to 20. In addition, if the target fails the Fortitude save, it must immediately make a Will save at DC 22 or die instantly.

Zealot's strike has no effect on beings that worship the same deity as the Divine Blade. Creatures with more HD than the Divine Blade are immune to the secondary effects of zealot's strike, though they still take full damage from the attack, including bonus damage. Creatures who share the same alignment as the Divine Blade on the good-evil axis take only half damage from the attack, though they are still susceptible to the secondary effects.

Divine Retribution (Su): At 7th level, a Divine Blade gains the ability to inflict some measure of her own pain to her attacker. Whenever a Divine Blade takes damage from a physical attack, she may spend one point of Divinity as an immediate action to inflict half the damage she just took onto the being that struck her. Damage inflicted in this manner is considered divine damage, regardless of the original type. The maximum damage she can inflict in this manner is equal to her class level.

At 13th level, a Divine Blade may apply this ability to magical attacks as well.


Divine Blade Spells
1st: Align Weapon, Bane, Bless, Command, Deathwatch, Detect (Alignment), Divine Favor, Inflict Light Wounds, Magic Weapon, Protection from (Alignment), Shield of Faith

2nd: Aid, Bear's Endurance, Bull's Strength, Consecrate, Continual Flame, Death Knell, Desecrate, Enthrall, Inflict Moderate Wounds, Shield Other

3rd: Bestow Curse, Blindness/Deafness, Daylight, Deeper Darkness, Divine Power, Inflict Serious Wounds, Lesser Restoration, Magic Circle against (Alignment)

4th: Atonement, Break Enchantment, Commune, Death Ward, Dispel Magic, Divination, Glyph of Warding, Inflict Critical Wounds, Mass Inflict Light Wounds, Poison, Raise Dead, Restoration

5th: Antilife Shell, Blade Barrier, Flame Strike, Hallow, Harm, Mass Inflict Moderate Wounds, Resurrection, Righteous Might, Slay Living, Unhallow

6th: Blasphemy, Dictum, Fire Storm, Greater Glyph of Warding, Holy Word, Mass Inflict Serious Wounds, True Resurrection, Word of Chaos

Divine Boons:
Deity's Favor
Prerequisites: Divinity, Wis 13
Benefit: You gain an additional 3 points of Divinity. This boon may be taken multiple times; each time you take it, the amount of Divinity you gain increases by 1.

Divine Transference
Prerequisite: Divine Link, Wis 13
Benefit: So long as you have remaining uses of your divine link ability, you may opt to instead initiate a divine transference. When initiating a divine transference, choose one ability in which you have a modifier at least one higher than your target. That ally gains a +2 divine bonus to all skill checks made based upon that ability. Each round that you maintain divine transference, you lose one point of Divinity.

Grace of the Divine
Prerequisites: Divinity 9, Deity's Favor, Cha 13
Benefit: You gain the ability to turn or rebuke undead as a Cleric whose level equals one-half your Divine Blade class level. In addition, you gain a +1 divine bonus to any charisma-based skill checks for every 10 points of stored Divinity you have.

Might of the Divine
Prerequisites: Divinity 9, Deity's Favor, Divine Channeling, Str 13
Benefit: Inflict spells channeled through your weapon are considered to use positive energy when fighting undead. In addition, for every two Divine Blade levels you have, one point of damage you deal with inflict spells (maximum 10 points of damage) is considered divine damage against all foes.

Favored of the Gods
Prerequisites: Divinity 9, Deity's Favor, Cha 13
Benefit: You gain a +1 divine bonus to AC and damage rolls for every 10 points of stored Divinity you have.

In addition, you may reroll any natural 1 on a d20 once per week.

Domain Access
Prerequisites: Divinity 19, Deity's Favor
Benefit: Choose a domain belonging to your god. You gain the granted abilities of this domain, and any spells in the domain list become Divine Blade spells for you. You may not gain this boon multiple times.

Divine Protection
Prerequisites: Divinity 9, Con 13
Benefit: You gain the ability to use protection from arrows and protection from energy as spell-like abilities once per day, with a caster level equal to your Divine Blade class level. Each use of these spell-like abilities consumes one point of Divinity.

Divine Shelter
Prerequisites: Divinity 15, Con 13
Benefit: You gain the ability to nullify a single effect that would otherwise deal damage to you twice per day as an immediate action. For each point of Divinity spent, you may negate an amount of damage equal to your Divine Blade class level; if you do not have enough stored Divinity to fully negate the damage, this ability fails and you lose your stored Divinity.

This ability may be activated after the results of an attack roll are seen, but it must be declared before damage is rolled.

Deific Censure
Prerequisites: Divinity 13, Str 15
Benefit: You gain the ability to empower your melee attacks with the wrath of your god. Three times per day, you may make a single melee attack as a standard action while using this boon. On a successful hit, your target must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your Divine Blade class level + Wis modifier) or be dazed for 1d3 rounds. Each use of this ability consumes one point of Divinity.

Aspect of the Divine
Prerequisites: Divinity 21, Wis 17
Benefit: You may take on a minor aspect of divinity a number of times per day equal to one-half your wisdom modifier. Each use of this boon lasts for one minute. You may only take on one of these aspects at a time. Activating this boon is a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Each use of this boon consumes one point of Divinity.

Authority: You gain a palpable aura of command. For the duration of this boon, you are unaffected by areas of magical silence and can use greater command as a spell-like ability at will. You also gain a +4 divine bonus to all charisma-based skill checks.

Grace: Wings sprout from your back, granting you a flight speed of 40' with average maneuverability, as well as a 10' increase to your base landspeed. A good-aligned Divine Blade grows white, feathery wings; a neutral Divine Blade grows wings of living fire; an evil-aligned Divine Blade grows batlike wings with dark red membranes.

If you already have wings through a racial feature or a spell, you instead increase the maneuverability they grant you by one step.

Knowledge: Divine knowledge suffuses your mind, granting you insight into matters that might otherwise have been beyond your ken. You gain a +4 divine bonus to Intelligence, a +4 divine bonus to knowledge (history) and knowledge (religion) checks, and the ability to make untrained checks for any other knowledge skill as though you had 5 ranks in those skills.

Deific Wrath
Prerequisites: Divinity 21, Str 17, Deific Censure
Benefit: Your deific censure ability improves. Foes that fail their will saves are instead paralyzed for 1d3 rounds.

Righteous Strike
Prerequisites: Divinity 21, Str 17
Benefit: You may use this boon a number of times per day equal to your strength modifier. When using this boon, you make a single melee attack at your highest attack bonus. If the attack hits, you gain Divinity equal to 1+1/2 your strength modifier, in addition to any Divinity you would have normally gained from the attack. Divinity gained in this way counts against a Divine Blade's daily allotment.

Surge of Divinity
Prerequisites: Divinity 25, Wis 17
Benefit: You may use this boon a number of times per day equal to one-half your wisdom modifier. You gain Divinity equal to 1+1/2 your wisdom modifier. Activating this boon is a swift action. Divinity gained in this way counts against a Divine Blade's daily allotment.

Herald of the Gods
Prerequisites: Divinity 25, Cha 15, Favored of the Gods
Benefit: Once per day, you may take on the aspect of your god for a number of minutes equal to your Divine Blade class level, inspiring awe in those around you. You gain the ability to use crown of glory and repulsion as spell-like abilities, with a caster level equal to your Divine Blade class level. Activating this boon is a full-round action that consumes one point of Divinity and does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

[Person_Man]

Quibbles you should feel free to ignore:

Very MAD.

You get two Domains at first level - War and one of your choice. Do you get the granted powers as well?

Your casting mechanic is very confusing to me (and I understand the Binder). So a 20th level Divine Blade can memorize three 6th level spells and a 3rd level spell (equal to their Divinity Pool of 21), plus one domain spell of each level. Plus you can spontaneously lose any non-domain spell to cast an Inflict spell of the same level or lower. Is that correct?

The Divinity Point recovery mechanic is also wonky. You can restore it by hitting an enemy, but not gain more Divinity higher then your daily allotment. Does this mean your Divinity battery has a maximum capacity, or that each day you can't recover more then your daily allotment? If it's the former, and you can just constantly burn your divinity each round and restore it by making a lot of attacks, then you're going to have a power balance issue and a lot of tedious tracking to do every time you make an attack.

It seems like there is some potential for some nova abuse because Divine Channeling is a free action and Zealot's Strike is unspecified. I'd make them both Immediate Actions.

Save DC's for Zealot's Strike are odd. The standard is 10 + 1/2 your class level + your primary attribute mod (Wis? Cha?)

It seems like a Divine Blade could never multi-class or go into a PrC. That's fine if that is your goal, but it makes it less accessible for most builds.

My overall suggestion is to create a single unified mechanic (a pool of Divinity Points), and have all of the class abilities run off of that mechanic, without making tons of exceptions.

[Schism]

Quibbles you should feel free to ignore:

Very MAD.

Pretty much the same as a Cleric, which is one of the things that keeps it from being super overpowered. While it's possible to eliminate the need for charisma by merging Divine Link into wisdom, that would lead to an unintended amount of daily healing.


You get two Domains at first level - War and one of your choice. Do you get the granted powers as well?

Yes. Apparently I somehow managed to cut that text out during my frenzied copypasta. Fixing that presently.


Your casting mechanic is very confusing to me (and I understand the Binder). So a 20th level Divine Blade can memorize three 6th level spells and a 3rd level spell (equal to their Divinity Pool of 21), plus one domain spell of each level. Plus you can spontaneously lose any non-domain spell to cast an Inflict spell of the same level or lower. Is that correct?

Three for three on the spellcasting mechanics. I understand that it's worded oddly, but I wasn't sure how to make it any more concise without leaving possible loopholes.


The Divinity Point recovery mechanic is also wonky. You can restore it by hitting an enemy, but not gain more Divinity higher then your daily allotment. Does this mean your Divinity battery has a maximum capacity, or that each day you can't recover more then your daily allotment? If it's the former, and you can just constantly burn your divinity each round and restore it by making a lot of attacks, then you're going to have a power balance issue and a lot of tedious tracking to do every time you make an attack.

You can gain up to your listed Divinity through attacks each day, and no more. Once you hit with that number of attacks, further strikes have no benefit. In addition, you can gain bonus Divinity that does not count towards your daily limit by sacrificing a prepared spell, though this cannot push your Divinity pool over the listed maximum.

For example, a 20th level Divine Blade that has a total of 16 unspent points of Divinity could sacrifice a 6th level prepared spell to gain another 5 points of Divinity (6 for the spell level, minus one for the conversion). He cannot gain more Divinity through attacks or conversion until after he uses up at least one point of Divinity.

This, too, is probably poorly worded and excessively verbose, but I was trying to eliminate any possible loopholes. Rule lawyers and all that.


It seems like there is some potential for some nova abuse because Divine Channeling is a free action and Zealot's Strike is unspecified. I'd make them both Immediate Actions.

Divine Channeling should be a swift action to activate and a free action to cast the inflict spells. Apparently I missed the requisite "swift". This is what happens when one tries to type something at 5 a.m.

Zealot's Strike should likewise be a swift action, so as to prevent the aforementioned abuse. Fixing presently.


Save DC's for Zealot's Strike are odd. The standard is 10 + 1/2 your class level + your primary attribute mod (Wis? Cha?)

The saves are intentionally odd. It allows you to use fewer points of Divinity if you like, but the save DC decreases if you do. And I'd call the primary attribute wisdom, since charisma is only for Divine Link.


It seems like a Divine Blade could never multi-class or go into a PrC. That's fine if that is your goal, but it makes it less accessible for most builds.

It could, in theory, though you'd lose the ability to gain 6th level Divine Blade spells. That was the capstone - a reason to play the class "as intended".


My overall suggestion is to create a single unified mechanic (a pool of Divinity Points), and have all of the class abilities run off of that mechanic, without making tons of exceptions.

I thought that's what I had done, though if it's convoluted enough to confuse somebody who understands Binding, maybe not. If you have any specific suggestions on how to make it clearer, I'm all ears.

[Schism]

Over a hundred views and only one comment thus far. This doesn't bode well. :smallyuk:

[Golden-Esque]

Over a hundred views and only one comment thus far. This doesn't bode well. :smallyuk:

I think the problem is that your class looks, to be frank, really confusing. As cool and innovative as it may actually be, people are more comfortable with a mechanic that they are familiar with. You have oodles of powers, the ability to cast spells, and a strange variant of a Power Point system.

My recommendation would be to nerf your class a little bit. Give it some more fluffy / RP type abilities instead of super amazing "I'm Better Then You" powers. Without seeing it played I can't say much, but this class looks like it would, at the least, completely eclipse the Paladin.

[Schism]

To be fair, I compared this pretty heavily with the Paladin when making it. Zealot's Strike, for instance, will hit on average for the same amount of bonus damage as a Paladin's Smite Evil at the level it is gained - sometimes more, sometimes less - and depletes some of the Divine Blade's very limited spellcasting ability to use. Sure, it's less restricting than Smite Evil, but a Paladin doesn't lose his ability to cast one or more of his spells when he smites something. Sure it can be used more often than Smite Evil, at least in theory, but this again comes at the cost of losing spells.

Divine Link is strictly inferior to Lay On Hands as well. It heals a small amount of damage each round, requires a standard action each round to maintain, and cannot be split amongst multiple targets, nor can it heal the Divine Blade herself.

A Divine Blade also never learns to turn/rebuke undead, meaning no divine metamagic without at least a one level dip into cleric, thereby eliminating the possibility of 6th level Divine Blade spells.

Yes, the mechanics are odd when compared to, say, a Cleric or a Favored Soul. I realize that. I wanted something different than the standard "you prepared this, so you can cast it when you like " or "you know how to do this naturally, so you can cast it when you like" spellcasting motifs. I'd shy away from bundling Divinity in with Power Points myself, but I suppose the distinction is a rather minor one.

If anyone has ideas on how to simplify the Divinity feature without completely changing the mechanic, I'm open to suggestions. It does surprise me, however, that people can memorize pages and pages of rules from books upon books, yet can be so unwilling to read a few paragraphs of a new ability.

As an aside, Divine Channeling is almost identical to a Duskblade's Arcane Channeling ability, except worse in every respect. Not to put too fine a point on it either, but a Divine Blade gets about... oh, a fifth as many spells per day as a Duskblade, maybe less.

Edit: To me, the Divinity system isn't very confusing (I suppose that would be a requirement for designing something, but hey).

Essentially, you have an amount of Divinity equal to 1+your Divine Blade level. This 'pool' of Divinity, for lack of a better term, starts at zero each day. A 20th level Divine Blade, for instance, would have Divinity 0/21 at the start of the day. Simply add 1 point to the pool for each attack you hit with until you've gained your allotted Divinity for the day.

If subtracting from that pool is too confusing (and how, exactly, it would be, in a game as number-dependent as D&D is beyond me) simply keep a separate pool of "spent" Divinity. If somebody can't keep track with all that, then I suppose I've overestimated what the average D&D player is capable of. In that case, the Divinity system really would need a pretty thorough overhaul.

[elliott20]

so the impression I'm getting from this class is that it's basically a super focused divine wrecking ball, which I like. What I do find confusing, however, is the fact that this guy can heal others via divine link, but has no healing spells what so ever. But at the same time, this guy can also cast resurrection spells.

That is, I'm not sure exactly what secondary role this class is trying to fill.

I actually think that this class is not so much overpowered as it is basically just filled with a lot of potential 15-minute workday syndrome. Right now, divinity points pretty much means that in any given day, he can at best get off a crap ton of damage in short order, and then he'll be tapped dry for the rest of the day.

[Schism]

The Divine Blade is supposed to fill essentially the same role as a Paladin would - that is, damage with spurts of support. That's the intent behind its design. If it could be done better with certain tweaks, feel free to suggest them.

Divine Link is there, essentially, because a Paladin has Lay On Hands. It's inferior in every respect, sure, but it's still support. If you need fluff rather than game balance as to why it can't heal the Divine Blade herself, then consider the Divine Blade to be so accustomed to the touch of her god that simply feeling his/her/its touch isn't enough to mend wounds, while it is for others.

As for the 15 minute adventuring day, I never, ever play in that fashion. It's silly and stretches the belief of even the most wizard-loving person out there. The point of limited resources is not so that you can turn a couple foes to piles of dust and then rest. Rather, it's intended so that you have to moderate your uses of your powerful abilities. If your DM doesn't penalize you for nova-and-rest gameplay, then... well, that's his problem.

Edit: As for the resurrection spells, I find myself ambivalent on them. They could stay or they could go, either way. I leave that to individuals to determine for themselves.

[elliott20]

well, that's kind of my point.

This class as is, fills the paladins role but it does in a way that just isn't very intuitive. He's a minor support guy, but his support only goes one way, which feels kind of odd. But that's a minor thing, I guess.

As for the 15 minute workday thing, well, YOU might not play that way. I might not play that way either, but this class is clearly supports that style of game play. I'm not saying it's the reason you should change it, since we still have the wizard who could just easily be played in the fashion, I'm just pointing out that it is a potential issue.

I'd say remove the res spells. IMHO, they really don't belong here.

But I'd say that you could actually increase the Divinity point total, if you ask me. Cuz as it stands, most of this classes abilities work off of the divinity point, and without it, this class is pretty much a warrior with an aura.

[Schism]

Increasing the total amount of Divinity is all well and good, but by how much? Enough so that you could have nearly as many spells as a Duskblade (100 points or more at 20th level, I'd guess)? A Paladin (35-40ish)? A flat numerical increase where you gain 2 Divinity on every odd level?

Edit: Also, consider the mechanic behind gaining Divinity. If a Divine Blade can gain, say, 50 Divinity in a day, is he really supposed to wait until he hits with 50 attacks before he reaches his optimal power level?

[elliott20]

that is true. I keep forgetting that this guy gets his mojo by hitting people first.

it also means that this guy will almost always necessitate towards finding ways to increase his number of attacks. (Hello pounce!!)

I'll have to think about this some more before I give a full reply.

[Milskidasith]

This is, quite frankly, a confusing way of having a class that is halfway between a cleric and a paladin (except without weapon or heavy armor proficiencies), that is much worse than simply being a cleric and doesn't seem to have any real flavor besides "A paladin with better spellcasting and an odd spell list [for instance, you have blasphemy and holy word, but not Word of Chaos, Word of Balance, or Dictum; any Divine Blade that is X neutral is shafted in that respect.] that has worse melee combat abilities than the Paladin and worse casting than the Cleric (and worse melee if the cleric is buffed.)"

Also, summoning monsters would be invaluable for building up divinity; get a wand of Summon Monster 1 and hit them with some subdual damage constantly to get your divinity up.

[Schism]

Regarding the lack of balance in regards to a cleric... isn't that sort of like saying a Duskblade is worse than a wizard? Of course it's weaker; that's what happens when you have classes that can throw out save-or-die and save-or-wish-you-died spells repeatedly. Some people call that fun. I call it bad game design.

Regarding Dictum and the others, they're not missing by intent, but because I forgot them when I compiled the spell list at 5 a.m.

In regards to beating up summoned creatures to gain Divinity, I somehow can't see that flying with the Powers That Be. (Read: that particular loophole is about to be stitched shut.)

[Milskidasith]

The thing is, it's not just that it's weaker than a cleric, but that it's less versatile and still barely optimal, with the fluff (what little I can decipher) leads to it being very similar to a Paladin focused on his god/a Cleric focused on melee, while having nothing really exciting mechanically.

So the negatives are:

Confusing Mechanics.

Similar fluff to related classes.

Missing key skills (Not having spellcraft as a caster is odd)

Worse than the class it's fluffwise similar too. Yes, this normally wouldn't be a bad thing. But when you have a class that is "this is a divine caster that hits things with swords" having it's abilities be "I add a few dice of damage to my melee attacks in exchange for some spell slots I only get for hitting people in combat that probably doesn't last long enough for me to charge" then it is a legitimate complaint.

Basically, a cleric is "I am a servant of my god that uses spells to buff and defeat my God's foes, and in a pinch I'm not bad in combat if I'm not focused on it and pretty damn good if I am." A Divine Blade is "I am a servant of my god that uses spells to buff and defeat my God's foes and I can do decently in melee as well, except that it burns spells, which I have precious few of."

[Schism]

If I recall correctly, people said much the same thing about the mechanics behind psionics when they were released. ("What? You have to... pay a cost to activate it... and then maybe more to make it stronger? :smallconfused: This is confusing!")

Power Points are a good and relatively easy to understand system though, whereas this, admittedly, isn't. If you have a suggestion to fix it, by all means, let 'er rip. If not, that particular deceased equine has had just about enough beating, methinks.

Spellfcraft was fixed, and fluff is fluff. People change it to fit their character concept regularly. That's not an excuse to have bad/lacking fluff, mind you (on that subject, what would you like to see fixed/added/removed, fluffwise?), just a statement.

Edit: Since we're editing posts and all. Yes, it seems that the Divine Blade gets too few spells per day. Without drastically changing the mechanics behind their spellcasting, how many do you suppose they should get? Five 6th level at 20? More? Critiques about the class's problems are all well and good, but suggestions on how to fix them are better.

[Milskidasith]

If I recall correctly, people said much the same thing about the mechanics behind psionics when they were released. ("What? You have to... pay a cost to activate it... and then maybe more to make it stronger? :smallconfused: This is confusing!")

Power Points are a good and relatively easy to understand system though, whereas this, admittedly, isn't. If you have a suggestion to fix it, by all means, let 'er rip. If not, that particular deceased equine has had just about enough beating, methinks.

Spellfcraft was fixed, and fluff is fluff. People change it to fit their character concept regularly. That's not an excuse to have bad/lacking fluff, mind you (on that subject, what would you like to see fixed/added/removed, fluffwise?), just a statement.

Oh nah, I love points systems; nothing quite like the feel of playing as a sorcerer using the spell points system (or just playing a wizard using the spell points system, which essentially is a sorcerer with that... >_>). It's just that this one is weird; you prepare your spells before you start the day, but then you have to hit stuff to fuel your spells later, and if you get enough fuel to cast your spell, you can either sacrafice it for more fuel or use it and then you also can use your fuel for all your class abilities instead of just making them X/Day and blargh.

Also, the thing if, fluff is fluff. But this has no fluff to go with it besides being divine and deceptively good in melee (without significant investment, this isn't much better than a fighter in melee, and fighters are... uhh... pretty bad.), which is exactly what a cleric is. I wouldn't complain about it being weak if this was something fairly new, like *insert something new here; pretty much everything has a class. Grenade thrower?*

I really don't have any fluff suggestions; it's yours to decide. But playing as a Cleric seems very similar to this, except you can play as strong as a Divine Blade, or kick it up a notch when you need to.

[Schism]

Well, the intent was always to make a character similar to a Duskblade, but with divine spells and higher spell levels. I might have (severely) overcompensated with the reduction in total spells per day, though I thought the additional abilities above what the Duskblade gets were enough to balance it out. Apparently not.

Also, about the X/day abilities. That's kind of the whole point here. You can either use your improved melee capabilities quite a bit, or cast all your spells, but not both. I intended for something in between, with some prepared spells being sacrificed to power Zealot's Strike and the like, while the others get cast as normal. Apparently there's a serious lack of Divinity though; would 50 points at 20th be sufficient? Too much? Still not enough? :smallconfused:

Edit: If the total amounts of Divinity were increased, the mechanic itself would become even more wonky. If the Divine Blade needs a serious buff to Divinity numbers, it'll probably just end up functioning like power points. Less of a "Hey look, I invented something cool!" and more of a "Well, what works, works, why try to change it?" but alas, such is the way of the world.

[Milskidasith]

Well, the intent was always to make a character similar to a Duskblade, but with divine spells and higher spell levels. I might have (severely) overcompensated with the reduction in total spells per day, though I thought the additional abilities above what the Duskblade gets were enough to balance it out. Apparently not.

Also, about the X/day abilities. That's kind of the whole point here. You can either use your improved melee capabilities quite a bit, or cast all your spells, but not both. I intended for something in between, with some prepared spells being sacrificed to power Zealot's Strike and the like, while the others get cast as normal. Apparently there's a serious lack of Divinity though; would 50 points at 20th be sufficient? Too much? Still not enough? :smallconfused:

The thing is, you will never get 50 hits off at level 20 without beating up small innocent creatures with subdual damage, so it's irrelevant. The class abilities are... uhh... pretty much the same as a Paladins, honestly, except they come out of your ability to cast spells. Zealot's Strike is just an improved Smite Evil, and Divine Link is Lay on Hands but slower. The other abilities are interesting, but by the time you get abilities to nullify or redirect damage taken, damage is irrelevant for the most part.

[Schism]

Damage is irrelevant at 7th level? :smallconfused: Who have I been playing with and what have I been doing wrong?

Also, see my edit to the previous post. I know getting off 50 hits to power class abilities isn't feasible.

[Milskidasith]

Damage is irrelevant at 7th level? :smallconfused: Who have I been playing with and what have I been doing wrong?

Also, see my edit to the previous post. I know getting off 50 hits to power class abilities isn't feasible.

I thought it was at 13th level; at 7th, damage can still be a pretty effective way of killing things. Then again, redirecting half the damage a d8 hit dice class takes isn't going to be that effective because by 7th level most classes have something better to do than hit you with direct damage or have better hit points than you anyway. You can screw over rogues, though.

[elliott20]

I think we're segueing into a different topic here.

The only reason I say that I feel there needs to be a divinity point boost is because this character's got a hard limit on how much he can do in one day, and that limit does not give the character a lot to work with.

as it stands now, at level 1, he's got one spell per day at most.

at level 5, he's got 3 level 2s or 6 level 1s.

at level 10, about 4 spells

at level 15, again, 4 spells at level 4

at 20, about 3 spells at level 6.

that's just not a lot of spells to go around. If he were to go the wizard method, and ration out one spell per encounter, fine. But what will he do for the rest of the time when he's not pummeling for mojo? He'll basically be a warrior with an aura.

I would say give him a bit more and boost it up to say, double that.

remember, we don't need him to always be functioning at a full 50 divinity points. Really in actual play, it might be more convenient for him to fight a bunch of smaller encounters to build up his points, and then release it on foes that are more dangerous. This also means this guy will have to rely more on his own physical prowess when not using his divinity powers.

again, this will encourage any player who plays this class to figure out a way to maximize the number of attacks he gets each round. Like I said, hello pounce!

[Schism]

Boosted base Divinity amounts considerably. Also added several Divinity feats, which should help to flesh out the class. Any suggestions for other Divinity feats are most welcome.

Edit: Divine Blades now receive bonus Divinity feats at 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th level.

[elliott20]

deific boon is such a good feat for this class I don't see why anyone would NOT take it.

deity's favor is... hmmm... my gut tells me it's a little weak since it's only 2 divinity points for a feat. but I'll have to see.

[Person_Man]

Here's an example of how you may wish to re-word your class features:

Divinity: The Divine Blade is imbued with the potential to gain a small amount of her deity's power, which she may use to fuel her class abilities. Each turn you may expend a total number of Divinity points equal to your Divine Blade class level. The Divine Blade's Divinity pool starts out empty. Each time the Divine blade successfully deals damage against an enemy whose alignment is in opposition to the Divine Blade's god, she gains one point of Divinity. For example, a Divine Blade of a Lawful Good god would gain a point of Divinity each time they deal damage against an enemy that is Chaotic or Evil (or both). In addition, the DM may award Divinity points for fulfilling your god's purposes in other ways. Your Divinity pool has a maximum capacity equal to your Divine Blade class level plus one half your levels of all other classes and racial hit dice. Divinity Points gained above this capacity are lost. In addition, if the Divine Blade is ever rendered unconscious or otherwise helpless (including sleeping), the Divinity pool is completely emptied to 0.

Spells: A Divine Blade casts divine spells, which are drawn from the Divine Blade spell list. However, her alignment may restrict her from casting certain spells opposed to her moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. The maximum level of the spell that she can cast is determined by her Divine Blade level, as shown on the chart: The Divine Blade. To cast a spell, a Divine Blade must have a wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a Divine Blade’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the Divine Blade's wisdom modifier.

A Divine Blade need not prepare a certain number of spells for each spell level each day. She simply knows all of the spells on her spell list that are allowed for her alignment and current class level. To cast a spell, she must expend a number of Divinity points equal to the spell level. For example, in order to cast a 2nd level spell, she must expend 2 Divinity points. If her spell is modified by metamagic, she must expend a number of Divinity points equal to the modified spell level.


And so on. Every class ability (lay on hands, smite, etc) and Divine Blade feat requires you to spend Divinity points. I'd avoid complicating things by screwing around with your spell list by adding domains, Divine Resurgence, etc. Keep the mechanics simple and fun, not a bookkeeping chore. If you want every Divine Blade to know the War domain spells, just add it to their list and make the domain power a class ability on some dead level. I'd also suggest making the feats into class abilities that you can choose (Talents, Combat Style, whatever you want to call it) to avoid class dipping abuse.

[Schism]

Once again, Person_Man proves himself awesome in every regard. Implemented most of those suggestions (though Divine Link still functions closely to Lay On Hands, rather than costing Divinity).

My hat's off to you; that was a very effective way of trimming the confusing bits out of the class. Although I'm not fond of it being a spontaneous caster, it does make things a lot easier.

Also, Divinity Feats are now divine boons; functionally the same as feats, except that they can only be taken at specific levels. Suggestions for new boons are, of course, welcome.

[truemane]

As Person_Man stole my best suggestion, I'll skip to my second best:

As I was reading, it seemed to me that what Divinity is is Standing with your Deity. He likes you, you get noms, he doesn't, you don't. I think you could make this a more central facet of the class and thereby increase the ambient 'Divine' nature of the abilities and make them more a factor of beaviour and being than just mechanics.

1.
For example, I don't think there's any reason why they should lose all of the Divinity points when they go to sleep. If your deity likes you, and you spent the last week feeding orphans and reading to old people, then having a nap shouldn't change that. Let them keep their unspent points.

Perhaps add a proviso that any single day in which they do not earn a Divinity point, they lose one instead. No Zero Sum days here. You either go forward or you go back. That's how gods roll.

2.
Let them get 2 Divinity points when they Strike someone opposite their alignment on BOTH axes. Gives some reason not to go neutral.

3.
Perhaps add a few guidelines for 'actions in line with deity' in order to gain (or lose!) Divinity in non-combat situations. That would mitigate some of the 15 minute work day concerns and offer mechanical rewards for non-mechaincal activities.

4.
It might be nice if they possessed some number of static bonuses when their Divinity is at a particualr level. For example, +1 Sacred Bonus to AC for every 10 Divinity. +1 Sacred bonus to Damage every 10 Divinty. Maybe some save bonuses, maybe some Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy bonuses.

The logic here is that your character is in such high standing with her deity that she gets some manner of Divine Grace. BUT as you call in these favours (by spending Divinity) your ambient Sacred drains away and you lose the static bonuses. That allows for more resource management and more choices about when to use Divinity and when not to. You could also, under that system, reduce the number of Divinity points, as DB's would now be able to do things all the time without spending them, reducing the need to nova (or do nothing but hit, hit hit, in order to conserve).

5.
Divine Link, I think, could easily be a little more flexible and multi-faceted. There's no real reason why they can only form one link per day. That numebr can go up with level. You might even join this power with the Retribution one, so if the DB forms a link with a bad guy, he feels her pain. She forms a link with a good guy, she eases pain.

You could easily, I think, add a few more small bonuses to Divine Link without going over the top. What if they formed a link with an undead and channeles divine power directly into them? What then?

6.
It might be fun to add a mechanic whereby they can gain Divinity Points with HP loss or Ability Burn. Just for added 'With my last breath I destroy you' moments. And, again, for added flexibility.

7.
I like the Boons. I think others could be added. I'll see if I can think on some more. I think Deity's Favour could add three points + 1 extra point for every time you take the Boon (3, 4, 5, etc).

8.
They should be able to spend Divinity points for Protective abilities too. AC bonus. Dispel Magic. Saves. Movement, even. Or perhaps make these available with Boons.

---

---

I think that's it. Hope it helps.

[Person_Man]

For example, I don't think there's any reason why they should lose all of the Divinity points when they go to sleep. If your deity likes you, and you spent the last week feeding orphans and reading to old people, then having a nap shouldn't change that. Let them keep their unspent points.

Upon further reflection, I think I agree with you. Removing sleep is a good idea, though I think being reduced to 0 or fewer hit points or being knocked unconscious or otherwise rendered helpless should still drain the pool.


Gives some reason not to go neutral.

Whoops, forgot to write something about Neutral gods. Perhaps something like "Divine Blades who worship a god with a Neutral alignment component, you must choose whether they oppose Law or Chaos, or Good or Evil, as appropriate for your god. Once this decision is made, it cannot be changed."


It might be nice if they possessed some number of static bonuses when their Divinity is at a particualr level. For example, +1 Sacred Bonus to AC for every 10 Divinity. +1 Sacred bonus to Damage every 10 Divinty. Maybe some save bonuses, maybe some Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy bonuses.

I agree with this in general - give people some sort of reason to leave their Divinity score high, rather then draining it down. (It also encourages making a lot of attacks and drawing out combat, rather then one big Leap Attack. An Evil Divine Blade might even keep Good slaves just to slap them around after combat and recharge his battery). But I'd make them higher level class abilities, since your Divine pool continues to increase with levels even if you leave the class (needed for multi-classing).


It might be fun to add a mechanic whereby they can gain Divinity Points with HP loss or Ability Burn. Just for added 'With my last breath I destroy you' moments. And, again, for added flexibility.

I would avoid this. Once you have a fun mechanic, you should just leave it alone, not open it up to more chicanery. It's easy to heal HP and ability scores, and your god isn't impressed that you know how to carry wands.


They should be able to spend Divinity points for Protective abilities too. AC bonus. Dispel Magic. Saves. Movement, even. Or perhaps make these available with Boons.

However this finally ends up looking, I would just be sure to avoid re-writing other classes. You have a unique little niche here. You don't want to duplicate other classes class abilities, but better. In fact, I'd even remove Divine Link (Paladin), Zealot's Strike (Paladin/Monk) and Channeling (Duskblade) or change them to be more unique and fueled by Divinity points. Focus on an interesting spell list and your Divine Boons, and see if you can come up with original abilities which reflect the fluff of the class.

[Schism]

As Person_Man stole my best suggestion, I'll skip to my second best:

As I was reading, it seemed to me that what Divinity is is Standing with your Deity. He likes you, you get noms, he doesn't, you don't. I think you could make this a more central facet of the class and thereby increase the ambient 'Divine' nature of the abilities and make them more a factor of beaviour and being than just mechanics.

1.
For example, I don't think there's any reason why they should lose all of the Divinity points when they go to sleep. If your deity likes you, and you spent the last week feeding orphans and reading to old people, then having a nap shouldn't change that. Let them keep their unspent points.

Perhaps add a proviso that any single day in which they do not earn a Divinity point, they lose one instead. No Zero Sum days here. You either go forward or you go back. That's how gods roll.

I removed the sleeping bit about thirty seconds after I added it. Mighty quick clicking finger you've got there. Also, I'm rather keen on the idea that a Divine Blade starts each day without the ability to cast her spells, use her powers, etc. She is granted the use of these by proving her devotion to her god time after time, day after day.


2.
Let them get 2 Divinity points when they Strike someone opposite their alignment on BOTH axes. Gives some reason not to go neutral.

Done and done.


3.
Perhaps add a few guidelines for 'actions in line with deity' in order to gain (or lose!) Divinity in non-combat situations. That would mitigate some of the 15 minute work day concerns and offer mechanical rewards for non-mechaincal activities.

There's so many gods out there, though, each with different ideas of what's right and worthy of Divinity. Whereas one might decide that preaching for hours to the unwashed masses was worth X amount of Divinity, another might decide it was a complete waste of time. Hence the stipulation about non-combat Divinity gain being up to the DM.


4.
It might be nice if they possessed some number of static bonuses when their Divinity is at a particualr level. For example, +1 Sacred Bonus to AC for every 10 Divinity. +1 Sacred bonus to Damage every 10 Divinty. Maybe some save bonuses, maybe some Intimidate/Bluff/Diplomacy bonuses.


The logic here is that your character is in such high standing with her deity that she gets some manner of Divine Grace. BUT as you call in these favours (by spending Divinity) your ambient Sacred drains away and you lose the static bonuses. That allows for more resource management and more choices about when to use Divinity and when not to. You could also, under that system, reduce the number of Divinity points, as DB's would now be able to do things all the time without spending them, reducing the need to nova (or do nothing but hit, hit hit, in order to conserve).

See Grace of the Divine and Favored of the Gods for these.


5.
Divine Link, I think, could easily be a little more flexible and multi-faceted. There's no real reason why they can only form one link per day. That numebr can go up with level. You might even join this power with the Retribution one, so if the DB forms a link with a bad guy, he feels her pain. She forms a link with a good guy, she eases pain.

You could easily, I think, add a few more small bonuses to Divine Link without going over the top. What if they formed a link with an undead and channeles divine power directly into them? What then?

I'm not keen on making Divine Link deal damage; the class as a whole already has a whole "Hulk smash!" motif going on. Instead, it now has the ability to daze foes of differing alignments.


6.
It might be fun to add a mechanic whereby they can gain Divinity Points with HP loss or Ability Burn. Just for added 'With my last breath I destroy you' moments. And, again, for added flexibility.

Unless this becomes a popular suggestion, I'm going to give this a thumbs down for now. It just reeks of potential abuse.


7.
I like the Boons. I think others could be added. I'll see if I can think on some more. I think Deity's Favour could add three points + 1 extra point for every time you take the Boon (3, 4, 5, etc).

Deity's Favor was always supposed to function in a manner similar to Psionic Talent, but I worded it incorrectly. Fixed now.

As for making more boons - please do!


8.
They should be able to spend Divinity points for Protective abilities too. AC bonus. Dispel Magic. Saves. Movement, even. Or perhaps make these available with Boons.

See Divine Protection/Divine Shelter boons. Divine Blades can already cast Dispel Magic, and giving them the ability to spontaneously increase their saves might push the class into stronger-than-you-nyah-nyah land. Movement speed, on the other hand, is probably a good idea.

[truemane]

Upon further reflection, I think I agree with you. Removing sleep is a good idea, though I think being reduced to 0 or fewer hit points or being knocked unconscious or otherwise rendered helpless should still drain the pool.

Even helpless? So Hold Person would drain it? Doesn't that seem harsh? Even in terms of fluff, your God should let you fail a saving throw or two. Reduced to zero HP I can get behind, though.


Whoops, forgot to write something about Neutral gods. Perhaps something like "Divine Blades who worship a god with a Neutral alignment component, you must choose whether they oppose Law or Chaos, or Good or Evil, as appropriate for your god. Once this decision is made, it cannot be changed."

I was going to add that. I didn't. I agree with the above.


I agree with this in general - give people some sort of reason to leave their Divinity score high, rather then draining it down. (It also encourages making a lot of attacks and drawing out combat, rather then one big Leap Attack. An Evil Divine Blade might even keep Good slaves just to slap them around after combat and recharge his battery). But I'd make them higher level class abilities, since your Divine pool continues to increase with levels even if you leave the class (needed for multi-classing).

Heh. The idea of the Evil Divine Blade smacking around some low level slaves for Divinity points is funny. Makes me think there should be a CR minimum for Divinity accrua, but that's just unnecessary bookkeeping.

But you wouldn't necessatrily have to restrict the abilities to high levels, just to high Divinity ratings, since that 's what happens anyway. Watch out for people going nova on the Deity's Favour Boons, and you shoud be okay.


I would avoid this. Once you have a fun mechanic, you should just leave it alone, not open it up to more chicanery. It's easy to heal HP and ability scores, and your god isn't impressed that you know how to carry wands.

Agreed. Point retracted.


However this finally ends up looking, I would just be sure to avoid re-writing other classes. You have a unique little niche here. You don't want to duplicate other classes class abilities, but better. In fact, I'd even remove Divine Link (Paladin), Zealot's Strike (Paladin/Monk) and Channeling (Duskblade) or change them to be more unique and fueled by Divinity points. Focus on an interesting spell list and your Divine Boons, and see if you can come up with original abilities which reflect the fluff of the class.

I would like to second this general notion. I think you could keep the abilities, just slant them some.

[Schism]

Implemented several more suggestions and added a number of boons. Input is encouraged.

[elliott20]

you see, this is why I love these boards. When heavy hitters like Person_Man happen on posts, he gives out some good feedback.

anyway, another idea I had:

what if your divine link can be used for more than just healing? Maybe as an optional divine boon, you can use your divine link to another person to aid the other person in other ways.

i.e. a divine link that allows you, for a number of your divinity points, to let that person use a skill as if they're as proficient as YOU are for a period of time. And of course, doing so consumes divinity points the longer you hold it for.

[Schism]

Divine Transference
Prerequisite: Divine Link, Wis 13
Benefit: So long as you have remaining uses of your divine link ability, you may opt to instead initiate a divine transference. Allies linked to you in this manner may make any strength- or dexterity-based skill checks using your modifiers, though they may not make untrained skill checks in this fashion. For each round you maintain divine transference, you lose one point of Divinity.


...something like that?

[elliott20]

yeah, something like that. Basically, this guy can also use his mental link to give other people aid not just through hit point help.

of course, this might be a little overpowering since it means that certain skills will be completely unnecessary if you have a divine blade in your party that can cover those skills, which in turn makes certain stats further into dump stats.

so, we'll have to see.

an alternative could be something as simple as if the DB has 2+ more ranks in this skill than the recipient, he can give them a +2 circumstantial bonus to a check or some other "aid type" bonus. It's basically like the aid other's action except no skill check necessary and it can be kept active for what is essentially a level one spell per round.

[Schism]

Well, a Divine Blade really doesn't have that many skills with which he could help someone using Divine Transference. The only situation I could imagine is if the wizard was out of teleportation spells and needed to jump across a chasm. :smalltongue:

I think I prefer the modified Aid Another version, and will be adding it to the list of boons presently.

Edit: Divine Transference
Prerequisite: Divine Link, Wis 13
Benefit: So long as you have remaining uses of your divine link ability, you may opt to instead initiate a divine transference. When initiating a divine transference, choose one ability in which you have a modifier at least one higher than your target. That ally gains a +2 divine bonus to all skill checks made based upon that ability. Each round that you maintain divine transference, you lose one point of Divinity.

[Tatsel_Ganav]

First, praise. I think this class is rather splendid, really. It's like the cleric and paladin, but not. Perfect for some characters, such as one I was having trouble making stats for. I think the divinity mechanic is also quite fun, and that you've created something very cool.

Now, questions.
What's the point of having Zealot's Strike and Divine Channeling? They do... almost the same thing... Also, why does my divine channeling power potentially heal undead?

ONE more thing (for now)
How did you pick spells for this class' spell list? I'm wondering what I might add from Spell Compendium for my games.

[Schism]

Divine Channeling automatically has its (potentially more reliable) function activate on a successful hit. On average, it should do more damage for the same amount of Divinity than Zealot's Strike. Zealot's Strike, on the other hand, has the potential to inflict other conditions. I'll probably add some boons that change precisely what those conditions are, to fit individual playstyles.

I picked them from the SRD and ignored any spells that heal or remove poison/curses, etc. It can protect, buff, or restore ability damage, but while it learns Harm, it never learns Heal or the like. Make sense?

As for healing undead, well, negative energy tends to do that. I'll add a boon that changes that.

Edit - Cleric spells I would add from the spell compendium off the top of my head:1st: Foundation of Stone, Ice Gauntlet, Incite, Inhibit, Nightshield, Omen of Peril, Vision of Glory

2nd: Awaken Sin (normally 3rd), Balor Nimbus, Body Blades, Curse of Ill Fortune, Deific Vengeance, Divine Insight, Hand of Divinity

3rd: Cloak of Bravery, Demon Dirge, Devil Blight, Energized Shield, Flame of Faith, Grace, Knight's Move, Ring of Blades, Shield of Warding, Spark of Life, Weapon of the Deity

4th: Castigate, Delay Death, Hand of the Faithful, Recitation, Sheltered Vitality, Wrack

5th: Bolt of Glory (6th), Doomtide, Ice Flowers (6th), Life's Grace, Lucent Lance (6th), Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Rejection (6th), Stalwart Pact, Vulnerability, Zone of Revelation

6th: Brilliant Blade (7th), Death Pact (8th), Greater Bestow Curse (7th), Holy Star (7th), Sarcophagus of Stone, Visage of the Deity

Of course, that's an awful lot of spells to be able to cast spontaneously... might want to choose one or two of these for each level, or have a really lenient DM. :smalltongue:

[Schism]

Size one bump for more comments.