Relics and the True Believer Feat...some inquiries

[Erberor]

I am, without a doubt, going to be putting a few relics into my campaign, namely the Millennial Chainmail, Champion's Belt, and the Axe of Ancestral Virtue. The problem is that only one of the intended recipients of these relics is a divine caster worth mentioning (dwarf cleric). The other two would have to take the "true believer" feat to use these relics to their full potential.

True Believer
Your deity rewards your unquestioning faith and devotion.
Prerequisite: Must choose a single deity to worship. Must be
within one step of that deity’s alignment.
Benefit: Once per day when you are about to attempt a saving
throw, you can declare that you are using this feat to gain a +2
insight bonus on that saving throw.
This feat also allows you to use a relic of the deity you worship
without sacrificing a spell slot.

The two characters in question are a ranger and a melee "brute". My question is, should I prevent these two characters from using these items to their full potential? Should I make them take this feat? It really seems like a bad idea to blow a feat on something like this, even if the relics offer some nice abilities.

[The_Werebear]

You could have them go on a quest to prove their worthiness before the deity. If they complete it, they get the True Believer feat as a bonus.

[Khedrac]

The_Werebear's answer above - or, are they regular attenders at their temples?

In fact, how devout is the priest? - do they automatically qualify?

Normally I think relics really want the sort of worshiper who makes the priests look lax.

[Daracaex]

What items are these? I've never heard of them before and they're not in the Compendium. Also, 4e doesn't have "spell slots," so are you even in the right forum?

[LibraryOgre]

What items are these? I've never heard of them before and they're not in the Compendium. Also, 4e doesn't have "spell slots," so are you even in the right forum?

The Mod Wonder: That was me. It was originally in General, and I misread it as a 4e post.

[Phelix-Mu]

So, here is what I would say.

Relics: Anyone that worships that god should be able to use it.

Clerics: Get a bigger benefit, just improve the function of the item a bit.

True Believer: I usually give the +3 from the table in Complete Divine.

If a worshiper has True Believer, give them a half-value version of Ancestral Relic to go with the relic, provided it is used as a kind of signature weapon or item (and not just stowed in a bag).

Cleric with True Believer gets the full-value Ancestral Relic with the relic.

I dislike MagicMart, and Ancestral Relic is a flavorful way to customize stuff and encourage less of the magic item trading post thing that goes on around some tables. Not that there is anything wrong with that if people are enjoying themselves. Just not my cup of tea (though I do accept some of it, simply to make the game go smoothly).

This is clearly a power-boost, as well, but makes the feat True Believer a little less underpowered. Feats that are markedly less useful than cheap magic items are silly. Feat>item>spell is my usual rubric for judging power levels. Of course, little that exists in RAW reflects that particular rubric, lol.

[Erberor]

Thanks for the input.

I've thought about the characters, and decided that they are all fairly devoted. One of them (the cleric) fairly regularly puts a few thousand gold into the donation box at one of Moradin's temples, so He's pretty good. One of them is an elf who takes elven arrogance to an extreme, revering Corellon Larethian above all else. The last one is a bit of an interesting case in that, one way or another, from a roleplaying standpoint he is Kord's champion, possibly possessing some divine blood.

I may send the elf on a little adventure to prove him worthy, but otherwise they're good.

And sorry for posting in the forum...I spaced out there :smallfrown:

[OldTrees1]

IF a PC has the Sanctify Relic feat THEN require True Believer/sacrificed divine spell slots to get the full value of relics.

Reason: The cost of most of their crafted items just got remarkably cheaper. Headband of Int +2 for 0gp? Yes please.