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View Full Version : D&D 5e/Next Divine Domain: The Phoenix Priest (Campaign Specific) [PEACH]



DracoKnight
2016-05-12, 03:19 PM
I've been working on this the last couple of days, and I'm finally ready to see if it's balanced. Without further ado, here's the Phoenix Priest (http://www.naturalcrit.com/homebrew/share/HytpISWM)! :smallbiggrin:


Designer's Note: Origin Lore
In my world there's an entity who is known as The Great Phoenix Arkaten, who's an Undying Light. After allying himself with one of the gods, he was allowed to make clerics as well as warlocks, and this is the Domain that is specific to him (rather than giving him Life/Light because that felt predictable).

Final Hyena
2016-05-12, 03:43 PM
Blessing of the Phoenix
Starting at 1st level, when you make an attack or cast a spell that targets a single creature
This could be construed so that spells that can target multiple creatures don't get the boon. Unless that was the intent perhaps rephrase it to;
"Starting at 1st level, when you make an attack or cast a spell that affects a single creature"


heal an ally within 30 feet of you as a bonus action.
The amount of hit points you heal is equal to the fire or radiant damage you dealt.
Wow that is powerful, and I mean holy bloody hell is that powerful. Perhaps toning it down to be similar to the life affect, so equal to the level of the spell cast?

Divine Wrath
While this ability is essentially a carbon copy of the thunder one, it is much better as that cleric doesn't get as good lightning spells as a cleric does for radiant/fire spells.

Phoenix Fire
All around very strong. From the get go 4d10 (22) 4 times!
I can see this class is rather inspired by tempest, but it's just so much better!

The other abilities are ok.

DracoKnight
2016-05-12, 03:48 PM
This could be construed so that spells that can target multiple creatures don't get the boon. Unless that was the intent perhaps rephrase it to;
"Starting at 1st level, when you make an attack or cast a spell that affects a single creature"

Yeah, this is the intention.


Wow that is powerful, and I mean holy bloody hell is that powerful. Perhaps toning it down to be similar to the life affect, so equal to the level of the spell cast?

It IS powerful, but healing is hella gimped, it requires your bonus action, and it's ONLY single target fire or radiant attack/spells.


Divine Wrath[/B]
While this ability is essentially a carbon copy of the thunder one, it is much better as that cleric doesn't get as good lightning spells as a cleric does for radiant/fire spells.

True. Will playtest for balance.

EDIT: Tempest Cleric gets a decent selection of Thunder and Lightning spells. Now, it's not as useful as Divine Wrath, necessarily, but there is support for it :smalltongue:


Phoenix Fire
All around very strong. From the get go 4d10 (22) 4 times!
I can see this class is rather inspired by tempest, but it's just so much better!

The other abilities are ok.

Yup. I've already addressed this by updating the link in the OP. Thanks for addressing it, though :smallsmile:

Final Hyena
2016-05-12, 04:15 PM
It IS powerful, but healing is hella gimped, it requires your bonus action, and it's ONLY single target fire or radiant attack/spells.
I'm not sure I agree I think healing is reasonable, there is no miss chance/save to reduce its effectiveness.
Anyway doubling the effectiveness of guiding bolt/sacred flame for a bonus action (but no resources) is very strong.
Let alone when you consider the combination of divine wrath.

The build is essentially a mix of Life & Tempest to make something much better (at least in the early game). That's the other issue blessing of the Phoenix looses value across the game. This is why I prefer that any time a single creature is affected you can heal equal to perhaps two times the spells level. It keeps it from being broken, but it's useful throughout a clerics life.

DracoKnight
2016-05-12, 04:25 PM
I'm not sure I agree I think healing is reasonable, there is no miss chance/save to reduce its effectiveness.
Anyway doubling the effectiveness of guiding bolt/sacred flame for a bonus action (but no resources) is very strong.
Let alone when you consider the combination of divine wrath.

No, there's no chance of failure, but HP healed vs. damage taken will never compare - until you get to wish, but that's not on the cleric list. So if you want to be an effective healer, you have to burn through spell slots like crazy - by the way you only have 22 of those at 17th level onward per day. At 1d8 or 1d4 per slot depending on which spell you're casting. Sure, there's prayer of healing, or mass cure wounds but you again, only have so many slots available. And if you're burning through them like crazy - which your party expects you the cleric (they hear cleric they hear HEALER) to do, this actually diminishes your usefulness.

Sorry, this turned into a rant, but it addresses my design choices, and my problems with the cleric overall. :smalltongue:

EDIT: You're also probably right. I will playtest, and get back to the forum.

GandalfTheWhite
2016-05-12, 05:36 PM
This is powerful, but I wouldn't say that it's outright better than the current cleric. I would put it on par with the Death and Tempest domains in terms of power. It has great healing, but that's the only reason it's amazing. Their channel divinity is amazing - but that's what a CD is supposed to be - it's supposed to be awesome - like your god working through you. And honestly, a damage boost is far from the most interesting thing that you can do with CD - the amount of damage a character can deal is honestly not what breaks the game. :smalltongue:

DracoKnight
2016-05-13, 02:50 PM
Any more thoughts?