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Bugado25
2016-12-26, 08:52 AM
Recently, WotC launched Protection Domain for Clerics, and IMHO, they did a terrible job at it.
So, I decided to make some tweaks out of it.

The spells are mostly fine.

At first level, I would keep Compelled Duel and change Protection From Evil and Good to Shield of Faith. Why? Both spells fit the theme and are on Cleric’s Spell List so no change power wise, but Shield of Faith is always useful, while Protection from Evil and Good is situational.

At 3rd, change Protection From Poison to Warding Bond. Again, both on the Cleric’s list, but is just ridiculous that Warding Bond is not on Protection Domain Spells and Protection From Poison is an extremely situational spell that may be useful only once or twice during the whole campaign, but, as everything situational, YMMV. It is just not a spell I think I would want to have always prepared.

At 5th, we have Protection From Energy and Slow. IMO, Protection From Energy is a terrible spell, but is also terribly appropriate and no Domain lack bad spells, so leave it. Slow is an ok spell. Kind of weird for the theme of the archetype, but looking through the spell list I did not find anything more appropriate, so leave it.

At 7th you get Guardian of Faith and Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere. Both fit very well to the theme.

Lastly, we have Antilife Shell and Wall of Force at 9th. These are also fine.

Heavy armor, nothing to change here
At first, I felt this to be underwhelming. Protection Fighting Style? Really? I though this to be terrible, but then, I went to the book and looked at the other domain’s 1st level abilities and saw this is fine power wise. It is even above the average. I would just prefer this to be described in a more magical way, instead of a physical one. So instead of:

“You interpose an arm, a shield, or some other part of yourself to try to throw the attack off target.”

I would describe it as:

“You create a thin magical barrier between the attacker and the target, delaying the attack long enough for the target to better prepare his defenses”
It is just a fluff change and I don’t think any DM would be against it so it doesn’t really make much difference. But creating magical wards is just something that IMO fits much better to the theme of the Protection Cleric than physically protecting.
This is simply terrible. It does not fit thematically and is terrible mechanically.

“Waste your action to cast Hellish Rebuke for a Friend”

Unless your DM metagames, the monsters won’t really know what the “Radiant Armor” does, and when they discover, the armor is gone. Even the damage is nothing impressive. The Light Cleric can do the same damage to EVERY ENEMY in a 30 feet area around him with the same resource expended and the same action requirement.

A much better version both power wise and thematically would be:

“Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to cloak your allies in radiant armor. As an BONUS action, you channel blessed energy into an ally that you can see within 30 feet of you.
The target gains 2d10 + your cleric level temporary hit points for the next minute.”

It is more powerful than Life’s Domain Channel Divinity at first, but scales much slower. Maybe changing it to twice cleric’s level would be better.
Copy paste from Life Cleric.
I will say how it reads to me in both cases.

For the Life Cleric
“Your Domain over Healing Magic is so powerful, that you can use part of the energy to heal yourself as well as your ally”

For the Protection Cleric
“If you fail to protect, you can heal YOURSELF while you heal your ally”

For me, it does not fit thematically and is actually weaker for Protection Cleric, cause his healing spells are worse than Life Cleric ones, so you are less rewarded for using one.
I would change it to:

“At 6th level, you learn Blade Ward cantrip if you don’t already know it. You can cast the as a bonus action instead of an action and the spell has a range of touch when you cast it”

I’m not sure if this is balanced. It looks a little better than Nature Cleric’s one in my opinion, but not overpowered.
Another option I thought is something to improve Shield of the Faithful, like making it last till the end of the turn to cover against multiattack.

Indomitable Defense is fine. Nothing flashy but is balanced.

So, what are your opinions about my rework? Balanced? Underpowered? Overpowered? What would you change?

For those that didn’t see the original archetype, here is the link:
http://media.wizards.com/2016/dnd/downloads/UA_Cleric.pdf

Foxhound438
2016-12-26, 08:30 PM
I too hated the channel divinity here. Your rework seems fine to me.

Potato_Priest
2016-12-27, 03:48 AM
I as well hated the channel divinity. I liked the original flavor on shield of the faithful however. I like the idea of punching a sword away from an ally with a gauntletted hand.

I love your level 6 ability. Bonus action is a good call. To make use of this feature, you have to sacrifice your spirit weapon, normally something that every cleric makes use of.

You channel divinity is much better, but I still prefer the followin, as a counterpart to the war cleric's ability.

Channel Divinity: Whatever you want to call it
When an ally must make a saving throw or is attacked, you can use your reaction to expend your channel divinity, granting a +10 bonus to the ally's saving throw or a -10 penalty to the attacker's attack roll. You can choose to use this after seeing the roll, but before knowing the result of the roll.

Bugado25
2016-12-27, 07:29 AM
I too hated the channel divinity here. Your rework seems fine to me.
Thanks.

I liked the original flavor on shield of the faithful however. I like the idea of punching a sword away from an ally with a gauntletted hand.
I prefer a more magical fell to magical classes, but tastes vary. To me, turning it into a magical barrier makes it more flavorful than something that any fighter or paladin can train to have IMO.


I love your level 6 ability. Bonus action is a good call. To make use of this feature, you have to sacrifice your spirit weapon, normally something that every cleric makes use of.
Exactly my idea. Would be totally unbalanced if clerics did not already have good uses for bonus actions.


You channel divinity is much better, but I still prefer the followin, as a counterpart to the war cleric's ability.

Channel Divinity: Whatever you want to call it
When an ally must make a saving throw or is attacked, you can use your reaction to expend your channel divinity, granting a +10 bonus to the ally's saving throw or a -10 penalty to the attacker's attack roll. You can choose to use this after seeing the roll, but before knowing the result of the roll.
Both could work. I still prefer the idea of TempHP but anything is better than WotC version.