r2d2go
2018-07-04, 04:59 AM
So it's come to my attention that where some domains have flavor text, other domains have some bonus mechanical bonuses. So (largely for self reference, honestly) here's a list of them, and my opinions on how good they are, as well as overall domain strength.
Animal: Gives Knowlege(Nature) as a class skill. A minor bonus, and the domain's pretty mediocre, except in a very nature themed campaign. However, Feather domain is very good for perception and initiative purposes (especially if you have a way to act in the surprise round), and Insect domain is okay for battle/tank druids.
Darkness: Gives Blind-Fight. Pretty mediocre unless you're going for a very specific build involving dropping darkness and hitting people in melee. Would not recommend even then, but if you do go for it, Night is a somewhat more useful subdomain, though better invisibility shouldn't be hard to get by level 3-4.
Glory: Gives +2 save DC on channeling energy. Rather specific and even then mediocre - even in an all-undead campaign, you probably have better options (Sun Domain maybe). However, the Legend domain is generically good.
Knowledge: Gives all Knowledges as class skills. A very nice benefit, and in a decent domain (especially at 6th level). Memory is a very good subdomain since it doesn't require spending actions in combat for knowledge, and Espionage provides a nifty and very thematic alternate-identity power.
Protection: Gives +1 resistance to all saves, +1 per 5 levels. An amazing ability at face value, but mostly saves you gold/spell slots, so it gets worse as the magic level of the setting rises. Unfortunately the domain is bad and the subdomains aren't much better - Solitude might be the closest to decent but requires you to get hit in melee and lowers saves, so there's some antisynergy there.
Trickery: Gives Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth as class skills. Opens up some options, and it's a good domain, with the often insanely powerful Greed subdomain, the potentially broken Ambush subdomain (depends on whether Total Concealment is counted as invisibility basically), and the excellent party-face Innuendo subdomain.
Rune: Gives Scribe Scroll. Great feat, but the overall domain power depends hugely on DM ruling. If you can stack blast runes onto an object, you've got a way to prepare (immediately precombat) a large, quadratic amount of damage (and once you hit 8th level, anyone you can smack should just instantly cease to be an issue). If not, it's really mediocre until 8th, and then becomes... still pretty mediocre. And all of the subdomains are really bad.
Aaand that's it! Now that I've done that I'm considering just writing a full domain mini-handbook. Let me know if you'd be interested.
Animal: Gives Knowlege(Nature) as a class skill. A minor bonus, and the domain's pretty mediocre, except in a very nature themed campaign. However, Feather domain is very good for perception and initiative purposes (especially if you have a way to act in the surprise round), and Insect domain is okay for battle/tank druids.
Darkness: Gives Blind-Fight. Pretty mediocre unless you're going for a very specific build involving dropping darkness and hitting people in melee. Would not recommend even then, but if you do go for it, Night is a somewhat more useful subdomain, though better invisibility shouldn't be hard to get by level 3-4.
Glory: Gives +2 save DC on channeling energy. Rather specific and even then mediocre - even in an all-undead campaign, you probably have better options (Sun Domain maybe). However, the Legend domain is generically good.
Knowledge: Gives all Knowledges as class skills. A very nice benefit, and in a decent domain (especially at 6th level). Memory is a very good subdomain since it doesn't require spending actions in combat for knowledge, and Espionage provides a nifty and very thematic alternate-identity power.
Protection: Gives +1 resistance to all saves, +1 per 5 levels. An amazing ability at face value, but mostly saves you gold/spell slots, so it gets worse as the magic level of the setting rises. Unfortunately the domain is bad and the subdomains aren't much better - Solitude might be the closest to decent but requires you to get hit in melee and lowers saves, so there's some antisynergy there.
Trickery: Gives Bluff, Disguise, and Stealth as class skills. Opens up some options, and it's a good domain, with the often insanely powerful Greed subdomain, the potentially broken Ambush subdomain (depends on whether Total Concealment is counted as invisibility basically), and the excellent party-face Innuendo subdomain.
Rune: Gives Scribe Scroll. Great feat, but the overall domain power depends hugely on DM ruling. If you can stack blast runes onto an object, you've got a way to prepare (immediately precombat) a large, quadratic amount of damage (and once you hit 8th level, anyone you can smack should just instantly cease to be an issue). If not, it's really mediocre until 8th, and then becomes... still pretty mediocre. And all of the subdomains are really bad.
Aaand that's it! Now that I've done that I'm considering just writing a full domain mini-handbook. Let me know if you'd be interested.