Need Help - Divine Vigor

[Liquidsabre]

Starting up a new campaign and one of the players would like to select Divine Vigor as one of their feats. The only thing is, as a group, we haven't seen a Cleric or Paladin without this feat ever since CW came out.

Is it just the personal taste of our game group or is it something more here? I've been in two other game groups that use CW and found a similar proliferation of use of the feat there as well. What's wrong here? The feat is good, but is it really a must-have? I have to admit I started the trend myself with a low-level cleric when the book came out and found it to be of invaluable use. It's just the combination of increased speed and temp HPs to be almost too good, especially at higher levels. We've had one wizard (Sacred Excorcist PrC) that took the feat for goodness sakes since the temp HP bonus is character level based not divine-class level based!

I hate to bring this up again, but I'd really like folk to convince me that the feat really isn't "too" good so I can let the player go ahead and take the feat, no questions asked.

As it is, I'll be splitting Divine Vigor into *two* different feats: Divine Vigor (+2 temp HP/level) and Divine Celerity (+10ft speed).

Edit - Note that splitting DV into two feats also includes increasing duration to 1 hour/Charisma bonus for both feats.

 

[Henrix]

Well, I don't like the feat as it turns a specialized ability (usable only when fighting undead) into something that the cleric can use against anything.
I am not certain it is overpowered, but it lets clerics overcome some limitations too easily.

 

[green slime]

Well, IMC we have had one cleric with this feat, out of three clerics and a paladin. That cleric being a follower of Fharlanghn, the WoG's god of travel. So a little extra speed wasn't inappropriate. It did originally appear in the bendy brown splat books, not the CW.

Personally I think it is a good (worthwhile) feat, but not overpowered.

 

[Piratecat]

Vigor? I barely know her.

No one in my group has taken it.

 

[Thanee]

Well, I don't like the feat as it turns a specialized ability (usable only when fighting undead) into something that the cleric can use against anything.

That's true for pretty much all the Divine Feats, tho.

I've yet to see someone take it in the games I played.

However, I do think, that it is a very good feat, but it still requires a standard action to activate, no? So, it's like casting a spell or throwing up Divine Vigor. With that it doesn't seem too bad to me. As a free action it would be too much.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Philip]

Exactly, the standard action balances it out IMO. I was not very excited about it when I read it, decent but no more.

My Hexblade/Blackguard was a lot more excited about Divine Might.

 

[kenobi65]

I've not seen many people take it, either; it may be a quirk of your group, Liquidsabre.

I will admit that I took Divine Vigor for my Fighter 11 / Paladin 5 (took it when she made Paladin 4). She gets 8 Turn Undead attempts per day (20 Charisma), but she turns undead as a 3rd level cleric, which isn't going to be too effective against the types of undead we'd be running against when the APL is 15 or so. So, Divine Vigor gives me an effective way to use her turning ability.

And, I agree, having to burn a standard action to activate it does help to limit it a bit. Still, +32hp, and +10' move, for 5 minutes, isn't a bad thing.

 

[Thanee]

Divine Might is usually better, tho.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nail]

No one in either of my groups has taken it. In the game I DM, I've had the paladin NPC take it, as he's the "back-up" fighter for the group...and yet, I've only used it once. There are usually better things to do than use a standard action to get a few hit points.

Liquidsabre, I think you need to convince us why it's over-powered!

 

[Rashak Mani]

I think the Feat is easily above average... but unbalanced would be going to far. It depends on DM style too. The +10 speed isn't all that helpful in some campaigns... while it might be quite useful in others. If you manage to "activate" it before combat it is much more useful.

It can be slightly abused by using several Divine Vigors during a long combat. Imagine a Paladin without a Cleric to back him up invoking this power to keep getting fresh new temporary HPs.... but then he won't be dishing out damage will he ? The standard action does balance it...

Now why do your players pick it ? Because its the only one that doesn't depend on good Charisma ! If you got bad charisma it will still last a decent 1 min... while other divine feats suck if your cha sucks.