D&D 5E Xanatar's Guide to Everything: Divine Soul Sorcerer

[Morrus]

I was doing in manually but got I think three people complaining about the transcript and so gave up half way through and just posted the DDB transcript. Because people could not wait 15 friggen minutes for me to clean it up after saying I was working on it.

It's a tedious job. I find it really hard to transcribe Mearls, but Crawford is very clear-spoken.

 

[Mistwell]

It's a tedious job. I find it really hard to transcribe Mearls, but Crawford is very clear-spoken.

I agree. Mearls mumbles, turns away from the mic, and sometimes slurs his words together. I found myself backing things up a few times just to figure out a few words.

 

[gyor]

I found Mike Mearls point that the 5e Cleric functional already absorbed the original Favoured Soul functionally thanks to how 5e does spellcasting.

It gets the combat abilities like the favoured soul and for those that wanted domain spells, it already gets them. For those that prefer the first version of the Favoured Soul, doesn't the Cleric already do a better job of being a Favoured Soul already functionally?

The Divine Soul seems more to be the 2e/3e Mystic/Mystic Wonderer Class, with a fee bits of influence from the FS like wings.

 

[gyor]

Another thought, Empowered Healing was an extension of the cure wounds healer theme, so if baked in Cure Wounds and the Healer theme changed, then like Empowered Healing was replaced as well. It could be an option for Good still or replaced entirely, but I don't think Evil would have Empowered Healing.

In fact I could see the only features staying from the last Favoured Soul being Divine Magic, Angelic Form (renamed), and maybe Favoured by the Gods & Unearthly Recovery (although I could see these two latter being replaced by Alignment Features.)

 

[Azzy]

I personally feel that they'd just go with alignment for this class only mattering at character creations.

Pretty much the only thing that takes into account alignment in 5e is magic items, so I feel that they won't restrict subclasses based on alignment. Sure, there will be archetypes that lean towards certain alignments, but for the important parts it won't matter in the slightest.

The impression that I get is that the alignment has nothing to do with the character's alignment mechanically, instead you simply choose the alignment of the deity that the favored soul derives from. This, of course, may influence the divine soul's alignment (the chosen/avatar/prophet/whatever like shares the deuty's alignment), but it's also possible to play against type (like a divine scion rebelling against its divine source).

 

[gyor]

The impression that I get is that the alignment has nothing to do with the character's alignment mechanically, instead you simply choose the alignment of the deity that the favored soul derives from. This, of course, may influence the divine soul's alignment (the chosen/avatar/prophet/whatever like shares the deuty's alignment), but it's also possible to play against type (like a divine scion rebelling against its divine source).

Like the Divine Soul who rebels against it's evil parent, refusing to be a pawn in it's evil schemes.

Or a Divine Soul of a Good deity seduced into doing great evil by a Succubus (corrupting the Divine Soul of a good deity would be as big or bigger then corrupting a Lawful Good Paladin).

 

[Patrick McGill]

It feels like on a pie chart of power sources for subclasses it'd be two near-halves of arcane and divine and a tiny tiny sliver of martial.

 

[gyor]

What martial does, the Divine Soul have?

 

[Ath-kethin]

Like the Divine Soul who rebels against it's evil parent, refusing to be a pawn in it's evil schemes.

Or a Divine Soul of a Good deity seduced into doing great evil by a Succubus (corrupting the Divine Soul of a good deity would be as big or bigger then corrupting a Lawful Good Paladin).

Doesn't even need to be seduced by an evil force. The concept of supremely good beings driven to evil means is hardly new, and is fairly common in literature and film. The character of Gabriel in the Prophecy movies or the Kingpriest of Istar from Dragonlance come readily to mind. Eberron touched on this idea back in the day as well.

All that being said, I don't really like the "healing=good alignment" association. As if evil creatures never have a need to be healed, or a desire to keep themselves, their allies, and/or their servants healthy. Though I suppose that if we double down on the "evil cannot be a source of healing" idea, it adds both an element of tragedy for those more concerned with results than methods and some interesting permutations to the Divine Soul class debate.

 

[Chaosmancer]

All that being said, I don't really like the "healing=good alignment" association. As if evil creatures never have a need to be healed, or a desire to keep themselves, their allies, and/or their servants healthy. Though I suppose that if we double down on the "evil cannot be a source of healing" idea, it adds both an element of tragedy for those more concerned with results than methods and some interesting permutations to the Divine Soul class debate.

One thing that could be very powerful and cool about the design though is the ability to mix and match.

If they lay it out like they did the Storm Herald Barbarian where each level they get four different options, then a player and DM could easily just mix and match the options to find the balance they want for a particular diety or concept.

It also leads me to think they are going to have a spell list, Good aligned will get cure wounds and the empowered healing ability, while the spell list for law might include a different spell and ability.

Of course, it is also possible that the Divine Soul could end up being one of the most powerful sorcerer options because of all this, but that's perfectly fine with me.


Now, here's hoping for the Sea Sorcerer and their cantrip cursing to make a reappearance.