D&D (2024) 2024 Player's Handbook reveal: "New Cleric"

[Micah Sweet]

Nope. It is very different. Arcane recovery only allows you to cast a spell you have prepared again.

I didn't say it was the same. I said it felt the same. To me.

 

[Stalker0]

There are a few variants you could consider to try and bring back some of the "awe" to Divine Intervention.

• Instead of an automatic 1/day ability, have the cleric roll a d20 during prayer time each day. On a 20, the ability is "charged" and can be used that day. So the cleric player doesn't waste their time, and can get excited thinking about what they might ask for. Maybe they keep it secret from the party and then unveil it, maybe they share it "all my deity has spoken to me". It would remove the randomness at the moment, but would still leave in the "specialness".
• Have it recreate any 5th level spell (from any class). Basically a lesser wish. Now things get interesting.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I didn't say it was the same. I said it felt the same. To me.

Ah ok.

 

[Chaosmancer]

Except it reads like it's the god that's limited in what they can accomplish (since they're the one doing it), and not the cleric.

If the DM wants a god to act... then the god acts. You don't need a PC ability for that.

 

[Chaosmancer]

This is a huge nerf considering all the undead that are immune to frightened.

How many of them will retain that?

 

[Micah Sweet]

If the DM wants a god to act... then the god acts. You don't need a PC ability for that.

Quite true. Again, see my longer explanation of my thoughts above.

 

[Chaosmancer]

The old ability was just bad. 10 to 19% chance is not intervention, it is usually: "nope".

If it was 3% chance per level or so, ok. But 1% always felt like an insult.

Yeah, I mentioned this earlier.

In not a single game I have ran, in the last 10 years, has Divine Intervention gone off.
In ONLY a single game I have played in, over the last 10 years, did Divine Intervention go off, and it was to use Raise Dead on someone outside of the time limit (they had been dead for 15 days if memory serves) and it had heavily negative connotations for my actions affecting the fate of the world.
In only a single game I have WATCHED did Divine Intervention get used successfully, and it was a big punch onto a nasty BBEG (literally a divine fist). Which did about the damage of a 5th or 6th level spell if memory serves.

I agree that it is less powerful than "do whatever you want" but that percent chance meant that it usually did NOTHING, and the current version is better than nothing.

 

[Charlaquin]

The old ability was just bad. 10 to 19% chance is not intervention, it is usually: "nope".

If it was 3% chance per level or so, ok. But 1% always felt like an insult.

Yup, it was unreliable. Which is why you don't rely on it. It's not supposed to be relied on. It's a literal Hail Mary.

Personally, I think the decision to frame it as a Hail Mary hurt Divine Intervention’s reception a lot. When you’re in a “moment of great need” with no options left but to make a desperate plea and hope it works, a 10% of anything happening at all is just going to be narratively unsatisfying most of the time (90% of the time, to be specific), which makes the ability feel nearly useless. What made it click for me was thinking about it not as an emergency button, but as the cleric’s daily prayers. Every morning, the Cleric prays for a miracle, and eventually, their god actually answers. But the kinds of things you would ask for every day are different than the things you would ask for in the heat of a desperate situation. It’s not “dear God, save me from this foe,” it’s “please bring back our departed friend,” or “please protect this villiage from evil,” or “please strike down this dastardly villain.” As a tool for long-term action, it feels incredibly powerful.

 

[Arilyn]

It feels like WotC doesn't like the whole idea of a very small chance of "something big" happening. . That's fine. The old ability is wonky. Why keep the name then? Explain your positioning and rename the 2024 version. Maybe my complaint seems trivial but I've always had a pet peeve about game mechanics not matching their names or fluff.

 

[g00se99994]

It feels like WotC doesn't like the whole idea of a very small chance of "something big" happening. . That's fine. The old ability is wonky. Why keep the name then? Explain your positioning and rename the 2024 version. Maybe my complaint seems trivial but I've always had a pet peeve about game mechanics not matching their names or fluff.

That sounds like a decent compromise. Call it Divine Font or something like that. I like your idea.