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

[Remathilis]

To be fair, I've never seen Divine Intervention used once in 10 years of 5e. If you're in dire straits, you waste your action on a less than 1 in 5 chance the DM will give you some cheat that you have no say in, and if it fails you lose your shot for the day. That's not even a Hail Mary, that's downing the ball on your own 5 to avoid throwing an interception.

 

[OB1]

I've DM'd 1 successful use of Divine Inspiration in 10 years, and while it helped, it wasn't critical to success for the PCs.

The best Cleric moment I've ever seen was a level 19 BBEG fight (Modified Terrasque that was NASTY) where the cleric had been swallowed and making death saves with 2 failures already on the books rolled a nat 20, gained a HP, held a Mass Heal as his action for when he got pulled out, and brought the entire party back from maybe 70 total HP to full health. Now that's Divine Intervention!

 

[Maxperson]

nah, they have servants for that kind of stuff sure you might pray to Pelor, but really your getting Pelor's lackey secretary Lamelor.

It wouldn't be divine intervention if a lackey did it.

Beyond that, I mean the cleric is praying for spells every day, and the god (or lackeys) seem to have no issue with it, that's a whole lot of "pestering", yet the gods don't seem to mind

Spells are power drawn from the god, rather than the god actively granting every spell prayer that happens. Divine intervention on the other hand means that the god is personally taking part in what happens. It's not the same.

 

[SkidAce]

I don't think anyone is disputing that the new version isn't, overall, a power upgrade on account of being reliable even if the ceiling on the ability is lowered. But by making it reliable, it becomes part of the kit. It is no longer miraculous. No-one is going to tell stories about that time Brianna the Barbarian got herself killed in battle but Cecil the Cleric used Divine Intervention for a raise dead spell to bring her back without spending diamonds. I mean, of course he did.

But if a party member fell in battle in 2014 and the cleric called for a successful divine intervention to bring them back mid-battle... I, for one, would bring them back with full hit points and some form of deity-appropriate buff for the duration of the combat. Since the ability has such a low chance of success, it should pack a mighty punch when it does work.

Quoted for Truth...

This is the Way...

etc etc.

 

[SkidAce]

I'm fine with it being a very low chance, single digit percentage regardless of level. In my opinion, it shouldn't even be a class feature, just a thing you can try, since having faith isn't (or shouldn't be) limited to being a cleric, being a spellcaster at all, or even having a PC class. In short, much like the concept was depicted in the TSR days.

Because to me it should be very unreliable and available to anyone who believes, slotting a very specifically mechanized and balanced version of the ability into the cleric class actually seems somewhat crass.

Before they codified the ability, we saw many groups using a "god call", 1% chance per level for any character that followed a god, 2% for cleric.

...so long ago...

 

[g00se99994]

Before they codified the ability, we saw many groups using a "god call", 1% chance per level for any character that followed a god, 2% for cleric.

...so long ago...

And if it works you could even houserule its once a campaign for a character.

 

[Baumi]

What irritates me a bit is that Clerics and Druids are better at Cantrip Attacks than the Sorcerer and Wizard. Shouldn't they get a similar boost since they are completly dependend on their spells (lower HP and AC) and are considered the offensive spellcasters.

Otherwise I really like the new Cleric. DI might be a bit strong in the hands of a min-maxer, but level 10 is high enough that it might not be that important (there is enough game breaking stuff at that level

It got burried the first time around, so i wanted to give it another chance ... since I am really currious what others think about the cantrip attacks.

 

[SkidAce]

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.

Two years go our cleric of Anubis used Divine Intervention during a battle with an arcanaloth (fiend) that was impersonating the cat goddess Bast.

When the cleric made the roll successfully, I aske them what they were asking for.

The cleric replied "The foul creature is almost dead, I don't want it to get away. I would like Anubis to trap it here in this temple." I said okay.

They killed the creature, and it just laughed at them as it said "my soul will return from the Hells and you will all pay!" Then it looked shocked as it appeared to turn ghostly then disentegrate.

Cause Anubis isn't a dummy, and his cleric asked for it to be trapped. So Anubis trapped it soul and all, and since the soul couldn't escape to reform...I said it was permanently killed.

----
While I can and am empowered to do the same with the new ability, it most likely will tend to be used as written, in which case we may not have had quite the memorable scene as we did.

 

[mellored]

It got burried the first time around, so i wanted to give it another chance ... since I am really currious what others think about the cantrip attacks.

Fireball does as much as flame stike, 4 levels earlier.

I'm fine with clerics cantips being a bit stronger.

 

[WanderingMystic]

It got burried the first time around, so i wanted to give it another chance ... since I am really currious what others think about the cantrip attacks.

So the Evoker wizard gets a cantrip bonus at lvl 3 and the Draconic sorcerer get a bonus at lvl 6 I believe. Also the sorcerer has quicken spell and their new 1st level ability. Advantage on spell attacks benefits most cantrips your sorcerer is going to be casting. Depending on how their new ability to get back sorcerer points works I can see sorcerers keeping this active most battles