D&D 5E Channel Divinity: Sacred Weapon - Does the action to activate it make it weak?

[Sword of Spirit]

So Sacred Weapon is pretty cool, but you need to spend an action to activate it, and it only lasts a minute.

Put together, those things seem to make it more of a situational buff than a bread and butter ability.

Rarely do my PCs have a chance to pre-cast 1 minute duration effects. That's basically something you do before an ambush.
And if you haven't pre-activated the ability, you are giving up your Attack for the round in order to get ready to fight better later. An average meaningful fight is expected to take 3 rounds. Tougher fights can take longer (or they can just be rocket tag), but I expect it would take quite a few rounds for the potential damage gain to offset the potential damage lost from not just taking the Attack action on the first turn.

So, it looks to me like this ability is either for fights you expect are going to be really long, or for ambushes. Am I right here, or does it pay off a lot faster than the math would indicate?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Not something that you'd need to do every fight, but very useful to have as an option. Boosting your attack with Charisma, particularly if you're using GWM feat is nice.
However the greatest benefit is probably that it renders your attack magical if it isn't already, giving you a way of hurting things that would be resistant to your attacks otherwise. In that situation even if you're already in melee , activating it can be well worth the action.
I'm aware that 3 rounds is viewed as the average length of a fight, however I'm not sure where it came from. I've generally found that our meaningful fights last a bit longer.

 

[Umbran]

"Situational buff" maybe, but... it is a pretty broad situation: "I am about to start a fight."

The wizard leads with a spell. The rouge sneaks to get a flanking position, and you set off this.

 

[FarBeyondC]

It's a really dramatic fight opener, and potent/useful buff in the event you can't or don't want to meaningfully engage someone in the first round of combat.

 

[MarkB]

As you say, most combats only last 3 rounds, and this spell lasts 10 rounds. "Looks like we're going to be in a fight sometime in the next 42 seconds" isn't an utterly rare situation, unless your party is useless at sneaking.

 

[Gladius Legis]

There's quite a few battles IMX where the enemy starts more than 30 feet away, which means you can't attack anyway (or you're throwing a weak javelin). In that case, Sacred Weapon is great to use.

 

[ad_hoc]

As you say, most combats only last 3 rounds, and this spell lasts 10 rounds. "Looks like we're going to be in a fight sometime in the next 42 seconds" isn't an utterly rare situation, unless your party is useless at sneaking.

Barring magic like Pass Without Trace sneaking is very hard for a party to do successfully. Even with that spell they still need to be unseen.

Sacred Weapon also emits light. Even if the enemy are surprised it's probably going to be your first action of the battle.

A major benefit (unless your game has a ton of magic items) is that it makes your weapon magical. Overcoming resistance is pretty good. It's also useful against high AC enemies that you may otherwise find hard to damage.

It's not the best Channel Divinity but that's okay. Not everything should be useful in all circumstances.

 

[Mort]

So Sacred Weapon is pretty cool, but you need to spend an action to activate it, and it only lasts a minute.

Put together, those things seem to make it more of a situational buff than a bread and butter ability.

Rarely do my PCs have a chance to pre-cast 1 minute duration effects. That's basically something you do before an ambush.
And if you haven't pre-activated the ability, you are giving up your Attack for the round in order to get ready to fight better later. An average meaningful fight is expected to take 3 rounds. Tougher fights can take longer (or they can just be rocket tag), but I expect it would take quite a few rounds for the potential damage gain to offset the potential damage lost from not just taking the Attack action on the first turn.

So, it looks to me like this ability is either for fights you expect are going to be really long, or for ambushes. Am I right here, or does it pay off a lot faster than the math would indicate?

I've had no problem using it in various fights.

1. Since it lasts a minute, often pre-activation works. 1 minute, no concentration is pretty long in 5e.

2. It's a BIG buff. It works against all targets and stacks with avantage, which is not all that hard to come by. That's why I find the vengeance vow of enmity very good, but a bit overrated. With proper party synergy (Say a wolf barbarian or a fighter with shield master) you get advantage AND a +3 to +5 to hit.

3. Another often overlooked benefit - sacred weapon works on ranged weapons too, unlike vow of enmity. Strength paladins have a problem at range, sacred weapon can mitigate that to a degree. Dex paladins can actually be excellent at range, especially with sacred weapon up.

 

[FrogReaver]

So Sacred Weapon is pretty cool, but you need to spend an action to activate it, and it only lasts a minute.

Put together, those things seem to make it more of a situational buff than a bread and butter ability.

Rarely do my PCs have a chance to pre-cast 1 minute duration effects. That's basically something you do before an ambush.
And if you haven't pre-activated the ability, you are giving up your Attack for the round in order to get ready to fight better later. An average meaningful fight is expected to take 3 rounds. Tougher fights can take longer (or they can just be rocket tag), but I expect it would take quite a few rounds for the potential damage gain to offset the potential damage lost from not just taking the Attack action on the first turn.

So, it looks to me like this ability is either for fights you expect are going to be really long, or for ambushes. Am I right here, or does it pay off a lot faster than the math would indicate?

It's almost never worth giving up an attack action in combat to cast a buff. That said it's a very strong buff. When you are able to prebuff with this it's a game changer.

Campaigns are ran very differently by different groups. Some groups get time to prebuff most fights. Others don't and tend to start fights close to enemies. So it's situational, but that situationalness is dictated by your campaign.

 

[delph]

And what is Sacred weapon? I found Holy weapon (5th lvl), Spiritual weapon (2nd lvl)