D&D 5E Cleric's level 20 Divine Intervention stories/examples

[CTurbo]

I'd love to hear some of what you have done as a DM or have had done as a player. I am currently playing as a Cleric on one campaign and DMing a Cleric player in another so I'm mainly wondering about what to expect from it.

 

[Greg Benage]

On Saturday, the 20th level party in my campaign attacked a Cult of the Dragon outpost in a huge river cave. The main players (in addition to the cultist riffraff) were an archmage (with a much-improved spell list), a spellcasting adult red dragon, an adult black dragon, and a dragonrider who was essentially an up-ranked champion with a magic lance that had a nasty stun effect. They'd had previous run-ins and the bad guys were scrying on the PCs (and vice versa).

The wizard had true polymorphed mounts for the PCs, so the battlemaster was mounted on a wyvern, the warlock/battlemaster on a young silver dragon, the rogue on a unicorn, the lore bard on a Pegasus. The life cleric was on a warhorse because being flashy wasn't his style. The party split up (oops), with three attacking from the south and three from the north.

The archmage cast greater invisibility and flew close enough to feeblemind the life cleric. Failed Int save. Inspiration. Failed again. Another player donated inspiration. Failed again. Revenge of the dump stat. Life cleric has Int 1 and can't cast spells.

Red dragon casts greater invisibility and quickly downs the battlemaster and his wyvern. The black and dragonrider stunlock and kill the young silver; the warlock/battlemaster nearly dies but manages to misty escape out of immediate danger with a few HPs left. The bad guys are essentially unharmed at this point.

The wizard then true polymorphs the feebleminded dwarf cleric into an ancient white dragon. The rogue jumps on the dragon's back and they go take on the red. Meanwhile, with illusionist ability, mirror image, and shield, the gnome wizard has to tank the black dragon and dragonrider for a few rounds all while maintaining concentration on the true polymorph. The red dragon's breath recharges and it tries to use misty step to get away from the ancient white and finish off the bard and gnome, but the warlock/battlemaster counterspells. The red decides to eat AoOs from the white and the rogue to kill two vulnerable characters anyway, but the rogue has Sentinel and it can't get away. The rogue finishes it off with a rapier in the eye.

Then the gnome wizard finally goes down under the onslaught of the black dragon, dragonrider and archmage. And when he goes down, the true polymorph goes down, and the once-more feebleminded dwarf and the rogue fall eighty feet. Now the dwarf decides to ask about divine intervention... I rule he's a drooling idiot, but his faith is still strong. His prayer doesn't amount to much more than "Gaaaaah!" The effect I choose is a lowly greater restoration to remove the feeblemind. Now the 20th level life cleric is back in the game and the party is easily able to win the battle.

It was cool.

 

[CTurbo]

That's a cool story. Thanks for sharing. How did the characters survive the 80ft fall?

I'm pretty sure one of the Clerics in one of my campaigns is expecting greater things from Divine Intervention. I think he thinks his god is going to win entire encounters for him. I didn't think would be THAT great.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I think it is like Wish; the ability is worded in such a way that it isn't game breaking, but leaves the option open for the DM to break the game if (s)he wishes.

Imploring your deity’s aid requires you to use your action. Describe the assistance you seek, and roll percentile dice. If you roll a number equal to or lower than your cleric level, your deity intervenes. The DM chooses the nature of the intervention; the effect of any cleric spell or cleric domain spell would be appropriate.

If your deity intervenes, you can’t use this feature again for 7 days. Otherwise, you can use it again after you finish a long rest.

At 20th level, your call for intervention succeeds automatically, no roll required.

So on this, the story provided by [MENTION=93631]Greg Benage[/MENTION] above is a perfectly acceptable use of the ability, and one that fits with its intent. The God pulls the cleric out of danger by casting the perfect spell for him. But if your character is expecting Helm to personally show up and start punching a dragon, then they're only going to get that if you, the DM, decide it'd happen.

 

[Ovinomancer]

The party was put in a bad choice position of defending a strongpoint against determined attack or saving some innocents -- they could not do both. The elected to save the innocents on the idea that the defenders had a chance, if slim, while the innocents did not. Before they left, the tempest cleric prayed for his god to bless the defenders and protect them. The player had previously established with me that he didn't want to mechanically call out his use of divine intervention and to use my judgement. I deemed this an appropriate call, as the player rarely asked for intercession from his deity. The cleric was 11th level (not 20th) so I rolled, and it hit. I didn't tell the player this, though.

So the party successfully rescued the innocents and were quickly returning to the assaulted stronghold to assist, but could see from a distance that things were going poorly, and the enemy was about to breach on side, and that they could not arrive in time to stop the breach, meaning many defenders would die before they arrived to aid. However, at this point, the clouds above began to pelt heavy rain, and multiple strikes of lightning struck the enemy ranks, throwing them into confusion and rout. The thunder that accompanied the multiple strikes I described as rolling out, almost as if the sky was saying the cleric's name (which was conveniently one that lent itself to this - Barabus). When the party arrived at the stronghold, the attack had been repulsed, and the leader of the defenders, badly wounded but still standing, just stared at the party in shock and asked, "Why... why did the sky... why did the sky say your name?"

 

[Greg Benage]

That's a cool story. Thanks for sharing. How did the characters survive the 80ft fall?

It's D&D and they're 20th level: It's only 8d6 bludgeoning and prone.

So on this, the story provided by @Greg Benage above is a perfectly acceptable use of the ability, and one that fits with its intent. The God pulls the cleric out of danger by casting the perfect spell for him. But if your character is expecting Helm to personally show up and start punching a dragon, then they're only going to get that if you, the DM, decide it'd happen.

Yeah, in this case, the cleric (whose deity was indeed Helm!) lacked language and couldn't ask for any specific aid. I just chose a way for Helm to intervene decisively with the least effort possible. So he helped his cleric help himself.

 

[Charles Rampant]

Yeah, in this case, the cleric (whose deity was indeed Helm!) lacked language and couldn't ask for any specific aid. I just chose a way for Helm to intervene decisively with the least effort possible. So he helped his cleric help himself.

I love the idea of Helm gazing down, and working out the least-effort-intensive way to aid. "It'll do", he says, having opened the floodgates the tiniest possible width to help his worshipper...

One problem with the ability is that the Cleric list really lacks a big and impressive top-level spell. Earthquake is evocative, but not really all that useful in combat. So this makes it tough for you to justify God smiting everyone in the room so hard they stay smote for seven reincarnations; there's no Meteor Swarm to draw on!

 

[CTurbo]

So on this, the story provided by @Greg Benage above is a perfectly acceptable use of the ability, and one that fits with its intent. The God pulls the cleric out of danger by casting the perfect spell for him. But if your character is expecting Helm to personally show up and start punching a dragon, then they're only going to get that if you, the DM, decide it'd happen.

Hahaha that would be AWESOME!!

It's D&D and they're 20th level: It's only 8d6 bludgeoning and prone.

Yeah I wasn't sure how fall damage worked in 5e, but I thought it was a lot more than that, and still think it should be. A 200ft fall is only 20d6 damage? Really??? My 7th level Barbarian would shrug that off like nothing haha.




I tend to lean towards the EPIC end of the spectrum in dnd and if I was DMing a 20th level Cleric, I would try really hard to make his 20th level ability as epic as possible probably falling just short of his god literally showing up. Of course, it would depend on how well he rolled.

 

[Ancalagon]

"Lord Helm? I hope you are not busy. There is a message for you on line three"
"Oh no dear Planetar, I was just, uh, polishing my helmet. Who is it"
"It's that dwarven high priest"
"Ah, my favorite dwarven follower! What does he want?"
"It's... unclear my Lord. The message says "uuuuuhhhh guah?"
"That is odd... I know he doesn't have much of a way with words, but even for him this is cryptic. What's wrong with him?"
"He appears to have been feebleminded my Lord"
"Well fix him! I don't have time to be talking to a drooling moron, this will take forever"
"Very well my Lord"
"So, what did he want?"
"It appears he didn't want anything my lord, he's now busy smiting infidels"
"Ah, now that's a proper follower! Remember when I told you I was going to promote him? Good stuff."
"It was very wise my Lord"
"Have the prophets reveal that casting feeblemind is a sin. Also send a few to the dwarven clans, they have the right stuff it seems"
"Yes my Lord"

 

[Motorskills]

I recall a review in the pre-corporate White Dwarf magazine, wherein the reviewer absolutely destroyed The Mines of Bloodstone (H1?) for AD&D. One of the lines that has always stuck with me was something to effect of:
"When faced with this level of encroachment by Evil, the party cleric should simply phone up his deity, and quite right too."