Elder-Basilisk
First Post
For those of you who don't know, Divine Crusader is an interesting prestige class in Complete Divine. It gets cleric BAB and a unique spellcasting progression that lets the Crusader cast 9th level spells over ten levels... but only from one domain. So, they have one spell at each level on their spell list.
They also have a prereq of BAB +7 and weapon focus with the deity's favored weapon and get weapon specialization.
I figure that, based on that, Divine Crusader is a prestige class for paladins and fighters rather than clerics or other spellcasters. They can enter the class earlier, they can make use of the abilities, and the possibility of getting 9th level spells from one domain only looks a lot better for someone who wasn't otherwise going to get spells of more than 4th level. (Or maybe wouldn't get any at all).
However, I'm wondering what domains would be worthwhile for a Divine Crusader to take.
So far, Strength seems like a very solid choice. The domain ability is potentially useful for a warrior.
At level 8-12, Enlarge Person, Magic Vestment, and Bull's Strength still useful (particularly if the Crusader takes the Practiced Spellcaster feat to get a higher caster level). At level 12-14, Righteous Might and Stoneskin are good. And at the high levels, the various Bigby's spells are good.
Other domains:
War--the domain power is redundant since you need weapon focus to take the class.
Magic Weapon is pretty useless when you get it. Spiritual Weapon and Divine Power are good. Flame Strike and Blade Barrier are decent if you take Practiced Spellcaster to get your caster level up but still won't compete with real spellcasters. The Power words are good but don't really add anything to the Crusader's role as a warrior.
Travel--Not a bad domain. It's got a useful power and, while not directly helpful in combat, the ability to fly and teleport everywhere could be nice.
Luck--Rerolls are always good; Aid, Protection from Energy, Freedom of Movement, and Spell Turning, and Moment of Prescience are pretty handy spells to have around. Miracle would simply be broken if your DM let you use it to duplicate other spells at no xp cost. Of course, you won't want to cast it much otherwise.
Healing--It wouldn't help the Crusader fill his role as a fighter but it would mean that the party cleric would never need to cast a non-combat healing spell.
Law Domain: Surprisingly decent looking. Calm Emotions, Order's Wrath, Hold Monster, Shield of Law, and Summon Monster IX are all spells that a character might want to cast regularly and that would be useful at a relatively low caster level (even with Practiced Spellcaster). Dictum, of course, wouldn't be too handy since it would max out at clvl 15 with Practiced Spellcaster
Good Domain: See Law. It looks decent. Magic Circle against Evil is better than Magic Circle against Chaos. Holy Smite is better than Order's Wrath (since conflict happens more often along the good/evil axis than the law/chaos). However, Blade Barrier probably isn't as good as Hold Monster.
Destruction Domain: Between Harm, Implosion, Disintegrate, Inflict Critical Wounds, etc, a Divine Crusader of Destruction might actually make a decent offensive spellcaster.
Nobility (Complete Warrior): Good granted power, Divine Favor and Magic Vestment seem helpful in the character's combat role. And the ability to cast Discern Lies all day never hurt anyone. The rest of the spells, however, are not particularly helpful.
Courage (Complete Warior): Granted power is good for anyone but a paladin (for whom it's redundant) Heroism, Valiant Fury (lvl 5), Hero's Feast, Greater Heroism, Greater Cloak of Bravery, and Lion's Roar seem like pretty good spells though they are so closely themed as to often be redundant (If the Crusader cast all of these spells on his allies, they'd end up with five or six non-overlapping moral bonusses on attack and would be immune to fear three ways and have bonusses on fear saves four different ways or so.
Competition (Complete Divine): Good granted power, Zeal, Regenerate, Divine Power, Righteous Might, Moment of Prescience, and Zealot Pact would be useful spells to cast again and again.
Glory (Complete Divine): The bonus to turning won't be useful to a divine crusader (since they don't progress in turning ability) Bless Weapon, Searing Light, Holy Sword, Bolt of Glory (with Practiced Spellcaster), and Sunbeam could be useful. Crown of Glory and Gate seem like poor choices to be casting all the time.
Mysticism (Complete Divine): with a good granted power, and lots of spells that would make the crusader a better combatant, this seems like a great domain for a Divine Crusader. Unfortunately, however, since it's not clear that clerics can take this domain, it's not clear that Divine Crusaders can either.
Purification: Recitation, Fires of Purity, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Sunburst, and Visage of the Deity seem like potentially useful spells for a combatant.
Overall, it seems to me that there are a few real winners for Divine Crusaders:
Strength, Competition, Destruction, and Mysticism seem like the top-flight domains. (With Strength and Mysticism being the clear winners).
Purification, the alignment domains, nobility, glory, courage, and healing seem like a second tier of good but not great domains
Healing is in a category of its own since it's a very helpful domain but offers very little synergy with the Crusader's main role in any given party.
And the rest fall into the category of being interesting but not incredibly attractive options.
Am I missing something here?
They also have a prereq of BAB +7 and weapon focus with the deity's favored weapon and get weapon specialization.
I figure that, based on that, Divine Crusader is a prestige class for paladins and fighters rather than clerics or other spellcasters. They can enter the class earlier, they can make use of the abilities, and the possibility of getting 9th level spells from one domain only looks a lot better for someone who wasn't otherwise going to get spells of more than 4th level. (Or maybe wouldn't get any at all).
However, I'm wondering what domains would be worthwhile for a Divine Crusader to take.
So far, Strength seems like a very solid choice. The domain ability is potentially useful for a warrior.
At level 8-12, Enlarge Person, Magic Vestment, and Bull's Strength still useful (particularly if the Crusader takes the Practiced Spellcaster feat to get a higher caster level). At level 12-14, Righteous Might and Stoneskin are good. And at the high levels, the various Bigby's spells are good.
Other domains:
War--the domain power is redundant since you need weapon focus to take the class.
Magic Weapon is pretty useless when you get it. Spiritual Weapon and Divine Power are good. Flame Strike and Blade Barrier are decent if you take Practiced Spellcaster to get your caster level up but still won't compete with real spellcasters. The Power words are good but don't really add anything to the Crusader's role as a warrior.
Travel--Not a bad domain. It's got a useful power and, while not directly helpful in combat, the ability to fly and teleport everywhere could be nice.
Luck--Rerolls are always good; Aid, Protection from Energy, Freedom of Movement, and Spell Turning, and Moment of Prescience are pretty handy spells to have around. Miracle would simply be broken if your DM let you use it to duplicate other spells at no xp cost. Of course, you won't want to cast it much otherwise.
Healing--It wouldn't help the Crusader fill his role as a fighter but it would mean that the party cleric would never need to cast a non-combat healing spell.
Law Domain: Surprisingly decent looking. Calm Emotions, Order's Wrath, Hold Monster, Shield of Law, and Summon Monster IX are all spells that a character might want to cast regularly and that would be useful at a relatively low caster level (even with Practiced Spellcaster). Dictum, of course, wouldn't be too handy since it would max out at clvl 15 with Practiced Spellcaster
Good Domain: See Law. It looks decent. Magic Circle against Evil is better than Magic Circle against Chaos. Holy Smite is better than Order's Wrath (since conflict happens more often along the good/evil axis than the law/chaos). However, Blade Barrier probably isn't as good as Hold Monster.
Destruction Domain: Between Harm, Implosion, Disintegrate, Inflict Critical Wounds, etc, a Divine Crusader of Destruction might actually make a decent offensive spellcaster.
Nobility (Complete Warrior): Good granted power, Divine Favor and Magic Vestment seem helpful in the character's combat role. And the ability to cast Discern Lies all day never hurt anyone. The rest of the spells, however, are not particularly helpful.
Courage (Complete Warior): Granted power is good for anyone but a paladin (for whom it's redundant) Heroism, Valiant Fury (lvl 5), Hero's Feast, Greater Heroism, Greater Cloak of Bravery, and Lion's Roar seem like pretty good spells though they are so closely themed as to often be redundant (If the Crusader cast all of these spells on his allies, they'd end up with five or six non-overlapping moral bonusses on attack and would be immune to fear three ways and have bonusses on fear saves four different ways or so.
Competition (Complete Divine): Good granted power, Zeal, Regenerate, Divine Power, Righteous Might, Moment of Prescience, and Zealot Pact would be useful spells to cast again and again.
Glory (Complete Divine): The bonus to turning won't be useful to a divine crusader (since they don't progress in turning ability) Bless Weapon, Searing Light, Holy Sword, Bolt of Glory (with Practiced Spellcaster), and Sunbeam could be useful. Crown of Glory and Gate seem like poor choices to be casting all the time.
Mysticism (Complete Divine): with a good granted power, and lots of spells that would make the crusader a better combatant, this seems like a great domain for a Divine Crusader. Unfortunately, however, since it's not clear that clerics can take this domain, it's not clear that Divine Crusaders can either.
Purification: Recitation, Fires of Purity, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Sunburst, and Visage of the Deity seem like potentially useful spells for a combatant.
Overall, it seems to me that there are a few real winners for Divine Crusaders:
Strength, Competition, Destruction, and Mysticism seem like the top-flight domains. (With Strength and Mysticism being the clear winners).
Purification, the alignment domains, nobility, glory, courage, and healing seem like a second tier of good but not great domains
Healing is in a category of its own since it's a very helpful domain but offers very little synergy with the Crusader's main role in any given party.
And the rest fall into the category of being interesting but not incredibly attractive options.
Am I missing something here?
