D&D 5E Divine Soul is Kinda Nasty

Zardnaar

Legend
Giving Sorcerers acres to cleric spells and metamagic. Extend us also cheap to use in terms of metamagic points.

My wife mixed it with a cleric let El dip (death domain) and she picked up some extra cleric spells such as aid.

At the end if the day she can extend an aid spell for 16 hours.

20 minute spiritual guardians. She also has twin spell for things like haste but it's hard to use.

If she has to melee some combination of spiritual guardians/weapon, and toll the dead.

Mostly she is going pure support.
 

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Immoralkickass

Explorer
Those sound good on paper, but it doesn't really translate in actual play. I speak from experience.

20 min of Spiritual Guardians is great, if you can find a combat encounter that last that long, AND you can somehow keep up concentration for that long.

16 hour Aid... Come on, i dont know any DM that even tracks Mage Armour.
 

16 hour Aid... Come on, i dont know any DM that even tracks Mage Armour.
I believe the import of that statement is that she can cast the spell, rest, and then have the spell up through the next day along with the spell slot.

My houserule for this sort of thing has long been "If the spell is still active, the spell slot does not refresh", although it is more often relevant to warlocks than long-rest casters.
 

I played a Divine Soul X/Life Cleric 1 in Tomb of Annihilation and found it quite effective. You can get cure wounds for free as a Divine Soul so the life cleric's healing boost comes in handy. Twinned spell was very effective and cheap (spell points wise) on guiding bolt and healing word. Being a life cleric also gives you the always useful bless for free. And she could still bust out fireball, twinned haste, etc. like any sorcerer could. I found it a great character even though she was a hippie airhead, lol.
 

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal
I believe the import of that statement is that she can cast the spell, rest, and then have the spell up through the next day along with the spell slot.

My houserule for this sort of thing has long been "If the spell is still active, the spell slot does not refresh", although it is more often relevant to warlocks than long-rest casters.
That's a huge nerf to Warlocks. Hex upcasts to last for a long time is specifically so they can have one of their signature spells up and still have both their slots. Hunter's Mark upcasts the same way, but the half-caster doesn't get hurt by the houserule.
 

Zardnaar

Legend
That's a huge nerf to Warlocks. Hex upcasts to last for a long time is specifically so they can have one of their signature spells up and still have both their slots. Hunter's Mark upcasts the same way, but the half-caster doesn't get hurt by the houserule.

Yeah not a great idea.
 

Immoralkickass

Explorer
I believe the import of that statement is that she can cast the spell, rest, and then have the spell up through the next day along with the spell slot.

My houserule for this sort of thing has long been "If the spell is still active, the spell slot does not refresh", although it is more often relevant to warlocks than long-rest casters.
Sure you save a spell slot, but you also picked Extend, which is a poor Metamagic choice. Big opportunity cost.
 

Ashrym

Hero
I think extending an 8 hour spell is a smart preparation. Extend specifically states "up to 24 hours" in the description so that type of planning makes sense on an option that can only extend spells with a duration already longer than most combats.

Extended Spell said:
When you cast a spell that has a duration of 1 minute or longer, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double its duration, to a maximum duration of 24 hours.

Mage armor, darkvision, and deathward would work the same way. I don't think there are that many spells to pull off the casting before bed in preparation for the next morning.
 


Ashrym

Hero
Sure you save a spell slot, but you also picked Extend, which is a poor Metamagic choice. Big opportunity cost.

It's far more cost effective to extend a spell instead of casting it again. It just tends to be situational. 1 sorcery point for 20 minutes of clairvoyance is better than casting clairvoyance twice. The only point in taking that metamagic is to help conserve spell slots.

Someone who uses charms and dominates in town might make use of it puppet style. Long term buffs are usually the way it's applied.

It's not the best for Sorcerer spells.

On cleric spells though whole new ball game.

Extend can still save spell slots. Clerics just add to the list of spells it works with. The 8 hour spells it works with just enable buffing for the next day and walking into the dungeon with a full load of spell slots. It's not like squishy party members would not appreciate mage armor or humans given some darkvision if the sorcerer buffed other party members with them before resting and also took those spells.

The actual number of spells known might get in the way.

How often it actually matters as opposed to recasting a spell is where it becomes questionable. Extended spell is not as decisive as other metamagic options available.

Aid seems to be the most attractive synergy.
 

Zardnaar

Legend
It's far more cost effective to extend a spell instead of casting it again. It just tends to be situational. 1 sorcery point for 20 minutes of clairvoyance is better than casting clairvoyance twice. The only point in taking that metamagic is to help conserve spell slots.

Someone who uses charms and dominates in town might make use of it puppet style. Long term buffs are usually the way it's applied.



Extend can still save spell slots. Clerics just add to the list of spells it works with. The 8 hour spells it works with just enable buffing for the next day and walking into the dungeon with a full load of spell slots. It's not like squishy party members would not appreciate mage armor or humans given some darkvision if the sorcerer buffed other party members with them before resting and also took those spells.

The actual number of spells known might get in the way.

How often it actually matters as opposed to recasting a spell is where it becomes questionable. Extended spell is not as decisive as other metamagic options available.

Aid seems to be the most attractive synergy.

Yeah she has been extending aid.

If I didn't bait her into using another spell she would have got 3 combats out of spiritual guardians (extended).

If she has any 4th level slots left she uses aid for 20 hit points or 15 via level 3.

Combined with inspiring leader it's 31 now 32 hp.
 

Ashrym

Hero
Yeah she has been extending aid.

If I didn't bait her into using another spell she would have got 3 combats out of spiritual guardians (extended).

If she has any 4th level slots left she uses aid for 20 hit points or 15 via level 3.

Combined with inspiring leader it's 31 now 32 hp.

I combined it on a build with earthquake once. I found that fun in concept but generally pointless because the effect was enough in a minute of quake.
 

Salthorae

Imperial Mountain Dew Taster
Yeah she has been extending aid.

If I didn't bait her into using another spell she would have got 3 combats out of spiritual guardians (extended).

If she has any 4th level slots left she uses aid for 20 hit points or 15 via level 3.

Combined with inspiring leader it's 31 now 32 hp.

I guess I don't just see the issue with this. You're burning a 4th level spell slot and a sorcery point to get some extra hit points.
 


Divine Soul can out heal a Life Cleric over time because of extend spell. Multi-class one level of Life Cleric and you get the best of both worlds. You can also do some great things with distant spell and cleric aoes.
 

Zardnaar

Legend
Divine Soul can out heal a Life Cleric over time because of extend spell. Multi-class one level of Life Cleric and you get the best of both worlds. You can also do some great things with distant spell and cleric aoes.

She usually doesn't heal her spell slots. She twinned a healing word.
 

Shiroiken

Legend
I did a Divine Soul Sorcerer and they make excellent support. Twinned healing was really good, and Subtle spell was great to keep my healing from being counterspelled. If I had considered it, a level dip into Life Cleric would have been amazing.
 

Hussar

Legend
I did a Divine Soul Sorcerer and they make excellent support. Twinned healing was really good, and Subtle spell was great to keep my healing from being counterspelled. If I had considered it, a level dip into Life Cleric would have been amazing.

How often did you face enemy casters high enough level to counter spell that this was an issue?
 

Shiroiken

Legend
How often did you face enemy casters high enough level to counter spell that this was an issue?
It was for a series of 1 shots, so we didn't level normally. We started at level 3, then jumped to level 5, then 8, etc. We ended this group at level 20, so it was fairly common to face spellcasters.
 

They are solid and probably one of the only sorcerer origins that I find alluring but they double down on the core issue all sorcerers have with spells known.
That are great at purpose built focuses like buffing but are fairly rigid.
 

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