D&D 5E Fixing Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary

[Horwath]

Ability needs to be removed or toned down a lot.

Comparing that to let's say Inspiring leader feat:
Feat needs 10 mins of prep(battle speech) vs. 1 Action for twilight sanctuary.
It gives more or less same HPs, but you can benefit from the feat only once per rest, and twilight works once per round for 10 rounds.

My suggestion:
Temp HPs equal to Wis mod + prof bonus for number of rounds equal to prof bonus.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

A tangent, sorry for that, but I dont get the link between twilight and this ability.

There should have been a Protection domain, with the Sanctuary feature, and a Twilight domain with the darkvision, flight thing and a less lame version of Invoke Duplicity from the awful trickery domain.

So for now, I'd go harsh and require an Action to create the burst of THP each round. The ability is still OP, but the cost to maintain ''OP mode'' is heavy.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

Making it concentration essentially kills it for combat use most of the time, since clerics are very concentration-heavy on their spells.

Yes, this is the point of the nerf. By adding concentration to an effect as powerful as Twilight Sanctuary, the Cleric can still cast spells like spiritual weapon, guiding bolt, healing spells, and more, but they cannot layer it with spirit guardian, Circle of Power, or summon celestial or other insane combinations. Instead, they have to choose.

 

[Ancalagon]

Make the temporary HP equal to 1d6+Wis mod. Potentially double Wis mod at very high level, since PC HP tends to get pretty big after a while, even without a positive Con mod.

That is ... not enough of a nerf. I've DMed a game at level 6, with the twilight cleric giving off 1d6+6 points. Based on your suggestion, it probably would be 1d6+4 or +5. That's a trivial nerf.

 

[NotAYakk]

Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary​

2nd-level Twilight Domain feature

You can use your Channel Divinity to refresh your allies with soothing twilight.

As an action, you present your holy symbol, and a sphere of twilight emanates from you. The sphere is centered on you, has a 30-foot radius, and is filled with dim light. The sphere moves with you, and it lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or die. Whenever a creature (including you) ends its turn in the sphere, you can grant that creature one of these benefits:

• You grant it temporary hit points equal to 1d6 plus your cleric level.
• You end one effect on it causing it to be charmed or frightened.

I'd aim for a higher impact at point of use, and lesser later.

(By the way, I really really hate the "smart pasting" garbage that re-injects stripped out formatting.)

Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary

2nd-level Twilight Domain feature

You can use your Channel Divinity to refresh your allies with soothing twilight.

As an action, you present your holy symbol, and a sphere of twilight emanates from you. The sphere is centered on you, has a 30-foot radius, and is filled with dim light. The sphere moves with you, and it lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or die. For every creature in the sphere when you create it, you can grant that creature both of these benefits:

You grant it temporary hit points equal to 2d6 plus your cleric level while they are in the sphere
You end one effect on it causing it to be charmed or frightened.

Creatures of your choice who end their turn within the sphere with less than 1/2 of your cleric level (min 1) in temporary HP gain 1/2 of your cleric level in temporary HP that last while they are in the sphere. While within the sphere all creatures have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

---

This ability now has a larger initial "oomph". It then has a lesser effect, producing a "sanctuary" effect.

The temporary HP goes away if they leave the sphere. If expended, you get back 1/2 of your cleric level instead of the full amount each turn. And instead of just stripping a condition, they get advantage on saves while within the sphere.

We only have 1 roll, so no "reroll until it rolls good".

There is tension between "get temporary HP early" and "remove conditions"; if you expect the dragon to use dragonfear, holding off until it does seems like a good idea. But then you'll have to eat a breath weapon without the buffer.

 

[Blue]

Adding Concentration is a complete non-starter. It interferes heavily with the primary full caster abilities and spell selections of the cleric.

 

[Mistwell]

Yes, this is the point of the nerf. By adding concentration to an effect as powerful as Twilight Sanctuary, the Cleric can still cast spells like spiritual weapon, guiding bolt, healing spells, and more, but they cannot layer it with spirit guardian, Circle of Power, or summon celestial or other insane combinations. Instead, they have to choose.

Yes I understand that's the point of the nerf, but that's a very rules-balance oriented answer and not a fun-focused answer. We can make the ability perfectly balanced, and so unappealing in fun that it becomes very boring. Which is why I said that just essentially shifts it to pre-combat everyone gets max temporary hit points. Which remains powerful, but deeply boring. There is no real chance then, no risk, no actual trade-off anymore in choices, it's just essentially a fixed number granted before combat and that's that. Balanced, and boring. This is the primary feature of this sub-class, and I'd prefer it to therefore be interesting.

 

[Mistwell]

I'd aim for a higher impact at point of use, and lesser later.

(By the way, I really really hate the "smart pasting" garbage that re-injects stripped out formatting.)

Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary

2nd-level Twilight Domain feature

You can use your Channel Divinity to refresh your allies with soothing twilight.

As an action, you present your holy symbol, and a sphere of twilight emanates from you. The sphere is centered on you, has a 30-foot radius, and is filled with dim light. The sphere moves with you, and it lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or die. For every creature in the sphere when you create it, you can grant that creature both of these benefits:

You grant it temporary hit points equal to 2d6 plus your cleric level while they are in the sphere
You end one effect on it causing it to be charmed or frightened.

Creatures of your choice who end their turn within the sphere with less than 1/2 of your cleric level (min 1) in temporary HP gain 1/2 of your cleric level in temporary HP that last while they are in the sphere. While within the sphere all creatures have advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

---

This ability now has a larger initial "oomph". It then has a lesser effect, producing a "sanctuary" effect.

The temporary HP goes away if they leave the sphere. If expended, you get back 1/2 of your cleric level instead of the full amount each turn. And instead of just stripping a condition, they get advantage on saves while within the sphere.

We only have 1 roll, so no "reroll until it rolls good".

There is tension between "get temporary HP early" and "remove conditions"; if you expect the dragon to use dragonfear, holding off until it does seems like a good idea. But then you'll have to eat a breath weapon without the buffer.

That is very intriguing.

 

[Northern Phoenix]

Yes I understand that's the point of the nerf, but that's a very rules-balance oriented answer and not a fun-focused answer. We can make the ability perfectly balanced, and so unappealing in fun that it becomes very boring. Which is why I said that just essentially shifts it to pre-combat everyone gets max temporary hit points. Which remains powerful, but deeply boring. There is no real chance then, no risk, no actual trade-off anymore in choices, it's just essentially a fixed number granted before combat and that's that. Balanced, and boring. This is the primary feature of this sub-class, and I'd prefer it to therefore be interesting.

The fact that you gain the enormous amount of temporary hit points every round is so powerful that it is absolutely worth using every round, and not just pre-combat. The choice is whether you use what is essentially a top-tier Twilight Cleric exclusive defensive concentration spell, or a different, probably offensive concentration spell.

 

[Mistwell]

The fact that you gain the enormous amount of temporary hit points every round is so powerful that it is absolutely worth using every round, and not just pre-combat. The choice is whether you use what is essentially a top-tier Twilight Cleric exclusive defensive concentration spell, or a different, probably offensive concentration spell.

Again, you're purely focusing on power. Removing concentration spells or this from the clerics choices during combat is balanced, but not interesting or fun. I don't want the cleric feeling like healing everyone every round is the choice they need to make rather than using their most interesting spells (which require concentration). I feel like we got away from that choice in this edition, where the cleric no longer feels pressure to heal others with their action rather than cast their most interesting spells, and you'd have this cleric basically go right back to that situation. And it doesn't appear, in any way, to enforce the sub-class concept involved either - that choice doesn't feel "twilight" to me. It's purely a power balancing solution. And I appreciate it does accomplish that goal but I don't think it accomplishes the goals focused on making this a fun class to play.

@NotAYakk proposed I think a pretty good solution. It's both balanced and fun, without interfering with spells. It solves the multiple rolls issue, and reduces the power and makes it more in line with a Paladin aura.