Holy crud! Divine Might is now a free action!

[reapersaurus]

Whoa!
When reading thru the FAQ, I just noticed they changed the activation of Divine Might into a free action.

The Divine Might feat from Defenders of the Faith lets you use a turn/rebuke attempt to get a combat bonus. Does that mean that you mark off a turn/rebuke attempt for the day? Or does it mean you spend a standard action to activate the effect, just like a turn/rebuke attempt? Or is it a free action?

Using Divine Might does not require an action at all. You
can use the feat any time you attack, and you simply announce
that you™re using it and mark off a turn/rebuke use for the day.

That finally makes it a true Good Feat for high-Charisma fighters.

Without this, unless you have around a +5 Charisma bonus or more, it isn't really worth it.
So they've actually made this feat into what it originally sounded like it was.

neat!

P.S. I apologize if this has already been pointed out before.

 

[Benben]

The question I have now is that should any of the others be free actions too?

 

[reapersaurus]

The question I have now is that should any of the others be free actions too?

Hmmm.
Good question.

I see no reason that this would not apply to all the other Divine Feats, as well.
Divine Might is by far the most effective Divine Feat, so if it works like this for it, it should apply to some of the weaker Divine Feats.

 

[Thanee]

That's cool, it works like barbarian rage now, technically. Much better!

Bye
Thanee

 

[clikml]

I've said it on WotC boards, I'll say it here. The FAQ is for rules clarification, not errata.
The DotF book very clearly states that all Divine feats (including Divine Might) require a standard action to activate. They even go so far as to mention in the description of Quicken Turning that it does not work on Divine feats. Since the clarification is totally contradicted by the actual rules, it ought be thrown out, as it is not errata.

My best guess is that the Sage was short on sleep and confused Smite (which is applied as a free action) with Divine Might, despite their differences.

 

[Iku Rex]

I've said it on WotC boards, I'll say it here. The FAQ is for rules clarification, not errata.

I've said it on WotC boards, I'll say it here. The official FAQ contains intentional rule changes and corrections - also known as "errata". There is no way any reasonable person can deny that.

Whether or not we like WotC's current errata policy is different issue altogether.

 

[Savage Wombat]

This is now relevant to my game - as one of the PCs took the feat, and another is going to as soon as his Paladin hits 3rd level.

It occurs to me that, as the Sage described it, the feat makes Weapon Spec. look sick, as soon as your CHA hits 16 or better.

Consider - with a 16 CHA you have 6 turning checks a day, and each use of Divine Might lasts 3 rounds. That's 18 rounds of +3 bonus damage per day - with any and all melee weapons.

Consider also that, by the intent of WotC's original designers, a day's adventuring should consist of about 4 fights - and a fight should last about 4 rounds. 16 rounds total.

So, under these particular circumstances, a paladin with Divine Might gets +3 to damage for effectively the whole fight, whereas the Fighter gets +2, and only with the one weapon. And this gets worse if the CHA goes up.

On the other hand, the feat does have the prereqs of not only Power Attack, but the Turning ability as well.

So I wonder if the nay-sayers aren't correct, and the only thing keeping this bad boy balanced is the need to "cast" the effect at the beginning of combat.

Has anyone heard any more about this debate? A link to the Wizards' Boards, perhaps?

 

[Thanee]

Every class needs its fair share of brokenness...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kraedin]

I'd like to point out that the wording in the FAQ implies that it only applies to one attack.

Using Divine Might does not require an action at all. You can use the feat any time you attack, and you simply announce that you're using it and mark off a turn/rebuke use for the day.

I think the Sage just messed up and confused Divine Might with Extra Smiting.

Compare it to when he errata's something:

Why does bull's strength has a saving throw when cat's grace and endurance don't?

It's an error. All three of these spells should have the same saving throw entry: Will negates (harmless).

 

[Kraedin]

That finally makes it a true Good Feat for high-Charisma fighters.

Considering fighters cannot take it, I find that debatable.

The feat was obviously meant for Paladins, who have high charisma all the time.

Having a +5 charisma mod is normal (even low) for most paladins I've seen.