Just got Complete Divine -- any issues I should be aware of?

[iwatt]

The radiant Servant of Pelor is the new Mystic Theurge.

Seriosuly, unless you're running the Age of Worms, RSoP is OK (I'd still remove the martial weapon mastery which makes no sense). And when running AoW, a RSoP is almost required

 

[Klaus]

One of the first PCs in my 3e game was a cleric of Pelor, with the Sun and Healing domains, Extra Turning and the Heal skill. The RSoP would be a no-brainer for her. The diminished HD wouldn't hurt her one bit, since she had the best AC in the party.

 

[Felon]

The radiant Servant of Pelor is the new Mystic Theurge.

I wouldn't say that objections to the RoSP are anything particularly new. At any rate, I don't suspect that the presence of a RoSP will cause one's campaign to collapse into a yawning black hole. It just gets a lot, gives up little, and the requirements are a cakewalk for any cleric of Pelor. OTOH, the Church Inquisitor and Sacred Exorcist outmunch it by a fair margin.

In general, Complete Divine prestige classes tend not to give up any spellcasting progression, and they don't have any other class features to trade out. So, they downsize a hit die or save, and then treat that as a fair exchange for a surfeit of new features at almost every level.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Relics - kinda cool, but note that there's a feat which lets you craft them. First up: huh? Second up: Woo! I can make free magical items according to these rules! Not to mention that the idea that relics of a god should simply be price breaks on magical items is ridiculous to start.

Did you actually read the book? It specifically addresses why the relics have gold piece values (to aid DMs in placing them as treasures). And the feat exists so that, in keeping with the rest of the 3e item creation rules, there is actually a mechanical way that magic items come into existence.

 

[Elemental]

So far, the only thing the player has wanted was to cast lesser vigor, which seems like a good way to not die in a low level fight, but which doesn't seem to guarantee winning, either. If the whole party ends up stable at -2 hit points while the BBEG is still standing, it's coup de grace all around.

The Vigor spells are more useful as out-of-combat healing. For a level 1 cleric, it heals 11 damage vs 2-8 for Cure Light Wounds--it just takes a bit longer to do it.

Divine Metamagic was errated to require the character to know the metamagic feat they're adding. Forbidding Persistant Spell cuts out a lot of the abusiveness (and not just for that ability--I've never seen anyone take Persistant Spell, except to cheese out a metamagic-adding ability).

 

[Nyaricus]

Just chiming in:

The Favoured Soul is a neat little class with a different feel than the cleric. However, I would advise giving them a domain along with their other abilities, since they still seem a little underpowered when one compares them to the cleric. Besides, why should a person who is the favoured of their god or goddess not have a domain? If you want, also give them another domain later in levels (10 or later).

cheers,
--N

 

[Klaus]

Just chiming in:

The Favoured Soul is a neat little class with a different feel than the cleric. However, I would advise giving them a domain along with their other abilities, since they still seem a little underpowered when one compares them to the cleric. Besides, why should a person who is the favoured of their god or goddess not have a domain? If you want, also give them another domain later in levels (10 or later).

cheers,
--N

I'd even reduce their spells per day a bit and give them Turn Undead like a paladin (level -3).

 

[Endur]

Just chiming in: The Favoured Soul is a neat little class with a different feel than the cleric. However, I would advise giving them a domain along with their other abilities,

I agree. The domain adds a lot of flavor to the Favoured Soul.

 

[pawsplay]

The favored soul has numerous problems: no domains, no turning, odd abilities that don't always match their deity (winged dwarves?), stomping on the fighter's specialization.

If the concept is appealing, I would instead use spontaneous clerics from UA, then create a prestige class that collapses the Favored Soul special abilities to ten levels.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

One of the first PCs in my 3e game was a cleric of Pelor, with the Sun and Healing domains, Extra Turning and the Heal skill. The RSoP would be a no-brainer for her. The diminished HD wouldn't hurt her one bit, since she had the best AC in the party.

The Radiant Servant of Pelor is the divine equivalent to the Loremaster, in my view. You get a lot of extra abilities, but none of them can really break the game.

A Loremaster can cast Identify, Legend Lore and Analyze Dweomer at will (in the end), and adds a few bonus to saves, attacks or skills, and a extra feat. And he also gains more skill points per level than a Wizard, without giving up any kind of spellcasting progression. So it's a Wizard Deluxe (actually I feel it is most the time how a Wizard should be in the first place!)


With the Radiant Servant of Pelor, you heal a bit better - will anyone ever notice the big difference? Since you are so great at casting healing spells, you will feel obliged to use the spells more often in combat - resulting in you not casting Flame Strikes to burn your foes or Divine Might to crush them with your heavy mace.

The Greater Turning is nice, but unless the campaign is very undead-heavy, it won't disrupt the game. You still have to focus heavily on upping turning level and damage to actually benefit from it - most the time, you will only be able to turn the less challenging undead.