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Master of My Domain: A Miniguide to Warpriests (by GelatinousOctahedron)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nibelung" data-source="post: 6709517" data-attributes="member: 74499"><p><strong>Originally posted by GelatinousOctahedron:</strong></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>How to Master Your Domain: </strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Sun, Storm, Earth, Death, Domination</strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p> <p style="text-align: center"><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p><p></p><p>Sun </p><p><strong>sun</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Features</strong></p><p>You are a save granting/radiant damage machine. You and your allies get a bonus to death saves. You get soothing light as your CD power, which is a bit repetetive with your other powers, but a good save granting power. Your healing word heals a little more than others at first and this goes up as you level, at 5 it grants temp hitpoints keyed to con mod, and with devout warpriest it ups that to 5+con mod at 16. Your utility means you don't need to ever buy a torch. At level 10 you automatically have CA with your divine radiant encounter powers. Keep that in mind for invoker and avenger power swaps, even though warlock is my preferred MC option for this build.</p><p></p><p>All of your at will and encounter powers except for the level 7 series searing brand ones have effects that go off on a miss. Blessing of battle does untyped damage, but gives an ally DR equal to your con mod. Brand of the sun does radiant and gives out a save to you or an ally, with a bonus if you go devout warpriest.</p><p></p><p><strong>Build Tricks</strong></p><p>Radiant damage optimization. That usually means going for a path like morninglord or radiant servant instaed of devout warpriest. And taking feats like solar enemy, punishing radiance, radiant advantage, and font of radiance.</p><p></p><p>I like deva for this since radiant recovery means you can consistently take a beating since you get temp hitpoints when you do radiant damage. That takes two feats with deva heritage if you are not a deva.</p><p></p><p>Warlock is my preferred MC choice because I love starfire womb and the extra saves it gives you and would take dire radiance so you have a minor ranged radiant threat. If you have starfire womb, superior will is less needed.</p><p></p><p>Don't invest too much in healing, but I would invest in items and feats that make my granted saves more potent. You can also skip mark of healing. The one time I played an epic tier one of these (see here(x)) it was constantly handing out saves with a massive bonus to a bunch of common conditions.</p><p></p><p><strong>Recommended Level Swaps</strong></p><p>When I played one of these in Epic, I found that the sun burst power level 1 series is repetetive with everything else you can do (save/temp hit points/radiant damage) and wished I had swapped it out. It does a little more than your at wills, but not much more. Switching it out for a battlemind or avenger weapon power would not be a bad idea or with an invoker blast or warlock immediate power if you have a weapliment. Generally I would go cleric with reserve manuever since there are so many good radiant damage options and that also means I get CA, but that is not essential. </p><p></p><p>The level 3 resurgent sun series of powers are worth swapping out if you think you have enough healing already, but I would not switch those out until paragon.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Storm</p><p><strong>storm</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Features</strong></p><p>You have a good focus on damage and ally movement. You start out with lightning and thunder resistance and your channel divinity power gives an ally a little extra lightning damage with their next melee weapon attack. A decent power if you have an ally with a close weapon power, but otherwise its not much by itself though it stacks with your other similar abilities. You can also create water. Your healing word gives allies a power bonus to their next damage roll at level 1, at 5 it does thunder damage to an enemy adjacent to the target keyed to your con mod, and at 16slides you or an ally your con mod if you went devout warpriest. At 10 when you use a divine thunder encounter attack power you get temp hit points keyed to your con mod.</p><p></p><p>You have two decent at wills: blessing of wrath gives an ally a bonus to his next damage roll vs the target keyed to your con mod as an effect. Storm hammer targets fort, can be used on a charge and does thunder/lightning damage and also pushes 2 if you go devout warpriest.</p><p></p><p><strong>Build Tricks</strong></p><p>Mark of storm is a an obvious one. That lets storm hammer push 2/slide 1 in paragon and you can add to that with things like bludgeon expertise/spear push and rushing cleats. Your weapon choice is important. You can go flail for flail expertise with tripple headed flail or spiked chain, which lets storm hammer prone in paragon with mark of storm. Or you can go polearm/spear for polearm momentum if you mc fighter. Polearm gamble wouldn't be a bad choice either then. In that case great spear or tratnyr are good choices if you want to spend a feat and halberd/glaive/trident if you want to use a background. Several of your powers prone already if you want to stick with bludgeon expertise to just get a good push, then mace (no feat), warhemmer (background), or craghammer (feat) all work. More than most other warpriest you can afford to not use a shield and then go polearm with a charge package and hafted defense.</p><p></p><p>There is a lot of lightning/thunder support in feats and items. The big feats to look at: Mark of Storm, Storm Sacrifice, Thunder's Rumble, Resounding Thunder (depending on paragon path and power swap choices), and Oncoming Storm. Lightning Arc is ok too, but you won't have room for it probably.</p><p></p><p><strong>Recommended Level Swaps</strong></p><p>The thundering steel set of powers is ok, with the level 27 one the only one that does something besides damage. They do decent damage and boost an allies damage a little. I would consider swapping with battlemind for lightning rush or for an invoker thunder power or maybe the avenger's peal of thunder once you hit paragon.</p><p></p><p>The other powers you get (hammering wind and wrathful lightning) are very good and I would keep them.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Earth</p><p><strong>earth</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Features</strong></p><p>You focus on party damage resistance and defense. You and your allies get bonus to saves vs ongoing damage. Your channel divinity grants scaling DR and your utility power gives you a perception check with a bonus to find hidden things. Your healing word halves the damage the target takes the next round, can be slid your con mod at level 5, and at 16 you and your nearby allies get DR keyed to your con mod. At 10 your divine melee attack powers that target fort cause hit enemies to grant CA (no other wisdom cleric powers count as this, but a small number of avenger ones do).</p><p></p><p>Your at wills are good. Burden of earth pushes and as an effect you or the next ally to attack the target gets a +1 to hit. Earth's endurance as an effect gives you or an ally a +2 bonus to ac and fort and with devout warpriest it gives it to you and an ally.</p><p></p><p><strong>Build Tricks</strong></p><p>I would go with mark of warding since it increases the benefits of Earth's Endurance and your similiar powers. I would go for offense buffing utilties and dailies since you won't need much more defense. Although you could also go overboard and load up on weakening type powers, but that would slow combat even more which is a bit tedious for most players.</p><p></p><p>With a spear/polearm this gives you similar choices to what you get with storm warpriest mentioned above. Polearm momentum/spear push with rushing cleats for at will push and prone vs bludgeon and bludgeon expertise with just a long push. The big reason to not go polearm momentum is that a lot of your powers already prone and if you have a slowing or immobilizing ally you can take world serpents grasp instaed. Powers like granite shield can get up to a 5-7 push with little investment, which can be useful. Most monsters have a speed of 6 or more, but combined with a controller who is slowing or immobilizing that can take a lot of melee focused creatures out of melee for a round. So I would be tempted to stick with a mace or maybe upgrade to a singing stick or craghammer if you go with bludgeon expertise.</p><p></p><p>Another option is to make int your secondary stat and go artificer for Arcane Armorer for your paragon path. This is good for something like a deva, hamadryad, or shardmind warpriest if you are starting at 16+. That lets you add your wis mod to any resistance you hand out at level 16. You don't lose that much for not investing heavily in con if you are not going to go devout warpriest: a few of your powers will do less damage, you won't have inherntly good DR with blessing of battle (why I don't like this if starting much below level 16 unless you can retrain your stats then), and you won't slide enemies as far with healing word. There is normally not much payoff for going that route until level 16 other than that artificer has some good power swaps and you will be good at knowledge skills. You don't get DR with your Healing Word this way, but your other resists from stone's resolve, obsidion shield, and blessing of battle will be much higher, along with moment of glory, ramparts of light and any other resist power you have (hello Shocking Feedback!). Energy conversion is also a potential utility power switch.</p><p></p><p><strong>Recommended Level Swaps</strong></p><p>I don't like the level 7 series Blessing of Dest that much. Its not terrible, but at level 7 all it does is automatically prone with some damage if you hit. Avenger is good since the level 23 powers avenging strike and vengeful apparition fulfill the level 10 requirement of automatic CA while being better powers than Earthen Chains. I like the Earthen Hail level 1 and Granite Shield level 3 series, although they are a bit repetative with what you can do with your healing word and at wills.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Death</p><p><strong>death</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Features</strong></p><p>Your CD feature gives out temp hitpoints to either you or an ally that is bloodied. You gain resist 5 necrotic and using healing word gives you temp hitpoints. You can also learn which enemies have lower HP than your bloodied value using your utility power eye of the vulture which is useful to know where to allocate damage. At level 5 you can use healing word as a reaction to an ally dropping below 0. At level 10 you do autodamage keyed to your con mod as a free action to an adjacent bloodied enemy at the start of your turn. </p><p></p><p>Unlike other warpriests, your default attacks are all implement attacks. Your at wills are good debuffers. Death's shadow gives them an automatic -2 to defenses vs the next attack and does cold and necrotic damage. If you go devout warpriest you also get a +2 to your next attack against them. Tenebrous blessing reduces their next rounds damage keyed to your con mod automatically while doing psychic damage</p><p></p><p>All in all a solid debuffing package for a build that unfortunately has some clunker encounter powers.</p><p></p><p><strong>Build Tricks</strong></p><p>I highly recommend going for mc invoker. Mc druid also works, but with less feat support. Why? Because you need to power swap. Those both give you access to staff implements as well if you want that. Otherwise you can stick with a holy symbol and put something like a mace of healing or weapon of shared wrath in your weapon hand. Holy symbol expertise and staff expertise are both good feats.</p><p></p><p>Adding psychic lock is always a plus since you will probably have several powers that do psychic damage. You will probably have the least need to upgrade to a weapon and will have a weak OA unless you go for a weapliment. I think your goal for the build should be as a solid frontline debuffer potentially with lots of autoeffect damage powers.</p><p></p><p>There are a few ways to add necrotic vulnerability through things like the consumable dark clover, but overall necrotic is not that well supported and its one of the most resisted damag types. Some items like a stone of shadow would be good to add as well, since it will let you reroll a miss. Breaching guantlets are not a bad idea either, though they won't reduce resistance to your level 10 damage feature.</p><p></p><p><strong>Recommended Level Swaps</strong></p><p>The level 1 Inevitable Doom series of powers is a must for power swaps. Autobonus damage if an ally attacks the target. Its DPR (9) is not much more than if you attack it with an at will and there are no other effects for the level 1 version. The higher level ones do a little more, but there are a lot better powers you can get from reserve manuever or from another class the druid or invoker.</p><p></p><p>The level 3 Death Shadow series are great so keep them. Close burst immediate reaction with psychic damage and a good buff effect!</p><p></p><p>The level 7 Raven's Talon series are not as bad as the level 1 if you combine them with eye of the vulture. But you can get something better, especially at higher levels. I would swap them out with reserve manuever for something like brilliant idea or sever the source.</p><p></p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Domination</p><p></p><p><strong>Domination</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><strong>Features</strong></p><p>Your base feature is free intimidate training and your utility power Inspire Dread gives you a boost to intimidate once per encounter. Your channel divinity Cruel Inspiration is good, a minor action save with a +5 bonus, but it deals psychic damage to your ally. The target of your healing word gets temp hitpoints, at level 5 gets to stand up or shift, and an enemy in the burst grants CA if you go devout warpriest. At level 10 when you drop or bloody a non minion with a divine fear power you can push nearby enemies 3 squares, so this works with your at wills, but not all your encounter powers which is a bit different than other warpriests.</p><p></p><p>You have 2 very good at wills that both have fear and shadow keywords. Fell strike is a proning at will you can use on a charge. Icon of Fear targets will, pushes 1, and lets an ally shift next to the target. And if you go devout warpriest enemies take con mod psychic damage if they end their turn next to you. Arguably the best overall cleric wisdom/weapon at will.</p><p></p><p>With your encounter powers potentially granting you extra attacks and other tricks mentioned below you have the best off striker potential of any warpriest. A solid package of fear, proning, and punishment. And next to Torm you have the least need to powerswap your encounter powers.</p><p></p><p><strong>Build Tricks</strong></p><p>Probably more than any other warpriest you can pull off being an off striker. Devout warpriest is a good option for your paragon path. I would probably go with a striker style theme like sohei or elemental initiate.</p><p></p><p>For weapons I see two main options. If going with a hammer or mace you can pick up bludgeon expertise to push a little more with your pushing powers. Or you can go flail/bastard sword/rapier with light blade expertise or devout protector expertise. Bastard sword or longsword with a background is an option if you can qualify for heavy blade opportunist and blade opportunist, otherwise you will want melee training early or to get an MBA through being human or halfelf. </p><p></p><p>You will want a decent OA at some point because a few of your powers provoke. Banes tactics lets you use an at will for an OA once an encounter if you can't get Heavy blade opportunist and bane is the theme of the article so its a nice fit. Melee training is ok, but you have better options since you have a charging MBA already.</p><p> </p><p>Psychic lock is a feat to get in at some point and worldserpent grasp is decent too. For dragonmark you might want mark of healing if you can fit it in, but cruel inspiration means you can grant at least one save an encounter already. Hopefully your allies can resist psychic. Last legion defender is another one to look for since you have a few powers that increase the likelyhood of you hitting with OAs and spectral step will nake you insubstantial when you use action points.</p><p></p><p>Ways to abuse the fear keyword: Mc assasin has a few that work: nightmare master gives free dazing on a hit (until start of next turn), nightmare killer is better than weapon focus, and nightmare step is a slide on a miss. MC warlock and starfire womb gives you saves when you hit. Hellfire blood feat is untyped +1 to hit. Foulborn Heritage is a untyped +1 to hit while bloodied, while bloodied enemies take -2 against you. Magnificents tsor horrid dispatch is a +1 item bonus to fear attacks. (16 uncommon) Ring of sorrows is you and allies you can see get +1 untyped bonus to fear attacks.(18 uncommon) So foulborn herritage, hellfire blood, horrid dispatch, and the ring of sorrows is an extra +3 to hit, +4 while bloodied.</p><p></p><p><strong>Recommended Level Swaps</strong></p><p>Unlike most you don't have any you have to swap. Maybe Dreadful Warrior (level 7) and Inspire Terror (level 13) if you don't go fighter. There are a couple invoker and avenger powers with the fear keyord those levels, but I would be more likely to go with something like fury's advance if going off striker. Or else battlemind for lightning rush or brutal barrage. Clerics only have one other fear power and it doesn't do damage so you won't be triggering your level 10 feature with a cleric swap. </p><p></p><p>And then I would probably switch out Sundred Bravery (level 27) for valorous charge or healer's reproof</p><p>[/sblock]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nibelung, post: 6709517, member: 74499"] [b]Originally posted by GelatinousOctahedron:[/b] [CENTER][Size=3][b]How to Master Your Domain: Sun, Storm, Earth, Death, Domination [/b][/size][/CENTER] Sun [b]sun[/b] [sblock] [b]Features[/b] You are a save granting/radiant damage machine. You and your allies get a bonus to death saves. You get soothing light as your CD power, which is a bit repetetive with your other powers, but a good save granting power. Your healing word heals a little more than others at first and this goes up as you level, at 5 it grants temp hitpoints keyed to con mod, and with devout warpriest it ups that to 5+con mod at 16. Your utility means you don't need to ever buy a torch. At level 10 you automatically have CA with your divine radiant encounter powers. Keep that in mind for invoker and avenger power swaps, even though warlock is my preferred MC option for this build. All of your at will and encounter powers except for the level 7 series searing brand ones have effects that go off on a miss. Blessing of battle does untyped damage, but gives an ally DR equal to your con mod. Brand of the sun does radiant and gives out a save to you or an ally, with a bonus if you go devout warpriest. [b]Build Tricks[/b] Radiant damage optimization. That usually means going for a path like morninglord or radiant servant instaed of devout warpriest. And taking feats like solar enemy, punishing radiance, radiant advantage, and font of radiance. I like deva for this since radiant recovery means you can consistently take a beating since you get temp hitpoints when you do radiant damage. That takes two feats with deva heritage if you are not a deva. Warlock is my preferred MC choice because I love starfire womb and the extra saves it gives you and would take dire radiance so you have a minor ranged radiant threat. If you have starfire womb, superior will is less needed. Don't invest too much in healing, but I would invest in items and feats that make my granted saves more potent. You can also skip mark of healing. The one time I played an epic tier one of these (see here(x)) it was constantly handing out saves with a massive bonus to a bunch of common conditions. [b]Recommended Level Swaps[/b] When I played one of these in Epic, I found that the sun burst power level 1 series is repetetive with everything else you can do (save/temp hit points/radiant damage) and wished I had swapped it out. It does a little more than your at wills, but not much more. Switching it out for a battlemind or avenger weapon power would not be a bad idea or with an invoker blast or warlock immediate power if you have a weapliment. Generally I would go cleric with reserve manuever since there are so many good radiant damage options and that also means I get CA, but that is not essential. The level 3 resurgent sun series of powers are worth swapping out if you think you have enough healing already, but I would not switch those out until paragon. [/sblock] Storm [b]storm[/b] [sblock] [b]Features[/b] You have a good focus on damage and ally movement. You start out with lightning and thunder resistance and your channel divinity power gives an ally a little extra lightning damage with their next melee weapon attack. A decent power if you have an ally with a close weapon power, but otherwise its not much by itself though it stacks with your other similar abilities. You can also create water. Your healing word gives allies a power bonus to their next damage roll at level 1, at 5 it does thunder damage to an enemy adjacent to the target keyed to your con mod, and at 16slides you or an ally your con mod if you went devout warpriest. At 10 when you use a divine thunder encounter attack power you get temp hit points keyed to your con mod. You have two decent at wills: blessing of wrath gives an ally a bonus to his next damage roll vs the target keyed to your con mod as an effect. Storm hammer targets fort, can be used on a charge and does thunder/lightning damage and also pushes 2 if you go devout warpriest. [b]Build Tricks[/b] Mark of storm is a an obvious one. That lets storm hammer push 2/slide 1 in paragon and you can add to that with things like bludgeon expertise/spear push and rushing cleats. Your weapon choice is important. You can go flail for flail expertise with tripple headed flail or spiked chain, which lets storm hammer prone in paragon with mark of storm. Or you can go polearm/spear for polearm momentum if you mc fighter. Polearm gamble wouldn't be a bad choice either then. In that case great spear or tratnyr are good choices if you want to spend a feat and halberd/glaive/trident if you want to use a background. Several of your powers prone already if you want to stick with bludgeon expertise to just get a good push, then mace (no feat), warhemmer (background), or craghammer (feat) all work. More than most other warpriest you can afford to not use a shield and then go polearm with a charge package and hafted defense. There is a lot of lightning/thunder support in feats and items. The big feats to look at: Mark of Storm, Storm Sacrifice, Thunder's Rumble, Resounding Thunder (depending on paragon path and power swap choices), and Oncoming Storm. Lightning Arc is ok too, but you won't have room for it probably. [b]Recommended Level Swaps[/b] The thundering steel set of powers is ok, with the level 27 one the only one that does something besides damage. They do decent damage and boost an allies damage a little. I would consider swapping with battlemind for lightning rush or for an invoker thunder power or maybe the avenger's peal of thunder once you hit paragon. The other powers you get (hammering wind and wrathful lightning) are very good and I would keep them. [/sblock] Earth [b]earth[/b] [sblock] [b]Features[/b] You focus on party damage resistance and defense. You and your allies get bonus to saves vs ongoing damage. Your channel divinity grants scaling DR and your utility power gives you a perception check with a bonus to find hidden things. Your healing word halves the damage the target takes the next round, can be slid your con mod at level 5, and at 16 you and your nearby allies get DR keyed to your con mod. At 10 your divine melee attack powers that target fort cause hit enemies to grant CA (no other wisdom cleric powers count as this, but a small number of avenger ones do). Your at wills are good. Burden of earth pushes and as an effect you or the next ally to attack the target gets a +1 to hit. Earth's endurance as an effect gives you or an ally a +2 bonus to ac and fort and with devout warpriest it gives it to you and an ally. [b]Build Tricks[/b] I would go with mark of warding since it increases the benefits of Earth's Endurance and your similiar powers. I would go for offense buffing utilties and dailies since you won't need much more defense. Although you could also go overboard and load up on weakening type powers, but that would slow combat even more which is a bit tedious for most players. With a spear/polearm this gives you similar choices to what you get with storm warpriest mentioned above. Polearm momentum/spear push with rushing cleats for at will push and prone vs bludgeon and bludgeon expertise with just a long push. The big reason to not go polearm momentum is that a lot of your powers already prone and if you have a slowing or immobilizing ally you can take world serpents grasp instaed. Powers like granite shield can get up to a 5-7 push with little investment, which can be useful. Most monsters have a speed of 6 or more, but combined with a controller who is slowing or immobilizing that can take a lot of melee focused creatures out of melee for a round. So I would be tempted to stick with a mace or maybe upgrade to a singing stick or craghammer if you go with bludgeon expertise. Another option is to make int your secondary stat and go artificer for Arcane Armorer for your paragon path. This is good for something like a deva, hamadryad, or shardmind warpriest if you are starting at 16+. That lets you add your wis mod to any resistance you hand out at level 16. You don't lose that much for not investing heavily in con if you are not going to go devout warpriest: a few of your powers will do less damage, you won't have inherntly good DR with blessing of battle (why I don't like this if starting much below level 16 unless you can retrain your stats then), and you won't slide enemies as far with healing word. There is normally not much payoff for going that route until level 16 other than that artificer has some good power swaps and you will be good at knowledge skills. You don't get DR with your Healing Word this way, but your other resists from stone's resolve, obsidion shield, and blessing of battle will be much higher, along with moment of glory, ramparts of light and any other resist power you have (hello Shocking Feedback!). Energy conversion is also a potential utility power switch. [b]Recommended Level Swaps[/b] I don't like the level 7 series Blessing of Dest that much. Its not terrible, but at level 7 all it does is automatically prone with some damage if you hit. Avenger is good since the level 23 powers avenging strike and vengeful apparition fulfill the level 10 requirement of automatic CA while being better powers than Earthen Chains. I like the Earthen Hail level 1 and Granite Shield level 3 series, although they are a bit repetative with what you can do with your healing word and at wills. [/sblock] Death [b]death[/b] [sblock] [b]Features[/b] Your CD feature gives out temp hitpoints to either you or an ally that is bloodied. You gain resist 5 necrotic and using healing word gives you temp hitpoints. You can also learn which enemies have lower HP than your bloodied value using your utility power eye of the vulture which is useful to know where to allocate damage. At level 5 you can use healing word as a reaction to an ally dropping below 0. At level 10 you do autodamage keyed to your con mod as a free action to an adjacent bloodied enemy at the start of your turn. Unlike other warpriests, your default attacks are all implement attacks. Your at wills are good debuffers. Death's shadow gives them an automatic -2 to defenses vs the next attack and does cold and necrotic damage. If you go devout warpriest you also get a +2 to your next attack against them. Tenebrous blessing reduces their next rounds damage keyed to your con mod automatically while doing psychic damage All in all a solid debuffing package for a build that unfortunately has some clunker encounter powers. [b]Build Tricks[/b] I highly recommend going for mc invoker. Mc druid also works, but with less feat support. Why? Because you need to power swap. Those both give you access to staff implements as well if you want that. Otherwise you can stick with a holy symbol and put something like a mace of healing or weapon of shared wrath in your weapon hand. Holy symbol expertise and staff expertise are both good feats. Adding psychic lock is always a plus since you will probably have several powers that do psychic damage. You will probably have the least need to upgrade to a weapon and will have a weak OA unless you go for a weapliment. I think your goal for the build should be as a solid frontline debuffer potentially with lots of autoeffect damage powers. There are a few ways to add necrotic vulnerability through things like the consumable dark clover, but overall necrotic is not that well supported and its one of the most resisted damag types. Some items like a stone of shadow would be good to add as well, since it will let you reroll a miss. Breaching guantlets are not a bad idea either, though they won't reduce resistance to your level 10 damage feature. [b]Recommended Level Swaps[/b] The level 1 Inevitable Doom series of powers is a must for power swaps. Autobonus damage if an ally attacks the target. Its DPR (9) is not much more than if you attack it with an at will and there are no other effects for the level 1 version. The higher level ones do a little more, but there are a lot better powers you can get from reserve manuever or from another class the druid or invoker. The level 3 Death Shadow series are great so keep them. Close burst immediate reaction with psychic damage and a good buff effect! The level 7 Raven's Talon series are not as bad as the level 1 if you combine them with eye of the vulture. But you can get something better, especially at higher levels. I would swap them out with reserve manuever for something like brilliant idea or sever the source. [/sblock] Domination [b]Domination[/b] [sblock] [b]Features[/b] Your base feature is free intimidate training and your utility power Inspire Dread gives you a boost to intimidate once per encounter. Your channel divinity Cruel Inspiration is good, a minor action save with a +5 bonus, but it deals psychic damage to your ally. The target of your healing word gets temp hitpoints, at level 5 gets to stand up or shift, and an enemy in the burst grants CA if you go devout warpriest. At level 10 when you drop or bloody a non minion with a divine fear power you can push nearby enemies 3 squares, so this works with your at wills, but not all your encounter powers which is a bit different than other warpriests. You have 2 very good at wills that both have fear and shadow keywords. Fell strike is a proning at will you can use on a charge. Icon of Fear targets will, pushes 1, and lets an ally shift next to the target. And if you go devout warpriest enemies take con mod psychic damage if they end their turn next to you. Arguably the best overall cleric wisdom/weapon at will. With your encounter powers potentially granting you extra attacks and other tricks mentioned below you have the best off striker potential of any warpriest. A solid package of fear, proning, and punishment. And next to Torm you have the least need to powerswap your encounter powers. [b]Build Tricks[/b] Probably more than any other warpriest you can pull off being an off striker. Devout warpriest is a good option for your paragon path. I would probably go with a striker style theme like sohei or elemental initiate. For weapons I see two main options. If going with a hammer or mace you can pick up bludgeon expertise to push a little more with your pushing powers. Or you can go flail/bastard sword/rapier with light blade expertise or devout protector expertise. Bastard sword or longsword with a background is an option if you can qualify for heavy blade opportunist and blade opportunist, otherwise you will want melee training early or to get an MBA through being human or halfelf. You will want a decent OA at some point because a few of your powers provoke. Banes tactics lets you use an at will for an OA once an encounter if you can't get Heavy blade opportunist and bane is the theme of the article so its a nice fit. Melee training is ok, but you have better options since you have a charging MBA already. Psychic lock is a feat to get in at some point and worldserpent grasp is decent too. For dragonmark you might want mark of healing if you can fit it in, but cruel inspiration means you can grant at least one save an encounter already. Hopefully your allies can resist psychic. Last legion defender is another one to look for since you have a few powers that increase the likelyhood of you hitting with OAs and spectral step will nake you insubstantial when you use action points. Ways to abuse the fear keyword: Mc assasin has a few that work: nightmare master gives free dazing on a hit (until start of next turn), nightmare killer is better than weapon focus, and nightmare step is a slide on a miss. MC warlock and starfire womb gives you saves when you hit. Hellfire blood feat is untyped +1 to hit. Foulborn Heritage is a untyped +1 to hit while bloodied, while bloodied enemies take -2 against you. Magnificents tsor horrid dispatch is a +1 item bonus to fear attacks. (16 uncommon) Ring of sorrows is you and allies you can see get +1 untyped bonus to fear attacks.(18 uncommon) So foulborn herritage, hellfire blood, horrid dispatch, and the ring of sorrows is an extra +3 to hit, +4 while bloodied. [b]Recommended Level Swaps[/b] Unlike most you don't have any you have to swap. Maybe Dreadful Warrior (level 7) and Inspire Terror (level 13) if you don't go fighter. There are a couple invoker and avenger powers with the fear keyord those levels, but I would be more likely to go with something like fury's advance if going off striker. Or else battlemind for lightning rush or brutal barrage. Clerics only have one other fear power and it doesn't do damage so you won't be triggering your level 10 feature with a cleric swap. And then I would probably switch out Sundred Bravery (level 27) for valorous charge or healer's reproof [/sblock] [/QUOTE]
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Master of My Domain: A Miniguide to Warpriests (by GelatinousOctahedron)
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