Paul Farquhar
Legend
We have an artillerist in the party. Since the thing lasts an hour, the eldritch cannon is usually deployed before the start of the fight, so in-combat deployment time is usually zero.I appreciate you taking the time to reply, and that is a great one to compare to. On a surface level, sure, it's about the same ish right? So I decided to look into it further... and twilight is massively better. Let us compare shall we?
Opportunity cost:
First, both take an action to "deploy" - there is an opportunity cost - the PC could have used that action to do something else.
And this is the big difference. The twilight cleric's aura lasts at best for one fight. And most fights last 3 round or less, so you are probably only going to get three uses per Channel Divinity consumed. The eldritch cannon effectively lasts until the party takes a rest. That's usually at least three fights in our game. It's de-facto always on.
Our artificer doesn't have anything else to do with their bonus action.However, the artificer needs a bonus action to make it "fire" each round.
The Eldritch cannon's damage is meh.The twilight cleric has no such need and can use their bonus action to do something else (spiritual weapon?). Furthermore, the artificer, by using the protector, is not using the offensive version of their cannon, and is therefore reducing their damage output, something that the twilight cleric doesn't have to worry about.
Actually, the "winner" is our Glamour bard, but that's yet another source of temp hp for the whole party.Winner: Twilight cleric, strongly.
This is irreverent. If everyone in the party is taking damage every round the tank isn't doing their job. Usually just one or two party members need to be in position to have their temp hp refreshed. You can send the EK to the front line (it also serves as a meat shield in itself).Amount of "healing" done:
The artificer has a bit of an edge because the healing effect doesn't have to be centered on them, flexibility wise. However, that edge is more than equalized by the twilight cleric's area - 30 foot radius, vs the much more modest 10 feet radius of the protector.
At those high levels, monsters are hitting for 60+ hp per round. A few more temp hp makes very little difference.The artificer's protector does 1d8+int bonus temp HP. The cleric does 1d6+cleric level. So sure at low levels the artificer does a bit more, but the twilight cleric will massively outpace the artificer at mid and high levels (the double cannon at level 15 allows the artificer to catch up a bit). Lastly, the twilight aura also removes fear or charm.
Winner: Twilight cleric
You are massively over-rating it, I don't think anyone else thinks it's that good.Aaaaand that's just for the twilight aura! There are other powers too.
Temporary hp are cheep because they don't stack and there are lots and lots of potential sources in the game, and if you don't get hit they are wasted.