Please rate Divine Resistance

[Stalker0]

Just so people know why Eagle Claw is so useless, originally sunder only worked for slashing weapons. After S&F was released, the ph was errated to include blugeoning. So no it wasn't a huge mistake by WOTC, well....at least in S&F

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Utterly and completely useless. This isn't another Eagle Claw but it's as close as you can come without actually making the feat mechanically useless.

Start with the prerequisites:
This has as many prereqs as Spring Attack. Or Improved Sunder. Or Great Cleave. Or Knockdown. For that, it should be good. But it isn't.

Now, let's look at the pre-reqs.
Extra Turning: A decent feat--especially if the party ever faces large amounts of undead or if the character in question uses Divine Feats a lot.
Divine Cleansing: This feat's pretty useless itself. I think I scored it a 2 and was being generous at the time. So, essentially this feat has one pre-req and requires two feat slots (since Divine Cleansing is a wasted feat).

How about what it does:
Resistance to 3 kinds of energy for 1 round. Resistance 5. By the time it's worth defending against energy attacks, resistance 5 is pretty useless--maybe not even worth spending a standard action on if it lasted all battle. One round makes it even more useless. If I were fighting a group of evil clerics, I'd offer to teach them how to use this feat and even pay them to learn as long as they promised to use it regularly in their battles against the good guys.

This was a really good idea. If it lasted, say 1 minute per level and granted your character level in resistance to all your allies, it would be worthwhile. If it lasted 1 min/point of charisma bonus and granted acid, cold, fire, electricity, and sonic resistance 5/point of cha bonus, it would be a good feat (without the Divine Cleansing Pre-req--with that prereq, it ought to grant resistance 10/point of cha bonus). But it doesn't. It lasts for one round and gives resistance 5. A waste of a standard action and a waste of a feat.

 

[reapersaurus]

ya, I just really don't understand what they were smoking when they actually printed this feat.

The prereqs vs benefits are SO out of balance with each other, it suggests that it is a typo that they haven't found or bothered fixing.

 

[gtJormungand]

smetzger,
Do you have a place listing the final results of each of the polls to date?

 

[smetzger]

smetzger,
Do you have a place listing the final results of each of the polls to date?

1.75 after 44 votes.

You mean like this?
10. None

9. None

8. Large and in Charge

7. Expert Tactician, Divine Might

6. Superior Expertise, Improved Sunder, Knock-Down, Shield Expert

5. Close Quarters Fighting, Hold The Line, Pain Touch

4. Blindsight 5-foot radius, Fists of Iron, Death Blow, Lightning Fists, Mantis Leap, Monkey Grip, Power Lunge, Rapid Reload, Sharp Shooting, Zen Archery

3. Feign Weakness, Extra Stunning Attacks, Dual Strike, Circle Kick, Eyes in the Back of Your Head, Off-Hand Parry, Pin Shield, Prone Attack, Remain Conscious, Divine Cleansing

2. Eagle Claw Attack, Improved Overrun, Dirty Fighting, Snatch Arrows

1. None

 

[Li Shenron]

It would be interesting to know also the average by book: Sword & Fist, the only completed until now, seems to have a very low average... but isn't it the Feat section what we usually get more easily excited about when we purchase a new splatbook?

By the way, smetzger, I love your polls! I just hope I live long enough to see them all... we're only at the second splatbook!!

 

[Archer]

I think feats are done. All the possible ideas have been played out. New feats will either have to be overpowered or underpowered to cover new ground. Old underpowered feats can be tweaked to be more powerful but the underlying concept is the same. Any feat rated lower than a 5 is realistically never going to see use.

 

[smetzger]

I think feats are done. All the possible ideas have been played out.

Sounds like something Bill Gates said about computer memory.

 

[Shadeus]

There's a psionic version that lasts 10 rounds instead

I've asked about Eagle Claw before... I've really got to buy S&F just for laughs.

This is a bit off-topic, but what do people think of Turn Undead? Is it too weak or complicated?

I was thinking of making it a d20 + Cha + level check vs a 1d20 + the undead's HD + Wis modifier check. Undead that fail their save are turned. There is no HD limit (a 15th-level cleric could turn dozens of 2 HD zombies) but the limit of times used per day still applies.

On the other hand, a 1st-level cleric could turn a 15th-level lich with a bit of luck (depending on the lich's wisdom score).

Turning comes up so infrequently in the campaigns I've played, its not overly complicated. It's a d20 + Cha...consult a chart. Then 2d6+Cha+level to see what you turned. The consult the chart is a pain, but not overly so.

 

[Li Shenron]

I think feats are done. All the possible ideas have been played out. New feats will either have to be overpowered or underpowered to cover new ground.

Although I feel quite overwhelmed by combat feats at the moment, I would say that non-combat feat from the 5 accessory books (S&F, T&B, S&S, MotW and DotF) have been a GREAT addition to my games.

The PHB feats are still the best rules-wise, but they are basically only combat feats, metamagic, item creation or very very general (and typically uncharacteristic) feats. What is e.g. a Cleric supposed to take as feats from the PHB? You either take a generic feat, which is useful but rarely makes your character unique, or you must pursue the combat-cleric career, or the magic-focused cleric. They are both fine, but the PHB didn't have really CLERICAL feats except Extra Turning. The same was for Druids, Rangers, Bards...

I think the 5 splatbooks feats have very good ideas to specialize every class focusing on other things than combat, MM or IC. Unfortunately, several feats are effectively of little use, or have an uncomfortably hard requirement for a small advantage. I believe the author of PHB should have been consulted by the authors of splatbooks' feats, or at least teached about how to balance benefits with prerequisites