Please rate Divine Vigor

[smetzger]

Divine Vigor [Divine]
You can channel energy to increase your speed and Constitution.
Prerequisites: Ability to turn or rebuke undead, Cha 13+, Extra Turning.
Benefit: Spend one of your turn/rebuke undead attempts to increase your base speed by 10 feet and gain a +2 enhancement bonus to your Constitution. These effects last a number of minutes equal to your Charisma modifier.

 

[hong]

Not that great. The enhancement bonus stacks with bull's strength and the amulet of health. Moving 30 feet instead of 20 feet (assuming heavy armour) could be good, but again you can do better with boots of striding and springing. Not to mention that moving faster and getting tougher is beginning to intrude on the barbarian's schtick.

 

[Crothian]

I thinks it's good, it helps with escapes. A little faster and a few more HPs just in case you get hit one last time.

 

[orbitalfreak]

The speed bonus is nice and is useful in a lot of places. The CON increase would be overlapped by magic items at higher levels, but is still useful at lower levels. Gave it a 5.

 

[Destil]

I pegged it at a four. The speed boost is okay and the constitution is too often redundant (all divine feats should most likely provide sacred bonuses, IMHO). Given the prerequisites it’s a bit weak, though the duration is nice. Running will be problematic with this in many instances, since it’s still a standard action to activate.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I like the psionic version better, where they spend two Talents for it. But, even then, the CON is really only useful at low levels, and psionic types can take Speed of Thought if they want the speed boost (and that's ALWAYS on)

If I was a low-levelPaladin, I might be tempted, but then I'd have the problem that with the prerequisite Extra Turning, I'd be sucking up two of my very rare Feats to get something easily duplicated by low-level magic items.

I'd put it at a 3.

Now, if the CON was non-enhancement (sacred, for example), it'd be more like a 5 or 6.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

It'd have to give a lot better than +2 to Constitution and +10 speed to be even remotely useful. Gave it a 2, only because there are feats that suck even harder.

Dirty Fighting, anyone?

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I peg this one at a five. The con bonus is nice (although it doesn't stack with Endurance or Bracers of Health as others have noted) and the extra movement is also nice--whether the character wears light, medium or heavy armor. (Especially for heavy armor--I've seen some clerics get into trouble because of their 20' movement in full-plate. Sure, they could get boots of striding and springing but this is another option).

However, one of the things that sets this feat apart from other divine feats is its duration. Measured in minutes instead of rounds, it is able to be used before a conflict begins rather than having to be used in the conflict like most other Divine Feats.

It's certainly not as powerful as Divine Might or as potentially powerful as Divine Shield but it's a useful feat. I've had two home game characters (1st level and 3rd level) and one one shot convention character (9th level) who used this feat and none of them regretted having it. (The 9th level Paladin with his 24 charisma didn't regret having extra turning either. Since he used Divine Might in most battles and regularly used Divine Vigor, and there were a few undead in the module, the cushion of extra turning attempts was quite nice.) Actually, it was essential in the game where my ranger/cleric reached 3rd level. Every time we encountered a goblin picket, one or two of them would run off to fetch reinforcements. Only the sorceror with expeditious retreat and my ranger cleric with Divine Vigor were fast enought to run them down (and I'm not convinced that the sorceror would have been a match for 2 goblins).

Unlike some others, I also don't think that the prereqs are very stiff either. Extra Turning is not a wasted feat. It's useful enough in its own right--as long as large numbers of undead crop up in the campaign from time to time. For a character who uses a lot of divine feats, Extra Turning is even more useful--the character doesn't then need to worry about needing turning attempts for undead if he's used them all up on Divine Might, Divine Shield, or Divine Vigor.

 

[Archer]

The feat would be slightly better if it lasted for hours instead of minutes. +2 con for a few minutes isn't terribly useful. You get +1 to fort saves and you get a few hp that are deducted from your total when the effect wears off. Any feat that is totally overshadowed by a 4k and 6.5k item can't be very good.

If this feat granted a +4 enhancement bonus to all physical attribute for hours instead of minutes then it would be pretty good and rate maybe a 7. Eventually the feat would become useless but it would be very nice up until level 10 or so.

 

[Gaiden]

The con bonus is of the enhancement type and therefore, at only a +2, is of extremely limited use as that is the very minimum even an endurance spell would give you (not to mention any magic items of the enhancement type). It is useful at low levels, but with the extra turning prereq, it would be rare that anyone besides a cleric would use the feat - whom specifically get endurance as a spell at 3rd level (and if nonhuman would only gain access to the feat at 3rd level). Therefore, the feat would probably be more useful for a paladin. However, Paladins don't get turning until 3rd level so could not take extra turning until then, meaning to get the con bonus they would have to take the feat only as early as sixth level. At sixth level it should be pretty easy to have access to an endurance spell.

Now, in a magic light campaign, where the endurance spell or respective magical equipment is extremely hard to comeby, the con bonus warrants more serious consideration - but it is virtually useless otherwise. If they errated it to be an unnamed bonus, now we're talking. This is what I have done in my game as a houserule.

The speed bonus is a whole other ball game. The speed bonuses would stack with other increases in speed (like fast movement from a barbarian and the expiditous retreat). Moreover, getting the feat at 3rd or 6th level (with the respective cleric and paladin) is very useful as at those levels, an increase to (probably) 30 or 20 feet for medium size/small size creatures respectively is tremendous.

What is even more useful however is for characters who get the turn undead ability but have very limited use of it due to not having all their classes contribute to it. Thus a Cleric shooting for to be a fleet runner of Elhonna for example could make great use of the speed increase. Another good example is a Paladin/ Sorcerer. An unarmored paladin sorcerer suddenly with a speed of 80' is quite a powerful foe because he can move away to the limits of his medium range spells and be too far for most short range (be it SA, melee, or short range spells) characters to reach in one round - rinse and repeat. Really, for any character that can capitalize on movement - be it ranged abilities, hit and run tactics (be it spring attack or otherwise) the speed increase is nice. The catch is being as useful as a different feat in its place. The con bonus as is does not push the feat over the threshold as useful enough as by comparison enlarge spell, far shot, or spring attack for the respective types that would use this feat. However, changing the con bonus to unnamed does make it worthwhile.

I voted of limited use as is, however, if you houserule the con bonus to unnamed I would then say the feat increases to a 5 or 6.