What if you could activate all Divine Feats at once?

[reapersaurus]

Just wondering what the thoughts would be if I suggested that all the Divine Feats should be able to be 'turned on' by one action?

Instead of having to power up the VERY questionable-use Divine Feats one at a time (all but Divine Might are really not worth it in most cases), what problems might crop up if you allowed all of them to be turned on at once?

On a side note, I really think they should have granted some of these Divine Feats as free feats for divine PrC's.

 

[Lord Ben]

Well, to hijack your thread I'd allow a PC who takes quicken turning to quicken the use of Divine Might once per day.

 

[Archer]

I think they should be usable as a free action or include an attack action like a touch spell so that you don't lose all your attacks, just the opportunity to do a full attack. The feeble resistance feat should be usable in response to taking damage. Unless you have a charisma in the 20's or higher the duration is far too short compared to the activation time.

 

[Lord Ben]

Okay, what all divine feats are there? I don't know of many but the damage and AC bonus to your shield are both nice.

How about some other options:

Quicken turning allows you to activate a divine feat 1/day

Quicken turning allows you to use a quickened divine might for taking up TWO of your turning attempts. You could also make them last 1/2 the time too.

No quicken feat, but having divine might active takes 1 turning attempt per round and no actions to activate it. Effectively this is lots of mini-smites equal to turning attempts.


A PC is getting a cohort in my game and he wants divine might because a 1H longsword with a 14str character doesn't do lots of damage when the other party members are 26str Half-Orc Fighter barbs/tribal defenders who have 4-5 attacks per round depending on hasted or not. Making him give up a standard action to activate it seems like a complete waste. Rage doesn't need any activation and it gives you HP too.

New Feat:

Divine Wrath: prereq's - Paladin w/ divine might
You focus the wrath of your diety on your enemies. You gain your charisma bonus as a divine bonus to str for a number of rounds equal to 3 + charisma bonus. This uses up a turning attempt, but can be activated as a free action.

 

[reapersaurus]

Nice ideas, and I don't see why they made the feats as terribly restrictive as they did, either.

They all should have been free actions to turn them on.
Here's the costs associated with Divine Feats:
1) It already takes a turn attempt to fuel them.
2) They have prerequisites that are sometimes quite restricting.
3) They are very short-lived, for the most part (which has already gotten shorter due to the Sage ruling that the round you turn them on in counts against the duration.
4) They cost a feat, and feats are WAY too precious as it is for a Paladin, in particular.
5) Currently, they cost an action to turn on. That fact alone seriously bites into their effectiveness.

Lord Ben, you're absolutely right - only in rare cases will the feat be worth spending that round to turn on, since you could be attacking, or casting a spell instead.

But I really don't like the idea of having to spend 2 turning attempts to make it 'cost more' as a free action: most paladins have way more turn attempts than they ever use, and it just seems silly (I don't know why).

And costing ANOTHER feat to make the paladin use it as a free action is not the way.
Paladins already don't get nearly enough feats to make them interesting, well-rounded characters as it is.

 

[Crothian]

Each is it's own feat to aqyire som I have no problem with using them all at once or saying that activating one would be a free action.

 

[Piratecat]

This is an interesting point. With 2 paladins in my game, I'm going to consider letting them activate as a free action. I need to read them again, first!

 

[Marshall]

Nice ideas, and I don't see why they made the feats as terribly restrictive as they did, either.

They all should have been free actions to turn them on.
Here's the costs associated with Divine Feats:
:
4) They cost a feat, and feats are WAY too precious as it is for a Paladin, in particular.

Actually they all cost TWO(2) feats. Since(unless I missed an update) most require Extra Turning as a prereq. And none are even close to worth two feats.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

On the other hand, extra turning is a useful enough feat (depending upon the campaign of course) that I've seen a number of characters take it without shooting for divine feats.

My take on the Divine Feats and prerequisites:

Divine Might: Essentially free--what non-mounted melee focussed paladin or cleric doesn't have power attack and cleave? (Other than the kind that doesn't have enough free feats yet).

Divine Shield: A bit more costly, but worth it if you have a good charisma bonus and want to focus your character that way. This is one of the few ways to attain a +7 or higher bonus to a weapon before sixth level. (20 cha Aasmar pal or clr with a good roll on Eagle's Splendor). As an added benefit, it boosts your AC as well. The prereqs also are very useful for any character who intends to fight with his shield.

Divine Vigor: As I said, extra turning is useful enough that a number of characters take it even if they've no intention of taking Divine Feats. For any character who faces significant numbers of undead encounters, this is a lifesaver.

None of the other divine feats are too impressive though. . . .

As for the usefulness of the feats themselves, Divine Might can be quite useful--it's probably the best of the bunch.

Divine Shield is only worth it if you really want to commit the character to fighting with his shield. But if you have a good cha, it's one of the best feats available in terms of cost/benefit.

Divine Vigor: This is probably more of a marginal feat. Still, it's one of the few ways for a heavily armored paladin to keep up with his light-armored companions. The extra hit points aren't too useful but a point of fort. save never hurts. Divine Vigor is best used in a campaign where characters often start encounters at a distance from their enemies. In that event, the extra movement it grants can compensate for the standard action it requires to activate it. (That action probably would've been used for movement anyway).

As to making them a free action, that's probably not unbalancing within the confines of quicken turning (extra feat required, double turn attempt cost). Without the quicken turning feat, it would probably make Divine Might a bit too good (Would you allow a feat that gave paladins +2 (low powered campaign at low levels) to +10 to damage with any weapon against every foe in every combat that's likely to take place for the game?). Divine Shield would become useful outside of smackdown characters specifically constructed to exploit it but would be even more advantageous to those characters. I can't really see Divine Vigor being unbalanced though. . . .

 

[Victim]

Divine Vigor is good because it lasts a minute per bonus instead of a round. Therefore, it can last though several encounters.

Another way to effectively get quickened divine feats is to take Leadership, and attract an arcane caster cohort that worships your diety. Your cohort's favorite spell is haste, which he throws on you. With the haste action, you activate the divine feat, then proceed with your normal action.

There should also be magic items that boost divine feats.