Review: Divine Power

I was previously pretty happy with Martial Power and Arcane Power, and based on my initial reading, Divine Power seems to continue the trend.  As you’d expect from the book’s title, this supplement for fourth-edition Dungeons & Dragons offers new options for the divine classes:  avengers, clerics, invokers, and paladins.

As I mentioned in earlier reviews of the Power series, this sort of class-focused supplement has been pretty common in D&D’s history, with varying levels of quality showing in the finished products — but the Power books tend to fall toward the top of the quality scale.  This is still true of Divine Power.

I should mention, perhaps, that I’ve had a long-standing fondness for the cleric class, and that I’ve found avengers and invokers equally attractive since their introduction to 4e D&D.  So maybe I’m a little biased.  After looking through the book, though, I’d have to say even paladins come off pretty well now.  This might be my favorite Power book yet.

First things first:  Like the previous books in the line, Divine Power is 160 pages.  Physically, it feels a little different to me than the previous two did, and I’m not sure why.  Is the cover a little less heavy?  The paper, ink, and binding seem pretty similar, as far as I can tell, and the font and layout are still consistent with the other 4e books.  Maybe this is my imagination, but it does feel a little less sturdy, somehow.

The content is still laid out nicely:  One chapter for each of the classes, followed by one of “divine options” including new feats, epic destinies, rituals, and the new Domain mechanics (which remind me less of 3.5e’s domains than of 2e’s specialty priests, name aside).

Avenger: The avenger section features a new censure, the Censure of Unity.  While other avengers grow stronger by driving their enmity target away or isolating it, those who use Censure of Unity gain damage bonuses for each ally adjacent to the target.  The most lone wolf-ish of the 4e classes therefore now has a team-player build, and I think that’s a good thing.

Avengers’ damage is a little low for strikers — they’re intended to make up for it through great accuracy, thanks to their double attack rolls.  The low damage has caused some to suggest that avengers are best used by multiclassing, perhaps even to the extreme of taking no avenger attack powers.  The new powers presented here address this somewhat — but not through simply adding damage.  Instead, useful rider effects are added to various powers.  Avengers gain options to add a little more movement and control — lots of forced movement in particular — and even a touch of leader-like flavor, giving their allies attack and damage bonuses.    Some powers do have increased damage as a rider; many Unity powers, in particular, cause an additional amount of damage per ally the target starts or ends adjacent to.

Avengers are still pure awesome, as far as flavor goes.  Now they’re also quite versatile in how they approach their stabbing.  Implement powers also get a boost — there are several interesting-looking options there, including a number of melee touch implement powers.  Avengers will still do best focusing on weapons, but there are now some persuasive arguments for taking an implement along, such as the level 1 daily power Argent Mantle, which not only causes a decent amount of damage in a close burst 1, but also allows you to reroll the damage roll for any avenger attack power for the rest of the encounter (although the second result must be used).

Sidebars include “Serving Multiple Masters,” which affirms that an avenger can choose to follow multiple related deities, and “Whom to Hunt?” which suggests likely “targets” for an avenger dedicated to a particular PHB god.  Somewhat interesting stuff, though nothing exceptional.

Avenger paragon paths are pretty varied.  I like the mysticism and grace of the Dervish of Dawn, with its shift-and-attack powers and its defense bonus gained after using an encounter or daily power with the Radiant keyword.  There’s also the Dread Imperator, which adds some leader-like qualities to the avenger, and the Favored Soul, which adds some healing abilities — and lets you grow wings.  There’s a Relentless Slayer who takes on a chosen enemy, similar to the favored enemy ability of 3.5e rangers.  There’s a Serene Initiate, a coolly methodical Zen killer.  There’s even the Weapon of Fortune, an avenger dedicated to a god of luck, for those who would like to add a touch of wild mage-like randomness to their avenger.  Of the eight paragon paths presented, I’d qualify six as pretty good, and none as outright bad.

Cleric: It seems that Wizards of the Coast has decided that a cleric’s special area of leaderly focus should be healing.  There are a lot of new powers that allow the use of healing surges or allow hit point recovery outright.  The new Channel Divinity: Healer’s Mercy class feature, which a cleric can choose instead of Turn Undead, is one of them:  a close burst 5 encounter power that allows every bloodied ally in the area to spend a healing surge, but weakens the cleric for a round.

That’s not to say that healing is all clerics get.  In fact, there’s a large array of control to be found, too, including some that are quite powerful effects — and many powers that deal little or no damage, but place powerful conditions on the enemy.  These are somewhat mitigated by two facts:  first, most of the powers have low range, with Ranged 5 being very common; second, most of the powers affect a single target, or just a few targets.  True controllers therefore still outperform clerics in this area because of their greater range and area of effect, but a cleric can step up and contribute quite well.

Quite a few old spells are reimagined for 4e, too.  There’s Bane, which causes a single target to suffer a penalty to attack rolls and all defenses for a turn.  Armor of Faith, which grants a nearby ally a +4 power bonus to any one defense for an encounter.  Hold Foe, a level 5 daily power which causes daze and immobilize on a hit.  Dismissal, which tosses a target into an extradimensional prison until they save — and includes a save penalty, which increases to a hefty -5 against non-natural creatures.  Air Walk, at level 16, allows for a limited form of flight for an encounter.  Righteous Might is back, complete with reach increase, as a level 25 daily.  And quite a few others are scattered throughout, some with modified names.

Sidebars are particularly interesting.  They include “Dwarves Who Don’t Worship Moradin” (likely the weakest of the bunch, but a good reminder all the same); “Small Devotions”, which offers some sample “superstitions” and the religious meanings that were originally behind them; “Dead Gods,” which expands the mythology presented in the Player’s Handbook and Manual of the Planes; and “Rise of the Raven Queen,” a reprint of the Raven Queen’s backstory from Manual of the Planes.

The clerical paragon paths didn’t impress me much for the most part.  There are a couple each focused on battle and on healing, which I suppose are pretty adequate.  There’s the obligatory “mystic” religionist who draws on divine power in ways other clerics can’t, the Astral Savant, which is kind of neat but also quite healing-focused.  There’s the Messenger of Peace, a quasi-pacifistic option who gains bonuses with powers that don’t inflict any damage.  Remember how I mentioned a lot of the new powers give up damage in exchange for more powerful control?  Yeah.  This is the controller-cleric, and is actually a pretty interesting path to include.  The Seldarine Dedicate, an elf or eladrin cleric who gains the ability to use bows as implements, is pretty flavorful, as is the dwarven melee-cleric history-buff, the Stone Keeper.  Finally, the Truthseeker has some cool fluff, although I’m not quite sure about the mechanics.  Of the eight paragon paths, I’d say four interest me.  I don’t think any are outright bad, although the Anointed Champion, which gains variable bonuses due to empowering items, seems pretty bland in its execution.

Invoker: Ah, invoker, I love you more and more…  The divine controller gets some intriguing boosts.  Its new build option is the Covenant of Malediction, which is, like Wrath, somewhat offensive-oriented.  It does a lot of pushing around, knocking prone, fear effects, and general cursing of the invoker’s enemies.  Where Wrath is more outright damaging, and Preservation tends to buff and protect allies, Malediction tends to put enemies in bad situations — inflicting damage if they attack, or causing defense or save penalties, or moving them into disadvantageous positions.  Good stuff.

Invokers get some pretty cool effects, but the one that most jumped out at me?  Power Word spells.  Oh, they have changed names… but Word of Ruin, a level 3 encounter attack power, is pretty unmistakably a powered-down version of Power Word: Stun.  Word of Bewilderment, at level 23, is the full stun version.  Word of Cessation, a level 25 daily, is a 4e-viable version of Power Word: Kill.  Word of Blindness, level 13, is obviously based on Power Word: Blind.  Of course, there are other Word of… powers, and their general conceit is that they accomplish some greater-than-normal effect, but with the price of inflicting some disadvantage on the invoker in return.  But I really loved seeing this.

Sidebars remain pretty interesting here.  “Crafting a Covenant” is a musing about what sorts of promises or taboos you might have, in exchange for your power.  “Destined for Greatness” is a reminder of the in-character impact of having been personally chosen by the gods.  “Words of Creation” plays up that language aspect some more, while “Serving Evil Gods” offers some suggestions for offering evil-god-related plot hooks to invokers who are not themselves evil.  “Invoker Origins” is a tiny piece of roleplay musing about how an invoker might come by his power.  “The War of Winter” and “Avandra and the First Doppelganger” are myths that add to the background of the default setting — and pretty significantly too.

The invoker paragon paths are generally pretty good.  Adept of Whispers is hard to describe, but very flavorful — he’s the quiet guy, speaking only deliberately and with caution, his words few but powerful, his presence passing with little notice until he chooses to make himself plain.  I like it quite a lot.  Crimson Arbiter is up there, too; this path plays up the “divine judge” angle of the invoker.  The Devoted Orator is a proselytizer who can use Intelligence instead of Charisma on Diplomacy checks.  The Divine Philosopher is the devoted religious scholar who gleans great wisdom from rare ancient texts.  The Keeper of the Nine is a member of a guardian order dedicated to protecting a religious secret that could end the world.  The Theurge of the Compact uses his understanding of the Compact Infernal to command the power of the Nine Hells.  Of the eight paths, only the Divine Hand, a sort of chosen religious soldier focused on fear effects, fails to grab me.

Paladin: Perhaps the class most improved by Divine Power.  Paladins gain two new builds, the ardent paladin who charges into the fray ignoring danger to himself, and the valorous paladin who endures whatever the enemy might inflict.  These exemplify the two new class features, either of which may be chosen in place of Lay on Hands:  Ardent Vow, a damage bonus similar to the 3.5e smite evil, and Virtue’s Touch, which removes many conditions (including blind, daze, and stun, but not including immobilize) from the touched ally.

Regardless of their chosen class feature, all paladins also gain another bonus:  Divine Sanction.  This is an effect which is applied by paladin powers (and the Ardent Vow), and causes an effect similar to the paladin’s Divine Challenge:  the enemy is marked, and is it makes an attack that doesn’t include the paladin, it takes radiant damage.  The big things here are that Sanction is in addition to Challenge, and that it can persist for a while, even for a whole encounter in some cases, without the paladin actively engaging the target.  The short of it is, paladins just became a lot better at defending.  They now excel at marking multiple targets, and they can spread quite a bit of damage around if their Charisma modifier is good.

Strength-based paladins got some love, too, though — there are quite a few good Strength-based attacks, many of which support the ardent build.  As before, a few old friends also make appearances, including Bless Weapon, a level 2 daily utility power that grants a weapon a +1 to attack, 1d6 bonus radiant damage on a hit, and an 18-20 critical range against creatures vulnerable to radiant damage — like most undead.

Sidebars are almost nonexistent.  There’s a “Hymn to Corellon” which is pretty poor doggerel (although, to be fair, not any worse than a lot of actual religious hymns I’ve heard), and “The Divine Compromises,” which provides some more myth/backstory for the default setting.

Paragon paths are pretty mixed again.  Demonslayer and Dragonslayer provide archetypal paths, and are adequately executed, but nothing too exciting — they’re just so expected.  Nice work, though.  Then there are paths like Gray Guard, a paladin who believes in the philosophy that “the end justifies the means.”  That’s certainly not your father’s paladin… but the fluff is wonderful.  There’s also the Holy Conqueror, who takes down enemy fortresses and overthrows tyrants — I kind of like it, especially the visual I get from Charge of the Conqueror, which interrupts an enemy who makes an attack against the paladin’s ally when the paladin is nearby, and allows the paladin to charge and Sanction the enemy.  Cool.  Old prestige classes Knight of the Chalice and Slayer of the Dead make comebacks as paladin paragon paths, too.  (I’d made my own Hunter of the Dead adaptation back in December, and called this one.  Not that it was much of a reach…)  I’d say, again, nothing bad… but of the eight, only four or five really inspire me at all.  Still, there’s a lot to be said for including the archetypal, so let’s call this 7/8.

Divine Options: The rest of the book is dedicated to things useful for divine characters in general.  The chapter starts out with domains, which consist of a pair of feats that can be taken by a character who worships an appropriate deity.  One feat is a Domain feat, which grants a +2 feat bonus to a skill check plus an enhancement of some sort to an at-will power associated with the feat.  For instance, the Arcana domain, granted by gods of magic, causes a cleric’s Lance of Faith or an invoker’s Divine Bolts to be considered arcane as well as divine, and grants a +1 bonus to attack rolls with arcane powers until the end of the cleric’s next turn after he uses the Lance.  This is obviously useful for multiclassed divine/arcane characters.  Meanwhile, the Darkness domain grants concealment against the first attack an enemy makes against the cleric after the cleric has hit with his Priest’s Shield.

This is pretty neat stuff, although I think I might be inclined to eliminate the association with a specific power and allow the player to choose an at-will power.  I’ll need to see it in action first, but otherwise it strikes me that these feats could become a lot less useful after Divine Power 2, or whatever.  Though I’m sure Divine Power 2 would have domain feats of its own.

The other feat is a Divinity feat, which grants a new Channel Divinity power.  Many of these seem a bit more powerful than the ones from the Player’s Handbook, but not much more so, and I think that’s probably a good thing overall — many of the PHB ones were pretty weak, and since Channel Divinity can normally only be used once per encounter, it should have a decent effect when the time comes, I’d say.  As it stands, the default class-feature Channel Divinities are typically better than the feat powers, although the feats offer advantages in certain situations.

There are almost three dozen domains detailed, and new ones shouldn’t be hard to come up with.  Not every obvious base is covered — there’s no Fire domain, for instance, although there is a Destruction and a Sun that would work in a pinch.  But a lot of them are.

Next up, there’s a section called “Your Deity and You,” which suggests ways in which members of each of the divine classes might relate to each of the good and unaligned deities presented in the PHB.  I suppose this could be useful to newbies, but it’s the sort of campaign-specific fluff I don’t really care for in these books.  Still, it’s only 4 pages, so I can’t begrudge the space too much.

Two pages (well, a page and a half, plus some art) of Divine Backgrounds follows.  I still find backgrounds kind of useless — I do allow something similar, but I certainly don’t need long lists of backgrounds with specific names in order to grant these small bonuses.  Something in here might spark a character concept, though, I suppose.

Next up are 14 pages, give or take, of feats, spanning all levels and all divine classes.  There are a bunch that give bonuses following use of Channel Divinity, an array of racial feats that aid with divine powers, and the usual class-centered miscellany.  Nothing here leaps out like some of the arcane feats did, but some of the epic stuff gets pretty interesting:  Paladin’s Truth allows an epic paladin to ignore the resistances and immunities of a target he’s marked, while clerics with Radiant Advantage cause enemies they hit with radiant attacks to grant combat advantage.  Clerics who prefer Shared Healing can basically pool together their healing surges and those of all their nearby allies, and let any ally draw from that pool.  Then they can add Reactive Healing, to allow them to use Healing Word as an immediate reaction triggered by a nearby ally dropping to 0 hp.  Not bad.

Epic destinies are next.  Depending on how you count them, there are either ten or four of them.  First up are seven versions of the Avatar (of Death, Freedom, Hope, Justice, Life, Storm, and War), in which the character discovers that he or she is, in fact, an incarnate of his or her deity.  These have some slight differences between them, but their overall structure is mostly the same, and creating new Avatar destinies would not be difficult.  Next, the Chosen, which is basically a Demigod who’s dedicated to one specific god; they’re identical to the Demigod, in fact, except that their level 26 daily power differs depending on who they’re devoted to.  Powers for all of the good and unaligned gods from the PHB are presented.  The Exalted Angel follows, and is probably the best of the bunch in my opinion.  It’s a destiny where you… well, become an angel.  You gain winged flight (and eventually even hover), immortal status, some resistances, and so on.  Predictable, but nicely executed without being overly powerful.  Finally, there’s the Saint, a shining exemplar of faith who gains all sorts of defense and healing bonuses, along with scads of resistance to necrotic damage.

The chapter, and the book, wraps up by presenting eight new rituals, ranging from Create Holy Water to Ease Spirit, with a couple old favorites like Succor and Mark of Justice in between.  Then there’s a very short glossary and “about” blurb for the designers.

AND NO INDEX.

Yes, I’m going to continue to mention that.  It annoys me.  Even though I now have access to the character builder, which will shortly be able to look up all this stuff for me.  A book like this should have an index, damn it.

Price: $29.95 list; Amazon is offering it for $17.97.  I believe $17.97 is a fair price for a book like this.  (Hardcover, full-color art, nice paper, and so forth.)  Even with an Insider subscription, I bought a copy for physical reference.

The Verdict: On the whole, I think this is a very worthwhile book.  While some material is lackluster — seven variations of the Avatar do not equate to seven epic destinies in my opinion, and some of the paragon paths are pretty bland, and only eight new rituals? — the core of the book, the new powers and class features for divine classes, seem very solid.  With the exception of the paladin, I don’t detect a lot of power creep — the boosts the other three classes got come with drawbacks attached, and seem pretty reasonable overall.  And the paladin, frankly, needed the boost; they were certainly viable before, but they were generally considered the weakest of the defenders, and not without reason.  Domains are added in a manner that makes sense and is easy to expand.  There’s some stuff I could do without, like backgrounds and the “Your Deity and You” section, but some of the fluff sidebars are quite interesting to read — and none of it takes up all that much space, anyway.  I’d have preferred more rituals, sure.  But its core stuff is mostly very good, definitely on par with the previous Power books.  I’d say better, in fact.

I’d give Divine Power a solid 9/10 on first impression.  The relatively small amounts of filler that I’ll dispose of are overwhelmed by the useful and interesting bits I’m glad to have.  I’ll be using a lot of this in my game.

Related posts:

1. Review: Arcane Power
2. Review: Martial Power
3. PHB chapter 4: Classes
4. Review: Player’s Handbook 2
5. Barbarians at the Gates

Tags: 4e d&d, review, Wizards of the Coast
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