Review: Divine Power

Oh my god Divine Power is a very cool book. Although not officially released until next week, I have a copy of Divine Power now. It provides new powers, feats, paragon paths and epic destinies for divine classes as well as introducing new rules for divine domains. If you play a divine PC you need to get this book.

The first four chapters are dedicated to the four divine classes. Contained within each is exactly what you expect: new builds, new powers and new paragon paths. Here are the highlights.

Avenger

New Build: Commanding Avenger

“Once you have sworn your oath of enmity, you hope to surround your oath of enmity target with as many of your allies as possible. If the enemy seeks to flee, your powers enable you to compel it to face you.”

Paragon Paths

• Ardent Champion
• Dervish of Dawn
• Dread Imperator
• Favored Soul
• Relentless Slayer
• Serene Initiate
• Watchful Shepherd
• Weapon of Fortune

Cleric

New Build: Shielding Cleric

“Your place is not to take the fight to the enemy directly, but to bolster allies with your presence.”

Paragon Paths

• Anointed Champion
• Astral Servant
• Battle Champion
• Compassionate Healer
• Holy Emissary
• Messenger of Peace
• Miracle Worker
• Seldraine Dedicate
• Stone Keeper
• Truthseeker

Invoker

New Build: Malediction Invoker

“The Malediction Invoker employs dread words of power to eradicate the gods’ foes.”

Paragon Paths

• Adept of Whispers
• Crimson Arbiter
• Devoted Orator
• Divine Hand
• Divine Philosopher
• Keeper of the Nine
• Speaker of the Word
• Stonecaller
• Theurge of the Compact
• Vessel of Ichor

Paladin

New Build: Ardent Paladin

“Your brutal assault demonstrates your god’s wrath. You’re more like a striker than other paladins are. You willingly sacrifice your own health and defense to strike down your foes.”

Paragon Paths

• Champion of Corellon
• Demonslayer
• Dragonslayer
• Faithful Shield
• Gray Guard
• Hammer of Moradin
• Holy Conqueror
• Knight of the Chalice
• Questing Knight
• Scion of Sacrifice
• Slayer of the Dead

The Paladin has a new class ability called Divine Sanction. Some new powers and feats subject your foe to Divine Sanction which marks them. The real benefit is that there is no limit to the number of creatures you can mark with Divine Sanction.

“Divine Sanction is meant to compliment Divine Challenge. You can use Divine Challenge to mark one creature and use Divine Sanction to mark others.”

As someone who’s been playing a Paladin since the release of 4e I am very excited about this new feature. Suddenly the Paladin has become a much tougher defender.

Epic Destinies

There are 10 new epic destinies.

• Avatar of Death
• Avatar of Freedom
• Avatar of Hope
• Avatar of Justice
• Avatar of Life
• Avatar of Storm
• Avatar of War
• Chosen
• Exalted Angel
• Saint

Divine Options

Divine Domains

This is where we start to get a lot of brand new options and rules. First up are Divine Domains. These represent aspects of a deity’s portfolio. In order to take domain feats your PC must have the Channel Divinity class feature and worship a god associated with that particular domain.

For example Bahamut is associated with the Hope, Justice, and Protection domains. If you worship Bahamut and posses the Channel Divinity class feature, then you meet the prerequisites for the Power of Justice [Domain] and Immediate Justice [Divinity] feats associated with the Justice domain.

The Domain feats grant skill bonuses in certain circumstances and work in conjunction with one specific At-will power for each divine class.

Here’s the list of the 34 domains provided. This list will likely expand as new supplements are released and the Character Builder is updated.

Arcana		Knowledge		Strength
Change		Life		Strife
Civilization		Love		Sun
Creation		Luck		Torment
Darkness		Madness		Trickery
Death		Moon		Tyranny
Destruction		Poison		Undeath
Earth		Protection		Vengence
Fate		Sea		War
Freedom		Skill		Wilderness
Hope		Storm		Winter
Justice

The remainder of Divine Power is a patchwork of those elements we expect to be in here.

• 15 pages worth of new heroic, paragon, epic and multi-class feats
• 13 new Divine Backgrounds
• 8 new divine rituals

The Your Deity and You section offers advice for players on how to tailor their PC’s attitude and outlook depending on your divine class and the deity you follow. Only the deities covered in the PHB are presented here.

Final Thoughts

I really like this book. I may be a little bit biased simply because the divine classes are my favourite. If you’re playing a divine class or plan to play one in any sort of long-term capacity then this book is a great pick-up. If you don’t play divine classes then this won’t appeal to you that much. All of the powers and feats will appear in the character Builder next month so it’s not like you’ll be missing out on too much. Although this book won’t appeal to all gamers, it will be a welcome addition to anyone who wants to read more about playing divine characters. The content is solid, but the target audience definitely won’t include everyone.

8 on a d10.