Divine Power: Rituals

Looks like there will be eight new rituals in Divine Power. The one that interests me the most is Create Holy Water. Its only level 1 and probably will do wonders against undead and likely evil-aligned immortals. Not much of note, though they do preview one of the rituals.

Adjure

Filled with righteous authority, you order an immortal entity to serve you.

Level: 16
Category: Binding
Time: 1 hour
Duration: 8 hours or until discharged
Component Cost: 3,000 gp
Market Price: 7,500 gp
Key Skill: Religion

You command an immortal creature whose level does not exceed yours. The subject of this ritual must be able to see and hear you and must remain within 5 squares of you for the entire time necessary to perform the ritual. Because most creatures do not willingly submit to this ritual, you must usually make the creature helpless or restrain the creature by means of a Magic Circle ritual. Unless it is prevented from doing so, the creature can leave at any time. Finally, you must be able to communicate with the creature, or the ritual automatically fails.

To determine the extent of your authority over the subject, you engage in a special skill challenge during the time it takes to perform the ritual. The DCs for the checks in this challenge are equal to the subject’s level + 10. Religion is the primary skill; each time you or an ally succeeds on a Religion check in the challenge, you or an ally can use Diplomacy, History, Arcana, or Intimidate for one subsequent check. Once you have amassed 3 failures or achieved 10 successes, the skill challenge ends. Consult the following table and apply the effect associated with the number of successes you achieved.

Number of Successes	Effect
0 or 1	The creature has authority over you and can issue one command that you must obey, a task that requires up to a day of effort.
2 or 3	You have immediate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform one task that takes no more than 5 minutes.
4 or 5	You have moderate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a day of effort.
6 or 7	You have significant authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a week of effort.
8 or 9	You have great authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a month of effort.
10	You have ultimate authority over the creature. You can command the creature to perform a task that requires up to a year and a day of effort.

When the specified task is completed, the ritual is discharged, and the creature (or you) is released from service. You can request any kind of service that does not compel the subject to obey multiple commands, force the subject to engage in combat, or ensure the subject’s death. (The subject can engage in combat to achieve a task if it wishes, but combat cannot be required.) If the task is impossible, such as commanding a creature that cannot fly to soar into the sky, the creature can ignore the command.

Excerpt: Favored Soul

You can finally download the article. The favored soul is an avenger paragon path that basically turns you into an angel as you level up. You gain wings at level 16, which is the highlight of the class and starts to set the benchmark for a static flight speed.

You can burn an action point to do something and let an ally burn a healing surge and you gain a bonus to defenses when your hp is maxed out. Radiant rush works on your enmity target, dealing damage with a push and daze, and you can use it while charging. Celestial skirmish (level 20 daily) is pretty brutal, boosting your fly speed by 2, giving you +6 against opportunity attacks, and allowing you to make three attacks against separate targets with increasing returns the more you successfully land a hit.

The only issue I noticed from a purely mechanical standpoint was that you gain flight at level 16, but wings of angels (level 12 utility) increases your flight speed by 4. Since you technically dont even have a fly speed listed at all, I’m inclined to think that this by the rules shouldnt work. Oh well, if players cannot get a power that grants flight before then, I’ll just let them walk with a Speed of 4.

Aside from that minor molehill (that I’m sure has been made into several mountain ranges on the forums), looks good. Its one of those “duuuh” things that I didnt think about, having a divine character gain the qualities of an angel. Its like they took the angelic avenger (PH, pg 73) and cranked it up to 11.

Ampersand: Domains and Divine Power

Domains were a mechanic in 3rd Edition that largely belonged to clerics and granted them even more additional powers keyed off of whatever type of flying spaghetti monster they chose to prostrate themselves before. 4th Edition retained a vestige of this system in the form of Channel Divinity feats that let you do other things with your channel divinity class feature, just in case you didnt have enough to keep track of.

Apparently, this wasnt enough for divine-users, and Divine Power intends to add more to the menu in the form of new Divinity feats and Domain feats. First, I’ll go into a bit of detail on domains in case you missed 3rd Edition. Domains were the portfolios of a god that clued you in on what they mostly cared about. For example, Erathis is given the domains of civilization, creation, and justice. If you worship Erathis, you can take any Channel Divinity feat that requires that you worship a deity with those three domains.

This means that in addition to the Channel Divinity feat that requires the express worship of Erathis, that you can get three other Divine feats. There is, however, some overlap: Asmodeus also has the domain of civilation.

In addition there are Domain feats. There are identical to the martial feats that modify your at-will powers in various ways, excpet that they apply to divine powers. Power of Civilization gives you a +2 feat bonus to Diplomacy, and a +1 bonus to damage for each adjacent enemy when you use leading strike, mantle of the infidel, priest’s shield, or valiant strike.

This sounds like a lot to take in, which is why I’m extremely pleased with the supplement distribution by Wizards. We initially got Player’s Handbook with eight races and classes, and they’ve gradually rolled out ever-expanded options for various sources one at a time. Less rapid-rules-bloat, more time to let it all sink in before the next big thing hits. I’ve got a lot of Martial Power down, what with my paragon tiefling resourceful warlord/infernal strategist, and I’m still taking in the new content in Player’s Handbook 2.

I’m glad they’re kind enough to give us almost half a month before dropping Arcane Power in our laps.