I'm just in the process of making up a new cleric replacement character for AoW, and I flipped through the PHB II, since some of the other characters in our game are using Duskblades, etc for a little variety.
And then I came across the new Divine Feats.
Sacred Healing/Sacred Purification seem exceptionally powerful, given that you can take them at first level (if you are human anyways)... and I have a feeling that a 2nd level cleric pumping out Sacred Purification behind a half-way decent tank will just slaughter Filge and any other of the first few undead encounters.
And Sacred Radiance seems great in AoW as well against all the undead, although it seems a little less great in comparison to Sacred Purification due to the requirements (you can't take it until 9th at the earliest).
Does anyone have any experience in using these feats in their AoW campaign?
I suspect Divine Justice is way overpowered.
"Dragotha hits you for 100 damage"
"I use Divine Justice and hit him back for 100 damage, while the cleric casts heal on me!"
Probably the same way Power Word: Pain got past them in Races of the Dragon.
I generally don't really consider much of anything "too powerful" so long as my bad guys can do it too...
Sacred heal/purifaction might make the fight with Filge easy, but it will make the fight in the temple of Hextor a living nightmare when you give it to the 3 clerics that set up the ambush with the teiflings...
Yes, sacred healing/sacred purification are way over powered at early levels. Consider a cleric that has a 16 cha. That's +3 uses per day for a total of 6 1d8+cha mass healings per day! That's just crazy talk there. I put the kabosh on that immediately. Not sure how that got past the play testers.
Yes, that is almost exactly what my 16 CHA cleric is doing... while it loses its effectiveness at higher levels when the 1d8+CHA isn't a big deal... at 2nd level, I'm doing more with it than I would with a Cure Light Wounds... and I can get all my party at once. Plus the whole aspect of being able to do it 7 times a day if necessary. Even at higher levels, that is still like an extra wand of cure lights (that again cures everyone) every couple of days.
Although that being said, we got into a fight with a Troll, and I had to use it keep up both the two characters in melee, who were just taking a beating. Unfortunately, the troll had taken a 5' step to go after one of them, and my careful tactical positioning came to naught as I accidently healed the troll as well as my two allies. :-(
I agree that its a great combo of feats and extremely powerful at low levels, but it's actually a nerf to the existing Sacred Healing in the Complete Divine. One of my characters (an aasimar cleric) had the old Sacred Healing and a Cha of 20, so his heal count went down from 15pts every time to 1d8+5 AND it costs an extra feat now.
Personally, I don't mind the change myself, but I do think that they should have left the heal rank req (8 ranks) on it. Also, it's probably not quite enough of a nerf. It's two feats that every cleric that wants to be good at healing should get....unless you have a really bad cha (10 or less)