Warpriest Fervor - 0 / day?

[Oladon]

Fervor wrote:

Starting at 2nd level, the warpriest can draw upon the power of his faith to heal wounds or harm foes. He can also use this ability to quickly cast spells that aid in his struggles. This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to half his warpriest level plus his Charisma modifier.

This means that at level 2 when I get the ability, with a Charisma of 8 I'm unable to use Fervor even once per day; is this intended?

Most abilities like this either use the character's Charisma bonus, or else have a "minimum 1" tidbit. I tried searching the forums, but couldn't find anything specific to this ability; is anyone aware of anything about this out there?

[The Beard]

Looks to me like warpriests are expected to have a charisma score; barring some sort of future amendment, I'd guess that was intentional.

[Xaratherus]

Comparing it to the Cleric's Channel Energy ability and the Paladin's Lay on Hands (the first being one of the base classes for Warpriest and the other being the most similar divine Su to Fervor), the text is the same - it does not include the "(minimum 1)" caveat.

So I'd say yes, it's intentional - if you have a Warpriest with negative CHA, you can wind up with no uses of Fervor, just as a Cleric could have no channels and a Paladin could have no Lay on Hands.

[blahpers]

Yes. Don't dump Charisma.

[Gilfalas]

Why would you think you wouldn't get a penalty on a charisma based ability if you are dumping charisma ?

[Xaratherus]

Gilfalas wrote:

Why would you think you wouldn't get a penalty on a charisma based ability if you are dumping charisma ?

Well, some abilities - like the Gunslinger's grit - include a statement that regardless of the ability upon which the feature is based you always get at least 1 point. A Gunslinger could technically have a WIS of 6 and he'd still get 1 grit at the start of each day.

That's not the case here, so dumping CHA is not a good idea for Warpriests.

[Gilfalas]

Xaratherus wrote:

Well, some abilities - like the Gunslinger's grit - include a statement that regardless of the ability upon which the feature is based you always get at least 1 point. A Gunslinger could technically have a WIS of 6 and he'd still get 1 grit at the start of each day.

True but Grit has that exeption worded in the ability. Plus someone would still be foolish to do that on a gunslinger as while you will always have a minimum of 1 grit if your Cha is that low you will have a LOT less grit as you level up, or ever, and that is still a penalty.

If your charisma mod is -2 and at some level you should have 3 grit, your still only getting ONE grit. That sounds like a penalty to me. Especially with a gunslinger.

[Oladon]

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

(I've done my best to hammer the writers into saying "bonus" when they mean "it's always going to be +0 or better," or when using "modifier" has the possibility of making no sense, such as "you can use this a number of times per day equal to your Charisma modifier," which would mean you could have negative uses per day. So trust whether it says "bonus" or "modifier" to mean exactly that. :))

(emphasis added)

Warpriest Fervor wrote:

This ability can be used a number of times per day equal to half his warpriest level plus his Charisma modifier.

Does this have the possibility of making no sense, or giving you negative uses per day? Yes. So according to Sean, it should probably either be bonus, or else have a "minimum 1" clause.

This thread is an attempt to get that clarified. Thank you to those who are actually recognizing the issue and posting helpful input.