Is this balanced? Cleric God "perk tree" system


Advice


I'm a newer GM, my party is currently all lvl 8.
I have a cleric I wish to grant additional bonuses to as he pleases his God more and more. I plan to make it like a tree system.

My Cleric follows Cayden Cailean, the lucky drunk. He is also has a high AC with full plate and a Tower Shield.

He will have the option soon to choose whether he see's him self as a protector or a mender of the party. His choice will grant him one of the following:

Protector - Once per day, the total defense action slams your shield's bottom to the ground, creating a holy wall 30 ft on both sides of you and 30 ft tall. Only good alignment persons, spells or objects may pass the wall. The holy wall stays until the cleric ends total defense or takes damage equal to his AC.

Mender - Your tankard's ale radiates vigor. Once per day, as a free action you may drink it, healing you as if it was a channel energy (scales with the cleric's channel energy but does not actually use up a channel energy.) Or, splash it upon another creature, dealing damage or healing 1/2 of your channel energy roll, while having a chance to remove a physical ailment: sickness, paralysis, sleeping etc. The chance that the ailment will be removed is a d100 that must roll higher than the DC of the effect the creature is experiencing.


I'd be a bit hesitant to give the Cleric more powers. It's already an extremely powerful class. I'd be much more inclined just to hand out a magic item. However, if you want to go down this route, here's my thoughts on what you've written.

Xailian wrote:
Protector - Once per day, the total defense action slams your shield's bottom to the ground, creating a holy wall 30 ft on both sides of you and 30 ft tall. Only good alignment persons, spells or objects may pass the wall. The holy wall stays until the cleric ends total defense or takes damage equal to his AC.

A few key things you've left unclear:

* How can the wall be damaged or destroyed?
* As the wall forms, do creatures adjacent to it receive a reflex save to choose which side they end up on, or prevent it from forming altogether?
* How long can it last for if the Cleric does not willingly end total defense. Rounds? Minutes? Hours? All day?
* Does the wall move with the Cleric if he moves?
* What defines a "good-aligned object" or "good-aligned spell"?

I will say this ability looks extremely open to abuse and could be massively problematic, exactly how much so depending on the answers to the above questions. A "one-way barrier" is a ridiculously powerful effect, and makes this far superior to other comparable barrier effects that would be available to an 8th level party... or really any party, since I'd probably stat this as a 9th level spell if I were going to pick a spell level.

Xailian wrote:
Mender - Your tankard's ale radiates vigor. Once per day, as a free action you may drink it, healing you as if it was a channel energy (scales with the cleric's channel energy but does not actually use up a channel energy.) Or, splash it upon another creature, dealing damage or healing 1/2 of your channel energy roll, while having a chance to remove a physical ailment: sickness, paralysis, sleeping etc. The chance that the ailment will be removed is a d100 that must roll higher than the DC of the effect the creature is experiencing.

A few things left unclear on this one:

* What is the range and action type when using it on another creature. Does it require a touch attack when used against a hostile target, or allow a save?
* List the exact list of conditions it will cure, don't cop out with an "etc". There are many ailments where it's unclear whether you would consider them "physical" in nature, for instance Confusion, Dazed or Stunned.
* What happens if the condition being removed doesn't have a DC associated with it?
* Using a d100 against DC is... kinda weird. Use a caster level check instead.

Overall, this ability appears to be the far less problematic of the two. It's nothing an 8th level Cleric can't already do, but the free action is pretty significant. It's once per day and defensive in nature so I'm not too worried, but generally speaking anything that's a "free action" needs closer scrutiny than normal.


Thank you for the input so far, it really does help. This is my first game I've GM'd and we all plan it to be a long one (PCs lvl 20 n all). I hope I'm not planning my own games funeral by doing this lol

Questions about the protector:
-The wall can be destroyed if the Cleric takes damage equal to his AC
-I like that idea, having a reflex save to end up on either side of the wall. Do you think 10+cleric lvl is a good DC to chose a side? If it's failed the creature goes to the unfavorable side (GM's decresion).
-If he does not willingly end total defense, he must be damaged the amount of his AC number.
-The Cleric may not take any other action while using this ability. What type of action do you think ending it should be?
-The object or spell's alignment is the same as the person who throws or casts it.

Questions about the mender:
-what do you think is a decent range? 25ft? Touch attack is a good idea, reflex to negate, DC10+cleric lvl?
-okay good point ill make an exact list
-Hmm, not sure i've never run into an effect with no DC. What do you suggest?
-I wanted to do it to make it a very likely thing to have the effect being removed but could still fail. If you think it's a bad idea I will switch.


I have to agree that the cleric is already powerful enough. Instead of doing this as an additional power you should make them feats. Giving an already powerful class extra abilities is really not a good idea. But giving them the chance to take religious feats is fine.


Xailian wrote:

-The wall can be destroyed if the Cleric takes damage equal to his AC

Okay, but the wall can't be directly attacked or dispelled? If so, that's a bit of a catch-22 since a non-good monster can't damage the cleric until it's broken through the wall since almost no attacks can pass through said wall.

Quote:
-I like that idea, having a reflex save to end up on either side of the wall. Do you think 10+cleric lvl is a good DC to chose a side? If it's failed the creature goes to the unfavorable side (GM's decresion).

The DC should be 10+1/2 cleric level+wisdom modifier. If they fail the save, they stay on whichever side they are currently on.

Quote:

-If he does not willingly end total defense, he must be damaged the amount of his AC number.

This is definitely too powerful. If the wall cannot be directly damaged, it really shouldn't be lasting more than 1 round/level maximum.

Quote:

-The object or spell's alignment is the same as the person who throws or casts it.

Definitely too powerful given everything else so far. The ability to allow your allies to fire arrows and spells at the enemy while completely blocking all forms of retaliation is simply far too strong for an ability an 8th level character has access to.

Quote:

-what do you think is a decent range? 25ft? Touch attack is a good idea, reflex to negate, DC10+cleric lvl?

Generally speaking you'd either have a touch attack or a save, but not both. 25 ft sounds like a reasonable range. If you go with a saving throw, 10+1/2 cleric level+charisma modifier would be the DC to go with (same as channel energy).

Quote:

-Hmm, not sure i've never run into an effect with no DC. What do you suggest?

As an example, a Barbarian is fatigued after he ends his rage. There is no save to avoid this, it just always happens.

Quote:
-I wanted to do it to make it a very likely thing to have the effect being removed but could still fail. If you think it's a bad idea I will switch.

I'd say either stick with a more general rule, or just make it automatic success. Doing weird things often bogs down the game in practice.


The cleric is the center of the wall and thus is not protected by it, he may still be attacked. The wall does not have a specific AC or HP but disbands when the cleric takes damage equal to his AC. Is this fair or do you think the wall should be able to be targeted and have an AC of the clerics and HP of something related to him?

Okay, I agree the objects and spells not being able to pass is too overpowered. Only non-good persons cannot pass.

I also agree with your suggested DCs

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