Alternatives to the Repose Domain's First Level Ability

[Ganny]

So, I am going to be in a game soon where we start out in a town that was ravaged by the undead. I'm playing a Cleric, and my first thought was to play a character with the Repose and Healing domains (there is a God that supports this in setting). Problem is, the GM believes the Repose Domain's 'Gentle Rest' ability is OP, and wants to swap it out. Given that, I want to suggest something useful, that isn't just '1d6+1/2 cleric level damage, but only against the undead' as the first level ability. I'd like to suggest an idea that functions against a majority of undead types.

Gentle Rest:

Gentle Rest (Sp): Your touch can fill a creature with lethargy, causing a living creature to become staggered for 1 round as a melee touch attack. If you touch a staggered living creature, that creature falls asleep for 1 round instead. Undead creatures touched are staggered for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

[Firebug]

Swap in the 1st level power from the Souls subdomain of Repose but keep the main domain's spells/etc?

Souls wrote:

Touch the Spirit World (Su): With a touch, you can empower a weapon to affect incorporeal creatures. The weapon touched deals half damage to incorporeal creatures, or full damage if it is a magic weapon. This benefit lasts for a number of rounds equal to your cleric level. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

Not quite useful vs all types of undead, but is useful vs all incorporeal not just undead. And remains useful when you have a magic weapon.

[Ghostwheel]

Gentle Rest is hardly OP. It has a range of "touch" and can only be used 1 time per round. Not bad, but not all that great. And you would have to find some other method for it to work on incorporeal creatures.

And I have to wonder why a GM is putting players into an undead heavy campaign and then gimping them from the start. That seems like telling them that it is going to be a game of wilderness exploration, but they can't play a character with survival as a class skill.

[Smallfoot]

Ganny wrote:

Problem is, the GM believes the Repose Domain's 'Gentle Rest' ability is OP, and wants to swap it out.

Did you discuss adding a saving throw to the Gentle Rest ability? The only thing that strikes me as OP about it is the lack of a save (although compare to Ray spells that require a ranged touch but don't allow saves). DC should scale or the ability becomes useless as you level up, so 10+ 1/2 level + WIS mod.