Preview - Conduit: Journey & Glory Domains + New Abilities (lvl 1 - 3)

[analog stag]

Edit: The full options for this class will be available in an upcoming Blacksmith's Guild issue. Go check it out!

Hi All,

So, I put this together for one of my players who wanted some more 'pacifist' like options for their conduit. Combined with a couple new domains I'd been thinking about, I thought I'd show these off to anyone who was curious. I'm hoping to have subclasses for all 9 classes ready for when the backers get the final 10th level options - but for now this is a license approved preview.

[versed ferry]

Angelic Steps is formatted as a normal triggered action, but the effect says it's a free triggered action. I'd make it a free triggered action personally, since I think that fits better with how the other domains work.

Signature abilities says pick three, should be pick 2.

Divine Disposition feels a little strong, and speaking all languages invalidates the need to learn languages a bit much. Maybe nerf that to just "you can always communicate in negotiation, so long as they speak a language."? Or could just strip out the language aspect entirely

I'm liking [Divine Intruments] and [Holy Aegis]. Seems like fun ways to be buff conduit on a signature. [Divine Instuments] has interesting comparisons to the existing conduit ability [Blessed Light]. Converting the surges to damage and canceling it out, you are trading 3/5/8 damage for an edge. That's probably a bit weak. Maybe make it all power rolls made until the end of their next turn? I think four surges is already a lot to give off a signature, so I don't think buffing those is the way to do it.

Pious Commandment is interesting, but I'm really not sure how the balance pans out. My guess is that it's a bit weak, but that would need to see some testing.

Annointed Herald is defintly weak. At the tier 3 it's probably a little worse than the Tactician's [Strike Now]: you get more flexibility in the action. but you have to wait until that later turn to use it. Ending up with a move or a manuever is MUCH worse.
I'd make the extra thing (could be any of the three action types) be a flat effect, and then add some different scaling effect to the power roll. Probably shifting squares, considering the flavor of the ability.

3 Piety should be pick 1 instead of pick 2.

Divine Favor I think should let you reroll one or both. The Talent gets a reroll as a no cost triggered action, so at 3 cost a little more flexibility is fine.

for Stalwart Exaltation, I think it should just be stability equal to intuition. 4 stability at level 1 to 10 stability at level 10 are in the "can't be pushed at all by anything" bracket, which is both very strong, and also makes the game less fun and dynamic. This will still prevent all the small pushes, and severely hamper the large ones.

Blinded isn't defined, what do you imagine it doing?

Same with Rattled.

For Blessing of Sanctuary, there's a bit of an exploit where someone could apply taunt, then get the blessing, and the enemy would still be taunted.

Blessing of Sanctuary also is pretty weak overall. 2 damage immunity and double bane is quite strong, but it costs 5 and is on a very harsh conditional effect. Generally speaking, defensive tools like that aren't super strong because they don't reduce damace, instead they make enemies target other allies instead. That can be useful when it allows a glass cannon to go off, but the no dealing damage qualifier means the ability doesn't serve well at that.

For Holy Majesty, should that maybe be an Aura instead of a burst? That way it travels with you if you move.

[Graceful misdirection] should specify what happens when the illusion takes damage. Does that count as being interacted with? The ability is also a bit weak, it's 5 piety in exchange for getting to hide and making the monsters wiff one attack. Could use a small bonus, possibly something that happens when the illusion dissolves into fractal shards?

[analog stag]

I'll be testing them in my next game, as my Conduit Player wanted options that weren't direct attacks - so I'll have a better feel after that.

[analog stag]

Added condition descriptions to the document.

[analog stag]

So, I more or less lifted this ability straight from the Troubador's "Fake my own death" ability, so its on par with it. But, if it still seems a bit week, I was debating allowing a teleport int here too. But also it could deal damage to the attacker if attack?

[analog stag]

Do you think that's an issue when its rerolling enemy power rolls to though?

[analog stag]

Yeah, Blessed Light was already pretty good, so was hard trying to figure out how to scale it without adding damage straight. Maybe if the target's next attack has their potency increased by 1 also?

[versed ferry]

nope, so does the Talent! I actually had a talent cancel an enemy crit in one playtest. Pesto was very sad lol.

[versed ferry]

Potency increased by 1 is effectively 2 surges, so maybe not that

[versed ferry]

Ahh, see I think that ability is very weak as well XD

[analog stag]

@versed ferry made some tweaks to several comments above?

[versed ferry]

I like the divine instruments change

For pious commandment, why specify they get lost at end of encounter? All resources already get lost then.

Anointed herald works. I’m not sure how it would feel in play, but it’s about the right power level.

[analog stag]

probably just being safe, but I can cut it.

[analog stag]

Yeah, I was really happy with that change. I think my player is really going to like it; they're character doesn't want to fight, they just want to sing 😉

[versed ferry]

My gut instinct is that there is a more elegant way to capture the fantasy of that ability, but it's not popping up to me

[analog stag]

Its a bit more nuanced than that, they ARE a conduit, and have a whole backstory - they just don't want there character to do the fighting, they are there for spiritual and moral support (literally).

[versed ferry]

A note about righteous edict: MCDM intentionally does not combine prone and daze, because it’s a little too close to a “skip your turn” (since if you want to stand up from prone it costs your turn, and if you don’t then you both can’t really move and take a bane on abilities. It’s your call if you want to follow that prevent or break it, it’s less of an issue for a monster to be stunlocked

[analog stag]

Mmm, that's fair. I'm tempted to leave it be for now as its a no damage power, and its monster facing. As a Director, I'm less concerned if my bad guys lose turns - but I'll sit on it to be sure

actually, its a fair point - I've updated to just be prone and can't stand (EoT). That's still more or less the same thing

[versed ferry]

losing the daze does drop the power level a fair bit. But restricting the turn activation can be quite strong

no line of effect is SUPER strong on Holy Magesty

that's just, can't be damaged or effected at all. No way around it (besides some very specfic things that might allow damage with no line of effect

but area abilities don't work

it's basically "allies in the area are untargetable and immune until my next turn"

[analog stag]

Shrink the aura maybe? Its a big trade off because it means focus fire on the conduit - so it has to be deployed carefully or else the conduits going to have a very bad time

[versed ferry]

A lot of bosses and solos tend to have multi target strikes. So they have forced damage spreading, and hiding all but one target is a big decrease in their DPS.

and also just area abilities