Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Salernodc 03-03-07, 02:20 PM	First off - a bonus feat at 6th level and 1/10? That's terrible. No other epic prestige class has such horrendous feat placement. AWFUL! Some of the class abilities are OK, but they're no where NEAR powerful enough to warrant such crappy feat progression. Full spell progression is SOP and not "that" great...continued bonuses to mount is all right, but again not a touchstone ability in my humble opinion. Divine Inspiration, Greater Planar Ally, and Divine Hand are only available once or so a day...gaining epic levels and earning an ability that's not that powerful and only having access a few times per day sucks. What does the +2 bonus with Divine Inspiration really do when you or a companion can cast a better buff spell? What is Divine hand but True Strike (a 1st level spell) once per day? Terrible.... No matter what anybody tells me about granted domain & smites, the awful and completely messed up feat progression coupled with a few lame class abilities make this an unappealing class to me.... We had to invent our own Paladin-esque epic prestige class. I am open to hearing various ideas though....
bluemage55 03-03-07, 04:34 PM	I also feel the divine emissary needs some revision. The low bonus feat progression is justified by the fact that it gets abilities at every level as well as full spellcasting progression and mount progression, so that's not really a big issue. The real problem is that the abilities are terrible (except for granted domain and extra smiting) since they don't scale. I put together a revised version that I haven't yet put up on my 3.5 SRD Revision thread yet because I'm not sure about all the details. But since you bring it up, I guess I'll unveil it here. I improved the divine inspiration ability to actually have something over constant divine favor, and divine hand has also been made into a scaling ability. Greater planar ally and the already nearly useless bonus feat progession were dropped to justify the power increase of the abilities. Table : The Divine Emissary Level Special 1st Granted domain 2nd Divine inspiration +2 3rd Extra smite 2/day 4th Divine hand 1/day 5th Divine inspiration +4 6th Extra smite 4/day 7th Divine hand 2/day 8th Divine inspiration +6 9th Extra smite 6/day 10th Divine hand 3/day Class Features All the following are features of the divine emissary prestige class. Spells per Day/Spells Known: At each divine emissary level, the character gains new spells per day (and spells known, if applicable) as if he or she had also gained a level in a spellcasting class to which he or she belonged before adding the prestige class level. If already an epic spellcaster, the character gains only the benefit noted under the Spells entry for that epic class. He or she does not, however, gain any other benefit a character of that class would have gained. If the character had more than one spellcasting class before becoming a divine emissary, the player must decide to which class to add the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day. Special Mount: If he or she has one, the divine emissary’s special mount continues to increase in power. Every five levels after 1st, the special mount gains +2 bonus Hit Dice, its natural armor increases by +2, its Strength adjustment increases by +1, and its Intelligence increases by +1. The mount’s spell resistance equals the divine emissary’s class level + the class level that provided the special mount + 5. Granted Domain (Ex): A divine emissary gains access to one of his or her deity’s domains, as well as the granted power of that domain. The extra domain expands a paladin’s selection of spells, but he or she does not gain the ability to cast higher-level spells than he or she otherwise could. Clerics gain an additional domain but otherwise use the rules for preparing spells from their domains normally. Divine Inspiration (Su): A divine emissary gains a +2 luck bonus on his or her attack and damage rolls. This bonus increases by an additional +2 every three levels thereafter. Extra Smite (Su): A divine emissary can use his or her smite ability two extra times per day, plus two additional times per day every three levels thereafter. To determine the damage with any smite attack, a divine emissary adds together his or her divine emissary levels and class levels that originally conferred the smite ability. Divine Hand (Su): As a free action, the emissary gains a sacred (or profane if appropriate) bonus equal to twice his or her class level on his or her next melee or ranged attack roll, as long as the attack is made with the deity’s favored weapon. The emissary can use divine hand once per day at 4th level, plus one additional time per day every three levels thereafter.
Salernodc 03-03-07, 05:15 PM	Very nice revisions bluemage, but I have yet to see an epic class that should have a feat progression lower than 1/5 levels. There are plenty of PrCs and Epic PrCs that have saucy abilities/powers and still grant a decent feat progression. Despite the positives of the Divine Emissary (spells, mount) - even with your revisions - they are not powerful enough to me to justify anything slower than a feat every 5 or even 4 levels. I wouldn't even cry powergaming if it was 1/3 levels. Have you seen the Arcane Lord and Perfected One Epic PrCs from Dragon #297? Great powers and abilities and feat progression of 1/4 or 1/5. I actually like the Epic PrCs from Dragon #297 and the Epic Insights column of this website more than the ones in the actual ELH. No ironclad reason the Cosmic Descryer or High Proselytizer should not get full spellcasting. I mean it's EPIC after all....
bluemage55 03-03-07, 10:23 PM	Neither the Epic Infiltrator nor the Union Sentinel have bonus feat progressions, because their abilities (at least supposedly) justify the removal of them. It is indeed Epic, but that's no reason to throw away game balance to the winds. Full spellcasting is indeed a big deal, because its very possible for a cleric to multiclass into it if they have the Destruction domain or a very small amount of multiclassing. The cosmic descryer and high prosletyizer should not get full spellcasting because the rest of their abilities are strong enough. Personally, I feel that it would be better to decrease their bonus feat progressions instead.
Voran 03-11-07, 12:01 PM	It'd be more worthwhile if the DE got to pick up a 'granted' Rank 1 or even Rank 0 divine rating.
bluemage55 03-11-07, 06:06 PM	It'd be more worthwhile if the DE got to pick up a 'granted' Rank 1 or even Rank 0 divine rating. No to DvR 1. Becoming a demigod after taking 10 levels is insane. Divine rank 0 is open to argument, but notice that the only class that grants it (dragon ascendant) requires that the character consume all of its wealth (no small sacriifice) to do so.