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Sdjz
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Are there mechanical or balance issues with this War Priest feature rework?

War Priest is a 1st level feature that lets War Domain Clerics use their bonus action to make a second attack when they take the Attack action.

I (and others online) feel that this feature is poor, for a few reasons:

  • The wisdom-based use limit does not scale well to mid- and late-game.

  • The Spiritual Weapon spell available to all Clerics outperforms the feature in most circumstances (e.g. it allows a casting action to be followed with an attack bonus action) with only slightly more resource cost.

  • The feature is hard to use in mid- to late-game, where Clerics almost always cast a spell in preference to using the Attack action.

I would like to propose the following replacement feature to my DM:

If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and an ally is one of the targets of the spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.

This replacement is based off the Voice of Authority feature, and seems roughly balanced with it (e.g. it is slightly stronger compared to that feature used on a Wizard, and slightly weaker compared to that feature used on a Fighter).

It also leaves a distinct niche for Spiritual Weapon: when you'd like to all-out blast by using damage spells along with bonus action attacks.

Are there any balance or mechanical issues that you can foresee with this replacement feature?

mjmartis
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