Favored Soul Grace of Battle Questions

[Bacab]

I have a quick Favored Soul/Grace of Battle Question and how it works with Divine Might and Divine Presence.

Grace of Battle is defined as per the wiki

Grace of Battle: Your faith allows you to use your Charisma bonus for to-hit and damage purposes with your deities' Favored Weapon if it is higher than your Strength bonus. This benefit only applies if your Favored Soul level is equal to or greater than half of your total Heroic Character level.

Divine Might/Presence/Will are defined by the wiki as:

Divine Might: You gain an Insight bonus to Strength equal to your Charisma Modifier.
Divine Presence: You gain an Insight bonus to melee damage and the DC of tactical feats equal to 1/2 of your Charisma modifier.
Divine Will: You gain an Insight bonus to melee damage and the DC of tactical feats equal to 1/2 of your Wisdom modifier.

My questions are based on me playing a Warforged Favored Soul, so that I can use a Great Sword...

The Questions are:

1. Lets say I have a high enough strength for appropriate melee feats, but I max CHR (it will only be a 16 on a Warforged) and I put level ups into it and I leverage pushing my CHR as high as possible... I should pick Grace of Battle and Divine Presence over Divine Might?

2. Lets say instead of going 100% in on CHR I go 100% in on Strength (start with an 18 and level ups into it) and I start with say a 14 in CHR and I still slot CHR items etc, but I really focus on Strength since it has so many more buffs for it than CHR. And I will mainly be in Legendary Dreadnought. i *think* my tactical feats (mainly stunning blow) will be higher because I would get a full DC amount rather than 1/2 amount from Divine presence.

3. I know my spellcasting DCs would be higher with an "all in on CHR build", but I do not plan on taking any spell focus feats and the only 2 Metamagic Feats I plan on taking are Quicken and Empowered Heal, and I may not take Empowered Heal (or may swap it out later). I plan on mainly doing buffs and healing and swatting things with a Sword.

Any recommendations?

I am leaning more toward the "all in on CHR with Grace of Battle and Divine Presence" build, but if going all STR and using Divine Might is better, let me know?

[Discpsycho]

Before I answer your questions, here's my take on the three:

- Divine Might: Superior to Divine Presence for Str-based THF, SWF, or any setup (eg. Druid) where your stat-to-damage scales higher than 1. For SWF and THF, you add 1.5x your stat bonus (Str, in this case) to your weapon damage, so increasing your Str by Cha-mod is equivalent to adding .75x your Cha to hit, damage and DCs.
- Divine Presence: Superior to Divine Might for folks who don't care about Str. For example, on a Bard who uses Int, Dex or Cha for damage, the Str boost doesn't benefit them.
- Divine Will: Same as above, but for folks who stack Wis rather than Cha.

1. Divine Presence is going to be the way to go, since Cha will be significantly higher than Str.

2. AFAIK, on a greatsword-wielding character, you're correct. Str can get boosted more easily than most other stats and is the default stat for many tactical DCs. While half your Cha mod may be equivalent to 1/3 of your Str mod, that's still a sizeable benefit. With some sample numbers of 60 Str and 40 Cha, you would have the same DC thanks to Divine Presence as you would with 75 Str.

3. Having not played a FvS in over a year and a half, not to mention never having been particularly endgame-geared, I'm not going to be particularly helpful on this one. I'd guess that your DPS would be better with Str and Divine Presence, but your spell DCs would be significantly superior in the Cha-stacking case. How much and whether that spell boost will make a difference in gameplay depends on your gear and what bar you're shooting for

[FuzzyDuck81]

If you want to go purely melee then sticking with the higher STR option might be better, but grace/knowledge are great if you want to have a more hybrid approach. I went with a Vistani Vol dual dagger character & found that prioritising the casting stat worked better overall, as it meant that DC based spells were moderately reliable - greater command, cometfall, soundburst & symbol of stunning all synergise really well for a melee character as it means many mobs will be sitting around just waiting for you to hit them.