Divine Intervention Quirks and Questions for the Devs About It

[Tuxedoman96]

So I was doing some experiments with DI (T5 Warpriest /Warsoul) to answer some questions I had. Here are my findings:

1. Divine Intervention prevents instakill effects and death by negative levels. The ability is not removed immediately upon preventing death in this way (i.e. it'll last the entire duration). Regaining levels when the effect wears off does not cause death.
2. Anti-magic Cone does not remove Divine Intervention. The casting of the ability is not prevented while under the effect of an Anti-magic Cone.
3. Divine Intervention can be used under water.
4. Divine Intervention will not allow you to go past -9 even if your range of unconsciousness extends past -10.
5. Effects that take you out of bring you out of incap will remove Divine Intervention without proc'ing the healing effect.
6. Divine Intervention is affected by healing amp but not positive energy.

Number 1) was tested using Energy Drain and instakill effects such as Implosion and Slay Living. The person I tested it on had upwards of 100 negative lvls. I found out through this that hit points cannot be reduced by negative lvls below the lvl of the character (i.e. a lvl 5 character cannot have less than 5 hp as a result of negative lvls). I also used it on myself to go in the fiery pit in the Subterrane and lived (the one that is is used to open up A Vision of Destruction; still couldn't activate the button though). My guess is the effect prevents any effect that would put you past -9 even if it isn't a result of damage (and all instakill effects would bring you down to at least -10). Implosion did damage when a save was made but did nothing for save failure because save failure would have meant going past -9.

Number 2) was tested fighting a beholder in the Subterrane.

Tested number 3) in the Harbor under water.

Number 4) was tested with a barbarian with the Die Harder enhancement (Frenzied Berserker T1). Even though his range of unconsciousness extended to -25, the ability only allowed him to go down to -9.

Number 5) is an interesting case. This was tested with the same character used to test number 4). We found that because he got 20 temp hp when he goes incapped, he'd go back up to 11 hp WITHOUT receiving the healing portion of the ability. This in turns means that using it on barbarians that have the Die Harder enhancement may be more difficult to manage, since it would leave them with less hp than they would have from the healing effect itself (as demonstrated with number 6, the healing can be improved with healing amp). The ability is great to use in conjunction with effects like Reactive Heals (Radiant Servant T5) and Eternal Defender (Sacred Defender capstone) because the healing from them would greatly outclass the healing from the Divine Intervention ability itself.

[Tuxedoman96]

With that said, my first question to the Devs is how many of these points are WAI for the ability. It is good to know what the ability should and should not be doing.

My second question is if any of these points being not WAI warrants changing the ability. Personally, I don't think that even with this knowledge a great deal of people will take this ability in lieu of Reactive Heals or other T5s. Damage is the most likely cause of death (and the ability does wear off very quickly after going incapped), so it isn't like this makes someone invincible in a fight. It has a 2 minute CD and a 5 minute duration, which is often too long to use multiple times in a battle and certainly not enough time to have it on more than 3 people (more likely 2, since you'd otherwise have to be really good about the timer). Beholders, shadows, and mindflayers (the three most likely monsters to instakill despite an adventurer wearing a deathblock item) are not common enough to warrant this ability being a must-have, and they would still be damaging you while this is going on (and the death effect from shadows can be stopped with Deathward anyways).


Any guidance on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Tuxedoman96]

Found out some interesting aspects of the ability when used with PM undead forms. The Crumble to Dust effect (instant death effect when undead go incapped) is prevented by the ability. When this happens, the undead character is forced to make stabilization checks. They seem to bleed out like living characters. If a stabilization save is made (or the character has Die Hard), the undead toon is healed up just like a living toon would if they stabilized. If an undead toon is incapped with the ability in place and while using death auras, the auras will cease to heal him/her (this was tested in a tavern, unsure if other players will still be able to heal said undead character).

[Enoach]

As a long time user of DI myself I would like to point out something you may not have known.

The Raid Ascension Chamber when it first came out stepping in the water both at the main dais and the "Ice Wand" Chamber was instant death. A cleric with DI could swim the entire length, later Monk Walk on Water allowed one to run over it. This was changed to the Water doing damage.

Many of the items you outlined, I've actually known to be true since DI was first made available. I'm actually surprised more people were unaware of the "interesting effects", but then again maybe I shouldn't be because many people don't know how Globe of Invulnerability can help them (and it comes on a scroll and works just as well as if it was cast from memory)

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While Reactive Heal has its place it is in the Radiant Servant Tree and also a Tier 5 ability. It's shortcoming is that it is just a different version of Stalwart Pack (which does benefit from Spell Power) where DI in most situations can prevent a character from dying which can be detrimental especially in cases where there is a wait to rez.

I am one of those that prefer the War Priest Tree but that is because it more closely synergizes with my playstyle.

[LurkingVeteran]

Thanks for testing this, please also update ddowiki with the main points for future reference.

Unless I'm missing something, the quirky side effects don't really seem to have any game breaking up or downside to me? The death effects where it provides extra immunity seem fairly niche and there are other ways to avoid them already. If it turns out to be game breaking at some later point, I expect the devs to patch it regardless of what is said in this thread. The only thing I can see that would be worth this is if it somehow could make you sustain the invulnerability to damage and/or act at the same time.

[Vish]

Thanks for this post
It has given me inspiration for a build
See divine intervention in fvs

As always, I like to test out things I don't know
And I've wanted to run a pure fvs to see some things
So, thanks

[Tuxedoman96]

As a long time user of DI myself I would like to point out something you may not have known.

The Raid Ascension Chamber when it first came out stepping in the water both at the main dais and the "Ice Wand" Chamber was instant death. A cleric with DI could swim the entire length, later Monk Walk on Water allowed one to run over it. This was changed to the Water doing damage.

Many of the items you outlined, I've actually known to be true since DI was first made available. I'm actually surprised more people were unaware of the "interesting effects", but then again maybe I shouldn't be because many people don't know how Globe of Invulnerability can help them (and it comes on a scroll and works just as well as if it was cast from memory)

-----
While Reactive Heal has its place it is in the Radiant Servant Tree and also a Tier 5 ability. It's shortcoming is that it is just a different version of Stalwart Pack (which does benefit from Spell Power) where DI in most situations can prevent a character from dying which can be detrimental especially in cases where there is a wait to rez.

I am one of those that prefer the War Priest Tree but that is because it more closely synergizes with my playstyle.

Funnily enough, I've done tests with this and GoI and other more counter-intuitive abilities that may have vague descriptions. My guess as to why many people wouldn't know much about the capabilities of Divine Intervention is that its description implies that it would only protect against death from a damaging effect. I actually got the inspiration to test the ability from one of my toons that would be using it, and I was curious to its limitations. I also found out that DI prevents the /Death command. When I tried it and the bar fully loaded, it gave a failure message. I actually lol'd from that one. My friend and I went out to visit the friendly mindflayer out in GH. He was on a WF, so it was funny seeing a mindflayer eat a WF's brain and throw it up while we're both alive. A feeblemind symbol appeared above my head when my brain was being kinda sorta not eaten.


Testing one thing tends to lead to other discoveries as well. I found out that psionic CC abilities are prevented in GoI (I actually discovered this from a test many months back) and are resisted by spell resistance (I never had anyone with a sufficient SR when fighting mindflayers, so I might be one of the few that didn't know).

[J1NG]

I'm surprised there are players who are unfamiliar with the uses of DI. The info OP is raising is all old info to at least "some" vets.

It's a staple item (ability) for transversing the maps in the game for access to parts not normally accessible (map and Supermap acess exploration and for other uses) that is blocked by undesirable effects. Used to be able to traverse around the Shroud parts a long time ago (Before changes made to maps) assuming you knew the paths to take on a FvS (Part 5's instakill effect extends around the actual area of Part 5 for example, so to reach from any part to another you'd need to be able to move around the outside of Part 5 (which is the middle of the map) before you lept to another area), so DI is required to prevent that death and teleportation from happening. But changes to Leaps (to all use the same cooldown) scuppered that a bit.

There's plenty more uses, but it's not a lot that I or others can talk about openly. Primarily now used to just prevent Area instakill effects (like the mists in the Strahd Raid). Allowing a tank to wander out into the mists without worry and take aggro with them whilst the rest recover the run within the Crystal. etc.

Personally, I always switch into it on my FvS when going in for Strahd Runs. I don't take the Symbol or Icon, because I can DI (at further range than either items) instead, giving more leeway to the run.

J1NG

[Tuxedoman96]

I'm surprised there are players who are unfamiliar with the uses of DI. The info OP is raising is all old info to at least "some" vets.

It's a staple item (ability) for transversing the maps in the game for access to parts not normally accessible (map and Supermap acess exploration and for other uses) that is blocked by undesirable effects. Used to be able to traverse around the Shroud parts a long time ago (Before changes made to maps) assuming you knew the paths to take on a FvS (Part 5's instakill effect extends around the actual area of Part 5 for example, so to reach from any part to another you'd need to be able to move around the outside of Part 5 (which is the middle of the map) before you lept to another area), so DI is required to prevent that death and teleportation from happening. But changes to Leaps (to all use the same cooldown) scuppered that a bit.

There's plenty more uses, but it's not a lot that I or others can talk about openly. Primarily now used to just prevent Area instakill effects (like the mists in the Strahd Raid). Allowing a tank to wander out into the mists without worry and take aggro with them whilst the rest recover the run within the Crystal. etc.

Personally, I always switch into it on my FvS when going in for Strahd Runs. I don't take the Symbol or Icon, because I can DI (at further range than either items) instead, giving more leeway to the run.

J1NG

You'd think that'd be the case (as far as more people being familiar with its uses), but the description in-game and in the wiki left quite a bit to be desired. Now that its effects are a bit less ambiguous, it'd probably be more appreciated.

[Enoach]

I did think of one other place where DI comes in handy. Part 3 of Shroud, when the rainbow walls come up you can stay and complete the puzzle as this is an instant death effect much like the area near Vision of Destruction. This applies to both the Heroic and Legendary versions.

[askrj1]

Getting a capped cleric to DI into the middle button for opening VoD, doesn't work anymore.

The problem why DI gets so little mention or testing is because it belonged to a useless melee tree on a non-melee class until recently updated to become more usable. It was used fairly often in the old days as far as my memory serves back when it was the cleric capstone I think? Even then Clerics were somewhat becoming rare at one point when FvS healed better with a better SP bank, before healing aura was a thing.