The Art of the Covenant
A Guide to InvokersSo you’ve forged your pact with the gods, you’ve survived your initiation, and now you’re ready to venture out into the world. As a direct conduit of your god’s (or goddess’s) power, how will you do his (or her) will? Will you speak the primal words of malediction? Will you nurture and protect your allies? Or will you focus on smiting your enemies with all your god’s fury?
So what’s good about playing an invoker?
Invokers are controllers, and can probably best be thought of as a divine version of wizard. Like wizards, many of their powers are debuffing blasts and bursts (and, like all controllers, lots of their powers hit their allies). Below are but a few of the reasons to play an invoker instead of another controller class (such as wizard).
Powerful Debuffs: Although invokers are not as strong as wizards here, they do have quite a few control powers that wizards lack, such as an encounter close blast dominate at 27, a close blast stun daily at level 1, etc.
Enabling/Leader Powers/Feats: One selling point of playing an invoker is that they have quite a few strong enabling powers. Wrathvokers get Lightning’s Revelation and Rain of Blood, both of which are very powerful. Preservokers can grant an extra basic attack at epic (and there are many Intelligence-based healing-type effects also). Malvokers can debuff monster damage substantially for a turn.
Multi-target Ranged At-Wills: Invokers have quite strong targeted at-wills, meaning they don’t have to worry about hitting allies. These at-wills (Divine Bolts and Hand of Radiance) are also highly optimizable using domain feats; this is one of the primary advantages of divine classes.
Lots of Radiant Powers: Another thing divine classes have going for them is a lot of radiant powers. These can be highly optimized compared to other damage types.
Channel Divinity/Covenant Manifestation: These class features are quite decent and have good feat support. Access to Channel Divinity also opens up other feat options that are unavailable to non-divine classes.
Armor Proficiency/Defenses: Invokers can wear chain out of the box, which is a nice feature in conjunction with cleric hybrid, etc. Access to Con as a secondary stat grants more healing surges, and the Invoker Defense feat can give +2 AC on demand.
This handbook will use the following system for ratings:
Red: Useless. There is no reason to take this.
Purple: Situationally useful, but mostly subpar.
Black: An average ability for this level.
Blue: Better than average. A useful, good option.
SkyBlue: Substantially better than most other options.
Gold: Every invoker should take this.
This handbook covers the following sources:
AP - Arcane Power
AV - Adventurer's Vault
AV 2 - Adventurer's Vault 2
D XXX - Dragon Magazine, issue XXX
DMA 2009 - Dragon Magazine Annual 2009
DP - Divine Power
DSCS - Dark Sun Campaign Setting
EPG - Eberron Player’s Guide
FRPG - Forgotten Realms Player's Guide
HotEC - Heroes of the Elemental Chaos
HotFK - Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms
HotFL - Heroes of the Fallen Lands
HotFW - Heroes of the Feywild
HoS - Heroes of Shadow
MM - Monster Manual
MM 2 - Monster Manual 2
MOTP - Manual of the Planes
MP - Martial Power
MP 2 - Martial Power 2
NW - Neverwinter
PHB - Player's Handbook
PHB 2 - Player's Handbook 2
PHB 3 - Player's Handbook 3
PHH 1 - Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 1
PHH 2 - Player's Handbook Heroes: Series 2
PHR: DB - Player's Handbook Races: Dragonborn
PHR: TF - Player's Handbook Races: Tieflings
PrP - Primal Power
PsP - Psionic Power
Acknowledgments
Zelink: For tons of helpful additions and suggestions.
Lordduskblade: His guides are like guides to writing guides.
The CO IRC folks: For pointing out when I'm being stupid.
Kerrus: For providing the angel picture.
Man in Black: For writing the old guide.