Draw Steel Censor Guide

Introduction

The Censor is the holy warrior archetype for Draw Steel, and the original reason I thought of making what I hope to be a series of guides on all of the available classes.

There are two important choices available to the Censor which significantly change how the class develops, so I wanted to analyse for myself how viable each order and domain seems.

For each choice I've assigned a star rating based on how powerful I think the option is and how often it will be useful, as well as a short explanation.

Base Features

The heroic resource Wrath fuels the Censor's abilities, and more can be generated by dealing damage to, and taking damage from, a creature you have judged. Judgment is a maneuver that deals damage to a creature whenever it takes a main action and can also help lock down a target into being forced to fight you, which together makes it quite simple to gain 4 Wrath a turn.

The triggered action for the Censor lets you spend your recoveries (of which you have the most in the game) to heal either yourself or your allies. For 1 Wrath you may also end one effect on the target, which overall can make you an extremely efficient healer for your team. You do have to be careful not to run out of recoveries too fast, so let your allies use their own recoveries when there's time.

Ancestries & Kits

I'm not going to run through every option you can take for these categories, just point out any that are interesting for the Censor for some specific reason.

There are so many viable ways to build your character that it's hard to give an objective star rating to these options, so most of these get a high rating for being any good at all.

Ancestries

Devil ★★★★★ The Censor triggered action has an interesting problem that it doesn't generate any value. It doesn't end the encounter faster or prevent damage (without spending Wrath) so having something like "Glowing Eyes" as a backup makes sure your triggered action is used efficiently every round. Wings can be good for the vertical pull of the Paragon Order, or with the automatic grab of the "Arrest" heroic ability. Also has a lot of relevant features for melee classes.

Dragon Knight ★★★★☆ Similar to the devil, can have a triggered action and Wings, but is more defensively oriented with its damage immunity. I much prefer the Devil triggered action, and the damage immunity isn't great until later levels, but it is amazing once you can make good use out of it.

Dwarf ★★★★★ The extra stamina is great with how many recoveries you get, and the stability helps if you need to stay in melee or want to act as a tank.

Wode Elf ★★★★☆ Specifically for the Oracle Order, your "It Was Foretold" feature is a lot better if you have a ranged signature ability, and "The Wode Defends" is actually quite good if you don't want to take anything else.

High Elf ★★★★☆ "Glamor of Terror" is another supplementary triggered action, this time to easily add extra damage to the 2nd level Exorcist ability "It Is Justice You Fear".

Human ★★★★☆ The extra recoveries are amazing if you're trying to maximise "My Life for Yours" such as with the Life Domain. The triggered action you can get might not apply in every combat but it's still a good option.

Kits

Mountain ★★★★☆ Pain for Pain has the same philosophy that the Censor wants to use anyway, where they trade blows with the creature they have judged in order to generate Wrath. Overall, I prefer the Shining Armor kit for this purpose as it makes sure the judged creature wants to focus on you, whereas the Mountain in some ways discourages it.

Ranger ★★★★☆ Same reasons as to why you'd take the Wode Elf ancestry, unfortunately you have basically no other ranged weapon abilities, but at least it's a hybrid kit. The stamina bonus is still decent, and a little extra mobility always helps. The "Cloak and Dagger" or "Raider" kits could serve a similar niche; I just prefer the Ranger's signature ability as an opening move.

Shining Armor ★★★★★ The highest stamina bonus you can get for all your recoveries, and the taunt signature ability will encourage your judged target to give you an extra Wrath by hitting you.

Warrior Priest ★★★★★ An Oracle Order Censor has plenty of instances of damage to make use of the damage weakness. They deal automatic damage when they judge a creature, and again when the creature takes its main action. At level 1 this combo deals at least 17 damage for no Wrath investment.

Ability Choices

Signature Ability

Back Blasphemer! ★★★★☆ A melee weapon area ability can be boosted by kit and gear bonuses, and pushing the targets into each other as well makes for great damage.

Every Step... Death! ★★★★★ The Censor is mostly melee focused, so taking a reliably strong ranged option helps to give you a good option in every situation. Any melee focused enemy will be forced to take a lot of damage from this ability, and mobility focused monsters can suffer even more.

Halt Miscreant! ★★★☆☆ Your Judgment ability can already help prevent creatures from leaving melee with you and slowed isn't a great condition. Most kit abilities will be better.

Your Allies Cannot Save You! ★★☆☆☆ If your enemies are grouped up enough to make this strange adjacent enemy push worth it, "Back Blasphemer!" will almost certainly be more effective.

3-Wrath Ability

Behold a Shield of Faith! ★★☆☆☆ A bane is unlikely to downgrade any given ability roll by much, and even worse it requires you to group up so you can all be pushed into each other and take aoe damage. Bad damage for the cost as well.

Driving Assault ★★★☆☆ Compared to something like the Sword and Board kit's signature ability this doesn't do much more damage. It's cute for keeping enemies away from your allies, but not great.

The Gods Punish and Defend ★★★★☆ Abilities with emergency healing like this are pretty good to keep on standby. Last thing you want is for someone to be dying and have no way to heal them.

Repent! ★★★★★ Dazed is the best condition to apply to an enemy, and this comes on a ranged attack dealing good damage.

5-Wrath Ability

Arrest ★★★★☆ This is basically an 8 Wrath ability as the main benefit comes from redirecting the target's strike into one of its allies. The grab being automatic makes sure you'll at least get some value out of the ability, even if they escape before you can redirect any strikes.

Behold the Face of Justice! ★★★☆☆ If you have a bunch of melee creatures hanging out next to each other this can keep most of them away from you. The situation is quite specific, and the damage is quite low so overall I'm not impressed.

Censored ★☆☆☆☆ This ability seems terribly designed to me. Either it's a spectacularly low damage ability that does nothing, or it instantly kills something. The ability is much better if you know the exact health of all the enemies for some reason or if you're playing on a digital tabletop and can accurately estimate it.

Purifying Fire ★★★★★ Paired with the Oracle Judgment benefit you can easily take advantage of the fire weakness twice in the turn you apply it, dealing up to about 37 damage at level 1. The only real issue is making sure it applies.

7-Wrath Ability

If you can tell when you're about to be walking into a combat encounter, edict abilities can be activated for free up to five minutes in advance with the "Wrath Outside of Combat" rules.

Edict of Disruptive Isolation ★★☆☆☆ This per turn aoe damage is too small to make a significant impact on most encounters. Only relevant on minions because of how hp pools work.

Edict of Perfect Order ★★★★☆ The most single target of the edicts, setting this up in a boss fight or solo encounter can deal a massive amount of damage if you can force the main enemy to stay in your aura. Overlaps with the 5th level option "Righteous Judgment" as a single target value over time effect.

Edict of Purifying Pacifism ★★★☆☆ Having to wait until the target makes a strike before dealing the damage is quite awkward, but overall, this edict is a balance between dealing a good amount of damage to groups and reliably doing single target damage.

Edict of Stillness ★★★★☆ When paired with an aoe push such as "Back Blasphemer!" this edict can reliably deal a good amount of extra damage per turn. If targets return to the area and leave again, they can even take damage multiple times a round. It does do noticeably less well on single target damage than the others, as the judged target has to willingly leave the area to take the extra damage.

9-Wrath Ability

Gods Grant Thee Strength ★★☆☆☆ 9 Wrath for a signature ability is not a good deal. Ending an effect is nice, but "My Life for Yours" does it for substantially less Wrath.

Orison of Victory ★★★☆☆ Only costing a maneuver to potentially end multiple effects is good, but if you roll badly the ability doesn't do much, and grouping up for enemy area abilities is always risky.

Righteous Judgment ★★★★☆ Solid up-front damage and for long encounters will pay out a fantastic amount of surges.

Shield of the Righteous ★★★★☆ This is still a decent amount of stamina for this level, nothing special but it helps you preserve recoveries to be able to adventure longer. Paragon Censors will have an easier time positioning this ability well with their pulling Judgment.

11-Wrath Ability

Excommunication ★★☆☆☆ The idea here is to hit one strong enemy surrounded by a horde of minions to apply the weakened and deal with a couple of minions with the aoe. Outside of this situation it's pretty bad for its cost and even then, weakened isn't that great and if you don't manage to weaken them the aoe doesn't even happen. This would be rated higher, but "Pillar of Holy Fire" does mostly the same thing with a better condition.

Hand of the Gods ★☆☆☆☆ This is a setup ability that costs 11 Wrath. Even worse the setup only really matters if you can't deal with a kiting enemy, which much of your kit is designed to do.

Pillar of Holy Fire ★★★★☆ Same idea as "Excommunication", but with a better condition. While this ability is good, you might already have "Repent!" or the Oracle ability "Burden of Evil", which can both apply dazed much more efficiently.

Your Allies Turn on You! ★★★★☆ If only one enemy has taken their turn and is still surrounded by enemies this becomes a lot of damage, even more so if the target has damage weakness. It could be better tactically to use area abilities to take out multiple low hp enemies instead, but it's nice to have the option to quickly take out a more threatening target instead.

Censor Order

Each Order gives a unique benefit to your Judgment ability, features at 2nd, 5th, and 8th level, as well as your choice between two heroic abilities at 2nd, 6th, and 9th level.

Exorcist

Judgment Benefit ★★★☆☆ Teleporting is a great option to have to counter grabs and the slowed condition, but as a gap closing option the Paragon benefit is much better as it does damage at the same time.

2nd Level Feature - Saint's Vigilance ★★★☆☆ Hidden creatures can be annoying and this makes finding them also not lose any action efficiency.

2nd Level Feature - A Sense for Truth ★★☆☆☆ It's a nice benefit if your director creates situations for it, but equally if someone important is lying to you, they're going to be at least your level anyway.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - It Is Justice You Fear ★★★★☆ Great to frighten a big scary melee dude to keep them at a safe distance, Censor's automatically get a few frighten abilities to synergise.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Revelator ★★☆☆☆ Costs 5 Wrath for what your "Saint's Vigilance" does for free and it's hard to make sure hidden creatures will be inside it. As a low damage aoe maneuver it overlaps unfavorably with the edicts you can gain at level 3.

5th Level Feature - Evil Revealed ★★☆☆☆ Similar problems as with "A Sense for Truth".

6th Level Heroic Ability - Begone! ★★★★☆ The huge slide value makes this a lot of damage as the aoe starts making all of the enemies hit into each other. Activates "Edict of Stillness" easily, but by the time you have that much Wrath there's probably not much need for an area ability.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Pain of Your Own Making ★★★☆☆ Returning impactful conditions like dazed or damage weakness to enemies can be amazing, but end of turn effects leave immediately, and they'll get a chance to save against anything else so it's less good than it seems.

8th Level Feature - Demonologist ★★☆☆☆ Any feature only useful against certain creatures isn't going to be great, and needing to complete a negotiation to activate the minor benefit doesn't help.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Banish ★★★★★ The dazed condition but better, just send the main enemy to another plane of existence to slowly die while you deal with their support. Targets a different characteristic than the dazed abilities so you can attempt to hit an enemy's weaknesses.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Terror Manifest ★★★★☆ Like the "Censored" ability, but you can plant it on an enemy in advance to instantly die whenever the condition happens. Most enemies at this level should have ranged options so frightened isn't a crippling condition, but it's a nice bonus.

Overall ★★★☆☆ The early features are too situational, and the heroic abilities aren't uniquely useful compared to the other Order's until at least level 6.

Oracle

Judgment Benefit ★★★★★ The most consistent benefit to be useful and can always be repeated against the same target if you need something to use your maneuver on. Works well with damage weakness such as from the Warrior Priest kit or the "Purifying Fire" heroic ability.

2nd Level Feature - It Was Foretold ★★★★★ Having an extra action at the start of each combat will always be welcome. Worst case you can always take the defend action, but ideally you take a ranged signature ability such as "Every Step... Death!" for guaranteed immediate impact.

2nd Level Feature - Judge of Character ★★★★☆ A neat benefit that you can dump Intuition and still be great at Intuition tests.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Prescient Grace ★★★☆☆ Compared to the Shadow ability with a similar initiative breaking effect, this is much more expensive. Can still be worthwhile when trying to take advantage of damage weakness.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - With My Blessing ★★★★☆ Effectively costs 2 Wrath to give a double edge to a strike heroic ability, which has a lot of tactical utility.

5th Level Feature - Prophecy ★★★★☆ Depending how many edges and banes a roll has you can maximise the effectiveness of any given number. Incredible if you manage to store a crit.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Burden of Evil ★★★★★ A maneuver to apply the best condition in the game to the three scariest enemies in the encounter, and a good slide as a bonus.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Edict of Peace ★★★☆☆ There's a decent amount of strong triggered actions to prevent, so this can get a lot of value if you're fighting an appropriate creature.

8th Level Feature - Their Past Revealed ★★★☆☆ Quite an interesting information gathering ability, and an amazing way to make sure your director is creating full backstories for every NPC they create.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Blessing and a Curse ★★☆☆☆ This ability does not solve enough problems on its own to be worth the 11 Wrath. There will generally be more than one ability per turn you wish had rolled a tier 1 result, and using this much wrath to guarantee a heroic ability gains a tier 3 result will generally be worse than simply using a second heroic ability.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Fulfill Your Destiny ★★★★☆ Sometimes, a hero will have a very bad day and gain so many negative effects that their entire turn is less than useless. It's nice to have a way to stop this from happening.

Overall ★★★★★ Front loaded with a lot of great abilities and continues to gain useful options at 5th and 6th level.

Paragon

Judgment Benefit ★★★★☆ An amazing gap closer to bring the enemy backline to you, the biggest problem is how hard it is to use when enemies are already close to you. In order to make an enemy fall x squares you have to be 2x squares away from them (on flat ground). Theoretically this does more damage than the Oracle benefit, but the fall will be reduced by the stability and Agility of the target.

2nd Level Feature - Lead by Example ★★★☆☆ Only really useful for ranged allies, can be great in the right party.

2nd Level Feature - Stalwart Icon ★★☆☆☆ The stereotypical paladin's negotiation tool.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Blessing of the Faithful ★★★★☆ It's a slow payoff but in a long combat you'll get a lot of value out of it. Can be dangerous to group up so close to each other.

2nd Level Heroic Ability - Sentenced ★★★★☆ A purely melee enemy will have very little to do if you use this on them and move out of the way.

5th Level Feature - Stand Fast ★★★★★ By this level 1d6 stamina is barely an issue, while ending certain effects in advance can significantly improve a hero's turn.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Congregation ★★★★☆ This is the most front-loaded damage you can get out of a Censor ability; you just really want to make sure to get a tier 3 because of how much better it is. The damage coming from multiple instances is great for damage weakness.

6th Level Heroic Ability - Intercede ★★☆☆☆ For 9 Wrath you're basically buying an extra triggered action that comes with 3 surges, which sounds way too expensive.

8th Level Feature - Vow ★★★☆☆ Unbreakable vows are a fun tool for making sure NPC's do what they promise you, or to make sure they're telling you the truth.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Apostate ★★★★★ Permanent damage weakness 10 that can't be resisted. Insane.

9th Level Heroic Ability - Edict of Unyielding Resolve ★★★☆☆ This isn't a lot of stamina compared to how much damage enemies are doing at this level, but it only costs a maneuver to set up for the rest of the encounter so if you expect a long one it's fine.

Overall ★★★★☆ The starting features for this Order aren't as exciting as for the Oracle, but it makes up for it with an amazing 5th level feature and better late game heroic abilities.

Domains

Your choice of domain gives you a feature at 1st, 4th, and 7th level, while at 10th level you can use the domain's prayer effect from the Conduit class whenever you use your judgment ability.

The overall rating given to a domain is weighted by how early it receives its most useful features, and could change if you are starting your character at a higher level.

Creation

1st Level - Hands of the Maker ★☆☆☆☆ With no wealth or encumbrance to juggle there's no real reason to be without anything this feature could create. Could create cover in a pinch.

4th Level - Improved Hands of the Maker ★★☆☆☆ The larger size means there are some items that become relevant to create, but it's still largely irrelevant to Draw Steel's heroic fantasy.

7th Level - Divine Quartermaster ★★★★★ This feature prints project points for free. Consumables are the obvious choice, making one fight every adventure much easier, or even using scrolls of resurrection between adventures. At 8th level you can create 4th Echelon consumables, while at 9th you can bring along any leveled treasure you like to suit what you expect to fight. Insane.

10th Level ★★★☆☆ High level combat is chaotic enough without being able to create at least 10 squares of walls every turn. Strong, but too annoying for me to consider it worthwhile.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Only viable in the late game, but incredibly strong once it gets there.

Death

1st Level - Grave Speech ★★★☆☆ Solid information gathering ability.

4th Level - Seance ★★★☆☆ Costs a respite activity, but still great for information.

7th Level - Word of Death Deferred ★★★★★ The largest benefit here is the extra damage to winded creatures. The Censor is good at doing damage multiple times a turn, so this can easily become 15 extra damage a turn.

10th Level ★★★★☆ Good damage, and synergises with the 7th level feature, but nothing special.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Would be better in an investigation focused campaign, but it only really has raw DPS going for it otherwise.

Fate

1st Level - Oracular Visions ★★★★☆ Depends on how many victories you expect to be able to gain in a row, at its best to easily turn an edge into a double edge.

4th Level - Oracular Warning ★★★☆☆ At this level it should barely give a recovery worth of stamina to each character, but not needing to heal as much can make the first encounter much more efficient.

7th Level - Word of Fate Denied ★★☆☆☆ Helpful to prevent the bleeding condition that comes with dying, but unless one of your party is particularly squishy, "My Life for Yours" should be enough to keep life totals relatively similar.

10th Level ★★★★★ Forcing the best ability for your team to be tier 3 each round is an incredible benefit that adds a lot of consistency to each fight.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Consistently decent, but really only shines at level 10.

Knowledge

1st Level - Blessing of Comprehension ★★★☆☆ Not worrying about crafting languages gives a lot of freedom to take other character options and makes for a very versatile crafter.

4th Level - Saint's Epiphany ★★★☆☆ An average of 8.5 extra project points per respite is a large bonus, but by now you should have followers helping you craft which means it's not as high a percentage increase as you'd expect.

7th Level - Gods' Library ★★★★☆ Ignoring research materials means you can craft echelon four treasures early, and 12 skills is a lot to gain. Director dependant on how useful these benefits are.

10th Level ★★★☆☆ If you have five allies on the team this is +10 damage an activation. Even better if you take other ways to give your allies surges so they can use the potency increasing effect easier.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Much better if you expect to have a lot of respites for crafting.

Life

1st Level - Revitalizing Ritual ★★★☆☆ Works well with "My Life for Yours" to make your recoveries as useful as possible. A better percentage improvement at higher levels.

4th Level - Blessing of Life ★★★★☆ At least +3 to every recovery on the team instead of just one person.

7th Level - Font of Grace ★★★★☆ Another ten to each of your recoveries makes each use of "My Life for Yours" extremely efficient, and some conditions are so punishing, being able to end them for free is a great upgrade.

10th Level ★★★☆☆ By this level the 10 extra stamina a turn disappears quickly but can add up to a lot of bonus hp, and ending conditions is always good.

Overall ★★★★☆ Levels 1-3 you probably won't notice a significant benefit from this domain, but after that your recovery value starts ramping up quickly.

Love

1st Level - Blessing of Compassion ★★★☆☆ The extra patience can be essential to achieving your negotiation goals. Everything else isn't amazing.

4th Level - Invocation of the Heart ★★☆☆☆ Great roleplay ability.

7th Level - Covenant of the Heart ★★★☆☆ This is basically a get out of jail free card. Can be used for scouting or making sure you don't party wipe, but generally it would be better to have an ability that helps you win the fight.

10th Level ★★★★☆ Quite a lot of stamina if there are enough allies to target.

Overall ★★☆☆☆ Basically irrelevant if you're playing a hack'n'slash game, and only really useful in one way otherwise.

Nature

1st Level - Faithful Friend ★★★☆☆ The rules for the spirit aren't very clear about what it can actually do, so this mostly depends on the director.

4th Level - Wode Road ★★★☆☆ Having a teleportation network is super cool and can be used to retreat and quickly return to out of the way dungeons.

7th Level - Nature's Bounty ★★★★☆ Damage immunity is a huge benefit if you can accurately predict what you'll be fighting next, and temporary stamina is a good baseline regardless.

10th Level ★★★☆☆ The sliding can be amazing area damage, but generally too small at this level.

Overall ★★★☆☆ The first two features can be much better by working together with your director.

Protection

1st Level - Protective Circle ★★★☆☆ Strong defensive tool only if you can set up beforehand.

4th Level - Impervious Touch ★☆☆☆☆ Already extremely situational and only works on untyped damage. Doesn't even do what it's supposed to.

7th Level - Blessing of Iron ★★★☆☆ Only works against strikes, and has a rather small range. A bane isn't even that big of a downside considering enemies can't miss.

10th Level ★★★☆☆ This ability only does one thing well, which is lackluster for this level where enemies will be taking out the temporary stamina very quickly.

Overall ★☆☆☆☆ This domain doesn't do much except against strikes, and its feature with the most potential is hard to use in most adventuring situations.

Storm

1st Level - Bless of Fortunate Weather ★★★☆☆ This would be a lot better if it weren't locked to one weather condition for the entire respite, but there's enough utility here to be interesting.

4th Level - Windwalk ★★☆☆☆ By the time you have five victories you're generally either desperately needing a respite or very close to. I don't see this being useful when you need it to be.

7th Level - Ride the Lightning ★★★★☆ The extra force move distance in particular can add a lot of damage and works with aoe abilities such as "Back Blasphemer!" to great effect.

10th Level ★★★★☆ A 3x3 area can hit a lot of targets which is amazing damage efficiency for something that doesn't cost any actions.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Could make an interesting push-based Censor, unfortunately needs level 7.

Sun

1st Level - Inner Light ★★★☆☆ Save ends abilities range from minor annoyances to crippling debuffs. Being more likely to pass them is convenient, but often it's better to remove them in advance with something like the Wrath upgrade of "My Life for Yours".

4th Level - Light of Revelation ★★★☆☆ Useful against certain kinds of enemies, but hidden creatures will often be outside of the range anyway. The search bonuses are nice.

7th Level - Light of the Burning Sun ★★★★☆ Undead are already easily countered by the Disrupting imbue, and it's hard to deal rolled damage multiple times a turn. The fire immunity stacking with other sources is uniquely useful.

10th Level ★★★★☆ This is enough single target damage that a lot of minions will die immediately to the Judgment trigger...which will then let you use Judgment on another minion and immediately kill that minion until you're out of minions in range.

Overall ★★★☆☆ Some relatively situational abilities topped by good damage. Nothing special really.

Trickery

1st Level - Inspired Deception ★★★★☆ If you are fully specialising in Intrigue skills you can use Presence instead of most Agility or Intuition checks, letting you make a character good at almost every skill in the game.

4th Level - Blessing of Secrets ★★★☆☆ Depends on the director how effective sneaking is in a given campaign. Theoretically strong to surprise enemies easily.

7th Level - Trinity of Trickery ★★★★☆ A maneuver that stops two abilities from hitting is quite efficient, and the free triggered switching of places means you can make sure it isn't wasted on minion attacks.

10th Level ★★★★☆ This is a hilariously long slide ability. Let's you do something similar to the 10th level Sun ability above but with extra area damage and makes good use of hazardous terrain.

Overall ★★★★☆ This domain has a particular build encouraged, and the 1st level feature isn't really that useful if you have other characters doing Intrigue skills, but it's very good at what it does.

War

1st Level - Sanctified Weapon ★★☆☆☆ I'm not very impressed by a +1 damage modifier, and it costs a respite activity to do so. Better if you can find good multi target weapon abilities.

4th Level - Improved Sanctified Weapon ★★★☆☆ +3 is a much more reasonable bonus to grant as a respite activity. I'm still unhappy about the opportunity cost but at least it's a noticeable bonus.

7th Level - Your Triumphs Are Remembered ★★★☆☆ Having your first victory without spending any resources can snowball into greater benefits overall, but at the same time it's not very impressive.

10th Level ★★★★☆ Better than the similar Knowledge domain feature as gaining 2 surges to be able to increase potency immediately is often more impactful than a little extra damage.

Overall ★★☆☆☆ Having to give up progress on permanent upgrades to use Sanctified Weapon is an unfortunate opportunity cost and overall, these features aren't very exciting.