Quote Originally Posted by heavyfuel View Post
Also, Devoted Spirit seems to be the worse of the unique schools (especially since it can't destroy the sun). But seriously... Strike of Righteous Vitality is way weaker when compared to Strike of Perfect Clarity which is already pretty weak. Normal attack + Heal* (*maybe) vs bonus 100 damage pretty much falls into the theory that it's better to avoid damage by killing your foes quickly than by actually healing in combat.

Can anyone prove me wrong?
Forget Devoted Spirit's healing. This is the school that lets you hit enemies so hard they can't attack your allies, make AoOs even on 5-foot steps (and possibly against tumbling enemies), make all attacks against anyone other than you take a fairly large penalty, and take 11 on any roll. The healing just makes it so that when you do get hit (it's your job, after all) it doesn't put you down. These are all things that make crusader the only viable tank in the game.

When you add in White Raven it just gets better.

I'll grant you that natively crusaders have somewhat dissynergistic ability score requirements, but remember that ToB is very dip friendly, so dipping Marshal for Charisma to initiative, Bard for Charisma to Attack, or something similar is absolutely feasible. And of course you don't get a ton out of Charisma natively, allowing you to focus entirely on the physical stats if you prefer.