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I have a player with a cleric character in my Rise of the Runelords campaign who is looking to augment his channeling ability. I revised these feats from the 3.5 Complete Divine splatbook. I'd like some criticism. What works and what doesn't? Thanks.
Augment Channel
The strength of your convictions bolsters your channeling.
Prerequisites: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You gain a bonus to the damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability equal to your Charisma modifier.
Empower Channel
You can deal or heal more damage with a single channel.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: After determining the amount of damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability, multiply the amount by 1.5.
Using this feat consumes two uses of your channel energy ability.
Profane Boost
You can channel negative energy to increase the power negative energy used near you.
Prerequisite: Ability to channel negative energy.
Bonus: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a standard action to place an aura of negative energy upon each creature with the emanation. Any negative energy effect that deals damage targeting these creatures before the end of your next turn automatically deals maximum damage.
Sacred Healing
You can channel positive energy to grant nearby living creatures the ability to recover from their wounds quickly.
Prerequisites: Ability to channel positive energy.
Benefit: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a full-round action to grant fast healing 3 to all living creatures with the emanation. The fast healing lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1 round).
Quicken Channel
You can quickly channel the power of your faith.
Prerequisite: Cha 15, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You can channel energy as a swift action.
Using this feat consumes four uses of your channel energy ability.
I agree with Beckett. Also, the augment channel is a little weak.
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I agree with Beckett. Also, the augment channel is a little weak.
Possibly. But it also has no cost.
Maybe make it twice your charisma at 10th? Or +1 every 4 Cleric Levels.
Also, might be better to go with Wisdom here. Clerics already need way too many high stats.
To be honest, though, I would be more interested in Channeling Feats that do something new, (as oppossed to augment what you can already do).
Divine Vengence: As an Immediate Action, you add your Cha to all Damage for the next round. Anyone within 30 ft adds 1/2 this bonus. You can use Selective Channeling with this Feat. You can only use one Channeling affect per Round, with this feat.
Divine Shield: As a swift action, you gain D.R. Good/Evil 5 (depending on what energy you channel) for 1 round per Cha mod. Anyone within 30 ft adds 1/2 this bonus. You can use Selective Channeling with this Feat. You can only use one Channeling affect per Round, with this feat.
Divine Arcana: As an Swift Action, you gain the ability to use scrolls as if you were an Arcane Caster up to your effective Channeling level. Anyone within 30 ft adds a +1 Sacred or Profane Bonus to Use Magic Device checks, and can use the skill as if they had ranks in it. You can use Selective Channeling with this Feat. You can only use one Channeling affect per Round, with this feat.
Divine Obfuscate: As a Standard action, you grant yourself a Bonus to Slieght of Hand and Stealth checks equal your Wis, and also gain Concealment, for 1 Round per Cha mod. Anyone within 30 ft adds 1/2 this bonus, but does not recieve Concealment. Drawing attention to yourself breaks this effect, but only for the specific target. You can use Selective Channeling with this Feat. You can only use one Channeling affect per Round, with this feat.
Things like that. I can't think of any of the 3E Divine Feats off hand, but if you like them, I can work on more.
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Possibly. But it also has no cost.A feat is a pretty big cost for an extra 4-10 damage per channel.
You don't have to take it. :) I agree it does need a bit of buffing up, but it is not that bad. If it applies to all Channeling, (Alignment, Elemental, etc. . .) it could also be fairly good for summoners or healbots.
It doesn't have a cost in extra Channels was what I meant, though, and also doesn't take an action.
As a side note, when I asked about how the Divine Feats should work with Channeling, they (Eric Mona, Sean Reynolds, or James, I can't remember), they said that all of the Channel Feats that still apply work exactly like they used to, except for interposing Channel with Turn/Rebuke.
It was back in the preview of the Cleric (started prior t the final release of the Core Rules, but asked afterwards), should anyone care to try and dig it up.
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Thanks for the input. How about these revisions?
Augment Channel
The strength of your convictions bolsters your channeling.
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to the damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability per die of channeling. For example, a 5th-level cleric channeling energy would deal or heal 3d6+6 points of damage with a use of his channeling ability.
Empower Channel
You can deal or heal more damage with a single channel.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: After determining the amount of damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability, multiply the amount by 1.5.
Profane Boost
You can channel negative energy to increase the power negative energy used near you.
Prerequisite: Ability to channel negative energy.
Bonus: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a standard action to place an aura of negative energy upon each creature with the emanation. Any negative energy effect that deals damage targeting these creatures before the end of your next turn automatically deals maximum damage.
Sacred Healing
You can channel positive energy to grant nearby living creatures the ability to recover from their wounds quickly.
Prerequisites: Ability to channel positive energy.
Benefit: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a full-round action to grant fast healing 3 to all living creatures with the emanation. The fast healing lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1 round).
Quicken Channel
You can quickly channel the power of your faith.
Prerequisite: Cha 15, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You can channel energy as a swift action.
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Empower Channel
You can deal or heal more damage with a single channel.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: After determining the amount of damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability, multiply the amount by 1.5.
Using this feat consumes two uses of your channel energy ability.
Wording is a bit confusing, when you do an empowered channel does it use 2, or 3 uses of your channeling? I'm also not sure that we can use exactly the same increases as used with metamagic feats and levels. I'm not sure that 3 uses of channel is equal to a spell slot that is 2 levels higher. (It might be... I'm not sure.)
Profane Boost
You can channel negative energy to increase the power negative energy used near you.
Prerequisite: Ability to channel negative energy.
Bonus: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a standard action to place an aura of negative energy upon each creature with the emanation. Any negative energy effect that deals damage targeting these creatures before the end of your next turn automatically deals maximum damage.
This could be HUGE, it either needs to use up a lot more channels, or be limited to the caster, kind of like divine metamagic where you use channels in place of spell levels to juice your spells. An alternative could be to make it more like a bless effect to evil divine magic users and the undead. So like +1 on all roles for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 levels + cha or 3 + cha or something like that. Of course then it could be really something that works for good clerics too, just a channel that turns into a combat buff, and now I've totally gone away from what you intended :)
Sacred Healing
You can channel positive energy to grant nearby living creatures the ability to recover from their wounds quickly.
Prerequisites: Ability to channel positive energy.
Benefit: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a full-round action to grant fast healing 3 to all living creatures with the emanation. The fast healing lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1 round).
Probably needs to be +1 or +2 channels
Quicken Channel
You can quickly channel the power of your faith.
Prerequisite: Cha 15, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You can channel energy as a swift action.
Using this feat...
+4 maybe to many, perhaps the restriction could be "you still can only channel once in a turn" so you have to attack, cast a spell or something like that.
From a 3.5 Age of Worms Campaign, using a cleric who was like Level 10 Cleric / Level 10 Morning lord (FR Make undead go boom prestige class) I was able to decimate huge CR undead creatures twice around with quicken turning. Wasn't pretty, and of course it didn't use up turning attempts (other then the one.)
Profane Boost
You can channel negative energy to increase the power negative energy used near you.
Prerequisite: Ability to channel negative energy.
Bonus: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a standard action to place an aura of negative energy upon each creature with the emanation. Any negative energy effect that deals damage targeting these creatures before the end of your next turn automatically deals maximum damage.
I just want to warn you that Profane Boost is very powerful. A 20th level cleric could in his following round cast another channel energy. And he would deal 60 dmg (save for half) to every person he effected. If he has an undead allies he would also heal them. Not to mention if you use your Quicken Channel. Cleric with high Cha or extra turning feat(s) could do that in one round.
I think it would be neat to have a Channel feat that corresponded to each Domain.
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For profane, why not have it just apply to any Inflict spells? Saves it from being a way to maximize your second channel.
In 3.5 the restriction on Quicken Turning was that you can only do it once per round, but by stating that it is a swift action it already implies that it can only be done once per round, as you only get one swift action per round.
Maybe rather than saying "you can channel as a swift action" you should say "channeling energy is now a swift action", but that's if you don't put any increase in turning attempts on it. Like I said, it's working fine in my game, but YMMV.
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For profane, why not have it just apply to any Inflict spells? Saves it from being a way to maximize your second channel.
In 3.5 the restriction on Quicken Turning was that you can only do it once per round, but by stating that it is a swift action it already implies that it can only be done once per round, as you only get one swift action per round.
Maybe rather than saying "you can channel as a swift action" you should say "channeling energy is now a swift action", but that's if you don't put any increase in turning attempts on it. Like I said, it's working fine in my game, but YMMV.
What I mean is you could still Swift Action Channel, and then Standard Action Channel.
I'm of the strong opinion that swift action channeling (without cost or penalty) is exceedingly powerful. Case in point:
. It's actually why the party has survived for a great majority of the campaign, because he can channel and cast a cure spell.
If you can credit one feat with making a party survive *most* of the time, that feat is probably broken.
There was a good thread on this a while back - one solid suggestion for allowing it without increased cost was to have it deal/heal -2d6, and be at -2DC for any saves.
Augment Channel
The strength of your convictions bolsters your channeling.
Prerequisites: Cha 13, Channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus to the damage dealt or healed ... per die
It was pretty fine before changing it - now it's *better* than empower, for free. Honestly, the first version would be an auto-take for the Sor14/Clr1 in my group.
Empower Channel
You can deal or heal more damage with a single channel.
Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: After determining the amount of damage dealt or healed by your channel energy ability, multiply the amount by 1.5.
This was pretty fine costing +1 channels.
Profane Boost
You can channel negative energy to increase the power negative energy used near you.
Prerequisite: Ability to channel negative energy.
Bonus: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a standard action to place an aura of negative energy upon each creature with the emanation. Any negative energy effect that deals damage targeting these creatures before the end of your next turn automatically deals maximum damage.
Without Quicken channeling (or at least without it allowed to be used more than once per turn), this is just fine. It basically does nothing for 1 round except say "Blast me or scatter - I'm going to really really hurt you next turn!" And 60 points at 20th level is less damage than a firestorm (though better damage type).
Sacred Healing
You can channel positive energy to grant nearby living creatures the ability to recover from their wounds quickly.
Prerequisites: Ability to channel positive energy.
Benefit: You can expend a use of your channel energy ability as a full-round action to grant fast healing 3 to all living creatures with the emanation. The fast healing lasts for a number of rounds equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1 round).
This is one of the few feats I liked out of Complete Divine - very reasonable. Probably 6-9 healing at levels 1-6, which is about the same as what the channel would heal. Gets a bit better, but less significant, at higher levels.
Quicken Channel
You can quickly channel the power of your faith.
Prerequisite: Cha 15, channel energy class feature.
Benefit: You can channel energy as a swift action.
Ugh, no way. +2 cost, or - to the effect.
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It may just be that I'm not quite as worried about balance, especially when it comes to healing. It also may have been a bit of an exaggeration on my part, because the only time anyone came close to death, they died. But it makes the player feel a little more useful since he can contribute to the battle and heal at the same time, and everyone's having more fun because of it. Also, it hasn't had a huge impact when they fight undead (even though it's their main enemy) because they keep making their saves to halve the damage. But, like I said, YMMV.
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I think it would be neat to have a Channel feat that corresponded to each Domain.
This got me thinking...
Desperate Channel
Prerequisites: Any domain, Channel energy
Benefit: Your last daily use of channel energy each day can be attempted as if it were a spell with a one-round casting time, functioning as it normally would and also carrying the effects of an available domain spell (one you possess, but have not yet cast) to all applicable targets within the channel radius. The spell chosen must be of a level lower than or equal to your wisdom modifier and must have a casting time of one round or less. All material components normally required to cast the spell still apply. In the instance that the chosen spell requires you to overcome the spell resistance of multiple targets in the area, roll once, and apply the result to each target individually. If you have the selective channel feat, you may choose to exclude targets or targeted squares within the channel radius. You may only channel energy in this manner when enemies are present and you are below half your current total hit points.
Edit:
Real clerical martyrdom is using your last channel energy attempt to heal and shield other your entire party...
Edit 2, 3, 4:
Added a line. Fixed a line. Clarified. =)
I think it would be neat to have a Channel feat that corresponded to each Domain.This got me thinking...
Desperate Channel
Prerequisites: Any domain, Channel energy
Benefit: Your last daily use of channel energy each day can be attempted as a full-round action, also carrying the effects of an available domain spell (one you possess, but have not yet cast) to all applicable targets with it's area of effect. The spell chosen must have be of a level lower than or equal to your wisdom modifier and must have a casting time of one round or less. All material components normally required to cast the spell still apply. In the instance that the chosen spell requires you to overcome the spell resistance of multiple targets in the area, roll once, and apply the result to each target individually. If you have the selective channel feat, you may choose to exclude targets or targeted squares within the area of effect.
This could be nasty. At low levels you might heal your party and throw a buff with this effect (e.g. alignment domains, Community, Destruction) or nail some undead twice over (Fire domain). At higher levels things could get really fun. I'd happily burn my last channel energy attempt to throw foresight (Knowledge) on the party. Or perhaps miracle (Luck)? Need a lot of HP? Try the Healing domain for heal and mass heal. I'd be leveling undead sixteen ways to Sunday with that combination.
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This could be nasty. At low levels you might heal your party and throw a buff with this effect (e.g. alignment domains, Community, Destruction) or nail some undead twice over (Fire domain). At higher levels things could get really fun. I'd happily burn my last channel energy attempt to throw foresight (Knowledge) on the party. Or perhaps miracle (Luck)? Need a lot of HP? Try the Healing domain for heal and mass heal. I'd be leveling undead sixteen ways to Sunday with that combination.
I didn't consider the out-of-combat uses of the feat. Perhaps the addition of the line "You may only channel energy in this manner when enemies are present and you are below half your current total hit points."
As for your second comment, you would be channeling energy as a full-round action, which means that even the stupidest enemies nearby are going to see you raise your holy symbol and start chanting scripture. They can use the round to make you regret the decision to use this feat. =)
This could be nasty. At low levels you might heal your party and throw a buff with this effect (e.g. alignment domains, Community, Destruction) or nail some undead twice over (Fire domain). At higher levels things could get really fun. I'd happily burn my last channel energy attempt to throw foresight (Knowledge) on the party. Or perhaps miracle (Luck)? Need a lot of HP? Try the Healing domain for heal and mass heal. I'd be leveling undead sixteen ways to Sunday with that combination.I didn't consider the out-of-combat uses of the feat. Perhaps the addition of the line "You may only channel energy in this manner when enemies are present and you are below half your current total hit points."
As for your second comment, you would be channeling energy as a full-round action, which means that even the stupidest enemies nearby are going to see you raise your holy symbol and start chanting scripture. They can use the round to make you regret the decision to use this feat. =)
Remember there's a difference between a full-round action and a 1-round casting time (e.g. summon monster spells). A full-round action gets done on your turn (full attack for example). Getting interrupted will require readied actions.
Possibly. But it also has no cost.A feat is a pretty big cost for an extra 4-10 damage per channel.
I think it is about right. If it is giving you +10 damage , then you have a high enough charisma for 13 channels a day, that is +130 damage/healing per day to multiple targets.
For reference, Weapon specialization gives a level 20 fighter +8 to +18 damage per full round attack(dual wielding with haste and a whole ton of TWF feats gives a fighter 9 attacks per round). Also note, that fighter is assuming all of the attacks hit. If the fighter hits with 50% of their attacks they are getting +4 to +9 damage per full attack.