DreDub's page

Hey all, just wondering if anyone had an opinion on Xorn eating habits and pearls.

The other night my character almost ran smack dab into some Xorns, and the only gems I had on me were some pearls of power. I didn't want to risk them attacking me, so I high tailed it out of there, but it did get me thinking about the palette of Xorns and what they would consider a good meal.

I am sure that the tastes of Xorns vary individually, but I'm not sure if pearls would be top on any of their lists.

Research: Pearl on wikipedia

A pearl is made up almost entirely of Calcium Carbonate and conchiolin, which is a protein which I don't think the Xorns would have much taste for.

Calcium Carbonate is found in high concentrations in limestone, chalk, marble and travertine. So this leads me to think that eating a pearl would be similar to any of those stones, which seem kind of common for a Xorn's tastes.

Which do you think is most likely for the average Xorn:
1) Xorns hate pearls since they smell kind of fishy.
2) Xorns love the exotic taste/texture of pearls as it is their version of seafood.
3) Xorns will eat a pearl if they find it, but don't really care about them that much.

Disclaimer: I know all of this is reliant on DM interpretation, I am just curious how others would play the Xorns in a situation where a PC has pearls on them or offers them as a bribe.

Hmmmm, it is very vague.

The only thing that comes to mind that is similar is the Wizard Evocation School ability (mentioned above):

Intense Spells (Su)

Whenever you cast an evocation spell that deals hit point damage, add 1/2 your wizard level to the damage (minimum +1). This bonus only applies once to a spell, not once per missile or ray, and cannot be split between multiple missiles or rays. This bonus damage is not increased by Empower Spell or similar effects. This damage is of the same type as the spell...

Which seems similar to how the half-orc alt racial is vaguely defined:

Sorcerer: Add +1/2 to fire spell damage.

I would treat it the same as the wizard ability. My guess is that they meant for this to mimic how evocation wizards work, but left out that extra text for the sake of brevity.

How I would rule it in my game:
Fireball: bonus damage to everything
Rays: Damage on ray of your choice
Wall of Fire: bonus damage to all on tick damage as well as passing through damage.

I agree that it would make this easier, as well as making more sense. But it's a major balance issue to let it have both effects at once. And I can't think of a good way to handle that. It trivializes undead fights, unless the enemy has a negative energy channeler, in which case it makes them really hard.

I would imagine that in an undead heavy campaign, it would get very boring for the cleric if he just had to get in range of everything and spam channel.

Happy to see this clarified, it was definitely kind of murky and took me a while and a lot or rereading to make up my own mind on the matter.

DreDub, I think your misconception is that you are saying it's not targeting specific types of creatures. However, the plain reading of the Channel Energy uses the words 'creatures targeted'.

You are ignoring the fact that the channel ability is a burst that specifically target's certain creatures by type (living vs undead).

prd wrote:

This energy can be used to cause or heal damage, depending on the type of energy channeled and the creatures targeted

I am not ignoring that, but it seems like a blurb telling you what to expect from the ability. It defines no rules, actions, or options. I think it could use a touchup.

When you read further down you get to the actual mechanics of Channel:

Channeling energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the cleric. The amount of damage dealt or healed is equal to 1d6 points of damage plus 1d6 points of damage for every two cleric levels beyond 1st (2d6 at 3rd, 3d6 at 5th, and so on)...

Note that the word target is never mentioned, which makes sense since this is an AoE effect.

ie. a harm undead channel energy burst doesn't divert itself around a human, it just passes through harmlessly.

DreDub,

he can't get hit by the channel if he's not a valid target. That's like saying that if you had a burst effect 'slay elf' that a human is hit by it when it goes off in his face. He's not. He's an invalid target, so the spell doesn't interact with him at all.

Ah, but the human boy would be hit, since he is in AoE effect. Now, what is the effect of this on him? Nothing, because he is not an elf.

Here's a different one. If a cleric had the 'elemental channel' feature, he can't say it hits every human within 30 feet and doesn't work on them. It doesn't hit any target that's not valid to hit.

It still "hits" everything in range, it just has no effect unless you are that particular type of elemental.

If your premise were true, then any class feature that adds to a channel would affect everyone in 30 feet, not just the valid targets. You can't use a channel against an invalid target (your channel of positive energy vs living targets doesn't affect elementals, golems, or undead).

Not sure which class features you are referring to, I am at work and they block all the fun sites, so I can't look up much. Is this something that adds on to the damage? Or that lets you select other creature types?

Basically, when I say that things are hit by the AoE channel burst, I do not mean that being hit automatically means it heals or does damage.

...
I see what DreDub's saying, and I'm not sure whether or not I agree. But let me attempt to restate it:

1) Cleric chooses form of the channel and activates it.
2) Every creature within the range of the channel is within the burst.
3) Every creature within the burst is checked to see whether they are a valid target.
4) Every creature that is a valid target takes the appropriate affect based on their type and abilities and so on.
5) Every creature that isn't a valid target has no effect.

Yes, precisely.

Given this, a dhampir would be a valid target for a "heal living" channel in step 3 (because he's living), and then would be hurt by it per step 4. The same dhampir would ignore a "heal undead" channel, because step 3 excludes him before step 4 is checked.

In Step 3, since it is a positive energy burst, you would treat a dhampir as undead and it would not be affected. In a heal undead, when it checks him he would be a valid target.

I think the crux of the issue stems from the misconception that this ability is targeted only at certain creatures, when instead it is an AoE effect which only affects certain creatures, based on the choice you make when you use it.

The cleric has no choice, he has to pick living or undead as the target of his channel.

The main point I was making though was that the cleric chooses who will be affected by the burst, not who gets hit by the burst (except himself or limited targets with selective channeling).

When he chooses undead/living, everything not excluded in range gets hit with the burst, it just has no effect when it hits invalid creatures.

So a dhampir in range gets hit by the channel, and the effect it has on him is modified by NEI.

I think some intent can be inferred by looking at the selective channeling feat and burst effect rules.

Selective Channeling

You can choose whom to affect when you channel energy.

Prerequisite: Cha 13, channel energy class feature.

Benefit: When you channel energy, you can choose a number of targets in the area up to your Charisma modifier. These targets are not affected by your channeled energy.

Normal: All targets in a 30-foot burst are affected when you channel energy. You can only choose whether or not you are affected.

Then also the FAQ from here

Just like using a Target: creature spell, you must be able to see or touch a creature to affect it (or, in the case of this feat, select it to be unaffected).

Which states basically that you must be able to target a creature to exclude it, which reaffirms that everyone is affected by default. Now keep in mind that effects of the burst may vary based on your choices.

Also consider that channel energy is a burst

Channeling energy causes a burst...

looking at how burst spells work might help (yes, I know it's not a spell, but bear with me):

A burst spell affects whatever it catches in its area, including creatures that you can't see.

So let's say you were a positive cleric with a Human, a dhampir, and a zombie withing your range. Now you choose to do a harm undead burst, what happens? All 3 of them are affected since they are within range and you didn't exclude them. Now since you chose "harm undead", what happens to each of them when the burst hits them?

Human: no effect, because it is a living creature.
Dhampir: damaged, because as NEI states: "The creature is alive, but reacts to positive and negative energy as if it were undead — positive energy harms it, negative energy heals it."
Zombie: damaged, because it is undead (obviously)

Basically, what I am saying is as a burst effect, it hits everything. It is not a targeted ability, you just choose what the effect of the burst is which determines what effect is caused to each creature in the burst.

Recap:
harm undead: harms dhampir
heal living: no effect on dhampir
heal undead: heals dhampir
harm living: no effect on dhampir

I think some clarifications to the text could be useful in a later edition, but the existing rules seem pretty clear to me on the matter.

Hope that helps, I'm going to sleep!

CSI:Bard

1) Use Share Memory on eyewitnesses to a crime
2) use Major Image to reconstruct a composite scene for analysis.
3) Make pun while removing Eyes of the Eagle
...
4) YEEAAAAHHHHHH!