I really like what Pathfinder did with the channel energy ability (replacing turn undead). However, I don't think they went far ENOUGH. Here are some of my suggestions for updating the channel energy ability of clerics and paladins:
* Make channel energy a range of touch. This would would replace the paladin lay on hands ability entirely.
* Add feats that would alter how channel energy works. Channel Energy Ray would focus the ability into a ray of some range. Channel Energy Burst would create a burst of energy with a range of personal. Channel Energy Cone would affect everyone in a 60 foot cone. Etc., etc. Create another feat that would allow a user to use positive or negative energy (at will? take up an extra slot?).
I like the progression and the steady supply of healing. I like the fact that it harms undead, which makes the ability useful against undead but not useless against non-undead. It becomes a very usable ability of the cleric or paladin in most scenarios.
Discussions welcome.
Hmm... I kind of liked this idea.
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I also like what Paizo has done with Channel Energy and I do like your idea on how to take it further. In fact, I would take it even further than you would. This could be reworked into a really major cleric and paladin mechanic - in effect a 'power source' to use 4E terminology to the extent that paladins could then lose their spellcasting and clerics could, at the very least, have it curtailed. That kind of radical change, however, is not for the Pathfinder RPG and even your less radical idea, although good, might be going too far at this time. Maybe in the eventual Patfinder RPG 2nd edition or some later edition, where backward compatibility is less of a concern, this could be implemented.