Entropi |
In my group, going through RotRL, there is both a cleric and a paladin, both with high charisma. That amounts to a lot of Channel Energy, to the point where encounters are only rarely dangerous or exciting. On the other hand, the only enemy cleric thay've met so far almost wiped them out with her channel negative energy. I really believe that channel energy, as it is, is too powerful.
Therefore, I'm gonna test using the same rules for channeling as for dragon breath weapons. That means that you can only channel energy every 1d4 rounds, taking the top of the channel spamming, and forcing the cleric to actually do something interesting some of the time.
What do you guys think. is 1d4 too little?
Beckett |
In my group, going through RotRL, there is both a cleric and a paladin, both with high charisma. That amounts to a lot of Channel Energy, to the point where encounters are only rarely dangerous or exciting. On the other hand, the only enemy cleric thay've met so far almost wiped them out with her channel negative energy. I really believe that channel energy, as it is, is too powerful.
Therefore, I'm gonna test using the same rules for channeling as for dragon breath weapons. That means that you can only channel energy every 1d4 rounds, taking the top of the channel spamming, and forcing the cleric to actually do something interesting some of the time.
What do you guys think. is 1d4 too little?
How about 1 per fight, + 1 per 3 Cleric Levels.
The problem is that by restricting it, you are potentially dooming a PC to death because the healer can not do anything to help them not die. I used to really like the idea of Channel Energy, but it really causes a lot more trouble than it solved with Turn/Rebuke Undead.
Old Guy GM |
In my group, going through RotRL, there is both a cleric and a paladin, both with high charisma. That amounts to a lot of Channel Energy, to the point where encounters are only rarely dangerous or exciting. On the other hand, the only enemy cleric thay've met so far almost wiped them out with her channel negative energy.
Sounds to me like Channel Energy provided a very dangerous and exciting encounter for your party.
In my experience, its the 30' radius thats the drawback, unless the right feat is taken. One thing my cleric/paladin combo found out in RotRL was the volume of healing for the Bad Guys that they were doing. And each wanted the other to take the feat. Channel Energy has become a post-encounter (except vs undead) heal in my campaign.
voska66 |
In my group, going through RotRL, there is both a cleric and a paladin, both with high charisma. That amounts to a lot of Channel Energy, to the point where encounters are only rarely dangerous or exciting. On the other hand, the only enemy cleric thay've met so far almost wiped them out with her channel negative energy. I really believe that channel energy, as it is, is too powerful.
Therefore, I'm gonna test using the same rules for channeling as for dragon breath weapons. That means that you can only channel energy every 1d4 rounds, taking the top of the channel spamming, and forcing the cleric to actually do something interesting some of the time.
What do you guys think. is 1d4 too little?
No, 1D4 would be far too little. Even 1D6 is almost too little.
My Playtest group is 2 fighters level 4, 1 rogue level 4 and 1 Cleric level 3. The cleric can do 7 channel energy spells a day and has the selective channeling feat. The 2D6 damage at max won't stop the Gnoll skeletons they've been fighting. It takes several uses of the Channel energy to kill off the Skeletons. So not too powerful. Since the I had Great Axe wielding Gnoll Skeletons the 2D6 healing was healing about 1/2 the damage the Skeletons were inflicting on the fighters. So not bad.
In another encounter with brigands when the Cleric was 2nd level, before getting selective channeling, they couldn't use channeling to heal the party because it would heal the bandits as well.
In the giant spider attack, the selective channeling allow the cleric to use some spells to buff the fighters while still being able to heal the fighters.
Channeling definitely didn't make the encounters too easy as I almost got TPK from bandits and after that they leveled up. If anything the channeling is making they player more survivable with the selective channeling.
Now we are still fairly low level. So it's only 2D6. At 11th level where it's 6D6 will it be too powerful? I doubt it but I'll have to play it to see.
MikeTheMerciless |
I've changed Channel Energy because it's way too powerful. Instead, what I did was kept the 30' Radius and the turning/rebuking capability.
My clerics now have to spend a spell from their spell slots to give damage. They cannot ever heal (there are spells, scrolls, potions and wands and an entire skill for healing for crying out loud, not to mention Diehard and the ridiculous Rogue talent Resilience). What happens is that you deal 1d6/divine spell level of the spell channeled into Turning or Rebuking. You still figure out the Will Save the undead do as normal.
It's far less broken than the previous ability, which was far less broken than the insanely broken variant rule in Complete Divine, which this was derived from.
Otherwise, if I ran channel energy as is, undead would be a protected species under the Endangered Species Act.
DM Jeff |
I may no doubt be too late in chiming in here, but having completed Curse of the Crimson Throne using the Beta rules I need to agree that the new positive energy burst, as written, isn't the best.
It's certainly not a bad idea. Despite it making about a dozen or so 3.5 feats irrelevant we all agree it's easier and elegant. Our cleric maxed it out with feats and it still wasn't too terrible (the limits per day helped a lot) but there still felt like healing came way too easy for my games.
We also got pretty frustrated real quick with the 'running fights' we had to set up, where they had to defeat the thing, then then it failed its save running away and the group had to chase it down. I began tweaking the defenition of 'keeping from escaping' so these things would stick around for a fight.
In all, if they got heavy treatment in the final book, we'll all be happier in my group.
-DM Jeff