I have a concept of a lawful neutral cleric with the domains Death and Law, and I thought it would be cool for him to channel negative energy. The trouble is that his channeling would be pretty useless against undead, and he really hates undead (being an adherent of true death), so rebuking them is.
On the other hand, it feels kind of lame to have a cleric of death channel positive energy. Is there a way around this?
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I allow all Clerics to Channel Energy Positive and Channel Energy Negative. Alignment is irrelivant. Players need to understand that if they abuse something, it will be used against them, so inform them of this before allowing it, so if there is any problems with "that's broken", feel free to restrict it somehow.
I have a concept of a lawful neutral cleric with the domains Death and Law, and I thought it would be cool for him to channel negative energy. The trouble is that his channeling would be pretty useless against undead, and he really hates undead (being an adherent of true death), so rebuking them is.
On the other hand, it feels kind of lame to have a cleric of death channel positive energy. Is there a way around this?
I would say that channel negative energy best fits a Death cleric. According to the Manual of the Planes. Negative energy is a form of energy from the Negative Energy Plane. The energy of this plane is life draining in nature and the plane has been described as a “needy, greedy plane, sucking the life out of anything that is vulnerable”.
I think that well befits a Death priest. A death priest that is conscious about the "natural order of things" would likely abhore undead, and would not use their powers to bolster them.
So my suggestion would be to just not use any negative planar effects on undead. This type of character is not an undead slayer (sun worhsipping clerics fill that role), despite their distaste for them. This type of character could possibly be more druidic in nature -- at least in their outlook of the birth-death cycle.
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I would say that channel negative energy best fits a Death cleric. According to the Manual of the Planes. Negative energy is a form of energy from the Negative Energy Plane. The energy of this plane is life draining in nature and the plane has been described as a “needy, greedy plane, sucking the life out of anything that is vulnerable”.
I think that well befits a Death priest. A death priest that is conscious about the "natural order of things" would likely abhore undead, and would not use their powers to bolster them.
So my suggestion would be to just not use any negative planar effects on undead. This type of character is not an undead slayer (sun worhsipping clerics fill that role), despite their distaste for them. This type of character could possibly be more druidic in nature -- at least in their outlook of the birth-death cycle.
I really dislike this line of thinking because it really comes down to the same problems that 3.0+ had with Clerics in that the mechanics just do not fit the roll of the class (outside of the limited medic npc), but instead of WotC attempting to fix the problems, they just kept of trying to cram the Cleric into the crack. Not trying to be an *ss, I personally like the Cleric most of all the classes, in concept. It is just very difficult to get it to do things it should be able to do besides the typical good healer or evil undead leader, or ft into non-stereotypical than any other class.
I really dislike this line of thinking because it really comes down to the same problems that 3.0+ had with Clerics in that the mechanics just do not fit the roll of the class (outside of the limited medic npc), but instead of WotC attempting to fix the problems, they just kept of trying to cram the Cleric into the crack. Not trying to be an *ss, I personally like the Cleric most of all the classes, in concept. It is just very difficult to get it to do things it should be able to do besides the typical good healer or evil undead leader, or ft into non-stereotypical than any other class.I would say that channel negative energy best fits a Death cleric. According to the Manual of the Planes. Negative energy is a form of energy from the Negative Energy Plane. The energy of this plane is life draining in nature and the plane has been described as a “needy, greedy plane, sucking the life out of anything that is vulnerable”.
I think that well befits a Death priest. A death priest that is conscious about the "natural order of things" would likely abhore undead, and would not use their powers to bolster them.
So my suggestion would be to just not use any negative planar effects on undead. This type of character is not an undead slayer (sun worhsipping clerics fill that role), despite their distaste for them. This type of character could possibly be more druidic in nature -- at least in their outlook of the birth-death cycle.
That's exactly my point. While I like the new turning rules, there are certain downsides to the seesaw effect of positive/negative energy. It's not a big deal, but ideally I'd like this guy to channel energy that's destructive to both living and undead foes. Of course we could house-rule it, but I just wanted to point it out as a minor drawback in the current rules. Thanks for the feedback.
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I have a concept of a lawful neutral cleric with the domains Death and Law, and I thought it would be cool for him to channel negative energy. The trouble is that his channeling would be pretty useless against undead, and he really hates undead (being an adherent of true death), so rebuking them is.
On the other hand, it feels kind of lame to have a cleric of death channel positive energy. Is there a way around this?
Ask the DM if they'll allow a Feat that allows you to channel both (same number of daily uses, but you choose when channeling which energy you are calling up).
Or, go with positive energy and describe it as 'rebuking death itself,' causing the forces of entropy to submit to your will and pull away from living tissue, leaving unscarred flesh behind. The effect will be the same (heal living, blast undead), but the FX/fluff will make it sound more like something a death-priest would do.
Sees undead, blasts with positive energy - "Begone foul creatures, into oblivion with you! *I* am the master of death in this place!"
Party is wounded, heals with positive energy - "Death is my master, my servant and my weapon. You shall not fall to his touch while I stand! Begone dark forces of woe!"
But maybe not so pretentious... :)
Or, go with positive energy and describe it as 'rebuking death itself,' causing the forces of entropy to submit to your will and pull away from living tissue, leaving unscarred flesh behind. The effect will be the same (heal living, blast undead), but the FX/fluff will make it sound more like something a death-priest would do.Sees undead, blasts with positive energy - "Begone foul creatures, into oblivion with you! *I* am the master of death in this place!"
Party is wounded, heals with positive energy - "Death is my master, my servant and my weapon. You shall not fall to his touch while I stand! Begone dark forces of woe!"
But maybe not so pretentious... :)
I think I'm going to steal those quotes for the Saturday game. Thanks Set!