Long-time lurker, first-time poster.
I've been working on some ideas for my homebrew campaign world, and I wanted to get some community feedback on them. First up is my tweak of Channeled Energy. I wanted to add some diversity to Cleric builds while not straying too far from the base rules. My idea for linking Channeled Energy to Cleric Domains is listed below. (I did an archive search for similar ideason the boards here and came up empty. If I missed it please let me know.)
CHANNELED ENERGY TYPES BY DOMAIN
Channeled energy comes in three types – Heal the Living, Turn Undead, and Harm Undead (for positive energy); or Harm the Living, Awe Undead, and Heal Undead (for negative energy). The Heal/Harm effects and the Turn Undead effect are as given in the SRD. Awe Undead uses the same mechanics as Turn Undead, but the effect is that the undead are frozen in place, may not attack while under the effect of the Awe (but may defend themselves), and are at a -4 penalty to all attempts to resist control (spells, Diplomacy checks, etc) by the cleric using the Awe effect.
Each Cleric Domain has a particular type of channeled energy linked to it. When the cleric chooses his or her Domains, the cleric gains the channeled energy types linked to those domains. If the domains he or she chooses have the same energy type, the cleric is free to choose either of the two remaining types. The channeled energy types chosen MUST be linked to the same type of energy (i.e. a cleric cannot mix positive and negative channeled energy types).
The “Turn Undead” feat is dropped, and replaced with a new feat, “Diversify Channeled Energy”. This feat allows the cleric to utilize the channeled energy type not gained via Domains.
These are my conceptions of which energy types go with the core domains. YMMV. Feel free to tinker and critique with them as desired.
Air - Turn or Awe Undead
Animal - Harm or Heal Undead
Artifice - Turn or Awe Undead
Chaos - Harm or Heal Undead
Charm - Turn or Awe Undead
Community - Heal Living
Darkness - Awe Undead
Death - Harm Living
Destruction - Harm or Heal Undead
Earth - Harm or Heal Undead
Evil - Harm Living
Fire - Harm Undead
Glory - Harm or Heal Undead
Good - Turn Undead
Healing - Heal Living
Knowledge - Turn or Awe Undead
Law - Harm or Heal Undead
Liberation - Turn Undead
Luck - Turn or Awe Undead
Madness - Turn or Awe Undead
Magic - Harm or Heal Undead
Nobility - Turn or Awe Undead
Plant - Turn Undaed
Protection - Turn or Awe Undead
Repose - Heal Living
Rune - Harm or Heal Undead
Strength - Harm or Heal Undead
Sun - Harm Undead
Travel - Turn or Awe Undead
Trickery - Turn or Awe Undead
War - Harm or Heal Undead
Water - Turn or Awe Undead
Weather - Turn or Awe Undead
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It seems like there are only three Domains that allow one to heal the living (Community, Healing and Repose), while there are ten to heal undead and *fifteen* to 'Turn Undead.' Ideally, this should be balanced out a bit more, even if some of the associations have to be forced / rationalized.
Several Domains only have a single option, as well. IMO, Community, for example, the domain of civilization, hearth and home, the walls of community, would also be able to 'keep out vampires, who can't enter uninvited' via Awe Undead or something, as well as provide Heal Living.
It's a neat idea, but, IMO, overly complicates things, and becomes particularly odd when mixing Domains that only provide positive energy options with other Domains that only provide a negative energy option.
Example; Cyth-V'sug (or Moander, in the Realms, or Zuggtmoy in Greyhawk), a diety with Plant and Evil. By your selection, his own choices would be Turn Undead and Harm Living, one of which is a positive energy choice, and the other a negative energy choice).
Looking at the thread title, what I expected was to see an option for a Cleric with the Fire Domain to blow a use of Channel Energy to channel fire, instead of positive/negative energy, scorching those around him, or a Cleric with the Plant Domain to send thorny spears or grappling vines in all directions via a Channel attempt or something.