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Hello all,
I'm working on a cleric for PFS and I think I'm going to go with a character with an evil deity. The Madness and Trickery domains are interesting. I'm not sure, however, how much to invest in Negative Channeling. I haven't played a PF cleric before.
PFS characters have a 20 point buy. If I want to make my negative channeling effective, then I figure that I would have to have a Charisma of 14 and then invest in feats like Improved Channel and Selective Channeling.
Here is a build that I came up with. What do you think? What are your experiences with negative channeling and the feats that you have to take to make it effective? Are they worth it?
Human Cleric 1
Madness, Trickery Domains
Str 14
Dex 13
Con 12
Int 10
Wis 14 (+2 racial)
Cha 14
If you want to channel negative you don't have too invest too much since it damages most creatures in the game... Selective channeling will be a must though if you want your party to like you and you'll need at least enough charisma to keep them out of the damage.
It can be an effective means of dealing burst damage from a low level, but I really wouldn't put much more than a phylactery of channel negative energy and selective channeling into it (maybe a headband that boosts charisma in addition to wisdom).
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If you want to channel negative you don't have too invest too much since it damages most creatures in the game... Selective channeling will be a must though if you want your party to like you and you'll need at least enough charisma to keep them out of the damage.
It can be an effective means of dealing burst damage from a low level, but I really wouldn't put much more than a phylactery of channel negative energy and selective channeling into it (maybe a headband that boosts charisma in addition to wisdom).
Unfortunately they take up the same slot. It would be nice if the benefits of the phylactery were a feat.
Unfortunately they take up the same slot. It would be nice if the benefits of the phylactery were a feat.If you want to channel negative you don't have too invest too much since it damages most creatures in the game... Selective channeling will be a must though if you want your party to like you and you'll need at least enough charisma to keep them out of the damage.
It can be an effective means of dealing burst damage from a low level, but I really wouldn't put much more than a phylactery of channel negative energy and selective channeling into it (maybe a headband that boosts charisma in addition to wisdom).
So pay the extra 50% to make one item with both features.
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So pay the extra 50% to make one item with both features.Unfortunately they take up the same slot. It would be nice if the benefits of the phylactery were a feat.If you want to channel negative you don't have too invest too much since it damages most creatures in the game... Selective channeling will be a must though if you want your party to like you and you'll need at least enough charisma to keep them out of the damage.
It can be an effective means of dealing burst damage from a low level, but I really wouldn't put much more than a phylactery of channel negative energy and selective channeling into it (maybe a headband that boosts charisma in addition to wisdom).
I would, but item creation is not allowed in PFS. I can only buy items in the rulebook.
Stick to the stat boosters then. Adding to your Cha means a harder save throw which means more damage than the +2d6 would add on a successful save throw. It also allows you to keep extra people out which can be useful.
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Stick to the stat boosters then. Adding to your Cha means a harder save throw which means more damage than the +2d6 would add on a successful save throw. It also allows you to keep extra people out which can be useful.
I agree. A higher save and keeping allies safe does sound better than an extra 7 points of damage.
Thanks.
Yeah or 3.5 on a successful save compared to full damage on a failed save.
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Your party will have a significant impact on your ability to Channel Energy.
Even a 'standard' four man party is going to require a 16 Charisma and Selective Channeling to 'safely' blast away with Negative Energy Channeling (since you can automatically exclude yourself), and that is assuming that nobody is playing a Druid or Paladin or Wizard with some sort of Companion / Mount / Familiar (although a generous GM may assume that the share spells / link ability of a familiar may allow it to be excluded for free, so long as it's master is excluded and within 5 ft. of it, but that's a house rule and not a 'gimme').
If the party is six strong, and includes a horse-mounted cavalier or a druid with companion bear or a conjurer who likes to summon fiendish critters to attack the enemy, you might as well kiss the idea of negative energy channeling good-bye, as it wasn't designed for PC use. It's explicitly worse than positive energy channeling, both in the 'save for half' level and in the nature of encounter design.
A positive energy channeler may *often* find himself in a situation where there is one BBEG, or even one 'effective creature,' such as a swarm of 10,000 bugs that can be counted as one creature for the purposes of exclusion, allowing a good Cleric to get away with a Cha 13 for Selective Channeling, and just be careful to not channel heal when the party is surrounded by weaker monsters. Barring a solo game, or one with only one living companion (hardly the default assumption of the game), an evil Cleric won't benefit from encounter design as much.
Since workarounds like Tomb-Tainted Soul don't exist in the Pathfinder rules as of yet (and it's hardly reasonable to expect the entire party to blow a Feat so that you can use one of your Class Abilities, any more than people would put up with Druids asking everyone to blow a Feat so that they could use their Wild Shape or Animal Companion), you'll have to take advantage of the few rules that do work in your favor.
For instance, Channeled Energy is an emanation, and requires line-of-effect, allowing an evil cleric to step around a corner and begin blasting people on the other side, without endangering his companions around the corner. Even if you can't step in such a way as to exclude all of your companions, you could at least try to limit the numer exposed, which might allow your Selective Channeling to cover the rest.
You might also be able to convince your GM to allow a special feat, that allows you to craft small tokens in the form of your dieties (un)holy symbol, which shield their wearer from your Channel Energy uses. If one of those falls into the hands of an enemy, he'll be immune to your blasts as well, which might make some fun plot-fodder...
[Having such a feat / technique, even if it's just an item you can make with Craft Wondrous Item, apply to *all* holy symbols, or to the channeling of all priests of that diety, would be out of line. Make sure that such a rule doesn't have unintended consequences by having it only apply to *your* channeling, and only to the specific tokens you craft! You don't want to create a situation where everyone starts collecting the holy symbols of various evil dieties to protect themselves from the channeling of their diverse priests, and ending up looking like that dude from the Mummy movie, draped in various holy symbols!]
You might also be able to convince your GM to allow a special feat, that allows you to craft small tokens in the form of your dieties (un)holy symbol, which shield their wearer from your Channel Energy uses. If one of those falls into the hands of an enemy, he'll be immune to your blasts as well, which might make some fun plot-fodder...
[Having such a feat / technique, even if it's just an item you can make with Craft Wondrous Item, apply to *all* holy symbols, or to the channeling of all priests of that diety, would be out of line. Make sure that such a rule doesn't have unintended consequences by having it only apply to *your* channeling, and only to the specific tokens you craft! You don't want to create a situation where everyone starts collecting the holy symbols of various evil dieties to protect themselves from the channeling of their diverse priests, and ending up looking like that dude from the Mummy movie, draped in various holy symbols!]
Everything you said was perfect up until this point.
For one, these "tokens" would not be legal in PFS games. Nor is crafting magic items.
For another thing, IMO any DM who would allow such a basic workaround to such a potentially disastrous ability, removing the one real limitation that makes it difficult to use, while leaving all the potential and unbalancing destructive power, would be out of his mind. If I were to make such a houserule, it would require at least one feat to learn how to make this stuff (and not an existing feat like CWI), and it would have a penalty, such as you must trade in 2d6 of your Channel dice in order to make the negative energy avoid the token-bearers. Or something like that.
None of which is relevant to a PFS character.