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Does Channel Energy (positive) do any extra damage to undead in and of itself? Someone was arguing that it did, but I didn’t see that there was anything at all written to that effect.
Or is the advantage of it (as used offensively) simply the fact that it 1) selectively hits all undead in the area of effect; and 2) deals positive damage which some undead may be vulnerable to?
You have it right. Channel energy can selectively hit all undead in the area, but it doesn't do extra damage to them. It deals damage that the undead may be vulnerable to (see errata regarding incorporeality from the Bestiary 1), but all undead dislike positive energy in the game.
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You have it right. Channel energy can selectively hit all undead in the area, but it doesn't do extra damage to them. It deals damage that the undead may be vulnerable to (see errata regarding incorporeality from the Bestiary 1), but all undead dislike positive energy in the game.
Oh?? This excites me… My PCs were fighting some zombies the other day, and the cleric was using Channel against them. Given that they are not listed as being vulnerable to positive energy, and as mentioned I didn’t find them being damaged any extra, she was just doing a raw 1d6 per use of Channel.
Should the zombies have been taking more damage from it? It seems like they should, but with nothing in writing, I can’t really justify it…
does a living creature take extra damage from negative energy? if the answer you come up with is no (hint its no ;)) then it works the same with undead and positive energy
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Well I just skimmed through the Bestiary and didn’t see any undead with vulnerability to positive energy, and of course some had Channel Resistance.
So, am I to understand that the only benefit of the positive nature of the energy* is to single out the undead for the hitting?
* offensively, untalented
The whole primary purpose of that ability is to heal living or to harm undead (or vice versa when it comes to Channeling Negative Energy). Its much, actually.
If its a cleric of with the sun domain:
"Sun’s Blessing (Su): Whenever you channel positive energy
to harm undead creatures, add your cleric level to the
damage dealt. Undead do not add their channel resistance
to their saves when you channel positive energy."
jtokay, when I said "dislike" I meant exactly that. Undead are generally powered by negative energy. Positive energy is its antithesis; it's acid to their alkali. Under most circumstances, an undead just takes the listed number of dice as damage when channel energy is used on them. The Sun domain listed by Skull is one exception. The other exception, so to speak, is that incorporeal undead take full damage from channeled energy as per the errata to the Bestiary, thus making them "vulnerable" to it, since they take 1/2 damage from everything else but force effects. Undead are also "vulnerable" to positive energy in the sense that no other creatures take damage from positive energy, only the undead.