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Probably a pretty basic question, but can somebody explain how channel energy works, exactly? The third paragraph of the description for it in the CRB starts with:
"Channeling energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living)..."
Does this mean that when a cleric channels, he has to make a choice as to whether he's going to target undead or target living creatures? Until I actually read the description, I assumed that a good cleric bursts forth positive energy, healing the living and harming undead all in one blast.
Things confused me further when I was looking at the variant channel energy abilities on page 28 of Ultimate Magic. A number of portfolios are mentioned that can change how channel energy works. Each one gives two different rules for Healing and Harming. I thought, cool, a positive benefit will be bestowed to anyone I'm attempting to heal, and a detriment will befall any undead who I'm attempting to harm. HOWEVER, the third paragraph of the description for variant channeling says:
"A variant channeling either modifies positive channeled energy when used to heal or modifies negative channeled energy when used to harm."
Emphasis mine. Since a good cleric only ever channels positive energy, this means she would never gain access to the harm effect of that portfolio's variant channel energy, just the heal version, right?
Correct. Focus less on heal/harm and more on positive/negative. Clerics channel the energy choice based on the god they follow and the choice the make at character creation (good gods only allow the cleric to channel positive, evil only allows negative, and neutral allows the cleric to pick one or the other but must stick with the choice).
Positive energy can be used to heal all living creatures or harm all undead creatures in range. Negative energy can be used to harm all living creatures or heal all undead creatures. A good cleric does not ever channel negative energy, nor does an evil cleric ever channel positive energy.
As you said, a cleric only ever gets access to one of the two aspects of a variant channeling ability.
(Note: some creatures react differently, such as Dhampirs who are living but react to positive/negative energy as if they were undead; for the sake of my statements, lets go with the usual case)
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Yes, a cleric channelling positive energy has to choose whether she heals the living or harms the undead. The other category is unaffected.
The Ultimate Magic variant channelling abilities replace half of the effect of normal channelling. The base healing or damage still works just like that of a PHB cleric.
As written, this either heals living creatures with an added special effect (if the cleric channels positive energy) or harms living creatures and has a special effect (if the cleric channels negative energy). Again, as written, neither type of variant channel affects undead at all, so the text is wrong to mention Command Undead and Turn Undead, which as written could not be used with variant channelling. The simplest fix that I can see is to ignore the sentence you mentioned and subsequent mention in that paragraph of positive and negative energy: they're simply incorrect. A cleric with a variant channel ability applies its beneficial (heal) effect when her channelling heals a creature, or its harmful effect when her channelling harms a creature.
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Thank you both for your responses. Here's what I'm gathering from these:
1) When a cleric channels energy, she has to decide if she's going to affect living creatures or undead creatures. That is, both can't be affected in the same channeled energy burst. (Is there a feat that would allow this? That seems like a prime example of a good idea for a feat to allow)
2) A cleric with a variant channel ability modifies her healing if she channels positive energy, or her harming if she channels negative energy.
Starglim, I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. From what I can tell, a cleric who channels positive energy who uses it to affect undead deals damage to them normally, since it's only the healing aspect of the variant channeling they can do. Likewise, a negative channeling cleric will apply these rules when harming living creatures, but still heal her undead minions normally. Feats like Turn Undead and Command Undead work normally since you'd be using these feats in place of a normal channeling, anyway.
Thanks guys.
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Starglim, I'm not sure I follow what you're saying. From what I can tell, a cleric who channels positive energy who uses it to affect undead deals damage to them normally, since it's only the healing aspect of the variant channeling they can do. Likewise, a negative channeling cleric will apply these rules when harming living creatures, but still heal her undead minions normally. Feats like Turn Undead and Command Undead work normally since you'd be using these feats in place of a normal channeling, anyway.
That would also be sensible. However,
When you create a cleric character, decide whether she uses the standard form of channel energy or a variant presented here based on one aspect of her deity’s portfolio. Once this choice is made, it cannot be altered.
A cleric who chooses variant channelling gives up normal channelling for all purposes. I've FAQ'ed your post to see if we can get an update for this.
I asked this same question a while back, when UM first hit the shelves, and this is essentially what I was told by the guy who wrote that section. He said that his original intention was that, whenever a cleric (using positive or negative energy) opted to harm a creature, she gained the "harm" effect of the alternate channel, and vice versa for healing. However, when it went through editing, the higher ups decided that they wanted it to be based on positive/negative energy and not on healing/harming and modified only some of the text to reflect this.
That said, at my table, if anyone were to use a variant channeling ability, we'd use the original RAI (as mentioned by the original writer) and not the current RAW.
I'll look for that post in a little bit. If I can find it, I'll post it here.
EDIT: Found it.
I was just going by this part of the book:
"A variant channeling either modifies positive energy when used to heal or modifies negative energy when used to harm." at the beginning of the third paragraph in the variant channeling section. It doesn't seem to contradict that later anywhere...
I think Undeath might be a special case, it mentions that undead get the 'enhanced' heal effect, which is described at the beginning of the section as well.If I am wrong, hopefully a Paizo employee will point it out, but that seems to be the way it works.
I would certainly prefer having the option of doing either with only positive or only negative. :)
When I wrote that section, I worded it specifically as "heal" and "harm" in order to make it usable with both kinds of energy use (positive as heal (living) or harm (undead) or negative (reversed)).
That was *my* RAI as the writer.
HOWEVER, all Paizo stuff goes through editing and development, and their call is final on all rules elements. My read of the above-referenced sentence in the section is that they chose to make it positive/heal and negative/harm ONLY. That appears to be the RAW, and the RAI of the editing/dev team.
As to the OP's question about the phylactery, because the phylactery has a very specific effect - adding +2d6 to your pos/neg channels - that effect derives from the item and not from your own abilities. While its effect is similar to the 3.0/3.5 item that gave you "turn undead as 4 levels higher," that is not how the PF item works.
The +2d6 is applied AFTER any modifications to your own dice of healing or harming.
The cleric in my party uses Alignment Channel (or whatever it's called) to harm outsiders mostly, so it works well for us.