Channel energy targetting questions

[Hexus]

Soo, the rules for channel energy say a cleric ( my teamates ) or a dread Necro ( myself ) as evil can choose to either heal undead, or damage living with a burst of negtive energy.

thats all good.

now, we both took the tomb-tainted soul feat, allowing us to get heal by negative energy and damaged by positive energy.

the discussion we had was pretty heavy and we couldnt agree on this ;

are we now considered undead for the purpose of casting this spell ?

meaning, when I channel to damage all humans near me, and roll my d6 ( lets say 4 ) do every human takes 4 damage, while me and my cleric friend heals 4, and all the undead are ignored, or if I want to heal myself, I should target all undead and heal, ignoring humans.

And the other way around, if a good cleric comes around and cast a healing channel energy on nearby humans, will we get damaged, or will he have to decide to damage undead to hit us ?

... the discussion went a bit further :

(questions such as ; if an paladin or a cleric comes and cast some kind of lay on hands on us, and the spells text goes as : a touch healh 200 hp. If use on an undead, it damage for 50 hp instead.

now would this kind of spell damage us for the full 200 since we arent undead, or are the tomb tainted feat grant us the undead subtype for the purpose of spells like those ?

this will get a huge impact on how we both play and what spells we choose, since we will either have tons of wave heals for us and our undead minions, or we will have wave of damage to our target and heals on us but which will ignore our minions, if we are considered as undead for this purpose, we could only use wave to heal ourself and minions, and might consider spending more or our spells on damage stuff and metamagic feat, while the other way around we might spend more feats that give channels bonus and such.

[Umbranus]

The feat states that you are healed or harmed as if you were undead.
So for channel energy you count as undead and thus you are affected if the channeler is targeting undead.

If a good cleric heals living you are not affected because you count as undead, not as living.

[Andro]

Do notice that, contrary to the simplest common sense interpretation, Channel Energy comes with a target toggle; when you're channeling, you're affecting either undead, or living, but not both. To quote:

"Channeling energy causes a burst that affects all creatures of one type (either undead or living) in a 30-foot radius centered on the cleric."

So an evil cleric channeling negative energy to heal his undead minions -will not- simultaneously deal damage to any living beings in his 30' burst, nor will a good cleric channeling positive energy to blast the undead simultaneously heal his allies.

(I know this is tangential to your original question, but given the phrasing of part of your question, I thought it may be a useful clarification.)

[Andro]

Also, I've been trying to find the "Tomb-Tainted Soul" (including alternate spellings, dropping hypens etc) feat on SRD, but with no luck; where is this Feat from?

Thanks!

[Drejk]

It was from 3.5 IIRC - Libris Mortis perhaps?

[blackbloodtroll]

Libris Mortis.

Ninja'd.

[blackbloodtroll]

Loved the Necropolitin in there.

[Hexus]

Andro wrote:

Channel Energy comes with a target toggle; when you're channeling, you're affecting either undead, or living, but not both.

Thats where the discussion started, I was saying the feat doesnt change our subtype to undead, that the comparison there is just that, a comparison to help us understand the feat better, while the cleric says our subtype were effectively undead for the purpose of channeling and heals.

I guess it depends on how you view the toggle ; its either you damage or you heal, and than the subtypes enter, in which case the feat put us in the undead pool of target.

or channeling makes you target a subtype, either undead or living, and the following waves than incurs ( in which case we are living )

we decide to let the community rules out this, its easier to ask you guys

[BlackGyver]

Thread necromancy here, because playing as a Dhampir cleric that channels negative energy, that's an unresolved point I'd love to see clarified.

I have a negative energy affinity, but it only says in the description:

Quote:

Negative Energy Affinity: Though a living creature, a dhampir reacts to positiveand negative energy as if it were undead—positive energy harms it, while negative energy heals it.

Now, does that mean I can heal myself with Channel Energy when I target undead to heal them ? Or since I count still as living creature, I won't be able to heal myself with my own Channel Energy without harming all my living fellows with it ?

If the latter, don't I have any option to heal myself without becoming a living bomb ? Can't I target myself only, then ?

[Umbranus]

You heal yourself when healing undead because "a dhampir reacts to positive and negative energy as it it were undead".

[BlackGyver]

So, does that mean, for the purpose of channeling, I count as Undead and not as living ?

What happens if I chose to deal damage to living creatures with my channeling, then ? Would I heal the same amount, too ? Or would nothing happen ?

[Umbranus]

1) yes, you count as undead. Thats what the ability says.

2) Nothing happens, as you don't react as a living creature. But even if you could choose to be no target of your own channel.

[BlackGyver]

Thanks for the clarifications.