| Sarevok |
Maybe "bomber" wasn't the right term, but I would just like to be able to have an effective negative channeler.
I've seen some Life Oracle builds that essentially allow them to channel at 1.5x their level for Channel Positive.
I was wondering if such a thing exists for Channel Negative? Or perhaps something that is as effective when itemized correctly?
blackbloodtroll
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Aasamir have a number of channel feats available to them, and none are truly specific to the positive energy.
Many force enemies to be moved about the battlefield.
You could go cleric, choose the Caves Domain for access to the pit spells, and use channel to damage, and force opponents into your created pits.
| Highglander |
Make a Theologian cleric with the death domain (undead is good, gives enervation), lvl6 you will heal yourself while damaging your foes. Have a few zombies to cover your flanks and back and you'll heal them as well.
As for guides, There is Abraham Spalding's Guide to the Holy Vindicator (or more specifically channeling). It covers channeling.
If you want to do damage with your channeling I strongly suggest not to take a variant channel, it would be like giving a free save on your fireball as a blaster.
Set
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The biggest problem with negative energy channeling in PF is that it either requires a ridiculously high Charisma and the Selective Channeling feat, or the entire party to have means of avoiding being hit by your 'bomb,' such as 3.Xs Tomb-Tainted Soul feat, or PF's Dhampiric Negative Energy Affinity (or a similar trait).
Even if your party has only three people other than you, and you can squeeze in a 16 Charisma and Selective Channeling without gimping your Wisdom and other stats too much, that still means that nobody can play a Witch or Wizard or Sorcerer with a familiar (cause that's a fifth body), or a Cavalier or a Paladin with a mount (yeah, like a Paladin would group with you anyway!), or a Druid or Ranger with an Animal Companion, or a Summoner with an Eidolon, or even just ride a darn horse, or have a falcon or hound or pet monkey. And cohorts are right out.
A *generous* GM might allow any companion creature with the 'empathic link' creature to count as 'part of the PC' for the purposes of exclusion via Selective Channeling (allowing you to group with the above folk without nuking their familiars and animal companions and bonded mounts every single fight), but that's not in any way an actual rule, and the GM doesn't have to be that generous.
If the whole group, on the other hand, is cool with playing Dhampirs, and not having any animal friends or cohorts, then rock on with your negative energy channeling self.
Note that spell research is always an option, and you could blow 1000+ gp to pray up a spell (or even craft a magic item) that allows you to exclude a specific person or group of people from your negative energy channeling attempts, such as touching a group of people equal to your Wisdom modifier at the beginning of the day to grant them 24 hours of immunity to your own negative energy channels, or giving them a special consecrated holy symbol of your naughty god that is magically enhanced to shield it's bearer from the negative energy channelings of the priest who gave it to them.
But, again, that treads on GM call territory.
As written, negative energy channeling is pretty much a wasted class feature for PCs in a game designed for 4-ish players with at least 1 extra 'companion' of some sort (and possibly horses for everyone!). Channel positive energy is vastly more useful (and there are times when it's perfectly fine to use even in combat, even without Selective Channeling, or to use with a much lower Charisma investment).
On the one hand, it fits the theme that evil doesn't play well with others and that the game designers, who want people to play heroes and not villains, would make sure the villains have practically unusable crap for 'special powers.' On the other, meh.
Things to consider when making an energy channeler;
Sacred Conduit trait (+1 DC) or Exalted of the Society (+1 channel / day)
Extra Channel feat (+2 uses / day)
Improved Channel feat (+2 DC)
Ability Focus feat (+2 DC, GM's call!)
Phylactery of Negative Channeling (+2d6 damage, 11,000 gp, less if you Craft it yourself with Craft Wondrous Item)
3.X had a few other items that could improve your effective level for 'Turn Undead' that could be converted over to affect channeling, such as the special flametouched holy symbols in Eberron or the Amulet of Turning or a special sword from Return to Castle Ravenloft or whatever, but they will likely not be available to you.