This will be one of several 'sanity checks' I'll make for proposed house rules. I am hoping you will throw in your 2 coppers. I've a pretty thick hide and can take some hard truths if you decide to dish them out.
** PEACH: Please Evaluate and Critique Honestly
I've been thinking for some time on Clerics - for some they are a 'Meh' class, for others, a great experience. One class feature (no longer completely unique to them) that they bring to the table is channeling and these are my house rules to make it and the related 'Turn Undead' a bit meatier.
Beefing up Channeling to reward Charismatic priests.
Spoiler:
When channeling, clerics also add their Charisma bonus (but not penalty) after the results of the dice roll is known.
Under current rules there is no mechanical difference between a Channeling clerics healing or damaging effect if the priest has 8 Charisma or 18 Charisma - apart from perhaps certain specialised builds there is no real benefit for Clerics to sink more points into this stat than maybe 14 to make benefit of the selective channel feat.
This slightly rewards (more so at lower levels) those who invest more in the attribute but doesn't penalise those who feel that they don't need charisma in this already Multiple Attribute Dependent Class. Certain buffs such as Eagle Splendor can make channeling more efficient still.
Haven't decided if I will apply this to Paladins as yet but I suspect I will not. Paladins already get considerable bonuses due to Charisma and I think it would be nice to give the cleric something 'special'.
Affecting Incorporeal undead
Spoiler:
Channeling does standard damage to incorporeal undead. Under current rules they take half damage before a save is even made as an incorporeal creature.
Turning Undead.
Spoiler:
A cleric uses 10 + cleric level + your Charisma when calculating the Save DC for turning undead.
Turning Undead has always seemed a 'Dud' feat to me. You use a channel and one of your all too few feats at a POOR chance of having the undead flee for a minute (DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 your cleric level + your Charisma). Undead have pretty beefy will saves already and the intelligent undead? The ones with even better Will Saves as a rule of thumb? They get a save *every* round to snap out of the effect.
In the end it almost seems that a cleric is better of just burning the undead for half damage than risking a dud roll. As clerics level up, so do the monsters and that 1/2 cleric level puts them increasingly behind the curve.
I mostly agree. I hate Channel Energy since it changed from the Beta for a variety of reasons. However, did want to point out that Positve and Negative energy fully affect incorporeal undead normally now. That was errated after the Bestiary 1 came out. Check out the SRD on it now.
After reading the OP I went through the PRD to find that clause that mentioned that channel energy deals full damage to incorporeal creatures and could not find it. Can anyone with the later Bestiaries check it up?
Now that I'm not answering from my phone, I want to elaborate a bit more. Firstly, I do not think, Paladins, Oracles, or any other Class should recieve these benefits. Channelng is already a large chunk of the Clerics only Class Features and I agree, it needs to have benefits over other classes that also get it. The other thing is, as the most MAD class in the game, even beyond Monks, they really do not actually have much synergy in their abilites. Clerics need a good Cha for Channeling times per day, DC, and Diplomacy, and that's really about it. It's too good not to have a decent Cha, but not good enough that you can build an effective Cha Cleric (over Wis, Con, or Str), and still do your job as a martial spellcaster voice of your deity/faith. So boosting the things a Cleric needs (gets benefits from) Cha is a good idea.
Rant part 2:
Probably the biggest thing that I think would help Channel Energy is make it that the Channeling Feats actually work off of each other. A Cleric that takes, for example Turn Undead shouldn't need to decide to use either Channel Energy or try to Turn Undead, but instead at least get a benefit from both. Maybe somethng like they can either do a normal Channel or try to Turn Undead, which automatically deals Half Channel Damage (no save, they already essentually made it) but also may need to Flee for 1 min. (save to reduce).
Rant part 3:
Adding Cha (or maybe Wis?) is a good change, either to damage or to boost the Save. I don't know. Pathfinder took the probably most iconic part of the Cleric and ruined it's flavor, while at the same time cementing the idea of the Clric as Healbot regardless of the character's actual build or player's desire. What's worse, is that the ability quickly becomes underpowered, around 3-5th, it just doesn't keep up, eithe rin healing potentual or in damaging/ward. Another thing that Pathfinder has done is make the Cloak of Cha into a Headband slot, so that Sorcerers can have both the Cha and the Resistance items. This just screwed the Cleric, (and less so the Paladin, Necromancer, and Oracle) as the Phylactery of Channeling and the Headband of Wis/Cha now use the same slot, meaning you can't have both, (without combining them, which is rediculously costful and puts these to needed items far outside your price range until far too late).
An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source(except for channel energy). Although it is not a magical attack, holy water can affect incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature. Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally.
An incorporeal creature has no natural armor bonus but has a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus (minimum +1, even if the creature’s Charisma score does not normally provide a bonus).
An incorporeal creature can enter or pass through solid objects, but must remain adjacent to the object’s exterior, and so cannot pass entirely through an object whose space is larger than its own. It can sense the presence of creatures or objects within a square adjacent to its current location, but enemies have total concealment (50% miss chance) from an incorporeal creature that is inside an object. In order to see beyond the object it is in and attack normally, the incorporeal creature must emerge. An incorporeal creature inside an object has total cover, but when it attacks a creature outside the object it only has cover, so a creature outside with a readied action could strike at it as it attacks. An incorporeal creature cannot pass through a force effect.
An incorporeal creature’s attacks pass through (ignore) natural armor, armor, and shields, although deflection bonuses and force effects (such as mage armor) work normally against it. Incorporeal creatures pass through and operate in water as easily as they do in air. Incorporeal creatures cannot fall or take falling damage. Incorporeal creatures cannot make trip or grapple attacks, nor can they be tripped or grappled. In fact, they cannot take any physical action that would move or manipulate an opponent or its equipment, nor are they subject to such actions. Incorporeal creatures have no weight and do not set off traps that are triggered by weight.
An incorporeal creature moves silently and cannot be heard with Perception checks if it doesn’t wish to be. It has no Strength score, so its Dexterity modifier applies to its melee attacks, ranged attacks, and CMB. Nonvisual senses, such as scent and blindsight, are either ineffective or only partly effective with regard to incorporeal creatures. Incorporeal creatures have an innate sense of direction and can move at full speed even when they cannot see.
I think it was changed multiple times with some versions missing the line and some having it (I thought I saw that in PRD - Besiary 1 universal monster rules at one time). The current PRD misses that line - I guess that during the merge of universal monster abilities section from all bestiaries the older version was left instead of the latest. Time to notify web-weavers.
It happens. I know hat the change wasn't that new, probaly between 6months and a year. I am also pretty sure that the quoted text is different than the actual errata, which placed Positive/Negative energy in the same exception as Force damage, but I could be wrong.
