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Does Negative Energy Affinity mean that dhampir count as undead for the purposes of Chill Touch, a spell using negative energy? Or is it just for effects that harm/heal living creatures and do the opposite to undead (like channel and cures)?
Negative Energy Affinity: Though a living creature, a dhampir reacts to positive and negative energy as if it were undead — positive energy harms it, while negative energy heals it.
Chill Touch: A touch from your hand, which glows with blue energy, disrupts the life force of living creatures. Each touch channels negative energy that deals 1d6 points of damage. The touched creature also takes 1 point of Strength damage unless it makes a successful Fortitude saving throw. You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level. An undead creature you touch takes no damage of either sort, but it must make a successful Will saving throw or flee as if panicked for 1d4 rounds + 1 round per caster level.
Negative energy normally heals undead the spell specifically calls out that it has a different effect on undead so I would say it would do no damage to dhampir and have a fear effect instead
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There is obviously some confusion here.
The Dhampir's Negative Energy Affinity only affects how it reacts to negative energy. Nothing else. It's stated right in the ability.
A Dhampir is a creature of the Humanoid type, and Dhampir subtype. It is not a creature of the Undead type. Spells that affect Undead have no affect on Dhampirs, because they are Humanoids.
Chill Touch has three spell effects. One is that it deals 1d6 negative energy damage. This, being negative energy damage, is instead healed by the Dhampir, because that's what NEA does.
It then takes 1 Strength damage (upon a failed save). This is not negative energy damage. The Dhampir is just as susceptible to this as any other Humanoid.
The third affect only works on creatures of the Undead type. The Dhampir is a Humanoid, so it doesn't have to worry about fleeing.
That's it.
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Disagreement - I feel justified in my confusion. I think I've sorted it though.
A Dhampir is not of the Undead type. It is a Humanoid. It simply reacts to positive and negative energy as if it were Undead.
(emphasis mine) That's the original phrasing but I remembered an this FAQ clarifying how channel affects a dhampir and it's actually changed:
Negative Energy Affinity: How is this ability (Bestiary 2, page 299) supposed to work?
The intent of this ability is that the creature is healed by negative energy (like an undead) and harmed by positive energy (like an undead); this is automatic and has nothing to do with the intent of the target or the energy-wielder. However, as written, the ability is a bit confusing because of the phrase “reacts to,” which doesn’t have a clear definition. This ability will be changed in the next printing of Bestiary 2.Update: Page 299—In the description of the Negative Energy Affinity ability, replace the current entry with the following:
Negative Energy Affinity (Ex) The creature is alive, but is treated as undead for all effects that affect undead differently than living creatures, such as cure spells and channeled energy. Format: negative energy affinity; Location: Defensive Abilities.
I don't think this applies to effects that target only undead or only humanoids (a dhampir isn't affected by disrupt undead or immune to charm person) but since Chill Touch affects both undead and living creatures and affects them differently, I think the dhampir is treated as undead per the new wording.
EDIT: Nefreet, do you agree with this interpretation given the updated wording?
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I do not agree with that interpretation of the FAQ.
Take that whole FAQ in context. Look at the phrases "healed by negative energy (like an undead)", "harmed by positive energy (like an undead)", and "such as cure spells and channeled energy".
The FAQ was put out because people, like Master of the Dark Triad earlier, miscontrue Negative Energy Affinity to mean anything that would normally apply to Undead.
This simply isn't true, has no support, and was never the intention.
However you want to phrase it, the only thing a Dhampir has to be concerned with is being harmed by positive energy, and healed by negative.
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I already parsed it in an earlier post, but I feel it needs repeating:
Look at Chill Touch again. Notice the three different statements it makes? Each is separated by a period, and each is its own spell effect:
The first effect deals negative energy damage. A Dhampir's NEA means it is healed instead.
The second effect deals 1 strength damage, unless the Dhampir saves.
The third effect only triggers if the spell was cast on a creature of the Undead type.
The FAQ changes none of this.
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No, the FAQ was put out because of confusion over how Channel Energy affected creatures with NEA. Some people thought that if you channeled positive energy to heal living creatures, it would target a dhampir (because the dhampir is living) but then harm it (because of NEA). And on that thread SKR clarifies that the "treated as undead" phrasing was meant to indicate that channel energy also targets a dhampir as if it were undead - channeling positive energy to heal living creatures does not affect a dhampir, but channeling to harm undead does.
The new wording does seem overly broad in that it specifies all effects, not just positive and negative energy effects, but SKR also clarifies that "treat undead differently from living creatures" is meant to be read as I guessed above:
NEA doesn't give you all the undead traits; that would be a pointless ability (we'd just change the monster's type to undead if we wanted it to work that way).
Basically, if an effect specifically says, "this works this way on living creatures, and this other way on undead," then treat the NEA creature as if it were undead, otherwise, treat it as living. ...
So a dhampir is still affected by charm person because that spell doesn't say "it affects humanoids like X, but affects undead like Y."
So a dhampir is panicked by Chill Touch because that spell does say "it affects living creatures like X, but undead like Y." (An undead creature takes no damage, but instead...)
The wording is unclear even on the FAQ, but the intent is clear - at least with respect to Positive and Negative energy effects. There appears to be still some discussion saying that NEA shouldn't affect how a creature is affected by, say, Sunburst, which deals extra damage to undead. Since there hasn't been a change, I'm inclined to assume that it would hurt dhampir more.
And Chill Touch definitely counts since it's a negative energy effect that does one thing to living creatures and another to undead. Per SKR's clarification, it affects the dhampir as undead.
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And you're ignoring everything else that tells you that's not how it works. Including two separate comments from SKR and the actual text written in the updated Bestiary.
And the fact that "like an undead" can be interpreted to include the targeting step of the spell. As in: healed by negative energy like an undead, under circumstances in which undead would be healed by that negative energy. Rather than healed by negative energy (chill touch) unlike an undead, which would be panicked by that same energy.
As SKR explains it, it is simpler than your interpretation, makes more sense, and is balanced, so that's what my group will use.