Energy Channel: As powerful as it seems?

[SillyGuy]

Well, I want to make a cleric that uses the feat Energy Channel.

Here for those who prefer the Paizo PRD.

So, I need a way to Channel energy, and either elemental domains or blessings.

...2x Channel dice as bonus to weapon damage for the next three attacks.

Weapon damage...

According to this FAQ, Rays count as weapons for the purpose of spells and effects that affect weapons.

So, rays are weapons. Energy Channel boosts damage of weapon attacks. A cleric of Gozreh takes the Air and Water Domains; this allows for Electricity or Cold bonus damage from Energy Channel.

At 1st level, we can take the trait Two-World Magic and pick Ray of Frost.

Suddenly, you put every Gunslinger to shame: As a swift+standard action, you can hit something at 25' with a ranged touch attack for 1d3+2d6 damage!

(and still retain two *charges* for future turns)

...at 7th level, you can cast Admonishing Ray and shoot two rays as a standard action.

By now, you have 4d6 channel energy, so you get 8d6 bonus damage per weapon attack from Energy channel.

...4d6+8d6 damage per ray, and two rays as standard action...24d6 damage total; average 84.

At level 7!
(and you still have one *charge* left for the next weapon attack)

At level 11, you get three rays with Admonishing ray, and deal 4d6+12d6 damage per ray, or 12d6 nonlethal +36d6 energy damage.

A swift action, a use of channel energy, a single feat, a standard action, and a 2nd-level spell:

48d6(average 168) damage, with three ranged touch attacks...

At level 20, you deal 4d6+20d6 damage per ray; you still have only three rays, so it's 72d6 damage total(average 252)

...did I miss something, or is suddenly every single cleric with an elemental domain now casually dealing large amounts of damage with extremely low investment?

[Rynjin]

It should work with rays, yes (by RAW. RAI is iffy, but I'd allow it at my table because it sounds cool).

Note that with Admonishing Ray, ALL of the damage would be nonlethal.

It's actually not as much damage as it seems, though. It's a neat trick, I'll grant you, and definitely packs a wallop, but certainly won't "put a Gunslinger to shame".

Especially since it's fairly limited in uses per day, both in your Channel uses and your spell uses. And anything immune to Nonlethal (a surprising number of creatures) or resistant to your element (also a fairly large number for any given element) will shrug it off.

Definitely a trick to keep in the back pocket though. Recent books have been very kind to Channel Energy.

[Just a Guess]

Energy channel gives you 2 points of damage per 1d6 you would channel, not 2d6 per 1d6 channel.

Quote:

Suddenly, you put every Gunslinger to shame: As a swift+standard action, you can hit something at 25' with a ranged touch attack for 1d3+2d6 damage!

at level 1 this would deal 1d3+2 not 1d3+2d6

[LoneKnave]

Funny you'd mention gunslingers; this is probably best used with weapons that have attacks that hit multiple targets (blunderbuss, double shotty). I do wonder if it counts as 1 or multiple attacks if used with Pummeling Charge tho.

[Bob Bob Bob]

Uh, if I'm reading that right it's not twice as many dice. It's twice the number of dice you would roll, so a flat number.

Elemental Challenge wrote:

A swift action, you can expend one use of channel energy to grant your weapon attacks a bonus on damage rolls equal to twice the number of dice rolled for your channel energy.

So when you have 4d6 channel, you'd add 8 damage. Not 8d6. It's a nice bonus but not really worth making a build around.

[Gisher]

SillyGuy wrote:

At level 20, you deal 4d6+20d6 damage per ray; you still have only three rays, so it's 72d6 damage total(average 252)

...did I miss something, or is suddenly every single cleric with an elemental domain now casually dealing large amounts of damage with extremely low investment?

Just a Guess wrote:

Energy channel gives you 2 points of damage per 1d6 you would channel, not 2d6 per 1d6 channel.

Quote:

Suddenly, you put every Gunslinger to shame: As a swift+standard action, you can hit something at 25' with a ranged touch attack for 1d3+2d6 damage!

at level 1 this would deal 1d3+2 not 1d3+2d6

As Just a Guess says, it's a bonus equal to twice the number of dice you can channel, not twice as many dice as you can channel. At level 20 the number of dice you can channel is 10. Your bonus damage is twice that: 2x10=20. So each ray would deal 4d6+20 damage. All three rays would deal 12d6+60 for an average of 102 points.

Edit: Ninja'd by Bob Bob Bob. I guess he is three times faster at posting than the average Bob. :)

[Imbicatus]

It's a nice feat as it gives you what is essentially a maximized channel smite, but broken up over three attacks.

[SillyGuy]

Thanks for the replies, everyone!

A flat number instead of doubled channel dice seems much more reasonable.