|
Haven't played a channeling build before and been looking a bit at a couple of options and was hopining i could get an opinion and advice to what to go for?
Character Idea 1)
Half-Elf Cleric-Angelfire Apostle of Sarenrae, Domains: Glory & Sun
Attributes: str 7, dex 12, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 18
Feats: Selective Channeling (+ Extra channel from archtype)
Traits: Cleansing Light & Sacred Conduit
Favored Class bonus: Half Elf Cleric +1/3 to channel heal and harm
This option would be almost reduced to complete support with 9 channels a day at lvl 1 a decent capability vs undead, but against anything else would more or less be reduced to limited buffer, Utility and probably moving into flank with total defense.
Do you guys think this build would end up getting boring in the long run? Is it way to weak? would it be better to change to 12 str and 7 dex instead?
Character Idea 2)
Race: Undecided(probably Gnome, Halfling, Kitsune or Nagaji)
1 lvl Angelfire Apostle of Sarenrae, domains: Glory & Sun
Attributes: Undecided
Feats: Selective Channeling (+ Extra channel from archtype)
Traits: Cleansing light & Sacred Conduit
Favored Class: Inquisitor(will take Channeling Scourge)
Future levels will be Sacred Huntsman Inquisitor and or with a few levels of Warpriest oracle splashed in.
Thoughts? Opinions? Suggestions? Advice?
Hi, I'm very new to these forums (my first post of any kind) so forgive any noobiness on my part.
Ever since I started role playing I've loved necromancy, specifically of the undead army raising sort, and as such there is some I could tell you about channeling. When it comes to anything undead, negative is strictly more powerful than positive as it lets you control rather than kill, better in the long run. It appears to me you are playing good, though, so here is what I will say.
There is a lot of support out there for channeling, but even in a channeling focused build I think you are putting way too much priority on charisma. If you fight lots of things that you can harm with positive energy, then it will help your DCs, and it gives you more channeling but it puts you into a box on what you can do. I think wisdom is good where it is, you still want your spells, and constitution and dexterity are also around a good place. I question, however, why you put so much emphasis on Intelligence? It doesn't seem very optimized to me, as all Intelligence will help YOU with is skills, not something most clerics worry about. I would either put dexterity or strength higher and Intelligence lower, and which of those depends on what weapon you're using.
Oh, that's right. What weapon are you using? I know it's channel focused, and 9 a day seems like a lot but YOU WILL run out, and what then? You cast a few spells but sometimes you need something sharp to ensure that your foes end up dead.
And any channeling build should check out the Holy Vindicator prestige class. It might not seem like much at first, but it can significantly bolster you in combat. Keep all your options in mind during character creation so that they are still open to you later if you want to choose them.
And finally, what does the rest of your party consist of, and what role do they expect you to play?
Hope this helped.
I suggest a summon build. They work well off of each other as a Cleric. You can channel as a move action with a feat and two uses of channel energy. You can summon as a standard action with the use of two feats (cleric only iirc). I'm not sure if you are allowed to quick summon at that point.
Either way, you pump out HP and pump out summons, letting your summons live a LOT longer than normal.
|
|
Thanks for the suggestions, I've taken a look at the "Holy Vindicator" after the suggestion, it does appear interesting, but wouldn't work with build 1. Simply due to build 1 not being melee based at all.
As for the weapons
Build 1) Light Crossbow, Scimitar & heavy Shield & Kunai(Cold Iron) as a backup when grappled.(Lamella Leather)
Build 2) Scimitar & heavy Shield, Morningstar(Cold Iron), Light Weapon & Sling (Lamella leather or Scalemail)
for build 2 i'm currently focusing on the Nagaji.
Str 16, dex 12, con 14, in 5, wis 14, cha 17
favored class inquisitor(+1 skill for 4 a lvl)
Will go sacred huntsman with lvl 3 feat being channeling scourge, and the domain being sun domain.
I agree with the int isn't that important on Clerics, however I generally want at least 2 skill points a level, and when i've dedicated that to the half-elf bonus to channel I'm left with just 1 sp if i dump it :(
Which result in a character who in melee would be best total defensing and moving into flank position.
------------
Summon builds sound interesting, but would probably drown me in options given the amount of spells to chose from each day also add to this.
Will have to look further at my options.
Something fun to do with a cleric is to have both the Death (Undead) domain and the Sun (None) domain. With a conductive weapon and channel smite you can smite anything thanks to the Death's Kiss domain power which you can channel through your weapon.
Adding your cleric level to your damage thanks to the Sun domain power, and being able to ignore channel resistance, makes the build pretty potent.
If you don't mind being neutral and worshipping a neutral deity, Versatile Channeler allows you to also channel the other energy type - 1d6 weaker, but the difference will matter less over the course of levels.
Reactive Healing can save you when you would be killed by HP damage.
There are actually two feats for more channeling per round: Channel Surge allows a full-round action to burn 2 uses for 150% effect, while Quick Channel means a move action to also burn 2 uses for 100% effect. The latter means a normal standard action channel is still possible, resulting in a total of 3 uses for 200% effect - seems like the more powerful option.
When it comes to specific deities, Pharasma worshippers have access to Fateful Channel - providing a reroll to allies. If you worship Gorum, Channel Viciousness gives the vicious property to all allies' melee weapons - works best with discussing this beforehand and healing them steadily, I guess. There are many more such options in Inner Sea Gods.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
In the adventure's guide there's a new cleric archetype that gets LOADS of channels, we're talking 5+cha and then +1 every even level. The archetype does force you to be unarmored, so you'd be a caster build.
I was about to mention that archetype chess pwn.
Probably the most amazing thing for me about that archetype is it increases the range on what you can use your channel to harm.
At 3rd level when they channel to harm undead it also hurts CE outsiders, people who worship CE gods, and evil creatures with light sensitivity.
There is also a new feature called purifying channel that let's you deal fire damage to an enemy whenever you heal your allies
Can you at least name the archetype if you're gonna talk about it without a link?
^I don't think stuff from the Adventurer's Guide is available online yet, except for the nerf to Lore Warden Fighter.
If you're not tied to particular Cleric Domains and prepared spellcasting, why not go Oracle with the Life Mystery and the Channel Revelation (instead of Cleric)? Then your primary spellcasting ability score is the same as your primary Channel Energy ability score (they are both Charisma), which will usually more than make up for the lower base number of Channel Energy uses, and will give you a better Channel Energy Save DC. Then you pick up other Revelations to do more awesome stuff than Domains would have let you do in most cases. Your spells known will be limited(*), but you will have a lot of them per day, and if you have to recast the same spell for any reason, no problem.
(*)And unfortunately, while the Mystery Spells that Life gives you are good, NONE of them are outside the Cleric/Oracle list.
Unfortunately no Oracle Mysteries have an equivalent to Channel on the Negative Energy side, except for versions restricted to using only with Command Undead (Undead Servitude of the Bones and Juju Mysteries).
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
The cleric archetype is called "Blossoming light." It is on oage 112 of the adventurers guide. It is not online yet.
All changes:
Loses all armor and shield profs. Looses all class features if it wears armor or shield.
Must be good aligned an no evil diety. Willful evil = losing class features.
No domain spell slots. Half lvl on diplo checks against good creatures or to get evil to act against its nature. 5 + cha +1 at even lvl channel energy. Affects extra stuff as said above with channels from 3rd lvl. At 7tg can expend 2 channels to fill the area with a daylight spell. At 10th atonement once per day no cost but only on others.
|
|
Hmm... Would have been nice to have been allowed something like a silken ceremonial armor.
It sounds interesting, but I don't see any mention of Cha or Wis to ac which probably place the class as one of the easiest to hit of all.
Well at least it's possible to ask the Wizard for mage armor.
I'll postpone making this character then till i've seen what this archtype can do and weighted the options.
The cleric archetype is called "Blossoming light." It is on oage 112 of the adventurers guide. It is not online yet.
All changes:
Loses all armor and shield profs. Looses all class features if it wears armor or shield.
Must be good aligned an no evil diety. Willful evil = losing class features.
No domain spell slots. Half lvl on diplo checks against good creatures or to get evil to act against its nature. 5 + cha +1 at even lvl channel energy. Affects extra stuff as said above with channels from 3rd lvl. At 7tg can expend 2 channels to fill the area with a daylight spell. At 10th atonement once per day no cost but only on others.
Sounds kinda terrible, actually. Why not just play an Angelfire Apostle?
Angelfire Apostle also gets Extra Channel at level 1, giving them 5 + CHA channels per day. Unless Blossoming Light makes you a CHA based caster, there shouldn't be much of a difference early levels.
At late levels, the ability to trade out Channels for stuff like Restoration, Heal, and Resurrection all as FREE Spell Like Abilities, definitely beat out the ability to give someone else an atonement spell or casting Daylight.
You also get to keep Light Armor Proficency, as well as Shield Proficiency, so you don't NEED to have a wizard in the party willing and able to cast Mage Armor on you.
Spellcasting wise, you basically break even, with the Angelfire Apostle's Diminished Spellcasting being negated by the Blossoming Light's loss of domain spell slots.
Blossoming Light can then use Channel Energy on a small subset of Evil creatures, however, nothing is really stopping an Angelfire Apostle from grabbing Versatile Channeler, since you're explicitly allowed to be Neutral and worship a Neutral deity with the archetype. With Channel Negative Energy added to your repitoire, you can certainly hurt a MUCH larger subset of enemies.
From what I gather, Angelfire Apostle also has Purifying Channel, in the form of it's "Cleansing Flames" ability that ALSO harms your enemies whenever you cast a healing spell on an ally!
You know given the similarities, I'm starting to wonder whether the two were meant to be same archetype, actually...
|
|
Angelfire Apostle also gets Extra Channel at level 1, giving them 5 + CHA channels per day. Unless Blossoming Light makes you a CHA based caster, there shouldn't be much of a difference early levels.
At late levels, the ability to trade out Channels for stuff like Restoration, Heal, and Resurrection all as FREE Spell Like Abilities, definitely beat out the ability to give someone else an atonement spell or casting Daylight.
You also get to keep Light Armor Proficency, as well as Shield Proficiency, so you don't NEED to have a wizard in the party willing and able to cast Mage Armor on you.
Spellcasting wise, you basically break even, with the Angelfire Apostle's Diminished Spellcasting being negated by the Blossoming Light's loss of domain spell slots.
Blossoming Light can then use Channel Energy on a small subset of Evil creatures, however, nothing is really stopping an Angelfire Apostle from grabbing Versatile Channeler, since you're explicitly allowed to be Neutral and worship a Neutral deity with the archetype. With Channel Negative Energy added to your repitoire, you can certainly hurt a MUCH larger subset of enemies.
From what I gather, Angelfire Apostle also has Purifying Channel, in the form of it's "Cleansing Flames" ability that ALSO harms your enemies whenever you cast a healing spell on an ally!
You know given the similarities, I'm starting to wonder whether the two were meant to be same archetype, actually...
Isn't Anglefire Apostle limited to Sarenrae worshippers?
At least i recall seeing it listed under archtypes under Sarenrae at archives of Nethys.could also be like domains, something that go in the general angel theme.
Edit: "Angelfire apostles typically follow Sarenrae, but a few serve empyreal lords such as Ragathiel."
This website has been the most helpful resource I have found for building pathfinder characters. If you're willing to do the research, type variants of the word channel into the search engine (i.e. channel, channels, channeled, channeling)
The number of channel builds that are actually worthwhile are like hens teeth....
My 2 cents.... CHA 10 gives you enough out of combat healing for 1 big battle/day.
Put your ability points and feats into something that will actually make a difference!