I know this is not a new debate, but in reviewing several threads regarding this subject, I could not find anything that resolved the issues with Lay on Hands and Touch of Corruption.
My issue is that Lay on Hands never says that it is a positive energy effect. It may be inferred from the ability, but it is not actually listed as a positive energy effect.
Lay on Hands says "a paladin can heal wounds (her own or those of others) by touch" so that means that a dhampir or an undead race paladin (that is not evil) can heal themselves with Lay on Hands. Lay on Hands also says "a paladin can use this healing power to deal damage to undead creatures" so that means that they could not deal damage to a dhampir as they are not undead, they just have negative energy affinity and Lay on Hands is not described in the rules as being a positive energy effect.
Conversely, Touch of Corruption for an antipaladin never calls it a negative energy effect. So a dhampir antipaladin cannot use it to heal itself as Touch of Corruption says "an antipaladin surrounds his hand with a fiendish flame, causing terrible wounds to open on those he touches" and "an antipaladin can use this power to heal undead creatures." As pointed out earlier, a dhampir is not an undead creature and Touch of Corruption is not listed as a negative energy effect. An undead race antipaladin could use Touch of Corruption on itself as a standard action and "heal" from that ability.
Now when a paladin or antipaladin are high enough level to channel positive energy or channel negative energy, respectively, then they could use that ability as a positive or negative energy ability, just not the Lay on Hands or Touch of Corruption.
I know I might be parsing words here, but it is obvious that neither of the abilities, Lay on Hands or Touch of Corruption, say that they are positive or negative energy effects and there has been almost a decade in which they could have received an FAQ so I am assuming the developers want to keep it that way even though it has odd circumstances resulting from those omissions.
Am I too far off here or right on base? I also realize it could be a RAW versus RAI issue, but then that leads to other questions like could a dhampir antipaladin use Touch of Corruption as a swift action to heal itself, etc.
Thanks!
In a 2012 faq to the CRB it is clarified that lay on hands is positive energy.
In a 2012 faq to the CRB it is clarified that lay on hands is positive energy.
Thanks! I swear that I cannot find anything since they changed the website.
So that makes Lay on Hands a positive energy effect (Paizo why won't you change this on the SRD?) and nulls part of my post.
It does not change the touch of corruption side of it as far as I can see. I looked at the FAQ for Advanced Player's Guide and it did not have anything there for antipaladins.
I can't find the FAQ page at present...
Eureka! Thanks @zza ni
I can't find the FAQ page at present...
I am so glad that I am not the only one having trouble navigating the new Paizo website after the changes. I had to exit out and Google search "Pathfinder Core Rulebook FAQ" to find it the other day after searching the website for 20 minutes...
The "help" icon on the top banner is the link for the faqs, for those still having issues.