Hi everyone, just looking for some guidance on a character concept that a friend is asking me about. The individual is looking at creating an oracle of life that channels positive energy and therefore heals with their channel and then after a couple of levels switches to a cleric of Asmodeus. I already explained that it's more than likely not going to be very efficient as a character concept and that a really good backstory as to why this change is taking place is even happening but they are sold on the idea. The question that I have is that they think that because they are going to switch to a priest of Asmodeus that they will automatically get channel negative energy, which in the hero lab program does seem to work. This will ultimately give the character the ability to channel both positive and negative energy. Does anyone have any comments, ideas, or opinions on this concept? Thanks
As far as I can tell it will work, but it may not be all that effective.
Channel energy pools specifically don't stack, so even if he wanted to be a positive energy cleric he'd end up with 2 separate channel pools - each tracking their uses/day separately and healing/dealing damage according to their specific class.
Channelling feats should work for both classes (for example: "Selective Channel" would work for both pools, "Extra Channel" will actually give you 2 extra channels that work with either positive or negative channelling). I was gong to recommend a phylactery of channelling, but I realised that they actually do specify positive/negative. You COULD make a custom item that covers both, but the guidelines for that have it costing ~27000gp from memory.
As far as Hero Lab is concerned, it's not an official source, so don't worry if it doesn't work there (although it may mean the player has to learn/remember a bit more).
My final thought is that I can't really see it being super effective. I'd definitely focus on one class rather than trying to split them. An Oracle 1/Cleric X would have a little healing and focus on negative channelling (not terrible), or a Cleric 1/Oracle X would have loads of healing and a little negative channelling - either of these wouldn't give up much for a little versatility. If the player tried to split them evenly though, they'd probably end up with lacklustre channels from both classes (and also spells).
Thanks guys, it is greatly appreciated as it’s exactly as I thought. He is really just thinking about only one level in cleric knowing full well that both positive and negative channel pools are separate. He’s still sold on the idea after giving your thoughts. Again, thanks for the help.
Another way to make this work would be to use Variant Multiclassing rules. This would mean his channel negative energy does not come online until 7th level, and would cost him half his feats, but it would at least scale up and eventually get near that of a full cleric.
Perhaps Adept Channel might fill the need of the player. He just needs to pick up a familiar to qualify and he'll get a few uses of Negative Channel if his alignment/god match the requirements.
Thanks guys, those two last options were unknown to me and my friend might actually decide on one of those. Thanks for the advice. You guys are all great.