I am currently spending a lot of time looking at Variant Channeling (because I really want to be be able to channel negative earth energy).
It gets a little confusing when in it says
The following is a list of example portfolios and the variant channeling abilities available to each.
But when you start looking at individual deities it fails to mention Portfolios
Details
Alignment LN
Pantheon Core Deities
Other Pantheons Deities of Tian Xia, Halfling Deities, Order of the God Claw Pantheon, Sandpoint Pantheon, Taldan Pantheon
Areas of Concern Cities, laws, merchants, wealth
Domains Earth, Law, Nobility, Protection, Travel
Subdomains Aristocracy, Defense, Fortifications, Inevitable, Leadership, Legislation (Law), Martyr, Metal, Portal*, Trade
* Requires the Acolyte of Apocrypha trait.
Favored Weapon Light crossbow
Symbol Golden key
Sacred Animal(s) Monkey
Sacred Color(s) Gold, silver
So what is a Portfolio? Is it their Areas of Concern? The Domains? All of the above?
I tend to lean to think it means both but definetely domains because in the Undead Lord archetype it references the portfolio and implies domains
A cleric cannot take the undead lord archetype unless her deity’s portfolio includes the Death domain or a similar domain that promotes undeath.
Portfolios are a hold over from older D&D editions, and pretty much translates directly into Domains, as far as Pathfinder is concerned. For a more loose translation, it is the area in which the deity in question exercises power over. Domains are simply how the deity grants powers related to their portfolios to their clerics.
I am currently spending a lot of time looking at Variant Channeling (because I really want to be be able to channel negative earth energy).
It gets a little confusing when in it says
The following is a list of example portfolios and the variant channeling abilities available to each.But when you start looking at individual deities it fails to mention Portfolios
So what is a Portfolio? Is it their Areas of Concern? The Domains? All of the above?Details
Alignment LN
Pantheon Core Deities
Other Pantheons Deities of Tian Xia, Halfling Deities, Order of the God Claw Pantheon, Sandpoint Pantheon, Taldan Pantheon
Areas of Concern Cities, laws, merchants, wealth
Domains Earth, Law, Nobility, Protection, Travel
Subdomains Aristocracy, Defense, Fortifications, Inevitable, Leadership, Legislation (Law), Martyr, Metal, Portal*, Trade
* Requires the Acolyte of Apocrypha trait.
"Portfolio" mostly maps to Areas of Concern and/or Domains. In some cases, that may require some interpretation/negotiation with the GM (for example, would a cleric of Abraxas be allowed to use Poison variant channeling? Is having snakes as an Area of Concern enough to qualify without also having the Scalykind/Venom subdomain?).
"Portfolio" is basically an indication of a general concept where the deity has influence, not necessarily a strictly mechanical one-for-one correspondence to the domains.
Some portfolios don't correspond to any domains though. You might be better off looking at "Areas of concern" as well to decide whether a deity has a given portfolio.