Good Undead Cleric?

[Jorael]

My friend is planning on running a campaign set in a very ravenloft-esque world (without actually being ravenloft), in which the undead are both numerous and powerful. I, naturally, volunteered to be the cleric. Who wouldn't want to be the turner in a world full of zombies?

Herein lies the problem. I thought that I should make my character interesting, so after some searching, I found the necropolitan template and devised a whole backstory about a cleric of a death god (natural for the setting, i think) who was captured by (insert evil-doer here) and turned into an intelligent undead. He of course broke free and went his own way.

So here's the question: Can an undead cleric still channel positive energy, as in turn/destroy undead and spontaneously cast cure spells? Or is my cleric doomed to rebuke/command undead and spontaneously cast inflict spells? Don't get me wrong, rebuking and commanding undead is super-awesome, but I still want to be able to cast cure spells with ease.

I thought maybe as a balance, since positive energy harms undead, every time my cleric cast a cure/healing spell or turned undead, he would take damage because of his undead nature. What do you all think?

 

[Alzrius]

By the Rules As Written, there's nothing about being undead that affects your ability to channel energy. It's just a question of your alignment, and your deity's alignment. Hence, you should be fine.

 

[Jorael]

Thanks, Alzrius. My DM may end up going with the "harming heals" anyway, but I couldn't find ANYTHING ANYWHERE about good-aligned undead clerics. I guess it's just too "out there" for normal players.

EDIT: So my next question is this: Is there a way to rebuke/command undead and still spontaneously cast cure spells? Essentially, can I have my cake and rebuke it, too?

 

[krupintupple]

i'd hope for your sake that he doesn't decide to include a stupid rule that hurts you every time that you try to accomplish what your character role is. i mean, wouldn't it seem pretty dumb if the party tank mysteriously injured himself every time that he swung his axe, or if the rogue had to deal with nagging but serious wounds each time that he used spot, search or sneak attack. essentially, while this may seem like a flavourful game mechanic on paper, you're eventually going to really start to dislike it, because clerics spend a lot of time healing.

you're penalized enough as an undead character, since you can be destroyed by a turn undead (or completely screwed by a rebuke undead) and effectively 'die' at 0 hit points, and can't be raised or brought back. keep in mind there's no rule against an undead that channells positive energy to turn other undead - if your DM brings in extraneous rules, he's just making them up.

 

[Sagawork_Studios]

Perhaps the deathless subtype from the Book of Exalted Deeds would have could suit your needs as a race?

Commanding and Turning Undead is tied with the respective polarity of energy that a cleric channels for spontaneous cause/cure spells. As far as I am aware of existing rules, you are limited to the rules as written.

You could investigate the Pathfinder Beta rules for Clerics and see if they suit your needs a little more. The death domain the the PF Beta has some cool necromancer-like abilities that allow you to summon undead that do not count towards your total HD of created undead.

 

[Jack Simth]

You might try either Spontaneous Healer, or it's counterpart, Spontaneous Wounder, both from Complete Divine.

 

[Sagawork_Studios]

You might try either Spontaneous Healer, or it's counterpart, Spontaneous Wounder, both from Complete Divine.

Ah, so a netural cleric can take negative energy channelling in order to command undead, but also take the Spontaneous Healer feat to spontaneously heal.

I stand corrected; there is something. Handy.

 

[Thanael]

I thought maybe as a balance, since positive energy harms undead, every time my cleric cast a cure/healing spell or turned undead, he would take damage because of his undead nature. What do you all think?

There's no need and no precedence for this. A living cleric isn't harmed by a cause wounds spell either. Unless he takes the Tomb-tainted soul feat from Libris Mortis that is.

The whole idea reminds me of James Jacobs' PC for the AoW playtest: Tyralandi Scrimm. From his introduction: Tyralandi Scrimm was born dead. Her stats are here and the rest of her excellent story is here.

She was a gothic-necromancerly lawful neutral cleric of Wee Jas with the feats Spontaneous Healer, Tomb-Born Fortitude, Tomb-Tainted Soul. (Check out this very useful site for more feats descriptions)

 

[Jorael]

Thank you guys so much for your help. I pretty much created an account here just to ask that question, and I'm really pleased with how it worked out. In any case, it looks like I'm going to be an Undead Lawful Neutral Cleric of Kelemvor with the Repose and Travel Domains. We'll see how it works out.

 

[Vardock]

There is also The goddess "Mourning Glory" from Libris Mortis. A goddess of eternal love thorough Undeath.