Invisible Clerics + Channel Energy

[fireinthedust]

Okay, so let's say I had a cleric channeling positive energy to heal their party. Let's say that same cleric had feats to let them avoid healing living enemies while doing this.

What if that same Cleric was invisible, so that they could heal their allies while the battle raged around them, without losing the invisibility?


I'm not asking this as a Player (though it is a nifty tactic), but rather as a GM (ie: enemy cleric leading a raiding party)

 

[IronWolf]

Okay, so let's say I had a cleric channeling positive energy to heal their party. Let's say that same cleric had feats to let them avoid healing living enemies while doing this.

Selective Channeling feat?

What if that same Cleric was invisible, so that they could heal their allies while the battle raged around them, without losing the invisibility?

I think this would be fair game. The invisibility spell says it ends if you attack and "For purposes of this spell, an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe."

The gray area is that it does say if the area includes a foe. But later in the invisibility spell description it says Bless would not cause invisibility to cease. Since the feat allows selective targeting I would rule channel energy used in this way more akin to the bless spell.

Remember though, Selective Channeling only allows you to exclude a number of targets equal to your Charisma modifier.

 

[fireinthedust]

Cha-bonus race, most of them elite troops, possibly at a high enough level that +4-6 isn't out of the question. Maybe an Improved Selective Channeling feat houseruled?

EDIT: maybe also a BBEG! Healing an elite bodyguard of troops is common for undead casters, but this would allow the same sort of thing in a group of foes who can't just be "turned". Even an elite group of Undead might be a good target if their Necromancer is invisible.

4e has plenty of leader types who buff their minions. One of those invisibly buffing would just add a more intense level of play.

 

[Thazar]

Nothing wrong with that at all. You can cast healing spells without breaking invisibility... so you can cast Mass Cure Light Wounds. Channel is no different then that. I would say selective channel does not even have to be there as when you heal the bad guys it is still not an attack.

(Channel negative energy or channeling positive to undead would break the invisibility.)

 

[ruemere]

Pathfinder PRD, Invisibility, relevant fragment:
For purposes of this spell, an attack includes any spell targeting a foe or whose area or effect includes a foe.

In case of a Channel Positive Energy ability used, with applied Selective Channeling feat allowing for exclusion of all foes from its area of effect, there is no attack.
Channel Positive Energy is not a spell, of course, however, this is the closest we can get to the actual rule - i.e. area of effect and foes.

Regards,
Ruemere

 

[fireinthedust]

What I'm worried about is whether or not I can avoid healing the PCs with this also. If the positive-channelling caster is healing their living allies, any PCs in the area are also healed.

This wouldn't be a problem if the issue was whether the bad guys were around long enough to, say, finish a ritual. Example: The ritual involves keeping five (elite class-level'd) Ogres in a circular spell-chamber, alive, for ten rounds. The PCs are in there, as is a Cleric with lots of Channel Positive attempts. If completed, whether the PCs are there or not, the Ritual allows the BBEG to win, or something.