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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Roman" data-source="post: 4271170" data-attributes="member: 1845">Volaran, I have used the channel energy mechanic for some time before the above-mentioned side-quest and now also after the side-quest. When the party is not fighting undead, I find the current incarnation of Channel Energy to be just fine. When it comes to fighting undead alone, though, it is almost impossible to make a reasonable challenge for the PCs. A mixed group of undead and living enemies is somewhere in-between, depending on the mix. Regarding the three NPC paladins: They were indeed a boost, but not as much as normal party members of the same type would have been and were sub-optimally played to keep the spotlight on the PCs. Furthermore, they were not there at all during the first part of the playtest [at which point, incidently, the party was still only at level 8] and only came in for the finale (since the PCs sought them out...). In the final fight, for example, they only fought some of the four minion mummies and fought them mostly using normal attacks (and were without magical gear and had 'not great' stats and so on), so that the PCs could fight the main villains (and ultimately it was mainly the PCs who killed even the minion mummies). With respect to your question about the resources of the party, the party is somewhat underequiped for its level (and the NPC Paladins were even more so [for example, they used no magical gear whatsoever) and was even more underequiped during the playtest (the stuff found in the vault after King Ochran's chamber ameliorated their equipment shortages). Some of the magical stuff they had was 'broken' and not repaired during the previous adventure, so between them the party members had only two functioning magical weapons (+1 and +2, respectively) and two functioning suits of magical armor (leather and chainmail [+2 and +1 respectively] as well as some other magical items, which were not, however, useful in combat). Their more interesting magical weapons and armors were non-functional during the adventure and were repaired only afterwards. They also had some healing potions, a bunch of other potion and also some scrolls, but they did not use any of them - I guess there was no need. As to the party composition, yes, the party is clearly well-prepared to fight undead. This, however, is pretty much exclusively due to the Cleric, as can be seen from the feat selection (the purpose of which was to enhance healing, with fighting the undead only an afterthought for the Cleric), with some credit going also to the Paladin. The overwhelming advantage of the party was the Channel Positive Energy ability, which ensured that the party devastated their undead opponents and escaped most fights unscathed or with minor injuries. Even the final battle resulted with the party leaving either with minor or moderate injuries hit point-wise, though two party members had mummy rot, abd many or all (I no longer remember precisely) suffered constitution damage from spells (as did the NPC paladins) and they did expend a lot of other resources (spells and channel positive energy uses). As to the power-level of the encounter, bear in mind that Ochran's soul alone was CR 17+, Ochran's body was CR 15+ and the four advisor mummies were CR 5 each (they fully occupied the NPC paladins, and even then, the PCs had to fight some of them), plus there were the environmental effects... The Channel Energy mechanic comes from and replaces the Turn Undead mechanic, which affected exclusively the Undead. As a replacement for Turn Undead, it is useful to playtest it against the same enemies that Turn Undead would have been used against: Undead. Yes, it now has additional uses as a form of healing in all types of combat and out of combat too, but these make it even more powerful than the original ability by extending its reach (although I did not find it to be overpowered in those situations - just some extra healing that PCs tend to use mostly out of combat). Nevertheless, since these extra uses of the ability are in addition to the original purpose of Turning Undead. Think of it this way - imagine if the old Turning Undead essentially became an "I win" ability. Just because it would be an "I win" ability only against the undead, we shouldn't say it would be overpowered? Of course, we should... and if it gained other uses in situations without the undead (such as healing out of combat) than that would not change its overpowered status. Now it may seem that I dislike the Channel Energy ability. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would far prefer to keep even the current incarnation of Channel Positive/Negative Energy (and even against the undead) than to go back to the old mechanic, which was needlessly complicated and idiosyncratic and rarely if ever used and generally bad. I just think that the power of the Channel Positive/Negative Energy ability ought to be turned down somewhat. Cure ... Wounds spells provide a good baseline to look at. Consider that the Channel Positive/Negative Energy ability of a first level cleric is similar to the Mass Cure/Inflict Light Wounds spell, which is normally a 5th level spell that clerics gets at level 9. Now, he essentially gets a very similar ability fully 8 levels lower. I feel this is something to ponder. I love how Channel Energy works, but the damage/healing it does needs to be toned down to level-appropriate degrees so that balance is preserved.</blockquote>

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