(Pathfinder Beta) Channel negative in a sanctuary spell?

[Larx]

I have been running a pathfinder play test for a few weeks now and I recently decided to add a cleric as a reoccurring villain to my story. Perhaps I have done one to many raids in wow but I thought of this combo for him to use and I am wondering if it is feasible.

Can a cleric while in sanctuary use channel negative energy and still be within the rules of the sanctuary spell? His goals are to attack the party, but channel negative can be considered a healing spell for undead if I am correct.

[Starbuck_II]

I have been running a pathfinder play test for a few weeks now and I recently decided to add a cleric as a reoccurring villain to my story. Perhaps I have done one to many raids in wow but I thought of this combo for him to use and I am wondering if it is feasible.

Can a cleric while in sanctuary use channel negative energy and still be within the rules of the sanctuary spell? His goals are to attack the party, but channel negative can be considered a healing spell for undead if I am correct.

As long as you don't target enemy in the area: you won't break sanctuary. If no one gets damaged by the channeling: it doesn't count as an attack.

[Larx]

Well they do get damaged as they are living creatures, but he is flooding the area with negative energy which they just so happen to be in. would that count as him attacking them?

[Kurald Galain]

Can a cleric while in sanctuary use channel negative energy and still be within the rules of the sanctuary spell? His goals are to attack the party, but channel negative can be considered a healing spell for undead if I am correct.

On the one hand, you're the DM so it's your call.

On the other hand, you are clearly using a loophole here. It's a bit of a twist to say that an area effect that hurts people "can be considered" not an attack. This is not a matter of what section 12-B clause 73 says, this is a matter of how it appears in the game world.

[Larx]

Ya I understand that, my reason behind asking was that my friend who plays the parties cleric would likly try to copy it. The campaign is currently low level and very undead heavy. Though he would channel positive energy it would be considered the same as negative, at least I think it would be if you used it to both attack a horde of undead and heal his friends at the same time. Thats really why I wanted to see if it is within the actual game rules, and also because the new channels seem a little to powerful to me.

But thanks guys, was woried about bringing up the new pathfinder rules as I havent been able to find much discussion here on these forums about the beta.

[Dyllan]

If you're directly hurting someone, I'd say it's an offensive action that would break sanctuary.

That does lead to an interesting situation in which it only breaks sanctuary if an enemy undead is within range... but heals your allies regardless. But that's still how I'd run it.

And the new abilities for Pathfinder aren't really much different than some divine feats that exist in 3.5. All the base classes in Pathfinder are overpowered compared to 3.5. Personally, I think that flies in the face of their design goal of being compatible with printed 3.5 modules. Sure, you can convert the modules on the fly, but with stronger base classes it means every challenge will be a bit easier than the module was designed for.

[Fixer]

By RAW, it is allowed. However, as a GM I would say it is not, primarily so the PCs don't try a similar trick.

Sanctuary is used to protect the caster while they are made to appear non-combatant. Channeling large amounts of negative energy into an area, dealing damage, is not behavior conducive to appearing as a non-combatant.

I mean, by RAW, it is possible to arrange for a sanctuary'd PC to make an opponent fall off a cliff by pulling a rug out from under them. That doesn't make it something that SHOULD happen. This is what Rule 0 is for.