Energy Drain

[The Shadow]

What about ghouls should they have a condition like paralysis again?

In a word, yes.

Now, here's a first stab at Energy Drain - 5e style!

When a creature with Energy Drain hits, it does the indicated damage, and in addition the victim loses one Hit Die. (Or more, depending on the creature.) The victim's largest hit dice are lost first.

Roll the drained Hit Di(c)e. The victim loses that many hit points, and the draining creature heals by half that amount. The victim takes disadvantage on attacks and checks in the next round.

If a character is Energy Drained past the number of hit dice that it has, it immediately falls unconscious. A further Energy Drain will kill the character (and possibly enable the attacker to spawn him or her as an undead creature, according to the attacker's description).

Any character that has lost hit dice from or been rendered unconscious by Energy Drain receives the Drained condition. Drained characters need to make a Con save vs. DC 10 (?) to regain hit dice, and receive only half the usual amount for the campaign. The Drained condition goes away when all hit dice are recovered.

How's that? Should Drained characters perhaps also receive disadvantage on certain checks and/or saves, to mimic the loss of competence from lost levels?

EDIT: Oh, and presumably the Restoration spell can remove the Drained condition, as well as restoring lost hit dice.

 

[Rhenny]

I kind of like the first playtest version of energy drain. It is pretty scary.

Each hit by the Wight drained 3 from max hit points. These hit points do not return until PC takes extended rest.

If the Wight's attack (3 hit points of damage) brings PC to 0 hp, it will die and rise as a Wight in 24 hours (unless a bless is cast). I could also see Death's Door preventing this transformation.

This isn't too hard to keep track of, and it is definately scary because the -3 to max hit points cannot be healed until extended rest.

 

[Dour-n-Taciturn]

I like the idea of draining hit die, but to make anything a permanent condition or extending past a long rest/day, is something I am strongly against as a core rule. Death would be the only exception to my objection to permanent conditions, but I digress...

 

[triqui]

Ooooh! I like that! I hadn't thought of draining hit dice, at all!

I like the evoking nature of this rule (it's the 4e rule, btw). But draining 1 hit dice is bassically the same than doing 1d8 damage, just to point out...

Sure, it sounds much better, it makes you to think about "life drain", and so on. But, in the long run, it's just an extra d8 (on average) damage. It's a bit more against fighters, a bit less against wizards.

 

[slobo777]

Ooooh! I like that! I hadn't thought of draining hit dice, at all!

Maybe for each hit die drained, the wight gets to roll it to heal?

Yes, that would work.

What would the major condition be?

I guess that will depend on the unliving in question. A wight is basic, so I'd suggest that the minor effect is wight gets advantage on its next round's attack versus same character. A major effect might be the wight gets advantage and ++damage versus the character until the pc gets a hit dice back.

This is a bit death-spiral, but somehow that seems appropriate for living dead. Affected characters would be well advised to back off, hopefully leading to the old school "You go first!", "No, you go first!"

 

[Yora]

I think it should be reversible, though not easily.

And however it turns out, it should be easy to both apply the penalties and also remove them again.

 

[The Shadow]

I kind of like the first playtest version of energy drain. It is pretty scary.

Each hit by the Wight drained 3 from max hit points. These hit points do not return until PC takes extended rest.

I'd forgotten that one. It's not bad, the only problem is that if you're already wounded, you don't really notice the -3 max hp until later.

It does seem really terrifying against low-level characters, but once they have a few levels, it's not nearly as bad.

I like the evoking nature of this rule (it's the 4e rule, btw). But draining 1 hit dice is bassically the same than doing 1d8 damage, just to point out...

In addition to the damage from the wight's attack, and it leaves you with less hit dice to heal with later on. Plus there's, you know, dying when you run out.

I like the idea of draining hit die, but to make anything a permanent condition or extending past a long rest/day, is something I am strongly against as a core rule.

Really? You don't do diseases, mummy rot, that kind of thing? To each his own, I guess. In that case, it's easy enough to just ignore the Drained condition.

I guess that will depend on the unliving in question. A wight is basic, so I'd suggest that the minor effect is wight gets advantage on its next round's attack versus same character. A major effect might be the wight gets advantage and ++damage versus the character until the pc gets a hit dice back.

Ouch. Of course, you're doing that in place of unconsciousness in my version, right?

My own philosophy of monsters (as opposed to humanoids like orcs) is that they should be scary. I dislike the idea of cannon-fodder monsters. Truth be told, I'm always tempted to beef up even skeletons and zombies for this very reason. Fighting a walking corpse should be terrifying! It should just... keep... coming.

Of course, do too much of that, and necromancy starts looking really good.

 

[Remathilis]

I actually kinda hope for "multiple" energy drain abilities:

A wight or vampire drains off your max hp.
A shadow adds penalties to hit and damage.
A wraith or specter steals hit dice.
Etc.

 

[SLOTHmaster]

I am not a fan of the current HD rules, so I would not be happy with that kind of drain. Stat damage, as someone said, would be a pain to use as it would force people to change so many thngs on their character sheet, but you could drain the end result; like instead of draining Con, drain 1 hp/ level and give a penalty to saves.

 

[triqui]

In addition to the damage from the wight's attack, and it leaves you with less hit dice to heal with later on. Plus there's, you know, dying when you run out.

Yes. It's actually like +2d8 extra damage or so. A sneak attack by other name. Because, in the long run, it's expected the PC will win the encounter, and will heal. So the only durable condition here, is the damage attrition. And there's not much difference between a wight doing 3d8 damage, that you later heal with 3d8 hit dice, or the wight doing 1d8 dmg, then burning you 1d8 hit dice. In the end, what you lose is 3d8 hit dice.