Brainstorming: Revising Energy Drain for 3.X

[Dannyalcatraz]

A while ago, there was a thread about possible ways to handle Energy Drain in 5th, and I contributed this (consolidated from 2 posts):

Energy Drain Revision

I always liked the original- sure it was nasty for bookkeeping, but it felt right.

In 5Ed, it could be a 4 step condition degradation. To use 3Ed terminology, I think it could work by making a PC Fatigued => Exhausted => Staggered => Unconscious.

To clarify- this shouldn't happen on 4 consecutive hits. That would be too much, too fast. It needs to be conditional.

1) Perhaps it takes a crit to bestow the condition- and more powerful Energy Draining undead have better odds of scoring a crit.

2) it could be a hit that triggers an immediate saving throw.

3) it could be something that requires the undead to expend a resource of its own: burning an action point; one of its "4/day" or "4/Encounter" Drains; etc.

4) perhaps- for certain undead- it could be contiditonal, so that they could Drain only on unholy ground, under a full moon, etc.

5) for truly anathematic creatures whose very existence is an affront to life (major undead, powerful aberrations, certain extraplanar beings), they might even Drain in a continuous aura, and the longer you stay in the aura's radius, the more you are drained (IOW, you must save each round, and if you fail, your condition worsens). Such an aura may even do some HP damage in addition. For such creatures, I would say that either you only need save once, regardless of the number of overlapping auras you encounter, or this kind of aura is limited to unique beings, just for mechanical reasons.

6) it could be a specialized die-roll mechanic: for each event for which an undead could Drain a foe- either by attack or by aura- the DM would roll a special die (let's say it's a d10). Weaker draining undead only actually Drain on a 10, but more powerful ones might drain on a 9, 8, 7, or even a 6.

Overall, this system has 4 main advantages I can see: it would use existing game mechanics without really creating much in the way of new substystems, just a new way to use them; the mechanics match the fluff; the danger is real (for any class); the bookkeeping is minimal.

(Note to self: this may be a good HR for 3.X games.)

The more I think about it, the more I like it for 3.X games...or at least 3.5Ed D&D However, the idea is clearly incomplete.

I still need to figure out the final mechanic so that it is both fearsome but not "4 hits and down" fearsome.

In addition, I need a list of the spells that do energy drain like undead so i can make those spells compatible with the new mechanic.

Any help would be welcome!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Oh yeah: as a reminder, here's the 3.5Ed conditions in question:

Fatigued
A fatigued character can neither run nor charge and takes a -2 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. Doing anything that would normally cause fatigue causes the fatigued character to become exhausted. After 8 hours of complete rest, fatigued characters are no longer fatigued.

Exhausted
An exhausted character moves at half speed and takes a -6 penalty to Strength and Dexterity. After 1 hour of complete rest, an exhausted character becomes fatigued. A fatigued character becomes exhausted by doing something else that would normally cause fatigue.

Staggered
A character whose nonlethal damage exactly equals his current hit points is staggered. A staggered character may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions).

A character whose current hit points exceed his nonlethal damage is no longer staggered; a character whose nonlethal damage exceeds his hit points becomes unconscious.

Unconscious
Knocked out and helpless. Unconsciousness can result from having current hit points between -1 and -9, or from nonlethal damage in excess of current hit points.

The list suggests either additional refinement is needed or a possible key to the mechanic: Staggered and (to a lesser degree) Unconscious conditions both can involve non-lethal damage.

Because of this, the new ED mechanic needs to use a condition other than Staggered, create the Staggered condition in a different way, or there must be a non-lethal component to ED attacks.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Nobody knows where I can find a list of the 3.5Ed Energy Draining spells?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

Google for "negative level" in the spells section of the SRD? (From memory, I can only think of enervation and energy drain - that's all my subsequent Google search also found.)

Personally, I don't like energy drain or ageing or similar "old school" effects. I actually prefer some of the 4E conditions - dazed, slowed and weakened as one combined example - as a way to model the really fearsome attacks of certain undead.