Death Ward and Ability Drain

[paranoid]

Does DW protect against an undead's Ability Drain attack? Are these Ability Drain attacks powered by negative Energy? Are all undead abilities powered by negative Energy and thus defeated by DW?

The subject is immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, and any negative energy effects

(emphasis mine).

I went through the whole SRD, and the only monsters that explicitly state that their attacks are negative energy effects are:
Lich (touch attack damage)
Nightshade (Desecrating Aura, Su)
Shadow (Strength Damage, Su)

So DW should protect against these attack forms. But does it help against the special attacks of these undead, which all drain or damage abilities:
WRAITH: Constitution Drain (Su)
VAMPIRE: Blood Drain (Ex)
ALLIP: Wisdom Drain (Su)
GHOST: Corrupting Gaze (Su), Draining Touch (Su), Horrific Appearance (Su)

Throughout the SRD you can find that "Undead are powered by negative Energy". So shouldn't DW protect against all their special attacks? Or are you protected against only 3 special attacks (apart from death effects and energy drain)?

-p.

 

[Darklone]

I used it as being protected against all those supernatural drain attacks except the vampires blood drain (Ex) (but it's slam attack).

 

[Dark Dragon]

Undead creatures are powered by negative energy. According to the DW description, the spell should also protect against the touch of a ghost or spectre, or the touch of a dread wraith (it deals 2d6 damage plus Con drain on a failed save).
I wouldn't consider a ghost's Horrific Appearance (relies on sight) or a vampire's Blood Drain (relies on the victim's blood loss) subject to DW, though.

Going strictly by the rules, DW won't help against the undead you've mentioned.

Going by the spirit of the rules, it should, IMO. But then it should also protect against False Life ("foul powers of undead") and other spells that have some relation to undead or negative energy like Inflict Wounds.

 

[paranoid]

Yeah, I would propably houserule it similarly, so that all undead drain attacks are negated.
I think False Life is a different matter, since it is indeed a necromantic spell, but not one using negative energy. In fact, the only spells that use negative energy (and thus are negated by Death Ward) are, according to their description:
Chill Touch
Curse Water
Desecrate
Enervation, Energy Drain
Ghoul Touch
Harm
Inflict Wounds
Touch of Fatigue
Waves of Exhaustion
Waves of Fatigue.

So the necromantic spells Ray of Enfeeblement, Ray of Exhaustion, Vampiric Touch, Horrid Wilting and others are not subject to Death Ward. Perhaps the designers thought DW protecting against a whole spell school plus an entire creature type would be overpowered...

 

[Nareau]

Doing a little thread necromancy here (ha ha)...

Does Death Ward protect against a Lich's Paralyzing Touch?

Nareau

 

[eamon]

It's an odd, inconsistent spell. I'd choose whatever makes most sense in your campaign setting. Clearly however ability drain in general isn't prevented, and I'ld think I'ld restrict it's protections to the bare minimum: Energy drain (already a must-have somtimes) and death effects. I'd only protect against negative energy which actually affects you, in other words, not the nightshades aura which improves undead. I'm not even sure I'd let it prevent the -6 to turning attempts, but maybe that, but certainly no more than that. Partially, I'd do that just because I want a clear-cut limited effect, not a 4th level "I'm immune to undead" spell. I see no reason it would provide immunity to paralysis, even to a lich's attack. You would be immune to the negative energy component (the damage) however.

 

[robberbaron]

What Darklone said.
Specifically not a vampire's kiss as it is a Blood Drain, not an Energy Drain.

 

[Li Shenron]

Throughout the SRD you can find that "Undead are powered by negative Energy". So shouldn't DW protect against all their special attacks?

No it shouldn't.

It may seem intuitive to assume that an undead's "Su" abilities are powered themselves by negative energy, but is it really? You can find an undead that has a "Su" inherited from the base race (maybe the undead type is from a template) and that does not suggest that suddenly that ability uses negative energy. What about spell-like abilities, which are somewhat similar with supernatural ones? But then what about spells? Certainly just because an undead casts spells or has spell-like abilities that replicate spells, doesn't mean that all of them count as "negative energy". Remember that there may be many things other than Death Ward in your game which give a bonus/penalty/protection/boost/whatever towards negative energy, so if you choose that something qualifies as "negative energy", you'd have to apply all those things properly.

I think it's safer to stick to those abilities that specify "we're negative energy" at least to avoid incostistencies and useless discussions at the gamimg table. Bot of course if you can manage to be consistent throughout an entire campaign, you may apply your own different setting concepts...

 

[eamon]

I think it's safer to stick to those abilities that specify "we're negative energy" at least to avoid incostistencies and useless discussions at the gamimg table. Bot of course if you can manage to be consistent throughout an entire campaign, you may apply your own different setting concepts...

Couldn't have said it any better! spot on.