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Energy Drain
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<blockquote data-quote="Ainamacar" data-source="post: 6006168" data-attributes="member: 70709"><p>Some interesting ideas here. One more to consider might be to leverage the existing death mechanic for the basic effect, with optional effects on a per-monster basis, such as additional damage on a failed death save, etc.</p><p></p><p>The basic Energy Drain would be a condition that causes a creature to be dying regardless of its current hit points. Something like</p><p><strong>Energy Drain</strong>: You are dying even if you have positive hit points. This condition is removed by making enough successful death saves to stabilize.</p><p></p><p>That gives Energy Drain some heft in an encounter, and I like the relentlessly lethal flavor. If a wight hits you, you start <em>dying</em> because that is what wights do. No ifs, ands, or buts.</p><p></p><p>One could also emulate "negative levels" by letting one trade in hit dice to give a bonus on the death saves, while taking a longer term penalty. Besides the homage to a traditional effect it also gives the player a bit of agency with respect to negative levels, and with small modifications would work well even if the campaign doesn't use hit dice. (And thinking about it, I think it might make a fun addition to the basic death and dying rules). For example, maybe a character could spend 1 hit die to gain advantage on a death check, but would take a cumulative -1 penalty to all other checks, a penalty which decreases by 1 per long rest. That unifies negative levels with more general "near death" events, leaving the final decision in the player's hands, but making its use more common with Energy Drain because the volume of death checks and their damage will typically be higher. Giving the player the choice could make negative levels more widely palatable, since they would come as part of a benefit rather than an unavoidable penalty. It also lets the player make an informed and meaningful decision, in the moment, with respect to campaign pacing.</p><p></p><p>The wight attack might look like</p><p>Hit: The wight deals 2d6 + 2 necrotic damage, healing the wight for half damage and inflicting Energy Drain. This attack also cumulatively increases the DC of death saves by 1 (+10 max) until Energy Drain is removed. A creature slain while suffering this effect rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the wight's command.</p><p></p><p>A "soul feeder" attack might look like</p><p>Hit: The soul feeder deals 1d6+4 necrotic damage, healing the soul feeder an equal amount, and causes Energy Drain with +2d6 damage on a failed death save. Until Energy Drain is removed the last soul feeder to attack the target gains hit points equal to what the target loses every time it fails a death save.</p><p></p><p>The energy drain spell might look like</p><p>Effect: The target takes 6d6 necrotic damage and suffers Energy Drain with +5d6 damage on the first failed death save, increasing by another 2d6 for every additional failure. The DC of death saves while under this spell is equal to the caster's spell DC.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ainamacar, post: 6006168, member: 70709"] Some interesting ideas here. One more to consider might be to leverage the existing death mechanic for the basic effect, with optional effects on a per-monster basis, such as additional damage on a failed death save, etc. The basic Energy Drain would be a condition that causes a creature to be dying regardless of its current hit points. Something like [B]Energy Drain[/B]: You are dying even if you have positive hit points. This condition is removed by making enough successful death saves to stabilize. That gives Energy Drain some heft in an encounter, and I like the relentlessly lethal flavor. If a wight hits you, you start [I]dying[/I] because that is what wights do. No ifs, ands, or buts. One could also emulate "negative levels" by letting one trade in hit dice to give a bonus on the death saves, while taking a longer term penalty. Besides the homage to a traditional effect it also gives the player a bit of agency with respect to negative levels, and with small modifications would work well even if the campaign doesn't use hit dice. (And thinking about it, I think it might make a fun addition to the basic death and dying rules). For example, maybe a character could spend 1 hit die to gain advantage on a death check, but would take a cumulative -1 penalty to all other checks, a penalty which decreases by 1 per long rest. That unifies negative levels with more general "near death" events, leaving the final decision in the player's hands, but making its use more common with Energy Drain because the volume of death checks and their damage will typically be higher. Giving the player the choice could make negative levels more widely palatable, since they would come as part of a benefit rather than an unavoidable penalty. It also lets the player make an informed and meaningful decision, in the moment, with respect to campaign pacing. The wight attack might look like Hit: The wight deals 2d6 + 2 necrotic damage, healing the wight for half damage and inflicting Energy Drain. This attack also cumulatively increases the DC of death saves by 1 (+10 max) until Energy Drain is removed. A creature slain while suffering this effect rises 24 hours later as a zombie under the wight's command. A "soul feeder" attack might look like Hit: The soul feeder deals 1d6+4 necrotic damage, healing the soul feeder an equal amount, and causes Energy Drain with +2d6 damage on a failed death save. Until Energy Drain is removed the last soul feeder to attack the target gains hit points equal to what the target loses every time it fails a death save. The energy drain spell might look like Effect: The target takes 6d6 necrotic damage and suffers Energy Drain with +5d6 damage on the first failed death save, increasing by another 2d6 for every additional failure. The DC of death saves while under this spell is equal to the caster's spell DC. [/QUOTE]
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