Enervation

[lukelightning]

It is not a valid analogy though. Negative levels don't decrease your BAB or your effective BAB or anything related to your BAB. They just give you a -1 penalty.

Exactly. And negative levels don't decrease your caster level or anything related to caster level. They just give you a -1 penalty on anything that is calculated on level, such as spell range, duration, etc.

Let's say there is a super genious (Int 32) 5th level conjurer, with all his spells readied. He has 5 3rd level spells (one for being 5th level caster, one bonus conjuration, and 3 for high int). If he gets hit by enervation for four negative levels, he looses 4 3rd level spells...but he can still cast his one remaining 3rd level spell, albeit at an "effective level" of 1. So he retaliates with a 1d6 fireball.

 

[Nail]

Strangely, I'm being swayed by lukelightning's arguments.

However, consider this: Could an enervated wizard craft a Wand of Fireballs at CL 4? (Assume saves are made and enervation is re-applied as needed.) If not, why can he cast a fireball at CL 4?

 

[lukelightning]

Strangely, I'm being swayed by lukelightning's arguments.

However, consider this: Could an enervated wizard craft a Wand of Fireballs at CL 4? (Assume saves are made and enervation is re-applied as needed.) If not, why can he cast a fireball at CL 4?

But his CL is still 5...just the calculation for spells he personally casts is reduced. So I'd say the fireballs of an enervated wizard are unaffected by the enervation.

 

[Hypersmurf]

But his CL is still 5...just the calculation for spells he personally casts is reduced.

That sounds more like the Wild Mage than negative levels. I'd say the wizard's effective caster level is 4 for the purpose of crafting as well as the purpose of casting.

-Hyp.

 

[IanB]

I think enervation would need a longer duration to affect crafting.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I think enervation would need a longer duration to affect crafting.

Negative levels in general.

For example, a good wizard wearing a grey robe of the archmagi while crafting.

-Hyp.

 

[Kmart Kommando]

As was pointed out above, negative levels do not affect your actual level, they just give you a penalty to most things that are effected by, or based on, your level.
What level of spells a wizard can cast is based on his wizard level.
Just as you pointed out earlier how the penalty of using Power Attack does not affect your actual BAB. That was the point to my above post.
Negative levels are not damage, like CON damage is, but just a penalty, with their effects clearly defined as to what happens to you.

 

[Rystil Arden]

Exactly. And negative levels don't decrease your caster level or anything related to caster level. They just give you a -1 penalty on anything that is calculated on level, such as spell range, duration, etc.

Let's say there is a super genious (Int 32) 5th level conjurer, with all his spells readied. He has 5 3rd level spells (one for being 5th level caster, one bonus conjuration, and 3 for high int). If he gets hit by enervation for four negative levels, he looses 4 3rd level spells...but he can still cast his one remaining 3rd level spell, albeit at an "effective level" of 1. So he retaliates with a 1d6 fireball.

Can you put a level 6 Barbarian with 3 negative levels to sleep with the Sleep spell? Can you target her with Cause Fear?

 

[Kmart Kommando]

Can you put a level 6 Barbarian with 3 negative levels to sleep with the Sleep spell? Can you target her with Cause Fear?

Heh, our groups have been doing some of it wrong. Negative levels don't reduce your Hit Dice, or effective Hit Dice. I'll have to bring this one up at the next session..

 

[Rystil Arden]

Heh, our groups have been doing some of it wrong. Negative levels don't reduce your Hit Dice, or effective Hit Dice. I'll have to bring this one up at the next session..

No, your groups have been doing it right And this is the same reason why the level 6 Wizard with 3 negative levels can no longer cast level 3 spells. Check out the quote from the SRD

-1 effective level (whenever the creature’s level is used in a die roll or calculation, reduce it by one for each negative level).

The effect of the Sleep spell is one such calculation. Another calculation is whether or not a spellcaster can cast a spell of a particular level. This is also true for the calculation of what caster level you are choosing to use on a given spell, as subject to the following restrictions:

You can cast a spell at a lower caster level than normal, but the caster level you choose must be high enough for you to cast the spell in question, and all level-dependent features must be based on the same caster level.