Fell Draining Spell

[moritheil]

Many of you are familiar with the Fell Draining metamagic feat. All creatures damaged by the spell modified by this feat take one negative level, which does not last long enough to result in actual level loss.

There are two related questions I wish to pose regarding how this feat works.

First, how does this feat interact with spells that deal damage multiple times, or over time? It seems that at no point in time should someone gain more than one negative level from the same casting, even if hit more than once (by, say, a fell draining call lightning.) Is this how you would interpret it? What if the spell lasts so long that the negative level wears off (or is removed) and then the creature is damaged again? Should it bestow a negative level again?

Second, is this feat at all useful in epic play? Death ward is, after all, pretty easy to get at that level, and even if one doesn't have it, heal spells are not exactly uncommon. A friend of mine went so far as to say that fell draining is a totally wasted feat slot at 15+ gameplay. I'm not so sure, but as the character we were discussing hasn't had to fight any armies and instead has been dealing with massively powerful individuals, he does seem to be right. (I'm acquainted with epic play, but I've never really looked at Fell Draining in epic.)

 

[James McMurray]

First, how does this feat interact with spells that deal damage multiple times, or over time? It seems that at no point in time should someone gain more than one negative level from the same casting, even if hit more than once (by, say, a fell draining call lightning.) Is this how you would interpret it? What if the spell lasts so long that the negative level wears off (or is removed) and then the creature is damaged again? Should it bestow a negative level again?

Unless the feat says "every time a creature is damaged" it should only apply once.

Second, is this feat at all useful in epic play? Death ward is, after all, pretty easy to get at that level, and even if one doesn't have it, heal spells are not exactly uncommon. A friend of mine went so far as to say that fell draining is a totally wasted feat slot at 15+ gameplay. I'm not so sure, but as the character we were discussing hasn't had to fight any armies and instead has been dealing with massively powerful individuals, he does seem to be right. (I'm acquainted with epic play, but I've never really looked at Fell Draining in epic.)

Are you facing mostly NPCs or monsters? If it's NPCs then Death Ward may or may not be commonplace. If it's monsters it'll be somewhat rarer. It's definitely useful in the right campaign. And tell your friend that heal spells don't remove negative levels.

 

[moritheil]

Unless the feat says "every time a creature is damaged" it should only apply once.

I suppose that's reasonable.

Are you facing mostly NPCs or monsters? If it's NPCs then Death Ward may or may not be commonplace. If it's monsters it'll be somewhat rarer. It's definitely useful in the right campaign. And tell your friend that heal spells don't remove negative levels.

Good catch; I've been accustomed to heal fixing everything! There's always the restoration line of spells, but those take time to cast . . .

I'm really not sure what we're facing yet; the PCs split up. Others have fought chokers, undead, hellfire wyrms, and NPC mages. I intend to cast some divinations to find out, but I imagine most of them will turn out unclear, as our enemies are rumored to be protected against divinations (I guess that's what one gets for volunteering to fill a gap and play party diviner!)

 

[pawsplay]

Negative levels cut into a character's high level spell slots, not a small consideration.

 

[moritheil]

Negative levels cut into a character's high level spell slots, not a small consideration.

Indeed; that (and taking away pps) was my primary reason for taking this feat. I'm rather relieved to know that they aren't so easily dispelled, since IIRC the pps and spell slots come back when the negative levels go away.

 

[moritheil]

So, does anyone else have extensive experience with this feat in epic play?