Just _what_ is Negative Energy, precisely?

[Gez]

Is it a lack of Positive Energy (so, inflicting Negative Energy is synonym to draining Positive Energy) ?

Or is it a full-blown energy in its own right, having with PE the same relationship than matter with antimatter?

Can it be likened to Yin (and PE to Yang) ? This would mean that living beings would require both PE and NE to live...

If undead are powered by NE, why do they bestow their precious energy on their living enemies?

Why can't undead that can inflict negative levels, or have other form of NE attacks, simply use these abilities to heal themselves or there fellow undead spawns?

If undead are harmed by PE, why do some, like Vampires, feed on it? Shouldn't they rather hunt other undead, to steal negative energy?

 

[Sejs]

Can it be likened to Yin (and PE to Yang) ? This would mean that living beings would require both PE and NE to live...

This is how I see it. Too much of -either- Positive or Negative energy is a bad thing. If nothing died, it would be a very very bad thing. Death is just as important a component in the Life-Death cycle as Life, after all.

Look at the effects of the Positive Energy Plane on unprotected non-natives. It's just as deadly as its counterpart.


As for undead - the way I see it is undead arn't totally comprised of NE, they're just very, very imbalanced in favor if the negative.

 

[Wycen]

I see it as anti-life or anti-matter energy, though the lethality is dependent on length and level of exposure. Casting a few necromantic spells or hanging out with undead isn't going to have health effects unless some other factor is involved.

 

[Nightfall]

Gez,

I happen to think the best way to describe a plane of negative energy is in Edge of Infinity. There it's just decay and entropy, and the undead that live off life reside there.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have to find the proper answer...I am not good at this and will cause confusion...it is the way matter, energy, gravity interact with each other, attraction or replusion.

It is of interest to note that only gravity has not been proven to exist, everything else seems to have a have both attraction and replusion versions.

In game terms negative energy sucks energy to it draining it from the cell that was holding it. Man as the Matrix told us is just a battery.

 

[dead]

Good question.

Also, if I may add, is Negative Energy evil? I would think not; it's just a *neutral* energy and so, too, is Positive Energy. However, in quite a few D&D products, you hear the authors say that Negative Energy is the source of evil power.

 

[blargney the second]

If undead have a massive negative energy imbalance, maybe they feed on life in a vain attempt to restore the balance in their bodies.

-blarg

 

[Zappo]

I think that negative energy - like all types of energy - has a whole bunch of forms, and converting from one to another isn't trivial. For this reason, you get many different effects of negative energy on living beings (damage, level drain, stat drain...) and on undead (rebuking, healing...). The negative energy that an evil cleric uses to heal a vampire, and the negative energy that the vampire uses to drain levels, are simply not exactly the same thing despite being all negative energy. Like electricity and magnetism, if you want. Basically the same thing, but "basically" ain't the same as "actually"...

So, maybe vampires are powered by amounts of negative energy that is on a different order of magnitude than the one which "irradiates" from their touch. Like a human and his body heat. The level drain is just a side effect of the great amounts of negative energy which makes them function. They can't really tap that energy, because... well, because they can't; no reason for which they should, either. There are plenty of energies in anyone's body over which they have no control, no reason for which it should be different for vampires. As for their need for positive energy - who said they need it? The blood drain deals Con damage, not negative levels.

Though, all undead do gain temporary HP from level drain, so there is some energy conversion going on. Which sounds a bit strange since in physics you generally can't convert two opposite things into one another... but these aren't exactly physical energies either. Or maybe the draining of a level somehow provokes a surge of "healing" negative energy from the Negative Energy Plane, to which all level-draining undead are connected.

What about a Divine feat that allows a cleric to use turning attempts to drain levels from an undead by touch? Talk about payback...

 

[Nightfall]

Good question.

Also, if I may add, is Negative Energy evil? I would think not; it's just a *neutral* energy and so, too, is Positive Energy. However, in quite a few D&D products, you hear the authors say that Negative Energy is the source of evil power.

Nah that's what Bill Gates is.

But yeah I hate that and the fact most necromancy spells are now considered "evil"

 

[Sejs]

Also, if I may add, is Negative Energy evil? I would think not; it's just a *neutral* energy and so, too, is Positive Energy. However, in quite a few D&D products, you hear the authors say that Negative Energy is the source of evil power.

That's because those authors are dumb and wrong, heh.


Negative Energy is evil in the same way that Fire is evil. Which is to say that it isn't.

But it is Detremental. And Detremental things are Bad. And Bad things are Evil.

Feh. Sloppy-arse cracker-jack logic is what labeled negative energy as evil.