An Invocation of the Worm (Su): is a negative energy effect.
OK so is your Warforged Juggernaut immune? I'm not certain. Your immune to 'Necromancy Effects'. The problem is I can't seem to find a definition of what a 'Necromancy Effect' is. Harm and spells like that are 'Negative Energy' which might be synonymous with 'Necromancy Effect' but I can't really find rules that explicitly state that.
So we have come down to how one defines 'Necromancy Effect'. If one says its a synonym for negative energy then your Warforged Juggernaut is immune. However it could be argued that its any spell that does damage (or has other effects) via the school of Necromancy - if this is the case then Invocation of the Worm (Su): does not qualify. Invocation of the Worm (Su): is a negative energy effect - but it is not a spell, its a supernatural ability, and hence does not have a school of magic.
Anyone know of a clear definition of 'Necromancy Effect'?
OK so is your Warforged Juggernaut immune? I'm not certain. Your immune to 'Necromancy Effects'. The problem is I can't seem to find a definition of what a 'Necromancy Effect' is. Harm and spells like that are 'Negative Energy' which might be synonymous with 'Necromancy Effect' but I can't really find rules that explicitly state that.
Granted, the following theory comes more from my experience playing D&D minis (see: Living Construct), but it seems like there's an easy litmus test for this one: is the Juggernaut healed by positive energy? If so, it stands to reason that (without the proper protections, like Death Ward) he would be damaged by negative energy as well.
In a related thread-jack, it's always bugged me that Cure spells are Conjuration (healing), while Inflict spells are Necromancy. Where's the symmetry? :P
OK so is your Warforged Juggernaut immune? I'm not certain. Your immune to 'Necromancy Effects'. The problem is I can't seem to find a definition of what a 'Necromancy Effect' is. Harm and spells like that are 'Negative Energy' which might be synonymous with 'Necromancy Effect' but I can't really find rules that explicitly state that.Granted, the following theory comes more from my experience playing D&D minis (see: Living Construct), but it seems like there's an easy litmus test for this one: is the Juggernaut healed by positive energy? If so, it stands to reason that (without the proper protections, like Death Ward) he would be damaged by negative energy as well.
In a related thread-jack, it's always bugged me that Cure spells are Conjuration (healing), while Inflict spells are Necromancy. Where's the symmetry? :P
Warforged Juggernauts are healed by positive energy though they get the standard penalties that normal warforged get in this regard. However the Prestige Class 'Warforged Juggernaut' is all about gaining benefits of being adhering to your construct roots. Its class features specifically give one the benefits of being a construct while retaining most of the benefits associated with being a 'living construct'. After all thats what getting class levels is usually about - gaining cool powers. Hence we are sort of back at the same place.
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The warforge juggernaut's Construct Perfection III ability states that at 4th level, a warforge juggernaut gains immunity to death effects and necromancy effects. A death or necromancy effect isn't necessarily a negative energy effect. The same can be argued for the warforge juggernaut's Healing Immunity ability, which makes it immune to the effects of spells from the healing subschool, but does not make it immune to positive energy. The Invocation of the Worm ability does negative energy damage, but nowhere does it state anything about it being a death or necromancy effect. It does, however, state that the ability only affects living creatures, making it more of a DM call than anything else.
I had the same problem (more or less) in my campaign when my players were surprised to find out that death ward did not protect them from a dread wraith's Constitution Drain ability or from Augerric's ability to cast vampiric touch at will.
According to the Rules Compendium, negative energy is nothing but a damage type, but is not considered an energy type the way that acid, cold, electricity, fire, and sonic are. I was unable to find clear descriptions of death effects and necromancy effects. I'm assuming death effects refer to death attacks and spells with the death descriptor. As for necromancy effect, I'm going with spells from the necromancy school.
In my campaign, I went for the all or nothing side of this debate.
A warforged juggernaut is immune to any and all negative or necromancy effects; however, he is also immune to any positive energy effect.
That sounds powerful until you realize that if he dies he cannot come not back. Also, fast healing (or some other effect that I suddenly can't remember) doesn't work either. Vampiric touch doesn't work.
The two ways this guy can get repaired are either though repair (spells or the skill) or if someone casts the spells to make him less like a construct (humanoid essence?) and then casts the appropriate spells later.
It gets really frustrating when he has taken a large bit of damage and the artificer is across the room and the party wizard didn't have room to memorize a repair type spell that day.
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In general negative energy hurts the living, says so in the definition at the back of the PHB. The warforged whether juggernaut or not is still considerd a living creature, even though it's also a construct. I have ruled in my game that the juggernout takes half damage from negative energy, to balance the scales in their inability to utilize positive energy.