Is there any way to bring a Dhampir back to 'life' (unlife, whatever) and Channel Negative Energy question?

[Michael Grate]

I have a Dhampir on the team. Having being a negative Con modifier reduces his hit points as is. Plus, being a squire (cohort from advancement) he will also generally be 2-3 levels below the team. This makes him pretty vulnerable to dying. Up until now this hasn't been a problem but I found out that New Life Scrolls will not bring him back because of his Negative Energy Affinity. Is there any spell that has an equal but opposite effect to Breath of Life? He's already somewhat strapped for feats so I'd like to save having to take Life Dominant Soul as a last resort.

Also, how would Channel Negative Energy affect the Dhampir if he goes below his con score in negative hit points? I know it heals him if it's targeted at undead but what about if he died, would it still heal him?

If it can, would it also heal other party members who are dead but normally living? Since Channel positive energy only affects the living positively and the person is technically no longer living, does that change anything with Channel Negative Energy?

[derpdidruid]

A dhampir is not classified as undead therefore ressurection will work on them. sadly if there is a breath of life equivalent then I do not know it. They have to be restrained by something right?

[Thanis Kartaleon]

Michael Grate wrote:

Is there any spell that has an equal but opposite effect to Breath of Life?

Nope, sorry. Closest would be disintegrate (damages you and kills you), which obviously wouldn't have the intended effect you're looking for.

Quote:

Also, how would Channel Negative Energy affect the Dhampir if he goes below his con score in negative hit points? I know it heals him if it's targeted at undead but what about if he died, would it still heal him?

A creature that is dead cannot be brought back to life without effects that specifically grant life. Channel negative energy does not do this by itself.

[Jeff Merola]

derpdidruid wrote:

A dhampir is not classified as undead therefore ressurection will work on them. sadly if there is a breath of life equivalent then I do not know it. They have to be restrained by something right?

Problem with that:

Negative Energy Affinity wrote:

Negative Energy Affinity (Ex) The creature is alive, but is treated as undead for all effects that affect undead differently than living creatures, such as cure spells and channeled energy.

Raise Dead, Resurrection, et al. wrote:

You can resurrect someone killed by a death effect or someone who has been turned into an undead creature and then destroyed. You cannot resurrect someone who has died of old age. Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can't be resurrected.

If a spell does something different for undead targets and living targets, dhampirs use the undead part, and it could be argued that Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection all do something different for undead targets than they do for "living" targets.

[Berinor]

But does Negative Energy Affinity continue to apply the same way after you're dead? I'm not confident the answer is yes. I certainly would allow all the "true" raising spells to work. Breath of life is a corner case and I'm not sure what I'd do with it.

[Jeff Merola]

I'm legitimately not sure if it does either.

[Derek Vande Brake]

Arguably, no other racial abilities function when dead. So why should NEA?

[Berinor]

The only reason I lean toward hanging onto NEA for the purposes of breath of life is that the whole point of the spell is that you're only "mostly dead". What with the short time limit and all.

[Decorpsed]

The part at the end pertaining to undead has always been interpreted at my table to mean that you can't resurrect a dead zombie and have it come back as a zombie. It is treated as destroyed and is resurrected as the person it originally was. Basically i've just seen it as a limit to make sure you can't use resurrection as method for (re)creating undead.

So i would go with them being able to be ressurected.

I could be wrong though. Dhampirs are just plane odd :-p

[alexd1976]

Why would raising or resurrection not work? Do it to a human lich, they come back as regular human.

It basically just removes undead template.

Dhampir doesn't have undead template, can be raised normally. It's just HEALING that is troublesome.