Robert Bellamy's page

PRD wrote:

Vicious: When a vicious weapon strikes an opponent, it creates a flash of disruptive energy that resonates between the opponent and the wielder. This energy deals an extra 2d6 points of damage to the opponent and 1d6 points of damage to the wielder. Only melee weapons can be vicious.

Moderate necromancy; CL 9th; Craft Magic Arms and Armor, enervation; Price +1 bonus.

Hmm... since Enervation is needed for creation, the resonating damage might be negative energy... which would cause quite some... interesting effects if used by, or against, a member of the Undead...

Am I just over-interpreting things?

The main reason for the enervation is not based upon the damage type so much as based upon the enervation concept that the weapon is doing 1d6 damage do you when it creates this effect. The damage type is purely un-typed and has no negative energy component to it, even if the assumption is that the weapon creation process requires the conceptual effect of the enervation spell.

I had a player pull a fast one and when faced with a 39th level Sorcerer, they took their ultimate kill shot not against the Sorcerer, but rather against his familiar (half the hit points, less AC and crappier saves on an average). It was an ultimate little "screw you" and it was completely unexpected. Do as he wanted, 39th level sorcerers hate making saving throws.

Bob

My level 4 fighter and his druid and ranger companions went out to destroy a city at level 4 by making the inns and peasants of the town mad at the church that runs it and by getting my level 4 fighter named lord Vincent von drake in a high level position in this good church (im evil) my DM was actually very surprised because normally I go for the kill everything, steal it, or break it rout. Anyway we went to get things so we can make potions for are little army of village people and church traitors when a wizard that was working for us lied to Vincent von drake (now you must know Vincent von drake and his companions are EVIL there are champions of Arioch and each have there niche the Rangers is just down right torture the druids is chaos like nature and the fighter is not only fighting but LYING!!! they call him the lord of lies.... so why does this matter well a wizard just lied to the lord of lies who is chaotic evil!!!! about a wish ring saying it was nothing!!!!!!!!) So anyway my guy takes the ring and wishes for the wizard to die once then twice then three times and he doesn’t die then we have to stop the game because the DM said he needed to make a level 20-character wizard to fight me MY QUESTION… WHAT DO I DO PLEASE IF YOU HAVE ANY IDEAS IM UP FOR ANYTHING!!

In 3.0 or 3.5, making players lose a point of Con for each time they get killed is actually stacking the decks in favor of them getting killed again later.

They are more susceptible for poisons and diseases that take Con, possibly losing hit points and lowering Fortitude saves and in addition to the standard level loss and the loss of base attacks and saves, skills and other abilities.

And taking a hit dice *as well* as taking a point of Con just makes it less likely they succeed against the foes.

I guess what I'm saying is that game balance must be maintained, but penalizing without a logical dramatic reason is arbitrary and sometimes penalizes character development or weakens a possible good story.

The loss of a level is enough of a penalty, in my book, and one they can easily make up for given time and effort. I am a relatively creative GM, and I have always believed that I can (and I have) found more creative ways to penalize poor character decision-making than just hacking away at ability scores. In fact, sometimes it pays more to reward the poor character who dies with a little something "special"...