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Enervation should have a restriction that it cannot kill a creature - instead it makes them helpless for the duration of the spell if they have negative levels equal to or greater than their HD. This spell is designed to hamper, not kill - phantasmal killer is the same spell level and requires 2 saves to kill, this only needs a touch attack. It's not at all unreasonable that an enemy caster could have this spell and get a 4 on the d4 vs. a party of 4th level characters. If you want to kill someone via negative levels, you should need to use the 9th level spell energy drain.
It can be argued that non-permanent negative levels can only put you in a "coma" for the duration. But as it is, Necromancy has been one of the hardest hit schools of magic with the nerf bat over time, so I think it should stay as is.
But I really do not see a problem with this. If you are a fourth level character taking on a 7th or higher level caster you are looking at possibly taking 7d6 fireball and those are just as likely to kill a fourth level character as enervation is.
Sending a party of characters against a BBEG that has access to spells that are two or more levels higher then they party is able to cast is always going to be dangerous and risk death no matter what the level or spell. (Magic Missile vs. Fireball - Delayed Blast Fireball vs. Meteor Swarm - Fly vs. Teleport)
Additionally, I posted this in a previous thread and it is related to this topic. (I don't know how to insert a link... failed my skill check LOL. It is in general discussion and about lethality levels.)
Thazar, Fri, Dec 19, 2008, 02:37 PM Flag | Reply
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I agree. The expectation is across the board on this one from all groups. What I would like to see is a chart just like the slow/normal/fast XP chart. You can have three columns of lethality and options at each row.
The rows can be major headings or conditions such as Sleep, Held, Petrify, Level Drain, and Death Effect. Feel free to add others if you think of them, but that is a start. Then in each column you could have the effect that would result.
Example - Sleep could be -
Asleep for the duration of the effect or spell
Asleep but allowed a save every round
Lost action for one round then slowed for duration.
Example 2 - Death Effect could be -
Save or Die
Save or at 0 hit points and dying
Save or take xDx damage based upon spell level
Example 3 - Level Drain could be -
Lose the level no save. Must restore magically.
Lose the level with a save in 24 hours
Save or lose the level. Rest returns one level per day/week based upon level or HD of effect.
This would work for everything from Vorpal Swords and Slay Living to Rogue Death Attacks and a Medusa's gaze with a little enervation and vampire touch thrown in.
It sets the expectation with all players at the start of the game just like level advancement and can help players make the characters that they like based upon the survivability.
Let’s face it, who wants to play a Necromancer without Finger of Death and who wants to play a barbarian that cannot froth at the mouth while lopping off the heads of giants with his vorpal greataxe! Similarly who wants to play a heavy RP game with slow advancement when they have to roll up a new character every week right?
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What you could say is that temporary negative levels don't kill unless you've failed a save on them (which, for Energy Drain, means that they become permanent negative levels and thus not subject to this proposed rule). For example, your 4th level opponent gains 4 negative levels from Enervation. It's enough to drop him to a complete vegetative coma, but (up to) 15 hours later he recovers when the spell effect has run its course. Since he never needs to roll for permanent negative levels from Enervation, he will always recover eventually. This does kind of change Energy Drain in that even if you have negative levels equal to or greater than your HD you are not necessarily dead - you have 24 hours to get restoration into you or, if that's not possible, in 24 hours you have a chance to save against the temp negative levels in hopes of making enough saves to reduce the permanent negative levels to lower than your HD.
I haven't spent a lot of time thinking this out, but I think it could be developed into something, maybe. :)