RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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For those who are unfamiliar with Ability Burn, from the D&D Wika (all I can reach from here)
Ability Burn:
This is a special form of ability damage that cannot be magically or psionically healed. It is caused by the use of certain psionic feats and powers. It returns only through natural healing.
Would this be more or less deadly for certain ability damaging undead. I'm thinking that (for example) the Wraith is CR5, but Restoration is unavailable until 7th level. For a Wraith, ability burn might be better than drain, since the party can rest for a few days and heal that. Same thing for the Vargoyle's kiss.
OTOH, it could make higher level undead nastier, if the CR 7 ghost does ability burn, then the party may be able to access Restoration, but it does them no good. Same thing for things like Linhorms.
I like the idea for switching them out for variant versions of the same monster.
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If memory serves me well, Ability burn i think was introduced in the either the Expanded Psionics handbook, or the previous 3.0 psionics book.
Psions had a power which alowed them to sacrifice ability points to gain power points to fuel their power.
they burned their ability scores to do this. I believe the special form of damage which couldnt be divinley arcanely or psionically healed, was to prevent people looping ability repair spells/ psionic powers, with this power which allowed one to burn an ability score for more psps.
Ill have to look things up for specifics.
If memory serves me well, Ability burn i think was introduced in the either the Expanded Psionics handbook, or the previous 3.0 psionics book.
Psions had a power which alowed them to sacrifice ability points to gain power points to fuel their power.
they burned their ability scores to do this. I believe the special form of damage which couldnt be divinley arcanely or psionically healed, was to prevent people looping ability repair spells/ psionic powers, with this power which allowed one to burn an ability score for more psps.
Ill have to look things up for specifics.
It did not work like this one does though. It just had the same name.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Ability burn was introduced in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (you know... the good one).
While the idea was (I beleive) to allow the psion to literally consume his body for power, and not let him easily repair/restore/regenerate, it occured to me that the type of damage should have more uses.
It's kind of equal to ability drain in intensity I think, since while it can be healed, (unlike drain) it can't be magically healed (again, unlike drain). This makes it a different kind of threat for mid to high level characters.
Thus this thread ;-)