So I’ve got a group of players that are about to dive into a pretty hectic mess of nasty undead, some wights, wraiths, shadows, and other nasty baddies. I just want to make sure I’m clear on ability drain and energy drain as I understand there was a bit of tweaking from 3.5 to Pathfinder.
Ability Drain:
My understanding of this is that it permanently lowers the affected ability (causing everything affected by that ability to be immediately affected as well), and that the ability can only be restored via spells like Restoration. For the purposes of GMing at the table, assuming a character doesn’t have immediate access to Restoration, if I’m running the character in a program like Hero Lab, I can just go in and lower the relevant ability score and print out the new sheet, and that is what their character “looks like,” correct?
Energy Drain:
First off, as I read this, you do not get a save to avoid negative levels. If the attack hits, the level(s) is/are drained. Is that correct?
Secondly, the save DC for these spells happens 24 hours after the onset of the negative level. If you’ve suffered multiple negative levels from the same creature, each separate level requires a different Fort save to be harmlessly removed, correct?
Lastly, these “negative levels” aren’t true negative levels. They are instead adjudicated thusly:
Energy Drain and Negative Levels For each negative level a creature has, it takes a cumulative –1 penalty on all ability checks, attack rolls, combat maneuver checks, Combat Maneuver Defense, saving throws, and skill checks. In addition, the creature reduces its current and total hit points by 5 for each negative level it possesses. The creature is also treated as one level lower for the purpose of level-dependent variables (such as spellcasting) for each negative level possessed. Spellcasters do not lose any prepared spells or slots as a result of negative levels. If a creature's negative levels equal or exceed its total Hit Dice, it dies.
So I’m not removing actual levels, and a spell caster still can cast all the spells they have memorized, the DCs for those spells just go down by one, if I’m reading that correctly. Essentially where effects say things like: 1d6+1 per level, the per level is lowered by one for each negative level.
Does that all sound right? Or am I missing something somewhere?
The spell slots are still there, but you don't have access to them since access to them is a caster dependent variable.
The reason they are not removed is to avoid making you rebuild your character. Erasing slots/spells because you lost a level, and adding them back if the cleric heals you the middle of combat would be annoying.
The spell slots are still there, but you don't have access to them since access to them is a caster dependent variable.
The reason they are not removed is to avoid making you rebuild your character. Erasing slots/spells because you lost a level, and adding them back if the cleric heals you the middle of combat would be annoying.
So the spells and slots stay there but the caster can't cast them, just to save things from getting annoying? I guess I read that wrong then. To me the "Spellcasters do not lose any prepared spells or slots" came out literally meaning they can still cast those spells. Thank you for the clarification.