A few rules questions regardng vampiric touch and force descriptors


Rules Questions


Our party fought some ghosts i think I don't know the exact template they were incorporeal and made you mad if you failed a will save.

one of our players who was desperate used vampiric touch on a the monster. is this legal by raw?

is it considered a energy drain attack?

also

what magic spells have the "force" descriptors in them? like magic missles? our Sorc was wondering what other damage spells can hit incorporeal for full damage.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

The "Target" line on vampiric touch says "living creature touched," so there's that.

As for force damage, I can't think of anything beyond magic missile. Relatedly, this is a major strength of sorcerers over prepared casters: if you encounter something nasty that you really need to cast a certain (low-level) spell repeatedly to overcome, you have the option of blowing your dozens of spell slots on just casting that one over and over again. I ran into this in a Subtier 8-9 PFS game against a huge nasty dude who was hard to hurt with anything but magic missiles. The 9th level Evoker Wizard was able to shoot him a few times, but the sorcerer could shoot him something like 30-40 times if need be.


Spiritual Weapon, Mage's Sword and Twilight Knife are force effects. There aren't a lot. They don't do fantastic damage, but they work on incorporeals.

Negative energy heals undead, but I'm not sure how you would call it if you cast Vampiric Touch. Would the undead get the temporary hit points? Would the spell reverse and affect the caster? Hmm...


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

As far as a Sorcerer goes, the spells damaging spells with a Force descriptor are:

Magic Missile (Level 1 Spell)
Explosive Runes (Level 3 Spell)
Force Punch (level 3 spell)
Twilight Knife (Level 3 spell)
Mage's Sword (Level 7 spell)
Clenched Fist (Level 8 Spell)
Crushing Hand (Level 9 Spell)

There may be a few others I missed.


Battering Blast (Level 3)


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

And most of those spells do subpar damage. It is often better to hit an incorporeal creature with a normal spell. Since they do much more damage, you often come out on top, even after it is halved.

The real power of many of the above force effects is that they don't allow saves for half, so that they don't end up dealing a quarter of their damage (like general blasting sometimes does).

Community / Forums / Pathfinder / Pathfinder First Edition / Rules Questions / A few rules questions regardng vampiric touch and force descriptors All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Rules Questions