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I’m relatively certain that the spells Eneration and Energy Drain are not eligible to have the “negative levels bestowed” doubled on a critical hit. However I’ve been wrong before, so I thought I’d see if anyone else could find definitive rules that allow it to happen. Below are, I believe the relevant quotes from books, emphasis mine.
You point your finger and fire a black ray of negative energy that suppresses the life force of any living creature it strikes. You must make a ranged touch attack to hit. If you hit, the subject gains 1d4 temporary negative levels (see Appendix 1). Negative levels stack.
This spell functions like enervation, except that the creature struck gains 2d4 temporary negative levels.
A critical hit means that you roll your damage more than once, with all your usual bonuses, and add the rolls together.
A spell that requires an attack roll can score a critical hit. A spell attack that requires no attack roll cannot score a critical hit. If a spell causes ability damage or drain (see Appendix 1), the damage or drain is doubled on a critical hit.
If you look in Appendix 1 in the CRB p.555, you find a heading titled “Ability Score Damage, Penalty, and Drain. and 7 or so pages later on p.562 you’ll find a seperate heading titled “Energy Drain and Negative Levels”. This is where it talks about “negative levels” and it does not refer to it as “negative level damage” or “negative level drain”.
As far as I can tell this should sum up that a critical hit will not double the amount of negative levels bestowed since it is neither damage, nor ability damage or drain.
What does everyone think?
You are correct. Negative levels are not "damage".
