It feels like Life Tap currently is trying to do too much and suffers for it. The damage is negligible (monsters have 15-20 HP/level, so it's a small fraction of their HP even on a failure). The healing is only equal to the damage, so on a failure against an equal level enemy... you're restoring double your level in HP. It works out to about 2/3 of Lay on Hands in the long run, and that's only on a failure.
Having the damage/healing be reduced on lower level targets also feels odd. Additionally, I think this is the only "healing" focus spell that can't be used out of combat. (Technically, you could tap a thrall to heal an ally for a whopping 1 HP)
There's some significant parallels between this and the Trade Death for Life hex cantrip from Divine Mysteries, but that cantrip is significantly better in most cases I think. First, of course, is that it's a single action and doesn't cost resources. Then it does 1d4/rank damage, which is about 1/2 of Life Tap... and gives a sustainable Fast Healing 1/rank. And while Life Tap probably heals more than that too... this heal is consistent with saves. On a success, it's about 1/2 the first turn, and 1/4 on a failure. (1/6 on cf). And getting around twice the effect for twice the actions seems fine... except that you had to spend the two actions at once and a focus point while the witch is just flinging this around on their third action at no cost (and triggering more benefits from the familiar in the process - Stupefied with no saving throw). And of course... you can heal the party out of combat pretty well with this, as the regen outpaces the damage rapidly.
An older comparison would be the Phoenix sorcerer, but... 1d4 fire damage and a 1d4 heal in a 15' cone is around half the damage as noted... but it's AoE. And the heal is half a failure's heal... but always, and AoE. (Strictly speaking, it's more like 3/4 on of those because of the blood magic effect)
The biggest thing I think that should change is that the healing should be flat and not dependent on the enemy's save. If it always gave 4 HP/rank, basically equivalent to a failure now, it would be a significant improvement in reliability and make it usable out of combat, though it would still feel a bit weak as a heal. I think the spell really needs to pick if it wants to be more for damage or healing instead of doing both in equal measure (Which, while thematically interesting, results in it just being underwhelming at both).
A healing focused option: 1 void damage/rank, drained 1 on failure and 2 on CF, but heals 6 HP/rank.
A damage focused option: Add 1d4 void damage/rank with a basic save, and have it grant 2 temp HP/rank or so? Very minor, accepts that it can't heal outside of combat, but still not nothing.
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And here's me thinking Life Tap borders on being too strong because it's making the enemy Drained. I can't think of many things that hand out Drained, especially at level 1. Setting up enemies for getting Restrained by a grappling monk or fighter, or ensuring that they critt fail a poison or spell seems pretty worth it to me. For one thing, it sets them up to do worse at other uses of Life Tap in the future.
Drained condition pairs very nicely with Runesmith and other fort save abilities, any way to reduce saves is just one step in you assuring you get failures/succeds over crit succeds!
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
now my question is Should Life Tap be a base class ability, instead of a subclass ability?
It's in the same realm as seeming underpowered but it's so good when paired with other abilities. I mean I think the Necromancer has to many focus spells as is and not enough ways to get focus points back. Like if you could use Thralls as focus points, this class would be just awesome. Also Lifetap should be giving the Necromancer 2 focus points at level 1 since they seem even more focused on focus points then the Psychic.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
This is one of the reasons I hope they add an undead familiar feat when it goes to final, the familiar Focus ability would be one more ability to regain focus. Separately I would love a grave cantrip that used a thrall, so that even when you're out of focus, you can do something with the Thralls.
It doesn't need to be something super powerful, like using it to try to demoralize a single adjacent target.
Perpdepog wrote: And here's me thinking Life Tap borders on being too strong because it's making the enemy Drained. I can't think of many things that hand out Drained, especially at level 1. Setting up enemies for getting Restrained by a grappling monk or fighter, or ensuring that they critt fail a poison or spell seems pretty worth it to me. For one thing, it sets them up to do worse at other uses of Life Tap in the future. Aside from the damage though, Drained is only a status penalty, the same as Sickened or Frightened already inflict, and those are very easy to cause, even if not always as long lasting. (Summon Skunk is an all-star at low levels)
One other thing I realized is - you can't Life Tap the same target repeatedly, because the Drained condition won't stack. So you hurt someone once, heal an ally once, and that's it for that enemy probably. (If they succeed, it's probably not worth trying to get a failure with a second try, either).
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Dubious Scholar wrote: Perpdepog wrote: And here's me thinking Life Tap borders on being too strong because it's making the enemy Drained. I can't think of many things that hand out Drained, especially at level 1. Setting up enemies for getting Restrained by a grappling monk or fighter, or ensuring that they critt fail a poison or spell seems pretty worth it to me. For one thing, it sets them up to do worse at other uses of Life Tap in the future. Aside from the damage though, Drained is only a status penalty, the same as Sickened or Frightened already inflict, and those are very easy to cause, even if not always as long lasting. (Summon Skunk is an all-star at low levels)
One other thing I realized is - you can't Life Tap the same target repeatedly, because the Drained condition won't stack. So you hurt someone once, heal an ally once, and that's it for that enemy probably. (If they succeed, it's probably not worth trying to get a failure with a second try, either). If they succeed then I'd happily try again. It makes them more likely to fail, which causes a status penalty that doesn't go away, unlike Frightened. They could also crit fail, in which case they're basically hyper-Sickened, but with no way to shake it off.
Not to mention that, if you'd like, you can pair Life Tap with someone else's sickening ability; effects that cause Sickened are pretty much all fortitude effects, after all, so the penalties you may really need, like AC, ref, and will, become easier to achieve.
I think that's the disconnect between how we're seeing this ability; you sound like you're looking at it as a primarily offensive option with vampire benefits, while I see it as being primarily intended for support with some vampirism thrown in.
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If you only look at healing or only look at damage or only look at the condition it may seem bad.
But it does all 3 and the thrall can move 30ft to do it.
It's consistent, it debuffs, lowers HP, heals. I think it's good TBH. I like it better than bone spear but I'm not into the gish aspect that much.
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The problem is that Life Tap falls into "Jack of all trades, master of none" problem. If we see it with all together may looks good but in practice everything is insufficient.
Life Tap at same time will heal, damage and debuff but the heal is insufficient to make a significant different except from heal someone dying, the "damage" can be something in top levels but in most cases will be minimal to make a significant difference specially for a 2-action spell that uses a focus point + a thrall, and the fortitude debuff will be useful only if you or other party member will focus into fortitude checks against the target.
So if you need to heal someone use it will be insufficient and won´t worth it costs, if you need to damage someone it will be insufficient and won´t worth it costs, if you want to debuff someone it probably will be inefficient and won´t worth it costs. If you want do the 3 at same time it will be less but still inefficient and inefficient and won´t worth it costs.
So I have a serious difficult to say even look the all picture that Life Tap worth at all.
Being honest Life Tap is a good example of how underbalanced the necromancer's focus spells are. For a spell that uses 2-actions + a thrall we expect a power level better than a 2-action impulse + overflow that only cost actions and the 3rd-action also do an attack like Create Thrall does.
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Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber
I’ve been thinking about Life Tap. It is a spell that I like, so I want to judge its power to see if it’s actually weak or not. And then I remembered Soul Siphon exists and is the perfect analogue.
Soul Siphon does 1/2 1d4 void damage per rank on a successful save, 1d4 void damage per rank + drained 1 on a failed save, and 2d4 void damage per rank + drained 2 on a critical failure. The spell grants temp HP equal to half the damage it does including drained.
Compared to Life Tap that is
1.125 vs 1 damage per rank on a successful save
3.5 vs 2 damage per rank on a failed save
7 vs 3 damage per rank on a critically failed save
And
.625 hp (rounded up) vs 1 hp healed per rank on a successful save
1.75 vs 2 hp healed per rank on a failed save
And 3.5 vs 3 hp healed per rank on a critically failed save.
Okay, so it looks like soul siphon easily had the advantage in damage, while life tap has the advantage in healing between the additional flexibility and mostly better numbers.
…
Except Soul Siphon is only one action. I think that really illustrates the problem with Life Tap. These abilities shouldn’t be roughly equivalent while Soul Siphon has half the action cost. Life Tap either needs its damage/Healing buffed or its action cost nerfed.
I would prefer the former because I would rather not have a near carbon copy of Soul Siphon on two different classes.
It's also regular healing vs temp hp and you can grant it to an ally.
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Drained can be a very handy condition to inflict especially at higher levels, but Life tap is very awkward for a low level necromancer's main combat trick. I like having a srained inflicting focus spell on the necromancer, but I think it needs to be higher level so it has a bit more power budget for other things, while the Spirit Monger needs a bit more immediate damage or healing for what might be their only non-cantrip attack at level 1.
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Squark wrote: Drained can be a very handy condition to inflict especially at higher levels, but Life tap is very awkward for a low level necromancer's main combat trick. I like having a srained inflicting focus spell on the necromancer, but I think it needs to be higher level so it has a bit more power budget for other things, while the Spirit Monger needs a bit more immediate damage or healing for what might be their only non-cantrip attack at level 1. Yeah, a higher level spell might pull this off, but as an initial effect it just feels like it doesn't offer enough in any direction to warrant using it - you rarely care about all three effects (debuffing and healing especially tend to be opposed, as debuffs want to go out early while heals hopefully don't). Right now, I'm looking at this as something I'll never really want to cast at early levels over a dedicated damage cantrip or heal spell... and then I'll grab Necrotic Bomb at 2 for offense instead.
I think it should target Will saves.
It's already associated with spiritual stuff, and we already have focus spells targeting Fortitude and AC.
I had presumed that most focus spells in the game cost two actions, but I think I was wrong.
Regardless,what if it were a single action spell?
What if it could grant a spell slot instead of healing?
Since it costs a Focus point, there is a natural limit built in.
It would be a very flavorful way to increase Necromancer spell casting.
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