Nich_Critic
2010-12-09, 01:28 PM
Hey all,
I was wondering how having a negative level would affect being hit by spells that have different effects that scale by HD? For example, sleep is a great spell, but is limited by only affecting 4HD worth of creatures. If you managed to stick two negative levels on a level 6 character, would they then be affected by sleep?
The reason I can't figure this out, is that the spells talk about the hit dice of the enemy, which doesn't change until a negative level becomes permanent. On the other hand, negative levels count for "-1 effective level (whenever the creature’s level is used in a die roll or calculation, reduce it by one for each negative level)." Since HD is often synonymous with levels, does this apply?
I ask, because the module I'm running has a lot of spellcasters with spells past their prime. These spells have no chance of affecting the players, and I would rather swap them for spells that do have a chance. Otherwise, the one round these low level casters get will be spent wasting a spell, and then cursing because the PC's are too high a level. There's also a lot of opportunity for level draining, though, so these spellcasters would make more sense in that light.
I was wondering how having a negative level would affect being hit by spells that have different effects that scale by HD? For example, sleep is a great spell, but is limited by only affecting 4HD worth of creatures. If you managed to stick two negative levels on a level 6 character, would they then be affected by sleep?
The reason I can't figure this out, is that the spells talk about the hit dice of the enemy, which doesn't change until a negative level becomes permanent. On the other hand, negative levels count for "-1 effective level (whenever the creature’s level is used in a die roll or calculation, reduce it by one for each negative level)." Since HD is often synonymous with levels, does this apply?
I ask, because the module I'm running has a lot of spellcasters with spells past their prime. These spells have no chance of affecting the players, and I would rather swap them for spells that do have a chance. Otherwise, the one round these low level casters get will be spent wasting a spell, and then cursing because the PC's are too high a level. There's also a lot of opportunity for level draining, though, so these spellcasters would make more sense in that light.