Corrupt and Sanctified Spells

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Can they still be used if you are immune to ability damage/drain?

[Zaq]

I see nothing saying that's not the case.

[Talya]

The notoriously unreliable FAQ suggests that if you are immune to a physical ability score cost of a corrupt spell (because, say, you are undead), that the penalty should come off charisma, instead.

[0nimaru]

As I recall, without an actual rules citation, if you are immune to the effect you can still use it. It is a penalty, and not a cost.

That being said, some DMs (including myself) set up the easy rule to counter this abuse. If you fully negate the penalty of a spell, you lose the benefit.

This is just as much there to counter Daze-immune Celerity as the corruption spells.

[Talya]

Here's the exact wording from the Book of Vile Darkness FAQ.
(Note that this is no way an endorsement of treating the FAQ as RAW.)


If a spellcaster is immune to ability drain (such as by
being undead), can he still cast corrupt spells? I seem to
recall that there is a spell somewhere that can protect
someone from ability damage as well, so how about in
that case? Can you heal corruption costs?
The negative energy protection spell prevents the loss of
ability scores and levels to attacks that employ negative
energy. A corruption cost is not a negative energy effect, and
negative energy protection won’t prevent it. While defensive
special qualities in the D&D game are usually
insurmountable, the corruption cost for the spell represents a
direct assault on the physical and mental well-being of the
caster, and anyone who casts a corrupt spell has to pay the
cost, even if normally immune to ability damage, ability
drain, or energy drain. The act of casting a corrupt spell
makes the caster briefly vulnerable to the corruption cost of
the spell.
When an undead creature uses a corrupt spell with an
ability damage or ability drain corruption cost, the undead
creature takes the damage or the drain against its Charisma
score, no matter what ability the spell normally damages or
drains. If the damage or drain reduces the undead creature’s
Charisma to 0, the creature becomes helpless until the loss of
Charisma is somehow restored or repaired. Any ability
damage from a corruption cost heals at the rate of 1 point per
day, just like any other ability damage. Ability drain can be
healed by the appropriate spells.
Note that undead creatures with Intelligence scores can
heal normal ability damage just as living creatures can. For
example, a lich casts Lahm’s finger darts and suffers 1 point
of Charisma damage per dart (the spell normally damages
Strength, but a lich is an undead creature, so it suffers
Charisma damage instead). The Charisma damage the lich
suffers heals at the rate of 1 point per day, and the lich’s
fingers are replaced as the Charisma damage heals.

[HalfDragonCube]

Although there might not be a rule against it, you might find your DM beating you over the head with BoED/BoVD if you use it too often, though.