Soul Eater Question

[Yogibear41]

The Soul eater prc in BOVD gains an energy drain ability at level one that says it bestows negative levels on a target with a touch. Now it doesn't say touch attack, and I have read something things that say it goes well with things that have natural attacks, so I am wondering if this ability will apply a negative level for every natural attack/unarmed strike that hits? Or does it specifically have to be a touch attack? I looked for some kinda of errata or update on it and I couldn't seem to find anything that clarified this ability. It also doesn't state how long the negative level lasts or what the DC to remove the negative level is.

Although the book is 3.0 and I could just be missing out on some broad rule for updating negative levels from 3.0 to 3.5

Thanks for the help.

[Cog]

It's been argued repeatedly whether the class feature is itself an ability - giving you the option of making a touch attack to drain a level, which as a supernatural ability, defaults to a standard action - or whether it's a passive feature that modifies your natural attacks. Frankly, the wording just isn't clear enough to come to a consensus, so best bet is to ask your DM if this is for a game.

If your DM rules that it's an active ability and thus a standard action, a Necrotic Focus weapon from Libris Mortis will allow you to apply it to all your attacks with a single weapon instead, and if you want to go for a natural attacks build anyway, you could put that on an Amulet of Mighty Fists.

[ddude987]

People argue that RAW is to ambiguous to make a ruling and the two options are activating the ability is a standard action or the ability is always active. The ability simply says "The touch of a Soul Eater" which to me as written means a Soul Eater making physical contact with another creature.

In the end it is up to the DMs final ruling, as most things are. For what its worth, I think RAW leans more towards the ability being always active.

[Yogibear41]

That was sort of my interpretation too, but being able to dish out 3 or so negative levels in one round(natural attacks) with no save at level 6 seems kinda straong

[ddude987]

Strong yes but it it wouldn't be the first time wizards released something broken

[Thurbane]

It is a hotbutton topic around this particular PrC.

Combine it with totemist/warshaper/other classes who get a large number of natural attacks, and you can dish out quite staggering amounts of negative levels in a full attack cycle. Depending on the op-level of the group, this could be problematic. For sure it's not going to match Codzilla or the like, but in a low to medium op group it could cause issues.

This is definitely "check with the DM" territory IMHO.

[IronFist]

RAI seems pretty clear to me, since it even requires a natural weapon. Anyway, no consensus will ever be met.