Theoretical Ravenloft Quandry

[Rasman]

I've been wrestling with a problem lately and just realized that my problem leads to another problem.

I'm going to be playing a Dhampir Dirge Bard and, at some point, he'll probably need to be able to heal himself. Inflict Light Wounds is the obvious spell for this, unless there's something better for the job that I'm not smart enough to think of, but then something occurred to me. The Dark Powers are fickle when it comes to 'Dark Magic' and the like. Would they force me to make powers checks in order to be able to heal myself?

[BWR]

I'd say yes. If you use ILW for no other purpose than healing yourself, you aren't really doing a lot of dark stuff. However ILW is necromancy and that attracts the attention of the Dark Powers. You're also a dhampir, which is just asking for it.

[HammeredWharf]

Necromancy
Necromantic spells disrupt the natural cycles of life and death. The only necromantic spells that do not require powers checks are those that are purely defensive, do not create or enhance undead creatures, and do not require the manipulation of your life force or that of another subject. (Example: the deathwatch spell.)

Later on, it explicitly says ILW requires a powers check, but I'd wager the CS assumes it would be used offensively. Then again, whether healing a dhampir with ILW constitutes "enhancing" undead is up to interpretation, too. I'd probably let it slide as a DM, but wouldn't be against a DM forcing powers checks, either.

Keep in mind that the check percentage for using a 1st level spell is 1%, so you're not likely to suffer any side effects immediately. Having Good tendencies should offset this if ILW is the only bad thing you do and the first few stages of corruption are barely worth mentioning, anyway.

[Rasman]

hmm...that is a problem...

Would there be a way for a Dhampir to heal itself without using ILW then?

[HammeredWharf]

I suppose you could find a way to deal negative energy damage without using ILW, such as Dread Necro's Charnel TOuch, but unless your DM is very RAW-focused, abilities like that should also provoke powers checks, even though it's not explicitly mentioned.

By the way, 3.5 Ravenloft has its own dhampirs who can be healed by Cure spells. It's a very powerful template with no LA, though.