Death ward and ray of enfeeblement

[montoya]

Does death ward guard against RoE and other ability drain spells? Or does it only protect against instant death and level drain?

[GilesTheCleric]

The subject is immune to all death spells, magical death effects, energy drain, and any negative energy effects (such as from inflict spells or chill touch).

This spell doesn't remove negative levels that the subject has already gained, nor does it affect the saving throw necessary 24 hours after gaining a negative level.

Death Ward does not protect against other sorts of attacks, such as hit point loss, poison, or petrification, even if those attacks might be lethal.


A coruscating ray springs from your hand. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike a target. The subject takes a penalty to Strength equal to 1d6+1 per two caster levels (maximum 1d6+5). The subject's Strength score cannot drop below 1.

RoE is none of the italicised items, so death ward does nothing to prevent it.

[montoya]

Thank you for the answer!

[Chronos]

There are a lot of spells, though, where it's debatable. They really should have added [positive] and [negative] descriptors to spells, to make it clear.

[Psyren]

In the absence of such a descriptor though we at least have the spell text. Both inflict and chill touch mention negative energy by name, which is why DW blocks them.