Ability Damage Resource 2.0

[Saintheart]

All of those materials are now in the guide.

And I came across another interesting feat that seems to do a fair bit for ability damage: Black Lore of Moil (Complete Arcane)

I am assuming the reason BLoM's been overlooked on ability damage is because people wrongly assume negative energy damage is always hitpoint damage (i.e. lethal or nonlethal.) The PHB glossary indicates clearly to me, this is not the case. Damage falls into one of three categories: lethal, nonlethal, or ability damage. When a type of damage is cited, the glossary says it's only significant for working out what immunities or resistances apply to that damage.

This is why the Rules Compendium tapes on a limiter for sneak attack as applied to touch or ray spells: the extra damage is in the form of hitpoint damage, not the same type as the damage of the spell. And that's a specific rule for precision-based damage situations -- sneak attack, skirmish, maybe Iaijutsu, etc. Every other spell defaults back to the rule that if it adds damage, it adds to the category of damage that the spell does: lethal, nonlethal, or ability damage.

Therefore Black Lore of Moil, adding +1d6 damage for every 2 levels of the spell, does nuts-all of significance for most Necromancy spells, but gives significant boosts to most ability-damaging spells, because half the damn list of ability-damagers are Necro spells. Shivering Touch, of course, but there's plenty of others: Mindfrost; Poison; Contagion; Affliction; Bloodsnow; Boneblast; Contagious Touch; Dehydrate; Dark Tide; Kiss of the freaking Toad; Last Judgment; Shadow Arrow. All Necromancy school, all picking up +1d6 per 2 levels of spell, for not one increase in spell level.

I'm not even going near the ability penalisers off the Necromancy list like Sunstroke where the bonus damage done is an open question since the spell penalises, it doesn't damage.

Heighten Spell also seems to work just fine with BLoM because the feat works off the formula of "+1d6 per 2 spell levels", and Heighten Spell basically turns a lower level spell into a higher level spell for all purposes based on spell level. I cannot see that the writers would have missed that interaction, so good old Boneblast arguably then stays relevant into the teens.

And let's not forget, finally, that BLoM also turns a 'save or suck' into a 'save and suck' since half the negative energy damage still gets taken even on a successful save. Only immunity to negative energy damage seems to block this.

Anyone want to Devil's Advocate this line of reasoning?

[Anthrowhale]

Dragon #304 has a spell/psionic power called "Empower Venom" on page 38-39 which adds 50% to poison damage.

BLoM is extremely powerful if it applies to ability damage. Given that, I would not be surprised if DMs do not allow it.

[ShurikVch]

One more feat - Hamstring Attack (Dragon #313): When you use a natural weapon to make a successful attack while flanking, attack of opportunity, or attack against an opponent who is stunned or prone, you may choose to deal Dexterity damage instead of normal damage. Roll the damage for the attack normally; the result is the DC for the target's Fortitude save against the effect. A creature that fails the Fortitude save takes 1d4 points of Dexterity damage. Success negates the damage.

-Spells-

Strength:
Cold of the Grave (Dragon #347) - 1 Str damage, +1 for every 4 CL (up to 5)
Conjure Greater Midnight Construct (Magic of Incarnum) - Soulburning Aura option (1 Str damage per point of essentia invested to all creatures adjacent to the construct at the end of the construct's turn)
Dark Tide (Stormwrack) - 1 Str damage
Despoil (Lords of Madness) - 1d4 Str damage
Greater Antidragon Aura (Dragons of Faerûn) - if any dragon or dragonblood creature attacks warded creature in melee, they suffer 1d6 Str damage (Fort negate)
Ice Blast (Complete Arcane) - additionally, fatigues the target
Investiture of the Pit Fiend (Fiendish Codex II) - Aspect of Pestilence (creatures in 10' must make Fort save or suffer 2 Str damage)
Languor (Spell Compendium) - -1d6 Str penalty, +1 per 2 CL (up to 1d6 +10)
Persistence of the Waves (Masters of the Wild) - despite being a "buff" spell, technically it still inflicts -2 Str penalty
Shadow Double (Drow of the Underdark) - each hit of the double causing 1 Str damage
Spectral Dragon (Dragons of Faerûn) - 1d6 Str damage with its bite attack (+1 - if caster is shadow-related)
Spider Curse (Spell Compendium) - target gets poisonous bite (1d6 Str damage)
Stone Spiders (Spell Compendium) - poisonous bite (1d3 Str damage)
Touch of the Graveborn (Complete Mage) - creatures with negative level(s) suffer 1d6 Str damage
Unholy Aura - if Good creature attacks warded creature in melee, they suffer 1d6 Str damage (Fort negate)
Weird - 1d4 Str damage (on a successful save!)

Dexterity:
Frostbite (Frostburn) - 2d6 Dex damage
Dirge of Discord (Spell Compendium) - -4 penalty to Dexterity
Impede (Complete Champion) - -4 penalty to Dexterity (if the subject is already under an effect that curtails its ability to move)
Iron Construct (Eberron Campaign Setting) - and one more supposed "buff" spell; -4 penalty to Dexterity
Metal Skin (Complete Arcane) - and once again, supposed "buff" spell; -2 penalty to Dexterity
Might of the Oak (Masters of the Wild) - a "buff" spell; -2 penalty to Dexterity
Rime (Dungeon #109) - -4 penalty to Dexterity
Storm Slave (Dragon #347) - -4 penalty to Dexterity (entanglement)
Transmute Sand to Glass (Sandstorm) - -4 penalty to Dexterity (a creature partially caught in the glass)
Tsunami (Spell Compendium) - -4 penalty to Dexterity
Vitrify (Sandstorm) - -4 penalty to Dexterity (a creature partially caught in the glass)

Constitution:
Befoul (Lords of Madness) - 1d4 Con damage for drinking the affected water, or 1d2 Con damage for swimming in it
Bleed (Complete Champion) - every piercing or slashing attack also inflicts 1 Con damage
Blood to Water (Spell Compendium) - 2d6 Con damage
Boneblast (Book of Vile Darkness) - 1d3 Con damage
Choking Cobwebs (Complete Mage) - 1d4 Con damage each round they're nauseated
Fangs of the Vampire King (Spell Compendium) - 1 Con damage with a bite attack
Imprison Soul (Heroes of Horror) - 1d4 Con damage per day
Kiss of Death (Masters of the Wild) - 1d10 Con damage
Pestilence (Book of Vile Darkness) - 1d4 Con drain per day
Resonating Agony (Complete Mage) - 1 Con damage
Serpent Storm (Dragon #330) - 1d4 Con damage
Slow Consumption (Book of Vile Darkness) - 1 Con damage
Speed of the Wind (Masters of the Wild) - again, a "buff" spell; -2 Con penalty
Tomb of Jade (Oriental Adventures) - 1d6 Con drain
Torture (Dragon #348) - 1d6 Con damage
Touch of the Pharaoh (Dragon #331) - Mummy Rot, except no incubation period
Toxic Tongue (Complete Mage) - 1d3 Con damage

Strength and Dexterity:
Scourge (Spell Compendium) - 1d6 Str and 1d6 Dex damage

Strength and Constitution:
Withering Palm (Spell Compendium) - 1 Str and 1 Con damage per 2 CL (up to 10 both); on a critical hit, damage is not doubled, but replaced by drain

Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution:
Aging Touch (Dragon #350) - 1 Str, Dex, and Con damage
Ray of Entropy (Spell Compendium) - -4 Str, Dex, and Con penalty

Strength, Constitution, and Charisma:
Fallen Soul (Dragon #312) - Evil creature suffers 4 Str, Con, and Cha drain for willingly performing Good act

Intelligence:
Investiture of the Amnizu (Fiendish Codex II) - grants touch attack which does 1d4 Int damage
Return to Nature (Eberron Campaign Setting) - 1d6 Int damage to Dragons or Magical Beasts
The Worm Within (Dragon #343) - 1d2 Int damage per round

Wisdom:
Incarnum Weapon (Magic of Incarnum) - 1 Wis drain
Love's Lament (Spell Compendium) - 1d6 Wis damage
Mindworms (Dragon #343) - 1d6 Wis damage
Overwhelming Revelations (Magic of Eberron) - -2d6 penelty to Wisdom
Wall of Incarnum (Magic of Incarnum) - 1d4 Wis damage (if creature have no essentia)

Charisma:
Rend Essentia (Magic of Incarnum) - 1d4 Cha damage, +1 per 3 CL (up to 1d4+5; can't reduce Cha below 1)

Wisdom and Charisma:
Soul Scour (Unapproachable East) - 1d6 Wis and 2d6 Cha damage

[Saintheart]

^^^

Thanks for all those, ShurikVch and Anthrowhale - I will get them in there. About a third to half of the spells I already had, and coincidentally I came across Hamstring Attack about 2 days ago and inserted it - but I really appreciate the look anyway. Some of those are actually rather nice.

Also, I'll be putting a link in to SirNibbles' big compendium of diseases when I've got a second.

[SirNibbles]

Diseases

Just a little word or two about this, because frankly it's not easy to weaponise disease under D&D 3.5 and I'm here to try and save you some time.

Diseases' main problem is their incubation period. You can hit someone with a disease but they usually won't be feeling its effects until hours or days later. It's a rare situation where you'll want this to happen. And unfortunately - and surprisingly - there aren't a lot of spell-based solutions to this.

The foundation for disease imposition is the core spell Contagion. Most spell-like or supernatural abilities allowing you to spread disease use it as well. (Note the druid was surprisingly excluded from casting it, so, as is always the case with druids, he got something more powerful later on: Contagious Touch in the SpC, which is a Contagion with a longer duration, hitting multiple targets, and a slightly better save DC because it's coming from a higher spell level.)

Now, the positive of this spell is that it removes the incubation period. On a touch, the target makes a Fort save (set by the spell, not the disease) or gets hit with the disease's ability damage. However, there are three negatives that seriously weaken it for our purposes:

(1) The list of diseases is short and Core-only. As high as it goes is 1d8 Dex damage from the Shakes, which isn't bad, but not a patch on something like Shivering Touch.

(2) The disease's saving throw is the spell's saving throw. Yes, I know I already said this. That means Contagion has a saving throw of DC 14 minimum, since the formula is DC 10+spell level+casting stat bonus, we usually get the spell at level 3, and our casting stat therefore has to be a minimum of 13, i.e +1 minimum.) For some diseases that's actually a higher DC than default (Shakes, Mindfire, Filth Fever) ... but for others, it's actually lower, thus making some of the better diseases (Blinding Sickness) actually easier to resist. And since the level of the spell isn't ever going to change, if we want to scale the spell and keep it relevant further up, we have to seriously steroid our casting stat to get an improvement out of it. (Once again, the Druid has more options in this area: the spell Owl's Insight is druid-only and boosts your Wisdom score by 1/2 your caster level.) Mass Contagion also boosts the DC because it's a higher level spell, but then the question is how strong it is at the levels you get it.

(3) Contagion doesn't do anything about the secondary saving throw: it defaults back to the disease's standard save, so even if you could finagle the secondary damage to come in immediately, there's less chance of getting it as your level rises.

Like I said, most other spellcasting solutions amount to summoning stuff with poor hygiene. And which tend to have fixed saving throws generated by the creatures with the diseases.

Out of 3.5, I'm only aware of three options that do anything with disease. And one of them is technically third party, which we'll get to.

Nosomatic Chiurgeon (DMark): From Eberron, but the main thing it has going for it is the Isolate Pathogen class feature, mentioned further above. This basically widens the range of diseases useable with Contagion to the full gamut of magical and natural diseases (if your DM is kind or your backstory includes that you've treated it before.) The diseases under BoVD (p. 62 BoVD) are generally more powerful than the Core diseases available under Contagion. We're out of the 1d4 and into the 1d6 to 1d8 range at a minimum -- stuff like Deathsong (1d8 Str+1d8 Dex+1d8 Con), Possession Infection (1d6 Wis+1d8 Cha), and similar. But we still have the problem that the disease's saving throw is replaced by your puny Contagion spell save, unless your DM is nice.

Hunefer Rot (Epic Level Handbook, page 199) and Gangrenous Touch (Libris Mortis, page 116) deal their damage (1d6 and 1d4 Con, respectively) every round, not every day. Very usable.

Pit Lung (Fiendish Codex I, page 112) has no save against the damage, only initial infection- the damage is 1 Wis drain and the disease can only be cured with remove curse cast in a temple consecrated to a lawful good deity.

[Saintheart]

Hunefer Rot (Epic Level Handbook, page 199) and Gangrenous Touch (Libris Mortis, page 116) deal their damage (1d6 and 1d4 Con, respectively) every round, not every day. Very usable.

Pit Lung (Fiendish Codex I, page 112) has no save against the damage, only initial infection- the damage is 1 Wis drain and the disease can only be cured with remove curse cast in a temple consecrated to a lawful good deity.

Added in and linked to the disease index. Thanks Nibbles!

[SirNibbles]

A few minor fixes:

__

Incorrect: Nosomatic Chiurgeon (multiple times)
Correct: Nosomatic Chirurgeon
__

Regarding undead, "their mental stats are vulnerable" is not true unless the undead has a constitution score. A creature with no Con score is "immune to ability damage..."

Undead Type
No Constitution score (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry)

[Saintheart]

A few minor fixes:

__

Incorrect: Nosomatic Chiurgeon (multiple times)
Correct: Nosomatic Chirurgeon
__

Regarding undead, "their mental stats are vulnerable" is not true unless the undead has a constitution score. A creature with no Con score is "immune to ability damage..."

Undead Type
No Constitution score (unless otherwise noted in a creature’s entry)

I'll fix up the misspelling, but where's the citation that a creature with no Con score is immune to ability damage? Not saying I doubt it's in there somewhere, but we've got a weird rules dysfunction if so since the d20srd types and subtypes section, regarding undead, say that the Undead's physical ability scores are immune to ability damage...

[SirNibbles]

I'll fix up the misspelling, but where's the citation that a creature with no Con score is immune to ability damage? Not saying I doubt it's in there somewhere, but we've got a weird rules dysfunction if so since the d20srd types and subtypes section, regarding undead, say that the Undead's physical ability scores are immune to ability damage...

A creature that has no Constitution has no body or no metabolism. It’s immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless the effect works on objects or is harmless. The creature is also immune to ability damage, ability drain, and energy drain, and automatically fails Constitution checks.
Rules Compendium, page 105

This is a property of not having a Con score, not being undead. However, not having a Con score is a property of being undead (indeed, the first one listed- Monster Manual, page 317).

Because there is nothing stating that undead are vulnerable to mental ability damage, the general rule of creatures with no Con scores being immune to all ability damage remains in effect.

Why am I not surprised it's the Houserules Compendium that ruins our fun. All right, I'll get onto changes accordingly.

The same rule was published in the Monster Manual, page 312. I just quote the Rules Compendium because any rule published in it takes precedence.

[Saintheart]

A creature that has no Constitution has no body or no metabolism. It’s immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless the effect works on objects or is harmless. The creature is also immune to ability damage, ability drain, and energy drain, and automatically fails Constitution checks.
Rules Compendium, page 105

This is a property of not having a Con score, not being undead. However, not having a Con score is a property of being undead (indeed, the first one listed- Monster Manual, page 317).

Because there is nothing stating that undead are vulnerable to mental ability damage, the general rule of creatures with no Con scores being immune to all ability damage remains in effect.

Why am I not surprised it's the Houserules Compendium that ruins our fun. All right, I'll get onto changes accordingly.

[Kaleph]

Why am I not surprised it's the Houserules Compendium that ruins our fun. All right, I'll get onto changes accordingly.

Constitution
Any living creature has at least 1 point of Constitution. A creature with no Constitution has no body or no metabolism. It is immune to any effect that requires a Fortitude save unless the effect works on objects or is harmless. The creature is also immune to ability damage, ability drain, and energy drain, and automatically fails Constitution checks. A creature with no Constitution cannot tire and thus can run indefinitely without tiring (unless the creature’s description says it cannot run).

It's also in core, actually.