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Oct 10, 2012 -- 9:53AM, Sesdun wrote:

It's got to be some type of effect...   it might be necromancy or just fear, it might be paralytic poison.. but apparently it is enchantment of some kind..  which actually makes sense since hold person is and enchantment effect.
Elves happen to be extra resistant to enchantment... it all fits quite well.

Poison resistance should without doubt work against intoxication.

Does it have to be some type of effect?
I was under the impression that DDN was trying to move away from 4E style keywords and other such umbrellas.
I personally prefer keywords for ease of book keeping, but it seems inconsitent with current design philosophy, or it is a shift in that philosophy.
that said, if this isn't a unique case, and they note the potential Vampire Charm Gaze as an enchantment, move intoxicated under poison effects, and otherwise shoot for organizations of that nature across the board, then good.
If it's just for the Ghoul, then it... is discordant and internally inconsistent.

Oct 10, 2012 -- 10:18AM, Mand12 wrote:

Drain really needs a more mechanically simple in-combat resolution.

Nothing was more infuriating than trying to essentially rewrite my character sheet after my wizard took a swing from a wraith.

Now, out of combat?  Sure, make all the changes you want.  Level, hitpoints, spell availability, combat dice quantity or size, whatever.  But in combat it has to be simple, and easy to adjust on the fly.

I'm a fan of the "stacking penalty to everything" concept.  Attacks, damage, defenses, saving throws, skill checks, whatever, that gets worse the more times you're hit.  But keep that separate from actual character changes that may also occur, and let us deal with those when we're not tracking initiative.

What about something simpler, where they drain your hit die, and once those are depleted start doing extra damage= hit die that would have been drained.

The keywords were useful for powers. 


About undead special attack of draining levels or abilities scores. It is too powerful, because they are penalty can´t be eliminated after the encounter and the rest of scene or rooms of dungeon become more dangerous.

A option could be only the number of hit points falls. For example Rojan the barbarian has got 50 hit points, and he was been bitten by a ghoul.... 6 hitpoints drained. After of combat Rojan is healed, but now he only has got a maxim number of 44 hitpoints. Those six hitpoints are lost until the end of effect by ghoul bite. It would be like the "evil damage", a idea from "Book of vile darkness", a special type of damage only could be healed where the spell "sacred zone" were.

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I like the ghoul like cursed infected, but I would wish a second type of ghoul, a living mutant  (aberration humanoid, no undead) who has been infected by... for a example a alien parasite from a meteorite, like the 2006 horror movie "slither", or like the Ganado from Resident Evil 4 or the majinis from Resident Evil 5. Do you rebember the thoon infiltrator and thoon thrall from Monster Manual V? (is there any relation between incarnum and thoon?). If those ghouls could muntant to other type (Resident Evil, Left 4 Dead, House of Dead, or Necromorphes from Dead Space)

The "zombie-li" Ganado could be a special type of zombie-like infected. They are living humanoids, controled by psionic "necrotouched" parasite that a lord vampire implated them to can "milk" their blood, the parasite mades a sustance like the henoydew secreted by aphids (a insect) and it is collected by ants, the aphids protectors.

I'm pretty much happy with anything, as long as it isn't permanent. Long term (months or so) is fine by me, but campaign long rubs me the wrong way.

Level drain, penalties on attack or damage, whatever they decide is fair game. 

Oct 11, 2012 -- 1:05PM, Saelorn wrote:

Oct 11, 2012 -- 12:54PM, Luis_Carlos wrote:

About undead special attack of draining levels or abilities scores. It is too powerful, because they are penalty can´t be eliminated after the encounter and the rest of scene or rooms of dungeon become more dangerous.

That is the whole point of long-term afflictions.  It seems to be a conscious design decision to move away from balancing every encounter with the assumption that everyone will be at full strength going into it.

Maybe they should go back to the old ghost ability of taking years from your life.  It doesn't affect your power between encounters, but it does have a long-lasting negative effect.  [sarcasm]Plus, you can never go wrong with rolling system shock to avoid instant death [/sarcasm].

My suggestion is all those powers should be modular, optional, they could be added like a template to monsters.