Restore Lost Life

[Pete Mack]

Losing 20k to a vampire bat is karma. They are easy to detect and have almost no HP. Just a single shot from a half-decent bow, or a wand of fire bolts will destroy it. No need to let it get close.

[archolewa]

I mean, it's called "Drain Life" so why not have it drain max HP?

Then, it'd be freaking terrifying. If you wanted to be *really* nasty you could also have your enemy regain as much health as they drained from you.

Though in this case, you might also want to make it temporary, or it'd be too easy to end up in a "not dead, but basically dead" state.

[DavidMedley]

Originally Posted by archolewa

I mean, it's called "Drain Life" so why not have it drain max HP?

Then, it'd be freaking terrifying. If you wanted to be *really* nasty you could also have your enemy regain as much health as they drained from you.

Though in this case, you might also want to make it temporary, or it'd be too easy to end up in a "not dead, but basically dead" state.

This is a very good idea. Dangerous.

[Sideways]

Originally Posted by archolewa

I mean, it's called "Drain Life" so why not have it drain max HP?

Then, it'd be freaking terrifying. If you wanted to be *really* nasty you could also have your enemy regain as much health as they drained from you.

Though in this case, you might also want to make it temporary, or it'd be too easy to end up in a "not dead, but basically dead" state.

This is basically how it works in Pos-likes; although loss of life/max HP is only temporary in the sense that it can be cured (and because "life" only accounts for half of your max HP, it's possible to run out of life before you actually run out of HP, which turns you into an undead instead of killing you outright).

[Pete Mack]

(Moved from a different thread.) The trouble with this argument is it could be made about every nuisance attack. None of them are fun, and in any case drain CON already does take away HP. And yet, if you got rid of all nuisance attacks, the game would be boring.

[DavidMedley]

They have a similar appearance, but I think drain xp is much more un-fun than drain stat. Taking a stat down can give you some interesting choices, especially if you are pre-stat gain potions and losing a single stat point takes you below an important break-point or makes your load unbearable. You can often grind XP to get out of it. Drain XP makes you retrace your XP gain steps, or go crying back to town for a fix.

What if a monster had an attack that destroyed all your recall items? That would be quite a nuisance, wouldn't it? Does that mean it's fun?

[Pete Mack]

I think the main difference is that EXP drain is *common*, far more so than any of the other attacks. (Strength is a dustant second.) Given this, it is probably good that it is relatively harmless. That said, i agree that having it heal monster HP is a good idea, especially for vampires (or anything that bites to drain life.)

[Derakon]

Mm, I agree with DavidMedley that the issue (or at least an issue) with XP drain is that the "restorative" is everywhere -- just kill more things and you'll get XP back. Stat drain restoration is much more rare, and that goes a long way towards making stat drain a bigger threat.

[Pete Mack]

Up until cl 30, that holds for stat drain, too. Lose a point or two of STR? No worries--you'll level up soon.