Gogo vampire-style!

[Thrifalas]

I'm currently thinking of "themes" for my parties, as using AoU and Ravager for insta-killing and such, and came up with a pretty interesting idea.

Gram drains 1 level with each hit unless the victim saves at -5.
Blackrazor has a 15% chance of draining 4 levels of the victim.
The lvl9 mage spell Energy Drain drains 2 levels from the victim.

That's as much as I've found that drains levels, and it looks to me that you could easily drain away pretty nicely at higher levels. Now, is there something I've overlooked, like creatures being immune to level drain, or it isn't that successfull or something? I mean, you can easily drain 10 levels from something, and I know by experience that it's pretty painful.

I was thinking a fighter/mage wielding Gram and a kensai/thief (dualled) wielding blackrazor, the mage equipped with level drain.

Dangerous? Funny? Been done before? Something else I should think about?

[Luis Antonio]

It may work. Or not. For a high level spell, Level Drain is really not that good. You got Dragons breath, time stop... so I dont really use it often. BUT as almost every spell in BG, you can use it tactically. The only problem is: the enemy may save against the spell too. Or resist. So you'll need to unbuff them quickly, and trigger the drains right after that (specially with tactics mod) and pray for the MR to do not avoid the drain or the second buff run (that may send you the level drain back). Also, some creatures are immune to LD, such as vampires and extra planar creatures (cant confirm this, but in tactics mod almost everithing is immune to level drain).

Yeah, the tactics will work. But have your kensai use the gram sword of the grief. He'll hit more often. Give the fighter mage some spells and some staff maybe. Protect him, specially if he is your PC.

[JackOfClubs]

I find that enemies usually die of the traditional lack of hitpoints before I can level drain them enough to make a big difference. Same is true of the ability drain features of, say, Soul Reaver or the Archer's Called Shot ability.

[Arch_Angel]

You could also download the valen NPC mod. You can have her join your group, her vampire abilities get better as she levels up. As a weapon she uses her 'claws' which also level drain more and more as she gets stronger. Be warned though she becomes insanely powerful, but would easily have to be my fav NPC mod. She's just so damn evil

Definately recommend if you want a level draining party. Just be warned though, if you level drain someone too far they 'explode' into pieces and you could lose any equipment they were carrying.

[Ravager]

Wouldn't turning off the 'gore' option stop explosions like that?

[Deadalready]

You don't get experience for draining someone to death...


Still you could get a thief wielding Haer'Dalis's short sword that drains dexterity on each hit (without a save!) and mix it with something else.

[Grandpa]

This is my fave combo Thirfalas. Don't worry about not getting XP from level draining, it's almost always the damage that explodes them. Also, it's not true that exploding deaths will not give you XP, nor do the monsters lose their items. That only happens when you cast Disintegrate.

[Arch_Angel]

[QUOTE=Grandpa]This is my fave combo Thirfalas. Don't worry about not getting XP from level draining, it's almost always the damage that explodes them. Also, it's not true that exploding deaths will not give you XP, nor do the monsters lose their items. That only happens when you cast Disintegrate.[/QUOTE]

Uhh....... I think you'll find that certain items can indeed disapear if they're level drained and you get them blowing apart into many chunks. It's a different animation to what you get when you do high levels of damage and make someone explode. Their bits look gray and a bit like stone, when you do the high damage and they go to pieces it's not that colour. It has more of a 'fleshy' look.

Doesn't always happen, but it can. Try it with a high level Valen with her totally upgraded claws. I usually have her switch to another dagger after she's hit a monster once or twice with level drain to stop it from happening.