should ressurections be allowed if drained in that way?
One more thing Xlorep and the epic bureau will have to answer in their dragon build.
--and considering that there were, at most, 15 dragons on Athas, this won't come up often NB
when a SK drains a person with her magic does it destroy the soul too?
should ressurections be allowed if drained in that way?
It adds to the horror of dragon-magic, if it totally and completely destroys that which it touches.
--and considering that there were, at most, 15 dragons on Athas, this won't come up often NB
Wow! I would love to see a Pc try to talk smack on one of these guys!
I agree, Dragons would be horrendus indeed. Soul eaters? Perhaps they have an epic level ability or spell that would allow them to do this.
oh yeah almost forgot. remember also a creature defiled turns into black ash. (though in some of the pictures it was black ash and bones) If they become just black ash, then there would be no body left..... which makes bringing them back more difficult.
Wow! I would love to see a Pc try to talk smack on one of these guys!
Talking smack to any epic-level character, especially one who has committed genocide on a scale even Hitler wound stand in awe of, is stupidity personified. Simple as that.
I agree, Dragons would be horrendus indeed. Soul eaters? Perhaps they have an epic level ability or spell that would allow them to do this.
Why make it an epic spell? Why not just have it as an ability possessed by all Athasian dragons?
--that's the way I've always run it, back during my 2e days NB
note this is just my personal viewpoint..... but here is something to look at. In all cannon and the previous versions of darksun for 2ed, the dragon magic ability to drain animal life does not effect/drain undead. As many intelligent/freewilled undead have their souls, this would indicate that the draining is just of life energy not the soul. However as resurrection and raising of the dead is EXTREMELY uncommon in most peoples Athas campaigns, this wont have a major effect. Although the thought of someone defiled to death by a dragon being raised could be really interesting for a new template or just the roleplay potential. Exactly how would remembering being drained of your very life force effect someone.... the ideas the ideas..... (I almost feel pity for my players)
Ah, but undead are necromantic creatures, and thus have no life-force to steal. No life-force to steal = no souls stolen by dragon-magic.
--consider the soul-death caused by dragon-magic to be a side-effect of its defiling properties NB
Ah, but undead are necromantic creatures, and thus have no life-force to steal. No life-force to steal = no souls stolen by dragon-magic.
--consider the soul-death caused by dragon-magic to be a side-effect of its defiling properties NB
interesting idea. I personally do not subscribe to it, but interesting. There is nothing really in the cannon where anyone tried to reach a person slain through defiling in the grey, so we really do not have anything to go by officially yet. I was editting my last post when you post and mentioned something that make alot of difference on bringing someone back anyway. When a creature is defiled to death, the body becomes black ash, like plants do. No body makes it really difficult to bring back a creature. (not impossible, just a whole lot harder)
I know there is some anxiety over allowing RaFoaDK as cannon, but... Hamanu ddoes describe Dragons as having the ability to drain living creatures, and Champions having the ability to hoard the energies of the dead. Now, whether you just wanna say that they create undead, which is rare, or that they can actually drain undead creatures, which would be more powerful than those necromantic types who are still mortal.. but for one of Rajaat's champions well worth it so that their races don't escape by undeadness.. (especially in bory's case with the dwarves...) I'd give the SK's alone that ability to drain undead...
Where did you get that from?
I never read anything about hoarding or the undead...
Windreaver is not even undead, he's a discorporated troll essence linked to a peeble.
In the novel Hamanu gets his sustenance from the sun and death: anything he kills is like bread to his body, and killing anything with the "eyes of fire" is like ambrosia.
Hamanu is able to sever the tie that links a person to its body, freeing its essence (read soul mixed with life force) to go to the Gray. He can also absorb that essence, consume it totally so that no one (Rajaat or a wish spell) can ever gain access to that dead person.
As for draining undead of life force, I think Jon answered that one some time ago: undead have no life force, or if they have one its of a different kind than the one that can be used by dragons. A undead leech wizard (see PrC Appendix 1) can't use its Cannibalizing Raze class ability...
My thought is, that the SK's have access to more than just the typical energy types for normal dragons...
check again in RaFoaDK durring the part where hamanu chats with Sadira about magic, it's near the end.
I like to have, in my campaigns, the SK's have the ability to not only access plant and animal energies for their spells, and not only access the grey like mortal casters do, but also to drain undead like they were living creatures, in other words.. mortal defiler saps plants, mortal necro saps grey, dragon saps animal, SK also saps undead, get it? that's just my own fun with it.
otherwise, things would be too even against any other dragon out there, and Rajaat's champions should have a clear advantage. or why else would Kalak be the only non champion SK? Simple, he holed up in his city and tried to stay outta the way, the others (and there were others) got stomped in open confrontations.
Hamanu gets access to sun magic as well. Granting him a clear edge over the other SK's.
Hamanu refers to his immortal Champion essence when he says "A dragon could quicken spells from the life essence he, or she, hoarded inside; a mortal sorcerer didn't have the essence to spare.".
Its not quite clear in that specific paragraph, but he does refer to it elsewhere. He says that everyone could power their spells with their own life force if they knew how to, but they wouldn't choose to do it because they don't have the life force to spare.
Hamanu does: his life essence, in that regard, is immortal.
This is a novel, so its not clear what it entails. But Hamanu has been using his own life force to power his spells for a thousand years now.
When Sadira pulled the life force from Agis, she removed a finite amount which he would never retrieve later on, making him older and withening the hairs around his temples. This wouldn't happen with Hamanu: its probably possible to drain him dry, killing him or rendering him comatose in the process, but if he doesn't die he'll always regenerate to full health and life force.
Btw, its never exactly said Hamanu has access to the same magic Sadira does: he does mention the whole thing when he strips her of her powers at the Asticles estate. Abbey in her notes links the Black to the Dark Lens, and the Dark Lens to the sun, so she mentions that in the end Hamanu is in tune with the same source that empowers Sadira and with his superior arcane knowledge and growing link to the Dark Lens (remember, the division between Lens and lava lake are blurring at an alarming rate by that time) can strip her of her own connection.
should ressurections be allowed if drained in that way?
No. See Defilers and Preservers, page 35, under Advanced Beings and Magic, 3rd paragraph
"Dragons are the ultimate defilers. When they memorize (or cast) 10th-level spells,
dragons not only pull the life energy from plants, they also pull it from other living
beings in the area. All living creatures (except the caster) within 30 yards of the caster
are affected, regardless of terrain. Such creatures take 1d4 points of damage for
every level of the caster’s above 20. Such damage may only be healed magically.
Part of the victim’s living essence has been turned to ash. Weak beings may expire,
turning to ash as they die. (Anyone reduced to zero hit points has his entire body
turn to ash.) Someone killed in this fashion can’t be resurrected."