Dhampyr dying to level drain - bug?

[gino.milano]

As stated in the title: my main character, currently lvl 10, is a weird witch-dragon disciple-eldritch knight combo, and is also a dhampyr. As such he's supposed to be immune to level drain. yet today I was hit twice by a spectre, and on the second hit I got the messages "X is immune to level drain" and then "X dies". This being almost at full HP. Is this a bug, or am I missing something about how level drain immunity works?

[Frostfeather]

As I understand, they only resist level drain. Meaning, while they're unaffected by the penalties... they can still die to it if it stacks high enough to their character level.

[Aussie 760]

Originally posted by night4:

As I understand, they only resist level drain. Meaning, while they're unaffected by the penalties... they can still die to it if it stacks high enough to their character level.

Well that is not clearly explained in game.

[Conquista]

the description in pnp is abit better, for some reason the ingame description missing half a sentence

[gino.milano]

Originally posted by night4:

As I understand, they only resist level drain. Meaning, while they're unaffected by the penalties... they can still die to it if it stacks high enough to their character level.

Thanks! It does indeed appear to be this way. However:

1) It should really be explained more clearly in character creation. Saying you're immune to level drain, but then letting you be killed by it, is like saying you're immune to a disease but can still die from it.
2) I was level 10! And was killed on the second hit. How many levels do those spectres drain on a single hit?
3) Does it work the same way for bosses that are immune to level drain? Can I kill them through repeated enervations? Or does immunity there suddenly become "true" immunity?

[gino.milano]

I checked, and the spectre drains 2 levels per time. Very weird, if you ask me, a lvl 10 dhampyr kicking the bucket for losing 4 levels...

[Conquista]

in pnp you die if your dhampir has more level drain than hit dice, so unless i get the numbers wrong, does your level 10 hero has more than 80 hp?

[gino.milano]

Originally posted by Conquista:

in pnp you die if your dhampir has more level drain than hit dice, so unless i get the numbers wrong, does your level 10 hero has more than 80 hp?

I didn't keep the relevant save, but now my char is level 11 and has 109 HP, so I guess yes, he was over 80. Anyway, I remember checking later and the spectre drains 2 levels per hit. Other characters did NOT die after two hits. So if not an outright bug this is still very strange in my opinion. As a Dhampyr I should be, if not immune as the bad description says, at least resistant to level drain. Instead I wind up being MORE vulnerable to it.

[Stink Bug]

Originally posted by gino.milano:

Originally posted by Conquista:

in pnp you die if your dhampir has more level drain than hit dice, so unless i get the numbers wrong, does your level 10 hero has more than 80 hp?

I didn't keep the relevant save, but now my char is level 11 and has 109 HP, so I guess yes, he was over 80. Anyway, I remember checking later and the spectre drains 2 levels per hit. Other characters did NOT die after two hits. So if not an outright bug this is still very strange in my opinion. As a Dhampyr I should be, if not immune as the bad description says, at least resistant to level drain. Instead I wind up being MORE vulnerable to it.

Is it possible your character was already level drained for 6-7 levels and the specter took it past 10? If you thought you were completely immune to level drain before instead of just the penalties, you could have been walking around like that for a while.

[Frostfeather]

Originally posted by Stink Bug:

Is it possible your character was already level drained for 6-7 levels and the specter took it past 10? If you thought you were completely immune to level drain before instead of just the penalties, you could have been walking around like that for a while.

That was exactly my thought, too. I did an all-Dhampir group, got characters hit 2-3 times by specters at level 7 and didn't die.

While this could be a bug, you should be able to reproduce it, and it sounds more like a one time issue.

[gino.milano]

Originally posted by Stink Bug:

Originally posted by gino.milano:

I didn't keep the relevant save, but now my char is level 11 and has 109 HP, so I guess yes, he was over 80. Anyway, I remember checking later and the spectre drains 2 levels per hit. Other characters did NOT die after two hits. So if not an outright bug this is still very strange in my opinion. As a Dhampyr I should be, if not immune as the bad description says, at least resistant to level drain. Instead I wind up being MORE vulnerable to it.

Is it possible your character was already level drained for 6-7 levels and the specter took it past 10? If you thought you were completely immune to level drain before instead of just the penalties, you could have been walking around like that for a while.

Sorry, only read your reply now. No, he definitely was full level.

[fox5s]

I ended up remembering this thread when i went to check something else. On the Damphir ability tootip, it says that a Daphir takes no penalties from Energy Drain effects. Level Drain applies penalties that you should be ignoring and is prob why you were getting the Immune popup when they drained you. However, when you accrue drain equal to your hit dice, you die. That's not a 'penalty' as the game defines it. So that's prob what killed ya.

Also note, I thought Spectres did 1d4 drain, not a flat 2 (I could be wrong). In either case, a crit would also double the drain amount which could conceivably get you in the three hits you say you might have taken. Assuming the flat 2, two crits and a normal hit would have you at 10 levels drained if you were super unlucky. Would only take two hits (one of them a crit) and some high rolls if it's 1d4.

I do agree that a flat Immune popping above a character's head would make me think nothing was wrong as well. >.<

[Ichthyic]

check the combat logs and see if you roll a save every time you get hit. IIRC, PC "dhampirs" are kind of a hybrid and only get much higher save chances against most things from the necromancy school, not true immunity. But I say that having only glanced at it.

[TheSmilingDoom]

Just a thought, I didn't check monster stats: Do they also drain attribute points? Because you can die from Constitution damage (all other stats should render you incapacitated when reduced to zero).