New Spell - Drain Experience

[JohnPaulB]

IQ 14 Spell
Drain Experience (S) Similar to DRAIN STRENGTH.
Lets wizard drain XP from others (humans or humanoids only) into himself. The wizard himself does not have to be human or humanoid.
The wizard may drain half of the victim's XP. Half of that draining is absorbed by the wizard (Wizard gets 1/4 of the original victim's XP).

The wizard cannot drain a victim more than once as the original victim is now immune to his draining. A wizard can only do this spell once a month because doing this spell is addictive. The more it is done without a rest, the more chance of becoming a megalomaniac and insane as all the drained experience start to leak into his mind.

The person being drained must cooperate or be subjugated (tied up, unconscious, etc.). The wizard and the victim must all be adjacent to one another.

If the wizard fails his DX roll on this one, HE loses as much XP as he would have taken from the victim. If that goes negative, then that wizard needs to build back up to 0 XP in order to then go forward. If the Wizard reaches minus-500 XP, his IQ is permanently lowered by 1. A critical failure of 18 reverses this spell and gives it to the 'victim.' A critical success of 3 allows the wizard to absorb all that he drains from the victim.

While the draining occurs, the victim feels like a bit of his future growth is being sucked away. The player of the victim does not need to reveal how much XP he has before the Draining. If the victim has no XP available, the wizard gets none.

NOTE: Many Wizard Guilds consider this spell to be despicable and have outlawed it.

Cost: 5ST.

[TippetsTX]

So it's sort of like TFT's version of 'level drain'. I like the idea, but what if instead of stealing raw XP, it allowed the wizard to steal the abilities that were bought with the XP... spells and talents?

[hcobb]

Reverse possession. Caster steals the victim's soul. Roll a contest of wills every time you use the borrowed spells or talents or the prisoner takes over.

[JLV]

I like the concept in JohnPaulB's OP, but I agree with TippetsTX that it feels a little "metagamey" since XP are more a player thing than a character thing.

JPB's original concept, though, was designed to steal the XP from the victim and give them to the casting Wizard -- which has much greater implications than merely "draining" the victim. Honestly, my feeling is that this is the kind of thing that ought to require a lengthy ritual and a pentagram (or at least something of similar difficulty) in order to accomplish. Maybe 13 wizards working in unison (or a witch's coven) -- definitely evil, though.

With TippetsTX's version, you'd have to restrict it to talents/spells, otherwise the thing becomes a kind of "death spell" that sucks attribute points away from a character.

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by JLV

With TippetsTX's version, you'd have to restrict it to talents/spells, otherwise the thing becomes a kind of "death spell" that sucks attribute points away from a character.

Agreed. You may want to also limit the time window in which those highjacked abilities can be used. Stolen power fades over time.

[JohnPaulB]

Originally Posted by JLV

I like the concept in JohnPaulB's OP, but I agree with TippetsTX that it feels a little "metagamey" since XP are more a player thing than a character thing.

JPB's original concept, though, was designed to steal the XP from the victim and give them to the casting Wizard -- which has much greater implications than merely "draining" the victim. Honestly, my feeling is that this is the kind of thing that ought to require a lengthy ritual and a pentagram (or at least something of similar difficulty) in order to accomplish. Maybe 13 wizards working in unison (or a witch's coven) -- definitely evil, though.

I like the ritual idea. Done by a Solo Wizard, it might be done for neutral aspect. Done as a group, I can see the evil implications.

I aligned it with Drain Strength because players already knew how that worked. The original idea was to provide something similar to the Demon Wish, but not involving demons.