New DD spell : "Vampiric Touch" (in General)

Kind of like a mix between Decay, MM and ROBF damage (smallest damage of all DDs when compared to XP put into it, single target, melee only or ranged HoC-enabled round, slightly more damage if target has more HP), with MH/BoTh-like effect (20% of damage dealt returns as HP even above initial max HP), possibly even with percentage "leeched" boostable by VA (VA effect scaling with VT level, for 0% leeched if VT is high and VA is near base level for any reason, either due to DM or not enough VA trained).

Eh ? Thoughts ?

I like it. Though I think it's too similar to what we have, leech spell and leech weapons. If only the MH/BoTH had leech, then maybe you could've spun this off as a VA for Mages and it could've worked.

Basicly you just combined UC with VA :)

For damage dealt (before damage reductions), I was thinking something along the lines of somewhere around 20% of trained level (reduced by enemy magic AC, Prot and ToE) PLUS up to 20% of target's HP (not reduced by anything) as "raw" damage dealt (so, basically, a 41% MM that works in the reverse direction of a classic MM, plus a 40% Decay of equivalent level).

"Basicly you just combined UC with VA :) "
Well, sort of :)

Since it's a DD, it "always hits" (unlike UC), and at least the "MM-like" damage is counterable by all anti-magic means (I forgot to add the RoBF to the reduction).
Also, it's highly susceptible to enemy AMF, like all (other) DD spells.
And it's also very susceptible to enemy DM (unlike most other DD spells) in case you decide to try and supplement it with VA.

Not only that, but it's quite suicidal against an enemy sporting AMF/GA in all cases, and against DM/GA enemies in case you decide to try VA augumentation.
Also, it's not boosted by AoF or elven gear (since it's not a skill, but a spell), so your only choices are AG or NSC and CoI.
Using a HoC (so you can make use of it in ranged) means a 5% penality.


Not sure how much good it adds (if at all), but at least it opens up quite a few strategic choices (for its use against some specific "overpowered" strategies in the field right now, and current "working" strategies that can be used against it rather nicely).

UC rarely misses, when they have effects of 150+. DD gets owned by AMF/GA normally anyway.

OMG!? Give MAGES an ability tanks have!?!? That may skew the balance back towards fair! Who's been putting such horrible ideas in your head, Sickone!? You have it all wrong. Tanks get mages abilities!

Sarcasm! ^.^

I like it. But it'd be hard to handle. Reduce it too much, and it's worthless. Also the leech would need to be quite high. Unlike tanks and their VA + morg, mages don't have armor so slight leech is nearly worthless.

I'm thinking they'd need decent damage (something a bit more than MM) but make it start firing in melee. And it really would need quite a bit of leech. Otherwise you're taking alot of penalties just to reduce a bit of AMF damage :\