Drain Life and surplus damage

[haslo]

Hi there First time I'm posting here.

I was wondering about Drain Life and what happens when it deals more damage than the target's life value. Assuming my mage targets an enemy creature with life 4 and no damage with Drain Life, and rolls 6 damage.

Does he deal 4 or 6 damage? And as a consequence, does he heal 4 damage, or 6?

A reworded question could be "is damage dealt one by one and it stops being dealt when the target is destroyed, or all at once and the target is destroyed after all damage has been dealt?" - the rules seem to imply the second in this sentence:

"If the object suffers damage equal to or greater than the Life value, it is destroyed."

[ringkichard]

Welcome!

I'm away from my desk, so I can't give you the quote, but the rule is that damage done in excess of hitpoints does not count toward healing.

[baronzaltor]

That is only specified in the Vampiric trait, not on Drain Life which just says "heals damage equal to the damage taken".   

I didnt see any reference to Drain Life  itself or rollover damage (outside of Vampiric) in the FAQ, so as far as I can find Drain Life heals the amount dealt regardless of what the target has left. 

[nitrodavid]

by definition excess damage Is not part of damage received. the damage of your attack is the number on the dice, but the damage received is only the damage that can be inflicted on creature. ie if you have 1 HP remaining, you can only receive 1 damage.

[baronzaltor]

From FAQ

"Vampiric- Damage dealt to the creature in excess of its remaining health does not count towards healing"
 
That seems to imply that creatures can be dealt more damage than its remaining health.  Otherwise it would just say "creatures do not receive more damage than its current health total"  Instead it says they receive the damage but no healing occurs in the case of Vampiric.

I assume Drain Life is supposed to follow suit on that, but it still seems to me that at the literal wording it heals past the remaining health mark. 

Ive always operated under the assumption that "negative health" existed, perhaps Ive been backwards on that.

[nitrodavid]

damage dealt is the number on dice (after armour), damage received is the number of tokens you place on creature or the amount the dice tract moves (note when your life and damage are the same you die).

the rules for vampiric in the rule book and FAQ. the drain life is a vamperic type spell so it would be bound by similar rules as other vamperic traits.

[haslo]

(note when your life and damage are the same you die).

This bit is why I provided the rules quote in my OP: "If the object suffers damage equal to or greater than the Life value, it is destroyed." - so it's not "when they're the same you die", but it's "when they're the same or you have more damage than life you die."

I agree that thematically, it probably makes sense to treat it just like Vampiric, but I don't think the current rules make it work like that. Thus my question, actually.

Edit: How many posts do I have to make until mine aren't moderated any more?

[haslo]

Is there a way to post this as a rules query to the Arcane Wonders guys? The way I see it, this might well be a case of the spirits of the rules contradicting the wording of the rules, so it would be nice to have official confirmation...

[nitrodavid]

search for
can "death link" heal for more then target has.

In the last post they mention that death link let's you heal for more then targets health and because of that it does not have the "vampiric" type.

 I can't quote the post now because I am using my phone.

[haslo]

search for
can "death link" heal for more then target has.

In the last post they mention that death link let's you heal for more then targets health and because of that it does not have the "vampiric" type.

Cool, thanks a lot! Thought I had searched already, but here's the thread:

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=5671.0

[jacksmack]

search for
can "death link" heal for more then target has.

In the last post they mention that death link let's you heal for more then targets health and because of that it does not have the "vampiric" type.

Cool, thanks a lot! Thought I had searched already, but here's the thread:

http://forum.arcanewonders.com/index.php?topic=5671.0

So how does Death Link work together with Death Lock?

a)
The warlock heals 2 damage because Death link acts as a transfer of damage and thus doesnt count as a regular heal, then target creature recieves 2 damage

b)
The warlock heals 2 damage, but because of Death Lock its 0 damage healed.  Then target creature recieves 2 damage.

c)
Death link doesnt work when death lock is in play because the warlock cannot heal and no heal = no damage.

?

[nitrodavid]

it is explained better in that forum topic.

based on the example if the warlock only has 1 damage.
the warlock can only heal 1 damage of him self and then transfer that 1 damage to the death link creature.

if death lock is active then the warlock can heal for 0 damage, so then he can transfer 0 damage to the DeathLink creature.

[Kharhaz]

Lets note that the vampiric trait gives you half the damage done as health and this card does not do that and as such is not subjected to the rules of that trait.

However, because of the vampiric sub type,  I think it is a good idea to surmise that drain life can NOT heal more damage than what the creature has life, but from a literal reading on the card it can....... I think?

 You roll 5 die of direct damage. You then heal the amount that the creature received.

So the question is does, a creature receive damage all at once or one point at a time?

Like I said I am going to guess that it was not intended to not let you heal 8 health from an amazing roll on a fox but I always assumed that if a creature takes 10 damage, you compares that to it's health, not add damage one point at a time and destroy the creature when the damage total is equal to it's health.

[nitrodavid]

read the death link topic. they say all "drain life" have the vampiric "type" and do damage then heal some amount based on the damage done.
the vampiric "trait" only heals for half of damage but they are referring to the vampiric "type".

I'll try to point it out again
 1. death link (DLK) is a curse (not vampiric) refer to card
2. DLK can heal for more then life remaining. refer to death link topic
 3. the designers stated DLK behaves different to drain life abilities so it does not have "vampiric" type. refer to death link topic
4. drain life (DLF) has vampiric type. refer card
5. from 2 and 3 by deduction, vampiric acts different, and therefore can't heal for more then the life remaining on creature.
 6. from 4. and 5 by relation drain life can't heal for more then the life remaining on creature.

[piousflea]

This isn't very clear to me based on the existing rulebook. Logically speaking I would think that Drain Life should work like Vampiric (No overkill allowed) but it is never explicitly spelled out that way.

Death Link is very specifically worded to allow overkill, so it is not relevant to the Drain Life question.

On the other hand, Drain Soul also seems to be worded to always grant 6 Life. This makes it an excellent way to finish off an enemy creature while also gaining life.