Since my polymorph meme has only garnered three downvotes so far I thought I’d offer a bit more controversial take, and see if I can manage to stir the pot a bit with this one.
So this sent me down an absolute rabbit hole. As a DM there’s a few ways I’d consider to stop this being entirely game-breaking:
- You could argue that the only thing strength before death shows is that you can activate strength before death between hitting 0 and getting knocked out. A wizard is no samurai. Therefore concentration spells are not allowed.
- You could argue that life steal requires life to steal, and as such you can’t life steal yourself.
- You could enforce the requirement of the figurine required for vampiric touch, then engineer a scenario to remove it at a critical moment and see if they realise.
Personally I would instead depart from RAW and point out a version of option 2, but a lenient one. Something like “you can do this but you are sapping your very essence to do it. Every time you do it, you permanently lose 10% of your HP” or “every time you do this you increase the number of death saving throws you must succeed before you die”. Or my personal favourite: “every time you do this you perturb the very laws of nature. Nature is rather fond of its laws and so decides to perturb you right back. Roll on this table to see what happens.” and make the table include the above alongside a few other things and maybe a roll on the wild magic table.
In the end I enjoy ingenuity but the role of DM gives you a lot of latitude to… handle… those who believe they found a loophole.
Nature is rather fond of its laws and so decides to perturb you right back.
“Your character has started to understand and unlock the secrets of undeath. Do this again and you may need to find a phylactery quick, because each time moves you one step closer to becoming a lich”
It goes off but doesn’t heal you because the text specifically says
The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon life force from others to heal your wounds.
That’s flavour text.
The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon life force from others to heal your wounds. Make a melee spell attack against a creature within your reach. On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt. Until the spell ends, you can make the attack again on each of your turns as an action.
You are, in fact, a creature within your reach.
You’re a valid target for the spell, but the heal doesn’t trigger cause the target isn’t someone other than yourself.
That’s flavour text.
There is no concept of “flavour text” in 5e. If you believe there is, quote a part of the rules that says as such. In 5e, all of the spell description are rules and this has been debated many a times with the very same conclusion.
The touch of your shadow-wreathed hand can siphon life force from others to heal your wounds.
Doesn’t say “exclusively from others”. Without casting this spell you couldn’t do that normally.
It also says,
On a hit, the target takes 3d6 necrotic damage, and you regain hit points equal to half the amount of necrotic damage dealt.
No qualifiers about the target having to be a creature other than you. It just has to be a creature within your reach.
Also as regards:
As a DM there’s a few ways I’d consider to stop this being entirely game-breaking:
Do you also ban death ward and healing word? What about wizards who dip a level into virtually any other spellcaster or take a feat for a healing spell who can do this kind of thing without even having to make an attack roll or take necrotic damage?
The fact that it mentions others to begin with can’t be ignored though.
Essentially by including that gate in the spell we understand that Self is a valid target, but if target is self then heal does not occur.
There’s no need for the rest of the text to explain what has already been explained, it would be redundant.
Doesn’t say “exclusively from others”. Without casting this spell you couldn’t do that normally.
It also doesn’t say that you cannot fly yet that doesn’t mean it gives you a flying speed. The spell only does what it says it does: It makes you able to siphon life force from others. In any situation not explicitly mentioned in the spell you are still bound by all of the other game rules and as far as I know there is no rule that’d say you can go siphoning life forces from anything without an effect explicitly stating that you can do so.
The D&D rules do not run on a principle of “you can do absolutely anything except for what is explicitly forbidden”.
No qualifiers about the target having to be a creature other than you. It just has to be a creature within your reach.
You do not get to cherrypick which sentences of the spell description you read and follow. It does quite explicitly state “can siphon life force from others to heal your wounds”. There is no concept of flavor text in 5e, every word of a spell description is rules.
I mean, there’s always a way to houserule something to fix the broken rules. Unless you’re DMing an AL game.
