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Vampiric Touch drains hit points from the target and temporarily adds them to the caster.

Note: Gorion's Ward may gain this spell as a special ability in Baldur's Gate during dreams 5 and 6 with a reputation of 9 or lower.

Description[]

When this spell is cast, the target loses 1d6 Hit Points for every 2 caster levels, to a maximum drain of 6d6 for a 12th-level caster. These Hit Points are added to the caster's current Hit Points, with any Hit Points over the caster's normal maximum treated as temporary additional Hit Points. The temporary Hit Points last for 1 hour.

Note: This spell may not be cast multiple times to radically increase the caster's Hit Points. The caster must wait for the first Vampiric Touch spell to run its course before casting another.

Effects[]

For dual- and multi-classes, the bhaalspawn version of the spell scales with the average of their classes (rounded up).

Since the bonus hit points last for 1 hour, this spell might also be used by characters before combat (e.g. on summons or on companions who get subsequently healed) to start combat with additional HP.

The spell is implemented as 2 spells in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition:

  • The main spell casts the protection from itself, so that it cannot be stacked.
  • It then casts the 2nd spell (SPWI314a), which does the damage part:
    • Casting this spell is subject to Magic resistance.
    • If the spell lands, the drain effect bypasses Magic resistance which makes sure the caster always gets heal.
    • The caster's Magical damage resistance might affect how much hit points are healed  [verification needed]

The spell is implemented as a single spell in the original edition of Baldur's Gate II. The extra hit points received by the caster are:

  • Blocked by their Magic resistance
  • Not affected by Magical damage resistance
  • Dispellable

Bugs[]

  • In Enhanced Editions, Undead and Golems are immune to this spell. But this immunity is bypassed when the game is paused exactly when the Vampiric Touch is cast, which can be reliably achieved with the game option auto-pause on spell cast. This is due to the bug described in the Contagion article, because the immunity is dependent on the order the effects of Vampiric Touch are processed in. With the bug, they're all processed independently from one another.

Where to obtain its scroll[]

The Black Pits[]

Sold by[]

Baldur's Gate & Tales of the Sword Coast[]

This item can be obtained as random treasure. In addition to sources listed below, it can be found on creatures and in containers randomly.

Dropped by[]

Sold by[]

Shadows of Amn[]

Throne of Bhaal[]

Mod content[]

Mods icon This section is about unofficial content that is only available via fan-made mods.

Spell Revisions mod has changed this arcane spell, revising its effects, scaling and duration. See below for description:
Vampiric Touch
Level: 3
School: Necromancy
Range: Touch
Duration: Special
Casting Time: 3
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast, the target loses 3 hit points for every two caster levels, to a maximum drain of 30 for a 20th level caster. These hit points are added to the caster’s current hit points, with any hit points over the caster’s normal maximum treated as temporary additional hit points. The temporary hit points last for 5 turns.

Note that this spell may not be cast multiple times to radically increase the caster’s hit points. The caster must wait for the first Vampiric Touch spell to run its course before casting another.

External links[]

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