Baldur's Gate Wiki
Advertisement

The Vitality Drain spell is cast by Aesgareth in the Watcher's Keep Teleport Maze.

This page is to document the potential spell effects.

Gameplay[]

When a party member character engages in a card draw contest with Aesgareth, the character must declare a wager.

One of the wager choices is "Vitality". Should the character lose the draw, then Aesgareth will collect on the wager, and the cambion's dialogue script implements a spell upon the character.

The spell manifests over the party member, with a lighting and sound effect, as well as a text displayed on the combat log reading "Vitality Drain".

The spell strips away 10% of the character's maximum HP modifier, permanently.

For example, if the character had a maximum HP value of 120, then this spell reduces it by 10%, or in this example, -12 HP. The new maximum HP modifier will be 108.

The second effect of this spell is that Aesgareth absorbs this vitality, and the fiend's maximum HP modifier is raised by 20. For example, Aesgareth has 150 HP. After this spell the cambion's HP is raised to 170, permanently.

Take note that the maximum HP modifier change on a character doesn't do any immediate reduction to HP. However, damage incurred later and then subsequent healing/regeneration will reveal that the maximum HP ceiling has been lowered.

The spell is unaffected by Magic resistance.

However, as the spell is of the Necromancy School, it can be blocked by the appropriate Spell Immunity.

The Cloak of Mirroring can also block it, as the spell is of the Offensive damage type.

And finally, a spell protection may work as well, such as Spell Deflection, as the internal spell effect components have a 9 Power level.

The player will know if any of those defensive measures work, as the combat log will display "Spell Ineffective" if it is neutered.

Gallery[]

Advertisement