Oblivion:Drain Health

	Drain Health
School	Destruction
Type	Offensive
Effect ID	DRHE
Base Cost	0.9
Barter Factor	0
Availability (Click on any item for details)
Spells Built-In Potions Scrolls Weapons

Drain Health M points for D seconds

Temporarily reduce the value of the target's Health by M points. The effect lasts for D seconds, after which the damage disappears — unless the target's health was reduced to zero, either by the Drain Health or by other damage taken while Drain Health was active, in which case the target dies. Restore Health will not heal drained damage; Dispel may work.

Notes

• This effect can be gained for spell making and enchanting via spells only.
• At first glance it would appear that Drain Health M for 1 second is nearly useless since the drained health will simply return to the enemy after 1 second. However, the key to using Drain Health successfully is to make sure that the target is killed before the effect expires. Because this effect is so cheap (less than one-tenth the cost of Damage Health), it can be easily added to many offensive spells.
  • At low levels, most enemies have less than 100 health. Therefore, a cheap Drain Health 100 points for 1 second spell is sufficient to kill most opponents. This spell only requires Apprentice Destruction skill, so even characters unskilled in magic can take advantage of the effect.
  • At higher levels, when opponents have more than 100 health, Drain Health alone will not be able to kill your opponents. However, it can still be a useful effect:
    • Combine Drain Health with other effects. For example, a spell with Fire Damage 100 points for 1 second and Drain Health 100 points for 1 second will kill any creature with 200 health or less, effectively doubling the spell's power in many circumstances.
    • Use other means to damage your opponents, then use Drain Health to finish them off.
    • Use longer duration Drain Health effects, then continue to attack your opponents while the effect is active.
    • Combine the Drain Health effect with a Weakness To Magic effect. As Weakness To Magic effects can stack, the spell's magnitude can be increased exponentially by chain-casting it, limited by the duration of spell's weakness effect.

See also

Sections:

• Drain vs. Damage vs. Absorb: A comparison of these similar effects.

Related effects:

• Absorb Health, Damage Health, Fortify Health, Restore Health
• Drain Attribute, Drain Fatigue, Drain Magicka, Drain Skill

Alchemy Ingredients

Only two ingredients (with Shivering Isles) have a Drain Health effect. They are:

Novice Nirnroot

Apprentice Unrefined GreenmoteSI

Without Shivering Isles, the only way to get this effect is to eat Nirnroot raw, or to make a potion with it at Master level.

Apparel with Drain Health

Gauntlets of Gluttony 30pts
Aegis of the Apocalypse 20pts