Reimagining Life Drain

[Devalut]

I'd be pleased as punch if you could share your ideas or twists on the theme of life drain or your favorite depictions of this spell in media.
It doesn't need to be wholly tied to "green ghost straw" or "big succ" visuals either, it could simply be a variation on theme of transmutation, using the life of another to bolster something else!
What is life drain you ask? (You browse the forum of such a dusty game and don't know what life drain is... what's the matter with you?)

Life drain seems to be a standard fantasy ability that is portrayed as a dark spell that steals the health and vitality from a target and feeds it to the caster.
Here's a refresher, the icon and the tooltip:

(Speculating: What's interesting is that it seems to be Lord Garithos in the icon so perhaps the ability came to the game around the time the undead campaign was being developed?)

Variations on the theme beyond Warcraft 3's own channeled spell can range from:

Instantaneous:
Pokemon move, Absorb:

Area of effect:
League of legends Fiddlestick's Grim Harvest ability

Spoiler

https://d28xe8vt774jo5.cloudfront.net/champion-abilities/0009/ability_0009_W1.webm

AOE & Instant:
Vampire Skull consumable item.
(Depicted in warcraft 3 but originated from PS2 Pirates: The Legend of Black Kat)

Damage over time (DOT) + Fire and Forget (FAF):
Pokemon move, Leech seed

Skill shot + DOT + FAF:
Heroes of the storm, Drain hope

If you've not yet closed this tab I'd like to thank you for reading.
Have you come across an interesting variation of Life drain? Or some other health stealing shenanigans? Share it below!

 

[cleavinghammer]

Red Alert 3 has the Hammer tank's alternate weapon, which damages the target, continuously heals the tank, and if the target dies under the effect, the tank gains the target's weapon and a weaker version of its attack.

 

[Bribe]

Another way is the target gradually fades away into a ghostly, translucent self.

 

[Tickles]

Random Ideas

Overcharged Life Drain:
Works like the original Life Drain. But if the casting unit is already at full health, it stores excess health to rapidly regenerate the next time it takes damage. Leveling the spell up could increase both the amount of life drained as well as the maximum that can be stored.

Redirected Health:
This would work like a support heal instead of a self-sustaining heal. The caster would steal health from enemies as a resource, and then using the same spell on allies would heal them with the drained health supply.

Action-Triggered Debuff:
The caster debuffs a target to trigger a life steal whenever the target performs an action, like an attack or a spell.

Legacy of Kain Series

I always liked how Kain had to weaken or disable prey before he could drain their blood in the Legacy of Kain games. In terms of Warcraft 3, maybe you would have to stun an enemy or reduce their health to a certain percentage before you could Life Drain them. Relying on low health to drain from an enemy causes the player to decide whether to outright kill the target, or keep it alive a little longer to use it to heal. Stunning an enemy would be temporary and require good timing to make use of it.

 

[Kyrbi0]

This is such a strange thread, but I like it.

 

[Devalut]

This is such a strange thread, but I like it.

Glad you like it, got any favorite life drain depictions or ideas?

 

[Ceterai]

In Killing Floor 2 if you shoot an enemy with a Hemogoblin, their muscles will begin to shrink and they will start losing body mass, making them horrifyingly skinny. I think this can be a great visual for a target, whose health is being drained. Though I'm kinda scared to imagine a skinny version of abomination

 

[Aiun]

How about instantly life stealing a solid chunk of enemy's max health after killing it?

 

[cleavinghammer]

A summon whose timer is restored by X seconds when attacking another summon with the ability, whose timer similarly shrinks when the ability is used on it. Ending the enemy's summon prematurely via this spell resets the cooldown/restores health and mana to the drainer.

 

[Riki]

How about an immobile summoned unit that drains hit points from nearby enemies every second and when the unit's duration expires, is destroyed, or reaches a specific amount of life stolen, it will restore that accumulated amount to nearby allies.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Necrotic Drain: Drains less health per second, but spawns a skeleton if the target dies under the effect.

Vitality Drain: Doesn't drain life, but the longer the spell is channeled, the target gets an increasing debuff to its speed and damage (the caster gets a corresponding buff). Debuff lasts as long as the caster lives, buff lasts until the caster uses the spell again.

Indirect Drain: Target heals the caster when it attacks instead of itself (use on ally or enemy).

Hole and Fountain: All units in area are drained by X HP/second, all units in a corresponding area around the caster heal X HP/sec.

 

[Goffterdom]

Life Drain: Channeled drain like now except you can cast it on a friendly unit to restore more health than you take from targeted unit (if it's friendly).

Life Drain: Instantly drains life from targeted unit and restores health to the caster.

Life Drain: Like Death Pact except you can cast it on low level enemies. Instantly kills targeted unit and restores health.

Life Drain: Passively grants life on hit.

Life drained can be based on a fixed amount or maximum hit points or current hit points.

Life Drain: Dealing spell damage heals the caster (passive).

Life Drain: Killing a unit restores health.

There could be a bazillion variants. What are you looking for especially.

 

[Devalut]

Life Drain: Channeled drain like now except you can cast it on a friendly unit to restore more health than you take from targeted unit (if it's friendly).

Life Drain: Instantly drains life from targeted unit and restores health to the caster.

Life Drain: Like Death Pact except you can cast it on low level enemies. Instantly kills targeted unit and restores health.

Life Drain: Passively grants life on hit.

Life drained can be based on a fixed amount or maximum hit points or current hit points.

Life Drain: Dealing spell damage heals the caster (passive).

Life Drain: Killing a unit restores health.

There could be a bazillion variants. What are you looking for especially.

The thread is new ideas but you are more than welcome to share the simple ones.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Steal Memory: Target loses a randomly chosen ability, caster gains the same ability. Creates a buff on both target and caster; if either dies or is the buff is removed from either (dispel, etc.), the ability is restored/removed respectively.

Drain Health (Channeling): Target loses max HP every second, of which the caster gains half (e.g. -50/+25). Difference in HP lasts until target or caster dies.

Life Experience Parasite: While active, target only gains half XP from kills/nearby kills/tomes, while caster gains 1 XP every time the target gains XP.

 

[aeman]

i like the way lifehunt scythe and lifedrain from dark souls 3 works

 

[Devalut]

i like the way lifehunt scythe and lifedrain from dark souls 3 works

Yeah the lifedrain from that game was excellent.

 

[aeman]

Yeah the lifedrain from that game was excellent.
View attachment 394084

kinda give me the feeling of the nicholas cage's ghost rider's penance stare or one of kratos abilities from previous god of war

 

[Veritas 117]

How about something like you link two enemies together one drains life and one gains it, but as the one gains it gets bigger and bigger and if it drains all the life from the other it becomes too much and explodes. Basically one shrivels away and dies and the other expands and explodes and dies.

 

[aeman]

How about something like you link two enemies together one drains life and one gains it, but as the one gains it gets bigger and bigger and if it drains all the life from the other it becomes too much and explodes. Basically one shrivels away and dies and the other expands and explodes and dies.

Hmm... Probably sounds like what mosquito on steroids would probably do or feeble vampire if dio manage to get one

Or kung fu panda 3 plot