ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I propose that you receive an additional reward for killing Celia, namely a "potion of immortality."

What this potion does it converts 20-33% of all future life gains into permanent negative life for undead characters only. Note: it wouldn't change total life gain. It would only split the life gain between positive and negative life.

Why?

1. It would encourage taking on Celia at as early a stage as possible.

2. It would be especially useful for Ghouls.

3. It would enhance the Necromancers Sacrifice shield, and similar talents that reduce damage to a percentage of max life.

4. It's not a pure bonus, i.e. it doesn't produce "power creep," for most classes.

5. It'd add some flavor and it'd be fun.

That actually sounds kinda' neat. It might be even neater if you expanded the concept, though. Make the pos/neg life split default for undead (fairly high, maybe half or better, for skeletons and bone giants, lower for ghouls/vampires, higher again for ghosts/dreads), with celia's whatever increasing the ratio and maybe adding one or two HP/level (probably not retroactive, to reduce incentive to cheese the encounter, as you recommend), either still split or specifically bonus negative life.

That could be a nice lil' theme enrichment for undead (and necromancers, since blurred mortality would suddenly make really dead on sense), and give a bit more (regularly considered somewhat undertuned) characters a little extra from what's generally considered one of the harder fights in the game (taking into account the whole level, anyway).

E: You could also just make the effect universal, instead of undead only. Have it add 5-10% conversion, regardless of state of undeath. Probably make it cancel the blood of life (or not work until you pop it or somethin') or slightly (very slightly, like half to a quarter of the conversion amount) reduce infusion effectiveness or something, so it's still of primary benefit to undead. Possibly even make it part of the heart's effect and make it a guaranteed generic drop.

I dislike making the effect universal...

Either way, I stand by the notion that it'd improve gameplay without general power creep.

Ghouls, sun paladins, and necromancers would get a bump up, no question, but otherwise, it's just a bit of flavor.