Enervation and Hit Dice

[maysarahs]

I'm sorry if the question has been asked before (even more if done so recently), but does Enervation lower hit dice for the purpose of Cloudkill effects or other hit dice related things, or is a "negative level" just a -1 penalty on a bunch of things (aka not as great as I thought?)

[Quietus]

Due to this :

-1 effective level (whenever the creature’s level is used in a die roll or calculation, reduce it by one for each negative level).

It seems that negative levels do, in fact, lower a creature's "effective HD". Now, that does make for some very powerful effects, particularly those related to Blasphemy (and ilk), and Cloudkill.. but it would also allow you to lower foe's HD to put them to sleep, which would be an interesting application. I'd say, ask your DM, as giving negative levels even more power is a dangerous thing.

[maysarahs]

In pathfinder (sorry for the omission) it only says:

The creature is also treated as one level lower for the purpose of level-dependent variables (such as spellcasting) for each negative level possessed.

I never understood if that was to be interpreted as a lost hit die or not. Thank you for your help!