OD&D Level drain recovery houserule

[J.Quondam]

One fun house rule along these lines that you see floating around the blogosphere: you have to kill the very undead that took your levels in order to get them back.

I once used a wight who'd been a tax collector in life long ago. He would intermittently awaken and wander the countryside extorting gold from people, and taking life levels from those who couldn't pay up. He kept a ledger of all these payments in gold and soulstuff, a big sinister book called "An Accountynge of the Lyfe Taillages of the Realme" or something goofy like that. When the PCs got their hands on the book, they figured out a ritual to zero their entries in it to get their experience back, as well as that of any other of the wight's victims they could track down.

 

[cavalier973]

One fun house rule along these lines that you see floating around the blogosphere: you have to kill the very undead that took your levels in order to get them back.

“Okay, friends. We’re gonna start a new game, but I’m gonna start you all out at level 9. Each of you pick out three magic items, as well.”

during the first dungeon “Well, it looks like the wight knocked you all down to level one, and got away with all your cool magic items, but it left you alive, for some reason. Your retainer says the wight fled toward the haunted castle. If you kill it, you are all back to level 9.”

 

[Jmarso]

"A Wight." Makes me laugh.

In my last 2E campaign, the party (on a random overland encounter) braved a single room barrow and were ambushed by 16 Wights. Yes, you counted that right. Rolled it straight out of the MM. They were a pretty powerful party, but no less than 3/8 party members lost levels, some of them more than one before they won the battle.

Took 'em a while to get those levels back- two full modules worth of adventuring IIRC. That was a lot of XP that had to be re-earned. Watching them s--t their pants when 16 wights jumped them was something else. They were lucky to survive- I was thinking it might be a TPK, but we let the dice fall where they may, and they survived.

And it was FUN!

 

[John R Davis]

I remember running I6: Ravenloft. Random encounter in the castle gatehouse. 2d8 wights. I rolled a 15.
End of story

 

[Jmarso]

I remember running I6: Ravenloft. Random encounter in the castle gatehouse. 2d8 wights. I rolled a 15.
End of story

Boom. Squeal like little pigs, players!!!!

 

[Jmarso]

It's funny, I was talking with my DM (from the campaign I play in, not the last one I ran) and we were joking about the fact that if you play the monsters intelligently and to the maximum of their abilities, there is really no way Strahd should ever be defeated in a Ravenloft campaign, from pretty much ANY version of the game, but especially 1E/2E.

 

[Mannahnin]

"A Wight." Makes me laugh.

In my last 2E campaign, the party (on a random overland encounter) braved a single room barrow and were ambushed by 16 Wights. Yes, you counted that right. Rolled it straight out of the MM. They were a pretty powerful party, but no less than 3/8 party members lost levels, some of them more than one before they won the battle.

Took 'em a while to get those levels back- two full modules worth of adventuring IIRC. That was a lot of XP that had to be re-earned. Watching them s--t their pants when 16 wights jumped them was something else. They were lucky to survive- I was thinking it might be a TPK, but we let the dice fall where they may, and they survived.

And it was FUN!

We had a scene almost like that in Barrowmaze.

Open table online game, sizable party, mix of 1st-3rd level (might have had a 4th level in there). We found a new entrance to the Barrowmaze proper from one of the (many) surface barrows, further East from the existing entrance we already knew about. Poking into a tomb the DM describes PILES of glittering jewelry and gems. But we could see several occupied niches from the doorway, and knew we were in a more dangerous area of the maze than we had been in before. We tried staging a snatch & grab, run-for it, but the occupants woke immediately and it was at least six wights. We barricaded the door, and then a ghost started coming down the hall. We fled pell-mell for the surface.

No one got drained, but we didn't get the treasure, either.

Every session I played since then I kept trying to assess whether we had a strong enough party to take another shot at that damn tomb.

 

[John R Davis]

Oh god, cold sweat memory of Bone Hill......
My cavalier had fallen in a pit and busted up his armour, wrecking his lovely AC
We then met the wraith, and the only magic weapon belonging to the Paladin. I was happy thinking he would conquer the wraith but he handed my cavalier the weapon and said " there you go" knowing full well it was very difficult for me not to attack the powerful enemy.
Lost 3 levels and just never recovered his bravado.
I miss energy drain it was awesome ( sometimes!)

 

[Jmarso]

I miss energy drain it was awesome ( sometimes!)

You can always house rule it back!

 

[John R Davis]

You can always house rule it back!

I'm not sure the current generation of younger players I run too could cope!