billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Tell me that when that lost level costs 250,000 xps to recover.
Which one do you prefer your character suffer? Death vs Rust Monster vs Level Drain
- Thread starter AllisterH
- Start date
Tell me that when that lost level costs 250,000 xps to recover.
I'm kinda with Dausuul here.
I rather be level drained since gear used to take multiple adventures to acquire and you probablly are not getting back that Holy Sword anymore....
If the gear is just the regular +1 stuff, no problems with losing it...
The named and powerful stuff like a Holy Sword or Girdle of X Giant Strength which were very random?
Hell no, I'll take the level drain.
And how long will it take you to replace the +4 full plate? Maybe a level's worth of adventuring. Maybe less, maybe more. Maybe never.
Meanwhile, if you're high enough level that it takes you 250K XP to level up, your party cleric is easily high enough level to cast restoration.
Henry
Autoexreginated
I prefer death by Vampire Rust Monster with the half-Barghest Template.
More seriously, I've never been that upset with a character death, or loss of items in game. I dislike permanent level drain, because it's the only one that feels like it's forcing a "do-over" of my time. But at higher level, death comes and goes swiftly, and monetary fortunes at high level almost tend to come and go at whim in games I've played before - The last module of the Slavelords series is a good case in point, as are any games run in an almost Conan style, where you start broke and end up wealthy at any given session.
More seriously, I've never been that upset with a character death, or loss of items in game. I dislike permanent level drain, because it's the only one that feels like it's forcing a "do-over" of my time. But at higher level, death comes and goes swiftly, and monetary fortunes at high level almost tend to come and go at whim in games I've played before - The last module of the Slavelords series is a good case in point, as are any games run in an almost Conan style, where you start broke and end up wealthy at any given session.
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billd91
Not your screen monkey (he/him) 🇺🇦🇵🇸🏳️⚧️
Yeah, restoration. How many years of that cleric's life will it cost in 1e? Two or three? In 2e, it cost both the caster and recipient 2 years.
Gear is gear. If you don't get the exact same stuff, it's not that big a deal.
Prism
Explorer
Rust monster
We lost much of our stuff several times over anyway - getting captured, dominated by some artifact to chuck all your other stuff away, Mordie's disjunction.
The trouble with level loss was the fact that your began to fall behind your party members which wasn't as much fun. If someone lost all their magic stuff however we generally shared our stuff out or allowed that party member to take most of the gold for the next few adventures.
We always found clerical spells hard to get hold of unless we had one in the party - pretty strict with only casting on worshippers of said god
We lost much of our stuff several times over anyway - getting captured, dominated by some artifact to chuck all your other stuff away, Mordie's disjunction.
The trouble with level loss was the fact that your began to fall behind your party members which wasn't as much fun. If someone lost all their magic stuff however we generally shared our stuff out or allowed that party member to take most of the gold for the next few adventures.
We always found clerical spells hard to get hold of unless we had one in the party - pretty strict with only casting on worshippers of said god
).I voted "rust monster".
Death is out because at low levels you may not be able to find/afford a cleric who can raise you, and even if you can coming back isn't a guarantee. Plus being raised costs you a CON point in a game where stats are very hard to raise.
Level drain is preferable to death because you can get the level back (through experience or magically) - but its even harder to find a cleric who can cast restoration than one who can cast raise dead. The price is also extremely high.
Lost armor can be replaced fairly easily if its non-magical. Even if its magical you will eventually replace it (not necessarily with exactly the same stuff, but with something).
People have pointed out that there are cases where they'd feel differently (e.g. a paladin losing his holy avenger or someone losing a suit of +4 plate armor). Fair enough, I'll take the level drain in that case -especially if the party cleric can cast restoration. But, in most cases, the party paladin will keep his holy sword away from the rust monster, one's armor will be less rare than +4, and the party cleric will not be able to fix the level drain - so I still think "rust monster" is the most general answer for me.
Death is out because at low levels you may not be able to find/afford a cleric who can raise you, and even if you can coming back isn't a guarantee. Plus being raised costs you a CON point in a game where stats are very hard to raise.
Level drain is preferable to death because you can get the level back (through experience or magically) - but its even harder to find a cleric who can cast restoration than one who can cast raise dead. The price is also extremely high.
Lost armor can be replaced fairly easily if its non-magical. Even if its magical you will eventually replace it (not necessarily with exactly the same stuff, but with something).
People have pointed out that there are cases where they'd feel differently (e.g. a paladin losing his holy avenger or someone losing a suit of +4 plate armor). Fair enough, I'll take the level drain in that case -especially if the party cleric can cast restoration. But, in most cases, the party paladin will keep his holy sword away from the rust monster, one's armor will be less rare than +4, and the party cleric will not be able to fix the level drain - so I still think "rust monster" is the most general answer for me.
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Majoru Oakheart
Adventurer
In most games I've played the game doesn't last more than 5 years of game time. You start at age 16 as a human and end as 21. Well, after the haste spells, restoration and the like, you probably end as 60. But, hey, the game's over right? Besides, I thought everyone was Half-Elves or Elves.
Depends on the game. I would REALLY hate to have my gear destroyed in some games. Others...well, I'd replace my +5 Sword from the party treasure immediately after we finished killing the Rust Monster.
