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<blockquote data-quote="CleverNickName" data-source="post: 3789972" data-attributes="member: 50987">I hope they get rid of them...they are such a bookkeeping nightmare.&nbsp; If you are sending the party into a nest of vampires, you pretty much need all of the characters in Excel spreadsheet format just to keep track of the negative levels, restoration spells, and any other modifiers that come up.&nbsp; &quot;Let's see...Yeagar was hit three times in that last battle, but then Piffany cast lesser restoration on him, then he was hit twice again.&nbsp; Nodwick got hit three times, but Piffany had to use her last restoration spell on Artax who got hit five times, and had to use her bear's endurance spell on Nodwick instead to keep his hit points up.&nbsp; Then, three rounds later, the wights showed up and...&quot;&nbsp; Ugh.And heaven help you if one of those lost levels should become permanent; the character's skill list and feats are hosed beyond recognition, and you've got an instant fight on your hands with an (understandably) upset player.&nbsp; Unless a player keeps back-logs of all of her character sheets from every single level-up, there will always be an argument over hit points, ability points, action points, XP points, skill points...it's like getting audited by the IRS.Besides...I never liked the idea of a monster attack draining one's experience.&nbsp; Like one of my players lamented, &quot;why am I losing experience levels, anyway?!&nbsp; Did that vampire make me forget that I kicked his a$$ last week?!&quot;&nbsp; I didn't know what to say.After the Vampire Nest Fiasco of 2005, we ended up dropping level drain/negative levels altogether, and replacing it with Con drain instead.&nbsp; The end result was less of a hassle for me, and a lot more fun for the players.&nbsp; I hope they do the same in 4E.So, to the 4E game designers:&nbsp; please lose the XP drain/level loss stuff.&nbsp; I promise to send you some hand-crafted ale if you oblige.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="CleverNickName, post: 3789972, member: 50987"] I hope they get rid of them...they are such a bookkeeping nightmare. If you are sending the party into a nest of vampires, you pretty much need all of the characters in Excel spreadsheet format just to keep track of the negative levels, restoration spells, and any other modifiers that come up. "Let's see...Yeagar was hit three times in that last battle, but then Piffany cast [I]lesser restoration[/I] on him, then he was hit twice again. Nodwick got hit three times, but Piffany had to use her last [I]restoration[/I] spell on Artax who got hit five times, and had to use her [I]bear's endurance[/I] spell on Nodwick instead to keep his hit points up. Then, three rounds later, the wights showed up and..." Ugh. And heaven help you if one of those lost levels should become permanent; the character's skill list and feats are hosed beyond recognition, and you've got an instant fight on your hands with an (understandably) upset player. Unless a player keeps back-logs of all of her character sheets from every single level-up, there will always be an argument over hit points, ability points, action points, XP points, skill points...it's like getting audited by the IRS. Besides...I never liked the idea of a monster attack draining one's experience. Like one of my players lamented, "why am I losing [I]experience levels[/I], anyway?! Did that vampire make me forget that I kicked his a$$ last week?!" I didn't know what to say. After the Vampire Nest Fiasco of 2005, we ended up dropping level drain/negative levels altogether, and replacing it with Con drain instead. The end result was less of a hassle for me, and a lot more fun for the players. I hope they do the same in 4E. So, to the 4E game designers: please lose the XP drain/level loss stuff. I promise to send you some hand-crafted ale if you oblige. [/QUOTE]

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