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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 4038385" data-attributes="member: 29398">Level-atrophy (decaying skills) rules:Fine,&nbsp; but how do you know &quot;how he is now&quot; unless you know &quot;what he was then&quot;?As a side note: the ideas presented so far for level-atrophy have been very good, but are missing one thing I'd like to see: that some skills decay while others do not.&nbsp; For example: how, rules-wise, can we arrive at someone who was once a 15th-level Fighter who had Whirlwind Attack as a feat, who has forgotten just about everything about fighting (i.e. functions now as about a 2nd-level) *except* Whirlwind Attack, which he still practises every morning?&nbsp; Or, another example: a once-Wizard who achieved 14th level and learned how to cast Teleport Without Error (or whatever it's called now).&nbsp; Ex-Wiz has forgotten just about everything about wizarding - couldn't scribe a scroll now to save his life - but still studies TWE every morning and can still cast it...uses it every time he needs to go into town,in fact.In other words, can the rules handle a situation where skills don't decay at a convenient level at a time, but instead decay piecemeal?Back to main topic: All I want is the rules to be consistent.&nbsp; Inevitably, that leads to rules bloat within a given game; as every time the DM makes an ad-hoc ruling, the precedent thus set in effect becomes a rule for that game.&nbsp; Inevitably, that also leads to there being no functional difference between PCs and NPCs other than PCs have players attached.Lanefan</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 4038385, member: 29398"] [b]Level-atrophy (decaying skills) rules:[/b] Fine, but how do you know "how he is now" unless you know "what he was then"? As a side note: the ideas presented so far for level-atrophy have been very good, but are missing one thing I'd like to see: that some skills decay while others do not. For example: how, rules-wise, can we arrive at someone who was once a 15th-level Fighter who had Whirlwind Attack as a feat, who has forgotten just about everything about fighting (i.e. functions now as about a 2nd-level) *except* Whirlwind Attack, which he still practises every morning? Or, another example: a once-Wizard who achieved 14th level and learned how to cast Teleport Without Error (or whatever it's called now). Ex-Wiz has forgotten just about everything about wizarding - couldn't scribe a scroll now to save his life - but still studies TWE every morning and can still cast it...uses it every time he needs to go into town,in fact. In other words, can the rules handle a situation where skills don't decay at a convenient level at a time, but instead decay piecemeal? Back to main topic: All I want is the rules to be consistent. Inevitably, that leads to rules bloat within a given game; as every time the DM makes an ad-hoc ruling, the precedent thus set in effect becomes a rule for that game. Inevitably, that also leads to there being no functional difference between PCs and NPCs other than PCs have players attached. Lanefan [/QUOTE]

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