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<blockquote data-quote="Dunjin" data-source="post: 1238307" data-attributes="member: 14572">Level drain never made sense to me. It always felt like someone in the old days said, &quot;Hrm, we have things that damage hit points and all that, but this monster is really scary. I know! It takes away levels! Genius!&quot; Then 3.x kept it as a legacy thing, but smartly altered it so that the level drain isn't necessarily permanent. Maybe I misunderstand the math involved. Do you not lose skill ranks with level drain? Do you not lose feats you might have gotten? Do you not lose X hit points, saves, and BAB? From a flavor standpoint, it also makes no sense to me. I guess I always saw levels as an abstract representation of your character's experience in the world and skill at what he does. Why would one touch from a vampire remove some of that? 3.x makes a little more sense, since you can attribute it to a disease or something, but why not just make it a disease? Something curable without seeking out a Restoration spell?From a game design standpoint, it's also not so cool, in my opinion. An unlucky battle with some spectres could put the PCs back in the days of fighting kobolds and goblins again, whereas they were obviously fighting cooler, deadlier monsters before. As a GM, I don't want to regress a campaign if I can help it, especially if my players are having fun with their higher level characters and can look back on the olden days of running from hobgoblins with nostalgia and pride.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dunjin, post: 1238307, member: 14572"] Level drain never made sense to me. It always felt like someone in the old days said, "Hrm, we have things that damage hit points and all that, but this monster is really scary. I know! It takes away levels! Genius!" Then 3.x kept it as a legacy thing, but smartly altered it so that the level drain isn't necessarily permanent. Maybe I misunderstand the math involved. Do you not lose skill ranks with level drain? Do you not lose feats you might have gotten? Do you not lose X hit points, saves, and BAB? From a flavor standpoint, it also makes no sense to me. I guess I always saw levels as an abstract representation of your character's experience in the world and skill at what he does. Why would one touch from a vampire remove some of that? 3.x makes a little more sense, since you can attribute it to a disease or something, but why not just make it a disease? Something curable without seeking out a Restoration spell? From a game design standpoint, it's also not so cool, in my opinion. An unlucky battle with some spectres could put the PCs back in the days of fighting kobolds and goblins again, whereas they were obviously fighting cooler, deadlier monsters before. As a GM, I don't want to regress a campaign if I can help it, especially if my players are having fun with their higher level characters and can look back on the olden days of running from hobgoblins with nostalgia and pride. [/QUOTE]

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