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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Telperion" data-source="post: 1266611" data-attributes="member: 15711">Okay. I, as a DM (and occasional player), don't see what the big fuzz is all about. 1 point of level drain basically puts a -1 on everything except weapon damage.You loose a spell from your highest spell slot (if you have more than one, then you get to choose).After 24h you make a separate Fort-save for each individual negative level. And if you fail you loose a level. Everyone's pretty much okay with this, right? The problem seems to be in making that level change downward. Well, there is an optional rule for this in the DMG. The biggest problem seems to be in remembering what skills you took at your last level up, and I can understand that taking off several levels at a time can be a pain in that way.But.Skill points: Calculate the skill points you gained during those level ups you are now loosing, and remove them from the highest skill ranks. That is to say if you are a wizard you probably have quite a few ranks in Concentration, Knowledge (arcana) and Spell craft. Well, those go first, and then you get to pick and choose what lowers next. It hurts like hell, but it's not that hard. Feats: Players tend to write them down in the order they get them. Remove the latest and keep going until all the lost levels are dealt with. BAB, Saves, and class abilities: easy enough, since you have a book to tell what to subtract. It's simple math. Hp: There’s a chart in the DMG 3.5 (page 198), which gives the average score for every dice-type. Note that odd and even levels have different scores. Add Con mod and do the math. Spells: you loose some spell slots, but considering that players re-work their spell lists all the time anyway it's no different from constructing a new spell list. Of course it feels worse. Ability scores: if you don't remember what you took when, then remove one point from the highest ability score and keep going until the lost levels are dealt with. Again, if you have even scores then you get to pick and choose. It hurts, but it's not difficult. Personally I allow my players to run trough a session with the penalties associated with energy drain as if they hadn't lost their levels yet. After the session ends they go home and do these changes. No grumbles from this direction that I have heard of. Then again I suppose it could be the easy-to-use chart that I give to those unlucky players who have to loose levels. And the answer to your question is: no, I don't really care for energy drain and level loss, but neither do I feel like handling my players with silk gloves.</blockquote>

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