Level drain, XP loss, oh my

[hong]

Suppose I'm a 10th level adventurer, and I get bashed up by a wight and gain six negative levels. I blow all my saves (sh*t happens), and the negative levels become permanent. I'm stuck in the dungeon, or wilderness, or wherever, and don't have access to restoration until I fight my way out. In doing so, I accumulate enough XP to go up six levels, so I'm effectively back where I started (I had friends to carry me).

What happens when I get a restoration spell cast on me? Assume it's within the time span that the spell is effective. Do I gain all those levels back? Would I now be 16th level? Note that I only needed 39,000 XP to advance from 4th to 10th level, but I would have needed 75,000 to advance from 10th to 16th level.

 

[Belares]

Hong, according to what I read in the restoration(any) spell, you get ALL levels lost back if within the time period allowed. Now to answer your question, um er hmmmm.......it doesnt say. I would think that if that happened in my campaign then I would say that since you regain those levels already then you cannot be restored. I know it sounds brutal but technically you restored those levels. Of course, there may be a errata or Sage advice out there and I kinda hope there is because that is an awful way to raise in levels.

 

[gfunk]

Hong, I think you answered your own question in the last sentence of your post. It could be severely abused by players as a rule loophole. For instance, 10th level character cast Summon Undead to get energy drained by a Wight. Then when he hits 10th level again via XP, he gets a cleric to restore his levels boosting him to level 19! I guess if you want an epic character fast, this would be the route to go.

 

[phillipjp]

If you accumulated 39000xp (going back from 4th to 10th) and are restored, then you are put back to 10th level and get 39000xp on top of that.

 

[RogueJK]

I agree with phillipjp. Otherwise, it would be too easy to abuse.

 

[AGGEMAM]

And that was also the conclusion when this was debated here in April, August, and September last year.

It is the fairest ruling. Last time, we came up with this:

Energy drain drains experience points from the character equal to the current number of XP minus the XP needed to get the character through half the level lower than the characters current level.

Restoration spells, including Miracle/Wish restores XP lost due to energy drain (see above).

Edit: Grammar and language consistency edited.

 

[kreynolds]

What happens when I get a restoration spell cast on me? Assume it's within the time span that the spell is effective. Do I gain all those levels back? Would I now be 16th level? Note that I only needed 39,000 XP to advance from 4th to 10th level, but I would have needed 75,000 to advance from 10th to 16th level.

Ya' get back all the xp ya' lost, baby!

 

[Anubis]

phillipjp gave the correct solution.

In fact, the book states that somewhere, although I'm not sure exactly where.

The book says something about "XP gained after death and level drain can be added after being brought back to life or restored", or something like that. Basically, you get your levels back, then you get the XP you gained on top of that.

The REAL question only comes up when those extra XP are enough to gain two or more levels on top of what you already had before. (For example, you are Level 13 and have 78,000 Xp. You then lose three levels, putting you down to Level 10 at 50,000 XP. After that, you gain 30,000 XP, putting you back to Level 13 with 80,000 XP, and then get Restoration cast on you. This actually would bump you *down* to 78,000 XP, enough to reach Level 13, and then you would get 30,000 XP on top of that, enough to reach Level 15.)

I would officially say yes, no matter what the Sage says or the rules intended, considering losing levels is almost never a player's fault, and forcing a player to stay at lower levels for something silly like the level gaining limit would not be fair. In other words, I would apply Rule #1, BE FAIR.

 

[hong]

I would officially say yes, no matter what the Sage says or the rules intended, considering losing levels is almost never a player's fault, and forcing a player to stay at lower levels for something silly like the level gaining limit would not be fair. In other words, I would apply Rule #1, BE FAIR.

Fairness, rule 1, and rule 0 have no place in a rules forum.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

Suppose I'm a 10th level adventurer, and I get bashed up by a wight and gain six negative levels. I blow all my saves (sh*t happens), and the negative levels become permanent. I'm stuck in the dungeon, or wilderness, or wherever, and don't have access to restoration until I fight my way out. In doing so, I accumulate enough XP to go up six levels, so I'm effectively back where I started (I had friends to carry me).

What happens when I get a restoration spell cast on me? Assume it's within the time span that the spell is effective. Do I gain all those levels back? Would I now be 16th level? Note that I only needed 39,000 XP to advance from 4th to 10th level, but I would have needed 75,000 to advance from 10th to 16th level.

Small quibble.
When you lose levels by energy drain, your XP are set half-way between your new lower level and the next level. So if you were drained to 4th level, your XP would be set at 8,000 not 6,000. Thus you would only need 37,000 XP to get back to 10th level.

Restoration restores your XP back to the minimum amount required for you to be your former level, in this case 10th level. Therefore you would receive 37,000 XP. If you already had 45,000 you would now have 82,000. This would make you 13th level. This assumes, of course, that this is how the restoration spell works if you gain back all the levels thru the normal course of adventuring before you get the spell cast on you. If it does not work like this, you get nothing. In either case, you would not advance to 16th level.