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<blockquote data-quote="Primal" data-source="post: 5603810" data-attributes="member: 30678">I don't mean to be snarky, but IMO it's nothing like the &quot;old&quot; energy&nbsp; drain; surges are a daily resource and you won't lose them permanently.&nbsp; However, negative levels in 3E literally meant losing experience levels;&nbsp; you had to recalculate your stats, and there was a risk that you lost&nbsp; these levels permanently (unless you had access to Restoration). Even&nbsp; the best case scenario was that it was a pain to redo the stats, and&nbsp; each hit potentially dropped your HPs,&nbsp; saves and attack bonuses. Often&nbsp; it was a downward spiral for the whole group, unless you had a cleric.&nbsp; It was fear mixed in with frustration, and I don't think temporarily&nbsp; losing surges even compares to it. In AD&amp;D it was even worse, because there was no saves; if a wight&nbsp; hit you, you automatically and permanently lost a level. Restoration&nbsp; helped, but back then you didn't always have access to it. As leveling&nbsp; up took forever, it felt cruel if the DM used level-draining creatures a&nbsp; lot; back then it was part of the game, but I still remember how unfair&nbsp; it was when all the XP you earned last year just went down the drain,&nbsp; for good.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Primal, post: 5603810, member: 30678"] I don't mean to be snarky, but IMO it's nothing like the "old" energy drain; surges are a daily resource and you won't lose them permanently. However, negative levels in 3E literally meant losing experience levels; you had to recalculate your stats, and there was a risk that you lost these levels permanently (unless you had access to Restoration). Even the best case scenario was that it was a pain to redo the stats, and each hit potentially dropped your HPs, saves and attack bonuses. Often it was a downward spiral for the whole group, unless you had a cleric. It was fear mixed in with frustration, and I don't think temporarily losing surges even compares to it. In AD&D it was even worse, because there was no saves; if a wight hit you, you automatically and permanently lost a level. Restoration helped, but back then you didn't always have access to it. As leveling up took forever, it felt cruel if the DM used level-draining creatures a lot; back then it was part of the game, but I still remember how unfair it was when all the XP you earned last year just went down the drain, for good. [/QUOTE]

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