S
shurai
Guest
There seem to be three problems with level drain here, namely:
1) It's harsh,
2) The paperwork is a pain, and
3) experience totals and/or class levels as 'life energy' doesn't make sense.
I myself think the first one is just silly. I can understand how one might dislike how much it sucks being level-drained, but speaking for myself, campaigns that don't have harsh things happening from time to time just aren't fun. To me, it's like complaining that your character might get killed or might lose all his money at the gaming table at the tavern. Bad things happen. My attitude tends to be 'Suck it up, boy, you're a hero.' You're right, it sucks, and some complaining is definitely in order depending on the character, but life is hard when demons walk the Oerth and whole villages are consumed by orcish hoards. Deal.
As to the second issue, the paperwork isn't that bad. The DMG even suggests alternatives if you can't quite remember which feat you took or what skills you improved. At most, a character will have trouble with spells, feats, and skills. The rest is pretty simple. And you'll likely remember which was which. If you forget, just fudge it a bit by removing an appropriate number of skill ranks randomly.
In response to the third point, I must say that energy drain seems to me to be one of the most realistic things about D&D. In more enlightened game systems, every injury your character sustains will give penalties very similar to negative levels. As you become injured your performance at almost anything will most certainly decrease. That's why people stay home when they're sick or injured, because they need to rest and heal and can't perform very well anyway. Now imagine for a moment that a part of your soul, the essence of your being, has been sucked out through a straw and digested by some kind of undead creature. It's pretty easy to imagine how horrible this must feel, and therefore why negative levels make sense.
I think of it like a serious physical injury, say the loss of an arm or leg. With modern medical technology we can reattach lost limbs, but sometimes it doesn't work and you are out an arm forever. This is what it's like when part of your soul is removed in my campaigns, and it seems to be implied by d20 dogma too. It can rally and recover, but it might be maimed beyond repair and you suffer permanent damage. You may think, "Why can't I sneak as well as I did yesterday? Did I forget?" For Pelor's sake, an incorporeal wispy thing put its claws into your chest! Some people would be permanently unglued just by seeing one! Your confidence was rattled, you find yourself shaky and weak, and your dreams are haunted by horrible nightmares. You have trouble using that new sword technique you just learned because your soul was almost consumed. Makes sense to me.
Some philosophies, most of them Eastern, assume that your life experience increases the potence of your spirit or soul. This might help explain the idea of class levels as spiritual energy make more sense. This theory is certainly backed by spellcasting in D&D, as challenges you overcome allow you to tap into more powerful energies and use them more often. It especially makes sense for sorcerers and clerics.
I find that the people who gripe the most about energy drain are the people who play to gain l33t sk1llz rather than for an interesting roleplay. It's not a hard and fast rule though, and of course the game is just a consentual dream anyway, so if you're happier without level drain in the game, then by all means remove it.
A few of my characters who've been energy drained and came back stronger than before for their experience would just laugh at you though.![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
-Shurai
1) It's harsh,
2) The paperwork is a pain, and
3) experience totals and/or class levels as 'life energy' doesn't make sense.
I myself think the first one is just silly. I can understand how one might dislike how much it sucks being level-drained, but speaking for myself, campaigns that don't have harsh things happening from time to time just aren't fun. To me, it's like complaining that your character might get killed or might lose all his money at the gaming table at the tavern. Bad things happen. My attitude tends to be 'Suck it up, boy, you're a hero.' You're right, it sucks, and some complaining is definitely in order depending on the character, but life is hard when demons walk the Oerth and whole villages are consumed by orcish hoards. Deal.
As to the second issue, the paperwork isn't that bad. The DMG even suggests alternatives if you can't quite remember which feat you took or what skills you improved. At most, a character will have trouble with spells, feats, and skills. The rest is pretty simple. And you'll likely remember which was which. If you forget, just fudge it a bit by removing an appropriate number of skill ranks randomly.
In response to the third point, I must say that energy drain seems to me to be one of the most realistic things about D&D. In more enlightened game systems, every injury your character sustains will give penalties very similar to negative levels. As you become injured your performance at almost anything will most certainly decrease. That's why people stay home when they're sick or injured, because they need to rest and heal and can't perform very well anyway. Now imagine for a moment that a part of your soul, the essence of your being, has been sucked out through a straw and digested by some kind of undead creature. It's pretty easy to imagine how horrible this must feel, and therefore why negative levels make sense.
I think of it like a serious physical injury, say the loss of an arm or leg. With modern medical technology we can reattach lost limbs, but sometimes it doesn't work and you are out an arm forever. This is what it's like when part of your soul is removed in my campaigns, and it seems to be implied by d20 dogma too. It can rally and recover, but it might be maimed beyond repair and you suffer permanent damage. You may think, "Why can't I sneak as well as I did yesterday? Did I forget?" For Pelor's sake, an incorporeal wispy thing put its claws into your chest! Some people would be permanently unglued just by seeing one! Your confidence was rattled, you find yourself shaky and weak, and your dreams are haunted by horrible nightmares. You have trouble using that new sword technique you just learned because your soul was almost consumed. Makes sense to me.
Some philosophies, most of them Eastern, assume that your life experience increases the potence of your spirit or soul. This might help explain the idea of class levels as spiritual energy make more sense. This theory is certainly backed by spellcasting in D&D, as challenges you overcome allow you to tap into more powerful energies and use them more often. It especially makes sense for sorcerers and clerics.
I find that the people who gripe the most about energy drain are the people who play to gain l33t sk1llz rather than for an interesting roleplay. It's not a hard and fast rule though, and of course the game is just a consentual dream anyway, so if you're happier without level drain in the game, then by all means remove it.
A few of my characters who've been energy drained and came back stronger than before for their experience would just laugh at you though.
-Shurai
It was fun while it lasted.
