rant on level drain (not too long)

[Ristamar]

Me: Oh, and the cleric should prepare and cast Endurance on each of us in the morning, to help with the Fortitude save.

Cleric:

Me: Is there a problem with that?

Cleric: Well, that's two 2nd level spell slots!

Me & Barbarian:

Cleric: Oh, I guess.

Now that's funny...

 

[Holy Bovine]

Wow, since when did this become RPG.net?
One of the functions of this message board is to express opinions, concurring, dissenting, whatever. Most people have done that, on either side of the issue. If the best comment you have equates to “you don’t like that, so must clearly be an idiot,” maybe you should rethink your post.

Did I say that? Hmmm, reading a little more than was there don't you think?

In answer to the contemptuous post, my dislike of level drain has nothing to do with it being “nasty”. Lot’s of things DM’s do to characters are nasty: coupe de gras, ability drain, etc. Their mechanic, however, is fine and not a headache to keep track of like level draining (where you end up adjusting up and down several times as you get hit, get restored, get hit).

Then I think I see the problem. You don't recalculate every stat, skill, BAB etc when you get hit! Gag! That would be a headache. You just get a 'Negative Energy Level' which equates to a -1/NEL on everything you do - attack, saves etc... The save 24 hours later is when you could actually lose levels (and experience points, skills etc.). IMC, and I really don't know (or care) if it's in the rulebooks is that the player can decide which skill(s) and feat(s) are lost and multi classed characters can decide what class they lose level(s) in. It is irrelevant, in my view, what the character leveled in last time, enery drain takes away 'x' amount of lifeforce - how that is shown in game mechanics I leave up to the player.

But then I'm always a soft hearted DM, and kind courteous poster too

 

[Jondor_Battlehammer]

My friend was getting drained/killed on a unnessecarily regular basis, because he AND his character have no self control. A gem of an idea he came up with was ablative character sheets. Every level, a new sheet. Lose a level, peel one back to an old character. Gain it back, by save or the hard way, pull out the most advanced sheet.

 

[Uller]

I've always hated Energy Drain and ability damage (whether permanent or temporary) never quite seemed to fix it either.

I like the notion that energy drain draws away the character's life force and therefore levels seem to work fine. But permanently losing levels (whether there is a save or not) seems overly punative. My fix? Make it not permanent...the drained level represents a channel that has been opened to the world of the dead, but the channel will eventually go away.

After 24 hours, they lose a level if they fail a save as normal...but they're XP, ability scores, skills and feats all remain as is. Just Hit Dice (average...no rerolling), Saves, Spells, special abilities from class and BAB is adjusted. Then every week they may make another save against the same DC to gain the level back. So normally, lost levels will be regained between adventures with no problem. The only way it can be a major problem is if it is impossible to make the save...