Exactly. What if undead did hit-point damage that simply did not heal? That would be scary too. And it would be simple.hong said:There's nothing particularly "scary" about level drain, assuming you have restoration. It's only scary because it requires a 4th level spell to get rid of, whereas you can sleep off hit point loss.
I'm still partial to disease-like ability damage to all abilities, which can fester and get worse or heal over the course of a few days.