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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="strongbow" data-source="post: 1582322" data-attributes="member: 2650">The difference btw Negative Levels and Level DrainThere is a big difference btw neg levels and level drain.Negative Levels give you a -1 per neg level to a lot of things your character does, and are usually temporary.  Sometimes you need to make saves to avoid negative levels becoming level drain, but most of the time these saves are done 24 hours or more after getting the negative level.Level drain is far worse.  The character actually loses levels, as opposed to having some penalties stack up.  Level drain is much harder to fix, and can very well be a fate worse than death, i.e. the permanent loss of only one level from a raise dead or resurrection.  Please be careful when using these terms.  They represent two closely related but very distinct ideas.Some of the early discussion in forming 3.0 among the game designers centered on level drain.  The designers decided that instead of spending lots of time de-leveling your character (from level drain), that they would create a new quasi class of level loss- the negative level.  Applying negative levels to a character is quite easy by comparison, and much more fun to play with.  Adding this new condition let the designers have undead that scaled well with level, since the lower tier undead could inflict negative levels, and the more powerful undead inflict level drain.  Higher level characters have the resources to deal with level drain, and can restore drained levels much easier.So while some of you may hate negative levels, I welcome them.  I do not wish to play with creatures that level drain, and you would see far more of it without the negative level mechanic.  With 3.5 the designers threw the players a bone and made the spell death ward perform as its name suggests.</blockquote>

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