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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 5696378" data-attributes="member: 32740">D&amp;D undead and their associated level drain were badly written from the start 30-some years ago.&nbsp; I would even say SHODDILY written.&nbsp; It similarly does not speak well of game designers who failed to improve their design ever since, opting instead to &quot;remain true&quot; to what was so poorly done in the first place.&nbsp;I wrote a fair bit on the subject myself at <a href="http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/Building%20D&amp;D/buildingdnd04.htm" target="_blank">Making Monsters</a> but the applicable conclusion I came to tehre is that energy draining undead need to be redesigned from the bottom up.&nbsp; The Vampire is perhaps the worst offender of all.&nbsp; It still does not even drink blood in any way shape or form for any purpose.&nbsp; We've had a PLETHORA of different takes on vampires in recent history and virtually every one still follows the pattern first set down by Bram Stoker in Dracula - they drink blood.&nbsp;Yeah, the old Energy Drain is scary but only because of the META-GAME implications of its effects.&nbsp; An arbitrarlly inflicted &quot;screw you&quot; to the player by taking away his characters earned xp and not giving it back.&nbsp; Even going to something like ability drain doesn't alter the fact that the D&amp;D vampire is a designed as a dull melee combat brute, not a subtle and cunning evasive opponent as Stoker had envisioned.&nbsp;Bad form.&nbsp; Very bad form.&nbsp; It doesn't even matter so much what you do but as monsters energy drainers scream for revision to give them some variation and IN-GAME raison d'etre.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 5696378, member: 32740"] D&D undead and their associated level drain were badly written from the start 30-some years ago. I would even say SHODDILY written. It similarly does not speak well of game designers who failed to improve their design ever since, opting instead to "remain true" to what was so poorly done in the first place. I wrote a fair bit on the subject myself at [url=http://home.earthlink.net/~duanevp/dnd/Building%20D&D/buildingdnd04.htm]Making Monsters[/url] but the applicable conclusion I came to tehre is that energy draining undead need to be redesigned from the bottom up. The Vampire is perhaps the worst offender of all. It still does not even drink blood in any way shape or form for any purpose. We've had a PLETHORA of different takes on vampires in recent history and virtually every one still follows the pattern first set down by Bram Stoker in Dracula - they drink blood. Yeah, the old Energy Drain is scary but only because of the META-GAME implications of its effects. An arbitrarlly inflicted "screw you" to the player by taking away his characters earned xp and [I]not giving it back[/I]. Even going to something like ability drain doesn't alter the fact that the D&D vampire is a designed as a dull melee combat brute, not a subtle and cunning [I]evasive[/I] opponent as Stoker had envisioned. Bad form. Very bad form. It doesn't even matter so much what you do but as monsters energy drainers scream for revision to give them some variation and IN-GAME [I]raison d'etre[/I]. [/QUOTE]

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