From: alvalent@husc10.harvard.edu (Alvin Valentine)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd
Subject: Re: Level draining seems sadistic, doesn't it?
Date: 16 Oct 92 17:12:51 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Oct16.131253.16450
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

Time for my 2 cents.  I think level drains are OK.  What I don't like about
them is the way they work mechanically.  Let me explain.  My conception of
a life force drain is that it should leave you lower on many physical things,
less able to defend yourself against later attacks of any sort.  Still,
it should not strip you of class related memories--this is clearly absurd.
If you forget how to case your 7th level spells, why didn't you forget other
things too.  This is ridiculous.  

Consider having a character whose a 14th level mage.  After a scrap with
a vampire he'll defintely have his HPs reduced (maybe strength and/or
constitution, too).  In addition, one might make the drains lower his
save throws.  On short, he's walking a very narrow line between life
and death.  One could come up with an argument for lowering the ability
to fight, but less assume that although you can't suck up the damage
(your HP, constitution, whatever is lower), your THACO probably shouldn't
change as you've not been stripped of skills.  Your THACO could go down
as a result of loss of strength or constitution, though--after being hit
by that negative energy surge from that wraith you are a feeble and trembling
wreck, although your skills have not dropped per se. 

If you want, consider the following.  For every X% of your base hit points
you lose, your STR and CON go down by Y%.

This only applies to level drains, so even if you've been beaten up and
have only half your HPs before you fight the wight, we're just interested
in how many you lose to level drain.


Now consider for <25% of max HPs, no Con or STR are lost 25% to <50%
of max HPs lost will cost you 10% of your STR and CON scores.  50% to
<75 % will cost you an additional 15% of your Max STR and CON, taking you
down to 75% of your original stats.  75%+ of HPs drained will knock your
STR and CON down by 25% more (to half their max values).  Now the CON
losses can get nasty, 'cause they will cause a massive drop in HPs, too.
One can add these to the % of Max. HPs lost to make the plunge more
drastic, faster.  Otherwise, the plunge will happen soon enough by itself.


Round up or down on the stats as you see fit, depending on how bad you
want the level drain to be.  And so:

16 STR. 16 CON Fighter, 4th level, 34 HPs.  He's struck by a wight and here we can say that the wight drains 1dX HPs, or drain HPs using the target's HD as 
normal.  Let's stick with the latter method as it will be more familiar, but 
keep the former option in mind for your own benefit in thinking about this 
system.  Now 25% of the Fighter's max HPs is 8.5 HPs.  50% is 17HPs. 
75% is 25.5 HPs.  10% of the stats are 1.6 each.  25% are 4 each.  50% are
8 each.   Now, he loses up to 8 HPs, he's OK.  He loses his 9th, and he loses
1.6 points of STR and CON (we'll say 2 points).  So he loses 2 HP per HD for
another 8 HPs due to CON loss.  He's lost 9 HPs to level drain, 8 HP to CON
loss.  When he loses 8 more HPs to level drains (for a total of 17), then
loses 2 more points from each strenght and constitution.  When he loses
9 more, for a total of 26 HPs lost to draining, he loses 4 more points to
STR and con.  At this point, he has an 8 STR, an 8 CON, and has lost a
total of (26+8) 34 HPs (he's at 0 HPs).  If these losses are permanent,
this would obviously be bad.  Without some form of restoration spell, this
guy would be permanently barely alive and conscious, permanently unconscious,
or dead, depending on your HP system.

Optionally, add in the result that at a loss of 90%+ to level drains, you
are down an additional 25% more on your stats, taking you to 25% of their
starting value.


Again, if you want to make it more dramatic, add in the CON losses to HPs
lost to drain.  Thus when you lose 9 HPs to drain, you lose 8 more from
con loss which means you've lost 17 to drain.  This would mean your COn
and STR would fall again.  That'd scare our player who loses a few HPs,
then loses TONS more and watches his STATS PLUNGE from 16s to 8s in
one touch.  Still this is suggested for very scary level drain effects
as it's much to dramatic a loss for my tastes.

Thoughts and comments should be emailed direct to me.

Thanks
Lee Valentine
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.dnd