I fondly remember the scare of encountering Undead in the orginal versions of DnD i.e. when you lose whole Experience Levels. I loved the scare that penalty gave me but now see it as too harsh.
Life Drain now is very temporary and not very intimidating cuz you don't really lose that much, that can't be overcome with some long rest etc.
I've been trying to figure out a more intimidating Life Drain effect (homebrew style) to put that original-fright back in me. I considered a player losing all their Experience Points of their CURRENT Experience Level... but I'm not sure if that would have the desired effect. Perhaps permanently (recoverable for a price?) loose a single Ability-Score point? Or even two or, dare I suggest, three Ability-Score points for higher level Undead?
Whether you are losing ability scores or levels, that breaks the math of the game and suddenly, an encounter can cripple your ability to deal with it. The encounter will be much swingier than expected. The party can take it down without negative consequences or get hit with the penalties and struggle to survive. In my opinion, have a threat dependent on chance isn't fun or interesting.
Maybe try something like restoring maximum hit points requires expending hit dice at the end of a long rest or something. Make the existing impacts harder to recover from.
First Time post-er here.
I fondly remember the scare of encountering Undead in the orginal versions of DnD i.e. when you lose whole Experience Levels. I loved the scare that penalty gave me but now see it as too harsh.
Life Drain now is very temporary and not very intimidating cuz you don't really lose that much, that can't be overcome with some long rest etc.
I've been trying to figure out a more intimidating Life Drain effect (homebrew style) to put that original-fright back in me. I considered a player losing all their Experience Points of their CURRENT Experience Level... but I'm not sure if that would have the desired effect. Perhaps permanently (recoverable for a price?) loose a single Ability-Score point? Or even two or, dare I suggest, three Ability-Score points for higher level Undead?
Anyone got any ideas?
Whether you are losing ability scores or levels, that breaks the math of the game and suddenly, an encounter can cripple your ability to deal with it. The encounter will be much swingier than expected. The party can take it down without negative consequences or get hit with the penalties and struggle to survive. In my opinion, have a threat dependent on chance isn't fun or interesting.
Maybe try something like restoring maximum hit points requires expending hit dice at the end of a long rest or something. Make the existing impacts harder to recover from.
How to add Tooltips.
My houserulings.
Consider the life drain effect as delivering levels of exhaustion