The "Life steal" conundrum

[captaincrumbcake]

I, like many, have been grappling with the issue of the vampire, wight, wraith (etc.) "life stealing" ability for decades; I've always disliked the mechanic.

There is so much abstraction codified within the abilities (S, I, W, C, D, CH) that to identify the culprit and resolve the matter is, in itself, just a subjective resolution.

Of late, with the creation and development of my Lost Lands project, I have had to return to this issue to give it serious thought if such creatures with such abilities are to be allowed inclusion.

So, I've been considering the simplest treatment of the issue, and think the following shall be my stand on the matter henceforth:



1. Life stealing creatures (vampires, wights, wraiths, etc.) steal life; they do not reduce XP, or a character's combat or saves level. 
2. A hit from such a creature also has a chance of reducing a character's CON score by 1-3 (depending on the creature), if the victim fails to roll his (at that moment) current CON score or less. Any bonuses derived from a character's con score are thus lost should the character be reduced and the new score does not grant such a bonus; penalties to die rolls according to CON score can, thus, become a reality.

These 2 components, IMO, focus the LS ability on the actual goal of the mechanic, without siphoning away the character's other skills (combat/saves); which (IMO) have nothing to do with one's Life!

Therefore, this shall be the HR that I shall implement within my own LL campaign (if I ever get around to conducting it!  )

[robkuntz]

My take on life stealing is upcoming in the Kalibruhn Supplement: Undead. Let's just say that there are LOTS of variations to it, depending.

JFYI I never liked that mechanic either and changed it for Kalibruhn. But. It can be worse depending on the prevailing situation but ,as I mentioned above, the variables would have to align to create a worse-case scenario, meaning that there's more granular ranges that I am addressing in expanding upon LS.

[tetramorph]

captaincrumbcake, I like it, and it reminds me of a way to handle it that I currently use that I learned from Talysman.

Life-energy drain affects lvl, and therefore hit die and therefore attack rolls and saves.

It does not affect XP accrued.

Once you earn another batch of XP, you automatically return a lvl. If more than one level is lost you must earn a batch of XP a number of time equivalent to the levels lost to return to previous level. If you have earned enough XP to progress past the previous lvl you must earn a batch of XP for that additional lvl as well.

I am not wording this very well, but it is easy to understand and use in play.

This makes life-energy drain a serious and fearsome thing. But it doesn't rewind PC's experience accrual, only their relative power for a time.

It works well for me.

[Deleted]

It's your game, do what you like.

Me, I LIKE the level drain mechanic.