BeyondLimitatio
2013-08-23, 11:59 PM
Ok, I'm officially sick of crusader characters...in fact, I'd say just about everything in Tome of Battle. Admittedly a lot of it is interesting, but a lot of it also gives me headaches.
Today's question falls into the realm of energy drain, more specifically the result of it on a crusader. In my current D&D campaign, this very scenario occurred when a Succubus successfully drained my crusader player down by 3 levels.
The first part is the Negative Level. In the above example, the crusader has 3 negative levels. Obviously he has -3 on skills checks, ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. He has also lost 39 hit points because of this (5 base plus 8 since I gave the succubus the Life Drain feat from Libris Mortis, so 13 per negative level). Now, the crusader is not a spell-caster, so he obviously isn't losing any spells. My only real concern is whether the negative levels should have any effect on his maneuvers, considering those are mechanics that were designed after the negative level rules were designed.
The second, and probably the more important part of my concerns, is if he fails the Fortitude save and ends up losing levels. Luckily my player does keep very specific records, so he knows exactly how many hit points, which feats, which skills, and everything in the event he does lose any levels. But what about his maneuvers in this situation? He is currently 5th level and just gained his first 3rd level maneuver. Does he lose it if he drops to 4th level? And what if he ends up dropping from 4th to 3rd? When he hit 4th, he switched out a 1st level maneuver for a 2nd level one. Does that switch back to the original one or does it stay the same?
Today's question falls into the realm of energy drain, more specifically the result of it on a crusader. In my current D&D campaign, this very scenario occurred when a Succubus successfully drained my crusader player down by 3 levels.
The first part is the Negative Level. In the above example, the crusader has 3 negative levels. Obviously he has -3 on skills checks, ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. He has also lost 39 hit points because of this (5 base plus 8 since I gave the succubus the Life Drain feat from Libris Mortis, so 13 per negative level). Now, the crusader is not a spell-caster, so he obviously isn't losing any spells. My only real concern is whether the negative levels should have any effect on his maneuvers, considering those are mechanics that were designed after the negative level rules were designed.
The second, and probably the more important part of my concerns, is if he fails the Fortitude save and ends up losing levels. Luckily my player does keep very specific records, so he knows exactly how many hit points, which feats, which skills, and everything in the event he does lose any levels. But what about his maneuvers in this situation? He is currently 5th level and just gained his first 3rd level maneuver. Does he lose it if he drops to 4th level? And what if he ends up dropping from 4th to 3rd? When he hit 4th, he switched out a 1st level maneuver for a 2nd level one. Does that switch back to the original one or does it stay the same?