Roleplaying massive power loss

[Charles Phipps]

Odd question, anyone ever play a character at a significantly less powerful level than they were before? Recently, I had my 16th level Samurai depowered down to 4th level so he could travel along with a relatively newer party. My fellow Players were a bit surprised by it.

I'm debating how really to handle the character going through it (He going to claw his way up with the Sword Sage class)

[Flawless]

Well, back in AD&D second edition I once had a level 8/8 Fighter/Thief that was brought back to life after a TPK by Cyric. As everyone was creating new characters, he was brought back at level 1/1. He was seeing this as a second chance and was a lot more careful than in his first life. It was kind of fun to have a level 1/1 character with all those stories and anecdotes of his previous life. I don't think this is much of problem. It was really fun, since I really liked that character.

[Telonius]

Okay, made my will save against Samurai put-downs.

Anyway, I would suggest having it coincide with some sort of massive injury, ability drain, sickness, or traumatic experience. Maybe he got hit with a hex, or some really nasty spell, or whatever. He lost his confidence and ability to fight, for whatever reason; and it's not heal-able by any divine magic. He's got to re-train himself.

I'd think of it like a pro athlete returning from a terrible injury. He's really cautious when he first gets back. He has to re-learn all of the motions, and get his confidence back before he can achieve the previous level of awesome. (Made second will save against Samurai put-downs.)

[Kurald Galain]

You could try being overconfident, relying on the Power Level Of Nine Thousand that you no longer possess. Of course, that's rather dangerous

[Quietus]

I have one character who got all the way up toward level 20, and then due to circumstances, was knocked all the way back down to 1. Essentially, he had to give up almost all of his life essence to seal away a terrible evil... had he given ALL of it, he might have defeated his enemy permanently, but he wasn't able to bring himself to do that. He's since had a Modify Memory type spell used on him so he doesn't remember anything of his previous self, because the information he'd learned could be used to unseal the being he had to deal with. All he knows is that he has a giant blank spot in his memory that he shouldn't be chasing after, and a weapon he didn't have before that he needs to protect with his life.

[Dubie]

Anyway, I would suggest having it coincide with some sort of massive injury, ability drain, sickness, or traumatic experience. Maybe he got hit with a hex, or some really nasty spell, or whatever. He lost his confidence and ability to fight, for whatever reason; and it's not heal-able by any divine magic. He's got to re-train himself.

I'd think of it like a pro athlete returning from a terrible injury. He's really cautious when he first gets back. He has to re-learn all of the motions, and get his confidence back before he can achieve the previous level of awesome. (Made second will save against Samurai put-downs.)

It only took a brief training montage for Segal in that movie where he comes out of the coma, retrains and kills everyone else in the movie... ;p

I would probably have to have something rather tramatic happen, that either supernaturaly, physicaly, or mentaly caused my character to somehow loose confidance. I like the Coma..good excuse to loose the physical boosts, some brain scrambling to cause masive loss of skill points.

A modified level drain curse of some kind would do the trick. Teach you for messing with epic Mages...

If my character retained the memories of his former glory, I'd have him go into a state of self doubt. Spend a level or two with a drinking problem, lack of self confidance, basicly a grumpy old gutter bum.

"I used to be Wayne the Warrior, slayer of Red Dragons....those days are gone kid. Just can't swing that ol' sword like I used to. Hell, these days I call it luckey if some goblin scout don't lop off my head..."

Then throughout the campain, he'd be forced to build up his confidance, and retrain to his former glory...

The memory loss way works too though, and makes for some interesting plot hooks as more gets discovered about your past, and an old foe needs revisiting.

[Telonius]

It only took a brief training montage for Segal in that movie where he comes out of the coma, retrains and kills everyone else in the movie... ;p

I would probably have to have something rather tramatic happen, that either supernaturaly, physicaly, or mentaly caused my character to somehow loose confidance. I like the Coma..good excuse to loose the physical boosts, some brain scrambling to cause masive loss of skill points.

A modified level drain curse of some kind would do the trick. Teach you for messing with epic Mages...

If my character retained the memories of his former glory, I'd have him go into a state of self doubt. Spend a level or two with a drinking problem, lack of self confidance, basicly a grumpy old gutter bum.

"I used to be Wayne the Warrior, slayer of Red Dragons....those days are gone kid. Just can't swing that ol' sword like I used to. Hell, these days I call it luckey if some goblin scout don't lop off my head..."

Then throughout the campain, he'd be forced to build up his confidance, and retrain to his former glory...

The memory loss way works too though, and makes for some interesting plot hooks as more gets discovered about your past, and an old foe needs revisiting.

The Epic Mage's spell effect rendered the Bard's "Montage" ability ineffective.

[Miraqariftsky]

How sudden and how drastic is the change?

How about power drain from divine intervention due to hubris?

[Kaelik]

You should just let him trade out all his Samurai levels for being a level 4 Swordsage. That way he gain power instead of losing it.

[slexlollar89]

You could always portray the samurai as having dishonored his clan/lord/family/anything and then have him been a hermit for years. Now he has decided to regain his honor, and is armed with his great experiences and past events. AND the best part is, a wizard didn't do it.

[PlatinumJester]

If he is a Samurai then he would probably commit Seppuku after being so badly weakened. You should find same kind of motivation for him not to do it. Also call him a Ronin (just don't take any levels of the restige class) since that's what he is plus it sounds cool.

[Charles Phipps]

If he is a Samurai then he would probably commit Seppuku after being so badly weakened.

He's a Ronin Samurai and former Assassin in the service of an evil deity. Honor isn't exactly his chief concern.

But yeah; I think I'm going to go with the idea that the death of his former deity, which occurred at the climax of the game, disrupted his connection to her and has resulted in him having his body shredded of power. All of his talents with swordwork and so on was wiped clean because his supernatural strength was tied to her.