Goodman Games

"So how does level drain work in the new rules? Do you still lose experience points? Is there advice for giving XP for things other than monster-wraslin'?

What's the deal with dragons? Ultimate enemy or mid-level pushovers?" -A guy on Classic Mods thread

I don't see any level draining monsters. Quite a few monsters drain ability scores.
There is great advice on awarding XP for "class appropriate activities". It reminds me of the Carousing for XP rule a bit, without the mishaps though. XP is generally for surviving dangers rather than numbers of kills.
Dragons are all different according to a set of random tables, but they tend to be pretty gnarly. I posted a dragon in another thread. 5HD, but I think it could handle a high level party if played cleverly.

Regarding level drain: None of the undead monsters that are actually given examples of in the book are types that have, historically, drained levels.

What we do have though is in the magic item chapter where life drainer is listed as a power for a magic sword, and drains XP much the same way as 3.5's life-drinker drains 1 level.

So that kind of sets an example of what other level drain types of attacks could be in DCC.

Hmm, I didn't see the lifedrainer. I gotta make a sword. That seems like a weird power for a PC's sword to have, useful for those frequent pvp battles I guess...
I've never been a big fan of level drain mostly because you have to recalculate so much crap on the character street. I'd lean towards something like Luck Drain, or Stamina drain or whatever.
What's the classic level draining monster? Wraith or Specter? Maybe one could drain mental stats and the other drains physical stats...

caveman wrote:Hmm, I didn't see the lifedrainer. I gotta make a sword. That seems like a weird power for a PC's sword to have...

You, my friend, need to read more Michael Moorcock.

Oh, I've sailed the seas of fate, but in terms of rules it is a bit silly to drain XPs from monsters and npcs. Draining HDs? I dunno...

Ah, from that perspective I understand. You should still read more Moorcock. It's good for you, like exercise and a healthy diet. We should all make a habit of it. On that note, I need to catch up on my Corum.

Re: Moorcock
I've read alot of that. I'll pick up a paperback here and there so I've read some weird ones, but I'm not the hugest fan. Honestly, there's some classic ideas in there, but the books tends to be pretty homogoneous in their weirdness. That said, Elves in my campaign world are melnibonean...
I would recommend more Clark Ashton Smith! Now there is a beautiful writer!

It's pretty much a consensus that CAS was robbed by being omitted from Appemdix N.