>Actually, this sparked an idea for me. One problem I have with the way my
>BR games have gone is that I tend to focus on the Shadow World somewhat,
>and therefore often use a fairly large number of higher-powered undead
>creatures. However, I HATE the "level-draining" ability of some of those
>creatures. So, now I'm thinking it might be an idea to have those
>creatures drain Ability scores instead, if characters could either raise
>an ability score with their level (or use XP to "buy" higher levels of
>ability scores). It does make a certain amount of sense: the creature
>might instill an irrational fear into a character (-1 WIS), shake the
>character's self-confidence (-1 CHA), weaken the character (-1 STR or
>CON), ruin the character's concentration or coordination (-1 DEX) or keep
>the character from thinking clearly (-1 INT) until the character has had
>time to "work through" the "phychic trauma."
>
>Ability-draining creature don't bother me so much. For one, there aren't
>very many creatures that have that ability, and for another they're very
>rare (and especially in Cerilia! or at least my Cerilia).

I don't care for permanent drains...so what I do with undead is that when an
undead drains a person of anything (levels, Str, etc...) the character
remains weakened until he either improves it in some other way ...or... he
destroys the creature which drained him...at which time he gradually
recovers...