Level drain effect on saves, THAC0, AC?

Max_Damage

How much does level drain affect these stats on AI characters and on player's characters?

Heindrich

Unless I am missing something, the answer is that "AC and THAC0 penatlies are consequences of lowered levels." So it depends on what level you are drained to.

For example (just pulling numbers out of my head head), your warrior has THAC0 4 at level 11, if he gets drained to lv7, he will have the base THAC0 of a lv7 warrior, so his new THAC0 might be 6, due to lost base THAC0 and weapon proficiency points. If anyone gets repeatedly drained to lv0, they die.

Anyway this is how I've always understood level-drain. Make sure to protect spellcasters from it, because losing levels costs them spell slots.

Max_Damage

Yeah but what does level drain on a dragon do?

Heindrich

All monsters have levels, draining them would weaken them as well, and eventually kill them.

Arunsun

You can drain any enemy except those immune to it. However, very few spells and weapon do so, and these do not drain a lot of level (energy drain, the one mage spell that does so, is a level 9 spell and only drains 2 levels). And dragons are very high level, about 30 in average I would say.

As for your question:
AC is not affected by your level, except for swashbuckler (and single weapon/ sword and shield proficiency). Thus, it will not be affected by level drain (except in the three mentioned case).
Innate Thac0 however, follows a table from level 1 to level 20, and then stick at its value. Everyone starts with 20 thac0, warriors lower it by 1 per level, rogues by 1 every two levels, priest by 2 two every 3 levels and wizards by one every 3 levels, and this, up to level 20. Meaning you might lose some innate thac0 if you get to be drained below level 20.
Once again, if you are playing something like Kensai or Swashbuckler, any bonus to Thac0 acquired through their kit bonus might be lost as well.
Saves get lower (that s positive) as you level up, meaning a level drain would drain saves as well.
And as @Heindrich mentioned, you will also lose the proficiency points you acquired upon being drained.


Of course, all of this is recovered upon being restored.

lunar

Draining a lvl 30 fighter to 28 won't have much effect:THAC0 and saves will stay the same. Draining below lvl 9 actually hurts the most, taking the hit dice equal of max hitpoints with each level gone! This, combined by the fact that lvl draining blow from a monster also deals some hefty damage, makes it very deadly. (see below)

IIRC, in original bg2 there was this feature that level drained characters didn't benefit from + saving throw items they equip. Hence they always had terrible saving throws, as they both lose items bonuses and their innate save numbers hit the roof. Haven't checked in ee, though.

Level drain can be very dangerous, as it lowers max hp as well, say, Korgan gets drained by a vampire's blow, he loses two levels and his two levels (below lvl 10) are worth a total of 30 hit points! So in addition to losing 10+ hp from the physical crushing blow, he loses -30 max hp as well, in a single blow. This perma-killed him in my last game, he still had a lot of levels left, but his hp was low, and the draining effect perma-killed him. (he shattered and was gone, along with his items)

Wowo

@Arunsun Monk AC also progresses with levels.

THAC0 and damage would also suffer for a Kensei or Swashbuckler beyond what normal characters suffer too.

elminster

Wilson also takes quite a beating from it.

semiticgoddess

For the record, enemy monsters do not get weakened by level drain, unlike party members. They can still die from it, and become vulnerable to spells that only affect lower-level critters, but they will not lose THAC0 or saves etc.