antaymonkey

Either people didn't get your sarcasm or they didn't like it. Not sure which is worse.

How do you pronounce bahn there?

Certainly not like OP seems to think. "Bahn", just like it's spelled. And uh.. does not rhyme with words containing the letter 'r'. Because they have an 'r' in them. And "bahn" does not.

Truuuuuuuuue but I feel like it's not the same emotional investment as leveling up by playing, if that makes sense?

It's moot now because I've decided against it, but technically they haven't spent any time leveling up - they started the game at 5.

Wouldn't you know it, these magma mephits are immune to fire!

You’re ripping away all of their agency and punishing them for the sake of your narrative rather than for something they did.

This is everything I needed to hear (read). You're absolutely right, thanks for the reality check.

I definitely want to nix the gear ( I made a dumb decision to allow everyone one magical item and didn't vet before the game so someone had a staff of fire which is entirely too OP for level 5 - my fault yes).

The reasoning I had was that it's basically a new life, but to your point if their minds are still intact then dropping levels may not make the sense that I'd thought it would.

That was kind of my thought, having seen it done in video games amply.

Ohhhhhhhhhh. Hehehe.

What am I missing here?

I love this. My friend's kid does archery and I can't wait to drop this.