Cormyr and the Dalelands

I've been through this same thing for Hydaro a few times, he's a character that is supposed to have spent many years wandering the world ect. ect. ect. The trick to it is two things, first being "If it's believable for you, it's good enough". It doesn't really need to be believable to anyone else if it makes sense to you, but most of the time when it -is- believable to you, it is the same for most others.

The second and more important detail is throw a unique twist on how your character got injured and had to get back to the level he use to be. It doesn't always need to be "Yeah, been out of it awhile... I need to get warmed up" kind of deal. Integrate back story into why your character is in the position he or she is in and make it a key point in the story. My character Hydaro -still- suffers from what made him level 3 on this server, he basically had to relearn most things (including how to walk again).

Basically, don't make your being of level 3 to 8 just an excuse. Make it a key point in your story and perhaps even a driving point for other characters to get to know you better.

I find that in doing this, it may even give you more reason to respect the character you yourself are using.

Hope that helped!

Actually I worded that first part wrong, what I -should- have said is "You want to make it believable to everyone and yourself, but usually when it's believable for you, it is for everyone else too."

That said, this is the Forgotten Realms we're talking about here, there ain't much outside the realm of believability.

You never know when you'll get hit by a Chronosphere or an Echo Slam. >.>

Think about it like this: If you were to start a campaign at level 1 in D&D and follow the DMG/MM exactly on how experience for monsters is distributed, and your DM was a jerk and gave no XP for plotpoints, it could take up to 6 months of play just to get to level 3 or 4. Compared to a level 0 commoner, being level 3 is a huge deal. You started out as level 1 and found off other, crappy, level 1 bandits. Maybe you only got 10 XP per bandit? Hell, maybe you only got 5 XP per bandit. It could very well take years to kill that many highwaymen or goblins, based on what you're doing. And now you're level 3 killing level 1s again. You're kicking their butt, so you're not learning much. This could result in you gaining 1 XP per thing you're beating this shit out of now...

That's 3000 goblins just to reach level 4 now. You could very well spend years at the same level. It's the whole "Aragorn was level 5" thing. A level 5 is comparatively badass to a level 1 and a 10 to a 5 and so on. You can very well be a seasoned, skilled caravan guard or adventurer as long as the things you were kicking over became comparatively weak to you.

This, this so much.

That's one thing I was considering bringing up in the other thread about level differences between characters and an excuse for why it's like such. Alot of people may think that handling goblins, who are considered low level enemies on this server, is no big deal... But let's look at it this way...

If we as the players were given a longsword and told by someone to run into a dark cave infested with creepy little green guys who all have swords to match your own, all of which wanting very badly to kill you and butcher your corpse, you might look at the person barking the order like he's batshit crazy. Man-handling an army of goblins is no small feat., my friend. That's part of what I meant before on another time when I said "Doesn't really matter what level you are, if you're character is doing the adventuring thing or something similar, he or she is confirmed a bad ass."

A thought here to Jawesome: a character's age is not an absolut descriptor. We all saw e.g. 60 years old folks who are very fit and active and also ones who can barely move their arms to eat. This is something you could play with for your character.

Yes, he is let's say 50 years old, but due to his trials, fall from the grace of his god etc. he kinda feels himself 70. And acts like that (lowly lvl 3 abilities). As he shakes himself and begins to put his life together one more time, slowly regains the favour of his god he kinda feels vitalised. He will not be younger, but he feels himself younger and more energetic.

You might think about King Theoden from the Lord of the Rings, how he looked like when he was possessed by Saruman and manipulated by Wormtongue and how he looked after Gandalf took care of the matter. He did not get younger, still, there is a huge difference between his states.

I always just play levels as reputation gained in a foreign place with characters like these. Your character could be an arena champion where they're from, but here, they are unknown and have to fight their way up and gain notoriety with the locals.

Another thought is that the character, while skilled, could have hit on hard times, and become destitute (Robbed maybe?).  Thus, you have an experienced character doing something far below their station/skill, the adventurer equivalent of cleaning latrines, because they need the money.  Over time, they replace the gear they've lost, and regain their old standing.

This is a little trickier for mages and priests, but there are alternatives.  Partial amnesia is one, curses, other things that might cause a loss of ability.  For priests, maybe recovering from a crisis of faith?

Just some thoughts.

Existential crisis: Are we humans, or are we dancers/?

Dancer!

And on this point - I've had a bard that dances - wild elf style. She had to learn city dances.
I have a mage that took up the calling after she was given freedom - as an adult.
I have a tinkerer... that fails. Badly. 90% of the time (even now at a higher level).
So maybe your cleric took up the calling later in life, or found a new patron deity or who knows?

Also, meeting a Quell can cut the divine from a priest or priestess or Paladin.  However, meeting one is rare.

Seeing as this is an RPG, play to the tropes.
- Amnesia
- Horribly injured
- Went off soul searching, got flabby
- Old adventurer, getting back in the game for reason X
- "THEY KILLED MY FAMILY!"
- Got rich, got lazy, broke now, better get unlazy.

Clerics can lose a lot of divine mojo by switching faiths. Paladins can too. I think.

Quells can also only affect a divine spellcaster for a period of up to 24 hours. The Quell's Intercession ability functions as a Turning check. As a normal hit, it cuts a cleric off for only a minute. At double HD, a day. In either case, it's never permanent and can be fixed even so by an Atonement spell.

There are however other curses that CAN cut a divine caster off from their deity. 

There's also, as noted, penalties for changing deities, leaving orders, etc. 

The atonement spell in and of itself also can cost quite a bit of XP for the caster (about 500 xp per sin), and whatever caster you got to do it decided to make you pay it.

All. Clerics can lose all divine power by switching faiths, unless their new god is -very- forgiving and allows them powers beyond what they should have.

One good round of tuberculosis can give anyone a reason to need to retrain. another option is to simply come out of retirement. The easy life takes its toll on someone.

Neither of those explain a loss of divine power, though.

For loss of divine power, being tricked into doing something that you believed your deity would approve of by an evil force, only to discover your deception can sometimes lead to being stripped of power until you atone, gradually gaining it back. I've seen people do this one before, the old "Some monk in the church is actually evil and says that High Cleric Garry Joe believes that that village is filled with demons and devils cleverly hiding, we must purge them for our lord" and then you do it for a little bit, notice something's wrong, see the evil man doing his thing and then smite it and then cry whilst rain pour down, feeling the God withdraw your power from you as you have broken the golden rule, or something.

Or alternatively, don't make your PC have a crazy high-level background...  

Case in point, my old main from when I used to play here started out as a cavalryman in a crusading force.  Plenty of opportunity for a very cool backstory without being a one-man ogre smiting machine.  

Or, my rich spouse died, the kingdom taxed me now I'm brokt?