You know when you get mad ideas

I've just had one about games

You know that certain creatures can drain levels - with using the tick system that we use how about
they drain ticks (life levels)
Not a fixed amount but for example 1d20 +40 ticks
Depending on the creature the amount drained will vary.
It could be enough to drop a character a level (or even 2 at low levels) and it would certainly slow
down a characters progression without automatically taking a big chunk of their powers