@Kathrine:

The bottom line is that if you're going to be mechanically successful in combat (and thus more survivable in adventuring and so forth) you -need- to have hitpoints, AB, skills to distribute and so on.

I disagree with that statement. Its more about having good gear.
I actually sometimes find it fun going back to lvl 5 from lvl 8. Sometimes I have such great gear for those lower lvls that I kick ass and it doesn't take too long to get back to lvl 8 so really who cares.

And who doesn't like visiting Nada every once in a while?

Hedra Ironcutter searches for books on metals and rare metals.