[Jasper]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Maybe losing an astral duel could permanently rip a level of astral out of the loser, and massively fatigue him (+50 fatigue). Then losing astral battles would still be hugely and permanently detrimental, but taking astral on a pretender would no longer be suicidal.

This could be worse than it currently is. Now, if your pretender dies from Mind Duel, you bring him back losing a skill point or two.

Following your suggestion, the same Pretender could easily lose enough Mind Duels in one battle to drop him to 0 Astral.