An argument against this would be game abuse with people dying without consequence just to explore every place they could to loot gear,

Yes. Yes, it would be an argument against this. "Area denial" on a scale sufficient to stop this would be harder on new players than the CON loss, I think.

Beyond that, setbacks make people learn caution. We don't want people hitting level 11 by fumbling around in a pillow-coated world until they just have to succeed. If they lose some CON, big deal. A few hp off their maximum is the least of their problems if they're regularly dying at level 1-10. We want people hitting level 11 with at least some modicum of knowing what they're doing.

As is, I think the bigger problem is that you can hit level 11 knowing too little.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com