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just let players spend a healing surge to recover a daily between encounters
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Dec 22, 2015 05:46
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That's an awful idea. Dailies are infinitely more valuable than a healing surge.
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Dec 22, 2015 07:25
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Wasn't there an item that let you convert surges into dailies that got nerfed super hard in errata? EDIT: Yep. Salve of Power. Now it just restores encounter powers because it turns out "Form of Winter's Herald every single encounter" is a little bit much maybe? The Crotch fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Dec 22, 2015 |
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Dec 22, 2015 08:00
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We'll, AP or whatever. I just think combat resources need to be balanced around encounters and not some nebulous 'day'
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Dec 22, 2015 12:41
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starkebn posted:We'll, AP or whatever. I just think combat resources need to be balanced around encounters and not some nebulous 'day' Likewise. I should be able to run a single-encounter "adventuring day" without having to worry that the encounter will be horrendously swingy as the players drop all their once-per-day abilities on it. Strike doesn't use daily powers (though there are a few things like action points and injuries that carry over from encounter to encounter) and I think it's a better game for it. I don't think there's an easy fix for this problem in 4e, though - you'd have to completely rip the guts out of the game to remove daily powers from it.
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Dec 22, 2015 13:28
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Gort posted:Likewise. I should be able to run a single-encounter "adventuring day" without having to worry that the encounter will be horrendously swingy as the players drop all their once-per-day abilities on it. You can, you just have to do it in waves. (I agree though, that daily powers aren't particularly good)
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Dec 22, 2015 18:50
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Really Pants posted:Does XCOM count? Did anyone ever write up an Enemy Within/Unknown 4e conversion? I've been sorely tempted the last few days....
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Dec 22, 2015 18:55
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Prison Warden posted:Did anyone ever write up an Enemy Within/Unknown 4e conversion? I've been sorely tempted the last few days.... In that 4e hack contest thread Covok did way back when, there was an XCOM esque entry called Erebus. Was the best one of the bunch, too.
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Dec 22, 2015 18:56
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This isn't for any game in particular, but I tried making a character and their sheet from scratch and I wanted to ask if anyone could go over it, if I'm missing something to capture the whole character, or if I made an especially boneheaded choice in allocating stats and race, selecting powers and feats, that sort of thing.
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Dec 23, 2015 06:05
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Pretty weak, due to some bad feat/build choices. The race and presence are okay, though; neither is optimal, but it will be perfectly playable at any but the most hardcore of tables. I would do something more like this: quote:Longtooth Shifter, Warlord This build keeps the race and presence for flavor reasons and changes a few things. It takes Battlefront Leader instead of Combat Leader so it can use Armored Warlord to increase its AC, because it's not int-primary. It also switches out the bow for javelin so that it can also use melee powers, because Warlord has a lot of very strong melee options and a throwing weapon lets you switch between them. This is how it would look at L5: quote:evel 5 Same general principles apply. The big difference here is that the Greatspear is a 1d10 reach weapon with a +3 proficiency, and Hungry Spear makes it into a 10/20 Heavy Thrown weapon. So you can throw the spear a pretty long ways or you can stand in melee or you can attack over an ally's shoulder. Very strong weapon and very flavorful for a Skirmisher type. And this is a more optimized skirmisher warlord that I actually played in a game, if you want to see how an int-based build would look. quote:Level 8 Everybody else: Sorry for the big spammy post about skirmish warlords. 
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Dec 23, 2015 07:39
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Khizan posted:It's counterintuitive, but the first fight of the adventuring day will often be the hardest fight of the adventuring day, and the last fight will often be the easiest; this is because of how people view their limited resources. First fight of the day, nobody wants to blow their dailies until they're in big trouble, and by the time they're in big trouble they'll often go "the fight is half over anyways, if I use a daily now I'll just waste it". Last fight of the day, everybody knows they'll get their dailies back immediately so they'll unload them without hesitation and that wraps a fight up very quickly. The game works better when you lay a ground rule like "you get 4/5/6 rests before your day turns over" (adjust by tier). That way players can play tactically and not worry if you're trying to metagame them to death with adversarial DMing. In turn, you can focus on worthwhile encounters that stick to the rules instead of torturing players with tomato can fights in a system where any combat is time-consuming and really only fun if it's challenging. Spoiler alert: You're the DM, you always have the power to kill or "fool" the players by withholding information that they could not otherwise know. Making them pace their resource usage based on known risk is just as challenging and more fair than metagame pranks. This is better than exploiting the shittiness of the "adventuring day" sacred cow.
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Dec 23, 2015 09:49
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Khizan posted:Pretty weak, due to some bad feat/build choices. The race and presence are okay, though; neither is optimal, but it will be perfectly playable at any but the most hardcore of tables. Thanks for the advice! I went over it another time. I did find that I had omitted a place for Background and Themes on top of everything else.
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Dec 23, 2015 10:37
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:The game works better when you lay a ground rule like "you get 4/5/6 rests before your day turns over" (adjust by tier). Right now I'm setting up a thing where the party is being targetted by mental assassins through their dreams. I was thinking of having the first combat after each extended rest be a dreamworld encounter, so in the "waking world", they can effectively go only three encounters before needing to rest, until they find those assassins and show them who's boss. (Mostly it's a method for me to use monsters and encounter gimmicks that don't have a place in the main storyline.) But I also had an idea about benevolent spirits showing the party an important legend in their dreams, where each extended rest would mean revealing one important point in the legend, again through a combat encounter, but tracking resources for the parallel dreamworld adventure separately.
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Dec 23, 2015 12:08
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I'll grant that I haven't been DMing for very long, but I've never actually had a situation where the players have wanted to take an Extended Rest yet. Maybe I'm just really lowballing my encounters, but the Slaying Stone oneshot I ran went for 5 encounters straight without a rest, and the current Shadowfell Keep campaign I'm running has also seen the party go for 5 fights and the party's still going strong.
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Dec 23, 2015 12:36
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Uh, so I was going to make a 4th edition character, but now that the online character builder is no longer available for new folks, what's the best option? I see people referencing the old offline builder, but I at least can't find any easy guides on how to get it up to speed with the newer stuff. Are there other options?
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Dec 23, 2015 14:18
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Cynic Jester posted:Uh, so I was going to make a 4th edition character, but now that the online character builder is no longer available for new folks, what's the best option? I see people referencing the old offline builder, but I at least can't find any easy guides on how to get it up to speed with the newer stuff. Are there other options? CBLoader is what people use to update the offline builder. You'll then need to track down a set of .part files to use with it.
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Dec 23, 2015 14:57
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OneThousandMonkeys posted:The game works better when you lay a ground rule like "you get 4/5/6 rests before your day turns over" (adjust by tier). That way players can play tactically and not worry if you're trying to metagame them to death with adversarial DMing. This was something I toyed with mechanically when I was homebrewing a system largely inspired by 4e. Basically I expressly made Short Rests into a resource with a daily cap per character (based on an ability mod, essentially.) So say, your character gets between 3 and 5 short rests per day; as per usual, when you use one, you get to refill your HP and you recover encounter powers. Then, when you're out of short rests, you have to take an extended rest to regain them and continue adventuring.
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Dec 23, 2015 19:16
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My Lovely Horse posted:I agree. I also like the additional stipulation of "you can rest after 3 encounters, but things will move on behind the scenes, and something's gonna turn out bad". Or the reverse "if you manage to go 5, the plot gives you some breathing space". One of my DMs did exactly this. Basically if we went less than 5 without there being some clean obvious break, the bad guys steal a march on us somehow. And of course, he told us straight up about that, so it wasn't adversarial or anything.
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Dec 23, 2015 22:04
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Question about the Sidhe Lord theme, specifically Summon Sidhe Ally. The power has "The guard lasts until it drops below 1 hit point, at which point you lose a healing surge (or hit points equal to your surge value if you have no surges left). Otherwise the guard lasts until you dismiss it as a minor action or until you use this power again." Does this mean the Summoned Sidhe Ally doesn't leave at the end of the encounter like summons generically do?
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Dec 26, 2015 04:47
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ArkInBlack posted:Question about the Sidhe Lord theme, specifically Summon Sidhe Ally. The power has "The guard lasts until it drops below 1 hit point, at which point you lose a healing surge (or hit points equal to your surge value if you have no surges left). Otherwise the guard lasts until you dismiss it as a minor action or until you use this power again." Does this mean the Summoned Sidhe Ally doesn't leave at the end of the encounter like summons generically do? Correct. The common tactic to use with that power (if at all) is to summon it at the end of the previous day, then when it dies you can summon it again. But really, the best thing to do with it is not to bother summoning it at all. It dies to a stiff breeze as it has only a surge of HP, and usually does so to a burst or blast so it can't dive in front of an attack to protect you. I only really ever used it on my summoner Shaman|Cleric, and then only really as a proc for Tome Expertise CA. Its movement power is nice, but the cost in surges when it inevitably, ignominiously dies is too high. You take Sidhe Lord for one thing and one thing only - Sidhe Bargain.
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Dec 26, 2015 08:42
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thespaceinvader posted:Correct. The common tactic to use with that power (if at all) is to summon it at the end of the previous day, then when it dies you can summon it again. It does mean Embroidered Beast's benefit lasts until it dies so it can attack without having to spend actions, which is something. ArkInBlack fucked around with this message at 12:34 on Dec 27, 2015 |
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Dec 27, 2015 00:58
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What's the half-orc feat where you can use your STR mod for Intimidate? And what article is it in?
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Dec 27, 2015 09:28
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Dragon Magazine 386, page 59quote:Strong-Arm Tactics
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Dec 27, 2015 09:32
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Trying to work out an encounter idea. The enemies are minotaurs, so of course it's gonna take place in a maze. The gimmick I thought of is that the maze itself changes as the fight goes on, but I'm not sure how to make that work with the actual combat map. I usually use Masterplan and I thought of a map made of a few overlays, but it seems like shuffling them and all the tokens around mid-battle would be fiddly and time-consuming. At the same time, I don't really want to make a paper map. In theory I could just slide around the map parts with tokens on them, in practice I'm sure something's gonna fall apart, and anyway I need the Masterplan integration. One idea I had was using a Labyrinth game board, but then it's just gonna be boring fixed width corridors. 
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Dec 27, 2015 20:21
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For a physical setup, here's an idea - Print out between 5 and 10 alternate maze configurations. Put all of them in a stack, and put a (heavy, if possible) sheet of clear plastic on top. The figures all go on the clear plastic. Whenever you want the maze to change configuration (maybe roll initiative for the "maze change" step?) have somebody hold onto the plastic sheet so it stays in place, and slide out the top maze configuration to reveal the one beneath it. Might be a bit fiddly, but I think it would work.
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Dec 27, 2015 21:55
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To go one further, you could, with a sheet of plexiglass layered over another board, create a dry-erasable and transparent, layer to place minis on, which you can then slot maps in and out of. Using this with a set of rules seems to me to be the quickest way to do this during play.
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Dec 27, 2015 22:23
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Since I asked many questions relating to making him in this thread, I'd like to give a R.I.P. to the recently-deceased Alexei the ten-foot-tall 1300-pound crocodile man Slayer, dead from immolation at level 2. The stupidest character I've ever played as, and the first character that has ever died in our group. Praise the Raven Queen.
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Dec 28, 2015 01:38
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Plexiglass 10'' x 13'' + Toilet paper tube cut up so that it's not touching the paper, switch out pre-printed mazes every few rounds. it's  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...2JP1VQGHF0782Z8Bonus, attatch a little stand afterwards, and now you have a 3d thing for flying creatures!
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Dec 28, 2015 01:52
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My Lovely Horse posted:One idea I had was using a Labyrinth game board, but then it's just gonna be boring fixed width corridors. Oh man I've wanted to do a D&D/Labyrinth mashup for the longest time, I just can never think of a fun/interesting tie-in.
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Dec 28, 2015 02:13
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Turtlicious posted:Plexiglass 10'' x 13'' + Toilet paper tube cut up so that it's not touching the paper, switch out pre-printed mazes every few rounds. 
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Dec 28, 2015 02:59
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P.d0t posted:Oh man I've wanted to do a D&D/Labyrinth mashup for the longest time, I just can never think of a fun/interesting tie-in. The plexiglass thing is clever, but if the tokens stay in place and the map changes, someone's bound to end up inside a wall. Unless the walls are thin and run along the gridlines... hmmm. Hang on, if I do it this way, it totally works in Masterplan. Make some maze configurations, save them as map overlays, switch overlays every round from underneath the tokens, and that way the changes are even less randomized and more crafted to the experience. How about Dungoneering checks to "predict" when the next shift occurs? Easy DC, make an initiative roll for the shift. Medium, add or subtract up to 5 from the roll. Hard, just tell me when. Something like it. Here's something else I found: https://mindweaverpg.wordpress.com/the-rotating-labyrinth-building-and-running-your-own/  That right there is much too complicated but a physical map board with a (square) section or two that rotates might work. I wish Masterplan could rotate overlays (but again, I could make some and save each orientation as a different overlay... yeah, I think I at least have a promising approach to this thing now).
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Dec 28, 2015 10:07
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So now that D&D Insider is actually dead, does anyone know the exact features of the Sensate theme?
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Dec 30, 2015 22:58
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alcharagia posted:So now that D&D Insider is actually dead, does anyone know the exact features of the Sensate theme? Level 1: Whenever you use an encounter attack power or daily attack power, you gain THP equal to half your level. Level 5: +2 Power bonus to Endurance checks and Perception checks. Level 10: While you have THP, you gain a +3 Power bonus to all skill checks.
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Dec 30, 2015 23:05
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That's pretty beast ngl
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Dec 30, 2015 23:08
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alcharagia posted:That's pretty beast ngl There are way better themes. Off the top of my head, any melee striker that doesn't have a minor action attack should pick up Sohei. Ironwrought is a good defender theme, fey beast master is a pet perk done right, and red wizard is a controller mage's wet dream.
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Dec 30, 2015 23:13
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Drewjitsu posted:There are way better themes. Off the top of my head, any melee striker that doesn't have a minor action attack should pick up Sohei. Ironwrought is a good defender theme, fey beast master is a pet perk done right, and red wizard is a controller mage's wet dream. Let me rephrase: That's pretty beast because next session for my group I'm busting out a rebreather
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Dec 30, 2015 23:16
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Sensate is great for characters that make good use of temp HP (rebreathers are the (mostly bullshit) easy point to here, but plenty of other characters like a lot of warlocks damage themselves often too), but is also great for skill-heavy characters, as it's real easy to get temp HP between fights.
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Dec 30, 2015 23:56
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Does Dragon Soul (DOKKAN DOKKAN) ignore the resistance of Nusemnee's Atonement and a character's Robes of Resist [Element?] My GM and I are attempting to work out whether my character's dragon breath ignores 5 resistance and I resist 10 or ignores 15 resistance and I resist 0.
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Dec 31, 2015 00:06
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Drewjitsu posted:There are way better themes. Off the top of my head, any melee striker that doesn't have a minor action attack should pick up Sohei. No offense, but we can certainly trust TG 4E posters to roll the same poo poo over and over again on their characters, I guess. Next you're going to tell me about this cool frostcheese trick. Not to say rebreather isn't abusive as hell at this point, though. It's generally as bad as the disconnected design issues of 3E.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:31
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alcharagia posted:Does Dragon Soul (DOKKAN DOKKAN) ignore the resistance of Nusemnee's Atonement and a character's Robes of Resist [Element?] My GM and I are attempting to work out whether my character's dragon breath ignores 5 resistance and I resist 10 or ignores 15 resistance and I resist 0. You don't ignore Nusemnee's, it's not a typed resistance. Also resistances of different types also don't stack like that anyway; Resist All 5 and Resist Fire 10 wouldn't reduce the damage from a fire attack by 15, just 10.
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Dec 31, 2015 01:43
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