D&D 4E 4E Roleplay powers (house rule idea)

[RigaMortus2]

I was watching the movie Serenity the other day, and near the end of the movie there is a scene where Malcom Reynolds faces off against The Operative. He ends up "stunning" The Operative and dislocating his shoulders, preventing him from retailiating. Then, he goes into monologue (as one would expect ). And I was thinking, you'd never be able to pull something like this off in D&D because the players would always want to take advantage of their stunned opponent and just attack them, screw any monologue!

4E seems to be very focused on combat, with little encouragement or focus on roleplay. Just look at the powers, 95% of them are combat related.

So I had this idea the other day. Have an additional category for Roleplay Powers. Make it seperate so that you don't take anything away from players who want to pick combat-related powers. Here is an example of what I was thinking of.

Stunning Monolgue Defender Attack 1
You get your opponent in a compromising position, giving you time to try and appeal to their senses.
Daily ✦ Roleplay, Weapon
Standard Action Melee weapon
Primary Target: One creature
Attack: Strength vs. Reflex
Hit: Opponent is stunned until the end of the encounter. If any side uses an Attack Power
Effect: You and your allies gain a +4 power bonus to Diplomacy checks when interacting with the stunned target, as long as the target remains stunned.
Special: If you or your allies make an attack while the opponent is stunned, they immediately lose the stunned condition and may take their full turn before your or your allies can react. This may change the initiative order.

So the purpose of this roleplay power is basically what I described in the beginning of the post. You put your opponent in a position where they are forced to listen to you. However, you can't take advantage of it for combat purposes, because should you attack the opponent, they become unstunned and get to take their turn first, allowing them to retaliate or a chance to escape.

Anyway, I know the power write up I did isn't perfect and has its flaws. I'm not asking anyone to judge the power I wrote up, but the idea of "Roleplay Powers" in general. The idea behind them, and how they can interact with people in combat.

Edit: Couple things I wanted to point out. Notice this is a "Defender" attack, meaning any Defender class can choose it. Also notice the new keyword I made up "Roleplay". I use this to differentiate this power between all other combat powers. I threw this together on the fly, so I haven't figured all these things out yet, but the potential to add new keywords, rules and conditions and such is there

 

[Stalker0]

This is one of those things I don't think you need a power for.

For example, in this case, mechanically the operative might have been below 0 hitpoints, but the DM allows the players to make a cinematic finish.

You tell your players, "Guys, the guy is at 0, and he's done. But I'll keep him up for a bit if you want to do any cinematic finishes or speeches."

Then the players can do what they want, because they know that they've won, that the threat is permanently over, but they decide the end on their terms.

 

[Meek]

This is one of those things I don't think you need a power for.

For example, in this case, mechanically the operative might have been below 0 hitpoints, but the DM allows the players to make a cinematic finish.

You tell your players, "Guys, the guy is at 0, and he's done. But I'll keep him up for a bit if you want to do any cinematic finishes or speeches."

Then the players can do what they want, because they know that they've won, that the threat is permanently over, but they decide the end on their terms.

Agreed 100%. If you want to roleplay, I think you should do it narratively, not come up with powers for it. Just talk to your players. Simpler solution than writing down powers for every one of these sorts of things they might want to do/you might want them to not do.

 

[Syrsuro]

One approach that is loosely based on this idea would be to allow Stunts using social skills.

Under that approach, "Stunning Monologue" (or whatever) would become a stunt available to those trained in Diplomacy rather than a power.

Carl

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A Monologue power can be interesting for monologues at the beginning of an encounter.

Torg had a "Monologue" card that allowed you to talk, making it impossible for your enemies or your allies to fight and instead have to listen to your PC...

I wouldn't necessarily put these kind of powers alongside regular combat powers.