Manual of the planes Problem

[guitaristjason]

In the manual of the planes on page 10 it talks about altering an area in the "influence unstable plane" section.the rules seem unbalanced.

Alter Area: 1 minute.
DC: The DC is 20 + 1 per square affected. Add
+10 to the DC if the area has been stabilized (see
above). Double the area or the duration for every 5
points by which you beat the DC.
Success: You change the terrain of an area for 24
hours. For example, change a bare rocky plain into a
forest.
Failure: You can’t try to alter an area until after an
extended rest.

if you wanted to affect 1 square it would be a DC 21.
If you rolled a 26 then you could affect 2 squares. That would normally require a DC 22 so that part is balanced.

If you wanted to affect 10 squares the DC would be 30. If you rolled a 35 you could affect 20 squares which would normally take a DC 40 to get. That is unbalanced.

Anyone have an idea for fixing this and making it fair?

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Originally Posted by guitaristjason

In the manual of the planes on page 10 it talks about altering an area in the "influence unstable plane" section.the rules seem unbalanced.

if you wanted to affect 1 square it would be a DC 21.
If you rolled a 26 then you could affect 2 squares. That would normally require a DC 22 so that part is balanced.

If you wanted to affect 10 squares the DC would be 30. If you rolled a 35 you could affect 20 squares which would normally take a DC 40 to get. That is unbalanced.

Anyone have an idea for fixing this and making it fair?

What's unbalanced about it?

[Nightson]

Originally Posted by Mustrum_Ridcully

What's unbalanced about it?

The ability to double it by exceeding the DC by five scales better then trying to affect large amounts. So if you're trying to effect 20 squares you want to try and effect one and roll higher as opposed to trying to effect 20 squares.

[Piratecat]

That's okay, I think, and on purpose. They want to model that it's hard for someone unskilled to do, but powerful people can affect a huge area. That way powerful people can stabilize a whole castle, but normal people may be able to stabilize the floor under their feet -- if they're lucky.

When you roll this check, you aren't trying to hit a high DC with complete failure if you miss it. You're rolling the check without a DC target, and whatever number you hit determines how much area you stabilize. Even if you roll a "1", you'll stabilize something so long as your total check DC is 20.

[Regicide]

Yep, the math is a bit messed up and they used a bad system that doesn't really fit the DC system. On top of that it's extremely awkward to use and not obvious to some players.

You really need to sit down and crunch the math, figure out what you're likely to roll then figure out how well you can take failure since you get nothing if you miss the DC, so you may be better off taking a higher DC that gives you something if you miss by 5...

For instance if you want to hit 8 squares, thats 20+8 = DC 28, or 20+4+5 = DC 29 getting 4 on a 24. Depending on how doubling works, I'm not sure how it's ruled in 4E, you could also do 20+2+5+5 = DC 32 getting 2 on 22 or 4 on 27. Since it's an INT check, it'll be pretty hard to make DCs beyond 30? Which is good because it gets really complicated to figure out after about 15 squares.

Not a fun system at all!