Immediate Powers that gives bonus. How can we know when use them?

[Blackbrrd]

I give the players all the information they need, it makes the players pay close attention to the game and makes it more interesting for them. It doesn't really slow down the game if the player pays attention.

The ranger has an Encounter power (level 3) that can reduce the to-hit by 2+wis and the wizard has a Utility(Encounter) power (level 2)that can reduce the to hit by 4.

[Thanee]

I also think that the players are meant to know whether using such a power would then prevent the attack, that would otherwise hit.

Bye
Thanee

[Klaus]

This thread reminded me of the Game Transparency article from a couple of Dragons ago. Very good article, and everyone would benefit from reading it.

I know some DMs like to run the game like the PCs never encountered a creature before, going so far as to not saying the name of the creature. Some require the PC to spend an action to use a monster knowledge power. Grinds the game to a crawl, most of the times.

[N8Ball]

Originally Posted by CapnZapp

Nobody has come out and said it, so I'll do it:

These powers are a terrible design feature.

Fiddly, metagame, and game-slowing.

Either such a power's practically worthless, or you have to make the game slower, introducing a very metagame decision point where none was before. Essentially, the DM must pause a sec after every attack. The alternative being that the DM keeps all player defenses in his head and only asks when relevant - but that's a workload I would definitely not want as a DM.

I will have to respetfully disagree here. I think the interrupt mechanic is a really cool, and potentially cinematic mechanic within the game granting the players a "just-in-time" way to saves their butts. Delaying one second after each attack is hardly a huge burden and the pause as the Dm searches for damage dice is generally sufficient anyway. That being said I think the player with the interrupt needs to be quick aobut playing their powers, otherwise I would agree with the Capt and rule that the power is too much after the fact or is slowing the game down.

[N8Ball]

Our group does something a little in-between as far as the player transparency goes. The players are allowed to see the die rolls for the monsters, but the DM doesn't say what he's adding to the die roll to determine hits.

Each player has a little card in front of them that they keep their defenses on and modify those numbers as effects happen. So the DM rolls, mentally adds a number and references the card to tells the players if they are hit. The players get to see the die, so they don't bother with shield when it's a 17, but if it's an 11 they can kick it off with a good chance of success and give the DM a new number to compare.

The cool part about what this does is that it leaves some uncertainty in the game while still allowing players a little metagaming to determine just how tough something is by the middle of the fight or so.

This way is fun, suspenseful, and makes some sense from a storytelling perspective as characters will have a better feel for their opponents after a few round of fighting.

[Dr_Sage]

I appreciate fellows!

My personal choice when I DM will be:

DM: "[insert cinematic description here] + does 20 hits your [insert defense here]?"

I usually roll dice in front of the players, but maybe I should start rolling behind the screen.

Thanks to everyone.

Cheers!

[Flipguarder]

Rolling the dice in front of people will give less than smart people a little more info than they should probably have. And it will give smart people WAY more info than they should have (chance to hit, damage max, even dpr if they think about it.)