Martial Practices how can we fix them, systematically?

Garthanos · Feb 23, 2017

It occured to me that my rehearsal idea left it open how many??? could you have rehearsed and slotting an appropriate Martial practice in such as Blood Demand or Debt Curse as a Utility power allows one to do exactly that.... hmmmm (not sure about @TonyVargas leaving components idea... I use karma points anyway so its not an issue).

AbdulAlhazred · Feb 23, 2017

(Psi)SeveredHead said:
(Speaking of which, how in 4e do you create ritual scrolls or Martial Practice manuals?).

Same as copying to your ritual book IIRC, plus the cost of actually casting, which is paid when the scroll is made IIRC.

darkbard · Feb 23, 2017

Garthanos said:
open how many??? could you have rehearsed

I would think following the guideline of stances would make sense: only one active at a time.

AbdulAlhazred · Feb 23, 2017

darkbard said:
I would think following the guideline of stances would make sense: only one active at a time.

Well, then I keep thinking, why? Why not more? I mean maybe the answer is some sort of resource management. Potions (mostly) suck up an HS, you could do the same thing here. There's the likelihood that some MPs won't be worth that price, and some just won't make sense, but it would give you some flexibility with certain ones (honestly I haven't gone back and slugged through the list to see exactly how many it would work for, and some MPs might need to be tweaked).

Tony Vargas · Feb 23, 2017

Garthanos said:
I.... hmmmm (not sure about @TonyVargas leaving components idea... I use karma points anyway so its not an issue).

I had second thoughts about that almost immediately, I think it'd be cooler if they were 'Schrodinger's components' - you buy them, expend them, and have them when you need them, either because you had them all along, or because you had hidden them (or had them hidden) in a place you anticipated needing them (or because coincidence brought them there). Because you're just that good (and lucky).

AbdulAlhazred · Feb 23, 2017

Tony Vargas said:
I had second thoughts about that almost immediately, I think it'd be cooler if they were 'Schrodinger's components' - you buy them, expend them, and have them when you need them, either because you had them all along, or because you had hidden them (or had them hidden) in a place you anticipated needing them (or because coincidence brought them there). Because you're just that good (and lucky).

Yeah, that can work, though it may become a bit tired if you keep using the same MP and start to feel like purely magical (which may not always be a bad thing, but may not be what you specifically want in some situations).

However, this could also feed into the 'costs of maintaining preparation' thing. Suppose for instance you want to prepare something like Pole Vault, carrying around that 4 meter long pole is going to be a PITA. I can imagine some practices that might require a whole entourage of helpers to follow you around! It could be pretty interesting...

Tony Vargas · Feb 23, 2017

AbdulAlhazred said:
Yeah, that can work, though it may become a bit tired if you keep using the same MP

True. MPs probably aren't so broadly useful that you'd want to use the same one all the time, unless it was a character-definition thing.

That's actually something I noticed early on about 4e, that you rarely ever got the same power twice, you were always needing to mix things up, rather than 'spam' whichever slightly-superior option slipped by the designers.

Garthanos · Feb 23, 2017

AbdulAlhazred said:
However, this could also feed into the 'costs of maintaining preparation' thing. Suppose for instance you want to prepare something like Pole Vault, carrying around that 4 meter long pole is going to be a PITA. I can imagine some practices that might require a whole entourage of helpers to follow you around! It could be pretty interesting...

Karma point cost... as luck would have it an appropriate pole shows up LOL

Actually I was allowing polearms to operate that way by the magic of blurrying ones perception of reality as was done for the fellow who rode his spear across the battle...

Garthanos · Feb 23, 2017

My Karma points are just like money wealth they could even be theoretically used to find a good deal on something when you lacked the actual cash.

Easier to carry than money too.

AbdulAlhazred · Feb 23, 2017

Garthanos said:
Karma point cost... as luck would have it an appropriate pole shows up LOL

Actually I was allowing polearms to operate that way by the magic of blurrying ones perception of reality as was done for the fellow who rode his spear across the battle...

Oh, sure. You could have these kinds of things be part of a check too.

For instance, I had an SC where the party had to survive crossing a desert. 'Did you bring enough water' was a Nature check someone made halfway through the SC. Obviously the packing of sufficient water happened before the journey started, so it was a clear 'forward reference' and much like a 'karma' check, though the resource at question was a success or fail tally in the SC, not a character resource.