D&D 4E What is a comprehensive Inherent Bonuses rule?

Garthanos · May 6, 2017

Think this is how it was with Darksun

Darksun said:
Attack and Damage – All characters gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls at 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 27th level.

Darksun said:
Defenses – All characters gain a +1 bonus to AC, Fortitude, Reflex, and Will at 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, and 29th level.

AND DMG2

DMG2 said:
suggestions to replace magic items in your campaign.

AC, Defense, Attack, and Damage Bonuses: Without magic items, the PCs' attacks, defenses, and damage lag behind. You can solve this problem by giving the PCs flat bonuses as they advance in level. These bonuses stack. Attack and Damage: All characters gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls at 2nd, 7th, 12th, 17th, 22nd, and 27th level.Defenses: All PCs gain a +1 bonus to AC, Fortitude, Reflex,and Will at 4th, 9th, 14th, 19th, 24th, and 29th level.

Plus various parcel adjustments etc which they assume you keep masterwork armor benefits and such

For that part I like Wrecans guides on this.
http://www.dyasdesigns.com/roleplay/DungeonsAndDragons/WealthByLevel/

Not even certain what character builder implements but none of the official ones I have read account for advancing critical damage (d6 per +1 should cover that.)

This came to mind wrt the monks unarmed combatant and wanting a version that works without assuming focus items.

AbdulAlhazred · May 7, 2017

Yeah, having actual magic items is still better than inherent bonus. I don't think it was really intended to balance 100% against actual items. It was just intended to allow a character that lacked an item to be able to function reasonably.

Oh, and both PHB2 and DS worded it poorly. These should be an ENHANCEMENT BONUS, not a 'bonus'. Not sure if that got errata or not, probably so... This means if you get a magic weapon then it won't stack with the inherent bonus and you'll get the better of the two.

Teemu · May 8, 2017

The rules in DMG2 don't tell you to remove magic items completely -- it says you remove the lowest and the highest level item from the magic item parcel. Thus a standard 5-person party would still get two magic items/boons per level. It's possible to re-flavor many magic items into boons if you prefer to do away with the items altogether. Also, the masterwork armor issue is not relevant if you use the Essentials updated armor rules, which supersede the DMG2 masterwork armor variant.

Garthanos · May 8, 2017

Teemu said:
masterwork armor issue is not relevant if you use the Essentials updated armor rules, which supersede the DMG2 masterwork armor variant.

Safe to assume that I may not know what an essentials rule might be or have rejected most of them.

Garthanos · May 8, 2017

Teemu said:
It's possible to re-flavor many magic items into boons if you prefer to do away with the items altogether.

I like that it becomes an option... Note one of my new martial practices is going to enable creating/composing/teaching of new martial flavored grandmaster trainings.

Garthanos · May 9, 2017

AbdulAlhazred said:
Oh, and both PHB2 and DS worded it poorly. These should be an ENHANCEMENT BONUS, not a 'bonus'.

That I was aware of.

C4 · May 10, 2017

Teemu said:
Also, the masterwork armor issue is not relevant if you use the Essentials updated armor rules, which supersede the DMG2 masterwork armor variant.

Garthanos said:
Safe to assume that I may not know what an essentials rule might be or have rejected most of them.

Not sure what the updated E armor rules are either, but in my own 4e games I dropped masterwork armors in lieu of an increasing inherent bonus which PCs get whenever they wear heavy armor. In my C4 Character Advancement doc, I call it the Heavy Bonus.

Fabulously creative name, I know.

I give a few other inherent bonuses, some of which aren't necessary, but one that I think is worth mentioning is grab: If you want grab to remain a viable option (insofar as it is viable to begin with), you'll want to apply an inherent bonus to PCs using it.

Garthanos · May 10, 2017

C4 said:
I give a few other inherent bonuses, some of which aren't necessary, but one that I think is worth mentioning is grab: If you want grab to remain a viable option (insofar as it is viable to begin with), you'll want to apply an inherent bonus to PCs using it.

Ah I agree that indeed seems quite worth considering ...

Garthanos · May 10, 2017

duplicate

Garthanos · May 10, 2017

@C4 isnt the Bullrush like Grab one of the items in need of enhancement...

Perhaps Bull Rush needs to be able to move even larger enemies at pargon and epic.