AbdulAlhazred
Legend
Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out how the whole series of techniques, as you have formulated it here, fits into overall character construction in 4e. A lot of these are essentially feats or powers in normal 4e parlance, just recast into the mechanical framework of practices/rituals.
So, how would you envisage the way this would work in actual play? I mean, wouldn't it become pretty much REQUIRED to achieve the most useful of these practices? Since their numbers and availability are effectively unrestricted (you could use old-fashioned techniques of making it impossible to find certain ones, but that seems rather against 4e conceptually) are they not simply necessary things that players will have to add to each character?
I mean, that's the flaw with feats already, and the motivation that 5e had for making them an option you pay for with ABIs. 4e feats simply became 'feat tax' that had to be paid. To be a fighter you had to have weapon expertise, weapon talent, the feat that ups your Combat Superiority attack, some weapon proficiency feats to get the best superior weapon in your chosen weapon type path, etc. With these martial techniques you're going to want to have at least the 3 or 4 best ones, ALWAYS. Maybe that's OK, but it isn't serving any kind of goal of increasing character diversity is it?
So, how would you envisage the way this would work in actual play? I mean, wouldn't it become pretty much REQUIRED to achieve the most useful of these practices? Since their numbers and availability are effectively unrestricted (you could use old-fashioned techniques of making it impossible to find certain ones, but that seems rather against 4e conceptually) are they not simply necessary things that players will have to add to each character?
I mean, that's the flaw with feats already, and the motivation that 5e had for making them an option you pay for with ABIs. 4e feats simply became 'feat tax' that had to be paid. To be a fighter you had to have weapon expertise, weapon talent, the feat that ups your Combat Superiority attack, some weapon proficiency feats to get the best superior weapon in your chosen weapon type path, etc. With these martial techniques you're going to want to have at least the 3 or 4 best ones, ALWAYS. Maybe that's OK, but it isn't serving any kind of goal of increasing character diversity is it?