Design and Development: Monsters

[The Little Raven]

I find personally that tracking the round number is a pain. Having to remember that a monster in round 2 has an effect that lasts till round 4 is a major pain for me. OTOH, the binary nature of 4e statuses (recharged or not, on fire or not, etc) is a bit easier to track.

Especially with how long a single round could be in 3e, because of iterative attacks, cohorts, and the like, you could easily forget when the breath recharges because you're spending 20 minutes on each round.

 

[Imaro]

I'm not sure I understand your question, but when running a 4E dragon, I simply roll the d6 at the beginning of all of the dragon's turns. If I roll a 5 or a 6, I know the dragon will use its breath weapon on that turn, and I immediately begin to execute that plan, potentially first moving the dragon and then choosing the location of the blast. I don't need to remember anything that the dragon did on previous turns, and in this sense the breath weapon is "stateless."

In 3E I never found a better mechanism than keeping a counter for the round number and jotting down the round number at which various durations ended. For some things I would count down using a die, but I would consider that die/counter as an instance of bookkeeping. YMMV.

Like I readily admitted before...it could be a familiarity thing as of right now...however running multiple opponents with recharge abilities and/or creatures with multiple recharges seems just as much to keep track of as in 3.5.

 

[keterys]

I really hoped for and expected more out of the article...

It is easier to "track" recharges than durations, however. One has an ability to fail (be forgotten, be mistaken, etc) while the other only comes up when the monster goes. Barely any tracking required at all.

It's not necessarily less time spent, but in terms of _tracking_ it's easier.

 

[catsclaw227]

I was really hoping for a toolbox, like the one given in the DMG. How to make minions, what kind of powers are appropriate at a given level, etc.

 

[Scribble]

Like I readily admitted before...it could be a familiarity thing as of right now...however running multiple opponents with recharge abilities and/or creatures with multiple recharges seems just as much to keep track of as in 3.5.

It's not a HUGE gain, but it is a gain. It puts the tracking at a round by round basuis as opposed to stretching over multiple rounds.

Eample would be the dragon fight. If I'm tracking rounds, I have to track rounds despite whether the dragon is in a good position to use the breath weapon or not. If he never gets into a good position, all that tracking time was wasted. If he does, I check to see if it CAN breath then if yes, breath, if no, do somethign else.

So again it's not a huge gain, but it helps.

 

[Abraxas]

Eample would be the dragon fight. If I'm tracking rounds, I have to track rounds despite whether the dragon is in a good position to use the breath weapon or not. If he never gets into a good position, all that tracking time was wasted. If he does, I check to see if it CAN breath then if yes, breath, if no, do somethign else.

So again it's not a huge gain, but it helps.

Wouldn't you still roll every round until it recharges? If successful the breathe weapon (or other ability) is available immediately or in any following round.
Your post seems to suggest that you are only planning to check when the dragon would try to use it's breath weapon. I am under the impression that the recharge mechanic lets you know when it is available, not the chance for an ability to work in a given round.

 

[malraux]

Wouldn't you still roll every round until it recharges? If successful the breathe weapon (or other ability) is available immediately or in any following round.
Your post seems to suggest that you are only planning to check when the dragon would try to use it's breath weapon. I am under the impression that the recharge mechanic lets you know when it is available, not the chance for an ability to work in a given round.

In theory you should still check even if you don't want to use it this round. But if you forget about it, nothing bad happens; you just roll for recharge on its next turn. That's completely different from forgetting which round the breath weapon recharges. The 4e way is somewhat more resilient to sloppy DMing.

 

[Scribble]

Wouldn't you still roll every round until it recharges? If successful the breathe weapon (or other ability) is available immediately or in any following round.
Your post seems to suggest that you are only planning to check when the dragon would try to use it's breath weapon. I am under the impression that the recharge mechanic lets you know when it is available, not the chance for an ability to work in a given round.

You CAN if you want, but the numbers aren't effected if you don't. You always have a given percentage chance that the power wil recharge, whether you check now, or later.

In either case, even if say, I roll the recharge, find out it's good to go, and then don't use it until I get into position, it's still a yes or no thing.

Roll a die: Yes, it works, let me get into position to use it.

vs

Roll a die: Ok it will work in 4 rounds, let me get into position to use it, all the while tracking how many rounds until I CAN use it.

Yes or no is always going to be faster/easier to do then tracking. Again it's not a HUGE gain, but it does help when you have so many other things to keep track of.

 

[sjmiller]

You know, it's kind of funny. I was not looking at this at all from the PC standpoint. I was looking at this from the view of the dragon. I wasn't playing "guess when the dragon will breath again," I was playing "when do I get to breath again," which are different games! The dragon knows when he will breath right after he does his last one, while the player does not know until it occurs. That explains why I was not getting the probabilities to work out right. Shows how long it has been since I have been a player, doesn't it?

 

[Abraxas]

You CAN if you want, but the numbers aren't effected if you don't. You always have a given percentage chance that the power wil recharge, whether you check now, or later.

This doesn't sound right. If you roll the check every round, what is the chance that the ability (in this case the breath weapon) is available on round 2, 3, 4 etc vs the flat 2 in 6 chance if you only roll when you want to use it?

In either case, even if say, I roll the recharge, find out it's good to go, and then don't use it until I get into position, it's still a yes or no thing.

Yes or no is always going to be faster/easier to do then tracking. Again it's not a HUGE gain, but it does help when you have so many other things to keep track of.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. rolling once and counting rounds isn't any more difficult than rolling every round until it recharges to me - and not rolling to check recharge until you want to use the ability just seems wrong to me.