D&D 4E Disarm Let Us Count the Ways.

[Garthanos]

I liked the idea of rattling. Though in effect it was yet another of the plethora of 'tiny bonus' things that made 4e a bit crazy.

I am thinking one might have advantage +2 and full advantage... disadvantage and full disadvantage.giving us 5 states instead of 5e's 3 plus ruined modifiers that sneak in -

Full advantage and Full disadvantage are then re-rolls.

Martial Ploy in Martial power 2 had that re-roll as a conferred benefit was I think before the Avenger was published I think.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I am thinking one might have advantage +2 and full advantage... disadvantage and full disadvantage.giving us 5 states instead of 5e's 3 plus ruined modifiers that sneak in -

Full advantage and Full disadvantage are then re-rolls.

Martial Ploy in Martial power 2 had that re-roll as a conferred benefit was I think before the Avenger was published I think.

I'm liking the 5e-style advantage/disadvantage. I just see it like this: If something isn't worth giving it, then it really isn't important enough to bother with the math at all. Nobody is going to remember or care that they got a +1 or a +2 here or there. I'm fine with small permanent modifiers, you add them into your character sheet and don't have to keep thinking about them every day. They act to actualize the various things you do to 'be better' at fighting (or whatever).

So, I think in my game I will not go back to offering a myriad of different degrees of bonuses. More and more I've been applying this whole philosophy to the entire game. Subtlety is great in real life, not so much in fantastic tales, myths, and legends.

 

[Garthanos]

So, I think in my game I will not go back to offering a myriad of different degrees of bonuses. More and more I've been applying this whole philosophy to the entire game. Subtlety is great in real life, not so much in fantastic tales, myths, and legends.

2 good and 2 bad are a myriad? wow
I think this measure is more in keeping with 4e without letting it become fiddly, very common modifiers in 4e are +2 like you get from flanking and less common skilled ones are the rerolls with the possibility of getting 2 things provide the common ones and combed to create the reroll.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

2 good and 2 bad are a myriad? wow
I think this measure is more in keeping with 4e without letting it become fiddly, very common modifiers in 4e are +2 like you get from flanking and less common skilled ones are the rerolls with the possibility of getting 2 things provide the common ones and combed to create the reroll.

Eh, you're of course welcome to disagree, but I don't believe that players really make those fine distinctions, or at least that they really matter. In fact this is exactly the philosophy that motivated the designers of Strike! but they took it MUCH further (Strike! uses a d6 instead of a d20, so a +1 is a HUGE difference, and a +2 is pretty much non-existent). They reasoned, as I do, that trivial bonuses are just noise that doesn't really make an impression. In HoML it is HARD to get Advantage, when you do you're getting something worthwhile!

 

[Garthanos]

Eh, you're of course welcome to disagree, but I don't believe that players really make those fine distinctions, or at least that they really matter.

A re-roll is functionally very like functioning a whole tier higher in attack skill it is twice as extreme than someone using an unfamiliar weapon. Its the difference between a city boy and a most rangers in nature skill.

It is too much to be the only situational in my opinion.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

A re-roll is functionally very like functioning a whole tier higher in attack skill it is twice as extreme than someone using an unfamiliar weapon. Its the difference between a city boy and a most rangers in nature skill.

It is too much to be the only situational in my opinion.

Advantage is roughly equivalent of a +4. To my mind that makes it fairly distinct and clearly advantageous. I mean, sure, it is equivalent in HoML to being half a tier higher level. The point IMHO was to make it worth taking a risk, or paying, to get once in a while. I also wasn't planning on making it as trivially easy to get as CA is in 4e, which got a bit too easy after a couple books full of feats that grant it in trivial to achieve situations came along.

 

[Garthanos]

I would tend to keep it in the daily bin just because the optics of the guy who ALWAYS disarms his foes gets a bit odd. That or make sure whatever the power is can be recounted in various ways (IE I got the point of my blade at your throat, I disarmed you, I locked up your weapon, I sliced off your hand, etc.).

Jackie Chan is my go to for the guy who always disarms the foe... and it is perhaps a comedy aspect, but there could be a story around some hero who refused to kill a sentient being.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Jackie Chan is my go to for the guy who always disarms the foe... and it is perhaps a comedy aspect, but there could be a story around some hero who refused to kill a sentient being.

Sure, I'd go with the concept of a 'soft' fighter who only disables and disarms his opponents. I'd think that the great variety of ways that happens in a Jackie Chan movie is probably amenable to simply playing your 'monk' or whatever and flavoring the results correctly. Not that a disarming move wouldn't work well with that of course.