Encounter power buffs outside of combat

[Trainz]

What would prevent you from activating an encounter power that buffs you for a whole encounter before opening the door to a room?

WotC says that they've put an end to that, but I hope it isn't simply by saying "well, you're not in an encounter per se, so you can't".

I would hope someone could activate an encounter power whenever they want, once every five minutes as it is how long you need to rest before recuperating your encounter powers. If that is indeed the case, how long would the power be kept up?

I guess I'd house rule it to 10 rounds, and if an encounter starts within those 10 rounds, then it would last until the end of that encounter.

My rationale is that activating a power should be easier to do outside of combat, as you don't have any distractions...

 

[VannATLC]

Because I'm lazy, and can't be bothered looking.. Are there any encounter powers that buff you, but don't rely on first doing something to an opponent?

I have nothing against, and would allow in my games, buffing seconds before a known (or suspected) fight.

However, my recollection is that there is virtually no powers which would fall into this category.

 

[small pumpkin man]

We haven't seen any long term powers that buff stats. The "buffs" seem to be things like flight as opposed to say, haste. The only one that wasn't was a Fighter "Stance" which I assume is a minor to put up, so there's no huge benefit from arcing it up before hand as opposed to the first round of combat.

 

[Trainz]

We haven't seen any long term powers that buff stats. The "buffs" seem to be things like flight as opposed to say, haste. The only one that wasn't was a Fighter "Stance" which I assume is a minor to put up, so there's no huge benefit from arcing it up before hand as opposed to the first round of combat.

Well if that's the case (minor action), there is an actual benefit of putting it up before combat if you don't win initiative (in the case of a buff that raises your defenses frex).

 

[FadedC]

I think we have seen a few buffs that are daily powers and last 5 minutes. At least one of these is activated as a minor action. Nothing would stop somebody from casting one of these spells before opening the door, but you only get a few daily spells so you probably want to make sure you use them where they count. And saving a minor action is not all that significant given that you might end up wasting the spell completely.

 

[small pumpkin man]

Well if that's the case (minor action), there is an actual benefit of putting it up before combat if you don't win initiative (in the case of a buff that raises your defenses frex).

In this case it raises your saves, which generally happen at the end of your turn, but sure there is a benefit, but the point is it's not not (again) haste, where casting it before you kick in the door makes a big difference but with a stance if you have the suprise round anyway it's not actually a difference.

And of course it could actually work like Bo9S Stances and allways be up.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Many buffs require you to make an attack to be activated. Depending on your take on the bag of rats, you could still activate them before entering your combat scene.

Most buffs we have seen are active only one round. I suppose it won't really break the system if you had such a buff up one round earlier.
Consequently, I am also not sure that it would be that much worse if you had a encounter-long buff up a round earlier.

So my answer is: You might be able to do it and it won't affect the gameplay negatively if you do. Just be sure you don't waste your daily powers on an harmless encounter...

 

[Plane Sailing]

What would prevent you from activating an encounter power that buffs you for a whole encounter before opening the door to a room?

Surely this is why you have a DM rather than just running solo adventures with yourself or waiting to see how a computer handles it, eh?

I mean that seriously - it makes sense to me for DMs to handle this exactly how they want.

It would be foolishly difficult for WotC to attempt to legislate for all the precise circumstances that different powers could be used outside an encounter, and would just lead to rules-lawyer hell (or is that rules lawyer heaven? But I digress). The sanest thing for them to do is to lay down the principle and leave it for the DM to adjudicate.

Cheers

 

[Derren]

It would be foolishly difficult for WotC to attempt to legislate for all the precise circumstances that different powers could be used outside an encounter,

Actually thats quite easy as long as you use don't use arbitrary definitions of "scenes" and "encounters" in your rules.

 

[vagabundo]

Surely this is why you have a DM rather than just running solo adventures with yourself or waiting to see how a computer handles it, eh?

I mean that seriously - it makes sense to me for DMs to handle this exactly how they want.

It would be foolishly difficult for WotC to attempt to legislate for all the precise circumstances that different powers could be used outside an encounter, and would just lead to rules-lawyer hell (or is that rules lawyer heaven? But I digress). The sanest thing for them to do is to lay down the principle and leave it for the DM to adjudicate.

Cheers

I would be happy not to have tons of fiddly mechanics getting in the way of my game. Some basic guidelines for using will/encounter/daily powers outside of the combat-encounter system will work for me.