Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Healing Paradox
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="I'm A Banana" data-source="post: 5952197" data-attributes="member: 2067"><p>So ~7 surges per encounter? Over nine actual encounters (your SC's don't drain surges, eh? Mostly narrative failures?)? Sounds like your party is pretty solid at defending themselves -- lots of little ticks to avoid getting damaged in the first place! And they seem to be low on healing (though both your fighter and your ranger have healing words?), which is further impressive. But they're high on Defenders (two of 'em!), so that probably helps in both longevity and less surges lost per battle. </p><p></p><p>Which is all great and fine and awesome. Your players are solid tactical strategists, they are built to survive, and it looks like 4e accommodates their high-survival ideal quite nicely. And there's no reason a balanced vancian casting should disrupt that.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Because the number doesn't demand precision, you can take a rough median and go with that and be fine. If your party is regularly cutting through three times the number of encounters because they're solidly skilled like that, you up the number. If your party is regularly having one-encounter days because that's the pacing you prefer, you drop the number. The balance, after all, is in pursuit of the goal of keeping everyone entertained. </p><p></p><p>And, of course, while you CAN balance Vancian casting, you might not care to. Some folks don't like Vancian casting for reasons having nothing to do with balance (such as problems with pacing, or a personal dislike of the word "slots," or that it doesn't match up with their preferred fiction, or whatever). Just because a balanced Vancian caster exists in the game doesn't mean your table won't prefer, say, an at-will based warlock, because of your table's own idiosyncrasies. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That's fine. Just as it's fine that your players probably feature their encounter and at-will powers more than their daily powers during 9-encounter days. An encounter where everyone blows up and dominates is part of the variety.</p><p></p><p>If that's something you do a lot of, to avoid the supremacy of dailies, you might try rolling together several encounters into one to make it significant, or dropping the power of the daily abilities. Because there is a recognition of how many "successes" a given limited-resource is worth, it's pretty easy for a DM to slide that scale. </p><p></p><p>The balance does not need to be on a razor's edge to meet its design goals, I feel. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> Indeed, if it WERE, that would remove some significant variation. Your party is tough and resolute: they SHOULD cut through more encounters than usual! I wouldn't want to make a system that would make them loose that endurance in pursuit of precise balance. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>When an encounter only lasts 5 minutes, and the "adventuring day" only takes a half hour of table time, this is less of a concern than when the encounter lasts a half hour, and the "adventuring day' takes six hours of table time. You cycle a lot faster, and the "spotlight" tends to revolve much more quickly. </p><p></p><p>The playtest has certainly borne this out for me. Different recharge rates haven't left anyone feeling "left out" so far, in part because the spotlight revolves so quickly.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="I'm A Banana, post: 5952197, member: 2067"] So ~7 surges per encounter? Over nine actual encounters (your SC's don't drain surges, eh? Mostly narrative failures?)? Sounds like your party is pretty solid at defending themselves -- lots of little ticks to avoid getting damaged in the first place! And they seem to be low on healing (though both your fighter and your ranger have healing words?), which is further impressive. But they're high on Defenders (two of 'em!), so that probably helps in both longevity and less surges lost per battle. Which is all great and fine and awesome. Your players are solid tactical strategists, they are built to survive, and it looks like 4e accommodates their high-survival ideal quite nicely. And there's no reason a balanced vancian casting should disrupt that. Because the number doesn't demand precision, you can take a rough median and go with that and be fine. If your party is regularly cutting through three times the number of encounters because they're solidly skilled like that, you up the number. If your party is regularly having one-encounter days because that's the pacing you prefer, you drop the number. The balance, after all, is in pursuit of the goal of keeping everyone entertained. And, of course, while you CAN balance Vancian casting, you might not care to. Some folks don't like Vancian casting for reasons having nothing to do with balance (such as problems with pacing, or a personal dislike of the word "slots," or that it doesn't match up with their preferred fiction, or whatever). Just because a balanced Vancian caster exists in the game doesn't mean your table won't prefer, say, an at-will based warlock, because of your table's own idiosyncrasies. That's fine. Just as it's fine that your players probably feature their encounter and at-will powers more than their daily powers during 9-encounter days. An encounter where everyone blows up and dominates is part of the variety. If that's something you do a lot of, to avoid the supremacy of dailies, you might try rolling together several encounters into one to make it significant, or dropping the power of the daily abilities. Because there is a recognition of how many "successes" a given limited-resource is worth, it's pretty easy for a DM to slide that scale. The balance does not need to be on a razor's edge to meet its design goals, I feel. ;) Indeed, if it WERE, that would remove some significant variation. Your party is tough and resolute: they SHOULD cut through more encounters than usual! I wouldn't want to make a system that would make them loose that endurance in pursuit of precise balance. When an encounter only lasts 5 minutes, and the "adventuring day" only takes a half hour of table time, this is less of a concern than when the encounter lasts a half hour, and the "adventuring day' takes six hours of table time. You cycle a lot faster, and the "spotlight" tends to revolve much more quickly. The playtest has certainly borne this out for me. Different recharge rates haven't left anyone feeling "left out" so far, in part because the spotlight revolves so quickly. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
The Healing Paradox
Top