D&D 4E Throwing ideas, seeing what sticks (and what stinks)

[Garthanos]

Making my beast get inherent bonuses like ti was a heirloom magic weapon was on the list... and so would be feats that oost the beast and the beast itself gaining a power akin to a magic item.

This could in theory be done as a Martial Practice but I suspect it would be a must have anyway but it is very much a subset of Sensei.

Martial Focus represents your personal independence alah the oath of independence / Riddle of steel so the enhanced beast reduces your maximum martial focus by 1.

 

[Garthanos]

"House Rule" to re-frame the "one daily item power use per tier" (short version : forum ate my post)

Bring Forth Power!
All characters have a new power that can used once per day per tier : Bring Forth Power (BFP)

Basic effect: a character can apply the critical hit effect of a weapon or implement on a regular hit.

Advanced effect: magic items replace their daily powers with the same effect that can now be used by spending a use of BFP.

Additional new rule: items can only bear the strain of BFP once per day.

Why
The intent of the basic effect is to replace/reduce/remove the number of items which have a daily power that amounts to their critical effect.

The other intent is a simple ease of acceptability of the "one item daily power per day per tier" by re-framing it as a player ability.

What it breaks
Not much, other than the whole of the written text... If we had the rules in an editable format, this would be a simple case of "Ctrl+H", but alas...

What it adds
Not much. It's pretty much what amounts to a QoL improvement.

It could be seen to add a bit of design space - in that it's easier to play with character abilities.

For instance, we can now, add or remove a use of BFP for things such as consequences of a SC (or some very niche monster). It's also easy to see how giving one more use of BFP would fit the Artificer or an artificer-themed ... theme.

So yeah, I like it.

This reminds me of one of the Martial practices I made up that allowed one to spend time and effort (alah a healing surge) to reawaken the power in a device.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I suppose standing still is a move action err why?
(and probably not one encouraged in 4e combat anyway)


Making my beast get inherent bonuses like it was a heirloom magic weapon was on the list... and so would be feats that boost the beast and the beast itself gaining a power akin to a magic item.

DMG2 doesn't really address companions and such in the inherent bonus rule, but I would hold that your companion would get inherent bonuses to attacks rolls and damage. This helps them a LOT in terms of being a viable option to make MBAs and at-will attacks, etc. By MP1 RAW they certainly tailed off in usefulness over levels, and only gained some minor relevance again in Epic if you took the minor action attack feat (which is good, but only partly compensates for not being a BA with a full set of Prime Shot optimizations).

 

[Garthanos]

"House Rule" to re-frame the "one daily item power use per tier" (short version : forum ate my post)

Bring Forth Power!
All characters have a new power that can used once per day per tier : Bring Forth Power (BFP)

Basic effect: a character can apply the critical hit effect of a weapon or implement on a regular hit.

Advanced effect: magic items replace their daily powers with the same effect that can now be used by spending a use of BFP.

Additional new rule: items can only bear the strain of BFP once per day.

Why
The intent of the basic effect is to replace/reduce/remove the number of items which have a daily power that amounts to their critical effect.

The other intent is a simple ease of acceptability of the "one item daily power per day per tier" by re-framing it as a player ability.

What it breaks
Not much, other than the whole of the written text... If we had the rules in an editable format, this would be a simple case of "Ctrl+H", but alas...

What it adds
Not much. It's pretty much what amounts to a QoL improvement.

It could be seen to add a bit of design space - in that it's easier to play with character abilities.

For instance, we can now, add or remove a use of BFP for things such as consequences of a SC (or some very niche monster). It's also easy to see how giving one more use of BFP would fit the Artificer or an artificer-themed ... theme.

So yeah, I like it.

To tell the truth for some reason I pictured He-man ... when I read this the first time, I know a bit tacky.

 

[Garthanos]

Dude!

Post your system already! These look perfect for a "slimed 4e" - I need to seeeeeeee!

"Slimy slugs slither and are slimy ...slim sloths are slimmed down. LOL

Sorry just tweaked my funny bone.

 

[Tony Vargas]

"Slimy slugs slither and are slimy ...slim sloths are slimmed down. LOL

Sorry just tweaked my funny bone.

4e's been slimed enough. ;|

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

4e's been slimed enough. ;|

So, I guess this slimed down system would be code-named 'Juiblex' right?

 

[Tony Vargas]

So, I guess this slimed down system would be code-named 'Juiblex' right?

or code Green...

 

[Garthanos]

Ritualistically Tiered
The hard level gated rituals are, at times, hurdles to the powers I want the PCs to have and the stories I'm going for.

Proposal: rituals are now gated by tier instead of level

My proposed implementation:

• rituals are gated by 1/2 tier (5 levels)
• all rituals require a caster check (skill check) which is a moderate difficulty check at the ritual's level
• a failure on the caster check means that all time spent is lost and 1/2 the components are expended without effect
• on a "1" on the caster check, the focus (if any) breaks - I admit, I just want to screw with my players a bit on this one
• a caster whose level equals or exceeds the ritual's level doesn't need to make a caster check

... I'm wondering if gating the rituals is required at all - I'm just worried about all those finiky bonuses to [Arcana]: without those hard gates, I can see players getting access to plot devices a good deal beyond their regular means...

Perhaps having a more robust system for increasing effective caster level would serve better: locations that allow a 2-3 level adjustment to type X rituals, an item that make type Y easier to use, etc.

After I finish Martial Power III, I guess Arcane Power II is on the table keeping my eyes open for interesting ideas, though with Martial Practices I am not thinking I have to worry about the skills being as far off the board (not too many athletics ones), they are often secondary and tertiary skills.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

I once wrote up my HoML rituals as nicely scaling versions of the 4e rituals, basically. However then my thinking evolved. So at this point you don't really NEED them to be level scaled, as they simply represent alternate ways to inject a specific check into a challenge. They actually ARE gated on level, but only for 'color' reasons (IE you get the ritual that explains how you use arcana to move to a distant location called 'Teleport' at level 12, at level 5 you have 'Phantom Steed' instead, the former could get you past some fictional positioning that the later won't).