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My experience as well. And my attempt at using Acrobatic Stunt to stand up with a minor action was met with cries of "system abuser!". :/

Well, if you can do it whenever you want, then, in effect, training in Acrobatics gives the power "Standing is a minor action for you." This is one of the problems with stunting. The "sweet spot" between "not as good as a power you paid scarce resources for" and "not even worth bothering with" is pretty narrow. To my mind, stunting ought to be very circumstantial -- you need some reason you can stand as a minor action with a successful acrobatics check NOW, but not every other time you're prone.

The problem with a closed playtest is that the playtesters, because of the means by which they're selected, "play the game right" -- but the rules tend to break only when people play it wrong. (I speak here as a programmer who has had to deal with bugs that never show up during testing but appear constantly "in the field".) I'm sure the stunting rules work fine in the WOTC offices and home games, and in the carefully selected playtest groups. Out in the real world...

As a DM, I'd be tempted to use the Kantian Imperative when a player wanted to do a stunt:"Do I want every player to be able to do this in every encounter?" If the stunt is highly unlikely to be repeated because it relies on environmental features (say, you were next to a chain you could use to quickly hoist yourself up to your feet), I'd be more likely to approve it than if it was justified by "I'm just that awesome!".
 

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My experience as well. And my attempt at using Acrobatic Stunt to stand up with a minor action was met with cries of "system abuser!". :/

Well, good, seems i'm not alone then. "Power Fixation" is an obvious side-effect in 4e. I don't want to say it's a "problem", but i would like to see some tried and tested ways to get around it.

And Lizard is right about the "barreltosser goblin", the players will just suspect its a power entry and not something anyone can do at anytime. Hell, the first time I Bullrushed someone they didn't even know THAT was in the PHB!
 

Well, if you can do it whenever you want, then, in effect, training in Acrobatics gives the power "Standing is a minor action for you." This is one of the problems with stunting. The "sweet spot" between "not as good as a power you paid scarce resources for" and "not even worth bothering with" is pretty narrow. To my mind, stunting ought to be very circumstantial -- you need some reason you can stand as a minor action with a successful acrobatics check NOW, but not every other time you're prone.

What about burning Action Points in conjunction with trained skills to achieve unique effects?
 

If the stunt is highly unlikely to be repeated because it relies on environmental features (say, you were next to a chain you could use to quickly hoist yourself up to your feet), I'd be more likely to approve it than if it was justified by "I'm just that awesome!".

This is the way I see it, and why I think it has the potential to be quite awesome. By interacting and paying attention to the environment you can pull off tricks like that! Immersion, paying attention to the fiction, smart player choices = better chance to overcome the challenge.

Most people see "Stand Up: Move Action" and don't think past that. And that makes sense; why would they? The few lines in the books that say "you can do anything you can imagine" are trumped by the pages upon pages of stuff that tells you what you can do.
 



Here's the thing. People don't USE PAge 42. At least, not in my group. If it's not a listed action option, it's not chosen. EVER. In nine months of weekly 4e play, I have not seen a single player attempt an action not already described in the rules during combat, and the one time I tried, the DM ignored P.42 and use 3e style simulationism to resolve it, meaning, it didn't work very well.

I have the exact opposite problem. The halfling always wants to climb up a wall and jump down onto a monster for backstab damage or something.
 


Is there a way to solve "Power Fixation" without saying "Ignore all the rules for your powers and go with the fluff, letting the DM decide how to resolve each action" while maintaining the amazing amount of tactical choices players can make?
 

Is there a way to solve "Power Fixation" without saying "Ignore all the rules for your powers and go with the fluff, letting the DM decide how to resolve each action" while maintaining the amazing amount of tactical choices players can make?

Honestly, probably not without incorporating some sort of costing mechanism. Otherwise, the search for the "Sweet spot" (more potent than just doing a basic attack, not so potent it replaces an Encounter or Daily power) really becomes a pain.

FATE uses fate points. FantasyCraft lets you spend Action Dice. I could see giving every player a "One stunt/encounter" rule, or "Expend an unused Daily power to perform a stunt equal to an Encounter power of that level or less from any class" or the like. I think if you provide a mechanical framework, even if it's basically Dumbo's Magic Feather, players will be a lot more likely to use it. They've got a Power Fixation? Print out a Power Card reading "Daring Stunt!" and let them play it. :)
 

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