D&D 4E [4e] Exertion points rather than at-will/ecounter/daily managment?

[Victim]

I think you'd end up with a lot of pressure to use the same encounter power (possibly throw in another for a combo) repeatedly, or pressure twink out an at will and mostly use that since everything else is a daily resource. Possibly supported by long lasting dailies. You'd lose a ton of variety.

 

[keterys]

Yeah, I'd imagine things like the barbarian model would do well - use a daily rage every encounter, then use a good at-will otherwise.

 

[Garthanos]

Hmm... that could work!

I played Amber and it works fine if your DM thinks visually and is combat experienced and you are only doing physical combat ( tell me which continuum of stellar correlations will get my spell to work freely.) so you have a well defined arena of conflict .... etc etc... the rest is why we have dice and rules.

LS are you playing the right game? Amber is indeed awesome.

 

[LostSoul]

I played Amber and it works fine if your DM thinks visually and is combat experienced and you are only doing physical combat ( tell me which continuum of stellar correlations will get my spell to work freely.) so you have a well defined arena of conflict .... etc etc... the rest is why we have dice and rules.

LS are you playing the right game? Amber is indeed awesome.

4E can handle the in-game situation having an impact on resolution. I think it's actually well suited for that sort of play - there are lots of tools to aid you.

The problem is that it's easy to forget about it when you have all these interacting mechanics that don't rely on the in-game situation. When you stop thinking about the in-game situation - and once again, that's easy to do, because the mechanics don't care about it - immersion suffers.

That's why people say it feels like a boardgame. The fact that you're fighting an ooze matters as much as the paint job on your hotel on Boardwalk when it comes to resolving actions. (A better analogy might be that the hotel is actually a casino - "Yeah, so what, it's still 400 bucks rent." The fact that it's a casino has nothing to do with how the game will play out and can easily be ignored or forgotten.)

If it does matter, though...

"I jump up on the table to get away from the ooze."
"Haw haw, it stretches itself into a long column and slaps you. Your skin burns and you take 7 points of acid damage."
"It's stretched into a long column? I cut it at the base with my sword, hoping to make it sploosh down into a pool."
"Nice, if you hit, it'll be prone."
"Oh, you know what, I'll use Tide of Iron - as it falls I'll slap it with my shield."
"Okay, it'll be prone in whatever square you push it into, if you hit."

Nothing hard about that! If you can do that - if you have to do that - then you're going to be constantly engaged with the in-game situation and all the little details. When you're thinking about all the little details of the game world, guess what happens - immersion.

 

[Garthanos]

4E can handle the in-game situation having an impact on resolution. I think it's actually well suited for that sort of play - there are lots of tools to aid you.

I am game... it could be used to compose concrete results and something like page 42 gives scale... but here is my thing the powers and abilities that have concrete game definitions... give my character a repertoire of things which define his fighting style. (... not all of which are things he knows how to do necessarily it can be that heroic luck element.. they might be things that simply tend to happen around him...and which he has learned to exploit.) Can you give me my cake... my fighting styles.

See the faerries
http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/273642-master-faerries-ancient-one.html

When I improvise a particularly good useage for my MM... faerrie brigade or teleporting familiar style or something else like having a fairy burst into dust swirling down the throat of the target ... the DM can give me bennies for doing it interestingly and in a way that includes the environment.... I dont expect to be unable to do the things in my repertoire or end up fighting fully free style with no impact of my design choices... or because they want to frustrate me and cover the scene with cold iron runes which my fairries sacrefice themselves on.... the explosion is a very nice magic missile like effect... I picture and even remember DMs ... who's fun seemed to be saying no.... you cant do that its too outlandish we have threads where people are doing exactly that.

In other words the idea of running dynamic description is awesome but very very dependent...

I am picturing martialists of all ilk gimped because somebody ... a DM doesn't understand the idea of the fog of war and how combatants frequently forget there exact location while focusing on their relative location... (one of the impacts of your fighters threatening presence is they pay you more focused attention and it contributes to the various forced movement abilities as well as marking). Or DMs who say it cant be just luck... why in hell cant my body scent caught on a breeze just now be just the salt flavor these oozes think they want right now (Come and get it).

 

[LostSoul]

In other words the idea of running dynamic description is awesome but very very dependent...

That's kind of the point, isn't it?

It's dependent on the people playing the game. You make a difference.