innerdude
Legend
Over the past 4-5 sessions, I've been increasingly bored, frustrated, and generally uninterested in running combats in my Savage Worlds campaign. And for a system as combat-centric as Savage Worlds, that's a very, very bad thing.
At first I thought it was a simple cause of PC "power creep." They're well into the "Veteran" character tier, roughly equivalent to D&D PCs of 7th or 8th level, so the number of situational tricks, bonuses, and effects available to the PCs is fairly high. So I thought perhaps it was just that I hadn't quite adjusted to the PCs' power level in designing encounters.
But I believe I've narrowed down the cause to two specific spells, being wielded by one specific character, for causing the majority of the problems.
One character is a two-weapon fighter / mage, who wields a broadsword / shortsword in combat. Typically his first act is to cast the Quickness spell, then immediately cast Deflection.
These two spells are roughly equivalent to Haste (Quickness) and Mage Armor (Deflection). The problem is, compared to their D&D counterparts, they're radically overpowered.
In D&D 3.x, Haste gives the character exactly 1 additional action per round. Not so for Quickness, which gives the character an entire extra turn immediately following the current turn. That's right. No waiting until the end of the round, and not just one additional action---the character gets an entire extra turn, with complete movement and actions available. It's essentially twice as powerful as Haste with zero downsides, and with a very low power point cost.
We all know Mage Armor is just a static +4 to AC. Well, as a BASELINE, Deflection gives the character the functional equivalent of approximately +7 to AC (a +2 defense bonus in Savage Worlds)----while also partially negating damage from area effect spells. And if the character succeeds with a raise (i.e., critical success), the bonus goes up to the functional equivalent of +12 AC, with a higher damage reduction effect on area effects. Again, this is a very, very "low level" spell, with a minimal casting cost.
So when the character performs these actions, he essentially becomes unhittable barring miraculous luck of the dice, while wreaking havoc by making four full attacks per round at absolutely zero penalty.
And it's completely soured combat for me. I literally dread running combats with this character around. It becomes a tedious, boring affair of trying in vain to make the challenge interesting without literally wiping the floor with the rest of the party.
Now major caveat here: the player in question is literally my best friend on the planet. We've known each other for 20 years.
His contention to this point is that if I choose to house rule these spells (knowing that I will go bat-crap crazy if I don't), I'm essentially "ruining his fun," and negating all of his "hard work" to construct his character. In other words, rather than worrying about how this is not fun for me at all, or thinking of game balance, or the overall vibe at the table, he basically insists that I should be "rewarding" him for his "hard work" of rules mastery, where his idea of "reward" is easy encounters, so he can build up his loot stash to "buy epic gear."
First of all, I am the least powergamer-y player I've ever played with. [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] once commented that he always gets comments like, "Nice gimped character you have there, buddy." I'm basically the same way. I simply don't give a rat's behind how combat capable my characters are. I enjoy RPGs for the world building, player and NPC interactions, and the occasional glimpse into real social and political commentary.
And we're maybe 6 to 8 sessions away from the campaign's climax, but it's been so bad the last three sessions, that I honestly would rather end the campaign now than keep having to deal with this.
So I pose to you the question, EnWorlders: Do I house rule these two spells to maintain my sanity, or do I simply deal with it for now, with the idea that the next time I run Savage Worlds I'll have the house rules already in place?
I've already written out the house rules for the spells. Should I enforce them, but then give him the option to redesign his character around the changes? Simply play it as I've houseruled, without letting him make changes?
At first I thought it was a simple cause of PC "power creep." They're well into the "Veteran" character tier, roughly equivalent to D&D PCs of 7th or 8th level, so the number of situational tricks, bonuses, and effects available to the PCs is fairly high. So I thought perhaps it was just that I hadn't quite adjusted to the PCs' power level in designing encounters.
But I believe I've narrowed down the cause to two specific spells, being wielded by one specific character, for causing the majority of the problems.
One character is a two-weapon fighter / mage, who wields a broadsword / shortsword in combat. Typically his first act is to cast the Quickness spell, then immediately cast Deflection.
These two spells are roughly equivalent to Haste (Quickness) and Mage Armor (Deflection). The problem is, compared to their D&D counterparts, they're radically overpowered.
In D&D 3.x, Haste gives the character exactly 1 additional action per round. Not so for Quickness, which gives the character an entire extra turn immediately following the current turn. That's right. No waiting until the end of the round, and not just one additional action---the character gets an entire extra turn, with complete movement and actions available. It's essentially twice as powerful as Haste with zero downsides, and with a very low power point cost.
We all know Mage Armor is just a static +4 to AC. Well, as a BASELINE, Deflection gives the character the functional equivalent of approximately +7 to AC (a +2 defense bonus in Savage Worlds)----while also partially negating damage from area effect spells. And if the character succeeds with a raise (i.e., critical success), the bonus goes up to the functional equivalent of +12 AC, with a higher damage reduction effect on area effects. Again, this is a very, very "low level" spell, with a minimal casting cost.
So when the character performs these actions, he essentially becomes unhittable barring miraculous luck of the dice, while wreaking havoc by making four full attacks per round at absolutely zero penalty.
And it's completely soured combat for me. I literally dread running combats with this character around. It becomes a tedious, boring affair of trying in vain to make the challenge interesting without literally wiping the floor with the rest of the party.
Now major caveat here: the player in question is literally my best friend on the planet. We've known each other for 20 years.
His contention to this point is that if I choose to house rule these spells (knowing that I will go bat-crap crazy if I don't), I'm essentially "ruining his fun," and negating all of his "hard work" to construct his character. In other words, rather than worrying about how this is not fun for me at all, or thinking of game balance, or the overall vibe at the table, he basically insists that I should be "rewarding" him for his "hard work" of rules mastery, where his idea of "reward" is easy encounters, so he can build up his loot stash to "buy epic gear."
First of all, I am the least powergamer-y player I've ever played with. [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION] once commented that he always gets comments like, "Nice gimped character you have there, buddy." I'm basically the same way. I simply don't give a rat's behind how combat capable my characters are. I enjoy RPGs for the world building, player and NPC interactions, and the occasional glimpse into real social and political commentary.
And we're maybe 6 to 8 sessions away from the campaign's climax, but it's been so bad the last three sessions, that I honestly would rather end the campaign now than keep having to deal with this.
So I pose to you the question, EnWorlders: Do I house rule these two spells to maintain my sanity, or do I simply deal with it for now, with the idea that the next time I run Savage Worlds I'll have the house rules already in place?
I've already written out the house rules for the spells. Should I enforce them, but then give him the option to redesign his character around the changes? Simply play it as I've houseruled, without letting him make changes?
