Making Combats BAD(tm)
Making combat BAD
During the [
Mearls again says he dislikes how 4e turned out](tm) thread, a poster asked a question that's been asked a good many time for which there are plenty of answers, and it made me want to give another one.
What do you mean "make combat BAD" ?
Well, in 4e, the resource management game is centered around [Healing Surges]. From a game perspective, this is
great. From a story-pacing perspective, it is also
great. Where it can fall a bit flat is in terms of instinctual* perception of attrition / consequence.
*This is actually, anything but instinctual, as it's actually been ingrained by decades of "trad" D&D hit point ablation being taught as the measure of consequence. This is made obvious when discussing these issues with not-mainly-D&D players.
[sblock="Ramblings and musings"]
To make combat "BAD" (something to be avoided when possible), there needs to be 2 big things :
1 - it doesn't offer a desirable reward
2 - it incurs a non-recoverable loss
Now, I know that these settings are on a scale, and there are variable tipping points, and etc, and etc, but let's keep things simple here.
Fixing (1) is super-easy, all it takes is changing
XP to be [
progress based]. Killing something doesn't grant XP,
accomplishing something grants XP.
But this has been discussed before, it's super easy, makes more sense in the game world, makes more sense at the table, easier to do, just all around better - so yeah, let's leave that aside.
What is often harder is (2).
Because 4e is usually played by those looking for intense action and unrelenting story progression, the "inventory game" isn't usually something that appeals to most of us.
However, it is something that appeals (usually only in
theory) to a large subset of D&D players.
[/sblock]
So here's my idea :
- magical items are (mechanically) as they are now, but they don't do anything without the power of the "dragon/mana/eldritch/power/awesome-shard"
- shards are "socketable" items (something that takes a few minutes to do)
- a shard is good for 5 activations (combats)
- magical items that are not empowered give a -1 penalty to (main purpose)
- activation is based on intent (doesn't require an action) - but, as a variant, you could say that surprised characters haven't activated them yet
- there are thirty(30) levels of shards with regards to power and cost - with obvious implications
- once applied, a shard can't be removed without destroying it
- the item costs 1/2 it's minimum value
- shards cost 1/10 of a level-item*
So there you have it, a resource management element that is very simple to track (with small numbers), but that will still make combat "cost" something without actually having anything to change in the rules (or, not much of it in any case.)
[sblock="justification and more ramblings"]
*The base assumption is that an item will serve for ~25 combat encounters before being replaced (5/level, replaced after 5 levels).
I think that this system could easily offer an effective increase of ~10-20% to character effective wealth from the more granular approach which offers possibilities of savings here and there, but on the whole, it maps well, it's easy numbers, and I'm not seeing
too much abuse being easily done.
But I might be missing something...
I've started giving
most of my foes relevant magical items - but I've built up a system of
ritual requirements to access their magic and, also, to maintain their magic. It's really cool, but it requires a huge amount of work as each and every item needs these elements to be defined in the fiction - cool, but
so much work...
This approach will probably do wonders to enable my initial idea without requiring all that work... Yippi for me!
As a side bonus, this allows for a very easy removal of "magic item shops" if one wanted : the knowledge to make "magical" items is lost and there's no real use for "dragonshards" aside from that. Or an awesome Eberron variant that actually works pretty much as it's already presented (and offers even more incentive for the constant hunt for shards).
You could also break these rules to make an item extra-super-awesome-special by not requiring a
shard
[/sblock]
[sblock="I started out with a much more involved system"]
Idea - add the (object) ressource management game back into 4e
Goal - make combat a negative prospect as it results in necessary expenditure of ressources
Weapons and armour are temporarily enchanted with one-use items to give them the mechanical stats of what would otherwise be permanent magical items.
- this damages the item and requires repair during a short rest
- failure to repair weapons or implements imposes a cumulative -1 to attacks and -1 to damage per die penatly
- failure to repair armour imposes a cumulative -1 penalty to AC and Reflex, a -1 penalty to attacks, as well as a -2 penalty to applicable checks
- an armour whose penalty is equal to it's AC bonus is damaged beyond what can be repaired in the field
- a weapon whose damage penalty is equal to half its maximum damage value is damaged beyond what can be repaired in the field
- OPTION :
○ enchantments are carried in the form of X
○ weapons need to be built to be able to handle X, doing this is more expensive and generally produces a lesser product
○ weapons without the capacity are what most people use
○ some items can grant the effects to any weapon - but these are much more expensive than they would otherwise be, and often of lesser effect
Suggested damage bonus :
- Low Heroic +1d6, Upper Heroic +2d6
- Lower Paragon +2d8, Upper Paragon +3d8
- Lower Epic +3d12, Upper Epic +4d12
OR : +1d6/+1d10/+2d6/+2d8/+2d12/+3d12
Damage enchancements can depend on both the item's power and the character's level to allow for much more shallow wealth progression - otherwise, if we wish to use same wealth-by-level guidelines, we can use the base game.
Determining the cost for the existing wealth levels :
- An item is assumed to be replaced after 5 levels
- There is an assumption of 10 encounters per level
- There is an assumption of ~5 combat encounters per level
- The cost is then to be 1/25th of a permanent item
My prefered approach :
- The "en-runing" is usually good for 5 battles
- The "en-runing" is a simple process that is non-reversable
- permanent magical weapons, implements and armour also exist
○ most offer improvements or modifications when "en-runed"
○ some offer "utility" powers
they are much valued
Obviously, this is at "spaghetti on the wall" level of refinement...
[/sblock]
