D&D General IS the 5 min work day a feature or a bug?

[GMforPowergamers]

In hundreds of players, and groups, this is the first time I see your method of dividing treasures.
Staff of power? Goes to the wizard. Period.
Pearl of wisdom? Goes to the priest. Period.
+1 Long Sword? Goes to the Fighter. Period.
Only monetary treasure is shared equally. Additional magical items, if they are not usable or the receiving character has better will be sold and cash divided equally. A wand of the warmage was found. The wizard already had one. So it was sold and the cash was divided equally.

yeah that is pretty close to how we do it... but if the DM puts +1 great sword, pearl of power, pearl of wisdom, + 1 heavy steel shield, and 3 wands in the game that has a fighter a rogue a cleric and a wizard... it isn't going to sit well with the rogue player that 7 items are being split between 3 players and he gets nothing...

this is what makes it look advasarial, cause you didn't put a generic ring of prot or cloak of prot in the rogue could use...

no wonder the rogue player doesn't care.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Well ok, you could assign an ability check DC, but the adventure doesn't do that. I had a post about metagaming from months back where I think I called stuff like this a "necessary evil"- it's metagaming, but it's metagaming that's needed to move the plot forward, and it's why I've never liked riddles or puzzles in my D&D. The only way to ensure the character is the one engaging with the puzzle would be die rolls, which wouldn't be fun for anyone. So you challenge the player. Of course, if the player is a 20 Int Wizard or a 18 Wis Cleric, and they don't get it, that's not exactly fun for them either...

I had fun once makeing up nonsense, then tieing it to a made up legend that I put in the game (but didn't tell the PCs) put the puzzel in and when they took a few minutes and couldn't figure it out let them start making Int and History prof checks... the PCs didn't enjoy it as much as I did though (and it was back in 2e)

 

[GMforPowergamers]

IMO, if you throw in a puzzle for the PLAYERS to figure out (a math puzzle, a clearly modern riddle etc.) Don't be upset when and given PLAYER figures it out.

right... but it is metagame knowledge if you like it or hate it.

No point in being upset at metagame behavior if you throw in a metagame puzzle.

again... no one said be upset, they said it was metagame

 

[GMforPowergamers]

You must be good at puzzles to make several options! I'm terrible at solving and making the things- if I think it's hard, people laugh and go "oh, it's a variation of [classic puzzle]". If I think it's easy, the players complain that it's too obscure, or that whatever answer they come up with meets the requirements as the one I chose.

I'm like Gandalf, staring at the door to Moria going "huh. speak friend, then enter...I could really use a hint here..."

I have seen player be geniuses... I also spent 6+ hour sitting waiting to come into a game because the last door to the dungeon had a puzzle I not only solved in seconds... but around 45 mins into the 6 hour session I just said it... the other players disregarded it as too easy, and some how no one notice the head of the DM turn red... at hour 2 he tried to just have them make int and wis checks and 7 character spread over 5 players all rolled OVER there stat...

 

[James Gasik]

That's when the DM has to step in and say, no that's right.

 

[Mort]

right... but it is metagame knowledge if you like it or hate it.

again... no one said be upset, they said it was metagame

I used to worry a lot about metagame behavior/thinking.

Then I stopped, and it's improved my DMing.

Truth is, unless it's ridiculous, it's just not that much and issue IMO.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

In a way it is a feature and a bug. I would not like DnD as a game where every ressource automatically recharges after each encounter. However can see mechanics that encourage you to not go nova every encounter and rather conserve ressources for more encounters. 4e had milestones and action points which served for that purpose but were not totally sufficient.

 

[James Gasik]

Ok how about this. Every 3rd encounter, you recover short rest abilities automatically and one long rest ability automatically. Thus if you keep going, you'll get some abilities back over time allowing you to press on.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

Ok how about this. Every 3rd encounter, you recover short rest abilities automatically and one long rest ability automatically. Thus if you keep going, you'll get some abilities back over time allowing you to press on.

yeah I wish they kept milestones from 4e

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Ok how about this. Every 3rd encounter, you recover short rest abilities automatically and one long rest ability automatically. Thus if you keep going, you'll get some abilities back over time allowing you to press on.

I don't like such recharge mechanisms to be honest. I thought more along the line of: you get +1 to every d20 roll for each encounter after the last long rest or you get a pool of d4's that you can add to a single d20 roll per encounter. This pool starts at 0, recharges every encounter and you get one exra roll after each encounter.