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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cryptos" data-source="post: 4201642" data-attributes="member: 58439">I’m actually wondering about utility powers and how well balanced they could be.  They’re not attack abilities and there aren’t many examples, so they seem to get glossed over, but it looks like they could have a dramatic effect on an encounter.  I notice that there is an encounter utility spell in the wizard list that is per encounter, and presumably there will be both encounter choices and daily choices in the utility powers.Displacement Wizard Utility 16The recipient of this spell appears to be standing slightly to the left or rightof his actual position, making it harder for enemies to hit him.Encounter ✦ Arcane, IllusionImmediate Interrupt Ranged 5Trigger: A ranged or melee attack hits you or one ally in rangeEffect: The attacker must reroll the attack roll.Greater Invisibility Wizard Utility 16With a wave of your hand, you or another creature nearby fades awaybecoming invisible.Daily ✦ Arcane, IllusionStandard Action Ranged 20Target: You or one creatureEffect: The target is invisible until the end of your next turn, ifthe target attacks, the target becomes visible.Sustain Minor: If the target is within range, you can sustain theeffect.From this, could we assume that per encounter utilities would be more like the instant interrupt above, while daily utilities are sustainable, or last to the end of an encounter, or are simply more powerful?  But then, what about things like Dispel Magic, a daily utility power?  One magical effect and you’re done.  Kind of anti-climatic.Displacement seems like it has a feat’s level of power (force a reroll once per encounter) whereas Greater Invisibility could make things ugly if a wizard sustains a Greater Invisibility on say, a Rogue, until he gets one incredible shot at the boss, for the one big encounter of the day.  That speaks to balance issues in my mind.  But then, a character that only chooses Daily utilities might have a lot less to do during the average encounter, which brings up an issue of “fun.”  It seems like you could “gimp” or “tweak” yourself one way or the other if you took the extreme of all encounter utility powers or all daily utility powers (albeit temporarily if you can reselect powers when leveling) so that you’re either weaker but more interesting to play in general encounters or considerably more powerful for that big boss fight. I’m also curious about why some things are daily and some others are encounter.  Dispel Magic as a Daily seems fairly lackluster, especially if all the successive Dispels are also dailies.  You can disrupt one magical effect per day, ever?  Really?  (Unless there is a utility spell down the line that is encounter based, allowing you to replace that level 6 daily Dispel with something more useful, characters might have to use up yet another utility power to also get a Greater Dispel later on just so they have a chance of doing it more than once.)Assuming there’s something like a Spiderclimb spell in there somewhere as a utility power, surely it would be per encounter, yes?  I’d feel pretty silly saying, “I can climb up a wall.  Once.”  ("And if I don't sustain it I can't climb back down.") And I think that would be a pretty poor choice for a utility power if it were daily.  It feels like it should be a per encounter power… but then if it is around the same level as Dispel Magic, you’ve got one guy that could cause all manner of havoc in a fight by climbing up where no one can reach him every time vs. the other guy, who gets to nix a single magical effect per day.  How did they decide which utility powers are encounter-based and which are daily?This also makes me wonder, since there are encounter utility powers and daily utility powers, are there also At-Will?  What would those be like, if the encounter utility example is just a single interrupt re-roll per encounter?  Would they be like extra cantrips?I've developed an awful lot of questions about the effect of utility powers on the game just thinking about it for a short time.  I wonder if this will be 4e's "can of worms"... sort of like Polymorph was in early 3e.So I guess in asking these questions, I’ve kind of developed a concern over the balance of utility powers in terms of both power and fun.</blockquote>

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