D&D 4E 4e Special Ability PER Encounter stinks...

[ruleslawyer]

SNIP

Few people paid attention to your post.
Unfortunately for some people reason is not as fun as bash-on-guesses can be.

Yup. Maybe the designers really WILL need to specify "takes 1 minute of continuous downtime to recharge" rather than stating "per encounter," once the rules are put together. I for one don't see the need, but given this crowd...

 

[Dice4Hire]

Mind you, nobody ever complained about the per-encounter mechanic in the first 5 years of 3/3.5E. It seems to be that now per-encounter stuff has become more visible, it's become a bugbear for no good reason.

Exactly what per encounter effects were there for the first five years of 3.x?

 

[Dice4Hire]

I am getting more and more worried about the per encounter effect also. It changes the game a huge amount, and I am not sure if I want people in my games who can fight all day long with powerful abilities without rest.

Teh obvious focus on this is starting to lessen my desire for 4E.

 

[hong]

Exactly what per encounter effects were there for the first five years of 3.x?

Barbarian rage.

 

[S'mon]

I like it, esp when combined with the old rule that you have to rest 1 turn (10 minutes) after an encounter to catch breath & recharge.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Exactly what per encounter effects were there for the first five years of 3.x?

Don't forget psionic focus, as previously mentioned, was effectivley a 'per encounter' ability, at least at low levels.

 

[danzig138]

Mind you, nobody ever complained about the per-encounter mechanic in the first 5 years of 3/3.5E.

Assuming you're talking about the barbarian rage ability, I haven't complained about it, despite my dislike of the per encounter idea* because I removed the "once per encounter" rage restriction right off the bat. If the fight lasts long IMG**, a barbarian can possibly rage more than once, though he'll feel terrible afterwards.


*Per encounter - have any of you considered the idea that maybe one of the issues folk are having is based on the way encounters and scenes are used in other games? Cause there is some attitude getting thrown around that's not cool. White Wolf likes per scene durations for many abilities. Maybe, with the lack of a solid definition of "per encounter" ability, people are using this as a guideline? Seriously, too much attitude.


**The longest fight I've had in a d20 game was about 60 rounds, and that was a post-apocalyptic car chase/gunfight. The longest D&D fight, if I recall correctly, was about 35 rounds.

 

[hong]

Assuming you're talking about the barbarian rage ability, I haven't complained about it, despite my dislike of the per encounter idea* because I removed the "once per encounter" rage restriction right off the bat. If the fight lasts long IMG**, a barbarian can possibly rage more than once, though he'll feel terrible afterwards.

Okay, nobody complained about the per-encounter mechanic in the first 5 years of 3/3.5E plus or minus one.

 

[danzig138]

It's not time based, it's event based. Did you had the time to "cool down" have a small pause, loot the body, heal your wounds etc... ? Then this encounters is over, and you will have replenished your potential the next time.

Hehehe. These things happen in the midst of combat all the time with no downtime.
"All right Jack, it's your turn, what are you doing?"
"I'm going to loot the guy I just dropped."
"Uh, okay. You do realize your pals are still fighting the other hobgoblins,right?"
"Yeah, and?"
"Okay, you start looting the body."

If by "per encounter", what they mean is after a minute of rest, that's not nearly as displeasing as what the words "per encounter" indicate, because that's just x/day on a shorter scale. I can get with that for some abilities. That's kind of like a dragon being able to use its breath weapon every 1d4 rounds.

Yup. Maybe the designers really WILL need to specify "takes 1 minute of continuous downtime to recharge" rather than stating "per encounter," once the rules are put together. I for one don't see the need, but given this crowd...

First off, take the group attack elsewhere. Any other response will net me another tempban I imagine. Second, there is a difference between "1 minute to recharge" and "per encounter", and I'd darned well expect someone going by the name of "ruleslawyer" to know that. But hey, whatever. You keep on keeping on.

 

[Kesh]

so, all of you talking about combat or so it seems...but what about non-combat situations where there is no adrenalin...

say the paladin's detect evil...say useable 1/encounter...(formerly at will). he is moving through a ...yes you guess it... dungeon. now is each room an encounter...each area consisting of several rooms, the whole dungeon...an encounter at all (if not the poor paladin will never get to use this ability by just exploring around...)

and i didn't even liked the barbarian approach to rage/encounter in 3.5, although this ability is more easily solved because a combat encounter is more easily defined...

Bolding mine. Why would you assume it's being moved to a per-encounter ability? Wizards have already stated that 4e will feature at-will abilities, in addition to per-encounter and per-day ones. There's no reason to assume it will be moved to a per-encounter basis, as it's not a combat ability that would need to be limited in that way.