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

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I tend to think they are calling it once per encounter abilities because that is the design philosophy behind it. The actual implementation (mostly for easier "book-keeping") of it might be more like "use and recharge", but that's not what the design philosophy is about. The implementation might (theoretically) allow you to recharge during a combat, but that's only because it is so hard to put a generic description for an encounter that will suite all possible players and Dungeon Masters.

 

[WhatGravitas]

You feel this is problematic?

Usually, if that's happening, the problem is the character, because he's an arsonist. But then, he can do the same with a flintstone and some dry wood.

Don't blame the ruleset, when the player is disruptive.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Gort]

Exactly. You don't even need spells to do it. A guy with an adamantine axe could level hectares of trees in a day, one swing per tree.

 

[Bacris]

Personally, I'm looking forward to this. Having seen a Bo9S martial class and a warlock in gameplay, those styles of classes seem far easier to manage and, therefore, more fun. No spending tedious amounts of time figuring out which spell slot gets which spell. No ticking off used spellslots for spontaneous casters and then realizing you've used up all of a particular spell level. Less worrying that "well, what if I need to cast High Holy Hommina Hommina in an hour?"

I think the break-up into at will, per encounter, and per day abilities may sound like more work at first glance, but seeing some of these classes in play, actually sounds like it'll make things more streamlined.

Resource management should still be important, but quite frankly, a lot of the resource management in current 3.5 is tedious and cumbersome. Even power points, a system I vastly prefer to spell slots, can get tedious to keep track of and parcel out when you're dealing with power point pools of 400 or more

 

[Ranger REG]

ok, the title is perhaps somewhat provoking (or not) but what does anyone think of special abilities useable X-times per encounter?

i personally do not like this approach, because encounter is something which can be from a short battle to a long battle, or even not be a combat encounter at all...so lets say you have a short encounter of 2 minutes of playtime: you can use special ability x here once. then there is a nother encounter taking 2 hours and still you can use special ability x only once here? remind you, encounter not necessarily means combat encounter... i think the whole useable per encounter thing stinks...

I disagree, though I don't think all abilities that should have limitation should be "per encounter."

Things like offensive and defensive spells, healing, charm spells, certain bardic abilities, should be used X per encounter.

 

[ruleslawyer]

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.

Relax. My apologies; it wasn't meant as an attack, and certainly not pointed at anyone specific, or even in this thread. You'll note the pages and pages of discussions in the Rules forum...

As hong mentioned, for all practical purposes, "per encounter" and "1 minute to recharge" are in fact the same thing. Nor is it even a matter of corner-case scenarios; all that the designers have to do is pretty clearly spell out what an "encounter" is for this to work. In fact, one could even have one's cake and eat it too if the designers provide the option of a sliding scale to determine "encounter."

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

As hong mentioned, for all practical purposes, "per encounter" and "1 minute to recharge" are in fact the same thing.

Yeah - I don't understand why this isn't sinking in.

Since the very, very beginning, D&D has had a mechanic where you rest for a certain period of time and you get back certain abilities.

For those not following allong at home, those were "8 hours" and "wizard and cleric spells," respectively.

In 4E, D&D will have a mechanic where you rest for a certain period of time and you get back certain abilities.

They'll be* "8 hours" and "per day abilities, like certain wizard and cleric spells and fighter maneuvers and ..." and "1 minute" and "per encounter abilities, like certain wizard and cleric spells and maneuvers and ..."

* - Assuming, of course, that things look like WotC's other Per-Encounter rules experiments.

 

[Jhaelen]

I found Binders to be a bit overpowered.

Umm. what?

Ah, wait, didn't you state somewhere else, you thought monks were overpowered?
If so, please ignore my post.

 

[FireLance]

Umm. what?

Ah, wait, didn't you state somewhere else, you thought monks were overpowered?
If so, please ignore my post.

Abilities with potentially unlimited uses (as opposed to abilities with finite uses such as ammunition or a charged wand) may actually be overpowered in games where the DM primarily runs resource attrition challenges. Not everybody runs games in this manner, but for those who do, it could be a problem.

 

[Green Knight]

**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.

Let's assume that every D&D fight lasts 35 rounds. Let's also assume that it takes one minute to recharge Per Encounter abilities. Do you really think anyone's gonna stand there for a third of the fight doing nothing, just to get a Per Encounter ability back? However good their Per Encounter abilities may be, they can't possibly inflict more damage then what you can do in 10 rounds.