Alternative to Encounter Powers?

[Incenjucar]

I'm okay with anything that uses real measures of time, but for some reason I just find "per encounter" troubling.

Strictly speaking, encounter/daily powers are almost always "until your next short/extended rest."

It's just that, for the most part, that USUALLY means "encounter" or "daily."

It's just another thing that highlights how soooo much of D&D game design is based on perception and presentation rather than the rules themselves. Designing D&D would be so much easier if people didn't have unintended reactions to the words used for things.

 

[dkyle]

I'm okay with anything that uses real measures of time, but for some reason I just find "per encounter" troubling.

That seems awfully nit-picky considering that "encounter" is strictly defined in terms of real time, and is basically just jargon to make the mechanics read more cleanly. An encounter is just a length of time that is bounded by rests of at least five minutes.

"per encounter" is fully equivalent to "after using this ability, it cannot be used again until resting for five minutes or more", just a heck of a lot cleaner to read.

 

[Minigiant]

I don't get why they can't just make a fatigued condition and apply it to action.

Is it too hard.

 

[Li Shenron]

Something between at-will and daily is also more times per day.

Then it's up to you to decide if you use it once per encounter or more.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't get why they can't just make a fatigued condition and apply it to action.

Is it too hard.

You mean "do uber action and become fatigued" afterwards? Because that leaves us with only one uber action overall to do between fatigue-recovery steps. And are the benefits and penalties balanced? How good must the option be to be worse the fatigued penalty? If the fatigued penalty is just a state with no direct consequences (no penalties), doesn't it boil down to using your special ability as soon as possible?

More complex resource management methods - AEDU, power points, stamina, tokens - all give you more to play with.

 

[Gilbetron]

I don't get why they can't just make a fatigued condition and apply it to action.

This is the approach I was thinking of (disclaimer: I actually like Encounter/scene and other abstract time measurements). Have different conditions that prevent the usage of certain powers. Have those powers create the condition.

So:

Face Punch: Punch the target in the face so hard they get knocked prone. Applies the "Tapped" condition. Roll a DC 20 Fort save to remove condition. A character cannot perform this power while Tapped.

Replace the various system-specific stuff by whatever the system ends up being.

This way there can be a very small set of Conditions original ("Fatigued", "Brain Freeze", "Wasted", whatever), but gives the option of creating new conditions if ever needed. If you want a power to be used more often, lower the DC to remove a condition.

Plus this can tie into spells and other abilities that remove the condition.

Seems like a good alternative, but does it satisfy the "verisimilitude" crowd?

 

[Yora]

"Once per minute" is too short, that basically means "once per encounter" since you can expect encounters to last less than that but to have more time than that between them.
"Once per hour" will very often mean "once per das", as quite often all your fighting for a day will be compressed into a relatively short time while raiding a dungeon or sneaking into a vault.