Are Milestones fun?

[TerraDave]

Isn't this already the case, except you get more via milestone?

LOL, thats where that brilliant idea came from.

Ok, lets try again....

Levels 1-4: 1 daily
Levels 6-9: 2 daily
Levels 10-14: 3 daily
Levels 15-19: 4 daily
Levels 20+: 5 dailies

 

[catsclaw227]

We use mostly milestones by the RAW, but there have been occasions where I have told the PCs that their next milestone won't occur until they get to X or until Y happens or until they find the McGuffin or kill Foozle.

So its mostly by the book.

I like some of the ideas being presented, but it would be nice to run it through some math to determine how the additional APs (if for example you get one every encounter), gain use of a daily power or item daily, or other recharge-my-stuff element will affect XP or encounter design.

I also think that the need to recharge daily powers or such more often is a result of having too many encounters that are "hard" or not enough that are "easy".

 

[WotC_GregB]

I like milestones, but I've taken several steps in my game to promote them.

I prefer to run smaller encounters than the DMG suggests, so my characters get through encounters faster and meet more milestones. This strategy encourages them to keep going, because in smaller encounters, action points make more of a difference, and the attainment of milestones is more noticeable. I then accentuate the final one or two encounters by making them much more difficulty.

I've also provided several items, such as the meliorating armor, which encourages members of the party to push ahead to reap the benefits of their equipment.

Also, I reward daring. Although this isn't so much a milestone issue as it is a encounter/dungeon design issue, I try to reward audacity—the more milestones the characters reach during a day, the more treasure and experience I award.

I think as characters become higher level and have more daily magic item powers and action point mechanics from feats and paragon paths, milestones also become more relevant.

 

[Pbartender]

It occurs to me that there's no reason that milestones couldn't be awarded on an individual basis for exception actions by a single PC...

Climbing a cliff might not be a milestone for the entire group, for example, but it could for the one character who has a debilitating fear of heights.

Defeating a the BBEG's lieutenant might be a milestone for the entire party, but knocking the Lieutenant into bloodied hit points might be a milestone for the character who accomplishes it.

 

[Oni]

I wish they had done them a little differently. I would prefer some sort of sort of build up of badassness. For lack of a better term a limit break. The more milestones, the more oomph you get out of it. Then there would be more weight to the choice of continueing or not. The farther you can push your resources the more bang you get for your buck, but the more chance of stretching yourself too thin at the same time.

Do you push on and face the Big Bad with your lasers fully charged but your resources depleted, or do you wait and play it safe with more resources but lacking your big trump card. I think that's an interesting and worthwhile decision to make.

 

[Kishin]

I can see from your replies that very few 4E players like Milestones as RAW and either ignore them totally (like I do) or house rule them for more fun.

Most prefer having an Action Point for every encounter and Magic Item Daily Power activations either once per day per tier or once per day per item and not worry about PCs going nova.

Wow, you drew this conclusion in NINE posts? Not exactly much of a sample size. :/

I'm ambivalent toward milestones, personally. They are what they are, and they serve their mechanical purpose. But they don't engender any excitement or disgust.

 

[Bold or Stupid]

I like milestones, I LOVE it when my players decide to take on another encounter because they all have action points again.

Though I would like to see an article or DMG section exploring variation from the norm.

 

[Nymrohd]

Yeah I think it would make an interesting article for Dungeon.

 

[Runestar]

I think milestones should grant some benefit not normally available, to encourage parties to acquire them. Maybe a cumulative +1 to-hit/damage per milestone? This would naturally go away after an extended rest. So as the party expends certain resources (eg: surges), they become stronger in other aspects, changing the shift and focus of the game.

 

[fba827]

Are Milestones fun?

I've never seen milestones as something that was supposed to be fun. Just another relative time keeping mechanic (like short rests and extended rests) that determines when certain things reset/renew/build up.

In addition to the action point, extra daily power use, and such already mentioned, you may notice at later levels, certain magic items (I think it's rings, some artifacts, and a couple other paragon teir things) have bonus effects that work after a milestone has passed, etc.

But, sure, if you're expecting milestones to provide you a OMG! factor (more than you would expect a rest to do), then, sure, lots of the houserules presented here have great potential.

I might even consider using these ideas (with tweaks to make it appropriate for my group), but I as it stands, I am no more excited or putoff by milestones than I am by any of the game's short/extended rest mechanics. Though, that was never my expectation, so it suits me just fine as is.