At Will Abilities

[GravyFingerz]

I just started up a new 3.5 campaign, but with loads of house rules. SWSE style skills and races, no iterative attacks, bonus damage based on base attack, the whole shebang. Seems to work; some of the players are new, and the simplified skills help out immensely. No more dealing with skill points, and I really like that.

One of the biggest changes was giving the cleric the at-will ability, as a standard action, to heal himself or someone else for 1d6 points of damage per two class levels. It has never been used inside of combat (they rely on the cure <insert adjective here> wounds spells for that), but they use it to patch up fully.

It was so fun. I threw encounter after encounter after encounter at them. We had three fights in one day, one with goblins, one with goblins and hobgoblins, and one with goblings, hobgoblins, and an ogre. The triple hit dice really helps them out. Fun was had by all, and that day, I had some instant converts to D&D.

Go at will abilities! Bring it on 4e!!!

PS: Btw, I'm gonna give any wizard characters an at will standard action blast for 1d6 points of damage. I figure, it does less damage than a crossbow, its magical, why not let them do it at will. And they choose the energy descriptor out the door.

EDIT: I should probably mention that they are 1st level. Also, I encourage other DMs to give these simple at will abilities to their magic classes. It helps out immensely.

 

[Stalker0]

PS: Btw, I'm gonna give any wizard characters an at will standard action blast for 1d6 points of damage. I figure, it does less damage than a crossbow, its magical, why not let them do it at will. And they choose the energy descriptor out the door.

Are you making it a touch attack? Keep in mind that while you won't do as much damage with a d6 as a d8 crossbow, you will hit much more frequently.

 

[SCMrks]

My thought on the at will abilities is how they affect the world outside of an adventuring group in a dungeon. What is the impact of the village cleric who can heal at will all day long? Do commoners need to fear getting hurt anymore? And with the at will magical attack why do armies need archers anymore when you can train soldiers in one level of wizard. You don't have to worry about buying bows and arrows and you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.

At will abilities seem great to keep the adventure going in the dungeon but for the roleplaying aspect how does it affect the world?

 

[Jer]

Are you making it a touch attack? Keep in mind that while you won't do as much damage with a d6 as a d8 crossbow, you will hit much more frequently.

I'd suggest NOT making it a touch attack, but using the normal AC instead. At higher levels, ranged touch attacks are really, really nice. The ability to do an unlimited number of those would be kinda scary, I'd think. (I'd also think about moving the wizard/sorcerer to a 3/4 BAB progression like the rogue if you're going to make one of their class abilities revolve around making attack rolls, instead of the "insta-hit" magic missile or "save or die" spells - 1/2 BAB really stinks for ray attacks even at mid-levels.)

 

[GravyFingerz]

My thought on the at will abilities is how they affect the world outside of an adventuring group in a dungeon. What is the impact of the village cleric who can heal at will all day long? Do commoners need to fear getting hurt anymore? And with the at will magical attack why do armies need archers anymore when you can train soldiers in one level of wizard. You don't have to worry about buying bows and arrows and you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.

At will abilities seem great to keep the adventure going in the dungeon but for the roleplaying aspect how does it affect the world?

Nope, I don't really think about the impact. To answer your question, I have decided that most NPCs are not of PC classes, no higher than level 5. Even if an NPC was of the cleric class, the economics of running a church demand NPCs donate for church services. That, and the church will probably only heal those who belong to their flock.

Besides which, we are just hacking and slashing through monsters and kicking down doors and getting treasure. Who cares if a single cleric can heal a whole community? The PCs dont, and neither should I. All they care about is getting XP by killing monsters and getting treasure. The only concerns about my world should be "Where is the next phat lewt and what guards it?"

That probably doesn't help you, if you are minding of such things, but I don't sweat the small stuff.

 

[breschau]

My thought on the at will abilities is how they affect the world outside of an adventuring group in a dungeon. What is the impact of the village cleric who can heal at will all day long? Do commoners need to fear getting hurt anymore? And with the at will magical attack why do armies need archers anymore when you can train soldiers in one level of wizard. You don't have to worry about buying bows and arrows and you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.

At will abilities seem great to keep the adventure going in the dungeon but for the roleplaying aspect how does it affect the world?

I wouldn't worry too much either. It's not until Eberron (20+ years into the life of D&D) that we finally see simple things like magic >gasp< used intelligently (i.e. as renewable resource for the basis of technology). Since the first time I saw a Continual Light spell, I asked, "why don't they just have a magic-user cast that of a few pebbles and use that for streetlights?" The DMs reply, "go away kid, ya bother me."

Oh well. It's a fantasy rpg.

Besides, it goes along with the points of light setting. Most PCs are thought to be insane. I wouldn't have the village "healer" be anything more than a herbalist. And the armies still have archers instead of arcane bolters, why, because castes are rare. As they should be.

 

[Loincloth of Armour]

My thought on the at will abilities is how they affect the world outside of an adventuring group in a dungeon. What is the impact of the village cleric who can heal at will all day long? Do commoners need to fear getting hurt anymore?

In our world a doctor can set bones, sterilize wounds, apply medicines, and operate all day long. People in our world still get sick, get injured, get crippled from what would appear to be minor injuries.

Just because a cleric can cure hit point damage doesn't mean he or she always will. These powers are a miracle from the divine: what did you do to deserve the grace of my god?

Or maybe, just maybe, the powers of life, death, and healing are mysterious and don't work for NPCs as well as they work for PCs. Most of the time when healing spells are cast on NPCS they work, but every so often... the Powers That Be have another destiny in mind and that person will stay crippled.

PCs should get the full advertised advantages from healing magic because it is their story, and healing magic keeps the game fun by allowing the PCs to kick more butt. But NPCs get injuried, get sick, get crippled, even die... when the story requires that they do.

And with the at will magical attack why do armies need archers anymore when you can train soldiers in one level of wizard. You don't have to worry about buying bows and arrows and you don't have to worry about running out of ammo.

But what if that magic blast only has a range of 30ft? Your 50 1st-level wizards will be long dead from my 50 1st-level archers while they attempt to get into range and I drop reams of arrows upon their unarmored heads.

Remember, the world aside from the PCs does not need to conform to strict mechanical advantages. After all, why would anyone be a commoner? If anyone can be of any class, why-oh-why would you chose to be in a class with d4 hit points, no good saves, and no special abilities?

Not everyone can be a wizard, not everyone can be a PC class, heck, not everyone can be warrior NPC class.

A small percentage of the world with access to at will abilities will only radically alter the world if the DM decides they will. Recognize that people can get tired, bored, be selfish, cruel, self-involved, and (because they're special) too proud to give out things for free (or at anything other than ruinous prices), and the game world won't look too different.

 

[Li Shenron]

I want to wait and see how the game works, really because it's a major change.

So far, the game has pretty much always been a choice between being able to do fairly normal things all the time (fighter-types, rogue-types) and being able to do flashy over-the-top things on a limited basis (casters).

If flashy things become unmilited (see warlocks), then the obvious thing that needs to be changed is the relative power of spells compared to weapons: martial abilities will be boosted or spells will be toned down.

As long as the abilities of a fighter and those of a wizard are different enough, then the game is still a good game, but it certainly will feel less different to play a wizard than a fighter.