Bring Down the Moon (and other adventuring day extenders)

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A few days ago, I already posted this on my blog, but I didn't get around posting this in the House Rules forum yet.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/blog.php?b=570

So, here's the content of that blog:

There have been several discussions on the 15 so-called 15 minute adventure day, including how D&D 4 tries to change that and fails or succeeds in doing so.

From my view - the 15 minute adventure day will never go away entirely as long as their are daily powers - but I believe that the new edition has found a few nice way to make the idea of "going longer" less dangerous and more satisfying for players and DMs alike. The biggest limitation in practice seems to be the number of Healing Surges - you might be able to last without daily powers, but once you're out of healing surges, you just have to stop. I think that was absolutely intentional, but that doesn't have to mean that we can't tinker around with it. More Healing Surges primarily lead to one thing: Daily powers become less important, and you have to limit the power level of encounters, since you can't hope on daily powers being available any more.

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So, now for some actual rules suggestion revolving around this:

First, a Ritual, inspired by an Arcana Evolved spell.

Bring down the Moon

As you finish this ritual, you see the sun and moon moving rapidly, as if an entirely day passed between two breaths, and you feel suddenly refreshed as if you had slept comfortably and safe.
Level: 10
Component Cost: Special
Category: Restoration
Market Price: 1.000 gp
Time: 10 minutes
Key Skill: Nature
Duration: Instantaneous

Up to 5 creatures gain all the benefits of an extended rest, except that the level of daily powers that can be restored depend on the component cost expended.
Component Cost - Expended Maximum Level of Powers Regained
400 gp - Level 9
3.600 gp -Level 15
13.000 gp - Level 21
50.000 gp - Level 27
The ritual can be performed only once per 24 hours.

Note: The level limitations is mostly there to ensure that the cost matter at all levels - 400 gp is nothing for a Level 20 group. You could just as well use the same approach as for Raise Dead and just define cost by tier, and maybe that would actually be less prone to abuse. The rituals level limitations also ensure that taking an actual extended rest is a better choice - you won't regain your "big guns" this way...

This ritual is perfect if the party is under some strong time constraints but just feels over-extended, and provide a compensation for a DM under-estimating his monsters (or over-estimating the party), and the party just having a string of bad luck or be a little too incompetent.

Now, for some potions:
Potions of Clarity

Potion of Clarity
Level 5
This potion imbues the drinker with a sense of clarity.
Potion: 50 gp
Power (Consumable): Minor Action:
You restore one daily power of level 5th level or lower.
Special: This use of this power counts as the use of a daily magic item power.

Potion of Greater Clarity
Level 15
This potion imbues the drinker with a sense of clarity.
Potion: 1.000 gp
Power (Consumable): Minor Action:
You restore one daily power of level 15th level or lower.
Special: This use of this power counts as the use of a daily magic item power.

Potion of True Clarity
Level 25
This potion imbues the drinker with a sense of clarity.
Potion: 25.000 gp
Power (Consumable): Minor Action:
You restore one daily power of level 25th level or lower.
Special: This use of this power counts as the use of a daily magic item power.

The Potions of Clarity are based of the Healing Potions, since I didn't know how else to price them. The Potions are unusual in that they require a daily resource to use - magical item uses. I do not think the cost alone would have been sufficient to limit the usefulness of these potions. The advantage of using it based on daily item powers is that it will be restored by milestones, so there is actually some benefit in having multiple of them.

Variant Milestone Benefits
Milestones exist as an incentive to continue adventuring in 4E. The extra action point means you have an alternate resources to the fleeting daily powers. I think it would help to give out more benefits instead.
The extra daily power means that you can go on longer if you have a few items around...

Here are some ideas:
o Characters regain one Healing Surge.
Rationale: Action Points might be able to compensate daily powers, but can they compensate the fact that you don't have any more hit points?
o Characters regain one daily power.
Rationale: Why not? Disadvantage is that it might make people rely on the same power too often (the highest level one?), knowing they can safely restore it after the next encounter.

PS:
If you want some suggestion to adapt this material to 3E - Bring down the Moon is already a spell in Arcana Evolved, so you should just need to buy that book, or create your own write-up.

The Potions could be regular 3E Potions or Elixiers. The generic formula would be that they would be one level above the level of spell that they can restore. You have to pay for the flexibility they provide in 3E, at least that's my idea.

So, you could have a Spell Level 3 Potion (Cost: 750 gp) that would restore one 2nd level spell slot. You might want to go the Elixier Route so you can actually have Clarity Potions for spells beyond level 2...

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So any comments, critic or other suggestions?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I feel ignored... *bump*

 

[Mentat55]

Bring down the moon, good times. Had a magister use this, just once -- and he was worried it wouldn't work, since there wasn't a moon on the particular plane we were on

But I digress. I like the idea of the ritual. Two thoughts:
1. This ritual seems, well, pretty epic to me. I might restrict it to the high paragon or epic tiers. Or perhaps tie the benefits gained from the ritual (# of healing surges restored, # of daily and utility powers regained) to a Nature check. While I understand the purpose of the ritual (to break the limitation on what you can accomplish in a day), exceeding those limits seems like something that should be beyond the reach of heroic-tier adventurers.

2. I agree that making the cost tier-dependent seems like it might be less abused. You could simply say that you don't regain the use of your highest level Daily attack power.

 

[ff6shadow]

It is placed at the final heroic level. Seems almost appropriate for characters that are on the verge of breaking into paragon.

And it probably would be better to cost by tier and not restore the highest level Daily power.

 

[AtomicPope]

Hmm...

I haven't had a problem with PC's wanting to rest after their daily powers are spent. However, I think these potions are pretty good and I'll probably add them. Nice job.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hmm...

I haven't had a problem with PC's wanting to rest after their daily powers are spent. However, I think these potions are pretty good and I'll probably add them. Nice job.

Usually, we base our decisions on the healing surge still left. If just dailies are expended, we typically go on. And most of the time, both coincides.

Bring down the moon, good times. Had a magister use this, just once -- and he was worried it wouldn't work, since there wasn't a moon on the particular plane we were on

I think we never got to use it in actual play, but the concept of the spell was just way to good to forget.

1. This ritual seems, well, pretty epic to me. I might restrict it to the high paragon or epic tiers. Or perhaps tie the benefits gained from the ritual (# of healing surges restored, # of daily and utility powers regained) to a Nature check. While I understand the purpose of the ritual (to break the limitation on what you can accomplish in a day), exceeding those limits seems like something that should be beyond the reach of heroic-tier adventurers.

Oh, well, I put it a high heroic level for that reason, but I won't go further - the power is still required.

2. I agree that making the cost tier-dependent seems like it might be less abused. You could simply say that you don't regain the use of your highest level Daily attack power.

I think the way it works is that it does this. But it might just be easier to spell out the real intention in the rules instead of hiding it behind the details of the implementation.