UltimaGabe
First Post
So, let me preface this by saying that one of my players is a Level 3 Dark Pact Warlock, in case this is an issue that has come up often.
The player in question has this nifty Dark Spiral Aura ability. The ability, as I understand it, gives him a point to his Aura for every enemy that is reduced to 0 HP while under the effect of his curse. As an immediate interrupt when an enemy hits him, he can deal 1d6 damage per point of his Aura to the enemy that hit him (and it's all-or-nothing, so he has to use all his points at once). Any points remaining when he takes a short or extended rest are wasted.
Well, to complicate this, he has a Rod of Corruption, which, as I understand it, he can at any time choose to forego his pact boon on a particular killed enemy to pass on his curse to all enemies within 5 squares of the killed cursed enemy. This is kinda crazy, but okay, whatever.
So, we're going through a dungeon crawl, and the player in question wants to, after an encounter, choose NOT to take a short rest, because if he does so, he'll lose all of his Dark Spiral Aura points. (His hope is to save them up over several encounters and use a ton of points on the Big Bad Evil Guy.)
Of course this doesn't sit well with me. However, I hate to flat-out tell players something doesn't work unless the rules specifically call it out- so I tell him that we'll give it a try and see how it goes. I of course inform him that if he chooses not to take a short rest, he gains no benefit of doing so (so he won't regain any encounter powers, can't spend healing surges, etc.). However, he's very careful about using his encounter powers, so that's not really a problem, and since we have two leaders (who ARE taking short rests), he doesn't need to use surges, because they can just use their heals on him (and then take another short rest afterwards to get them back).
When we got to the final battle, he ended up dealing the BBEG a big chunk of damage (I think 15d6- it didn't turn the tide of battle, but it was still nothing to be ignored).
I didn't like it one bit from beginning to end, but that's more because I don't like when I feel rules are being abused, even though I really don't feel like anything was ruined because of it. It certainly could have gone very poorly for him- after all, he was essentially voluntarily turning his encounter powers into daily powers, and he willingly accepted any drawbacks of not taking a short rest. But, even still, the idea of choosing not to take a short rest just seemed so gamey and against the Rules As Intended.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? The issues here, really, are threefold: 1. Can you choose not to take a short rest when everyone else is? (The player in question was describing himself as constantly alert, running around the room, doing jumping jacks, etc.) 2. Is the Rod of Corruption broken? I know the main problem in the past was when it was coupled with the Rod of Reaving, but if I'm not mistaken, the Rod of Reaving was nerfed. And 3. Is Dark Spiral Aura broken? I'm sure I've heard of people having problems with it in the past. Is there a general consensus?
Overall, we all had a good time, but I'm seriously considering limiting it in the future. I'd greatly appreciate any input.
The player in question has this nifty Dark Spiral Aura ability. The ability, as I understand it, gives him a point to his Aura for every enemy that is reduced to 0 HP while under the effect of his curse. As an immediate interrupt when an enemy hits him, he can deal 1d6 damage per point of his Aura to the enemy that hit him (and it's all-or-nothing, so he has to use all his points at once). Any points remaining when he takes a short or extended rest are wasted.
Well, to complicate this, he has a Rod of Corruption, which, as I understand it, he can at any time choose to forego his pact boon on a particular killed enemy to pass on his curse to all enemies within 5 squares of the killed cursed enemy. This is kinda crazy, but okay, whatever.
So, we're going through a dungeon crawl, and the player in question wants to, after an encounter, choose NOT to take a short rest, because if he does so, he'll lose all of his Dark Spiral Aura points. (His hope is to save them up over several encounters and use a ton of points on the Big Bad Evil Guy.)
Of course this doesn't sit well with me. However, I hate to flat-out tell players something doesn't work unless the rules specifically call it out- so I tell him that we'll give it a try and see how it goes. I of course inform him that if he chooses not to take a short rest, he gains no benefit of doing so (so he won't regain any encounter powers, can't spend healing surges, etc.). However, he's very careful about using his encounter powers, so that's not really a problem, and since we have two leaders (who ARE taking short rests), he doesn't need to use surges, because they can just use their heals on him (and then take another short rest afterwards to get them back).
When we got to the final battle, he ended up dealing the BBEG a big chunk of damage (I think 15d6- it didn't turn the tide of battle, but it was still nothing to be ignored).
I didn't like it one bit from beginning to end, but that's more because I don't like when I feel rules are being abused, even though I really don't feel like anything was ruined because of it. It certainly could have gone very poorly for him- after all, he was essentially voluntarily turning his encounter powers into daily powers, and he willingly accepted any drawbacks of not taking a short rest. But, even still, the idea of choosing not to take a short rest just seemed so gamey and against the Rules As Intended.
Has anyone else had a similar experience? The issues here, really, are threefold: 1. Can you choose not to take a short rest when everyone else is? (The player in question was describing himself as constantly alert, running around the room, doing jumping jacks, etc.) 2. Is the Rod of Corruption broken? I know the main problem in the past was when it was coupled with the Rod of Reaving, but if I'm not mistaken, the Rod of Reaving was nerfed. And 3. Is Dark Spiral Aura broken? I'm sure I've heard of people having problems with it in the past. Is there a general consensus?
Overall, we all had a good time, but I'm seriously considering limiting it in the future. I'd greatly appreciate any input.