Character Narratives Preview from PRIMEVAL THULE

Here's another preview of the Primeval Thule campaign setting for D&D 5th Edition coming from Sasquatch Games. I already showed you the table of contents and the beastman warrior. This time it's one of the nineteen character narratives from the setting. "In 5e, narratives can be taken as an alternative to backgrounds. Narratives provide a small list of benefits thematically linked to the story and flavor of the specific narrative. At first level these features include skill training and usually a signature ability that provides a small combat benefit. As the character increases in level, additional benefits become available, reflecting a rise in stature or notoriety. At higher levels a narrative might grant an income, a title, or even followers!" (thanks to Fabrício for the scoop!)

For the original announcement, click here.

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[Psikerlord#]

That's not how my fighter plays, we often dont get a short rest between combats. Resource management is a thing.

 

[Hussar]

That's not how my fighter plays, we often dont get a short rest between combats. Resource management is a thing.

A battle master gets several superiority dice does he not? Does he blow them all in one fight usually? Or use one or two in each fight meaning that he's likely triggering the same 1-3 effects every combat.?

Meaning that battle master maneuvers wind up being encounter powers most of the time.

 

[AntiStateQuixote]

Unless people want to start diving down the rabbit hole of pedantic "what's an encounter".

Hussar meet Internet. Internet, Hussar. Enjoy!

 

[Agamon]

If it really is overpowered, make it an action instead of triggering on an attack. That way, you have to give up iterative attacks to use this. That would certainly bring it back in line.

While I don't disagree that's OP as something you can do every encounter, and it's honestly not hard to interpret as 1/short rest, this suggestion would only work by making it a bonus action. Even PCs that have multiple attacks only have one attack action to use them with.

 

[Agamon]

Hussar meet Internet. Internet, Hussar. Enjoy!

This thread doesn't have very good support, but it might be entering a golden age!

 

[pemerton]

In my view, given there are no other "encounter" powers in all of 5e (that I can recall), it is a mistake to introduce them into Thule. And the dev has indicated that was not the intent (the way I read it), but rather a misunderstanding of encounter = short rest, which it did in 4e (5 mins), but does not in 5e (1 hour+).

The dev did not misunderstand anything.

In 4e, an encounter power is a power that is recovered following a short rest. In 5e, there are likewise a category of powers that are recovered after a short rest. Calling them "encounter powers" is just another label for the same thing.

In 5e, the pacing of events between short rests is something for the GM and players to handle via a combination of rules and table practices. The same is true in 4e.

Whether it's a good or a bad thing to use the terminology, there has been no misunderstanding by the Primeval Thule developers.

 

[BryonD]

The dev did not misunderstand anything.

In 4e, an encounter power is a power that is recovered following a short rest. In 5e, there are likewise a category of powers that are recovered after a short rest. Calling them "encounter powers" is just another label for the same thing.

In 5e, the pacing of events between short rests is something for the GM and players to handle via a combination of rules and table practices. The same is true in 4e.

Whether it's a good or a bad thing to use the terminology, there has been no misunderstanding by the Primeval Thule developers.

Polar Bear = Panda Bear

 

[Psikerlord#]

The dev did not misunderstand anything.

In 4e, an encounter power is a power that is recovered following a short rest. In 5e, there are likewise a category of powers that are recovered after a short rest. Calling them "encounter powers" is just another label for the same thing.

In 5e, the pacing of events between short rests is something for the GM and players to handle via a combination of rules and table practices. The same is true in 4e.

Whether it's a good or a bad thing to use the terminology, there has been no misunderstanding by the Primeval Thule developers.

Comparing default rest times, 5 mins vs 1 hour, in practice they are very much not the same thing. But you know that already.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah. I'm going to go with Psikerlord on this one. Mixing game terms between editions is a mistake. As written a character using this power can use it unlimited times per day, regardless of rest and that's probably too powerful.

Torturing the language a bit to avoid using the term "short rest" is probably a better way to go.

Something like "This action is taxing and cannot be repeated until the character catches his breath for an hour" would likely be better.

 

[mach1.9pants]

Comparing default rest times, 5 mins vs 1 hour, in practice they are very much not the same thing. But you know that already.

Correct, also using 'once per hour' doesn't help. That means you get to use it a number of times (per encounter/day/whatever) different from both 4 and 5 E. Getting it automatically every hour is not the same as having to rest for a whole hour doing nothing before you can use it again.

It is not this previewed power that has me worried. Using it once per encounter is not problematic, power wise. A minor thins is the wording doesn't sit well with 5E (I am ambivalent about the edition mixing). However a designer saying 'once per encounter is functionally the same thing as per short or long rest' has me extremely worried about the powers I will not see before the KS ends. As does 'once per hour' as an idea that will make it like per short/long rest. They seem to show, to me, a lack of real understanding of 5E's resource management etc.

As I will not get to see the crunch before the KS ends, and I already have a copy of the older PDF, I will wait til the crunch is reviewed before committing to getting the book.