D&D General Compelling and Differentiated Gameplay For Spellcasters and Martial Classes

[Garthanos]

In certain cases (such as the Feat of Strength example above) some kind of limitation is probably necessary. If the exhaustion mechanic was better designed and not quite so punishing off the bat it might be a good thing to use in place of healing surges.

Coming back to this... just looked it up... punishing you arent kidding seems a terrible foundation.

 

[Undrave]

Healing Surges were great but, despite using some mechanics, EVERY hint of 4e terminology had to be scrubbed so we're back to impotent Hit Dice and no mechanic that interacts with them for some reason.

 

[Garthanos]

Healing Surges were great but, despite using some mechanics, EVERY hint of 4e terminology had to be scrubbed so we're back to impotent Hit Dice and no mechanic that interacts with them for some reason.

In the category of having no mechanic that interacts. (I can mildly fix that one by allowing people to spend an HD whenever inspired gaining THP or they gain hit points), How do you get the impact and function of Bloodied to work without masses of rewriting. (typing the word bloodied in the compendium and i get over 3000 hits in 4e)

 

[Tony Vargas]

How do you get the impact and function of Bloodied to work without masses of rewriting.

5e avoids jargon with repetition - just replace bloodied with variations on "upon having taken damage greater than or equal to your maximum hit points, rounded up" (or down if phrased in terms of remaining hps).

 

[Garthanos]

5e avoids jargon with repetition - just replace bloodied with variations on "upon having taken damage greater than or equal to your maximum hit points, rounded up" (or down if phrased in terms of remaining hps).

3k instances ok many were not things you interacted with persistantly but its a part of the combat pacing system the heroic resurgence. Heroes get better (and some bad guys too) when the going gets tough.

In other words its not the terminology issue...

 

[Undrave]

5e avoids jargon with repetition - just replace bloodied with variations on "upon having taken damage greater than or equal to your maximum hit points, rounded up" (or down if phrased in terms of remaining hps).

That's stupidly wordy though. I don't think "at half hit points a creature is considered 'Bloodied'" is THAT complicated a jargon...

It's like the difference between M:TG's 'Trample' key word compared to the way piercing damage used to be handle in old Yu-gi-oh! cards!

 

[Garthanos]

3k instances ok many were not things you interacted with persistantly but its a part of the combat pacing system the heroic resurgence. Heroes get better (and some bad guys too) when the going gets tough.

In other words its not the terminology issue...

I think there needed to be more of it actually... character ability becoming stronger heroes getting more wild desperation moves ... NPCS becoming more vulnerable.

That is to say desperation moves that can be expected to actually work because the characters are heros not schlubs...

 

[Don Durito]

Coming back to this... just looked it up... punishing you arent kidding seems a terrible foundation.

I had a go at reworking them somewhat here.

 

[Garthanos]

I had a go at reworking them somewhat here.

Hmmm when are those checks rolled exactly... My brain is fuzzy right now and missing something

 

[Don Durito]

Hmmm when are those checks rolled exactly... My brain is fuzzy right now and missing something

Do you mean when do you take an exhaustion level? According to the rules when you don't eat or drink enough and possibly when you make a forced march or fall into frigid water - they're mostly tacked on.

They're used much more in Adventures in Middle Earth as part of the journey mechanics. The journey mechanics are a great set of rules that run into trouble when they interface with some of the poorer elements of the 5e rules. In this case, they kind of undermine themselves - it kind of sucks the wind out of the adventure if you arrive at your destination with exhaustion levels - hence my need to rewrite them.

I was also never entirely happy using lost healing surges in 4E Dark Sun as a mechanic for arduous travel - because the effects were entirely invisible and inconsequential unless the PCs saw enough combat to use up their surges (in which case the effects of travel and the environment became lost in the noise of combat).

I feel that their needs to be something that has an effect apart from purely making numbers go up and down.