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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lyxen" data-source="post: 8421261" data-attributes="member: 7032025">I'm sorry, but pg.54k in particular for encounter powers is very, very vague and gamist about the limitations:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">" If you’re a martial character, they are exploits you’ve practiced extensively but can pull off only once in a while." Why that is, is not clear at all, there is no link to special effort, and by the way it's one of my problem about 4e, it's all in that "boardgame rulebook" style, not about the story, just about "because". But honestly, for me, it's because you cannot try the same trick twice with a given adversary, he would see you coming (see Corwin being surprised that his little french trick works twice in a row on Eric in Amber).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"If you’re an arcane or divine character, these are spells or prayers of such power that they take time to re-form in your mind after you unleash their magic energy." So it takes time to reform, but it says nothing about previous effort.</li> </ul>And Pg 15 is not more helpful, it's just "because". So unless the beholder "pre-fatigues" you with his eye, and it's not even the case since the effect goes away when he looks in another direction...I'm sorry, but it all looks extremely artificial to me, wanting to push what is a purely technical effect into a fantasy world explanation and failing completely to engage my imagination. good for you if it works, but honestly your description of the fight in the long examples that you posted is extremely technical. It's technical power after technical power.If you want to look at the summaries of our campaign, the fights are important but the <a href="http://krait.net/Odyssey/A019Notes" target="_blank">description is much less technical</a>. In the following sequence (apologies, it's an automated translation of french to english), there were 3 fights, and you can see that they were much less technical and much more about the story, I'm not even sure that you will see the fights.Assault at MaximusThe subterfugeOne of the thugs gives in to Alkaia's threats, and agrees to take us to Maximus' house with Grothia as a false prisoner. We arrive at Maximus' villa, and send for the steward, who is the one who usually concludes the transactions. While one of the guards is away, we knock out the other guard and Nicholas takes his cloak and tunic. When the steward returns, we grab him and drag him into the stable.At first, he refuses to speak when Aetherna accuses him of trading in slaves. But he gets scared when Grothia tells him that he's helping Maximus override the right Sydon gave him, by forcing the Minotaurs to swear improper oaths. He tells us that Maximus keeps his archives in the basement, but the villa is full of guards. We decide to continue anyway, and enter the villa.We arrive in what must be the auction room, and three or four guards watch us enter. Nicholas reassures them, and we go down the stairs. Once downstairs, getting rid of the two guards is a snap, and they find themselves in the jail instead of their prisoners, two minotaurs who have yet to swear service to Maximus.From there, finding Maximus' office is easy, and we recover compromising documents: letters from Norbragon that demonstrate their nefarious plan to go capture minotaurs in the surrounding villages, and maintain the slave trade. There are also the terms of the catastrophic oaths which have been imposed on prisoners, and which are so general that, paradoxically, there is little chance of escaping them. The basement also houses a dormitory for guards and prisoners who have already sworn the oath: ten minotaurs and a satyr (?). Not knowing how they will react to their oath, we leave them there.Taking advantage of the element of surprise, we leave the villa with the precious documents, the steward and the two prisoners.This took us about a third to half of a session, with three short fights, one fairly brutal against guards and a running fight to get out, two of which were Theater of the Mind. The very short nature of the fights and the fact that 5e is so streamlined there allowed us to advance the intrigue a lot. And we went on with the trial, and my requisitory at the trial:[To the assistance and to the Jurors]Contemplate Maximus, this once noble man to the point of having gained the trust of Sydon himself to offer our dazzling city the possibility of making the criminals useful, of offering them a chance of redemption by allowing their oath of service to be used. at best by those who need it most. Contemplate his downfall and the depth of betrayal into which his greed has drawn him. Contemplate the heinous crimes of which he was the author, the citizens and travelers enslaved in defiance of the most sacred laws of our city, and sometimes massacred and sacrificed on the altar of his avarice.We have all the evidence and all the witnesses to show that Maximus forced innocent people to take oaths of service to serve him. Of course, we do not question the generosity and wisdom of Sydon who then granted him the right to trade in these oaths. But we will endeavor to show that, on the contrary, the fact of trading in oaths extorted by force, by torture, from innocent people, is not only an insult to all the gods by corrupting the very principle of this oath, but an insult to Sydon himself, a betrayal of the sacred office of which Maximus was in charge.[To Maximus]Sydon himself calls you to account, Maximus, for the iniquitous way in which you have hijacked the sacred charge he had entrusted to you![To the assistance and to the Jurors]At this stage, and in the face of the just sentences that we are going to demand against Maximus, it is clear that the perversions to which he devoted himself will push him, in his defense, if not to completely discard his betrayal, because the evidence is inescapable and relentless, at least trying to smear, tarnish other citizens of the city, even this procedure itself.[To Maximus]So I want to assure you, Maximus, that the charges are overwhelming. And that even if you succeed in casting doubts on certain proofs and the way in which they were obtained in the very cradle of your crimes, you will realize that they form only a very small part of the implacable bundle of the foundations of the charge.Not only do we have many direct witnesses, from all sides, victims and perpetrators, now repentant, and among these some of your direct collaborators who have today realized how much your corruption has dragged them down themselves. in the depths of decay. Their testimonies are overwhelming, and they know every one of your vile secrets.You could also point the finger at your business partners, those to whom you have, admittedly legally, but on corrupt bases, sold service oaths extorted by torture, attempting to implicate them in your crimes. But know that, on the contrary, and regardless of the evidence I have already spoken of, some, horrified by the revelations we have made to them about your perversion of the sacred charge of Sydon, have finally understood the hidden meaning of the boasting that you did about the way you got yourself so many oaths. And that (brandishing the letters received from Taran), this evidence, from your hand, is in itself far more damning than anything the prosecution has accumulated elsewhere.You are alone today Maximus, because all those on whom you thought you could count understood how much it is you, and you alone, who was the receptacle of the confidence of Sydon, and who betrayed him, who them. have betrayed. And today they are ready to help you repair, as much as possible because we will not be able to redeem the deaths and the years of suffering. But they will only be able to help in this redemption if you do not try to make them dirty, if you show that you will not spit on these outstretched hands.And therefore, to avoid such overflows, we implore you on the contrary, Maximus, to restraint, and to concentrate on your repentance and your penance. Charging other participants in crimes, implying that the procedure which charges you might have the slightest flaw would only serve to convince the jurors that you are not worthy of the redemption that we propose to you, because you would then show that you do not regret what is at the heart of your felony. So, instead of the clemency that we are offering you, it's about YOUR head, and YOUR blood, that we will have to talk about.Listen, then, Maximus, and pay close attention to it, for this is your only chance for redemption, don't let it pass.[To the assistance and to the Jurors]First, and as a sentence before the gods, we obviously ask the clergy of Sydon to remove Maximus from the burden of selling the oaths of service. Moreover, as we will prove that it is this same office which corrupted a man once so noble, so trustworthy of Sydon himself, we ask the clergy not to renew this office, to prevent another soul noble is in turn corrupted. It should always be possible for parties who agree to cede oaths of service, but to trade in them, this is the source of vice, corruption, treason and forfeiture. I am sure that the clergy of Sydon, amazed like me, like all of us, by the depths of the baseness of Maximus' acts, will know how to make the right decision, one which will reassure all the citizens of our city that no man will ever again. will have the power to virtually enslave a free creature, and what is more by subjecting it to the cruelest tortures, and sometimes directly promising it to death.Having done justice to Sydon for his wisdom and mercy, it is now to mortals that we must turn.[To Maximus]You are rich, Maximus, fat with the fruits of your corruption, and this wealth must serve to snatch from the torments of slavery those whom you have forced into it.We are not of course talking about the real criminals, or those who have voluntarily taken an oath of service, but all those who have been forced to take this oath. It would not be fair that those who bought them from you, and this legally in the eyes of gods and men, be despoiled by your corruption. So as a sentence against mortals, we ask to immediately release from their oaths those who have been unjustly enslaved because of your schemes and who have not yet been sold. Then we will also ask that your entire wealth be confiscated by the city of Mytros and kept in reserve to compensate your buyers on the one hand, so that they can then, with their heads held high and without the slightest reservation, free them. victims of their oath of service, and on the other hand your victims, that they receive at least a fair salary and a fair compensation for their years of servitude, that they can thus resume their life as citizens with a future ahead of them. them. And, finally, compensation for the families of the victims, those who did not survive their enslavement.And finally as a sentence in front of yourself and your future passage in the other world, Maximus… Well, this fortune, and these compensations, they will have to be administered. And even if, in all the veins of those you have plundered, Tisiphone boils down and demands revenge, the accusation will be satisfied on your part with an oath of begging and just reparation. Promise to live only on charity and to distribute your wealth as fairly as possible in the eyes of men and gods according to the principles that the prosecution has proposed above, and you will be able to administer it, without ever having to benefit yourself. And Sydon and the gods you have flouted by making a mockery of the sacred service oath, will be the keepers of your redemption and reparations to your victims. And may their curse befall you if you deviate an inch from this oath of service to Sydon, the Gods and our city of Mytros.If you accept, we will not ask for your head, or even your banishment, because we want you to become the living symbol of the redemption offered by the generosity of Sydon, our good King Acastus, our Goddess and Queen Vallus, and of our eternal city of Mytros.As you can see, Maximus, we are prepared to be more than lenient with the severity of your crimes, in the hope that your repentance will be deep, and just. But do not be deceived by our benevolence and our good humor, and do not take them for timidity. A righteous, terrible anger against your deeds beats in our chests, and especially the chests of all those whom you have imprisoned, tortured, reduced to virtual slavery and condemned not only to servitude but often to a terrible death. If you do not show repentance by fully accepting your sole and entire responsibility, if you persist in your errors to the point of wanting to deny the charge which is yours, to the point of wanting to charge the very innocent recipients of your transactions, to the point of to want to tarnish the benevolence of the heroes of the prophecy, to the point of wanting to flout Sydon even more, to the point of defying the most sacred edicts of Mitros, our good King Acastus and our queen the Goddess Vallus, then it is not not just your devotion to righting your wrongs which we will ask for. It is with your life that you will have to pay for your insolence, your arrogance, your total lack of repentance in front of the citizens, the heroes and the gods, and in particular Sydon. And if we have to go and seek justice to the furies, then our hatred for you and your acts will call on you Mégère, we will demand revenge from Tisiphone and you will see us as relentless as Alecto to claim your head, and your blood, to wash away the honor and justice of Sydon, of our king Acastus and of our Goddesses Vallus and Mytros.So think carefully about your next words, Maximus, and in your defense, how will you plead? Repentance and reparations, or else… death!You can find the trials result <a href="http://krait.net/Odyssey/A020Notes" target="_blank">on the next page</a>.As you can see, we are interested in the story, supported by the game system, not at all by the pure technicalities of the game system.</blockquote>

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