Do nonmagical 1/day abilities damage suspension of disbelief?

[Dannyalcatraz]

It doesn't get any better...Rain of Steel (Daily 5):

"You constantly swing your weapon about, slashing and cutting into nearby enemies."

Damn if that isn't a generic description for most melee combat. Yet its once per day...and not "Reliable."

Shift the Battlefield (Daily 9):

"With supreme skill and great resolve, your beat your enemies back."

Again, this looks like something you should be able to use virtually at will against lesser combatants, not 1/day.

The Daily 15?s Same thing.

 

[Trickstergod]

No, it doesn't suspend my suspension of disbelief in the slightest.

Someone used a baseball analogy - sometimes a player hits more than one home run in a game.

All right, fine. How many games go by where the player doesn't hit any home runs at all? He still hits, but the ball doesn't go out of the park. I'd say that happens fairly regularly, too.

And how often does said ball player chose when he gets his home run? It's as much reliant on the pitcher as the player - the ball has to come at him just so. Maybe it's thrown from the wrong side. Or the player doesn't deal with certain types of pitches as he deals with others.

Regardless, for every game that involves two or more home runs, there's one that involves none. Not for lack of a successful hit, but because sometimes you don't hit the ball in just the right way.

And I assume it's much the same with a daily - yeah, maybe no one notices the Rogue who's crouched down and ready to murder a room full of people, but his victims might not be seated in such a way that's conducive to all getting nicked at the same time.

Or maybe he should be able to expend his used up Daily a second time...but by that same token, the DM should be able to go "Nope. You use your attack, but hit a patch of mud at just the wrong moment and the first target shifts in such a way as to deny you following up with anyone else. You just get the equivalent of an At-Will attack on him."

But instead of that, you get the opportunity to reliably say "I'm going to hit a home run." Yeah, it comes at a cost - rather than being able to hit two home runs in a game, you can just hit the one.

But it's a single home run. Every. Single. Game. It doesn't rely on the proper pitch, it can't get screwed up by a bit of dust suddenly getting into your eye, so long as you hit, that ball is going out of the park.

Reliability over randomness, with the cost being the number of times it can be used. I'll take that over a 50/50 shot (or whatever) of getting the maneuver off a few times per day...or having it fail and wasting the action.

Considering that a fight is a moving, hectic thing, I have no problem seeing a fighting-type only getting that one, perfect opening a few times out of any given day. But for every day that gives him three perfect opportunities, I'll bet there's any number that give him none - so it's a trade-off. Instead of three some day and none the next, it's one every day.

And that's fine by me and it is only a mild bit of reality-stretching, hardly anything to get worked up about.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

And how often does said ball player chose when he gets his home run? It's as much reliant on the pitcher as the player - the ball has to come at him just so. Maybe it's thrown from the wrong side. Or the player doesn't deal with certain types of pitches as he deals with others.

But the player does decide when to use his "home run swing" or set up for a bunt or aim for one gap or another. And if the pitching is substandard, that ball leaves the playing field 100% of the time.

Yes- I've played BB against a former Yankees prospect- he pretty much decided where he wanted to put the ball against the quality of pitching we delivered. He even told us where to stand so we wouldn't have far to go to get the thing.

But instead of that, you get the opportunity to reliably say "I'm going to hit a home run."

I see that more as a bug than a feature. Give me the randomness- to me, at least, that better simulates the "fog of war."

 

[JRRNeiklot]

No, it doesn't suspend my suspension of disbelief in the slightest.

Someone used a baseball analogy - sometimes a player hits more than one home run in a game.

All right, fine. How many games go by where the player doesn't hit any home runs at all? He still hits, but the ball doesn't go out of the park. I'd say that happens fairly regularly, too.

And how often does said ball player chose when he gets his home run?

He doesn't choose when to hit his homerun. He chooses when to TRY to hit his homerun. In baseball 4e, if the game is tied with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, and Yrag Ruth is up, he can't even TRY to hit one out of the park, he already did that in the 3rd inning. So he bunts. He may beat it out and eventually score, but it doesn't matter, all the fans have already left.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Daily powers are what action points, possibilities, hero points or karma is in other systems.
If you use them, the player says: "This encounter, this situation, this roll, it matters to me. I want to spend everything I can" on it. The power system is more structured then the "karma" approach. The benefit is that it also provides a theme if you use the option, and that you add mechanical variety to it. It's not just "Okay, I nearly failed my roll, now I succeed", it's "I did triple damage and knocked those guy down!" The drawback is you can't choose the theme and as freely, and that it doesn't increase your concrete chance of success (unless the ability has also a effect on a miss, or an effect independent of a hit). But then, in Shadowrun, even a Karma re-roll doesn't guarantee that you succeed, and in Torg, a possibility might go to waste if you still roll poorly...

 

[Agamon]

Why is it a shame not to like this kind of "interface"? Perhaps they do not like it since they can see how a better role playing interface could have been like. Why is this a shame to you again?

Okay, wrong word. "Sucks to be them"?

 

[Agamon]

There is no logical reason (besides a game design decree making it so) why this should be limited as a daily exploit.

Unless your creative enough to explain it in game. That's all. Like most aspects of the game, it's an abstract. You either just handwave it as gamist or you give it a bit of thought and explain it in in-game terms. Or you just don't bother playing it is another, I suppose. Or, apparently, complain about it without offering suggestions on how to change it on a messageboard.

 

[xechnao]

[quote=Agamon;4340423]Okay, wrong word. "Sucks to be them"?[/quote]
Why does it suck? Is this a badwrongfun kind of argument?

 

[Agamon]

Why does it suck? Is this a badwrongfun kind of argument?

?

Person 1: I don't really like 'x'.

Person 2: Really? That's too bad, I think it's cool.

You're reading way too much into that. I'm not saying people suck for not liking it, just throwing out a bit of empathy, even though I don't understand why. Sheesh.

 

[Psion]

Daily powers are what action points, possibilities, hero points or karma is in other systems.
If you use them, the player says: "This encounter, this situation, this roll, it matters to me. I want to spend everything I can" on it. The power system is more structured then the "karma" approach.

The "structured" part is the part that makes the difference to me. If they were generic "reserves" that could be used on anything, most of my conceptual reservations would evaporate.