Do Something Awesome!

[malraux]

Just an update after having this in place for a few sessions.

It rocks! In the last session, it was the awesomest fights we've had in a long time. The PCs were defending two different gates from giants and their minions trying to break through. A few of the uses included:

• The fighter jumped off the ramparts and put all his weight onto his polearm as an attack against on of the giants. (athletics vs ref)
• The rogue did a handspring onto the back of a roc to get on top of it to be able to continually attack it. (acrobatics vs ref)
• A behir had swallowed the fighter, so the wizard used his knowledge of the behir's anatomy to immitate that scene in Temple of Doom where the priest pulls the guy's heart out to extract the fighter. (arcana vs fort)
• The bard activated his wall walker boots, ran down the wall and imitated a rock star at the end of a concert by smashing his lute on top of the giant's head to finish him off. (diplomacy vs ref)

In short, using this power let everyone be really descriptive, play out their characters, and really draw everyone into the game. Sure, it kinda broke some of the rules, like the fighter was able to jump down from 50 feet up without taking damage, or the mage was able to get someone out of the behir's stomach, which there's not an official mechanic for doing that. But at the paragon level, I feel that PCs should be able to lightly bend reality. And the plus side is everyone gets really cinematic combat and stays engaged in what's happening.

 

[weem]

In short, using this power let everyone be really descriptive, play out their characters, and really draw everyone into the game. Sure, it kinda broke some of the rules, like the fighter was able to jump down from 50 feet up without taking damage, or the mage was able to get someone out of the behir's stomach, which there's not an official mechanic for doing that. But at the paragon level, I feel that PCs should be able to lightly bend reality. And the plus side is everyone gets really cinematic combat and stays engaged in what's happening.

Breaking some rules here and there for the sake of awesome is great. I wholly approve, hehe.

I may have to give this a whirl in one of my games. It's an interesting take on the "do something cool" idea (of which there have been a few variations I've seen). I dig the Action Point interaction, and the idea of spending a healing surge if you miss to make it a hit...

...I could probably make a card for something like this if you were interested.

 

[malraux]

...I could probably make a card for something like this if you were interested.

Don't worry about it, I made my own.

 

[Nytmare]

The bard activated his wall walker boots, ran down the wall and imitated a rock star at the end of a concert by smashing his lute on top of the giant's head to finish him off. (diplomacy vs ref)

Diplomacy vs ref?

 

[malraux]

Diplomacy vs ref?

Ideally, it would have been preform vs ref, but the preform skill for the bard got rolled into diplomacy. So its odd, but there is a bit of logic to it. And since he was swinging the lute, ref made more sense than will, and NADs in general make more sense than AC because the attacks lose the weapon proficiency bonus.

 

[weem]

Don't worry about it, I made my own.

Ah, well nevermind then

 

[lkjopajdowma]

malraux, any updates on how this is still working? Are your players still using this?

If my group goes back to 4e (I would like to eventually), this is something I'd really be interesting in trying to implement so that everyone has a visual representation of the fact they can do something like this, and that their powers aren't the only option.

The only question I have, since you've balanced it as an encounter power, what happens if the player comes up with another good terrain use within the combat that hasn't been done yet (assuming the rule of "it'll only work once")? Do you let them do it again, or are they out of luck since they already spent the encounter power for it?

 

[Kingreaper]

I like this.

@odhen: I would say that the something awesome is a power that can be used once per encounter when you can describe something awesome.

If there's something REASONABLE that they can do with terrain, they just "do something reasonable" as an atwill, and get a terrain effect.
Doing something AWESOME requires a bit more effort.

EG: if added to my upcoming session where, as a terrain effect, both NPCs and PCs can knock trees to the ground; something AWESOME would be hitting someone in the eye with a tree branch as you knock it down or suchlike.

 

[jbear]

i stole this same idea from Piratecat although I haven't made such a clear/mechanical rule about it. All the players have an encounter power called 'Do something Cool'. The players just tell me what they want to achieve and if it fits the situation and is also cool I adjudicate what they have to do to achieve it. Even if they fail it will have some minor benefit. They can use it in combination with other powers altering them in appropriate and cool ways.

So far the most memorable implementation was used in combination with a pair of Boots of Spiderclimbing to whip out a rope, climb up the wall onto the roof snagging an ogre around the neck and dragging it backwards over a hundred foot fall. The ogre managed to hang on to the ledge ... but that's another story.

I'm sure more great moments are to come. I like the idea of the reroll with the use of a Healing Surge, after all who wants these stellar moments to fail?... it makes the durable feat a very viable option.