Dynamic dailies

[Saeviomagy]

This just struck me - I know it's crazy, but...

So, instead of having a small set of dailies and picking which one you want to use:

You get 4 (or less for lower levels) daily uses, and you have a stack of power cards - class dailies, either of the appropriate level, or the appropriate level plus a few and minus a few or even just every daily available to your class. When you think it's time to use a daily, you draw one. You have to use that daily before the end of the fight, or that daily use is lost. You can choose to use more than one daily during a fight, same rules apply: use them or lose them.

The only problem this might face is that some classes have a lot more garbage choices than others. Classes that have powers split between prime stats for instance. The solution would be to simply allow the use of whatever stat you want for a daily and probably also vet the lists for crap (ie - powers which are strictly inferor to others)

 

[Neubert]

Going off of your ideas..
Perhaps the player chooses a number of dailies instead of getting all of them (that would weed out some of the crap choices).
Not sure I like the "use it or it is lost". I was thinking instead of drawing when the player is planning on using it, it might be more fair to have them draw at the beginning of a session (or encounter) so they know what to expect. When the first is used, draw the next.

Do you have a goal you want to accomplish with this? Is it to prevent players going nova in a single encounter, to prevent "lockdown" of solo's with tailored powers or is it simply to try something new?

 

[FireLance]

I had thought of doing something like this, for the martial dailies.

My intention was primarily for gameplay to more closely parallel (I hesitate to use the word "simulate") one of the main justifications for martial dailies: that they occur when the character takes advantage of opportunities for powerful attacks that arise occaionally, but not often, e.g. the target(s) happen to be standing just so, or happen to expose a particular weakness.

A minor side benefit (IMO) is that we will get to see more variety in terms of powers and abilities used, and players need to be more adaptable and (so to speak) play with the cards they are dealt.

The downside is that unless I can come up with some balancing factor, it might make the martial power source less attractive than the other options - and it's already carrying enough historical baggage that it doesn't need any new ones added to it.

If I ever decide to implement it, it will probably be along these lines: a martial character with X daily attack powers picks (X + 4) power cards (or whatever) and puts them in a pile. To prevent the player from loading up on higher level dailies, apart from 1st-level daily attack powers, no more than 2 can be of the same level. At the start of each encounter, he picks (X - U) cards from the pile, where U is the number of daily attack powers he has used since his last extended rest. Those are the powers he can use in that encounter.

The random nature of his powers would possibly be balanced by the ability to use a high-level power multiple times in the same day.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Neubert - similar to FireLance, I feel this mirrors the "take advantage of a confluence of factors" reasoning behind dailies, and will also lead to more diversity in the daily powers that are used. Also it seemed like an interesting point to discuss.

As to why the use it or lose it attitude? It seemed the easiest way to make a cost to drawing all of your dailies at once. If you figure you need extra oomph in a fight, pull a daily and figure out how to use it. If you're in a bind and your first daily draw isn't useful, then you can draw again, but it's costing you.

Firelance - Your issues about balancing the martial power source against others are pretty easily resolved: simply do it for all the power sources. Primal, Divine, Arcane and Psionic are all brands of magic: the explanation for why daily power X doesn't work right now is "it's magic". The Gods thought you needed a lesson in humility or to exercise your wisdom. The ley lines are in the wrong state for todays moon. The spirits are angry. You have a headache. Or every reason there is for the martial exploits not working.