Encounter and daily Powers

[FireLance]

Each hit with an encounter or daily power reduces your recharge rate by one.

I'm not too keen on this, as this means you if miss with one encounter power and then hit with another, you have zero chance of getting back the missed power.

I'd prefer the recharge rate to decrease only if you get back a power and ideally (although this will result in more bookkeeping) you should get back the powers that you missed with first.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I'm not too keen on this, as this means you if miss with one encounter power and then hit with another, you have zero chance of getting back the missed power.

You're right. Maybe going back to a recharge rate of worse then 6 should not be allowed as long as their are still encounter powers to be recharged?

 

[FireLance]

You're right. Maybe going back to a recharge rate of worse then 6 should not be allowed as long as their are still encounter powers to be recharged?

I'm quite happy to go back to a zero recharge rate if the player has got back every encounter power that he has missed with. Otherwise, you could keep recharging your powers as long as you have missed once, even if you hit with every other power after that.

That's why I prefer a system where your recharge rate drops every time you get back a power. When you hit with a power, you get the benefit and you're done. When you miss with a power, you get a chance to recharge it. When you get back a power, your chance to recharge drops, possibly to zero if it was your only missed power.

 

[Raven Swords]

I'm experimenting with making "Action Point" an Encounter Power every PC gets.

With an action point, you get a bonus standard, move, or minor action, or can reroll a miss on an encounter or daily power. Each character gets one action point to spend per encounter.

The houserule is still in its infancy, but thats how its shaping up so far.

I like this. I'm constantly forgetting to hand out action points and my players still haven't gotten into the swing of using them.

I was thinking about awarding players an action point whenever they use a daily power rather than every two encounters, in the hopes it would eliminate the save it till the big boss at the end of the game mentality.

 

[Khaalis]

The version of this I am going to go with is as follows:

House Rule: Missed Encounter Powers
When you miss with all your attack rolls for a non-reliable encounter power, that power gains the Recharge ability.

Recharge
The power has a random chance of recharging during each round of combat. At the start of the character’s turn, roll 1d6. If the roll is a , the power is recharged and the character can use it again that turn. The power also recharges after a short rest as normal.

Each subsequent time that you miss with all of your attack rolls for a recharged non-reliable encounter power, you increase your recharge range by one, e.g. from to to .

 

[Horatio]

Decisions when to make an encounter or daily attack are part of the overall strategy.

Characters should use them when it is feasible. If they know they don't have a good chance to hit with them, they should count with the negative result.

There are so many ways to boost the attack roll. Just make sure, you have a good circumstances first and only after that use your precious encounter / daily.

Use leaders' abilities to boost attacks
Use combat advantage - don be afraid to take an attack of opportunity if it helps your daily power to land.
Use action points to get boost to attack (human feat, paragon path features, tactical warlord class ability / feat)
Use aid another option. Why not forgo your at-will and help your frind to land his daily?

When your succesfully executed daily is actually a team work, it makes everyone feel special and part of that "big effect" attack too. It also helps to lessen the suspension of disbelief to some extent I think.

Edit: May not work for everyone, as stated below (and reminded me that not everyone has the options, thus the edit). Khaalis, thanks for stating what I should realised before.

 

[Khaalis]

To Horatio:

That is all well and good, for you. In a perfect world, the system may be perfectly balanced as-is (which I do disagree with). However, its not a perfect world.

1) Not every group has the minimum assumed 5 people. In parties that are smaller, "boosts" become a lot less commonplace and characters need to be a little more self-sufficient. Wasted powers become a major issue.

2) A lot of players do NOT like "blowing" their powers on a missed role. Simple as that. Balanced or not, if the players dislike this rule enough (and run into it enough), they'll simply stop playing and that does no one any good.

As an example, in the last game I ran, I literally had a 4 person play group call off the game (just decided to quit and call it a night) mid-session because they were so frustrated with the system they were throwing things and getting truly angry with frustration. It was a really bad dice night (we've all seen them) and all 4 players were missing roles left and right (even with "boosts" and with me fudging and lowering targets by as much as 3 across the board). This could have been alleviated simply by adding the House Rule above, because they would at least feel as though they had an option to get the powers back to try again (slim as that chance may be).

3) In addition to #2, player's do not like the limited access to simply falling back on their At-Wills after having "wasted" encounter powers. At least almost all Dailies are either "Reliable" or have a "Miss" condition so you don't feel like you completed wasted the power.

JMHO.

 

[Horatio]

It was just a thought. Works for us, don't have to work for others. I will edit my post a bit to make it look more open minded, as it was meant to be.

 

[Daniel D. Fox]

I resolved this issue by allowing a player to "recharge" a Encounter or Daily power on a roll of natural 20 during combat and making all Encounter/Daily powers Reliable per the Fighter rules.

The players love it.

 

[Stalker0]

I am current trying out a power recharge system myself, its the Acheron system found on the house rules board.

I will say that I think missed encounter and daily powers are the reason that on occasion solo fights can take so long.

In 3rd edition, the fighters were a source of constant, strong, dependable damage. Now towards higher levels we all know that wizards and clerics start overriding the fighters. Save or dies and the like could end the fight in a round or two. BUT....if those effects failed, the party had a couple of options to compensate:

1) The spellcasters blow more power. The party might have to rest earlier or face other issues. But at least in that fight, they can take out the monster in a reasonable time.

2) Rely on the fighters for damage. The spellcasters back off, and let the fighter finish the job. The fighter certainly isn't as efficient at high levels at taking out monsters, but he can still get the job done in a reasonable timeframe.


In 4e, especially towards higher levels, the party's "power" is stored in their encounter and daily powers. Whether its simply raw damage or effects that help the party kill quicker, their powers are what get it done. If those effects miss, the party loses out on a lot of power. Even a missed daily does FAR less than it does when it hits. And unlike the 3.5 fighter, they can't get that back. They resort to at-wills, which deal a lot less damage overall.

So I am definitely in favor of some way for a party to get powers back, whether its a recharge system like I'm trying, or some of this "miss but don't miss" mechanics present here. I do agree that there should be some compensating mechanic for the problem I mentioned above.