Encounter Powers as Daily Powers

[Family]

In the spirit of having a small, a medium, and a large action, and being able to use them to do actions 'smaller' than their category:

Would it be feasible/possible/correct/balanced to downgrade a daily power so you can use an encounter power instead?

 

[dragon_eater]

Considering the only RAW ability that allows you to do that is the level 30 Archmage ability I would say it is possible but very powerful.

 

[balard]

I would say yes.

 

[Khaim]

Considering the only RAW ability that allows you to do that is the level 30 Archmage ability I would say it is possible but very powerful.

I don't think he meant it like that. If I'm understanding correctly, he's suggesting that you can prepare an encounter power in a daily power's slot (to use wizard terms). Assuming you can still only use that power once per day, I don't see a problem.

"Downgrading" a daily slot to an encounter slot, on the other hand, is a different matter. I would not do that. It might work out okay, but it's a much bigger change than just using a lesser power.

 

[Family]

I am of the same mind as Khaim here.

Just a note: the rules do state you can't prepare the same power more than once.

 

[Gloombunny]

"Downgrading" a daily slot to an encounter slot, on the other hand, is a different matter. I would not do that. It might work out okay, but it's a much bigger change than just using a lesser power.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how well this would work out? It would make me really happy if I could have a character with more encounter powers but no daily powers. I hate per-day resources.

 

[AndrewH]

The problem is, you can "downgrade" Daily spells easily enough, because you know more than you can memorize. You can't do this in reverse, however, because you can only ever know 4 encounter spells. Even if you abandoned one of your daily slots, what could you put in there? There's no encounter spells left to fit.

Unless you're suggesting that this is done at level-up time, and that you *learn* an encounter spell rather than a daily...

 

[Blackbrrd]

I would do it like this:
When you learn a daily power, pick an encounter power as well.
At the start of each day you can either have the encounter power or the daily power*.

For instance:
Bob the fighter gets to level 5, he selects Villain's Nightmare as his daily power and Steel Monsoon as a special encounter power.
At the start of the day, Bob the fighter specifies if he wants to have Villain's Nightmare OR Steel Monsoon available. If he has selected Steel Monsoon he can use it like any other encounter power, but he can't use Villain's nightmare that day.

The normal rule of not being able to pick a power twice would apply.

I think this makes a character more versatile and therefore slightly more powerful than usual, so you might say you need to take a feat, "Power versatility", each time you want to learn a daily power this way.

*For wizards the get their normal pick of 2 (or 3 if you have the feat) daily spells and one encounter spell. At the start of each day you either pick the encounter spell or one of the 2 (or 3) daily spells.

 

[toxicspirit]

There is sort of a precedent for this. At sixth level, the Ranger gets to choose from three Utility Powers. Two of them are Daily Powers, but the other is an Encounter Power, which if chosen could ultimately give the Ranger access to an extra Encounter Power in place of a Daily. Of course, this is a Utility Power, and not an Attack, so I don't know is it is applicable.