NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Chris_Nightwing" data-source="post: 6044211" data-attributes="member: 882">Thanks for the comments, I'll try to explain a bit more!The problem I'm trying to address is the unfortunate same-ness introduced by having the Rogue use the Fighter's expertise dice mechanic in exactly the same way as the Fighter, only with slightly different maneuvers - the mechanics don't evoke the archetypes of the classes. I also think there is a problem inherent in making maneuvers a round-based resource - balancing at-will abilities is very difficult. Further, the current maneuvers show no power progression - the use of multiple dice either increases damage or improves the odds of rolling better for another effect (whirlwind attack excepted - that shows a sort of progress).I take your point on making the resource encounter-based, but bear in mind it isn't the same as the 4E system. The criticism there wasn't that you couldn't do something every round, it was that you could never do the same thing twice within the same encounter. Here you can throw out the same maneuver every round (if it's cheap) or save up and use something bigger every few rounds - I think that the resilience and tactical knowledge of the Fighter is represented quite well by having the resources build up until they want to unleash them, and the weapon attack bonus is a natural way to limit how much you can do at once by level.I forsee problems with using dice rather than points. Take Deadly Strike for instance, by the time you have 3d10 expertise dice, why would you want to be a two-handed weapon guy? Your damage dice has been overwhelmed by your ability to deal extra damage every round, and you'd rather have +1AC than +2 average damage at that point. I also think that they are very limiting when it comes to design: every maneuver you come up with will have to involve the dice size in some way, or bigger dice aren't better. Note how there is no knockdown in the current set of maneuvers - because it's cheap to do with a d4 but rubbish with a d10.Hazards are sort of left nebulous - I couldn't decide if it was a good idea to list a set of conditions that would trigger Danger Sense. I intended maneuvers to be used primarily for combat, rather than for skill checks and such, but your idea of getting caught in a lie sounds like an excellent trigger for the ability! I wanted the Rogue to have some points they could use during combat without having advantage - for defences and the Surprise! maneuver - and thought that getting an adrenalin rush at the start of combat would be suitable, then figured that would also trigger if you triggered a trap or got knocked off of a cliff. That way you get an instant boost to do something cool against whatever just went wrong, which feels very Roguish to me. When I first saw the expertise dice system I was surprised they hadn't gone with a stamina system - the Fighter has some maximum level of stamina, performing maneuvers uses this up, and a short rest is required to recharge back to full. I tried to implement that at first, but found it difficult to mesh with the Rogue's more immediate gaining of points, and I didn't want to stray too far from the round-by-round expertise dice philosophy. I think that what you suggest ought to be playtested though - my feeling with ED was that everyone was so excited by giving the Fighter options, they would have like anything, and now that we're seeing the Rogue pick up the same abilities there's a re-evaluation of whether the system was that good after all.For a stamina-like system as you suggest, I would try one of two things. You could increase all the costs of maneuvers, so that the Fighter gaining a point a turn wasn't such a big deal and they would mostly rely on the points they start a combat with. The Rogue would then also start with fewer stamina points, and rather than regaining them slowly would have adrenalin rushes to give them temporary points to spend (like my current danger sense) and  when they have advantage against an opponent. The tricky bit, as ever, is avoiding an overpowered Rog1/Ftr1 compared to either class 2.I don't know how you prefer your magic system either.. but a system like this can totally be used for mana points/spell slots that renew on a daily basis too. The important feature is really that different classes feel different, whilst using the same underlying physics/mechanics.</blockquote>

Verification