It's taken me kind of a long time to write this stuff, so I hope I'll be forgiven for not taking into account the undoubtedly genius ideas above mine, but from where I'm sitting, I'm the first reply here.
So, convince me why we should do generic powers, what you see them doing, what function they serve, etc. Despite all of the stuff I posted above, I'm not convinced there isn't room for them; I just am not sure what place they're supposed to have in the game. For the sake of discussion, let's say you're a designer/developer. What do you do with them?
All the reasons you gave were basically reasons I would avoid this (especially the roles and balancing issues).
Still, if my director came to me and said "We want to have 'floating powers,' so do it," here's a few ideas I might throw at the wall.
I've spoiler-blocked the background theories on this, even though that's probably the interesting part for the game design curious folks in the house. The part that's not spoiler-blocked should be able to be used by any group right now, though.
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First, figuring out the goals
Goals of "Generic Powers"
We want the power to be open to everyone, or at least everyone of a given power source. This means that the power should be useful to all builds of all classes and all roles, without stepping on the toes of any roles, builds, or classes. Still, make sure they're special and unique enough that people get stoked about taking them (but not so much so that they ignore their bread-n-butter).
Solution: "Moments of Glory"
-- The "theme" for these powers is basically the theme of "awesome dramatic moment." Like the second wind, or the action point, these are things that any character can do just because they are heroic badasses. The idea of a flying leap, a stirring speech, a last hurrah, etc., aren't linked to specific archetypes, classes, or builds. Everyone wants them.
-- The powers should not take the place of the existing powers (at-wills, encounters, dailies) at all. The class powers are made for archetype/build/role support, and undermining that for "generic heroic awesome" isn't something we want to do. No first level Fighter will be taking a moment of glory instead of
Tide of Iron.
-- Still, they need to consume SOME resource, yes? Fortunately, all characters already have a few universal resources that they can expend that are related to heroic action. For Moments of Glory, I'd go with action points.
-- Why Action Points? Action points are already there for awesome heroic action. The Moments of Glory concept just adds ways to use Action Points that are more strongly thematic and tactically interesting than "take another action." Moments of Glory compliment, but do not replace Action Points: PC's can still just take another action. We also have abilities that key off of action points already, for many Paragon Paths. This broadens the usefulness of Action Points for all characters. Because AP are rare, this means that a character's Moment of Glory contribution will never be ongoing or defining -- it will be a moment. It won't over-write roles, even if it, say, does more damage than a striker for one round -- it's not frequent or reliable enough to make a central pillar of character building, but it's a nice extra.
-- Because this is a modification on using a character ability, the easiest way to offer the option for Moments of Glory to characters is via feats: spend a feat, get a Moment of Glory, and have a new way to use AP.
-- Because we're using AP to power these...er...powers...they can be a bit more over-the-top than equivalent powers. They're taking the place of another standard action, meaning they should be about as powerful as their activation time + a standard action, perhaps + a small "kicker" for focus (so that there is a benefit for spending the feat vs. not spending the feat and just using AP). This kind of "raw numbers" power should be appealing to anyone, and is much easier to understand the mechanical ramifications of than something as flexible as another standard action. A lot of these Moments of Glory should allow multiple attack rolls or offer healing.
-- Alternately, you could leave AP out of it entirely, but the fact that AP already represent a heroic "something extra" and the fact that there's a LOT of design space left unexplored by AP that is plenty explored by the economy of actions, makes AP more attractive to me. Ultimately, a Moment of Glory without AP would mean taking a feat for a power, and would be balanced a little more along the lines of the Channel Divinity feat. This would make it a bit less attractive without the "raw number" spike, but the concept of a Moment of Glory may be attractive enough without that. Still, this could be a good idea if there's other spoons in the broth for AP that I don't know about that makes this idea too similar.
--
Full Disclosure A lot of these ideas come from my work on Final Fantasy Zero's Limit Break/Summon system, so if you like the idea, you'll find more like it there.
-- I'm not up to snuff on 4e's mechanical fiddly bits (I think my application to WotC proved THAT admirably!
), but here's the kind of powers I envision:
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Feats: One feat gives you a new Moment of Glory. You can spend more feats to get more diverse Moments of Glory. Moments of Glory have a tier, but not a level. You could perhaps silo them by power source, for a more thematic bond, but it's probably not necessary.
Moments of Glory:
Each one of these consumes an AP. The AP so consumed does not grant any extra action
- Glorious Leap: As a move action, you jump a distance up to double your speed. Your jump is so fast and unexpected that you gain concealment until the start of your next turn.
- Barrage of Blades: As a standard action, you can execute four basic attacks, each of which deals half damage. If these all target the same creature, that creature takes 5 points of ongoing damage on their next turn.
- Caltrop Backtrack: As a minor action, you can shift up to half your speed. The squares that you shift out of become difficult terrain.
- Consume Your Foe: As a standard action, execute a basic attack that deals double damage. If the creature is reduced to 0 hp by this attack, you can spend a healing surge.
- True Strike: As a standard action, execute a basic attack (ranged or melee) with a +10 bonus on the attack roll.
- Stunner: As a standard action, make a basic attack. If you hit, the target is stunned until the end of your next turn, and, on its first turn after being stunned, it cannot take any move actions.
- Embody Bahamut: As a standard action, make a Charisma attack vs. Reflex for every enemy in a close blast 3. Any creature hit is dealt radiant damage equal to your Charisma score.
The short version of the logic is this: AP is rarer, so you can't build a character around AP-based abilities; the powers don't come into play often enough to gum up the role/class/build works. By using AP as a source, we also avoid having players spending their power slots on powers that don't accentuate their role. Still, these powers are generic enough (any creature that worships Bahamut, from fighter to cleric to warlock, might use the Embody Bahamut power) that they appeal to most heroic characters. These powers are balanced on the idea that you're giving up a feat and a standard action to use them, so they're quite potent -- that should be enough to grab anyone's attention. Certain abilities may appeal more than others to certain sects (characters with good weapon skills might key into the "basic attack" powers, but magic missile and eldritch blast work fine, too; Embody Bahamut is more useful for those with a high CHA, but several different characters benefit from that anyway).
The secret, in my mind, to avoiding the problem of gumming up the role/class/build balance is to dodge that little bullet altogether and use something other than the power you get when you level up as a cost for gaining the ability. They might need a bit of adjustment in power here or there for balance (number-crunching isn't something I can do easily for 4e yet).
You could even drop the feats, lower the power a little bit, and award these INSTEAD of AP, like a form of treasure, but that takes them out of the players' hands, which I think is key for something like this.
Another interesting idea would be to use your second wind to power these abilities instead of AP. Use a feat, then when you get your second wind, you can also have a Moment of Glory (they would need to be slightly differently balanced for that, though).
