D&D 4E Flowery power names vs pragmatically descriptive.

[Garthanos]

Some powers seem very mundanely named like say a Cleave interestingly I have heard far more flowery named maneuvers in real life Hema texts from the knight era than many we have for the fighter. Others like Steel Serpent Strike sound closer to authentic.

I have a couple I named Twisting Disarm and Smashing Disarm. Which are rather mundane. Surgical Strike (which requires you to be trained in healing) may be a little better but I think maybe "Bite of the Chiurgens Blade" could be better.

To me one of the advantages of the flowery language is it doesn't imply your method of accomplishing the thing is generic. A barbarians Smashing Disarm might not cause them to grant advantage when using it and have Barbarian/Bezerk clauses. So naming the fighters ability "Brazen Reaving of Steel" ... could be an idea and sounds more disciplined/sophisticated perhaps.

I just had an epic image of Sauron like knight swinging ones huge two handed weapon and disarming a number of lesser enemies with one sweep. (and realized a multi-target attack defeating a bunch of enemies could be visualized that way just fine)

Anyway

 

[Charlaquin]

End Him Rightly Fighter Attack 1
You hold your spear and sword together on your arm, unscrew the pommel of your sword and throw it at your opponent vigorously, close in with the throw and use your sword or spear, whatever suits you best.
Encounter • Martial, weapon
Standard Action Ranged 3
Requirement: You must be wielding a blade and a spear.
Target: One creature in range
Attack: Dexterity vs. Will
Hit: The target is surprised until the end of your turn.
Effect: You can shift up to two spaces towards the target and make a melee basic attack against it using your sword or your spear.

 

[Garthanos]

"End em Rightly" heheh.

 

[BlivetWidget]

End Him Rightly

I see what you did there

 

[Garthanos]

Wonderful that it has a historic foundation really!

 

[Garthanos]

Finish em fast - might be the more accurate translation ... but hey it has meme power the other way.

 

[Garthanos]

Might have to obligatorial stick that one in MPIII

 

[Charlaquin]

Honestly I feel like it’s a bit weak for an encounter power, but the talk of attack names made me think of it, and I couldn’t resist.

 

[Garthanos]

Honestly I feel like it’s a bit weak for an encounter power, but the talk of attack names made me think of it, and I couldn’t resist.

You used surprise as a the jargon technical turn i was kind of surprised by that ... are there other powers doing that mid fight?

 

[Charlaquin]

You used surprise as a the jargon technical turn i was kind of surprised by that ... are there other powers doing that mid fight?

I don’t really remember, it’s been so long since I played 4e. Honestly, my first instinct was to go with Stunned, but I remembered Stunned being really powerful, so I looked up a list of 4e Conditions and went with Surprised based on the name. Seemed like the most appropriate reaction to having a sword pommel thrown at you