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Grading Daily Powers
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<blockquote data-quote="keterys" data-source="post: 4365920" data-attributes="member: 43019"><p>This exercise was primarily focused on establishing guidelines for power design. I'm mostly hoping for interesting debate and a vague guide for DMs and players alike for comparing powers. While this post deals with daily powers, you may find the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=234118" target="_blank">encounter</a> or <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233943" target="_blank">at-will discussion</a> interesting.</p><p></p><p>All powers are graded assuming they are used effectively - if a power requires a second person in melee to work, don't take it in a party with no other melee. In many cases you'll find that personal preference varies from these grades - while a power may be extraordinary in theory or combined with the right build or party, take the power that is most fun for you! </p><p></p><p>Grades </p><p>A - Excellent. This power brings something special to the table in terms of tactical ability or damage output. It may be too powerful, especially in the hands of the wrong class. </p><p>B - Good. This is a solid power. Most powers should fall into this grade.</p><p>C - Okay. This power is certainly adequate but pales somewhat in comparison to other powers.</p><p>D - Poor. This power is certainly usable (and may even excel in certain rare situations), but is definitely lacking compared to other options. </p><p>F - Compares extremely poorly to other powers and should likely be improved or ignored.</p><p></p><p>A+ powers in particular are at a dangerous balance level. If designing a new power and it is on par, or better, than an A+, most likely you should go back to the drawing board and tweak some things.</p><p></p><p>B- is what I considered the baseline for comparison of powers. A bit worse and it's in the C territory, but a fair amount of distance to get into the A range.</p><p></p><p>Basic Grading Guidelines:</p><p></p><p>Giving an ally a bonus to attack or giving penalties to defense is extremely powerful for setting up your ally's abilities that do high damage, stun, etc.</p><p></p><p>Raw damage is pretty good, but in general I'm going to value tactical bonuses such as stun, daze, blind, or large amounts of forced movement more highly. These set up combat advantage and deny effective action.</p><p></p><p>Penalties to attack can prevent bad status effects, like daze and stun, as well as damage, so that's probably next.</p><p></p><p>Knock Prone and Immobilize are pretty close. Prone is often no penalty at all, but it has some great niche use in taking down fliers and when an enemy can't do any good action and stand. Immobilize works great on melee only monsters and combined with zones and such.</p><p></p><p>Weaken is fine, but it's just less effective than that. Monsters don't do a ton of damage so weaken is only so good.</p><p></p><p>Slow and some similar effects are... even further after that. </p><p></p><p>Area effects get scored well overall, since you often fight a lot of monsters in 4e and it's important to clear out minions before they can do significant damage. Big areas that target enemies only are pure gold since you can output a ton of damage that way.</p><p></p><p>Powers that use ability bonuses can often be much stronger for some characters than others. For low level powers, I'll assume a 2 to 6 range depending on the ability, but as levels progress that can climb into the 6-10 range for some builds so I'll need to take that into account. Under no circumstances will I consider a power that uses an ability score that it 'might be a 0 or 1' just to prove a power could be weaker, just as I won't assume that weapon powers use fists for poor damage and no proficiency bonus. </p><p></p><p>Please feel free to disagree with any suggested grade I give at all, pointing out flaws in my logic, grading guidelines, etc. If a power is exceptional under extremely limited circumstances (Cause Fear on a large+ creature in a blood pulse area, for instance), please make note if that's why you're suggesting the change and otherwise it's some other grade.</p><p></p><p>If comparing powers of different levels - for example a level 5 power to a level 1 power, note that I am grading in relation to other powers of its level so the level 5 is expected to be better (much as you'd expect a 5th grader's Math to be better than a 1st grader's, at the same grade level or even worse). I can't be exact in how much of a drop you'll see, but don't be surprised by at least a full letter difference.</p><p></p><p>Daily Powers without a notable Effect or Miss result (or Reliable) will be marked down. </p><p></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?p=4365922#post4365922" target="_blank">Daily 1 Analysis</a></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4388174-post41.html" target="_blank">Daily 5 Analysis</a></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4407647-post64.html" target="_blank">Daily 9 Analysis</a></p><p><a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/235028-grading-daily-powers-6.html#post4701039" target="_blank">Daily 15 Analysis</a></p><p></p><p>*CLERIC*</p><p>[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>B- / Avenging Flame</p><p>A / Beacon of Hope</p><p>C+ / Cascade of Light</p><p>A- / Guardian of Faith</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>A+ / Consecrated Ground</p><p>C+ / Rune of Peace</p><p>A / Spiritual Weapon</p><p>A / Weapon of the Gods</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>C+ / Astral Defenders</p><p>B+ / Blade Barrier</p><p>A / Divine Power</p><p>B / Flame Strike</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>B- / Holy Spark</p><p>B+ / Purifying Fire</p><p>B+ / Seal of Warding[/sblock]</p><p>*FIGHTER*</p><p>[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>C+ / Brute Strike</p><p>B- / Comeback Strike</p><p>B+ / Villain's Menace</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>C+ / Crack the Shell</p><p>C+ / Dizzying Blow</p><p>A / Rain of Steel</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>C+ / Shift the Battlefield</p><p>C+ / Thicket of Blades</p><p>C+ / Victorious Surge</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>B- / Dragon's Fangs</p><p>B / Serpent Dance Strike</p><p>A+ / Unyielding Avalanche[/sblock]</p><p>*PALADIN*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>C+ / On Pain of Death</p><p>B- / Paladin's Judgement</p><p>A- / Radiant Delirium</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>B+ / Hallowed Circle</p><p>B- / Martyr's Retribution</p><p>B+ / Sign of Vulnerability</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>B- / Crown of Glory</p><p>B- / One Stands Alone</p><p>C+ / Radiant Pulse</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>C- / Bloodied Retribution</p><p>C / Break the Wall</p><p>B / True Nemesis[/sblock]</p><p>*RANGER*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>C+ / Hunter's Bear Trap</p><p>B+ / Jaws of the Wolf</p><p>B- / Split the Tree</p><p>C+ / Sudden Strike</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>C+ / Excruciating Shot</p><p>B+ / Frenzied Skirmish</p><p>B+ / Splintering Shot</p><p>B+ / Two-Wolf Pounce</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>B+ / Attacks on the Run</p><p>C- / Close Quarters Shot</p><p>C / Spray of Arrows</p><p>C / Swirling Leaves of Steel</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>A- / Blade Cascade</p><p>A- / Bleeding Wounds</p><p>A / Confounding Arrows</p><p>A / Stunning Steel</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p>*ROGUE*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>A- / Blinding Barrage</p><p>C / Easy Target</p><p>B- / Trick Strike</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>C+ / Clever Riposte</p><p>B- / Deep Cut</p><p>C+ / Walking Wounded</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>B- / Crimson Edge</p><p>C+ / Deadly Positioning</p><p>A / Knockout</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>C / Bloody Path</p><p>B+ / Garotte Grip</p><p>C / Slaying Strike[/sblock]</p><p>*WARLOCK*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>A / Armor of Agathys</p><p>C / Curse of the Dark Dream</p><p>C / Dread Star</p><p>C / Flames of Phlegethos</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>C+ / Avernian Eruption</p><p>D+ / Crown of Madness</p><p>D+ / Curse of the Bloody Fangs</p><p>B+ / Hunger of Hadar</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>C+ or B+ / Curse of the Black Frost</p><p>C+ / Iron Spike of Dis</p><p>C / Summons of Khirad</p><p>C- / Thief of Five Fates</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>NA / Curse of the Golden Mist</p><p>C- / Fireswarm</p><p>A / Tendrils of Thuban</p><p>C- / Thirsting Maw[/sblock]</p><p>*WARLORD*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>B+ / Bastion of Defense</p><p>A+ / Lead the Attack</p><p>B / Pin the Foe</p><p>C+ / White Raven Onslaught</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>B+ / Stand the Fallen</p><p>D- / Turning Point</p><p>C- / Villain's Nightmare</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>C+ / Iron Dragon Charge</p><p>B- / Knock Them Down</p><p>C+ / White Raven Strike</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>D+ / Make Them Bleed</p><p>B- / Renew the Troops</p><p>D- / Warlord's Gambit[/sblock]</p><p>*WIZARD*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =-</p><p>C / Acid Arrow </p><p>A / Flaming Sphere</p><p>B- / Freezing Cloud</p><p>C / Sleep (Disclaimer: A+ for certain builds, particularly at Paragon+ Tier)</p><p>B+ / Phantom Chasm</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 5 = -</p><p>B- / Bigby's Icy Grasp</p><p>C+ / Fireball</p><p>A / Stinking Cloud</p><p>C- / Web</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 9 = -</p><p>B / Ice Storm</p><p>C+ / Lightning Serpent</p><p>C+ / Mordenkainen's Sword</p><p>A / Wall of Fire</p><p></p><p>-= Daily 15 = -</p><p>B+ / Bigby's Grasping Hands</p><p>C+ / Blast of Cold</p><p>B- / Otiluke's Resilient Sphere</p><p>A- / Prismatic Beams</p><p>A+ / Wall of Ice[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>Given the nature of daily powers, I expect the balance (and my own guesses) to be pretty all over the place, so your help is especially appreciated on these.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="keterys, post: 4365920, member: 43019"] This exercise was primarily focused on establishing guidelines for power design. I'm mostly hoping for interesting debate and a vague guide for DMs and players alike for comparing powers. While this post deals with daily powers, you may find the [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=234118"]encounter[/URL] or [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=233943"]at-will discussion[/URL] interesting. All powers are graded assuming they are used effectively - if a power requires a second person in melee to work, don't take it in a party with no other melee. In many cases you'll find that personal preference varies from these grades - while a power may be extraordinary in theory or combined with the right build or party, take the power that is most fun for you! Grades A - Excellent. This power brings something special to the table in terms of tactical ability or damage output. It may be too powerful, especially in the hands of the wrong class. B - Good. This is a solid power. Most powers should fall into this grade. C - Okay. This power is certainly adequate but pales somewhat in comparison to other powers. D - Poor. This power is certainly usable (and may even excel in certain rare situations), but is definitely lacking compared to other options. F - Compares extremely poorly to other powers and should likely be improved or ignored. A+ powers in particular are at a dangerous balance level. If designing a new power and it is on par, or better, than an A+, most likely you should go back to the drawing board and tweak some things. B- is what I considered the baseline for comparison of powers. A bit worse and it's in the C territory, but a fair amount of distance to get into the A range. Basic Grading Guidelines: Giving an ally a bonus to attack or giving penalties to defense is extremely powerful for setting up your ally's abilities that do high damage, stun, etc. Raw damage is pretty good, but in general I'm going to value tactical bonuses such as stun, daze, blind, or large amounts of forced movement more highly. These set up combat advantage and deny effective action. Penalties to attack can prevent bad status effects, like daze and stun, as well as damage, so that's probably next. Knock Prone and Immobilize are pretty close. Prone is often no penalty at all, but it has some great niche use in taking down fliers and when an enemy can't do any good action and stand. Immobilize works great on melee only monsters and combined with zones and such. Weaken is fine, but it's just less effective than that. Monsters don't do a ton of damage so weaken is only so good. Slow and some similar effects are... even further after that. Area effects get scored well overall, since you often fight a lot of monsters in 4e and it's important to clear out minions before they can do significant damage. Big areas that target enemies only are pure gold since you can output a ton of damage that way. Powers that use ability bonuses can often be much stronger for some characters than others. For low level powers, I'll assume a 2 to 6 range depending on the ability, but as levels progress that can climb into the 6-10 range for some builds so I'll need to take that into account. Under no circumstances will I consider a power that uses an ability score that it 'might be a 0 or 1' just to prove a power could be weaker, just as I won't assume that weapon powers use fists for poor damage and no proficiency bonus. Please feel free to disagree with any suggested grade I give at all, pointing out flaws in my logic, grading guidelines, etc. If a power is exceptional under extremely limited circumstances (Cause Fear on a large+ creature in a blood pulse area, for instance), please make note if that's why you're suggesting the change and otherwise it's some other grade. If comparing powers of different levels - for example a level 5 power to a level 1 power, note that I am grading in relation to other powers of its level so the level 5 is expected to be better (much as you'd expect a 5th grader's Math to be better than a 1st grader's, at the same grade level or even worse). I can't be exact in how much of a drop you'll see, but don't be surprised by at least a full letter difference. Daily Powers without a notable Effect or Miss result (or Reliable) will be marked down. [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?p=4365922#post4365922"]Daily 1 Analysis[/URL] [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4388174-post41.html"]Daily 5 Analysis[/URL] [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/4407647-post64.html"]Daily 9 Analysis[/URL] [url="http://www.enworld.org/forum/d-d-4th-edition-rules/235028-grading-daily-powers-6.html#post4701039"]Daily 15 Analysis[/url] *CLERIC* [sblock]-= Daily 1 =- B- / Avenging Flame A / Beacon of Hope C+ / Cascade of Light A- / Guardian of Faith -= Daily 5 = - A+ / Consecrated Ground C+ / Rune of Peace A / Spiritual Weapon A / Weapon of the Gods -= Daily 9 = - C+ / Astral Defenders B+ / Blade Barrier A / Divine Power B / Flame Strike -= Daily 15 = - B- / Holy Spark B+ / Purifying Fire B+ / Seal of Warding[/sblock] *FIGHTER* [sblock]-= Daily 1 =- C+ / Brute Strike B- / Comeback Strike B+ / Villain's Menace -= Daily 5 = - C+ / Crack the Shell C+ / Dizzying Blow A / Rain of Steel -= Daily 9 = - C+ / Shift the Battlefield C+ / Thicket of Blades C+ / Victorious Surge -= Daily 15 = - B- / Dragon's Fangs B / Serpent Dance Strike A+ / Unyielding Avalanche[/sblock] *PALADIN*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- C+ / On Pain of Death B- / Paladin's Judgement A- / Radiant Delirium -= Daily 5 = - B+ / Hallowed Circle B- / Martyr's Retribution B+ / Sign of Vulnerability -= Daily 9 = - B- / Crown of Glory B- / One Stands Alone C+ / Radiant Pulse -= Daily 15 = - C- / Bloodied Retribution C / Break the Wall B / True Nemesis[/sblock] *RANGER*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- C+ / Hunter's Bear Trap B+ / Jaws of the Wolf B- / Split the Tree C+ / Sudden Strike -= Daily 5 = - C+ / Excruciating Shot B+ / Frenzied Skirmish B+ / Splintering Shot B+ / Two-Wolf Pounce -= Daily 9 = - B+ / Attacks on the Run C- / Close Quarters Shot C / Spray of Arrows C / Swirling Leaves of Steel -= Daily 15 = - A- / Blade Cascade A- / Bleeding Wounds A / Confounding Arrows A / Stunning Steel [/sblock] *ROGUE*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- A- / Blinding Barrage C / Easy Target B- / Trick Strike -= Daily 5 = - C+ / Clever Riposte B- / Deep Cut C+ / Walking Wounded -= Daily 9 = - B- / Crimson Edge C+ / Deadly Positioning A / Knockout -= Daily 15 = - C / Bloody Path B+ / Garotte Grip C / Slaying Strike[/sblock] *WARLOCK*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- A / Armor of Agathys C / Curse of the Dark Dream C / Dread Star C / Flames of Phlegethos -= Daily 5 = - C+ / Avernian Eruption D+ / Crown of Madness D+ / Curse of the Bloody Fangs B+ / Hunger of Hadar -= Daily 9 = - C+ or B+ / Curse of the Black Frost C+ / Iron Spike of Dis C / Summons of Khirad C- / Thief of Five Fates -= Daily 15 = - NA / Curse of the Golden Mist C- / Fireswarm A / Tendrils of Thuban C- / Thirsting Maw[/sblock] *WARLORD*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- B+ / Bastion of Defense A+ / Lead the Attack B / Pin the Foe C+ / White Raven Onslaught -= Daily 5 = - B+ / Stand the Fallen D- / Turning Point C- / Villain's Nightmare -= Daily 9 = - C+ / Iron Dragon Charge B- / Knock Them Down C+ / White Raven Strike -= Daily 15 = - D+ / Make Them Bleed B- / Renew the Troops D- / Warlord's Gambit[/sblock] *WIZARD*[sblock]-= Daily 1 =- C / Acid Arrow A / Flaming Sphere B- / Freezing Cloud C / Sleep (Disclaimer: A+ for certain builds, particularly at Paragon+ Tier) B+ / Phantom Chasm -= Daily 5 = - B- / Bigby's Icy Grasp C+ / Fireball A / Stinking Cloud C- / Web -= Daily 9 = - B / Ice Storm C+ / Lightning Serpent C+ / Mordenkainen's Sword A / Wall of Fire -= Daily 15 = - B+ / Bigby's Grasping Hands C+ / Blast of Cold B- / Otiluke's Resilient Sphere A- / Prismatic Beams A+ / Wall of Ice[/sblock] Given the nature of daily powers, I expect the balance (and my own guesses) to be pretty all over the place, so your help is especially appreciated on these. [/QUOTE]
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