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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 4731987" data-attributes="member: 12731">This thread got me thinking.What I don't like about general penalties to attacks is that it doesn't offers any alternatives or workarounds. It's just a penalty to everything you do; thus adding fuel to the fire for the "death spiral" critics.But what if we tie the consequences (for becoming bloodied, for being downed, for dying) to the centerpiece of the 4E design instead?That is, powers.As for myself, I have consequences for losing your hp foremost in my mind, so I'll use the termed "Downed Penalty". Feel free to apply my ideas to other stages of taking damage if you will.In the simplest (but crudest) case, the Downed Penalty is losing access to one of your powers for a certain length of time. This could mean randomly selecting one of your Encounter Powers, say.Losing an at-will should probably be reserved for a more serious injury, as this will have a greater impact on your character. I can also see that for some classes (TWB Ranger & Twin Strike) the loss of certain at-wills can be a disproportionate penalty.At best, this will force the player to think creatively, using seldom-used powers and generally be flexible to overcome his (temporary) handicap.At worst, it will not just make the character feel crippled (which after all is the intention <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> ) but actually feel like there's no choice left in the character. It is in this case it's perhaps best to apply a penalty to the selected power than outright disabling the entire power. A -2 penalty is probably appropriate, remembering it only applies to a single power (compared to the RAW -1 death penalty which doesn't change the way you play the character, since it applies equally to everything)As closing words, this suggestion is meant to feel "more natural" from the point of the 4E core design, than simple general penalties. It assumes no character becomes horribly gimped by the loss of any single power - only that the character becomes interestingly gimped by this loss... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f60e.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":cool:" title="Cool    :cool:"  data-smilie="6"data-shortname=":cool:" /> What do you think?</blockquote>

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