House Rule : Everyone gets a free at-will : would it break anything?

[Garthanos]

All humans would then get Heroic Exertion.

Having three at-wills for lower tier feels like having rock paper and scissors as options...

If not all classes have 3 good enough at-wills damn that needs fixed

 

[Tony Vargas]

...

If not all classes have 3 good enough at-wills damn that needs fixed

Whether 3 of them are good enough or not, most classes have few enough at wills that everyone getting a third would reduce variation within pcs of the same class...

Which sounded worse before I typed it

 

[MwaO]

That might really up the power of classes with 3 good options - controllers in particular

 

[Garthanos]

Which sunder worse before I typed it

Sunder? or sounded?

 

[Garthanos]

It was pointed out once that most martial classes lacked somewhat the ability to target other defenses

in other words the magical types get an actual rock paper and scissors and the rest kind of do not. Wonder if that would be a way to up the choices for various classes

 

[Tony Vargas]

Attacking nonAC defenses with a weapon prof bonuses is a bit potent, of course....

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Honestly, for 99% of characters it would just be more useless clutter. 50% of all PCs have one at-will that they use virtually 100% of the time. Most others have 1 that they use 75% of the time and a second one they use only in set situations (against an especially weak defense, to attack a specific class of creatures, only at range, only in melee, etc). VERY few characters NEED an extra at-will. Its MORE useful if its something like the half-elf racial ability encounter use at-will power from a different class (for instance I've seen a few half-elves take Commander's Strike and get some mileage out of it in situations where they didn't have an exceptionally potent option, but an ally did). There are a few corner-cases of course. Many wizards would probably profit from adding another at-will to attack a different defense with, though often its still better to just use your optimum ones and not worry about it.

That's the thing really, most characters will pretty soon have SOMETHING that synergizes with their best at-will, and at that point its pretty unlikely they'll switch unless its a range-based constraint or some really unusual opportunity (maybe something hit with Frost Cheese they can abuse, something like that). Generally its not worth trying to enhance more than one of your at-wills, so a second one becomes a fallback and a third would probably just wither.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Honestly, for 99% of characters it would just be more useless clutter. 50% of all PCs have one at-will that they use virtually 100% of the time. Most others have 1 that they use 75% of the time and a second one they use only in set situations (against an especially weak defense, to attack a specific class of creatures, only at range, only in melee, etc).

Y'know, now that I think of it, the character I'm currently playing rarely ever uses an at-will, as in sometimes he'll even just use a basic attack rather than provoke with Brash Assault. Just not worth it the way epic monsters' basic attacks hit vs my allies' basics. My first character, OTOH, human with 3 at-wills (Commander's Strike, Wolf Pack Tactics, Furious Smash), made so much use of them I'd have to remind myself to use my Encounters. Even then, Furious Smash was the one I'd pull out only occasionally...

Second character, yeah, used Scorching Burst constantly, Ray of Frost infrequently.

Hmph.

 

[pemerton]

Thinking through the PCs in my game:

Ranger-cleric uses Twin Strike all the time, I think used Sacred Flame once when someone needed a saving throw;

Sorcerer uses Blazing Starfall (pumped by about half-a-dozen feats for area, damage, shift => teleportation => more (psychic) damage, etc) and the sorcerer melee at-will when making an OA or very occasionally if stuck in melee;

Paladin uses Enfeebling Strike with Power of Winter/Lasting Frost/Winter's Touch, and Valiant Strike when charging, making an OA or really needing radiant damage;

Fighter very rarely uses an at-will, but if he does it is most often Footwork Lure (which is buffed by feats, items etc to allow knocking prone) but he also uses Weapon Master's Strike (from Dragon magazine) that lets him switch between weapons, and gives a small damage buff with axe.

Invoker/wizard uses Hand of Radiance for multi-target (especially vs undead) or Mantle of the Infidel for range.​

The only character who might really benefit from a third at-will would be the invoker. For the rest, [MENTION=82106]AbdulAlhazred[/MENTION]'s conjecture holds good, I think.

 

[Garthanos]

Ie the conclusion seems to be meh at low levels and ignored at high levels... So the main feature is probably due to character specialization which occurs over time you become all "rock" or all "paper" or all "scissors", IE the root issue might be of course the situational benefits in D&D between those rock paper or scissors are very subtle. and totally overwhelmed by specialization benefits.