I got to play Scalegloom and Escape from Sembia

[Elodan]

How is this any different from 3e's ongoing effects, except for the fact that in 3e, you don't have any chances to stop ongoing effects if you fail your initial save? Heat Metal gives one saving throw when you cast it, then takes it's full effect if you fail. No chance to get it off next round. Your 2 hp example is even worse off in 3e because you don't have the chance to end the effect each round, and you have less negative hit points and are more likely to die.

I think the biggest issue was that if I were hit by an acid arrow in 3E, I would have the chance in the 2nd round to do something to mitigate the effect before I took damage. This was because the ongoing effect didn't go off until it was the turn of the guy who lobbed it at you (at least, that's how we play it). In this playtest, the first thing you do on your turn is take the damage.

The thing that compounded it for me was that the duration keeps going until you make the save. I missed 4 rolls before I dropped.

It just felt that I was more helpless to do anything to prevent the ongoing damage.

 

[Elodan]

It's any number per short rest; only one during an encounter (as a Second Wind; you might get more due to special abilites and skills).

This is effectively no different to 3rd edition, where past level 1 the wand of cure light wounds and similar magicks meant that every group always began each encounter on full hit points.

Of course, you *do* run out of healing surges if the day goes on long enough. It's just that it isn't the four-encounter (or one encounter) day any more... you can do more each day.

Cheers!

The more I think about it the more I'm fine with this mechanic.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think the biggest issue was that if I were hit by an acid arrow in 3E, I would have the chance in the 2nd round to do something to mitigate the effect before I took damage. This was because the ongoing effect didn't go off until it was the turn of the guy who lobbed it at you (at least, that's how we play it). In this playtest, the first thing you do on your turn is take the damage.

The thing that compounded it for me was that the duration keeps going until you make the save. I missed 4 rolls before I dropped.

It just felt that I was more helpless to do anything to prevent the ongoing damage.

I allowed the character to spend a standard action to get a free save. But the initial damage at the start of his turn stayed. This can give you control, if you really want it, but it's still costly.
If there won't be specific rules for this, I guess I will have to codify it myself sometime. (I heard somewhere that you could use Heal in some cases, so there might already be an existing framework I could build on. Like using Diplomacy to stop a charm or compulsion on your ally, and stuff like that. Though I don't know yet what "stuff like that" would be ).

 

[Iron Sky]

I think the biggest issue was that if I were hit by an acid arrow in 3E, I would have the chance in the 2nd round to do something to mitigate the effect before I took damage. This was because the ongoing effect didn't go off until it was the turn of the guy who lobbed it at you (at least, that's how we play it). In this playtest, the first thing you do on your turn is take the damage.

The thing that compounded it for me was that the duration keeps going until you make the save. I missed 4 rolls before I dropped.

It just felt that I was more helpless to do anything to prevent the ongoing damage.

What could you do in 3E to stop melf's damage? Cast dispel magic on yourself? If you're a 3E non-caster(or a caster at low levels where melfs is more likely to be used) and have several rounds of melfs acid arrow on you, what did you do to get rid of it?

It's stated that the heal skill can be used to "grant a saving throw," so my guess is there'd be the option to use the heal skill on yourself/someone else to do just that. If your buddy sacrifices his turn to make a heal check, he can give you another chance to save before you take the damage, while if you make a heal check on yourself, you'll take the damage first but then get two chances to save(1 from the heal check, 1 at the end of your turn) - this is my best guess anyway.

Individual actions are "cheaper" in 4E than they were in 3E, so this might be viable if ending a status effect/ongoing damage is more important to you than whatever else you might have spent your turn doing...

Also, if you are with a paladin, he has Divine Mettle, which gives you a chance to make an immediate saving throw - with a bonus. I would bet other classes, leader role classes especially, get more powers like these as well.

Another case of 4E's teamwork beats individualism mentality.

 

[Xorn]

Bear in mind the dragon's initial breath doesn't auto-hit for at least half damage, and the damage is 1d12+3. That's not very much from a dragon! If the damage was 1d12+8 and the save was at the beginning of your round--would that make it better?

I would not be at all surprised to see a feat allowing immediate saves for certain things (plenty of monsters do it already). But the above scenario is exactly what I said to a wizard player that mentioned it seemed stupid since he was just going to die on his turn (he had 3 health left after the dragon blasted him).

The paladin and cleric (with great effort and Opportunity Attacks drawn) managed to aid the wizard before his turn. It felt awesome, to us--because the paladin granted a +3 save, it was like changing the damage from 1d12+8 1d12+3. It's all frame of mind.