Prices of Power in Practice
I am not just introducing new practices I am trying to fix their value it has been pointed out DMs really can just enable the effects of martial practices even allowing the healing surge cost. The DMG2 has a guideline that defines the relative value and the use space for both practices and rituals which goes beyond by establishing a suggested improvisation effectiveness.
Most easily expressed a skill check can be used to allow a practice to not have that healing surge cost. This feature allows the cost of practices to act more like rituals for instance while low level rituals are often still useful at higher levels their cost effectively fades out.
We also have contexts for use of Karma Points for practices (such as those being rehearsed into something akin to a scroll).
The following rather addresses those costs
Prices of Power in Practice
One of the things MPIII intends is to assure that the price of practices are “worth it”.
What is the grand level effect of knowing/employing the right practice - the DMG2 gives us an answer - success in a skill challenge, this is a take out from those guidelines associated with improvised use of money and healing surges, they present and will be leveraged fairly heavily. So if you do not agree with this the conclusion here may not jive for you.
The DMG2 accredited pocket cash of 1/10 of a magic item cost equates to a healing surge expenditure and the monetary price of a success in a skill challenge. This in combination brings the conclusion that Martial Practices are usually too expensive when compared to rituals. (which looking at the numbers range from ¼ to rarely ⅔ one would expect and Martial Practices are full cost. The proposed method for bringing that cost in line for MP using Healing Surges is basically a Skill Check. Practices and rituals effectively about purchasing improved efficiency for something which one might otherwise improvise a payment to do.
In other words practices are improved efficiency at something the heroic might indeed be able to do anyway. And they can continue to act as inspirations for those who might prefer more free form improvisational acts.
So in effect any practice whose cost was either a full healing surge or 1/10 item cost can arguably be attempted without purchasing any practice and ought to be effectively free in the sense that it is reimbursed we have several of that scale -- These are generally ones which can be seen as providing story for something you can already do by baseline 4e assumptions (such as controlling the nature of your character advancement).
Column 1 is level - and column 2 below represents the baseline cost that someone improvising - subsequent columns are varying efficiencies above that base line - generally) . and the final column is a DC which can be used to modify a Healing Surge cost with a Skill Roll .(level isnt always the level at which you gain the practice many rituals have costs to use significantly lower)
Karma Costs [full], ¼, ⅓, ½ and DCs
- [36] → 9 or 12 or 18 (DC 15)
- [52] → 13 or 17 or 26
- [68] → 15 or 23 or 34 (DC 16)
- [84] → 21 or 28 or 42
- [100] → 25 or 33 or 50 (DC 17)
- [180] → 45 or 60 or 90
- [260] → 65 or 87 or 130 (DC 18)
- [340] → 85 or 113 or 170
- [420] → 105 or 140 or 210 (DC 19)
- [500] → 125 or 153 or 250
- [900] → 225 or 300 or 450 (DC 20)
- [1300] → 325 or 433 or 650
- [1700] → 425 or 533 or 850 (DC 21)
- [2100] → 525 or 700 or 1050
- [2500] → 625 or 833 or 1250 (DC 22)
- [4500] → 1125 or 1500 or 2250
- [6500] → 1525 or 2166 or 3250 (DC 23)
- [8500] → 2125
- [10500] → 2625 (DC 24)
- [12500] → 3125
- [22500] → 5625 (DC 25)
- [32500] → 8125
- [42500] → 10625 (DC 26)
- [52500] → 13125
- [62500] → 15625 (DC 27)
- [112500] → 28125
- [162500] → 40625 (DC 28)
- [212500] → 53125
- [312500] → 78125 (DC 29)
- [562500] → 140625
I should probably have 3 DCs per level to represent different efficiencies just as I have 3 karma costs.