Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Camelot" data-source="post: 6164573" data-attributes="member: 82617">Existing Solutions that I Don't LikeWhen trying to do research to find out how other DMs solve the problem of the 15-minute workday in 4th edition, I found two main categories:1. The DM has to build the adventure to prevent taking extended rests until a certain point in the adventure is reached.  Time limits, collapsing dungeon entrances, wandering monsters, and the like all fall into this category.2. The DM restricts the players in some way unless they gain momentum by not taking extended rests.  For example, the Angry DM's solution is to disallow the uses of high level daily powers, unlocking the next level after each encounter.I don't like Option 1 because it usually requires extra work for the DM, or else is transparently a gimmick that makes the players roll their eyes and lose their suspension of disbelief.  I don't like Option 2 because it isn't fun for the players to have their power and options limited.  I want a solution that is effortless to implement, fun for the players, and still encourages them to continue on to the next encounter without stopping for an extended rest, as long as they have the healing surges to handle it.This led me to the creation of the Hero Score.Using the Hero Score (If You Read Anything in this Post, Read This)After each extended rest, each character's Hero Score is reset to 0.  This score increases by 1 at each milestone, but then resets after an extended rest.  The higher the score, the more benefits the heroes get (each score includes the benefits from all scores below it):Hero Score 1: When you miss with an at-will attack power, unless you rolled a natural 1, you can choose to grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn to turn the miss into a hit.  You do not gain the effects of any class features or the opportunity to use any additional powers that would not have been available if you had missed. Hero Score 2: When you hit with an at-will attack power, you can choose to grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn to turn the hit into a critical hit.  You do not gain the effects of any class features or the opportunity to use any additional powers that trigger on a critical hit. Hero Score 3: When you miss with an encounter attack power, unless you rolled a natural 1, you can choose to grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn to turn the miss into a hit.  In addition, you can now gain the effects of any class features and the opportunity to use additional powers that trigger on a hit with the benefit for having a hero score of 1. Hero Score 4: When you hit with an encounter attack power, you can choose to grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn to turn the hit into a critical hit.  In addition, you can now gain the effects of any class features and use additional powers that trigger on a critical hit for having a hero score of 2. Hero Score 5: When you miss with a daily attack power, unless you rolled a natural 1, you can choose to grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn to turn the miss into a hit.  In addition, there is no limit to the number of action points you can spend in a single encounter.Since this system is a pure buff to the players, it is important that you implement it alongside a pure debuff system (unless your players find the game too difficult, but if they think 4e is hard, I have no pity).  The one I plan on using is a modified version of the Injury Deck from Dungeon Magazine, but it could also work with stronger monsters to make combat faster, less magic items to make magic more magical, etc.My Reasoning Behind the SystemThe debuff system used alongside the Hero Score is important, because it starts off by making the game more difficult.  You may ask, "Why wouldn't the heroes want to take an extended rest after every encounter if they're harder?"  The DM has to let the players know about the Hero Score and what it does, and it should be very enticing.  -2 defense for a round for an auto crit?  Yes, please.The intention is that taking extended rests after every encounter becomes taxing rather than rejuvenating, especially if the debuff system being used imposes conditions on the characters that do not get automatically healed from a long rest, while continuing gradually overcomes the debuff system the longer you go.The reason I add the "You do not gain the effects of any class features...etc." is because I don't want abuse of this system to get too out of hand.  It's still worth the combat advantage to turn 0 damage into 6 damage, but turning it into 12+ damage (for some strikers) seems ridiculous.  Also, since it's supposed to only be useful for at-will attacks on 1 and 2, many Essentials-style classes have encounter powers that do automatic extra damage after hitting, without needing another attack, so I don't want them to be able to use those until the other classes are also allowed to access the benefit with encounter powers.Finally, the additional effect of level 5 is there because a group that makes it that far possibly has extra action points that they normally would not be able to use if there is only one encounter left.  This lets you save up action points if you don't need them, as long as you intend on adventuring for many milestones, and makes final boss fights all the more awesome and fun.You may also ask, "Why does it only go up to 5?"  By the time the heroes have reached a Hero Score of 5, they have survived 10 encounters in a row and if that is even possible in your game then kudos, so an entry for Hero Score 6 is highly unnecessary in my opinion.Unfortunately, my gaming group has fallen apart since before I came up with this idea and I have no way of actually testing this in a real game, so it's purely hypothetical at the moment.What Are Your Thoughts?</blockquote>

Verification