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

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 5837921" data-attributes="member: 58197">Technically, yes, this covers everything, but only because you threw in the catch-all "Conditional." You could get rid of all the other options and just have "Conditional" and "At-Will." A Daily power is a Conditional power where the condition is "You have not used this power since your last extended rest." An Encounter power is the same for short rests. An Always On power is an At-Will with an ongoing duration.However, I don't see why the Daily, Encounter, and Always On conditions should be given special prominence while everything else is crammed into the catch-all. Some other usage limits that deserve note:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Power Points. You have a number of "power points" that you spend to fuel your abilities. Once you run out, you're out, until you recharge in some way.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Tokens. Similar to power points, but you get more each time some event occurs in combat (you get hit, you hit an opponent, etc.). Yes, the Iron Heroes version was too fiddly, but it could be streamlined.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Threshold. You can only use the ability once some event or series of events has occurred (you become bloodied, you kill an opponent, etc.). After you hit the threshold, you can use the ability for the rest of combat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Triggered. When a certain event occurs, you can use the ability in response, but you have to do it right then--you can't hold it for later.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Material Components. You must expend some long-term material resource, such as cash or charges from a magic item, to power the ability.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cast From Life. You must weaken yourself in some way to power the ability. This could mean imposing a temporary condition such as weakened or slowed; sacrificing hit points, surges, or Constitution points; etc.</li> </ul>I dare say there are others. Those are just the ones I thought of.Another thing to keep in mind is that some of these mechanics are front-loaded (daily, encounter, power points, material components, cast from life), others are back-loaded (tokens, threshold), and others are neither (at-will, triggered, always on). Front-loaded mechanics use a resource that you have a lot of when combat starts, and spend down as the fight continues. Back-loaded mechanics use a resource that you have little or none of when combat starts, but accumulate as the fight continues.D&D has long favored front-loaded mechanics. This is a problem because front-loaded mechanics are bad for pacing and encourage "nova tactics." At the start of the fight, everyone unloads their big guns, and one of two things happens. One, the battle ends right there, which is often unsatisfying and anticlimactic. Two, the battle does not end, and everyone has to slug it out with the little guns, which easily descends into grind.I would like to see 5E use a mix of front-loading and back-loading. With back-loaded mechanics, the intensity of combat builds rather than falling off; as the fight progresses, bigger and bigger guns come out, and combat ends with a bang rather than a whimper. That's not to say front-loaded mechanics should go away entirely, but there should be less of them.</blockquote>

Verification