ongoing damage and readied action

[N8Ball]

I'll take this opportunity to point out a common house rule, one even used by Mike Mearls*: move ongoing damage to the end of the turn just before rolling saves.

While convenient for tracking and inconsequential for many situations, it also has the added effect of making the Battlerage Vigor Feature EVEN MORE powerful, since ongoing damage was one of the few ways to prevent the BV fighter from getting his additional +2 damage with his axe (because the ongoing dmg would normally wipe his temp hp before he acts).

The disproportionate power of BV has been discussed ad nauseum in other threads, but most would agree that it certainly doesn't need any more help.

 

[James McMurray]

There are no BVs in our game, so it doesn't matter (yet).

 

[Diirk]

I'll take this opportunity to point out a common house rule, one even used by Mike Mearls*: move ongoing damage to the end of the turn just before rolling saves. It removes the situation where a player is sitting at 9 hit points and waiting for his turn to roll around so he can take 10 onoging damage and fall over. It also ensures that the ongoing damage hits once even when caused by a readied action.

No it doesn't actually. eg Bob the wizard, on his turn, shoots Tim the paladin with an acid arrow. Tim goes next, laughs at the wizard, and uses divine mettle to remove the effect before he takes any damage. Even if it was a readied action, chances are Tim still has a minor action available afterwards to get rid of it.

So if anything, that house rule weakens save ends effects even more.

 

[James McMurray]

You're right, it only ensures that the ongoing damage hits after a readied action in a normal flow of events. Abilities or powers that alter that flow will of course change it. You're also right that it weakens ongoing damage. Since that was Mearls's intention, and the reason we instituted the house rule ourselves, it's not surprising.

 

[Dracorat]

As far as the whole situation played out in the OP, I don't think there's any issue.

While OGD spells are balanced for the OGD to be taken at least once, not everything is the right spell to use in every situation. This is a good example of why.