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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions
Points of Light, Dawn War, and Magic Item Economy (4e)
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7819422" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>There is SOME truth to this, but as long as most options are fairly situational, then it is quite OK. This is how AD&D wizard spells worked. Sure, Fireball was a pretty good spell, but it really paid to also have Fly, Haste, Hold Person, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force, Water Breathing, etc. That isn't because they are 'balanced' really, it is just because, in a largely narrative game, it pays to have a lot of ways to skin any given cat so you can pick one with real impact. You could always just fireball the ogre, and MAYBE kill it, or you could hit it with Suggestion and maybe a reaction check, plus some rations and coppers, and get it to go help you kill some bugbears instead!</p><p></p><p>Now, with HoML, which is pretty 4e-like, things might seem different, but a lot of the play is focused on using niche effects. A 'daily' in HoML costs a VP, but it really will only be a great choice in a few situations, when it will really shine. OTOH an 'encounter' power costs nothing the first time you use it, and probably will work pretty well in most situations. You CAN pay a VP to use it again, but you probably won't do that too often, an at-will power will probably do well enough most of the time (and then the trade-off is whether you expend more points to heal yourself vs upping your damage output and you then have choices like extra action, etc. to choose from). </p><p></p><p>The point is, it seems to be a complex enough set of choices that there aren't any really super generic "this is always at least a good option" picks that become a 'no brainer'. Anyway, like 4e, you can always retrain, so things won't generally be your go-to forever. At worst you might optimize some certain power and use it a lot in a specific level range.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7819422, member: 82106"] There is SOME truth to this, but as long as most options are fairly situational, then it is quite OK. This is how AD&D wizard spells worked. Sure, Fireball was a pretty good spell, but it really paid to also have Fly, Haste, Hold Person, Suggestion, Phantasmal Force, Water Breathing, etc. That isn't because they are 'balanced' really, it is just because, in a largely narrative game, it pays to have a lot of ways to skin any given cat so you can pick one with real impact. You could always just fireball the ogre, and MAYBE kill it, or you could hit it with Suggestion and maybe a reaction check, plus some rations and coppers, and get it to go help you kill some bugbears instead! Now, with HoML, which is pretty 4e-like, things might seem different, but a lot of the play is focused on using niche effects. A 'daily' in HoML costs a VP, but it really will only be a great choice in a few situations, when it will really shine. OTOH an 'encounter' power costs nothing the first time you use it, and probably will work pretty well in most situations. You CAN pay a VP to use it again, but you probably won't do that too often, an at-will power will probably do well enough most of the time (and then the trade-off is whether you expend more points to heal yourself vs upping your damage output and you then have choices like extra action, etc. to choose from). The point is, it seems to be a complex enough set of choices that there aren't any really super generic "this is always at least a good option" picks that become a 'no brainer'. Anyway, like 4e, you can always retrain, so things won't generally be your go-to forever. At worst you might optimize some certain power and use it a lot in a specific level range. [/QUOTE]
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