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Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 3094074" data-attributes="member: 12332">It would last "long enough to do what you wanted it to do", of course.Does having a 1d4 round duration for a spell really add to the enjoyment of the game?  Does having the buff run out "just when you need it most" really add to the enjoyment of the game?  Is a "random duration measured in rounds" different than "a random duration measured by the encounter"?I mean, both a 1d4 Rounds duration and 1 Encounter duration are "random".  One means the player marks the changes to his character once, when the spell is cast, and doesn't have to mess with anything again until the encounter ... the time when we'd like things to move quickly because so much is going on ... is over.  1d4 rounds, or 1rd/lvl, or whatever ... those cause the player to mark changes to his character at one point (when the spell is cast) and then at some random point DURING THE ENCOUNTER, when everybody is engaged in an action sequence of the game, he has to go back and make changes to his character again to reflect the buff going away.If the buff lasts until the end of the encounter, those un-buff changes can be made during post-encounter table talk or exposition, when time is less of a factor and people aren't going to be saying:  "Joe, quick, what do you do?" An Encounter need not be clearly defined, but it isn't hard to do ... an "Encounter" is similar to a "Scene" in a book or movie ... an encounter is the period of time in which a "complication" reveals itself and the characters take action to overcome it.  We can further narrow it down into:  "A period of time when one or more related decisions must be made and character abilities brought into play in order to confront a complication."An Encounter could be ... Lifting a fallen wagon off of a merchant.A fight with a monster.Convincing the king, during a state dinner, to support your adventure charter.Now, if you cast Eagle's Splendor to up your charisma for the "State Dinner" ... suddenly here's this encounter which, before, was very open and loose ... perhaps the dinner lasts several hours ... how long is the conversation?  A few moments as the king is on his way to the john or in bits and pieces of the course of the hour.  Now the GM has to plan out the state dinner ... and the state dinner itself isn't the actual ENCOUNTER, it's just the backdrop and flavor for the actual encounter "Convincing the king to support your adventure charter".  Is Eagle's Splendor going to last long enough to corner the king?  Well now we've got to find out how big the building is and how long it takes to walk in there and the GM has to fiat a time it takes the characters to corner the king, etc etc, adding alot of thought and paperwork to the BACKDROP instead of to the role playing encounter between the king and the character.  And it becomes his fiat as to whether the buff will work ... he can say:  "You've only got four minutes, but it takes you five to find the king" or "you walk in and find the king and ...".  If the spell, say, gave +4 to Charisma for "One Encounter" the character casts it and the role playing goes on and that's the end of it.--fje</blockquote>

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