D&D 5E Recharge powers

[SailorNash]

I've been really hoping for this, but then again, I severely dislike short rests. "Long rest" classes go nova, and when the party stops people usually petition to stop for the night. If several characters can still go, it's hard for the one "short rest" class to convince everyone to slow down (and odd if these classes should be the ones most ready to go.)

Personally I wish this is how Warlock spell slots were controlled. Guaranteed two spells, but not limited so strictly to Hex + an emergency escape. Could have also been the key mechanic for Wild Mage abilities of whatever kind.

 

[redrick]

I've been really hoping for this, but then again, I severely dislike short rests. "Long rest" classes go nova, and when the party stops people usually petition to stop for the night. If several characters can still go, it's hard for the one "short rest" class to convince everyone to slow down (and odd if these classes should be the ones most ready to go.)

Personally I wish this is how Warlock spell slots were controlled. Guaranteed two spells, but not limited so strictly to Hex + an emergency escape. Could have also been the key mechanic for Wild Mage abilities of whatever kind.

Short rests should me much, much easier to get than long rests, making them an option when long rests are not. (And your "long rest" class who went nova for breakfast is just going to have to lump it.) The fact that all classes can spend hit dice during a short rest means that there's usually some benefit for everybody on a short rest, and if characters really have nothing to do, that just means more characters standing guard ready to rumble in the case of wandering monsters. Hell, an inventive group could even cook up a "holed up under fire" scene, where 3 characters try to keep a group of opponents at bay for an hour so their wounded fighter and warlock can spend some hit dice and recover his or her short rest abilities. (Obviously requiring thinking beyond the simple 6 second action clock. Probably a series of feints and attempts as monsters try to break through, get driven back, regroup, restrategize, try something new, wait for reinforcements. After one hour, whoosh, fireballz.)

 

[Yunru]

Wild Magic Sorcerer would of been perfect for recharge abilities. Alas.

 

[77IM]

Some of the artifact beneficial abilities (in the DMG) have a sort of recharge mechanic: the artifact lets you cast a spell 1/day, but you can roll a d6, and on a 6 (or I think sometimes 5-6) the spell is not used up for that day. So it's not the same as monsters where you roll again round after round, but it is an interesting variant.

 

[Raith5]

I have mixed feelings. Given that in 4e the idea of timing of martial powers proved to be a big issue of verisimilitude for some ("why can I only do this massive swing of my sword once per day"?), I cant see an easy space for recharging working this way. Recharging powers makes the fights more strategically interesting compared to 4e set recharging compared to time which did produce the rinse and repeat feeling from fight to fight.

But the idea of complete randomness rubs me the wrong way. Maybe making fighters having to make CON check, a cleric a religion skill check etc, something like that may more be "realistic" and not totally random.

 

[Li Shenron]

With all the various threads about building/introducing new classes, I'm wondering about something. (Or wondering again, really; this occurred to me back in 4E, but I never pursued it.)

Why do only monsters use "recharge on a d6" mechanics?

Certain magical abilities, or certain martial "it doesn't make sense that you can only do this once before resting" powers, might very well benefit from that mechanic. Recharge on a 6 means it'll probably only be allowed once per encounter, but it could be more, whereas recharge on a 4-6 will average every other round. That sort of thing. And it avoids both the abstract dilemmas inherent to "once per encounter" powers and the extra mechanics involved in trying to figure out if (for instance) one of the enemies saw you pull the trick on someone and are thus now not susceptible to it.

It also requires decisions like "Do I use my cool power now, and hope it recharges if I need it again, or do I save it for a few rounds so I know I have it?"

I wouldn't want to see it become too common, but for the occasional appropriately-flavored power (or maybe as the core mechanic for a specific new class), I think it opens up some interesting design room.

I think I've seen stuff like that in 3e. Don't remember exactly but it could have been e.g. how a Chaos Mage spellcasting worked.

It's certainly an option, but it has downsides. Namely, swinginess and more dice to rolls with typically a low success rate. Players keep rolling for nothing if the chance of success is low (even "recharges on a 4 on a 1d4" means 3 rounds out of 4 you're rolling for nothing), and if instead the chance of success is high then you're better off letting be non-random.

I would rather avoid such mechanics, and I'm not even a huge fan of that for monsters, or at least keep them extremely rare.

Instead, I think it would be different if rolling for that chance had a cost. Maybe you can push yourself beyond your limits, but it requires your action anyway even on a failure. This way, players wouldn't roll each round, but only when they think they really need it.

 

[pukunui]

I'm pretty sure I've seen something in 5e that can be recharged on a d6, and I'm not talking about the wands. It's something else. Not sure if it's a magic item, a random artifact property, an epic boon, or what.

Found it! The five dragon masks from Tyranny of Dragons all have the following property:

Dragon Breath. If you have a breath weapon that requires rest to recharge, it gains a recharge of 6.

 

[Henry]

and it starts to feel like their character is underperforming, like the dice are willfully denying them out of spite.

Or, in other words, a typical D&D session for me.

I think both mechanics could be cool, but perhaps if there were a way to balance this "power" set so that each table could choose (A) discrete X per interval or (B) random power rolls - a cop out answer, I know, but I'm a "drown me in choice" kinda guy, unlike the majority of players.

 

[SailorNash]

Short rests should me much, much easier to get than long rests, making them an option when long rests are not. (And your "long rest" class who went nova for breakfast is just going to have to lump it.)

If you're the DM, then yes, you can punish players for stretching themselves out too thin. But as a player you don't have that level of control. If there's more long-resters than short-resters then you're simply out-voted. If you were to somehow force everyone onward when you knew they weren't ready, you'd be setting them up to possibly die. Depending on how much they supported the rest of the party with those abilities, possibly even yourself as well via TPK.

I like scenarios that play out like the first episode of HotDQ - but even then, the dramatic pressure of "it's going to be a long night" scenarios often translates to no rests of any kind. But ultimately it's the DM's call as he's trying to keep the entire party happy, as well as the exact mechanics of that individual party.

That's why I feel that a given reset after a certain number of rounds would fit the "feel" of encounter powers and a rechargeable class a little better than the short rest mechanic...ideally you should be able to fit these in more easily, and thus the most able to perform on little to no rest, but in practice I really haven't really found that to be the case.

 

[Leon Stratton]

I'm trying a system of Recharge Powers for a ki blast system, but it's not like the MM 5-6 on a d6. It's a d4, smaller powers require a smaller number of d4, bigger powers require less. This is based on damage, which seems to be the metric of concern. you roll a number and wait for the number of rounds to be able to re-use it. In most cases, I feel like the powers will see two uses at most, with more uses as the fight drags out. My experience tells me that this benefits the players, who become more desperate as the fight drags on and resources get used up. i seem to remember a chart with average die rolls that I went looking for recently, and could not find. That would be helpful in figuring out the High/low ends of a particular die roll. Was it second edition?