Review - Combat Advantages #14

[Neuroglyph]

If you haven't checked it out yet, Combat Advantages #14 free-zine is now out and it's got alot of great content in it. I just completed a review of it on my 4e blogsite -

Friday's 4e Freebie - Combat Advantages #14: "Savages"

 

[Alex319]

I only read the first article (the one about the mercs) and here are my thoughts. I thought it was an interesting idea but needs lots of editing. In particular, it's not clear whether "bite the hand," "brutality", "experience awards", "ruthless appearance", and "signature kill" are benefits that all mercs get, if they're examples of "special benefits" that badges give you, or if you choose one of them. Also here are my thoughts on them:

"Bite the Hand" - This seems well designed. Definitely very flavorful and adds lots of roleplaying opportunities. The only thing is the rewards seem way too small. Remember that most XP comes from encounters, and only a small amount from quest rewards (IIRC, the DMG recommended values were something along the lines of 80% from encounters, 10% from major quests, and 10% from minor quests) so a +10% increase to quest XP is really more like a +1-2% increase to total XP: not even worth keeping track of. I would up the XP values a lot (say instead of +10%/+20%, use +50%/+100%, or even +100%/+200%. Alternatively replace the percentage of XP with a percentage of the amount of XP needed to reach the next level in order to make the system robust to DMs that use significantly different encounter XP/quest XP ratios.

Brutality: This seems like a lot of work to keep track of. If there are five monsters in the encounter and five PCs, but only two of the PCs have the Brutality advantage, do you have to keep track of which PCs killed which monsters? Also suppose five PCs take down a 1000 XP solo, so they each get 200 XP, and one of them uses Brutality - does he get an extra 20 XP (+10% of his share) or an extra 100 XP (10% of the monster's XP value)? Can more than one PC Brutalize the same monster? Can you "turn off" your Brutality in order to avoid the penalty to being tracked, and if so how does that work? Also it becomes more complicated when combined with Signature Kill - the PCs must decide which monsters to get Brutality XP from and which to get the SK bonus from.

Experience Awards: This part just seems wrong:

(1) It's completely unthematic. "Mercenary" as described makes me think of "someone who will do whatever they need to do to get the job done," not "someone who goes around killing random people, even if they have nothing to do with the mission, in order to become more powerful."

(2) The 25 XP is low enough that once you've gotten past the first few levels, it's probably not worth the time to do unless you can kill lots of people in one fell swoop. And as described in (1), mass murder doesn't seem very "mercenary" to me.

Ruthless Appearance - Does the +1 to Charisma bonus per 4 levels stack with the +2 Diplomacy/Streetwise/Intimidate bonus?

Also, you should specify that the Charisma bonus only applies to Charisma based skill checks, not any other Charisma based effects. It seems both unbalanced and silly for a warlock's eldritch blast to get more powerful just because the target recognizes him (or to get less powerful when used against law enforcement trying to capture him).

Signature Kill - The benefit should probably reset after an extended rest and not "24 hours". But overall it seems good. Enough incentive to add a little flavor to the end of each encounter, but limited so that it doesn't become overpowering.

 

[EP]

Each idea presented were designed as optional house rules for the GM to pick and choose as best suits their campaign. If they were all connected with badges, that would be the GM's call but there were intended to be separate.

Bite the Hand: I chose 10% to quest XP because though players are roleplaying characters willing to stab each other in the back, giving them significant boosts to bring them to level sooner than others tends to break with the overall concept of 4E (you are still members of the same party). But your math does make sense and I'd go so far as to bump quest XP by 25%-50%. In my group, I hand them out in batches of 50-100 XP because cell phones don't make good calculators (and iPhones are too much of a distraction).

Brutality: I always left this up to the players to keep track of. As the GM, I inform them once they've killed a target that it was a brutal kill and to mark that down on their character sheet, notepad, or whatever scrap of paper they have. This award is for any single creature they reduce to 0 hp in a particularly brutal fashion so if they make the last strike against a 1000 XP solo, then they get a 10% bonus to their 200 XP share. Once you get brutal, however, you can be tracked as the evidence of your brutality cannot be erased (per se, but you can roleplay your way out of it, I'm sure).

Players would have to choose between the brutality and signature kill bonus but only if they already have a sig kill bonus that hasn't been used yet. But a little strategic selection is a good thing, I find.

Experience Awards: The idea behind this is not that a mercenary would commit mass murder for the fun of it but might be hired to ambush a caravan, kill the driver, and get rid of anyone who gets in their way. Or even sack a village. Since they're being paid to do it, it works towards their career. Once they do reach a higher level, 25 XP becomes redundant and useless but paragon and epic characters would hardly find any commoner a challenge.

Ruthless Appearance: The Charisma bonus does stack. Bear in mind too that the Charisma bonus does not apply unless the target is made aware of the PC's identity so a warlock firing off an eldritch blast won't be recognized by every target he encounters (unless he wants to go all Diego Montoya with every creature he fights from now on).

Signature Kill: Hmm, the extended rest does work better and is easier to keep track. Makes sense to me.

Just as with playing mercenaries doesn't always agree with every player, not all GMs are going to like and appreciate these rules. I tried to come up with a delicate balance of roleplaying reward versus party balance and wanted to show some appreciation for a little in-character in-fighting but not excel it to the point of constant war. I was worried that offering too high an incentive to kill civilians and make deals behind the party's back could become too distracting if the rules provided offered a big reward. With mercenaries campaigns in particular, GM discretion is advised.

Hope these comments helped answer your questions.

 

[CapnZapp]

Unbelievably neither this thread nor the review contains an easily accessible direct link to the material under discussion.

So let me add what the reviewer failed to add:
http://www.emeraldpresspdf.com/resources/CA14_Savages.pdf

As for the merc article, I feel adding XP bonuses is a bad idea. 4E has no in-game uses for XP like 3E did. Not levelling up at the same time just means some characters effectively get a -1 penalty on everything compared to those of their allies that did level up ahead.

Just like the death penalty, except this time you didn't do anything wrong.

 

[EP]

hehe, thanks for the link, Cap.

Honestly, it hasn't been a problem in my playtest group and they even flaunt it. Every session ends with an "XP measuring contest" as they whip out their character sheets and see who's got the most (the biggest discrepancy was 70 XP). Most encounters have each player doing something to give their XP a boost and we haven't leveled up yet while leaving someone behind. Not to say that it won't happen but all players are encouraged enough by the bonus XP to always gain a little extra.

The reason why I chose XP rather than anything else for some rewards is that handing out XP is like giving away free money - players' eyes light up. It's something they're all working towards collecting and everyone likes to make a little more than everyone else. That's why I've kept the XP bonuses fairly low to keep everyone within the same level (save for one encounter at the most) and give them something for their roleplaying efforts. It's also fitting with the mercenary lifestyle and one little +50 XP bonus can really bring out that trait in a player without turning it into a big thing.

We have been toying with an alternate idea however. All bonus XP is collected separately. Once a PC has 500 personal XP, they can select a talent (a series of articles from CA4, CA5, and CA12 on Heroic, Paragon, and Epic Talents) for their character. Then everyone goes up in level simultaneously regardless and players can still receive a little something-something for their extra efforts.

When it comes down to it, whatever unlocks your players' innate greed will do the trick. I've always felt that too much hand-holding can take away from the fun and goes against the agenda of a merc campaign (which is why it's recommended for mature players who understand that a game is just a game and don't mind a little healthy competition). It's not for everyone.

 

[Alex319]

Interesting. I was going to write a follow up post saying that instead of doing XP bonuses, the reward should be something along the lines of "reputation points," which players can use or turn in for some sort of reward. That seems like it would make more sense than XP for the following reasons:

1. It's more thematic. It makes sense that if a mercenary spent a lot of time building his reputation, that he would get some sort of special reputation based bonus (like access to contacts or bonuses on diplomacy checks), but it makes less sense that his spells would get more powerful.

2. It's more flavorful. XP awards just go into the same pool along with the regular XP awards, but if you pull them out into a new system, then it makes them more unique. Also if you are trying to compelte for who gets the awards, it makes that part a little easier to keep track of.

3. Different groups handle XP very differently. For example, some of the groups I've been in has the DM hand out XP at the end of every session, some at the end of every encounter, some don't bother with XP and the DM just tells you when you level, some have more "attendance bonuses" or "roleplaying bonuses" than others, etc. (I don't think I've ever been in a group that does it exactly the way the DMG describes.) Tying the bonus reward system to the XP award system makes it less compatible with all these different XP systems.

That seems kind of like what you're suggesting with the 500 xp = 1 talent system. But maybe you could have a separate list of rewards just for the bonus XP.

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Also, just some clarifications:

Brutality: My question about "turning off" the Brutality was not, if I Brutalize an opponent can I erase the evidence. It was, when I kill an opponent, can I choose not to Brutalize him if I want to stay hidden?

Also the way it's described, the 10% XP bonus seems to me to be more like a (10%/n) XP bonus, where n is the number of characters in the party. For example, suppose that there are five characters in the party, and five 100 XP opponents. Each character kills one opponent.

Without Brutality - Each character gets a 20 XP share from each monster, for 100 XP total.

With Brutality - Each character gets a 22 XP share (20 + 10% Brutality bonus) from the monster he killed, and 20 XP from all the other monsters (since he wasn't the one that killed the other monsters, he doesn't get the Brutality bonus) for 102 XP total.

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Experience Awards: I see what you're saying, but that wasn't the impression I got from the article. The article explicitly says that you get the XP rewards for civilians you kill "even off the job," which implies to me that it's regardless of if the target is related to the job. Maybe you should clarify it by saying only if killing the guy helps advance the mission in some way or makes it more likely to be undetected.

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Ruthless Appearance: So you mean the Charisma bonus does apply to attack and damage rolls for Charisma based powers? If I were a high paragon tier warlock merc, I certainly would "go all Diego Montoya" (I assume you mean Inigo Montoya, as in "I am Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die") on every enemy if it would give me +4 to attack and damage rolls for the entire encounter. This also makes charisma based characters much more powerful than characters with other primary ability stats.

 

[EP]

Interesting. I was going to write a follow up post saying that instead of doing XP bonuses, the reward should be something along the lines of "reputation points," which players can use or turn in for some sort of reward. That seems like it would make more sense than XP for the following reasons:

We have another idea from CA6 called reputation feats that work very much along this very principle. Hmm, what if we re-worked reputation feats for mercs and offered them up to replace XP awards. They can be handed out for specific actions or those related to using brutality, signature kills, and the like. Let me see what I can come up and we can work that in as an alternative - our first adventure is a merc adventure and I'd like to have something like this available when it releases. I'll take everything posted here into consideration as I'm hearing more against XP rewards than for it.

As for brutality, you can always chose not to be brutal and avoid being tracked. Brutality is more of a consequence to chopping off every orc's head and leaving them on pikes across the battlefield - if you simply kill them and leave them where they lay, less trace you're the one who did it.

 

[Neuroglyph]

Unbelievably neither this thread nor the review contains an easily accessible direct link to the material under discussion.

So let me add what the reviewer failed to add:
http://www.emeraldpresspdf.com/resources/CA14_Savages.pdf

I'm sorry, I thought folks would just click the link that was embedded in the pic of the product itself. I thought that was a more attractive way of doing it. I'll be sure to add a second link in my articles to ensure that folks don't have issues finding them.

And I actually feel that the XP rewards make a great deal of sense as written. The point of the article is to encourage and foster a role-play environment that will make Players step outside their "comfort zone" (and gosh, I certainly hope it is outside their comfort zone) and portray themselves as walking a line of villainly and ruthlessness.

I always give out end of adventure exps for great roleplaying moments that amused me as a DM, and these XP rewards help to add structure to what is invariably a subjective system.