Rules that still feel unneeded (to me)

[Walking Dad]

True, but that still has nothing to do with the Second Wind.

But: If you use Second Wind you use up one of your healing surges...

(Did I just not understand you?)

I believe APs will also be needed to activate some powers - those with the frequency of use listed as "milestone". (They call the AP you receive every two encounters a milestone, so...)

And remember Second Wind is also spent when other people heal you, so it's pretty much integrated with the system.

? You spend healing surges when healed by other people. That has nothing to do with using up your Second Wind.

Did you want to say, that you have not to spend your second wind to use healing surge? I think Klimax just typed Second Wind, but meant Healing Surge.

 

[Quantarum]

All bloodied tells the players is that the mob is half dead, not usually what they really want to know: "Will my next attack drop this thing?"

-Q.

 

[Dragonblade]

Eberron/SW Saga action points SUCK. NO level based APs!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you.

That being said, since you can only use one per encounter anyway, I don't see the point of hoarding them, or the every other encounter recharge. Just give 1 per encounter. It seems easier that way. Perhaps there are feats that let you spend more than 1 in an encounter...

Bloodied is good and I like that powers can be keyed off of it. But no negative penalties please. I hate death spiral mechanics.

Second Wind is an excellent mechanic the reduces the need for heal bots. I like it.

 

[Walking Dad]

All bloodied tells the players is that the mob is half dead, not usually what they really want to know: "Will my next attack drop this thing?"

-Q.

This is so metagamy
Perhaps there is a power or feat for this (like Deathwatch: but this was an EVIL spell)

 

[Cadfan]

There are a number of changes that I do not think are necessary.

But I generally think they will be fun.

Like Action Points. I don't think the game really needs action points. If there weren't any action points I wouldn't miss them. But, apparently the game has them. OK. Its not like they subtract fun from the game. Maybe my players will get a kick out of them.

Same with dragonborn, tieflings, eladrin.... ok, from my perspective, same with dwarves too. They do nothing for me. But my players might have fun. And that makes me happy.

 

[frankthedm]

I'll add one: "milestone."

1 milestone = 2 encounters. But why the heck shouldn't "per milestone" stuff just be "per encounter"? They've got three paragraphs on Action Points explaining how often you get them and how often you can use them; would it really change game balance drastically for them to say, "1 AP per encounter"?

The beauty of milestones is that they encourage players to keep going. Unless combat 1 trounces them, they go onto encounter two and rack up a milestone, now they will want to use that milestone, thus they will go to encounter three. Now after encounter three, they are just one more encounter from another milestone and get a subtle hint to ''push on. If they win encounter 4, they now want to use that milestone and as they end encounter 5, just one more encounter from milestone 6.

It was fully intended to be a vicious cycle.

 

[Cadfan]

Exactly. At any given moment, one more fight will allow you to either 1) obtain a milestone, or 2) use a milestone.

 

[Ingolf]

"High Fantasy" and "Cinematic Action" go hand in hand for me, so I like all three of these options to the extent they will help me produce more cinematic action scenes in my games.

Did anyone else notice that some of the stat blocks we've seen include action points for monsters? That combined with some of the "when bloodied" abilities have a lot of potential (in my mind at least) for even more action-packed/dramatic fight scenes.

 

[Will]

Personally, I like these three elements (I have issues with others).

Second Wind and Healing Surges makes me eager to try a low-magic game with no regular healers, and still have some way to keep some of the dramatic pacing people like to see in games.

 

[Valdrax]

* Added a negative condition to 'bloodied'. The all-or-nothing aspect has always bugged me, and while I don't necessarily want a death spiral, I'd like some thing more than what we've always had.

I think the negative associated with the bloodied condition is the fact that you can now be targeted by certain abilities.

For a more concrete example of this, you can look at the Tiefling's +1 to hit bloodied opponents, or more viciously, the abilities that gnolls get:
A gnoll marauder gets a free bite attack as a secondary attack against bloodied foes.
A gnoll demonic scourge knocks bloodied enemies prone with a flail attack and grants a free attack to an adjacent ally when they bloody an opponent.
All gnolls, including the huntmaster and the claw fighter, do extra damage against bloodied foes.

The bloodied mechanic, for gnolls, really gives you the sense of being worn down by a hungry pack of predators. I think that makes it an excellent addition. (In addition to everything everyone else has said about it letting you know how well you're doing against a monster.)