D&D 4E Testing "Try 4e" house rules

[kennew142]

In the final adventure of our long-running Sword Coast campaign, we tried out the 1-1-1-1 diagonals, the squared spell areas and the death and dying rules.

The movement didn't change too much about the encounters. This was still 3e D&D, the characters were high level and iterative attacks were still the rule of the day.

I expected the squared off spell effects to bother me. I am easily disturbed by things that don't look right on the table, but they didn't. It was a surprise to me and to every other player at the table.

The death and dying rules were awesome. We were fighting fire giants and drow, and these rules made the game more fun. Our cleric was able to concentrate on blade barriers, holy words and other coolness.

 

[MerricB]

In the final adventure of our long-running Sword Coast campaign, we tried out the 1-1-1-1 diagonals, the squared spell areas and the death and dying rules.

The movement didn't change too much about the encounters. This was still 3e D&D, the characters were high level and iterative attacks were still the rule of the day.

I expected the squared off spell effects to bother me. I am easily disturbed by things that don't look right on the table, but they didn't. It was a surprise to me and to every other player at the table.

The death and dying rules were awesome. We were fighting fire giants and drow, and these rules made the game more fun. Our cleric was able to concentrate on blade barriers, holy words and other coolness.

Thanks muchly for that report, kennew!

I'm fascinated by your comments on the squared spell-effects. We haven't used them (not least because I doubt they'll be in 4e), but your results surprise me.

Actually, just thinking about it, a square is much easier to position than the odd shape that is the fireball template. I've often spent a minute or two in DDM or D&D trying to get as many foes in it as possible, and finding the little bits that are missing around the corners somewhat frustrating...

Cheers!

 

[catsclaw227]

I am considering introducing some of the same 4e-style rules into our next game session, scheduled for March 1st:

• Second Wind - If a PC is between 0 and 1/4 hitpoints, they can use a second wind to get back up to 1/4 HP.
• Death & Dying rules from the WOTC site
• Possibly, some kind of new critical rule. I'll take a look at some of the suggestions above.

Also, to help represent some of the spell refresh or per encounter rules for spells, I am implementing the following rule, but for now it requires an Action Point to initiate:

Spell Refresh

Quick Recall - If a spellcasting PC takes 5 minutes to meditate and expends an Action Point, they can recall a number of spell levels up to 1/2 caster level plus the ability modifier appropriate to their class.

Meditative Recall - If they expend 1 AP and take 2 hours for meditation, they can recall caster level plus ability modifier.

i.e. if Arryk, at 5th level, spends 1 AP and takes 5 minutes, he gets back 2+WISMOD back in spell levels. If he spends 1 AP and meditates for 2 hours, he gets back 5+WISMOD in spell levels.

Each spell refresh "mode" can be performed once per day.

We'll see how it goes.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Thanks for posting this, Merric.

I've been trying to convince my current group to try out some of the 4e rules, especially Second Wind to make being the cleric less boring. No luck so far... they are 3e neo-grognards.

 

[kennew142]

Thanks muchly for that report, kennew!

I'm fascinated by your comments on the squared spell-effects. We haven't used them (not least because I doubt they'll be in 4e), but your results surprise me.

Actually, just thinking about it, a square is much easier to position than the odd shape that is the fireball template. I've often spent a minute or two in DDM or D&D trying to get as many foes in it as possible, and finding the little bits that are missing around the corners somewhat frustrating...

Cheers!

It is the long time players spend trying to position fireball templates in 3e that made us try the squared off spell effects. They didn't bother us. That could change if we see them repeatedly and their novelty becomes too much for us to handle. All I can say is that they made the game much faster.

My wife wants us to try using some actual circles (like me she hates the pixilated circles at least as much as the squares). She is going to buy some 4", 6" and 8" macrame hoops at Michaels so that we can try using them. We'll just count everyone in the circle as full damage, and every who touches the circle as half damage. This may work better for us.

 

[Chimera]

We tried an 'At Will' power out for the group Wizard last session in our WotBS campaign. It ended up being way too powerful and now they're retooling.

The PC is a 5th level Wizard. They gave him a 3d6 damage + Blinding against a Save, At Will power. We were short our primary fighter and the rest of us were pretty beat up, so it ended up being 'sit back and heal while the Wizard summons a monster and blasts the heck out of the bad guy' fight, which was just too much for me and I had to raise my strong objections.

My primary objections were;
1> Blinding alone is a 2nd level spell.
2> Scorching Ray is a touch attack (read: All or Nothing) 2nd level spell doing 4d6.
3> So we have a 2nd level spell plus almost another 2nd level spell as an AT WILL (read: unlimited) power for a mere 5th level Wizard who would otherwise have only three 2nd level spells????? Excuse me?
4> This ALWAYS HITS, always does damage, and in a long battle, blinding is inevitable, thus taking a nerf bat to the BBEG.

So the damage being done, every round, ended up being better than either of our warriors (A Cleric/Fighter and a Ranger) could do on their own against a BBEG with AC 25(?).

A 5th level Warlock has only just gained his 3d6 blast, which is a ranged touch (read: All or Nothing) and at best, using one of his 3 invocations, can add Sickened as a condition, which is much less of a nerf bat than blinding. Plus he doesn't have all those other spells, such as Summon Monster III, that the Wizard had and used in the battle.

So now they're retooling it, dropping the blindness aspect, and we'll try again at our next session.

 

[Toryx]

As far as I'm concerned, no At-Will power, especially a spell for a wizard, should do more than 1 die of damage. Doing 3d6 of damage on top of an effect? That's seriously overpowered, especially for 3.5.

 

[MerricB]

We tried an 'At Will' power out for the group Wizard last session in our WotBS campaign. It ended up being way too powerful and now they're retooling.

We've been using At Will powers for our Wizard - by virtue of the Reserve Feats in CM - for the duration of our Savage Tide campaign (now half-way through) and they've been a great, great blessing. Being able to fire burst for 5d6 (save half) at will means the Wizard is consistently a useful combatant, and can save his spells for the really important battles.

I'm looking forward to the 4e powers; mainly because they'll be balanced with the system as a whole, not bolted on afterwards.

Cheers!

 

[catsclaw227]

We've been using At Will powers for our Wizard - by virtue of the Reserve Feats in CM - for the duration of our Savage Tide campaign (now half-way through) and they've been a great, great blessing. Being able to fire burst for 5d6 (save half) at will means the Wizard is consistently a useful combatant, and can save his spells for the really important battles.

Which Reserve Feats are you using to benefit from At Will powers? I haven't read enough of that book yet, I should spend some more time with it.

 

[I'm A Banana]

My primary objections were;

Interesting. My objections would have been less about the wizard's power, and more about why the rest of us couldn't touch the guy without Fighter McFightsalot around.