Tutorial: Terrain Powers is awesome

[Fifth Element]

4e has a firm habit of wanting to quantify and qualify every action a player can take, but if you do it too much, the game can lose something magical that nothing but pen and paper rpgs offer.

That's the first time I've heard 4E accused of that; generally it's been accused of not codifying as many things as 3E did (no disarming...no tripping...they riuned the game...) and thus removing options from the game.

These are guidelines, demonstrations of how these types of actions can be resolved mechanically. It does nothing to limit what characters can do; it provides some assistance to DMs for whan characters try unusual things. It might also serve as a reminder for the DM to add some detail to his encounter locations, allowing characters to try fun things, rather than having yet another featureless 20' x 20' room.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

[MENTION=5656]Someone[/MENTION]

What?

I really can´t see how giving options can limit someone. It is really nice for the inexperienced DM, and even experienced DM´s to have a toolbox ready at hand, if players are improvising.

You don´t have to say: sorry i don´t have this terrain power noted, so you can´t cut the chandellier rope...
it is rather:

PC: "hey, i try to overthrow the table"
DM: "cool idea" *thinking: but what action is it, and what efect should I apply... Hey, i could look it up on terrain powers... that seems similar enough... "roll an athletics check, as a move action"

@Aegeri : I also think a pdf would serve us better, but on the lower right there is a button, which turn´s the page "printer friendly" that should make it easy to convert into a pdf...

 

[erf_beto]

I admit I only skimmed over the article, but it looks like a really time-consuming way of limiting your player's options.

I think that's because 4e design is always IN YOUR FACE! like that. Once you read through it, understand what's going on in the statblock, you realize how simple it actually is.
IMO and YVMV, of course.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

The only grain of salt i seewith this article is, that a table gets harder to overthrow the higher your level is.

In the end, as it is now, +1/2 level to all skill checks could as well be scratched from the rules, as the difficulty usually increases proportional to your bonus level...

but in the end... who cares

I can´t stress how much i like recent articles of Dungeon. I hope Dragon catches up in the next few months... I guess the Wizard article or the cleric one will reintroduce rituals, the index will also help. And the multiclass rules will round it up hopefully...

 

[Someone]

You don´t have to say: sorry i don´t have this terrain power noted, so you can´t cut the chandellier rope...
it is rather:

PC: "hey, i try to overthrow the table"
DM: "cool idea" *thinking: but what action is it, and what efect should I apply... Hey, i could look it up on terrain powers... that seems similar enough... "roll an athletics check, as a move action"

I'm not against the idea of page 42ing combat; I've been doing that for ages. I just feel that using the power mechanics for that is like killing flies with a sledgehammer; it's tiring and you fail a lot. I don't think most players would prefer if you make up a fireplace's damage on the fly, saving time, to have you search for the "correct" power wherever you placed it, even if it means all fireplaces will dead 2d6 damage instead of sometimes 2d6 and others 2d8

 

[DNH]

I skimmed over this article perhaps too briefly, thinking it was just more of the same from the DMG2. Having looked at it again, I can see that it's actually pretty useful stuff, another one to keep in your DM's Toolbox.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I'm not against the idea of page 42ing combat; I've been doing that for ages. I just feel that using the power mechanics for that is like killing flies with a sledgehammer; it's tiring and you fail a lot. I don't think most players would prefer if you make up a fireplace's damage on the fly, saving time, to have you search for the "correct" power wherever you placed it, even if it means all fireplaces will dead 2d6 damage instead of sometimes 2d6 and others 2d8

I don´t think players will not notice which method you need. But having some standard effects in a table is not more time consuming than looking up a number at a table.
Page 42 itself was too fiddly if you want to see it that way. the new damage expressions in essentials are actually a lot faster to use. My only grief are the DC´s that change from level to level in a seemingly random way (no, it is not random, but actually calculated)...

all in all, the skill system could is broken (+1/2 level does not let it catch up with defenses, as it was intended... see escape rules, and attribute checks do also scale with level... a wizard breaking down a door...
the new DCs mend it mostly, but you need to consult a table... which is not that convenient...

terrain powers are a nice toolbox, as are monster template... but you should rather see them as examples, so that you can make up anything on the fly (as it is even suggested in the article).

The most important thing (also mentioned in the article) is, that terrain powers remind players, that their class powers are not everything you can do, and should not be seen as a limit. These are powers that your character can pull off regularily, where other characters need the right terrain to pull up a stunt...

e.g.:
Anyone can pull on a rag to trip someone... you don´t need a rag to trip someone...

 

[Aegeri]

This actually isn't a dungeon article, it's just a general free to all article and that is actually why it is even better. Anyone can appreciate it! If it was published in Dungeon it would be another really good article and certainly would deserve its place.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Quite useful! The proof is in the puddin', though. Can we see some example maps with these encounter powers keyed to them? Can we get encounter maps in a future MM or adventure with encounter powers in them? How much will these be used, and how much are they just a "fun thing maybe"?

Still, a nice re-print/re-peat/clarification of the DMGII stuff, which was good to begin with.