Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 pluisjen May 15, 2009 15:45:36	So I'm stealing this from Mutants & Masterminds which has the awesome rule that you can swap an Action Point to gain access to any Feat or create any Power you want, until the end of the turn. I was thinking if it would be terribly broken to add that to 4e? So basically; if you spend an Action Point, instead of gaining another Standard Action you can activate any Power on your class list that you haven't taken? Or would that unbalance things? Maybe to balance it up, you could force the player to 'expend' another power of the same type (ie: if you pick an Encounter power to use, you have to forego the use of an Encounter you díd pick for this encounter) I don't have the experience with 4e yet to know what it'd do balancewise, but it sounds great in a story way, gives more diversity to the players and allows you to occasionaly 'try out' powers before you retrain them at a new level. Anyone have ideas about this?
#2 onemanhorde May 15, 2009 16:59:08	So I'm stealing this from Mutants & Masterminds which has the awesome rule that you can swap an Action Point to gain access to any Feat or create any Power you want, until the end of the turn. I was thinking if it would be terribly broken to add that to 4e? So basically; if you spend an Action Point, instead of gaining another Standard Action you can activate any Power on your class list that you haven't taken? Or would that unbalance things? Maybe to balance it up, you could force the player to 'expend' another power of the same type (ie: if you pick an Encounter power to use, you have to forego the use of an Encounter you díd pick for this encounter) I don't have the experience with 4e yet to know what it'd do balancewise, but it sounds great in a story way, gives more diversity to the players and allows you to occasionaly 'try out' powers before you retrain them at a new level. Anyone have ideas about this? Once a Day you may spend an action point to use any power on your class power list. In addition you must expend a power of equal level or higher without gaining it's effects.
#3 LordOfWeasels May 16, 2009 20:52:06	That's a decent trick, yup. As long as you make sure they they have to actually spend the power of the right type and level (or higher), I don't see any real balance problems. It makes people stronger because they get a wider selection power powers, but makes them weaker because it costs a bonus action.
#4 mkill May 17, 2009 2:07:11	I have a very specific problem with this: it takes too much time at the table. To use this power - the player has to check the PHB, XY Power, and Dragon articles for a power that might fit the situation for at least 15 minutes - the DM has to read the power to understand how it works, and whether he wants to allow it, 3 minutes - the player wastes another 5 minutes because he can't decide - the player uses the power, misses his attack roll, and spends another 5 minutes complaining... Now, you can make this work, but... - Choose one power beforehand. (You must have the a power card ready.) - You can spend an action point to exchange one encounter / daily power of the same or higher level to gain the use of this specific power.
#5 LordOfWeasels May 17, 2009 9:24:06	- the player has to check the PHB, XY Power, and Dragon articles for a power that might fit the situation for at least 15 minutes Hey, if he wants to hold his action for that long while people who *are* prepared to move go around him, that's okay. - the DM has to read the power to understand how it works, and whether he wants to allow it, 3 minutes Most often, the DM will have told everyone in advance what's legal and what isn't - eg, "PHB1+2 only", "No Dragon", etc. If he's decided to allow it, the only thing to really worry about are misprints like Fire Shield and Wall Of Force being in the wrong category, and, if he thinks it's really broken, deal with it *later*. And I find I don't really need to know how a power works as long as the player does, for 90% of players. They're honest, they can read and do math, and they come to me *in advance* with questions whenever possible. - the player wastes another 5 minutes because he can't decide And combat continues around him while his character dithers! - the player uses the power, misses his attack roll, and spends another 5 minutes complaining... As long as he's complaining on someone else's turn and not occupying the DM's attention, I don't see a problem with this. Making it a specific power is still kind of nice - that's like the Tome Of Readiness wizard power, but for everyone. And, naturally, it would stack with Tome and Tome doesn't cost APs.
#6 pluisjen May 18, 2009 15:50:41	Yeah the time cost is indeed the main problem (it was even worse in M&M where you could make up your own power on the spot) Hm, so if it isn't to overpowered then I think you could leave it up to the players to know their action before their turn started; so also look up their replacement-attack before it came up.
#7 nuadha May 19, 2009 8:09:35	I threw this out to my group today and one player mentioned the thought of allowing the powerswitching with action points as a feat. We kind of liked that idea.