Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 knishiuchi Jul 13, 2009 23:37:10	Here's three feats I've been tinkering with. Trump Card [Heroic] Benefit: Choose one daily attack power you know. You no longer have free access to this power. Instead, when the first d20 you roll in a round is less than the current round, you gain access to the chosen daily power until the end of the encounter. This power can only be used once per encounter, but can be used more than once per day in multiple encounters. The thought behind this feat is that whether a player wants to hoard or blow their daily powers, when they are going to use them, they use them as soon as possible. That means that the first few rounds of combat have the most interesting effects, and that the end can sort of peter out as the party spams their At-Wills. With this, you tip the dynamic nature of the encounter slightly towards its tail end. Master Planner [Heroic] Benefit: When you would choose an encounter attack power, you may instead choose a utility power of a lower level. Simple enough. This gives a bit more flexibility to characters. Losing out on some encounter powers will lessen their damage output in combat, but the extra utilities will make them much better at support during combat and out. Improved Milestone [Paragon] Benefit: When you reach a milestone, instead of gaining an extra use of a daily magic item power, you may instead regain use of an expended daily utility power. More options, and a much needed improvement to daily utility powers and milestones. Obvious synergy with the Master Planner feat. That's all for now.
#2 pluisjen Jul 14, 2009 4:46:14	I don't really understand how Trump Card works, the wording is a bit strange... Also for Master Planner, I'm assuming the idea is you can expend an Encounter attack power to use a Utility power that you've already used? Does that mean you can use an expended Daily Utility? Because that might be rather powerful.
#3 sushijunkie Jul 14, 2009 7:11:07	Yes, I don't understand Trump Card at all. The effect I understand, and it does sound interesting, but how to pull it off missed me. I don't really understand how Trump Card works, the wording is a bit strange... Also for Master Planner, I'm assuming the idea is you can expend an Encounter attack power to use a Utility power that you've already used? Does that mean you can use an expended Daily Utility? Because that might be rather powerful. I thinks it's when you learn a new utility instead of when you use one. Though I am curious how "re-training" will work. At some levels in paragon and epic tier one much replace an old power with a new one. It could end up confusing the player if they don't keep track of what they are doing.
#4 pluisjen Jul 14, 2009 7:16:13	If what you're saying is true, then this feat only comes into play once per 3 levels or something.. that sounds kinda useless to me. In that case, it'd probably be better to just make it a basic option or something.
#5 knishiuchi Jul 14, 2009 8:58:05	I don't really understand how Trump Card works, the wording is a bit strange... Also for Master Planner, I'm assuming the idea is you can expend an Encounter attack power to use a Utility power that you've already used? Does that mean you can use an expended Daily Utility? Because that might be rather powerful. Ah, I guess it is. Let me give an example. At level 1, say you choose Flaming Sphere as your trump card. You can't use this whenever you like anymore. Instead, you need for the first d20 roll you make on the round be lower than the current round number. So if say, one round 5 you rolled a 3 when you cast magic missile, the trump card would be charged. Once it's charged, it can be used like any other power. However, if you don't use it before the end of the encounter, it's lost, and regardless of how you roll afterwards, it won't charge again until the next encounter. The benefit is that you have a daily power you can potentially use in every single fight. The downside is you don't know that you'll be able to use it every encounter, going through some where you don't get to use it at all. As for the Master Planner feat, it really just gives you the potential for more utility powers at the expense of losing encounter powers. Anytime you would replace an encounter power, you could either replace an encounter power or a utility power you had taken using the feat and you could take an encounter or utility power in its place.
#6 pluisjen Jul 14, 2009 9:46:56	Hm, that makes Trump card very unreliable, and very unlikely to come up... most fights don't last more then a few rounds on lower levels. Also, what if you don't have to roll any dice during a turn? Would you have to forge in a die-roll? Like a needless acrobatics check or something? It'd be better to give it its own die-roll and maybe drop it to a d10, to increase the chance of getting it during an encounter, and not bind it to something arbitrary.
#7 Stuntman Jul 14, 2009 12:30:54	Here's three feats I've been tinkering with. Trump Card [Heroic] Benefit: Choose one daily attack power you know. You no longer have free access to this power. Instead, when the first d20 you roll in a round is less than the current round, you gain access to the chosen daily power until the end of the encounter. This power can only be used once per encounter, but can be used more than once per day in multiple encounters. Trump Card is too unreliable for me to want to use it. If I have a daily, I want to use it when I need to. I want to rely on it at those critical times and it can happen as soon as turn 2. Even if it happens on turn 5 that I really need to use it, it may not be there. The thought behind this feat is that whether a player wants to hoard or blow their daily powers, when they are going to use them, they use them as soon as possible. That means that the first few rounds of combat have the most interesting effects, and that the end can sort of peter out as the party spams their At-Wills. With this, you tip the dynamic nature of the encounter slightly towards its tail end. I don't understand what you are trying to accomplish. How is the possibility of not having access to a daily power for the entire battle where you may really need it going to make the battle more interesting? Master Planner [Heroic] Benefit: When you would choose an encounter attack power, you may instead choose a utility power of a lower level. Simple enough. This gives a bit more flexibility to characters. Losing out on some encounter powers will lessen their damage output in combat, but the extra utilities will make them much better at support during combat and out. This sounds like a power swap feat that allows you to swap an encounter out for a utility. I personally feel that encounters are way more interesting than utility powers of a lower level. There are many levels of many classes where none the utility powers are very appealing. I have not seen a class where none of the encounter powers of a certain level are worth taking over a utility power of a lower level. Improved Milestone [Paragon] Benefit: When you reach a milestone, instead of gaining an extra use of a daily magic item power, you may instead regain use of an expended daily utility power. More options, and a much needed improvement to daily utility powers and milestones. Obvious synergy with the Master Planner feat. It's another Cure Light Wounds (and other cure prayers) at every milestone for clerics. I'd take that if I were a cleric. Extra healing is always good. Probably worth giving up a daily item usage.
#8 nightwalker450 Jul 14, 2009 12:51:13	I actually like the Trump Card, mainly as a reworking to daily powers in general... This takes the daily powers out of daily resources, and more of a harder to activate encounter power. Possibly instead of the first d20 roll, instead do an additional saving throw at the end of every turn. Whenever the roll is less than the current round you charge up a daily power (but never the same one more than once). I agree if daily powers are usually going to happen, they happen first (resulting in instant boss kill) making the climactic encounter the least climactic of the encounters. This way the players will duke it out potentially charging up their daily's, then let loose.
#9 knishiuchi Jul 14, 2009 13:24:43	For those that said it's too unreliable, well, that's kind of the point. It shouldn't be something that is any better than having one use of a daily power per day. And, since your other daily powers work the same way, it's not like you'll never have resources to call upon in a pinch. For those that dislike the first roll mechanic, it is there simply to speed up gameplay. In terms of probability, it's the same as if you rolled it at the end of your turn. This just saves you one roll. If you spend your turn using something like cure light wounds, then yeah, you could make a slightly cheesy monster knowledge roll or what have you, but in testing I've found that the players would roll a d20 of some sort on their turn, usually more than one.
#10 Namagem Jul 14, 2009 15:39:12	Trump Card [Heroic] Benefit: Choose one daily attack power you know. You no longer have free access to this power. Instead, when the first d20 you roll in a round is less than the current round, you gain access to the chosen daily power until the end of the encounter. This power can only be used once per encounter, but can be used more than once per day in multiple encounters. The thought behind this feat is that whether a player wants to hoard or blow their daily powers, when they are going to use them, they use them as soon as possible. That means that the first few rounds of combat have the most interesting effects, and that the end can sort of peter out as the party spams their At-Wills. With this, you tip the dynamic nature of the encounter slightly towards its tail end. I like this. I would definitely choose this for my Wild Magic sorceror, for both flavor and rule reasons. Perhaps instead of making it a generic feat, you could make it a sorceror feat, which makes more sense. I get what you're trying to do though, and I like it, but I don't think that very many people would choose it as their feat due to it's unreliability. Perhaps as a bonus for getting charged, it could do one extra damage die of damage.
#11 knishiuchi Jul 14, 2009 20:21:53	I like this. I would definitely choose this for my Wild Magic sorceror, for both flavor and rule reasons. Perhaps instead of making it a generic feat, you could make it a sorceror feat, which makes more sense. I get what you're trying to do though, and I like it, but I don't think that very many people would choose it as their feat due to it's unreliability. Perhaps as a bonus for getting charged, it could do one extra damage die of damage. See, that doesn't bother me at all. Ideally, this feat should be good, but not so much so that everyone will want it.
#12 AbdulAlhazred Jul 16, 2009 16:53:25	Trump Card is pretty hard to evaluate. That I think is the main thing that might turn people off to it. Overall I've found most encounters last about 6-8 rounds. By that point you're statistically VERY likely to have rolled your "trump die". Thus it will almost certainly give the PC a greater number of uses of their daily. OTOH how to balance that against possibly having to wait till at least turn 5 to cast it? And there is always that nasty little time you won't get it at all. As a general rule I don't find that players are very accepting of things they can't judge the effectiveness of pretty readily. Nor are they eager to take options that are asking them to give something up (even if they get something better in return). People weigh opportunity cost less than they weigh sunk cost. I think the other two feats will work fine, and Trump Card will work fine as well if anyone uses it. I'm not sure Master Planner is a very good deal for most characters, but someone will find a use. Improved Milestone, definitely good for healers.
#13 mkill Jul 18, 2009 1:49:13	Trump Card [Heroic] Too complicated! As a DM, I never allow anything in my game that I don't understand on first reading. Also, it sounds like a real hassle to keep track off. Master Planner [Heroic] I like it. Note that the wording "from your class list" is missing. Also, it's not clear whether you can do this for one encounter power or any number of them. Better: Benefit: Choose one of your encounter attack powers. Instead of this power, you learn a utility power from your class list. The utility power must be of a lower level than the attack power. Improved Milestone [Paragon] WHOA! Hold it... This feat is on par with EPIC DESTINY features. It's almost the level 30 Archmage ability. And it's more or less free. Regaining daily item powers isn't that important. You can easily live without it, just use items with properties and encounter powers instead. Or rely on your Artificer to recharge the item. Regaining a daily power every milestone, though, is HUGE. This ability should not be a feat, period.
#14 knishiuchi Jul 18, 2009 2:02:30	Improved Milestone isn't THAT great. Look at it again. One daily UTILITY power. And, aside from the utility powers you get from your epic destiny, most are about on par with magic item use. I suppose it could be changed to "One daily utility power of level 22 or lower." As for Trump Card being complicated and a hassle to keep track of, the only thing you as a DM need to take note of is what round you are on. That's it.