This is in no way an "edition war" thread. I was wondering if anyone had come up with house rules for making the game play more like WoW, because as it plays now it isn't very much like WoW at all.
I was wondering if anyone had worked out resource management systems that could work in 4e, such as a fatigue system for rogues or a rage system for fighters, so that as each combat progresses certain classes do things differently.
Just off the top of my head some concepts that need serious fleshing out...
For "warriors" it would be something like:
At-will abilities generate 1 rage.
Being hit generates 1 rage.
Critting generates +1 rage.
Encounter abilities use rage at a rate of one point of rage, plus one per encounter attack used this encounter (1, 3, 5, 7, ...)
Daily abilities use rage at a rate of three points of rage, plus 3 points per previous daily used (3, 6, 9, 12,...).
For "Rogues" it would be:
At-wills generate 1 combo point.
Encounters generate 2 combo points.
Dailies spend all combo points and scale damage.
Most of the other classes work off of "Mana" which regenerates very slowly during combat and not at all when abilities are used (by default)
At-wills use 5% of your mana pool
Encounter abilities use 25% of your mana pool.
Dailies use 50% of your mana pool.
You regain 10% of your mana pool on a round that you don't use an ability. (Feats could change this, such as gaining Int/Wis/Cha mod % per round regardless of ability use).
You regain all of your mana after a short rest. You regain dailies after a short rest following a milestone (and after an extended rest).
Too much bookkeeping? Bah!
What are "Warriors"?
What are "Rogues"?
What are "Anything else"?
Wish I could give something a bit more helpful, but this just doesn't work. It's not so much that it adds an unecessarily high level of bookkeeping, but that it's really, really clunky and unbalanced.
Seriously, if you want to avoid unbalancing the game one way or another, scale it so that everyone generally gets the normal amount of abilities per fight, but scaled so they're used at different rates or times.
So, for example, rage users generally alternate between an at-will and an encounter, unless they're getting attacked or get a crit, then they'd use a daily or an extra encounter power. At-will generates rage, encounter spends rage, daily spends a larger fixed amount or all the rage you have, as long as you have a minimum amount.
Energy/combo (Or runes/power) users would start out with encounter powers and use at-will powers after that until their juice recharges. Daily's would be used after using several encounter powers to build up to full effect.
Mana users would be able to start off with encounter and daily powers ready as well as at-wills and would only have enough mana for the normal amount in a fight, but if the fight goes on long enough, at-wills do let them restore some mana and will let them build back up to another encounter or daily use.
Utilities could be included or excluded in the cost analysis charts, maybe on an individual basis. Just remember that if you copy WoW too closely, it'll get very unbalanced for D&D. The expectation should be that in a normal fight, everyone may use all their encounter attack powers and may want to use a daily power as well, especially at higher levels. Action points probably need to provide a resource as well as an action in this system, though if everyone's recharge mechanic is tied into at-wills, it might work without it.
Now, we've started to see already that you don't need a limited resource system to get people to use abilities in a different order. If you've got daily powers that provide a fight-long boost, they get used early. If they're a big hit power instead, they get used after you get a temporary attack boost.
I fully expect to see a WoW campaign setting book just as soon as Wizards can licence it.
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