Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Zardnaar Jul 09, 2014 1:50:41	I was not really a massive fan of 4Es encounter powers but that was more or less the way 4E used them. I was fine with them in Star Wars Saga edition.    Over the last few days I have been slowly reading through the Basic PDF and overall I think they have done a reasonable job, A big hang up was rapid healing but then people started posting how much damage monsters do and they kind of negate the rapid healing to some extent so I will at least try it out.    Anyway they have these short rest abilities  like second wind an I am thinking "Why not be honest an just call it an encounter power".  Also busy mining 5E for my homebrew and I ended up adding 3 encounter powers to my fighter.   Level 2::Action Surge: Once Per Encounter the fighter gains a bonus standard action Level 11: Indomitable: Once Per Encounter you can automatically make a saving throw.  Level 18: Avoid Damage: Once per encounter as a reaction you can negate all damage from a physical attack in melee or ranged. Your superior reflexes protect you.   Note my fighter does not get 2nd wind and I am thinking of porting it to 5E. They get weapon specialization, +1 to hit and +2 damage with all weapons and it scales at higher levels.
#2 Nausicaa Jul 09, 2014 2:20:11	I would love to have some encounter spells, but the vancian system in 5e seems flexible enough (especially with the removal of slot-tied spells in the wizard class). Certainly i think that some fighter and rogue builds will have more access to encounter abilities (warlord-like fighters, for instance) instead having a - quite useful - block of stats. Feats will maybe add some depth to caster classes. We'll see when the PHB will come out.
#3 Zardnaar Jul 09, 2014 2:31:08	Would turning a daily spell into an ecnounter spell via a feat break the game? Feats being rare and all. Assume the spell was level 1-4 maybe 5.
#4 Nausicaa Jul 09, 2014 2:46:40	Zardnaar wrote:
#5 mellored Jul 09, 2014 6:18:27	They don't call them "encounter powers" because you might have 2 or 3 encounters in a row. Or, if your playing a slow camapign, you might make short rest be a day, and long rest be a week.   I definatly prefer "short rest".  It's more flexible.     That said, your abilities seem fine.
#6 Rastapopoulos Jul 09, 2014 7:04:13	It's harder to determine when an encounter ends or a new one starts sometimes. Requiring a short rest is a more precise way to determine "ok, from this point on you can use those abilities again."     I will most likely go the other route, though, and change encounter/short-rest abilities for something else, maybe something less powerful but at will, or some passive bonus. I have a problem with encounter abilities that I can't explain logically in the narrative. Some work, but some don't.   Second Wind is rather fine in that sense, if you think of it. The guy taps into some reserve stamina and makes an extra effort to keep going, but he can only do so much of that before actually taking a rest to recover.   But other abilities like Action Surge bother me deeply. Why can the guy only use it once? Is it a feat of such physical intensity, so physically demanding, that he is completely exhausted after doing it even only once and can't do it again before resting? I find that very hard to accept as there is no such thing, really. You can do some things that will tire you out more than others, but there is no "one action" I can think of that by doing it only once for a few seconds and will leave you so exhausted that you can't perform it again. And even if it were the case, this physical depletion would have repercursions in the sense of you being exhausted and thus unable or limited in doing any physical activity properly, not just incapable of using that same ability.   I could turn a blind eye on this and just pretend the ability doesn't mean anything... at least it isn't something that will "break" the narrative. But I honestly dislike purely mechanical abilities. I much prefer if an ability makes sense in the narrative and has an effect description that synergizes with it.
#7 ChrisTheS Jul 09, 2014 7:46:53	Rather than turning existing abilities into per-encounter instead of per-rest, I would rather see actual powers as an addon (with more tightly thematic options like a martial arts style a la Tome of Battle or themes rather than the kind-of-generic 4e powers, since after all the editing I did on third-party 4e products, long lists of barely differentiated powers make me want to set fire to the book).  It's my understanding that such things are forthcoming, however, so I can wait.
#8 Lawolf Jul 09, 2014 8:18:10	1. Short rest powers are definitely not like encounter powers. You are lucky if you even get a short rest during the day. Short rest powers are closer 4e "daily" powers in terms of actual usage.    2. I never like encounter powers as presented in 4e. Don't get me wrong, I definitely prefer them to the boring basic attack spam we had in 3e (and have again in 5e), but I still didn't like how they were implemented. I want resource management on the encounter level, but definitely not limited to a single use of each ability. I prefer mechanics like a pool of stamina to draw from to use a variety of maneuvers or a fury points that are built up over the course of a combat. There are many interesting ways to do limited resources for weapon users that are not "encounter powers".
#9 seti Jul 09, 2014 9:45:38	With arcane recovery, wizards have them already. They can turn a daily into an encounter power.   Also, fighters have that 2nd action thing once per short rest too.   Rogues have sneak attack, lol. They don't need one.   I dunno about clerics...   I think they have sneaked in encounter powers for just about everyone, they (the devs) just aren't calling them that because, well, 4e is hated by a large segment they are trying to bring back to D&D   A more interesting thing to add to the game, IMO, is daily powers for non-casters. I hope there's build options for that in the PHB. I want my Melee focused PCs to have awesome high damage, utility, and condition-imposing coolness they can do once a day a la spells. But obviously not spells, because: grognards.   Martial stances, martial utilities, and big, bad, crazy hits that aren't reliant on rolling a 20 should be available options. Dare I say, DoaM should be too. Caster 'daily' powers ( AKA spells) have DoaM and save or take massive damage effects.   These should be options in subclasses or at least feats. (Although, making this stuff feats means that you'd have to take the feat. Making them class and subclass options keeps the playing field level.    Again, options. If you're game is caster superiority 3e/2e/1e style, don't allow your melee guys to use them.
#10 Gnarl Jul 09, 2014 10:42:07	seti wrote:
#11 Brock_Landers Jul 09, 2014 10:49:54	An hour of peace can be a big deal (at least in my campaigns).
#12 mellored Jul 09, 2014 11:01:17	Gnarl wrote:
#13 Person_Man Jul 11, 2014 8:59:50	I'm all in favor of giving non-full spellcasters Encounter Powers in place of their Short Rest abilities.  Wizards and Clerics benefit more from Short Rests then Fighters and Rogues, and the full casters aleady start off as more powerful.