4e: I was reading through ENWorld and read someone's idea on martial powers. He thought encounter and daily powers should only be available after "scanning" each foe. I think that's a cool idea, so here's a quick run-down on that.
Each martial character starts out with no access to any Encounter or Daily powers normally available to them at the start of an encounter. Tally up how many Encounter and Daily powers you have, and assign a number to them.
As a minor action, you may examine an enemy for weak spots. When you do this, roll a dice large enough to contain all the encounter and daily powers you possess. Any numbers outside of this range are re-rolls. Whatever you roll is the encounter or daily power you may use on the target. Once used, that power is no longer available for future rolls. Each time you want another encounter or daily power, you must spend a minor action to randomly roll for it. You must be engaging a target each time.
Each time you roll on the table you get a +1 to attack and a +3/tier to damage until the end of your next turn.
Utility powers are untouched, regardless of power source.
I have to say that completely randomizing martial character powers and taking a minor action tax to boot seems like it removes most of the strategy from playing a martial class.
ReplyDeleteNo longer would you be rationing your dailies; if the dice made you use them instead of your encounters, that's the way it goes.
Strikes me as a bad, if interesting, idea.
Remove the randomization element - scanning unlocks the use of any power, but only against that enemy - and it's better, though still places martial characters at a disadvantage for reasons I don't comprehend.
I could understand scanning for weaknesses and then receiving a bonus for wasting an action, though it would probably have to be a move or standard for it to have a sufficient opportunity cost over simply attacking.
I probably should have explained it better, to be honest. The idea was to put some more flavor into the martial classes, by making them have to "size up" their opponent, and find their weak points. Removing the randomization would make for an interesting mechanic, although the disadvantage is pretty sizable, it's true.
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