Comments

• 

  Fivegears

  Posts: 42 August 2008

  Evening folks. For those of you that play or are familiar with 4E, I just wanted to get some opinions on this. While I'm providing the character's with treasure, of course, I felt that some specialized powers would be appropriate as well. We've done something similar in the past with 'non-specialized powers' in the form of cards, where you get a new, random one each session, but, having a power tailored to each character seemed interesting. That being said:
  
  http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/sir_horatios/adventure-log/specialpowers001
  
  There they are. Any feedback on 'em (or anything in my campaign), is much appreciated.
• CrazyDE

  Posts: 14 August 2008

  Seems like a solid idea. In our campaign we've been renaming powers to add flavor, but I think this seems like a more satisfying approach.
  I'm curious about how you made the snazzy headers and footers for your adventure logs. Photoshop?
• 

  spidieman

  Posts: 38 August 2008

  i think by removing magic items you are removing tools the PC's need. The PHB has alot of powers already that i can't see replacing magic items with new and original powers, the beauty of 4e is it gives the players a lot more choices now, and can do really cool off the wall things.
  
  magic items are such a big part of d&d in my opinion, the paladin quests for the holy avenger, everyone lusts after vorpal swords, its just part of the game.
  
  if anything i would replace action points with the power cards.
• CrazyDE

  Posts: 14 August 2008

  That's a good point. Exactly how much treasure do the players miss out on for the benefit of these powers? I guess probably one good magic weapon per tier, since that's when the powers improve. I think I could live with that, but I'm not everybody. I guess awarding both the new powers and the treasure would be okay if you were willing to deal with a small upset to the equilibrium.
• 

  FemmeLegion

  Posts: 521 August 2008

  Hmmm. I didn't look too hard at them, and I'm not yet familiar enough with everything else in 4E to know how they stack up, but IMO if you're going to replace a magic item with a power, it should be encounter-level or more frequent.
  
  A magical sword will lend its bonus to any attack you make - at-will, encounter, or daily. How many rounds of combat can you reasonably expect a party to engage in before taking an extended rest? Is this daily power really a fair trade for that?
  
  Relatedly: what level are your players right now? It could be that it's a fair trade now but will leave them hurting later on. And I guess as long as you aren't completely throwing out the idea of encountering magical items in the future, that's okay, but DEFINITELY keep an eye on it, especially when throwing new monsters at your players. It'd be no fun at all to realize that your daily powers are useless (or expended!) and your normal attacks with non-enhanced weaponry aren't damaging it quickly enough.
• 

  sisren

  Posts: 30 August 2008

  I am thinking that the magic items shouldn't be removed... and that the powers should be substituted/ replacements for other class powers.
  
  If you skimp on the treasure, the PCs will be ill-equiped to deal with tough encounters.
  If you give extra powers, the challenges will seem (and will probally be) too easy.
  
  I know that the two seem to be an equal trade off, but I hypothesize that they won't be...
• 

  spidieman

  Posts: 38 August 2008

  another idea would be to simply design your own magic items based on the powers you've created.
• 

  Fivegears

  Posts: 42 August 2008

  CrazyDE ---> To answer your question, I used the Magic Set Editor, which someone made a template for power cards for 4E.
  
  As for removing treasure, I'm not. Treasure is still a big part of things, and I'm using the standard "packages" for distributing treasure. However, with about 12 players (8 playing at most at any given time), treasure tends to rotate a bit, so, I'm using this to give each player something unique without having them have to quibble over treasure.
  
  The players have just reached level 3. Six sessions (well, seven now) into the game, and it seems like every three sessions or so, they're hitting a new level, which is about what I was hoping for. I plan on keeping that same pace, so that by this time next year, they can be wrapping up.
  
  So, to re-iterate - there's plenty of magical weaponry and other neat stuff going around. This is just sort of giving them a little something extra.
• 

  Nooklear

  Posts: 2 January 2009

  I agree with the idea of having these powers only accessible by use of an action point or in some other special cases. Maybe if a PC rolls a one, they now have the power to reroll, and make it a daily power that's equipped to them by some item. I guess what I'm trying to say, make it cool but something that can't be spammed. Now that I think of it, a power that will let me have another go at an epic fail would be pretty sweet.
  
  Every PC has some weakness and maybe tailoring a special power that can save their butt in dire time might be a pretty good thing.
  
  I think it's a great idea and I think you can be really creative of how your players discover their unique abilities.
• 

  FemmeLegion

  Posts: 521 January 2009

  The RPGA has "power cards", one of which is Second Chance. It only allows you to reroll if you get a natural 1 on a skill check, not an attack, but it's still pretty nice to have if there isn't a power card more directly suited to your character.