4E Feats Conversion and Creation - Page 3 - OG Myth-Weavers

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4E Feats Conversion and Creation

   
Great comments all. Is there any way you can see to salvage improved dodge? I would just sort of like to vaguely retain the concept. The feat can be entirely reworked.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrMorganes View Post
Oddly worded. There are no conditions in 4E which make you lose your Dex bonus to AC. In fact, only characters wearing Light armor are even eligible to add their Dex Modifier to AC. "Missile attacks" are not the only ranged attacks. Applying the bonus to a bow, crossbow, sling, or thrown weapon but not to spells is too much bookkeeping.

The bonus is too much for 4E. The Paragon Tier "Combat Anticipation" (PHB, p202) grants a +1 feat bonus to all defenses against ranged, area, and close attacks.

An untyped bonus is inappropriate here. Combined with Combat Anticipation, that's a +3 bonus to all defenses vs ranged attacks.

Well, lets compare it to some Heroic Tier Feats and see if we can't build a balanced solution.

Dodge Giants: Dwarf-only, +1 bonus to AC and Reflex vs Large or bigger creatures.
Defensive Mobility: +2 bonus to AC vs Opportunity Attacks.
Shield Defense: +1 bonus to AC and Reflex for 1 turn, when you hit with a shield power

So, I'm not sure a +1 untyped bonus to AC and Reflex is to far out of line. If there are decent enough prerequisites. Perhaps a very high Dex, so only those with Dex as a primary stat can take it? Or link it to another feat or class feature?

One fundamental goal of 4e design is to not allow many stacking bonuses. Untyped bonuses are(as shown above) almost always used only for situational bonuses. Change Dextrous Climb to a +3 Feat bonus.

Improved Dodge, as a non-situational feat, should be a feat bonus, and, since it basically replaces Shield Specialization, should require 15 dex and a free hand, as a paragon or epic feat.

Reckless Strike is too much. Bonuses to attack are golden in 4e, since they're so hard to get. Even a bonus to damage equivalent to Power Attack is too powerful, without a tradeoff in terms of attack; instead, 1 per tier, like Weapon Focus, is a better idea. However, I'd rather just ditch the entire feat, because offense/defense tradeoffs are almost always too easy to abuse.

Throwing in another vote to remove Magical Reserves.

Ok, that makes more sense.

On the subject of Magical Reserves, Farland has expressed many times a desire to keep the flavor or spirit of these items. So, what would it take to "fix" MR? Require the burning of half of your Surges? Limit it to a particular power type? Or even make it an all-or-nothing final attack? (You can trigger any daily, but you drop dead/unconscious after-wards.)

How about making Magical Reserves relate to items? Maybe it could be something like burn 2 or 3 surges to gain a daily item use power? Since item powers tend to be weaker, and one regains them after two combats anyway, this might not be as broken.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland View Post
How about making Magical Reserves relate to items? Maybe it could be something like burn 2 or 3 surges to gain a daily item use power? Since item powers tend to be weaker, and one regains them after two combats anyway, this might not be as broken.
I think that would be too powerful. I'd be OK with burning 2 or 3 surges to get an encounter power back...

However, based on the 'spirit' of this, maybe it should tie to hit points, rather than healing surges. How about this.

"You gain one daily power back, but at the end of your turn you take damage equal to half of your total hit points."
or alternately

"You gain one encounter power back, but at the end of your turn you take damage equal to 25% of your total hit points."
----- or possibly both...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sithobi1 View Post
Reckless Strike is too much... However, I'd rather just ditch the entire feat, because offense/defense tradeoffs are almost always too easy to abuse.
I'm OK with that...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phoenyx View Post
Well, lets compare it to some Heroic Tier Feats and see if we can't build a balanced solution.

Dodge Giants: Dwarf-only, +1 bonus to AC and Reflex vs Large or bigger creatures.
Defensive Mobility: +2 bonus to AC vs Opportunity Attacks.
Shield Defense: +1 bonus to AC and Reflex for 1 turn, when you hit with a shield power

So, I'm not sure a +1 untyped bonus to AC and Reflex is to far out of line. If there are decent enough prerequisites. Perhaps a very high Dex, so only those with Dex as a primary stat can take it? Or link it to another feat or class feature?
How about if we call it a feat bonus -- or maybe even a shield bonus (and make it a requirement that no shields are used).

Quote:
Originally Posted by Squeak View Post
I think that would be too powerful. I'd be OK with burning 2 or 3 surges to get an encounter power back...
I would think that getting a daily item power back would be less powerful than getting a daily power back. Maybe I'm wrong about this.

Quote:
However, based on the 'spirit' of this, maybe it should tie to hit points, rather than healing surges. How about this.

"You gain one daily power back, but at the end of your turn you take damage equal to half of your total hit points."
or alternately

"You gain one encounter power back, but at the end of your turn you take damage equal to 25% of your total hit points."
----- or possibly both...
The only problem with this is that there is no existing mechanical precedent for something like this. As we did with our 3.5E developments, it's better to work within existing mechanisms and precedents.

Edit: Woah. Took me longer to compose this than I thought...

Perhaps... but Farland's statement isn't quite accurate. PCs can activate 1 daily magic item power per day, per tier of play. However, each daily magic item power can be used only once per day. Reaching a milestone allows an additional activation, but does not recharge an item power that's already been used. (PHB, p226)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Farland
The only problem with this is that there is no existing mechanical precedent for something like this. As we did with our 3.5E developments, it's better to work within existing mechanisms and precedents.
Healing surges are considered PC resources, and precedent exists to use them as penalties (in place of HP damage) and to power other magic items, so I don't see an issue there. However, the issue is how many healing surges must be used and how often. Adventurer's Vault has a few items which require healing surges to use. Let me take a quick look...

A fixed number (3, for example) encourages more frequent use of the feat, and favors classes with a large number of healing surges. A typical paladin or fighter, ferinstance, has between 10 and 12, where a wizard may have only 6 - or even 5! The Defenders, then, would be able to use this more often ... which seems odd for a feat called Magical Reserves!

Instead, a Paragon - even Epic - once-per-day feat that requires half your total healing surges may be balanced. If the PC doesn't have half their healing surges remaining, they must pay HP equal to a healing surge value for each surge they don't have.

In that case, a paladin with 12 healing surges can burn 6 healing surges once per day to gain an additional daily magic item use. If he only has 5 healing surges left, he must expend all 5 AND take damage equal to his healing surge value (generally 1/4 of max HP).

This still favors characters with large numbers of healing surges, but I think the cost to use the feat means it's not to be used lightly! What defender wants to give up 1/4 his HP in a fight with the BBEG on a whim? If that magic item's power is going to save the day, sure! If not ....

So....

Magical ReservesParagon Tier
Prerequisites: ??
Effect: Expend half your total healing surges and gain your choice of one of the following effects:
  • Regain the use of an encounter magic item power you've already used this encounter, or
  • Gain an additional activation of a daily magic item power.
If you do not have half your total healing surges available, pay HP equal to your healing surge value for each unavailable healing surge.

You cannot use a daily magic item power you've already used today.

hm...

I could have sworn I'd seen an item in the AV that burned HP if you didn't have the healing surges to use it. However, I'm not finding it right now. I did find this:

Salve of Power. Level 10 magic item. As a daily power, burn a healing surge to regain an expended Daily Power of 5th level or lower.

Healing surge + Daily Item use = Daily Power 5th level or lower.

That helps a bit, I'd say.

Quote:
Originally Posted by DrMorganes View Post
hm...

I could have sworn I'd seen an item in the AV that burned HP if you didn't have the healing surges to use it. However, I'm not finding it right now. I did find this:

Salve of Power. Level 10 magic item. As a daily power, burn a healing surge to regain an expended Daily Power of 5th level or lower.

Healing surge + Daily Item use = Daily Power 5th level or lower.

That helps a bit, I'd say.
That's what I meant. I know you can expend healing surges, but I meant I didn't know of a precedent for burning hps.

That is helpful. So daily item power plus healing surge. Could that be equivalent to maybe 3 healing surges for a 5th level power that has not yet been used?




 

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