Surge/Death idea - OG Myth-Weavers

Notices


Gaming Discussion

For all things gaming related.


Surge/Death idea

   
Surge/Death idea

I was watching my son play Borderlands and they had a nifty mechanic to keep your hero alive and feeling heroic. If you are killed ( brought to zero life ) you can still fight, and if you kill the opponent that did it you gain a haelth bonus and can continue on. If not you die - seems time sensitive.

I was thinking of using this mechanic rather than the 3 chances and your out one. So you are killed, and you get three rounds to fight on, if you can kill the beast that dropped you you get a free healing surge, if not you die. You could fight at a disadvantage and not be able to benefit from healing or healing surges in this three round mode. Hmmmm not sure.

I think it has merit but needs some work.

What do you think?

Sounds like a good mechanic for a paragon path or epic destiny ability. Possibly for barbarians. Alternately, it could be a power. Maybe a rage.

Would definitely make characters more vulnerable early in the day, at least, particularly against elites and solos, possibly less vulnerable later in the day, particularly against regular troops, and definitely against minions.

Under the standard rule, the first time a character drops in a day, they have a better than 90% (with humans easily capable of approaching 94%) chance of surviving without any intervention by others, with that chance diminishing if it is tested multiple times in a single day
that'd be a difficult benchmark to reach under this proposed alteration

Revenants already have an ability similar to this. They get an action before they go unconscious from dropping to 0 or less. Through feats, they can build it up and, iirc, can eventually avoid going unconscious outright. However, I think this ability might be best reserved to some sort of epic destiny. Perhaps allow a free attack as you drop. If you kill on that strike, you can spend a surge. That might fit a paragon path better, as it's a little more limited in occurrence.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tedronai View Post
Would definitely make characters more vulnerable early in the day, at least, particularly against elites and solos, possibly less vulnerable later in the day, particularly against regular troops, and definitely against minions.

Under the standard rule, the first time a character drops in a day, they have a better than 90% (with humans easily capable of approaching 94%) chance of surviving without any intervention by others, with that chance diminishing if it is tested multiple times in a single day
that'd be a difficult benchmark to reach under this proposed alteration
Death Saving Throw failures reset with any rest, short or extended. If you're not getting short rests between encounters in a day, something worse is going on.

Replacing all dying effects with a three-round grace period during which you cannot be healed seems rather punitive, since most healing will bring dying people conscious again with no problems. It makes leaders nearly useless in that regarrd, and if someone else kills "your" monster, they've doomed you. This idea has serious flaws, but with some alterations, such as those upthread, it might work. It's more cinematic than playable, in my opinion.

I like the idea of a feature that lets you keep fighting when you're knocked below zero (and I suspect there probably already is one), and then having another feature that lets you get a healing surge immediately if you kill someone while in that state.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sithobi1 View Post
Death Saving Throw failures reset with any rest, short or extended. If you're not getting short rests between encounters in a day, something worse is going on.

Replacing all dying effects with a three-round grace period during which you cannot be healed seems rather punitive, since most healing will bring dying people conscious again with no problems. It makes leaders nearly useless in that regarrd, and if someone else kills "your" monster, they've doomed you. This idea has serious flaws, but with some alterations, such as those upthread, it might work. It's more cinematic than playable, in my opinion.
My mistake, I must have misread that section ages ago, and have been working from the resulting misunderstanding ever since.

That makes this alteration even more punitive, then, comparatively, than I first thought.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Sithobi1 View Post
Death Saving Throw failures reset with any rest, short or extended. If you're not getting short rests between encounters in a day, something worse is going on.

Replacing all dying effects with a three-round grace period during which you cannot be healed seems rather punitive, since most healing will bring dying people conscious again with no problems. It makes leaders nearly useless in that regarrd, and if someone else kills "your" monster, they've doomed you. This idea has serious flaws, but with some alterations, such as those upthread, it might work. It's more cinematic than playable, in my opinion.
Now they dont have to heal him in those three rounds, saving those heals for others. I would think keeping people from reaching 0 Hp is the deal. So leaders are doing more leading of those standing keeping them up so they do not fall! So its a boon not a penalty. As for someone else killing the foe, lets expand it to the foe is slain by the party. Thus a group effort ensues to keep your commrade alive by killing the foe. I think it can be playable, but I am being optimisitc

It's obviously very DM-dependent, but focus-fire is the best tactic in the game, and thus optimized tactics will ensure that at least one PC falls to unconsciousness within the first few rounds of combat, regardless of healing(4e PCs have a lot of endurance over time, with surges, but HP relative to possible damage taken isn't that high). Thus, that character is now on a three turn clock to possibly kill a high HP, high defense solo...

Agreed. This shouldn't replace the death saving throws and healing effects, or else you've made combat much more lethal. As I said, I can see this is a supplemental ability, something granted by way of a paragon path or epic destiny feature. It's the sort of thing that should make a character more badass, not less.




 

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
User Alert System provided by Advanced User Tagging (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
Last Database Backup 2024-03-19 05:25:57am local time
Myth-Weavers Status