Thursday 9 June 2011

Use of Powers - Player Description

Players need to briefly describe how their Power works in-world for the Power to be effective. This is particularly important if it looks as if the power would not work in those circumstances - knocking prone a Huge creature or an ooze, or creationg Visions of Avarice treasure when the enemy are mindless undead. A notably good description may gain a bonus on the attack roll - +1 or even +2 if exceptional; a marginal one will typically give a -2 penalty; a completely ineffective one (illusionary piles of gold to attract dire wolves) will cause the power to fail. Players should take a bit of time to think about it before their turn comes up so they can give a good description immediately on their turn. 

Use of skills, movement also need to be briefly described in cases where it is not obvious what's happening. Again, a clever description can give a +1 or exceptionally +2 on the check.

Saturday 4 June 2011

Sun Rods

In the Wilderlands Sun Rods light a 5 square radius and last for 4 hours.

Inherent Bonuses & Player Goals

Inherent Bonuses
I'll be using the DMG2 'quasi magic' Inherent  Bonus for PCs as well as for NPCs (integrated into their stats).   This replaces magic item bonus if higher.

PC Level Attack & Damage Bonus  Defense Bonus
1               +0                                     +0
2-3            +1                                     +0
4-6            +1                                     +1
7-8            +2                                     +1
9-11          +2                                     +2
12-13        +3                                     +2                                     
14-16        +3                                     +3
17-18        +4                                     +3
19-21        +4                                     +4
22-23        +5                                     +4
24-26        +5                                     +5
27-28        +6                                     +5
29-30        +6                                     +6

Player Campaign Goals
I like the idea from http://gregbilsland.c... - players can PM me up to 3 ideas for things they (not necessarily their PCs) would like to see in the campaign, and I'll look at working them in, especially things I like.  :)

My Difficulty Class by Tier Rules

I key DCs off the Tier of the encounter/environment, which is often the same as PC level, but not always.  

My DCs:

10: Easy Heroic task
15: Moderate Heroic task
20: Hard Heroic Task, Easy Paragon Task
25: Moderate Paragon Task
30: Hard Paragon Task, Easy Epic Task
35: Moderate Epic Task
40: Hard Epic Task, Easy Supra-Epic Task
45: Moderate Supra-Epic Task
50: Hard Supra-Epic Task

"Very Hard" = Hard +5.  "Impossible" = Hard +10.

"Supra-Epic" is for environments and threats created by creatures over 30th level, eg Orcus.  A task that was 'impossible for Orcus' or similar would typically be DC 60.  Tasks impossible even for greater powers, such as breaking the chain that binds the Fenris Wolf, could be DC 70 or higher.

The DCs are roughly typical for PCs in the mid-point of the Tier, eg Level 5 Heroic PCs, Level 15 Paragon, Level 25 Epic.  Towards the top of the Tier PCs will begin to encounter task DCs from the next highest tier, just as they begin to encounter monsters from that tier.  So eg high Heroic Tier PCs adventuring in the dungeon of a mad Paragon wizard will be dealing with Paragon tier DCs.  If the wizard is low-Paragon then most of the DCs will be Easy (20) or Moderate (25) for Paragon.

The great beauty of this table & this tier-based approach is that I can keep it in my head, I never need to look up the table in-play.