Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
Also, E6 just wouldn't be fun in 5th edition because it lacks the colossal amount of feats & character options that 3.5 had.
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DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
The Tinker is learning about pranks
by that I mean they've been using their tinkering and Artificer magic to make like, little boxes that fart and kick me signs and clockwork skittering spiders
Conversly, in Endless_Serpents game, we have no party face (my character gear has sooooort of been doing the role, and she's running around with 8 cha, so great choice! Oh wait, no, she's terrible, quick Darmak baber needs to take the lead).
It's fucking great, we're about to do a big street party/halloween thing, nothing can possibly go wrong with our little band of loons. Hopefully we get to just annihilate another big fight again.
Yeah, Baber has +1 CHA but no social skills other than intimidation lol. Our party is smol, but mighty! But we can adapt and overcome, and I feel like so far we've been pretty good at finding some creative solutions to situations. I think we'll be fine! 😁
i still find it funny that Baber has Nature as a proficiency, and Gear doesn't... and she's better than Baber is at the skill. Baber, study harder! (Int mods are a hell of a drug)
I'm sure we will be fine, but it's going to be amusing at least =D
Looking back on 4E now (which I didn't get to run or play nearly as much as I would have liked), I feel like they restricted what magic could do a bit too much, some mechanics were too fiddly (particularly feats), and you had a lot of magic items that just gave very minor tweaks to your abilities.
That said, 5E doesn't have the structure to give non-casters all the cool stunt abilities they had in 4E. For those unfamiliar with 4E but familiar with 5E, every non-spellcaster was like a Battle Master Fighter, but there were a lot more manuever options and each class had its own set of manuevers. IIRC, by the end of 4E the Fighter had more unique manuevers it could pick from than Wizards had spells they could pick.
Looking on D&D Beyond recently, I saw a post from a current D&D designer proposing a houserule for various Rogue combat stunts:
One of the options given in the article, Sandscreen, is similar to a codified Rogue manuever in 4E. Later on in the article in a section called "I Know Your Tricks", the author writes:
Once you use a combat stunt, you can't use it against the same creature until you complete a long rest. Additionally, if you use a stunt against a creature that saw you use the same stunt in the past hour, you have disadvantage on ability checks to perform that stunt against it and it has advantage on saving throws made to resist that stunt.
In 4E what he writes here was essentially handled by making some manuevers usable once per short rest, and others once per long rest.
I mean, I like 5E now, but I'm definitely considering for my next campaign letting chatacters get a bonus Martial Adept feat whenever they get a fighting style. I'd also like a lot more combat manuever options (a recent Unearthed Arcana had some, but many were along the lines of letting you roll combat superiority dice to add the result to a skill check). However, I can also appreciate that maybe not everyone who wants to play a non-spellcaster wants to have a number of combat manuevers and would rather just make their attacks instead of frequently choosing between multiple effect riders.
Personally, I love playing Battle Master Fighters. My second 5E character was a Battle Master Fighter/Hexblade Warlock so I could use Pushing Attack and Ensnaring Blast to move enemies around the battlefield. Now I'm playing a Battle Master again, despite being briefly tempted to try an Echo Knight.
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Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
Going from Tome of Battle in 3.5 to combat maneuvers in 5th edition...
Don't take me from my mother's spaghetti and give me noodles with ketchup.
There was a neat vid a little while back where a guy was showing off a device he made called an "Instant Legolas". It is a bow with a kind of magazine built onto the side so 5 arrows could be shot very quickly. Now the original was just a proof of concept and used a super light 30 lb bow. He sent that to Tod from Tod's Workshop who makes replica medieval bows and crossbows. He recently put out a vid on a version of the device that was built using only materials and techniques used in late medieval crossbows. And he made it so you could swap bows. Then he brought in Joe Gibbs to shoot it with a 90 lb bow then a 120 lb (Joe can actually shoot a 200 lb longbow).
In continuing my research into the lore of the Abyss I discovered an interesting detail from 4E's Demonomicon.
One way demons can achieve greater forms and power is by receiving contributions of spiritual energy from other demons. The demons who agree to surrender this energy usually do so in exchange for not being slain by the recipient.
This goes a long way to justify how demon lords work and why these embodiments of Chaotic Evil aren't just killing each other all the time. When stronger demons show up weaker demons hand over spiritual energy to try and convince the stronger demon not to kill them. The stronger demon therefore now also has an incentive to keep the weaker one alive. Demon lords grow so powerful partially because they have so many demons submitting spiritual energy to them out of fear of destruction. Even if all those subservient demons chose to stop sending power to Demogorgon or whoever that's no guarantee the demon won't still possess a great deal of inherent power. Besides, demon lords attract rivals, so subservient demons choosing to cut off the power to their lord could just make it easier for another demon lord and its minions to attack.
This also works out to be the inverse of the way things work among the devils, where the devil god Asmodeus and the mortal souls collected in his name are the source of power. He keeps his underlings in line partially by threatening to cut them off from the supply of spiritual power through demotion to a lesser form.
EDIT: Another interesting factoid.
Becoming the lord of an Abyssal layer in such a way that a demon can transform its territory through sheer will requires establishing a supernatural bond with that layer and asserting metaphysical dominance over it. Would be demon lords sometimes fail in this attempt and are instead absorbed into the layer they had attempted to master.
This makes Graz'zt especially impressive because he controls three Abyssal layers that are metaphysically linked (although one of Graz'zt's underlings, the diplomat Verin, is actually the former demon lord of one of those layers). One 4E Dungeon Magazine adventure in which the party must infiltrate Graz'zt's palace had as a possible ending a battle with Graz'zt himself. In the event he would otherwise be destroyed, he can instead choose to draw on the power he'd invested to link his three layers of the Abyss. Doing so lets him survive in a weaker state, but he also loses control of two of his Abyssal layers (which is a big deal because his capital city of Zelatar has a district on each layer.)
Warlords are one of the things from 4e that I miss the most in 5e. Smart fighters should be a thing!
Shamans and Invokers are also up there too though. I honestly don't know why they haven't at least done a UA with these classes.
I still want to see a dedicated shifter class - Not in the sense of Druid's wildshape, but in the sense of "My arms are now GIANT JAGUAR ARMS" *whack* Jeklly/Hyde type bullshit. (Yes, this comes from watching Kipo and the Wonderbeasts.
I think it could be awesome though - ways to flip out and naturally be a weapon, and cool utility form the fact you get to flip out and grow animal bits)
Warlords are one of the things from 4e that I miss the most in 5e. Smart fighters should be a thing!
Shamans and Invokers are also up there too though. I honestly don't know why they haven't at least done a UA with these classes.
I've actually been thinking a lot about the Shaman recently. I think you could do it justice by threading the needle between the Warlock and the Artificer, mechanically, but with divine magic.
Basically the idea would be quite limited spellcasting (half caster at best), focused around what amounts to a particularly powerful familiar. Lots of abilities to either expand casting options (like how warlocks can be pretty caster-y), or create spell-like effects, but a focus on their spirit companion being able to augment the abilities of themselves and the party.
Also totems.
From my setting - The Spore Legionnes, terror of the Grasslands.
Fungus-infested Aeternum elf corpses.
Anything infected and fully colonized is dead and gone - the bodies are just elf hardware running Fungus.exe software. There's nothing that can be done to rescue victims once the infection has killed them. Prior to that, it's curable though, and the infection probably takes weeks to build up to lethal. Unfortunately, it's already infections before it kills (This probably doesn't make sense! i dont care! it's spoopier this way! Possibly it's already got little fungal emitting boils before it's lethal)
The fungus is only infectious to Aeternum elves - By the time the setting has kicked off, how to cure it is in the knowledge of the various city states. Still, Aeternum blooded elves got ravaged by this when it first struck.
Visually, resemble the aeternum elves, but with fungal shoots emerging form the head and neck. Need to think about the visual here, as my initial imagining was looking like dreadlocks, and uh, that's not a great look. Probably going to make it so it's a single long tail that grows out of the head, or is more obviously some sort of sensory organ. i want to avoid the Coral-Fungus look of Last of Us or the classic but generic mushroom head approach.
Spore Legionanres can reproduce. They don't do it literally though, they instead create new bodies by harvesting meat, bone etc and reshaping this. Unsure on how big a colony can get - probably runs into limitations based on what local resources can sustainably support, plus the requirement they hunt meat means there's going to be a certain amount of casualties. Don't know if they've got any kind of queen ant or things - I'm kinda inclined to say no, because it makes them more interesting if any given member is a potential hive if left alone.
They can possibly create some sort of solider-ant style bodies as well. Still tossing this around in my head.
They can also heal a ridiculous amount, the only way to permanently put one down is to cremate the corpse. This ability is actually hijacked off what the aeternum could do, though way way way overcharged. It's not instantaneous healing though - think of it more as they are REALLY good at repairing injuries. They can go into hibernation too. Conventional wisdom on Terorr Incongita treats Aeternum ruins as massively risky for this reason. It looks safe, you do the wrong thing, and boom, Spore Legionnares spilling out of the doorways.
They're dumb as bricks. There's no guiding intelligence here, nothing like that. It's purely biological programming, ant style. There's some limited ability to hijack off knowledge the bodies had, but that's limited to stuff like still knowing how to wear armor or use a sword, open a door. This is exploitable as fuck if you can figure out the pheromes - they'll keep walking into traps, etc.
On the flip side it means injure one or do something that marks you as food, and uh, you have a terrifying swarm of fungus elf-zombies coming right at you.
Annnd this is why no one lives in the grasslands of Terror Incongita - these fuckers are EVERYWHERE. Reclaiming efforts are ongoing, driven by the Ogres and Old-Blood humans wishing to reclaim their ancestral lands. The fact that the grasslands are also home to colossal phoenixs and various mega fauna is a complicating factor, though some coastal territories and river-heads have been successfully reclaimed.
They were everywhere on the islands that make up the archipelago/inland sea, but by the time the setting is presumed to kick off for the pcs, these have been cleared (Or are believed to be safe, because you just know people missed ruins or nests in hibernation)
Warlords are one of the things from 4e that I miss the most in 5e. Smart fighters should be a thing!
Shamans and Invokers are also up there too though. I honestly don't know why they haven't at least done a UA with these classes.
Also Invokers iirc were pretty close to cloistered clerics. I definitely think there's space for them in 5th, but the way they build clerics and wizards makes it something you'd have to do carefully. Maybe add in some sorcery style mechanics so it's not just "wizard, but with divine spells" (but you'd also have to avoid making it "sorcerer but with divine spells" as well).
WearingglassesOf the friendly neighborhood varietyRegistered Userregular
Is there room for class design for Harry Potter style wizards? They're smack dab in the middle of Wizards (codified training) and Sorcerers (magic effects dependent on personal power).
Is there room for class design for Harry Potter style wizards? They're smack dab in the middle of Wizards (codified training) and Sorcerers (magic effects dependent on personal power).
I feel like you could do it as a Wizard school, though it's a bit awkward. Sorcerer Bloodline would be really werid, unless it was something pretty setting specific (Where there's particular brand of sorcerer bloodline that's idnetified early and responds well to training). Either way, a subclass seems the best fit rather than trying to hammer in a new class - I'd rather see Int classes explore new space like the Artificer. (If i was going to do that Shifter class, i'd probably do them as an Int-based half caster. Alchemical beserker style of thing, using their mastery of magic and potions to change themselves, rather than than the world)
Is there room for class design for Harry Potter style wizards? They're smack dab in the middle of Wizards (codified training) and Sorcerers (magic effects dependent on personal power).
Maybe but it'd be really watered down compared to regular just wizards. I mean, their spell selection is extremely limited, they're almost somewhere between a warlock and a sorcerer, where the effectiveness of their spells increases more than their repertoire. Maybe with a bit of Alchemist Artificer (but I'm not very versed on Artificers in general).
From my setting - The Spore Legionnes, terror of the Grasslands.
Fungus-infested Aeternum elf corpses.
Anything infected and fully colonized is dead and gone - the bodies are just elf hardware running Fungus.exe software. There's nothing that can be done to rescue victims once the infection has killed them. Prior to that, it's curable though, and the infection probably takes weeks to build up to lethal. Unfortunately, it's already infections before it kills (This probably doesn't make sense! i dont care! it's spoopier this way! Possibly it's already got little fungal emitting boils before it's lethal)
The fungus is only infectious to Aeternum elves - By the time the setting has kicked off, how to cure it is in the knowledge of the various city states. Still, Aeternum blooded elves got ravaged by this when it first struck.
Visually, resemble the aeternum elves, but with fungal shoots emerging form the head and neck. Need to think about the visual here, as my initial imagining was looking like dreadlocks, and uh, that's not a great look. Probably going to make it so it's a single long tail that grows out of the head, or is more obviously some sort of sensory organ. i want to avoid the Coral-Fungus look of Last of Us or the classic but generic mushroom head approach.
Spore Legionanres can reproduce. They don't do it literally though, they instead create new bodies by harvesting meat, bone etc and reshaping this. Unsure on how big a colony can get - probably runs into limitations based on what local resources can sustainably support, plus the requirement they hunt meat means there's going to be a certain amount of casualties. Don't know if they've got any kind of queen ant or things - I'm kinda inclined to say no, because it makes them more interesting if any given member is a potential hive if left alone.
They can possibly create some sort of solider-ant style bodies as well. Still tossing this around in my head.
They can also heal a ridiculous amount, the only way to permanently put one down is to cremate the corpse. This ability is actually hijacked off what the aeternum could do, though way way way overcharged. It's not instantaneous healing though - think of it more as they are REALLY good at repairing injuries. They can go into hibernation too. Conventional wisdom on Terorr Incongita treats Aeternum ruins as massively risky for this reason. It looks safe, you do the wrong thing, and boom, Spore Legionnares spilling out of the doorways.
They're dumb as bricks. There's no guiding intelligence here, nothing like that. It's purely biological programming, ant style. There's some limited ability to hijack off knowledge the bodies had, but that's limited to stuff like still knowing how to wear armor or use a sword, open a door. This is exploitable as fuck if you can figure out the pheromes - they'll keep walking into traps, etc.
On the flip side it means injure one or do something that marks you as food, and uh, you have a terrifying swarm of fungus elf-zombies coming right at you.
Annnd this is why no one lives in the grasslands of Terror Incongita - these fuckers are EVERYWHERE. Reclaiming efforts are ongoing, driven by the Ogres and Old-Blood humans wishing to reclaim their ancestral lands. The fact that the grasslands are also home to colossal phoenixs and various mega fauna is a complicating factor, though some coastal territories and river-heads have been successfully reclaimed.
They were everywhere on the islands that make up the archipelago/inland sea, but by the time the setting is presumed to kick off for the pcs, these have been cleared (Or are believed to be safe, because you just know people missed ruins or nests in hibernation)
Are these like spore servants from the Monster Manual, and does Zuggtmoy having anything to do with them (if she exists in your setting)?
An alliance of demon lords once banded together to defeat a powerful demonic entity called the Malgoth that was conquering many Abyssal layers. Antisif the Befouler, Cyndshyra of the Seven Torments, Felex'ja the Tiger King, Ixinix the Lord of Blackwater, Qij-na the Shattered, Rhindor'zt the Black Prince, and Wejindhastala the Tempest infiltrated the Malgoth's realm, destroyed it, and scattered its essence across the Abyss.
Unfortunately, the victorious demon lords returned to their domains only to be deposed or destroyed by their traitorous underlings, who had been plotting against their masters during their absence.
I don't have the original magazine this came from so I don't know if these guys brought armies of minions along or any other details that might have been explained, but I love the idea of a bunch of demon lords joining forces to form a ragtag adventuring party to defeat a very powerful demon.
From my setting - The Spore Legionnes, terror of the Grasslands.
Fungus-infested Aeternum elf corpses.
Anything infected and fully colonized is dead and gone - the bodies are just elf hardware running Fungus.exe software. There's nothing that can be done to rescue victims once the infection has killed them. Prior to that, it's curable though, and the infection probably takes weeks to build up to lethal. Unfortunately, it's already infections before it kills (This probably doesn't make sense! i dont care! it's spoopier this way! Possibly it's already got little fungal emitting boils before it's lethal)
The fungus is only infectious to Aeternum elves - By the time the setting has kicked off, how to cure it is in the knowledge of the various city states. Still, Aeternum blooded elves got ravaged by this when it first struck.
Visually, resemble the aeternum elves, but with fungal shoots emerging form the head and neck. Need to think about the visual here, as my initial imagining was looking like dreadlocks, and uh, that's not a great look. Probably going to make it so it's a single long tail that grows out of the head, or is more obviously some sort of sensory organ. i want to avoid the Coral-Fungus look of Last of Us or the classic but generic mushroom head approach.
Spore Legionanres can reproduce. They don't do it literally though, they instead create new bodies by harvesting meat, bone etc and reshaping this. Unsure on how big a colony can get - probably runs into limitations based on what local resources can sustainably support, plus the requirement they hunt meat means there's going to be a certain amount of casualties. Don't know if they've got any kind of queen ant or things - I'm kinda inclined to say no, because it makes them more interesting if any given member is a potential hive if left alone.
They can possibly create some sort of solider-ant style bodies as well. Still tossing this around in my head.
They can also heal a ridiculous amount, the only way to permanently put one down is to cremate the corpse. This ability is actually hijacked off what the aeternum could do, though way way way overcharged. It's not instantaneous healing though - think of it more as they are REALLY good at repairing injuries. They can go into hibernation too. Conventional wisdom on Terorr Incongita treats Aeternum ruins as massively risky for this reason. It looks safe, you do the wrong thing, and boom, Spore Legionnares spilling out of the doorways.
They're dumb as bricks. There's no guiding intelligence here, nothing like that. It's purely biological programming, ant style. There's some limited ability to hijack off knowledge the bodies had, but that's limited to stuff like still knowing how to wear armor or use a sword, open a door. This is exploitable as fuck if you can figure out the pheromes - they'll keep walking into traps, etc.
On the flip side it means injure one or do something that marks you as food, and uh, you have a terrifying swarm of fungus elf-zombies coming right at you.
Annnd this is why no one lives in the grasslands of Terror Incongita - these fuckers are EVERYWHERE. Reclaiming efforts are ongoing, driven by the Ogres and Old-Blood humans wishing to reclaim their ancestral lands. The fact that the grasslands are also home to colossal phoenixs and various mega fauna is a complicating factor, though some coastal territories and river-heads have been successfully reclaimed.
They were everywhere on the islands that make up the archipelago/inland sea, but by the time the setting is presumed to kick off for the pcs, these have been cleared (Or are believed to be safe, because you just know people missed ruins or nests in hibernation)
Fungi love sinus cavities.
Maybe the first stage of infection feels like a head cold, but in reality your sinuses are full of tiny mushrooms and you're spreading spores everywhere when you sneeze.
Then in later stages it goes ahead and eats the rest of your face, so where your nose and mouth used to be you just have a mass of sensory fungal tendrils hanging out of your head.
(Saw some Ripley's Believe It Or Not thing once about a guy who contracted a very rare, flesh-eating fungal sinus infection. He lived, but he lost a shockingly huge chunk of his skull including his eyes, nose, sinus cavities, and the roof of his mouth. They caught it before it got to his brain, fortunately; so he recovered and lived a fairly normal life, albeit blind.
He had a custom-made prosthetic face that attached via subdermal magnets and hid the gaping cavity - purely cosmetic, and also very necessary, because without it his face was nightmare fuel and it made going out in public unnecessarily difficult for everyone involved.)
Are these like spore servants from the Monster Manual, and does Zuggtmoy having anything to do with them (if she exists in your setting)?
I honestly have no idea on the Spore Servants. Reading up on it, it's the sort of thing i'd say it's certainly possible! No one in setting knows where the hell the Spore Legion fungus came from. No one knows why it only targets the Aeternum - as best scholars have been able to determine, it was a freak occurrence that toppled an empire. (Albeit, said empire was already reeling from slave revolts and a new round of the changing tides/shifting winds, which they weren't prepared for in the least.)
So, i'd say if DMs want to make it explicitly connected, they're welcome too! But it's not intended as such
and nope, my setting is very sealed off cosmological speaking. She doesnt even make sense given my demons!
Maybe the first stage of infection feels like a head cold, but in reality your sinuses are full of tiny mushrooms and you're spreading spores everywhere when you sneeze.
Then in later stages it goes ahead and eats the rest of your face, so where your nose and mouth used to be you just have a mass of sensory fungal tendrils hanging out of your head.
(Saw some Ripley's Believe It Or Not thing once about a guy who contracted a very rare, flesh-eating fungal sinus infection. He lived, but he lost a shockingly huge chunk of his skull including his eyes, nose, sinus cavities, and the roof of his mouth. They caught it before it got to his brain, fortunately; so he recovered and lived a fairly normal life, albeit blind.
He had a custom-made prosthetic face that attached via subdermal magnets and hid the gaping cavity - purely cosmetic, and also very necessary, because without it his face was nightmare fuel and it made going out in public unnecessarily difficult for everyone involved.)
Okay, so that's horrifying, and also genius! Thank you for nicely solving that - i really like that idea. Inital stages are just a very, very mild headcold that gets worse and worse slowly... and you're infectious all the while. Eventually it kills the person, and then the fungus kicks into overdrive, taking over the brain and emerging from the face like you suggested.
FYI, Eberron fans: Exploring Eberron is apparently 10,000 words longer than Eberron, Rising from the Last War despite having a lower page count.
I've never been particularly interested in Eberron, but the fact this book has sections on undersea races and civilizations and how they interact with surface dwellers makes me curious.
I mean if you want to get down to it 4e gave the fighter a whole lot of things it could just *do*, like shoving, tripping, grappling, suplexing etc. without having to engage in a dumb subsystem that was essentially there to be another point of failure.
I looooved the brawler fighter design. Just your weapon and a fist for grabbing, pushing and dragging enemies all over the place.
Is it worse than a sword and board fighter? Probably!
I mean if you want to get down to it 4e gave the fighter a whole lot of things it could just *do*, like shoving, tripping, grappling, suplexing etc. without having to engage in a dumb subsystem that was essentially there to be another point of failure.
I looooved the brawler fighter design. Just your weapon and a fist for grabbing, pushing and dragging enemies all over the place.
Is it worse than a sword and board fighter? Probably!
But its so much more flavourful!
Master of the Fist says hi!
I made a Brawler Fighter with Master of the Fist (which is a multi-class Monk feat that gave you unarmed combat and ki focii). And when confronted with how I managed to have a tavern brawler trained as a monk I just shrugged
Master of the Fist is single-handedly (heh) responsible for the overwhelming majority of the badwrong overpowered builds I've seen.
My only real contribution was that Fighter (which wasn't bad truthfully), and a Warforged Druid. The idea was a group of Shifter Monks had consecrated a sacred grove and imbued it with a spirit of protection. Generations later, the grove was destroyed, and the spirit summoned itself into a body of what materials it could find. So, druid MC monk. Then I applied the Lycanthrope theme to get a basic attack that had the beast form keyword, but I forget wy exactly that mattered, tbh. It was wonky and broken.
e: My absolute favorite broken build would have to by my Half-elf Druid/Shaman. I took the Sentinel Druid for a bear pet, the Shaman feature that gave me a bear spirit, and the Lycanthrope background for a bear form. Named him Theodor Orson Burnette
GrogMy sword is only steelin a useful shape.Registered Userregular
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
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#pipeCocky Stride, Musky odoursPope of Chili TownRegistered Userregular
I mean if you want to get down to it 4e gave the fighter a whole lot of things it could just *do*, like shoving, tripping, grappling, suplexing etc. without having to engage in a dumb subsystem that was essentially there to be another point of failure.
I looooved the brawler fighter design. Just your weapon and a fist for grabbing, pushing and dragging enemies all over the place.
Is it worse than a sword and board fighter? Probably!
But its so much more flavourful!
Master of the Fist says hi!
I made a Brawler Fighter with Master of the Fist (which is a multi-class Monk feat that gave you unarmed combat and ki focii). And when confronted with how I managed to have a tavern brawler trained as a monk I just shrugged
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
You know what? 4e reminds me a bit of Genesys. In that it gave you an incredibly solid framework of a game, especially near the end. I think it would be much better received, especially if it leaned in hard on explaining to players how to reflavor their abilities to fit the fiction and setting while maintaining the underlying mechanics.
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
Can you elaborate what you mean by this? I've only played 5e but things like target and range have always been pretty clear to everyone?
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
Can you elaborate what you mean by this? I've only played 5e but things like target and range have always been pretty clear to everyone?
Here is an example of an ability from 4e, look how it is codified, everything is very specific in it's language, the triggers, targets, effects etc... The big thing is EVERY ability is codified this way, so it makes it extremely easy to understand abilities, because if you can read one, you can read them all.
here is a 5e lightning bolt in comparison, notice most of the spell is just in a big paragraph of text in the middle.
Yeah I really prefer 5e's style personally. 4e leaned so hard into those tactics abilities that every class felt identical to me.
I also fucking hated Encounter and Daily powers, and I happen to really like spell slots as an idea, so.
This isn't a critique, but I never understood the classes feeling the same. You still have big beefy fighters up front tanking the enemies, and now they actually have abilities to punish the bad guys for not attacking them. Wizards are still in back slinging spells, mostly AOE for actual wizards, rogues are looking to flank to get huge spiky damage, and are still the trap detector extraordinares, Warlords are looking to position the barbarian for best potential, and shoving enemies around to get them into flanking...things like that.
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Specifically what I would say with it is that while those are two contrasted wizard abilities, you would see the same level of codifying across pretty much every class (things got a bit weird towards the end of the edition cycle). Which meant it was no harder to play a wizard than it was to play a fighter or what have you.
That also ends up being one of the primary issues that people have with it, the feeling that a lot of the classes play pretty similar, especially when compared to other classes in their same archetype. Which I think is both valid and also never really found to be a problem myself - I think the trade off was more than worth it.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Yeah I really prefer 5e's style personally. 4e leaned so hard into those tactics abilities that every class felt identical to me.
I also fucking hated Encounter and Daily powers, and I happen to really like spell slots as an idea, so.
This isn't a critique, but I never understood the classes feeling the same. You still have big beefy fighters up front tanking the enemies, and now they actually have abilities to punish the bad guys for not attacking them. Wizards are still in back slinging spells, mostly AOE for actual wizards, rogues are looking to flank to get huge spiky damage, and are still the trap detector extraordinares, Warlords are looking to position the barbarian for best potential, and shoving enemies around to get them into flanking...things like that.
This is at-risk of becoming a circular conversation, but because every class had as its main thing an At-Will that did some damage or a minor debuff, using an attack roll. I played a bunch of classes in 4e, from all the roles, and they all felt like different flavors of the exact same thing because every class had exactly the same amount of impact because they were given identical resources.
That's great if what you're going for is balancing the tactics aspect of the game, but for me it completely destroyed the crunchiness that I'm looking for in a tabletop game.
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Yeah I really prefer 5e's style personally. 4e leaned so hard into those tactics abilities that every class felt identical to me.
I also fucking hated Encounter and Daily powers, and I happen to really like spell slots as an idea, so.
This isn't a critique, but I never understood the classes feeling the same. You still have big beefy fighters up front tanking the enemies, and now they actually have abilities to punish the bad guys for not attacking them. Wizards are still in back slinging spells, mostly AOE for actual wizards, rogues are looking to flank to get huge spiky damage, and are still the trap detector extraordinares, Warlords are looking to position the barbarian for best potential, and shoving enemies around to get them into flanking...things like that.
I would be really interested in how stripping 4E down to just four classes (Defender, Striker, Leader, Controller) would work, personally. You'd need to do a fair bit of work to redefine some aspects of it, as the individual classes did have elements that differentiated them aside from power selection, but I think you could get some fun results out of it.
But the moment I would start remaking 4E I would be changing a lot of other things as well, so it's not really something I'm about to undertake.
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
Can you elaborate what you mean by this? I've only played 5e but things like target and range have always been pretty clear to everyone?
Here is an example of an ability from 4e, look how it is codified, everything is very specific in it's language, the triggers, targets, effects etc... The big thing is EVERY ability is codified this way, so it makes it extremely easy to understand abilities, because if you can read one, you can read them all.
here is a 5e lightning bolt in comparison, notice most of the spell is just in a big paragraph of text in the middle.
Purely on an aesthetic level the second is a million times more appealing, though. I think this is a good example of how "feel" is important
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MsAnthropyThe Lady of Pain Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the Rhythm, Breaks the RhythmThe City of FlowersRegistered Userregular
The thing I miss most from 4e was codified language for powers. Everything had a distinct type of action, target, range, hit effect, etc and the system worked for attack, movement and utility powers for all classes.
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
Can you elaborate what you mean by this? I've only played 5e but things like target and range have always been pretty clear to everyone?
Here is an example of an ability from 4e, look how it is codified, everything is very specific in it's language, the triggers, targets, effects etc... The big thing is EVERY ability is codified this way, so it makes it extremely easy to understand abilities, because if you can read one, you can read them all.
here is a 5e lightning bolt in comparison, notice most of the spell is just in a big paragraph of text in the middle.
Purely on an aesthetic level the second is a million times more appealing, though. I think this is a good example of how "feel" is important
Yeah, am a huge 4e fan and I agree with that. The edition looks and reads like a textbook. 5e has really evocative design and is a much smoother read even though I feel like it ends up being much less precise in play.
All in all I think 4e is a great game that does a poor job evoking the feel of role playing even though it was fully possible to role play just as much with it as other editions.
Yeah I really prefer 5e's style personally. 4e leaned so hard into those tactics abilities that every class felt identical to me.
I also fucking hated Encounter and Daily powers, and I happen to really like spell slots as an idea, so.
This isn't a critique, but I never understood the classes feeling the same. You still have big beefy fighters up front tanking the enemies, and now they actually have abilities to punish the bad guys for not attacking them. Wizards are still in back slinging spells, mostly AOE for actual wizards, rogues are looking to flank to get huge spiky damage, and are still the trap detector extraordinares, Warlords are looking to position the barbarian for best potential, and shoving enemies around to get them into flanking...things like that.
I would be really interested in how stripping 4E down to just four classes (Defender, Striker, Leader, Controller) would work, personally. You'd need to do a fair bit of work to redefine some aspects of it, as the individual classes did have elements that differentiated them aside from power selection, but I think you could get some fun results out of it.
But the moment I would start remaking 4E I would be changing a lot of other things as well, so it's not really something I'm about to undertake.
I like the idea of also having generic power sources (arcane, martial, divine, primal, psionic) as classes which then are hybrid-Ed to the role to build your final full class.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
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StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
I'm now on the step of considering what I would do with daily powers if I wanted to fuck around with 4E. I've never cared for them, personally, much like I've never cared for spell slots, but they were something I put up with because, well, two out of three ain't bad.
So I'm thinking about the narrative alternative to daily powers. I'd think you'd want to do some sort of milestone or alignment goal trigger, you would just need to figure out a way to keep that balanced. I'd also consider allowing (or even requiring?) a change in daily power every time you refresh the ability, to represent the idea that these are like, incredible feats that will never be replicated sort of thing. Which I guess starts hitting a different tone/power level than where dailies were previously, but conceptually I still like the feeling of it.
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by that I mean they've been using their tinkering and Artificer magic to make like, little boxes that fart and kick me signs and clockwork skittering spiders
i still find it funny that Baber has Nature as a proficiency, and Gear doesn't... and she's better than Baber is at the skill. Baber, study harder! (Int mods are a hell of a drug)
I'm sure we will be fine, but it's going to be amusing at least =D
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That said, 5E doesn't have the structure to give non-casters all the cool stunt abilities they had in 4E. For those unfamiliar with 4E but familiar with 5E, every non-spellcaster was like a Battle Master Fighter, but there were a lot more manuever options and each class had its own set of manuevers. IIRC, by the end of 4E the Fighter had more unique manuevers it could pick from than Wizards had spells they could pick.
Looking on D&D Beyond recently, I saw a post from a current D&D designer proposing a houserule for various Rogue combat stunts:
Cinematic Combat Stunts
One of the options given in the article, Sandscreen, is similar to a codified Rogue manuever in 4E. Later on in the article in a section called "I Know Your Tricks", the author writes:
In 4E what he writes here was essentially handled by making some manuevers usable once per short rest, and others once per long rest.
I mean, I like 5E now, but I'm definitely considering for my next campaign letting chatacters get a bonus Martial Adept feat whenever they get a fighting style. I'd also like a lot more combat manuever options (a recent Unearthed Arcana had some, but many were along the lines of letting you roll combat superiority dice to add the result to a skill check). However, I can also appreciate that maybe not everyone who wants to play a non-spellcaster wants to have a number of combat manuevers and would rather just make their attacks instead of frequently choosing between multiple effect riders.
Personally, I love playing Battle Master Fighters. My second 5E character was a Battle Master Fighter/Hexblade Warlock so I could use Pushing Attack and Ensnaring Blast to move enemies around the battlefield. Now I'm playing a Battle Master again, despite being briefly tempted to try an Echo Knight.
Don't take me from my mother's spaghetti and give me noodles with ketchup.
This would be a super neat thing to use in a fantasy RPG setting
Shamans and Invokers are also up there too though. I honestly don't know why they haven't at least done a UA with these classes.
One way demons can achieve greater forms and power is by receiving contributions of spiritual energy from other demons. The demons who agree to surrender this energy usually do so in exchange for not being slain by the recipient.
This goes a long way to justify how demon lords work and why these embodiments of Chaotic Evil aren't just killing each other all the time. When stronger demons show up weaker demons hand over spiritual energy to try and convince the stronger demon not to kill them. The stronger demon therefore now also has an incentive to keep the weaker one alive. Demon lords grow so powerful partially because they have so many demons submitting spiritual energy to them out of fear of destruction. Even if all those subservient demons chose to stop sending power to Demogorgon or whoever that's no guarantee the demon won't still possess a great deal of inherent power. Besides, demon lords attract rivals, so subservient demons choosing to cut off the power to their lord could just make it easier for another demon lord and its minions to attack.
This also works out to be the inverse of the way things work among the devils, where the devil god Asmodeus and the mortal souls collected in his name are the source of power. He keeps his underlings in line partially by threatening to cut them off from the supply of spiritual power through demotion to a lesser form.
EDIT: Another interesting factoid.
Becoming the lord of an Abyssal layer in such a way that a demon can transform its territory through sheer will requires establishing a supernatural bond with that layer and asserting metaphysical dominance over it. Would be demon lords sometimes fail in this attempt and are instead absorbed into the layer they had attempted to master.
This makes Graz'zt especially impressive because he controls three Abyssal layers that are metaphysically linked (although one of Graz'zt's underlings, the diplomat Verin, is actually the former demon lord of one of those layers). One 4E Dungeon Magazine adventure in which the party must infiltrate Graz'zt's palace had as a possible ending a battle with Graz'zt himself. In the event he would otherwise be destroyed, he can instead choose to draw on the power he'd invested to link his three layers of the Abyss. Doing so lets him survive in a weaker state, but he also loses control of two of his Abyssal layers (which is a big deal because his capital city of Zelatar has a district on each layer.)
Bards too. I loved 4th ed bard.
I still want to see a dedicated shifter class - Not in the sense of Druid's wildshape, but in the sense of "My arms are now GIANT JAGUAR ARMS" *whack* Jeklly/Hyde type bullshit. (Yes, this comes from watching Kipo and the Wonderbeasts.
I think it could be awesome though - ways to flip out and naturally be a weapon, and cool utility form the fact you get to flip out and grow animal bits)
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I've actually been thinking a lot about the Shaman recently. I think you could do it justice by threading the needle between the Warlock and the Artificer, mechanically, but with divine magic.
Basically the idea would be quite limited spellcasting (half caster at best), focused around what amounts to a particularly powerful familiar. Lots of abilities to either expand casting options (like how warlocks can be pretty caster-y), or create spell-like effects, but a focus on their spirit companion being able to augment the abilities of themselves and the party.
Also totems.
Totems, totems, totems.
Fungus-infested Aeternum elf corpses.
Anything infected and fully colonized is dead and gone - the bodies are just elf hardware running Fungus.exe software. There's nothing that can be done to rescue victims once the infection has killed them. Prior to that, it's curable though, and the infection probably takes weeks to build up to lethal. Unfortunately, it's already infections before it kills (This probably doesn't make sense! i dont care! it's spoopier this way! Possibly it's already got little fungal emitting boils before it's lethal)
The fungus is only infectious to Aeternum elves - By the time the setting has kicked off, how to cure it is in the knowledge of the various city states. Still, Aeternum blooded elves got ravaged by this when it first struck.
Visually, resemble the aeternum elves, but with fungal shoots emerging form the head and neck. Need to think about the visual here, as my initial imagining was looking like dreadlocks, and uh, that's not a great look. Probably going to make it so it's a single long tail that grows out of the head, or is more obviously some sort of sensory organ. i want to avoid the Coral-Fungus look of Last of Us or the classic but generic mushroom head approach.
Might make them have multiple ones that stick up and are wormy/medusa style - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Cordyceps.jpg This is what it looks like growing out of a wasp. (Do not click if you're easily freaked)
Spore Legionanres can reproduce. They don't do it literally though, they instead create new bodies by harvesting meat, bone etc and reshaping this. Unsure on how big a colony can get - probably runs into limitations based on what local resources can sustainably support, plus the requirement they hunt meat means there's going to be a certain amount of casualties. Don't know if they've got any kind of queen ant or things - I'm kinda inclined to say no, because it makes them more interesting if any given member is a potential hive if left alone.
They can possibly create some sort of solider-ant style bodies as well. Still tossing this around in my head.
They can also heal a ridiculous amount, the only way to permanently put one down is to cremate the corpse. This ability is actually hijacked off what the aeternum could do, though way way way overcharged. It's not instantaneous healing though - think of it more as they are REALLY good at repairing injuries. They can go into hibernation too. Conventional wisdom on Terorr Incongita treats Aeternum ruins as massively risky for this reason. It looks safe, you do the wrong thing, and boom, Spore Legionnares spilling out of the doorways.
They're dumb as bricks. There's no guiding intelligence here, nothing like that. It's purely biological programming, ant style. There's some limited ability to hijack off knowledge the bodies had, but that's limited to stuff like still knowing how to wear armor or use a sword, open a door. This is exploitable as fuck if you can figure out the pheromes - they'll keep walking into traps, etc.
On the flip side it means injure one or do something that marks you as food, and uh, you have a terrifying swarm of fungus elf-zombies coming right at you.
Annnd this is why no one lives in the grasslands of Terror Incongita - these fuckers are EVERYWHERE. Reclaiming efforts are ongoing, driven by the Ogres and Old-Blood humans wishing to reclaim their ancestral lands. The fact that the grasslands are also home to colossal phoenixs and various mega fauna is a complicating factor, though some coastal territories and river-heads have been successfully reclaimed.
They were everywhere on the islands that make up the archipelago/inland sea, but by the time the setting is presumed to kick off for the pcs, these have been cleared (Or are believed to be safe, because you just know people missed ruins or nests in hibernation)
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Also Invokers iirc were pretty close to cloistered clerics. I definitely think there's space for them in 5th, but the way they build clerics and wizards makes it something you'd have to do carefully. Maybe add in some sorcery style mechanics so it's not just "wizard, but with divine spells" (but you'd also have to avoid making it "sorcerer but with divine spells" as well).
I feel like you could do it as a Wizard school, though it's a bit awkward. Sorcerer Bloodline would be really werid, unless it was something pretty setting specific (Where there's particular brand of sorcerer bloodline that's idnetified early and responds well to training). Either way, a subclass seems the best fit rather than trying to hammer in a new class - I'd rather see Int classes explore new space like the Artificer. (If i was going to do that Shifter class, i'd probably do them as an Int-based half caster. Alchemical beserker style of thing, using their mastery of magic and potions to change themselves, rather than than the world)
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Maybe but it'd be really watered down compared to regular just wizards. I mean, their spell selection is extremely limited, they're almost somewhere between a warlock and a sorcerer, where the effectiveness of their spells increases more than their repertoire. Maybe with a bit of Alchemist Artificer (but I'm not very versed on Artificers in general).
Are these like spore servants from the Monster Manual, and does Zuggtmoy having anything to do with them (if she exists in your setting)?
An alliance of demon lords once banded together to defeat a powerful demonic entity called the Malgoth that was conquering many Abyssal layers. Antisif the Befouler, Cyndshyra of the Seven Torments, Felex'ja the Tiger King, Ixinix the Lord of Blackwater, Qij-na the Shattered, Rhindor'zt the Black Prince, and Wejindhastala the Tempest infiltrated the Malgoth's realm, destroyed it, and scattered its essence across the Abyss.
Unfortunately, the victorious demon lords returned to their domains only to be deposed or destroyed by their traitorous underlings, who had been plotting against their masters during their absence.
I don't have the original magazine this came from so I don't know if these guys brought armies of minions along or any other details that might have been explained, but I love the idea of a bunch of demon lords joining forces to form a ragtag adventuring party to defeat a very powerful demon.
Fungi love sinus cavities.
Maybe the first stage of infection feels like a head cold, but in reality your sinuses are full of tiny mushrooms and you're spreading spores everywhere when you sneeze.
Then in later stages it goes ahead and eats the rest of your face, so where your nose and mouth used to be you just have a mass of sensory fungal tendrils hanging out of your head.
(Saw some Ripley's Believe It Or Not thing once about a guy who contracted a very rare, flesh-eating fungal sinus infection. He lived, but he lost a shockingly huge chunk of his skull including his eyes, nose, sinus cavities, and the roof of his mouth. They caught it before it got to his brain, fortunately; so he recovered and lived a fairly normal life, albeit blind.
He had a custom-made prosthetic face that attached via subdermal magnets and hid the gaping cavity - purely cosmetic, and also very necessary, because without it his face was nightmare fuel and it made going out in public unnecessarily difficult for everyone involved.)
I honestly have no idea on the Spore Servants. Reading up on it, it's the sort of thing i'd say it's certainly possible! No one in setting knows where the hell the Spore Legion fungus came from. No one knows why it only targets the Aeternum - as best scholars have been able to determine, it was a freak occurrence that toppled an empire. (Albeit, said empire was already reeling from slave revolts and a new round of the changing tides/shifting winds, which they weren't prepared for in the least.)
So, i'd say if DMs want to make it explicitly connected, they're welcome too! But it's not intended as such
and nope, my setting is very sealed off cosmological speaking. She doesnt even make sense given my demons!
Okay, so that's horrifying, and also genius! Thank you for nicely solving that - i really like that idea. Inital stages are just a very, very mild headcold that gets worse and worse slowly... and you're infectious all the while. Eventually it kills the person, and then the fungus kicks into overdrive, taking over the brain and emerging from the face like you suggested.
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FYI, Eberron fans: Exploring Eberron is apparently 10,000 words longer than Eberron, Rising from the Last War despite having a lower page count.
I've never been particularly interested in Eberron, but the fact this book has sections on undersea races and civilizations and how they interact with surface dwellers makes me curious.
I looooved the brawler fighter design. Just your weapon and a fist for grabbing, pushing and dragging enemies all over the place.
Is it worse than a sword and board fighter? Probably!
But its so much more flavourful!
Master of the Fist says hi!
I made a Brawler Fighter with Master of the Fist (which is a multi-class Monk feat that gave you unarmed combat and ki focii). And when confronted with how I managed to have a tavern brawler trained as a monk I just shrugged
"...drunken master?"
My only real contribution was that Fighter (which wasn't bad truthfully), and a Warforged Druid. The idea was a group of Shifter Monks had consecrated a sacred grove and imbued it with a spirit of protection. Generations later, the grove was destroyed, and the spirit summoned itself into a body of what materials it could find. So, druid MC monk. Then I applied the Lycanthrope theme to get a basic attack that had the beast form keyword, but I forget wy exactly that mattered, tbh. It was wonky and broken.
e: My absolute favorite broken build would have to by my Half-elf Druid/Shaman. I took the Sentinel Druid for a bear pet, the Shaman feature that gave me a bear spirit, and the Lycanthrope background for a bear form. Named him Theodor Orson Burnette
Plain language stuff is *fine* I guess, but I much prefer everyone being on the same page about everything rather than just "Ask your DM!"
There is also the very well regarded Pugilist homebrew class
Need some stuff designed or printed? I can help with that.
You know what? 4e reminds me a bit of Genesys. In that it gave you an incredibly solid framework of a game, especially near the end. I think it would be much better received, especially if it leaned in hard on explaining to players how to reflavor their abilities to fit the fiction and setting while maintaining the underlying mechanics.
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Can you elaborate what you mean by this? I've only played 5e but things like target and range have always been pretty clear to everyone?
Here is an example of an ability from 4e, look how it is codified, everything is very specific in it's language, the triggers, targets, effects etc... The big thing is EVERY ability is codified this way, so it makes it extremely easy to understand abilities, because if you can read one, you can read them all.
here is a 5e lightning bolt in comparison, notice most of the spell is just in a big paragraph of text in the middle.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
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I also fucking hated Encounter and Daily powers, and I happen to really like spell slots as an idea, so.
This isn't a critique, but I never understood the classes feeling the same. You still have big beefy fighters up front tanking the enemies, and now they actually have abilities to punish the bad guys for not attacking them. Wizards are still in back slinging spells, mostly AOE for actual wizards, rogues are looking to flank to get huge spiky damage, and are still the trap detector extraordinares, Warlords are looking to position the barbarian for best potential, and shoving enemies around to get them into flanking...things like that.
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That also ends up being one of the primary issues that people have with it, the feeling that a lot of the classes play pretty similar, especially when compared to other classes in their same archetype. Which I think is both valid and also never really found to be a problem myself - I think the trade off was more than worth it.
This is at-risk of becoming a circular conversation, but because every class had as its main thing an At-Will that did some damage or a minor debuff, using an attack roll. I played a bunch of classes in 4e, from all the roles, and they all felt like different flavors of the exact same thing because every class had exactly the same amount of impact because they were given identical resources.
That's great if what you're going for is balancing the tactics aspect of the game, but for me it completely destroyed the crunchiness that I'm looking for in a tabletop game.
I would be really interested in how stripping 4E down to just four classes (Defender, Striker, Leader, Controller) would work, personally. You'd need to do a fair bit of work to redefine some aspects of it, as the individual classes did have elements that differentiated them aside from power selection, but I think you could get some fun results out of it.
But the moment I would start remaking 4E I would be changing a lot of other things as well, so it's not really something I'm about to undertake.
Purely on an aesthetic level the second is a million times more appealing, though. I think this is a good example of how "feel" is important
Yeah, am a huge 4e fan and I agree with that. The edition looks and reads like a textbook. 5e has really evocative design and is a much smoother read even though I feel like it ends up being much less precise in play.
All in all I think 4e is a great game that does a poor job evoking the feel of role playing even though it was fully possible to role play just as much with it as other editions.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
I like the idea of also having generic power sources (arcane, martial, divine, primal, psionic) as classes which then are hybrid-Ed to the role to build your final full class.
"The only real politics I knew was that if a guy liked Hitler, I’d beat the stuffing out of him and that would be it." -- Jack Kirby
So I'm thinking about the narrative alternative to daily powers. I'd think you'd want to do some sort of milestone or alignment goal trigger, you would just need to figure out a way to keep that balanced. I'd also consider allowing (or even requiring?) a change in daily power every time you refresh the ability, to represent the idea that these are like, incredible feats that will never be replicated sort of thing. Which I guess starts hitting a different tone/power level than where dailies were previously, but conceptually I still like the feeling of it.