alexandraerin (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alexandraerin) wrote2009-07-22 12:45 am
alexandraerin) wrote2009-07-22 12:45 am
Entry tags:
Homebrew styles.
Previously I gave a brief stat write-up of our homebrew cat people race, the Wildkin. In the spirit of being a little more D&D-positive than my previous rants, here are some of the other homebrew creations I've employed:
There's an enemy I've been using called the Kobold Wild Mage. As written, their at-will missile attack is a bolt of chaos magic that does 1d6 or 1d8 damage plus 4, plus a random effect based on which of four different kinds of energy comes out. That struck me as boring after I used it a couple of times, so for the next session I got creative.
I decided to spice things up by making a new table that's 1-12 instead of 1d4. Apart from making things more variable, this let me dilute the more powerful effects a little by making them come up less often... important, since I'd made an encounter power into an at-will. I also made number 12 one of the most important results on a chaotic magic table: backfire! Roll again and apply results as if the kobold were the target and the original target were the attacker. Wouldn't you know it, the one time it came up in play, the second result was Psychic damage type, which in this attack carries the side effect of one round of domination.
The new chart looks like this:
I'm considering making this into a player-usable wand. In addition to being able to cast the chaos spell from it, it could add a random damage type to critical damage. Adding the secondary effects to crits would probably be too powerful, and if they replaced the normal crit damage it probably wouldn't be popular.. "Wait, instead of doing 3d6 extra damage, my +3 wand is letting me slide him two squares because I hit a critical?"
As I mentioned in the comments on another post, I also have come up with (though not yet tried to use) a homebrew Wizard power, a very straightforward variation on Magic Missile called Magic Missiles. It functions identically to Magic Missile, except that at level 1, it's two missiles doing 1d4 damage. You give up the attribute bonus to damage for the flexibility of having two targets (and you gain the possibility of getting your implements' damage pluses twice). At level 21, when Magic Missile damage goes up to 4d4, you instead get four missiles.
To me, the trade-off of getting more targets for less immediate damage seems very Controllery.
I'm sure the people who I've been railing about would be the first ones (besides myself) to point out that, aside from subdividing instead of increasing damage and being an arcane implement power instead of a martial weapon power, this is identical to the Ranger's Twin Strike ability which just means I'm contributing to the "blandness" of the game... and that because four attacks means four times the magical plus bonuses at higher levels that it's even "cheesier" than the Ranger's Twin Strike which is supposedly already the only Striker at-will ability that you should ever consider taking because of that very damage stacking, and that by giving a Controller the ability to have an attack that's very close to a Striker, I'm just proving that the roles are broken.
Yeah, whatever. If you're going to drill it down to mechanics, then... as I observed elsewhere... that means Magic Missile is the same thing as a falchion. There is no mechanical problem with attacks doing the same amount of damage, and the idea that the game is "bland" or "boring" because when you ignore everything that's not a number then it's just a bunch of numbers is as stupid as it's tautological.
The difference between a Wizard with a homebrewed Magic Missiles spell and a Ranger with a bow and two arrows is that one is a Wizard with a Magic Missiles spell and the other is a Ranger with two arrows. I'm not going to waste any more of my time shaking my head at people who insist that we all ignore the fact that one is a Wizard and the other is a Ranger so that we can marvel at how exactly identical they are when we pretend one isn't a Wizard and one isn't a Ranger.
(And come to think of it, it's not quite as identical as I first thought... the Wizard's version will be doing less basic damage, unless the Ranger's using a 1d4 weapon for some reason. So the role distinction between Striker - doing extra damage and Controller - going after more targets remains. Even at level one, when they both have two targets, the range of Magic Missile is 20, at which distance the Ranger's going to be taking a long range penalty. The Wizard does less damage, but could strike at two foes on opposite ends of a very large battlefield. But then, a lot of the people who rag on 4E seem to be assuming that all fights take place in a shoebox.)
In the not-quite-homebrew department, I decided in my session last weekend that instead of finding magical equipment, the party's Wildkin barbarian would have her performance in battle be spontaneously rewarded by primal spirits granting power to the stuff she was already wearing/carrying.
I call this not-quite-homebrew because it's actually alluded to as a technique in Adventurer's Vault for having players' equipment sort of grow into their own legends. I like it because it actually fit the scenario... they had just beaten a double-sized encounter that took place within sight of a primal altar, and this way I can give the character equipment that fits the way she plays/fights without worrying about how it fit into the encounter. In fact, I liked it so much that once I decided to do it, I ended up doing it for the Warden, too.
It really is a nice and convenient way of being able to put the right equipment into the players' hands without worrying about why the monsters are carrying things that happen to be perfect for them. It probably works out the easiest and most naturally for primal and divine characters, but a Warlock could always be granted an extra reward (or given an additional enticement) from their pact entity, a Sorcerer could produce a spontaneous natural enchantment, etc.
There's an enemy I've been using called the Kobold Wild Mage. As written, their at-will missile attack is a bolt of chaos magic that does 1d6 or 1d8 damage plus 4, plus a random effect based on which of four different kinds of energy comes out. That struck me as boring after I used it a couple of times, so for the next session I got creative.
I decided to spice things up by making a new table that's 1-12 instead of 1d4. Apart from making things more variable, this let me dilute the more powerful effects a little by making them come up less often... important, since I'd made an encounter power into an at-will. I also made number 12 one of the most important results on a chaotic magic table: backfire! Roll again and apply results as if the kobold were the target and the original target were the attacker. Wouldn't you know it, the one time it came up in play, the second result was Psychic damage type, which in this attack carries the side effect of one round of domination.
The new chart looks like this:
1 Flame Bolt, 1d8 +4 Fire Damage +5 ongoing damage.
2 Frost Bolt, 1d6 +4 Cold Damage, immobilized (save ends)
3 Lightning Arc, 1d6 +4 Lightning Damage, pick one target in burst 5 takes half damage
4 Venom Bolt, 1d6 +4 poison damage, ongoing 5 poison damage and slowed (save ends both)
5 Thunder Ball, 1d6 +4 Thunder damage and dazed (save ends)
6 Acid Ball, 1d6 +4 Acid damage, and all adjacent to target take 3 Acid Damage
7 Force Wave, 1d6 +4 Force damage, and slide 2
8 Psychic Blast, 1d6 +4 Psychic damage, and dominated one turn.
9 Life Drain Bolt, 1d6 +4 Necrotic damage and mage regains that much HP.
10 Necrotic Bolt, 1d6 +4 Necrotic damage, weakened (save ends)
11 Radiant Bolt, 1d6 +4 Radiant damage, allies adjacent to target regain same number of HP
12 Misfire - roll 1d10 and apply that effect to the Wildmage.
I'm considering making this into a player-usable wand. In addition to being able to cast the chaos spell from it, it could add a random damage type to critical damage. Adding the secondary effects to crits would probably be too powerful, and if they replaced the normal crit damage it probably wouldn't be popular.. "Wait, instead of doing 3d6 extra damage, my +3 wand is letting me slide him two squares because I hit a critical?"
As I mentioned in the comments on another post, I also have come up with (though not yet tried to use) a homebrew Wizard power, a very straightforward variation on Magic Missile called Magic Missiles. It functions identically to Magic Missile, except that at level 1, it's two missiles doing 1d4 damage. You give up the attribute bonus to damage for the flexibility of having two targets (and you gain the possibility of getting your implements' damage pluses twice). At level 21, when Magic Missile damage goes up to 4d4, you instead get four missiles.
To me, the trade-off of getting more targets for less immediate damage seems very Controllery.
I'm sure the people who I've been railing about would be the first ones (besides myself) to point out that, aside from subdividing instead of increasing damage and being an arcane implement power instead of a martial weapon power, this is identical to the Ranger's Twin Strike ability which just means I'm contributing to the "blandness" of the game... and that because four attacks means four times the magical plus bonuses at higher levels that it's even "cheesier" than the Ranger's Twin Strike which is supposedly already the only Striker at-will ability that you should ever consider taking because of that very damage stacking, and that by giving a Controller the ability to have an attack that's very close to a Striker, I'm just proving that the roles are broken.
Yeah, whatever. If you're going to drill it down to mechanics, then... as I observed elsewhere... that means Magic Missile is the same thing as a falchion. There is no mechanical problem with attacks doing the same amount of damage, and the idea that the game is "bland" or "boring" because when you ignore everything that's not a number then it's just a bunch of numbers is as stupid as it's tautological.
The difference between a Wizard with a homebrewed Magic Missiles spell and a Ranger with a bow and two arrows is that one is a Wizard with a Magic Missiles spell and the other is a Ranger with two arrows. I'm not going to waste any more of my time shaking my head at people who insist that we all ignore the fact that one is a Wizard and the other is a Ranger so that we can marvel at how exactly identical they are when we pretend one isn't a Wizard and one isn't a Ranger.
(And come to think of it, it's not quite as identical as I first thought... the Wizard's version will be doing less basic damage, unless the Ranger's using a 1d4 weapon for some reason. So the role distinction between Striker - doing extra damage and Controller - going after more targets remains. Even at level one, when they both have two targets, the range of Magic Missile is 20, at which distance the Ranger's going to be taking a long range penalty. The Wizard does less damage, but could strike at two foes on opposite ends of a very large battlefield. But then, a lot of the people who rag on 4E seem to be assuming that all fights take place in a shoebox.)
In the not-quite-homebrew department, I decided in my session last weekend that instead of finding magical equipment, the party's Wildkin barbarian would have her performance in battle be spontaneously rewarded by primal spirits granting power to the stuff she was already wearing/carrying.
I call this not-quite-homebrew because it's actually alluded to as a technique in Adventurer's Vault for having players' equipment sort of grow into their own legends. I like it because it actually fit the scenario... they had just beaten a double-sized encounter that took place within sight of a primal altar, and this way I can give the character equipment that fits the way she plays/fights without worrying about how it fit into the encounter. In fact, I liked it so much that once I decided to do it, I ended up doing it for the Warden, too.
It really is a nice and convenient way of being able to put the right equipment into the players' hands without worrying about why the monsters are carrying things that happen to be perfect for them. It probably works out the easiest and most naturally for primal and divine characters, but a Warlock could always be granted an extra reward (or given an additional enticement) from their pact entity, a Sorcerer could produce a spontaneous natural enchantment, etc.
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ilu