Using D&D 4e powers for role-playing

Most of you who read the Icosahedrophilia blog probably also read the At Will blog. If you don’t, though, at least go read Quinn’s post “Off the Grid: Using your powers in roleplaying.” Here’s a taste:

When I’m talking about 4e in real life, you know what I hear all the time? All. The. Time?

“Powers limit what you can do. Powers make roleplaying harder.”

I politely try to explain the ways that powers can be used creatively in and out of combat. Welcome to my blog, where politeness occasionally takes a nap.

This is rubbish.

Keep reading at At Will.

August 02nd, 2009 | Category: Uncategorized | 1 comment

1 Comment so far

  1. yoyorobbo
    August 3rd, 2009

    | 9:29 am

    I tried to make some of my 12th level Gnome Illusionist Wizard work in out-of-combat roleplaying inside the city walls in a recent 4e session. I figured I could use my Invisibilty (daily level 6 utility power) to sneak around the city and maybe even into the prison for a jail-break, with illusions, knock-ing the lock, blocking my work on the lock with an Illusory Wall, and if it came down to it using Sleep on some of the guards (I’m an old fart who longs for early ’80s Basic/Expert D&D “sleep”…awesome spell there.

    Well, I was told that this power (Invisibility) would only last until the end of my next turn, so maybe 6 or 12 seconds, and that to perform a “knock” on the lock/door the ritual would take 10 minutes to perform….ugh.

    I thought these powers should perform differently when not in combat – they all (DM and players) said nope.

    In the end I scrapped all ideas of being a little trickster sneaking around the city, and we went with a backup plan. It worked, but my idea of fun for my prankster gnome went nowhere.

    It wasn’t until later that I noticed I could sustain the Invisibility as a Standard action. So, I probably could have done what I wanted to, but was ignorant to my own power (duh me) and was incorrectly ruled to by a veteran DM and several veteran players (duh them). Ah well.

    We still had fun, but *I* need to better understand all of my character’s powers. Live and learn.

    Nice post, and good thought-provoker. Sadly it stung a bit when I read it, recalling my recent out-of-combat power denial.

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