Singularity: The Reckoning

I was utterly stupefied at the amount of dialgoue and interest generated by the original Singularity article. You guys rock.

Many of you asked for specific rulings or elaborations on certain powers or stunts. To this end, I will provide here a set of guidelines for adjudicating a wider variety of stunts and powers, but I want to make a couple things very clear. First this is definitely more art, though there is some science involved. The point is not to create a entirely new rule-laden subsytem, but a quick ruling method that doesn’t require incredible cognitive load (as Quinn loves to say).  Second, I’m not even creating a “new” system. Everything I propose in this post is a part of the standard ruleset. I’m really just ‘defragmenting’ the ‘program’ of 4E for easier use; rearranging rules that are already in place to form a more freeing experience for the player (and possibly DM).

Since we have shown that powers are simply specific expressions of skills, we can posit that a character effectively has a nearly infinite number of available “powers” but somewhat limited usage of those powers (a small handful per encounter and another small handful per day). Really all we’re saying here is “you can try anything,” but framing it in such a way as to break the concept of only having “X” number of powers is important. What we need to do to access all of those hidden “powers” is 1) describe a way to manufacture or model them ad hoc and 2) balance their use against one another. Both are surprisingly uncomplicated tasks using the 4E toolkit.

Manufacturing Powers

Players using stunts generally want to do one of two things – create a specific effect or steal another power. We will look at each approach in the same situations for comparison.

Creating Effects

Common created effects are “prone”, “pushed”, “dazed”, “granting combat advantage”, etc. Look again at the example of Shiera and the chandelier in the DMG; that player is looking for the effect “pushed into the brazier” and accomplishes it with an Acrobatics check. The damage is incidental because, c’mon she’s a 8th level Rogue. If she was concerned about damage, she’d move into flank and attack normally – a Sly Flourish alone with CA can be assumed to net even an unoptimized Rogue 3d6 + 12 damage at that level which is way better than the 2d8+5 she got for her acrobatic manuever. What’s important here is the push. As the DM of this player, the question to be asked is “What’s the DC for this maneuver?” “How easily can an 8th level Rogue push someone three squares?” Looking through the Rogue powers real quick, we see that forced movement is not the class’ forte, though some Daily powers can do it. (We could also just look the the character’s current suite of powers to see if it’s something the character is good at in lieu of going through rulebooks.) Pushing 3 is thus a Hard DC of character level for this character using an appropriate skill.

Consider also a 2nd level wizard who wants to use the old Shocking Grasp spell from previous editions. Again, the emphasis is not on the damage itself but on range and damage type.  Lightning is pretty simple for a wizard to manage but melee touch is practically unheard of. Calling the execution of this maneuver a Lv 2 Moderate DC is reasonable.

“But what about the damage,” you ask? Once again, there are two quick and easy options. The first is to say that any stunt with just a skill check delivers damage equal to 1[W]* + primary ability modifier and carries all applicable keywords, such as Weapon, Implement, Fire, Divine, whatever; jump it to 2[W] at Lv 21. This is effectively a basic attack which, as an at-will power, can be spammed all day without breaking the system. It’s safe, easy and the damage is likely calculated out for you on the Melee or Ranged Basic Workspaces of your character sheet. The other option is to use the DMG pg. 42 Medium Normal damage expression of the appropriate level with no keywords since those expressions account for likely feats and damage modifiers. Choose the one that makes your players happy. It is important to note, however that because the character made a skill check and not an attack roll, the power did not hit. It was a Utility power that did damage and is a major way that stunts balance against chosen powers. Since a stunt power is not a power the character is practiced with, it doesn’t get all the fun “when you hit with…” feat and class feature kickers.

If the player is unhappy with the damage dealt, offer to up the damage if the player sacrifices an available encounter or daily power. The other main function of powers besides describing specific expertise is regulating awesomeness… and yes, that is the technical terminology. Sacrificing a power to get a more spectacular stunt evens out the amount of cool each player has, allowing stunts to be effective and exciting without unbalancing things too much. Using a more powerful damage expression or tagging on a couple extra dice should solve the problem nicely. The character could additionally make an attack roll (either as a basic attack or with another power) to increase the damage and actually hit the enemy.

OK, I can see some eyes glazing over…  maybe that was too much exposition. Want the TLDR (Too Long, Didn’t Read) version? Here – have a power card:
Effect-Based Stunt
You reach beyond your comfort zone to perform a uncharacteristic maneuver.
At-Will
Variable Action
Requirement: You make a skill check of appropriate DC to the effect you want to have.
Effect: You gain the desired effect at the appropriate action cost. If your effect is an attack, deal 1[W]* + primary ability modifier damage with all appropriate keywords. Alternatively, deal damage equal to the Medium Normal damage expression for your level with no keywords.
Special: You may expend an Encounter or Daily Attack power to increase your damage. Alternatively, make an actual attack as part of this action.
Aftereffect: Blatant abuse of this power may require sacrifice of other powers (DM’s discretion).

Steal Another Power

If you got this far, congrats. It’s all downhill from here, I promise.

Let us assume instead that the player wants to outright steal a power from another class. No problem. Use this table:

So if Shiera wants to steal Fallen Hammer in Repose from the Monk class for her chandelier move (as per the previous installment description), it’s a Lv 3 Hard DC – 2 just to get the power. She then still has to hit with it, but she can use her primary attack stat to hit instead of the listed stat. This will also definitely cost her an Encounter power to do – effectively a use of the Novice Power feat on the fly. A Wizard who wants to reskin the Artificer’s Static Shock as Shocking Grasp is looking at a level 1 Moderate DC – 2 to grab the power and then an attack roll to use it. There are more rolls required here (possibly, see below) but the tradeoff is that the stunt delivers a true Hit.

Now before anyone says anything, yes – as you get high enough in level and skill, you will be able to automatically grab other classes’ low-level powers. This is not a problem. First, you’re going to have to expend one of your own Encounter or Dailies to do it, so the majority of balance is maintained. Second, if it’s an At-Will…  it’s an At-Will. Use it to your heart’s content; you’re not going to break anything**.

Once again, seeing a power card might be helpful for demonstration:
Stealing a Power
You’ve seen this done a hundred times before. Piece of cake, right?
At-Will
Free Action
Requirement: You make a skill check of appropriate DC to the power you want to steal.
Effect: You gain the desired power and use it immediately. If you steal an Encounter or Daily power, you sacrifice another  Encounter or Daily power of equal or greater level.

Keeping It Balanced

We’ve already covered at least two ways to keep stunts balanced against preselected powers – primarily the absence of a Hit without an attack roll and the sacrifice of other powers. The third tool is failure complication. This means that the player can choose to “succeed” on a failed skill check, but with some consequences. Powers don’t carry the risk of inherent screw-up, only failure to Hit. A stunt, however, can backfire or at least proceed suboptimally and that risk is a balance factor as well. While I obviously can’t list every possible consequence of continuing with a failed stunt, here are the ones most generally useful:

• Sacrifice another power of equal level and usage (if not doing so already)
• Lose a healing surge
• Lose action
• Take damage (Low Normal expression for level or simplify to Level/3 + 4 as minion damage)
• Take ongoing damage (save ends, 5/Tier)
• Fall prone
• Grant combat advantage
• Target wrong or additional creatures/items
• Apply unintentional push/pull/slide
• Attack deals damage but no effect
• Attack deals effect but no damage
• Become dazed or immobilized (severe, use sparingly)
• Drop item/weapon/implement
• Mark the oppponent (Defenders may not care but your wizard will be terrified!)

Be forward with the number and types of consequences you might use with your players. When a skill check for a stunt fails, offer the player the option of a few different consequences. Eventually, they’ll start bargaining with you and trust me, that’s a whole new layer of fun and intricacy.

A couple random thoughts that don’t fit in anywhere else, really:

1. If a player has a particular stunt they keep using over and over again regularly, have them write up a power card for it and “retrain” an old power to the new one.
2. Consider applying the stunt failure options to Encounter powers, but again, make them optional and situational. Not all players are into that sort of thing.  Still, nothing slows down a combat like a Miss for no effect. It’s a wasted turn.
3. *For implement powers, assume d6s for controllers, d10s for strikers and d8s for everyone else in place of [W]s.
4. You will break your players long before you break your game with rampant stunts. Be sure everyone’s ok with loosening up the balance and niche protection ahead of time.

And 1737 words later, I think I’m done. Now go forth and stuntify!

**Yeah, yeah, I know – Twin Strike. (Did I mention I hate Rangers, by the way?) Odds are that a character who would really abuse Twin Strike as a stunt already has it some other way. I recognize the potential but I don’t think it would play out.

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