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[WL] Discussion and Suggestion of Wanderlust's combat mechanics and Powers

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A1C Bronymous
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Post  ZamuelNow Sat Nov 15, 2014 7:49 pm

Wanderlust has been out for a while and people have gotten some experience with it.  Some discussion topics have popped up and it seems it might be best to collect it in a central location.  As usual, it's best to note that the devs may not include suggestions or may alter them as they see fit.

This particular discussion will be for WL's Powers and overall combat mechanics.  How do you feel about them in their current state?



I personally love Fatal Damage.  It solves the problems with comatose and losing energy to the point that I added Fatal Damage to my campaigns that still use LL/PT combat.  There are things I miss from the previous system but I do think the new system is better balanced.  It's also better structured since the keywords make finding some types of powers easier.  I'm still mulling over some thoughts of some of the system mechanics and new/revised battle roles.
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Post  A1C Bronymous Sat Nov 15, 2014 9:02 pm

I like a lot of the aspects of Wanderlust's combat, but at the same time it feels slightly more limited. I'm not sure how to quantify that statement, it may just be because its newer and I'm not as used to it. But, I stated before that it seems a reverse design decision as the Out of combat in that you seem to get most of your combat aspects upfront, and only get a few upgrades as levels increase. I also prefer to have a comprehensive list of items rather than the Greed-test Features list. I like the Features by themselves, but I would prefer if they were used in conjunction with items, not in lieu of.

Also, something I would note is that the switch from 4 starting pips to 3 is a HUGE curveball. I have knowledge of a combat build that is UNGODLY powerful- or at least it was, until I reread the fine print and found I was missing a pip to start it off. A single turn extra, maybe, but that single detail actually shows how much more care went into the mathematics of the new system.

Overall, the combat seems promising, I'd just like to actually get to try it out at some point.
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Post  mjh6 Sat Nov 15, 2014 9:22 pm

When I first looked at the combat, I felt it was slightly limiting in the number of powers. Part of that was just because it is a new system without all the extra things that were added later, and part of that was the removal of redundant powers. At the same time, I do feel like there were one or two issues concerning variety. For one thing, the healing powers seemed a bit boring and simple, although that might be because they are individually more powerful, it feels.

But more than that, as a player, I enjoy building characters as much as playing itself, and as a whole, the different categories feel a bit disconnected due to the more gimmicky sections. For instance the way the Monk Section is laid out, it feels like to use the Monk powers, you need to take mostly or only monk powers. Same thing goes for the berzerker powers. This may be just me, but I just wish that the system gave off a bit more flexibility in it's powers.
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Post  A1C Bronymous Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:00 pm

mjh6 wrote:But more than that, as a player, I enjoy building characters as much as playing itself, and as a whole, the different categories feel a bit disconnected due to the more gimmicky sections. For instance the way the Monk Section is laid out, it feels like to use the Monk powers, you need to take mostly or only monk powers. Same thing goes for the berzerker powers. This may be just me, but I just wish that the system gave off a bit more flexibility in it's powers.

I second this. Definitely disappointing in this aspect, because you have so many labels for talents that its like the combos are specifically designed, and less interchangeable and exploratory. I'd say a good comparison would be the evolution of Yugioh cards. Originally everything was a big wide open pool, and you chose similar things from different categories to make a theme and build combos- but as time progressed, they introduced archetypes, and cards became extremely limited, forcing you to select from one or two archetypes as your main strategies. I wouldn't say it's that bad in Wanderlust, but the Monk class definitely illustrates this concept, as does Spellblade to a lesser extent.
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Post  mjh6 Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:23 pm

I'd actually say Spellblade is a bit different, in that it works more as a supporting archetype than something you build around completely. (I know because I actually tried building it that way, and ended up needing to build a Spellblade/Ranger fusion, which is still good.) But the lesser powered Spellblade's I've seen used relatively frequently (taking into account our limited testing ground) to augment different builds, especially since taking Energetic as a feature means you always have at least some Energy to burn. That's not to say that there's not more that could be added for spellblade, as fury and I have discussed in the other thread.

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Post  A1C Bronymous Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:48 pm

Yeah, when I mentioned Spellblade I was going off of the fact that there are a lot of really good features for it, but my good build doesn't actually use any of them, but instead other techniques that are similar. Those other techniques could certainly benefit in just the same way as the Spellblade talents, but the Traits and such that affect them say "Spellblade" specifically, causing limitations.
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Post  mjh6 Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:53 pm

I... don't quite understand. What are you specifically referring to that's causing problems?
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Post  A1C Bronymous Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:02 am

It's not causing a problem, its just a minor limitation. I'll go look up the stuff specifically if you want it cited, but basically there's a Berserker power that has a similar function to the Spellblade talents. I believe it is a 2 pip Minor action, you take 7 damage and gain a bonus to your next attack (something like that). It would be really cool if you could use it in conjunction with the Traits and other Talents that specifically target Spellblade talent effects, as it's function is nearly the same, but since its not a Spellblade Class power, it isn't labeled with "Spellblade", and so isn't affectable.

Like you cited with the Monk class, its another example of if you want to take advantage of something, you have to limit yourself to that set of options.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:14 am

Lots of great discussion so far. I can make a few comments, clarifications and similar - to help explain the thoughts behind the scenes.

Combat is designed to be fun to play and easy to run (as well as build encounters for) in the session itself. For options, we want every major fantasy story concept to have a build that works for the general trope they're building for. We want effects that work for knights, effects that work for necromancers and so-on - otherwise you couldn't play your story concept.

Wanderlust is designed for players going, "I want to go on a cool adventure with this story concept in my head. What mechanics would that character have?" Not, "Here's this cool combination of powers I found, I want to take it for a spin". Wanderlust is really bad at the second style of gaming, and many other systems are great at building optimizer or creative-builder paradises. Wanderlust is focused on the session itself, and how fun and smooth that plays, rather than the character-sheet-assembling process being an interesting puzzle.

Balance is thus heavily prioritized, and any effect that makes things harder to balance wasn't included. It's also designed to be nearly impossible to find any combo that is mathematically more than a few percentage points over what you should get for the cost. I believe the record for non-typo builds (like when we designed an effect to be used once-per-round and then forgot to put in the once-per-round limitation) one stress tester managed to get almost 10% over the power we planned for.

However, when there are no limitations on which traits can combine with which powers, we get a lot more broken things. By making certain effects keyword specific, we manage to make sure that thing A is played with thing B - but not played with thing C (which it might be broken with). This actually means we can design more things than otherwise. If A is broken with C, then we can't have both A and C in the system... Provided they can be used together. If we use a keyword to restrict A from working with C, both cool designs can show up.

A good example of this in the previous system was the "Duelist" trait line. Adding damage to each attack you made meant that a lot of neat multi-attack powers simply couldn't be designed in that system, because they were fair with everything... Except Duelist. With duelist, they were broken. Using keyword restrictions we can put more cool stuff in than otherwise.

Additionally, if there are no restrictions about what can be played with what - you'd think more options open up but in reality builds tend to become more homogenized. Players tend to grab the seemingly-best things for every build. Observe Energized, many other features are just as powerful but people scoop it up endlessly.

Many games have shown this to be true over the years. In Magic the Gathering, the color restrictions on deckbuilding mean that not all the best things can be played at the same time. By creating limitations on what can be combined with what, you technically have fewer options but get more unique builds - because you can't just combine the best things each time.

Optimization creates a similar puzzle. If a player cares about playing top tier builds, creating lots of ways for builds to get over the expected power level actually reduces the number of options - because playing anything less than the top tier is less interesting to them. Additionally, only the top of the top tier are interesting. By keeping everything equal, everything is top tier and thus acceptable to play. Also, no one gets punished for playing their character concept - just because "vampires are underpowered" in 4e or something.
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Post  A1C Bronymous Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:24 am

I think that's pretty understandable. And at least its a definitive design decision, and not backtracking or laziness (though I guess the lazier option would be not to classify stuff).

An a vaguely related topic, because we're already classifying things based on classes and tropes, wouldn't we be able to add combat resistances and immunities fairly easily? I know it was all but impossible in PT/LL, but with a focus on tropism and stereotypical roles, it seems like it would be easier to implement.

EDIT: Disclaimer: I'm not trying to take any shots at the dev team with any of the above comments.
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Post  mjh6 Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:39 am

Okay, maybe I said it wrong. I actually wouldn't consider myself an optimizer, it's just that when it comes to building a character, I don't want to build the same one each time. So, If I want to deal burst damage, I don't want to have to use the same Elementalist techniques that are the only option to do burst damage that every one would use ( I know there are some other ways to deal damage, but why so few burst attacks compared to Single?)

I'm not saying I don't like the combat,but I do think that this is an issue. But I understand that I'm not a designer, and you're not building this game to cater to me specifically. I just think that it's an issue that does need to be examine at least a bit.

And I'm sorry if I'm bugging you, its just how I feel. Embarassed
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:49 am

A1C Bronymous wrote:EDIT: Disclaimer: I'm not trying to take any shots at the dev team with any of the above comments.

It didn't read like you were. No worries. =)

A1C Bronymous wrote:An a vaguely related topic, because we're already classifying things based on classes and tropes, wouldn't we be able to add combat resistances and immunities fairly easily? I know it was all but impossible in PT/LL, but with a focus on tropism and stereotypical roles, it seems like it would be easier to implement.

It's sort of the same issue. We want to support players being able to build any fantasy character they want (unless it's absolutely impossible to support), so it doesn't make a ton of sense to make "deal 1d10 damage to target creature" five different times for five different elements. Of course, that doesn't take into account themes we haven't even thought of. What if they want the 1d10 damage to be an arrow, a sword, a punch, a blast of pure void, a psychic assault, a sonic wail...

Now, we could pick a small number of elements and design each element to have a specific style (small ongoing damage riders on fire-based powers perhaps, and similar for other elements). If this was a boxed boardgame, that's totally what I'd do. However, we want Wanderlust to be flexible enough to support any reasonable story concept. Also, we don't want your story concept to force you into gameplay you don't find fun.

Furthermore, elemental affinities can cause a lot of problems. Pokemon shows this. The cool concepts often involve a trainer specializing in one type, and it makes sense for story reasons, but you need a diverse team in actual gameplay. What often happens is that the pyromancer has all fire, all the time, and it's cool... Then runs into a guy with fire resistance and is completely hosed for the fight.

Basically, the design goal for the system is to support the story concepts players want to play. Calling out specific elements in terms of gameplay realities can kind of mess with that. As long as we provide gameplay that could fit the flavor of fire, we don't need to say in game terms "this is fire and must be treated as such". The fire mages still have stuff that works for them, without hosing all the other players that want access to that style of combat.

What we end up losing is a bit of realism, but it's a net gain. Also, I'd heavily encourage GMs to use circumstantial modifiers anytime it seems too weird to not bring up. While the system doesn't provide any specific rules for, as an example, hitting a distracted enemy - a GM could absolutely provide you a damage bonus for doing so if it seems right in the scenario. The same goes for elemental resistance and vulnerability. Circumstantial modifiers are your friend, and it's a lot more flexible to let GMs add them when they feel right rather than limit a bunch of peoples' options for flavor reasons.

NOTE: We need to limit options for balance reasons, as that affects actual gameplay in serious ways that can't be easily fixed, but flavor is a lot more flexible.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 12:59 am

mjh6 wrote:Okay, maybe I said it wrong. I actually wouldn't consider myself an optimizer, it's just that when it comes to building a character, I don't want to build the same one each time.

I wasn't talking about you specifically, I was doing a broad sweep of the topic. You strike me more as a Johnny, a style of player that likes his or her character build to be an exercise in creativity. In Magic, such players often enjoy the process of deckbuilding as a form of creativity and often enjoy playing unique decks they've created. I'm totally a Johnny. I'm also an optimizer (a Spike). In many ways, I'm protecting the system from myself.

The character building process in many games is more fun than the actual gameplay, and it's an awesome goal for a system to try to make that process as fun as possible. Lot's of other systems have done this. This often leads to hurting the experience of the session itself, but that's a legitimate tradeoff. In Magic, Johnnies don't mind if their deck is a bit clunkier or unwieldy - because it's uniquely theirs and when it works... It's glorious.


So, If I want to deal burst damage, I don't want to have to use the same Elementalist techniques that are the only option to do burst damage that every one would use ( I know there are some other ways to deal damage, but why so few burst attacks compared to Single?)

Ideally, I want there to be enough room within each build concept to allow players to feel like they've customized their build to their own experiences (but not more than that, to avoid system clutter with subpar design). Leveling up should involve interesting choices. It's perfectly possible that some builds have erred on the side of too few options right now, even for non-Johnny players. We added to the Berserker build options, as well as the Monk, for this reason.

I'm not saying I don't like the combat,but I do think that this is an issue. But I understand that I'm not a designer, and you're not building this game to cater to me specifically. I just think that it's an issue that does need to be examine at least a bit.

And thanks for bringing it up. I really value everyone's reactions. I just also have to figure out whether some complaints are based on things we're not trying to do and whether addressing them might cause ripple effects elsewhere in the architecture.

Good example: On one of my recent professional projects, we were doing testing and one player HATED the game. He said it felt like a card game version of a MOBA, and he hates MOBAs. However, our design goal was trying to mimic the feel of MOBAs in a card game, so that was a win for us.

Your complaints don't necessarily fall into this category. I'm just doing my best to make sure you understand our design goals, so you can give detailed feedback.

And I'm sorry if I'm bugging you, its just how I feel. Embarassed

If this is bugging, bugging is awesome. Smile

I'm looking forward to hearing more of your thoughts, whenever you'd like to voice them.
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Post  mjh6 Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:04 am

Thank you for the understanding Smile

So, I am curious as to why there are so few burst powers, compared to several archetypes that focus on single targets specifically. Does have to do with the power of the Nova feature, or just desire to not put too much of the same things in the doc? Or is it something completely different?
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:26 am

mjh6 wrote:Thank you for the understanding Smile

Anytime. =)

So, I am curious as to why there are so few burst powers, compared to several archetypes that focus on single targets specifically.
Good question. Let's go through your suggestions.

Does have to do with the power of the Nova feature

Not particularly. Being able to focus damage on single targets just increases the versatility of AOE effects, it doesn't increase their raw power. It means you can play an AOE-focused build without being punished for it in solo fights, it doesn't make AOE better than it already is.

Or just desire to not put too much of the same things in the doc?


Partly. We don't want to make two things that are effectively the same power - because one is going to be better designed, more powerful or just nicer looking than the other. That creates unnecessary clutter. Creating things of varying value is great for games which want building to be an element of skill, to test players' ability to evaluate powers. However, here we're actively trying to prevent that. We want each build to be equally powerful.

So for reasons of good design, we don't want to put in redundant effects. We'd rather have the better version in the game and cut the worse designed version.

Or is it something completely different?

Here's the real meat. I can bring up a lot of small reasons but the core is this...

Burst powers are REALLY hard to design.

Let's take the following.

"Deal 1d10 damage to target enemy".

This is a basic single-target attack and looks pretty nice. Let's turn it into a four-target burst.

5.5 damage is the average for a d10. Simply rolling a d10, due to crit chance, is worth 1.25 damage. So the burst power needs to end up dealing a total of 6.75 damage.

6.75 divided by 4 is 1.6875 damage. So this effect is going to have to deal an average of... Less than 2 damage to each target.

That's really, really hard to make look exciting.

Fundamentally, it's very difficult to design burst powers that look exciting and are also balanced. We have to use other effects that look a lot more powerful than they actually are (like energy gain, rolling d20s and similar) in order to balance things out. The space to combine these things is very limited, and the more we do things like that - the less special the cool things seem (which defeats the value of using the seemingly-too-cool things in first place).

These design constraints strangle the design of burst powers.

There are some other factors too, quite a few smaller things (such as burst powers being very narrow without the nova feature), but the above issues are significant.
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Post  A1C Bronymous Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:37 am

Ok, well I had an idea for how to make combat resistances a little more viable, but its not super thought out yet. Would be DM/Player intensive, as opposed to core rules.
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Post  mjh6 Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:38 am

Actually, the thing about nova has less to do with the power of bursts, and more to do with nova's ability to turn Burst powers into single powers. So a Burst that deals too much damage widely can be turned into a powerful single target attack, meaning that the nova user has huge flexibility in damage dealing, being able to hit both a large crowd, and a solo powerfully. If I'm wrong about this, tell me though. I'd be relieved.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:40 am

A1C Bronymous wrote:Ok, well I had an idea for how to make combat resistances a little more viable, but its not super thought out yet. Would be DM/Player intensive, as opposed to core rules.

I'd be interested to hear it when it's ready.

mjh6 wrote:Actually, the thing about nova has less to do with the power of bursts, and more to do with nova's ability to turn Burst powers into single powers. So a Burst that deals too much damage widely can be turned into a powerful single target attack, meaning that the nova user has huge flexibility in damage dealing, being able to hit both a large crowd, and a solo powerfully. If I'm wrong about this, tell me though. I'd be relieved.

I'm not sure what you're asking. Can you clarify?
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Post  mjh6 Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:47 am

It's that the power of Nova means that a player could potentially hit as powerfully against a solo as other single target focused characters, while still being the best against group battles, making the nova builds possibly too powerful compared to others. That's my worry, but I haven't seen nova in action yet, so I could be wrong.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Sun Nov 16, 2014 1:52 am

You're entirely right about that. But it isn't actually a problem.

Burst specialists pay for the versatility by being a burst-specialist in the first place. After all, any player can take one burst attack in case they're in a fight where such things are important. The burst-specialist could have taken some single attack powers too, but chose to only take burst powers in the first place. Also, except in massive horde-battles, single-target attacks are usually just as valuable in larger battles too. Especially because it's good strategy to focus down one enemy at a time to lower overall enemy damage output.

However, if you want to focus on bursts for character reasons - you get seriously gimped in fights you don't have enough targets for. The nova feature was created to help undo the versatility damage burst-specialists had done to themselves. Any player interested in versatility can get it from the sheer virtue of taking a diverse set of powers to begin with (just as a player can take this feature).
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Post  ZamuelNow Sun Nov 16, 2014 11:47 pm

A1C Bronymous wrote:Also, something I would note is that the switch from 4 starting pips to 3 is a HUGE curveball. I have knowledge of a combat build that is UNGODLY powerful- or at least it was, until I reread the fine print and found I was missing a pip to start it off. A single turn extra, maybe, but that single detail actually shows how much more care went into the mathematics of the new system.

Yeah, lower starting energy but the + moves doing more helps the system feel better as far as the flow is concerned.  The buildup phase feels like you're doing more.

mjh6 wrote:For one thing, the healing powers seemed a bit boring and simple, although that might be because they are individually more powerful, it feels.

With healing as a role, I feel you only really need half the build: A + energy heal, a strong single target heal, a strong aoe heal, and something that grants a saving throw.  From there, you have a fair bit a breathing room though there probably could stand to be a few more with different mechanics.  There's also the whole issue where healing is the role where everyone wants one on the team but not everyone wants to play it.

But more than that, as a player, I enjoy building characters as much as playing itself, and as a whole, the different categories feel a bit disconnected due to the more gimmicky sections. For instance the way the Monk Section is laid out, it feels like to use the Monk powers, you need to take mostly or only monk powers. Same thing goes for the berzerker powers. This may be just me, but I just wish that the system gave off a bit more flexibility in it's powers.

I think Berserkers have more flexibility than it initially seems.  All you truly need is one power to build adrenaline and one to spend it but No Pain, No Gain offers breathing room if you've got incoming healing.  Monks do tend to be heavily locked into the set and I'm glad they got the new powers they did.  I think Monk combos probably fare better when played than when they're looked at.  Another thing is that the Opener, Combo, and Finisher don't necessarily require the same target so it's not as bad of a minion sweeper as I originally thought.

mjh6 wrote:Okay, maybe I said it wrong. I actually wouldn't consider myself an optimizer, it's just that when it comes to building a character, I don't want to build the same one each time. So, If I want to deal burst damage, I don't want to have to use the same Elementalist techniques that are the only option to do burst damage that every one would use

They haven't always went well but anyone think we should hold a few build challenges for people to try building concepts, just for curiosity sake?

Stairc -Dan Felder wrote:Burst powers are REALLY hard to design.

Let's take the following.

"Deal 1d10 damage to target enemy".

This is a basic single-target attack and looks pretty nice. Let's turn it into a four-target burst.

5.5 damage is the average for a d10. Simply rolling a d10, due to crit chance, is worth 1.25 damage. So the burst power needs to end up dealing a total of 6.75 damage.

6.75 divided by 4 is 1.6875 damage. So this effect is going to have to deal an average of... Less than 2 damage to each target.

That's really, really hard to make look exciting.

Fundamentally, it's very difficult to design burst powers that look exciting and are also balanced. We have to use other effects that look a lot more powerful than they actually are (like energy gain, rolling d20s and similar) in order to balance things out. The space to combine these things is very limited, and the more we do things like that - the less special the cool things seem (which defeats the value of using the seemingly-too-cool things in first place).

These design constraints strangle the design of burst powers.

There are some other factors too, quite a few smaller things (such as burst powers being very narrow without the nova feature), but the above issues are significant.

I wonder if there's still a few more design space options for bursts.  Self damage and Adrenaline seem like they'd open up another Berserker option.  The Nuker feature feels like it could stand to have one more large energy cost move.  I also wonder about the validity of moves similar to Fireblast where drop kick one dude in the mouth then you push a few others over.
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Post  mjh6 Mon Nov 17, 2014 12:01 am

Oooh! Build competions! I never got to participate in one before!
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:32 am

ZamuelNow wrote:I wonder if there's still a few more design space options for bursts.  Self damage and Adrenaline seem like they'd open up another Berserker option.  The Nuker feature feels like it could stand to have one more large energy cost move.  I also wonder about the validity of moves similar to Fireblast where drop kick one dude in the mouth then you push a few others over.

I'm sure there's untapped space that we missed on our initial passes. I'd be interested to see some ideas for powers that are genuinely different than the ones already in existence - in that they enable gameplay styles or fantasy concepts not currently served.
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Post  sunbeam Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:41 am

One thing that is missing is mass status affects. There is exactly one basic Burst power that does something other than damage and healing:

[-2] Plague - Standard Action (Attack, Affliction, Burst)
Up to 3 different target creatures suffer 5 Ongoing Damage (save ends).

In particular, I think mass weakness would be cool. It's useful in a variety of situations, and the inflation that weakness gets (relative to damage) mathematically helps compensate for the normally underwhelming nature of bust powers.
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Post  Stairc -Dan Felder Tue Nov 18, 2014 12:54 am

Good point on the inflated numbers of weakness (comparable to healing) helping combat the perception problem. I don't like making GMs track weakness on multiple creatures - and weakness slows fights down - which can be bad for gameplay. However, I'd be interested to see a design of it that takes these factors into account.

Perhaps damage and weakness in the same AOE might be a nice design, and good for a bit of flavor too.
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