Comments on: Skill Focus: Endurance

By: Players Need to Be More Creative — Dungeon's Master

Players Need to Be More Creative — Dungeon's Master — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:32:05 +0000

[...] Endurance to temporarily eliminate your armor’s speed [...]

By: Ameron

Ameron — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:06:24 +0000

@Felonius
Although there doesn’t seem to be any rules in 4e for sleeping in your armor, as a DM I won’t let my players do it. Unless of course they’re willing to make a couple of skill checks in the morning or suffer some other negative consequence for being uncomfortable for 8 hours. It’s one of those situations where I think common sense trumps 4e game mechanics. As a plus for the PCs, I rarely ambush them while they’re sleeping so being unarmored doesn’t usually pose too many problems. However, I have thrown a couple of slightly lowered encounters at them in the middle of the night, but I’ve taken into consideration that they’ll have a sword and shield and not plate armor.

By: Felonius

Felonius — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:08:47 +0000

Correct me if I’m wrong… but #8 is a moot point in 4e, which I assume you’re playing since you mention Healing Surges, etc. I haven’t found any rules regarding sleeping in armor in 4e…

I like the ideas of everything else, though. Overall, great ideas.

By: Ameron

Ameron — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:23:23 +0000

@Swordgleam
These are just suggestions of course and may still need some fleshing out to work. My group is still waiting for opportunities to play test them all.

I think your feedback is good and after re-reading #3 I agree that it can use more fine-tuning. I’m open to suggestion.

I agree that #10 should be tweaked as well. Perhaps a success should merely allow the taste tester a +2 to their save or Fort defense depending on the circumstance. Just because one guys says “I’ll tastes your food for poison” shouldn’t grant him temporary immunity. Good feedback.

By: Swordgleam

Swordgleam — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:44:41 +0000

Our fighter would love those, especially the first one.

I think #3 needs a bit more detail in order not to be perhaps a little too strong. If there’s an encounter during the night, do you still get the benefits of an extended rest? I would think not.

With #10, I see a similar issue: the endurance check allowing you to avoid all problems associated with a specific action. I think perhaps a large bonus on the check to resist ill effects would be better. After all, you can’t shrug off hemlock just by being a total badass.

I like the armor speed penalty thing. I think you could extend it to overland travel, but it would have to carry some penalties even with success, or you’d negate the dwarf racial trait about armor and speed.

By: elfbiter

elfbiter — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 14:02:40 +0000

In fact, this gives me some ideas even if I’m not using D&D (any more)

By: Ameron

Ameron — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 12:53:57 +0000

@Dawn Raven

Thanks for stopping by Dungeon’s Master. I’m glad you liked these suggestions. You’re absolutely right, they are skill stunts.

Some of the players at my gaming table are having a lot of trouble coming up with creative uses for their best skills. I thought this kind of post would help them understand how versatile skills are in 4e.

My intention is to do an article like this for every skill. We’ve already covered Perception. Our next one is Heal, coming in the next couple of weeks.

By: Dawn Raven

Dawn Raven — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:38:30 +0000

Not bad, these are essentially stunts for endurance. I may have to propose these to the players and see what they say..