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Zombimode
2010-05-06, 02:42 PM
Soon I get to play in a light harted 4e game fokusing on the battles, a heroquest redux we call it.
One of the players suggested a catalog of housrules.
Some of them are decent, others superflous, but two of them cought me off guard and Im confused right now. By both of them I not sure, if they are really new/changed rules and not just explicated RAW.

Maybe some of the wise giantitp folks can clear my confusion :-)

1st:

if you deal damage after you hit an enemy with an attack roll, you can add all allowed static damage modifier even if the power does not include a damage die role

2nd:

if you deal damage with a power/feat/ability that hits without an attack role you don’t add any additional static damage modifier even if the power include a damage die role

Kurald Galain
2010-05-06, 02:49 PM
(1) is not RAW, and probably overpowered: anything that deals "extra" damage only works if the power you were using dealt damage to begin with. There are only a few powers that don't deal damage, and generally with a good reason. With this houserule, roles like a pacifist healer are no longer playable.

(2) is not RAW either, and probably underpowered. Any number of aura or zone effects rely on adding general modifiers to damage rolls, and not giving that would mean a solid nerf to many powers. With this houserule, many solid control powers become ignorable, which mostly affects controller classes.

Simply put, damage modifiers add to damage rolls. If you roll damage, you add the modifiers. If you don't roll for damage, you don't. Easy as pi.

Saintjebus
2010-05-06, 03:13 PM
I must agree with the good Kurald. This seems needlessly complicated, for little or no return.

Douglas
2010-05-06, 03:16 PM
(1) is not RAW, and probably overpowered: anything that deals "extra" damage only works if the power you were using dealt damage to begin with. There are only a few powers that don't deal damage, and generally with a good reason. With this houserule, roles like a pacifist healer are no longer playable.
That's not what it does at all. RAW, almost all bonuses to damage add to "damage rolls" and therefore do not increase the effects of anything that does damage without a roll. A power that does 2d6 damage gets the bonus, but a power that does 7 damage does not. This house rule would change it so that both powers get the bonus. Powers that don't deal damage at all would be unaffected.

This pair of house rules shifts the criterion for whether to add damage bonuses from "does the damage involve dice" to "does the power require an attack roll". Either way, there still has to be some base damage for the bonuses to add to.

There are definitely some cases where these rules would fix a silly/broken/underpowered/overpowered power. There may also be cases where they have the opposite effect, rendering a previously balanced power either too powerful or too weak. I'm not familiar enough with 4E to be sure which case would happen with more powers.