Amechra
2013-12-03, 07:17 AM
I recently was reading some notes on game design; namely, the difference between soft and hard pushes.
A push is a mechanical construct (i.e., a class feature or feat) that affects the approach a player has to problems. A Barbarian goes into Rage in combat, while a Rogue tries to set up flanking or making the enemy flat-footed.
A soft push gives you a benefit for taking a certain course of action. An example would be the Rogue, who gets a bunch of extra damage if he attacks someone they can sneak attack.
A hard push punishes you for taking certain actions. For example, a Knight's Code of Honor penalizes them for attacking flatfooted opponents.
Soft pushes are the way to go; they feel better psychologically.
So, reading this, I thought of a concept for a route of making the Fighter (or indeed, noncasters in general) a lot cooler.
Give them class features that boost magic items that they use or spells cast on them by other people.
For example, one class might get:
Extended Magic (Su): X/day, you may apply the Extend Spell feat to any spell targeting you that is cast by another person as a free action.
or
Exquisite Muscles (Ex): Any spell cast by another creature that grants you a bonus to your Strength score increases that bonus by 2; any spell or effect that inflicts a penalty to your Strength score reduces that penalty by 2.
And so on and so forth.
That way, when the buffs are getting planned out each morning, the utility (to use the economic term) of throwing combat buffs on the classes intended to be front-line combatants is higher than throwing it on the casters.
Your thoughts?
A push is a mechanical construct (i.e., a class feature or feat) that affects the approach a player has to problems. A Barbarian goes into Rage in combat, while a Rogue tries to set up flanking or making the enemy flat-footed.
A soft push gives you a benefit for taking a certain course of action. An example would be the Rogue, who gets a bunch of extra damage if he attacks someone they can sneak attack.
A hard push punishes you for taking certain actions. For example, a Knight's Code of Honor penalizes them for attacking flatfooted opponents.
Soft pushes are the way to go; they feel better psychologically.
So, reading this, I thought of a concept for a route of making the Fighter (or indeed, noncasters in general) a lot cooler.
Give them class features that boost magic items that they use or spells cast on them by other people.
For example, one class might get:
Extended Magic (Su): X/day, you may apply the Extend Spell feat to any spell targeting you that is cast by another person as a free action.
or
Exquisite Muscles (Ex): Any spell cast by another creature that grants you a bonus to your Strength score increases that bonus by 2; any spell or effect that inflicts a penalty to your Strength score reduces that penalty by 2.
And so on and so forth.
That way, when the buffs are getting planned out each morning, the utility (to use the economic term) of throwing combat buffs on the classes intended to be front-line combatants is higher than throwing it on the casters.
Your thoughts?