Creating powers?

[Godrednu]

Is there anything anywhere that teaches you how to make powers? How to know how much damage they should do according to the level? Whether it should be an at-will...encounter...daily? I have some ideas for powers and I would like to know how to do this.

[Tegu8788]

No, 4E Homebrew is very, very hard to get right. There was an attempt a while ago to make some standardization, measuring different powers, but I don't know if it's gone anywhere. You can find the maths here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtwH-nxPJ7MFdElRMmxBTm5sVXNSSm5EWUg0ZTdBMFE&usp=drive_web#gid=0).

[captpike]

you could make a point system but that by itself would not be enough, too much of the stuff is multiplicative. you would need very good system mastery to get it right.

[Tegu8788]

It's a lot easier for us to balance a specific powers than it is more generic questions. Show us what you've got, and we will see what we can do.

[NecroRebel]

you could make a point system but that by itself would not be enough, too much of the stuff is multiplicative. you would need very good system mastery to get it right.

The attempt to make a point system involved analyzing published powers and trying to make standardization based on that. We also took into account the CharOp board's analyses of which powers were good, bad, and so forth, as we assumed that really strong powers would probably work out to be simply better than weak powers. I think the project was abandoned, though.



For the most part, if you look at what other powers from that level do, both for the class you're brewing for and for other classes, especially similar ones, you should be reasonably capable of figuring out what your homebrew powers should do. Unfortunately, it seems like most of the 4e players on this board don't frequent the homebrew board, so it's sometimes hard to get feedback on 4e homebrew here.

[MunkeeGamer]

In 3.x, I used to homebrew like crazy. It was easy because anything between monk and punpun was viable. What they say here is right, 4e is a bit rougher to invent from scratch. The best technique is to familiarize yourself with the existing classes and refluff what currently exists.

However, if you need some mechanical adjustment, and you have already made yourself familiar with everything else that exists, you should be able to get it close.

I'm curious, what are your actual ideas? You should post what you're thinking conceptually so we can contribute our knowledge of the intended balance. If something is obviously OP or underpowered, we should be able to assess that within a reasonable margin.

[Yakk]

There is a problem with 4e powers as the environment in which they where designed and balanced does not match the actual play environment perfectly.

So are you looking for a "as balanced as 4e published powers" system, or a "actually balanced for 4e play", and if the second, balanced against the best powers? A random power?

On top of that, some of the 4e balance has to do with a *lack* of powers with a certain property. If Fighters have one kick-ass damaging encounter attack power from level 1-10, this is different than if they have 3 copies of it. The first gives the Fighter access to kick-ass damage once per fight: the second turns them into basically a striker.

A power, in isolation, is not balanced. A power, in its environment of other powers for the class, is distinct from that power in isolation, and its balance impact is different.