How did recharge work?

[Plane Sailing]

For monster powers that had a recharge number (dragon breath, hobgoblin warcaster staff)

is the recharge roll made

a) at the start of each encounter before the have taken any actions
b) just after they have used the thing up
c) at the end of their action at the same time as saving throws.

Also, with the hobgoblin warcaster that has

recharge x on 4,5,6
recharge y on 5,6
recharge z on 6

Is it a single roll and if you get a 5 you've got x & y available, if you get a 4 you've only got x available - or do you roll the recharge for the staff separately for each function?

Thanks!

 

[im_robertb]

The consensus seems to be that you roll once at the start of the creature's turn, and any power that has the number that comes up is recharged, and available for that action.

 

[breschau]

The consensus seems to be that you roll once at the start of the creature's turn, and any power that has the number that comes up is recharged, and available for that action.

I've been looking over this and I think I might have something. Most monsters have "Recharge x" listed on their sheet. That's easy, it recharges on a d6 roll (at the end of a round) if the roll meets or beats the recharge number. Recharge 4 means 4 or better on a d6 at the end of a round to see if it recharges. But, there are some monsters with "Recharge 3 4 5 6" listed. I think that's a power that is harder to recharge after each use. The first roll is 3 or better for recharge, the second recharge roll would be on 4 or better, etc. This would keep some of the more powerful abilities from overwhelming the encounter, but still allow them to be used more frequently than a "recharge 6".

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

The way I played it was:

4 is 4-6
5 is 5-6
6 is 6

Roll 1d6 at the beginning of creature's action. If it comes up a 6, everything is recharged at once.

Monster acts.

Etc.

The group found it interesting. I was hamming it up a little when I ran, saying things like: "You get the feeling that the monster has a 33.33% chance of being able to do that again this turn ... *roll* ... and it does."

I actually found it more entertaining than tracking dailies and the like for the creatures.

However a LOT goes to the dice in this system. A lot of pure random 50/50 rolls. Death, Saves, Recharges. But it offers entertaining possibilities. Somebody used a persistent daily on a Hobgoblin and triggered their immediate save ability and there were boos from the audience, but people did find it interesting that they had already built in some special abilities tied to the new save mechanic, making it less than the flat percentile. Just not as tied to level as, say, level-based abilities.

--fje

 

[UngeheuerLich]

i still wonder what is the reasoning for making it a d6 roll rather than a d20 roll and the strange listing (why 4,5,6 instead of 4+)... i bet there actually is a good reason for that.

 

[fafhrd]

EDIT: It seems that statblocks containing recharges with a single number lower than 6 were merely shorthand by the transcriber.

 

[Dalamar]

I said it when that statblock came up in a similar discussion before, but it bears repeating: I transcribed that statblock from a picture of the back of a DDM card. In other words, all the descriptions were shortened and did not use that layout.

All full statblocks that we have seen have included all the numbers for recharges that recharge on a roll lower than 6. Also, at least one creature that we have the MM page for, Grell Philosopher IIRC, had the picture of a square with six pips (that is, a six-sider that had rolled a six) instead of a number for its recharge ability; I think that is the reason that all the numbers were listed in the Delve statblocks: because there would be dice symbols on the MM version.

 

[fafhrd]

Ah, I didn't catch that. I'll correct my erroneous post. Thanks.

 

[Intrope]

i still wonder what is the reasoning for making it a d6 roll rather than a d20 roll and the strange listing (why 4,5,6 instead of 4+)... i bet there actually is a good reason for that.

As for listing 4 5 6 rather than 4+: some creatures apparently have their recharges staggered, so that they can't recharge everything all at once. So, a creature might have a recharge 4 and a recharge 5 6; they get something back on 4, 5, or 6--but not both in the same round.

 

[Shroomy]

I have a question about the recharge mechanic and I'm terrible at anything more than simple arithmetic (plus its getting late!), so I'm turning to the board. In 3.5e, a dragon can breath once every 1d4 rounds, while in 4e, a dragon (at least a black dragon) can breath again if the DM rolls a 5 or 6. It seems that a 3.5e dragon has a 25% chance to breath again next round, while its 4e counterpart has a 33% chance. How does this disparity work itself out over time?