D&D 5E Recharge powers

[Mouseferatu]

With all the various threads about building/introducing new classes, I'm wondering about something. (Or wondering again, really; this occurred to me back in 4E, but I never pursued it.)

Why do only monsters use "recharge on a d6" mechanics?

Certain magical abilities, or certain martial "it doesn't make sense that you can only do this once before resting" powers, might very well benefit from that mechanic. Recharge on a 6 means it'll probably only be allowed once per encounter, but it could be more, whereas recharge on a 4-6 will average every other round. That sort of thing. And it avoids both the abstract dilemmas inherent to "once per encounter" powers and the extra mechanics involved in trying to figure out if (for instance) one of the enemies saw you pull the trick on someone and are thus now not susceptible to it.

It also requires decisions like "Do I use my cool power now, and hope it recharges if I need it again, or do I save it for a few rounds so I know I have it?"

I wouldn't want to see it become too common, but for the occasional appropriately-flavored power (or maybe as the core mechanic for a specific new class), I think it opens up some interesting design room.

 

[pukunui]

Back when 4e first came out, I experimented with letting the players recharge their PCs' spent encounter and daily powers the same way monsters did. I think I went with 5-6 for encounter powers and 6 for dailies. I think I also made it so that once you recharged a power, you had to use it right away. Seemed to work out all right, but then it was a long time ago and I stopped DMing 4e shortly after it came out, so ... YMMV.

I'm pretty sure I've seen something in 5e that can be recharged on a d6, and I'm not talking about the wands. It's something else. Not sure if it's a magic item, a random artifact property, an epic boon, or what.

But I could see allowing some special things to have a chance of recharging early with a d6 roll. I think that would be fun.

 

[ExploderWizard]

With all the various threads about building/introducing new classes, I'm wondering about something. (Or wondering again, really; this occurred to me back in 4E, but I never pursued it.)

Why do only monsters use "recharge on a d6" mechanics?

Certain magical abilities, or certain martial "it doesn't make sense that you can only do this once before resting" powers, might very well benefit from that mechanic. Recharge on a 6 means it'll probably only be allowed once per encounter, but it could be more, whereas recharge on a 4-6 will average every other round. That sort of thing. And it avoids both the abstract dilemmas inherent to "once per encounter" powers and the extra mechanics involved in trying to figure out if (for instance) one of the enemies saw you pull the trick on someone and are thus now not susceptible to it.

It also requires decisions like "Do I use my cool power now, and hope it recharges if I need it again, or do I save it for a few rounds so I know I have it?"

I wouldn't want to see it become too common, but for the occasional appropriately-flavored power (or maybe as the core mechanic for a specific new class), I think it opens up some interesting design room.

As much as players these days whine like the dickens about anything about their character being determined in any sort of random fashion ( kind of weird for a GAME ya know) this would go over like a fart in a space helmet.

Just review all the threads about rolling ability scores, or hit points.

 

[MechaPilot]

As I see it, the primary challenge with PC recharge powers is how to balance them. A recharge power, on average, will be usable less often than any type of at-will ability (cantrip, sword swing, etc.) and more usable than an ability that recharges on a short or long rest.

That said, I think there's room for recharge abilities. I even think that recharge abilities can offer some serious variability. You can have powers where you roll the recharge per round, but you can also have powers (most likely non-combat powers) where you roll the recharge per hour. You could even have some powers that recharge per day, week, or month, if you wanted to go that far.

Personally, I'd rather see some type of momentum or combo system of fueling powers, but I have nothing against recharge on die-rolls.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I really like the idea of recharge powers... maybe as magic items

 

[GMMichael]

As I see it, the primary challenge with PC recharge powers is how to balance them.

This. WotC couldn't figure out how to include it for PCs and still keep them Balanced. So PCs don't get it. Or, when one player gets lucky and gets three recharge powers in one encounter, all the other playtesters cry "FOUL!" Monsters, on the other hand, don't much care if their buddy outshines them.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Just review all the threads about rolling ability scores, or hit points.

I think there's a huge difference between something like a permanent stat/number being random vs. "It's random whether I can use this ability once/encounter vs. twice/encounter." They're not even remotely comparable, IMO.

 

[Mouseferatu]

As I see it, the primary challenge with PC recharge powers is how to balance them. A recharge power, on average, will be usable less often than any type of at-will ability (cantrip, sword swing, etc.) and more usable than an ability that recharges on a short or long rest.

It'd take a bit of work, but I don't think it's remotely impossible. You need stuff that'd be broken if it were truly at-will, but not game-breaking if it happens a bit more often than expected. I can think of a lot of martial maneuver ideas where this'd work. Or certain powers on par with channel divinity options.

Personally, I'd rather see some type of momentum or combo system of fueling powers, but I have nothing against recharge on die-rolls.

See, I don't care for "momentum" stuff because it tends to involve a lot of bookkeeping/tracking hits and stuff like that. It's not the sort of complexity I enjoy. But that's just me.

 

[TheCosmicKid]

As much as players these days whine like the dickens about anything about their character being determined in any sort of random fashion ( kind of weird for a GAME ya know) this would go over like a fart in a space helmet.

Just review all the threads about rolling ability scores, or hit points.

Your disapproving tone notwithstanding, you are exactly correct. Getting locked out of your cool special ability by an unlucky string of 1s feels way more worse than knowing from the outset that it's going to be gone until you rest. This situation differs from many of the other random mechanics in the game because it directly removes part of the players' agency, which is intensely frustrating. It's a part of the game that's not allowing you to play the rest of the game.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I disagree. If you go in knowing that you're only guaranteed to have access to it once, and everything else is bonus--though more likely with some powers than with others--I don't think there's any loss of agency there at all.