Comments on: The Action Index

By: Scott’s Corner » Archive » Random recent links

Scott’s Corner » Archive » Random recent links — Tue, 26 May 2009 22:39:03 +0000

[...] Character Sheet (pdf), Random dungeon maker review 4e: Free 4e character manager, 4e power organization tip, Good GMing advice for beginning players and GMs Free 4e trial reviewed and direct link. 4 commonly [...]

By: NMcCoy

NMcCoy — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 04:36:34 +0000

At paragon, with a Warlord in the party, it's really handy to write additional effects ("+3 to attack roll, and get a bonus move action") on the Action Point card the character builder prints out. Similarly, at that level it's common to have a lot of conditional feats, and I'm considering devoting an entire page to a "contingency sheet" that I can glance at to total up my conditional effects easily. BLOODIED: Attack rolls +1 (Dragonborn Fury) Damage rolls +2 (Dragonborn Frenzy) Invigorating powers +2 THP (Bloodied Invigoration) Aura adjacent: 2 fire damage (Bloodfire Braidmail +3) Healing Surge increases by 5 (Belt of Blood) Action Point +dragonbreath as free action even if expended (Inner Dragon) HAS THP: Damage rolls +2 (Battlerager Vigor) ...etc.

By: Eric Finley

Eric Finley — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:07:23 +0000

Ah! Thank you!

Not so much for the basic index, which would I think be excellent but might not integrate that well with power cards (as you say). But thinking about your trick I just came up with a way to mesh that with power cards, too…

On a single page, put six card-sized blanks. Label them with the action types – standard, move, minor, and so forth. The blanks are spots for you to put your power cards of that type, but they also contain text – they contain lists of everything other than a power card you can do with an action of this type. The built-in ones like basic melee and second wind are typed in permanently; blanks underneath that provide room to write in (e.g.) item power activations, sustain options for powers listed elsewhere, and so forth.

I’m totally going to do that for my game. Very tidy indeed.

By: Nick Wedig

Nick Wedig — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:47:46 +0000

You could have a table, where each column is the usage (At-Will/Encounter/Daily) and the rows are action types (Standard/Move/Minor/etc). In each box of the table is listed each action that fits there:

This listing should also include a note about trading actions for smaller kinds: Standards can become move or minor actions, move actions can become minor acts. That’s a bit of knowledge a casual player might forget in combat, but could be useful to know when looking at their sheet.

By: rob

rob — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:36:37 +0000

This may end up informing how I do home-made character sheets.

-Rob D.

By: fred

fred — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:32:45 +0000

Yeah, the second wind and BMA’s would have been on the list if there was room in the document I was typing them into. For now, I skipped them.

By: Trip the Space Parasite

Trip the Space Parasite — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:19:24 +0000

I did something like this for a pick-up game I made characters for a couple of months ago, and people seemed to like it a lot. I split actions up by at-will/encounter/daily and included the action type and a brief description (“ranged 10, +7 vs Will, 1d8+7 radiant (crit 1d6+15 radiant), target is discombobulated until end of your next turn”) in the listing for each action, but your way seems equally valid.

I also put things like Second Wind and Basic Melee Attack in the appropriate sections, to make sure new players didn’t forget about them.

By: Chris Cumming

Chris Cumming — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:56:52 +0000

Oh I like that idea. I’ve got a mid-paragon level character that has tons of actions but it’d be nice to know which options by action type he’s got.

By: Chad Underkoffler

Chad Underkoffler — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:18:48 +0000

And I do appreciate it, mang! This will make remembering all that STUFF much easier.