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Post by Tylor on Mar 23, 2012 23:39:03 GMT -5
Baelinor, I could see where your interpretation of Action points in coming from. But the wording is interesting in the Rules Compendium. And even though he isn't the end all, I know Chris Perkins interprets it as every other encounter without rest.
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Post by Baelinor Alkatrine on Mar 24, 2012 2:22:09 GMT -5
Action Points, PHB1 page 286 reads... "Earning Action Points: You start with one action point (monsters generally have no action points.) You gain one action point when you reach a milestone (page 259.) After you take an extended rest (page 263), you lose any unspent action points, but you start fresh with one action point."
To follow up: Milestones, PHB1 page 259 "Milestones: You gain certain benefits when you reach a milestone— when you complete two encounters without stopping for an extended rest (see page 263)."
Logically speaking it is every "two encounters completed without stopping for an extended rest." It does not state that a milestone qualifies as a rest, nor that it resets that number. And I don't count the Compendium, if you are referring to the D&D Insider thing, as valid data. The reason for my belief in this is that we, the players, should not have to pay a monthly fee to keep up to date with ever-shifting rules based on the interpretations of the new people to come into power.
I, personally, will accept a revised book as valid, but not a resource that requires open-ended payment for an uncertain gameplay experience. If 4.5 edition comes out, and revises that (it won't), then sure. Unfortunately, they gave up on 4e because most players consider it crap. They have already begun work on 5e. >.<
But, in any case, the original text which is the more readily available for most people is very clear (and is not based on someone's interpretations). It is well-defined, and accurate. On my end, it is a moot point, as I don't often use action points. As well, you are only permitted to use one Action Point per encounter. Following that, you must also take a short rest (which does not penalize a character for the purpose of gaining a milestone, as per page 259 of the PHB1) before being able to use it once again. From my experience, my "interpretation" of this rule is the commonly-held belief, since there has been no officially published Errata dictating otherwise (and most don't pay for DDI)
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Post by Baelinor Alkatrine on Mar 24, 2012 2:27:21 GMT -5
And as well, having looked at the official authors of the original D&D 4E Players Handbook 1, Chris Perkins is not listed, nor have I previously heard of him. The technical authority in this case would be Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, James Wyatt, Gary Gygax (of course!) and Dave Arneson (of course!).
Not trying to sound like a dick, just presenting the facts as the books state them. If you look at the sections I quoted, you'll notice everything is word for word, except I spelled most of the numbers out in word format.
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Post by Tylor on Mar 26, 2012 0:57:17 GMT -5
No I believe you. The compendium I'm referring to is not DDI. It's the 4e rules compendium. But it is basically the same thing you read. But the way you quoted milestone is, "completing TWO encounters without stopping for an extended rest. So if you do an encounter, and use an action point, then You must have to complete one more to gain it back. Therefore you can use it on your third encounter. However, to reach another milestone you must complete TWO more encounters without an extended rest. So you could use action points on encounters 1,3, and 5. Yes?
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Post by hogarhul on Mar 26, 2012 7:03:52 GMT -5
You could use an action point on any encounter if you have it, but you would gain a new one after encounter 2, 4, 6, etc...
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Post by Baelinor Alkatrine on Mar 26, 2012 8:56:24 GMT -5
That doesn't make sense, because the "timer" doesn't reset. So 1 & 2, 2 & 3, 3 & 4, 4 & 5, etc. If I do encounter 1 and 2, I get one. Then, if I don't rest between 2 & 3, I should get another. so forth and so on, gaining them each time. And I don't know how often you guys have played 4e, but even using that "interpretation" of the rules, I have never had more than 3 action points. And I rarely use them. It is amazingly difficult to complete 3 encounters without taking an extended rest.
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Post by hogarhul on Mar 26, 2012 10:30:32 GMT -5
yeah, when I DM I award action points as I see fit, which is usually after the second encounter (unless they were particularly easy and no one used action points), and we have never gone 4 encounters without a rest.
In the Dark Sun game I play in we have a house rule that when you take an extended rest you can only gain your CON mod + half-level healing surges. This makes it much harder to do more than two encounters without resting.
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Post by Tylor on Mar 26, 2012 10:53:09 GMT -5
In my live group I usually award action points for awesome stuff too. Good Roleplay, creative ideas, etc. To motivate characters to keep moving.
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Post by Baelinor Alkatrine on Mar 26, 2012 11:50:52 GMT -5
See, I award experience for exceptional things (creativity, single-handedly trouncing the foes, 1-hitting a boss, etc), and award action points during extended rests, and milestones. As well, they might gain an extra action point for being really well fed, or things like that.
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