Inspire too good?
Posted: Fri 20 May 2016, 01:00
In last nights session, a player rolled up a new Chronicler and we were all surprised by how powerful the Inspire ability is. In essence, it seemed to give the party an additional 1-3 successes on every roll that matters (Find the Path, Healing, combat rolls, etc.)
Worse, it seemed to actively dampen the contribution of other PCs. Once a PC stated they were going to attempt something, if the Chronicler got a success then it didn't actually matter what the initiating PC rolled anymore... the Chronicler had already succeeded on their behalf. In a couple of cases the initial PC even failed his roll, but "succeeded" due to the successes from the Chronicler.
Worse still, in combat against a single tough foe (a Deathworm), it made the fight a complete walkover. The Chronicler basically kept the Deathworm ineffective while the party slaughtered it. Combat against a single tough foe seems to have some issues in MYZ as it is, but this just turned what I thought would be an interesting and dangerous combat into a trifle.
(PS: Why does the Deathworm, described as covered in scales, not have some sort of Armor rating?)
I realise after re-reading the rules this morning that the Chronicler might have been doing it wrong by helping the Stalker (it seems you can't normally help on a specialist skill roll, though it isn't clear if this applies to Inspire rolls or not), but I still don't like the way the skill seemed to take away other PCs turns to shine.
So I'm thinking of making a house rule about the skill. Instead of generating automatic successes (when helping), or automatically cancelling successes (when hindering), successes on the Inspire roll provide additional modifications for the helped roll, or negative modifications for the hindered roll. This can exceed the normal limit of +3 modification from helping (and up to two others can also help as usual).
E.g. rolling to help an ally, the chronicler gets 2 successes. These add to the standard +1 modification for helping, giving the ally +3 modification on the action.
E.g. rolling to hinder an enemy, the chronicler rolls 1 success. This gives the enemy a -1 modification on the action.
Thoughts? Does this make it too weak? I think it's ok, as a +2 or more modification is already pretty good - equivalent to having good gear and stacks with actual gear as well.
Worse, it seemed to actively dampen the contribution of other PCs. Once a PC stated they were going to attempt something, if the Chronicler got a success then it didn't actually matter what the initiating PC rolled anymore... the Chronicler had already succeeded on their behalf. In a couple of cases the initial PC even failed his roll, but "succeeded" due to the successes from the Chronicler.
Worse still, in combat against a single tough foe (a Deathworm), it made the fight a complete walkover. The Chronicler basically kept the Deathworm ineffective while the party slaughtered it. Combat against a single tough foe seems to have some issues in MYZ as it is, but this just turned what I thought would be an interesting and dangerous combat into a trifle.
(PS: Why does the Deathworm, described as covered in scales, not have some sort of Armor rating?)
I realise after re-reading the rules this morning that the Chronicler might have been doing it wrong by helping the Stalker (it seems you can't normally help on a specialist skill roll, though it isn't clear if this applies to Inspire rolls or not), but I still don't like the way the skill seemed to take away other PCs turns to shine.
So I'm thinking of making a house rule about the skill. Instead of generating automatic successes (when helping), or automatically cancelling successes (when hindering), successes on the Inspire roll provide additional modifications for the helped roll, or negative modifications for the hindered roll. This can exceed the normal limit of +3 modification from helping (and up to two others can also help as usual).
E.g. rolling to help an ally, the chronicler gets 2 successes. These add to the standard +1 modification for helping, giving the ally +3 modification on the action.
E.g. rolling to hinder an enemy, the chronicler rolls 1 success. This gives the enemy a -1 modification on the action.
Thoughts? Does this make it too weak? I think it's ok, as a +2 or more modification is already pretty good - equivalent to having good gear and stacks with actual gear as well.