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I don't mind set durations for recoverinng spells, special abiltiies, etc. whether it is at-will, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or daily. So 4E encounter powers set the recovery time at 5 minutes. It probably boils down to the power of each effect and if there is enough design space to make them distinct when you consider at-will, versus 5 minutes, 10 mintues, or daily.

Nov 18, 2012 -- 5:15AM, Monsieur_Moustache wrote:

Encounter spells can be justified for any class based on the surprise.
In french, we have the expression "botte secrète" for which I can't find direct translation online (maybe "secret weapon" or "artful thrust"). It comes from fencing and is an unique attack invented a kept secret by the fencer to surprise the enemy and is then almost unstoppable.
Basically, this secret attack is an at-will, but it works only once per encounter.
Developping and mastering these attacks require training and experience, so the number known by a fighter would be limited.

This surprise based system (encounter) can be used for a lot of things, like to disengage, or fake attacks to move across the battlefield without drawing attacks of opportunity.

The fact that there are real life terms for phenomena (and even real life reasons they cant generally be repeated) doesnt stop those who have been aclimatised to the fighter doing nothing interesting just doing it a lot, from baulking.

The invitation is a term in fencing that amounts to leaving a false opening to seduce your enemy in to making an attack along a particular path which you are in fact very ready for...  it is also a pretense of weakness and highly appropriate, to not work multiple times against the same enemy (come and get it is a fantasy rendering of this, fantasy in part because its really hard to deal with multiple enemies at once and quite common in fantasy).

There is an old saying called "fool me once... shame on you, fool me twice shame on me." (or something to that effect).

Nov 18, 2012 -- 5:15AM, Monsieur_Moustache wrote:

Surprise based encounter abilities work even more easily with supernatural users.

Can be modelled so many ways it isnt funny including treating Vancian casting the same as it was in the Jack Vance books OR having the spell being at-will but create a temporary localized restistance to itself

Nov 18, 2012 -- 5:15AM, Monsieur_Moustache wrote:

And the short rest recuperation based encounter powers from DDN are still here to handle expended ressources like a breath weapon or supernatural power fuel.

Or any form of localized strain.

Conversely not having encounter powers makes daily powers too important and reduces the effective length of the game day. (or can encourage it for them who are dependent on them)

And makes what I want to be trivial.. .too important.

It also means for the non-daily crew mono-tone ... capability, aka potentiallly boring.

To be perfectly honest, we do need another word for encounter. However, encounter powers make a lot of sense.

First, in real life, fighting is tiring. A 3 minute round is intense. In D&D, that's 30 turns.  You can't spend the whole time throwing out attacks or else you'll be dead tired.

Second, in fiction, fighting is tiring. The hero is usually pretty strong, but he never spends all his time on the offensive. The finishing moves can't be used over and over.

Third, in games, fighting is tiring. In some games, you have a resource pool, which prevents you from continuously using your moves. In some games, you have cooldowns. In some games you have to press a lot of buttons to do your combo nd you can't always pull it off.