Felltower: Daredevil and Enhanced Time Sense

A few more advantages that need special Felltower discussion:

Daredevil

The trouble with Daredevil for me is, what counts as unecessary risk? Or risky behavior? With a skill-20+ high-DR magically-buffed swashbuckler with 30 to 60 points in Luck, what is actually a risk? Running out solo to fight a group of foes might seem risky, but what if you are better than a 1:1 match with your foes? A Move and Attack is pretty risky, but what if you have Run and Hit, and/or have two swords so losing the parry on one merely makes you very slightly more likely to get hit on a 4th or 5th consecutive attack?

What earns that +1, and the re-roll of Critical Failures in those same circumstances?

It seems to me that the only times it'll really be clear is when you take an All-Out Attack when you don't need to. Some Committed Attacks will be reasonably "unecessary" risks.

I also dislike conditional bonuses, since every very clear descriptions of the situations covered do not stop people from slowing down play to ask what is covered.* Add in one that a player will want to know before choosing to act, and you get two things I hate - conditional bonuses, and hypothetical questions, done in combat, which is already long enough.

Given my preference for conservative rulings, too, it's less likely I'll say yes than to say no.

So I am thinking Daredevil just doesn't fit, not for 15 points . . . and making it cheaper would make the price fairer but result in more people taking it ("May as well") and more questions ("Do I get my +1 here?")

Enhanced Time Sense

ETS works as written in Felltower . . . but the issue is the utility as a 30-point upgrade for Combat Reflexes.

We don't use Speed-based initiative in Felltower. We probably should, but per-side round-the-table initiative has a lot going for it. Not the least of which is simplicity. One key value of ETS is that you go first. We could allow ETS to jump the owner to the front of the line for PCs, but what about when the enemy goes first? ETS should allow the PC to go, then the rest of the PCs . . . and then stay in this order. But that's a bit of a complication.

The ability to bypass a Wait is useful, but is it 30 points of useful? Probably not.

I'm allowing ETS, and there may be cases when all of its little edge moments - like being able to see effectively invisible attacks (due to their speed), say, or reacting to a non-combat time-sensitive situation may be useful - but is it worth 30 points? Up to the players.



Generally, I end up restricting advantages in my games. No always - look at Improved Magic Resistance for an example of one that's expanded in use and value for the cost. Or the automatic inclusion of "treat as a weapon, not unarmed" in Trained By A Master, But in generally, I do tend to pull the reins in a bit on advantages. It's just that kind of game.


* Even Fit, with +1 to all HT rolls, prompts a "Does Fit count?" Now, add in "+1 to rolls only for . . ." and I find that it prompts a question even on clearly non-covered cases.