Power to the people

Have you ever been in a tough combat and found that the powers you have left aren’t useful at all? Or ended up choosing an attack power at level up when you really wanted something else? This post suggests some alternative rules to make powers in D&D  more flexible. More flexible means more options and more fun!

These simple rules let you trade in powers for other powers on the fly.
To avoid breaking the game, you can only trade downwards, meaning no trading encounter powers for daily powers
You can swap one encounter power you know for another one to use that power twice. Also, you can swap an encounter power for an action point. You can swap a daily power for two encounter powers. This gives you more options both in and out of combat, as you can use the powers that are best suited for the task at hand. This flexibility makes your character a bit more powerful, so you GM’s out there might want to impose this restriction: you can only trade a power for one of equal or lower level. You are also allowed to trade in your utility powers. This doesn’t affect the at-will powers.

You might have realized that this sounds like a simplified version of  memorizing spells for the day (like in previous D&D editions). We’re planning an extension of these rules based on that.  We’re also meditating on alternative uses of action points, on how to use them in new and awesome ways. If you have some ideas on this or other feedback, let us know!
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Tags: 4th edition, Rules