Using the 13th Age Escalation Die in 5th Edition D&D
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Mike talks about using the 13th Age Escalation Die mechanic in your 5th edition D&D games.
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Here’s some much needed context for the escalation die mechanic and why it exists in 13th age:
13th age is based of D&D 4th edition, which had these two big problems that sprung up in every combat:
1. Combats take too long.
2. Combats were repetitive, because it usually results in players firing off all their most powerful spells and abilities first, then their second most powerful, and so on, in descending order. 4th edition had very few “long rest rechargeable” resources, and you had full access to most of your abilities in every fight.
The escalation die mechanic thus exists to
(1) Shorten combat. The longer combat goes on, the less the players would miss and thus feel that combat was dragging less.
(2) Reward players for hanging onto their most powerful abilities till later in the combat. There was this push/pull effect of wanting to end combat as soon as possible (to avoid spending resources on healing), but also to ensure their big abilities hit.
This broke the repetition - different monsters had different defenses and that meant sometimes you had to wait for the escalation die bonus to ensure something wasn’t wasted when used early.
The Escalation Die was awesome in 13th age specifically because it solved these 2 big 4e problems. If you find these problems still prevalent in your 5e games, them perhaps it can also help there.
But the main point of its existence was as a general rule, applied in every combat, to solve the problems that appear in every combat. Mike’s suggestion of using it as a timer is a great one, but the ED does so much more than just being a timer.
Great content as always. A random idea I had when watching this: We can also use the escalation die the other way around, giving our BBEG a magic shield that grants +6 AC and reduce it by 1 every round. This gives the characters a new choice, do they attack the most dangerous foe while his defense is at peak performance, or kill the easy to hit minions first and risk letting the BBEG run wild.
Great idea! *puts in back pocket*
Rather than using the escalation (or de-escalation) mechanic for thus, you could also link the shield to the proximity or life force of the minions, reducing it as they are pulled away or killed.
I used it pre-pandemic when I played at a table. It was so much fun that I bought a 3" marble d6 paperweight for it.
If you use it every fight, boost opponents AC a point or two. 13th Age monsters were harder to hit.
Or don't, if you want the fights to go faster.
Using this
maybe a boss monster gets the bonus while minions dont
I'm running 13th Age now and the Escalation Die (about 9'' on each side at our table, it's made from a shipping box) really helps combat out. Integrating progress clocks too. I guess I'm a big enough nerd to watch your whole video on a thing I already use, ha!
We love our confirming evidence!
I love this idea!
Fun idea, I am going to try this in next weeks game.
How about also adding it to spell save DC's?
I suspect +1 per turn may be TOO much of a ramp up for spells , so may tweak it to +1 every other turn
You likely should, all spells are attack rolls in 13th Age. +1 to a save DC is mathematically the same as +1 to attack the only thing that changes is who’s rolling the die.
This is interesting, but I play D&D online. I've always found all of these interesting concepts, but either the concept loses part of why it's effective or cannot function at all in the online medium
Splash screen or if you use an initiative tracker put it there (use hp or something as display)
Putting it in the initiative tracker is also a great way to remind you to increase it. Just put it at the end of the round to trigger it right before each new round.
Nice ideas
Thanks for sharing
Now the question is, when the Escalation Die is used as a timer (a progress clock), do you tell the players beforehand, "when the Escalation Die reaches 2, the ritual will be complete"? Or do you keep such things a secret until the players discover it as it goes off?
I think you could design the ritual with an in world visual marker. Like 6 surrounding monoliths that are slowly connected into the ritual, one per round.
@@garion046 For the characters, perhaps. But for the players looking at a gridded map with miniatures or perhaps only a table, if playing theatre of the mind, additional real life tools might be more apppropiate. Such as the escalation dice.
Or 6 lit tea lights that go out one at a time, sure. You can make it thematic.
What you describe sounds less like the 13th Age Escalation die and more like the Index Card RPG timer! For sure, the last thing 5e needs is +1 culmulative increases to pc hit rolls! By round six, that is like doubling the proficiency bonus of a level 20 character. Happier with tying things to environment effects or monster damage...