I'm pretty much to the point where in order to enjoy 4E as much as I want to, I may need to do some kit-bashing.
Problem is, there aren't very many guidelines I can find for how to create well-balanced powers, and such a feature hasn't been built into any of the available 4E character builders of which I am aware.
Has anyone ever done the math and found a ballpark set of formulas for designing your own 4E powers?
I wont pretend any kind of expert knowledge, nonetheless I'm converting Age of Worms and CoTCT and the way I generally do it is by reskinning powers from appropriate role and level monsters from the Monster Builder.
I may switch out a condition (like change a power which dazes to one which restrains or something) if it doesnt suit the theme of the monster I'm creating, but it doesnt generally require more work than that - the flavor that goes with the attack is what the players remember, anyhow.
Depending on whether I want it to be tougher or weaker, I may also tweak recharge rates or perhaps damage, but generally I just cut and paste and then rename the power.
I wont pretend any kind of expert knowledge, nonetheless I'm converting Age of Worms and CoTCT and the way I generally do it is by reskinning powers from appropriate role and level monsters from the Monster Builder.
I may switch out a condition (like change a power which dazes to one which restrains or something) if it doesnt suit the theme of the monster I'm creating, but it doesnt generally require more work than that - the flavor that goes with the attack is what the players remember, anyhow.
Depending on whether I want it to be tougher or weaker, I may also tweak recharge rates or perhaps damage, but generally I just cut and paste and then rename the power.
I'm looking more at designing custom PC powers. I still have my install of the offline CB running strong, and that works fine for monsters. It's player characters that don't seem to have a defined math for how much damage they should inflict or what level of additional effect is appropriate.
Essentially, I'm sensing a lack of... affinity, I guess, from some players on behalf of their PCs, and I wondered if giving them the option to design their own powers would help with that.
I've converted well over 20 prestige classes from various Forgotten Realms supplements AND some specific spells to 4th Edition. Basically, I stick to a level to a power, then take a few powers of that "Role" with the same level and compare. I'm not overly concerned with how balanced it is (1d8 vs. 2d6 vs. 1d6 + strong condition, etc..) but I cared more about what flavor was carried over.
And while I'll certainly say my conversions aren't balanced to a "T" (some, far from), I've found them to be a lot of fun to obtain some additional flavor.
Here's the page for my Forgotten Realms Homebrew Paragon Paths and Epic Destinies
Again, I'll reiterate that most of these aren't playtested or put to work under Character_Optimization levels and I'm sure I've created more than a few broken combos, but they're fun. If your group isn't to heavy optimization and just like playing the game casually, they shouldn't pose TOO much of an issue. Feel free to use whatever you find there and make it your own or use it as a guide to build your own.
For some work I did on 4E's Forgotten Realms items, you can find them HERE. Again, these haven't been heavily playtested and are done with an aim to re-gain some interesting stuff from the older Realms supplements.
AND here's atwo threads we used to convert a lot of spells from v3.5 to 4E . Rituals and Spells.
For the spells, my method was taking 3E spells of 1st through 3rd and making them Heroic Tier (1st level was 1-3, 2nd was 5-7, 3rd was some 6th level utility, 9th daily, and 10th utility). And it went 4th though 6th level of 3E were your Paragon Tier spells and finally 7th through 9th were your Epic Tier spells.
Enjoy
I've converted well over 20 prestige classes from various Forgotten Realms supplements AND some specific spells to 4th Edition. Basically, I stick to a level to a power, then take a few powers of that "Role" with the same level and compare. I'm not overly concerned with how balanced it is (1d8 vs. 2d6 vs. 1d6 + strong condition, etc..) but I cared more about what flavor was carried over.
Thanks for posting links to your work; this gives me some examples to compare with, at least. Any luck on converting OGL-style feats into powers?
The closest I've come is writing a pdf of Hack and Slash powers for martial PCs. They're powers that deal lots of damage for their level, and little else. So you could use them as a damage guideline, swapping out damage dice for conditions. (I've tried creating condition guidelines, but it's a huge hassle beyond a general categorization of which conditions are minor, medium and major.)
Some WotC article mentioned that the devs have some kind of condition-X-for-Y-damage-dice guidelines, but of course the article didn't get any more specific than that. I suspect their guidelines aren't much more precise than "compare to other powers."
Anyway if you want to see Hack and Slash, I can post it on my blog or email to you.
The closest I've come is writing a pdf of Hack and Slash powers for martial PCs. They're powers that deal lots of damage for their level, and little else. So you could use them as a damage guideline, swapping out damage dice for conditions. (I've tried creating condition guidelines, but it's a huge hassle beyond a general categorization of which conditions are minor, medium and major.)
Some WotC article mentioned that the devs have some kind of condition-X-for-Y-damage-dice guidelines, but of course the article didn't get any more specific than that. I suspect their guidelines aren't much more precise than "compare to other powers."
Anyway if you want to see Hack and Slash, I can post it on my blog or email to you.
I actually found your Hack & Slash stuff via either a Google search or a Paizo forums search last night. Thanks for offering, though - those look like they would work great for martial characters!
Been working on Channel Divinity Feats for my pantheon recently in case I take up the DMs mantle at some point in the future however I've mainly been a player for the last few years. One of the conclusions I have come to is that powers should usually be pretty powerful. Unless a power is an at-will its best if it has a fairly notable impact on the situation when its expended.
Obviously a DM always needs to take care in this regards because of the danger of players piling on stun effects and such but, as things currently stand, there are enough powers out there that most players can choose pretty strong options so your home made powers are really competing with the better 4E powers. Further, monster design, at this point, has been beefed up enough that you can get away with some stronger powers.
The real reason though is just for fun at the table. the game is most exciting when its show casing a lot of wiz-bang effects that make the scene look like something out of a gun-fu movie so making sure your powers support that make them more fun at the table.