I'm designing a weapon that inflicts ability damage on a critical hit and imparts a portion of that energy to its wielder (in a sort of Stormbringer-eque way). This would be a special enhancement bonus that will stack with itself (e.g. the wielder scores a crit and gains a +1 to Strength; on the following round, she hits again, and the bonus increases to a +2.)
What I'm stuck on is how to handle the duration of the bonus. There is effectively no limit to how high the bonus may stack. However, I'm limiting the duration of the bonus to 1 minute. Now, I have the choice of either
a) Having the duration "reset" each time another Str bonus is gained. So in the aforementioned example, the bonus would be +2 after the second attack, and the duration--9 rounds left--would be reset to 1 minute again. This way, no matter how high the bonus climbs, it will last no more than 1 minute from the last Str gain.
or
b) Have the duration stack but have the Str bonus diminish, so the wielder slowly loses Str over time. Going back to the example, the wielder would have that +2 bonus to Str for 1 minute. Then, when the first +1 expires, the enhancement bonus would drop to +1 and last for for another minute before expiring.
So I'd like to hear some opinions on which is the better way to handle this. Or, if you have another method that would work I'd like to see that as well.
Hmm...that's an interesting idea, but the premise is that it saps energy from the target and bestows part of that energy to the weapon's wielder.
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in my experience "duration: 1 minute" is essentially the same as "duration: one encounter"
so to me, the question is should the duration be counted in rounds, minutes, or hours?
but to answer your question, assuming you are sticking with minutes, i have another question. how much bookkeeping are you willing to implement for 'cool factor'?
i like the 'layering' idea of +1/+2/+3/+2/+1 over the course of a fight, but this requires a lot counters/counting, and can slow down the combat. on the other hand, the 'resetting' idea of 1-minute-full-bonus requires much less counters/counting. both service the concept of 'increasing drain.'
also, i am noticing the 'resetting' method to be more powerful than the 'layering' method.
so the question seems to be "do you want a more powerful ability with less bookkeeping, or a less powerful ability with more bookkeeping?"
i like the 'layering' idea of +1/+2/+3/+2/+1 over the course of a fight, but this requires a lot counters/counting, and can slow down the combat. on the other hand, the 'resetting' idea of 1-minute-full-bonus requires much less counters/counting. both service the concept of 'increasing drain.'
also, i am noticing the 'resetting' method to be more powerful than the 'layering' method.
so the question seems to be "do you want a more powerful ability with less bookkeeping, or a less powerful ability with more bookkeeping?"
I think you've pegged the crux of the argument for/against both options. I've always been a fan of erring on the side of mechanical simplicity. No point in making more bookkeeping than necessary. So I suppose the question would be: is the first option, while arguably the more powerful one, properly balanced?
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since it activates on a crit, unless your characters have half of the d20 as their crit range, the simpler method, though powerful, doesn't strike me as over the top. certainly not at +1 at a time.
Crippling Strike (the rogue talent) freely activates on a sneak attack and inflicts 2 ST damage without a save.