how useful is Luck?

[Bruno]

There is Aspected - Luck Aspected for "Swordmastery" would be roughly like "Only for Sword! rolls" and would make an interesting alternate to the wildcard skill destiny points. I'm not sure what the limitation value for "Broadsword only" would be but I'd generally recommend against it as too obnoxiously narrow. Especially if a player wants six different flavors of it.

Extending the Wildcard point mechanic to every skill... either you end up with each skill generating at least one "really skilled" point after you spend 12 points in it, which seems like it could turn into annoying burocracy really quickly, or you have a faster accumulation rate and you get flooded with luck points AND beurocracy.

Go with Aspected Luck or Aspected Destiny instead

[PseudoFenton]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Go with Aspected Luck or Aspected Destiny instead

The problem with Aspected Luck is that its -20% regardless of how coarse it is, Luck (Swords only) is the same as Luck (Combat only) and Luck (Katana Only). Unless the GM wants to make concessions and allow a greater range of limitation values.

[Kale]

Originally Posted by Kromm

That's exactly what I meant about "sniping" vital rolls. I think it's really, really nice that GURPS has a mechanic that lets the GM toss in seriously scary chokepoints that could get the PCs killed, secure in the knowledge that they have the means to push past the chokepoint . . . for a price.

I'm playing in another guy's Pathfinder game. Our entire party was almost wiped out in combat after a chain of '1's' got rolled by us players. On a d20 your odds of crit fail are 1 in 20, so watch out! It was so bad and the players got so frustrated, the GM brought in 'Hero Points' the next session. Basically you get 2 a session, and they mostly function like the Luck advantage in GURPS in that they allow a reroll. Things have gone much more smoothly since then and the players spend less time swearing at their dice.

[D10]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

That sounds like almost character sheet-less play. Self-play rather than playing the character as he is defined by the character sheet.

Also, have you seen the modifier to most (all?) luck-type advantages in GURPS Powers? It's +0% and modifies them so that they work on in-world time instead of metagame time. If it's a pacing problem you have, then making that modifier mandatory on Luck would solve it. If it's a desire to play nearly sheetless, it might stll help a little, saving you the trouble of having to ban Luck or increase the cost.

I dont mind it, I keep track with ingame time, but theres so many roleplay situations, and the ammount of rolls that need to be rerolled is low.

[Kazander]

It should be noted that Luck isn't a total panacea against the vagaries of Critical Hits (by your adversaries) and Critical Misses (of your own). I'm talking about other than "I just used my Luck and can't use it again". There is a circumstance specifically missed in the description of Luck. It is when your adversary makes a critical Defense Roll against your attack, forcing you to roll against the Critical Miss table. The only way you could avoid this is if you could force a re-roll of your adversary, but this is specifically precluded by Luck, except when they roll a Critical Hit against you.

(If you think I'm wrong, please explain because this actually just came up for my group last week and I had to interpret things as above!)

I'm not sure if some form of Cosmic Enhancement on Luck could do away with this limitation or not. Haven't had enough time to ponder it yet.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Kazander

It should be noted that Luck isn't a total panacea against the vagaries of Critical Hits (by your adversaries) and Critical Misses (of your own). I'm talking about other than "I just used my Luck and can't use it again". There is a circumstance specifically missed in the description of Luck. It is when your adversary makes a critical Defense Roll against your attack, forcing you to roll against the Critical Miss table. The only way you could avoid this is if you could force a re-roll of your adversary, but this is specifically precluded by Luck, except when they roll a Critical Hit against you.

(If you think I'm wrong, please explain because this actually just came up for my group last week and I had to interpret things as above!)

I'm not sure if some form of Cosmic Enhancement on Luck could do away with this limitation or not. Haven't had enough time to ponder it yet.

Erm, to quote da book

Your Luck only applies to your
own success, damage, or reaction
rolls, or on outside events that affect
you or your whole party, or when you
are being attacked (in which case you
may make the attacker roll three times
and take the worst roll!).

I don't know, but your foe making a spectacular defense roll in my mind counts as an outside event that affects you.

[lachimba]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

I don't know, but your foe making a spectacular defense roll in my mind counts as an outside event that affects you.

Might not be the absolute most useful thing to use a reroll on though.

Once again i wont try to do the math, but depending on an average defence roll maybe a 70%? chance of success whereas rerolling crit failures (or other 'How did I fail that!? rolls) will usually have more like a 99%+.

Would be embarressing to use Luck and still fail...


Then again though might be the roll you need to go your way.

[Kazander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

I don't know, but your foe making a spectacular defense roll in my mind counts as an outside event that affects you.

My own interpretation of that phrase was that it was not intended to refer to to specific case of combat. It was intended to refer to more general things like "does an avalanche occur because we were noisy?", and "does that Dragon notice our attempt to sneak past it?", or even "Does it rain on the night we need to make good time on dirt roads?"

If I were to interpret it as to refer specifically to combat, I see no reason for the third part of the phrase to exist at all ("when you are being attacked (in which case you may make the attacker roll three times and take the worst roll!)"), since it would obviously be included in 'outside events that affect you' when interpreted so broadly.

Also, neither the Combat Aspected, nor the Defensive Aspected versions of Luck make any mention that it can be used to protect yourself against the Active Defense of your opponent, and I believe that at least one, if not both of them, should be able to if the unaspected version of Luck can, since I would judge this be both a Combat and a Defensive use of Luck if it were allowed.

YMMV, but that was my call, and I do find it a bit difficult to see it another way (even though the player in me would like it).

I think allowing it to affect your opponent's Active Defense leads to an inconsistency too. In all other cases where you can use it, it's use does not depend on whether the roll is Critical (success or failure). Your defense rolls, your opponent's attack rolls, etc.--you can use it whether or not it was a 'Crit'. It's only this case where you're suggesting that it's okay to use it, but only in the case where your opponent's Defense is a Critical Success, because it suddenly affects you too. This doesn't sit terribly well with me.

I'm curious what Kromm's intent is in this specific case, because while I interpreted it one way, I can certainly see the argument for "the text didn't intend to preclude that case".

[copeab]

Must say something about me that I vastly prefer Serendipity to Luck.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kale

Basically you get 2 a session,

I'm pretty sure you only get one point each time you level (and it maxes at three).

and they mostly function like the Luck advantage in GURPS in that they allow a reroll.

Much more than that. You can use them to add +8 to any roll, or +4 retroactively, recover any use of an ability (including spells), interrupt someone else's turn (as though you had a held action) or spend 2 to avoid death.