Goodman Games

Hello,

When a thief or halfling character gets Luck points at the end of an adventure, what happens ? His Luck score quickly becomes too high. How do you balance this problem ?

Thank you if you can shed any light on this !

I don't think its specifically addressed in the rule book. I do let thief/halfling gain higher base luck scores in my games. I also allow them to permanantly burn a point of luck for a bigger luck bonus than they would get for burning luck temporarily.

BanjoJohn wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 5:11 am I also allow them to permanantly burn a point of luck for a bigger luck bonus than they would get for burning luck temporarily.

Good idea, thank you. And what kind of bonuses do you allow them ? How many extra points does a burnt point equal ? There might be other effects that could be generated by this type of Chance burning, in any case, I keep the idea !

For me, characters can't get a score in anything higher than an 18 without extreme or supernatural intervention. The chart runs from 3 to 18 and that's the range of natural scores.

Halflings and Thieves with a score of 18 is fine, if it happens. But gaining Luck for an adventure adds to *current* Luck score, which is probably down because of the adventure.

baophrat wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 10:28 am

BanjoJohn wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 5:11 am I also allow them to permanantly burn a point of luck for a bigger luck bonus than they would get for burning luck temporarily.

Good idea, thank you. And what kind of bonuses do you allow them ? How many extra points does a burnt point equal ? There might be other effects that could be generated by this type of Chance burning, in any case, I keep the idea !

I guess it really depends on what your group thinks is balanced. Off hand I allow for two luck dice for a thief that burns a permanent luck point, and for a +4 bonus for a halfling, so just a basic doubling of the normal bonus.
I have also played around with the idea that they could, to borrow one limited mechanic from 5e that I like, gain "advantage" on the roll if they burn a permanent luck point, in addition to getting the luck die for the thief or +2 bonus for the halfling. If you do think this is nice, I think it's important to limit this "advantage" mechanic to only the thief or halfling when they do burn a permanent point of luck.

GnomeBoy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:41 pm For me, characters can't get a score in anything higher than an 18 without extreme or supernatural intervention.

This is precisely the point I wanted to make, so you decide to "block" the chance scores at 18 ?

If you cap scores at 18, maybe have the maxed out luck player roll a d5 to randomly choose another ability to gain a point in instead?

baophrat wrote: ↑Fri Sep 02, 2022 9:31 am

GnomeBoy wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 12:41 pm For me, characters can't get a score in anything higher than an 18 without extreme or supernatural intervention.

This is precisely the point I wanted to make, so you decide to "block" the chance scores at 18 ?

I just consider that to be the "normal range" for player characters, based on the idea that the chart on page 18 covers attribute scores of 3-18.

In practice, I've never had anyone increase Luck to an 18, except for one character who already had a high score from the start. Since they weren't a Thief or a Halfling, it wasn't a big deal, and it eventually came back down.

If a god or other 'supernatural' being stepped in, they could increase a "natural attribute" to above 18, but that sort of thing would be entirely under my control as Judge, and if I needed to take my lumps for doing so, so be it.

Capping Luck at 18 is a good idea, so that there always remains a small risk of failing a Luck Check.

You can always experiment with handing out magic items that provide bonus Luck points.

For instance if a character with Luck 17 finds a rabbit's foot with three luck stored in it, her Luck score isn't 20. It's still 17, and rolling a 19 on a Luck Check still means "unlucky". But when burning Luck the character can (and must) spend the stored Luck points first.

For instance, if this character decides to spend a point of Luck (for whatever reason), that point comes from the rabbit's foot and is consumed permanently. The character's Luck score remains 17.

This provides a nice balance between Thieves that can waste luck for almost frivolous reasons and other heroes who basically never spend Luck unless the alternative is death.

For a Thief character, this rabbit's foot might be the only way to gain extra Luck points since their Luck score is already close to the maximum. On the other hand, the item might be much more desirable for the thief's friends, who can't easily regain Luck once spent.

I find that small "luck reservoirs" like that can help smooth out the otherwise huge difference between Thief and other classes in DCC.

I find that small "luck reservoirs" like that can help smooth out the otherwise huge difference between Thief and other classes in DCC.

Another good idea that I might use too, it's clever.

I was under the impression that thief or halfling characters could only regain spent Luck points. Did I miss a rule that says that they gain Luck in such a way that adds to their score, even if they did not spend any during play?

Otherwise, I too would cap all ability scores at 18.

Perhaps there is a way to magically transfer a gained Luck point above 18 to an object, ala "enchant object" to be a lucky rabbit's foot or other lucky charm, rather than lose that point because you might cap ability scores at 18?

Bobjester wrote: ↑Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:19 am I was under the impression that thief or halfling characters could only regain spent Luck points. Did I miss a rule that says that they gain Luck in such a way that adds to their score, even if they did not spend any during play?

DCC allows for the Judge (or adventure) to reward extra Luck points after (or during) an adventure.

For example, you could say every surviving character gains 1 Luck after a particularly harrowing experience, or after a particularly lucky or well roleplayed boss encounter. And so on.

For most characters, this offers a rare chance at regaining a few of the Luck points they burn.

But Thieves and Halflings regain spent Luck already. So chances are they're already at their maximum value when this reward is given. The question then becomes "do you allow them to increase their maximum Luck?"

There is no right or wrong answer, by the way. You could say no. You could say yes, but cap attributes at 18. Or something else.

Hope that clears things up.

And another question on the same topic, can a level 0 halfling use his luck burning ability in the same way as a level 1 halfling ? That is to say : can he use it to benefit other characters in the group, and more importantly, does he regain his spent points at the same rate ?

baophrat wrote: ↑Sun Sep 25, 2022 3:45 am And another question on the same topic, can a level 0 halfling use his luck burning ability in the same way as a level 1 halfling ? That is to say : can he use it to benefit other characters in the group, and more importantly, does he regain his spent points at the same rate ?

A level 0 character has not yet chosen a class, so the rulebook answer is no.

You are free to change this if you want. However beware the slippery slope - as soon as one character gains level 1 abilities already at level 0, other characters are soon to follow. Best and easiest is probably to say "most halflings (those that never gain a class level) just aren't especially lucky. Halflings with levels are special."

Zero-level demi-humans are covered on page 21. : )

Idea which might be horrid/unbalanced/too restrictive: perhaps you want to choose to only give Luck to players with less than their starting max - i.e. burn some in order to get some back. Maybe raise this award cap by 1 per level for all players so that thieves/halflings can't ever get more than +1 per level over their starting max. And even then cap it at 18? After all, it's up to you to award the luck or not.