So Here let me outline the problem.

Some heroes have buff spells, Inertial shield, Benediction of the Gods, Ebon Shield, Body of the Warrior for some examples. Players want these things for free, they want to cast them before combat starts.

But these benefits have a cost, in speed and strain, if you don't make the players pay those costs, then that contributes to the whole "power escalation" thing

Here is the thing, these spells and abilities have a duration of "Scene", when the Scene starts is is solely at the discretion of the chronicleer, not at the players behest.

there are times when prebuffing is acceptable, but it should be the rare exception to something thats bumped up a notch in power rather than every encounter.

I typically do not allow pre-buffing except in situations when I, as Chronicler, decide is appropriate. In many cases, when I DO give Heroes the chance to buff before hand (ie: "We know there are bad guys in the next room, so let's buff!") I say "That is fine, but please remember that if you have time to buff, THEY have time to buff too." The actual times when I've had time to buff have been in BI's were we are waiting for waves of enemies to show up.

The way I see it, especially if the spell has an obvious visual component (ebon orb, ebon shield), walking around with spells up is akin to walking around with weapon drawn. Not much of a problem if you are foraging through the Faerwolden, but might cause some issues in Grand Coryan.

On the old boards Pedro had stated that the time between scenes is its own scene, at least for spells and such. I know he was answering as it related to a different set of circumstances but in the end it is applicable.

So to that end I think Neirite has the best case for when to allow it. It is part of the same cinematic scene and not taking advantage of the system doing away with spells per day mentality.

Meh. The tactical advantage of Benediction of the Gods is real but not game breaking. IMO buffing like healing counts less in Arcanis than in other game systems. If it makes sense I don't mind letting players buff before charging in. But if it doesn't make sense I'm also happy to prod them along. Or ... "Hey look its a new scene!"

If it ever made sense that the PCs should be able to buff because they know the fight is coming BUT also I thought it was a danger to break an encounter I could always add another enemy or add one to their defenses ... or AR, or even a combination of all three.

But that's something to be very very careful about. Its not the job of the judge to vanquish adventuring parties unless they're doing something really really dumb. And I'm probably not using dice at that point. Its also okay for player to know in a vague generic sense that their judge sometimes fudges things in the name of the story...but its almost never a okay when everyone at the table knows *that specific thing there* was fudged.

so 3 AR and 3 Avoidance isn't much of a buff to a PC? that's what Delbert throws down if he has a long opportunity, I think that's quite a bit.

I think people are approaching this with a 3x mindset in the "I must have my buff spells up at all times", to me its clearly not the intent of the system to allow that (and thus making casters more powerful)

My understanding based upon comments I received in my old forum post of "PC Improvements vs. Enemy Improvements" (Which sought to compare the rate at which PC skills, defenses, etc. go up by Tier compared with NPC defenses, skills), is that the numbers chosen for the NPCs assumes the Players are using buffs, tactical edge and talents to their maximum.

Now, this doesn't mean they have to have all their buffs up at all times. However, I take it to mean that the numbers for NPC's are chosen based upon buffed PC's. I don't usually see a problem with pre-buffing your self buffs (especially those that aren't real visible or that are done in a dungeon setting), but I do have issues with the party pre-arranging to cast 3-4 buffs on all party members before a fight unless there's ample time to do so.

then "allowing pre buffs all the time makes casters better in general than non casters" as an argument come into play

There are going to be times when pre-buffing doesn't make sense (GM's call) but in an actively hostile environment, I'm okay with casters saying they have their Arcane Shield, or Vestments of Larissa, etc. up. I might allow 1 party-wide pre-buff as well (Usually Benediction of the Gods).

The other side to the argument is, if the casters have to spend the first 12 ticks of combat casting all their buffs (that they would need to have the correct 'stats' for a fight), that makes them non-participatory for a lot of things.

There's no 'easy' answer and a lot of times it's going to depend on the adventure. I don't think I've yet had any of my bad guy spend time buffing things that they would generally have up in a hostile environment or when the threat of attack was imminent.

John

John I think you and I are kinda of in agreement, but the push back I'm seeing from the players, when i tell them they have to recast their buffs because the scene just started have been very grumbly ( evidently matt flinn is too easy on his players (J/K))

this is my way of pushing back that expectation of pre buffing in that combat starting is a new "scene"