I dislike Lancer’s Overcharge mechanic.
This post may lose me readers, but I have struggled with Overcharge for a while. For those unfamiliar, Overcharge allows players to take an additional quick action on their turn by increasing their mech’s Heat. Other tactical TTRPG systems like D&D 4e and 5e offer extra actions, but only once every few fights. Since Overcharge offers valuable action economy in exchange for cheap mech heat, it’s an action players always have on their minds when planning their turns in Lancer. I personally find this complexity slows combat to a crawl in my games as players consider every 2-or-3 action combination available to them.
As a result, in Prototype Pattern Groups, I choose to overhaul Lancer’s Overcharge.
Overcharge As Written
For reference, this is how Lancer defines Overcharge, from the free version of the Lancer Core Book, p. 73:
When you Overcharge, you briefly push your mech beyond factory specifications for a tactical advantage. Moments of intense action won’t tax your mech’s systems too much, but sustained action beyond prescribed limits takes a toll.
Once per turn, you can Overcharge your mech, allowing you to make any quick action as a free action – even actions you have already taken this turn.
The first time you Overcharge, take 1 heat.
The second time you Overcharge, take 1d3 heat.
The third time, take 1d6 heat, and each time thereafter take 1d6+4 heat.
A Full Repair resets this counter.
While this tradeoff of heat for actions is evocative, I encounter several issues with Overcharge during play:
- The possibility of taking 2 or 3 actions expands the complexity space of a given turn, fomenting analysis paralysis.
- The ability to shoot a Heavy weapon twice in one round lends to swingy and explosive turns.
- Many times, players use Overcharge just to “re-roll” an action they failed earlier in the turn.
It is with these issues in my mind that I crafted the following Overcharge house rules for my table.
Overcharge Rerolls
This alternative rule is intended to streamline player turns by shifting Overcharge’s power away from action quantity towards action quality.
For this optional rule, replace the second paragraph of Overcharge (Lancer, p. 73) with the following:
After you make an attack roll, skill check, or save and know the result, as a free action you can Overcharge your mech, allowing you to reroll the attack roll, skill check, or save once and use the new result. This free action can be taken even when it is not your turn.
Additional, replace the last sentence with:
You take this heat after the action resolves. A rest reduces this counter by one step; spending 1 repair during a rest completely resets this counter. In addition, a Full Repair resets this counter.
Lastly, when an NPC Overcharges (e.g., through the Limitless feature), they take 1d3 Heat instead of 1d6.
Discussion
This rule was inspired by Pathfinder 2e’s Hero Points system, but vindicated by Salvage Union‘s “Push” mechanic. Both allow a character to re-roll a d20 roll (the former in return for a meta-currency point; the latter in return for heating up one’s mech, like Lancer). The re-rolls are lower in potency than additional actions, so I shift Overcharge towards a “per-rest” refresh with Repairs. This reintroduces some Repair attrition lost while using One Reactor Stress for All.
Benefits
This house rule carries the following benefits:
- Players (almost) always operate off an economy of two quick actions, making turns much quicker to resolve. As a bonus, I always enjoy asking players “do you want to Overcharge that?” on a missed roll while smirking and waggling my eyebrows.
- No more explosive turns of hitting twice with a Heavy weapon! Instead, this improves the probability of hitting with that weapon to begin with. Superheavy, Loading, and Limited weapon users all benefit from this change. Better yet, the folks who simply re-roll attacks remain unfazed.
- Players have an edge when making contested skill checks or facing save-or-suck effects.
Knock-on Effects
However, this change does have knock-on effects:
- Nuclear Cavalier build can no longer reliably gain 1d6+4 heat by Overcharging before they attack. Those builds must find alternative methods of heat generation. (As a GM, I view this as a benefit rather than a drawback.)
- “Overcharge Looping” (or OC Looping) is made impossible. (This assailant technique boils down to: Overcharge to Skirmish with a Loading weapon, Full Action Stabilize to Clear Heat and reload, repeat ad nauseum.) This is a novel rules exploit enabled by vanilla Overcharge. I don’t hold particular animosity towards this technique, but I don’t care to preserve it.
- Non-attacking characters, like save-focused Controllers or pacifistic Supports, lose power from this change. Of course, this assumes they could regularly Overcharge to begin with.
By and large, I have found these trade-offs worth the gains. That said, I do have some other house rules to soften the blow of this change.
Aid (Quick Action)
This is a new quick action courtesy of Acatalepsy on Pilot NET:
When you Aid, you assist a mech so it can Stabilize more easily. Choose an adjacent character. On their next turn, they may Stabilize as a quick action. They can choose to take this action even if they normally would not be able to take actions (for example, by being affected by the Stunned condition).
With this action, an allied character could facilitate an OC Looper. Bonus points if the ally has Spotter for boosting the looper’s accuracy!
Overcharge Hostile Saves
This optional rule helps save-inflicting Controllers regain some power in light of Overcharge Rerolls:
Optionally, while using the Overcharge Rerolls optional rule, you can let a character Overcharge while inflicting a save to force the target to reroll that save and take the new result.
If the target can Overcharge, they may spend its Overcharge to counteract this effect. Similarly, if the target Overcharges themselves, the character inflicting the save may Overcharge to counteract their Overcharge. In either case, the target simply keeps their previous result instead of rolling again.
Other Variations
Some folks to whom I have presented this rule like the concept, but dial it back themselves. I have heard of some tables that keep the re-roll mechanic, but re-add a restricted list of “extra actions”. For example, a mech is able to Overcharge to reroll, but can also Overcharge to Boost, Lock-On, Bolster, or Hide as a free action. I personally find this allow-list to be fiddly, but agree with the concept of restricting extra actions to a curated list. Ultimately, the best game is the one you like to play, the way you like to play it.
Conclusion
Lancer’s Overcharge as-written vexes me at my tables. To address my consternation, I convert Overcharge from a source of action quantity to one of action quality. While this change carries several knock-on effects, it satisfactorily addresses the major concerns I harbor towards the extra actions Overcharge normally grants. If you carry similar grievances against Overcharge, I hope these modifications serve as a replacement or an inspiration for your own house rules!