Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Amaril 10-12-04, 10:16 PM	I'm interested to hear some of the exciting -- or not so exciting -- uses of Action Points in your games. Does anyone have any interesting success stories to share?
Splendide 10-12-04, 10:19 PM	Mostly to make saving throws :(
Edymnion 10-12-04, 10:48 PM	Used one on a grapple check to nab the Final Messager at the start of Forgotten Forge. My warforged now has a rather expensive gadget living in his chest :)
Somebloke 10-12-04, 11:23 PM	My players use them all the time...in the last campaign, the Paladin was always charging right into the center of the battlefield and burning hero points left right and center to get extra smites or an extra attack....near the end of the campaign, I more or less wrote off the first monster she rode up to. Other characters used the 'use feat' ability in UA to use the Kip-Up feat whenever they were knocked down, or to parry blows against them by the arch-villains...in short, they really made use of them.
allenchan 10-12-04, 11:31 PM	Power attacks, will saves. :cool:
Walks with the Snails 10-13-04, 01:41 AM	Hmm, for my artificer it's mostly been for hastening infusions and squeaking by on UMD checks for item creation. Once in a while it goes to pull off a shot. Though with 18 dex and bane (enemy of the moment) weapons, it tends to not be as big of a deal. ;)
Angelion 10-13-04, 02:53 AM	Artificer hastens infusions. Fighters, rogues, whatevers, uses them to enhance their attack rolls. Stabilize from death :D
stone_dog 10-13-04, 03:01 AM	In a pre-eberron game with hero points my party was up against a devourer. Our knife wielding rogue type (tried out the Wanderer class from Pyramid. It was fun, balanced, but... complicated) got slamed into negative hitpoints, but spent a hero point to get one last stab at it. Only three points of damage, but the cleric's searing light only did something like 15. Since the creature was down to 17 hit points though that last stab saved the rest of the party. It was if it looked down to wonder what the heck was pricking at its foot and the cleric got a lucky shot in while it was distracted. There wasn't a way they were going to last one more round.
Whakapapa 10-13-04, 05:38 AM	Hehe im a very unlucky person, in a FR game where I play a dual wielding ranger, I use actionpoints to get to do some cool acrobatic moves and stab and slash at the monsters, however every time i used my actionpoints and tried to do something cool, he missed all of his attacks :P And when I didn't do anything cool, he would hit with action points ;) But our party wizard did some marvelous actions, he was going to shut down a portal using a scroll, and he had to make a certain caster level check, but he rolled a low number, so he decided to use an action point to get it done, and rolled the lowest possible number to succeed. That was really a thrill!! :P In my Eberron game, I have only used my actionpoints to hasten my infusions. I've spent only 1 action point to hit better, and that was in some sewers against a shifter, that was a fun encounter ^^
rwarner3701 10-13-04, 08:43 AM	In The Forgotten Forge after we were coming out of the building, our shifter fighter used and action point to jump at the warforged after the artificer used an action point to infuse jump on his boots. he tackled and grapple the warforged after flying about fourty feet through the air.
Dex The King 10-13-04, 05:14 PM	My things have used them for a few things: overcoming SR, saves, attack rolls, and even (pointlesssly) initiative. Interesting things? I can think of one. Hanging on to a railing on the top of an overturned airship, there was an open porthole some 10 feet away. So, the extreme explorer decided to try to swing his way over and up the opening. He succeeded, but was nearly killed by a raksasha.
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-13-04, 07:29 PM	I love action points. I use a evil monk of the mockery (were playing in a evil eberron campaign :devil: ) and i constantly use action surge to either move up to an enemy and use flurry of blows or use flurry of blows and then hit once more. Once i was being attacked by a low level hound archon :fight!: and i used flurry of blows and then hit tripped him with my kama. It was funny. :D :rofl:
Kaleanae en'i Mori 10-13-04, 07:31 PM	Most of the time its for pulling us out of a tight situation in combat to deliver the killing blows to get rid of the bad guys who is about to kill us. Our ranger and fighter tend to us this alot. For myself as th Bard I am yet to use them. Saving them for a rainy day
Edymnion 10-13-04, 07:39 PM	One of my favorite uses for AP are the simple ones. Same big guy with the hammer. Charge in, two handed hammer, use an AP for either the hit or the damage roll. I call it "Driving the Nail". Big warforged + Big hammer + AP = WHAM! Once I hit my next feat, its going to be the Action Rage feat (or whichever one it was that grants you 1 AP every time you rage), things are going to die left and right.
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-13-04, 09:28 PM	One of my favorite uses for AP are the simple ones. Same big guy with the hammer. Charge in, two handed hammer, use an AP for either the hit or the damage roll. I call it "Driving the Nail". Big warforged + Big hammer + AP = WHAM! Once I hit my next feat, its going to be the Action Rage feat (or whichever one it was that grants you 1 AP every time you rage), things are going to die left and right. You cant apply action points to damage rolls. Thatd be too cheasy and it says it in the book. Also the name of the feat is lucky rage.
Gurv 10-13-04, 10:41 PM	Hanging on to a railing on the top of an overturned airship, there was an open porthole some 10 feet away. So, the extreme explorer decided to try to swing his way over and up the opening. He succeeded, but was nearly killed by a raksasha. Now that is an Eberron game. An overturned airship, a swinging extreme explorer, and a raksasha.
Edymnion 10-13-04, 10:52 PM	You cant apply action points to damage rolls. Thatd be too cheasy and it says it in the book. Also the name of the feat is lucky rage.Oh yeah, duh, just on d20 rolls. Don't know what I was thinking. Haven't actually tried to use it on attack rolls yet, but thanks for reminding me.
Zagumus 10-13-04, 11:49 PM	My players use their action points on two hit rools mostly but a few timew they have been really important: Jumping from and airship to a skiff flying near by, still didn't make it but close enough to be saved by quick thinking Psion and his flying constructs. The other use that I liked have been from the for mentioned Psion using them on knowledge rolls a long with call to mind, to be able to learn uch about the mourland and also vampires. Non of my players have used all their action point by their nexted level yet, they are still learning to balance the need to save verse the need to use.
Save-vs-DM 10-14-04, 12:26 AM	My players have used them on critical confirmation rolls, saving throws and to stabalize. I've used them with search checks on Investigate (playing a half-elf rogue going for Master Inquisitive). Initiative? Havn't seen my players use them for that! Cheers, Save vs DM
Amaril 10-14-04, 07:44 AM	I'm more interested in the cinemetic descriptions instead of the technical and mechanical uses. I mean we all know what they can mechanically be used for, but how have action points added to the cinematic action and adventure?
Demonologist 10-14-04, 02:12 PM	I think that mechanics make cinematics... Hanging on to a railing on the top of an overturned airship, there was an open porthole some 10 feet away. So, the extreme explorer decided to try to swing his way over and up the opening. He succeeded, but was nearly killed by a raksasha. Thats only a skill check, and thats frickin sweet! :tiphat: Kudos! Dex you are the King :king: Also, Used one on a grapple check to nab the Final Messager at the start of Forgotten Forge. My warforged now has a rather expensive gadget living in his chest Thats a fantastic idea! Imma steal it... :D
Amaril 10-14-04, 02:18 PM	I meant it would be fun to read more dramatic and suspenseful scenarios in which action points were used. Most of these are as such, but I was trying to steer people away from just posting "I used action points for will saves." C'mon people; tell your hero's story! :)
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-14-04, 04:30 PM	i was playing again today and my friend was playing an assassin and he used his action points to leap of darkness 40 feet and use death attack on a hafling palidan that was riding a clawfoot. He almost got owned by the clawfoot though :rofl: . I also used 2 action points. We were following a master inquistive whos been following us since were evil in sharn. I used one point to jump from the 1st tower to a smaller tower *thank you slowfall feature* and then one point to do some thing i love. I got infront of the guy when he was alone, used action surge to throw one shuriken at the guy, then used flurry of blows to throw 5 shurikens. Sliced and diced. :smirk:
EclecticPR 10-14-04, 05:06 PM	It was only recently that the group I play with decided to switch our venue to Eberron. We had the information on the Action Points, but as of yet no one had used them. In the course of traveling, we got the sense that we were being followed. My character is a female feral barbarian and one of our party members spotted a dire tiger. She's partial to new hides or furs so she turned her horse around and charged at it. I wanted her to pounce from her horse to use her greataxe on a tiger bigger than she. The Action Point pushed her over the edge on her Attack Bonus. She took some damage, but she did far greater damage on it once she started raging. If anything, it opened the rest of the groups eyes to the possibilities of Action Points. If she can succeed in a casual encounter, what does it offer us in the important fights? I plan to use them more.
spamfiltre 10-14-04, 05:13 PM	A house rule we use is to allow Action Points to be spent as plot coupons. It's not official, but can make for some good short-term nonviolent solutions to problems with long-term consequences. For example, everyone fails their diplomacy checks, but rather than start a fight with the bouncer to get into the exclusive bar where the evil NPC hangs out, action point/plot coupon and..."You look familiar. Thrak, is that you? It's Darg! It's been ages! How's your brother?" You get the idea. Later, Thrak might have a problem and remember that you're in town...
Dahrik 10-15-04, 01:29 AM	Oddly enough, I find that one of my PCs uses it a bit for Knowledge checks for when she's trying to piece together important information right on the spot, especially when first encountering important NPCs they don't know about. "So you'd like House Orien to... WAAAAAIT a minute!! I know you!!"
wizard of oz 10-15-04, 01:51 AM	My character used an action point to take an action at negative hitpoints. He finally killed the second arrow demon that was killing the party with a wild surged 6d6 crystal shard. We were all 5th level.
ChronosCrow 10-15-04, 02:17 AM	My players have mostly spent them in situations when the really wanted something to happen, like a dramatic hit. Or to save their own butts versus a saving throw that could really hurt them. (Warning: slight Shadows of the Last War spoiler) (last chance, look back if you want) One instance of dramatic use was when "something snapped" in the psychic warrior after being in Whitehearth for too long. He dropped his full blade to the ground, rushed the living firebal, then infused his foot with psionic energy, roundhouse kicked the enemy while screaming wildly and spent an action point on hitting the enemy, just to make sure he hit that sucker and didn't waste his sweet dramatic scene. By far it was one the most provoking elements that has happened in the game. The way he presented the situation was just fantastic.
helzapoppn 10-15-04, 02:26 AM	I've come so close to killing my players so many times that mostly they spend action points to stabilize themselves... :D Besides that, mostly to aid in attack rolls. My two artificers have burned APs in item creation, but they don't do infusions much.
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-17-04, 12:18 PM	Most of you say you used them on regular rolls like attack rolls and knowledge checks but look at what my character does. My friend's psyhic warrior used action surge and then hustle power to move 12 squares and make a full attack action. I use action points to basically fly through the air then throw 6 shurikens. Come on we need more action and details i dont want this thread to die :weep: PS: I just gotta say the use of action points here just took my breath away. Hanging on to a railing on the top of an overturned airship, there was an open porthole some 10 feet away. So, the extreme explorer decided to try to swing his way over and up the opening. He succeeded, but was nearly killed by a raksasha. Kudos i got the image stuck in my head of that. Its like something out of indiana jones. Extreme explorers rock with the extra action points
ShaggySpellsword 10-17-04, 03:36 PM	The party I was DMing (Warforged Rogue, Ranger, Barbarian and Artificer) had a very rough time with a fight and was slouching off into the ruins trying to find a good, defensible place to put each other back together. As they were poking through the rubble into a likely looking building the rogue and the barbarian heard a skittering sound and spotted two horrid rats coming toward them. The barbarian, out of rages, down to about half hitpoints (and he was the healthiest one in the party) told the others to stand back and he rushed the rats. They ganged up on him while the others started pelting the rats with arrows, and missing more than they hit, the barbarian was eventually knocked down. The rats turned on the rest of the party, and quickly knocked out the ranger and the rogue, though the party did take one of the rats down with them. Just after the rogue fell, the artificer ran over to the barbarian, provoking attacks of opportunity that dropped him to 1 hp, and infused the barbarian to get him standing back up. The round that the barbarian needed to stand up, the artificer sacrificed himself to draw the attacks of the rats. The barbarian, noticing that he still had action points (5) blew two to get into a rage and then the other three, one per round afterward to kill the last rats. He basically described it as his Warforged finding a way to tap into something he didn't know he had, some inner primal instincts brought on by seeing his only friends in the world sacrifice themselves for him, putting their last trust in him. Coming out of his rage, 2 hps left, he dragged the bodies of his comrades over into the ruined building and slowly started piecing them back together. Ah, there are my PCs at the door, time to show them what happens when they leave the little building they have holed up in!
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-18-04, 03:55 PM	I really dont want this thread to die so this is how I used action points in a different campaign *not the evil one i described before* Im playing a Dromite Wilder and our party has a human rouge, human fighter, and a warforged barbarian. We were being chased by 7 inspired psions because we helped out a kalashtar. They were higher level then us *we were lvl 5 they were all 15 lvl * and we were in sharn so we wasted almost all our action points on jump checks from tower to tower *we all were under the effects of feather fall* Eventually we got away from them all except one and i used an action point on action surge. I wasted almost all my power points to cast energy ray with max augmentation TWICE. I didnt kill him but i weakened him enough for my friends to finish the job. :ayyyy!:
Amaril 10-18-04, 04:00 PM	Wow, that's a superhero scene if I had ever seen one. The one hero sacrificing his safety to secure his fellow team members by unleashing his powers to the fullest extent. On a sidenote, I'm curious if Keith Baker has a story or two to share.
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-18-04, 04:04 PM	Wow, that's a superhero scene if I had ever seen one. The one hero sacrificing his safety to secure his fellow team members by unleashing his powers to the fullest extent. On a sidenote, I'm curious if Keith Baker has a story or two to share. yeah i wanna hear some action storys from keith baker. He came up with this improved action point system, he should have some cool storys.
rkanodia 10-18-04, 06:13 PM	One of my players hid on the rooftop of the old foundry in Forgotten Forge, then ambushed Sabre with a Monkey Gripped Large Greatsword. His attack roll came up as a 15 or so, and spent a point landing the hit, then successfully Tumbled to reduce his falling damage. 3d6+3 damage really ruined Sabre's day... just took one more good hit to make him flee (although landing that hit took some time!)
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-18-04, 08:29 PM	3d6+3 damage really ruined Sabre's day... just took one more good hit to make him flee (although landing that hit took some time!) 3d6 +3 by a first level character that is alot
rkanodia 10-18-04, 09:50 PM	3d6 +3 by a first level character that is alot It is quite a bit (average 13.5). However, the character takes a -2 penalty on attack rolls and had to spend a feat to get that last d6 of damage. Now he's second level, and actually Monkey Grip is a worse choice than Power Attack in terms of its strength: if he had chosen Power Attack, and did a full power attack every round, he would have the same attack bonus but deal 2d6+7 damage (average 14).
DMSkippy099 10-18-04, 11:57 PM	Remember power attack only allows you to draw from your BAB, not you total attack bonus. Thus a first lvl character would only be able to add +1 (if any) to damage.
EberronJunkie 10-18-04, 11:59 PM	my wizard was in some trouble, she had been cornered in a tight bordered up windowed room, low on spells, and being just level 2, she wasnt the tank i had hoped she would be. just as the bad guy (a bandit goon of somesort) burst through the tiny door, i enlarged personed him, smushing him against the wall, and blocking his friends thrusts, then using action points all the way smashed through the bordered window, jumped out of it, flipped and rolled into a running start, threw a magic missile at the face of the guy who came bellowing after me, swung my stick at him, clocking him upside the head, saved my self from a tashas hideous laughter from some hedge mage sorcerer hidden in the shadows, pulled a shield spell off as he lashed out with his own MM, then, realised i had no more action points left, and was promptly pummeled to death and captured by some rather irrate thieves. But thats what i get staying in a mysterious "haunted" house to investigate it over night, while my stirge wounded compatriots go back to town to heal.
xnrdcorex 10-19-04, 12:10 AM	i got a good one! spoiler of whispers of the vmapires blade... ok so there at the airship launchpad all the workers try ot stop them. my halfling OVERRUNS ALL of them with an action point. the gnome jumps on the bakc of the shfiter and the shifter runs past the prone opponents and leaps to the airship as the dinosaur riding halfling does the same. the gnome spy starts falling off the shifters back as he leaps. hes slipping to an 80 foot fall. action point. grabs on at the last second as the shifter actionpoints just abrely grabbing the side of the airship as it glides away with a dinosaur on board, anda shifter barely hanging on and a gnome barely hanging onto the shifter! not that is what action points are for. without AP shifter would missed and gnome wouldve lost his hold and dinosaur wouldnt have made the jump and they wouldve all fell to thier deaths.
rkanodia 10-19-04, 03:36 PM	Remember power attack only allows you to draw from your BAB, not you total attack bonus. Thus a first lvl character would only be able to add +1 (if any) to damage. Actually, with a two-handed weapon, it's +2 to damage. But yes, I know it's limited by BAB, but, like I mentioned, the character is second level now, so he could take -2 attack/+4 damage, which would have a higher average than -2 attack/+1d6 damage.
Amaril 10-19-04, 03:46 PM	Please keep the thread on topic. You guys can PM one another if you want to continue discussing technicalities of Power Attack and BAB. So far the stories have been amazing. It's these action sequences that really make D&D exciting. I'm definitely throwing action points into my next Greyhawk campaign.
Mort_Q 10-19-04, 04:03 PM	My DM isn't using action points. :(
RatFlail OF DOOM!!!! 10-19-04, 04:05 PM	Today i saw the dark side of action points. First, I was playing with Elan Psion and i dont have many ranks in jump but i got overconfident because of action points. I tried to jump 10 feet without a running jump but i rolled a 12 so i decided to use an action point. I rolled a 1 and fell to my death into spikes. Than my friend playing a rogue tryed to tumble by some ettins at full speed. He rolled a 15 so he used an action point. He rolled a 2 and got stopped right in the middle of 4 ettins. The ettins picked the meat off his body slowly.
Amaril 10-19-04, 04:12 PM	Today i saw the dark side of action points... This raises an interesting question about how action points could become psychologically addictive even though they do not guarantee success. ;)
Sebby 10-19-04, 04:21 PM	My players burn APs mostly to hit better and to make saving throws. They wised up soon enough to save the last one to stabilize when dying. When we played Forgotten Forge, they were very cautious about "wasting" APs. So when they faced Saber at the end, they were close to 2nd level, knew that the XPs for the night's session would be enough to level up, and had lots of unused action points. About 15 APs must have been used in that fight. That Saber guy did not stand the slimmest chance to live through that. One of them plays a psion, now at 2nd level. for no apparent reason, he seems to be under the delusion that his PC has tons of hit points. As a result of his often unfortunate "being on the frontline at a bad time", he uses APs to stabilize quite often. :D
Amaril 10-20-04, 10:25 AM	My DM isn't using action points. :(Why doesn't your DM use action points?
fizzbang 10-20-04, 10:57 AM	When half of the party was cut off on the other side of a chasm in an underground cavern, our party's ranger made a heroic double-speed climbing-jump across the wall to save the surrounded, downed artificer from a pair of dolgrim. Definitely a cinematic moment, there.
Blastin 10-20-04, 11:05 PM	In our campaign I am playing a shiter ranger/rogue. We were at a public speech, in the front row, when suddenly a dark cloaked women jumped up onto the stage and slashed that the speaker with a dagger. My shifter tumbled over some onlookers, landed behind the assassin and ran her through with a single thrust of his trusty longsword. If not for the AP, I would have missed confirming the crit;)
Doctor X 10-20-04, 11:23 PM	One of them plays a psion, now at 2nd level. for no apparent reason, he seems to be under the delusion that his PC has tons of hit points. As a result of his often unfortunate "being on the frontline at a bad time", he uses APs to stabilize quite often. :D Haha... I know what you mean. I had a sorcerer in a homebrew game that acted stupid like that. One time he was standing in a room with a half-orc fighter in FULL ARMOR, and as the rest of the party escapes while gaurds are busting down a nearby door, he gets out his crossbow (no spells left), and says "Go ahead, I've got it under control." Yeah... that was a bad idea. The first gaurd stepped between him and the escape route, so he was pretty much screwed. Action Points would have been nice in that situation. He was ****ing lucky that the half-orc was smart enough to tell the rest of the party to come back and help. The cleric still had one cure spell left, so he survived. But he really shouldn't have...
Kyrianna 10-21-04, 11:05 AM	Well, I just started a mindweek game, and we're starting with Forgotten Forge. So far, we've just used one AP - and I used it. It was after we beat the warforged fighter on the bridge at the very beginning. As Sgt Dolom arrived, my PC (a dragonmarked House Medanni member who is also a Cleric of the Silver Flame) turned to talk to him, and after making her rather imperious speech, rolled Diplomacy. I declared the AP before I rolled the d20 - and ended up rolling a natural 20, and the AP kicked the final result to like 30. So, Sgt Dolom really likes our little group :) We haven't gone into the sewers yet, so, no real chances to use them in combat :)
P33KAJ3W 10-21-04, 03:11 PM	I used one on a tumble cheak when I had 2 HP left, got behind the foe tumbling thru his huge space at full speed, and backstabed him to finish the encounter.
Amaril 10-23-04, 05:10 PM	:bump: Keep the stories coming in folks. So far the stories have been awesome. Hopefully, Keith will chime in with a story or two.
P33KAJ3W 10-23-04, 05:18 PM	I DM FR and use AP's, my favorite thing to hear is... "Can I use an Action Point to..." We have had weapon graps off the floor mid tumble, kip ups, wall runs, etc... I love letting the players create drama.
Mort_Q 10-23-04, 05:20 PM	Why doesn't your DM use action points? Well, I joined the game late... and it is FR flavoured game... but he is allowing me to play an Artificer, and my friend a Warforged... which is interesting. He doesn't want to go back and RetCon in the action points. That's OK... we take turns DMing, so I think I'll DM an Eberron game or two when it's my turn.
smrtgmp 10-25-04, 05:48 AM	I recently started DMing an eberron game (a few of the players made 4th level tonight) and there have been a few cool uses of action points thus far. Most of them have been used on skill checks, attack rolls, etc, but in tonights last battle there was some good cinimatic action. The PCs went into some abandoned levels of Sharn (not nearly as old as the stuff from the Forgotten Forge) to rescure a local healer (a psion who will be taking levels of Psychic Chirurgeon from Bruce Cordell's Hyperconcious). There are not clerics in the group, so I figured I would give them an NPC. However, since I didnt want to just give them a healer for free, I thought I would make them rescue her. Anyways, after making their way down a few levels of a min-dungeon, they finally encountered the ogre barbarian who had kidnapped the healer and the necromancer who was working with him. The ogre actually went down with relative ease thanks to a well placed grease spell, but the wizard was harder to get to. He was on a raised platform that was about 20ft. higher than the rest of the chamber. The only way up there was a ramp. The dino-riding halfling started to move up the ramp, but his double move was up before he got to the top. The necromancer went befor he could act again and greased the ramp under his dinos feet, causing them to slide down the ramp, and, due to the angles involved, it would have been mathmatically impossible (at least for characters of such low levels) to jump over the greased area. As such, the halfling had his dino retreat, then did a runnig jump to get as much verticle clearance as possible. The halfling jumped at the peak of the dino's jump (burning an action point to increase his chance of sucess) and grabbed the ledge the wizard was on. He climbed up on his next turn and started a grapple, and was able to hold him long enough for some of the other group members to reach his location and subdue the wizard for questioning. It was a great mental image when the halfling jumped off the jumping dino. Good stuff.
Flack Jack 10-25-04, 03:14 PM	Ok imagine yourself in the middle of the the dark dank jungles of breland on a dark dank night. You have perturbed the local Ettercap, and spiders are every were. The little one come in the quadrilions and every turn you take an average of two point of damage from the little archniods not to mention the ones bigger than a giant. The horses are dead, and so are the hired npc goons. Two characters, and a chocobo are webbed to the bridge of a dambed river, and you are below half health. You point your crossbow towards the mosonic dam. Before firing another sonic bolt you say "Beetle Juice @#$@. The dam explodes from action points the little blighters are washed away. The pinned characters are fine, but one rouge is upset from spending maybe 4 action pionts to dodge debry, and climb a gnole when in the river bed at the time of the eruption.