| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
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| PainTrain05-26-07, 01:07 AM | I like the concept, they've saved a couple of my players from what would have been pretty mundane deaths. One problem I run into is that a lot of players just hoard them. One player I remeber ended up have 40 something of them and only used one once the entire campaign. I'd like to figure out so sort of daily or session alotment that some how ties into charisma. From a mechancial perspective would it seem unbalanced if per session each player recevied 2+(1/2xcharisma modifer) round down. so char 8 =1.5 action points, round down = 1 Char 10= 2 action points char 12= 2.5 action points, round down =1 Char 14= 3 action points etc etc etc Perhaps that could be the rate of accumulation and then set the maximum pool of action points one can store at (1+(1/2ECL)+charisma modifer)... 1/2ECL round up While from a sociological and psychological point of view the use of charisma in this way makes absolutely no sense, neither does the way it's used for the most part in DnD anyway. It acts sort of as some sort of combo of luck, extraversion, sociability, and something else for sorcerors and paladins. Anyway I feel like a system like this would discourage players from utilizing charisma as a dump stat as anything below 8 loses out on the ability to accumulate action points, and there are now some mechanical perks to having a high charisma. Any thoughts? I'm sure this has more or less been proposed before. |
| calronmoonflower05-26-07, 03:05 AM | Try this. Luck as an Ability Score |
| Shado05-26-07, 03:24 AM | Use 'em or lose 'em. Players gain Action Points at level up. New Action Points override existing, if any. A variant would be to allot action points at the start of a story arc instead of level. (Depending on how often your players level vs. length of story arcs... this allows you to maintain a bit more control, either increasing how common they are, or enforcing rarity.) |
| Flynnwd05-26-07, 08:32 AM | I prefer the Grim Tales approach to action points. In essence, you can't make a critical hit unless you spend an action point to activate it. There is no threat check. Doing that one single step right there integrates action points into the game. (The problem with the UA rules is that action points simply feels like a system add-on, with no true integration. The GT approach works very well, and feels much more integrated into the system.) GT points are not accumulated over time. When you run out, you have to wait until the next renewal cycle to get them back. If the renewal cycle starts up before you're out, you lose what you haven't used and get a renewal. One of the options for using GT action points is that they are renewed at the beginning of each session instead of each level. I find this to be the most cinematic approach. Below is the action point data that I've copied from the old GT SRD, and then tailored specifically to my campaign. Enjoy, Flynn * * * * * Action Points Action points differentiate heroes from ordinary characters: by spending action points, you can activate heroic abilities, improve the results of your die rolls, recover after combat, and more. How Many Do I Get? You begin play with a number of action points equal to 5 + one-half your character level (round down). Thus, 1st level characters begin play with only 5 action points. Spending Action Points A character can spend an action point to do any of the following actions within the gaming session. Improve a d20 Check This is the most common use of action points. You can spend an action point to improve a single d20 roll used to make an attack, a skill check, an ability check, a level check, or a saving throw. When you spend an action point in this way, you roll an action die (usually, a d6) and add the result of the action die to the result of your d20 roll to help meet or exceed the target number. A character can even decide to spend the action point to alter a d20 roll after the roll is made—but only before the GM reveals the result of that roll (whether the roll succeeded or failed). A character can’t use an action point on a skill check or ability check when he or she is taking 10 or taking 20 (it may only be used to improve a random roll); and you cannot use an action point on a d20 roll that is not a “check” to determine success or failure (for example, when rolling initiative). Activate a Heroic Ability You can activate a feat, a class talent, or class feature with a number of uses per day, or for which the expenditure of 1 action point is required. When a character spends 1 action point to use a class feature, he or she gains the benefit of the feature but doesn’t actually roll an action die. In this case, the action point is not a bonus to a d20 roll, it is merely spent to activate the ability. If the ability is usable a certain number of times per day, spending the action point does not count as one of your daily uses. Emulate a Feat A player may spend an action point to gain the benefits of a normal feat he does not have, provided he meets the prerequisites. For example, a character who already has Power Attack may spend an action point to gain the benefits of Cleave. When you use an action point in this way, the benefits last for but a single round (until the start of your next action). Make a Heroic Strike You can spend an action point to “strike true” against an opponent with damage reduction. By spending an action point, if you successfully strike the opponent, your weapon deals damage normally, as if it had all the criteria necessary (magic, silver, good, etc.) to bypass DR. Usually, you will want to make your attack roll first, and spend the action point after confirming that the attack was successful. In this case, you gain the benefits of Heroic Strike only for that single attack. If you are able to attack more than once in a round, you may choose to spend the action point before your first attack. In this case, you gain the benefit of Heroic Strike for all of your attacks in the round, but you will not have the advantage of knowing whether or not any of those attacks will actually hit. Improve Your Defense You may spend an action point at any time to improve your AC by the amount rolled on the action die. You can even choose to spend an action point after the GM has rolled his attack roll, but before he has informed you of the result of the attack. This bonus lasts until the start of your next turn and applies to all attacks against you. You may not spend an action point in this way if your AC has already been increased by spending an action point. Confirm a Critical Hit If your attack roll is a natural 20, you score an automatic hit, and you may be able to spend an action point to turn the hit into a critical hit. If the roll is a critical threat and result of your attack roll would ordinarily hit the target, then you may spend an action point to turn the strike into a critical hit. If you require an automatic hit to strike the target— that is, a natural 20 plus the total of your roll plus all bonuses still does not equal or exceed the target’s AC— you cannot spend an action point to confirm a critical hit. Confirm a Critical Success with a Skill If you roll a “natural 20” on a skill check, you can spend an action point to turn a skill check into a critical success. The results of a critical success are better than a “normal” success; see the Skill chapter for details. Healing After Combat Immediately after any combat, you may spend an action point to heal a number of hit points equal to the amount rolled on the die. This use of an action point allows the action die to "explode". Exploding dice are handled as follows: each time the action die rolls a maximum result (for example, a 6 on a d6) you may roll the die again, adding the second result to the previous result. There is no limit to how high the action die total can go: as long as you keep rolling the maximum result, you can keep adding to the total. Spending Multiple Action Points You may spend more than one action point in a round, but never more than one action point for the same purpose. For example, you could spend an action point to activate an ability, and another action point to improve a die roll, but you could not spend two action points to improve the same die roll or to activate the same ability twice in a round. Replenishing Action Points Your action points replenish at the beginning of each session of play. Gaining Points During Play There are a number of ways you can actually gain action points during play. The GM does not have action points to spend; instead, he can “spend” an action point by awarding an action point to one of the players. Most of the time, action points are gained as a “consolation prize” when the GM inflicts some calamity upon your character, usually as a result of a bad roll on your part or a stroke of luck on your enemies’ behalf. Activate a Critical Failure with a Skill At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point in order to activate a critical failure for a skill check (see the Skill Chapter). Activate a Critical Hit At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point to activate a critical threat scored against your character. Activate a Critical Miss When you make an attack roll and get a natural 1 (the d20 actually shows 1) your attack automatically misses. In addition, this is a threat for a critical miss. If your attack roll would normally hit (despite rolling a 1) the attack simply misses. The GM may not activate a critical miss. However, if your attack roll is a 1 and would normally have resulted in a miss despite being an automatic miss, at his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point and activate a critical miss. The GM is free to determine the effect of a critical miss as he sees fit. Some common examples include dropping your weapon, being stunned for a round, striking another adjacent target by mistake, or even striking yourself. There is no limit to the depravity of the GM in these situations, so take what comfort you can from your extra action point. Heroic Rewards At the end of a session of play, your GM may award you an action point if your character was played particularly in-character or heroically. The GM may rarely, and at his discretion, award your character an action point during play for particularly heroic actions performed at the dramatically appropriate time. Remember that all characters are expected to be heroic; it would be rare indeed to find a character so heroic as to earn more than one action point during play. Tasty Snacks The GM may award you an action point before play begins if you show up for your gaming session with tasty snacks to share with the group. |
| Holy_Beholder05-26-07, 11:27 AM | Or you can use the FUDGE method, since thats where they were swiped from originally. A single action point gets you a Natural 20. You get them for roll playing your characters weaknesses. |
| SlinkyTWF05-28-07, 08:35 PM | When I wrote a rule for this variant, I limited the characters to having only one such point (action, hero, fate, whatever you want to call it) at a time. This encourages it to be saved for dire emergencies, which was my intent. It's sort of a last-chance saving throw. I didn't tie it to CHA, but I wrote a generic luck rule that uses the Charisma modifier to affect the dice (and always uses the lowest modifier in the party, to account for the "jinx" factor and also discourage use as a dump stat). |
| jollythehappyminotaur05-28-07, 09:48 PM | i just let my players reroll one D20 per lvl. it works well. |
| Keyar8105-29-07, 10:47 AM | I don't think the original intention of the action points rules were to let them accumulate level by level. Upon first reading of it i found that part unclear, but upon reading the action points rules in the eberron campaign book, they stated that the points were use em or lose em, and thats what i use. |
| Donovan Morningfire05-29-07, 11:05 AM | I prefer the Grim Tales approach to action points. In essence, you can't make a critical hit unless you spend an action point to activate it. There is no threat check. Doing that one single step right there integrates action points into the game. (The problem with the UA rules is that action points simply feels like a system add-on, with no true integration. The GT approach works very well, and feels much more integrated into the system.) GT points are not accumulated over time. When you run out, you have to wait until the next renewal cycle to get them back. If the renewal cycle starts up before you're out, you lose what you haven't used and get a renewal. One of the options for using GT action points is that they are renewed at the beginning of each session instead of each level. I find this to be the most cinematic approach. Below is the action point data that I've copied from the old GT SRD, and then tailored specifically to my campaign. Enjoy, Flynn * * * * * Action Points Action points differentiate heroes from ordinary characters: by spending action points, you can activate heroic abilities, improve the results of your die rolls, recover after combat, and more. How Many Do I Get? You begin play with a number of action points equal to 5 + one-half your character level (round down). Thus, 1st level characters begin play with only 5 action points. Spending Action Points A character can spend an action point to do any of the following actions within the gaming session. Improve a d20 Check This is the most common use of action points. You can spend an action point to improve a single d20 roll used to make an attack, a skill check, an ability check, a level check, or a saving throw. When you spend an action point in this way, you roll an action die (usually, a d6) and add the result of the action die to the result of your d20 roll to help meet or exceed the target number. A character can even decide to spend the action point to alter a d20 roll after the roll is made—but only before the GM reveals the result of that roll (whether the roll succeeded or failed). A character can’t use an action point on a skill check or ability check when he or she is taking 10 or taking 20 (it may only be used to improve a random roll); and you cannot use an action point on a d20 roll that is not a “check” to determine success or failure (for example, when rolling initiative). Activate a Heroic Ability You can activate a feat, a class talent, or class feature with a number of uses per day, or for which the expenditure of 1 action point is required. When a character spends 1 action point to use a class feature, he or she gains the benefit of the feature but doesn’t actually roll an action die. In this case, the action point is not a bonus to a d20 roll, it is merely spent to activate the ability. If the ability is usable a certain number of times per day, spending the action point does not count as one of your daily uses. Emulate a Feat A player may spend an action point to gain the benefits of a normal feat he does not have, provided he meets the prerequisites. For example, a character who already has Power Attack may spend an action point to gain the benefits of Cleave. When you use an action point in this way, the benefits last for but a single round (until the start of your next action). Make a Heroic Strike You can spend an action point to “strike true” against an opponent with damage reduction. By spending an action point, if you successfully strike the opponent, your weapon deals damage normally, as if it had all the criteria necessary (magic, silver, good, etc.) to bypass DR. Usually, you will want to make your attack roll first, and spend the action point after confirming that the attack was successful. In this case, you gain the benefits of Heroic Strike only for that single attack. If you are able to attack more than once in a round, you may choose to spend the action point before your first attack. In this case, you gain the benefit of Heroic Strike for all of your attacks in the round, but you will not have the advantage of knowing whether or not any of those attacks will actually hit. Improve Your Defense You may spend an action point at any time to improve your AC by the amount rolled on the action die. You can even choose to spend an action point after the GM has rolled his attack roll, but before he has informed you of the result of the attack. This bonus lasts until the start of your next turn and applies to all attacks against you. You may not spend an action point in this way if your AC has already been increased by spending an action point. Confirm a Critical Hit If your attack roll is a natural 20, you score an automatic hit, and you may be able to spend an action point to turn the hit into a critical hit. If the roll is a critical threat and result of your attack roll would ordinarily hit the target, then you may spend an action point to turn the strike into a critical hit. If you require an automatic hit to strike the target— that is, a natural 20 plus the total of your roll plus all bonuses still does not equal or exceed the target’s AC— you cannot spend an action point to confirm a critical hit. Confirm a Critical Success with a Skill If you roll a “natural 20” on a skill check, you can spend an action point to turn a skill check into a critical success. The results of a critical success are better than a “normal” success; see the Skill chapter for details. Healing After Combat Immediately after any combat, you may spend an action point to heal a number of hit points equal to the amount rolled on the die. This use of an action point allows the action die to "explode". Exploding dice are handled as follows: each time the action die rolls a maximum result (for example, a 6 on a d6) you may roll the die again, adding the second result to the previous result. There is no limit to how high the action die total can go: as long as you keep rolling the maximum result, you can keep adding to the total. Spending Multiple Action Points You may spend more than one action point in a round, but never more than one action point for the same purpose. For example, you could spend an action point to activate an ability, and another action point to improve a die roll, but you could not spend two action points to improve the same die roll or to activate the same ability twice in a round. Replenishing Action Points Your action points replenish at the beginning of each session of play. Gaining Points During Play There are a number of ways you can actually gain action points during play. The GM does not have action points to spend; instead, he can “spend” an action point by awarding an action point to one of the players. Most of the time, action points are gained as a “consolation prize” when the GM inflicts some calamity upon your character, usually as a result of a bad roll on your part or a stroke of luck on your enemies’ behalf. Activate a Critical Failure with a Skill At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point in order to activate a critical failure for a skill check (see the Skill Chapter). Activate a Critical Hit At his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point to activate a critical threat scored against your character. Activate a Critical Miss When you make an attack roll and get a natural 1 (the d20 actually shows 1) your attack automatically misses. In addition, this is a threat for a critical miss. If your attack roll would normally hit (despite rolling a 1) the attack simply misses. The GM may not activate a critical miss. However, if your attack roll is a 1 and would normally have resulted in a miss despite being an automatic miss, at his discretion, the GM may award you 1 action point and activate a critical miss. The GM is free to determine the effect of a critical miss as he sees fit. Some common examples include dropping your weapon, being stunned for a round, striking another adjacent target by mistake, or even striking yourself. There is no limit to the depravity of the GM in these situations, so take what comfort you can from your extra action point. Heroic Rewards At the end of a session of play, your GM may award you an action point if your character was played particularly in-character or heroically. The GM may rarely, and at his discretion, award your character an action point during play for particularly heroic actions performed at the dramatically appropriate time. Remember that all characters are expected to be heroic; it would be rare indeed to find a character so heroic as to earn more than one action point during play. Tasty Snacks The GM may award you an action point before play begins if you show up for your gaming session with tasty snacks to share with the group. D&D Group I'm have been talking about incorporating action points into the game. The above looks pretty good, so I'll forward it to the DM for approval. Thanks. |
| Flynnwd05-29-07, 03:36 PM | D&D Group I'm have been talking about incorporating action points into the game. The above looks pretty good, so I'll forward it to the DM for approval. Thanks. Good luck. I've found it to foster a very cinematic feel to my games, which I greatly enjoy, so I can't recommend them enough. Enjoy, Flynn |
| wizardguy200306-06-07, 02:46 AM | I don't think the original intention of the action points rules were to let them accumulate level by level. Upon first reading of it i found that part unclear, but upon reading the action points rules in the eberron campaign book, they stated that the points were use em or lose em, and thats what i use. From my perspective, your absolutely right. Use them, or they reset at the next level. I think that's a great balance, keeping the fantastic element alive, but preventing it from becoming common place, and there by not longer fantastic. |