My power point system, balanced? [Archive] - Wizards Community

My power point system, balanced? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Martryn
10-30-06, 03:18 AM I have a large party. We have 9 players, and 6-8 or so at any given time, with it being rare that all nine make it to the session. After I got a few character kills at the lower level, I felt sorry for my group, and so looked for a way to give them an "ace in the hole". I decided on power points.

Basically, in my campaign, a power point is used to turn any d20 roll by a player into a 20 or any d20 roll by me, the DM, into a 1. This allows players to pass those really important saves where they'd otherwise die, cancel out really hard crits or hits, or score that crucial hit when the going gets tough. It takes a power point to change a crit hit into a regular hit, and another to cancel the hit altogether, so it would take two power points to completely negate a critical hit and take no damage, and two power points to turn a roll of "1" into a crit hit. Each character starts with two power points, and gains an additional two everytime they level up.

Because this seemed unbalanced with the "boss" encounters I have planned in my game, I give all my named NPCs two power points as well that they use to cancel out crits and make saves that they need.

A power point can only be used when it directly affects the player. If the party druid takes a crit, the party bard can't use one of his power points to negate it. Likewise, the party fighter can't expend a power point to cause an enemy to roll a one to save against the wizard's fireball.

I play with a crit hit and fumble table to liven combat up, and the table contains a fair amount of one hit kill crits. Power points allow me to use the table without fear of killing the party fighter by a random kobold spear or something. In fact, I don't mind throwing lots of hard things at my players now, since they have a fall back to use in case the going gets tough.

I'm figuring something like this has been done before. Anyone have any variations or suggestions I can use with my system?
Nebo
10-30-06, 03:41 AM So what do you do when the wizard casts phantasmal killer on the BBEG and forces him to fail his save?
Ikeren
10-30-06, 07:36 PM I believe it would be a race based on who had more power-points stored up.

My money is on the BBEG, who may be higher level, and likely has never used any, having not played in the campaign prior to now (or maybe he has).

The real problem is when the cleric, wizard, druid and sorceror are all doing it.
Martryn
10-30-06, 08:56 PM So what do you do when the wizard casts phantasmal killer on the BBEG and forces him to fail his save?

In cases like that the wizard would have to expend two power points to cause him to fail both his saves, which would be negated by the guy using his to pass them both, and then the wizard would be forced to use two more. Four power points are alot to spend on a single guy, but if that's the way they want to spend their resources, so be it. I'll have plenty of challenges lurking around the corner, and if he pulls that, I might turn around and pull the same on him when he doesn't have any power poits to protect himself, something I wouldn't normally do.
Xeviat-DM
10-31-06, 01:37 AM Try action points; they're described in d20 Modern, Eberron, and Unearthed Arcana. I believe they'll be much more balanced than what you're proposing.

If you're running a more hack and slash site based campaign, you're probably going to find this system okay, but in an event and character driven campaign, I think this will hurt things.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Martryn 10-30-06, 03:18 AM	I have a large party. We have 9 players, and 6-8 or so at any given time, with it being rare that all nine make it to the session. After I got a few character kills at the lower level, I felt sorry for my group, and so looked for a way to give them an "ace in the hole". I decided on power points. Basically, in my campaign, a power point is used to turn any d20 roll by a player into a 20 or any d20 roll by me, the DM, into a 1. This allows players to pass those really important saves where they'd otherwise die, cancel out really hard crits or hits, or score that crucial hit when the going gets tough. It takes a power point to change a crit hit into a regular hit, and another to cancel the hit altogether, so it would take two power points to completely negate a critical hit and take no damage, and two power points to turn a roll of "1" into a crit hit. Each character starts with two power points, and gains an additional two everytime they level up. Because this seemed unbalanced with the "boss" encounters I have planned in my game, I give all my named NPCs two power points as well that they use to cancel out crits and make saves that they need. A power point can only be used when it directly affects the player. If the party druid takes a crit, the party bard can't use one of his power points to negate it. Likewise, the party fighter can't expend a power point to cause an enemy to roll a one to save against the wizard's fireball. I play with a crit hit and fumble table to liven combat up, and the table contains a fair amount of one hit kill crits. Power points allow me to use the table without fear of killing the party fighter by a random kobold spear or something. In fact, I don't mind throwing lots of hard things at my players now, since they have a fall back to use in case the going gets tough. I'm figuring something like this has been done before. Anyone have any variations or suggestions I can use with my system?
Nebo 10-30-06, 03:41 AM	So what do you do when the wizard casts phantasmal killer on the BBEG and forces him to fail his save?
Ikeren 10-30-06, 07:36 PM	I believe it would be a race based on who had more power-points stored up. My money is on the BBEG, who may be higher level, and likely has never used any, having not played in the campaign prior to now (or maybe he has). The real problem is when the cleric, wizard, druid and sorceror are all doing it.
Martryn 10-30-06, 08:56 PM	So what do you do when the wizard casts phantasmal killer on the BBEG and forces him to fail his save? In cases like that the wizard would have to expend two power points to cause him to fail both his saves, which would be negated by the guy using his to pass them both, and then the wizard would be forced to use two more. Four power points are alot to spend on a single guy, but if that's the way they want to spend their resources, so be it. I'll have plenty of challenges lurking around the corner, and if he pulls that, I might turn around and pull the same on him when he doesn't have any power poits to protect himself, something I wouldn't normally do.
Xeviat-DM 10-31-06, 01:37 AM	Try action points; they're described in d20 Modern, Eberron, and Unearthed Arcana. I believe they'll be much more balanced than what you're proposing. If you're running a more hack and slash site based campaign, you're probably going to find this system okay, but in an event and character driven campaign, I think this will hurt things.