Action Dice

[Old One]

Because I am using the GT rules set in a low-magic setting...

Very little magic equipment, few buff spells, tough opponents, etc. Many abilities scale with level...this allows APs to scale as well, with higher level PCs having a better chance of getting a meaningful result.

If I was running a "straight-up" D & D campaign with by-the-book gear, I probably wouldn't use that variant.

~ OO

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

I thought I'd raise this thread from the dead to get some more thoughts on the subject - we use action dice in one of the game I play in (two as of this weekend) and the only issue I have is that it seems that they its awfully easy to accumulate a LOT of them.

Maybe its our group forgetting to use them, but it seems they pile up pretty quick.

I'm thinking of using them in my next game, and possibly using some variant of what Shilsen mentions - spend X action dice to negate a killing blow, possibly with a system that ties into something like Skull & Bones' "roll the bones" mechanic... allowing for the possibility of limb loss, etc.

 

[Crothian]

They aren't bad. It seems like sometimes they seem to be worthless but at certain key times they really seem powerful. We also forget to use them, but I don't make that a fault of the action points

 

[Psion]

This bit of necromancy confused me a bit.

Action points is the mechanic from D20 modern/eberron/UA.

Action dice is the mechanic from spycraft.

They work a bit differently. But I've used them both in the appropriate game.

It seems like players want more out of them. As it is, AP can make a near miss into a hit. It seems players are wanting a reroll mechanic, but I prefer to reserve that for explicit "luck" mechanics.

I really dig the feat AP mechanic in UA. It instantly turns all the feats in your books into "stunts".

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

This bit of necromancy confused me a bit.

Action dice is the mechanic from D20 modern/eberron/UA.

Action points is the mechanic from spycraft.

Yeah - action points is what I meant, referring to the UA system. I need to see what kind of cool effects I can pull off, other than just the usual attack stuff.

It occurs to me that you could use action dice to spontaneously metamagic a spell... I could junk my house rule allowing spontaneous metamagic and just use this... This might change the way I take feats - combat feats I rarely use could be triggered using action points rather than by taking a feat (like, say, Whirlwind Attack).

Another use might be to bypass the trick purchase cost in Complete Scoundrel and allow those tricks to be triggered by use of an action point.

 

[kenobi65]

It occurs to me that you could use action dice to spontaneously metamagic a spell...

Exactly. We use the UA action point system, and that's exactly how the spellcasters in my game use their action points. It's never just a Flame Strike, it's a maximized flame strike.

Keep in mind that you can only use one action point per round. Thus, in order to spotaneously metamagic a spell, you have to know the metamagic feat you want to use. (You can also spend an action point to get the use of a feat for one round...but, at that point, you've spent your action point for the round, and, unless you're a spontaneous spellcaster, you can't use that "temporary" metamagic feat.)

 

[EditorBFG]

Action points is the mechanic from D20 modern/eberron/UA.

Action dice is the mechanic from spycraft.

They work a bit differently. But I've used them both in the appropriate game.

I don't know about you, but I think Action Dice are a way better mechanic than Action Points. Not only doing what it does, but the way they wove it into the Spycraft system. How do you think the two systems stack up against each other?

Now, I also think Action Points add a lot to WotC-style d20 games. In fact, a recent product I wrote, Iconic Combat Feats featured feats and new rules for action points that are suitable for use with any game (Modern or Fantasy) using the Action Point rules. And to weave an Action Die like system into an existing game the way it is hard-wired into Spycraft would be a lot more work than just adding Action Points.

 

[Psion]

I don't know about you, but I think Action Dice are a way better mechanic than Action Points. Not only doing what it does, but the way they wove it into the Spycraft system. How do you think the two systems stack up against each other?

Well, I think that action dice are much more telling in their effect on the game. You get more, are less limited in their use, and you can gain them by doing cool things. As I alluded to in the previous post, action points could only turn a near miss/failure to a hit/success. Action dice can, with a lucky roll and/or sufficient expenditure, turn an abysmal failure into a success.

While I think Action points are more low key, I think they are safer to add to a D&D game because of that. Spycraft has action dice built into it, and has roles for expending them. But the effect of adding them to D&D might be a bit more drastic.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

Keep in mind that you can only use one action point per round. Thus, in order to spotaneously metamagic a spell, you have to know the metamagic feat you want to use. (You can also spend an action point to get the use of a feat for one round...but, at that point, you've spent your action point for the round, and, unless you're a spontaneous spellcaster, you can't use that "temporary" metamagic feat.)

Ah, excellent point - I had noted the "1 per round" rule, but not how it would apply in this case. Still, it's a good use of the mechanic.