Action Point System

[arscott]

Well, it's DnD 3.5 homebrew, so I guess which ever would potentially be the best...

The Unearthed Arcana Action points are designed for Homebrew D&D, so they're probably your best bet. They're based of D20Modern Action points, but they have a few extra uses.

Here's the skinny:
Beginning characters get 5 + (1/2 starting level) action points. upon attaining a new level, PCs get 5 + (1/2 charater level) points. NPCs shouldn't get any action points, unless there important characters, in which case they simply have (1/2 character level).

UA Action points can be used a variety of ways:
-Add 1d6 to the results of a d20 roll. Take the best of two dice at level 7 and the best of 3 at 15.
-use a class ability an extra time per day
-double the benifits of fighting defensively
-use a feat you don't have (but meet the prereqs for)
-get one additional attack (at your highest bonus) when making a full attack
-increase the effective caster level of a spell by 2
-recall a spell just cast
-go from dying to stable

Several class abilities and feats from d20M and Eberron require an action point, but rather than adding a bunch of new feats, Unearthed arcana just gives rules for adding to the old ones:

Blind-Fight: spend a point to negate miss chance entirely

Combat expertise, Dodge, Improved initiative, power attack, spell focus, and spell penetration: spend a point to double the numerical benifits of the feat

Improved Critical: spend a point to further double threat range

Metamagic: spend a point to spontaniously apply metamagic to a spell

 

[kenobi65]

An important add to the good summary arscott gave: you can only spend one action point in a round. Otherwise, you can get into the very broken situation of a spellcaster spending an action point to gain a metamagic feat for a round, then spending a second action point to spontaneously use that metamagic feat.

 

[Wikid Klown]

Thanks for the help and information, it's a big help. I've talked it over with my players, we're going to try the method from modern, and see how it goes. Thanks again.