Action Points Accrual

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Personally, I can't see any tactical advantage in saving those AP points. Why would you ever need 75 action points moldering in the bank? So, my philosophy, as a referee, is to not worry about players saving points. They are just handicapping themselves in the present.

D20 Modern characters are sort of like low-level DnD characters in that they're fragile. It's very easy to not have a good Fort save, for instance. You'll want an AP around when it comes time to make a massive damage save.

 

[Geoff Watson]

Personally, I can't see any tactical advantage in saving those AP points. Why would you ever need 75 action points moldering in the bank? So, my philosophy, as a referee, is to not worry about players saving points. They are just handicapping themselves in the present.

Maybe the players forgot them, or something like that?

One character I'm playing has a similar ability (gets +2 on a d20 roll twice per day), and there have been several sessions where I forgot to use it. In another campaign, Hong only used his Smite ability once, he usually forgot about it.

Geoff.

 

[Ranger REG]

Sounds good I had a question about this myself... it works now to make my players spend their AP!

Give major minions and bosses (I know, videogame talk) some AP to spend, too.

 

[Brad Hindman]

D20 Modern characters are sort of like low-level DnD characters in that they're fragile. It's very easy to not have a good Fort save, for instance. You'll want an AP around when it comes time to make a massive damage save.

It makes perfect sense to keep a handful of AP in store for those unforseen events and for a knock-down drag-out fight. But since you can only spend one AP per round, why would you ever need over 10 saved?

 

[Henry]

In my d20 Modern Games, players simply FORGET about action points all the time. For some reason, they just forget they have them. In other games, (Spycraft, for example), because Action Dice are used for SO many things, the players never forgot about them - the system simply refuses to let you forget about them! (You can't critical hit without them, for one, and you are supposed to announce to the players when you roll a 1 so they can activate bad guy critical fumbles if they wish!)

I think Eberron seeks to redress that issue by making it a limited pool per character level, and by adding so many different ways that the action points can be used. Personally, if they do a 2nd edition of d20 Modern, I think they need to include some of the Eberron rules and feats for Action points.

 

[Ranger REG]

Personally, if they do a 2nd edition of d20 Modern, I think they need to include some of the Eberron rules and feats for Action points.

Personally, I hope they don't release a revised d20 Modern Core Rulebook before 2006. However, I agree with you. Not many advanced classes presented in the core rulebook offer AP expenditure on unique abilities. Off the top of my head, only the Soldier allow you to spend AP to automatically confirm a critical hit without the required Threat roll.

I'll have to check if the Modern Player's Companion address that issue for their advanced and prestige classes.

 

[Laslo Tremaine]

Personally, I don't like the accrual process being tied to levelling -- I dont like having to level my PCs to get their special abilities back. I use the M&M model, where you get (level/2, rounded up) action points per day or session. But that's just me.

It's not just you...

I vastly prefer the M&M method, and if we ever get around to playing our Psychics in Spaaaace! d20 Modern game (or d20 Future most likely), we will definitely be handling it this way.

 

[Dareoon Dalandrove]

I ran a pretty successful modern game and never had a problem with players hoarding AP, so I wouldn't ever worry about haveing a 10th lvl character with 75. I would strongly recomend keeping track of them though. I used glass counters for action points. I'd dole them out at the start of the game and count them up at the end of the game, writing down in my notes who had what. Having something like the counter in front of the character is also a real reminder that they have them. It works great. I'd recommend picking up a lot of counters though. I spent 3 bucks and got like a hundred of them. If you've got 5 players and they each have 10 you can see that everyone can accrue a little pile.

Another thing about AP. You can push things a little when players have a large pile. Maybe bump the cr up a notch.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

It makes perfect sense to keep a handful of AP in store for those unforseen events and for a knock-down drag-out fight. But since you can only spend one AP per round, why would you ever need over 10 saved?

I used 9 in one battle. I was going to face this big bruiser, and, being a martial artist, was confident of winning.

Then I found out it was going to be a grappling contest. I had a high BAB but low Strength. My opponent had a high BAB and high Strength. See where this is going?

I won, but it cost me over a level's worth of AP to do so.