Eberron action points in other D&D settings

[Gundark]

would this work out?....anybody play eberron? would they fit into another D&D setting?

 

[reveal]

It works fine in d20 Modern, which is where it started. Then Unearthed Arcana published some stuff on using it in D&D campaigns. Now Eberron has it. The only difference is that d20 Modern allows you to pool your APs from one level to another whereas Eberron only allows you a certain number you can have per level.

I just wrapped up a d20 Modern campaign and they worked very well.

 

[buzz]

IMO, no D&D game should be without Action Points. Should the gods smile upon us, they will be core come 4e.

 

[Belen]

Ach noooooo!

Action points suck. They do nothing more than hold up the game with extra attempts at rolling die. I really dislike the whole concept behind them and if they became standard, then I just could not play the game anymore.

 

[Davelozzi]

I really dislike the whole concept behind them and if they became standard, then I just could not play the game anymore.

Huh? Why couldn't you just keep playing without them?

 

[DanMcS]

Huh? Why couldn't you just keep playing without them?

Because they would be in the OFFICIAL RULES. Playing without them would be like playing without weapon speeds in second edition, or without ressurection and raise dead in any edition...

Anyway, I like action points as a form of plot immunity for PCs, plus they can be used for other things. We've been discussing them (ish) in another thread in house rules.

 

[Iuz]

Because they would be in the OFFICIAL RULES. Playing without them would be like playing without weapon speeds in second edition, or without ressurection and raise dead in any edition...

Is this sarcasm?

I have known plenty of games that have worked quite well without weapon speeds or ressurections.

 

[DanMcS]

Is this sarcasm?

I have known plenty of games that have worked quite well without weapon speeds or ressurections.

Yes. Sarcasm. I don't think I ever played in a game that used weapon speeds, and resurrection-type are spells routinely nixed by some DMs. Of course you could play in a game without action points, even if they became core.

 

[Belen]

Huh? Why couldn't you just keep playing without them?

Because, if they became standard, then nothing would prevent APs from powering class abilties, feats, even spells. You'd need to invest a lot of time in backward engineering them out of the game. No point in spending money on the books in that case.

I see no reason why people like the things. They just add a needless complication to the game. APs are just another rule. It's fine if they are optional, but they should never be core.

 

[kenobi65]

I'd adapted a set of Action Point rules from d20 Modern, and from a pre-release Eberron article in Dragon, for the Forgotten Realms campaign that we started last winter. When I discovered an expanded set of AP rules in Unearthed Arcana, we went to those.

In either case, they seem to work just fine in our grop. Most of my players use them for helping crummy dice rolls in key situations, or for on-the-fly use of metamagic feats.

One small change / clarification we're making: if you use an Action Point to put a Metamagic effect on a spell, the resulting "level" of the spell can't go above the highest level of spells that the caster in question can cast. Otherwise, you'll have 1st level wizards tossing around Empowered Magic Missiles, and that's just wrong.

Mike