Hero points

[Sanackranib]

I have hero points in my game. the players who are on time each recieve 1 per session. these cannot be saved from 1 session to the next and are lost if not used (they are often lost since most people will reserve them for when they really need them) they can be used to reroll any 1 roll including HP when a character levels up. they can also be used to automatically succede a save (at my discression rather then a reroll)

 

[anonystu]

[side-note]

Something even cooler about AU is that the core healing spells (lesser and greater battle healing), specifically don't heal perfectly (leaving scars and things like that).
[/side-note]

 

[hong]

First session results

In the end, to keep things somewhat consistent with the book, I went with something like what's in the moment of prescience spell. You can spend a hero point to get a bonus equal to char. level on one d20 roll, or AC against one attack, or the DC for one save. You have to declare the use before the dice are rolled (change from the original, where you could declare after the roll).

The players each got d3+1 hero points, refreshing at each level. The exact number of points was hidden, but I told a player if he was down to his last 2.

All of the players saved their points for the climactic encounter, preferring to slog their way through the minor stuff early on. I may have contributed to this by foreshadowing that there was going to be a "dragon" at the end. (Really a half-fiend 10-headed cryohydra with bat wings and 20' flying speed -- basically a poor man's dragon.)

During the final fight:

One of the players boosted a Bluff check sky-high, to convince the hydra that he was switching sides. Then he gave out a ton of false info, causing the hydra to waste a round doing sub-optimal stuff -- eg breathing on the guy with protection from cold, bashing up the knight with AC 31, etc.

The barbarian made an 8' running high jump to smack the hydra for more than half its hit points. It would have been more if he'd spend a point on a crit confirmation roll. The plan was then to bounce off the hydra and land safely back on the ground, unfortunately the next Jump check was completely flubbed and the barb went for an unplanned swim.

The knight blew all 4 points (!) to boost his Ref saves, after getting breathed on by all of the hydra's heads. He was the only one with a flight item, so he kept charging after it while most of the group was down on the ground. Even after this, he got dropped to 1 hit point away from falling unconscious. And he still kept going after it!

Hero points got given out for:

- Aforementioned Bluff roll, which was the most crazily original use of a Bluff I've seen in a long time.

- The barb doing the bounce-off-the-hydra thing, even if it didn't come off. Acrobatics always goes down a treat with the audience.

- The knight who kept attacking even when nearly dead. This sort of damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead attitude is exactly what I was hoping to encourage.

All in all, things worked out pretty good. People seemed more willing to take risks and attempt wild stunts, and it really helped spice up the game.

They were spending the points at a rate of knots though, which is something I might have to look at. OTOH I guess eventually they'll run out of points, so the problem might correct itself.

 

[Celtavian]

re

Here is the Hero Point system we use:

Hero Points

Hero points are the player equivalent of calling upon divine intervention, fate, luck or the deeper strength of being a hero so often found in literature. They allow a player to turn a hopeless situation into a possible victory, certain death into a second chance, or failure into success.

Hero points are accumulated as follows:

Everyone receives a single hero point at first level.

They gain an additional hero point each time they advance a level.

They gain a hero point each time an adventure is completed or a part of an adventure in the case of very long adventures spanning several game sessions per the DM’s discretion. A DM should decide prior to running a module at which points the characters will receive an additional hero point so that the process of rewarding hero points doesn’t become overly arbitrary and superficial.

Hero points can be used to do the following:

Avoid certain death: By expending a single hero point, a person can cause any attack that does enough damage to kill them to knock them unconscious leaving at exactly -5 hit points.

Disregard certain death: By expending two hero points, a player can cause any attack that does enough damage to kill them or knock them unconscious to miss entirely.

Automatically Succeed at a single roll: By expending a single hero point, a player can automatically succeed at any single roll whether it is a skill, ability, spell resistance, saving throw, turning check or any other roll up to and including a single attack.

Increase difficulty check of a spell: By expending a single hero point, a player can add +4 to the DC of a single spell for the initial casting. The DC of charm, domination or other spells with durations other than instantaneous the increase in DC only applies to the initial casting of the spell.

Make enemy fail save: By expending two hero points, a player can cause an enemy or target to fail their saving throw. Hero points cannot be used in conjunction with spells that cause death if the save is failed, though this does not preclude the use of hero points in conjunction with spells that cause death through an indirect means such as hold or charm spells.

Land a blow past magical defenses: By expending a single hero point, a player may automatically land a blow even if the target is protected by some kind of magical or supernatural concealment or defense such as darkness, a Stoneskin spell, or innate damage resistance.


When Hero Points can be used:

A hero point can be used anytime by the player before or after the roll is made or the result determined. They are meant to ensure success or prevent dire catastrophe, and thus have no limits on when they can be used.


I developed this Hero point based on certain problem situations that arose in our campaign such as: unforseen crits, missed saves against Death effects, unlucky rolls when it came to bypassing spell resistance, a series of bad attack rolls that make a battle last longer than it should.

I find that using these points smooths out bad points in the story (game). I made most of the effects absolute because when the story is on the line I don't want random chance to determine the outcome.

 

[Pbartender]

We've always played with a mechanic like this though for 3E we stopped just so we could see what it was like without it. In my 2E games we called it a "coup de grace" -- you'd get one per session and you could basically use it to automatically succeed on something or avoid dying. It took "total randomness" out of the picture a little bit and made it a bit more like a story -- the players could kind of "shape" the story more by making sure they had a critical success when they needed it. It also allowed me to feel like I didn't have to pull any punches with them.

We've started using something almost exactly like this, Eric.

I wanted a 'hero point' mechanic, but always hated the randomness inherent in most... Force Points, Hero Points, Action Dice, etc. And I always hated the complicated rules for usage.

So, we use "Favors", as in Divine Favors or DM Favors or however you want to look at it. Each character starts with 1 favor each session. You can turn one Favor in to maximize any one dice roll during the game (for purposes of critical hits, it is considered a 'natural' roll). So far, it's been mostly used for attack rolls (usually to threaten a critical or to confirm a critical), damage rolls and Saving throws. Though, it has been used for a few skill checks and one or two healing spells.

I sometimes hand out extra Favors as rewards, but rarely. If a player has unused Favors at the end of the session, they get converted to a small XP bonus.

The NPCs also have a pool of Favors, but only 'important' NPCs can use them.

 

[RuminDange]

Luck Points & Hero Points

Similar to most on the thread, in the campaigns I have run over the last 14 yrs has always had something to help take the randomness out of the dice for the players, since I have always liked the epic story whether good or evil.
Currently I use 2 methods in our 3E game, (Always was used in the 2E game before we switched).
<b>Luck Points:</b> All creatures (Int 3+) have luck points based on the average of the ability modifiers + character Level or Hit Dice. So a 12th level character with an average ability mod of 3 would have 15 luck points.
They can expend up to 5 points on any roll they make in game (Saves, skill, attack) The points they add are treated as though that was the die roll. So rolling a 15 with adding 5 is treated as though they rolled a 20 naturally.
Once points are spent they come back only in 2 cases: Rest and Level up. When a character rests they gain a number of luck points back equal to their average ability modifier. When they level up they get all of them back.
The use of a luck point(s) must be declared before the roll is made and regardless of the outcome the points are used.

<b>Hero Points:</b> This is a reward system I use to award the players for RP and doing special things, like risking themselves to save another, carrying out quests for temples, doing things without expecting reward. But mostly playing the character they have described to me they wish to be.
Like Luck points, hero points can be used to during play to automatically save, crit or whatever. Again they must be declared before deciding the outcome by die roll.
Hero Points do not come back once spent, but we track the total they have ever earned.
More importantly, Hero points if saved are used to help customize a character as it goes up.
For 1 to 5 points the character can buy traits (some ideas borrowed from Player Options in 2E) Like Keen Eyesight, Hearing etc.
For 5 points, they can get a Feat or raise an Attribute.
And there are other options left up to the players and myself to discuss if they come up with something creative.
I give Hero Points to NPC's and intelligent monster as well to help customize them and balance everything.
Over all this has made over game/campaign for over 3 years now very enjoyable and rememberable.

 

[hong]

You can turn one Favor in to maximize any one dice roll during the game (for purposes of critical hits, it is considered a 'natural' roll).

So it's sorta like a replacement for Power Critical (1/day get an auto-threat on someone)? I like it. Power Critical always struck me as being very metagame-ish in the first place.

 

[Pbartender]

So it's sorta like a replacement for Power Critical (1/day get an auto-threat on someone)? I like it. Power Critical always struck me as being very metagame-ish in the first place.

I've never heard of Power Critical, but yes... You can use it to get a natural 20 on an attack roll, thereby automatically threatening a critical. Or, likewise, if you are already threatening a critical, you can use it to get a natural 20 on your second attack roll thereby automatically confirming the critical.

If by some extraordinary blessing of DM fiat you have two Favors, you can use the first one to automatically threaten, and the second to automatically confirm... An automatic critical hit. If you have a third Favor, you can then maximize that critical hit damage roll to really kick that Bad Guy's ass.

Fortunately, it's extraordinarily rare that any of my players have more than one or two Favors at a time.

 

[hong]

I've never heard of Power Critical, but yes... You can use it to get a natural 20 on an attack roll, thereby automatically threatening a critical. Or, likewise, if you are already threatening a critical, you can use it to get a natural 20 on your second attack roll thereby automatically confirming the critical.

Power Critical is a feat in Masters of the Wild, that lets you turn one attack roll/day into an auto-threat of a crit. You still have to succeed with the attack, and also with the confirmation roll.

With the right choice of character and weapon (ie, any damage-optimised tank with a x3 or x4 crit weapon), it can effectively decide almost any fight. Not much can survive a crit from a Str 30 barb with a +5 thundering, flaming burst greataxe or mercurial greatsword.