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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SlyFlourish" data-source="post: 9678354" data-attributes="member: 54840">I'm not caught up on the whole thread and someone else might have mentioned it, but I'm now a huge fan of Doom Points from Tales of the Valiant. Doom points and luck have changed all of my 5e games for the better. As a disclaimer, after doing a video and article about them, Kobold Press commissioned me to write about them in the upcoming Monster Vault 2.The way I use them, doom points replace legendary resistance. Bosses might have between like two and five of them. A doom point can be used just like legendary resistance except they can also use it for other things. They can rip through a force cage or punch through a wall of force. They can cause their breath weapon to penetrate immunity or resistances. They can take an extra action. They can recharge abilities. They can get advantage on all their attacks. They can destroy one of their minions and get a pile of temporary hit points.The only limitation on doom points (in my games) is that there are only so many of them and the players know I have them. They know that, no matter what BS I pull off, I can only do it two to five times.Obviously I don't use doom points all the time. I also warn players if their save or suck spell is likely to get subverted with a doom point so they don't waste it. Often they do it anyway in the hope of burning a doom point.Doom points help me, as a GM, ensure a powerful monster meets its in-world expectation and fiction. It isn't a way for me to punish players. My goal is to steer those save or suck abilities to powerful minions where taking them out with something like a suggestion is fine, sometimes even necessary.But boss monsters in D&D need help. They have for as long as I can remember. Doom points help.I've used them in three different 5e games now with about 18ish players and though they grumble sometimes when I use them, all of them said they like them when I talked to them afterwards. They all saw them as an interesting dynamic effect that keeps the battle interesting.More here:[URL unfurl="true"]https://slyflourish.com/dreaded_blessings.html[/URL]Note, I call them "dreadful blessings" in my own game and usually tie them to a BBEG. Last night one of the bosses had "Blessings of Lolth". In my City of Arches game they're "Blessings of the Nameless King". In my Dragon empire game they're "Blessings of Ibbalan" (the big boss dragon the characters face). This gives them a sort of otherworldly in-fiction feel that I like.</blockquote>

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