Lucky Characters

[King Nate]

In dungeons and dragons luck is determined by the player and not the character. If you roll high, the player is lucky and the character reaps the glory. If you roll low, the player is unlucky, and the character feels the pain. What if you wanted to play a character that IS lucky? Here is a feat I created to help represent lucky characters…sorry if it looks familiar. But, please let me know what you think.

Lucky
Benefit: Once per day, when you roll a 1d20 for anything you may roll a 1d6 and add or subtract (player’s choice) the result to the 1d20 roll. You can declare to use of this feat after you rolled a 1d20, but before the DM reveals the result of that roll. You don’t have to actually roll the die, you may let the DM know if you want to use the lucky feat on any 1d20 result he rolls. You must announce this before he tells you the result of the roll.
In addition whenever you use an action point to gain another action, you may roll a 1d6 and add the result to one 1d20 roll during that extra action.
(this includes attack rolls, saves, checks, or any other roll of a d20)

 

[77IM]

Looks overpowered, due to the action-point use, which is better than many paragon path action point features.

The other part (add or subtract 1d6) seems roughly balanced, but it also seems like it would frequently be frustrating. "I rolled a 9 but I needed a 12 and this is an important check so now's my chance to use my cool Lucky power... I roll 1d6 and get... a 2. Crap." That would drive me nuts. I like M&M's system better: you reroll the d20, and if it's less than 10, add 10. (Or, you reroll, but instead of rolling 1d20, you roll 1d10+10.) That may be overpowered for a single feat, but it certainly curbs the "I just used my cool power and got jack for it" that afflicts this feat (and seems pretty pervasive in 4e, actually).

Also, at my table, this feat would be used on a near-missed Daily power, about 99% of the time. That's kind of boring. You may wish to restrict the feat to non-attack rolls (for skill checks and saving throws, it's still really useful).

-- 77IM

 

[King Nate]

Thanks for the response, I tried changing it a bit maybe underpowered now? Anyway, I have been away from the internet for awhile now, but I thought I would give my updated version of the feat (now feats and paragon path) and I tried to make the wording a little easier to understand.

Heroic Feats

Lucky
Benefit: Once per day you may make a Lucky Roll. A Lucky Roll is a 1d4 and you add the result as a luck bonus to any 1d20 roll you make.
Special: If on the Lucky Roll, you rolled a natural 20 you gain another use of this feat for this day.

Remarkable Luck
Prerequisite: Lucky feat
Benefit: Instead of using the Lucky Feat once per day you are able to use the Lucky Feat twice per day. At 11th level you can use it three times per day. At 21st level you can use it four times per day.

Paragon Feat

Uncanny Luck
Prerequisites: Lucky feat
Benefit: When making a Lucky Roll you may use a 1d6 instead of a 1d4.

Paragon Path

Lucky Bastard
How in the devils did you do that?

Prerequisites: Remarkable Luck Feat

You are not sure how you made it this far in your adventuring career, but somehow you have managed. Many people would say that you are a lucky stiff and that Tymora looks highly upon you. You however know that you make your own luck in this world.

Lucky Bastard Path Features
Lucky Action (11th level): When you spend an action point to take an extra action, you can make a Lucky Roll for a single d20 roll you make during that action. This does not count against the number of Lucky Rolls you can make in a single day.
Lucky Charm (11th level): When you make a Lucky Roll, adjacent allies may also make a Lucky Roll (1d4) for one d20 roll until the beginning of your next turn. This doesn’t count against the number of Lucky Rolls they can make in a single day.
Lucky Strike (11th level): If you use the Lucky Roll with an attack power, you score critical hits on a rolls of 18-20.
Fortunate Defense (16th level): Instead of adding your Lucky Roll to a d20 you can add it either an Armor Class, Fortitude, or Reflex defense until the beginning of your next turn.

Bad Luck...............Lucky Bastard Attack 11
You share with your enemies the other side of the luck coin.
Encounter..............Divine
Standard Action......Close burst 2
Target: Each enemy in burst.
Attack: Wisdom vs. Will
Hit: Gains a 1d3 luck penalty on all d20 rolls (save ends).

Lucky Save...............Lucky Bastard Utility 12
You are saved by the skin of your teeth.
Daily......................Divine, Healing
Immediate Reaction......Personal
Trigger: You are dropped to 0 or less hit points
Effect: Use a Lucky Roll and heal that many hit points.
Special: You cannot use this power if you do not have any Lucky Rolls left for the day.

I haven't came up with a level 20 attack power yet...any help?

How does this look? PEACH.

 

[CapnZapp]

This is just my personal thought:

In order for a "lucky" trait (feat/ability/etc) to be worthwhile, it can't just add a point or two to a roll. While balanced, that still means you rely on the player's luck - if you roll a 2 on that critical roll, no (reasonable) bonus can help you.

Instead, I'd work backwards, beginning with making an effect that truly deserves the epithet "lucky", then assigning a cost to that.

First though, an observation: as this is about being lucky and not "god-powerful" I decided the power is about escaping evil fates rather than mundanely assuring you get in your Daily. I guess I think this limitation makes for a more interesting feature, that's all. Besides, evading an enemy's Daily is much less of an obvious power-up than turning your own Daily into a guaranteed hit.

Lucky: Once a day, when you are about to be attacked, when you are about to make a saving throw, when you are about to make a skill check to avoid a disadvantage (plunging to your death when crossing an icy bridge, for example) or simply when the DM is making a (hidden) roll to determine some (semi-)random outcome; you may declare yourself "Lucky", turning that roll into an automatic success or failure (depending on what constitutes "luck" for you, as interpreted by the DM). This power cannot change a die roll already made. This means you can only learn this ability if you get the DM's approval; as it assumes a certain level of understanding that the DM gives fair warning whenever he or she is about to make a critical roll.

Now then, what would be a balanced cost of such a beast...? (I'm not adverse to having a non-standard cost here, btw, such as "two feats and your best Daily" just to make up an example on the spot. This particular example would mean non-humans can't take this until 2nd level)

My main point is: if you make "lucky" balanced with ordinary feats or powers, then you can't assure real luck. Which makes it useless for story purposes, which is the kind of purpose anything like this ought to be good for!