D&D 5E Player fudging: Destiny Points

[Li Shenron]

Thoughts? Should I limit the destiny points to save the PC from death? 3 destiny points per level: does that seem like an interesting resource, and is it in good number? Would this imbalance the game in a way I do not foresee?

Personally I just never liked them.

A lot of players (me included) would have a tendency towards hoarding hero points, either saving them up to use only to prevent your own death, or to unleash them all at once in a BBEG fight.

I am ok with an occasional PC having some sort of "luck" ability, but I don't like a game where they are the norm. It makes it sound like you could more easily just say "let's use the dice only when it doesn't really matter much".

 

[Skyscraper]

Good feedback all around!

From what I'm reading, I'm tempted to:

- limit use of destiny points to one per session per player/PC (to avoid Li Shenron's stated problem of unleashing hoarded destiny points in a single situation); and a total of 3 per level appears to limit the overall usage
- limit use of destinay points to RP mostly; consequently remove attack or defense combat related uses of destiny points
- however use of destiny points is possible to avoid death. I like the idea of the safety net.

Any further thoughts are welcome!

 

[Libramarian]

It's a good idea to give the players a resource they can use to bend the game away from disaster. This is much preferable to DM fudging as a means of doing this. You don't need a metagame resource for this though--this is what limited-use magic items are for! E.g. potions of flying/gaseous form/invisibility/invulnerability can be used to get out of a bad encounter.

If you really want the PCs to make it to where they're going, you could give them something like...a small phial containing the light of the Sun and the Moon, which if wielded by a PC with Inspiration forces the monsters to make an immediate morale check with disadvantage.

edit:
To improve an NPC's attitude, the PCs can bribe them with gold.