Recently I’ve been thinking back to how Wizards of the Coast described the original action point mechanic. One of the reasons it was introduced was to add an extra level of excitement to encounters. This was your chance to have your character do something truly remarkable. You suddenly gave greater consideration to trying new things that were over the top and spectacular.
Knowing you had an action point in your back pocket, you weren’t just swinging from the rope (which you knew you could do easily enough with a very attainable skill check), you were willing to try it one-handed while you fired a crossbow. Sure it was going to need an exceptional roll to work like you imagined it, but with the action point there to give your roll a bump you were willing to give it a try. It may not have worked every time, but I saw a lot of players try a lot of heroic (crazy) things when we were still using 3e action points.
Then we moved to 4e D&D and the action point gave you another action. Don’t get me wrong, I like it. I like it a lot. In a game where everyone gets one attack action on their turn, making two attacks can be a truly decisive moment during combat. What I’ve come to realize is that the all of those really off the wall ideas that made 3e D&D adventures so awesome (because of the way action points used to work) have all but disappeared in 4e. Or at least that’s been my experience.
Players know how the mechanics of 4e D&D work and they rarely stray outside of their comfort zone. During games I’ve been part of, players seem a lot more reluctant to perform those heroic action they’re imagining when they know that they need a 19 or 20 to do so successfully. If only they had the reassurance that the old action points provided. And herein lays my disappointment with the way action points work now.
The very name action point sound exciting. When your character chooses to use his action point it should be a big deal. Something cool should happen. More importantly the players should have a lot of flexibility when they choose to use an action point. This is one of those instances where the rules as written should be more of a guideline than an absolute. If a player imagines a truly heroic scenario that is, perhaps, beyond their traditional abilities, the DM should be open to allowing it.
In my experience, I’ve learned that some of the most heroic behaviour doesn’t happen on your turn, but on someone else’s. With this in mind there are two immediate actions I allow players to undertake if they choose to use their action point: Take a Bullet and Last Second Grab.
- Take a Bullet is when one PC is targeted with an attack and an adjacent PC chooses to take the hit for them. It’s usually played out in slow motion as the second PC screams “Nooooooo” and physically moves in front of the attack targeting the first PC. Mechanically it’s the same as the Paladin level 2 utility power, Martyrs Blessing.
- Last Second Grab is when one PC is knocked off of a ledge and fails the save to catch the ledge, but before they fall and take an obscene amount of damage a second PC grabs them at the last possible second.
In both of these examples a player consciously decides to take action to save the life of a comrade. In my mind this is one of the most heroic actions any PCs can take. That’s why I allow any player to use an action point and take these actions. These actions aren’t technically allowed but as I said above when it comes to using action points I like to use a broad and generous interpretation of what can and cannot be done.
These are certainly not the only actions that I’ve allowed at my table when a PC uses an action point, but they are the ones that are used most often and with the greatest heroic effect. I like to let the rule of cool and, of course, the role-playing guide my hand when making a ruling on non-traditional uses of action points. When the players know that I’ll give them greater flexibility to try those truly heroic actions I mentioned at the beginning of this article, they’ll be a lot more likely to think imaginatively and try things outside of their comfort zone again.
What are you thoughts on action points? Do you think action points are fine as they are or do you allow for more liberal actions when players use them in combat? Am I being too liberal by allowing players to take immediate actions and expending an action point in the process? Do you think the 3e action point mechanic where players added to their d20 roll was better than the current 4e mechanic? Or do you think actions points in general are too powerful and should perhaps be curbed back?
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1 2 3 Next »I wholeheartedly agree. Action points are great, but they could be greater. Personally, I'd like to see action points come into play more often, as opposed to other mechanics. The options are limitless. I think a +5 bonus to a physical action would be a great way to use it.
Now, normally I don't advocate the use of house-rules (that has gone wrong way too often in our games), but I would definitely increase the number of ways an action point may be used the next time I run 4E.
An interesting read! I have to say I like this idea. It's certainly not something I see everyone adopting but in a relaxed group it gives the chance for exciting intercessions that are too wasteful (action-wise) to set up by application of the standard rules. (I guess to do this normally you'd need to ready an action with a fairly specific trigger and even then i'm not convinced the timing works out).
Tactically (and unless your action point does unusual things from PP features etc) if you plan to use an action point, its best to use it early and take out a monster completely. These options provide an incentive to hold onto it and not to merely spam attacks round 1 (this in a good thing).
I'm all for trying to open up game resource options. Allowing the action point to do other things feels similar to something I got my group trying with healing surges; expending them as level-scaling gold contributions towards some ritual categories or to slightly bump dice rolls.
I'll certainly pitch this to my players and adopt it if there's no objections.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers
Blinkey ;)
I think it is a superb article. When playing v3.5, we dabbled a little into the action point, but never used it long enough to really get familiar with it. This article put it into perspective.
I think using the action point as an immediate interrupt is a great idea. I would even go far enough to allow a character to bull rush the attacker, providing a -5 to the attack against your teammate and giving the attacker +2 to hit you. If successful in the bull rush attack, both you and the attacker are knocked prone. That would be cool.
I will be bringing this question of Action Point use up at our next session. Thanks for the information.
Great article! Action points at my table are typically relegated to do-over status when somebody misses an attack. Boring! I'm thinking of making some powers that get bonuses to hit and damage when you expend an action point with them.
I already allow players to spend action points to take an action as if they had readied it, without having to had spent the standard action to ready it. It balances, since you could have used the action point to ready the action, and it lets you be a little more flexible when circumstances are dire. Of course, you have to move your initiative position to right before the triggering creature.
I'd also say that allowing an action point to grant a +5 bonus to any already rolled d20 roll is fair, especially when a player uses their daily as a last resort and misses, meaning they're going to be killed next turn. It's exciting and not gamebreaking, so it should be in the game!
Of course, you also have to remember that you can only spend one action point, for any reason, in a single encounter.
This is something I already make practice of to an extent and I think it works great.
With my group, the players have a strong sense that an action point is really for that extra attack against that powerful enemy. They tend not to use it to be 'spectacularly heroic' because its a resource they might need.
However, in situations that need a bit of oompf, in that moment of 'this could be really awesome if there were rules for it' its almost always my answer.
Example: a character gets pushed off a ledge. I generally would give a difficult athletics roll to grab on instead of falling. The character fails and falls and wants to know if there are any smaller ledges or branches to try to grab on the way down. My answer: Do you have an action point?
In my game we utilize FYGMIA points.
That stands for "F" You Game Master I'm Awesome.
We are rewarded these when we really roleplay.
We then get to use them in a variety of ways that we have established for our game. The majority of the time we use them 3E style. add a 1d4 to our d20 roll.
I've made some changes to how action points work in my 4e game. I wanted to encourage more cinematic and heroic actions. I come up with a list of things that the players can spend action points for, as well as made in clear that they are more than welcome to come up with others as well.
I played in the 3e Eberron setting with action points and love them, but didn't love spending one and then rolling so low that the action point didn't matter. Instead I'm allowing the players to spend it after the roll, so that they know they are using it to the best situation, rather than wasting it.
If they save up multiples, I let them regain the use of an encounter or daily power as well, which has worked out nicely since some of them are just expended if you miss.
Lastly, I pulled a page from White Wolf's Exalted and implemented their stunt system. This has done wonders to encourage players towards more cinematic effects as being rewarded with a stunt gives them a bonus to the rolls necessary for it, as well as potentially regaining an action point. Between stunts and action point, we've had a very action packed game so far.
I've started allowing, encouraging, and suggesting action points for various off-the-wall behaviors like taking an action out of turn or the like.
But I do agree, I miss the 3.5 Eberronian Action Point. Every single encounter or roleplaying scenario, I would hear players gleefully spitting out "I use an action point!" to do some pretty ridiculous stuff. Likewise, if my players did something crazy-awesome, but they failed my DC, I would be able to lightly suggest "So.... gonna action point that?" and it was good times all around.
I don't want to change the action point mechanic because, like you, I really like it where it is. What I've decided to do instead is a really simple house rule, it really gets the job done:
You can use healing surges after your d20 roll, but before I declare the result of the roll, to add 1d6 to your d20 result. You can only do this once per round. At level 11 you can roll 2d6 and drop the lower result; at level 21 you can roll 3d6 and drop the lowest two results.
Combined with some other house rules, including 'dailies and healing surges are once per adventure, not once per day', it can lead to some decent logistics of how many healing surges to use for healing and how many to save for dice bonuses... and I'm a fan of long-term logistics like that. But more importantly, it makes it so players have that option! Bringing back fond memories of rolling 1d6 to bring your roll just over the edge of the DC... or turning a natural 5 on an attack roll into a natural 6-11, maybe turning a miss to a hit...
Side benefit, roleplaying encounters now can use up healing surges, so DMs don't feel like they're being too easy going if they have a roleplaying-centric adventure.
I've played different games with different systems for this. They've been called Karma, Bennies, and recently, Action points. It can be difficult to find the right balance of options for a game. Most games allow these to be spent on a reroll, but D&D 4e already has those options built into the class structure, so I wouldn't go there. But, the idea of a whole extra action, as introduced, was unique and very cool.
I suggest the following uses for action points:
*Extra action as if the action were readied.
*+5 to any non-damage roll, added after the fact.
*Use your Second Wind ability. I would take away the ability to use it without an action point.
Then, I would award more action points. I'd give out three to each player at the beginning of each session, and award additional for good roleplaying and other things that impress me. I would stop giving them out after every other adventure, and I would remove the limitation on how many you can use per encounter.