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Action Points v. Hero Points: Six on one hand….

For our new Pathfinder campaign, I was planning on using Action Points but now I’m considering using the Hero Points mechanic from Monte Cook‘s Arcana Unearthed. Now, we’ve used Action Points before and we really like them, which is why we’re going to use them in Pathfinder even though they’re not officially part of the beta rules. I’m not sure exactly which one I should use, so I’m asking you guys for advice. Have you used them before? If so, which do you prefer?

Here’s a list of what the Points give you

Action Points: Click here

Hero Points:

The key thing to remember about hero points is that awarding them to PCs, or not awarding them, is totally up to the DM.

On his turn, before determining the success or failure of an action, a player can announce that he is using a hero point to help accomplish the action. Normally, the hero point adds a bonus of +20 to the action, if the roll of a d20 dictates its success or failure. However, there are exceptions:

If used with an attack roll, and the attack roll would have succeeded without the hero point, the hero point doubles the damage inflicted by the attack or it allows the PC to make a “called shot,” inflicting a special effect.

If a character uses a hero point to act when it is not his turn, he can take a normal round’s worth of actions out of the regular initiative sequence with no special bonuses. He then returns to his normal initiative count.

If used when a character is being attacked by either a physical attack, a spell, or some other threat, the hero point can be used to add a +1d20 luck bonus to Armor Class or to a saving throw. If used with a saving throw for half damage or a partial effect, if the character would have made the save without the help of the hero point, he takes no damage or ill effect at all.

If used when a die roll determines that the character will die, the character avoids death and instead suffers a great and debilitating injury determined by the DM—the character gains a disfiguring scar, loses a hand, loses an eye, gains a limp, and so on. This is the only case when a hero point can be used after the result of an action is determined.

A character can use a hero point to make something work in a way the rules normally do not allow. This requires careful DM adjudication.

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Posted in: Advice, Other Systems, RPG

One Response to “Action Points v. Hero Points: Six on one hand….”

Tom Cadorette April 13th, 2009 at 9:02 AM

Personally, I like the big sweeping dramatic effect of the hero point as described above — makes the players value them more, and less likely to treat them as a minor, incremental asset (like the action point).

And I’d likely use them as written, because I’m all about giving more narrative control to the players whenever it works — I would, however, require the player to narrate the effect of the hero point, as in “at first, my sword thrust seemed as if it might glance off the bugbear’s hauberk, scoring his arm with only a minor wound … but at the last second, I was able to deftly turn the blade upward into its armpit, dealing him a critical blow!” as opposed to “yeah, I would have hit anyway without the +20, so I do double damage.”