I Might Have Fixed Our Action Point Mechanic...

…but I still probably won’t use it, because it was something I’d initially considered for Cowboys & Cthulhu, which is being designed from the ground up. The 2nd Edition of Dungeons & Delvers is basically down to doing/redoing art and layout since a lot of stuff has been added/changed/removed, and I don’t want to delay things even more by assigning AP costs to everything just to see if/how it works.

But maybe we’ll still use this at some point or this could be a useful starting point for someone else.

The idea was that each character has 6 Action Points, unaffected by stats because we didn’t want to make Dexterity even more useful than it already is—at least in 1E, in 2E we split it into two stats, along with Wisdom, to make it slightly less powerful—though now thinking on it I suppose you could force a Dex check each turn, with success adding more AP and failure reducing it for a turn.

Makes things unpredictable but also adds more complexity—especially for a GM running a half-dozen or so monsters—and depending on AP gains/losses it might not even be worth the trouble. Unless, I suppose, you also just let characters/monsters “take 10” to speed things up and avoid bookkeeping.

Huh, you know…that actually might…no, damnit, need to stay on track.

Okay so, 6 Action Points. We started with this number because you can spend a point to move 5 feet, for a total distance of 30 feet each round (I’ll get to races/creature with higher/lower Speeds near the end). Most weapon attacks cost 4 points, though we kicked around some weapons only needing 3, others 5. Here, spells would have a variable cost, with some well exceeding 6: in these instances the spell is cast once the requisite number of points have been spent.

We like the idea of fighters getting multiple attacks in a given round, as well as wizards being able to cast spells faster, so initially had an idea where, say, at 5th-level a fighter gets a class feature where the AP cost of a weapon attack is reduced by 1. So at 5th-level, a 4 point attack goes down to 3, meaning that you can stand still and make two attacks. At 10th-level it could go down by another point, so if you don’t move you can make three attacks per round, or move a bit and make two (or quite a bit and still make one).

The downside is that it’s strictly less “powerful” than how it works in Dungeons & Delvers, where you could move and make 2 attacks (though in 2nd Edition you can now only move half Speed and attack, unless you’re Charging but there’s a penalty for that). Plus there are also Reactions to consider: it would be odd to have them cost nothing, but then, what, do we give you something like 10 AP per round and force you to save them?

Actually…that could play into another idea I had, where everyone’s Attack Bonus and Defense are lower all around, and you get a handful of floating points to spend on a round-by-round basis aaand I’m getting off topic, again.

Aaanyway, I like the idea of Action Points, for the most part, because it resolves the issue of being able to move 30 feet and make an attack, move 60 feet and do nothing, or stand still and…still make just a single attack.

It would also open up the door for attacks/actions with different AP costs. For example, a slash with an arming sword might cost 4 AP: you make a normal attack and deal normal damage. However, you could make a sort of quick thrust attack, which might only cost 3 or 2 AP, but the damage is reduced from 1d8 to 1d6, or even 1d4.

(This I think would be more elegant than the Incremental Initiative mechanic I also came up with awhile back.)

Similarly, monster attacks and abilities would have different costs, instead of trying to “balance” everything around a single Action usage. For example, instead of giving a dragon a bite and claw attack and trying to make them more or less equal in power—or just the same with a different description—a bite might have a higher cost and inflict more damage, while a tail sweep might have the highest cost but affect an entire area.

But today I had an idea that would work even better, I think: instead of reducing AP costs for actions at set levels, you instead gain Action Points that can only be used on specific sorts of actions. So, at 5th-level a fighter would have, say, 6 general use Action Points, and then have 2 on the side that can only be used to pay for weapon attacks (and, something else I just considered, AP costs for triggering Exploits).

Wizards could also get +2, but these could only be used for spells (though upping Drain costs could have an AP reduction as well, or each Enhancement ups the AP cost). Rogues I think would be the odd class out, getting +1, which can be used for anything. I’d considered bonus AP for skill usage, but I can’t think of many skills you’d want to use in combat, especially by itself (we have some special attacks that have you make skill checks, such as Stab & Grab, but these are folded in with the attack).

So here, a 5th-level fighter could use his entire turn making two weapon attacks, but could also move 20 feet, which costs 4 AP, and then make a single attack. If attacks have varying AP costs, a quick dagger swipe might only cost 2, so he could then move up to 30 feet and do that (not sure how this would interact with Charge).

I should note that when I started going this route, I actually set it up so that races with low Speeds had to spend additional AP in order to move at all. So, a dwarf with a Speed of 20 feet had to spend 2 AP just to begin moving at all. Faster races, on the other hand, got bonus AP that could only be spent on moving, and I’m not sure what took me this long to get around to applying extra AP to other actions.

Now, other options for AP usage could be to boost an attack roll and Defense (wizard AP could boost save DCs). I could also see using it to boost saves, so there’s an incentive to keep some points around. Some abilities that are Reactions could also have an AP cost—hell, Strength and Dexterity saves could require AP to use in general—meaning if you burn through them during your turn you might find yourself open to attacks.

However, this I think would require the base amount of AP to be adjusted. Or, for classes to start with action-specific AP right out of the gate (ie, fighters get 6, +2 for attacks, and this increases by, say, +2 every 5 levels or something like that). This would also require figuring out how much AP a given action/reaction/ability is worth. For example, if moving 5 feet is 1 point, then a Dex save is probably 2 at the least.

Again, I think it’s an interesting idea but, as with so many interesting ideas, might not be worth the trouble figuring out, or the time it takes to resolve it all during actual play.

Maybe when we get back to designing and playtesting Cowboys & Cthulhu. Or if I think about it some more and get really excited about it.