Dungeons & Dragons Supplement Brings Back Action Points as Solution for Over-Resting Players

A new Dungeons & Dragons supplement provides a foundation to bring Action Points into Fifth Edition games. When the Eberron campaign setting was first released back in 2003, Dungeons & Dragons also released a new “Action Points” rule system. Action Points provided players with a way to mitigate bad rolls during critical moments of their campaigns, giving their rolls boosts to ensure an action was successful. Dungeons & Dragons later incorporated action points into the core 4th Edition ruleset, giving each player one action point per day to spend to take certain actions in addition to actions usually afforded to their character.

Dungeons & Dragons’ Fifth Edition rules only provides players with an optional Hero Point system, which allows them to add a D6 to any D20 roll. Now, Benjamin Eastman and Matt Dunn have added a new variant Action Point system, which is described in their A Call to Action supplement, which is available now on the DMs Guild. A Call to Action is meant to reward players for pushing forward in their adventure instead of being cautious and resting after every encounter. Players earn an Action Point for every two encounters a player faces, and they can’t have more than one Action Point at a time. Players also lose their Action Points after a long rest.

So – what do these new versions of Action Points do? Well, they offer players a lot of options, ranging from temporary increases in AC to cheating death by automatically stabilizing when a player hits 0 HP. A Call to Action also provides some class-specific and subclass-specific options, such as extra Action Surges for Fighters or replenishing spell slots for certain spellcasters. Mostly, the Action Points seem to help players restock some of their abilities that replenish on a Short Rest, thus giving players an excuse to keep moving instead of stopping after each encounter.

A Call to Action provides an interesting solution for a common problem in many D&D games. While Fifth Edition monsters are mostly built around the idea of parties facing so many encounters per day, players often drag this down with short and long rests in order to quickly replenish their resources. A Call to Action rewards players for not resting and instead offers them an alternative to keep pressing forward. If incorporated early into a campaign, players might find the Action Point system rewarding enough to throw caution to the wind and act as brave adventurers instead of cautious D&D players.

A Call to Action is available now on the DMs Guild for $1.49.