New House Rule: Heroic Luck (effective immediately)

Below is the new house rule, Heroic Luck. You may choose to partake of this rule for your character, or you can simply ignore it entirely. That's up to each player to decide for their own character.

Also as a one time bonus, those choosing to partake can begin the next session of the game with 1 point in their action pool.

Heroic Luck

Characters gain a pool of action points that begins at 0. Every time a character rolls a natural 20 on any attack roll or saving throw, his pool of action points increases by 1. Conversely, any time a character rolls a natural 1 on any attack roll or saving throw, his pool of action points decreases by 1.

It is possible to have a negative amount in your pool. When you do have less than 0 action points in your pool, you take a -1 penalty on attack rolls and saving throws for every 5 points below 0 in your action pool. For example, a character with -11 action points would have a -2 penalty on attacks and saves. A remove curse spell can remove 1d4 negative action points per casting of the spell.

The most action points you can have in your pool are equal to 5 + ½ your character level. The least amount of action points you can have in your pool is equal to 0 minus (5 + ½ your character level). Any positive or negative action points gained beyond the maximum or minimum are simply lost. A quick reference chart is provided below.

ECL	Max Action Pool	Min Action Pool
1	5	-5
2, 3	6	-6
4, 5	7	-7
6, 7	8	-8
8, 9	9	-9
10, 11	10	-10
12, 13	11	-11
14, 15	12	-12
16, 17	13	-13
18, 19	14	-14
20	15	-15

These action points behave the same as normal action points, as described in Unearthed Arcana beginning on page 122 (and here), except that you do not automatically gain action points when you gain a character level.

Additionally, for every 5 points in your action pool, you gain a temporary +1 level to any single class ability your character has. This only applies to class abilities that specifically mention they increase by class levels. These bonus levels are lost as soon as your action pool drops below the required amount.

Action Pool	Benefit or Penalty
-15	-3 penalty on attacks and saves
-14 to -10	-2 penalty on attacks and saves
-9 to -5	-1 penalty on attacks and saves
-4 to 0	No penalty or benefit
1 to 4	Action points
5 to 9	Action points, +1 ability level
10 to 14	Action points, +2 ability levels
15	Action points, +3 ability levels

As an example of one class, the abilities for the barbarian have been detailed below, showing which are eligible and which are ineligible.

Eligible	Ineligible
Rage (uses/day and when it improves to greater rage, tireless rage, and mighty rage)	Fast Movement
Uncanny Dodge (when it improves to Improved Uncanny Dodge)	Illiteracy
Trap Sense	Indomitable Will
Damage Reduction

Using these levels to increase your spellcasting does not grant you knowledge of new spells, even if those are normally automatically gained by increasing character level, as with the warmage. But they do increase your spells per day, caster level, and spell penetration.

You may assign your bonus levels as soon as you gain them, and you may only reassign the bonus levels each day at dawn (if you still have them).

Any feats that deal with action points also function normally with the Heroic Luck rules. A small example of feats that utilize action points are listed below.

Feat Name	Summary
Action Surge	By spending 2 action points, you can perform an additional action in a round.
Ancestral Guidance	Reroll action point die that modifies a d20 roll.
Heroic Channeling	Spend action point to turn undead.
Heroic Companion	Your animal companion, familiar, or special mount can use your pool of action points.