Lucidity (Variant Inspiration)

Variant Rule: Lucidity

The current rules for Inspiration can be underwhelming in a campaign where the focus is put on the player character's personal growth and roleplaying potential, especially since there are many strategies and features that can be used to replicate the exact same effect. As a reward for creative and character appropriate roleplaying, Inspiration can oftentimes not be worth the investment that players put into achieving it or using it. This variant rule replaces the Inspiration rule as a way to encourage players to roleplay and further their character arcs by giving their characters more control over pivotal moments with the addition of a pool of Lucidity Dice.

Note: Using Lucidity

These rules best fit a campaign where player characters are meant to progress in a setting that expects inhuman feats of strength and powerful magic, and where player characters are not expected to permanently die without narrative cause. For games that are grittier, more grounded, and focus more on surviving each individual encounter, play a different system these rules are not recommended. However, for groups that wish to attain godlike powers with the magic of friendship and also several consecutive fireballs, these rules will help players achieve their true potential, and live out their character arcs to the fullest.

Due to the general increase in power that these rules provide players, you should accommodate for this by introducing higher check DCs and increasing the HP of boss monsters, so that your players don't game the system to steamroll everything you can throw at them. The current rules list DC 30 as a "near impossible" DC that will represent the highest of challenges, but with these rules, such a roll might be easily achievable after a few levels. It is recommended to raise DCs to as high as 40 for truly tough rolls. Keep track of how much damage your players can stack with Lucidity Dice and adjust encounter difficulty accordingly.

Lucidity Dice

Lucidity Dice are rewarded for the same reasons as Inspiration in most cases: creative improvisation, character appropriate roleplaying, or just generally impressing the DM. Unlike Inspiration, a character can have multiple Lucidity Dice stockpiled at a time (a number equal to their proficiency bonus). They can then spend these dice to roll them, and add the resulting total to the result of another check, save, attack roll, or even a damage roll. If a character would normally have advantage on a similar roll in this situation, the player can reroll any "1"s rolled by their lucidity dice, and must keep the new rolls. This works even if the character is adding the result to a roll that already had advantage. 

The dice size for a character's Lucidity Dice starts at d6, and may increase at the DM's discretion whenever a character reaches a significant point in their character arc that fundamentally changes them. For example, a character that has long been trying to learn about their past suddenly discovers a latent power that their past bestowed them, or a character struggling with self doubt has a sudden moment of clarity that fills them with newfound resolve. These situations are deserving of an increase in their lucidity dice size, and for the sake of this rule, they are referred to as Ascensions. When a character ascends, their lucidity dice size increases by one increment, up to a maximum of a d12.

Limit Breaks

A character may face a situation that their current abilities will not be able to handle. In this instance, an additional reward can be given to player characters for creative improvisation and character appropriate roleplaying. If a character faces a situation such as this with unwavering resolve, emotional desperation, or steel-clad determination, they may be allowed to use a Limit Break. What this looks like is up to the player (though as a DM, you of course have the final say), but mechanically, it is represented by a temporary increase in lucidity dice size, as well as the ability to use up to their maximum lucidity dice without expending them. This kind of usage of lucidity dice can only be done in combat, adding to the result of damage dice.

A character can only choose to use their limit break before seeing the results of their damage roll. When a character uses their Limit Break, they choose how many increments they want the dice size to increase. They then roll the dice as they would when normally using lucidity dice.  As a consequence for pushing their physical boundaries in this way, they receive two levels of exhaustion for each dice size increment they increase, and may also suffer a number of other consequences depending on the situation, at the DM's discretion. This rule can be used to bring a satisfying conclusion to incredibly difficult encounters, but to avoid players abusing this, it can only be done once per long rest, and the exhaustion cannot be removed by any means other than resting.