So I have someone in my group that as general rule always roles bad. In the last two sessions, the party had to fight a pack of Gnolls, and as per usual this person was not hitting anything because of their notorious bad roles. In the final round, they even dropped their sword, so they decided to punch the Gnoll. Surprisingly, they actually killed it with that. In character they then decided to take the Gnoll, grill it and eat it. I did not prevent them from doing it because I thought it might become an interesting story point. But let the other characters tell them that this might not be the best. So during the night, they were having nightmares of extreme violence as the evil essence of the Gnoll was taking root inside then.
This gave me an idea for an ability for them. I want them to be able to use the rage ability, however, I want them to have some kind of consequence for using it. I was thinking of letting them use it once per long rest. But I can’t think of a good mechanic or bad consequence.
Rage is a really, really good ability, even if once per day--not only does it provide additional damage, that resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage really increases a player's hardiness. You might be better off giving a slightly worse ability, such as the Rampage ability from the Gnoll stat block.
Still, let's say you do want to give rage, Exhaustion is usually a good penalty to add. Disadvantage on skill checks until you finish a long rest can be pretty damaging, particularly if you, as a DM, like to call for skill checks.
Also, two other thoughts:
1. You should always be careful giving one player an ability beyond just their class if you are not giving (or planning to give) others special abilities. Some groups and players are cool with this--but there are a lot of players out there who get jealous when someone else gets a boon they did not, and that can cause party drama.
2. This course of action could very, very easily result in your party deciding "oh, let's just eat everything and see what kinds of perks we get"--I know I have DMed for folks where that would be their conclusion from this kind of situation. You might want to be careful of that.
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So I have someone in my group that as general rule always roles bad. In the last two sessions, the party had to fight a pack of Gnolls, and as per usual this person was not hitting anything because of their notorious bad roles. In the final round, they even dropped their sword, so they decided to punch the Gnoll. Surprisingly, they actually killed it with that.
In character they then decided to take the Gnoll, grill it and eat it. I did not prevent them from doing it because I thought it might become an interesting story point. But let the other characters tell them that this might not be the best.
So during the night, they were having nightmares of extreme violence as the evil essence of the Gnoll was taking root inside then.
This gave me an idea for an ability for them.
I want them to be able to use the rage ability, however, I want them to have some kind of consequence for using it. I was thinking of letting them use it once per long rest. But I can’t think of a good mechanic or bad consequence.
So I ask you, fellow DMs, do you have any ideas?
Rage is a really, really good ability, even if once per day--not only does it provide additional damage, that resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage really increases a player's hardiness. You might be better off giving a slightly worse ability, such as the Rampage ability from the Gnoll stat block.
Still, let's say you do want to give rage, Exhaustion is usually a good penalty to add. Disadvantage on skill checks until you finish a long rest can be pretty damaging, particularly if you, as a DM, like to call for skill checks.
Also, two other thoughts:
1. You should always be careful giving one player an ability beyond just their class if you are not giving (or planning to give) others special abilities. Some groups and players are cool with this--but there are a lot of players out there who get jealous when someone else gets a boon they did not, and that can cause party drama.
2. This course of action could very, very easily result in your party deciding "oh, let's just eat everything and see what kinds of perks we get"--I know I have DMed for folks where that would be their conclusion from this kind of situation. You might want to be careful of that.