One issue I've been trying to find a good way to address, is players having a bad time due to repeated bad luck. Unfortunately my other idea for helping with this seems to be having a mixed response, but I had another idea; and so I present, the Unlucky feat:
Unlucky
You have inexplicable bad luck, yet you can turn failure into success when it matters most. Perhaps your bad luck makes you more determined to succeed, or maybe someone, or something, is looking out for you?
Whenever your final d20 roll for an ability check, attack roll or saving throw is 5 or less, you gain one point of bad luck, up to a maximum number equal to your proficiency bonus. You lose all unused points of bad luck when you finish a long rest.
You can spend one point of bad luck to create an opportunity by taking the Help action as a bonus action on your turn.
If you fail an ability check, attack roll or saving throw, you may spend two points of bad luck to turn the d20 roll into a 10, potentially turning the failure into a success.
In case clarification is required (I've tried to keep the wording compact but clear, but it may not be); the intention is that the 5 or less is as rolled on the d20 (not the result after modifiers etc.) and only on the final d20 used to calculate the result, so if you have advantage you don't get a point of bad luck if only one dice was 5 or lower, but will if both were.
This is kind of like a spiritual alternative to Lucky, except that instead of giving you free re-rolls, Unlucky essentially lets you to "bank" your bad luck, and then spend it for a minimised roll later, hopefully keeping your average up even when you're regularly afflicted by bad luck.
I think this should be reasonably balanced as a selectable feat, since it's only triggered by particularly bad luck, only grants a free 10 for every two points gained, and you can only bank so many points at a time (resetting on a long rest). Since it's triggered by a 5 or less you essentially have a 25% chance on standard rolls of accumulating one point, so with average luck you'll get one point every four rolls, so you need eight on average to get 1 free 10. However, if you're rolling below average, suffering a lot of disadvantage etc. then you may accumulate bad luck points faster. It can either be taken by players who feel they're unlucky or that their character is performing especially poorly, or given to a group so everyone has the same chances.
I initially thought this might encourage over-rolling, but players don't choose when to roll, the DM does, so this shouldn't be exploitable (e.g- if a player asks to Investigate 100 individual stones, the DM can just have them roll once for the area, or skip the check if it's pointless). The other potential issue was a player rolling with disadvantage as much as possible (to increase their chances of rolling a 5 or less), but firing at long range or whatever hurts you in combat so it's not much of an exploit.
Update: I also added a 1 point to Help as a bonus action option, essentially integrating part of my fallback actions idea; this gives you something you can potentially do on the same turn that you gain a point of bad luck, i.e- an immediate response to a failure. I've added this because I like the narrative aspect of using a failure as cover for something a teammate is doing (e.g- distracting with a missed attack so an ally can get a hit instead), plus the Help action just isn't one that's used all that much in my experience, especially in combat.
I love this! Things like this that are luck based are great. (Maybe i'm a gambling man?) Wild magic, random tables etc. I would absolutely add this to my game.
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"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
I really like this. I made my own variant rule for the same purpose, which actually works very similarly to your feat. I think yours seems more streamlines than mine. It's definitely a good idea to make sure people aren't just destroyed by bad luck in sessions, so I like this feat. My one problem is that you have to take a feat to benefit from rolling low, and of course when you're leveling up your character you won;t know if you will have good or bad luck. But overall I really like the idea.
I really like this. I made my own variant rule for the same purpose, which actually works very similarly to your feat. I think yours seems more streamlines than mine. It's definitely a good idea to make sure people aren't just destroyed by bad luck in sessions, so I like this feat. My one problem is that you have to take a feat to benefit from rolling low, and of course when you're leveling up your character you won;t know if you will have good or bad luck. But overall I really like the idea.
This is partly up to your DM, I actually have a couple of other homebrew feats where the idea isn't necessarily to take them as a feat choice, but instead either all players can be given the feat (so everybody gets the same bounce-back potential and it's more just a houserule in that case) or the DM can hand them out to characters that need them, in the same way as a boon, blessing etc.
It should hopefully be balanced as a feat though, so if you do mix it in I think it's reasonably competitive since you've got a pretty good chance of using once or twice in most sessions, and more in ones where your rolling is going very poorly.
I like it. I've been playing around with a similar idea. If you nat 1 attack roll, you still fumble, with consequences, but in a spectacular way. You suddenly recall your mentor instructing you on how to handle this exact situation. Through your skillful footwork you are able to position yourself or the enemy in such a way as to either take a second attack at disadvantage on initiative 0 this round or bestow advantage on the first attack of an ally that is attacking the same creature on the next round.
A simpler way might just be to allow Inspiration for a bad roll.
A somewhat similar rule we use at my table is called a Bollix. Once per session, you can choose to make a failed roll a Bollix. This means the DM assigns some sort of bad circumstance which comes up do to the fail (though the player can make suggestions) and the character gains Inspiration.
One issue I've been trying to find a good way to address, is players having a bad time due to repeated bad luck. Unfortunately my other idea for helping with this seems to be having a mixed response, but I had another idea; and so I present, the Unlucky feat:
In case clarification is required (I've tried to keep the wording compact but clear, but it may not be); the intention is that the 5 or less is as rolled on the d20 (not the result after modifiers etc.) and only on the final d20 used to calculate the result, so if you have advantage you don't get a point of bad luck if only one dice was 5 or lower, but will if both were.
This is kind of like a spiritual alternative to Lucky, except that instead of giving you free re-rolls, Unlucky essentially lets you to "bank" your bad luck, and then spend it for a minimised roll later, hopefully keeping your average up even when you're regularly afflicted by bad luck.
I think this should be reasonably balanced as a selectable feat, since it's only triggered by particularly bad luck, only grants a free 10 for every two points gained, and you can only bank so many points at a time (resetting on a long rest). Since it's triggered by a 5 or less you essentially have a 25% chance on standard rolls of accumulating one point, so with average luck you'll get one point every four rolls, so you need eight on average to get 1 free 10. However, if you're rolling below average, suffering a lot of disadvantage etc. then you may accumulate bad luck points faster. It can either be taken by players who feel they're unlucky or that their character is performing especially poorly, or given to a group so everyone has the same chances.
I initially thought this might encourage over-rolling, but players don't choose when to roll, the DM does, so this shouldn't be exploitable (e.g- if a player asks to Investigate 100 individual stones, the DM can just have them roll once for the area, or skip the check if it's pointless). The other potential issue was a player rolling with disadvantage as much as possible (to increase their chances of rolling a 5 or less), but firing at long range or whatever hurts you in combat so it's not much of an exploit.
Update: I also added a 1 point to Help as a bonus action option, essentially integrating part of my fallback actions idea; this gives you something you can potentially do on the same turn that you gain a point of bad luck, i.e- an immediate response to a failure. I've added this because I like the narrative aspect of using a failure as cover for something a teammate is doing (e.g- distracting with a missed attack so an ally can get a hit instead), plus the Help action just isn't one that's used all that much in my experience, especially in combat.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
I love this! Things like this that are luck based are great. (Maybe i'm a gambling man?) Wild magic, random tables etc. I would absolutely add this to my game.
"Anyone can smith at the cosmic anvil, yet only I can forge a weapon as good as thee."
My Homebrew Please click it, they have my family.
I really like this. I made my own variant rule for the same purpose, which actually works very similarly to your feat. I think yours seems more streamlines than mine. It's definitely a good idea to make sure people aren't just destroyed by bad luck in sessions, so I like this feat. My one problem is that you have to take a feat to benefit from rolling low, and of course when you're leveling up your character you won;t know if you will have good or bad luck. But overall I really like the idea.
Forest of Wonders DMless campaign
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Thanks for the feedback!
This is partly up to your DM, I actually have a couple of other homebrew feats where the idea isn't necessarily to take them as a feat choice, but instead either all players can be given the feat (so everybody gets the same bounce-back potential and it's more just a houserule in that case) or the DM can hand them out to characters that need them, in the same way as a boon, blessing etc.
It should hopefully be balanced as a feat though, so if you do mix it in I think it's reasonably competitive since you've got a pretty good chance of using once or twice in most sessions, and more in ones where your rolling is going very poorly.
Characters: Bullette, Chortle, Dracarys Noir, Edward Merryspell, Habard Ashery, Legion, Peregrine
My Homebrew: Feats | Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Races
Guides: Creating Sub-Races Using Trait Options
WIP (feedback needed): Blood Mage, Chromatic Sorcerers, Summoner, Trickster Domain, Unlucky, Way of the Daoist (Drunken Master), Weapon Smith
Please don't reply to my posts unless you've read what they actually say.
I use DM Scotty's Luck Dice rules at my table for bad rolls.
I like it. I've been playing around with a similar idea. If you nat 1 attack roll, you still fumble, with consequences, but in a spectacular way. You suddenly recall your mentor instructing you on how to handle this exact situation. Through your skillful footwork you are able to position yourself or the enemy in such a way as to either take a second attack at disadvantage on initiative 0 this round or bestow advantage on the first attack of an ally that is attacking the same creature on the next round.
A simpler way might just be to allow Inspiration for a bad roll.
A somewhat similar rule we use at my table is called a Bollix. Once per session, you can choose to make a failed roll a Bollix. This means the DM assigns some sort of bad circumstance which comes up do to the fail (though the player can make suggestions) and the character gains Inspiration.