Last-Ditch Attacks
At the Eleventh Hour
A lone warrior clad in full plate stands against a rushing band
of orcs as their allies flee. At peace with their fate, they raise
their shield and charge forward.
On the brink of defeat, an adventuring party can only watch
as the archdemon approaches. Seeing no other options, a
wizard grapples the fiend, and after a flash of light both have
vanished without a trace.
Alone in the throne room, the royal sorcerer waits, listening
to the havoc in the town below. As the army breaches the
castle, they gather all their remaining power, unleashing it in
an immense blast, leaving only a crater where the castle once
stood.
Occasionally, the protagonists of your story will find
themselves in dire straits. At such a time, some characters
may take it upon themselves to sacrifice themselves for the
greater good of the party. The following are some expanded
action options that allow characters to do so.
Generally, there should be some restrictions on when these
actions can be taken, but there are no hard and fast rules. The
following are some guidelines for when using one of these
actions is appropriate:
The character is below half health.
More than one party member is unconscious.
A party member has died.
It may also be prudent not to allow lower-level characters to
perform these actions, as they represent immense feats of
power and will, but this is left to the discretion of the DM.
A range of options are presented, though not should be
available to all characters. For example, Final Explosion is
only appropriate if the character has some magical or spiritual
power, whereas Soldier's Surge is more appropriate for
physical combat-focused characters.
Final Explosion
You unleash all of the magical or spiritual energy within
yourself as a great blast outward. All creatures in a 100-foot
radius centered on your location must make a Dexterity
saving throw against a DC equal to 8 + your Intelligence,
Wisdom or Charisma modifier (your choice) + your
proficiency bonus. A creature takes 20d12 radiant, necrotic,
or force damage (your choice) on a failed save, or half as much
damage on a successful one. Performing this attack
obliterates your body, killing you instantly.
Soldier's Surge
After your current turn, you immediately take three turns in a
row, during which you can use actions and move as normal. At
the end of each of these turns, any single hostile creature can
use their reaction to make a single attack against you, and any
of your allies may use their reaction to move up to their speed.
At the end of these three turns, you immediately drop to 0 hit
points and fail two death saving throws.
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Great Seal
You choose one hostile creature within 30 feet of you, and cast
imprisonment on that creature without expending a spell slot
or spell components. The spell save DC of this spell is equal to
8 + your Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma modifier (your
choice) + your proficiency bonus. When you cast
imprisonment in this way, you are also imprisoned in the
same manner you choose for your target, regardless of
whether they succeed or fail on their saving throw against the
spell.
Life Link
You trade your own life force for that of your allies. You
restore up to 500 hit points, divided as you choose among any
number of creatures that you can see within 100 feet of you.
Creatures healed by this spell are also cured of all diseases
and any effect making them blinded or deafened. As you
perform this action, your body crumbles into ash, killing you
instantly.
Unleashed Avatar
You cast true polymorph on yourself without expending a spell
slot or spell components. You may only change yourself into
another creature, and the spell doesn't require concentration
to maintain. After 1 minute, the transformation ends,
reverting you back to your normal form, and you immediately
drop to 0 hit points and fail two death saving throws.
Surviving a Last Stand
A couple of the options presented here, such as
Unleashed Avatar, leave a very slim chance for a
character to survive their great exertion. However,
in such a case the character will have been severely
damaged by the ordeal, and may have to spend
months to recover. They will more than likely have
to retire from adventuring, at least temporarily, and
if they ever do return to the adventuring scene their
skills will have been somewhat damaged.
If such an event occurs at your table, discuss with
your player how the event affected their character
in the long term, and if they ever return to
adventuring they should do so at a lower level than
when the event occured.
Written for D&D 5th Edition by Dylan Richards
(Reddit: u/Altavus , Tumblr: decision-paralysis, Blogger:
Decision Paralysis)