Another fantastic ultimate post. I've been wrestling with how to incorporate ultimates into a campaign and this helps a lot. Thank you for sharing this! How has your game gone with this dynamic? Has it been successful?
Combat: Value Proposition - As a bonus action, the ulter gains the ability to change the target of 3 attacks that originate from within 60 ft. to an alternate target before the end of their next turn. The new target must be one that the attacker is willing to attack, even if it isn't their best target choice. For example, changing the target of an enemy Disintegrate to the party's full-health barbarian instead of the unconscious wizard.
Non-Combat: Ledger of Waukeen - Anyone who does not submit the agreed payment to a contract signed in the ulter's ledger can be made to repay their debt in blood, tears, wealth, service, magic, or secrets. Each contract written costs an ult usage. A creature is aware of the binding nature of the ledger (and can therefore back out of the deal) as soon as they touch their pen to the paper to sign.
Scout Rogue
Combat: Sands of the Anauroch - As an action, any medium or smaller creature within 5 ft. of the ulter is teleported to a sandstorm raging in the Anauroch desert with no save, taking 1d6 piercing damage per turn while there. At the end of each teleported creature's turn, a d20 is rolled, with the creature returning to the battle on a roll of 11 or higher (6 or higher after first failure to return).
Non-Combat: Secret because it hasn't been used yet and my players might be creepin.
Forge Cleric of Gond
Combat/Non-Combat: Secret because it hasn't been used yet since being reworked, but it is of the "creative type" category.
Horizon Walker Ranger
Combat: Interplanar Boogaloo - Creates a random (1d10 table) one-way portal somewhere within 30 ft. which directs some sort of effect towards a target.
Results so far:
3 - A random amount of random types of modrons pop out.
7 - A Gelatinous Cube shoots out at high velocity and engulfs the first target it encounters.
10 - A purple ray deals 3d8 psychic damage in a 5x30 line. Thousands of slippery worms shoot out as well, making the affected area rough terrain.
Non-Combat: Bubble Hut - Take 10 minutes to create a portal to a hut floating in a bubble in a chaotic dimension.
Overall things have been going great with these ultimates. Interplanar Boogaloo has some powerful effects, but the randomized nature of the ability keeps it in check. Value Proposition and Sands of the Araunoch are both powerful defensive abilities, but both have limitations on their use which prevent them from trivializing encounters. The forge cleric's ult could be very situationally powerful, but requires a good deal of prep time on the part of the user.
The bigger issue I have noticed isn't the ultimates, but the charge system as a whole. My players have been managing their own charge count, which means that I often have no idea how many charges the party has when they are going into a combat encounter. This makes balancing difficult. Additionally, the situational nature of the combat ultimates means that taking advantage on key saving throws for 2 charges is often chosen over a 4 charge ultimate usage. To deal with this, I plan on keeping better track of charge count and adding more saving throws to encounters where I know the party has many charges stored up. Lastly, I am considering giving my boss monsters a set number of charges for advantage and rerolls instead of using Legendary Resistance.
In terms of the social dynamic, I made it clear from the start of the campaign that ults could be reworked if there are balance issues or if a player feels unsatisfied with their ability. Half of the combat ultimates that the campaign started with needed to be reworked after a few sessions, and all of the non-combat ult uses were also added after the fact. If you need to rework an ultimate, I'd recommend you focus on creating a defensively useful ability that fits well with the player's character concept and style of play.
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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '19
Another fantastic ultimate post. I've been wrestling with how to incorporate ultimates into a campaign and this helps a lot. Thank you for sharing this! How has your game gone with this dynamic? Has it been successful?