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.
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)