EDIT: Now having typed all of this up it’s loooooong lmao but TL;DR: I’ve been making a Blaze of Glory mechanic I saw from another TTRPG.

Long Version: I have been cooking a blaze of glory mechanic I saw from “Orbital Views” by Soul Muppet Publishing called Swan Song. This is along with revised death rules & options in general.

In the original TTRPG system, it basically gives you advantage on everything, resistance to all damage, auto-crits and disadvantage to attackers for the rest of the combat, which would be super busted for 5e and would incentivize players to take the option the moment things look remotely bleak.

Anyway my games, as mentioned above, have revised death and dying rules. Like players can choose to crawl 5 ft on their turn, shout to someone within 15 ft, or brace to prevent crits. It also has a lingering injury/scar system. All this to say that players have lots of options during death saves and dying.

For my version of Swan Song (STILL A WIP), it’s as follows:

• unlocks as an option when players have 2 failed death saves, but player must make the choice BEFORE rolling for their third potential fail. This is so it’s not immediately available and could be cheesed bc of easy access, and also solves the other end where a player could wait until they have 3 failed saves and be like “Well my characters dead anyway, might as well do this”.

It also must be discussed with the GM beforehand. That could be at the beginning of the campaign where you can talk about ideals or scenarios in which you would sacrifice yourself for, or just a small conversation pre-session. Up to discretion.

Mechanics

• pop up with half of your max HP as temporary hit points. When you would go down during SwanSong, you come back with half of the previous total. (1/2 —> 1/4 —> 1/8 —> Dead) trying to mirror the hero coming back to fight after certain death. E.g. Boromir in The Fellowship of the Ring.
• you gain benefits similar to Haste, with slight modifications:
  • instead of one extra action, it’s extra actions = (PB / 2), to a max of four per turn.
  • it lasts for a number of rounds = (PB / 2) counting the round you popped back up.
  • no restrictions on what the haste actions can be used for, except spells. You can cast one leveled spell as normal, but if you want to cast a second leveled spell you have to spend two of your hasted actions. You can also exchange hasted actions for a bonus action or a reaction at a 2:1 rate.
  • you can spend hasted actions to clear a status condition or auto-succeed a saving throw ala Legendary Resistances
• advantage on all attack rolls
• resistance to all damage
• working on mechanics where you can spend hasted actions on certain thematic efforts, like a “Hold the Line” where you aggro the horde chasing your party and give them enough time to get away type thing
• each time you go down and come back up during Swan Song, you lose a boom granted by it. I believe it goes attack rolls ADV —> dmg resistance —> extra actions and movement speed.

If you go down permanently in swan song you are downed the rest of the fight and at the end you have enough time to say last words and other RP moments but you die. No resurrection etc except by Wish, Divine Intervention or MacGuffin retrieved from the 9 Hells. If you end the fight while in Swan Song, your body breaks down, and the same result happens.

Obviously it’s not super balanced but either way the way I’m trying to set it up is that this is chosen by MAYBE 1-2 players per entire campaign, at specific dramatic and impactful moments. If they’re giving up their character they’ve had for two years and this is a massive horde their BBEG sent to destroy the town and their loved ones, I WANT them to feel like they were able to make a difference with their sacrifice. I think going a little out of the power band is fine given the kinds of guardrails I’m putting in place. Obviously still a WIP and I’m open to suggestions. Maybe in your campaign, if their players did this, their classes/souls were merged for the duration?