Inspiration in Ravenloft 5e / D&D next in general

[alhoon]

There was somewhere an article about alternative uses in inspiration. I would be interested to get a link to it but I didn't make an entire thread to ask about it. I would like thoughts on the following idea.

For high level characters (and high danger threats) I was thinking to up the deadliness without returning to the "Save or die" era.

Thus, I was considering giving the following trait(s) for characters of 11th level and up (paragon) to use inspiration in combat, with the caveat being they can use it only on dramatic moments, not to boost the disintegrate to wipe out someone from ambush. Like "Power of Friendship" tropes or "Back on the wall" stuff (for PCs).
- Use inspiration before making a weapon attack ~> triple the weapon damage and martial dice damage (if hit), do normal damage if miss.
- Use inspiration after casting a damage spell ~> maximum damage if single target spell (including magic missile if they all target the same target) or +1 damage / dice for area damage.
- Use inspiration with sneak attack OR poison (I keep giving poison to thieves, despite many refusing to use it) ~> maximum damage if hit.

For baddies, I have similar traits "built in" like "spend 3 sorcery points to do maximum damage" or "once per day, melee attacks do x3 damage" etc.

[Pizza]

One of the few things I liked about Eberron was the points a PC had which could be spent to make whatever they wanted to do happen. The idea was if they’re the heroes of the story occasionally they should just guaranteed be able to do something really impressive. If you give major (does he have a backstory or at least a name?) the a weaker or the same ability that could be interesting. Now most players aren’t going to enjoy a game where the DM just declares they get oneshotted to put the villain over, but anything short of that could probably work.

[alhoon]

The thing is that the ability of the enemy to deal damage and the amount of damage are taken into account in the Challenge Rating. Even the ability to automatically pass a save is included.