Gambit Spells or moves, Trump cards, last resorts that carry a higher pentalty than normal death?

So there might be no need for a discussion like this but I was wondering how you felt about trump cards, last ditch efforts to save the day. I personally think in a PVE environment they could be great for character building, role playing and clearing content, but only if they would carry a penalty so steep they were almost not worth using. Maybe like a re roll of your base stats or your character being permanently dead. Might be something to think about in terms of immersion

Of course PVP would have to be excluded.

 

Hmm... Tough thing to balance I would say.

Make the penalty too grevious and no one will use the functionality at all, making the effort put into development wasted.

Make the penalty too lax and the move becomes too common, and might as well be considered part of the regular ruleset.

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Do you have any examples of this type of system being used in a Persistent game environment ? For pure curiosity sake I'd love to see what other developers have tried in this regards.

 

The closest system I can think of is the 2hr from FFXI, Benediction for example healed everyone fully HP/MP but generated so much hate that the White Mage would die in the process.

 

No. This is exactly what you don't want. You get the poker player who goes all in every hand...and then goes and gets new chips, the suicide bomber, etc. Totally ruins the experience for everyone else.