I am not really understanding the question because I am not understanding your "but I think this rule can profit by players." statement.
Here's the problem with Hero Points from a GM perspective:
As GM's we imagine our players using hero points for dynamic actions and theatrical roleplaying decisions.
Unfortunately, your players will catch on that no use of action points is more powerful or useful than 'You spend two hero points to go to -1 hitpoints rather than die'. That's all they will use it for. It's boring. You will be bored and annoyed when they save up hero points for this purpose.
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We just started a couple of new campaigns and added the hero point rules. One I am a player and one I am the GM.
Thus far we've used the hero points to prevent an untimely death or two.
We put a lot of effort into our character concepts. So it's satisfying to spend our hero points and give them one more chance to survive. Granted this has to happen with GM approval. So far it's worked out okay.
Just yesterday I spent my remaining two hero points to save my just reached level three character from certain death. Yet now I don't have any points left. Next time he dies he's gone for good (unless he survives to higher levels).
Thus far it does not seem to have any sort of unbalancing factor on the game.
HOWEVER, as a GM, I am not sure how I feel about some of the hero-point related feats and will have to review them again if any of my players want to use them.
spending the two hero points can be beneficial to the story as well.
"its too bad jimmy died and his carcass got hauled off."
"i saw him, he was still breathing. we have to get him back."
this can make for some very interesting side rescue missions.
I recommend the use of hero points in the game. They help enormously when things go wrong for the party through no fault of their own (bad rolls etc). Without hero points we would have had TPK a number of times (Carrion King I'm looking at you).
In 29 sessions we have only ever had one occasion (in a group of 6) where two hero points were used to avoid death.
I do have a couple of house rules re hero points.
There is a limited pool of hero points around the table to prevent hoarding (we have 13 for 7 players). If all the points are in player's hands then no more can be dibbed out. I believe this encourages players to use them.
I have introduced the Boss hero point nerf power that nixes the hero point just played and prevents the play of any hero points for a whole round. This causes my players to get really freaked when fighting a boss knowing that they cannot use hero points to bail themselves out.
Just my tuppence anyway.
I recommend the use of hero points in the game. They help enormously when things go wrong for the party through no fault of their own (bad rolls etc). Without hero points we would have had TPK a number of times (Carrion King I'm looking at you).
In 29 sessions we have only ever had one occasion (in a group of 6) where two hero points were used to avoid death.
I do have a couple of house rules re hero points.
There is a limited pool of hero points around the table to prevent hoarding (we have 13 for 7 players). If all the points are in player's hands then no more can be dibbed out. I believe this encourages players to use them.
I have introduced the Boss hero point nerf power that nixes the hero point just played and prevents the play of any hero points for a whole round. This causes my players to get really freaked when fighting a boss knowing that they cannot use hero points to bail themselves out.
Just my tuppence anyway.
We just started using Hero Points in our new campaign. Our DM let everyone(5 of us) roll a D4 and have that many starting hero points.
I rolled 4. The other rolls. 3, 2, 1. respectivly. We all got one extra for the day our table counted down from 4.
Anyways. No one has used any yet and its been almost 10 sessions.
As a cleric, and my domain being the Luck Domain. What bad ROLLS? muaahahahahahahahaha
My players tend to horde their last two hero points to avoid death, true, but they spend the rest on the other allowed uses, and they spend them frequently. I really like them. They let the PCs get an extra "bail out" action, get another chance to save themselves from a potentially fatal saving throw failure, or other exciting uses.
I highly recommend them.
I like games with hero points, although I agree that they tend to get hoarded.
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We use 15-point builds in a fairly challenging adventure path (Kingmaker), and I find Hero Points a must to keep the tally of character deaths down.
However, hoarding and tracking points can be a pain, so we use a simplified variant of Hero Points. As my players do put time and effort into characters, I want to give them a chance when the dice just don't fall their way, though there have been times it just won't matter.
Variant: 1 use of a Hero Point at each level (can't hoard, use it or lose it each level). Can use the "avoid death" option or force an immediate reroll.
Time when it worked: PC got critted by a nasty heavy axe swing, players thought with all the blood she was decapitated. However, by use of the hero point, she was badly cut and on death's door, but still breathing.
Time when it didn't work: PC got grappled by a chuul and failed his paralysis save while separated from party. Use a Hero Point to reroll and made his save. However, next round, hit again and failed. Character died soon thereafter.
We added them to our game, and the players have enjoyed them as I have as the DM but yeah everyone saves there last two to live
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My players, oddly enough, use the reroll a d20 more often than anything else. Thus, they often do not have enough Hero Points for emergencies since they'll use it for acts of bravado that look stupid unless they roll well.
Usually by the rogue doing something silly with an Acrobatics check. I only had the 'cheat death' used once by the druid with incredibly low AC got ripped apart in Wild Shape form.
The one thing I do suggest is to increase the cap from 3 to 5 by default and grant 3 Hero Points a level. It encourages the use of HP and still gives a buffer to those who wish to save a couple for their 'oh nuts' moment (of course make sure to make the monsters a bit more ferocious/smarter if you give them this boost of power).
I'm a fan as both GM and player. While SOMEtimes those last two get hoarded, we more often spend them to avoid critical failures.
Nothing defeats a tense scene more than where the hero trips on his own shoes and impales himself on his own sword... SO we spend a point to just miss normally...
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In mine some of them do save to use them for that save but often they get used to turn near misses into critical successes.
Now that being said the thing to remember is that that "spend 2 to not die" only counts for a single thing that would bring death. The best example I can think of is from my game where we had a Sorcerer caught by a cave fisher suspended over a 35ft pit with a sewage river below, he got free, fell, and went unconscious from the wounds. He ended up using the 2 burn to not die from the fall but did start drowning. The other thing to remember it is GM fiat as to how he pulled this off so if you have players that are getting too cozy with that burn 2 remember you decide how they survive which could be anything from they get pulled out of the rubble unscathed to the monster vomitted you up but without your hand.