Inspired by what I saw in "Dragon Age" series, I have a main quest of the story line have the character "dream" into the astral plane where they have several fights towards an unfolding that will provide them with some additional information.
I want to give them some kind of reward which can't be items (after all they are dreaming). I'm already giving them XP if they pull through it but I wanted to give them something else. I was inspired by Dragon Age's pillars which give you an increase of +1 to one of your ability scores.
Is that (+1 to one desired ability score) too much of a reward (making the characters too powerful to early) or is it ok? If it is too much, what are ways that I can reward my players that are not strictly "XP" or "Magic items / treasure" that still feel good to them.
Background: High Epic Fantasy (Epic campaign, the fate of the world is on your hands stuff).
Current character level. 3
Party Size. 3
Best Answer
The DMG has a few suggestions
In the DMG, pp. 227-232, there is a section called Other Rewards, listing things like Blessings, Charms, even Epic Boons (although that's level 20+ type stuff).
In particular, Blessings (pp. 227-228) or maybe Training (in particular, learning skill proficiencies or feats, p.231, although this one implies that it should take some downtime, but you could waive that) might suit your "something that isn't physical" requirement.
As for a +1 to an ability score, that's essentially half an ASI, which a sidebar on page 230 suggests as an alternative to Epic Boons. Given that Epic Boons are for level 20+, this suggests that a full ASI is a big deal, but on the other hand, it also suggests that you can learn feats in your downtime (p. 231), many of which include a +1, so I think +1 to an ability score isn't too big a deal.