Expending energy for effects... how would you?

[Tywyll]

I'm thinking of converting some character types from Armeggedon, by Eden Studios to my FH game (angels and Godlings). One of the angel powers that is giving me difficulty is their healing method.

In the game, they have a pool of Essence (think END) which they use to activate all of their abilities, including healing. When they heal, they can spend any amount of Essence they choose and each point is a die of healing (d10) and low powered Angels have around 100-150 hit points (and a similar amount of Essence).

Mostly I thought of doing this as an END reserve that recovers every min (as their power does in the source) but I'm having difficulty with the rest of it, since healing drains from the same reserve as all their other powers I can't really do it as Charges (especially since like END, they can refill their pool after a few minutes rest).

[Outsider]

Sounds like a straight Healing power with increased END cost.

[Tywyll]

But with straight healing power they don't have the option of spending 1-100 points of END to improve the effect. That's my conversion problem. :(

[Curufea]

Actually, to me it sounds like partial limitations.

You could just buy a thousand active points of healing, which would use 100 END if it was used, and the normal rules of the player choosing to use as many dice as they want (it isn't a beam).

Or you could have limitations put on the power as you increase it's strength-
5D6 heal + 5D6 heal (requires skill roll) + 5D6 heal (requires double skill roll) etc...
Or possibly ego roll, or concentration, or increased endurance.

[Tywyll]

It isn't really partial limitations either... there is no stop on how many points the character spends at once, just choice. They also spend them as a "free action" (ie, while they are fighting or whatever).

This is one of the places where the design parameters of hero don't seem to model an effect very well (at least as far as I can tinker and come up with anyway). You know, where a character can spend X-Y of a resource and do an increasingly better effect. Boostable charges seems the closest, but it won't quite work the way I need it (since the character recovers the "charges" in a matter of minutes). But maybe I'm missing something.

[Greatwyrm]

You don't have to use the power at full strength each time, do you? Can you build it to accommodate the maximum effect and then just spend as much as you want to power the healing?

[sbarron]

This is one of the places where the design parameters of hero don't seem to model an effect very well (at least as far as I can tinker and come up with anyway). You know, where a character can spend X-Y of a resource and do an increasingly better effect. Boostable charges seems the closest, but it won't quite work the way I need it (since the character recovers the "charges" in a matter of minutes). But maybe I'm missing something.I think you are. :)

There is no reason that because a character buys a power at a certain level that he has to use it at that level. For example...

20d6 Healing

Your character can choose to do up to 20d6 of healing with this power, but he doesn't have to. He could do 5d6 Healing and save himself a lot of endurance. If he wants to do more healing and thus use up more of his essense pool, he can use the power at any level up to 20d6. (20d6 healing is enough to bring an average hero back from the very brink of death to full health (-10 Body to 10 Body). I don't see that you would ever need more than that except in the rarest of cases.)

It seems the problem you were having is that you want the character to be able to heal up to the limit of the END pool. 20d6 healing costs 20 END. If you put a limitation on it to x5 END (-2), then your character could use up an entire 100 point END reserve on healing if he wanted to. Or, as Curufea suggested, you could buy a 100d6 healing power, with no END limit, and just chose to do up to 100d6 at 100 END cost. Both of these options are expensive. Putting the END limit on 20d6 helps with the price a lot, but it's still 67 pts, and 200 active. Some other limits will help, but it's hard to get a 200 AP power down to easy to swallow sizes.

Just as a helpful advice about conversions...you don't have to model the mechanics of a power exaclty. Trying to do so is very difficult, and usually not worth the effort. The ability you are modeling seems to be the ability to heal characters. The fact that a character may or may not use of the whole END reserve isn't that important. However, as I think I've shown above, you can model a power to do just that. Without knowing more about the game you are trying to convert from, it's hard to help you design this power much more than that. I hope this helps. If you can explain the other system a little more, I be glad to try and help you figure it out. Hope this helps.

[Outsider]

Here is another option then.

Buy your BODY as Costs Endurance to activate (but not to keep on), 5x Endurance (1 END per BODY activated) May only have (X) BODY activated at a time (X=normal BODY maximum).

Then BUY enough regeneration per minute that your extra BODY recovers at the same rate that your END reserve does.

Example :
I have 10 BODY, normally, and a 100 END Essence pool.
To simulate my ability to convert Essence to BODY at will (0 Phase action) I sell off my naturally occurring 10 body and buy 120 BODY limited as described above

-20 (-20) BODY sell back

?? (240) BODY Reserve
________(-1/4) Takes END to start, but not to maintain
________(-2) Increased END cost 5x (From Essence Pool)
________(-?) May only have 20 body active at a time

7 (20) Healing (Regeneration) - 1D6 (1 BODY)
________(+1/2) 0 END
________(+1/2) Persistent
________(-1 1/4) Extra Time (1 Minute)
________(-1/2) Self Only

[Tywyll]

Ok, another question along these lines... the power can be used to wake the character up if they get knocked out. In other words, the character can spend to heal themselves even whil unconscious (much like a Vampire can in WW). How would represent a power that can be used consciously and unconsciously? It seems like Trigger, but that would only go off once not as often as needed to wake them up (or until the END ran out). Is their anyway to create a power that can be activated while unconscious or would that be an advantage I'd need to come up with (can be used while unconscious, +1/2 or something)?

[Curufea]

Persistent is the continuous advantage that means it also works while unconscious. Normally you have to reduce END to 0 though. But you could have it use the END reserve instead. And trigger sounds appropriate.