Linked Powers in Elemental Controls

[Smeazel]

According to the HERO 5E book, Linked Powers in an Elemental Control must be bought in a single slot. However, when I try to give a character Linked Powers within an Elemental Control in Hero Designer, the powers are numbered as if they're in separate slots. Is this a mistake, or am I misinterpreting something in the rules, or is there a special way I have to indicate that the powers are in the same slot?...

[Simon]

Well...first off, HD will not allow you to Link two Powers if they are separate slots in an EC or MP.

In order to do what you're looking for, you need to use a Compound Power. That's the primary reason it was created.....

Create both Powers in the Compound Power (applying any Linking that you want) and then add the Compound Power into the EC. The points will be calculated properly....which is a bit complex if you have different Limitations on either Power ;-)

[Monolith]

You need to buy the two powers in a Compound Power, and then stick that into the EC.

[Smeazel]

Originally posted by dsimon
Well...first off, HD will not allow you to Link two Powers if they are separate slots in an EC or MP.

Er... Well, that, at least, does not seem to be the case, since as it currently stands the two Powers are shown as Linked, and as separate slots in the EC. So apparently HD does allow it. I can send you a copy of the file to show you if you want.

But anyway, thanks for the advice; I'll use the Compound Power as you suggested.

[Smeazel]

OK, tried redoing it with the Compound Power, but I have a slight nitpick: the Compound Power doesn't seem to show what the individual Powers are. That is, it shows what I type in under "Display", but not what the Power actually is (Entangle, Transform, etc.) I guess I could type in the Power in the "Display" field, but it seems odd that this is necessary... Of course, it's quite possible that yet again there's a perfectly good reason for this that I'm missing. ;)

[Smeazel]

Hm, no, wait, including the type of Power as part of the Display doesn't work, either, because then the Link shows up as "Linked to Encasement: Entangle", which seems kind of odd...

By the way, I hope I'm not coming across as too disparaging; I think Hero Designer is a great program. I'm just having problems with a few minor aspects of it, but with something like this that's to be expected. Please don't interpret my concerns as criticisms.

[Simon]

I'll check as to why HD is currently showing other slots as available in the Linked list.

As for the name, Linked will show the name of the Power if it is available. If no name has been assigned to the Power, then it will use whatever has been entered for the display. I see no need to do anything differently here.

[Smeazel]

Originally posted by dsimon
As for the name, Linked will show the name of the Power if it is available. If no name has been assigned to the Power, then it will use whatever has been entered for the display.

It's not what Linked shows that I have a problem with; it's what the Compound Power shows. The Compound Power only shows what's in the Display, not the name of the power. So if the Compound Power includes an Entangle effect that I call Encasement (i.e. I type "Encasement" in for the Display), it just shows "Encasement 7d6", with no indication that Encasement is an Entangle power. The only reason I brought up what the Linked shows is because I thought I could work around the problem by entering "Encasement: Entangle" in as the display, but then the Linked shows up oddly. But really entering "Encasement: Entangle" in the display was a kludge to begin with, so it's not surprising it shows up incorrectly in the Linked; the root problem (if it is a problem) is with the Compound Power, not the Linked. Sorry if I explained the issue badly.

[Simon]

What version of the app are you using?

Using version 1.40, I show the name and the display in the text of the CompoundPower....to my knowledge, it has always been this way....CompoundPower gets the display for each of its component Powers the same way that the main list does.

[Smeazel]

Originally posted by dsimon
What version of the app are you using?

D'oh - Okay, I'm an idiot. Apparently I'd never downloaded any of the updates and was still using 1.0. Anyway, I've now updated to 1.40 and now there are separate Name and Display fields and everything seems to work fine. Heh. Sorry for the trouble.

[Simon]

As a "by the way": I've got Linked adjusted now so that it will not show Powers which are assigned to a Power Framework if the Power which is being Linked is also part of a Power Framework.

Additionally, it will push a Power out of a Framework if it is Linked to another Framework slot (so if you Link a Power to a Framework slot during the creation of the Power, it will not be allowed into a Framework until the Linked is removed).