New Homebrew - HERO Legends

[Casanova Frankenstein]

Hello all, I'm looking for feedback or input on a Homebrew world I'm working on creating. The idea originally started as a revision of the D&D 3.0 book Deities and Demigods. I've played D&D 3.5 with players gaining "Divine Rank" and going up against gods and other powerful foes. (The final fight was basically every Good-aligned god against every Evil one). 

 

The issues I have with D&D are probably the same ones that drove many of you from D&D to HERO. Arbitrarily fixed mechanics, classes, spell lists, and so on. I wanted the flexibility to have a relatively smooth, even progression from Heroism to (if you're successful enough) Divinity. Legendary levels are probably going to go from 1 to 40 (roughly) Where level 20 means you're "Officially" A Deity. It's like getting your black belt in many martial arts... you're learned all the basics, now you begin.

 

So- how do you go about gaining Legendary Power? Well, I'm going to work on guidelines for what actions might grant "Legendary Power" but the basic idea is affect lots of people or a large area to increase the magnitude of your actions' effects. I'm sure I'll eventually think of additional criteria for becoming Legend (or others will, but one big departure from D&D 3.0 Deities and Demigods is in THAT system your measure of Divine Rank is calculated totally by counting your followers/worshipers. The problem I see with this is many Legendary people had NO followers (Gandalf, Conan, etc) but still had a substantial impact on the world. I'm hoping to find any or all criteria and put them in a neat framework so that the method for gaining Legendary status isn't measured in Kills, Followers, Wealth, or any other single arbitrary criterion.

 

The framework I'm thinking of for the AP cap (magnitude) of earned Legendary Powers will ultimately be something like this-

 

                                           LEGENDARY POWER

Magnitude Power Title Active point cap       Adders                Adder Limit             Advantages

Level 1       Boon          2X5 or 10                 Any One Free      5 points

Level 2       Marvel        2X15 or 30               Any One Free     15 points                Affects Desolid

Level 3       Wonder      2X60 or 90               Any Two Free      30 points

Level 4       Revelation  2X120 or 180           Any Two Free      60 points                Trans-dimensional

Level 5       Miracle       2X 240 or 300          Any Three Free   120 points              Any one Free

Level 6       Etc...          2 X 480 or 600         Any Three Free    240 points

 

Legendary Power Guidelines

1.    All granted powers will cost no exp points. These are "Gifts" from a universe where your Legendary actions grant real power. The free Adders and Advantages are "wasted" if not used (or if the power you choose has no adders available in the first place).

2.    Adders can only have a point value equal to the active point cap of the granted power.

3.    Free Adders Purchase only the lowest "level" or "version" of an available adder. The only exception to this is when spending active points "purchases" Active points 1 for 1 in an adder framework. You may spend an amount of Points in a 1 active point = 1 character point at no cost up to the Adder Limit for the power.

4.    Legendary Powers can be spent to upgrade an existing power, buy a new power, remove Complications, or raise Characteristics.

5.    Legendary Powers can also be spent to improve existing Legendary Powers, but only to their AP Cap. If an existing Legendary Power has free adders or advantages, these are retained at no active point cost.

6.    Legendary Powers which gain Multiple Free Adders are limited. Adder Limits are listed for each adder individually. These Limits exist only for Active points bought in a “1-for-1” Adder Framework.

 

Example 1:

Our antihero Urog the Shatterer has achieved sufficient influence to gain his first "Wonder". He selects either two 60 (or less) point powers or a 90 (or less) point power. In either case, these powers will have two free adders worth up to (60 or 90 points). His Adder Limits for purchasing character points' worth of adders "1 for 1" are 5 and 30, respectively.

Urog decides to buy a 90 point power. He will get the Affects Desolidified advantage for free, and this advantage will be entered as a NOTE in Hero Designer so it does not affect the Power's AP cost. He also gets two free adders, provided the base power has two to offer.

Urog selects his base power- Clairsentience. As a vengeful Orc he wants to be able to track down his foes and crush them, and this power would be a tremendous help under the right circumstances. He decides to simply purchase 90 points of Clairsentience and seeing an opportunity to leverage his two free adders, selects Precognition and Retrocognition at 20 points each. These adders and the Affects Desolidified advantage are added as notes, as they have no impact on the Power's AP cost and never will, even if he improves the power later with experience (or later Legendary Powers).

 

With this power, Urog can perceive past and future events of any location within range. With the right Limitations, Our Antihero has an uncanny ability to "track" their foes no matter how carefully they cover their tracks. Around the next corner. Forever.

 

Example 2:

Ryuu, the Spirit Warrior decides his First Boon(s) will be the 2 5-point option. With one of them, Ryuu Purchases  Boon: Healing Prayer:  Healing BODY 0 1/2d6, Can Heal Limbs. The Boon can have up to a 5 Active Point cap and has one Free adder of the lowest available option. In this case, Ryuu selects Free Adder: can heal limbs. It's 5 point cost does not exceed the Active Point cost or the Adder Limit.

 

Later, Ryuu's accomplishments net him a new Legendary Ability: A Marvel. Ryuu can spend this as he chooses, but in this case he decides his healing needs to be more powerful, and he already "owns" the “can heal limbs” Adder. He raises the power to 30 active points -Healing BODY 3d6. Since Each marvel also gains a Free Adder, he may apply a second adder to this power. He can purchase any single adder under 30 points, or any “1-for-1” up to 15 points. He selects the 20 point Resurrection adder. As a fixed cost adder, it can exceed the 15 point Adder Limit.

Ryuu’s final power from combining a Boon and a Marvel is Healing BODY 3 D6, can Heal Limbs, and Resurrection.

 

Example 3:

Njord the Lightbringer Has gained his First Miracle! He looks for a worthy power and finds Aid. Njord builds the following:

Divine Splendor:  Aid 6d6, Can Add Maximum Of 50 Points, Ranged (+1/2), Based On EGO Combat Value (Mental Defense applies; +1), all [special effect] powers simultaneously (+2) (301 Active Points);

 

For 301 Active Points, (It’s a Miracle, we can round up this time) Njord can buy a Aid 6d6, BOECV, Ranged, affects all [Holy] Powers simultaneously. 6d6 grants a Maximum of 36 points, and after the advantages Njord can fit in 14 points of Increased Maximum. With the 6d6 base, this adds up to 50 points. By Itself this does nothing, but Njord still has a free Advantage of his choice!

 

Njord applies the following free Advantages:

Affects Desolidified (Marvel or better)

Transdimensional (Revelation or better)

Continuous (Miracle or better)

 

Now, this power works anywhere Njord can perceive within more than a Kilometer. When he uses it, his target gains 6d6 to ALL [Holy] Powers every phase until they total +50 Active Points to every [Holy] power they have. If a follower or champion of Njord (or whomever) has seven different powers with the [Holy] SFX Descriptor, They’ll add 50 Active Points to each of them once the Aid has rolled for long enough.

The only thing now is to calculate Free Adders. Looking on the Legendary Power table, the adders can have values totaling 5, 30, and 120. If Njord wishes and there are three Adders available, he can buy them for free.

Here are the adders Njord chooses:

1.    1/2d6 Aid. This is worth 5 points, and expends his 5 point Free Adder.

2.    30 points of Increased Maximum. This brings Njord’s maximum effect with this spell to 80 points per affected [Holy] Power.

3.    120 points of Increased Maximum. This brings Njord’s maximum effect with this spell to 200 points per affected [Holy] Power.

 

Now, Njord can activate this Legendary Power and any target within Line of Sight can be given 200 Active Points to all [Holy] Powers in approximately 9 Segments. He chooses to have this power available thrice daily, with a duration of 1 day. For one day, the recipient of this Legendary Power will be nigh-unstoppable provided their suite of [Holy] Powers cover the right bases.

His final Miracle Legendary Power is as follows:

 

 

Divine Splendor:  Aid 6 1/2d6, Can Add Maximum Of 200 Points, Ranged (+1/2), Based On EGO Combat Value (Mental Defense applies; +1), all Holy powers simultaneously (+2) [FREE STUFF: Affects Desolidified, Transdimensional, Continuous; 1/d6, 30 Increased Maximum, 120 Increased Maximum] (301 Active Points); 3 Continuing Charges Lasting 1 day; -0)

 

Thoughts so far?

 

C.F.

[Chris Goodwin]

If I were the one running that campaign, I'd pull out my copy of The Primal Order (in PDF at DriveThruRPG).  I might not necessarily use their mechanics directly, but I'd definitely use it for ideas.  

[Casanova Frankenstein]

Thanks Chris. (is it ok if I call you Chris?)

That looks like a good resource that I'll plan to pick up as soon as I get paid. Cheers.

 

C.F.