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How do you make weapons better on the fly?


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I apologize in advance if something like this has been discussed before. I have been playing within this system for about a year stumbling along with my players making the best of it.

 

My question is about a power one of my players wants to create. He would like the ability to make held weapons better by adding some damage and armor piercing. I am not sure how this is done though. I thought I had it nailed down through AID because according to hero designer it is eligible for the armor piercing advantage but I think that is only for the boosted damage not the target of the power. Would transform be the way to go?

 

Any help or point in the right direction would be great. Thanks in advance.

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There are lots of ways to do this, depending on the exact effect you want to achieve. I'm sure other people posting to this thread will suggest more, but here's a list off the top of my head. You can find published examples of many of these in the Warrior-Magery section of The HERO System Grimoire (and can easily adapt them from there to non-spell forms, if preferred).

 

1. Naked Advantages, bought to cover the entire "Active Point" cost of the maximum damage the character wants to be able to do with the weapon when the Advantage is applied.

 

2. Aid to increase the HKA/RKA. Remember that Aid cannot add Advantages the power doesn't already have, though.

 

3. The Weaponmaster Talent, possibly with some Limitations restricting its use to make it more "spell-like."

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tl;dr - what Steve said.

 

Can you give us a little more detail on what your player wants to accomplish? Is this a fixed thing, where every weapon he uses gets X added? Or a variable thing, where he can add damage to this weapon, or add AP to that weapon, and so on?

 

Also, what rulesbook are you using, so we can make sure we're pointing you at the right places? And what genre/power level are you looking at? [bTW, if you're using Champions Complete or Fantasy Hero Complete, "Naked Advantages" are called "Independent Advantages."]

 

PS - welcome to the boards! (Tho now I have the Beatles song Nowhere Man stuck in my head and it's your fault.)

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Thank you both Steve and bigdamnhero for the replies.

 

Steve - I will be sure to look a those options. I have heard of Naked Advantages, but I should really do some reading up on them (as a brief aside, I recently figured out variable power pools (i think) and I kinda geeked out about it cause they seem like a lot of fun).

 

bigdamnhero - to answer some of the points you made:

 

We are currently playing a champions game. The main books we have been using are the core rule books volume 1 and 2 (i guess this is kind of a given :P), the champions book, champions powers book, and martial arts book. All 6th edition.

 

If you have ever read Jim Butcher's Furies of Calderon series my player is trying to make powers like those displayed in the books. This power is from the metal portion of Mr. Butcher's magic system. In the books people who work with metal in a "magic" sense can manipulate metal and armor themselves with it. They can also improve any weapon they are holding, which also increases their ability with said weapon. It is that last one that my player is looking to emulate. He wants to grab a sword use the power and make it so that the sword grants him some minor combat bonuses but also does more damage and armor cutting power.

 

I think ultimately it would be flat every time. So let's say his character's name is Joe. When Joe is holding a sword and using this power he hits more often, hits harder, and penetrates more armor with it than if Bob comes along and uses the same sword.

 

We are doing a champions campaign with 400 point characters.

 

Thanks again to the pair of you for the help. Hopefully what I can churn out (with your help) can sync up with the vision my player has.

 

PS - Thanks for the welcome. I am also really glad you read my name right. A lot of people read it as Now Here Man, so it is always refreshing when people get it right.

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Another way to do it is to buy the attack Power as you want it to be, and add Limitations "Obvious Inaccessible Focus: Weapon of Opportunity" (so you have to have a weapon, but it can be any metal weapon) and "base damage = weapon damage + X damage classes" (so you're not doing the same damage with a dagger and a battle ax - though in either case you do more damage than the weapon usually does.)

 

 

You could also consider the Deadly Blow or Weapons Master Talents.

 

 

Apart from Naked Advantage Armor Piercing, you can buy Deadly Blow twice: Once for straight damage, and once with "Set Effect" and a Limitation "only to penetrate defenses." That gives you an extra 3 BOD and 6 STUN that can't do actual damage but is basically subtracted from the target's defenses.

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

 

The palindromedary is now here, man.

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Another way to do it is to buy the attack Power as you want it to be, and add Limitations "Obvious Inaccessible Focus: Weapon of Opportunity" (so you have to have a weapon, but it can be any metal weapon) and "base damage = weapon damage + X damage classes" (so you're not doing the same damage with a dagger and a battle ax - though in either case you do more damage than the weapon usually does.)

Based on your additional description, I think something like this is probably the simplest way to go. If this were, say, a fantasy game where characters don't have to pay points for equipment, then you'd want something that affects any sword you pick up. But Champions characters (generally) pay points for their gear, so Regular Sword Dude buys an HKA Power with OAF to represent that he needs a sword. See the Weaponmaster template in Champions p284. The difference for this character is that the attack does more damage than usual (whether by adding more dice or adding AP or whatever), and it works with any sword, not just his own personal sword (hence OIF instead of OAF, because if your sword gets taken away you can pick up another one and it works the same way.) Does that make sense?

 

(as a brief aside, I recently figured out variable power pools (i think) and I kinda geeked out about it cause they seem like a lot of fun).

VPPs are a lot of fun and a great way to simulate the versatility of some comics characters. One word of caution tho - while VPPs allow you to make up new powers on the fly in mid-game, doing so can really slow combat down while everyone waits for That One Guy to build his new Power. Especially if you're all relatively new to the system. Many of us require players with VPPs to at a minimum stat out several "common" powers they can use on the fly, reserving the "I make up something new and unusual" for special situations. Easier to keep things moving that way.

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