HERO System 6th Edition Rules Questions

6,882 questions in this forum

1. Abort II

   Follow Up on the one below. DefeseMan has a Speed of 6 and a Force Field which costs 3 END per phase. On Phase 2, he switches on his Field, paying 3 END. On Phase 3, he Aborts to block. Does he pay 3 END for his force field: (a) On Phase 3 - since he took his action (by aborting) he is required to pay all END for contant powers he maintains (or allow them to shut down for lack of END) OR ( On Phase 4 - even though he has no action, he must spend END on each of his regular phases to maintain his constant powers OR © Some other option not considered above. Thanks Hugh

   Asked by Hugh Neilson, July 19, 2004

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2. Abort & Constant Powers

   I checked both the FAQ and FRED, but I just can't find the answer so here goes: A Speed 6 character has a Force Field that costs 3 END/phase, and they abort to a Block on Segment 3. This results in them losing their action on Phase 4. Do they pay END for the FF on Segment 3? Segement 4 even though they don't have an Action then? Or do they not pay END at all? Thanks in advance.

   Asked by Zanthis, July 19, 2004

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3. Tunnelling and Unstable Ground

   One of the Guardians GMs posed this one to me, and after thinking about it I have no idea how to respond: "If lets say there are some miners or spelunkers or something in a mining or cave complex, and there is an earthquake which traps the people inside, the ground is most likely to remain unstable. This will cause a problem for seaching and rescuing those people through conventional means. But if someone has tunneling, will this negate the problem of unstable ground?" What sort of penalties should be imposed, and what chances would there be of the tunnelling just making it all worse?

   Asked by Guest Worldmaker, July 19, 2004

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4. Attacking an Entangled Character

   When attacking an Entangled character, is the character completely protected from damage, BODY and STUN until the Engangle is broken? Or does the Entangle's DEF+BODY simply act as an extra defense (meaning the character still takes STUN even if the Entangle isn't destroyed)?

   Asked by Dust Raven, July 16, 2004

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5. Does Tunnelling default to Move Through?

   I have a character with 27" running that creates an electrical dynamo field which triggers their EC when velocity reaches 21". One of the powers in the EC is Tunnelling 1", 10 Def. Now say She is running at full velocity and she plows into a wall that has 11 def, would this revert to a normal Move Through, or would she just smack into the wall? She normally just does full moves to go through walls, but I recently added the Tunnelling (to prevent her from stunning herself). If I am understanding correctly, she can only use it if she half moves prior, since its a movement power right? Also, can you use Power or acrobatics to jump up to say a second floor wall and plow…

   Asked by tunglashr, July 15, 2004

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6. Hardened Confusion

   Hi Steve, I have checked the FAQ and done a search on this forum but I am still confused about the Hardened ruling. I understand that if bought at multple levels you must stipulate which attack (AP or Penetrating) it works against but what about the first level? Logic would dictate that the first level of hardened would also require a stipulation that it acts against either AP or penetrating...correct? (a page refernece in FReD would be a boon!). Thanks in advance. Bryan

   Asked by bryanb, July 15, 2004

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7. Entangle and Endurance

   When a character uses entangle, do they pay END only when it is initiated, or do they have to pay each phase to maintain it? Also, assuming they don't have to pay to maintain it, if a character has an entangle in a multipower, and uses it to entangle a few people, than switches to another slot, do the entangles remain in effect? -McBain

   Asked by McBain, July 15, 2004

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8. Proportional Drain a la Absorption

   Hi Steve - Could you set up a Drain to work in a set proportion against two (or more, I guess) target abilities, similar to the way you can allocate points gained through Absorption, say, half to STUN and half to END? I know you could buy a 2.5d6 Drain vs DEX and a 2.5d6 Drain vs. Running and link them, but could you (for the sake of simplicity perhaps) just buy a 5d6 Drain and say it works half against DEX and half against Running? Thanks!

   Asked by Derek Hiemforth, July 15, 2004

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9. Last note on FW (for the time being anyhow, I promise!)

   I think my question's been answered upon review. As to part of what I wrote, "If so, is this then a deliberate "loophole" through which characters can have resistant PD that cannot be targeted with FW???", I did not mean this as a question regarding philosophy or design at all, and no commentary (implicit or otherwise) was intended. I was trying (but failing!) to be clear and understand the effects of the rules. Let me try one last time on this account, but I think I know the answer: If my FW targets "resistant" defenses... and the target has Damage Resistance... my FW does not target the defenses (PD or ED) of that Damage Resistance. Correct? …

   Asked by zornwil, July 15, 2004

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10. Trigger

    I'll get right to the point.... 1) Can I buy the Trigger advantage to turn a constant or continous power off? (Instead of on) 2) Can I buy more than one Trigger on a Power, so it activates under condition A or B? (I don't want a variable Trigger, as I can only choose the condition when setting up the power, I want two independent events to trigger the power) Thanks....

    Asked by MicroMike, July 15, 2004

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11. Overthinking Find Weakness and Damage Resistance?

    Sorry, Steve, but another one re FW and Dam Res. If I use FW to reduce rPD, successfully on a target with 4 PD, ALL RESISTANT, and (assuming for some reason I as a PC do not "know" the target has no other resistant defenses), do I have any effect? I believe the FAQ implies not, that Dam Res counts SOLELY towards "Normal" Defenses. If so, is this then a deliberate "loophole" through which characters can have resistant PD that cannot be targeted with FW??? Oh, and would you please do me the favor of confirming that per the FAQ if I FW on "Normal Defenses" on a target that has 8 PD and any number of that with Dam Res (from 1-8 rPD) (as in Zanthis' example, ye…

    Asked by zornwil, July 14, 2004

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12. Blocking & Action Sequence

    Heroman is fighting two opponents, Ned and Ted. All three combatants are SPD 4. Ned is DEX 19, Ted is DEX 18 and Heroman is DEX 17. In PHA 3 Ned strikes at Heroman who, successfully, aborts to a block. However when Ted attacks, Heroman fails his continuing block but Ted misses his attack roll. In PHA 6 all three will act again. Since Heroman Blocked Ned he gets to act before Ned. But Ted still has a higher DEX than Heroman and would normally get to act before him. Would Heroman get to act first since he blocked the DEX 19 attack (in essence raising his DEX temporarily)? Or would Ted act first since he wasn't blocked (in this case Ned's DEX is, in essence, t…

    Asked by Edsel, July 11, 2004

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13. Alas, poor Edsel

    In all the Find Weakness furor, his Blocking question half way down the page appears to have been forgotten. Once it's answered, perhaps you can delete my post here? [You answered a host of questions al at once a few days ago and I think that one got missed. Edsel's clearly too tactful and polite to say anything, but luckily that's not a Psych Lim on *my* character sheet! ] EDIT: Oh, he got his answer and edited his post... Sorry, Steve. [since when can we edit our posts on this board??? ] Doesn't look like I can delete it, but feel free to do that for me...

    Asked by Hugh Neilson, July 14, 2004

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14. block

    let see i have spd 3 (4,8,12) ten orcs attacks me in phase 12 ,,,if i want i can block 10 time with no malus or it like a sweep but for block....excuse my english again steve stef

    Asked by steph, July 14, 2004

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15. Find Weakness Addendum

    Another quick question on Find Weakness (sorry!) with regards to the power Damage Resistance. There has been much confusion over whether it is a special case or not. I successfully use Find Weakness against a target with 8 PD (characteristic) and 3 Active Points of Damage Resistance. No other defenses. With the Damage Resistance, his defenses (before Find Weakness) are 2PD/6rPD? If #1 is yes, after Find Weakness vs resistant defenses, his defenses become 2PD/3rPD? If #1 is yes, after Find Weakness vs normal defenses, his defenses become 1PD/6rPD? Again, thanks in advance!

    Asked by Zanthis, July 14, 2004

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16. No Range Modifier and Range Skill Levels redundant?

    In UNTIL: DoF, the U-GEM-E Laser Rifle (pg 82) has the No Range Modifier advantage and +3 PSLs vs the Range Modifier. But doesn’t a power with the No Range Modifier advantage have, well, no range modifiers, rendering the PSLs superfluous? The variant of the weapon with HUD aiming replaces the NRM advantage with the Line of Sight advantage. But LOS is also supposed to have no range modifiers, so the PSLs would have no utility for that variant either, right?

    Asked by JamesG, July 13, 2004

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17. Missileer Overkill?

    The Ultimate Brick includes the "Brick Trick" of Missileer (pg 59), which is defined as PSLs vs. the OCV penalties for throwing unbalanced and/or non-aerodynamic objects. The different options give a range from +4 to +12. But isn't the maximum penalty for throwing unbalanced and/or non-aerodynamic objects a minus 4? So that any PSLs more than +4 are overkill, that will never come into play?

    Asked by JamesG, July 13, 2004

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18. Find Weakness Clarification

    I just read your answer to Zanthis' post and it seems I might have missunderstood something... When using Find Weakness, you must decide if you are using it against Normal or Resistant Defenses, that much is clear. But it is versus the total of the affected Defense, regardless of source, or only verses the Powers of that particular source? Example: I have Find Weakness used with a normal punch, and I make a roll against Normal Defenses versus a target with 10 PD and Armor +10 PD (total 20 PD/ 10 rPD). Will a sucessful roll not reduce the value of the Armor, even though it adds to normal as well as resistent defenses (total 15 PD/5 rPD), or reduce the total (10 P…

    Asked by Dust Raven, July 13, 2004

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19. Missle Deflecting/Reflecting AoE

    If you've got an AoE attack that's got the "can be missle deflected" or something like the Limitation for the Vehicle type missles. Does the AoE still happen? I mean you've got Can be Deflected on some of the missles in TUV but they've got AoE ranges in the MegaScale so do you "destroy" the weapon before it arms/detonates or do you need to try and come up with a way to decided how the AoE comes into effect? Or am I complicating something that doesn't need it.

    Asked by Vanguard, July 12, 2004

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20. Find Weakness, Basics

    A have a few questions on Find Weakness, just to clarify and make sure I understand how it works: I successfully use Find Weakness targeting resistant defenses against a target with 4 PD (characteristic) and Armor: 10rPD and no other defenses. His defenses become 4 PD and 5rPD, correct? If my Find Weakness is with one attack only, that attack being a single non-killing attack such as Martial Strike, was it legal to target resistant defenses? Assuming #1 & #2 are yes, then if I attack with my Martial Strike, I'm going up against 9 defense (4PD+5rPD)? If I had targeted normal defenses instead, the target would have 2 PD and 10rPD against my attack, correct? …

    Asked by Zanthis, July 12, 2004

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21. Limited Speed?

    If a charcter buys Speed with a Limitation that limits how it can be used (not when), how do I intergrate it into the character's regular Speed & Phases? I.e., AttackMan has a 23 DEX and 5 SPD normally. He also has +3 SPD - Only To Make Attacks(-?). How do I determine which of his 8 Phases are to be regular ones, and which are to be ones where he can only attack, not move? SPD 3: 4, 8, 12 + SPD 5: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12 = SPD 8: 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12 (But which are which?) Thanks in advance!

    Asked by SteveZilla, July 10, 2004

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22. Always on Shrinking

    I read that characters with size powers that are always on should instead take powers to simulate the effects and a physical limitation to simulate the size drawbacks. I may be over thinking it (especially since the system is new to me), but I can't see how to write up the perception and knockback effects. I'm assuming the DCV adjustment can be a combat skill level though.

    Asked by Halikar, July 10, 2004

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23. Summon

    Hiya Steve ... I apologize if this' been covered before ... but when you use the summon power, if you wanted to use a specific effect with a variable thing being summoned, is this possible with one power? For example, say someone's using light powers, could they have a variable summon ability where they could create light constructs? Like a horse one turn, then, say, a motorcycle the next?

    Asked by Sketchpad, July 10, 2004

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24. Long Term Stun?

    Using the Long Term Endurance rules, can we still substitute Stun for Endurance? Meaning, can I use LTS when my LTE runs dry?

    Asked by Sociotard, July 10, 2004

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25. Succor and Continuous...

    Not too long ago, someone asked if you could apply the Countiuous advantage to Succor, and I believe the answer was yes (especially since you can now apply it in Hero Designer.) My question is: How does a Continuous Succor worK? Does it have an upper limit? With Aid you have an upper limit, and if you want to exceed the maximum that could be rolled, you have to pay for that advantage. Hero Designer points this out very obviously, as you can see the Increased Maximum Adder. That adder is not available for the Succor. So if you pay END every phase does your Succor keep giving more points, till you run out of END? And what happens if you buy Succor with 0 END …

    Asked by SirViss, July 10, 2004

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