Abort to Dispel

[Citizen Keen]

Is there an Advantage to be able to make a Power Abort-to-able? I want to make a "Counter-spell" for my FH Campaign, and I want a Dispel that one can Abort to when someone else casts a spell. Can this be done?

 

-cK

[Blue]

Counterspells in most games depend on you being ready for the incoming attack. That is, you generally can't counterspell someone who is faster than you. Generally, they require that you have a saved action. In Hero, that's easy enough to do. But back to the topic of aborting...

 

I don't think there's even an advantage required. I think it's a GM ruling. The books says in general that if an action can be considered defensive then it may be possible to abort to it. Wish I had my book with me to quote the info. As a GM, I wouldn't allow you to attack someone who was making an attack and call that "defensive", but I would allow most actions that have to do with directly intervening with the incoming ray/bullet/beam/spell/punch.

[GamePhil]

Couple of possibilities, perhaps.

 

You could have a Triggered Dispel, and the trigger is something they can Abort to.

 

Here's a hard way:

 

Dispel: Any One Magical Effect (+1/4), Continuous (+1), Radius (+1), 0 END (+1/2), User must abort an action to use this Power on a single attack (-2), No Range (-1/2)

 

That comes out to net about a +1/4 Advantage, if you buy into that. Less, really. I'd figure out what the cost of that is per die (or group of dice) and call it the new power Counterspell for the game, to save player tedium: it may be difficult, but you only have to do it once.

 

Blue's statement is also true: as long as the Dispel is purely being used defensively, you could rule that it can be Aborted to.

[Citizen Keen]

Got to read the rules some more - Holding an Action.... Forgot about that.

 

-cK

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by Citizen Keen

Got to read the rules some more - Holding an Action.... Forgot about that.

 

Oh, is *that* all you wanted? Would that I had known...

[Citizen Keen]

Originally posted by GamePhil

Oh, is *that* all you wanted? Would that I had known...

 

Sorry 'bout that. I haven't actually played yet - preppin' for my first HERO GMin' experience. I'm going to spend a day running fake battles before I start, just to get used to the system.

 

Yeah, I wanted the ability to do a classic counterspell effect. Wizard Willy goes "Abrakadaba" and Sorcerer Steve goes "Talk to the hand"

[GamePhil]

Originally posted by Citizen Keen

Sorry 'bout that. I haven't actually played yet - preppin' for my first HERO GMin' experience. I'm going to spend a day running fake battles before I start, just to get used to the system.

 

That's ok, I just took you too literally. If I had read more carefully I would have caught what you were trying to do.

[Vondy]

You can abort to any defensive action, including the activation of defensive powersm insofar as they don't require extra-time. I would rule a relevant dispell instantaneous effect (no extra time), a "counter spell" is a defensive action, but some may disagree.

[Chris Goodwin]

In some fantasy literature, characters perform the equivalent of aborting to Dispel. I'd allow it in the right kinds of campaigns.

[Arthur]

I would consider this to be acceptable, and in the spirit of the "abort to" rules. As long as the target of the Dispel were an incoming attack, it sounds OK to me.

 

In a similar fashion, I would allow a "Spell Shield" as a Suppress with the Damage Shield Advantage (+1/4: any magic). Then, any incoming magic suffers the effect of the Suppress.

[Farkling]

I was curious

 

So I got out the book. A first. But I was working on things anyhow...

 

Says right here under Dispel (4th Paragraph, Page 90)

 

"A character can use Dispel to protect himself from incoming powers, but he must have a Held Action to do so. Assuming the Dispel applies to the attack, he uses his Held Action to "attack" the incoming Power with his Dispel. He rolls his Dispel dice (no attack roll is needed). The attack is Deispelled if the total of the Dispel dice exceeds the Active Points in the attack"

 

So. I myself was unaware of the "no attack roll is necessary"

Hmmm. So with the advantage for "Fantasy Magic", you could use it on any spell in the repertoire. For "Schools" of magic, I would have there Dispel (s) be more restrictive, like Fire or Ice or some such. Let the Arcane stuff Dispel anything.

 

Now, as a GameMaster, I would have very little problem with using a Dispel as an abort action for an incoming spell. Though I WOULD make the character roll it as a block.

 

Perhaps a formal write up would require some us of Trigger with which I am unfamiliar, or maybe an element from the UMA booklet. Imagine designing "school" magic combat as specific forms of ranged martial arts...

[slaughterj]

Though Dispel says held action to use, I likely would allow an Abort as well.

[Supreme]

Originally posted by D-Man

You can abort to any defensive action, including the activation of defensive powersm insofar as they don't require extra-time. I would rule a relevant dispell instantaneous effect (no extra time), a "counter spell" is a defensive action, but some may disagree.

And if the power isn't considered defensive by your GM, then you buy ranged MA maneuvers for it with one of them defined as a block.