A Question of Balance & Lethality

[Markdoc]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Just curious, but doesn't a 2d6KA for something like a greataxe fall a little short against normal human opponents? If we assume an average person with 8 BODY and no armor, then:

* An average strike to the body won't quite drop them to bleeding - they can walk away and eventually heal up with no risk of death.

* An average strike to the neck/head will drop them, but won't quite kill them - they could still survive if they were bandaged quickly.

 

Now for many weapons, that seems fine. But for a large weapon, against a fully undefended foe, it seems a bit odd.

 

Trust me, a 2d6 HKA is plenty scary to an unarmoured foe, even a hero. Let's look at those numbers again. Yes, an average hit won't kill a normal unarmoured person, unless it hits head or vitals. If it does however, they will be down, unconscious and will bleed to death without ever regaining consciousness unless someone reaches them in the next few seconds and makes a Paramedic roll at -3. Hope you've got a good healer standing by real close, because the victim's going to be dead before you can carry him to the end of the block.

 

However, even a heroic PC with 12 or 13 BOD will still fall over and die (probably without regaining consciousness) if he takes one average shot to something important and isn't more or less instantly fixed up.

 

So basically, to an unarmoured foe, a single average shot to any vital part is a one-shot kill unless they receive immediate medical attention. So is a slightly above average shot (about 1 hit in 3) or two shots to the rest of the torso or thighs. Basically, without protection, even a relatively tough human is facing the possibly that one or at most two hits could kill him unless he has a very good healer standing by. That's not unreasonable (or unrealistic).

 

More realistically, most players have some sort of rDEF, even if it's only 3 points of Combat luck. But a 2d6 HKA will almost always do significant BOD to such a person, will often do a large amount of BOD and can still one-shot kill them. Against foes with 2d6 HKAs, you want to be wearing decent armour!

 

PCs often face large numbers of foes in the course of a single session and so any attack that can do BOD can become a threat. An attack that can do 4-6 BOD becomes a real threat: most PCs can take at most 2-3 of those.

 

cheers, Mark

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Retraction and apology:

 

I apologize Killer Shrike. I sat down just for the fun of it and created a character for 'your' kind of game. In my defense, I had when I made my original boast, assumed a 150 point 5th Edition character, but I realized afterwards that the campaign guidelines on your web site start characters off at 125 points. The 'combat monster' character I create with that (pulling no punches, but without recourse to cheesy limitations, just straight from the book and a couple of 'Heroic Knacks' from your site) likely would not be able to singlehandedly deal with a horde of goblins 'and' take out a war troll. This character only hits for 3 1/2 D6 habitually, and while adequately protected from physical threats, would likely be as vulnerable to non 'killing attack' magic as anyone else. The stratospheric damage potential referred to in my original post would require a slightly higher point character. (And this is a seriously one sided, combat only, character.)

[Killer Shrike]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Just post the character up for general usage, and all will be well

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Just post the character up for general usage' date=' and all will be well [/quote']

Heh. Er... Ok.

 

Just for the record, I would not actually saddle a GM with this character. I would deliberately tone it down a bit and beef up it's variety and role playing potential. This is just a 'proof of concept' design.

 

"The Beast": at 125 Points:

OCV: 9

DCV(Melee): 12

3 1/2 D6 HKA w. Battle Flail

14PD/14ED Resistant

 

23 Str 16

20 Dex 30

13 Con 6

13 Body 6

8 Int -2

11 Ego 2

13 Pre 3

10 Com

8 Pd 3

4 Ed 1

4 Spd 10

8 Rec

26 End

32 Stun

Total Stats: 75

 

Heavy Armor Familiarity 8PD/8ED Full Plate

4 +2 Penalty Levels with Heavy Armor

5 Campaigner Resilience; Healing 1 BODY, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Hour (-2 1/4), Self Only (-1/2)

12 6PD/6ED Combat Luck

6 Passive Blocking: +3 DCV (15 Active Points); Conditional Power (Vs. Melee Combat Only; -1), OIF (Melee Weapon of Opportunity; -½)

Power Hitting

4 Martial Strike +2 DCV, +2 DC

5 Offensive Strike -2 OCV, +1 DCV +4 DC

3 Leg Sweep

1 Weapon Element: Flails & Maces

8 +4 OCV with Battle Flail

Total Skills: 50

Total Points: 125

 

And to prove my original point:

 

"The Beast": at 150 Points

OCV: 9

DCV(Melee): 12

6D6 HKA w. Battle Flail

17PD/17ED Resistant

 

23 Str 16

20 Dex 30

13 Con 6

13 Body 6

8 Int -2

11 Ego 2

13 Pre 3

10 Com

8 Pd 3

5 Ed 2

4 Spd 10

8 Rec

26 End

32 Stun

Total Stats: 76

 

2 Heavy Armor Familiarity 8PD/8ED Full Plate

4 +2 Penalty Levels with Heavy Armor

5 Campaigner Resilience; Healing 1 BODY, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (20 Active Points); Extra Time (Regeneration-Only) 1 Hour (-2 1/4), Self Only (-1/2)

18 9PD/9ED Combat Luck

6 Passive Blocking: +3 DCV (15 Active Points); Conditional Power (Vs. Melee Combat Only; -1), OIF (Melee Weapon of Opportunity; -½)

Power Hitting

4 Martial Strike +2 DCV, +2 DC

5 Offensive Strike -2 OCV, +1 DCV +4 DC

3 Leg Sweep

4 +1 Damage Class

1 Weapon Element: Flails & Maces

14 Weaponmaster: Deadly Blow: +2d6 Killing with Battle Flail

8 +4 OCV with Battle Flail

Total Skills: 74

Total Points: 150

 

Addendum Edit: And for gods sake, GM's, do NOT throw this character at your players! This character is an example of what NOT to do, in my opinion. It would singlehandedly obliterate most parties. Give me 50 XP to spend and this character could conquer the realm (again, in my opinion).

[mayapuppies]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Ambushing both those guys will negate half their rDEF since Combat Luck has to know the attack is coming and be able to perceive it. Snipe them with bow fire before they are aware you're around and dead.

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Ambushing both those guys will negate half their rDEF since Combat Luck has to know the attack is coming and be able to perceive it. Snipe them with bow fire before they are aware you're around and dead.

Oh Mayapuppies, don't 'YOU' tell me these characters are fair and balanced!

 

Yes, with a coordinated attack by a group of characters attacking with the element of surprise, this character could be taken down. But no GM should have to be in a position where 'that' is the only option for dealing with a single player's character. And as an opponent, the players would have no idea that that was how they needed to deal with this 'Beast', not until they had met him. And then it would be too late, as this character will one shot knockout/kill virtually anything.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Not bad; but I've seen "worse" combat monsters on the same points. I'd make you drops something to buy at least a couple background defining elements, but other than that I'd let you play it. You'd really have to rely on your fellow PC's to carry you outside of combat, but they could rely on you to be a heavy hitter for the team in heightened circumstances. And no, surprise isn't the only way to take this guy down, not by a long shot. And no, he can't take down virtually anything. He's dangerous, but containable.

 

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Were I actually playing in your game KS, I would not play this character. I prefer a somewhat more well rounded character, a little less one sided. I prefer stats that make sense and a 23 strength married to a 'mere' 13 Con, Body & Presence does not make 'sense' to me. I like having a few skills appropriate to a character so they are 'not' just a tag-along outside of combat. And finally I would have three point levels on the martial art and carry a backup weapon, not two point levels on a single weapon. And XP would go for beefing up not so much the combat power, but rather resilience in the face of magic.

 

And yes, there are ways to deal with the one sided incarnation of this character. First and foremost, try to get that battle flail out of his hands with a grab, disarm whatever. And he is vulnerable to all sorts of magic, so whatever mages are around should recognize him for the threat he is and cut loose. And his low presence for the kind of character his is, is a weakness that could also be exploited.

 

And no' date=' he can't take down virtually anything.[/quote']

Wait a minute... You've got stuff that a 6D6 KA from a battle flail (!!! +2 stun multiple !!!), would not take down in one shot!? Holy jumpin jehoseph! What is it, a Shoggoth?

[Killer Shrike]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

The guy isn't quite a glass cannon as he has good defenses, but he's still just a damage delivery mechanism and his over specialization w/ the Flail makes him vulnerable. He is also wide open to magical attacks as he has no exotic defense. Without even spending any time on it, I could pretty easily neutralize the character if I decided to without having to go to any great lengths.

 

 

 

Spells, such as:

Simony's Splendiferous Stupor: Drain INT 3d6+1 (standard effect: 10 points), Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per Minute; +1/4), Ranged (+1/2) (58 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Restrainable (Only by means other than Grabs and Entangles; Spell Components Pouch; -1/4)

 

Silas's Spectacular Sundering: Dispel Hand Killing Attack 15d6 (standard effect: 45 points) (45 Active Points); Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Foci Based Weapons Only (-1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Gestures (-1/4)

 

any number of more offensive effects.

 

 

 

Combat Tricks, such as:

Passing Disarm: 1/2 Phase, -1 OCV, -1 DCV, Disarm, 20 STR to Disarm; FMove

+4 with Passing Disarm

 

Weapon Bind: 1/2 Phase, +1 OCV, +0 DCV, Bind, +10 STR

+4 with Weapon Bind

 

Target Falls maneuvers

 

 

Ranged Attacks, such as:

Hawkeye: Penalty Skill Levels: +8 vs. Hit Location modifiers with a tight group of attacks

 

or even, for that matter:

Ranged Disarm: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Range +0, Disarm, +3 DC to Disarm

+4 with Ranged Disarm

 

 

Cheesy Combat Tricks:

Unavoidable Strikes: Area Of Effect Accurate (up to One Hex; +1/2) for up to 20 Active Points of STR, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (15 Active Points)

 

Net Master: Entangle 2d6, 4 DEF, Entangle And Character Both Take Damage (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (60 Active Points); OIF (Net of Opportunity; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, -1/2), Required Hands Two-Handed (-1/2), Range Based On Strength (-1/4)

 

 

Reach:

Horse Charge w/ Lance

Pikes & Long Spears

Whips & Chains

 

 

Multiple foes, coordinated attacks, teamwork, a blocker and a stabber working together.

 

 

 

And out of combat, everything is a challenge for this character as he has no out of combat abilities. He would consistently have problems doing anything at all that didn't involve smashing. In a typical PC group that can be ok; just about any group can carry a combat specialist out of combat. But in some groups his combat expertise wouldn't be enough to counter balance his ineptitude in all other things. Like all one dimensional characters, he looks good on paper but would struggle in actual play unless the focus of the campaign catered to his one dimension.

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Heh. It looks like our posts crossed one another in the aether and anticipated what we would each say.

[Killer Shrike]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Were I actually playing in your game KS, I would not play this character. I prefer a somewhat more well rounded character, a little less one sided. I prefer stats that make sense and a 23 strength married to a 'mere' 13 Con, Body & Presence does not make 'sense' to me. I like having a few skills appropriate to a character so they are 'not' just a tag-along outside of combat. And finally I would have three point levels on the martial art and carry a backup weapon, not two point levels on a single weapon. And XP would go for beefing up not so much the combat power, but rather resilience in the face of magic.

 

And yes, there are ways to deal with the one sided incarnation this character. First and foremost, try to get that battle flail out of his hands with a grab, disarm whatever. And he is vulnerable to all sorts of magic, so whatever mages are around should recognize him for the threat he is and cut loose. And his low presence for the kind of character his is, is a weakness that could also be exploited.

Yes, I understand that this is a sample, not a real character.

Wait a minute... You've got stuff that a 6D6 KA from a battle flail (!!! +2 stun multiple !!!), would not take down in one shot!? Holy jumpin jehoseph! What is it, a Shoggoth?

Yes, 6d6 +2 STUN is extreme.

 

However...you're presupposing that they even get hit. If this guy can't connect he can't do anything. There are plenty of other characters that don't have to get into HtH combat to be effective. There are plenty of other characters that can avoid getting hit. There are plenty of other characters that can mitigate damage.

 

Consider, even your own character can mitigate 17 body and 25 stun, even assuming his 10-12 DCV is beat and he doesn't roll w/ punch, and he didn't opt to block or dodge in the first place. Granted, his low CON is his main weakness - he has a glass jaw.

 

There are also other strategies to employ. This guy can't really take a swarm attack. If he gets rushed by a mob he's toast. He can't kill enough people fast enough to last more than a TURN or so. Once he's committed his action for a Segment, he's locked in and vulnerable to whatever.

 

Also, his 6d6 is pretty much overkill in most cases...vs most foes its not much more deadly than a 4d6 attack. It's only vs other serious threats that the extra 2d6 matters, against other foes its just wasted most of the time. This guy is an alpha-striker. He's going for a one hit one kill thing. That works in many situations, but he's committed to it. In situations where 6d6 K can't solve his problem, he's done for. Paper Tiger syndrome.

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Ah, don't you just hate these GMs that require flexibility, teamwork, actual 'tactics'! Gheesh!

[TSandman]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Yeah... they tend to ban my Rods of Nuclear Detonations and my pet Turbonium Dragon...

[Panpiper]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Yeah... they tend to ban my Rods of Nuclear Detonations and my pet Turbonium Dragon...

Ah, but that is the amazing thing about Killer Shrike. He would not ban your rod or pet, just like he would actually let me play "The Beast". What he would do instead is to simply and casually teach us the error of our ways and make us wish we had less one sided characters. Would that all GMs were as talented.

[Bismark]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Just a little ramble to give another example of stuff from an ongoing campaign - in this case a "215pt characters in the 1st edition Forgotten Realms setting" game:

 

I gave one of my players (an Earth Genasi with the appropriate name of Geb) a mace with 3D6 HKA and +2 STUN Mod bought with Affects Desolid (non-corporeal Undead only), affectionately named 'Krusher'

 

The rest of the party have serious offensive capability as well, but the real killer in this current game of mine is the fact that the party have actually gelled into a scarily efficient fighting unit.

 

They are about to ambush a caravan of bad guys (40 Hobgoblin soldiers, plus 2 human mages and 2 leader-types), and they are going to slaughter most of them, unless lots of bad dice rolls get in the way, as the bad guys' mages will be throwing big fireball attacks at the party and the party have all been 'buffed' by the cleric to the tune of an additional +14ED.

 

The fact that one of the front row fighters is a Fire Genasi with 25% fully resistant damage reduction vs. fire and the other is an Earth genasi wearing enough armour to make Conan strain under the weight means that the standard magic is going to be of limited value - and by the time the mages realise that they need to use more devious methods to hurt the PC they may well already be toast themselves.

 

The Hobgoblins using Teamwork and sensible stuff like active Shield Blocks will actually be far more dangerous - but there may not be that many standing after the party's own casters have 'let rip'.

 

FYI, the average melee attack of one of these guys (who are all 'semi-spell users' - my favourite kind of pre-6e FH character) is 2D6+1 to 3D6HKA, usually with one or other of Additional STUN Mod or AP; there is a 'machine gun' Elf archer who can do a limited number of 5xAutofire on a 2D6 bow attack and who then reverts to a 2.5D6 RKA bow attack, both of them using his Longbow of Far Shooting (No Range Modifiers). Only the Elf and the cleric have non-magical melee weapons, the Elf has a Dacian Falx-type weapon doing 3D6HKA and the Cleric has a (cold iron with silver banding on it) all-metal mace which he does 2D6+1HKA, +1 STUN Mod.

 

The feral Gnome Shaman () in the party rides a giant badger into combat and is particularly dangerous against Goblinoids and Kobolds because he has a magic Bohemian Ear-Spoon (the one I designed for the D&D 3.5 Magic Item thread - originally started by SKJAM!) - he should be able to one-hit kill most of them with that thing.

 

If this is a bit incoherent I must apologise - it's 6.38am here in the UK and it is time for bed.

[TSandman]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Heh. Er... Ok.

 

Just for the record, I would not actually saddle a GM with this character. I would deliberately tone it down a bit and beef up it's variety and role playing potential. This is just a 'proof of concept' design.

 

[...]

 

Addendum Edit: And for gods sake, GM's, do NOT throw this character at your players! This character is an example of what NOT to do, in my opinion. It would singlehandedly obliterate most parties. Give me 50 XP to spend and this character could conquer the realm (again, in my opinion).

 

Well, it could make an interesting Baddy for the group... where they have to take him out WITHOUT going directly against him..

 

A bit like putting a Dragon in many other RPG Games... you simply wanna bash on it??? You're toast!

[Midhir]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Shout out to Montreal, Plattsburgh, NY gamer here.

 

I tend to like to run what I call gritty hero games. The gaming group I'm GMing now started the Warhammer Enemy Within campaign several years ago with 75 pt characters (50 pts + 25 pts in disadvantages). I allowed the use of Deadly Blow and Combat Luck but they had to be bought with limitations and had caps on them to keep them from becoming unbalancing.

 

Basically it allowed a light armored individual (up to 2 Resistant DEF) to use Combat luck to a level that would get them equal to Full Plate but could not be combined with Full Plate. Deadly Blow could only be bought to a max of 2 levels and had to be specialized and or required an activation roll or situation (like back stab and could not be used with all attacks.

 

Initial Characteristics where restricted so that they couldn't dump all their points into one or two stats and I instituted rules to govern how often a stat could be increased in game time. This made a more logical progression in stats instead of everyone starting out with STR & DEX 20, OCV & DCV 7 and SPD 4.

 

Combats where dangerous and fun and usually fairly quick.

 

Then to simulate the Fate Point system that Fantasy Hero had I ran across a post here about a chit system where each game session the players randomly chose different colored chits that had varying effects on game play. This allows for a minor miracle or more accurately simulates those amazing but rare situations where the hero pulls something off that is simply amazing but not a routine happing every now and again to make up for a bad choice or a just plain horrible roles with out having to fudge numbers or break the reality of the game to badly.

[Midhir]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Fate Point system WFRP had not Fantasy Hero.

[runescience]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Hum. I feel your pain. I use to run with the fantasy book in the late 80s. IT was great. Here's my advice. Just keep doing the way you were doing it. No kidding. I cant see handing out a deadly blow, or martial combat maneuver, just 'because'. I think the combat maneuvers are terribly unbalancing. Only 5 points to do an extra 2 damage classes? Go back to your old books and

Stick with it! BTW, if you can find original Justice inc, staple bound, theyve got great magic abilities (the medium) and great simple boxing maneuvers, for hand to hand non weapon dam.

[runescience]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

i

 

Shout out to Montreal, Plattsburgh, NY gamer here.

...

Initial Characteristics where restricted so that they couldn't dump all their points into one or two stats and I instituted rules to govern how often a stat could be increased in game time. This made a more logical progression in stats instead of everyone starting out with STR & DEX 20, OCV & DCV 7 and SPD 4.

 

Combats where dangerous and fun and usually fairly quick...

So what are your guidelines for putting points in characteristics, skills, powers talents?

I recall that fuzion/champion which i use to have laying around some where gave x in stats, y in powers, z in skills.

[Christopher]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

i

 

 

So what are your guidelines for putting points in characteristics, skills, powers talents?

I recall that fuzion/champion which i use to have laying around some where gave x in stats, y in powers, z in skills.

This thread is from 2008, so you it's not certain you get any ansswers. In general there are guideliens for the thigsn you ask in the 5E and 6E books.

Wich version do you use?

[gewing]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

Just to add to the mix, I agree, with what's been posted. I tend to run lower-magic games (there is powerful magic in game, it's just designed to be not readily accessible in combat, so PCs tend more toward swords and axes for solving combat problems).

 

I use much the same solutions you have - Deadly Blow was banned as soon as I read it - the implications were obvious (and from what I understand, the 5E version of Deadly Blow has now gone away, to be replaced with a more expensive - but better balanced - version in 6E). Likewise, in my games, defence stacking is generally banned (the exception being that defenses bought with points do stack: that's not so much of a problem, since I've found it's hard for a mage to be invulnerable and still do much else, and such powers are rarely "always on").

 

With those safeguards in place, you can play the kind of game you seem to grok: in my current game the best armour the players have is DEF6 (better armour exists, but is not well suited to the sort of guerilla warfare they are currently engaged in). The biggest attack is 2d6 AP (a greataxe). And that's after more than 4 years continuous play with these characters. Capping off defences and attacks like this essentially prevents the arms race often seen in games.

 

cheers, Mark

 

I would echo most of what has been said here. All of the options are good' date=' but not all of the options are appropriate for every genre, or even every game within a genre. Most of them are good for simulating various effects, but you have to think carefully about what you are attempting to emulate and whether the option fits it. My fantasy games tend to be "hard-fantasy" with relatively rare magic. Its not necessarily weak, but its not common. Its generally via summoning or innate abilities of a creature, or pseudo-magical effects of various plants. For this I tend to keep defenses and damage low - and don't let them stack. Resistant Defenses run 6-8; Damage caps around 6DCs. I do allow skill levels to be dedicated to exceeding this. If I were to run a more over-the-top high magic action oriented style game I'd consider more options and higher caps.[/quote']

 

I've been considering finally upgrading from 5th edition (original, not ER) Then I started looking through the Herogames store and found myself wondering "WHich danged book do I need?"

As I still don't have a group, not really necessary, but I just got a laptop and was thinking about working up in detail some of the character ideas I have been mulling for far too long.

 

bleargh.

 

I have heard good things about 6th edition, but... Some of the discussion when it first came out did turn me off.

[gewing]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

I've been considering finally upgrading from 5th edition (original, not ER) Then I started looking through the Herogames store and found myself wondering "WHich danged book do I need?"

As I still don't have a group, not really necessary, but I just got a laptop and was thinking about working up in detail some of the character ideas I have been mulling for far too long.

 

bleargh.

 

I have heard good things about 6th edition, but... Some of the discussion when it first came out did turn me off.

 

thread necromancy plus rare perusal of some forums =

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

reading this old thread has been interesting. I totally agree with the original point being made here, and I like to run my fantasy games on the epic side. Hero has experienced far too much of an "arms race" in the last decade or so for my tastes. Of course us veteran players already know how to balance our campaigns, but new players I feel will have a very hard time getting the balance right if they use published campaign materials.

 

I really love the concept of Deadly Blow (its a concept I have used for many years before it was ever published in a Hero book) but the levels are +1D6, +2D6 and +3D6 killing? Really? And it adds to Base Damage to boot? This is madness!

 

THIS. IS. HERO!!!

 

How about we keep Deadly Blow down to +1, +2 or +3 Damage Classes and still allow it to add to Base Damage. Sound a bit more reasonable? That way the Dagger Master can buy Deadly Blow at +2 Damage Classes and turn his 2 DC attack into a 4 DC attack which limits it to 2 1/2D6 killing attack at maximum. Still a very effective damage amount, but not capable of destroying Balrogs in a single strike.

 

And while we're at it, how about we keep Combat Luck in the realm of +1, +2 or +3 Resistant Defense and no more than this. That way somebody with full plate armor (Def 8) and the maximum amount of Combat Luck (+3 resistant defense) has no more than 11 resistant defense, which in most Heroic level games should be more than enough. (do you guys like the name Combat Luck? I hate it. I prefer to call it Toughness or Resilience)

 

For my Heroic level games, I tend to keep my Talent bonuses to a maximum of +3 with some exceptions. I figure three levels of skill: Apprentice, Jouneyman and Master fits with the Fantasy motif pretty well and allows some level of granularity without boosting capability into the stratosphere. In Hero, even a bonus of +1 can be significant. A +3 is very effective, so I feel much beyond that isn't necessary unless you are trying to simulate something on the level of Exalted. (Atlantean Age comes to mind)

[Orion]

Re: A Question of Balance & Lethality

 

(do you guys like the name Combat Luck? I hate it. I prefer to call it Toughness or Resilience)

 

Hate the name, and hate the concept. Resisting damage, being harder to hit, and being lucky in combat are three different things. They have three different mechanisms for handling them. Don't say you want one thing, and then choose a mechanism for something else. I typically call it the PC Halo. I'll allow a better defense, better DCV, or luck, but most want Protection from Storyline, which I don't allow.