Conversing Midnight fantasy world to Hero System

[Theros]

I made spell like ability called Rage.

 

What this might cost:

 

Rage: Beast can put himself into the berserk like state. Beast gets +10 STR, can ignore any impairing effects from the wounds and will ignore all the stun damage effects (all body and stun damage is still being counted) for the duration of the combat. Beast will attack any living being near him, but can recognize friendly person by making EGO roll. He can stop rage by making EGO roll, or when combat ends.

[Lucius]

I am going to use END reserve as stat with separate REC and END. I think adding AID will make things too complicated?

As I understand it, you want someone who is out of spell energy to be able to access more by, essentially, taking wounds.

 

Aid with Side Effects would be one way to do that. Another is to have each such character buy a SECOND END Reserve that has the Side Effects. Yet another is to just house rule that you can get X amount of spell energy by losing Y amount of BOD at whatever rates you set.

 

If you don't expect it to come up often, the last option may be best.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

Did a palindromedary eat my tagline?

[Markdoc]

You don't need aid: in this case, I agree it's a needless complication. In my game, spells run off Long Term Endurance, which means that casters become exhausted if they cast too many spells in a short period, and that if they continue to cast, the spells use STUN in lieu of END, and ultimately BOD, if you run out of STUN, though you are likely to KO yourself before you can do yourself too much injury. This is simply reflected by a -1/2 limitation on the spells themselves "Spells require Mana (LTE)". Casters can buy END reserves, and there's a variety of options to fill those.

 

It's a very simple system that doesn't require any extra book-keeping.

 

Cheers, Mark

[Steve]

So a spellcaster can start with energy in an END Reserve and use that up, then start burning LTE?

 

Could a spellcaster simply buy extra END that only gets used by magic to stave off LTE effects?

[Markdoc]

Sure: the catch being that the extra END also uses the LTE rule. That said, a lot of spell casters do buy END only to power their spells. END reserves can have their own REC (still subject to LTE rules) or they can have a GM-approved method of recovery (using the life force of dying foes, for example, is a classic )

 

The idea is not to gimp spellcasters too much, but also ensure that magic is not the automatic answer to every problem: a mage who novas his encounters is likely to run out of Mana and be unable to cast much magic for a day or two.

 

cheers, Mark

[Theros]

So...

 

Character has, lets say, 20 END(not END reserve), to cast spells. Every spell just have LTE limitation and caster recovers END normally using his own REC?

[Theros]

And I will just house rule that every END (which is spell point) uses 2 STUN when caster does over casting?

[Markdoc]

Yup. As I noted, that's a minor but real limitation, so I give it a -1/2 limitation.

 

Cheers, Mark

[Theros]

I like this even more than END reserve. Now I need to modify some racial abilities abit, but that is not a big deal.

[Steve]

Could extra REC be bought that only affects the LTE calculation? I'm guessing that would be a -1 Limitation on the extra REC.

[Markdoc]

Again the answer is yup, but I only award it a -1/2, because for most characters in heroic games, running out of END is a relatively rare event, so REC features mostly for Spells and STUN - buying it up for a caster, the main point is enhanced spell use. Players often buy further limitations on it (for example, concentration to simulate a trance, etc) making it potentially quite cheap.

 

That (fortunately) doesn't affect game balance too badly, since a higher REC allows you to recover more LTE, but the slow recovery of END still limits how much you END (and therefore Spells) you can use in a day: you still need prolonged periods of rest to get all your END back.

 

regards, Mark

[Steve]

Do you cap the amount of REC that someone may buy that way? What is the most you have seen?

 

Markdoc, maybe I missed it in one of your replies, but can a spell be built with Reduced END in your campaign world? For a minor Advantage, it can really boost a spellcaster's ability to spray magic around and delay LTE loss.

[Markdoc]

Reduced END, yes, but not 0 END. All spells must at the least take the "costs END to cast" limitation. One of the goals was not make magic use too difficult, but to ensure mages could not tank up with layers of protective spells 24/7. And of course, if they are buying reduced END, they getting more uses, but at the cost of less raw power.

 

Cheers, Mark

[Theros]

I made spell like ability called Rage.

 

What this might cost:

 

Rage: Beast can put himself into the berserk like state. Beast gets +10 STR, can ignore any impairing effects from the wounds and will ignore all the stun damage effects (all body and stun damage is still being counted) for the duration of the combat. Beast will attack any living being near him, but can recognize friendly person by making EGO roll. He can stop rage by making EGO roll, or when combat ends.

How I should create this one? I think that it should be treated little bit like Berserk ability.

 

If I want to create "lower" version from this and call it rage, it would be much easier to do, if there aren't those EGO rolls involved.

[Theros]

What you think about ignoring D&D Prestige classes and only thing that I do is to convert few powers to Hero System, which are available for certain Classes/Professions only.

[mhd]

Why? I don't really see a need to waste time and energy to badly emulate totally artificial restrictions of other systems. If it doesn't make sense that character A learns ability B, he doesn't. Whether that's Judo or Invoked Conflagration of Divine Opalescence.

[Theros]

That is why I asked...

[Steve]

One of the reasons to play Hero is to get away from class packages and its restrictions, so it's fine to not recreate D&D prestige classes exactly. Instead, create the abilities from them that you like and then let players pick whatever ones they like.

 

However, if you want to enforce character types, you can do that by limiting choices to lists. Player A wants to be a fighter, so here are all the abilities he can have as a fighter on this list. Player B wants to be a channeler, so here is his list of choices.

 

You as GM just have to decide how you prefer characters be built. I've always liked Hero for giving me the ability to scribble outside the lines and not be constrained by classes. Think of it as the ultimate in multi-classing.

[Theros]

Basic idea behind the planning is quite simple.

 

Race, is something that player have to pick up.

 

Different races give different bonuses and complications. Some complications are mandatory and some can be picked up.

 

Then comes professions. This is two edged sword. Players can choose not to pick up any certain profession. Those players can more freely develop their characters to way they want. Other side is... if player picks up channeler profession. He will get some stat bonuses (increases his maximum attribute) and he will get some profession specific spell-like abilities (powers). When character picks up profession there are some things that player have to pick up (train some skills from certain list etc). So choices are more limited than without profession.

 

Then comes second mandatory thing in the whole game, Heroic Paths. Heroic Paths are one kind of spirits that are inside the hero. Hero will get special powers, attribute increases and maybe even skills from that spirit (there are 5-10 powers that can be bought from spirit, but it is not mandatory to buy those). This is the choise that player cannot change afterwards, it is like his race.

 

Those are basic guidelines. Players can choose for example Elf race, Heroic Path that has healing powers and still he can be fighter, or without profession.

[Markdoc]

It might also be worthwhile to look at this thread - there we discussed how to simplify the game by making packages of various hero powers instead of getting players to allocate points point-by-point. I mention it, because the game I ran worked pretty much like you describe - the characters picked a starting package which had all the basic stuff for that archetype/class and then a variety of packages to customise it. If you wanted to, you could easily build out those packages to that you could pick a 10 point package at each "level" and that "prestige classes" (which normally have pre-requisites) simply opened packages that were not normally available. For example, you can't become a Templar (ie: take the Templar package) without already having the "Armoured warrior" and "Priest" or "Paladin" packages.

 

If you really wanted to, you could give a small bonus, each time the character chose a package in their selected path (so, just to give an example: someone who chose the "fighter" profession package at the beginning gets +1 STUN each time he chooses a "martial combat package", etc.

 

In a way, this works like the online game Path of Exile: any character class can use any weapon/armour and choose any selection of skills, as they level up - but the hulking muscular marauder generally gets more out of heavy armour and big axes than dagger fighting or casting spells. Still, if you want a muscular, tattooed spell caster with a big axe, you can do that.

 

cheers, Mark

[Steve]

For inspiration, you might take a look at Narosia, a new Fantasy Hero world being produced by Legendsmiths and coming out this year The quick start pages go through races and abilities and structures them into packages.

 

You can find it here: http://www.legendsmiths.com/narosia/quick-start

[Theros]

I am now working with the biggest (the hardest from conversion point of view) profession. Channelers. They have a lot of different kind of powers and there are 3 totally different of them. Now I am working with Spiritual Tradition.

 

They have following "main ability":

 

Master of Two Worlds: Spiritual channelers are gifted with the ability to command the natural world and to ward off that which is unnatural. The spiritual channeler may use this ability varying number of times per. Spiritual channeler may choose one of the powers listed below, channeler cannot choose same power twice. Starting channeler must choose either mastery of nature, mastery of the unnatural, or mastery of spirits.

Unless otherwise stated, each power must be used independently. For instance, if a spiritual channeler with the mastery of nature power and the mastery of the unnatural power is being attacked by a gang of barghests and their hunting wolves while being grappled by an assassin vine, he may choose to attempt to rebuke the assassin vine and the wolves, or turn the barghests, but not both.

 

I have done conversion to Mastery of Nature and to Master of Unnatural. Now I am working with Mastery of Spirits. There channeler has ability to excorcist spirits and demons from host. They have Dispel Possession power, with different levels (to get some upgrades). Now I need to work with one effect that allows to alter main power of Dispel Possession. How I can do this with Hero System Rules?

 

Precise Effect: When the spiritual channeler uses master of two worlds, he may choose a specific creature type from among those he may affect. The effect is applied to creatures of that type before all others. For instance, in the example above, the channeler could choose to affect animals first or plants first, causing the rebuke attempt to apply to the assassin vine or the hunting wolves before moving on to the other creatures.

[Theros]

Second question considering the Hermetic Tradition. Hermetic channelers have special book called "the lorebook". They can consult book to get information from book that helps them during the adventures. I have planned so that every 5 Character points that character uses to that book (up to 20 points) will increase the lore of that book (I made table from it).

 

Should I create that book, or is it just "Spend 5 points and you will get book to next level" ?

 

There are certain special abilities in that book (my idea was to create those as character powers, to help character to use book more efficiently). One example of those powers is:

 

Foe Specialty: The hermetic channeler recognizes the value of knowledge as a weapon. At the beginning of each day, he may choose one creature type as he peruses his book. The channeler may make Knowledge checks to identify creatures and their special powers or vulnerabilities. Additionally, the channeler can rattle off what he knows about such creatures by rote. In game terms, this means that he may communicate any knowledge he has about such creatures to his companions as soon as initiative is rolled, assuming his companions are within earshot. This power may be chosen multiple times; each time it is chosen, the hermetic channeler may use the foe specialty ability on one additional creature type per day.

 

How I should think that?

[Theros]

Any ideas on those two things above?

[Lucius]

Second question considering the Hermetic Tradition. Hermetic channelers have special book called "the lorebook". They can consult book to get information from book that helps them during the adventures. I have planned so that every 5 Character points that character uses to that book (up to 20 points) will increase the lore of that book (I made table from it).

 

Should I create that book, or is it just "Spend 5 points and you will get book to next level" ?

 

There are certain special abilities in that book (my idea was to create those as character powers, to help character to use book more efficiently). One example of those powers is:

 

Foe Specialty: The hermetic channeler recognizes the value of knowledge as a weapon. At the beginning of each day, he may choose one creature type as he peruses his book. The channeler may make Knowledge checks to identify creatures and their special powers or vulnerabilities. Additionally, the channeler can rattle off what he knows about such creatures by rote. In game terms, this means that he may communicate any knowledge he has about such creatures to his companions as soon as initiative is rolled, assuming his companions are within earshot. This power may be chosen multiple times; each time it is chosen, the hermetic channeler may use the foe specialty ability on one additional creature type per day.

 

How I should think that?

Hand me the Monster Manual, I get to look this up: (Total: 17 Active Cost, 7 Real Cost) Analyze: Creature 18- (17 Active Points); Conditional Power Only of chosen type, choose new type each day (-1), Conditional Power Must have had access to Lorebook and chance to study it that day (-1/2) (Real Cost: 7)

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary consults the Junior Woodchuck Manual