Magic VPP and Limitations

[Ikiry0]

I'm a new player making my first Hero 6e character (Using HERO designer 6 for help) and I've run into an issue.

 

How do Limitations on individual powers (Inside a VPP) work?

 

To be more specific, I'm trying to put together some example spells (So I don't delay during the game) and have run into something where I'm not sure if the generator is wrong or if I've misunderstood VPPs

 

I'm trying to make a big, scary ritual spell as part of my VPP. It takes multiple turns to cast and eats up a lot more endurance than normal. The final cost is below my Control Cost...but it says it isn't valid. Does the Control Cost of a VPP not care about the Limitations applied to individual powers inside it?

If so, how would I go about making a mage who can do quick dirty magic and long ritual magic without needing to put the Ritual Spells outside the VPP? I only predict doing each Ritual Magic once or maybe twice in the entire campaign (If that. It may never get used) so it feels weird to pay for those powers individually.

 

If so...what is the point of Limitations on an individual power in a VPP?

Edited May 14, 2016 by Ikiry0

[Steve Long]

First, welcome to HERO! I hope you enjoy it as much as all the rest of us.

 

Second, take +2 XP out of petty cash to reward yourself for preparing spells in advance to smooth game play. A lot of experienced players still haven’t caught on to that as much as they should.

 

Here are the relevant rules:

 

1. 6E1 409:  “No power in a VPP can have an Active Point cost greater than the Control Cost” (emphasis added).”

 

In this case you built a big ol’ spell and used Limitations to reduce its Real Cost to within the VPP’s Control Cost — but that’s not how they work.* The Active Cost — the cost before you apply Limitations — has to fit within the Control Cost.

 

2. There’s no way within the rules to have a slot in a Power Framework with an Active Point cost larger than the reserve/Control Cost. However, there are several alternatives:

 

—get your GM’s permission to do so anyway. I doubt many GMs would allow it as a matter of routine, but given the restricted circumstance you describe I bet many of them would be OK with it. I certainly would.

 

—buy additional amounts of power as a separate power outside the VPP that add to that one slot. So in a VPP with a Control Cost of 60 you might have Blast 8d6, Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +½). Then outside the VPP you’d buy Blast +12d6 (adds to VPP Blast), Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +½), costing 90 Active Points. Together you’d have a Blast 20d6, though potentially at a high price.

 

3. The point of Limiting the slots in Power Frameworks is that it lets you have more slots active at once. Suppose you have a Pool cost of 60 and a Control Cost of 60. If you had -2 worth of Limitations on each power, you could have Blast 12d6, Flight 60m, and Resistant Protection (20 PD/20 ED) all active at once, whereas without any Limitations you could only use one of those powers at a time.

 

 

*:  Lest you think you’re alone in reading things this way, I and my gaming groups back in the Eighties and early Nineties misunderstood the rules ourselves, thinking everything was kosher as long as the Real Cost of a slot fit within the Multipower/VPP. When we finally realized we were doing it wrong I was kinda pissed, because it meant redesigning a lot of characters.