Growth power questions

[Tower]

Hi, I'm trying to make my first character using Hero System (version 6, if that helps), and I wanted to make him a size-altering superhero. But I have a question about how the Growth power works. I'm looking at the Size Templates and it says you have to pay more Endurance for each succeeding size (25 for Large, 50 for Enormous, etc.). That's completely understandable, but when I test it out in Hero Design, it only lets me pick one Template when I assign the Growth power to my character.

 

Here's an example of what I mean; Let's say I equip my hero with a Growth template of Huge. It costs 90 endurance, and it lets him grow up to 8 times normal size. It even says UP TO 8 times in Champions Complete, the book I'm using as a reference. Now let's say later on, I'm in the middle of a game and there's a scenario where he only needs to grow twice as tall (which is the Large template). Do I just apply the calculation for the Large size, or do I have to give him separate Growth powers for each individual template?

 

Also, I'm using the Champions Complete book as a reference, and it's giving me two different costs. I'm using the cost chart from page 69 of the book, but on page 223, it factors in the extra stats and gives me a completely different cost. On page 69, it says the Huge cost is 25, but on page 223 it adds it all up to 56. Which cost should I follow? Is the second cost referring to a different stat entirely?

 

Again, I'm completely new at this, I really appreciate the feedback.

[Steve Long]

Welcome to the HERO System! We hope you’re enjoying it. My apologies for the delay in responding; normally I get back to people with questions more quickly, but sometimes real life gets in my way.

 

Before I delve into your question, I need to issue a couple of caveats:

 

1. I don’t answer questions about Hero Designer; Dan Smith, the creator of the program, has a forum here on the boards where he helps people with the program. Any answer I give you will be based strictly on the 6th Edition rulebooks.

1a. (Furthermore, Hero Designer is not an official interpretation of the HERO System rules. If for some reason the two differ, there’s probably a programming reason for that which Dan can explain.)

 

2. I didn’t write Champions Complete and don’t answer questions about it specifically. However, I can answer general 6th Edition rules questions and that’s typically enough to resolve the problem — but my page references will be to the 6E core books. Derek Hiemforth, the author of CC posts here on the boards, so you may be able to ask him your question directly. (He can’t respond in this forum; only I can. But he can answer in Discussion and the other fora.)

 

If you buy Growth for your character, you aren’t required to use “all or nothing.” If you only want to Grow halfway to your character’s maximum size, you can. (Among other things, that’s a good way to conserve END if your character is getting tired.) So in your example, you could choose to have your character only Grow to “Large” size, in which case he’d have the STR, defenses, height, etc. of a Large character.

 

I’m afraid I have no idea about the cost differences in CC. I suggest posting on the Discussion board about this — anyone can respond there, and no doubt someone’s come across this already and figured out the problem.

 

Does that cover all your questions? If I missed anything, please PM me or post a follow-up.