Ninja-Bear

Re: Wacky attack This is another example of the the rule; Just because something can be built legally doesn't mean you should build/allow it. P.s. Hyper-man you use this and I'll buy Flying Dodge!

Re: Anniversery of the War of 1812 scenarios Well after I posted this I did consider that perhaps there might be some American villians that want to re-invade Canada. Or at least use that pretense for something else. For a scenerio, DEMON has a spell go wrong (do they ever go right?) and because its the 200th aniversary, it awakes the dead from the war and they go about and have a battle again. And to complicate matters further, if your hero helps someone that the dead consider an enemy, you get attacked too. 'Why did you save the British ship? You sir are a trader!") There are no friendly undead.

Earlier this week, my town of Erie, PA has started to celebrate the War of 1812. So I got to wonder, what would our friends (villians) up north like to do? My only official (source) Canadian villians that I have are Ladybug and The Amazing Darkon. Some game scenerios I have are the stealing of the George Washington Statue-its the only one depicting him in a British Uniform. Stealing or sinking the Brig ship Niagra. Further North in New York, is Fort Niagra and perhaps trapping delegates in the fort which the Pcs has to breach? Any other ideas? P.s. still working on using the secret Genocide base under the Horseshoe falls as depicted in Enemies I, but have the base been more on the Canadian side and the PC's have to stop an international incident.

Re: How would hero handle a lantern character? I thought that variable power pools where originally designed for GL type characters.

Re: Cassandra's Corner Cassandra, also I think that there are several reasons why they give villian many powers. 1) Versatility- I love one trick ponies but if their trick isn't working well the fight isn't so good. 2) It can reduce the number of villians you need in an adventure. You might be better off with three fairly well-rounded villians versus 5 specialist villians. 3) Some villians powers do lend themselves to having multiple and or unique powers. (I try to come up with a clever power-even if its not combat related. I'm trying not though put the same predictable powers together though. I.e Orb has light sfx-and I been resisting of buying him a flash (sight) just because it seems evryone else does.)

Re: Cassandra's Corner Christopher by raw, those agents that Dr. Destroyer has, he had to pay for them with his character points. Again in my own games, I don't worry about it, but for an official product they do.

Re: Cassandra's Corner Onething too which adds to the villian points is obscure things like perks and such. Contacts (as of 5th) can get expensive if your the boss of a minor company or gang. I think I worked out for one villian 33 pts give or take for his mob. Whereas 4th I don't think even spent the points and if they did, it would be alot cheaper. If you get a chance, look at Dr. Destroyer even in 4th, he spents riddicules amount of points on agents, bases and vehicles, which I don't know if anyone in they're campaign would do. (I do see though that in a proper book, it should be done however.) But I have used lesser point villians to effect. Bricks are usually the ones depicted as one dimensional, but there are others, at least in the older editons, Orb and Diamond are two which come to mind.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking Sean, I might be confused but I thought that the op did know that the giants fist was an area effect and that the giant is a gm controlled character. As much as I agree with you and the non selectice on area effect or the accurate version by christopher, its out of the OP's hands to redefine the area effect, which is why I suggested the above to deal with said area effect. So it seems that the first step in all of this is that the op needs to talk to the gm his concerns on the stated problem and how does the gm says he needs to buy (or not). To deal with the giants fist. I.e. the gm could say - don,t worry about it I'll allow it with a dex roll to you should buy this ability as force wall with x,y, and z. Isn't hero grand ?

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking Back to the OP's original question-how to block an area effect. Mechanically it comes donwn to no you can't use the block manuever to do it, but you can use powers with the sfx of blocking to do it. Since the OP mentioned shields, here are some ways that one can buy a power. (note these are pre-6th ed) 1) Armor defined as shield with focus and activation roll 2) Force field defined as block and appropriate limitations 3) Force Wall defined as block linked denfense manuever and appropriate limitations Sample two and three though originally presented as barehanded blocks can of course be redefined as a shield. To protect others I'd imagine the use of usable by you and others or area effect one hex would be nice. Lastly, I'm surprised that no one suggested the ever frowned upon but useful desolidification vs hand attcks. Now that would represent a block in the mechanical sense, because if used you don't take any effect whatsoever like a block. And I believe you would have to put trigger on it so you can 'abort' to it like a block.

Re: A character that calls to him/herself a sword and changes form Glad you goofed, because it help me to clairify in my mind the difference betwen the two and I have a character I need to update with this dilema.

Re: A character that calls to him/herself a sword and changes form Typically a change like this is bought as only in alternate id-think He-man cartoon. (And you get a cost break too!). The sword can magically appear when she shape-shifts. Just remeber though, if she wants to use a power through her sword, she has to buy it. I.e. she could have a 10D6 blast(ed) called hell blast that is from the sword, no problem, she just has to pay for it. And another pointto keep in mind, just because the sfx is sword, doesn't necessarly means that the sword has to take a focus limitation for it either. I'm sure you heard the mantra, reason from effect, and its true. But another thing to keep in mind (I think) is what is the combat effects you want in the game? Example I designed a belt once for a game which typically is designed as OIF, but I bought it as OAF so it could be grabbed in combat easier.

Re: Heavenly HEROic Host: Playing Angels And Testament from Green Ronin has also divisions for Angeals and demons. Yes it primarily deals from the Judeo-Christen perspective, but they had some powerful creatures. Even had a write up of Azrael the sin-eater.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking I don't doubt you've learn to 'block' this way. Most systems would call this a parry not a block, to differentiate between force on force and redirecting force. But I can tell you for a fact that Shotokan karate and Tae Kwon Do teach hard blocks. As in power vs power. Take a look at the lower x or cross block, whereas your arms cross forming a x and is used to stop a front snap or side kick.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking In some hard styles, if you block correctly, you'll hurt the person who tried to hit you. Of course in Hero to do that, you have to by some sort of trigger or damage shield.

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking For the halfing, I would allow the block, but he takes half damage. Fyi, allowing blocks to still take 1/2 damage is a suggestion in Ultimate Martial Artist 5th ed. And for genre, even though I think really strong characters couldn't be blocked by 'normal' martial artists, I would allow this for supers game. Think Grond (90 STR) vs Seeker (25 STR), now if Dragon Master (20 STR) was to block with some Chi based Yeng tao block, then I would allow a full block do to sfx. Sean your right that purely by the rules a block is a block, however the way that Steve Long reiterated in 5th edition about every other paragraph about cinematic, realism, genre, etc. I believe that those considerations do trump the rules as written.

Re: "Realistic" gun damage Couple of points I'd like to point out. First for kineetic energy and bulletproof vests, Iirc, shotgus at closre range can still kill you through the vest. The shot woun't reach you but the transference of energy will. Oh and speaking about kinetic energy, I remember an interesting story a couple of years ago. A big game hunter was suing an ammonition maker. Apparently the Hunter used an elephant round on a lion. The round was designed to impact the elephant, it actually did less damage to the lion cause it went right through it. Second, its been mentioned before about caliber and how it seems to affect people differently in kill results. One thing that Hero doesn't normally take into account is the psylogical aspect of getting hit. Military has been studying since WWI why one soldier gets hit several times and keeps going while another soldier gets barely hit and dies from shock. I mention this solely because in the real world, this is a variable to be considered, but probally not for a game. I.e. for game purposes, bigger the round the dealier.

Re: need a name... Well Worf and Klingon are taken already...so no sorry

Re: "Realistic" gun damage

Re: Thought Experment: Clasic Enimies 2

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking While I agree that the (small) giants h-t-h should be built with the blockable limitation*, there is an advantage to the OP buying the power. If the OP buys its, then he has the abilitiy to use it without worrying about if the build allows for it or the GM gives a variance for it. And in a sense, this is no difference in principal than if you want a gun then you have to pay the points for it. *See the above post about strength and block

Re: AoE HTH attacks and Blocking When you first mentioned block, I was thinking about the manuever block. (Personally, I don't think you should be able to 'block' someone who is significately stronger than you-if you can't throw them, you can't block 'em.) But since you've mentioned the shield, then I would go with barrier/force wall method which seems to be what you want, you're blocking with your shield.

Re: "Realistic" gun damage

Re: Point Caps: Why are limitations inferior to advantages? I'm the same way too. For me, it takes the play experience to understand that there is a reason why the creators put those funny symbols by certain powers. Also it helps that I play with a very experienced person too so when the dice give you different results than what is to be expected, he points out that the result is a fluke. First time I used find weakness in a game, some people rolled extremely well (he was one of them) and I had 1/8 normal defenses for the master villian-ouch. (Since the rolls didn't specifiy a limit, I wanted to see how bad it could get. Now I know.)

Re: Damage Limits Oh and same game for in-game bonus, my brother (who never played Hero before), decided to chrage the Hobgblin whose sitting on his throne, I decided that the hobgoblin was so shocked that he was 1/2 DCV and didn't block the attack.

Re: Damage Limits Ok, thanks for the explaination.