Snarf

Re: New Boss Multiform? As an alternative to healing, you could just buy tons and tons of health and damage reduction, then limit the multiform to only when at 1/2 health, only when at 1/4 health, and so on.

Re: How not to come up with a magic system! Long Term Endurance. It's like losing ordinary endurance but takes way longer to recover.

Re: Character creation problems solved I had the same experience with GURPS. I struggled to fit my ideas to the system, doing things like trying to kludge together the seperate psionics and super powers systems for a Wild Cards style "all super powers are psi powers" type game. Later, once I understood how flexible and integrated Hero was, I ditched GURPS entirely.

Re: Character creation problems solved Hero System isn't really intended for simulating reality either. It's specifically stated that it simulates the dramatic reality of comic books and adventure stories. You should try a game like GURPS sometime if realism is important to you.

Re: Help with Mystic/Pulp Hero Characters In all the official supplements I've seen, it's done that way.

Re: Help with Mystic/Pulp Hero Characters With the stats this guy has, he seems extremely frail. I think his strength is comparable to a 10 year old's. It's a good counterbalance to his incredible agility. Is this guy the rich adventurer archetype? I don't know if 3 INT fits that well, if he is. Usually the adventurer guy is pretty quick witted and experienced. He'd usually have more presence and comeliness too.

Re: Where is the Physical Manifestation Limitation? You'll have to get the book for examples and a full explanation, of course, but basically it's for powers that have a physical presence which can be attacked, but aren't really foci.

Re: I need help designing some equipment 2) You could apply trigger, so the power would work automatically without anyone directing it. 4) I think you don't need to apply the +2 affects all powers of a given special effect advantage, if you're only aiding the pool and nothing else. Since this is only going to add to one thing, as an alternative you could just build it as the VPP with a focus limitation, and let it add to VPPs as a partially limited power. For vehicle equipment, you could buy it like a 90 point VPP with OIF Bulky, and write it down as +90 to VPP base with OAF Bulky. Check out FREd p.180 for more about partially limited powers.

Re: Character creation problems solved I agree with Archer, the cure is worse than the disease if you resort to randomly rolled stats. What I like it to do is not only specifically emphasize other stats in planning my games, but also explain why they're useful to players and make them look interesting. In a combat centered game I'm doing, I've started creating some background skills that have combat utility, so buying intelligence wouldn't feel like wasted points. Due to the specifics of the magic system in that game, it's almost required that at least one person in the group know skills like KS: Monsters.

Re: Plot device or by the rules I used to stat out most stuff without figuring out point costs, because it wasn't worth the effort most of the time, but then I got Hero Designer. Now I tend to stat out most stuff and Hero Designer does the hard work of figuring out the point values and such.

Re: alternate weapon design mod: undreadys -1/4 or -1/2 Hmm, drawing a weapon isn't precisely the same as readying a weapon, but I see what you're saying. There are small inconsistencies with treating it like readying a weapon, for instance, if you want to be able to "draw a weapon" faster you buy the fast draw agility skill, but faster readying of a weapon should really depend on your strength. I think, in adition to adding this limitation to weapons, you should create a maneuver specifically for readying and give it rules. Maybe something like, you have to take the ready maneuver and spend a turn readying a weapon with the "weapon unreadies" modifier, unless you can meet that weapons STR Min while only using your casual STR.

Re: alternate weapon design mod: undreadys -1/4 or -1/2 Ready is an existing maneuver? What book is it in?

Re: alternate weapon design mod: undreadys -1/4 or -1/2 Usually a weapon that needs to be readied (a bow for instance) is just given the extra time limitation. What you describe isn't really a custom limitation, but the Fantasy version of Extra Time: Full Phase, with a more appropriate name and defined special effects.

Re: Package Deals for a 25/25 game For a 25/25 game, I'd say forget about package deals entirely. At that level, there's be little or nothing left to customize the character with if the package deals go higher than 5 points or so, assuming people are going to be taking multiple package deals.

Re: Fantasy Hero Conversions Here's your one stop shop for converting D+D to Fantasy Hero: http://www.killershrike.com/FantasyHERO/FantasyHERO.htm And feel free to post any specific questions you might have.

Re: You wouldn't like him when he's mad... This sounds like an uncommon Accidental Change disadvantage (listed on 5'th Ed. p. 212,213). Normally an accidental change would go with a problematic multiform, but I guess you could connect it with something else if you don't like multiform.

Re: Special Materials It depends on whether you're working with real equipment or magic items. With real equipment you need a system like those awesome price creation rules Outsider uses. When magic is involved, you can come up with any numbers you like and it'll be pretty believable.

Re: Special Materials Doh, it's all created and used in Hero Designer. One day I'll put up a webpage with the info for my players, but that's going to take a while.

Re: Cheese Check It's not really so much about game balance or combat for me. It's more about genre simulation. An interstellar spaceship is a pretty trivial perk in some genres and making it cost a thousand times what your character does would be too prohibitive. Megascale is just a tool the GM can use to handle certain situations. About the 1000d6 damage example, even if it's cheap to buy the movement, it'd be a suicide attack unless you spend a ton of points on defenses. It's pretty cheesy, but I'm guessing it won't kill the game.

Re: Cheese Check That's exactly why megascale is a stop sign power. That sort of thing should only be allowed when the GM is sure it's appropriate for the genre, concept, and campaign. That said, I agree with Jhamin that it's exactly what megascale is for. Sometimes, it's absolutely necessary to have an ability like that. For instance, every spaceship has to use megascaling in a movement multipower and bunch of other powers.

Re: How would you simulate these limitations A lot of what you're talking about can be done with side effects. For instance, here's a write up of that STR drug that makes you dumb: Muscular Booster: Aid STR 2d6, Delayed Return Rate (points fade at the rate of 5 per 5 minutes; +1/2), (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Side Effects (occurs automatically whenever power is used, 1d6 INT drain, returns at the rate of 5 per 5 minutes; -1), 4 Charges (-1), (7 Real Points).

Re: Special Materials If you're interested in how I did it, you can download the HD prefabs I use for my fantasy game over here. Open the one called equipment using the open prefab command (not load prefab, if you do it that way you can't see the notes on materials required).

Re: Special Materials I tried to do something like this. I built every possible weapon and armor in Hero Designer and listed an alchemical recipe underneath it. The players could load that as a prefab and pull what they wanted out of it, provided they had the right ingredients. It turned out to be way more trouble than it was worth though, because every time I changed anything, I would have to make the change 3 dozen times, until I had gotten each prefabbed item it affected.

Re: Hero Designer v2 - Helpful or Hurtful I don't think it's much help for starting players, but after you've mastered the basics it can help you get the details right and clear up misunderstandings.

Re: How do you do this?