Panpiper

I am confused as to what this means. It is a suggested limitation in the rules book as a constraint on the sort of powers one can put in a variable power pool. Does this mean simply that the 'special effect' is always magic? How does it constrain the building of 'spells' for that pool?

The mentioned limitations would be on the powers selected for current use within the pool itself, not the optional powers that could in theory be swapped out. My feeling it that not being able to invent of the cuff a mind reading power to mind read the aliens you've just met or craft a universal translator talk to them (as a forinstance), IS a limitation. Whether it is worth saving points is my question.

Yes.

As many spells as the character's intelligence score can be ready to cast. You can trade them out, between scenarios.

I think maybe this needs to be rephrased. Cannot create spells/powers on the fly. New spells/powers may only be created between scenarios. Any way I look at it, that IS a restriction, and not an insignificant one.

It occurs to me that being able to invent new powers for a VPP on the fly in game is a very nice feature, whereas requiring that all VPP powers be predefined, approved and on the character sheet before game is actually a limitation on the VPP. Would you agree that taking (or having it required to be taken) the titular limitation aught be worth a -1/4 limitation on the control costs of a VPP?

I am free days. Sadly all my evenings however are booked solid. I'd nonetheless be interested to know your points/balance guidelines. I just happen to be putting the finishing touches on what I would think could be a very sweet (depending upon taste) character in a teen supers game.

I think my worst case of power gaming (from decades ago when I was young and more stupid) was when Hero first introduced cosmic power pools. A GM running Fantasy Hero let me have such a pool for my mage. However I was VASTLY more conversant with the rules back then and my mind capable of crunching numbers very fast in my head. I ran roughshod through the game, pulling absolutely whatever I needed at the moment to defeat anything and everything. As far as I recall, there were no limitations taken on anything. I have learned from my own experience the need to stem the power players. (VPPs are fine to a degree, but with restrictions, chief among them to me is that all powers are defined, written and approved before the game.) Now, I do let myself min-max, but I try to keep power levels within defined guidelines, and use my expertise (such as it is) more to squeeze more breadth out of the points, not more power.

That sorta depends what you are trying to sneak. I just posted a character that has a cosmetic transform that can make people cleaner and more attractive. That is not likely to imbalance a campaign. Her severe transform to turn someone into her thrall might, but in this case, there is the exigent circumstance of it being a perfectly appropriate power for her given the appropriate situation. Check the bottom the the thread: Panpiper's free for all character archive.

It's been a while since I've updated this page. While I've been working on a lot of characters, I haven't had any really leap out at me of late. This is not to say that all the ones I have posted thus far 'are' particularly noteworthy, but the majority have been in my opinion particularly worthy in some respect, often in their backstory, sometimes in their utility. I finally have a character that I find noteworthy in all respects. Scheherazade - Former Pleasure Slave Become Mage - Fantasy Scheherazade is not really a combat character, but would not be a liability in a combat heavy game. She's got a (again, all I say here is "in my opinion") great backstory which her build reflects completely. She has awesome roleplaying potential, and some very interesting ways she could present as an NPC as well as a player character. She would also make a devastatingly effective "honey trap" spy, with not a stealthy bone in her body. She could be an innocent in need of saving, a mysterious figure offering up a quest, or a force behind the throne, manipulating a king. (Check the background tab in the HDC file for more about using her as an NPC.) http://www.mediafire.com/file/t4n97zgda4yoc15/Scheherazade's+Character+Sheet.pdf/file http://www.mediafire.com/file/lv8du2gmxy65vhu/Sheherazade.hdc/file She can summon warriors to aid her. They are below. http://www.mediafire.com/file/qn93kv807fly6yl/Valhala%27s_Ghost%27s_Character_Sheet.pdf/file http://www.mediafire.com/file/uyjdqv4qav2yjsy/Valhala%27s_Ghost.hdc/file

I love campaigns that last. I did once have opportunity to play in a game that lasted five years, and ended when we solved the 'great problem' and saved the universe by destroying it (long story). It was basically a demi-god level fantasy game. Dear, dear memories there. Most other games I have played last more than a few months, but rarely more than a couple of years. The opportunity to have played in a 40 year campaign would have been a dream for a lifetime. Maybe in my next life build. How many points would that perk cost I wonder?

There is little I enjoy more than creating characters. I'd love to know what sort of game you would be creating, what your character guidelines are, etc.. I'd build a character for the game even if I couldn't play, that you could have as an NPC maybe. With regard to gaming, My EST evenings are pretty much booked up, but I am free most days. So depending on how time zones line up, I 'might' be able to play. You can find some sample characters I've created here.

Oh, well that rules me out.

True, but it does depend a lot on how you pay for it. As a for instance, here's a character I am currently building for a Fantasy Hero game using pretty much the standard Fantasy Hero guidelines. She's got 50% resistant damage reduction and is a 175 point character. Sheherazade.pdf

"Transdimensional on Teleport: This is called Extra Dimensional Movement and is a defined power." Err... Yes? That's how I bought it, no? It an effect you add to teleport. It's sitting right there in Hero Designer when you are building a teleportation power. The point of this power essentially a plot device to to let the players get to whatever scenario the GM cooks up, including the possibility of things going awry in other dimensions where the GM can get seriously creative. It is NOT meant to take GMs on a joyride with the character. "Precog / Retrocog Clairsentience: Campaign breaker unless the GM decides to make it useless. If you bought with "Vague and Unclear" I would consider it." I always assumed that such precognition and retrocognition was vague and unclear, by 'definition'. Is that not so? The point of the power is to let the GM feed clues to the players, not be used to outright end mysteries. "1. Why do you have combo powers in a VPP? I mean, it's legal, but it reduces your versatility. Buy the Flight and Desolid as separate powers." I suppose for simplicity's sake and a shorter character sheet. I could not see any other instance in which 10 points of flight would be used with any other power as they all use the full pool, all except desolid. Also, I see her VPP powers as being 'spells' that she has put together. It is not simply a list of power effects the GM has OKed in advance. Her pool is too small to use multiple powers at once, so it was just simpler to create the exact effect she'd be going for in each instance. There is no instance in which she would go desolid, without also being able to float. "2. On the invocation of water, I assume this is to avoid killing villains or bystanders outright? Why not go ahead and make it Reduced Penetration? And probably you could add in No Knockback to help even more, KB on even on 6d6 normal can kill a civilian with bad rolls." As I understand it, an attack that is "Stun Only" does no body, and therefor does no knockback. A game I am in just two weeks ago threw a child at us that was pulsing 30d6 explosions in the middle of a residential neighborhood. There were already civilian deaths and casualties. We needed to stop him and fast, because he was pulsing every few seconds, but we had nothing that did no body. I reduced my EB to 10d6 and 'pulled' it to do half body. Apparently I almost killed him. Reduced penetration is not sufficient for a power meant to NOT kill normals. That power's effect is to cause ice cold water from the depths of the ocean to suddenly soak the target to the bone. It's the thermal shock and sudden vasodilation that causes them to faint. There's no knockback there. I think it is nonsensical to build a power that won't kill normals and expect the character to 'therefore', for all intents make it useless against supervillains because the cost reduces the dice to ineffectual numbers. I want a spell that can be used against both, and will kill neither. "3. I would add "Only Magic Effects" to the entire pool, for -1/4. Saves 6 points." Given that I have already defined all the powers as mystical/magical, I guess that would make sense. I was not aware that was available as a 'limitation'. "4. Why are all the powers without limitations? Part of the flexibility of a VPP is to have a variety of options available to you at one time. The way you have set it up you can basically only keep one power at a time in it?" That was the intent. It is her spell book, a list of the possible things she might cast. on The character was originally built using a multipower where the ultra slots 'were' the spells she could cast. On the advice of several I converted her to use a VPP, and thematically a VPP makes more sense for her conception. But her VPP is not large enough to do multiple things in the same phase, or have more than one power going at once. So there is little point in defining some spells as smaller so other 'small' spells can be used concurrently. I would never use her that way. "5. Ditch the Reduced End / Zero END advantages. If you get to low on END, set up an AID to REC or an AID to END." Again, if I am not going to be having other 'small' effects going, there is little point to using more endurance. Sure I could create a spell effect she could pop off every once in a while, forgoing other actions, but I would gain nothing by doing so if I'm not going to use other small powers concurrently, and I WOULD loose those action phases for recovery castings. "6. Set up some spells with Foci (wand, staff, rod, skull, whatever). This cuts the real points, giving you options for keeping multiple things up at once. Not everything, of course, you want to be able to operate without them, but villains like having things to knock out of your hand and it sometimes saves you getting shot instead." I understand where you are going with that, and that might be fine for a different character that was again, intending other concurrent powers to be in effect. However in this case, where she wouldn't, it 'also' violates the vision I have in my head for her power. Samantha Stephens wiggled her nose and did whatever magic she wished. Jeannie crossed her arms and blinked. I see this character as manipulating magic much the way Wanda does in the Marvel series. None of them haul out wands, voodoo dolls or crystals. "7. Set up some Full Phase attack actions, maybe with a couple other limitations as well. They won't always be what you use, but options are key with a VPP." Again makes sense for someone intending concurrent effect, but that would require a much larger pool. All her powers are already using the maximum points 'allowed' (assuming a 62 active point limit). She would gain nothing from making them "full phase" other than to deny herself the ability to change to that power and use it on the same phase.

So, I have here a character with: 10PD/10ED Natural 5 PD/5 ED Resistant Defense Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% This build takes more damage from smaller attacks, less damage from really big attacks. All is well. No GM would bat an eye at this build. She also bounces small bullets off her chest, laughing at the feeble pop guns of street punks and police officers. However I do not want that. I want a character that takes damage from smaller attacks, that does NOT "bounce bullets off her chest". I want a character that respects the weapons of street punks and police officers because they can do body damage to her. So I define the resistant defense as leaky, always lets half through. This saves me three whole character points! I am clearly being abusive with my build and character conception. Instead you would require me to SPEND, VASTLY MORE points to PURCHASE the extra vulnerability!!!??? Why? Because Hero is a rigid system in which all possible effects must conform in exactly one way to the published powers. No limitations may be taken on anything in a manner which might resemble some other power definition. Are you guys effing serious?

I agree. I had added that power when those current Complications were already written for a previous incarnation of the character (that did 'not' have that power in the pool). I'm waiting on a solid final character build before fleshing out her backstory and such, which no doubt will greatly inform her complications.

I'm in the process of building a Witch, a magic power pool wielding sorceress (built as a 400 point super). The power pool actually costs substantially more than a multipower with ten ultra slots and comes with downsides the multipower does not, like needing a half phase to change powers PLUS a skill roll that could fail. To get my points worth, I was highly motivated to pack every obvious power I could into her pool, I'd need a lot more than ten to feel good about not using a multipower instead. As I was doing this, it because quite obvious to me that much of what I was adding could be problematic for many GMs/games. This then begs the question, which powers would 'you' allow in your game? I'll present the character I am in the process of building as an initial example of where things could go. Morgana_Adams_Revision1.hdc Morgana_Adams_Character_Sheet_Revision1.pdf

Ok, I've taken most of what people have written and made some fairly massive adjustments. Most apparent of all of them is the replacing of her multipower with a variable power pool. The power pool comes with some serious downsides, with her having to spend a half phase to change powers AND have to make a skill roll to succeed. Even with that it is substantially MORE expensive than the same level of power in a multipower with ten ultra slots that does NOT suffer those limitations (unfortunately this came at the expense of a lot of skill roll fluff). However it 'does' have the extra flexibility of being able to pull rabbits out of the hat depending upon the exigencies of the following game session. Plus, I suppose technically defining it as a magic power pool is more technically accurate given the character conception. When in doubt, I usually bend to conception over point efficiency. I have not yet taken a deep dive into her Complications. I is entirely possible, likely even, that they will be modified as I write her backstory. I am going to start a new thread dealing specifically with the subject of what powers aught people let into variable power pools (and multipowers for that matter). Let's confine any discussions of that matter to that thread. Lets keep this thread just for any further comments about this heavily revised version. Morgana Adams Revision1.hdc Morgana Adams's Character Sheet Revision1.pdf

I am playing in a supers game right now where my flying tank has a limitation similar to this. The limitation my tank took was that one quarter of the killing body damage would get through. I gave it a -1/4 limitation. Last game she was down to half body. In at least one game, the entire group was forced to flee because we were all down to shreds of stun, with my character at that moment having all but one body left. There is absolutely no question that that limitation was NOT gratuitous, if anything, she didn't get enough for it. Lilith Lefey's Character Sheet In the case of this question, it was posed in the context of a 175 point fantasy character that would typically be wearing def seven armor, and this would be additional defense. Ordinary 2d6 weapons wielded by mooks would probably only occasionally reach the defense. Bosses and named enemies easily would with 3d6 KAs. The idea here is to reduce the body loss but not force the game to up the dice just to do damage. In this case I think half body for a -1/4 is just about right, but I wanted feedback. The GM already approved it by the way without blinking an eye.

We are playing at 6PM EST which unfortunately is 3PM PST. That's too bad.

The shield gives DCV because your 'target' uses the shield for cover, ducking away from the blow, a duck that "would not be possible" without the shield. Think of it like a partial cover DCV bonus.

The shield itself is really easy to hit. The hard part is hitting the man behind the shield, using it for cover. To your assertion however that the shield is a fragile thing, and easy to penetrate, we'll leave aside that this defies history. Remember that while you are swinging your axe, the other guy is trying to hit you with his sword. If you haul off with a "tree felling" two hand swing intending to penetrate or otherwise break the shield, you are going to be killed before the blow lands. And even if you somehow escape death, what is very likely to happen is that your axe will now be stuck inside the shield. If that happens, you are dead. Furthermore, you are incorrect about the ease with which they can be penetrated. Shields were basically the equivalent of plywood, with wood grain running in multiple directions. Try hanging a piece of plywood against from a tree branch and swinging at it with an axe. There is virtually no chance of penetrating it. 'Maybe' if you propped it against a tree trunk so it couldn't move, you could get 'some' sort of penetration, but that would simulate nothing. A man holding a shield is NOT a tree trunk. Hit the shield hard, and the shield will yield a bit, robbing the axe of much of it's impact.

I spent many years fighting in the Society for Creative Anachronism. I practiced and was qualified in all weapons (including weapon and shield), but I mostly fought with polearm and two hand sword (what I used was the equivalent of a hand and a half bastard sword, wielded two handed). People wearing shields were by FAR the hardest to hit. There is absolutely no question they got a DCV bonus out of it and it wasn't because they used it to 'actively' block. That's not how shields are actually used. Hollywood gets shields, or more specifically how shields are used, wrong, all the time. They depict people swinging their shields to intercept attacks. You would do this with a buckler, maybe a small heater, but for serious shields there is no way you could swing that thing around with any real effect without utterly exhausting your strength. Rather what you do is to brace it close to your body and lean the weight so it is centered in your shoulder. You then maneuver yourself around the shield, you do not move the shield! There is of course a bit of movement, such as when you hunch your shoulder in a flinch response to defend against a head strike, but for the most part it stays where it is. This is not incidentally why shields can work in a shield wall. Oh, and using a shield that way is not at all tiring. That's WHY it is used that way.

If it's a Tuesday evening EST, I'd be interested. Only evening I have free at this point.