Panpiper

I do very much enjoy building characters, and I like for them to be well fleshed out with sufficient detail in their backgrounds to give them both adequate personality and various ways they could work within a game. I also like to make characters that are usable both as player characters and NPCs as the case may be. Finally I do like to share. I intend to use this thread to post any fully developed Hero System characters I have built or will build in the future. Anything posted here will have full writeups and have appropriate background skills. I tend to create both fantasy and superhero characters, so these will be a mix of both. Anyone is free to use any of these characters either as PCs or as NPCs. Many of them will work well for both, while a few are likely best suited for NPCs only. Point totals of course will vary. I will usually stick to standards, but sometimes characters get created based on an individual GM's campaign settings, and they may have differing point totals than standard. Do with them as you will. Feel free to comment and critique, but please refrain from posting your own characters to this thread unless you are posting it as an example of a point you make in a comment.

Nope. The prohibition against writeups pretty much kills any motive for comment on my part.

I think it should be a club for supers, not just supers with a wealth perk. Otherwise we are SEVERELY constraining the utility of the whole affair. Moreover there just aren't enough super wealthy supers to support an establishment like this. There might however be enough supers on the whole to do so. The super wealthy normals who would buy the 10X priced membership (for normals) would be doing so to rub shoulders with supers in general, not just well heeled supers.

I took it from a prefab equipment list. As a piece of equipment however, a strength minimum is, in my opinion, absolutely necessary. A strength zero person cannot pick up a great club and do 3d6 damage with it. On the other hand, a strength 15 person 'would' be strong enough to pick it up, and instead of the same sort of fellow wielding a greatsword and doing 2d6 killing, with the great club they would do 6d6 normal instead.

Superpowered 'riff raff' would still have to cough up $1000. to join. There is a gentleman's club in my own city that charges exactly that and it's pretty freaking exclusive. Normals would have to pay ten times that and they most certainly would not be riff raff. It has to be affordable for a player character super that did not buy a wealth perk.

My brain is starting to build the idea of an exclusive members club that caters to the powered crowd. It would be a safe zone for villains, heroes and the uninvolved alike. Membership would not be completely exclusive to supers, but a fairly involved waiver must be signed before being allowed to join, and normals are made aware that if shit goes down despite all efforts, things could get very dangerous indeed. Membership for (those who can demonstrate powers) are steep, but affordable ($1000. to join, $500. annual dues.) For the most part, only fairly well to do and overly adventurous normals join, as the membership fees are quite steep for normals, ten times that of the fees paid by supers. However the place remains a good place for supers wanting to network with the rich and famous to find opportunities. The club is a very nice place visually, well painted, decorated, and tastefully lit, even though the whole place is built to danger room standards. Very little is destructible inside the public areas. Tables and chairs are mostly booths with everything built as single contiguous ferrous concrete, everything coated with ballistic steel. Nothing other than tableware and cushions can be picked up and moved. Table tops are polished steel. Bench cushions are fireproof and acid resistant. Several supers find employment there. Each will be detailed. Employment is available for players looking for jobs. Pay is not exorbitant but significantly higher than what one would get doing the same job elsewhere. No violence is permitted inside the grounds of the club, in its associated parking garage (which is also built to danger room standards), or on the road and highway approach ramp that leads to the club. Anyone initiating violence looses their membership. Minor violations can be appealed after one year to have it reinstated. Major violations are permanent, as are second minor violations. Anyone initiating violence will find themselves fighting not just whomever they attacked, but the super powered staff who work at the establishment.

That is not a hero designer export format, that is something DreadDomain whipped up with Word. As such it is pretty useless for us. Moreover I think having the export format 'also' output things like everything written on the background tab of Hero Designer is crucially important, not just the stats. I am personally partial to Tasha's Ultimate Character Sheet. Sadly there are two, in my opinion, vital areas missing in that one from the background tab, which would be the description of "Powers/Tactics" and "Campaign Use". A modified version of Tasha's sheet that 'did' include those two fields would be perfect.

Link?

I'm sure I could toss a few characters at least into this, maybe even developed establishments. About the only thing I enjoy more than fleshing out detailed characters is spending experience points. 😉 Here's a great example of a 'bouncer' who works at a bar that caters to those who are too marred by their powers or appearance to easily go elsewhere. Character sheet now available at this thread. Reference 'Black Hole'.

It's the "+" 6d6 that has me confused. Why is it not listed as simply 6d6, which would then make it perfectly obvious that only the excess strength would add?

I'm confused as to whether strength minimum affects the damage, given that the club is defined as "HA +6d6". Character sheet now available at this thread. Reference 'Brunt'.

Sadly I have sorta sidelined this project for now, having found myself in a few other games. There are other options however. There is a Wildcards campaign (variant supers) I am involved in that could use a couple more players. That one is PbP (Play by Post) for pretty much daily out of combat role play interaction and gets together every Saturday evening at 8PM EST on Roll20 for the 'fight of the week'. Additionally I am invested in a Fantasy Hero game a friend is putting together. That will likely be a once a week affair, and will be played using Tabletop Simulator with the Hero mod. There is currently no URL I could point you to for that, but if interested, message me and I'll put you in touch with the GM. There are a few spots available.

I am not asking for anything. My post was asking if a dodge was legal. That was already established that it is not, unless it aborts the transform. That should have been obvious to me but somehow it was not. The situation I described happened AFTER the question was asked and answered, and in the situation I did NOT request to dodge. My character IS the demon. The villain was a vampire that looked completely human, and the first indication we had that it was not was when it tossed my character, out of hero ID, through a wall. One that happened, I started the transform, during which I did not dodge but waited, knowing I might be attacked again. How often will a fight happen with my character not in hero ID? Pretty much any time our party is not the one initiating the fight, that's how often.

Not being able to stay in hero ID because you will freak people out when your demon walks into the room is already a disad. Being out of hero id when the villain walks into the room and not being able to transform instantly, is a pretty significant limitation. Having said villain proceed to throw you through a wall, while still out of hero ID complicates it. To then spend a full phase waiting to turn into your hero ID, while still being vulnerable to a second attack, compounds even more. I thought the question as to whether or not one could dodge in such a situation wasn't too terribly unreasonable. The above situation occurred after I asked my question. I did not ask my GM if I could dodge.

Very nice build. It is a good idea for a background, but personally I would prefer to have the background more detailed. Not all GMs care much about such things though.

I don't see how one can earn a -1/4 limitation on a power by defining that it takes a full phase to activate (which is mechanically what OIAID does) and then eliminate the limitation by spending 5 points on instant change, but then still retain the -1/4.

I cannot off the top of my head recall such a resource, though I am sure such exists. Hopefully someone else with more of a clue will chime in. I 'can' describe much of the process I go through. The very first thing I do is to imagine the sort of character I would want to play in the world the GM has created. This has nothing to do with the mechanics or the points, just the general idea, the personality, the basics of backstory, etc.. How would your character defeat a bad guy? How would they avoid being destroyed before they won? How do they get into and out of situations. What do they look like? How do they behave. It is useful to flesh this all out 'before' you actually build the character so you can run it by your GM. Some character ideas simply won't fit with some games. Sometimes an idea you have for how a power might work, your GM will have strong ideas about. Use those ideas. Likely I will have already decided by this point if my character will be using a multipower or not. With that done, I open Hero Designer (use Hero Designer, best $25. I ever spent), and enter in the most basic information like the name of the character, etc.. I will usually define their primary attack power first. This would involve adding the base and slot costs to a multipower if going that route. In the case of a multipower, add all the multipower powers that are 'crucial' for your character concept now. The last thing you want is to leave that for later and then find you've overspent on everything else and can't afford to get your attack good enough to be effective. If you can't hurt your target, all you are good for in a fight is to be a target yourself. Right after that, I will usually pick the most essential skills for the character, not necessarily all that I might like, just the ones that the character 'should' absolutely have if they are going to be even close to the vision of the original idea. I do this at this stage because I personally have a habit of spending every remaining point after attack is defined, on increasing movement and survivability, and many of my earliest characters (when I was young and beautiful back in the 1980's) hit the game board with zero skills. It is not fair to my character, to the other players, or to the GM's world, to create such a lopsided character. Flesh out your character properly. Next up I will define constitution and defenses, PD/ED, some means of having some resistant defense, maybe mental, power and flash defense, etc.. If I can't or don't bring up defenses sufficiently to weather a standard 12d6 attack, I will know that I better be investing heavily in DCV. It is tempting to blow all remaining points on OCV/DCV. Don't. You won't believe how easy it will be for a mentalist to turn your character into his puppet. How easily a mage can render your awesome tank virtually useless with a cheap intelligence drain, or for the big scary monster to go BOO to send your character fleeing in terror. Buy up some intelligence, ego and presence. High OCV/DCV won't matter one iota versus things like that. Now again, before blowing your wad on OCV/DCV, buy up your movement ability. A high movement is really useful for all characters. You don't necessarily 'need' a high movement, but you absolutely need more than the base running speed. Then and only then buy OCV/DCV (in older versions, buy dexterity). Note that while it is unlikely you will have loads of points left at this point sufficient to pump your OCV/DCV to obscene levels, it is most unlikely if you 'also' have really high defenses. Unlikely but not impossible. Usually GMs will frown on a character that is 'both' hard to hit 'and' hard to hurt. For their peace of mind, don't do this. Remember that GMs have unlimited points to spend and will create whatever opposition is necessary to give you a good game. If your character is substantially harder to hit 'and' hurt than all the other characters, the opponent your GM builds to handle your character will walk all over everyone else. Go for high defenses and a normal DCV or medium defenses and a high DCV. Avoid the temptation to do both. Once you've got everything to fit, look over the character. Is there anything you've forgotten? Any skills and powers your character should have that you have not added yet. Are there a few more skills, perks, talents, etc., that would really help flesh it out? It is very likely that at this point you will be scrounging points, looking to see what you can sell back, what can be lowered in order to free up points for other things. This is also a good time to, if you haven't already, consider if there are any appropriately thematic limitations you can put on things you have bought. Doing this can save a lot of points. Be aware though that you will pay a price in game for those points saved, so only do this sparingly and when it makes perfect sense for your character. During all of the above, I will have kept complications in the back of my mind and already recorded any that seemed obvious. I will now do my darndest to fill out the requisite number of them required by the campaign. If I am stuck for ideas, I will get to work filling out the 'background' section in Hero Designer. I make special effort to write out the character's history well. Usually while writing this all out, other appropriate complications will occur to me. Once all that is done, you technically have a character. Spend some time looking through image searches for a good picture for your character (if you haven't already picked one), while thinking about what you have built thus far. Tweaking your build at this point is not just possible, but a good idea. Share the build with your GM to get their feedback and approval. I am rarely finished with a character by this point and will continue to tweak right up until the GM says the character is locked. Often GMs will give players a grace period of a couple of full on game sessions to continue to tweak. This is especially useful if you have players who are unfamiliar with Hero System and may have slighted their character somehow by failing to appreciate how necessary some things are.

Completely failed to understand someone's post. Figured it out. Chock it down to creeping senility.

This campaign, the limits are such that most attacks she might be subject to will be around 50ap at OCV 7. If she dodges she'll be at DCV 9 and she can take a hit at that level without her OIAID. OIAID is only a problem when people treat it like free points without consequence and are just using it to go uber by dumping everything into it. If you have a character concept that is appropriate for an OIAID, start by building your talented normal. Build them to be at least minimally able to survive one phase, IE, able to take a standard hit without getting stunned. Then and only then, consider putting remaining points into OIAID. And yea, don't complain. It WILL happen, expect it.

I have learned over the course of nearly 40 years of Hero System, to apply limitations sparingly, and only when they truly fit the character. Especially in games where a GM is enforcing reasonable power limits, it is not particularly difficult to create effective characters without piling on gratuitous limitations just for the points. In the specific case of this game and this character, that holds true in spades. We are building characters within the guidelines of the ChampionsMush to play in a Wildcards variant. We have 425 points to spend and are building to a rather low limit. In a Wildcards game, jokers are for the most part shunned and shown extreme prejudice. They are ghettoed and impoverished, they do not mix with their betters outside of their ghetto. Walking about as a demon in this world and expecting to get anything done outside of a fight would be virtually impossible. My character will spend a LOT of time in her human form. Other limitations might give more points for less disadvantage, but OIAID is exactly the correct one to apply to this character concept. The first few XP will pull much of the stats currently suffering from the limitation, out of it. As it is right now, if she dodges, she'll likely survive a round in her human form as she transitions.

In this case she is morphing from an extremely talented normal human into a demon. She sprouts wings, a tail, horns, claws, her legs develop backbend hooves, her skin grows scaly. It's not instant, but it 'is' fast and a smooth transition.

I've got an OIAID limitation on some powers and stats. I'm assuming it takes a phase to kick in. However without the Hero ID powers and stats, my character is a good bit easier to hit and hurt, and she has no attacks worth anything either. Can I spend that phase dodging as opposed to just 'waiting'?

Moral of the story, if you want to have abort available to you, do NOT buy up your dex. Overpriced anyway.

It is phase three. At dex 26, ChiMaster has moved a full half move and attacked. Still on phase three, at dex 15, Grond has picked up a car and is using it to area effect swat the hex ChiMaster is standing in. ChiMaster wants to abort his next action for a dive for cover. He has already used his full movement this phase. Is he not allowed to abort to his next?