Hugh Neilson

These should be GM-defined IMO. How great it is to summon a specific being rather than generic examples depends greatly on who that specific being is. If I can summon "spirits of the dead", that seems to me more powerful than "summon the spirit of a specific dead person". At least I can keep trying until I get someone with the info I want. But it would definitely be advantageous to Summon the spirit of someone I know had that info.

It depends what you're trying to accomplish. In my experience there are two classic uses for Multipower. First, the character who can do numerous things, not all at once but not mutually exclusive either. All his slots are standard. For example, a character had EB, Flight and Force Field in his multipower. Let's say it's got 75 active points. He takes a standard slot for each power, so he can mix and match as he sees fit. Perhaps he generally uses an 8d6 EB (40 points), a 10/10 force field at half END (25 points) and 5" flight (10 points). However, he's getting low on STUN, so he decides to shut down his Flight and increase his force field to 14/14 at 1/2 END (35 points). Or he shuts down both flight and force field to fire off a 15d6 EB. The second is the character whose multipower slots are mutually exclusive. He can only use one at a time. An example of this type of character is the classic comic archetype of the Archer. His multipower slots are all attacks, each a different trick arrow. He will never use two arrows at once, so he makes each slot an ultra. One phase, he can fire an RKA, the next a flash, but he has no way to combine the two - each slot is all or nothing.

Absorption to STUN (or partially to STUN) combined with Damage Reduction at a hugh level can be very effective.

Just to play the Devil's Advocate here, the damage component of STR can be hived off and purchased separately as a Hand Attack, can't it? Yes, we normally look at it as an EB with no range that can't spread, but it's just as easily "STR, no figured, no lifting, no leaping, no throwing, etc., etc. - Damage only, right?" So perhaps the cost of STR - no Damage should be the cost of STR less the cost of a Hand Attack that would otherwise have added the same damage. I acknowledge that's pretty low cost, but only because of the figured characteristics. Both STR and CON have the problem they add more points in Figured than they cost directly, but how many characters buy up either stat as a result? Not many. Why? Because they wouldn't otherwise pay for the extra figured Stats, and they can only sell back one of them! I can count on one hand (with room to spare) the characters I have who buy more STUN or END (beyond one or two points to round the character to a multiple of 5 points), and buying more than a couple of points of REC is pretty rare as well. PD and ED get raised all the time (in one form or another), but the other three stats tend not to get bought much beyond their figured amounts, at least in my campaigns and on my characters. Of course, this is why DEX really only costs 2 points each - everyone buys their Speed up beyond its figured number anyway!

Initial suggestion: limit the Advantage of charges to the advantahe of 0 END on the same power. OK, there are two issues here. One is the "band aid solution" question. Look at the rule book. Hero is very flexible and very balanced. That means complexity, by default. Look at all the adders, limitations, advantages, stop signs, danger signs, powers that can go in power frameworks, powers that can't, powers that can't but the GM should allow, powers that are perfectly legal but the GM should disallow, etc., etc., etc. This is why RPG's and computer games don't play the same - the computer doesn't balance - it arbitrates. One more rule that charges cap at the equivalent Reduced END advantage (modified for any other variables, like Continuing, Recoverable, etc. charges) isn't going to crash the system any more than the need to assess whether a specific Limited Power is worth anything, or what it's worth. House rules, however, are a concern. The game works a lot better when everyone knows the rules going in. Anyone remember Superhero 2044? Every superpower was pretty much built from scratch, so the GM and player had to create the mechanics. That level of "players finish the game design" is WHY you don't remember Superhero 2044! The point based supers games, with well defined powers and abilities, and costs, have survived. The "well, customize this power with your GM in the design process" games have not. So I would suggest 6 ed (Sixth Iteration Design, or "SID") incorporate this structure, just like 5th Ed fixed a lot of the problems present in 4th Ed. And, while he's never said it on the boards, I can't believe Steve doesn't read some of these threads, the FAQ, and rules questions, and say "If we ever accumulate enough changes to justify a new edition, I think we'll include that". I wouldn't be at all surprised to find there's a file at Hero with 5th Ed fully annotated with all the things to consider if a new edition is undertaken!

While I agree with your comments, I challenge whether Hero is immune to this. Take the same character to half a dozen GM's and you will likely get half a dozen different answers. Perhaps one will not like certain powers (Find Weakness, Telepathy, Danger Sense and Variable Power Pools come to mind). Another may feel your limitations should be valued differently, or perhaps that your disadvantages are mispriced. Another may feel your Elemental Control is not appropriate. Look at the discussions on this board - all of these items are represented. And this is before considering campaign limits on DC, active points, defenses, skill rolls, etc. etc. etc.

Assume a character possesses the ability to Summon one specific person. Let's say he's a young wizard who can Summon the spirit of his departed mentor (the necromancy option presented in FREd). He pays a +1 advantage for Summoning a Specific Being. Presumably, he also pays for his mentor to be Amicable, but I guess that depends on the relationship. Because he can summon only that one specific spirit, and not "Spirits of the Dead" in general, it seems reasonable the character should get a limitation. After all, he can't talk to his mentor, find out he doesn't know the answer and summon up a different spirit who does. And if something has happened to the one person he can summon, he gets no benefit from these points at all. However, there is no limitation noted in the book, and this one seems pretty obvious. Is it intended that summoning a single specific being is a +1 advantage over the ability to summon random creatures from a pool, or does the +1 advantage actually represent a character who can select ANY one specific being (eg. Summo the King of Valdoria, expecting King Arkon, but he has been deposed, so start again and Summon Arkon, former King of Valdoria), with a limitation applied if the character's Summon is restricted to one (or more) specific individuals? Steve, once you provide the rules answer, maybe you can move this to the Discussion board to talk about how the magnitude of the limitation should be (your comments would also be appreciated).

AHhhh...GM Philosophy. Try this one. Get the group together, or email them. Tell them someone in the group (no names) wants to buy an Aid with a very low fade rate and has pointed out that he can increase stats for the whole group before any encounter and, since it fades in days, they basically are always at that stat level. Ask whether THEY think this character should be allowed. And add in "Of course, whatever we decide on the legality of this power also applies to NPC's." And stick to it. The unreasonable ones are easy to handle. You can move the game location or time and not tell him/her. You can simply give all the villains an offsetting advantage (eg. +10 OCV or 1 hex area, only vs "Impossible to Hit Man"; +5DC, only vs "Unreasonably High Defenses Man") or otherwise offset his unreasonable spending. A reasonable player will say "OK, I see the issue and I'll bring him into line with the campaign norm." Unreasonable ones? Get rid of them or smack them down. Oh, and the answer to "Low Fade Rate Man", should he choose to be unreasonable? How about an opponent team with a character with Mind Scan (to find him) and Mind Control. Now rent the sucker out to the higest bidding villain team.

The rules suggest reducing the value of the limitation if the charges are especially easy to recover, or increasing it if they are especially difficult. So, I think the ability to recharge whenever you can return to base and scavenge shells from other tanks is worth...let's say four lines up the chart. Which is still a +1 advantage starting at with 1,000 charges.

Re: Fun with Charges Ummm...page 179 FREd - the rule against this is in the left column, in a rather large font, prefaced by "All limitations are governed by a very simple rule:" So, I would have to rule that you do not receive the -2 limitation, but you still have the +1 advantage for having over 125 charges. Guess you should have bought 0 END instead

Easily made right - cap charges at +1/2 advantage, +1 for autofire. Fixed!

Another thought: how many points are these characters spending on FW? At -2 for each successive roll, getting an opponent of (say) 32 DEF down to 1 needs a lot of points to work consistently. One miss, no more chances. To get 11- on that 5th roll, with a related group of attacks (martial maneuvers) is 40 points, and the odds of 5 successes still isn't good. What if his opponent spent that many points on additional EB dice? [Or additional OCV with his EB - let's see the Martial Artist dodge an OCV 30 (base 10 + 20 2 point levels) EB at "campaign standard" damage.

While you're standing around looking, what's your opponent doing? If he has FW, probably sizing you up as well. If not, maybe he might strike at you (or just move away - encounter over, so all existing FW effects are gone at the start of the next encounter). Works great if you can size up the opposition for a turn or so without being noticed, but how often should that happen? And if you just stand there sizing up the Brick, why doesn't he grab a hunk of pavement and wrap it around you (1 hex area grab) or just smack you away (knockback and 1 hex area concrete slab). So much for Joe Martial Artist!

Missed one! Missile Deflection became a power instead of a skill (for all those characters who needed a focus or didn't, and to break it up to "thrown/bullets/energy beams". [And I'm going from a "preview article" from Different Worlds #27, so I don't have the books in front of me, but I think Shrinking stayed 10 points throughout.]

1st Ed to 2nd Ed had lots of differences. They lost colour art on the cover, got a box and some dice, threw in a map... Mechanics? OH YEAH! - Objects (and entangles) got defenses - Spreading energy blasts was introduced - bonus damage to HKA's was capped at the DC for the killing attack, - Active points in a multipower slot were limted to the pool (yes, in 1st Ed I could put lots of limits on and get 120 Active Points from a 40 pt pool) - Stacking multipowers and elemental controls became illegal (VPP's - oh, they didn't come along until much later) - Entangles only cost END to throw, not for every phase they stayed up! - Force Wall became the "wall" we see today - Drains and Transfers could be applied to POWERS, not just characteristics (there were no other adjustment powers at the time) - Hardened Defenses were introduced to defend against Armor Piercing (penetrating>? Didn't exist yet) - Berserk was modified so "in combat" was no longer automatically included (Enraged? What's that?) - Susceptibilities could be STUN only! - Competent DNPC's got 50 points (instead of 20) Ah yes...memories Hard to believe that was over 20 years ago! Oh, and the rule book was HUGE - 80 pages, up from 64 pages in 1st Edition (games have changed a bit over the years, haven't they?).

Maybe I'm missing the point, but how long did these characters just stand around getting Weakness found? Every roll is a 1/2 phase action. If you want to get around it, buy an Invisible force field - he can't find a weakness if he can't see the Defense. Or buy Damage Reduction instead - no FW for that!

Increased knockback would be the norm. I suppose you could buy the attack "no knockback" and link it to STR X Telekinesis, only throws back target". Depends on the distance you're looking for.

Star Hero may be different, but to me the fact your extra limbs are always there has a drawback - you're likely to be remembered ("The guy with 8 arms, remember?") The character should either be entitled to the always on limitation, or Distinctive Features ("He had eight arms!").

Ummm...no . 1/16 per level is a faster weight reduction. Halving the rate of descent would mean each leven reduces your mass to about 35% of the prior level (.35 x .35 = .1225, about the .125 of 1/8). And three levels of Growth would be offset by one level of shrinking - three levels of Growth doubles your height and octuples your mass. One level of shrinking halves height and reduces mass to 1/8. [Hmmm...if I buy 3 levels of growth with a Linked level of shrinking, I get all the stat bonuses and stay the same height...] You can buy half an EB die for 3 points, and 1/3 of a KA die for 5 points. If you want to buy half levels of shrinking, go ahead. Just assume you get half of anything evenly divisible by two, and round anything not evenly divisible against the character (so +2" knockback).

Re: Re: Inherent vs. Always On I believe a power must be "always on" in order to permit purchase of "inherent". Whether you get a limitation would, of course, depend on whether there's a drawback, but I can't think of many powers where there is no drawback to the inability to shut it down. So, how many characters have purchased Inherent life support? Could be mighty painful if it gets suppressed/dispelled...

Why do these discussions always focus on killing attacks? A 1d6 KA won't bring a normal person to dying in one shot. A 15d6 EB (or punch) will. Which one should the CvK hero use (assume they're both beam effects, his only ranged option, and the opponent is about to blow up the full orphanage).

Just throw an Entangle (DEF twice BOD) with Radius, extended in the old Multipower. No BOD, and show me the agent that can get out of a decent entangle without his OAF's. Call it 1d6 3 DEF Entangle, 8" radius (2x extended). 20 pts x 2.5 = 50. [Make that BOD standard effect] Higher active points = more entangle, and a bigger radius, but even at 50 points, this holds those pesky normals for a phase or two (and you have WAY more phases than they do to do it again).

The example in "followers" makes it pretty clear - 1/5 of the follower's base points (before disad's) assuming he has less base points than you do.

Overall, I think the character gets a big benefit here, and this would be more destructive than Telepathy for mystery type scenarios. "Oh, just get all the suspects in a room and I'll slash them with my sword - it can only affect guilty people" I'd be inclined to require the character to purchase a Detect to reflect the sword's ability to detect the "guilty/evil/what have you". If the only way to tell is to take a swing on them, there's a limitation there (Gestures for sure, at a minimum). Even so, I think the advantages and drawbacks of the attack power only hitting those who are truly "guilty" probably balance out at best and may even carry an advantage (how often do you use your attack powers against the "innocent" - sometimes, since hero vs hero conflict is definitely a comic book standard, and even two good guys can have conflicting views; isn't it nice that they won't affect your teammates if you roll an 18 or get mind controlled)

OOPS! posted to Healing thread this AM! Getting back to the original question (BALO: I AM TALKING ABOUT THE GARGOYLE NOW) Am I the only one who thinks this looks WAY too expensive? Guys, we've missed the boat completely here! Buy 1 BOD healing (regeneration) which only works when he's turned to stone. He'll be rock for hours, and one hour contains 300 turns - more than enough, I would expect, to recover all BOD lost. You could even take a greater Increased Time and/or, if your GM permits, +2 advantage on "all stats below starting max". I'd allow the "all stats", but as you've already seen, I think adjustment powers don't need all the watering down they've received. Your GM may be on the other side of the fence. However, I don't see what you want as being abusive, and if your GM also doesn't, I can't see him wanting to make it imnpossible or cost-prohibitive.