acowie

Aiming high with 3d6 I suspect that if HERO was just coming out now it would use a 3d6+OCV vs 10 +DCV target - several groups already do. It's really easy and doesn't require any tweaking. To get exact mathematical equivalence in skill rolls is a bit clunky. We have used an easy target of 10, standard of 12 and hard of 14, with a 3pt skill giving you a +of STAT/5 (ie DEX 18 gives you a +4 to DEX rolls, or a 3pt Acrobatics). For exact equivalence 2 pt skills (11-) give you +2, and 1 pt familiarity should give you a -1, but we say 0. Once it's up and running though, it just seems much smoother, exactly like when d20 went 3rd edition. I've even had d20 junkies previously freaked by HERO understanding the system much more easily. The problem is what you do with all the old characters available.

Not that it's a very exciting comment.. But I really like her. I think her concept is great. Like several people here I am a big fan of disads, but as an NPC (especially as she is supposed to be a cheerleader type) I can see why you haven't loaded her up. It's hard enough to juggle all the PCs disads in a meaningful manner without a whole bunch of NPC things creeping in. What about the nitty gritty point scores? Like a couple of others I'm a little unsure about the control cost purely because once sampled the potential is always there. Right now - it's fairly limited. Give her a few years and it may be not even worth -1/4. I think you may have to vary the control limitation depending on game events (which is uncool, I realise). Oh, and I do love the side effects idea.

>>Not strictly true - he only has five possible combinations of powers. The other two just take longer. The key thing is he is paying the +2 on control for Cosmic. If all needed to be changed in a lab he would be paying 0.33xVPP size for Control (including the -1/2). If he could change anything at any time he would pay 1.5xVPP size (full on Cosmic). I reckon 0.75xVPP is a reasonable compromise. >>Sounds good if he envisages playing without it on occasion. Could take the usual OIHID (-1/4), or nothing if he really wants to have his armour all the time. As I said - I'd be interested in the details of the five different settings if I were reffing.

I think paying a control cost of 0.75xVPP size (Cosmic+2, Limited Power-1) sounds entirely reasonable given the restrictions listed. Difficult to say more, really, though I'd be interested to see the result.

I know I should leave it alone... But I'm just wondering how that whole black hole power came about. Did Stellar have it as a starting character? Somewhat doubtful. Or did he save up for, what, two years play? "Have you decided what you want to spend your XP on yet - wow, it's got to be nearly a hundred points. This is going to be some kind of radiation accident! What are you going for - Strength, Dex, a VPP you can actually use :-)?" "OK, here it is - Stellar can now turn into a singularity. OK, so he dies, but if he gets brought back, he can do it again! But after that he can only do it once more. What do you think?" "Gosh, it's kind of game breaking, isn't it?" "Well, I'll only use it if I really need to. Like if someone's threatening a cook or something." Apologies to Patriot and the anonymous player involved...

Sorry about the touch comment, that may have muddied the water. In the example of Detect dealing with Detect Magic it states that the mage has to touch whatever he wants to Detect Magic on, so he buys Ranged to allow him to Detect at Range. Now. as Spatial Awareness is built as a Detect Physical Objects with no Range (though it does have a 2pt Sense adder and a 10pt Targeting adder), why do you not need to touch the physical objects to Detect them? Or does Targeting include/require Range? Maybe I've missed that (NRBH). But I'm sure Ultrasonic Hearing also is a "Detect Ultrasonics, Sense" - no ranged mentioned. Would a build "Detect Physical Objects (10), Sense(2), Targeting(10), Ranged (5)" have any advantage over the current build? Thanks very much.

I'm sure it's been done, but I couldn't find it on a search. What exactly is the benefit of "Ranged" as an adder to a Sense? ie - Spatial Awareness seems to be a nonranged Detect, as are most of the other senses given. They are described as allowing you to "sense your surroundings". But for the Detect Magic example "Ranged" is added to allow him to sense magic without touching them. Surely as written Spatial Awareness [Detect Physical Objects, Targeting, Sense (passive)] is better known as "Touch" in human beings?

Yet another viewpoint I've bought everything I have ever seen for sale for the Hero system over the past fifteen odd years. I happen to have an understanding wife and a job that means I've got the cash. I've just discovered the whole Digital Hero/downloadable pdf thing, and the major thing putting me off is the downloading hassle. I want Hero Designer, all the supplements, all the ebooks, all the Digital Heros, but it's just going to take a million years (possibly an exaggeration) to download. And the process of ordering and downloading each thing separately, even if I do it at work :-) strikes me as a nightmare. Could I send you $200 and you send me all the stuff you've got on a CD or two?

Martial Arts vs Stats Yes, Martial Arts are more expensive than buying stats to achieve the same effect. [i would be happy to demonstrate with even a well designed character like Nighthawk ends up better with more STR and DEX and no MA. With some ludicrous pointwasting pantywaist like Green Dragon it is even more obvious. To be fair, it's been done A LOT in the past.] It comes down to concept. People like MA, and the idea that Joe Well Trained Normal can kick Grond in the nads. For this concept they pay extra points. It's worth it to them, it's a game after all. Feel free to argue that it's not MA that's too expensive, it's stats that are too cheap (actually, don't, I promise to do a search and read all the posts in the past). Again, as said earlier, very careful use of a very few MA can be a good way to save points, I am only talking about published characters, and those with more than 15 odd points of MA. They're a bit like a multipower that you pay full price for each slot.

"Only replace if the original leaves" Och, that's fine - they're generic fire/water/computer elementals. I'll wait 'til they're dead. You're right about Aid, none of us had spotted that blindingly obvious abuse. We rather gave up on it in 5th ed as the measures taken to prevent the many abuses have made it too rubbish to consider for any normal use. Bit like Damage Shield, I suppose.

Actually, I love this idea. Flame multipower 75pts Slot 1 12d6 attack 1/2END 15 Slot 2 Damage Shield (math too difficult...) Slot 3 Friendly 250 pt Flame spirit 7 or water elemental for water powers etc, etc. I almost don't want to shoot the idea down now. I can see the team being followed by various extraneous critters ("Hey, Captain Seduction, get Binky off me RIGHT NOW!")

OK, next question ('cos that was what I was afraid of). Nothing stops Animalman having a multipower for, say Summon 4 different creatures, and summoning 1 each round? (Except that as far as point effectiveness goes it's eventually worth just summoning 128 of the same critter...) Even worse, doing the same thing with a VPP, and he can have a whole zoo if he's prepared to keep on going ("Now I summon an Indian Elephant") Even ignoring the VPP abuse ('cos I know there's hundreds of others and it comes down to the GM), it seems that with persistent summon spells in multipowers you get to use two slots at once, just as if summon was inherently persistent 0END, uncontrolled. In fact, it seems a good way to get a cheap Follower - stick an Ultra Summon (Very Loyal) +1/2 in whichever Multipower you've got [come on, you're munchkins, you can make it make sense] and then for (say) 7 points you get a 250 pt Follower you can replace whenever you've got a free phase. Again, I am aware that it is down to the GM to halt abuses, but does anything stop this in the rules?

Quick question - from the Summon description it seems that the summoner has to persuade the summoned creature to leave if they don't get along - he may even be attacked. However, if Animalman, who has a shapeshift/ summon/ mindcontrol (animals) in his multipower doesn't hit it off with a water buffalo he has summoned, can he just switch slots and make it disappear? Or, if it doesn't disappear, can he switch to mind control and persuade it that way? Would your answers to the above questions be changed if he had a VPP?