prestidigitator

Re: CON: Over-Nerfed? DAMN! I knew there was something I'd been doing wrong all this time!

Re: Normal Damage Weapons used at Range Good point, and I agree. Many times I have done just that myself.

Re: Normal Damage Weapons used at Range Yes, they had the same rule. And I believe this is a holdover from then, see? I disagree that the rules for adding damage were so similar. 5E® attempted to define the notion of "Base Damage", and various things added to it, or circumvented the rules for doubling Base Damage, or were subject to doubling rules if this but not that, or.... No, 6E simplified things enormously. Now you choose what Advantages you believe affect damage, and apply them to the Base Points, and every 5 Active Points from that is a DC (or do exactly the reverse to see how many dice of damage more DCs add). There are vague suggestions about how much damage you might allow to be added to an attack, but no real attempt to differentiate between damage added by Martial Arts, Movement, Maneuvers, Strength, adding to Killing Attacks vs. Normal Attacks vs. "weapons", etc. Before there were loads of rules and definitions and corner cases. Now there is one mechanic, and a suggestion or two applied generically that you are expected to use as you see fit. I see that as a huge improvement that can cut back drastically on the number of exceptions that have to cascade through all the mechanics of the system to try to mop up after the cumbersome quirks.

Re: Normal Damage Weapons used at Range I have the suspicion that this rule for the difference between HKA and HA mainly stems from the old (5E), very complex rules for adding damage with different types of attack. If you've carefully considered what Advantages to consider when figuring DCs, what kind of maximums you might want to place on damage adding, and all of that, IMO it would be appropriate to add consideration of whether or not to allow forms of the Ranged Advantage on HA and HKA to the same bundle of construction and play guidelines.

Re: What 6ED books should I buy? HERO System 6th Edition: Character Creation and HERO System 6th Edition: Combat and Adventuring Here is a link to a PDF bundle containing both. There are also items in the store for a damaged copy of Character Creation (with or without a bundled PDF), a hard copy of Combat and Adventuring (with or without a bundled PDF), or PDF versions of either. It's very odd, but there don't seem to be any (non-damaged) hardcopies of Character Creation available any more.

Re: CON: Over-Nerfed? Front line fighters ("Bricks") typically will have a high Con as well as decent defenses and quite a bit of damage potential. Range-based characters ("Energy Blasters") and sometimes "Martial Artists" with high CV may not, and will probably spend the points on DCV, unusual attacks and defenses, movement, etc. Not every character need have an ultra-high Con, but it pays to think about the role you will play in a fight. I too like making it count in other contexts, like when a character is exerting himself over long periods of time or subject to strange conditions/substances.

Re: Pay for 2, get 4.000 My interpretation of getting "double" the Framework Foci for +5 points is that you don't really get two instances of the power/framework to use independently; you simply get back-up devices that'll work if you lose your primary one. I would be pretty quick to require that be an Inaccessible Focus if you bought too many and carried them around with you (as opposed to keeping the spare back in your base, vehicle, home, or whatever). I'd probably think long and hard before I let the whole team have a fleet of uber-expensive vehicles for the price of yours plus a few 5-point Adders as well, so I'd be thinking about who can use the vehicles and when and what "ownership" means.

Re: A Lich's Phylactery

Re: A Lich's Phylactery

Re: A Lich's Phylactery Hmm. Well, what I was thinking for the lich is that Mind Link included with the phylactery could give you enough continuity in the story and the monster's "memory" to hold things together, but since the lich is probably more of an NPC obstacle than a character that is really expected to be unique and interesting in terms of personality, it probably wouldn't matter if you're using Summon to generate a, "new lich," each time. I guess you'd have to judge whether that is really sufficient or whether you're going to have to include the Specific Being Advantage to the Summon and a (linked?) Resurrection Healing. At what point do you consider it, "cheating?"

Re: A Lich's Phylactery

Re: A Lich's Phylactery I suppose. That could simply be a particular weakness (for temporarily dismissing the threat. Or, if you're worried about it, make the Summon Difficult to Dispel or give the phylactery some Power Defense or something. There are going to be little quirks no matter what way you go. No need to use the idea; it's just another possible implementation.

Re: A Lich's Phylactery That wouldn't keep you from losing the Body; in fact it would mean you lose it when it's under your bed instead of being carried around by you.

Re: Black Powder Arms in the Hero System. Gun Nuts and reenactors welcome! Side Effects! Big, nasty, fun Side Effects! Oh, what an opportunity!

Re: The Force I believe he might have missed a time or two in Empire Strikes Back when Vader was hurling object after object at him in the bowels of Cloud City....

Re: A Lich's Phylactery Another idea is to build the phylactery itself as a "character". Give it a Summon Lich (Slavishly Loyal) ability and a Mind Link to the lich it summons.

Re: Poisons Yes, quite true. That's one that's built into certain Powers in the system. On the other end of the spectrum would be Transform, which was initially designed around the idea that if it's just as easy to kill someone, you might as well have a more or less "permanent" effect on them. It's interesting to contemplate being able to start with one of those approaches and nudge it incrementally toward the other. Maybe for 7e a more consistent basis could be derived.

Re: Power Use for Entangle/Barrier between 5E and 6E I'd still call it a single instance of the Power Skill personally. It might also be appropriate to put the Barrier and Entangle powers in a Multipower or use the Unified Power Limitation, of course.

Re: Poisons Oh. Here is a write-up I did a long time ago on a "Saving Throw" Limitation. Might be appropriate for some games where you want to allow a common roll to avoid certain effects (like this Con roll suggestion for poisons).

Re: mobile Destructive barrier with other conditions Also take a look at the No Conscious Control and Side Effects Limitations. They might be fun to play with in the setting you describe.

Re: mobile Destructive barrier with other conditions You may be interested in a Power other than Barrier. Remember that just because something looks like a "barrier", the important thing in Hero is how it behaves; the effect it has. This may be something as simple as extra DCV, Resistant Defense with the right Special Effects, etc. You might even apply something like Area of Effect to a Defense Power. If the defense can be worn away, the Ablative Limitation is often appropriate, or some form of Requires a Roll Limitation.... (If it looks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, it might just be a duck-flavored Killing Attack )

Re: The Force Oh, quite true. That's actually why I suggested a compromise solution: include the Limitation, but reduce its value because many of the normal interpretations of, "Real Weapon," may not apply to a lightsaber, such as not being able to chop down doors with it or block unusual attacks.

Re: The Force Why not just use Nonpersistent (-1/4) (6E1CC p. 373) if the type of Requires a Roll Limitation you have used does not do a good enough job?

Re: Poisons I think you'd need to use a different construct for the first one. A Characteristic, whether it is bought straight or, "as a Power," is a Characteristic, not an effect. There's no effect roll to make cumulative, so the Cumulative Advantage doesn't apply. I think instead you are going to want to buy something like +16 Con or 3d6 Aid to Con and apply Limitations if you want it to take effect slower than normal. Also, I wouldn't assume poisons will allow some kind of Con check; this is the kind of thing you'll want to check with your GM on (or think about carefully if you are creating the game and/or setting yourself). The second one looks fine to me.

Re: Searching PDFs I believe you might be looking for the prefix "HH". For example, if you search the 6E1CC PDF for "HHBUGGING" it will take you to p. 67 where the "Bugging" Skill is described. I believe this is a particular quirk that has to do with how they did the little logos in the headings of the 6E books; I don't think it will apply to PDFs in general. By the way, if you don't want to remember this, you should be able to copy/paste a whole heading (including the logo part) into your search box. You should get the equivalent ASCII text with prefix so that you can see the general pattern to use.