jallen0002

This seems clear to me, but I want to make sure as it came up in a gaming session: When you use absorption against an attack does the absorbed amount TAKE away from the total BODY that gets "through" to the characters defenses? IE: If you absorbed 22 points of BODY for a total of 11 BODY and the attack was only 10 BODY does the BODY damage simply disappear or do all 11 of the BODY get through to the defenses? Thanks Jeremy

Generally I have a couple of "creative" players who manage to eternally find powers and applications of their powers to eternally annoy me. It is fairly low power stuff (200pt super heros), but some of them came up with some rather effective attacks that are pretty devastating to the enemies in the current campaign (so far). They haven''t faced anything as tough or as powerful as themselves yet though Anywhu... I will try building him and play testing him a couple of different ways and see which method has the more appropriate feel Option A.) Is.. lots of speed, lots of DCV/Missile deflection/Running.. no endurance for any of this since none of the powers can "push" etc. Option B.) Is... megapoint timestop power type thing. Jeremy

Character Concept This will be for a very rare NPC. This "ability" is basically this: The character can go slow down his perception of events around him so much that the world basically slows down as much as he wants, at least hundreds of times slower to the point where bullets are slow. He can move at "normal" speeds when in this zone of slowness. Normal for him since he isn't ACTUALLY faster. Relative to a normal human being he is practically a blur when he is dodging bullets or reading a book with his "slow down time" perception cookin. He should be able to do anything and everything this ability gives him. In terms of combat he will not need levels of OCV because he is still normally skilled.. IE: 13 dex. It is just very easy to attack someone at 0 DCV because they are moving almost none. I will obviously have to buy some levels of DCV to represent how fast he moves, but that is in the rare event the PCs manage to get an attack off on him. This basically boils down to some sort of "mega point" time stop power that doesn't actually stop time, but practically does. I really want this NPC to go about a dozen times each phase. This character is not meant to go in and decimate the PCs. He is meant to challenge them. The twist I came up with is that he is practically a "normal" human but he has this power. So he is mostly good at robbing banks, stealing stuff.. and evading PCs. He isn't going to really be much of a physical threat. He is meant to be something fun and different that takes more than a 10d6 triple armor piercing exploding EB to defeat. Jeremy

I am not really sure. I was mostly questioning a game effect for a game I am running. I wanted to simulate a character that could slow things down a lot. I am open to any other powers/effects that can simulate what i described. Jeremy

SPDs above 12. Each SPDs above twelve simply gives you an extra action in the phase approriate added for the SPD. Thus, SPD 13 get two actions in the Appropriate SPD 1 phase. One for the SPD 12 and one for the SPD 1. So SPD 15 would be an extra action 4 8 12. It seems like a decent way to add on, wrapping the SPD around as often as you can spend the points, since in theory in a world of superpowers there are all sorts of effects that could give a character this kind of SPD. Now then.. as a specific example of a character this fast: Bullet Time in the Matrix.. everything goes so slow that relative to everyone else you are going FAST). How else might one go about simulating a character that can slow down their perception of reality so that they are quicker relative to others. Anywhu, just a thought. Jeremy

Excellent. The only thing to ponder on now is if I want his body to "disappear". That gives a really strong hint that something is most definitely up. And then when they see him again they will know there is some sort of contingency in effect that is affecting him. I want it to be a "hard" problem for them to solve, however as easy as that is I may just give the players the hint Jeremy

Re: where from? This is from the Forgotten Realms series of Novels. The Zhentarim higher up Manshoon is a 17+ level wizard. In one battle I think in the Spellfire series the girl with Spellfire is with Elminster and Manshoon gets toasted and he wakes up with dust all over him in his dungeon hide out. That was just the greatest plot device. He woke up and I seem to remember him trying to figure out what happened/timing etc. I would have to dig for antying more specific but I know that is mostly correct. Jeremy

The actual average would be 24.5 (or 25 rounding up). Average of a D6 is 3.5 , hence why 11 or less is the default.. 11 or less = 50/50 chance with 3D6 Jeremy

Another good question along with this thread is where do you stop skill levels. For example in a 75+75 game you can have 50 points in physical characteristics, drop 36 points in 12 levels of OCV with Melee Weapons, take some simple martial arts with Melee weapons along with Two Weapon Fighting and you have a character who can reliably pull off called shots to the head with a martial arts attack of some sort almost garaunteeing CON STUN on a target, even one with heavier duty armor. Example: Ginsar the living ginsu places a called shot to the orc's head. He hits the orc and rolls his 3D6-1 damage. He rolls average and only gets 10 points of damage. This is a head shot, which means 50 STUN from one attack. The orc's rPD is 6 and standard PD is 5. That means the orc takes 39 stun. The body is DMG-rPD * BODYx.. which is 10 - 6 * 2, or 8. Unless this orc was real healhty he was just CON stunned. Eight of those attacks per round. If the opponent is tougher to hit just settle on disarming and called shots to the chest or upper body. Its deadly effective in most cases I have seen characters like this with a 4 speed sucesfully kill 4-5 orcs in one turn, even when the orcs are making a concerted effort to kill the PC It is plain and simple nasty yet completely rules legal and representative of a character that basically has practiced with Melee weapons so much that he is freakishly accurate with them. Jeremy

The most important thing to represent in this power is that the originator of the "dupe" is a real and accessible body that is simply incapacitated as long as a duplicate exists. If the originator (A) is killed it is the end of the line for my bad guy. The dupe could live on but when he does that is the end of that character. If the dupe dies but the originator is still hidden away in his dungeon he would then be awoken. Basically it would be assumed my bad guy wizard has some sort of life support so he doesn't have to eat so that his duplicate originating form can lay there in a room for years, or decades in practically perfect stasis until the moment his dupe dies. I most definitely do want there to be a bad guy in two locations, but one bad guy (the originator) will be hibernating. I want the PCs to eventually have the ability to find the bad guys "originating" body and do what they will to it. I want him to be incredibly tough to kill in dupe form.. but if they find the originating form my bad guy is toast.. but that would take at least one or two slayings of the dupe for the PCs to catch on.. hence the evil GM part So here is a sequence of events: 1.) Bad guy hides deep in his dungeon and dupes himself putting his original form into hybernation as a part of the spell. (He can only create one dupe at a time due to a lim on the power). 2.) The dupe has all of the memories of the originator at the point of duplication meaning the dupe will know exactly why he was created and what he is. (Maybe my players could capture him and convince him that he IS the real one and the fake is asleep? lol.. what a twisted plot line this guy could make for) He goes off and engages in some risky behavior (Attacking the PCs directly for example). The dupe is destroyed in the ensuing combat. 3.) The bad guy wizard wakes up knowing only that for whatever reason his duplicate has ceased to exist. He wakes up in what could be a weeks or even years depending on the task he sent his duplicate self out on. His dupe might have even died of old age. This is exactly how it is in the novels I am pulling the idea from. Just based on the lim that his is asleep while the dupe exists inherently forces the originator to have no further knowledge of the world around him, which is exactly what is wanted. I haven't found a different power that more appropriately represents all of this without "meta" game tweaking. Whereas with duplicate I really only need a couple of modifiers/limitations to an existing power for it to work perfectly. It basically lets this guy have a very limited form of immortality by way of never doing anything himself (always using a dupe and protecting his originating self) It could be a lot of fun

Added Idea I edited my original post a bit. One thing I was thinking of was to buy the duplication power with x64 dupes with a -1/4 limitation (One Dupe at a Time). For a 300pt dupe would be.. Duplicate Self (Spell) Duplicate, x64 duplicates. One Dupe at a Time (-1/4); Concentration 0 DVC, Totally Unaware (-3/4); Extra Time: 6 Hours, no other action (-3 3/4); Gestures (-1/4); Incantations (-1/4); Original is helpless and Incapacitated while duplicate exists (-1) Active Points: 90 Real Cost: 12 This would let the wizard use the spell up to 64 times before all of those parts of himself are "dead" and lost. He would then have to relearn the spell and gain some more experience points. Hmmn? I will have to work these other ideas into spells as well. Gotta love HERO. As a small note this power could cause some serious game balance issues with a PC. The PC would basically have nothing to lose so he could do things that are a little more cavalier style. PC's dupe dies and he wakes up in his room realizing the dupe failed at his task Jeremy

I have some ideas on how to build a particular power. This power is going to be used in a FH game as a Spell, but the general idea for the power is applicable to any HERO game that has powers in it. Here is a little background: In a High Fantasy setting there is a wizard who created a duplicate over his own body and the duplicate is more like a body with no "life" yet. This duplicate has the exact mind/memories/abilities of the wizard at the time of creation. The duplicate can only ever be awakened/brought to life if the original creator dies. When the "creator" dies, the hibernating wizard awakens and becomes the "current creator". In the 5ed book it defines a duplication power, "Astral Form.. and one of the lims is "Original Character is Incapacitated and Helpess While Duplicate Exists". This more or less perfectly fits the model, especially considering it doesn't matter which form is the duplicate form since they are exactly alike. So I was thinking of a less limited form of the "Astral Form" found on p.101 (right sidebar). Basically the wizard casts the "Duplicate Self" spell and the "original" wizard becomes incapacitated while the duplicate exists. The big question is does the Duplicate cease to exist when it is killed. I would think it could be interpreted as having to "recombine" to "cease to exist". But death means ceasing to exist to me as well, so.. that is where the real question comes in. When does a dupe "cease to exist"? The Duplicate power pretty clearly states that "If a Duplicate or the original character is killed, the others, cannot revive him by recombining -- he stays dead; the character has lost part of himself.". That still makes me wonder if you can duplicate again since the duplicate is now "out of the game" can you pop another duplicate out? And since I am defining this as a "Spell" all you would have to do is cast the spell again to recreate the dupe. At any rate I am willing to rule that if a Dupe is killed the original can dupe again.. but im not sure if that is legal And if you really can't dupe again if you bought the power as one dupe only then I will just give the spell a total lifetime of x64 total dupes at 30 extra points with a limitation (One Dupe At a Time). This works out perfectly in terms of the effect I want to achieve.. the "dupe" goes out to inflict his evil on the world and should he die in one of his nefarious plots the "creator" awakens and creates another dupe to send out into the world while he hibernates in a secret chamber of his "Evil Fortress". The spell will obviously have some serious costs in terms of expendable foci etc.. but hey its for an evil wizard to torture my PCs This one will be fun to do, but I want a rules legit way and Duplication seems to be the key :-D [Additional Thought] Perhaps Duplicate with a Trigger advantage, "When the creator dies".. the Duplicate spell is cast and certain expendable foci are consumed as well. The spell must be recast for it to sit and wait in the "ready to go state". All that said I think I prefer my original thought better. Either way there are certain ways to foil this power. Supressing/Draining the "Triggered" Power and or Just destroying the creator and the one duplicate.. but this gives a great way to keep bringing back a tough adversary. Definitely an "Evil GM" trick Another limitation is that the evil wizard is incapacitated and thus unaware of events going on around the world so he really shouldn't get any experience points at all and should remain frozen at a particular point in time as far as his character goes. The dupe earns experience and of the dupe dies the original is right where he was when he went into dupe mode.. Jeremy

Mind Control Seems Best? I think the mind control option is the best all around option. The character wants a "Power Word Stun" type effect which really does not affect the character's physical characteristics so much as it renders them unable to take an action for a small amount of time. Doing an NND attack or any sort of attack that will reduce the characters STUN will be expensive and probably more powerful/damaging than the intended effect. Jeremy

Hello everyone. I read the (dated) thread on the VPP in a FH setting and wanted to touch on a few salient points of the conversation to see what everyone thinks. I have a few players who are familiar with AD&D (2e and 3e) so I want my magic system to be familiar to them. HERO gives me this flexibility. Basically I want a Vancian magic system in FH. I think Killer Shrike hit some really good points that got lost in the general arguing back and forth. Obviously if we are emulating a Vancian system it is most definitely not a Cosmic power pool or anything of the sort. So here goes my understanding of Killer Shrike's VPP for a Vancian system: You have a VPP.. of oh lets say 60 active point capability and 120 real point capability. (120 REAL points??!#$) 120 real points is a lot most people would say. The pool is obviously limited to arcane magic only (IE: Wizard Spells). You can't change the spells without studying a bulky spell book (Obviously not happening in combat)... and the spells in the VPP couldn't be changed for 24 hours after commited to the VPP. So lets say we have this spell (From Killer Shrike's site): Fireball III: Energy Blast 6d6 (vs. ED), Area Of Effect (3" Radius; +1) (60 Active Points); 1 Charges (-2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), Concentration 1/2 DCV (-1/4), Extra Time Delayed Phase (-1/4) Real cost of that spell is 15 points, but it has ONE charge. That means that with 120 REAL points in the VPP and 60 AP you could have that power in there eight times. (Does it even work like that with a power that has charges?). Well anyway if it were a AD&D2e or 3e spell slot that would be it. The only fault I can see is that with 20 points I can have a 480 REAL point pool, so obviously there needs to be a better metric for increasing the real cost part of the pool.. some sort of linear algorithm that doesn't double the pool nearly so quickly. So with a 120 point pool I could cast a 3 real cost spell like 40 times in a day (essentially as many times as I want.. but I can only do a really powerful spell 8 times).. as long as we follow the rule that all spells have 1 charge and you can add a spell to the VPP "multiple" times. If we had the same rules (Studying to change spells, only being able to change spells every 24 hours or so.. limitations on the control basically) combined with all spells having 1 charge.. then you would be able to memorize your best damage spell (if you had a 60 point pool) four times and have NO room for anything else. Or you could do your best damage spell twice and have room for a bunch of utility spells that probably wont have much effect on the game With all the other restrictions on the magic system a VPP of this sort would essentially not give the mages much power at all. They would run out of steam before the combat really even got started. Im not sure what metric would be best for increasing the Real Points of the pool, but it seems obvious with a system like the one outlined the real points need to be higher. Anyhow I just wanted to see how people felt about this system. Mages are obviously limited to what spells they have managed to learn as well. And in a HIgh Fantasy world magic spells are closely guarded by other wizards so learning them is a challenge. At any rate, I would like to hear others weigh in on this type of VPP and see if it is still deemed to powerful, and if so some constructive comments on what could balance it out instead of just saying "NO", or point out why this system would never work. I believe in logical arguments, not "I have been doing HERO for 20 years and all of my other friends with as much experience in HERO would agree with me." Thanks Jeremy