Vanderbilt_Grad

Interesting site. Lots of words but little actual info. What they do give you in enough of the ideas and philosophy to try to hook you into buying the books and tapes.

12d6 attack + 8 SPD would be high for me. I would suggest either toning down the STR a bit if the SPD is going to stay high or vice versa. However this guy’s biggest problem is that he has no movement powers. He seriously needs some extra running and/or leaping. Swimming would be good too. As he is written the player is going to have to use a lot of those 8 actions just getting from point A to B so he has a shot with Totem Man's Hand Attack. The MP only needs 57 points not 60. Agree with previous comments about CON, DEX, & INT. Cats, even the big ones, are more well known for DEX than CON. I would raise the INT to 13 or 18 on this guy. More enhanced senses would also be neat. How about improved hearing or something that lets him sense ‘spirits’ … would be perfect for a supernatural predator. Skill wise & perk wise he could also use a bit more IMO. KS- Spirit Totems, KS- Native Lore, AK- Home Hunting Grounds, etc. would be perfect add-ons. This guy could also use a contact or two. A shaman that helped him connect with their totem might not be a bad idea.

More important than finding out powers IMO would be discovering weaknesses. Maybe the heroes have vulnerabilities that she or her allies could exploit in the future. Another idea is tailored drugs or diseases. Give a beautiful hero total zit face for a week. Make a drug that lowers inhibitions and slip it to the target and just stand back and watch them do things that they will regret later. Make them become physically ill in front of the press. Nothing like tossing your cookies or staining your tights during that big interview. More interesting that just making evil clones is making clones for the sole purpose of leaving planted evidence that incriminates the heroes. Feel free to steal, murder, and generally be bad while the heroes take the blame. If you make them really sick beforehand they might not have a good alibi either. Making them all really sick right before a major operation also decreases the chances that they will be able to bust you. Finally … understanding their powers might give you the key to really messing with them. Slip the heroes something that will make their powers go haywire. With a bit of luck they might accidentally fry someone which somehow seems to really freak out most good guys.

How about a variation on Damage Reduction - Arcane Defense would reduce magic effects by 25, 50, or 75% per current DR rules.

Well I don't have FH, but my suggestion would be to do something like mandate that all mages have Vulnerablity x1.5 Stun from Magic. If you use magic it can burn you more easily..... That way mages may be powerful ... but your non-mages have a free perk.

Me either. Does it have anything to do with: "And one time, at band camp...."

Agree 100%

Your Artery Pinch needs "Does Body (+1)" I haven't commented on your conversions much in general ... but IMO the characteristics have been a bit low for most of them. I also would be surprised if Jean were stronger than Bobby, but you have Iceman with only a 10 str. Philosophically I also think that their armor should *not* have the activation roll. Yes it doesn't cover their entire body but that doesn't automatically mean activation roll ... just that a called shot can bypass the armor. IMO it also might not be a bad idea to take the flight & force field out of the MP. Also wouldn't be out of character to combine both MP pools as one large 'psychic powers' pool. I don't ever really recall her using big TK stuff like the force wall while simultaneously reading someone’s mind.

Just buy an EB with Trigger & No Range. Set the trigger to be something like 'Triggered by successful block.' Expensive but that is as it should be & it avoids the problems with damage shield.

That would go a long way towards making her work for my game too.

Sorry Gary, I really meant to comment on Lariat earlier. I think that I can sum up my thoughts best by saying the following: “Wow.†Lariat is 100% legal … and the perfect example of why STR is too cheap as is IMO. I do like the concept though. She is interesting. Her main attack DC and defenses are a bit too high for my style of gaming (busts my campaign limits big time) but I can see why you would want to play her.

Psychologoy. Why the inner circle wants to bring back/serve the kings of Edom (I will note that I liked the stuff in the Ultimate Supermage in this respect). Why normal cultist join. Things that can be used as plot seeds for DNPCs and mystic heroes, i.e. how DEMON can tempt them. Info on how DEMON interacts with what we know of the Mystic and Super Heroic worlds. Include suggestions on why DEMON would hunt a particular hero and what that would involve. A coherent DEMON style & theory of magic. While experienced members might know more than one style I would expect a common tradition or two to bind most of DEMON together. Stuff on magic items ranging from the big plot devices to info on just how DEMON manages to mass produce all the stuff their cultists use. Suggestions on what to do when PCs take DEMON made items and start to use them….. I want DEMON to be more creepy than over the top. I want suggestions on how to uses them in different types of games (low powered, high powered, 4 color, realistic, etc.) I’m not big on using historical figures like Baba as inner circle members. I will not object to one or two but I don’t really like it. I dislike the magic / tech mixing even more. I like DEMON as a pure magic org … but perhaps one that uses tech occasionally to mislead or has a small internal tech group.

This character looks fantastic now! The single weakness I see is in regards to movement. Spending 2 points to buy running up to 7" would make a big difference IMO. A vehicle like a motorcycle wouldn't be a bad future add-on either.

More heromaker stuff. These 3 pictures are part of a college based team I'm working on. Amber is the team's new age peudo-mystic psychic.

More heromaker stuff. These 3 pictures are part of a college based team I'm working on. Matter Maker is a young chemical engineer with the ability to create almost any sort of matter.

More heromaker stuff. These 3 pictures are part of a college based team I'm working on. Incarnate is a fast brick / energy projector & is the leader of the team.

A Damage Shield.

I get that. Overall I think that you've done a really good job with Zl'f and it shows. I also think that OIHID is a reasonable way to do the things you want to with the character. I think that a lot of this other discussion on OIHID has gotten a bit sidetracked into rules. The main reason I would like to see a skill supporting the bio-feedback is because it makes sense to me role playing wise. Just like you spent all those points on her ‘alternate identity’ and the skills to support it (representing in my mind time she spent) … it seem to me only logical that Zl’f would have spent time learning how to turn her powers off the way she does. My reading is that tt’s not ‘natural’ for her to do so. It seems to take effort for her to ‘slow down’ like everyone else. So she spend some time researching how to slow down after her powers appear. She tries bio-feedback and gets some positive results, so she spends time learning to do it regularly. That’s how I picture the situation & to my mind that time spent would be best represented by having a PS: Bio-Feedback skill for 2 or more points. I don’t mind a bit if you disagree. Zl’f is your character after all.

OIHID is a limitation. The skill roll is one of many possible limitations that are perfectly reasonable IMO to add on to a power that you have *chosen* to limit this way & get some points back on.

Personally I like to compare OIHID with Costs End to Activate. Both are -1/4. The Costs End to Activate powers have a minor charge to start them up but are good to go after that … however they are not persistent. OIHID requires that there be a minor hiccup in starting the powers *and* that it takes *at least* a full phase action … however the payoff is that the powers are then on for good and are fully persistent. Another good comparison is IIF vs OIHID. I’ll use the magic ring example from above. The ring is unobvious in it’s usage but if it is IIF then the ring has to be on at all times for the hero to use it. If the hero looses the ring then he looses any powers bought with it. However if the ring is part of the OIHID activation then the hero can transform and then leave the ring at home. If he chooses to wear it (say to facilitate changing back at a later time) and he looses it he still has access to his powers. Mechanically I think that FREd p197 is pretty darn clear that further ‘difficulty’ in changing above and beyond the base time be a part of most OIHID setups. Roll playing wise I also like for there to be a darn good reason for OIHID to be part of a character concept. To me asking for a skill to ‘support’ Bio-feedback based OIHID is the same thing as making sure that a guy who spend 5 years studying Kung Fu in China can speak some Chinese. Role playing wise it just makes since to me. Roll playing wise I wouldn’t expect the skill to actually be rolled every time the character changed. As long as the player actually *had* the skill I would just assume that they took extra time to boost the roll or simply kept trying until they transformed most of the time. It would be the kind of in game assumption that keeps the action flowing. Only in stressful situation *to heighten the dramatic impact of the story* would I actually ask the player to make a roll or declare that they are taking extra time. That’s simply the stance I take when running a game. I understand fully that others may disagree & I did my best to make that clear in my post.

Spain is an interesting place. It is a country that has been influenced by both larger Europe and by Arabia. Sword wise though, I would go with the standard fencing type blades, rapier or saber. However if you wish you could justify just about any type of blade from broadswords to scimitars depending on the lady’s lineage. City wise Madrid & Barcelona are probably the two large Spanish cities best known to outsiders so you would be pretty safe with either. Personally I would pick Madrid since Toledo, one of the most famous sword making cities in the world is just a short drive away….

OK, having read your answers & had a bit of time to think about it. If you wanted this PC in *my* game I would suggest: I don’t like the DR based on luck & the DR vs Blunt. I would want these changed … perhaps to just vanilla Damage Resistance (6, 6) or some such. Under no circumstances would I want your full 18 PD to be resistant. Dump two of the extra DC you bought (and why are you only paying 3 points for those instead of 4 anyway?) - this would bring your PC more in line with my games DC limits … and it would re-enforce that this is a ‘mystical’ martial artist who relies on his ‘chi’ powers more than just raw physical skill. Loose the Dart Attack or re-work it. As is it just doesn’t fit the MP. An OIF ‘object of opportunity’ would fit here OK though … or you could buy the dart attack outside the MP. Replace the Speed Bump with an Autofire attack. You still get more attacks & I as GM don’t have to worry about speed changes in combat. Make an earth based MP slot for increased STR for grappling to compensate for the DC loss. Consider making an earth or water based MP slot with HA + increased KB for throws. Dump the Mental Defense … unless you want it as a MP slot. Make your Healing a 30 point slot. Healing 10 points per die not 5 … unless you are looking at succor. I would tell you to buy some non-combat skills, such a language like Tibeten, some AK skills to back up where your background says you lived before moving, and a peaceful artistic or trade skill that you can use in your secret ID.

First the questions: Shouldn’t “Grace of Fire†offer extra ED instead of PD? Why does Combat Luck only cost him 5 points for 9 PD & 6 ED? Why in the world does “Dart Casting†have recoverable charges? Most of the other MC slots seem to be mystic/martial abilities. The recoverable charges seems to almost indicate a physical object & seems out of place. Why doesn’t your character know the Kick maneuver? Then the comments: I like the overall idea quite a bit. The Fire/Wind/Water/Earth martial powers/skills actually reminds me of some stuff I read in two books many moons ago. I’m also a big fan of the way you bought your characteristics, i.e. 25/25/25/15 & your EC with 60/30/15 slots… I’ve used both of those myself more than once. Something nice about round numbers. That said as a GM I would be pretty nervous about this character being in my game. First off the various nerve strikes and dim mak when added to hand to hand damage are pretty versatile. It would make my job in brining balanced opponents harder. But what really bothers me is the +3 Speed. When combined with the 4d6 HA you have an 8 SPD guy dishing out 14d6 attacks. Take the SPD out & I might begin to feel a bit better about this guy. Overall the defenses feel a little high too. 18 PD + 9 Combat Luck + 9 PD Damage Resist gives your guy 27/18 PD/rPD before he even starts to tap into his MP. Taking 50% Physical Damage Reduction and the +12 PD from the Earth Kata … and well that goes even beyond what most player bricks will have in my game. I would also have to carefully consider the Martial Skill limitation on the MP. You will never have less than a 14- or less roll so I would expect you to make that most of the time. I would need further though to evaluate if I felt that it was really worth a -1/2 limitation given how high the base skill roll is. I would also be disappointed in the lack of non-combat skills. Where is PS like Flower Arrangement, Cooking, or Poetry to represent the artistic side many martial artist have. One thing the MAs really stress is balance & this guy doesn’t seem to have much balance in his life based on his skills & lack of perks. In a similar vein I’m not really sure that the Rivalry and Enraged really fit. This would need a killer backstory or I would ask that one or both be removed. This guy seems all about personal discipline and appears to be quite skilled so these to Disads seem a bit out of place. So my 2 cents as GM for *my* game would be to go back, make a few changes, & submit him again, but I would green light the concept.

re: the pics ... the dark costume looks better for a city based archer IMO ... though I'm not a big fan of that padded armor look Heromachine 2.0 has some better 'armor' stuff.

Trebuchet I’ll tell you why. It’s because it *is* more than just a bit of character concept. It’s the key to a limitation that is saving you over 50 character points. Fully defining a particular OIHID or not is the difference between a limitation that doesn’t limit the character and one that does. Now lets review: Zl’f OIHID isn’t really visible … save perhaps in some role playing situations. Zl’f doesn’t really transform her body when going into HID. Zl’f still maintains some of her powers, like regeneration, even when not in HID. Zl’f doesn’t seem to have any sort of additional limitation on whether or not she can activate OIHID. Reading the description it strongly implies that the full phase action to change is the minimum and that more is suggested. Shazam has Incantation tacked onto his full phase. Injecting ones self with sedatives or rubbing a magic ring requires a focus. Yet Zl’f only takes time. Adding a skill roll to the transform into and out of hero form would make Zl’f fit with *every* other example you mentioned. So in summary, as is, I can’t see her gaining the full -1/4 for 50 saved points. This is IMO so YMMV but if Zl’f were submitted to me as GM I would require that you more fully define the OIHID transformation and make it more limiting to get the benefit. Adding a skill roll or making it take more than one turn would probably be enough for me.