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QuietusEmissary

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  1. Okay, that's what I was leaning toward. Thank you! And now a followup: The reason this came up is that I'm trying to convert the Eberron races for Fantasy HERO, and two of the Shifter varieties have the ability to grow natural weapons for a limited amount of time each day. In this case, it's easy; each type has an Aid for a particular stat that's active when they shift, so the weapons can have Limited Power (Only while Shifted) or Linked to make it so that the attack is only usable then. But what if I wanted to make a character who can conjure a weapon for an hour every day without tying it to a Constant or Persistent ability. As far as I'm aware, Time Limit with just make it a janky version of Damage Over Time. Would you use Limited Power (Only available for one Hour every Day) or something more specific (would Continuing Charges be the way to go)?
  2. I feel like there's a really obvious way to do this, and like I used to have some ideas about it, but both my memory and my search skills are failing me. I am trying to figure out how to build a spell or other ability (like a D&D soulknife's Mind Blade) that conjures a weapon that the character can then use. Summon doesn't fit because you aren't summoning an independent creature. Is it just a Special Effect of a weapon Power with Limited Power (Takes a Half Phase Action or whatever to conjure; -1/4)? How would you lads and lasses go about writing up such an ability?
  3. I'm actually currently running a campaign based on Guardians and I went for Heroic but with higher starting points--225, in this case, but if I were to do it again I'd probably go for 275 or maybe even 300. The players even decided they wanted to start in space-prison. I like Heroic for it partly because it makes the stuff they find in space valuable to them. They'll come upon a new weapon or gizmo and it's nice for them to be able to just pick it up and use it. That's a big part of space opera to me, and I don't think they'd be as happy if I charged them points for it. And they definitely follow WistfulD's guideline of caring (quite a lot) about what their ship can do, which is part of the fun of space opera, at least for my group. So in that respect, I think the genre is far better served by the Heroic rules. The characters who seem to fit best in space opera campaigns also don't seem very Superheroic; although most of them have powers to represent alien biology and/or technological augmentation, that isn't generally the focus of the characters, and definitely isn't in my group. One of my players is running a psion (to use the D&D term for psychic wizard) and one has natural weapons due to his species, but the rest mostly use weapons and skills with the powers more for flavorful or situational abilities, which is a hallmark of Heroic campaigns, according to the book (6E1 29). Another way of looking at it is that the players are defining their characters more based on who they are than what they are. The natural weapons-user is an escaped gladiatorial pit fighter with extensive combat training, the fish-man is a thief, the cyborg is an ex-military pilot turned smuggler, the unaugmented humans are a hacker with mild telepathic abilities and an escaped slave from an alien empire. In all cases except for the slave (she's the psion), the players devoted most of their points to the skills and talents that represent their previous jobs: the cyborg, for instance, spent his points mostly on Transport Familiarities and the skills he would need to be a good pilot and smuggler. The stuff that represents his augmentations--a voice modulator, enhanced strength and durability, and wireless connectivity through his braaaaaaaaaaaain--are all fairly minor in comparison, in terms of both game impact and points cost. This is also a group that enjoys the "grittier" rules of Heroic-tier games: hit locations, blood loss, disabling wounds, that kind of thing. So while that part may not be as universal as wanting phat lootz without paying points, I feel it bears mentioning.
  4. Maybe tigers are a threat to dragons not when they're all grown up and fearsome but rather when they're young. Dragons are usually depicted as fairly autonomous even when they're still pretty small. Tigers are stealth hunters, and I could totally imagine a tiger pouncing on a wyrmling (to use the D&D term for a very young dragon) and killing it before it could fight back effectively.
  5. Checking the Combat Occupations category on Wikipedia turns up: Peltast: Ancient Greek javelin- and shield-wielding skirmishers. Seems a little obscure, though. Pioneer (Military): Basically a sapper. Seems like kind of a cop-out for P but it's an option. Powder Monkey: Carried gunpowder from a supply to cannons, usually on a ship. Might be too late-era for this. Privateer: This one seems like it could work really well. Although historically anachronistic in fantasy-era settings, generic pirates do get used a lot, so government-backed pirates should be fine. Several types of pilots and paratroopers: I'm just going to assume that's a "no". And then while looking over all of that to post I realized that PIRATE begins with P. Of course! So that's definitely something. Also Powder Monkey reminded me of the more general Porter, who in a military setting carries gear for other soldiers. A "profession of arms" in a very literal sense. A couple of literal senses, actually. And that's all I got.
  6. PS: Officer Requires Tactics (for knowing what to do with the troops under his or her command), Oratory (for actually getting them to do it via heroically motivational speeches or the like), and a PS matching the soldiers to be led (so the Officer actually knows how to manage the particular soldiers). Persuasion would be good to pick up as well. PS: Officer represents the training and/or experience required to lead in combat. A successful roll should allow the Officer to gauge the morale of his or her soldiers, get a pretty good idea of the stats and abilities of a Unit (assuming the Mass Combat rules from Fantasy HERO are in use), identify military markings and colors, and coordinate his or her Unit with others in the same army. Example of PS: Officer in use: An Elf Marshal is leading a Unit of Elf Soldiers into battle. They charge toward a mass of goblins, and the Marshal makes a PS: Officer Roll to identify them, even from pretty far out, as Goblin Archers. He orders his troops to form a phalanx, and they are amply prepared for the barrage of arrows that rains down on them. A brigade of goblins on wargs (because what else would goblins ride?) charge into the elves' army, and the Marshal's Unit begins to take casualties. Even before the Unit loses Readiness (Fantasy HERO p. 235), a PS: Officer Roll tells our hero that things are not going well and the morale of his soldiers is beginning to break. He charges into the fray with renewed vigor, cleaving a warg's head from its body before delivering an inspirational war cry, improving the Unit's Morale Roll as described on page 236 of Fantasy HERO. The goblins' numbers begin to overwhelm the elven army, and the Units that comprise it begin to disengage one by one. The Marshal's Unit has withdrawn a bit due to casualties, but a PS: Officer Roll will allow them to successfully cover their allies' retreat with minimal risk to themselves. Officer Template: On a related note, when I am building an NPC to command a Unit or a group of other NPCs, I usually start by taking a normal member of that Unit or one of those combat NPCs and adding +1 to OCV and DCV (to represent combat experience and advanced training), as well as the Skills listed in the PS: Officer description and the Fringe Benefit: Military Rank Perk. I also often add an ability like the following: Combat Leadership Effects: Aid 2d6 (STR, PRE), Boost, SER (5), Expanded Effect (2 Elements; +1/2), AOE (16m Radius, Selective; +1) (30 Active Points); Requires a Tactics Skill Roll (-1/2), Only Aid Others (-1/2), Incantations (Throughout; -1/2), No Range (-1/2), Limited Power (Increased Characteristics only apply to combat effects, such as adding damage to a melee Attack or resisting Presence Attacks; -1/2) Description: As long as the Officer is alive and within earshot of his troops, he can motivate them--whether through admiration, loyalty, or fear--to great feats of martial prowess. Different Characteristics can be added or substituted for the ones listed above. Examples include CON ("We can rest when we've cleansed this land of our foes!"), OCV ("Strike true!"), STUN ("Grit your teeth and push forward!"), or BODY ("No matter the cost, we will fight to the end!"). To simulate non-combat leadership abilities, such as the harsh commands of a slave-driver, change the Limited Power to only work outside of combat (in which case I would say it's worth -1 instead of -1/2) or remove it entirely. Power Cost: 8
  7. I've only had one resurrection, but I allowed it because: 1) We were playing D&D, and that stuff is available by default. 2) I hadn't said anything at the outset to establish that it wasn't allowed, and it didn't seem fair to spring that on them mid-campaign. 3) The player was really attached to his character concept, and permanently losing his character would have really hurt his fun, and by extension everyone else's. No one wants that. To me, that second point is really crucial. If death is permanent, I like my players to be aware up front, since resurrection is so often available in RPGs. To actually be on topic with the thread: The setting used was Eberron, in which the souls of the dead go to the plane of Dolurrh, a dark realm that leaches away its inhabitants' memories until they become husks of their former selves. It's pretty dark. I like it, though, because the religions in the setting all have their own theories not on where you go when you die--since it's demonstrable where you go--but rather what happens after that. Some believe that Dolurrh really is the end and try to avoid death or change what happens to the soul, while others say that the gradual loss of memories represents a soul's gradual transition to the "real" afterlife. It's a very agnostic setting, and I've always loved that about it.
  8. I'd say that shutting down a character and giving other characters a chance to shine are very, very different things, and not particularly conducive to each other. Shutting down a character is about robbing that character of his or her go-to solutions in a given situation, like your character losing his sword. When done right, it forces the player to evaluate his or her approach to the game and come up with an inventive course of action. It provides a new experience for the player, but it is still very much about that specific player and character. Giving other characters a chance to shine means creating a situation where those characters are highly relevant. Create social encounters for the "face" of the party, let the hunter track an enemy for a long way, make an NPC who needs the party's help a member of the cleric's church, have the scholar conduct some vital research in an archive that is baffling to the non-academics in the party, and so on. What most of those have in common is that while they have room for the characters' mechanics to be useful, the main thing that they do is appeal to the character concept behind them. Give the player a chance to see that the character he or she thought up is useful and capable. None of those scenarios care about the beefy warrior at all, and that's the point; his skills and roleplaying traits just aren't relevant. If you shut down the fighter in combat, he's still the center of attention; the less combat-oriented characters will, from what I've seen, focus on helping him get back into the action. And that makes sense: fighting is his character concept, so even at less than peak efficiency a fight is still very much his space. The key isn't in controlling or shutting down one character in his or her element, but rather in shifting the focus to someone else's.
  9. I can't stress enough what a good point Ndreare is making. Systems with that level of action-reaction in combat may be more tactically deep, but they pay for it in combat length. Not only are there more die rolls per action, but since some them can nullify actions, a lot of turns get wasted as people try to do things and get nowhere. That can really drag down everyone's enjoyment. Combat starts to feel like a chore after your third turn in a row where your attack just fails due to probability. If you and your players like that kind of combat, then go nuts. But if they haven't agreed to it, and especially if they're newer to the game, I'd stay away from that kind of thing. It also feels to me as though the library -> Thaumaturgy -> Sorcery restriction mechanic is a little roundabout. Again, your group's preferences may differ, but separating understanding of magic and actual execution of it into separate skills but then making the latter dependent on the former anyway feels mostly like a points tax for spellcasting. Which is fine if it's what you like, but at that point why not use a simpler tax? It sounds like Thaumaturgy and Sorcery will probably always be at the same rating anyway--most wizard players I've seen prefer power over understanding--so why not use perk requirements or some other tax that is less work for the players to manage? For example, instead of needing to pay money to boost a skill to boost another skill to use spells better, you could have them pay the money to be able to boost their one magic skill, and also have a collection of cheap perks that are required for access to specific spell types or base effects or what have you. It creates a slightly different dynamic than in the original--players could get a better Sorcery rating more cheaply if they were willing to skimp on versatility--but it helps create the sense that they are spending points to gain something new, rather than just paying extra. Though that brings up another potential problem: ability to grow. As you pointed out, a 45-point Reserve with the appropriate minimum limitations would cost 16 points, and each slot in a Multipower is generally pretty cheap. Wizard PCs will easily be able to start with 45-Active Point spells, and there really isn't anywhere to go from there. They can learn more of them, and get better at casting them, but that 3d6 single-target Fireblast spell that a mage starts with will end up being the pinnacle of his craft, at least in terms of base damage. A wizard could create a variant of an existing spell that can be Usable on Others or that has a Time Limit, but it will always be weaker than what the base version is capable of; you can't pay more to give an existing spell new functionality. It also means that starting characters can rival the great master mages of the setting from character creation--unless NPCs have higher limits, in which case the PCs may end up frustrated--and that seems weird. Again, it could be what you want from your campaign, just make sure you're doing it deliberately. If it is problematic but you don't want to change your Active Point limit, it could be solved easily enough with Talents or the like; maybe advanced mages can get Combat Skill Levels or Weaponmaster for some spells, or apply Talents like Rapid Archery (from Fantasy HERO) to spells instead of weapons. Lastly, I recommend getting rid of the "fake books damage your Sorcery rating" rule. Not much feels worse in a tabletop than having your hard-earned character advances taken away, especially if it's for trying to get better. If you're going to put obstacles in the way of becoming a better wizard, I strongly suggest that you don't punish the players for trying to overcome those obstacles. All of this is just advice, though. If you think that what you have is better, remember that I'm just some stranger on the Internet who does not know your GMing style or player group as well as you do. I don't want to come off as mean or overly critical. Just trying to bring up a few factors that you might want to keep in mind.
  10. Couldn't Delayed Effect work for the cramming as well? It's a little cheaper than Trigger and fits a little better in my opinion.
  11. Hmmm. So many options... I enjoy your punnery. Also I hadn't even been aware that Stretching could take Does Not Cross Intervening Space. That's really cool. And I hadn't thought of putting Indirect on the Multipower Reserve. It also helps to know that there isn't some obvious universal solution I'm missing. Looks like I'll just end up writing up a bunch of different versions and seeing how things go.
  12. Wow! My first post that isn't about undead of some sort! I'm really moving up in the world. I've been trying to write up an ability for a witch to allow her to use her Mind Linked familiar as the source of her spells, essentially casting them through it. But I'm really unsure on a good way to represent that in rules terms. Most of the ways I thought of to do it are not strictly kosher in the HERO rules, and while I'm all for creativity, I would rather be more "by the book" in case I want to use this ability for one of my characters in someone else's campaign later. I came up with a few ideas, but I feel like they all have balance and/or workability issues: 1) Indirect as a naked advantage for her spells is the most obvious way to do it, but that doesn't allow her to send the familiar far away to cast her spells, and has the potential pitfall of being a naked advangtage applied to the contents of a Power Framework, which is one of those "generally frowned upon" things in the book. 2) MegaRange as a naked advantage for her spells. This would let her use the familiar for targeting and just cast the spells herself, but it has the same naked-advantage-plus-Framework problem as before and also means that she needs clear line of sight to her target, which isn't what I was going for. 3) Indirect AND MegaRange as a compound naked advantage (Can you even do that? I have no idea). Really that just leaves the Framework issue, if I'm reading it right. So it's an option. This one only occurred to me while typing up the previous two, so this thread has already been helpful! 4) I also had a weird idea of buying a Cosmic VPP for the familiar with Limited Class of Powers (Only Magic-based Powers that the witch has; -1/2) on the Control and Limited Power (Witch must pay all costs and perform all activation requirements; -0) on all of the slots. Which should work very well, but would be expensive and seems like it might be unnecessarily complicated. So how would you write up this ability, O wise members of the HERO Forums? One of those ideas? Something totally different? I'd love to hear your input.
  13. I don't know if this is quite what you're looking for, and it's not rules as written, but when I've written up vampires who have sunlight protection I just modified how their Susceptibility works. I determine an Onset Time and a separate Damage Interval, and then use the value of Time Chart increment directly between them on the Susceptibility chart. So for a vampire who can stay out in the sun for 5 Minutes without taking damage and takes damage every Turn, my version would look like this: Susceptibility (To sunlight, Very Common, Onset 5 Minutes, Interval 1 Turn, Must Touch Character's Skin), which would be worth 20 points +15 for Very Common Substance +10 for 3d6 damage +0 for the time increment (since 1 Minute is the midpoint between 5 Minutes and 1 Turn, and 1 Minute is worth 0 points) -5 because it Must Touch Character's Skin You can do it with farther-apart increments too; Onset 20 Minutes, Interval 1 Phase also has a midpoint of 1 Minute. For a VERY sun-resistant vampire, Onset 6 Hours, Interval 1 Phase would be -5 points instead of 0 (because the midpoint between them is 5 Minutes), although at that point I probably would make the entire complication worth 0 points because a 6-Hour Onset is so forgiving. That was really more to demonstrate the pricing. If the midpoint would fall between two Time Chart increments, use the one that is lower on the chart as the midpoint. Of course that's for vampires who have some innate ability to resist sunlight for a time, rather than a spell or ability they can actively use to make the sunlight go away, so I don't know if it helps. But I hope it does.
  14. Re: A Lich's Phylactery That's what I was originally thinking. The lich definitely doesn't need to be the one in possession of his Phylactery to benefit from it, and it doesn't give another character any direct benefit for having it. ...Unless the lich gave it a beneficial Power that it could use on or for a nearby target, creating an incentive to not destroy it, as seen with the One Ring.
  15. Re: A Lich's Phylactery That's totally true, but I prefer to keep my designs as much in line with what the books say as I can. What originally drew me to the HERO System was the depth of the rules for designing new elements, and to me the biggest part of the fun is using the rules to turn a cool character concept into a part of the game. I love that. So when possible, I try to stay within the rules, because I actually have more fun that way. And I do prefer to keep things like this balanced enough for players to use, if they want to (and can pay the points, of course!). Although D&D is a great game, I had a big problem with some of the arbitrary limitations they put on character options. Do you want to play a noble vampire? Or an assassin who uses his supernatural infiltration skills to fight against a tyranical overlord? Too bad, unless you can get your DM to make an exception to the alignment restrictions. Weird character concepts like that tend to be my favorites. I always hated seeing a real cool part of the game in a book or encounter, and knowing that I could never use it because the rules had put a big "ONLY FOR NONPLAYER CHARACTERS" stamp on it. So whenever possible, I default to making everything available to (and appropriate for) the PCs, just in case one of the players ends up liking it. And it's nice to know that I could justify as an ability for a future PC of my own, too. I didn't really think your post felt like a rant, personally. Everything you said was perfectly reasonable. And thanks for teaching me how to give people credit for what they say!
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