Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... I think the acrimonious thread has probably scared him off. I was the one who mentioned that he had no non-gimmicked powers. He has 2 autofire spells, A SPD drain, A force Wall, Entangle, Flash, Flight and a FF of ice. The FW, Entangle and Flash are great abilities for controlling a battle. I still recommend having one attack power that has no advantages on it except perhaps reduced endurance. Just to have a utility attack power that you can rely on that doesn't take a bazillion end from this Endurance Reserve. The Autofire attacks are going to cost 5 end per shot and it's a 5 shot AF so he's burning 25 end a phase just to use those powers. (15 if he goes to 3 shot). With a OCV of 6 with no skill levels he will hit DCV 3s on average 2 shots per phase and everyone else maybe 1x but probably less. So it's not the most efficient build. BTW most all of his spells cost 5end/Phase so he's burning 10 end a Turn (inc Post Seg12 Recovery)assuming he doesn't use the end hungry autofire attacks. Combat Spellcasting gives him +3 DCV when he is casting spells. Though perhaps turning that into +2 levels with Magic would give him flexability. Giving the character the ability to actually hit with their spells or to go defensive. The write up strikes me as a novice's try at building a complex character. An experienced player should go though and rebuild the character to show how to build it more effciently. oh well something to do... tasha

Re: Five Innovative But Impractical Handguns Check out the .50 BMG handgun. IE this gun shoots the same round as the .50 Heavy Machine Gun. This is a gun for stupid Munchkins. .50 MBG Handgun

Re: Five Innovative But Impractical Handguns Only the Cartridge Versions of the LeMat had to be Disassembled to reload. The Cap and Ball versions could be loaded from the muzzle of the shotgun and the front of the cylinder. The LeMat was one of my favorite weapons for a Castle Falkenstein game. You make sure that the Shotgun shell is filled with iron bits and you are ready to turn some Faerie's day really bad. Of course my Dwarf Gunsmith also put iron filings into his lead bullets... Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... I agree with the first thing. I try my best to figure out what skills could be possibly used (usually by making sure that there is good synergy with my other skills). GM's I play with know that I do tend to rewrite my characters after the first couple of sessions (to kind of fine tune, to add stuff I missed and remove stuff that doesn't fit) As for the last bit, I point out that I am not my character and I am not someone who knows how to bribe someone, or how to best pick up someone at a bar, or even how to get around organizations. Even if I was personally skilled at it, my character may be better. So it helps the game to do Skill vs skill checks for all interaction skills. Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... Icy's last posted write up is here: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1867957&postcount=29 It included the .hdc

Re: Having trouble with a Power Build - Herogame Fantasy Forum Gurus GO!!! I think that Duplication is the ticket. Use a variation on the "Astral Form" that is in the side bar of 5er pg 152. You could mega scale it so that your hex is 1km or 10km and place your anywhere in that first "Hex" Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... When I am in a game, if the GM doesn't usually notice things like KS's and PS's I will ask questions and suggest a Skill roll I could be making. Same with Interaction skills. ie for Trading, I will RP it some and then I will ask if I should make a Trading Skill roll and If I got any bonuses for RPing it. Eventually the GM gets into the habit of asking for the roll. Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... Ok Characteristics for the Powerlevel "Powerful Heroic" sets the characteristic range to 10-20. (SPD 2-4) This is the Powerlevel that Narf said that the game is based around. IMHO the Mage who should be topping the INT scale, Probably shouldn't be topping both the Dex and SPD ranges. That's just taking up niches that other character classes could be taking. Also having the mage be the equivalent of dex 20 starts that old heroic problem of Dex and Spd creep. Because the GM starts to base the mooks around the higher dex and speed, which makes the fighter types who were at dex 14 spd 3 to realize that they aren't that heroic in stats. As to why many people are down on mages being high Dex and Spd. The stereotypical mage is an academic. They are someone who spends most of their time reading old tomes and scrolls. Probably while sitting on their widening tail ends. The same lack of physical exertion that makes most mages low STR also tends to not make them very agile. The time reading makes them a great resource for knowledge esoteric and mundane, also mages tend to speak many languages (including ancient and "Dead" languages). The casting of complicated spells should also make their minds stronger (high EGO). Honestly, I would recommend that you take the dex down to 14 and speed to 3 and use the points to purchase some of those skill levels that Skip mentioned (Level with Spells 3pts/+1) and also buy more knowledges/languages and other wizardly skills. Again I am not your GM, Narf is. So if he is ok with this that's fine; it's his game. Tasha

Re: Help with an Ineffective Ice Mage... One thing that I noticed is that you have no Straight up damage powers. you have two autofires, Drains, Entangles and every gimmicked up power you could imagine. I would highly recommend one power that is just straight dice. ie IceBolt 8d6EB. Then you have ONE power that can do decent damage. With so many gimmick powers, you will run into circumstances where you will be ineffective (ie High DCV targets). Given the campaign limits your DEX and SPD seem kind of high, but that's the GM's call.

Re: Hero Extreme Edition re the OP. That system reminds me of the thought experiments that used to be seen on AOL's Hero Boards. Where the whole system was boiled down to 4 powers and everything else was created with Special effects, Advantages and Limitations. It was an interesting way to look at purchasing powers and may have influenced Steve when he decided to use powers to build Talents. To actually use in real life I would say NO. This is the kind of "simplification" that is actually adding a ton of complication to the powers. It would build in to the system a HUGE learning curve, which is not a good things for a RP system. You will see that most beginning players will choose base powers and really not do much to them with limitations and advantages. As players become more comfortable with how powers are put together, then you see them start to use Limitations and Advantages in more complex ways to accurately model the abilities they want for their character.

Re: Hero Extreme Edition you know, that blog reminds me of those rooms in Mental Institutions, where the crazy person draws a ton of pictures and other stuff on the walls. Only they know what it all means and it's vaguely disturbing looking at the whole thing.

Re: Alternative systems for mental powers The reason that the target gets an immediate breakout roll is to make being mind controlled more palatable to players. Lets face it, noone likes being the target of any mental ability. Giving folk the ability to attempt to break out immediately gives the illusion that the Players still has some control over that character. When it stinks is when the players are the originator of the mental ability and their target immediately breaks out with that roll. Of course as a GM you could allow the PCs to get the immediate breakout roll and the NPCs a roll on their first phase. My issue with Mental attacks is that they are really only effective if you have 10d6 or more of effect. Basically their scaling for non supers games stinks. There should be some way to get mental abilities to scale down better to fit in non supers games better. It's kind of ridiculous to have a mage that has a set of 30 pt attacks to suddenly need a 50pt power to have a chance of successfully using the power. I am sure sure that I like the Drain EGO mechanic. it doesn't "feel" right to me. don't know what the right answer is, but it's past 3am here. going to bed! Tasha

Re: Poll: What do you play We are currently playing 2 games 1) a Fantasy Hero Game loosely translated from our 4e Forgotten Realms Game. 2) A Star Hero Game based on Serenity. What I will be running when/if those 2 campaigns run out of steam. My Urban Fantasy Hero Game "Summerlanders" Though I would be open to a Champions game. I guess we will probably play a 6e Champions MiniSeries after 6e ships (and HD 6th Edition is ready). This is a good way for us to give the new rules a try. Dunno if we will switch to the new rules, depends on what everyone thinks of them.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: Urban Fantasy sources The last two books have gotten back to killing vampires with less sex. BTW many Romance novels can be quite graphic with the sex scenes.

Re: Urban Fantasy sources Well since Urban Fantasy Hero shipped the Genre has just exploded with tons of new authors. Because many of the Urban Fantasy Authors got their Start as Romance novelists, there is a bit of a split in the Genre. You will find Romance novels that are Urban Fantasy(but still have great Worlds and great backgrounds), Novels that are really a split between Romance and "Hard" Urban Fantasy. Then there is what I am calling "Hard" Urban Fantasy which has no romance elements at all (Beyond what you would find in any normal novel). So I would Say that Laurel K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels tend to be Split (Some veer over into Romance, but have now strayed back toward the middle) Jim Butcher is "Hard" Urban Fantasy. Rachael Caine (Weather Warden Series) "Hard" Urban Fantasy J.R. Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood series) Urban Fantasy Romance (still good stories and the background is quite interesting) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson Series) Split, more Hard, but still has romance bits Kelley Armstrong (Women of the Otherworld Series) Split, really a mix of both but mostly hard. Carrie Vaughn (Kitty the Werewolf series) Mostly Hard. etc What I am saying is that if you are looking for Urban Fantasy, some authors will be over in the Romance section. Some of those authors are writing stories that are not total romance. The bookstores don't realize that they have a new crossover genre and so really don't know where to place books in this genre. I have also found that some bookstores place some urban fantasy in the Horror Section. So keep an open mind and look all around the bookstore esp if you have found one book in a series and can't find the rest of the series in the section you are in. BTW the Wotch is a quite funny series, though it may not be to everyone's taste. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far

Re: Crossroads: Urban Fantasy HERO Indianapolis I am sure that there will be hate groups esp for the Supernaturals that cannot pass as humans or those considered "monsters" (ie Vampires, and Lycanthropes (werewolves). I don't think that KKKers will suddenly start loving non-whites. They will still have their old hatreds and new ones on top of the old ones.

Re: Urban Fantasy 'white event' idea What really happened in the white event in my world is a Secret that I eventually intend to reveal to the player. They currently have hints of what has happened. One of them might know WHAT happened, but not many of them know WHY. I can say that it is definately NOT a case of a portal or a bunch of portals coming online all at once. Now there is a "secret" history of Vampires and Werewolves. With Vampires evaporating on exposure to sunlight, and Werewolves changing back to human form when killed. Not much evidence existed to back up claims of their existance. That changed after the Fae came back to our world. Vampires bankrolled the whole movement to get Supernaturals human rights (for their own reasons), and Werewolves came out seeing that the time was right. I don't really care for the 'Mythos' much, so my world doesn't have any of it's trappings. So since at least 2 of my players do occasionally read these boards, I have to keep the secrets of my campaign secret from all of you. Though both players are good enough to keep RL knowledge from their characters, I enjoy seeing their reactions when they put together the pieces of a mystery themselves. Tasha

Re: Urban Fantasy 'white event' idea In my game the "White Event" entailed hundred millions of Fae and other Supernaturals beings and Wizards appearing in our world. They appeared in houses supermarkets basically at the same geographic position in our world as they were in Faerie (the 2 worlds are geographically identical). This let high amounts of magical force (mana) back into our world. So on Fae Day, everything changed on earth. Tasha

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far Nah we are just opinionated geeks. This is just a an outlet for us to discuss/argue about our personal pet peeves with the scant info that Steve has given us. Honestly, it's probably a good thing that he didn't really give us much in the way of real details or this thread would have been hotter. Part of me wonders if he mentioned those because he knew that those changes would be contentious and wanted to see our reactions. Oh well, all in a good cause Tasha We love ya' Steve!!!

Re: Starting Point Totals Dont forget that Elemental Controls are going away and that will probably mean that characters will be more expensive to make.

Re: Starting Point Totals Actually I do take a look at the little chart at the front of the book. I can use that as shorthand to tell my players the powerlevel that I want. Esp if I am running a mini-series as opposed to a real campaign. When 5th came out I read the chart at the front. I learned in the 4th edition change over to do so. Because whenever a new edition comes out it seems like it takes more points to write up old characters. So it's helpful to see if the totals changed. Now before you get on me for being such a robot. I played Champions for years in a group with a rotating GM and Player roster. So it was VERY helpful that we had built the characters using the same guildelines. Later when we started to play with a more exclusive group then we started to do other things with the point totals (ususally to give more points for Skills) So when 6th edition comes out it will be interesting to find out how many points characters at all levels will be built on.

Re: 6E Rules changes confirmed so far