Mike W

Re: Standard Effect I think it depends on what you put it on. If you put it on a KA, you actually GAIN damage in the long term. Sure, you won't get 100 STUN on 4D6 anymore, but you won't get 12 on 33% of your rolls either. Also, I think it depends on whether you apply it across the board. If everyone has to take Standard Effect on the same attacks/type of attacks, then no limit for anyone. It's just part of the power the same way that EB rolls "normal damage" and RKA rolls "killing damage".

Re: Extra information from 3d6 You realize that I just shuddered by the very similarity of that proposal to the Star Wars "wild die", which I HATED.

Re: Extra information from 3d6 Ok, to break this up: 1. I think that the average character "knows" a lot more about his opponent and how well that character is fighting than you give them credit for. Part of this is based on reputation. Everyone knows that Grond is insanely strong. If he hits me for only 45 STUN, I know I got lucky - just because I'm still standing. Same thing for other big name baddies like Mechanon and Dr. Destroyer. By reputation, we know they're a lot tougher than that last hit just indicated. Similarly, it usually doesn't take long to figure out someone's "usual" CVs just by paying attention to what they attempt to do and what hits and misses. If they shift a lot of levels around, you can figure out they did it based on them fighting more defensively, or the fact that a roll that hit before just missed. Plus, on a more "theorectical" level, shouldn't something have to happen to create the bonus? And therefore, shouldn't someone who knew what to look for be able to notice that their relative position has gotten better or worse? 2. It's not that rolling enough 3d6s won't even out the doubles and triples, the problem is that A) It has less chance of evening out in a given fight and even if two characters roll the exact same number and type of doubles or triples, they may not gain equivalent benefit because a +1 OCV, for instance, doesn't have the same percentage effect on everyone's hit roll. If I have a 7 OCV, that +1 will do a lot more to increase my chances that if I have an 11 OCV trying to hit the same DCV. Same thing with damage rolls, +1DC of damage affects each attack differently. If I'm using an NND nerve Strike, I get +1 pip of damage. If I'm using a fist, I get +1D6 normal damage(about 1 BODY and 3.5 STUN) If I'm using a HKA sword I get 1 pip of BODY AND extra STUN(let's say 3). If I have left over STR and get to add that behind the new HKA total, say, from 1D6(2D6 total), to 1D6+1(2 1/2D6 total) then the guy with the sword gets a lot more. And so on as you get into other types of attacks(Mental Blast, Drains and such) it gets even more varied. And there is a very good chance that it won't even out. Again, who needs a +1OCV more - a martial artist hitting a brick or a brick hitting a martial artist? 3. As you get closer to the extreme ends of the spectrum, the liklihood of a bonus is going to increase. For example, in order to roll a three, four, or five, you MUST roll doubles or triples(either 1,1,3 or 2,2,1 no other combination can give you 5, the only combination for 4 is 1,1,2 and the only combination for 3 is 1,1,1), so you're essentially making it so that whenever something unlikely happens, you AUTOMATICALLY have a bonus or penalty applied to the next action. So this isn't quite as random as it first seems. Sure, the overall odds of rolling a "bonus" combination don't change every time you pick up 3d6, BUT there are some tasks that are so difficult that you would ALWAYS score a "bonus" when you succeeded. You have to get to the middle numbers(around 8 or 9 I think) before it reaches a point where scoring a "bonus" during success is unlikely. To return to the martial artist vs. brick fight one more time. Let's say they each roll an eight and get 6,1,1 on their first hit rolls and this gives them a +1 to hit on their next attack. The martial artist just got hosed, even though they rolled the same thing. The martial artist gets a + 1 OCV which improves his chance to hit from 14- to 15-. Big deal, that's about 4% if I remember right. If the brick just went from 8- to 9- then his percentage increased by about twice as much from the same bonus. So the effect is NOT equal even though the rolls were.

Re: Extra information from 3d6

Re: Extra information from 3d6

Re: My Delemia Two other recommendations. 1. Get Sidekick first. It's a simplified version of Champions, so you can learn the basics first. 2. If you decide to get writeups of characters online, make sure you get them all from the same place and then test them out. One of the things that makes HERO great is that you can build the same thing different ways. So not everyone builds Superman the same way and my version of Superman might not work in someone else's universe.

Re: Power suggestions for a "Perfect" human being Depending on how "realistic" you want to be, you could look through the Ultimate Martial Artist for ideas. Legendary martial arts masters have supposedly been able to extinguish fires, teleport, and do all sorts of other things that we would consider "unrealistic". If you're trying to keep things more "realistic", you could always give him a huge gadget and weapon pool and mastery over all of the gadgets and weapons.

Re: Extra information from 3d6 By the time,you posted this, I'd already rewritten that section of my post because I had somewhat misread the first post. I still don't like it though. And for double 6s, what if I still hit? I could roll 6,6,1 for 13. IF I have a high OCV character like a martial artist then I could hit a lot of people with that roll.

Re: Extra information from 3d6 I'm not crazy about this idea. For one thing, I'm not sure how it affects play balance - and just because it's the same for everyone doesn't mean it is balanced, especially if you get a roll like 5,5,5 which doesn't hit very often. And 6,6,6, is already an automatic failure. I was never a fan of the wild die in Star Wars because it was 1/3 rolls and had a major effect overall. This is capable of affecting almost 1/2 of all rolls. Even if you keep the "bonuses" to a minimum, it could have a major effect on play balance. A +1 OCV can affect your hit chances by as much as 1 in 8. On the other hand, if you already have a big advantage, that extra +1 OCV might only get you a 1 in 25 bonus. If you do DCs, it may not translate into enough extra damage to matter. In short, the bonuses won't necessarily affect everyone equally. If I've got a martial artist and I'm fighting a brick, I don't care about extra OCV, it probably doesn't make much difference for me. The extra DC might be nice, but it may not be enough to hurt the brick, and if I'm using somethng like and NND to hurt him, it's only about 1pip. Big deal. If I'm the brick, I don't care about DC; I'm gonna squash the little pipsqueak if I can hit him. But that extra OCV might come in real handy since the difference between 9- and 10- is quite significant. Of course, if the martial artist realizes the brick just got a bonus(how do you tell if someone just a bonus on you?), the little squirt is liable to just declare a dodge and my CV bonus is pretty irreleveant.

Re: The Roof, The Roof, the roof is on fire I don't get into all the extra stats for the fire myself. I just figure out how much damage it does and if the Dispel is enough to overcome the points based on damage, then the Dispel snuffs out the fire over how much area the Dispel can affect. If the Dispel doesn't have an AOE, then I'll take a guess, but I always give them at least one hex.

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? On the other hand, Grond is child like enough that if someone ineffectual did a good enough job of taunting, Grond might ignore more effective combatants(at least for a while) to try and stomp the obnoxious character first.

Re: Comics are getting too steamy... Exactly. But then, we have to remember that most of these writers seem like they don't care about the characters. They have a story to tell and the characters are there to do whatever it is the writer wants to do - history, logic, and character integrity be DA**ED.

Re: Grond, underpowered pansy? The JLA gave Batman a night off? Can you tell me what issue? I'd love to read it.

Re: Spidey my version Bolo reminded me that his spider sense is much more powerful than it is written up. His spider sense not only works out of combat, but it doesn't have to pertain directly to him. If he walks out of the bank just as a guy with a pistol in his jacket goes in to rob it, Spidey's danger sense goes off. He may not know exactly what's going on, but he knows that Guy A is about to do something that could result in people getting hurt.

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? This guy is amusing. I may have to steal him for a one off in my next Champs campaign.

Re: Great Goggle-Eyed Ninjas! The Defense maneuver basically says that you move in a way that prevents people from getting a clean shot at your back. So they don't get the bonus of "attacking from behind". The 360 Degree Increased Perception means that you can actually "see"(in some sense) where they are. I'm also of the same belief as Dust Raven that if you have 360 degree perception, then there are no "attacking from behind" penalties because you essentially have no "blind spot" for the attacker to hide in or surprise you from.

Re: Spidey my version Spidey should have a higher BODY. Sorry, but the guy takes beatings from cosmic forces, then they marvel at the fact he won't quit. It's happened on more than one occasion. Literally. He takes beatings that would kill normal supers at least once a year and still comes back fighting. Fantastic Four should be a pricier contact. They are highly useful and have NCI. Spidey doesn't call on them for it, but he could. Depending on the era you could argue he should have a lot of other contacts as well. The guy has worked with basically every hero in existance. But a "classic" version of Spidey should at least have the Avengers as a contact and probably Black Cat as well. I'd also make Johnny Storm a separate contact. They actually exchange Christmas presents every year! So even things that Reed might not have time for, Johnny would probably make time for.

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks?

Re: Normal-proofing your Bricks? Well, given that even a slow super brick has 17 DEX, Joe Normal probably doesn't have the CVs to waste on extra damage. And does he have martial arts WITH the baseball bat? Probably not. I mean, how many people have enough martial arts WEAPONS training to get that kind of damage(10d6). Truthfully, not many. I know several people with martial arts training. But I've only met one person who I think could come up with 10d6 damage. Also, remember that Joe Normal with 20 STR isn't your typical normal. Only a small handful of people have 20 STR, which is enough to lift over 800 pounds. And you could always apply the "real weapon" limit to the bat, which would in and of itself prevent the bat attack from doing 10d6 damage since it could, by default do more than 2x its base damage, even as blunt object. Really, 30 DEF with 10-15 resistant is enough to "bulletproof" or "normal proof" your bricks from anyone without access to military grade equipment or a world class martial artist(who is far enough above "normal" that I wouldn't count it).

Re: Putting my finger on it I like the Icon idea, although it might get a bit confusing if you put icons on powers(Extradimensional movement and Dark Champions don't necessarily go together) when we already have icons like the Stop Sign. Maybe a chart instead?

Re: SPD inflation obesrvation & solution

Re: SPD inflation obesrvation & solution Tactics are another matter. I was thinking individually. A couple of properly run VIPER 5 teams should be enough to slow down any super hero team, maybe even beat them if the heroes get careless.

Re: Putting my finger on it I can kind of see where you're going with this. While there have always been "genre specific" rules, you needed the genre book to find them(Dark Champions, Fantasy HERO, whatever). I can see that to some extent, but at the same time, it might be handy to have something in the general 5th edition book that said which optional rules are "mandatory" in a given campaign style. And while there have always been other genres, ultimately we tend to think of HERO as a superhero system. In fact, there are some of us that use Champions(or Champs) to refer to HERO in general. On the other hand, I like the fact that I can grab a guy from Dark Champions, Fantasy Hero, or some other genre, power him up a bit, and drop him into Champions. Or grab a traditional knight from Fantasy HERO, change his background and put him in a Ninja HERO campaign. And through it all, I can assume that things work more or less the same. If we make too many of the rules "genre specific" we run the risk of creating things that use the same system but are no longer compatible without some more major revisions. I rather like the idea of being able to use one system for any campaign that I feel like using it, regardless of genre.

Re: VPP, Shapeshift and You It depends on the character. If the character has a great deal of control, it can be 0 phase and have no roll. If they have less control it could require a full phase(or more) and a skill roll(based on CON in my campaign). I've also put limits like "must resume base form before shifting"(-1/2) or "must shift at least half the pool"(-1/2) to represent the character's control. In the above cases, they can shift from their base form to something, but they aren't good at modifying the new form. Other possibilities: Side Effect on the shift roll(I even put NND Killing Attack Side Effect on one defined as "that bone wasn't supposed to go there").

Re: Frameworks modifying frameworks Any archer I've ever seen built buys the arrows as foci, if for no other reason than to get the Focus limit on all the "trick" arrows. And technically, the ammunition is part of the "gun focus" limit. After all, if I take the bullets out of the clip, you can't fire the gun can you? And even though the ammo is bought with the charges limit, it's often bought as part of the same "gun power" indicating that they are parts of one big power and take all the limits as a whole, including the focus. This is true even if the gun is built as a multipower so that it can handle different ammo types. Each one is still part of the same MP and the focus limit applied to the gun automatically applies to all the slots. Also, the fact that we are dealing with an accessible and physical manifestation of the base power(RKA, for example) strongly argues that a focus limit shoudl be required of the power.