Tywyll

Re: Walking Past Combatants (Attacks of Opportunity) Exactly! Having played lots of Larp combat, and been in a few fights (not many, just an unfortunate few) its extremely rare that a combatant completely ignores the person they are trading blows with to move past them. In most cases, if they do, they are really attempting a Move By or Move Through, which I am ok with. What I am not ok with is running the 3 hexes around me and grabbing my ward that I, mighty fighter, have sworn to protect. And of course you can flip this and have the heroes do it to the villian's power crystal of ultimate doom, or whatnot. Anyway, it bugs me. Sure, if the character is in full plate and is half elemental, I can see them taking the blow and trying for it anyway, but in most cases, short of absolute protection or suicidal tendencies, the characters aren't simply going to ignore an armed and dangerous opponent. Speaking of movement though and the non-sensical things it provokes, yeah, there is some issue with the fact that similar speed characters can never outrace each other, but that's another thread I think. Ok, so the question is this: how unbalancing would it be to allow characters an AoO or something similar? Interposing is ok, but frankly I don't think a defender needs to take a hit to bash at someone who is ignoring them. Simply being engaged with a target should be sufficient to keep them from gacking the ward behind you, at least until you fall. And if you swing at them, unless you are just incredibly slow, no difference in speed is really going to stop you from being able to get a "back attack" on them. The more I think about it, the more I think of OAD&D's rule where you got a free swing on anyone who ran away from you in combat as they turned their back.

How do you stop a character you are engaging in combat from disengaging and walking around you to pulverize the princess/DNPC/puppy you are protecting? Other than holding an action, there doesn't seem to be a way from stopping the non-sensical, but rules legal action of a character involved in a fight from walking past his attacker in a later phase to attack someone or something behind them. DnD 3.X had Attacks of Opportunity, one of the more difficult rules to completely grasp because it had so many "and...if" clauses, but it still made a lot of sense in use. Is there any way to do that in Hero, short of just cludging it? I am familiar with the Interpose rules, but those don't actually stop your opponent from getting past you, it just punishes them for doing it (AFAIR). Anybody do anything with this?

Re: Multipower Charges and Durations I don't know if its legal or not, but I think I like that better than the previous ones. The more I started thinking about the earlier suggestions, the more they started bothering me. Limitations affect your final cost, but Advantages affect your Active Points. It seems odd to me that you would have to make a power cost more /before/ you could reduce its cost with the charges limitation. In something like a multipower that seems to be a really detrimental way of doing it.

Re: Multipower Charges and Durations Thanks, Lord Liaden. Those are some good ideas. The first few don't quite "feel right" to me, but the Faq suggestion and your idea of "Activations per day" have the right feel I think I am looking for. Thanks for the suggestions!

I was working on a Multipower concept and it got me to thinking. I want the multipower to, as a whole, be limited to X times per day. But I want some slots, once activated, to last longer than instant (which, with my understanding of charges on a multipower doesn't fly). How would I do this? At first I considered giving the slots with a longer duration Lingering, but I'm not sure if that is really the right way to do it. Basically, I want something that might function like a set of spells that can be used X times per day, regardless of which ones you use, but the individual spells can have different durations (one might be a blast, but a FF might last as long as you pay END per normal) etc.

In Requires Skill Roll, they list the option of using your OCV with no skill levels. The cost is "No Change". What does this mean? Does the character make a to hit roll against the target to activate the power? Do they suffer the negative penalty from ACtive Points as in the 3/2 skills? What value is used? -1/2? -1/4? -0?

Re: RSR: OCV... what does it mean? Ok, but what do you roll the OCV against? There is no such thing that I am aware of as an "OCV roll". Is it against the target's DCV? Is it against a hex? Does it depend?

In Requires Skill Roll, they list the option of using your OCV with no skill levels. The cost is "No Change". What does this mean? Does the character make a to hit roll against the target to activate the power? Do they suffer the negative penalty from ACtive Points as in the 3/2 skills? What value is used? -1/2? -1/4? -0? Any help would be appreciated.

Re: Hitting things with Thrown Things While I am aware of the balance issues and the dangers of letting the Brick's really rule, there is a point where it starts breaking down suspension of disbelief. If I throw a rock at someone, in real life, I might very well knock them out if I hit them in the head. If I punch them in the face however, its unlikely that the same would result (I have a realistic appreciation for my abilities). To a 50 str brick, an object that takes a 20 str to lift is essentially that rock. Now, I realize it is not aerodynamic and they would take hefty penalties in chucking it, but if it hits, it should have some effect from its mass+their strength. As for buying them as a power... I have real problems with buying certain powers to represent things the stats should be capable of. For instance, I don't think you need an Entangle power on the sheet to use a 50+ strength to tie someone up with a metal girder. A 15 str character doesn't need a power on their sheet to tie up a character with a rope, do they? The girder becomes like a rope in the hands of someone that strong. Certainly, a character could buy extra damage with thrown objects (they are really accurate or something) but the objects themselves should have some effect, especially when a war club can dish out an extra 6DC. A car just ought to do more damage in the hands of its wielder, or else there is little point in using that common trope of super gameing. Just my 2C.

I'm building a race that when it dies, its spirit reincarnates in another animal body being born nearby. Its a cat race and when they are slain, their spirit finds the nearest kitten being born and is reborn in that body. After two months, it has all of its former memories/abilities and even begins to change back into its former self physically. So, how would you stat this? I am thinking it would be based on the Resurrection power, since that is the only way to come back from the dead. But how would you work the reincarnation bit? The body wouldn't "resurrect" as per normal with the power, and it might be some time before the character came back.

Ok, I'm a bit confused about throwing objects at characters. I had the chance to be in a spur of the moment pick up Champions game. In that game, my sword-wielding brick picked up the body of a plane I'd just wrecked and threw it at my nearly impervious opponent. Damage was the same as if I had punched them. So long as the object had enough def+body, its weight, pointy bits, etc don't matter. Meanwhile, if I hit them with a heavy enough club, I'd have done +4d6. A stick does 4DC extra, a plane does zip? Yeah, I realize it allowed me to attack with an AoE, but shouldn't it provide some bonus damage? If I dropped it on someone, it would do a minimum amount of damage based on the strength needed to lift it (Ultimate Brick I think), but throwing it, no dice. Kind of defeats the purpose of hitting your foe with a parked car.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game Thanks Mordax, that does help. I wouldn't mind hearing more about your game and any time you felt perhaps that the balance issues didn't work out well, or at least potential pit falls you encountered. Sounds like a great game though. Would have been interested in seeing it. Thanks again.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game How do you balance encounters for such a mixed group, short of splitting the party all the time (like they do in Avengers and JLA)? Wouldn't the God easily squish the swordguy's enemies? Just curious for some more detail on how you handle that kind of imbalance. Thanks for the input!

Re: Protection from Divination? Thanks for the info. Next question: how do you do it so that you can remove traces of someone's presence? In other words, casting a spell that "erases" a trace in an area so that if someone cast a Retrocog spell 5 months later there still wouldn't be any traces of the character?

HOw would you build spells that block/defend against Divination (Clairsentience specifically, but Detects as well I suppose). I'm looking for something that either doesn't allow scanning the particular area once the spell is in place, or something that removes all traces of a person's presence, or just "blanks" them from Clairsentience viewing. Would you do this as: Images Invisibility Darkness? And what about the "removes all traces" effect? Would that be a Change Environment? Thanks!

Re: Seeking Magic Systems for the following Fantasy Settings It doesn't so much modify the D&D magic system as it does away with it entirely and replaces it with something that fits the setting so very well. Granted, you couldn't really use it alongside a normal, high fantasy D&D character, but it works great within the mythos of the world. And that source book is about the best d20 product to come out in the last two years I think. Its a wonderfully done job of how to handle a licence property. It would function great as a FH source book because it is so detailed.

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals It may work. Actually 20, or 1 per point of protection (50 ap=5 END, x4=20) Do you mean that the 5 per turn (20 a minute) would be a handwave if you turned to to the Recovery of the END Battery (which in this case would always be at lowered to at happening every minute)? The Battery shouldn't have the limitation, and the Recovery wouldn't stop working while these specific powers are active: it will continue to recover from the use of other powers. That is why I'm against buying the limitation on the REcovery, it isn't a factor of the Recovery. The character could have a ton of powers and spells that don't function this way. All instant powers would recover as normal. If they then bought a power that functioned this way (say shielding) they suddenly have to recost their Recovery? That doesn't feel right for me. Because of their superheroic origins. "The Rules" originally didn't allow for Spells to have a cost reduction of /3 or /5 in a FH setting, but in 5th ED they do. "The Rules" didn't originally allow for Heroic characters to get gear for free, but they have for a long time. The whole point of Hero is that it is supposed to work universally. Therefore, I posit this must be workable somehow. As for the Cost being limiting, when you only have a (relatively) small pool of "fuel" for your powers, and it gets eaten up by protectives, buffs, or effects you leave "lying around" (like disquising yourself or your base with illusions, etc) you will find yourself very weak when you suddenly have to use your power to fight someone... its very limiting. Personally, I prefer the characters being forced to decide what they really want to have active, because if they can't blow through all their powers in a short period of time, like is often the case with the standard END/Rec construct, they have to think more. And none of this addresses a power that a) costs endurace at intervals other than "per phase", and prohibits its END from being regained while the power is active. A might be taken care of by saying that part of the setting rules is that powers don't cost per phase, but per minute, however, they can't get a discount on recovery by making it every minute since that will be the default. Faster or slower from the time chart will start at that point rather than at the "phase". B seems like a -1/2 limitation to some powers. Perhaps a -3/4.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game I'm confused, paying for equipment is a defining characteristic of Superheroic games, not heroic. The big issue I have with paying for equipment is that this is a "war-time" setting. Its silly and unreasonable to charge someone points for picking up a gun from one of their numerous fallen opponents, especially when they are out of ammo. And weapons aren't "signature" (except for a tiny number of exceptions) so they can all be broken, stolen, destroyed and the players shouldn't expect to get them back (just like in a non-point based game). BUT... the Magi can pick up a gun too, and the angel could throw a grenade if they wanted. This doesn't unbalance the original game I am taking this from, yet it would unbalance this one where they pay for blasts and attacks et al. That's my problem. *Edit* And let me add, in this setting, the supernatural characters are often simply soldiers as well. So even if I wanted to, say, allow Heroic characters and Superheroic together, with the Heroic not paying for equipment, it destroys all suspension of disbelief to say the supernatural soldiers can't loot the corpses of their enemies, especially if their own weapons are empty.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game That is the only problem I have with Hero (or any point based system actually) is that it is difficult to allow for characters of varying power level. I'm not sure of how to get around it. In some games the different power levels don't effect things that much (there are disads to playing more powerful character types, and since its not a matter of X+X pts and everyone is obstensibly "equal"). In a point based game, where you actually have a bean counter total at the bottom the descrepency can cause real issues with some players. "Why does he get more power"? But with systems that don't actually show you the man behind the curtain, so to speak, you can get away with it more easily (not always, just players seem less likely to complain. That gripe aside, I still prefer Hero's flexibility and ability to create any power/ability you can imagine. I just have to figure out a way to allow for the characters to be valid choices alongside each other.

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals The END scenario you describe is exactly what I am trying to get away from, as I have stated already. That scenario is very "comic book" and I'm going for Urban Supernatural. Having something only cost END to activate, when you can't easily recover the END by "taking recoveries" and costing it highly, makes it very problematic. I don't see why Hero can't model this somehow. Besides, the FF power would actually probably be more like this: FF: 10PD/10ED or 10 Pow/10Mental, Hardened +1/4, useable as Attack +1 (because they can cast it on others and remove it as they wish), Costs END only to Activate +1/4. 50+50, total 100. Gestures -1/4, Incantations -1/4, RSR -1/2, x4 END -1 1/2, Cannot Stop taint based attacks -1/2. 25 pts. And there would probably be another limitation, END used does not recover while FF is active (-1/2?) Though, to be completely honest, I would probably build the spells and powers as VPPS, but regardless it would look something like the above.

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals AGain though, I am not trying to limit the recovery. The Recovery is only limited based on the power that you use. The Essence will /never/ recover so long as the power is activated. In a way, its a method of controlling power "duration". You can choose to have a power up and going so long as you are willing to give up the ability to power your other abilities. Furthermore, beyond simply static powers such as the Shield, I am also looking for a way of modeling powers that slowly drain the pool over a period of time (like the transformation powers) and the points making the power active don't recover while the power is going. So, I am also looking for a way of doing something like this: 50 pt Mana pool, Transforming to X shape costs 2(or more) per minute. The points spent on the transform are drained out of the mana pool, regardless of recovery. Only when you return to your true shape do you begin to regenerate the points at your normal rate (typically X per minute).

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals ACtually its a system mechanic for many different powers. Shields (smart to create them prior to combat because of the expense involved... in my conversion, I would make defensive powers have a mandetory xX END multiplier). Transformations/Shapechanges-both combat and non-combat ones. Illusions-they last as long as they power spent on them remains locked into them. Mana Batteries-one of the powers can build energy batteries that lock away a small portion of your essence to build an item that will hold more Essence for you or someone else. The battery can be used over and over by recharging it, but exists only as long as you leave the base cost out of your essence pool. Et al.

Re: Variable Power Characters in the Same Game Well, actually yeah, but it depends. For instance, a Magi character could easily throw firebolts and things that are around the equivalent of your average pistol (unless they have extra time to build up their "charge") They can make shields that are much stronger than your equivalent body armor (though this takes a few rounds, better to raise your shield before combat). Without the Shield, they are just as killable as any normal human. For more points, you can play a Vampyre, who like most vampire iterations are stronger, faster, tougher than humans. They have access to unique supernatural abilities. They can also learn the same magic as above. For a few more points, you can play a lesser Seraphim or the child of a God. This is where the power potential really ramps up. Depending on the God you descend from, you might be a consumate warrior, able to call really powerful lighting bolts , or whatever. The Seraphim can heal from almost any injury they suffer instantly, they are very physically powerful, can create celestial weapons and armor. Now, obviously, these characters are not completely balanced against each other. But they can be played in the same group. Some of this can be handled through "niche" focus. In general, I don't expect a complete norm to walk around with psychics and angels, but I expect flimsy humans, wearing bullet proof gear, to somehow be valid choices against the other character types. Kind of like urban supernatural games where hunters and partial supernatural characters can exist in the same group.

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals

Re: Endurance Cost Over different time intervals First off, I'll probably force Defensive powers to have a mandetory xX END multiplier, so that they cost a bit more signifigant amount rather than the 1 per 10. As for simply dumping points into the reserve, that will be limited as well. Characters won't have a Reserve bigger than 50-60 on average.