Hyper-Man

Re: The cranky thread That reminds of a drunken game of scrabble I played in once years ago "That's not a word!!!"

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate Maybe the name of this thread should be changed from "Hero is Hard" to "D20 is too easy". Combat resolution based on 'Hit points' derived from level advancement takes all player control of character combat interaction away. A level based character with say 50 hit points in a game where a starting character may begin with 10-15 is tougher because he is supposed to be avoiding the brunt of damage from any attack that hits him. In a sense hit points are the most complicated form of damage reduction ever devised. The rules are not even consistent. A 50 hit point fighter could be 'assassinated' in his sleep with only a dagger to the throat but the hit points of most monsters are described in the rules as being an almost exact match of the BODY score from HERO. Do I need to bring up Armor Class vs. Combat Value? If hit points represent a character's skill in avoiding extreme damage why can't the character sometimes avoid ALL the damage from an HTH attack without declaring a special maneuver? It does not make any sense!

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate Since this is a comparison of D&D to hero powers like life support should be left out of the discussion unless we are talking about spell creation rules. With regard to a 'Fantasy Hero' application of spending 3 experience points. I as a player only need to learn the choices "1" time. 'Feats' and other leveling options as they have been explained to me are different for the 'level' or 'exalted' status of the character and seem to require far more reference to the rulebooks than HERO would in the long run.

Re: Martial Art Style Creation Use of Powers vs. Skills is a question that should be asked if this is a heroic or normal characteristic maximum campaign.

Re: Ye Old "Hero is Hard" Debate First off let me say that I have not taken a 'serious' look at a D&D book since 2nd edition. With that said, and my breif glimpses at the 'feats' rules, HERO still has a much easier method of handling XP progression once the characters are created. And of course that is the real trick now. Yes, creating the exact set of abilities within point constraints can be a challenge. But this is time well spent. By working out how you as a player want your character to begin as well as to improve with experience via a 1 on 1 with the GM you eliminate much of the cumbersome details of XP advancement of other 'level' based systems. GM "ok Bob, 'Rapid-Reactor' did a good job in this adventure. I am giving him a 1 point 'AF city' for the time spent searching for the hostages and 3 points to spend as you like within reason" Bob "Cool, thanks!" Bob now can choose to buy a 3 point skill, improve a characteristic or two or save up for improving or buying a new power. No table to consult. WOW! isn't that easy?

Re: The cranky thread you have more than one?!?

Re: How many points? Sometimes blackmailing the GM can be as much if not more fun, it might even require the use of a martial cringe!

Re: The cranky thread aghh! people who don't allow others to maintain concentration while releasing their anger and frustration make me cranky! (after I stop laughing of course....)

Re: Martial Cringe How's this? A bonus to a specialized 'hesitate' form of 'presense attack' +10 or +20 PRE only to cause attacker to hesitate or pull punch by faking surrender. +2 to DEX/initiative rolls vs. attacker if 'hesitate' is sucessfull not too far from manuevers in Jackie Chan's drunken master style in some ways.

Re: The cranky thread damm!! that actually made me feel good about the crap I have to deal with!! you deserve a good stiff drink after that.

Re: The cranky thread Um.. I think those fall under the category of bouncy. (party hats would fit perky better)

Re: The cranky thread You must be so perky because your eating too much ice cream right? (must have stole it at super-speed too!)

Re: The cranky thread Damm, That's why I'm so cranky. I'm all out of ice cream !!

Re: The cranky thread I detect a thread derailment attempt. Must fight it! Damm perkiness!! arghhh!!!

Re: The cranky thread You know what's worse than getting slapped by a cute perky girl when trying to get a laugh? being ignored

Re: The cranky thread Hey, With all the derailment attempts this thread should be renamed the Cranky Yankers

Re: Longest Running Thread EVER Hey, Fan Boy is my sidekick!!

Re: The cranky thread

Re: Fiddling With 6th - Skills (first of ??) I like this idea just a little better than the others based mainly on the fact that it requires the least amount of modifications to existing rules to get a lot of the same effects. The fact that it gives a bonus to characters with a high stat relevant to the skill bears watching for abuse though.

Re: Help with a power Hi, I just wanted to comment on the supposed cost of this ability. If it is in fact supposed to be close in power to that of the 'charmed' character it could be argued that it should have a reasonable cost (but high active cost) since that character's ability is linked to her proximity to the other 'witches'. A similar thread talked about this type of limitation with regards to twins. Anyway, way back when, before champions had rules for transform I wanted to play a 'Firestorm' clone in a long running game. This GM was big on winging balance, not so much on points. We ended up basing the power on a modified entangle/RKA that only affected non-living things (not too different than current rules in hindsight) and had fun with it without it becoming too powerful. Seems like you are running into a similar situation. The ability to stop time just by its name and association with a certain D&D spell seems to impy a LOT of power there. It is basically the ultimate 'get out of jail free card' for what it affects so it should cost a lot of (active)points however it is constructed.

Re: Help with a power I think a 'paralytic' entangle with 'takes no damage from attacks (+1/2)' would be the way to go. Maybe include charges with duration or a set effect that can disable it then. Not the most accurate method but probably the easiest to manage.

Re: Block Maneuver Silliness... FYI, there was a similar thread last month labeled 'fist vs. train'

Re: Character creation problems solved I don't think that changing the existing normal character max rules is necessary to get good spreads among characters if you just ask you players to choose a nich just as in a good supers game and by default have a good spread of character arch-types. A spell caster is just not gonna get that much out of a dex much higher than 15-18 if he has spells that involve concentrate. If he has invested in the use of magic and has access to basic defensive spells he will depend on them more often than having a high base DCV. A spell caster arguably should have the lowest Str and Dex scores in a group. On the other end, if a fighter wants to spend 30 points for a 30 Str or an acrobat/rogue type wants to spend 48 points for a 23 Dex they should be allowed. 30 Str works out almost exactly to the old 1st edition D&D 18/00 Str and should be allowed for someone. In a 75/75 game this is a major expenditure of points and dictates that the character is going to have other weaknesses. The 23 Dex character could easily meet a 20 Dex opponent who has 6 extra points in lightning reflexes giving +4 Dex for initiative only (24 Initiative/Dex for a total cost of 36 vs 48 for the 23 Dex character). Back to Str, certain weapon's Str minimum's actually work out better with odd levels of Str. Steer you min/max players towards this and 17, 22 or 24 Str amounts might be seen.

Re: Unluck I would just try to apply unluck in situations that the affected character takes for granted as being 'a given', sort of like almost any time that you ever see Indiana Jones smile and he then gets smacked upside the head by the hand of fate ( reaching for his missing gun when facing several swordsmen, having the biggest german he's ever seen just happen to be guarding 'that' plane, etc...)

Re: Martial Arts w/ TK I had a Psi/Telekinetic character in a 250 point 'heroic level' dimension hopping game a few years ago who had this very combo. He had 20str TK with fine control and IPE for sight and sound. He also had Jeet Kun Do as a base MA with the addition of a Kenjutsu Takaway and Simgondo Rapid Strike. The GM and I agreed on spending an additional 1 point for a TK weapon element in addition to his blades and club elements. The character also had +2 Damage Classes with MA attacks giving the character effectively an 8d6 indirect TK punch. The use of Psi and Magic powers had other limitations in this game that offset their usefullness compared to that of the skilled normals on the team. Namely, Psi and Magic abilities would not work at full power or at all on some dimensions/worlds that they visited. Of course sometimes this would swing in favor of the Psi/Mage characters since some worlds affected the properties of gunpowder and other technology. Anyway, back on topic, the Psi/TK character had a martial block as well as Missle deflect 15 active points with a Str minimum built in (-1/4) so fighting an opponent with a HTH weapon or TK fist at range with MA bonuses was being paid for multiple ways. All the TK and MA cost about about 150 points which matched up pretty close with the teams mage who between spells and skills to use them had about the same points invested. I think the combo is workable but you may run into balance issues if using this combo in a full Supers campaign for some of the same reasons discussed in the 'flying dodge' thread however.