Frenchman

Re: Better living through Alchamey Here is a list I made for a game a couple years ago. I didn't look too closely at them to check, but I'm pretty sure you can find some low-AP potions on this list. Also check Killer Shrike's site and I believe Eodin posted a prefab of potions a while ago.

Re: A very strange build for critiquing. If you want to give a penalty to magic skill rolls, why not use Negative Skill Levels or Change Environment?

Re: Your Favorite Fantasy Weapon? And Flails - I love flails

Re: A very strange build for critiquing. Personally, I would buy a Mind Link rather than Telepathy, and if you want to go for the creepy One Ring type of obsessive wielders (or whatever) I'd use a continuous Major Transform: Wielder into Wielder with Psych Lim (Slavishly Loyal to Sword)

Re: potion Hmm... After reading KS's linked post, I remembered something. (sorry Steph for hijacking your thread) Way back when my group was first starting Hero we were going to use Delayed Effect to re-create a dnd style magic system, and we came up with two variations on DE. 1: We would allow a character to buy different levels of DE on each of their spells. So instead of having to buy DE x2 for ALL of his spells to be able to cast more firebolts, they could just buy DE x2 on Firebolt, and then preparing a single firebolt only cost 1/2 a slot. Or buy DE x3 and it cost 1/4. 2: Still thinking it made casters too expensive, we thought about buying DE as a naked advantage. You only paid for it once and you could buy more low-powered spells than high-powered ones if you wanted to by buying DE x1 for 50 AP, DE +1x for 30 AP, and DE +1x more for 20 AP, or whatever. We liked the second one so much that we almost used it - and then decided to just try the default Hero way instead. We like that better.

Re: potion Another benefit (setting-wise) of using trigger rather than delayed effect is that potions become susceptible to dispels. As a sidebar explains (ReFred 255): "A power prepared with Delayed Effect has been prepared, but not yet activated and used. A power built with Trigget has been prepared and activated, but not yet used." This does add a point in favor of Delayed Effect though (cost-wise), since a potion or 'memorized spell' built with delayed effect cannot be wiped out with a dispel.

Re: Luck System: Whimsy Cards For short sessions we either forgave leftovers (if it was short cuz someone else had to go) or let them roll over to the next (If one of the characters with unluck had to leave early and was therefore the reason the session was short)

Re: Help with power? Don't know system well enough... As I implied, I don't know specifically what sort of powers the scarlet witch has, but reality alteration sure sounds like the ability to make whatever you want to happen happen - like the abilities of a Mage (from the white wolf setting of that name) without the limitations. I would avoid EDM (extra-dimensional movement) and transforms if possible, both are clunky 'one-size fits all' powers most of the time. Transform will definitly be what you want to use if your reality change is to petrify something/one, create an inanimate object, or turn one thing into another - ya know, to Transform it. I think the best fit for this would be a VPP (variable power pool) - sorta like a big chunk of point that you set aside and say "This is to buy whatever power I need on the fly." A VPP allows you to create any power you want in it, up to the active point cieling of the pool, and you can have as many powers available in the pool (at one time) as it has real points. It is sort of an advanced construct, but it would fit the reality alteration thingy very well. The only drawback is that they are EXPENSIVE - for good reason. What bloodstone said. If you have several different 'types' of charged object (one way explodes, another just puts holes in things, a third only creates shockwaves which cannot do permanant harm, whatever) then you could buy them in a MP (Multi-Power pool). This is another type of framework (like a VPP) that allows you to buy many powers at a fraction (1/10 or 1/5) of their cost - but you can only use one at a time. There is a little more to a MP than that, but thats the gist of 'em. You could use a side effect limitation to reflect this, possibly also with a Burnout Roll. A power with a burnout roll has a roll which is made after every time it is used, and the roll gets harder and harder. When you fail the roll, you can't use the power until it resets. If the GM were to allow this, you could have the side effects happen when you fail the roll, so that your powers are out of control (instead of merely inactive) until you 'reset' them. This is what the limitation (usually) called Charges is. A power with charges can only be used a certain number of times before it is used up. A gun has charges to represent the bullets in it, and a car does for its gasoline, but any power can have charges to show that the character cannot use it an unlimited amount of time. No problem. I'm just surprised your post went for two hours without more than one reply to it. You'll find that the Hero community here on the boards is very friendly and helpful. Good luck with your character! Edit: Wow. I apologize for my verbosity

Re: Luck System: Whimsy Cards When we tried out a luck points system, the we decided to dock 1 xp at the end of each session for each point of unluck the character had left. It wasn't wildly popular, but it got the job done.

Re: House rule: a BODY adder for Force Wall ...or we could just use the rules for creating barriers with entangle... I personally think that the barrier rules of entangle should have been folded into force wall rather than entangle, but the rules have been (in my experience) working just fine - so why change them?

Re: Dragon Wing-Buffet Maybe a change environment that does KB? But seriously, Change environment is most likely the best way to go, since you don't want the power to do damage. Penalties to Running, Ranged OCV, and TK effects all seem appropriate, just that it also seems way too expensive.

Re: Dragon Wing-Buffet Continuous is unneccesary, all it would allow the dragon to do is hit the hex each phase without an attack roll - it doesn't really need to make one anyway (no range AOE). Also, shouldn't it be an AOE radius? If he's flapping his wings I'd imagine it would have greater effect to the sides than to the front.

Re: Hit from behind When my PCs tried this I told them that they couldn't if they were facing off one-on-one, since their opponents would turn with them. If they would gang up on one person at least 2-1, then I'd let ONE of them get behind him, but they had to make a teamwork roll to get 1/2 DCV. If they failed it, I'd give the guy 'behind' +1 OCV, cuz I'm generous that way. If they made it, I'd give the guy in front +1 OCV, too, since that is what teamwork does for multiple attackers.

Re: A New Use For Hardened Which means that your 3 points of hardened defense can stop up to 2 stun per body rolled on the KA. If its a big one, thats a lot of stun. I don't like it because it doesn't scale at all. Hardened vs. Penetrating doesn't stop all the penetrating damage, only as much as you have hardened defense. One level of hardened does stop all of the defense reduction of an AP attack, but if theres only a little bit of harded defense, it still doesn't matter much. For this to work well, I think you would need to do something like have each level of hardened double the value of the hardened defense vs. stun, up to the additional stun gained from the +StunX - so 4 PD hardened would could stop up to 8 stun from a 1d6 KA +1 StunX which rolled 4 Body, 12 Stun (Rolls of 4, 3). 4 Stun from it being 4 defense, and another 4 for it being hardened against +StunX

Re: Change Enviornment: Need Guidelines For A Failed Roll Maybe create a 5-point adder to change environment: Forces a Roll Then the Ice Sheet, which forces a roll, would have to take it, while if it didn't the penalty would only apply when the victims make a roll normally.

Re: Luck System: Whimsy Cards I like them. My group has been searching for something to do with luck - OK, I have been looking for something to do with luck since the rest of the group ignores it and the GM pretends I don't have it, unless it's unluck. 1 point of unluck can mean that your warrior-priest loses all of his equipment in a fire, including his holy symbol which he needs to cast spells or even prove he's a priest (happened), while two points of luck are required to find a few dropped coppers in the bar to pay for a beer. What are the cards you made up yourself, and what do you use to represent them? I think I could get at least two of my group interested in using regular playing cards to represent luck, or we might just use Munchkin cards - The monster ones would be fun.

I had a thought after reading this post: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41846 It seems to me that this puts the character who bought a magical AP sword at a disadvantage compared to a 'skilled' character who buys AP as a naked modifier usable on any sword - Magic Sword Man pays more points for a single weapon that can be broken or taken away, while the Swordmaster who buys a Naked Advantage pays fewer points and can apply AP to any sword, even two swords at a time if he fights florentine. Did I miss something vital here? Somehow I think I must be interpreting this incorrectly.

Re: Defining Magic Maybe they burn STUN instead of END to power their spells. Or Body You could also have their END reserve recharge in a fashion that damages themselves

Re: Characterstic Rolls All the time - heres an example from a recent game Me: If we could just hitch a ride on that giant vulture, we could ride it back to the flying castle! Theo: I have a grappling hook and 100' of rope! Just use your burst of strength ability and chuck it up there! GM: Make an INT roll. Me: *Dice Clatter* I succeed by 4, what do I notice? GM: That you are absolutly INSANE! What do you do. Theo: I put away my grappling hook...

Re: Duration Caps on Spells? Not to nitpick, but I thought that is what the Delayed Effect advantage does. There must be something more to adding lingering onto a constant power, since it is so much more expensive.

Re: Weapon Imagery www.weaponmasters.com has a pretty good catalog. Other similar sites do as well.

Re: Valdorian Sorcerer Tasks Thread Minor: Go to Mansblood square and light seventeen candles. After they are all lit, randomly place them in the mud as fast as you can and then run all the way to Lowtown. Minor: Wander the streets of the Snake's Den, carrying a lit lantern all day long, and extinguish it just as the sun sets. Intermediate: Dress up as a guard and hang around the armory. If asked, you have been transfered from a different neighborhood. At the end of the day, try to collect your pay of 1 coin. Intermediate/Major: Spend every night for a week in the Palace of the Beggar King - Uninvited Major: Leave a black candle burning in front of a statue in the Temple in Gold's Reside. Do this before midnight. Major: Set fire to Yully's bed while he is distracted by a customer. Life-Threatening: Disguise yourself, and then kidnap someone from Worm's Hole and take them to mansblood square. Tie them up, gag them, and leave them there. A week later, without a disguise, find them and give them half a bit without explanation. Life-Threatening: Break the River Chains and watch them sink into the river.

Re: Vulcan Nerve Pinch Didn't read the whole post, so I don't know if someone mentioned this... But isn't Spock also doing a called shot? I would certainly qualify the back of the neck as a vitals location, netting him another x2 multiplier. So now a simple 2d6 Nerve strike does the equivalent of 6d6, enough to stun or even KO a normal. If you give him a couple of damage classes like OddHat (and I) reccoment, then it averages just over 30 stun. Easily enough to do the job.

Isn't the OCV penalty halved because the target is in a grab? Just want to clarify this, to make sure I have been interpreting your Word correctly. Thanks

Re: Combat Skill Levels I thought it took two CSLs to add +1 DC?