GoldenAge

To take your example... You stumble across Stormbringer (yes, THAT sword)... No one is around... The power could be YOURS! 1. Acquire the Artifact • At this stage it is simply a 2d6 Bastard Sword (being magical, it can be used against creatures immune to Mundane attacks). If you have Weapon Familiarity Bastard Swords, you can use it (but not access its magical abilities). You can use it even if you don't have the appropriate WF, but will accrue the appropriate minuses. • If the Arcane Artifact is built as Innate, no Attunement is necessary and you may use the weapon, gaining all of its magical powers. 2. Attune to the item if you share Affinity with the same Caste(s) if Reality (make a Magic Affinity Roll) and gain all of its power! • Attunement requires a Magic Affinity Roll, minus 1/10 AP of the Arcane Item. • If the Artifact has links to multiple Castes (Srormbringer has BODY and SPIRIT) and you share both, you can use you choice as a Complimentary Skill to the Magic Affinity Roll you've chosen to utilize (probably the highest roll). • If you have points in an Order(s) that directly links to the Artifact (in this case you are a disciple of Arioch) you may add your order Bonus to the Affinity Roll you'll be using to Attune. • If you have Orders that tangentially link to the Caste of the Artifact (Orders based on BODY and SPIRIT, but not necessarily linked to Stormbringer) you may add their Order Bonuses to the Magic Affinity Roll per GM approval. • If you take extra time you may add those bonuses to you Attunement Roll • If there are any environmental bonuses or complimentary help, you may add that to your Attunement Roll So Stormbringer was created on 500 Active Points. To Attune to Stormbringer, you must have Affinity to the BODY or SPIRIT Castes (or both). Your Attunement Roll (based on Magic Affinity + Bonuses) is made at -50 on 3d6. Whelp, it's gonna take you, a ton of research, a horde of Chaos underlings, and about a year to attune to this thing, but have faith, you'll get there. 🤣🤣🤣 On the other hand, if you pick up a simple +3 sword you can probably Attune in a single phase. (Attunement takes a Full Action). It's all about scale, power and experience - Characters with more experience (or "Higher level") will be able to Attune to more powerful things faster utilizing their wide array of Orders, and other bonuses. Meanwhile lower level characters might take a minute or longer to Attune to a +3 Sword. And simple Mundane fighters and Thieves might be relegated to magic that is purchased Innate.

Are you even considering Multiple Power Attacks? It's similar to Spreading but much more dangerous. Heck, "multiple" everything is available to all characters - Rapid Attack and a simple skill level purchased to offset Multiple Attack penalties can turn an average Martial Artist into a spinning whirlwind of awesome! 😄 (See my villain: Dervish) How do you factor maneuvers into the Rule of X when complimentary Skills can create huge power shifts? Impossible? Anyone ever have a player pony up and Multiple Attack an Area Effect, Autofire EB??? I have. I'm still shook.

Sorry, didn't mean to usurp this thread. My bad.

GOT IT! Thanks!!! Magic Items are NOT Equipment and are purchased with points. The Innate Advantage allows the circulation of magic to be universal, but someone, somewhere had to make (pay for) that magic item at its creation. It's not easy in the 9 Realms to get custom magic items made, but I allow for fungible XP. If a player wishes to "donate" XP to a wizard, then the wizard can use that XP to create the item. Magic Items have been around for many millennia. Unfortunately, folks don't last so long, so there is a natural abundance of magic in some parts of the world and availability just about everywhere. The 9 Realms of Epoch is High Fantasy!

The mere fact that its possible to turn a regular spell into a massive ritualistic spell is a major plus of the HERO System!!! Billy the Acolyte could have a normal costing VPP (say 25 Pool/80 Control Cost)... But Billy knows that the RAY OF RAY spell is only limited by the spiritual energy used to cast the spell. Allowing him to break the Control Cost AP cap rule will leave open the option for an amazing cinematic event like the one above! HERO ROCKS! NOTE: I edited the previous post, so give it a reread to be sure you didn't miss anything) On Innate: Yes, if a magic item is purchased as Innate, anyone can use it. It's a net +1/2 Advantage since it negates the limitations of Castes of Reality and Affinity Rolls, and helps define magic item use. On Attunement: A character can try as often as they like, but items often have a very high Active Point value and require xtra time to offset the -1/10 AP attunement penalty. GMs can certainly apply environmental or ant other bonuses to Attunement Ross in the same way they can any Skill Roll.

Hugh Nelson - Per your previous question: I have opted to grant exceptions to the Active Point restriction on a case-by-case basis — as long as the Real Point cost of the spell fits within the reserve or Pool. (per FH 5e pg. 267). I should reword it to be more understandable. Its true that purchasing a VPP with a huge Control Cost just to cover potential character growth could result in lost XP (and frustration)... But any level of power is attainable by anyone (assuming that they're connected to the correct Caste of Reality). If a character purchases a 240 Control Cost in hopes of eventually gaining a high enough Order Bonuses to utilize said VPP at its max value all the time, so be it... How, the character can STILL access the full AP of his spells right now... with help and time - Suppose Billy the Acolyte, follower of RAY, Goddess of Sunbeam (Spirit Caste), purchases his religious domain as a VPP with a Control Cost of 240. He starts the Game with an Magic Affinity Roll (SPIRIT) of 11-, an Order Bonus of +3 (due to his teachings and devotion to The Church of RAY). Of course it'll be a looooong time before he can dash that Tarask with a single Ray of Light spell (if ever!). But what if Billy the Acolyte gathered his fellow disciples (5 brothers) and began praying to RAY for the next 24 hours... At Sunrise they rise together, channeling their combined holy might through Billy the Acolyte, who focuses it into a terrible beam of righteousness aimed at the monstrosity destroying their holy city... That'd be a HUGH bonus to Billy the Acolyte's Magic Affinity Roll (assuming all Billy's brothers had the same Order Bonus and rolled average) --- Including Billy the Acolyte, that'd be +35 to Billy's Aspect Roll!!! [Billy's Magic Aspect Roll = 11, + Billy's Order Bonus of +3, +7 for xtra time... Complimentary Skill Bonuses from 5 Brothers; Base Order Roll for each acolyte = 11+3, and xtra time for each acolyte of +7, Each acolyte succeeds by 10. These are all Complimentary Skill Rolls so divide the success by 2, and add the results to Billy the Acolyte's Magic Affinity Roll for a total Complimentary Skill Bonus +5 from each Brother for a combined +25.] DESTROYING RAY OF RAY - 16d6 RKA; 240 Active Points. Billy's Magic Affinity (SPIRIT) Roll = 11- Billy's Order Bonus = +3 Billy's xtra time bonus = +7 +25 (Complimentary Skill Bonus from 5 Brothers helping for a full day) - 24 (Active Point Penalty of -1/10 AP) That's a total of +11 on Billy the Acolyte's Roll!!! Billy the Acolyte will assuredly smite the Tarask!!! (Better hope he doesn't roll a Critical Miss) 🤣 Was it worth the original expenditure on Billy's Control Cost (240/2 AP)? Ask Billy!!!! Please let me know if I'm getting something wrong. I'm an Artist, not a Mathematician, Jim!

Oops... The Attunement problem is mostly caused by an incorrect example that made it into the document. My bad. I've worked it out thusly: Arcane Artifact Creation 1. Determine what it is. · If an item uses magic in any way, it is an Arcane Artifact · To adhere to the Attunement Rule, all Arcane Artifacts must be purchased under the Focus subsection Applicability as a Restricted Universal Focus (FH pg. 164), reflecting the restriction that Arcane Artifacts may only be utilized by Arcane characters that share a Caste of Reality. 2. Determine the Arcane Artifact’s Order · Be sure to include the Order’s Primary Caste(s) (Mind/Body/Spirit). This will determine the Arcane energy needed to attune to the Arcane Artifact. o Example: Mitttigan’s Blade of 1000 Cuts, an arming tsword that magically adds extra attacks, would be of the Body Caste, while Silvia’s Scepter of Séances, a wand that controls minds and summons ghosts, would be of both the Mind and Spirit Casts. · Arcane Artifacts may be linked to unlimited Orders of Magic. However, it is more customary that the Arcane Artifact come from a few or even a single tradition of magic. A character of the same Order of magic may receive an Order Bonus when Attuning to the Arcane Artifact. · Artifacts not linked to any order of magic are considered innately magical and should be built using the Advantage, INNATE MAGIC (+1/2) Arcane Artifacts that have been constructed with the Innate Magic Advantage fall under the purview of the Order of Innate Magic. This Order does not have any cost associated with it and does not provide any Order Bonus. Its primary function is to allow inherently magical entities to be classified as Arcane. Arcane Artifact Creation Shorthand · Build a Power with the Focus Limitation o ALL Arcane Artifacts must be Focuses and include RESTRICTED UNIVERSAL APPLICABILITY (+0) except as otherwise noted (see Innate below) o Restricted Universal Applicability may be added to an Arcane Artifact multiple times. Example: First to fulfill the Arcane Order Requirement, again for Dwarves only, again for Bartenders only, and again only if they know the secret command word… etc.) · If it comes from a specific Order of Magic, define said order. o Arcane Artifacts with Restricted Universal Applicability must be Attuned. o To Attune an Arcane character must make a Magic Affinity Roll. o Order Bonuses may be applied to the Magic Affinity Roll if Order(s) are shared between the Arcane character and the Arcane Artifact. o Complementary Skills and Skill Modifier bonuses (extra time, study, help from friends, etc.) may be added to the Magic Affinity Roll (6E1 pg. 58) § NOTE: The Base time to Attune is 1 Turn. · If it has NO ORDER (meaning anyone can use it), add the Advantage INNATE MAGIC (+1/2) o The Innate Magic Advantage is the 9 Realms alternative to the Advantages Always On (considered advantageous), Persistent, and 0 Endurance (6E1, pgs. 128, 334, 347, 367). ----- The Critical Miss penalty of 1d6 AVALD + a roll on the Crit Chart was included to reduce the chance that less experienced mages would attempt to cast large spells. A beginning character's base Magic Affinity Roll is usually 8- to 13- due to the expense (a 14- costs 12 AP for a single base Magic Affinity). Casters will also want/need to buy Orders of Magic to add bonuses to their base Magic Affinity Rolls. Generally, a caster will have no more than a +2 to +8 on his Magic Affinity Roll after purchasing Order Bonuses but Order bonuses can be increased over time with XP. As time goes by, he can increase his Order Bonus (immerse himself into his Order or discovering other Orders), making larger Magic Affinity Rolls easier to achieve. Since spells can be purchased at any AP level (no caps) a character can build a spell that will grow in effectiveness as the character adds XP to his Order Bonuses. Example: Fireball - 8d6 RKA AoE 18m Radius. - 240 Active Points (wow, that's why there's no cap in frameworks!) To cast this spell for its full effect would incur a -24 to the casters Magic Affinity Roll (not gonna happen for poor little Jimmy the Prestidigitator who is a part of the FIRE Order and only has a +3 Order Bonus. Not even a full day of ritual casting (gaining him an additional +7) will help. If he tries anyway it'll hurt, and maybe even kill him. However, he very well COULD cast a smaller version, say 2d6 AoE 8" radius = 45 AP (-4 to cast). Since he has an Order Bonus of +3 and a Body Aspect of 12- Jimmy would need an 11- to successfully cast his fireball on his Action Phase (casting is a 1/2 phase attack Action). If he ritualized the spell and cast it after a full Turn, he'd get a +1 casting bonus for time (per 6E Time Chart - a minute's prep would get Jimmy a +2, an hour a +3 and if he got help from another FIRE Order mage (or any Arcane with the Body Aspect) he could get additional bonuses). Over time, Jimmy becomes JIM THE WIZARD and has invested a great deal of XP into his Order, achieving a +12 Fire Order Bonus. Now JIM could easily cast that little 2d6 RKA 8m radius Fireball (needing an 18- on 3d6). He could even attempt a 5d6 RKA 8m radius Fireball (needing a 12- to successfully cast the spell). If he's fighting an army of Goblins he could cast a 3d6 18m (the max radius at which the spell is purchased) needing a 15- to successfully cast the spell on his Action Phase = BOOM! Sure, he has a chance to fail, but magic is Chaos and 3d6 HERO rolls naturally provide a bell curve, increasing his chance of success. It's all intended to scale up as XP is gained and applied to Order Bonuses. Thanks for taking a look! Very helpful!

Compound Power is the way we roll.

I'm putting together a guideline for magic use in our 9 Realms of Epoch FH 6e game... I've gone this far... Any thoughts? (I realize that there are some edit mistakes, they will be fixed in later editions.) 9 Realms Magic(sm).pdf

Guess I was just trying to force square peg in a round hole. No real problem, just semantics. Thanks for all your help!!!!

I'm probably not doing a good job describing what I want to do... I've created a character - A robotic body - It's composed as a 6e Superheroic .hdc file... I've created the robot's brain - An AI composed as a 6e AI .hdc file. I was looking for a way to add the AI computer brain to the Robotic Body's sheet. I was wondering if there was was a way to import the AI file into the Superheroic file (perhaps as equipment, or a Template or a Prefab). The end result would be 1 character sheet: a robot with a computer mind where Hero Designer adds the completed computer to the robot and. adds the pricing for the computer to the robot body. I thought it might go something like this: 1. Create robot 2. Create computer 3 With the robot file active, import computer. 4. Hero Designer adds computer and its cost (as a whole) to the robot as a separate thing (perhaps like equipment or a prefab that sits in its own section of the character) ending in a single .hdc file. I'm sorry if I was (or still am) unclear. Thanks!

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly... I built the computer in as an AI in Hero Designer - It currently is its own character (that I couldn't print until I converted a copy of it to Superheroic 6e). I'm at a loss. I want to add (import) the AI to a separate character. Should I save the computer as a Package Deal?

How do I add a Computer (AI) to an existing character (6e) in Hero Designer?????

This is really he center of it all... The INSEC investigator is INSEC's "mystical" agent - So I may play it off Thusly: 1) Agent Schonenberg comes off as a disheveled, bumbling person but, just like TV's Columbo, he's usually acting and/or trying to put others in positions where he has the secret advantage. Though unconventional, he's very good at what he does. 2) Agent Schonenberg KNOWS that the moment the PC divulged her knowledge of time travel was recorded, as is standard, in the INSEC HQ conference room. 3) Agent Schonenberg rushed out of the room in a seeming panic in order to shut the moment down before it got out of hand. 4) Agent Schonenberg rarely leaves anything to chance, so the papers that he left billowing in his wake as he rushed away actually contain a hidden message for the players to meet with him later at a secure location. 5) It's time to reveal that Agent Schonenberg is really an urban mage, maybe more. In doing so he has helped the PCs avoid any real complications from their slip-up and placed them in a sensitive spot where they owe him a favor (or 2)... What do you think Agent Schonenberg should say/do?????????? John Schonenberg.pdf

These may be fun - Epic City Sanguine News teasers: Sanguine Newspaper#5(sm).pdf Sanguine Newspaper#6.pdf Sanguine Newspaper#7.pdf Sanguine Newspaper#8.pdf Sanguine News#9sm.pdf Sanguine Newspaper#10.pdf

OUCH! Assassinate a main PC??? Dang, that's harsh! 😂... But not unthinkable. 🤣🤣🤣 Can't wait to hear your other idea! Here's a little more about the sitch: There are years of gaming I'm leaving out. Suffice to say my main villain Paradox (think Marvel's Dr. Doom mixed with DC's Epoch - and others) is stuck in a loop (of his own making) and must continue to replay history in an attempt to free himself by bringing total entropy to Reality (Reality as apposed to the echoes of Shadow - My multiverse explanation is similar to Zelazny's Amber Chronicles). Unfortunately, each trip through time is different, each reset altered by the independent actions of those in Reality (particularly our Epic Alliance heroes). Thus, ironically, though Paradox has infinite experience with the future, even he has no idea what will bring him to the moment where he succeeds... or fails. (He's always failed thus far) The heroes are no better off, and only a few have some recall of the future, which is diverging from actually Reality daily as they forge a brand new timeline thanks to free will. In the last go-around, Paradox was foiled by an accident; The Crimson Doors (long story) were left unguarded (The guardian Hoi Lung, one of the 7 Dragon Kings, was (stupidly) destroyed by our very own Epic Alliance as they battled him while he was mind controlled - no coming back - They threw him into the sun!!! This allowed the strongest of entities from Shadow to breach Reality and begin its corruption - Long story short: - The Crimson Doors were left unguarded - Loki and many other gods returned to Reality to restake their claims - Loki fools everyone (gods and man), allowing him to release the Elder Gods who've promised him...everything - Loki is double-crossed by the Elder Gods who were just looking for a way back to Reality (tricking the trickster) - Epic Alliance, who has been battling gods (who have been destroying Reality by battling each other), RALLIES the Storm/Hero Gods (including 100s of gods such as Adad, Perendi, Indra, Kapoonis, Shango, Orisha, Tawhaki, Haokah, Rai, and of course Thor & Hercules) to fight together and push back the Elder Gods and save Reality - The gods save Reality from the Elder Gods, but take over themselves - Due to previous game events, Athena brings Prometheus: Athena: "I have come to see the error in my ways and am here to offer the challenger of Zeus's omniscience and omnipotence; Prometheus. Listen to him for he wields the ray of the divine wisdom from God himself, source of the supreme Light of every man… Prometheus the Titan: NOTE: Prometheus was a challenger to Zeus's omniscience and omnipotence. Pandora (all gifts) was created by Zeus (as the first woman) to punish Prometheus. Prometheus derived from the Greek prefix pro- (before) + manthano (intelligence) and the agent suffix -eus, thus meaning "Freethinker". “I once again come, full throated, to the aid of man. Zues and the other gods have no sight of me if I wish it, and, as before, I will give you the one thing they have withheld for eternity… I am Forethought, the one virtue of Pandora’s never released… until now… Sleep in your minds eye, when you awake you will have had the time to know what will come and prepare…” - Our Heroes fall into a living torpor and move through the next 8 years as if sleepwalking. Finally they awake with the gift of Prometheus (foresight) and the knowledge of how to right Reality - Paradix's involvement revealed - his machinations even above those of the Elder Gods - Our heroes defeat Paradox, but set in motion the destruction of everything (the first time it wasn't Paradox's fault) - Our heroes go back in time to correct their failure, returning to the very moment when Hoi Lung was wrested from his position as Guardian of the Crimson Doors - Hoi Lung is saved, but the Crimson Doors were open for a short while, who knows who or what if anything got through - Ongoing campaign........ Sorry if that's hard to follow. 🤣

Epic City (and INSEC [my PRIMUS] for that matter) is full of scientist NPCs that could advise or condemn the PCs. There are even and even a few mentalists around foe INSEV to call in. The advise you suggest could come from one while another argues the opposite. It could lead to an interesting situation, but I'd hate to take the game over with NPCs. Yah, I'm looking for options that logically allow me to avoid locking down the PCs. Breaking with the Gov would be hard , but not an impossible option. They might also be able to lie their way out of this conundrum as they are currently hot on the heals of a mentalist that messes with memories... INSEC is totally ignorant for now. But if they go down the interrogation path I'm afraid that more will come out than the heroes can simply hand wave off. Treason being the worst indictment, distrust and blame the least of that equation. Both would detract from the game or, at the very least, require me to rewrite reams of established history and relationships. At some point, the work wouldn't be worth the return, leading me to a partial (or even total) TPK as I arrest, detain for questioning, study, put in a hole and throw away the key, the PCs with knowledge of the future.

Assume you're running a City-Based campaign of superheroes. JLA or Avengers would be appropriate analogies... These things are true: 1) The group is government sanctioned and their bylaws make them adjunct members of PRIMUS (or your standard national government agency that deals with meta stuff) 2) The Earth was recently invaded by aliens leading to tens of millions of innocent deaths 3) The solution the heroes of Earth came up with was to shunt the Earth and the Mood to the Microverse (don't worry about details - this game thread took a very long time) and the result was the successful emancipation of the plant after grave losses. 4) other standard super-campaign successes and tragedies have occurs (as one would expect). Now it gets messy... 5) The heroes are currently on their SECOND trip through the timeline. Previously, the heroes made a choice to travel back in time to change the future in order to avoid a cataclysm that they were unable to stop 6) There are now a selection of heroes that retain their knowledge of the future, though it is becoming evident that every second they move away from their re-emersion point into the time stream that they are creating an alternate timeline. The result is that their memories are becoming less and less accurate as they progress. 7) The supers have decided to hide their knowledge as they think it would only make things worse. However, they aren't beyond using it to help themselves help others. 7) In a moment of absent thought, during an official debriefing at PRIMUS, one of the group accidentally spilled the beans about being from the future and retaining that knowledge. The officer in charged is beside himself with this revelation. He immediately leaves the group to meet personally with his leaders in order to sort this new revelation out... WHAT NEXT>>>>> For context - I recwived this from the OC that slipped up this morning: "BTW, Anna want/isn't overly worried about the whole future-past thing causing her to get locked up because two things have happened very recently. One is that our planet was INVADED BY ALIENS! The other is that THE WHOLE EARTH WAS SHIFTED TO ANOTHER DIMENSION AND WAS BRIGHT BACK AGAIN IN ORDER TO SAVE US FROM THOSE ALIENS!!! There's also the fact that supers are flying around everywhere. If time travel is a logical leap too far, there's some willful cognizant dissonance going on. And if the guy that's supposed to be in charge of handling the strangest of the strange is undone by that... then INSEC can't be any help in dealing with the coming storm." I replied: "It's less about the possibility of time travel, and more bout the duty of INSEC to do everything they can to maximize the value of such a tool. A duty that would redound to Epic Alliance - You'd all become desk jockeys as you're tasked to record every future event in excruciating detail. There's also the flurry of questions that would come that would lead to INSEC discovering that EA members were aware of Invasion before it even happened. Is not revealing it (and all of the other events EA members are hiding) treason??? Preemptive knowledge of the Amlem 3 Extinction Wave could have save tens of millions of lives. Worst of all... What will INSEC (and anyone who attains knowledge of the future) do with such an incredible advantage? can you really say you trust INSEC to aways do the right thing? Can they even hold on to such knowledge?" Please help - My campaign could go in any number of directions and I want to choose the best, most entertaining one. However, I want a relative "real wold logic" result.

True, but I'm not worried about point totals and Focus is the best way to describe the crown and include its other granted powers that are all bought Unified Power (I forgot to add it to the Transform). To be sure, I could probably hand wave the entire thing. But, fortunately or unfortunately, my players are quite advanced gamers and may come up with a way to utilize the crown. Better safe than sorry. Story of my GM life. 😅

Well, I want it to be able to be worn as well. Seemed like an easy solution. Actually, it makes sense even if its just sitting there. To clear the AoE all you need to do is grab it and throw it 7m.

How about this? Empress Fealty's Crown: Major Transform - Her Little Kings 3d6 (Free into Enslaved, Healed back by Magic or Prolonged separation from the Empress Fealty's Crown [1 year]), Area Of Effect (6m Radius Explosion; +1/4), Difficult To Dispel (x2 Active Points; +1/4), Constant (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects (Invisible to Hearing, Smell, Touch, effects of Power are Inobvious to other characters; +3/4) (82 Active Points); OAF (-1), No Range (-1/2), All Or Nothing (-1/2)

Along the lines of the Crowns of Krim, there exists another crown in my Epic City, Champions 6e game. Like the Crowns of Krim it imbues upon its wearer many powers... That's no problem. However, it has another ability that has me a bit confused... In any state, upon the brow of its new owner or simply sitting on a shelf, the crown is constantly trying to possess an army of followers. In a radius (that is reduced by range) the crown creates a... field(?) of possession. Over time, those within its range for extended periods (especially at close proximity) become slaves of the crown, bent on its protection and finding it a perfect user. It's very similar to Tolkien's One Ring. Once possessed, the victim is totally under the power of the crown. They also display a crown of their own, though it is only a psychic projection that will disappear if the victim is released from the crown's control. I've looked at Transformation, Mind Control and a few other things but can't come up with a good build... How would you build Mother Fealty's Crown???

Does anyone have any write-ups for BattleMechs?

How would one increase the range of a power without increasing its effectiveness?

How can a character simply change its skin color without spending too many points on a purely self affecting, non-combat power? Something like this would still cost 3 Points, cost 1 END and require 2 ZERO PHASES to activate: Change Hair/Skin Color: Cosmetic Transform 3d6 (9 Active Points); Limited Power - Self Only, power loses about half of its effectiveness (-1), No Range (-1/2), Gestures - Must shake out hair (-1/4). Seems a bit much for just changing your color...