Killer Shrike

Theres no way Im going to read thru the 5 gazillion posts on this thread -- I gave up after the 20th or so
 
However, in the interests of responding to the original question, and all heavily IMO:
 
I like to use ECs for characters that have 1 basic "POWER" -- and I mean a Power in the comic book sense rather than the Hero Games sense -- like Fire Control, or Force Field Generation, or Telekinesis, with many different "stunts" conceivably usable concurrently -- like Flight, FF, EB etc.
 
The HERO System classifies each "stunt" as 1 or more Power Constructs, but conceptually all of the EC slots stem from 1 actual "Power". If you take down one Power Construct with an adjustment, you are in effect taking down their 1 big Power and all the Power Constructs attached to it. Thus the EC adjustment double jeopardy.
 
Mechanically, Im not real happy about the obvious illogic of Armor not being a legal slot while 0 END FF is at the same point cost, (although Armor is also Persistent and Invisible, and thus obviously superior aside from the fact that many NND's define FF as a defense), but Im not so unhappy that I worry about it
 
Another big plus to an EC is that unlike VPPs and MPs which are Active Point sensitive, EC powers have no upper end AP issues. In fact, you have a direct motivation to have all the slots in the EC to have a certain AP level as the point rebate is a halving of the lowest AP in the EC. In campaigns with AP caps this isnt noticable so much, but in campaigns without AP caps, a character with an EC can be quite powerful. What a MPP character gets in expandibility and flexibility, the EC character makes up for with well-roundedness.
 
As a complete aside I think its interesting that arguments aside, when looked at as a whole, characters based on all 3 frameworks and without can compete with each other at the same point level, based more upon the design skills of the characters creator than the strengths or weaknesses of the frameworks themselves. IME, of course YMMV

Agreed w/ unclevlad; this maneuver is rubbish.

It's in HSMA.  It's +1 segment.  I believe this means it acts like the Extra Segment limitation...half phase, the power is actually resolved AFTER all other actions on the next segment.

I rarely take it.  Far Shot gives +4 on the range mod, and it's much friendlier on CV and time.  Neither gives any bonus damage.  If the optional, more granular range mods are being used, even out to 48m, Far Shot is better...it'd be +1 OCV, -2 DCV, whereas Distance Shot is +0 OCV, -2 DCV.

pretty sure that's Freddy Mercury and Roy Orbison

Mike Patton
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Patton
 

 
https://consequenceofsound.net/2014/05/turns-out-mike-patton-and-not-axl-rose-is-the-greatest-singer-of-all-time

Ptolus is a huge city built upon many cities that were destroyed in the past.  Thus it has dungeons if that is what the players want and huge underground network.  The City is hugely detailed with districts, organizations, history and religion.  Of course you don't have to use any of this, but having it when you need it helps.  They also have a lifestyle to the districts on what the people eat, entertainment and such.  There are at least a 1000 businesses detailed with personality for the NPC's as well.  When it came out in 2006 it was so big they had to load much of it on CD-ROM!  It is over 700 pages with the maps and two extra adventures from the PDF!
 
It was a setting for all the game designers to play in and does have a high fantasy feel, but it is easy to push that aside if that isn't your speed.  I would recommend anyone buy the pdf just for reference.  The city is really cosmopolitan in that they like adventurers and actually have a Delver's Guild that explores the ruins below the city.  There are orcs, bugbears, ogres and even demons that walk amongst others in the city.  The people are not so freaked out by the occasional magic casting, but one still needs to be careful.    
 
More on my campaign, the players have purchased a mortuary so the Necromancer has easy access to bodies.  Also this is in the Warrens and slum-like area where there hasn't been anyone to get rid of bodies for a while.  The city has negotiated a contract to take bodies so they are using bureaucratics a lot and negotiations.  Now they are planning on becoming a gang in the Warrens as there are twelve other small disorganized gangs they need to quell or be run over.  Soon the Necromancer will be able to create a Vampire so that will add another element to the game.

I'm playing in a Ptolus campaign right now, though we are using D&D 5e. We are definitely having a good time. I would have much prefered Hero, but I was out voted by the other players.

It was a perfect role playing moment!  The party was hiding out in their mortuary basement.  There are 6 coffins tied to a ritual called the covenant of blood that they haven’t figured out.  
 
There is also an opening to the ocean.  Well part of the covenant is if they fill the coffins with vampires they can summon the sahuagin to aid them.  But since they haven’t figured this out the sahuagin come to check on this periodically.  When they came up they attacked them.  The vampire did as well and then lost control due to bloodlust after feasting on one.  She turned to attack a player and I rolled an 18, so I had her crumble to dust.  But one player took it and ran saying she died from infected blood.  This ties perfectly with the covenant and may cause them to investigate further.  I am adding that vampires cannot hurt sahuagin in that room due to the prophecy.

The 5th edition book The Ultimate Skill has an Everydemon skill list on page 45, under the heading "EVERYMONSTER SKILLS".

When I'm being paid to do something, I deliver what the customer wants. Otherwise I do what I want, for my own reasons and enjoyment...if other people like what I've done and find value in it, that's a happy coincidence. 
 
So, my advice to you is to do what you enjoy doing. 
 
 
As it happens, I hosted a FantasyHero wiki for a handful of years and ultimately shuttered it despite the platform having accumulated a fair amount of content. The main reason was, while a few people did put up some content, the majority of the material came from me and at a certain point it stopped making sense to me to continue to host a platform for collaboration when almost no one was actually using it to collaborate. Hopefully you'll have a better experience. 

And it was an excellent wiki. 

Same advice from me. If you enjoy what is coming in, then screw de rules, I've got green hair.
I believe this wiki will eventually boil down to what you experienced, except most of the material will come from me.

When I'm being paid to do something, I deliver what the customer wants. Otherwise I do what I want, for my own reasons and enjoyment...if other people like what I've done and find value in it, that's a happy coincidence. 
 
So, my advice to you is to do what you enjoy doing. 
 
 
As it happens, I hosted a FantasyHero wiki for a handful of years and ultimately shuttered it despite the platform having accumulated a fair amount of content. The main reason was, while a few people did put up some content, the majority of the material came from me and at a certain point it stopped making sense to me to continue to host a platform for collaboration when almost no one was actually using it to collaborate. Hopefully you'll have a better experience. 

I don't know much about the Wiki, actually. I'm just hoping against hope Surbrook's Stuff gets a new server or something similar emerges -- curated databases of created material for Hero including media adaptations.
 
I've already mentioned this to the pbemguy, but a little context on my signature quote that started this whole mess: before 6e came out, there was a thread about possible ad taglines for the new edition. Hence the quote, which was inspired by the ignored message at the end of all Oregon Lottery commercials of the time. 6e was not even out yet at the time, and was obviously a major topic of discussion -- most of which has since been lost. Many of the tweaks -- especially the elimination of Figured Characteristics and of the Comliness (COM) attribute -- were controversial, and while it was never at the point of an "edition war" there were people who continued to play 5e. I don't get to play any edition as much as I would like.
 
Now all six editions plus the two Complete editions are readily available online, and Hero just launched a Community Content program. Some would say the current creative state of the RPG field has passed crunchy systems like Hero by, but there is still a thirst for superhero-genre roleplaying and few games have ever done that genre better than Hero.

I miss it as well; we had just gotten to the climax of Act 2, poised for the home stretch. And then...quarantine! I still suspect it is all merely a stratagem of Mr. Timothy Ledoux; the difference between fiction and reality are as naught to one such as he; the 4th wall is the least thing he has shattered in a long existence occupied by the ceaseless pursuit of unwholesome power.
 

 
I have kept my hand in with Here There Be Monsters a bit in the interim however, slowly but surely chipping away at porting content. I finished porting the Zombie Apocalypse Vignette this weekend and am pretty happy with the results...
 
Zombie Apocalypse

Allright. So I chose a pretty big project for myself: to convert Pathfinder/D&D 3.5 material for campaign use in with miniatures. I've got pawns in PDF -form, so the PF bestiary is pretty much covered, going to get more of course when the time comes, but monsters are covered pretty much.
 
I've been studying Killershrikes D&D conversion site for the past couple of days, stuff seems tightly put together and takes every facet of characters into account. I won't be converting any existing characters, so there is a lot more wiggle room for when choosing what the PCs can do in this campaign.
 
I have a couple of issues though:
1. I'd be playing with tabletop newbies, who have no knowledge of Hero or similar games at all
2. I will probably use my own version of Hero combat system, to make it more random and a bit gamier, to create the feel of board games that are easier to pick up and play for newbies
3. Choosing miniatures for hero -types. Should I go class -specific or just pick the coolest looking minis there are? The selection of fantasy miniatures is vast and the only thing that has to match the pawns is that the scale has to be 28mm. The current heroes of literature and movies always look more and more similar (take Geralt of Rivia/Game of Thrones/Lord of the Rings) despite their abilites, so you could make any type of character on top of a mini at this point, which is great (!) but takes a bit away from the classical D&D feel.
4. Choice of campaign world. Golarion vs. Forgotten Realms vs. YOUR FAVORITE. I'd like some feedback on this too, whether it's a setting book or just general pointers when running stuff like this.
 
It's a relief that the pawn boxes contain most of the bestiary monsters, and that there were availabe documents for conversions to Hero. I find the freeform nature of Hero character creation to work with my gaming sensibilites best, and counting dozens of modifiers seems a bit offputting when considering running Pathfinder combat in its raw form, while trying to keep the game flowing. There's my own conversion of Hero combat which (supposedly) runs a lot faster than the standard counting of hit points, but there's the danger of total party kill when facing tougher monsters later on in the campaign. But I suppose it's a feature, not a flaw.
 
 

For world's I normally go with Mystara/The Known World. Fun to see my players squirm because they haven't memorized every little thing like they did for Forgotten Realms/Dragonlance/Etc...Greyhawk is the same way. Old enough and out of print enough to make it fun.

It is a quality piece of software and definitely (more than) worth its $25 asking price IMO if you are either a GM or the type of player who likes just making characters for fun. 
 
It has what I consider to be a very mild learning curve (but I'm probably not the best gauge for that). It is a literal tabula rasa when first opened with no character selected...
 

 
You get started by either selecting an existing character sheet from disk (if you have downloaded one, for instance) or by making a new character selected from the types of characters HD has the character creation rules for...such as 6e standard superheroic or heroic, or a vehicle, base, etc...
 

 
Once you've picked the type of character, you are presented with a tabbed interface and you basically go from tab to tab filling in the parts of your character...
 
Note: I changed my preferences to have the tabs go down the right side, so your UI would look slightly different out of the box (if i recall correctly they default to run across the top), but it should be equally as obvious what the tabs are regardless.
 

 
ProTip: I would recommend saving your progress frequently as you go (Ctrl+S), as you should for any long form content development.
 
When you want to see a character sheet for the character, using the "Current Character" menu option select an Export Template and Preview the character sheet.

 
There are lots of export templates, targeting different options such as html (viewed / printed using your browser of choice), plain text, rtf, etc. Some come w/ HD and a lot more are available in the downloads section of this site, catering to different levels of verbosity, style preferences, and so on. When you are getting started, I would recommend a default HTML template and you can get more discerning later when you have a better idea of what you want. 
 
Personally, I use custom html templates nearly exclusively, but do sometimes output other formats when i have a particular reason to.
 
After you have the basics down (make a standard character), HD offers a plethora of other features if you want or need to get fancier. You can turn a "character" into a template from which you can make future characters...for instance imagine you made a "Goblin" character representing a baseline gobbo for your setting...you could make it into a template from which you could later create a new specific named goblin and add on to the baseline...you could go further and have layers of templates that stack one upon the next, such as a baseline gobbo template, a gobbo champion template built on top of that, and a gobbo chief template built on top of that, layering up the abilities from one to the next. I think the utility of this is fairly obvious in settings where you have lots of stock characters which are mostly defined by what they are plus some individualization, such as most fantasy settings. 
 
You can also make or use prefabs, the term used by the app for lists of pre-made abilities, gear, etc, which can be loaded up and used conveniently within the tabs for skills, talents, powers, equipment to quickly whip up characters without having to copy and paste common effects (such as your campaign's definition of a long sword or basic fireball spell, etc) from one to next.
 
Pro Tip: heavy use of prefabs can put memory pressure on the app, so I suggest loading up the ones you need when you need them.
 

 
One of my favorite features is the ability to define and reuse custom campaign settings that can be applied to all characters in a given campaign. This is hugely convenient and offers a lot of flexibility and is worth checking out if you get that far. I use this feature very heavily; one of the first things I do when setting up a new campaign is go into HD and make a campaign ruleset and then bang out a few baseline characters for that campaign (such as average person, average PC, average "thug" opposition, etc) as part of the dialing in process.
 

 
And so on...the summary is HD is basically an industrial grade power tool for Hero System character creation and management (an aspect of HD that doesn't get talked about as much but which is in my opinion its most significant value add), and like many power tools it does have its sharp edges and beginners traps, but it richly rewards time spent learning its nuances.
 
 
-----------------------
My user preferences menu:
 

 
I no longer remember what the defaults are, but I recommend upping the max RAM allowed to the app using the conveniently provided slider if you are in the habit of keeping a bunch of characters open (such as all of the PC's of your campaign and the current crop of NPC's / bad guys) and have them auto-load on HD start.
 
 
 
 

It is a quality piece of software and definitely (more than) worth its $25 asking price IMO if you are either a GM or the type of player who likes just making characters for fun. 
 
It has what I consider to be a very mild learning curve (but I'm probably not the best gauge for that). It is a literal tabula rasa when first opened with no character selected...
 

 
You get started by either selecting an existing character sheet from disk (if you have downloaded one, for instance) or by making a new character selected from the types of characters HD has the character creation rules for...such as 6e standard superheroic or heroic, or a vehicle, base, etc...
 

 
Once you've picked the type of character, you are presented with a tabbed interface and you basically go from tab to tab filling in the parts of your character...
 
Note: I changed my preferences to have the tabs go down the right side, so your UI would look slightly different out of the box (if i recall correctly they default to run across the top), but it should be equally as obvious what the tabs are regardless.
 

 
ProTip: I would recommend saving your progress frequently as you go (Ctrl+S), as you should for any long form content development.
 
When you want to see a character sheet for the character, using the "Current Character" menu option select an Export Template and Preview the character sheet.

 
There are lots of export templates, targeting different options such as html (viewed / printed using your browser of choice), plain text, rtf, etc. Some come w/ HD and a lot more are available in the downloads section of this site, catering to different levels of verbosity, style preferences, and so on. When you are getting started, I would recommend a default HTML template and you can get more discerning later when you have a better idea of what you want. 
 
Personally, I use custom html templates nearly exclusively, but do sometimes output other formats when i have a particular reason to.
 
After you have the basics down (make a standard character), HD offers a plethora of other features if you want or need to get fancier. You can turn a "character" into a template from which you can make future characters...for instance imagine you made a "Goblin" character representing a baseline gobbo for your setting...you could make it into a template from which you could later create a new specific named goblin and add on to the baseline...you could go further and have layers of templates that stack one upon the next, such as a baseline gobbo template, a gobbo champion template built on top of that, and a gobbo chief template built on top of that, layering up the abilities from one to the next. I think the utility of this is fairly obvious in settings where you have lots of stock characters which are mostly defined by what they are plus some individualization, such as most fantasy settings. 
 
You can also make or use prefabs, the term used by the app for lists of pre-made abilities, gear, etc, which can be loaded up and used conveniently within the tabs for skills, talents, powers, equipment to quickly whip up characters without having to copy and paste common effects (such as your campaign's definition of a long sword or basic fireball spell, etc) from one to next.
 
Pro Tip: heavy use of prefabs can put memory pressure on the app, so I suggest loading up the ones you need when you need them.
 

 
One of my favorite features is the ability to define and reuse custom campaign settings that can be applied to all characters in a given campaign. This is hugely convenient and offers a lot of flexibility and is worth checking out if you get that far. I use this feature very heavily; one of the first things I do when setting up a new campaign is go into HD and make a campaign ruleset and then bang out a few baseline characters for that campaign (such as average person, average PC, average "thug" opposition, etc) as part of the dialing in process.
 

 
And so on...the summary is HD is basically an industrial grade power tool for Hero System character creation and management (an aspect of HD that doesn't get talked about as much but which is in my opinion its most significant value add), and like many power tools it does have its sharp edges and beginners traps, but it richly rewards time spent learning its nuances.
 
 
-----------------------
My user preferences menu:
 

 
I no longer remember what the defaults are, but I recommend upping the max RAM allowed to the app using the conveniently provided slider if you are in the habit of keeping a bunch of characters open (such as all of the PC's of your campaign and the current crop of NPC's / bad guys) and have them auto-load on HD start.
 
 
 
 

It is a quality piece of software and definitely (more than) worth its $25 asking price IMO if you are either a GM or the type of player who likes just making characters for fun. 
 
It has what I consider to be a very mild learning curve (but I'm probably not the best gauge for that). It is a literal tabula rasa when first opened with no character selected...
 

 
You get started by either selecting an existing character sheet from disk (if you have downloaded one, for instance) or by making a new character selected from the types of characters HD has the character creation rules for...such as 6e standard superheroic or heroic, or a vehicle, base, etc...
 

 
Once you've picked the type of character, you are presented with a tabbed interface and you basically go from tab to tab filling in the parts of your character...
 
Note: I changed my preferences to have the tabs go down the right side, so your UI would look slightly different out of the box (if i recall correctly they default to run across the top), but it should be equally as obvious what the tabs are regardless.
 

 
ProTip: I would recommend saving your progress frequently as you go (Ctrl+S), as you should for any long form content development.
 
When you want to see a character sheet for the character, using the "Current Character" menu option select an Export Template and Preview the character sheet.

 
There are lots of export templates, targeting different options such as html (viewed / printed using your browser of choice), plain text, rtf, etc. Some come w/ HD and a lot more are available in the downloads section of this site, catering to different levels of verbosity, style preferences, and so on. When you are getting started, I would recommend a default HTML template and you can get more discerning later when you have a better idea of what you want. 
 
Personally, I use custom html templates nearly exclusively, but do sometimes output other formats when i have a particular reason to.
 
After you have the basics down (make a standard character), HD offers a plethora of other features if you want or need to get fancier. You can turn a "character" into a template from which you can make future characters...for instance imagine you made a "Goblin" character representing a baseline gobbo for your setting...you could make it into a template from which you could later create a new specific named goblin and add on to the baseline...you could go further and have layers of templates that stack one upon the next, such as a baseline gobbo template, a gobbo champion template built on top of that, and a gobbo chief template built on top of that, layering up the abilities from one to the next. I think the utility of this is fairly obvious in settings where you have lots of stock characters which are mostly defined by what they are plus some individualization, such as most fantasy settings. 
 
You can also make or use prefabs, the term used by the app for lists of pre-made abilities, gear, etc, which can be loaded up and used conveniently within the tabs for skills, talents, powers, equipment to quickly whip up characters without having to copy and paste common effects (such as your campaign's definition of a long sword or basic fireball spell, etc) from one to next.
 
Pro Tip: heavy use of prefabs can put memory pressure on the app, so I suggest loading up the ones you need when you need them.
 

 
One of my favorite features is the ability to define and reuse custom campaign settings that can be applied to all characters in a given campaign. This is hugely convenient and offers a lot of flexibility and is worth checking out if you get that far. I use this feature very heavily; one of the first things I do when setting up a new campaign is go into HD and make a campaign ruleset and then bang out a few baseline characters for that campaign (such as average person, average PC, average "thug" opposition, etc) as part of the dialing in process.
 

 
And so on...the summary is HD is basically an industrial grade power tool for Hero System character creation and management (an aspect of HD that doesn't get talked about as much but which is in my opinion its most significant value add), and like many power tools it does have its sharp edges and beginners traps, but it richly rewards time spent learning its nuances.
 
 
-----------------------
My user preferences menu:
 

 
I no longer remember what the defaults are, but I recommend upping the max RAM allowed to the app using the conveniently provided slider if you are in the habit of keeping a bunch of characters open (such as all of the PC's of your campaign and the current crop of NPC's / bad guys) and have them auto-load on HD start.
 
 
 
 

To amplify a bit.  All the creation/build rules are built into HD.  When you select an item you will get a short info block on it, but it is not arranged or presented in a manner that it can replace the rulebook. 
 
It supports both 6th and 5th edition and most of the buildable content from the various supplements can be acquired by buying add on  "packs".  Some of these will be very useful if you decide to use HD.  I am away from my books and on my smartphone so I am working from my old man's brain. But for Fantasy Hero the equipment and martial arts book packs are almost essential. 
 
 
 
 
I myself usually build with paper and pencil followed by entering everything into HD to check my math and give me a clean easy to update copy. 
 
The program refers to all outputs such as character sheets as "export formats". From what I have been told, they are easy to make if you are a programmer type.  If you are not, like me, there are dozens of them for free download on the Hero website.
 
I haven't used it much lately, but when I was running a game it was invaluable for the ease and speed to create and maintain all the npc's.
 
I have or have used multiple character building software packages and in my personal opinion, HD is hands down the best dedicated build program out there.  It includes the ability to make changes, or custom powers/skills/etc.
 
But as was mentioned, it is not a replacement for the book. 

I use both. Paper and Computer. If you get Hero Designer it does take a little getting used to. But don’t worry, ask and we’ll help you.