Old Man

Might even be worth putting Only vs BODY (-1/2). Good guys get stunned and knocked out all the time, but they rarely die outright.

Damage Reduction 25% PD / 25% ED (30) nonpersistent (-1/4), luck based (-1/2) --> 17 real points. Penetrating still gets through, but I can live with that.

I've seen these problems before. There's two root causes: first, some powers are just not costed correctly for the fantasy genre, in particular flight and force field, as well as most other movement powers. Second, there's no mechanic in the 'stock' FH magic system to prevent mages from allocating a huge number of points to one attack spell. So to an extent the system encourages floating howitzers like the example here. My solution to the second problem would be to either force spells to be bought in an EC, or impose a tight real point limit per spell--maybe INT/3 or somesuch. I don't see a way around the first problem without changing some of the power costs. FF ought to cost 5/2, flight should be 5/1", and leaping should be 3 or 4/1". A couple more comments on the 22 point RKA example. 1.5 in limitations is nothing; if that's all the player has they're not trying very hard. It's fairly easy to get up to -3 in lims on any spell. And I hope that mage isn't flinging his 3d6RKA anywhere near his buddies with an OCV of just 5.

Actually my problem stems more from my being very casual about magic. The only restrictions that I have are: must have KS: "Spell Casting", Active Points limit based on 2x INT or 2x EGO (whichever is higher) and "spells" be in a multipower. Multipowers are good because it allows a spell caster to have more than a couple spells - variety is a good thing. I don't require limitations of any kind for two reasons. The first is that the "spells" can represent things that aren't exactly spells - a monk's faith or training powers, a sword master's sword tricks, etc. The second is that some spells just don't need all the arm waving, chanting, incense burning, mumbo jumbo. Not even in D&D which is famous for such things do all spells have the same limitations. I can see RSR but other than that, I can't logically tack on the others. Actually all of that isn't that bad. It's just that some powers are very cheap for the genre. I'll admit to being too lazy to go through the entire Powers list to modify costs.

So you're more in favor of the Damage Reduction, Non-Persistant, Based On Luck route? That kind of makes sense...

Moments past are as aeons to me, while aeons yet to come flash by in a heartbeat. Why? I can barely remember what day it is or what I did at work yesterday. Conversely, bills and deadlines rush up on me with breathtaking speed. If this trend continues, in a couple of weeks I'm gonna wake up and I'll be ninety years old and I'll be like, "what? Hey, wait--" and then I'll die.

I'm starting to run into a few minor problems of my own, but now that the game has started, it's almost impossible to change things. Ah well, it's my first shot at it anyway.

Macarrandir was in his element, scouting ahead of the group looking for signs of ambush. As he moved ahead, he left signs for the group to follow. Even though he was a mere 15 yards ahead, his companions could not see him. An odd shift in the foliage before him caused him to stop. The motion didn't continue so the tall Wythir moved forward with more caution. Pushing a final thich branch aside brought him face to dripping mandibles with a huge blade beetle. The creature immediately took notice of Macarrandir and charged. The loud snapping of branches and thrashing bushes caused Yor, Aleister, Zin and Chip to stop. The commotion alerted them to a threat but they didn't know what it was until the crashing started to circle towards them. It was then that they heard Mac shouting "Big....Bug...Coming!!" The scout ran through the group and back into the forest. Zin didn't need further prompting, she scrambled up into a tree with almost no effort. Yor chanted prayers to the All Father while Aleister gathered his dark powers. Chip barely had time to pull hig great mace free before he was knock over by the largest bug he had ever seen. The creature was truly fearsome, 30 feet long, 10 feet wide covered in thich armored shell. Lying on the ground he thought he was a dead man, but the beetle completely ignored him and continued to trundle after Macarrandir. Gathering his holy forces, Yor unleashed a glowing bolt of justice at the beetle's retreating back. The white mote drilled a small hole in the armored skin causing a clear goo to leak forth. Zin proceeded to throw a hail of daggers at the beetle every time she caught of glimpse of the creature. None of them seemed to cause any damage but several were caught it's armor. Macarrandir was doing his best not to become beetle food, just barely staying ahead of the rushing monster. Feeling that it was close to catching it's prey, the beetle started to drip a green ooze from it's jaws. Not wanting to get lost in the forest, Mac circled towards the group again. As Mac ran past, Chip hefted his mace and swung at the beetle as it came into range. The blow was like hitting a wall, sending a shock up his arm. But that wall of armor now had a crack in it. The pain was just enough to turn the beetle from it's prey. Yor rushed forward trying to summon his holy energies, but failed. Finding some small amusement at the monk's failure Aleister waited for an oportunity to strike. When it came, he send draining energies towards the beetle. His senses told him the spell worked, but no outward sign was visible. Zin continued to throw daggers at the armored shell hoping for a lucky strike. Several hits landed on the beast's head but none of them penetrated the thick carapace. The rain of daggers didn't distract the blade beetle from it's new target. It lashed out with both of it's massive claws gouging deep furrows in the earth next to Chip. Chip reacted by taking another swing with his mace. The studded steel head landed squarly in the dirt forcing Chip to regain his balance. Yor once again sent prayers to Saint Sebastian but his fist did not take on it's usual glowing might. Striking the armored hide made him flinch and did nothing to the beetle. Mac continued to run in a large circle coming around to the side of the beetle. Drawing forth his short swords, he charged. Hacking away at the legs of the beetle did no damage but he continued his assault hoping for a lucky hit. Aleister summoned an unsettled spirit which lifted Chip off his feet and landed him on the beetle's back. The creature focused on Yor and tried to bite off his head, but with cat like grace, the monk avoided the dripping jaws. The monk focused again, and said another prayer to Saint Sebastian but again, his prayers were ignored. Without the infusion of holy might Yor was unable to harm the beetle. While the rest of the group provided a distraction, Chip gripped his mace with both hands and started to hammer the armored back of the beetle. The swaying beetle made one of his swings go wide, but in a short time, Chip cracked open the shell causing clear goo to splash over him. The huge monster gave a final shudder before settling to the ground. "Hmm," Chip said as he slid down the side of the beetle, "smells like mint." Rubbing the goo off his face, he commented, "Tastes kind of hot though."

Thanks... but right after I posted I found a hardcover copy on amazon for like six bucks. It's being shipped from the UK, though, so I will have to wait another aeon.

I've been looking for that book for aeons, but it's been out of print for a while and the only times I've found it online it was vastly overpriced (approx. US$60). Bah.

Traditionally, the D&D gods and demi-gods had immunity to a lot of the instant kill stuff. A high enough CON in D&D gave you immunity to poisons and stuff. In theory, if you really wanted an instant kill, you just have to hit the guy hard enough with whatever special effect you want.

It took a couple days for the group to fully recover and get equipment repaired. If the tanning shop and smithy hadn't burned down, the work might have been faster. During this time, Lavenus and Macarrandir found two people interested in actions against the muskies. Zin, a travelling Manling entertainer; and Chip, a Vashon priest in exile. The townspeople were still clearing the debris from the fires as the new group set off through the burned section of wall. They had not gone 50 yards before Lavenus stopped. "I have to go back." Ignoring the questioning remarks, he turned around and went back towards the town. He called, "I'll be back soon, don't worry." Needless to say, they didn't worry. After half an hour of waiting, they still didn't worry, they started to get irritated. Mac was about to charge back to town and drag Lavenus back by the horns when they spotted a figure approaching. Neither Zin nor Chip recognised the man for what he was, even though his clothes, the pale skin, the sunken eyes and skull decorations gave it away. Yor was a little surprised to see the black clad necromancer. "Greetings," Aleister said "we still hunting muskies?" "We were told you were helping the muskies, not killing them." Mac mildly accused. "I didn't think it was true, but we haven't seen you for days." "Your friend, the stone-man told us he saw you giving aid to the ones that raided the town." Yor commented. "You haven't been praticing evil necromany have you?" He glared. "No, no," Aleister said in an offhanded manner "I was fighting off a nasal slime demon. It took longer than expected. So, what happened to Lavenus? "That bastard probably went to take another bath. Let's get going already." With that, Macarrandir took off at a trot, following the light trail into the forest.

I'll agree, the game itself is pretty lacking but the worlds and backgrounds are pretty good. I know some people that enjoy the Darksun setting. I HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender. If I had to play in a campaign, I would take Extreme Hatred of Kender 20 pts as a Disad.

The question is, how do you make it so the "IT" moves to another person.

http://www.thewarp.net/war/tiger/ Try looking there

I've found plain old 75% damage reduction to be good enough to make a character nigh invincible, especially if combined with an average level of regular defenses. If you have a 20/20 force field and 75% DR, on average you take six stun from a 12d6 EB and eleven stun from a 20d6 EB. You never have to worry about being stunned. Even a critical hit from an 8d6K, enough to outright kill anyone else, inflicts just seven body and 55 stun.

I understand WillS's issue. There's this number on the character sheet that defines how much time the player gets to spend playing the game. As long as you're within one or two SPD points of the average it's not usually that much of a problem. That said, Hero combat is pretty complex, and it will slow down unless everyone at the table is ready to go when their action comes up. At that point they should know what it is they're going to do--in any game, and in Hero especially, it is really not acceptable for any player to sit there trying to decide what to do when his phase comes up.

What Shadowpup said. I'd go with: 6d6 RKA (90) only damages living creatures (-1/4) all or nothing (-1) activation roll (based on target CON) (-1/2) You can't ordinarily do this with Major Transform, which explicitly can't be used to kill things (though I never understood why not). Ideally your Finger of Death ought to be AE 1 hex (to handwave the lack of a to-hit roll) and NND, but of course now you're way over 100 active points. Which is how it should be.

There are some pros and cons, I think, between 4th and 5th. 5th is a much meatier book. Plenty of examples, much clearer power and skill descriptions, some rules changes that needed to be made (and a few that really shoudn't have). 5th is a much denser book. 4th, however, had better layout. I have the damnedest time finding things in the 5th ed book, not because it's disorganized, but because not much effort went into setting sections apart from each other. Maybe my eyesight is just getting worse, but I never had any trouble instantly finding the paragraph I wanted in the BBB; in Fred, I've had trouble even picking out the cost breakdown that's supposed to be at the end of each power description. 4th also had much better artwork--none of this computer-rendered mannequin crap that seems to be all the rage in gaming circles today. This last, of course, is a matter of opinion.

No, they're completely different. Just compare the weapon charts. Str Min rules have gone from formulaic to arbitrary, not that the 4th ed. formula was all that great. And don't even get me started on the useless "real weapon" limitation, which will cause more problems than it solves. That might work. The problem really is one that all 'universal' systems have, i.e. that a given power simply isn't going to be worth the same from one genre to the next. For the most part Hero powers are costed pretty well, but there are a couple that need to be reevaluated. This sort of rolls into the power-cost problem I have above. STR is a good deal in Champions campaigns, but in FH it's way too cheap for the stat that defines everyone's damage, as well as figured stats, and (in 5th) how high your defenses are. I'm not thinkng of combat here, I'm thinking of reworking the skill rules so that each stat point means something. Suppose INT skills were based on INT or less instead of 9+(INT/5). Characters with INT > 23 are exceedingly rare even in Champions. The present bleeding system is hard to use. 1st ed FH, frankly, had the best bleeding rules--bleed 1d6NND Does Body for each 5 Body of the wound; a 1 reduces bleeding, a 6 increases it. Don't forget to buy Paramedic skill.

Magic always works, but the player is going to get suspicious when all the enemy wizards throw STR suppress and AP/Penetrating RKAs, yet never throw AE DEX drains or RKA explosions...

Penalties for movement are already in the 5th encumbrance rules "The enemy shaman's hands begin to glow while he utters words of power to his totem. Armored guy is the target for his Weakness Spell (3d6 Suppress STR)."

Re: Re: SPEED Freaks Well considering that the GM limited SPD to 5 then the world's fastest man would be SPD 5. I think WillS should talk to his GM and maybe his group about this. If the fastest SPD that the GM is allowing is now 6, then any character with SPD 6 better damn well have it justified because that will be the fastest character in the universe.

Finger of Death, maybe not, Power Word Kill probably. Power Word Kill requires sound and is short ranged. In addition to that, it is the weakest of the Power Words. Yeah sure it kills instantly but it affects the lowest amount of hp compared to the others (about 60 hp). Basically, it's a 6d6 RKA, All or Nothing.

Darnit, you're right. I was about to suggest a 20d6 Suppress BODY. Yamo, you should be ashamed of yourself for asking this question I would have to go with the Transform. It really is the only way to do it as worded. Of course, most of the things in D&D that cause Save vs Death are prevented in Hero with a mere 10 pts or so (LS: Immunity to Poison, etc)