Xandarr

I'm helping build a campaign that emulates Vampire the Masquerade. One of the features I am using is this: all vampires must have Normal Characteristics Maximum. I use Hero Designer (which is excellent, by the way, thanks to Dan's hard work) to create the characters. One thing that I have noticed is this: during character creation, I have the players make 150 point "heroic" characters, with NCM (call this the "human" creation step). Once those human characters are created, I apply a basic vampire template, a clan template, and give them a certain amount of free points to buy Generation (higher stats bought as power kits), and Disciplines (powers). Some characters have a pretty high amount of some of the secondary characteristics (Speed, Stun, etc) that they buy during the first part of the process: the human creation. They pay the normal amount at that time as long as they are below the NCM. However, when I add the templates, which increase the Base characteristics (Dex, Str, Con, etc), the cost of the secondary stats increases to double because the primary stats become high enough to "push" the secondary stats past the NCM. Example: Bob buys 18 STR making his base PD a 4, and he then maxes out his PD to 8 with 4 points. He buys a Brujah template, which gives him +10 STR for 10 points. His base PD goes to 6 becase of the added STR, and so his PD jumps to 10, but now he's spending 6 points in PD instead of 4 because the STR pushed the PD over the human max of 8. So here's my question: is this the way the system is supposed to work? I've checked FRED, but I can't find anything directly on point for this issue. My question isn't as much about the order the extra stats were purchased, so much as the method used to buy them. They aren't bought as straight stats, they are bought as powers. I assumed that any figured stats would also be considers "bought as powers" by extension and thus bypass the NCM, but it doesn't appear to work that way in HD. In my opinion (for what little it's worth, heh heh), the extra PD shouldn't suddenly cost double because the STR that increased the base was bought as a power, and so it bypasses the NCM. Therefore, the secondary stats based on that added STR should also not apply to the NCM. At first I thought it was an error in HD, so I asked Dan about this and he says "All that matters is that, in the end, their figured characteristics are higher than the max allowed by NCM, causing them to have to pay double for those levels." Since you are the big rules guru, I am wondering if you concur with Dan's assessment. I'm not questioning Dan so much as I am the spirit of the rules. Am I way off base here? Curiously, Steve

It seems to me that if you are allowing protection from nerve gas while in the space suit without paying points, then you have built the suit incorrectly. I say buy the 20 points worth of immunities (with all the appropriate limitations for the suit). Anything that breaches the suit is going to eliminate any and all protections that it provides: Immunities, Safe Environments, Breathing, etc. The suit should have them all. Then you aren't getting them "free" anymore. Regarding a superhero, he should also buy whatever protections his superhuman physique provides. Nothing free. SFX is supposed to provide "minor" adjustments based on the situation. Giving 20 points of protection for free isn't a minor adjustment that SFX should provide, in my opinion. But that's just me, Steve

Two worthy quotes This wasn't actually during the game, but worth mentioning anyway. Four of our gaming group live an hour from Columbus, where the rest of the players live. Most of us are experienced gamers with many years under our belt, and we've all run at least a few games in our time. The exception is Dee, who has played less than 2 years. We were giving him some tongue-in-cheek grief over the fact that he was the only person in the car who isn't currently running a game for the group. His reply: "Hey man... don't be a player hater." --------------------------------------------------------------------- This one is from our World of Darkness to Hero conversion, run by my lovely fiance, Sudi. It stands well on its own: "Jesus goes on 3." Humorously, Steve

Thanks for the feedback, Oddhat. Thanks. I figure it's not too bad, considering that Luck isn't that common. The bookkeeping I would think less tedious than keeping track of Stun or End during combat, plus it would make for great drama as someone gets close to the end of their luck and has to be very careful how to apply the remaining points. I've seen this before, and it's clever (especially the "Pushing your Luck" joke). However, I don't think it would limit characters much, except maybe in combat, where END costs might make a difference in a long fight. Almost the same thing as my "Event Points" system, only half as often. How does that work out for you? Agreed. Characters with a Lucky Concept should buy much more than just the Luck power, just like a Fire Concept should buy much more than just EB. I was just looking for a way to give the characters more control over the power. Luck seems to be about the only power where the GM controls the power by default instead of the player. Thanks again for the feedback, Steve

I was talking to one of my players (RadeFox on this board) and we were trying to come up with a fair but interesting rule for the Luck power. As it stands, everything about the power pretty much falls in the realm of GM fiat. Sure, you can roll some dice, and get a BODY total, but the effect of those dice are still pretty much up to the GM. What one GM thinks might be a 1 point luck effect could be worth 2 points in another GM's opinion. Not only that, but the player can (and usually will) constantly assault the GM with questions on whether or not his luck will apply to any given situation. This house rule was created to give the players more control over their luck, while still allowing it to be used as listed in the 5th Ed. rule book. For each 5 points, you can still buy 1d6 of luck. However, at the beginning of each game session, the player rolls the dice and counts them just like Normal Damage. The BODY damage is counted as "Event Points". The number of STUN damage on the dice are "Die Roll Points". With the event pool you can spend one point to ask the GM for a standard Luck Roll and the GM can apply the results appropriately as per the standard rules. You can also opt to pay 2 Event Points each to get a guaranteed result as if you had rolled 1 luck points on the dice, cumulative (spend 4 Event Points for a guaranteed result of 2 luck, etc). Using this method, points of luck are still arbitrarily decided by the GM, so the GM does maintain some control over the player's luck. The GM can also veto any request to spend those points as usual. Once all the Event Points are spent for the session, the player can no longer ask for the dice rolls. His character's luck has "run out" for events. This brings us to the Die Roll Points (DRP's). You can use a DRP to adjust any die roll that directly affects your character (whether rolled by you or by someone else) by 1 for each DRP spent. For each 3 DRP's, you can adjust any other die roll by 1, even if it only affects you indirectly. You cannot change any die rolls that do not at least marginally have some relation to the character in question. DRP's cannot be used in this way to change a critical success or failure, unless you spend 3 DRP's. For 3 DRP's, you can change any roll into a critical success or failure, or prevent a currently rolled critical success or failure that directly affects your character. If it only affects you indirectly, the charge is 10 DRP's. You still cannot affect rolls that have no affect on you. I think with this method, it gives more value to the Luck power, something that can be quantified by the players. This method can also be expanded to cover Unluck as well, except that the GM would secretly roll the player or NPC's unluck in advance without telling the player what the amount is, and would apply the same rules as for Luck, only against the player. This limits the amount of Unluck a player can be subjected to in any one game session and might actually encourage players to take it more often since they know it won't constantly be used against them. So what does everyone think? Is it abusive? Should this still be charged 5/die or is it worth much more now? Have we just completely lost our minds? Waiting with baited breath (yuck), Steve

Re: Yo-ho-ho and a Bottle of Rum! I hate to be the fly in the ointment, but your multipower is built incorrectly. The maximum power in any of the slots can only be 30 points. As written, you have all the REAL costs at 30. I used to do this too when I first learned the game. You'll have to bump up the points on the pool to make this legal. The missile by itself is 90 active points, which is going to cost you at least 60 more points on the character. You might shave a few ponits by putting a -1/2 limitation (requires obvious focus) on the pool, bringing it down to 60 real. Also, this character won't be able to use his shield and sword at the same time in it's current incarnation unless you raise the pool to at least 60 points. Putting DCV skill levels is also a no-no unless you have GM approval. Just picking nits, Steve

The Index is your Friend Remember, FRED has an amazing index. Most of these questions can be answered in 10 seconds just by scanning the index. Page 371 of the Index lists "Targeting a Hex (Combat Modifier)" as being on page 247 of the book. Enjoy, Steve

Although you have a good point, I disagree that there is a need to define specific types of HtH attacks for reflection purposes. If a character can block any type of HtH attack for free by default, then he should also be able to reflect any type of HtH attack for the 40 points (or whatever value you might feel is fair). If for some reason there are certain HtH attacks that cannot be reflected, I feel that is better defined by using a limitation on the cost of HtH Reflection instead. This allows the player to work with the GM to taylor the power at the appropriate level for the campaign, rather than setting arbitrary amounts that are unrelated to setting. This is what Missle Deflection and Reflection do now, and I disagree with it. I personally feel that MD should be 20 points, and MR should be another 20, with appropriate limitations based on the setting (only vs throw weapons might be -1/2 in a fantasy setting, but worth -2 in a futuristic campaign where laser guns and lightsabres are standard issue). But that's just my personal preference, Steve

I really don't think that the first 20 points of this power are necessary. After all, any player already has 'Melee Deflection' at its highest level, and it's absolutely free. It's called the Block Maneuver. Now for the Reflection aspect, I could see why it might be expensive to build from scratch using the system rules. I would allow a player to use Missle Reflection as a basis for Melee Reflection for a flat fee of 40 points, with the appropriate adder/advantage for reflect at any target. I'd caveat the "any target" with "any adjacent target", since the attack being reflected is already No Range by its very definition. But that's just me, Steve

This relates to a house rule that I use for stopping moving vehicles. This is a staple of superhero comics; the hero has to stop a vehicle before it careens over a cliff or crashes into someone. We've all seen it before. The way I do it is this: First of all, the hero's STR score must exceed that of the vehicle. Assuming that it does, the difference between the 2 scores is compared to the throwing chart in 5th Edition. However many inches the character has on that chart is the number of inches that the character can slow down the vehicle each phase, starting at the point of impact. Reduce the vehicles velocity first, then move both characters the amount that remains. Do the same on each of the vehicle's phases until the velocity is zero, and that's where the vehicle stops. The nice thing about this method is that it's simple to look up, and you can even be a sneaky GM and figure the whole thing in advance so that you know exactly what hex the vehicle will stop. Then put that hex right next to the target for that added element of suspense. The player's don't know exactly where it will stop, and at first it might seem like the player isn't going to succeed, until that last phase of deceleration. Fun for all! Try it, says I! Steve

That sounds dangerously close to Dwarf Tossing. Beware the wrath of Gimli! Amusedly, Steve

Re: Reversal of Polarity Yes, of course, you're right about halving the modifiers, too. I'm not sure if I understood your math correctly, but under the Target Number system, you'd have a total skill of 17+4= 21. Cut in half rounding up leaves 11, so a critical success would require a 10 or better roll. I think that's what you just said, but I couldn't be sure. Glad I could help! Genius in training, Steve

Re: Reversal of Polarity I call this the "Target Number" system, and I use it in my Fantasy Hero games. It's wonderful. All I have to do is figure the DCV of the defender, add 10 and I've got a target to shoot for. I don't have to tell my players, and they don't have to ask. They can just figure their OCV, add the 3d6 die roll and tell me the sum. If it equals or exceeds the Target Number, I tell them they hit. If not, I tell them they missed. It lets them gauge an approximate OCV, but since I don't tell them the specific maneuver the creature is using (I just describe the action and let the players guess... lot's of fun). If they fight the opponent for a few phases, they can usually narrow down his OCV/DCV to within 2 or 3, but they can never be 100% sure. I agree with this as well. Having a tie in to something familiar makes the mechanics of Hero much easier for new players to grasp. The easy way to avoid this confusion is to leave the skill roll numbers where they are and set a Target Number of 21 for all standard skill checks. Roll 3d6 and add your skill level; if the total is 21 or better, you succeed. This makes the odds of success exactly the same as rolling the number or less on 3d6. Not to mention it makes adjustments easy. For harder tasks, increase the Target Number, for routine tasks, reduce it. It also makes the skill checks open ended, and routine tasks can be automatic successes if you like. If a character has a skill level at 18, you can eschew the die roll and say that all standard skills are automatically successful (granted this isn't any different from having an 18 now, but it's still easy to see why it's automatic). I think you're possibly introducing some confusion here by removing the 9 from the skill roll this way. You're basically making someone's raw ability the main indicator, which is counterintuitive to the way the system works. With this method, the average Normal Human has a base skill ability of 2 instead of 11. So by rolling 10 or better, they succeed the skill roll. But taking out the 9+char/5 in this way requires significant alteration of the character sheet, or ignoring the way standard skills are listed in the book. I think keeping the 9+char/5 and setting the target number higher (in this case, 21) is easier to understand. Take your skill roll and add your die roll. If it's 21 or better, you succeed. The GM can adjust the difficulty of the skill by adjusting the target number. Well I'm not sure about the math of your formula above, but going with the Target Number method, you have 2 options depending on your preference for critical success. Some people use half the die roll as critical success. If that's your method, you can still use it. Just half your skill and add your die roll. If it exceeds the Target Number, the success is critical. Granted, this method does require you to count the dice twice, so it's does slow things down a little. The method that I use (and I know that some others on the board do too) is that a critical success is 10 points away from a standard success. In the Hero system as written, this would make a crit a 5- if the basic roll is 15-. You have less chance of crits with this method unless your skill roll is better than 20-. The upside is that this method is much easier to compute when using the Target Number system; you get a crit if 3d6 + skill is a total of 31 or higher. In my group, this is easy to compute. For example, let's say Sherlock Holmes has a KS: Tobacco on a 17. Unless he completely botches the roll, he can recognize any tobacco on sight/smell. Scotland Yard asks for his help at the scene of a crime, and during the investigation, he finds cigar ashes left behind by the perp. Sherlock's player asks what the chances are of determining exactly what brand the criminal was smoking, and the GM says it would take a critical success to do so, since he has no cigar butt to work with. Sherlock knows his target number for critical success is 31, so he needs a 14 or better on the roll. To improve his odds, he studies the ashes with his magnifying glass (Gm gives +1 for this), and takes a full 5 minutes to examine them (+3 for time bonus). This brings his roll down to 10 or better and he takes his shot, rolling a 12. Success! Sherlock heads to the local Humidor shop to make further inquiries. Granted, this is an extreme example. Using the half-method, keep the target number at 21, and instead Sherlock's base skill is cut in half from 17 down to 9 (rounded up in favor of the player). Adding 4 for the previous bonuses gives a base of 13+3d6 to hit a 21. The player needs to roll 8 or better. Slightly better odds than the +10 method. Either way is good, depending on how much math you want to do. This doesn't change the fact that you can still have critical success and failure based solely on the dice rolls. 3 or 4 is critical failure in my games, and 17 or 18 is critical success. So basically the only way to improve your odds of a critical hit is if your target is really low, or your skill is really high. Still, there are the occasional crits on prone bodies, making the coup-de-grace an exciting roll. YMMV, but this has worked out really well for my group and combats go much faster since I switched to using Target Numbers. Helpfully, Steve

Thanks for everything you've offered so far. I'll toss my comments in and fill in the blanks where I can. Yes, I think this is a good suggestion. I'm thinking of having the trigger for the change be reduction of Ego to half it's full level, or any kind of ECV based "blocking" power (such as Entangle), which cuts Joe's mind off from the armor in some way. Mind Control wouldn't qualify, since he would still have full ability to interact with the armor, although Mental Illusions might, if he was made to believe that he wasn't wearing the armor anymore. That's a tricky one. Sorry about the confusion. I wasn't trying to imply that Bob would go questing if he took over. What I was trying to convey is that even if Bob has the opportunity to take over Joe's armor, he's restricted from doing so unless there is a driving religious reason for him to do so, such as destroying undead (an abomination to his faith) or preserving the sanctity of the nature. I've pretty much decided to go with an earth-centric faith with the 4 "traditional" elements as key ingredients, hence the armor. But if Joe is just mind-drained by Menton for example, Bob can't really step in because there's no religious reason to do so. I'll post a follow-up for you in the next reply, but it will be long, so I'll have to postpone until tomorrow night. Sleep is calling me. Gotta wrap this up soon. *yawn* Now this is a good idea too. I don't have TUM, unfortunately, so I never really got to read about mental transforms of this nature. It does make sense, though. The transform would "heal" when the original trigger for the transform goes away. This is a good construction, but I have a question. Since I'm not targeting anyone but the PC, does it really need to be based on ECV? Hitting yourself is pretty much automatic, isn't it? Without the ECV advantage, "Works vs. MD and Ego" would probably then go up to +½, making the active points only 45 and bringing the real points go down to about 15. Not bad for a bit of flavor. I'd make sure he'd get his points worth and still make it challenging for him when it does happen. I'll tie that to the Accidental Change (Possessed by AI follower) and it should make an interesting character. Thanks again! Steve

Wow! A lot of great ideas. I'd like to clarify something before I conintue. The special effect of Bob (aka Ramses) is that he can only take over when the PC's will is drained or "shunted" off in some way. However, I definitely do not want this to be related to his Stun in any way whatsoever. I'm not looking for a way to keep the hero up and fighting once he's dazed or unconscious. Basically what I'm looking for is for Bob to be able to posess the PC"s body if the mind becomes weak enough. If the PC is stunned, so is Bob. If the PC is unconsious, so is Bob. They inhabit the same mind and body, but Bob can take over if great need arises. I do like a lot of the ideas, and I might shift them from Stun to Ego and see how they work out. The chances of using this power are going to be rare enough that it might be needed only one game session in 5 or 10, so I don't want it to be overly expensive. It's something to add flavor, but isn't a major power. Thanks!! I think that so far, this is the best idea I have seen. I can give Bob Disads that reflect his necessity of sharing a body with the hero, and the skills will be cheap, even with the UOO advantages. This will make the point value low, but keep the flavor that I am looking for. I'm wondering if I shouldn't give Bob a really big Mind Control power with appropriate limitations usable only on the character in certain circumstances and with a Trigger. Not sure how point-prohibitive it might be but it's definitely an option. Hmm... here's where things will get pretty expensive. Since the armor is basically a set of Power Armor with a magical SFX (and I'm using OiHID instead of OIF for the powers), it's going to be the majority of the PC's abilities. Making all of them UOO is going to cost a ton for something that is basically just a dash of flavor for the character. One thing that I had considered doing is giving the character an Enraged/Berzerk disad and changing the effect to "posessed" instead of "berzerk". Does anyone see any problems with going this route. If this were my character in your campaign, do you think I'd still have to spend points for Bob to take over? I realize that I'm the GM, but I want to be fair and make the ability as mechanically sound as possible. Excellent suggestion again! I think I'll couple this with Wyrm Ouroboros' suggestion of having Bob be a warrior for an entire pantheon. I'll take a look at some pantheons as a whole and see which one's might fit the bill, although Greek/Roman is looking good right now. Thanks! It's going to be a combination of Supers/Fantasy/Stargate kind of campaign. Complex, but with a lot of options. The characters are basically guardians of the Magical Gate of Power, which has access to all other magical gates in the universe. The main power behind their opponents has access to the Technical Gate of Power, which can access any other technical gate in the universe. Many planets will have both types of gates on them, which provides an opportunity for tons of different scenarios, and a good solid basis for the main NPC villain team. Each character has a direct tie to the others, as well as a direct tie to one of the major bad guys. Perhaps later this week I'll give descriptions of the PC's and Villains, as well as the backstory for the campaign. In any case, thanks to everyone for their suggestions so far. Further input on my follow-up questions is appreciated. Thanks!! Steve

Great calculator Someone posted this site once on RPG.net and I saved it to my harddrive because it was so useful. Not sure what his/her name was, but I'm sure you will find it on the site. Here's the URL: http://ojaste.dhs.org/~ojastej/dice.html I think you'll find it most useful for your questions on dice probabilities. Helpfully, Steve

I'm in the process of starting a new superheroic campaign (YAY!!), and my players and I were brainstorming on the game world and the characters, as well as the main enemy team. I think we've come up with a great world to play in, with an epic reason for the team to work together for the betterment of mankind (and the universe!). However, during the discussion, we came upon an interesting sticking point with which I would like some advice. The game world is much like our own, except that instead of the Industrial Revolution, there was instead a Magical Revolution. Magic is strong and has been the key to advancement since the invention of Sunpowder (a magical derivative of sunlight with explosive abilities). So now the characters live in a world similar to, but slightly askew from our own. One of the characters is an archaeologist who specialises in the finding and excavating of rare treasures from foreign tombs. In a magical world, you can imagine how dangerous this might be. Our hero is something like Indiana Jones before his first big break. On one of his excavations, he discovered some ancient runes, which he hastily translated one night, leading him to a hidden chamber deep in the tomb. There, he finds an ancient set of pure golden armor. Next to the armor is an amulet, to which the character is inexorably drawn. It seems to be calling to him, exhorting him to wear it. He does, and is immediately contacted by the spirit of an ancient warrior (we'll call him "Bob" for now). The warrior Bob is a previous servant of one of the ancient gods (haven't chosen which pantheon yet), who nearly acheived avatar status before he was destroyed by an extremely powerful undead (maybe Takofanes). Bob convinces the PC that he must take up the armor and fight on behalf of good and righteousness as the next chosen warrior of (insert god's name here). Our archaeologist agrees, and a new hero is born. Basically, he will be a powered armor type, but the armor will by powered by magic with elemental powers as the special effects. First, I need a good elemental god to use as the patron and symbol of the armor. So we've got the player who is "haunted" in a way by the ancient warrior Bob. Bob now has a deep hatred for all undead and/or animated items (such as golems/robots, etc). Bob will be the special effect of some skills (KS: Religion for example), as well as a constant mentor to the fledgling hero. However, this mentor lives in the PC's head. Actually, he lives in the amulet, but since the amulet is now permanently bonded to the PC, he's pretty much there for life. As an interesting side effect of having Bob in the PC's head all the time, I want there to be a chance that if something happens to dramatically weaken the willpower of the PC while he's inside the armor (such as maybe an ECV based Entangle or an Ego Drain), then he is unable to resist Bob's will and Bob takes posession of the armor with the hero still inside! He then uses the armor as if he were still alive until such time as the PC can regain control, or the armor is removed, or the warrior completes some task related to his quest for vengeance on the undead. How would you model this effect in game terms? I don't want to just handwave this, because it will have advantages and disadvantages, so I would like to model it with character points. Any help that the rather insightful members of the Hero Gaming Community can give would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Steve

There's also... IMNSHO = In my not so humble opinion IDHMBIFOM = I don't have my book in front of me IOW = In other words (took me forever to figure this one out for some reason). Can't think of any others offhand. Helpfully, Steve

Maybe not. You have to remember that in HERO system, every 5 points is supposed to represent a doubling of effective power. Hence, a standard explosion is already "exponential decay" in a sense. Since with a standard explosion, you lose 1d6/hex, and most times 1d6 means 5 active points, then you could conclude that every hex away is only half as effective as the hex before. No need for a further reduction. And don't forget, every 5 points of TK can lift twice as much as before, so the "G-force effect" wouldn't be hard to simulate at all with TK explosion. I wouldn't let all this "singularity effects everything the same" worry you too much. As the GM, only you get to decide exactly how the effect works. I mean think about it! If you really WERE going to open a singularity in Earth's atmosphere only meters from the ground, the last thing you'd have to worry about would be how much damage it does to someone only 50 feet away. I'd be more worried about whether or not the sudden gravitational effect was enough to crack the planet in two and send it spinning out of orbit! Keep it simple. Don't make yourself crazy using realistic science to judge an impossible feat. I say go with the TK explosion. Either that or throw active points out the window and make it 1000 STR TK Area of Effect Radius. That should scare some people! Just a thought, or 5, Steve

While I agree that the GM could use that as a special effect, I think it's stretching things a little to allow only 1 Body pip of damage to break someone's arm. Something like that is more along the lines of a deep bruise, in my opinion. It hurts, and it will take a week to heal, but it's not impairing in any way like a broken arm would be. I would recommend that if you want to simulate broken bones in your campaign that you use the impairing and disabling rules. Using Derek's example above, it would take 7d6 Normal Damage or a 1½d6 Killing Attack to break an arm (I consider broken bones impairing, and severed limbs disabling in my Fantasy game). 7d6 Normal is usually only possible if you are extremely strong, or have martial arts, or if you take a really nasty fall. That sounds about right to me for most games. YMMV as usual, but that's how I do it. Helpfully, Steve

Re: A sword from hell? This disadvantage is meant to reflect the fact that you can't use your hands for anything else while you are wielding the sword. In Hero terms, it means you can't use a shield, can't use the sword if either of your hands is restrained (such as with an Entangle), nor can you perform Grabs. This is still somewhat limiting, even in Rifts Hero. This seems fine to me. You've got 3 fairly hard-core limitations. The first 2 will ensure that the PC eventually ends up with other limitations, such as Reputation: Ruthless Killer and various Hunteds. The 3rd one all by itself is going to ensure that the PC is going to be Target Number One in virtually every combat. Since the side effects only take place when the sword is drawn, make sure the 3rd limitations is not listed as "Always". These look fine. You have to decide whether the 2nd effect is Passive (+5 DCV), or Active (Missle Deflection). Does the character have to use an action to avoid attacks? If so, choose the Deflection. If the sword does it automatically without any effort from the character, use the DCV levels. Here's where I see some problems. I don't have my book, but I think you figured the Variable advantage wrong on this slot. If I remember correctly, Variable Advantage is worth Double the cost of the advantages being used, plus further advantages based on how many you have. So for a Variable +¾ Advantage, you pay +1½, plus another +¼ for having 4 slots, making a total of +1¾. In a 60 point multipower, this gives an HKA of only 1d6+1 I also have some questions about your slots: 1. What is a "fan shaped explosion" and why is it worth less than a normal explosion? If you are substituting one shape for another (replacing "Radius" with "Cone") then you should be paying +1 for this. Generally speaking, swapping shapes does not change the value of the +½ advantage, and having the loss of DC's at 1/3" is worth another +½, for a total of +1. However, I can see how having a cone shape and losing 1/1 would be worth less than the same effect in a radius, so perhaps you've reduced the value by ¼ for that reason? If so, then this slot is fine. 2. What is a "line of hexes explosion" and why is it worth less than as a normal explosion? Once again, if you are merely swapping shapes (in this case replacing "Radius" with "Line") and you've made the same assumptions as before, then the same thing applies. It should either be +1, or you've reduced the value due to the smaller shape causing a loss of effectiveness, which should be fine. 3. Is this slot "½ END" or "Zero END"? If it's half, then this slot is fine, because Reduced Endurance costs double value on Autofire powers. However the END costs listed should be 3/6/9. A 60 point power would use 6 END per use. Half of that is 3, hence the 3/6/9. Don't forget to add END for the PC's STR to this as well. Perhaps that's where the extra END comes from? 4. Is this slot "½ END"? If so, it's fine too but the END cost should be 3 + END from STR. Over the top abusive? I would say not really. When the character is in "Bloodlust" mode, he's much more likely to use the heavy-hitting powers (which are likely to hit friends as well as enemies... not that the PC will care at the time, but he'll probably have a lot of explaining to do afterwards). People won't want to associate with this character and he's going to have a hard time keeping friends. He also won't really be welcome in any town that knows about his weapon. Local law-enforcement will keep a close eye on him, and any "unexplained" or "strange" deaths will likely be attributed to him, even when he isn't the guilty party. It should make for excellent roleplaying opportunities for the character, but I would definitely want to ensure that the player is mature enough to handle the consequences that this blade will undoubtedly bring to the PC. Good luck! Steve

All damage is free! Whoo hoo! I don't agree with this logic. The argument that any power which is able to do damage to someone shouldn't cost anything, because "damage" is both good and bad doesn't wash in the HERO system. Otherwise EB and RKA would be free powers. I realize this is taking the argument to an extreme, but it is a valid point. I also don't agree with using the Side Effect limitation as suggested, because the Side Effect wouldn't affect the user of the power, it would affect the target. My opinion is that this should be built similar to how JmOz suggested: link an EB Based on ECV to the Telepathy and make it propotional to the amount of dice in telepathy. Maybe something like this: Deep Scan: 8d6 Telepathy PLUS 4d6 EB, Based on ECV (+1), Proportional effect (each step on the Telepathy Effect Chart does 1d6 damage; -¼); Linked to Telepathy (-½). Active points = 40+40, Real Cost = 40+ 23. If other telepaths cannot resist the effect of the EB, you may want to consider using a variant that has the EB as an NND which does Body. Don't know what the defense would be since I don't watch the show. Just my (deep) thoughts, Steve

I think one thing you need to take into account here is that the bonus dice are based on the system as written. If you are going to adjust the system to make it more effective, you might want to make an adjustment to the modifying dice as well, or else you risk going too far and making Presence TOO powerful. I think a good rule of thumb would be to cut any modifier in half, especially given the large number of modifiers that can be applied to just about any given situation. This will still allow for a wide range of effects, while not making anyone with 20 Presence able to terrify the average Joe. Just my opinion, Steve

The problem is that the energy type isn't as well defined as it could be. I looked at the original write-up from "Gadgets", which wasn't much more specific. The weapon was created by DEMON, and uses a metal whip-like coil to transfer the energy, so I supposed one could assume it's some kind of mutated electricity that directly attacks the nervous system. Your description of the SFX seems to support that theory. Consequently, you might allow any type of "grounding" to turn off the charge, such as touching a metal post such as a lamppost or parking meter maybe? Just a thought, Steve

Once again, these are from the old message boards, before the crash. Many advanced apologies for the formatting, since I merely copied everything to a txt file to keep the file size down. In any case, it's still a huge amount of items, that would probably take days to read. Also many advanced apologies to whomever wrote the various items, since I only copied the text, and not the names of the posters. In any case, here they are, literally hundreds of magical items for use in campaigns. Power levels vary as widely as the personal preferences of the posters themselves. There you go. Enjoy!! Steve