Cantriped

Re: How can you feed this many people?

AndyStaples ideas sound best so far. you could probably also cut down the Arable land needed with Fishing as well. As to using magic for everything, which is Outsider's idea, I personally don't think that would work all that well, for one thing even in High-Magic campaigns magic is never quite That common, it takes all the magic out of it. thus though that might be done on a small scale, perhaps a tract of land owned by a mage, its unlikely that that kind of magical tinkering could be maintained on a large scale for any appreciable length of time.

Re: Sleep Spell Design Help

I learned to Play on DnD, it has it marits. Anybody can say a system is messed up, but in truth, most are essentially Equal, they were designed with a specific goal in mind, and each has thier own inherent limitations, even hero.

Re: Can anyone help me?

You could also Use a Multipower

Primary Magic = Multipower Reserve

Harness Ability = END Reserve for MultiPower

Power Perception = The Detect magic above, or an Analize Magic Skill.

Magical Devices = for this you could do somthing similar to how Enchantment is handled in the Turakien Age.

Targeting: 3pt-"Magic"-CSLs

Re: Sleep Spell Design Help

Personally I would do it as an NND Drain Stun, with a level or two of Deleyed Return Rate, and Probably Continous and Cumalative as well so that once you stop they might stay down for a long time. buhahahahahahahaha.... that would get expensive fast however.

Re: Weapon Creation

Shouldn't it be Continous as well? otherwise you'd have to keep making attack rolls every phase to keep choking the life out of the poor sod, or is that covered by the Grab action?

Re: Armor Spell Failure

I'm not arguing against penalties, Im just arguing against tieing the penalties to a flat amount like 5kg. At least basing it on Encumbrance is relative to individual characters. If you want to asses a flat "cost of ownership", consider using the Armored Casting Talent I define in the document linked to in a previous post -- it will probably accomplish what you want, and it makes it an accomplishment of the character rather than an impediment about which they can do nothing.

(Some of my Spheal)

Thanx! Always glad to hear people benefit from the site.

I see your point, but it is no more or less arbitrary then basing it on DEF (which is in anycase what actually decides Armor weight in hero) and in a campiagn using Sectional armor its far more efficient. And I did indeed look over the quoted sections, primarily the reason I'm not using somthing like the restrictions you mentioned is that I'm the only person in my group who actually knows a DCV roll from an OCV roll atm, most of my players have never even played a PnP game and one is a 2nd edition DnD vet (and she didn't like the no armor thing then either), so ease of use as well as ease of adjudication are helpful in this case. Assuming of course that I decide to keep such a restriction at all, your arguments are sensible and they've given me some things to think about.

Re: Armor Spell Failure

If Armor is used as a Control Factor, at least it should be scalable; the HERO System is not a game of absolutes. Rather than flat restrictions, relative restrictions work better. Characters that have paid more for abilities should be able to overcome things easier than those who havent. That basic tenant is at the root of point based mechanics.

Thus my reason for creating the limitations I have. A seperate penalty aside from the encumberance penalty makes armor a less attractive option but dosn't eliminate its worth entirely. It isn't so much that I want to make Armored mages impossible, but I do think that if they want to wear 80 pounds of Armor and make arcane gestulations it should at the very least be a little more dificult. I don't really expect the average mage in my game to go unarmored, they probably will wear some armor and simply buy a few PSLs to be rid of the penalties.

However I do think upon reflection that the penalty was a bit too harsh, does -1/10 sound more apropiate? considering that the penalty also applies to DCV and DEX-rolls?

jsut for the sake of backround the reason I'm so harsh with the magic system in my game is that I based it off the one presented in the Fantasy Grimoire. and I though I like the 1/3 Real point rule (because it allows players to have a verity os spells) I need somthing to justify it to myself

BTW, Killer Shrike,(don't take this like I'm just trying to kiss your A**) I've read over your site, and personally I feel your work in some cases rivels the information provided in Fantasy Hero for constructing viable Magic systems.

Re: Armor Spell Failure

Prefix: THis is gonna sound a little like I'm rambeling but I'm not really awake so forgive me.

The reason I based the penalty upon a base number of Kilos of armor was because it was the most "realistic" method of doing it while still keeping the average caster from running around in Full Plate without at least some kind of seperate skill investment, Armor dosn't work quite like weight either, as you'd probably realize if you ever wore it, it dosn't just encumber you, it also restricts movement to some extent if your shoulder is restricted by a paulderan it really won't matter wether your STR is 10 or 20, except that you probably won't also suffer encumberance based penalties on top of the armor based ones. for this reason I also adopted comperable DEX-Roll penalty for wearing armor. The restriction only effects spells with the Gestures limitation, so if a character dosn't take that limitation thier free and clear. Now the reason these are based on a flat amount of weight is because Sectional armor will be common (as I mentioned) and thus it would be... inconvient to attempt to base it on "Average" DEF or some similar modifier that is more inprecise to gauge. And classing it on Light, Medium, Heavy, etc probably wouldn't work either, because what if the play is wearing Chain (medium) on his arms, a FP breastplate (heavy), and leather (light) on his legs, which is counted. Instead you simply add up the total weight, so let for example say that odd assortment weights 30kg (not going to actually calc it atm, as I leave for school soon and don't have the time) the character would suffer a -6 to rolls on gestured spells, which is I realize, rather harsh, and I'll probably go back to -1/10 kg eventually. to responed to some of the comments likely to come, no I don't nessessarily want to "straightjacket" mages into not wearing armor, they can still buy PSLs for Armored Casting, if they wish, and still play an Armored mage, I just want there to be some effort involved. Anyway, sorry for ranting on like this, I'll check this when I get back from school.

Re: Armor Spell Failure

I plan on using a Penalty to Magic skill rolls equal to -1/5kg of armor worn when casting spells with the gestures limitation. I decided to base it on weight rather then Def or any of those other factors because I'm using Hit Locations and will be making Sectional armor very common. (in that the party will rarely find a full suit of anything, pieces will be missing or broken, etc.) the same goes for clothing though as well so if a character is stupid enough to wear that 5kg heavy Robe of cool lookin magelyness they had better expect a penalty. though I like the encumberance penalty as well, I think I'll do both

Re: A new take on "Deadly Blow"

One thing that might be appropiate to go with it though is somthing along these lines, would be a +1/2 Advantage stating that the DC's count as Base damage. or somthing.

Re: A new take on "Deadly Blow"

Hmm, this CSL thing is exactally what I need, I haddn't though to use those for deadly blow, but it certainly makes sense, the Normal deadly blow is probably a little overpowered, it adds three DCs to the characters weapon damage, this does it 1 DC at a time, much more precise

Re: Heroes of the Turakian Age

I like the Logs, and as long as it's presented properly there not really spoilers, heck, chenge a name here and there and 90% of people probably wouldn't even know when it came from unless thier specifically looking for it (and already have the book)

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Wow

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Ok, heres one from a few months ago I though I'd share with ya'll. the character himself is rather vague, but its the Wings that were suposed to be the centerpeice of the drawing

Re: Eberron Hero

Edit: Ok, note this sounds jsut a little agressive so plase don't take it personally, I tend to very antagonistic when I'm trying to make a point.

I don't know, if your letting them be Stunned I think Hit Locations are highly appropiate, disallowing them makes as much sence in my oppinion as disallowing Critical Hits back in D20, Humans and constructs arn't much different in the long run anyway, cept the constructs are likely made out of less easily damaged materials.

To use Sentinels as an example they wouldn't have suffered much if cyclops had blasted one of thier feet rather then taking off the head (represented via the damage multipliers on the given Hit Locations).

Re: Eberron Hero

Remember Warforged arn't true Constructs, thier "Living Constructs" (AKA, poor mans golem), so Hit locations would be appropiate, He has wood so don't give him immunity to disease an poison (Sterotypical good guy "Holy Crepes heros, sombodies Salted the warforged again!"), Keep the Stun for "easily repariable injuries" and minor damage to the Livewood core. throw in some resistant Defence and a lot of extra Body an you have yourselves a 'forged.

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Yes thats actually my work... I'm not sure how I did it, but that peice took me nearly three days to finish refining.

PS: Thanks to all of you who sent me comments, I'd only just noticed them a few days ago (when I went to change my avatar and title and all), I really appreciate them.

Re: D20 Conversion: Metamagic Feats?

Varible limitations isn't bad on its own, but depending on what kind of players you have it isn't always a good idea, because they'll constantly chose the limitations tht are the least limiting in the circumstances, defeating the whole purpose of having limitations at all because they'll never actually suffer from them. In my oppinion if you wanted to ensure that they had the ability to Buy off such limitations, but wanted to make sure they didn't overuse it, Let them trade in the limitations for Increased Endurance Limitations at Double the value of the limitations their getting rid of, Thus -1/4 Gestures would become Increased Endurance (x2, -1/2), and would just get worse from there. I'm a very old fan of DnD (been playing it since I was 4). And I'd love to see a partial conversion of Metamagic Feats over.

Re: D20 Conversion: Metamagic Feats?

Fantasy Hero makes mention of somthing similar, essentially you trade in the limitations for Increased Endurance limitations.

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Ok folks, here is my latest piece, its has been resized to about 40% of the origional perportions. A Female NPC guard in the campaign I'm gonna be running.

Re: Armor and Shields Expanded

Very very nice, this is great work man, just what I've been looking for I think, since I am planning on using the Hit Location rules though I'll have to add in a table of my own creation, I actually set up a table with the Percentage weights for armor based on Hit Location. all you have to do to use it is sum the %s of the Hit Locations covered and multiply that by the weight of a full suit of a given suit of armor, The table itself, alonge with an Example is given below. Granted in my case its largly nessessary because I'm imposing a Dex Roll+DCV penalty to wearing armor in addition to normal encumberance penalties. mainly to keep "thief" and "Mage" type characters from running around in full plate just cuz its got Better Def and almost no restrictions on its use, or at least make em think twice before doing so.

Total % of Armor Weight By Hit Location

Hit Location Covered % Of Armor Weight

3 (Head) .5

4 (Head) 1.4

5 (Head) 2.8

6 (Hands) 4.6

7 (Arms) 6.9

8 (Arms) 9.7

9 (Shoulders) 11.6

10 (Chest) 12.5

11 (Chest) 12.5

12 (Stomach) 11.6

13 (Vitals) 9.7

14 (Thighs) 6.9

15 (Legs) 4.6

16 (Legs) 2.8

17 (Feet) 1.4

18 (Feet) .5

Example: Kiaus has decided for some strange reason to wear the Full Helm that he found after killing a few Do-gooders. The Full Helm provides 8 DEF to Hit Locations 3, 4, and 5 (all the Head locations). A Full suit of DEF 8 Armor would normally weigh 40 kg, so Kaius’ player checks the Table above and sees that Hit Locations 3, 4, and 5 have listed % of .5, 1.4, and 2.8 respectively, so he sums these up (.5+1.4+2.8=4.7), and Multiplies 40*4.7% (or 40 * 0.047 on a Calculater), and Gets 1.88 kg.

EDIT: Ok, this isn't just great, its Awesome! All Hail the King of Optional Armor Rules

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

I've never worked with Ink, I have enough trouble with the ability to errase

Though I am considering trying it out, never hurts to experiment with a few things,

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Yeah, 0.5 and 0.7 are always nice, sad thing is I actually sharpen the leads with a file to get those "really really" fine lines

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Thank you! For the most part I still consider myself an amature, not in that I can't draw somthing pretty good, but in that for the most part I have to largely work off of other stuff other people have done in order to get anything with any quality to it. I'll scan in one of my more origional peices tomarrow perhaps.

I work almost entirly with mechanical pencil, though occasionally I'll dabble with colored pencils, as the peice above shows.

Re: Herophile Fantasy art

Hmm... My work dosn't look nearly as good all blown up like that does it... I'll have to remember that they look much better form a distance and size acordingly