massey

The GM can disallow anything in his game. Doesn't matter. It doesn't change the underlying issue that somebody decided "can't be stunned" was only worth 15 points. The problem is that figured characteristics were far more tightly connected to the system than the people who made 6th edition wanted to admit. In 4th and 5th, "only to avoid being stunned" was actually a pretty big limitation on Con. I'd argue it would be worth a -2, because Con kept you from being stunned, but it also gave you a buttload of figured stats. Thus a 15 point "can't be stunned" automaton power in 5th would be equivalent to buying +23 Con only to prevent being stunned. That would put a normal character at 33 Con (assuming they didn't also buy it higher for the figured stats), which with normal defense puts you pretty safely into the "probably won't be stunned" range. But with the removal of figured characteristics, and the decision to make Con 1 point for 1, now "cannot be stunned" for 15 points is very poorly priced. It's an absolute steal, particularly with Change Environment now having an adder that automatically stuns people, regardless of Con score.

On the other hand, the Power "Cannot Be Stunned" is only like 15 points. So really, anything over a 25 Con should arguably be free.

You don't want a football player to dribble. They call that fumbling.

There is a primary character who gains experience. To improve the multiform, spend more points.

It must have been love, but it's over now.

Yeah, those are some rough matchups. 3 teams that were fighting for a playoff spot at the beginning of the weekend, a top 15 Notre Dame team, and the best service academy. A bunch of really tough opponents. And, you know, A&M. Hard to take a team seriously after you've beaten them by 11 touchdowns.

That sucks. I didn't realize he was that old though.

With this defense the last two years, I think we'd be two time defending national champions. Jalen Hurts may have great stats, but he's a turnover machine and can't consistently hit the deep ball. Our offense this year is far more limited than the last two years. With Baker and Kyler, OU's offense really was the best in the country, by a lot. It's just that our defense was ridiculously bad at the same time.

10D6 RKA, Area Effect. Kill that rain dead.

I think the Sooners will be playing LSU. They'll move up to #1 after dismantling Georgia.

My answer is entirely theoretical, since our group hasn't had a Fantasy Hero campaign that lasted longer than about two sessions. Our players tend to prefer Pathfinder/D&D for fantasy, and if we're going to play Hero we'll just play Champions. In my opinion, there's nothing particularly wrong with having a Champions-style fantasy game. If you want to ride around in the medieval world like Big Damn Heroes, slaughtering hordes of enemies with your sword and doing your best He-Man impression, well that's just fine. "Fantasy" is a very broad category, and it's okay for your 20th level Barbarian warlord to have a 20 PD, 70 Stun, and 5 levels of combat luck. Remember that the numbers on the page are just abstractions used to measure relative power. We all know that Conan is not going to get killed by Random Guard #6. If the story calls for him to fight an extremely low powered opponent, you might as well just narrate it rather than pretend it's worth your time to roll the dice ("He hits you for 3 Body and 6 Stun, Conan. Did you take any damage?"). Instead you can combine characters together. Conan doesn't fight one person, he fights "Group of 8 Guys". There's no reason that Group of 8 Guys can't be represented by one character sheet. Together they function with a 30 Str and a 5 Speed, and have a 3D6+1 HKA "bunch of people trying to stab you with spears at once" attack. Throw in a skilled lieutenant or two and maybe a big monster, and that's the kind of encounter that Conan faces. One dude is not a threat to him. On the other hand, maybe you want your world to cap out at a lower power level. That's fine too. I'd suggest talking to your players and figuring out where you want to put the max combat values. Maybe the best swordsman in the world has a 12 OCV, so everybody else needs to scale to that. Maybe Deadly Blow (or whatever it's called) isn't available for anything other than a thief's backstab. Perhaps 8/8 full plate armor is the best defense you can get in the world and combat luck doesn't stack or isn't around at all. That works as well, everybody just needs to be on the same page. In those situations, PCs will get up to the max you allow, and then they'll buy extra Body, extra End, Recovery, etc. They'll branch out as much as you let them (fighters learning magic, wizards hitting the gym, etc). When you stop them from diversifying their combat skills, they'll go to noncombat stuff. Did the King owe you a favor? Well he does now. Eventually the focus won't be so much on the personal abilities of the PCs, and instead will be about the armies they command. Perks become very important and powerful when the GM says you can't buy any more damage classes or better magic armor. Nothing wrong with either direction, or striking some balance between them. Just don't expect a 300 point character to be challenged by the same things that threaten a 150 point character. If you go the Conan route, each character will chainsaw their way through normal battles (so you have to go bigger and bigger). If you go the opposite direction (the "Saruman" route), people will sit in their invulnerable castles moving their armies like chess pieces. Really powerful characters require adventures tailored to them.

Here's the way I generally see timing in combat. Segment 12 -- Everyone gets to go, because everyone is generally aware that a fight is about to start. The good guys see the bad guys, the bad guys see the good guys, everyone is ready. Unless you're super-duper slow (Speed 1), you will get to act. But no one has really had the chance to draw a bead on an opponent yet (i.e., holding action). The closest you could come to representing that would just be to have the highest Dex and just going first. Surprise actions -- I'm not even sure if this is in the rules, but we've played with it so long that our group does it this way. If you really really get the drop on somebody, you can blast them outside of the normal combat sequence. A sniper doesn't shoot on segment 12 -- he shoots before segment 12. If people can detect you and get to you, then segment 12 will probably quickly follow. You'll get to act again, because your first attack was outside of combat, and so it doesn't cost you a phase. Imagine Batman leaping out of the shadows and kicking a goon in the face. The next panel is Bats standing above this unconscious guy, posing menacingly while all the gangsters in the room react in shock. This is a pre-segment 12 attack, and when combat begins in earnest we'll probably have Batman going first again (because he has the highest Dex). Held actions -- Not everybody attacks as quickly as they can. Particularly characters who have ranged attacks and not great movement, they may find it more helpful to wait when their action comes up rather than blazing away. If Bob the goon has a 3 Speed and a shotgun, if he has no good targets on segment 4 (when he normally goes), he may decide to hold. We allow people to hold generally (as opposed to something specific such as "when that guy comes around the corner"). Bob the goon can hold on phase 4, and as long as he acts before we hit segment 8 (his next phase), he's okay. When our hero with 30" of Flight zooms over to punch a bad guy, Bob can shoot him before he gets there as long as he has a held action. He might have to make a Dex roll-off, but he might get a bonus to that based upon why he was holding ("I'm waiting to see what Captain Meteor does, and I've got my shotgun ready"). This would allow normal people to shoot a hero who makes this giant movement. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the game system allows you to mimic these cinematic fights, then it's doing its job. It doesn't matter what the default setting is (if Bob can shoot Captain Meteor in mid-flight immediately, or if he has to declare he's holding action first), as long as he can do it somehow.

It made sense to me the first time I saw it, but I came to roleplaying from a wargaming background. It made perfect sense to me that combat is broken up into sections and you might sometimes get an unrealistic result, because it's not somebody's turn to go yet. Combat usually takes up the largest part of most rulebooks, so more complexity isn't always better. In my mind, we get around this with held actions, everyone starting on segment 12, and the chance for surprise. During the course of a fight, you aren't always ready to react at every instant. Also, if you've got 30" of movement, you kind of are like the Flash. Yeah, you're at the other end of a football field, but you can cover that distance in the time it takes me to get out of my chair. One of your superpowers is moving fast. In a comic book, you covering the distance to hit the other guy would be shown in one panel, and there would either be a streak of color behind you, or whoosh lines, or if you were a Batman type there'd be little afterimages showing you doing flips and bouncing off cars acrobatically to cover the distance. To interrupt somebody in the middle of their panel, you need a held action.

I think OU gets in over Utah. Potentially you can have 2 SEC teams in, but I think only if Georgia wins a very close game. If UGA wins by a comfortable margin, I think LSU is out. If Jalen Hurts can quit being a turnover machine, the Sooners will be really dangerous. The defense is vastly improved over the last few years, and the offense is still pretty darn good.

Detect: Answer to question, Discriminatory, Analyze, 3 charges.

Alabama being left out of the playoffs makes me happy in my soul.

I haven't ever found it important to stat out gods in fantasy. If I had to do it in Hero, it would be easy enough to just port over stats from a Champions level campaign, and then add on other "godly" powers appropriate to the setting. For instance, suppose you've got a Thor character in a Champions game who is 500 or so points. He's got a 60 Str and 30/30 resistant Def. Mjolnir adds 4D6 Hand Attack, he can strike with 5D6 RKA lightning bolts, and has a 5 Speed with an 11 OCV. Well right there he's powerful enough to be a god in a fantasy game. Throw in some extra stuff on top of it, like being able to hear the prayers of his followers (not really superhero style abilities), let him summon storms, and maybe Life Support: Aging and Poison/Disease if he didn't have it before. There, now you've got a god. In myths and legend, it was common (depending on whose myths) for great heroes to challenge the gods. They usually got smacked down for their hubris, but you could have mortals who were equals of the gods in certain areas. They just didn't have the gods "get out of jail free" card of being immortal. And the gods usually have some kind of "smite mortal" power as well.

Points don't create magic items. Points are a representation of how powerful your character is. You don't have to spend points to make items, but no matter what you do your point total can't exceed the campaign limits. You can make a +5 Vorpal Longsword of Asswhooping according to whatever the ritual is required in the story, but you can't keep it for yourself until you've got points available. Otherwise it would make you more powerful than the campaign allows. Independent should represent that the item is not a part of the character -- it can be used by them, but there's no "plot immunity" that ensures it will stick around. One failed Str check, a failed saving throw, a sneaky thief, and it's gone. Easy come, easy go. I kind of like the idea that magic items can come about from a number of sources. Suppose Bob the fighter goes out on an adventure with his trusty brand new longsword. And the first thing he encounters is an orc, guarding a chest. Bob runs forward and rolls to hit. Rolls a 3, hits easily. Location 3, hitting the orc in the unarmored head. Rolls damage and instant-kills the guy. Hey that's cool. Great job Bob. And now let's suppose that the next time Bob encounters an orc, he does it again. This time he hits the orc in the vitals, but it's still one hit, one kill. And then the third time Bob encounters an orc, he instant kills him again. Bob just really seems to have good luck killing orcs with that sword. Well once it happens often enough that players start commenting on it, maybe the GM decides that this might be a Sword of Orc Slaying. The magic of the world has infused itself into the weapon, Bob has awoken the blade's inner spirit, or some other such nonsense. The important thing is that it makes sense in the story that this is actually a powerful orc killing sword. Bob's now got the option to upgrade the sword, no wizard required.

These sorts of things would vary by state, and of course they'd be different based upon the history of your world. Judges are people too, and if Doctor Psycho just blew up a football stadium six months ago, and if Sergeant Telepath NYPD comes in with a request for a warrant based upon some things he ripped out of a henchman's mind, that judge is going to sign off on it. If your supercrime is more Silver Age in nature (i.e., very few casualties), then the courts are more likely to have strict standards for law enforcement behavior. But if it leans more towards super-terrorism, then I'd say almost anything goes. There's also going to be a constant back and forth between prosecutors and defense attorneys, trying to shape the law to best fit their side. And courts will come down on different sides based upon what state they're in (liberal hippy California vs gun-toting Texas, for instance). In the real world, courts tend to lean towards protecting the rights of defendants during periods when crime is low, and then shift more towards allowing questionable police conduct when crime is high. This is a decade-by-decade shift, not something likely to change over the course of the campaign. Prosecutors will also have seminars where they instruct police (and supers) in the correct procedures. There will be some "wink wink" conversations about what not to say in their reports, and the proper way to "fix" a mistake. Eventually, word gets around and officers will know enough that only the rookies will have their arrests thrown out. For instance, let's look at telepathy. If you describe telepathy as an invasive "reading of the mind", where you're peering into someone's brain and sifting through their thoughts and memories, then courts will probably see telepathy without a warrant as an unlawful search. They might even see it as a 5th Amendment violation, effectively forcing someone to provide evidence against themselves. However, what if your telepathy is merely observatory? You are walking down the street, and suddenly you are struck by these images of Bob committing a horrible crime. You realize that Bob is planning that crime right now, and he's so excited about it that he's broadcasting it out to everyone in range. Mentally, he's shouting it out for everyone to hear. In the law, there's a "plain view" exception to the requirement for a warrant. If you walk by somebody's apartment, and they've got the front door open and they're sitting right there smoking crack, you don't have to get a warrant. You can see the crack right there, search over. What if your officer tells the very non-telepath judge that the bad guy's thoughts were just being broadcast to him, that effectively they were in "plain view"? Suppose that Captain Super Eyes has a power where he can see blood stains and gunshot residue, even days after they've been washed clean. His eyesight is just that damn good. A murderer walking down the street may look normal to you or me, but the good Captain can see traces of blood, can see the signs of a struggle, sees little bits of skin under the bad guy's fingernails, etc. Will Captain Super Eyes need a warrant just to look at people? Of course not. The court will allow his testimony as far as what he could perceive with his natural senses when he happened to look at the defendant. The fact that most people wouldn't notice these things doesn't mean that the Captain was conducting an illegal search. All the evidence was in plain view for him. Well, what happens when a creative cop testifies that way about telepathy? "Judge, I can't read minds. All I can do is pick up powerful thoughts that are being screamed out into the air? These thoughts are in 'plain view' for anyone with this sixth sense." At some point, a judge will buy that explanation. And then it won't take long before every cop telepath will describe his powers working the same way. Even if the judges don't buy that explanation, what's to stop a cop from lying about it? Read Bob's mind, find the evidence you need, pretend you didn't, and then make an anonymous phone call to yourself. "There's something strange in the shed at 228 Johnson Ave. I heard screaming coming from there, you should hurry!" Having PCs act as cops is going to change the genre somewhat. It will go from superhero game to police procedural, depending on how much of it you include.

If he's got the Infinity Gauntlet, there's no combination of heroes that can stop him. By himself, yeah any two big guys should be able to do it. But if I've got six (and leaving out plot device characters like The Spectre), I'll go with: Superman and Thor -- They've got the physical power to stand up to Thanos in a fair fight. Doctor Strange and Mister Fantastic -- Because Thanos doesn't fight fair, and so you may need to counter unexpected traps. Silver Surfer -- He knows Thanos, and has had to fight against him on his own. Batman -- Because Thanos will 100% underestimate him, and sometimes you need to pull out the cheese.

For fire and electricity, I usually give it a -1. Those are the "real world" energy attacks you'd be likely to encounter, though of course lasers and generic blaster energy comes up a lot in comic books and games. I could probably be convinced to give a bigger limitation on it. Part of my thinking is that when somebody takes an "only versus X" defense, that is probably going to push that particular defense higher than the campaign limit. If your average character has 25/25 def, Captain Fireball isn't going to come in with 25/15 and +20 ED only vs fire. He's going to have 25/25 and then +20 ED only vs fire. There's a bit of a premium you need to pay for invulnerability to a special effect.

Yeah, the rules in general (and End rules specifically) are fairly optimistic on what the "average" person can do. But I figure you can have a Disadvantage to cover that. Physical Limitation: Out of Shape. Maybe certain activities cost extra end, or you can't move as fast, or you only get a recovery every other turn. Now you're really normal.

I don't really play Fantasy Hero, but I like building characters from movies and books. I've done a lot of tinkering over the years and I've got something I'd like to use if I ever got around to running a fantasy game. My suggestion for a magic system is a tiered approach. Tier 1 -- Entry level stuff All the spells are created by the GM. In D&D terms, these are 1st and 2nd level spells, maybe 3rd. Spells are paid for with cash, not points. If your "acid arrow" spell is the same damage as the fighter's crossbow, it's not fair to charge the wizard points for it. Spells can cost similar to what an equivalent weapon or tool would cost. Some spells may require spell components -- an Animate Dead spell that creates a zombie servant might require special powders, similar in cost to what it would take to hire a soldier for a week. At this level, your wizard just needs Magic Skill 11- (or whatever), and then he spends the money to buy the spells. Maybe he pays to have Weapon Familiarity with that type of magic. His actual point expenditure is very small though, but he's also limited to fairly unimpressive "beginner" magics. Type 2 -- Boosted spells You can buy Deadly Blow (or whatever it's called) or other "enhancement" abilities to increase the power of existing Tier 1 spells. You wanna be a Fire Mage? Deadly Blow on all fire spells, and there you go. This is a quick way to specialize. Likewise you could just buy some extra dice on one or two spells. +3D6 Mental Illusions, incantation & gestures, only on Harry's Hazy Hallucination spell. It's a big step up in power for a beginner mage, and it maybe costs you 10 points or something. A lot of starter mages will try to take one of these to distinguish themselves in some way. Tier 3 -- Extraplanar entities All the spells are created by the GM, but these can be significantly more powerful. The player doesn't pay points for the spells (though he still may have to pay cash to learn it). Instead the player buys a Contact with the appropriate extradimensional being. You want to cast Dormammu's Destructive Disc? Well make your Contact roll, and call upon Dormammu. See if he's in the mood to give you that spell right now. Effectively the points are "paid" by the extraplanar being, and you're just asking them to do you a favor. These spells may be weak, or they may be extremely powerful. The GM sets limits on when and how these can be used. Many spells may be almost automatic (some beings don't notice or care that you called on them), while others may not always work, or may have consequences. It's all up to the GM. These kinds of spells are often the next step up for an aspiring wizard. You get a lot of bang for your buck -- some entities may grant multiple spells. But it has the drawback that you're not really the one in control. It's kinda like buying Contact: Superman, 18-. Yeah it's useful, and he's always willing to help, but calling on him too often will bring... scrutiny. Tier 4 -- Paid-for spells This is the default Fantasy Hero proposition. You pick a spell and pay the points. In my opinion, generic attack spells and other basics aren't really useful enough for this. If you're gonna have a spell like this, it needs to be something good. You probably won't have a lot of these spells, but it depends on how many limitations you put on them. With only a few, it may be something character-defining for you. If everybody knows your sorcerer can walk through walls and change into a dire bear, and you do it all the time, then maybe those are paid-for spells. Tier 5 -- Summons, Frameworks, and Superpowers At this level, you're basically just building a Champions character. Your wizard can fly, just because he can fly. Maybe Saruman has an 80 Presence, because he's magic. Your character's got a multipower or VPP with a ton of different abilities, his magic can do almost anything. Summon is a big points saver as well. It can give you world-altering power for fairly cheap. Summon Undead Army is not that expensive, especially if you can only do it on the full moon or something. Every one of those needs to be looked over by the GM very carefully.

Just from a dungeon crawl perspective, they shouldn't have to swim while carrying that weight. 31 hexes is like 200 feet. They should be able to tie some ropes together, run it down the shaft, and tie it to a bag/chest/whatever. Just stand on one end and pull the stuff through.

I grew up with a pool. I remember timing myself when I was a kid, but I don't recall how long I could stay underwater. 2 minutes seems about right.