Gauntlet

Another option might be to give the upper entities a Variable Power Pool dependent on the fear factor in the area. This means that the more fear around the more changes to reality they can create.

I'm with you, man. Stay strong. We're all in this together.

Actually this one makes me feel rather better concerning my Depression. 

Actually it means a lot. It means that they will screw it up.

Similar rule that I do not think is a good one is how much damage something does when you hit them with it. Per the rules if you have a 90 STR and hit someone with a Destroyer, you will do 0d6 damage as it takes your entire 90 STR to list the Destroyer. Now while I can understand perhaps some reduced damage and (even more likely) reduced OCV to hit, I can't see it doing no damage despite the fact that it takes your entire STR to lift.

"Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show." ~ Terry Pratchett

Or the, IMO, even better version.  I had this poster at one point;  probably of all the things I had in college that got lost during the various moves/over the years, this is still the one I wish I'd kept.  You can still find them, but you'll pay for one.
 

 
Day is ended, dim my eyes,
but journey long before me lies.
Farewell, friends! I hear the call.
The ship's beside the stony wall.
Foam is white and waves are grey;
beyond the sunset leads my way.
Foam is salt, the wind is free;
I hear the rising of the Sea.

Farewell, friends! The sails are set,
the wind is east, the moorings fret.
Shadows long before me lie,
beneath the ever-bending sky,
but islands lie behind the Sun
that I shall raise ere all is done;
lands there are to west of West,
where night is quiet and sleep is rest.

Guided by the Lonely Star,
beyond the utmost harbour-bar
I'll find the havens fair and free,
and beaches of the Starlit Sea.
Ship, my ship! I seek the West,
and fields and mountains ever blest.
Farewell to Middle-Earth at last.
I see the Star above your mast!

Oh, and as musical accompaniment:
 

Here is a place to put your quotes of the day.
 
Mine to start with:
How many dead people does it take to change a lightbulb?
None Stupid! Dead People aren't afraid of the Dark!

Problem is that declaring that there is no damage with pain doesn't make sense. Pain is your bodies indicator that something is damaged. Now the damage may not be something that is going to kill you, there still is something damaged in some way. I am not seeing any point in any type of damage that doesn't at least cause a loss of STUN. I believe that is one of the big reason's Hero has two "Hit Point" types, BODY and STUN. 

And that pretty much is the same for all versions of Hero. Technically, as long as you are not worried about point values and worths, you can have a character made from 1st edition play in a 6th edition game.

If I were to make some character get any illness,  I would ignore their ability scores and declare that they have the problem. Effects would be along lines of temporary drain that last until I say otherwise. Abilities affected would include CON, SPD, INT, STR, effective all (include powers). This drain will be strong,  like reducing to half start levels. This might sound overkill,  but consider how you respond to similar IRL diseases. Those that exist in a superverse should have a more powerful effect on those they infect. 

I’m wondering if this is something that could be a subset of Unluck. That would explain why Spider-Man gets sick, but other superheroes don’t seem to get the flu.

This directly depends on the game. In my game, the Mutant Gene, is actually an ability of the person to somewhat alter reality in a specific way. That brick that can toss a car doesn't actually have the muscles to pick up and throw a car. His muscles are enhanced to a certain degree but not to something as crazy as that. What actually is happening is that his mutant gene is actually altering reality so that the car can be easily thrown by him. The same thing is happening to give him the ability to take high damaging hits without going down. Once again while his personal cellular defenses may be enhanced, his mutant gene is altering reality to reduce the amount of damage the attack is capable of doing to him, and him alone. Mutant detectors normally can only determine that the reality alternating energy is coming off him or her is there, not what it actually can do, but more complicated detectors are available that will give details of what manipulations the energy is causing but these are rarer, cost a lot more, etc. Think of them like something that can detect radiation. normal one will only state if it is there, but others can also detect many of the details of that radiation as well.

I have to agree with Hugh on this.  What he is saying is a fundamental concept of the Hero System.  A limitation that does not actually limit the power should not reduce the cost of the power.   This has been explicitly stated in every edition in one form or another.  
 
The one thing that should be brought up, is that you don’t have to actually take body for it to have an impact on the game.   Body also is also used to determine knockback.  If a character has stun only, they can still be knocked around by the attack without actually taking BODY.  If the campaign is using knockback than Stun only should be worth some limitation.  At that point the argument is not whether it is a limitation, but rather how much it is worth. 

Another option might be to give the upper entities a Variable Power Pool dependent on the fear factor in the area. This means that the more fear around the more changes to reality they can create.

I would not allow a limitation for Stun Only defenses unless the character's other defenses leave BOD damage a reasonable possibility.  I don't see that very often.
 
As I see complications and limitations as the player's communication of the kind of challenges they want to face, limiting defenses against BOD means that they want BOD damage to come up as a real threat.

Sister on watching the progression of the eclipse (partial in California):
 
"Prety cool, it went from Pac Man to Kirby!"

If the ghost cannot do anything other than look for things for the main character you could just do it as clairsentience with a lot of limitations.

Ahhhh, so your the kind who lives with Action and not Words!

If you don’t include a Resurrection power with a Gesture of putting thumb in mouth and blowing themselves back up i will be sad. 

I don't care if you do surrender, I'm still going to kill you

We did this for a short campaign. It worked really well! 
(It seems really, really odd that we did very similar things. We even called it Manan. Weird.)

We added two things: 
1) Concentration limitations
2) The Skill roll defined how effective it was. Making the roll by 2 or 3 points meant the spell effect went as expected. Making it by more actually increased the effects a bit. (I think we doubled the effects when someone made their roll by 8 points once,) Making the roll by only 1, or exactly, made it less effective. Missing it by 1, made it half effect.
 
Using extra time and more elaborate gestures and incantations gave a +1 or +2 to the Skill roll. Which made all the extra trappings important and added a bit of suspense. We ended up calling it “Cinematic Magic.”
 

Problem I have with this one is that it adds more work to the GM which can make combats incredibly slow, especially if you have multiple magi. Now a random side effect that is rolled by the player may be an idea. But even with this it still could make the combats long and should a magi always pay a penalty for casting a spell, why play a magi?

Like Mental Blasts that effect the caster if he/she fails to hit their target.

It has to be there. That's just a giveme!