Thia Halmades

Re: Spells You Don't Want to Model in FH If you look towards the top, you'll see it was done for Comic GUM Magazine which was my assumption in regards to an explanation. Nice camel toe. I just noticed that. Now I'll be staring at it for the rest of the month. Infinite methane is a silly solution, but the whole thing sounds silly to begin with, and I don't handle "silly" real well. I find the game silly enough with a bunch of adults rather than ever needing to introduce potty humor.

Re: Higher Point Characters in FH/Heroic setting Not YOU, Mark. Old Man for pulling that insane stunt in the first place. No hatred of Markdoc was used in the creation of my former post.

Re: Complicate the Person Above L. Marcus recently attended a U2 concert, spiteful that they'd turned Trib down for Bono. His horrifying illusions are the reason that Bono never takes those shades off. Because if you look in his eyes you can still see the burned imprint of the nightmares.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Cali to New York, Black Eyed Peas, Bridging the Gap

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... I can give you my apple pie recipe if you want it. Armor into chocolate praline is a transform. And technically a minor one, oddly enough. "No armor for you!" Is the cost the same for a moderate transform as it is for a Dispel?

Re: Higher Point Characters in FH/Heroic setting I think I would hate you too, I was considering some sort of cap, but I'm content realizing that accuracy and the ability to deal damage or penetrate defenses are two separate creatures in HERO, whereas in d20 once you've dealt damage, unless the target has Damage Reduction (what we call Defense) you're going to get through. You may nickle & dime him, but you're getting through.

Re: Spells You Don't Want to Model in FH I could on about alignments for aeons, but I won't do that here this morning. I'm still staring at these two "Fire Cats" on my shiny new Shirow Masamune monthly calendar. It's ver' nice. What were we talking about? Oh yeah. Well, yes, alignment comes on two axis (axes? not sure which) and this results in 9 possible solutions. Of those nine solutions, there are 3 in any given category (lawful, chaotic, neutral, neutral, good, evil). Where most people get hung up is on the idea that once you have an alignment there's no deviation at all. Once Lawful Good, you can never do anything evil; Curufea is correct - people aren't one dimensional. I use alignments as a personality snap shot; not a strait jacket of behavior. This gives everyone a guideline by which to base their actions in character without twisting them into knots trying to find a "Neutral Good" solution to a problem. Alignment = Personality Snapshot. Alignment /=/ Definitive Behavior Sorry, sore spot. Anyway, "Detect Alignment" is utterly allowable in my campaign. I've barred Ressurection, although Reincarnation is legal if you can find someone who knows how to do it. I've also barred Planar Travel (we have planes, just big problems with them) and any large scale TP (Okay, Thia, we're going to bypass a massive chunk of the adventure and just gate here). "Crap." I'm generally not down with absolute effects in general, and one of the reasons I got away from d20. Also, Wish and Miracle are spells I wouldn't even know how to run, other than as a massive burn on someone's VPP, almost simmed as dumping a ton of power in order to achieve a raw effect. Hey, that might work. Huh.

Re: Complicate the Person Above After a recent battle as CAAAAAAPTAAAAIIIIN... CAAAAVVVVVVEEEE MAAAAN! Oddhat went on a bit of R&R down in the Bahamas, where he proceeded to engage in ancient mating rituals, which involved clubbing women of questionable appearance over the head and dragging them back to his hotel.

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... Ooo... thank you for clarifying the AVLD/NND difference, I hadn't had a chance to go back and double-check the difference and I'm sitting here thinking "Dude... what is the difference, anyway?" Muchos gracias! And apologies for sounding snippy, but to explain a bit more eloquently, the game began 3 years ago as a d20 game, and I've been playing d20 (as AD&D) since time immemorial, and I'm totally new to HERO. There's a lot of confusion because I'm 'converting' from d20 to HERO, not a carbon copy, but literally recoding the whole mess to make it work properly. That means rebuilding attack forms, spell systems, understanding combat (which flows very easily for me... I'm missing a lot of the confusion regarding that one) and getting ugly with the rules, seeing what they do and don't do well, and what they'll do at higher levels. Mind you, because I'm using a Charge based magic system (thanks to Killer Shrike) having a 30/30 armor wouldn't even be a 5th level (90 AP) spell; it'd be higher if you're going to have it around for any length of time. None the less, I was thinking long and hard about it going "Hey... do these match up? Would he be immune to only normal weapons, or what?" Sonic as AVLD is very good to know. There are also other effects that the players have thought up, or will be using that I need to work on modeling accurately as well. I have one Sorceror who's primary d20 spell is called "Destiny is my Sword." The construction is very simple. It's a standard damage spell that attacks based on a Willpower save. So first it has to be BOECV, and then will be an Energy attack. It also has the option to really rock someone for a round, so it may also pick up an improved STUN multiplier if it's done as an RKA.

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... This is a common confusion as to what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm not trying to play d20, d20 is simply the foundation from which I'm working because that's what I'm familiar with. I'm playing HERO and the nature of the post was in understanding how HERO works and what it'll do at higher levels, which is of course of paramount concern. A sonic based attack is in no way out of the question, considering that within HERO the framework for "energy" based attacks (fire, cold, sound) are all accounted for. A Sonic attack with NND (Flash Defense: Sound) would make plenty of sense. I'm just trying to expand my knowledge of the system.

Re: Complicate the Person Above Bill is so excited to play in one of my campaigns (ooo... personal!) that he mortgaged his bunny farm to purchase an AVF2-B Harrier VTOL. Burned his house down and his wife is permanently bald, and the neighbors are insisting they have aliens from the crop circles & burn marks, but he'll be starting in my epic game next Tuesday.

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... I'm not worried about caps, per se, as I know this game is designed to go into "epic" scale battles of tremendous magnitude. I suppose, upon further consideration, that with a 30/30 straight armor, anything bigger & badder is going to be tearing through it of its own accord. Dragons with flaming breath & lightning weapons, demons with AP HKA claws who use sonic attacks, all sorts of things. Somehow I don't think a Sonic based attack is going to slow down much on a Force armor. That'd be up for debate, though. I'm not so much looking at what should or should not be allowed, as much as I'm trying to guage how things balance out across the scale. One of the points made earlier is that a 90 point EB/RKA is going to at least deal STUN damage on an average roll, and that's about right. I think.

Re: Finally, I bought the game! Only one problem... That explains a lot, actually, as those who read my posts know that I freely admit I'm new here, although being lambasted for what I thought was a valid interpretation of "FREd" seems odd, other people have confirmed my original theory. Meh. As I'm fond of saying, note made. I won't say a note of what, but note made.

Re: Finally, I bought the game! Only one problem... ER... sorry, coming in late to this particular rant, but if we're talking about buying a library... Player's Handbook Dungeon Master's Guide Monster Manual Complete rules for ice/snow/cold environments? Frostburn. Water/Pirate adventures? Stormwrack. Psionics? Psionics Handbook & Enhanced Psionics Handbook I have quite a few HERO books. Combat, FH, FREd, Grimoires I & II, etc. & so forth. HERO by itself is a playable game that requires imagination, but does cover some genres and gives plenty of example powers. D&D is game that takes three books (called Core Rulebooks I - III) and "contains" the world of Greyhawk. I have somewhere between 10 & 15 Forgotten Realms books, 5 or 6 Eberron books and all 19 Ravenloft 3.0/3.5 books, and that only covers about 1/3rd of my total collection. Like Derek, I'm a DINK. How is this significantly different from purchasing Valdorian Age? Or Turakian Age? People make books so we buy books so they make money. D&D is more approachable and it has pretty pictures, and a lot more marketing behind it. The mechanics appear to be equatable to me. Core rules. Supplemental Rules. Genre books. Or am I missing something?

Re: Finally, I bought the game! Only one problem... Amazing how reality intersects with a flip comment from a designer. I was under the impression - clearly, from my post, and seeing how other people do generally refer to it as "FREd" - that it was a flipped short hand. Heh. Amusing.

Re: My first post... Near as I can tell it means he speaks Spanish. That, or he misspelled Phylum. Or he's referring to the "spirit" category of living entities. Not sure which.

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... Spells are tiered, 1st - 9th level to maintain something reasonable in terms of power. I know that some spells in the Grimoire are stupid powerful (384 active point shield comes to mind) and I tend to forget minor details like "Assigning an effect creates an effect" - that until you slap lims on it, 'armor' as a power can be a pure force construct. So far I've got the following ideas down. - AVLD, NND depending on the attack. - Weapons/Claws that happen to be AP - Very Powerful EBs/HKAs/RKAs Doing the math it's clear that a 5th level EB would, in fact, deal STUN damage on a 30 rPD shield. A 6th level EB with AP tacked on would be far worse. It would stop most (if not all) unenchanted swords and lower end spells, acting as both an Anti-Magic Shell and a basic personal defense. Interesting.

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Church, Outkast, Speakerboxxx

Re: Complicate the Person Above Bazza is the man when it comes to the rhythm section; the core of his superpowers manifested once when he set his drum set on fire from the intense speed at which he played. E84 & I saw the whole thing. What? God's honest.

Re: Complicate the Person Above L. Marcus was secretly jealous of my affair; the china pattern had actually been his idea from the start.

Re: Complicate the Person Above Trib has been known to spend entire summers vacation on ancient ruins, gathering mystic power to raise his army of undead. He's also a fond collector of chainsaws and shotguns.

Re: So if I have 30 rPD/30 rED armor... I did mean Brilliant Energy, gracias as always, KS. So a Force Wall or similar Force Armor would stop it? Good to know. If you buy Armor, as a spell, would it count as a Force Effect if you call it Mage Armor, or would it count as "armor"?

Re: Higher Point Characters in FH/Heroic setting My primary concern, really, is making sure they have reasonable places to spend their points without having to build ceilings. I can build the ceiling if necessary, although I'd prefer not too. We've been doing the one-shot campaign (which has now gone two sessions, curses!) and the last game didn't go as I planned, but I rewarded the players for following their "flight" over "fight" instincts. My primary concern is that, unfamiliar as I am with the system, in d20 (my base of comparison, as that's what I've been playing the last three or four years) I know that the system is a wealth management tier. You gain feats as a fighter, a few feats as a non fighter with some specials. Good points have been made regarding bases and followers, though, which are both standard genre tropes.

Re: Character Name Help Which answers that. Always check with an expert, although I'm also going on ancient pictures from my old AD&D Monster Manual in my head. Oh, Susano. I done gots a copy of yo' book.

Re: Higher Point Characters in FH/Heroic setting I have a few of the 1200 point variety. Nasty git. That, and I've build undead as automatons and some lovely demonic minions as well. Getting my VILLAINS up in the stratosphere is easy, but thanks for the input!