Thia Halmades

Re: constant spell AH, but Killer Shrike hates him some EDM, you've come to the same general conclusion I have John, which is, simply, EDM + Handwavium 984 = Time Stop. That's why I was curious what KS's interpretation would be, because he's the only person I know on the boards who literally "thinks" in HERO terms the way I think in terms of structure & plot mechanics and grammar. It's in his lingo, so getting a well worded response from him would likely be worth transcribing into Paintshop and turning it into wallpaper.

Re: constant spell I love Killer Shrike. You hit him with a stick and wisdom comes out. He's like a rules pinata. I don't recall, however, you chiming in on: [threadjack] TIME STOP. Bwa ha ha. Check the listing in the SRD and then let me know how you'd build this. You're the only person on the board other than Mr. Long who I'd be curious to see how you handle it. Noting in the prior post that you loathe EDM as Alter Reality (which is effectively what a Time Stop is) how would you do? Points aren't a problem, just ... build it. With minimal handwaves. Rules: - Must Stop Time for the character, generally argued as the character is now moving so fast that the world slows down. - Must be able to affect anything in the environment except another character. - Can cast spells, summon, steal anything not nailed down. Go. [/threadjack] Yep. I'm all about some threadjacking today.

Re: constant spell Now you're talkin'. AID SPD, Only For Use With Spells (-1), The caster's mastery of magic means that their spells take a greater toll on their opponent than usual; instead of dealing damage every phase the caster acts, the speed of the spell is resolved as though it were acting a step faster than the caster, dealing an extra phase worth of damage. This still incurs the usual END cost of the spell. Killer Shrike has cited building NPAs on VPPs as patently illegal, but it's a rule I may break, because I'm struggling to find a reason why not. You have a spell, simple, clear. It happens to exist in a VPP, although spells are slotted, etc., and are effectively (note: effectively) singular constructs acting out of a framework. I'm going to use an NPA on this spell that happens to be a construct (one of many pegs) in my VPP (in various square holes). This may make casters too powerful, but I (personally) see very little difference between doing it that way, or doing it as an AID to the spell itself (see FH).

Re: How's *this* for a new setting. Ah, ah, but you're exactly proving my point. The entire focus of the game is now shifted. We know in LOTR that a single band of heroes is critical to campaign success, and we know how the War of the Ring ends. What your DM did (and did correctly, I might add) is subtly (comparatively) alter the time line. One shift. "Frodo fails. Now what?" BAM, instant plotline. You have enemies, he can create new dungeons, there's giant mosh battles. Ah, the goodness of it all. I know that game because I'm writing & running something similar to it right now. Hopelessness and all. Because if your resolve is never challenged, then you really aren't doing Epic War correctly. The genre demands at some point you look at the opposition and say "Oh. Oh no. Heck with this, I'm going to go home and wait outside with a lemonade until they run me down. Easier, safer, and I'll enjoy the end days a bit more with lemonade."

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) Amalgamine?

Re: fear-ability Which is fine with me, as Horror is one of my preferred sub-genres, because that's just how I roll. I'm down with a thread-jacking and a drive by, yo.

Re: fear-ability Point yielded, the argument can go either way. I'm arguing two things: 1. It's good to have a balanced stat. Easily agreed upon. My view of INT in this case: - The ability to dissect, compartmentalize, and look at things objectively is a trait of intelligence. For some people it would be an asset, for others possibly a liability, but it in part explains how high level priests get as much information as they do without going wango bonzers. Basically, I'm saying that your Intelligence gives it own sort of defense as your mind attempts to defend itself from the more SAN loss heavy facts you can pick up. Easily arguable for or against, while I eschew "YMMV" arguments, this could easily be one of them. Also, the second possible argument is that we're talking about the gestalt of an individuals mental acumen, and may not be looking at "INT" directly; it's simply part of the overall strength of their mind, and as such contributes to defense. Obviously anyone who spends too long looking into the abyss becomes Soul Food in a whole new way.

Re: fear-ability Because everyone knows: Ninjas flip out and kill people.

Re: Simplification of Combat Having come from a d20 system, I actually find HERO combat simpler than d20 combat. No more concern over who has which iteritive attacks or when they go off; I treat it as a string of actions which are taken in a given round and simply call off phases and mark who's going when. Pretty straight forward, really.

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) Killer Shrike: Not only have you solved my Metamagick dilemma, you've developed a very expensive (albeit incredibly cool) magic system in and of itself. To make it more resonable you might want to consider setting it up as a VPP with the limitation "only known facultia" and an additional limitation on learning new ones just so there are more points for the PC to futz about with, but the system itself is cool as all get out. I'm immortalized on KS's webpage!!

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) I can actually address this directly; part of the gap you're seeing is between the standard canon of Fantasy, and my version of heroic fantasy. Among other things, Rogues will be getting every niffo Desolid trick in the book to represent their ability to not be in the wrong place at the wrong time; they are inherently lucky gits, even if it is luck through training. They'll have variations on Invisibility, and probably more Talents & Perqs than the other PCs. Second, Rogues are skill monkeys, and as such can do things out of combat that no brick class would ever think of. In d20 terms, their eschewance of magic or "raw fighting potential" opens up a massive niche that needs filling. Ancillary to that, they have access to Deadly Blow in FH, and will have many "powers" based abilities, including the ability to find magical traps, which other characters do not receive unless they pay for the Rogue package. Third, because of the design my package deals are being built on, there is an individuality to the classes themselves, beyond the normal 150 point buy. For example, if you want to use Arcane Magic, you must buy the Wizard package. It's expensive, which is why most people would only purchase it at first level, but the option does exist. Lastly, and this I didn't explain, the campaign is built on 150 points, but has already been running for 3 years, so the PCs are going to end up around 250 points by the time all is said & done, and by that time they'll have 90 point limited VPPs for spells (including All Spells Must Have One Charge, Only Known Spells, Spells Must Be Prepared Ahead of Time, and VPP Recharges after 8 hours rest). All of those restrictions are both part & parcel of the d20 mold, but are also a direct reflection of how I'd do magic anyway, for this specific campaign. So there is a major gap between 1st level magic (30 active) and 5th level magic (90 active). Does that clarify some things?

Re: Symbiotes in a Fantasy Setting - Multipower? Good morning! My problem is that I have a unique ability to take something simple, overly complicate it, then pare it back down until it's not quite as simple, but more complex than it was. So, few things. One of the suggestions Steve Long had was to make it BODY loss, which is severe based on what I want it to do, although I can certainly see it draining the host to heal itself, and with that suggestion it becomes a true parasite - "Thwack, take 4 & 14 - and take another two as your Symbiote heals itself, so six." Player, now half way through a fight: "What?" thud. Also, tying that to Monster's suggestion of reducing the REC also makes perfect sense, considering that the Symbiote is stretching and exerting itself, and it only gains power from the host, so the host is being tapped (END cost) and then splitting its own REC (reduced REC time). Fantastic suggestion. As an armor it needs to have both BODY & DEF of its own; basically, its DEF is what's interposing itself between the PC and the Symbiote. A Symbiote reduced to 0 BODY will start to drain the host to keep itself alive; while it isn't "intelligent" it is fully symbiotic; it knows that its host dying is a bad, bad thing and will go to great lengths to prevent it. It also has a basic desire to keep itself alive. It knows when it's combat/high stress siutations (it's taking damage, it's in heavy use, it can read the biorhythmics of the host). So I'd need to stat out the Symbiote for purposes of tracking its health and, when its fully exposed (for puposes of adding STR, or creating a weapon out of itself (separate idea, I'll get to that in a moment)) it can take BODY, and it could reasonably be killed, although I'll have a Trigger (Drains BODY from Host when BODY is reduced to 0 or less; 0 phase action, does not occur if already at negative its own BODY). It can be healed, but only by draining its Host or recovering itself over time (probably at the same natural rate of healing as the host). Multipower (newbie attempt, pardon my shorthand). All powers cost END, and may cost Increased END (x2). Any powers used reduce the users REC rate until all END is recovered. This applies whether using one power or twelve powers. That may be too unbalancing, but I'm not certain. I like the STR build that Killer Shrike provided, although I'm not sure which ones Figured Characteristics are, I'm assuming that means you just get stronger - can you jump further? That would make sense to me as well, considering that it would be a manifestation around your legs. I'd like it to have a DRAIN BODY & END attack as it draws off targets during grapples to fuel itself. This could also count towards its own recovery and accelerate/alleviate the recovery of the Host. This is gruesome, and in a fantasy setting would probably be considered evil and give rise to all sorts of vampire legends. Hey. I just created the foundation mythology for water bound vampires; people who gave themselves over to the coral so completely that they lost their own sentience and became blood sucking monsters. COOL. I love it when that happens. This needs more work. I'll go back to thinking. All posts have been helpful and are welcome! Wonder if it does long term Transform Damage under the proper circumstances. Hrm.

Re: How's *this* for a new setting. Very true, Mark, well said. Also, while they were contemporaries, Lewis wasn't a major fan of Tolkien, and considered his writings to lack a level of seriousness which he felt was required. I think he'd flip if he considered Narnia being used as a game, because it was written as allegory. Children's allegory that adults could read, certainly, but allegory. Within that framework, however, there's a small leap if you want to use Narnia as a setting. You'll have an easier time setting it in the last war, or creating new parts of Narnia based on the Chronicles, rather than binding yourself to the original plot arcs. I'd say the same thing about Tolkien; we all know how the War of the Ring ends, so playing in it is somewhat pointless unless you're going to let Sauron (or Tash) win if the PCs fail.

Good morning, Steve, and happy holidays to you! This morning I've got two questions which occured to me over the weekend while Kareem & I were breaking down rules to do a Marilith conversion from d20 to HERO. One of her spells is Magic Weapon, which she can cast "at will" which really means either tying it to END or giving her a phat stack of charges. I finally settled on a variaion of Wizard's Whetstone at 30 points for the "1st level" version of the spell. So now, question one: 1. Using AID on an HKA or RKA, do the normal rules apply in terms of DC? So if I have 3d6, and happen to cough up a 10, do I add two DCs to the weapon that has been enchanted, and further, I'm assuming those DCs stack on the base damage, otherwise the whole thing makes little to no sense. 2. In an AID based "Help You Hit" spell, it seems that all a caster would need to do is buy, say, 3d6 worth of AID OCV (+2) - would this follow the rules for a normal CSL, meaning that the caster would have to specify at the time the spell was created precisely what those +2 OCVs are for, thus sidestepping the massive cheese potential? Or, if he were to purchase higher-end CSLs for the AID (so every 5 points of AID were to add a normal 5 point CSL) would that give the recipient "full knowledge" of the CSL at that time, and then fade normally? 3. In developing a "Mage Armor" spell I came across something that concerned me. As a neophyte HEROite, I'm aware that Defense is dirt cheap compared to offense. Groovy. But what's keeping my caster from coughing up a 30/30 Armor spell for 90 points? In a fantasy setting that would render him nigh invulnerable; would it create a "suit of armor?" It seems like a bizarre thing to cap, so I'm looking for mechanical reasons why it wouldn't work the exact obvious way. It would also defeat the purpose of all those extra crazy defense spells, so I'm certain this isn't the be-all, end-all solution, but if you could give me a hint as to why, it'd be greatly appreciated. Second verse! Multiform & Transform. In FRED it specifically states "thou shalt not Usable on Others multiform - thou shalt call this Transform." Good enough, except that I want my casters to be able to Transform a willing target and call that "polymorph" and to convert an unwilling target would be "baleful polymorph." Would I buy the ability for a Sorceror to turn a Fighter into a Dragon a Multiform, or would I go through the gymnastics to make it a Transform? Second Transform question (this one is cake) - I want to convert a weapon from "normal" to "Cold Iron." This is a 10 point Transform, yes? Now if I want to make the weapon magical, say using a variation on the concept of "Magic Weapon," would I Transform it into a magical version of itself, or simply hand wave the boost and call it a magical weapon for the duration of the spell? Corallary to the abovetransform/aid question (because I wansn't sure how to do it). In d20 we all know that you add "+X" as a bonus, and obviously HERO's bell curve eschews this, although a normal "+1 OCV, +1 DC" argument could be made without bending the rules too hard. What's the best way to do that? As an AID? As a CSL, created as a spell and cast on the weapon? I couldn't find a convenient clean way of handling it. Thanks as always, and good morning!

Re: Duration Caps on Spells? So roughly 3x the base EC. I can live with that. That would mean that your EC is 30 (approx., which makes sense) and all powers in said EC must be worth 60 or more total AP. Then you'll need to improve each power before improving the EC again (to say, 40, thus 120, which is more powerful and still makes sense without breaking the bank). Thanks, that actually confirms my gut instincts!

Here's my other major query of the morning: One of my races (Sea-Orks) have learned how to harvest Blood Coral, a parasitic life form which feeds on the wearer. They've harnessed and learned to apply it in limited form to assist them. It acts as an armor (in a different campaign it could be the foundation for a Warhammer 40K bull bore power armor, but we're sticking to some basics here). Given that the Symbiote is effectively being self-preservatory, anytime its abilities (extra Defense, etc.) are manifested, it consumes END (blood) from the user. So there's a risk/reward happening for wearing the stuff. I've been spinning ideas on how to do it properly in my head for ages, but I'm coming up blank. So here's what I want: - I want the stuff to provide a decent amount (5 rPD maybe) of base defense. - I want it to be restrictive, so in that sense it may merely act as an armor. - It can be deactivated/turned off and concealed. - It can add to STR, but it isn't intelligent, so it likely won't add to CSLs. - What other things do you think somethink like this could be capable of? How would you build it? I'm open to suggestions.

Okay guys, I'm curious as to how the experts will handle this. We'll assume for the moment that you're all going to be in my campaign. Congratulations! It's an Epic War/WW 2 style setting in a fantasy world. You've begun the game at 100 points (50/50) and I reserved 25 points of mystery disads, and you have since earned another 25 XP, so by the time you graduate from the academy, you're full blown Heroes (75/75 (25 mystery) for 150). Let's go down the line about 3 years. Because the campaign is Heroic, you can't build yourself an EB or anything nutty, you aren't super heroes. You can use any standard fantasy class and then justify the abilities. Other than the obvious Wizard & Priest burning spells into VPPs, how would you model your higher-end heroic character?

Re: fear-ability No, Old Man, I think that's genius. Pure, absolute genius. Makes sense as well, considering that ECV is already a stat, SAN is an easily derived stat from the same math that gives us STUN, but using Mentals instead of Physicals... d00d. SAN = EGO + (INT/2 + PRE/2). Voila. Rep.

Re: Railroading - Forcing PCs to take certain actions I'm with Eosin on this 100% - my PCs know that the fudging of the dice has gone away (considering how often they get critted) and that fear is a reasonable response to certain amounts of opposition (f'rinstance, any DEMON who's bigger than your HEAD). If there is no threat of losing (i.e., dying) then there is no game. It becomes story hour about a bunch of people who aren't truly interacting with the world. Interacting with the world with sharp pointy objects (Don't Point That Thing At My Planet! - Thank you, TF2V) is a fast & sure way to get yourself into a large amount of immediate danger. Usually from other people's sharp pointy objects. In HERO, all illusions of immortality (s'alright, I'll just jump on the grenade and let my HP soak it) go away. And that's an improvement for what I do.

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) I would submit (for the sake of argument) that by manipulating the Real Cost directly you're accurately representing the difference between tossing a Maximized 60 AP vs. a Maximized 105 AP spell. Big difference. Heck, if you were the GM I'd agree to a flat cost in a heartbeat.

Re: Making a Ninja Hero Campaign with Anthro Characters Other general side notes and decent reference material: If you're going Shao-Lin style and want to explore a videogame adaptation thereof, Jade Empire does some neat stuff with their real-time MA engine. The game itself is utterly broken, but there's plenty of interesting material in there if you're going to start leaning towards mystic arts, as well as martial arts. I'm sure Susano already covered the bulk of VG MA's in Ninja Hero so I won't attempt to rehash that, but if you haven't played a Fighting Game recently, I would suggest either the newest Dragon Ball Z to get a feel for "hyper" fighting, Street Fighter Alpha III (from the anniversary collection) or Tekken 5, which is one of the best pure video fighters out there. Also, Viruta Fighter 4 for it's excellent renders and fighting "feel." Weapons combat knows no comparison to the almighty Soul Calibur II. Oh, in case this wasn't mentioned, don't forget that many martial styles also include weapons training, including Karate, Tae Kwon Do & Aikido. Aikido! It's not just for grabs anymore!

Re: fear-ability It's a Presence attack, fear based abilities are usually bought as Power, improved Presence, only for PRE attacks/extra PRE attack dice. Just the use the standard HERO rules and buy up points as necessary until you're comfortable with what you can scare out of its pants.

Re: MetaCyber As always, your stuff looks great. You have gained much honor.

Re: Question for the gun-bunnies Point in fact, this is a semi-auto revolver, so if I were to make any suggestion (and I may be missing something here, happens) it would be to reflect someone could pull off rapid fire/chamber emptying manuevers with it. If you're reflecting an anime style, then this is amazing similar to Vash's pistols, which are the world's fastest firing revolvers. Autofire, Blazing away, etc., would all be viable here. Give it a +1 OCV for accuracy when not using special manuevers. And then, I may be barking up the wrong tree entirely. Wolves are sometimes dumb like that.

Re: Duration Caps on Spells? Eh, actually, Hugh, you may want to check an older thread of mine (maybe a couple pages back, "Overcoming the First Hurdle, building a *gulp* Magic System" in which everyone went to great length to help me understand what HERO does and how to make it do what I want a magic system to be. Sure, there are things in d20 that I think are good ideas, and there are other things that I think are really bad ideas, but with HERO I can keep all the good ideas I want, do all the things d20 didn't let me do originally, and when it's done I have a fine tuned machine built to let me play the game I want to play, which isn't d20. And you could posit the argument that it isn't HERO, because HERO is a toolkit and eschews (barring specific material) genre conventions or any sort of personal construct that says "I do this, and only this." Savinien told me long ago to not play d20 in HERO, but to play HERO. And Killer Shrike is right, I'm not trying to rebuild Wizardry: I haven't gone to any great lengths to build a "spells per day" chart, nor am I opposed to people drafting new spells. I just want a balanced, clean magic system that can be understood fairly easily by anyone within a few minutes explanation. Sure, d20 does some wacky things with durations, but I'm not looking for that, I just want to understand how HERO does it, and then go from there. The answer for this question was: "You stop 'Flying' when you stop paying END." Hey, there we go. I was under the impression it only cost END when you were doing the flying, not at any other time. And Steve Long gave me a ton of pages to go home and cross reference to answer rules questions I coughed up. I'm really excited about playing HERO and creating a system that'll do what I need and meet me half way for the things I don't want to expend effort on. Besides, you should see my Sorcerors. Definately not 3.5 friendly.