Thia Halmades

Re: Who would you recreate? Hey, no fair. You've been doing this for a gabillion years. Show off.

Re: Who would you recreate? Hrm. I would probably want to play a low-end speedster, blaster/defender type; one of the best examples is the Human Torch. Except instead of being part of a radiation accident, I would likely rebuild it as a Soul of Flame, incarnated through ancient ritual into a human body. The Soul acts as a sort of Symbiote, granting me all of my super cool powers. I would have control over any flame within reach, and could consume it to fuel my powers as a "push" and feed the Soul. Instead of flight, I would move with the Speed of a Starving Flame, capable of running much faster than normal, but leaving a streak behind me wherever I went. Using this ability I could also generate Fire Walls. Stay Outta the Kitchen! would do well as a Nova attack, and I'd also throw in a bit of Change Environment to allow me to "heat up" the world around me. Still a slick styling hot rodder, still a bit of a hot head. This is the AOE RKA, one hex empty OR immune to own power. Inextinguishable for that edge of toughness and durability. Play With Fire and You Get Burned would be a standard EB. Add on a Damage Shield and some good martial manuevers, and I'd be good to go. Ghost of a Flame - Partial desolid/special effect to avoid taking damage, don't know enough to build this one off the top of my head. Probably do the whole thing as a massive Flame EC or a Multipower. Did I do it right? Yes? No? Hrm, lims, now that I'm thinking about it: She's mine!, Rivalry, no one else knows about, part of: Hate the Game, not the Player, uncontrollable flirt, uncommon, strong (won't stop a fight, but could be distracted from a chase, etc. Spends more time hitting on the hot detective than working with her). Never Hit a Lady, common, strong chivalrous impulses to hold doors, protest mistreatment, etc. Borders on chauvanism, but it's that bizarrely well intentioned chauvanism. Will start fights for possibly perceived slights against total strangers who happen to be women, and are preferably hot. (14-) What, She was HOT! I like hot! - DNPC du jour, girlfriend of the month. Does This Thing Go Any Faster? - Psych lim, adrenalin junkie, pushes limits, uncommon, moderate. He's a little reckless, but not totally nuts. Hey, I'm Only Human - NCM, his power derives from the Soul Flame, all stat boosts over the max bought as powers (ED/PD, +SPD, etc.) Guided by a Higher Power - Occassionally gets bizarre (plot hook) impulses from the Soul Flame that he can't explain and can't easily ignore (11-). Sharing his soul makes him uncomfortable at times, Frozen in the Heat of Battle - Is terrified, deep down, that the Soul Flame is really in charge and he's along for the ride. He doesn't know why he's empowered and is equally terrified he'll go back to "normal" eventually, which he doesn't want. Will occassionally restrain from using his powers in a clutch situation because he doesn't know who's always in charge (EGO check, 8-, only in clutch situations that would require a Power roll).

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Rage Against the Machine, Settle for Nothing - Rage Against the Machine

Re: Human Torch vs. Pyro, who wins? My very simple answer: Johnny: "FLAME ON!" Pyro: "Er... I've got this flamethrower gadg... how'd you?" Johnny: FWACKOOM! Pyro: *smolder*

Re: Gamemastering Tutorial Adventures This was also a Teen Titans episode, "Master of Games" I believe. Decent episode, sets up a lot of continuity for later episodes. It was a writer's excuse to throw a bunch of other heroes in with the Titans and force relationships to develop. Worked. Oh, right, drafting adventures. Well, that depends on what you're looking for. I can write the plot till your eyes bleed, but that won't do you much good, as my plots are grossly complicated because they come with a back story and heaven knows what else. That, and I'm a lousy mechanic. I'm decent with HERO, but in terms of guaging threats I'm pretty useless. Other off-the-cuff suggestions include: * A bank is robbed! GASP! Everyone "meets" at the scene of the crime (see: "Okay... and you all walk into this tavern, right...?" from Fantasy tropes) * You stop the villains (hooray!) but four more alerts go out! The police, despite being equipped to handle Supers threats, are overwhelmed! ZOOM off you go (RP here as the party meets & greets) as you get to whichever bank where the plot is currently happening (doesn't matter which bank they go to - that's where the plot is because that's where they are, if they split up, use the others as false alarms to put them back on course). A minor villain who knows what's going on pops out! Bigger fight! (dice are rolled, bank walls are shattered (see: X-Men, great examples of Knockback in there) and property damage is done. You question the villain, but he says nothing, and (gets away in a genre convention manner for your build). Curses, they cry! Let's investigate! (make skill rolls here). *GASP! A CLUE! Swiftly, to the location the clue tells us about that we hopefully figured out, and if not will get some nudging from the GM! Arrive at scene! Look, there're NPCs at this scene who aren't trying to beat us down, quickly, interact with them! (RP here). Gather information, next clue, but the PCs don't know they're being watched by (enemy villain fulfilling scout role, preferably from a distance, using Transform, or with Clairsentience). Track down the next clue, and/or return to base to piece together information and wait for (GM Trope including alarms, news reports, radio news, danger sense, etc.) to get us to the next scene. *Scene of the next, combat ensues as the Heroes join the fight to stop (random crime which is of course related to the villains overplot)! Swiftly, stop them! (dice are rolled, mooks are dropped, information is gathered on the PCs). The VILLAIN sends them a taunting message about his inherent superiority! Shift scene to mini-boss who was sent to mop up, after the PCs were all exposed to (deadly toxin) which limits their powers! Oh no! PCs use their wits to discover weakness of mini-boss and drop him. Questioning him, he answers: the name of THE VILLAIN and he doesn't know THE PLAN but knows about his attempts to get THIS OBJECT which is being held HERE. Off we go! To the site of THE OBJECT (archaeological dig, military base, the moon) where THE VILLAIN (who has an escape plan, natch) is distracted, being too genre dependent to believe he can be defeated, completes his objective (or has already completed his objective) and makes a genre-escape (possibly via a minion) while the PCs mop up. Collect clues, find RARE WEIRD THING which can only be located in ONE POSSIBLE PLACE ON EARTH and go there to discover the SECRET BASE. Break in using appropriate genre convention, beat down multiple mooks before being trapped by Superhero Rules for Breaking Into a Base. The VILLAIN appears and explains his master plan, and why the PCs will NEVER defeat him! (Evil laugh here). The PCs escape! Fight their way through the final minion (who may or may not have betrayed the VILLAIN at this point). Get into final fight with VILLAIN, defeat him, but not before he pushes BIG RED BUTTON. Heroes spend their last effort to STOP THE WORLD FROM BEING LEVELED and succeed! HOORAY! Everyone gains 3 xp. Is that a decent start?

Re: Railroading - Forcing PCs to take certain actions Than I'm not a big railroader. I've certainly moved plots to avoid them getting ruined, and flipped PC concepts from one point to another to avoid wasting the work, and other than the one time I had them all shoved off a boat (rather than die & end the game, which was a huge railroad but they had walked on the boat and were otherwise corpsed) they haven't been railroaded once in that campaign. In Ravenloft, not at all. But that's what it's there for, much more open since there's no military telling them what to do.

Re: Duration Caps on Spells? Oh, the control cost of the VPP does in fact have the limitation "All spells must have one charge" but it can be a Continuing Charge, because that was an issue I intentionally side-stepped up front with Killer Shrike's help. So yes, Forcefields and the like can be purchased with a Continuing Charge, which jacks up the Real Cost in the VPP slot, but hey. That's the price you pay.

Re: Duration Caps on Spells? Good morning, Archon! Actually, the dirty git hasn't confirmed if he's signing on with the campaign or not, but I want to make sure the question is answered regardless. I want to make Sorcery tangibly different from Wizardry, so I'm going with an EC & END Reserve build, END recharges only after rest. Simple as that, 8 hours rest = END. Good to go. I haven't worried about "half rest" or anything, I'm content with it being a hard & fast rule, but that's something else entirely. I'm also wondering if I need to cap the END Reserve in any way. Tossing a spell based on END is Active/10, whereas the general set of lims on a Wizard spell is Active/5 = Real, and it's the Real that gets slotted into the VPP. Hrm. More pondering.

Re: Railroading - Forcing PCs to take certain actions Eh, it's a matter of interpretation, really. If you cheat, and don't get caught, did you cheat? Said another way: I've written PLOT ALPHA. Plot Alpha occurs in City Delta on the River Yadda. You, the PCs, (all of you, yes) are in an adventuring military unit. A few of you break off (the party du jour) and make your way towards Plot Alpha, when you suddenly say "Hey, you know what? Eff this. Let's burn the town the ground, shoot the horses and ride off on the women." And I blink a few times, edit out City Delta as being a wasted effort, change the names of any NPCs you've heard of, and promptly make CITY EPSILON your new destination. Which has the exact same plot as City Delta, i.e., Plot Alpha. Were you railroaded?

Re: Railroading - Forcing PCs to take certain actions OH, you mean Curse of the Azure Bonds? The single most blatant plot hook ever built. Good heavens. "You all wake up. You're all stuck. Good luck!" Talk about your railroads. This is why I hated book 6 of Harry Potter - 95% Teen Drama, 5% Railroad. Glorph.

Good morning Steve; Three of (I think) three. In d20 there are specific rules on how to handle the stacking of abilities; for example, if you're wearing a Ring of Protection +2 and it counts as a magical bonus, I could not then give you a Cloak of Protection +1, which would also count as a magical bonus, because the +2 trumps it. This applies across the board to all modifier types - magic, armor, inherent, etc. Is there a similar mechanic within HERO? I know that there's the doubling rule which caps out this sort of thing, and in the power of Healing the most you can Heal an individual is up to the power of the spell (thus avoiding tossing 7 Cure Light Wounds). That makes sense as well. Is there any internal ruling which covers this sort of thing? Despite that HERO eschews anything so bland as "+1" you can still be granted bonuses to do all sorts of crazy. Does the type matter, outside of a campaign specific ruling regarding this? Does HERO by its nature render the question moot, because not everything is flinging "+1" and "+3" weapons around? Thanks!

If someone purchases an Offensive Strike, is the END charged to use it simply the Active Cost/10 of the total ability of the Strike? In a Fantasy HERO campaign, would it make sense to waive that rather than nit pick and disrupt the flow of the game? And, in another example: Kalyn is a great-sword wielding Paladin. He has a STR 17 (minima for the blade, so no bonus), and is trained in Imperial Heavy Blade Combat (Martial Art). He has an offensive strike for his greatsword, and, during the fight, opts to go all-out and throw a Haymaker. 1. A Haymaker adds '4d6' - is that 4d6 of the applicable dice, up to the doubling rule, or in the event of Killing Damage, is it 1d6+1? 2. How do I calculate the END consumed for the special attack? Thanks!

Two things in a very basic morning post: When a power is One Hex Accurate it only targets the Hex, which is way easier to hit. Good enough. Is that something that is purchased for the power as part of the spell, or is it just "Hex Accurate" as described in the early 300s? (don't have my text with me). Do all AOE attacks have Hex Accurate? If they don't, and they miss, what happens? Second, during our initial test run the NPC cultist/assassin who was lying in wait for the PCs tossed a flash-bang on a held action when the room was breached by a PC (6d6 Flash Sight/6d6 Flash Sound) and the PCs had no Flash Defense. I hit them for 8 phases of blindness and 7 phases of deafness. Initially I thought that they would recover on their phases only, but the local HERO GM had said that in fact they recover across all phases, thus avoiding the problem of someone with a Speed 1 being blinded for 8 rounds while someone with a Speed 4 is only blinded for 2 rounds. First, is that correct? It does make sense, and were it not correct it'd be a nifty house rule, but I'm going for accuracy before I muck about too badly. This chains into the other half of this question. When using END in an Elemental Control on a Constant Power - say, Flight - you stay "flying" so long as you're paying END. K, that I get. If you stop paying END, you fall down & go boom. When is the END charged? And, assuming that you don't stop and take a recovery on, say, phase 4, you would only recover END on phase 12, correct? Are you charged on your phases only? Only when you move? Every phase, because reasonably other people are interacting with you? And, finally, in the above example for Sorcerors in my campaign, I want to use an EC. That's easy. I give them an END Reserve and put a reasonable cap on it. Also easy. If they use a spell that draws END to be maintained, I assume it draws directly on the END reserve, not their personal END, correct? Thanks!

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) So the x2 multiplier I was using originally (as a variant NPA) would work, then. Niff!

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) Actually, yeah, that would be awesome, KS. Thanks!

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) Thanks for the input, I'll definately review the NPA rules and consider this.

Re: Most Powerful Member of the FF? Er, without going into as much detail as y'all. If he has time to prepare: Reed. No time? Sue.

Re: Homages you would like to see officially Examiner as in one who tests people? You mean like the Watcher?

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) That's why I was building a separate system, that adjusted Real Cost based on effect, based roughly on what d20 does. What are your thoughts on going that route? It's an extra step of math, but it's that, or consume an extra Charge (one full use of the spell) to represent any increase in power (which, technically, could also work, but would be insanely expensive). Thoughts?

Re: What Are You Listening To Right Now? Whiskey in the Jar, Metallica.

Re: All your favorite books are back in the online store *scans list, doesn't see UMA, cries*

Re: VPPs -- what's the logic? The thing of it is, speaking from my absurdly limited experience but equally absurd amount of time understanding this, is that each Power Framework really does have its place. For example, you can build a VPP which uses Charges on everything, thus limiting the Real Points available in a given day with a minor workaround, without reinventing the wheel. You can also do it as "Known Powers Only" which reduces the option of "Crazy whenever" that most people put with the structure. And, using "Known Powers Only" you can individualize the powers, making them more adjustable and more user-friendly (for example, a VPP framework that allows you to learn all sorts of spells, but the spells have lims and must be slotted into the framework). True: you don't have to spend CP on the spells in the VPP, because you've paid for the right to cast them, but the casting is limited (Real Points per day, for example) so you aren't committing balance suicide. In a multi-power, you can buy multiple multipowers at varying strengths, with charges on them, and have them simulate all sorts of things (spells per day, for example, or the classic "arrows in a quiver.") If you do that, and build it with the appropriate lims, then all you need to do is cost out the most powerful arrow in the quiver, and use that as your AP cap for the multipower. If you want to ever buy more powerful arrows, you can improve the MP over time. I'm not a HERO math guru, so I'm not going to go over all the nitty gritty math here, but Killer Shrike has some really rock-solid mathematically sound magic builds on his site that cover a lot of what I'm saying. Individual MP abilities are cheaper, and can be just as cost effective as a VPP without the messy time change functions. "I have 10 charges of Yadda arrows in my quiver, or, 30 total charges in my quiver and Yadda arrows to choose from at any given moment." It's all reasoning from effect. You can give an Archer a Cosmic VPP for arrows - but why would you when you can stack plenty of lims on it and control it that way instead? Just a thought.

Re: [Taern] My new campaign What? I was being sincere.

Re: Metamagick Feats in HERO (my current idea) I know that it's 1/4 (makes sense, as the disad is -1/4) I'm looking for a 'quick & dirty' way to handle it. Never mind, my math is off. Should be 1.25, to make it 'match up' better. Then a Maximized spell would cost roughly double (2x Real) which I don't think is a good approximation. Bear in mind, I'm more than happy to go outside of canon if that's what it takes. Maximize is a variation on absolutes (do max damage) which is HERO looks at you funny when you touch it that way, but it isn't totally whack. i.e., using a .25 multiplier, a 60 pt. spell worth 12 would cost 15 (multiplied by 1.25, or the cost to 'remove' Silence); a 75 point spell costs 15, a 90 point spell generally costs 18. 15 * 1.25 = 19, roughly, which is well in range for that level of spell. So Silent & Still (no gestures) cost the same. Good enough. The tricky part is adding in other adders, such as extending Areas of Effect, etc. (naked advantages). I think I've got the math now, and it's consistent. Still a question of how to properly balance different effects (for example, I think Maximized should cost 3 or 4 times the base because it's that freakin' potent.) More things to ponder. Thanks, Shadowpup.

Howdy. I'm using a slotted Real Point cost for Wizards/Priests in a VPP system to handle magick in my campaign. Generally they're running at about -4 in disads (making a 30 pt. spell about 6 real points). Spell groups are organized in sets of 15; 15 or less is a cantrip, 30 is 1st level, 45 2nd, and so on. I want to include the Metamagick Feats from d20 to allow more flexibility within the magic system without having to reinvent the wheel. The easiest way I've seen to do it to have a slot consume more RP on a straight simple scale. That scale, near as I can figure, is that each "step" of improvment from d20 equates to about 1/2 of the Real Points of the spell in question for each "level" in the d20 system. Let's start with Silent Spell as an example, a Feat that changes the cost of a spell by one slot. In d20, that means a 3rd level spell would become a 4th level spell. So if, in HERO terms, you wanted to cast your spell as Silenced, rather than trying to reconfigure the cost, you'd simply take your Real Points, multiply by 1.5, and foom. New cost for the spell as Silenced. Maximize (max damage on all dice) costs 4 additional slots in d20, or a full +2 using this mechanic, so you'd multiply the Real Cost by 3. For example, if a PC wants to cast Fireball - a 60 pt. spell - it'll cost about 12 Real Points. If he wants to Silence it, it'd cost 18 points, about the same as a 75 point spell (the next spell up the 15 point ladder I'm using, inspired by Killer Shrike). A 75 point spell is about 15 Real Points. Those would roughly equate in the VPP. If you wanted to Maximize the spell, using the same example, it would cost 36 Real Points in the VPP, or the equivalent of a 180 point spell, but would deal maximum damage. This is a major leap ahead, but still makes sense to me. Max damage in HERO is a different creature entirely than in d20. Without concerning myself about total exactness, does this system seem functional to anyone else? Would you, as a Wizard, make the sacrifice to Maximize a spell by consuming that many Real Points and seriously debilitating your options? Is it not expensive enough? Too costly? For Sorcerors, who are using an EC/End Reserve model, I'd likely do the exact same thing, except multiply the END they use by the appropriate modifiers. So a 6 END spell would cost something completely different, but still generate a similar effect. This would also reflect (oddly) a Sorceror's ease of use of manipulating energy, but at a great cost to them, personally. Thoughts are appreciated!