Steve Long

Re: Experience and Multiform See 5ER 211-12, which gathers up a lot of the FAQ information and presents it in a format that you may have an easier time understanding. (Some information on the subject remains in the 5ER FAQ, since it takes up too much space and is too esoteric for inclusion in the rulebook.) If you still have questions after that, please post a follow-up.

Re: Multiple Grab Attacks w/"Must Follow Grab" Per UMA 93, the Follow element means a maneuver must follow “some other specific successful maneuver.” Obviously, that has to be applied with a certain amount of common and dramatic sense. If “Grab” is specified, typically many forms of Grab will do, such as a regular Grab or Martial Grab. On the other hand, a Choke Hold or a Joint Lock-style Grab probably wouldn’t qualify — but it all depends on how the Follow maneuver is defined.

Re: Ultimate Mystic vs Ultimate SuperMage The Ultimate Supermage was a 4th Edition PDF by Dean Shomshak. It's no longer available for sale. Dean's written two books for 5th Ed: The Mystic World (plus an ancillary tome, Arcane Adversaries) and the forthcoming The Ultimate Mystic. In some senses you could describe these two books as having taken the contents of the old USM, split them up, and rewritten and expanded upon them extensively. TMW and UMY cover much the same ground as USM, but they're better generally, more comprehensive, and more properly organized.

Re: controlled movement for optional velocity rules 1. Controlled movement is defined on 5ER 436. It basically means any of a character's defined types of movement -- Running, Leaping, Flight, and so on -- movement he can control. 2. No. Falling is by definition uncontrolled, even if the character initiates the fall deliberately.

Re: Rapid Telepathy Yes, it should be. I'll make sure to correct that in the revised printing of the USPD and the appendix to the USPD2. Thanx!

Re: multiform - is this for real? Since this isn't really a rules question, but more some sort of exploration of game balance and management issues, I've moved it to the "Discussion" board so anyone who'd like to can chime in.

Re: should I buy 5th revised? Since this isn't a rules question, I've moved it to "Discussion" so that fans who'd like to offer their opinions can do so.

Re: Can multiple characters contribute to the cost of a Power? Under the rules as written, there's no provision for that. But whatever the GM's willing to allow is cool by me. In fact, I've built characters just like you describe, with the GM's permission.

Re: Requires Multiple Users That sounds to me like some form of Limited Power. I'd just as soon keep RMU structured as it is, though maybe I'll take your nugget of an idea and turn it into a DH column sometime.

Re: Question about some changes There is no change; it's always been that way -- it doesn't make any sense as a Limitation for Instant Powers. The examples given in its description, and of its use in the USPD, are all Constant Powers. Whether the GM chooses to allow it for other abilities he regards as "pseudo-Constant" is up to him.

Re: Questions about Firebrand It's probably just an error carried over from SK. I'll look into it.

Digital Hero subscribers interested in playtesting The Valdorian Age can find the manuscript in the usual place. If you have any questions or comments, please post 'em in the "Company Questions" thread of the same title.

Digital Hero subscribers interested in playtesting The Valdorian Age can find the manuscript in the usual place. If you have any questions or comments, please post 'em in the "Company Questions" thread of the same title.

Re: Fantasy Hero covers No, that's the only one. Why do you ask?

Re: Half-Moves With Different Movement Powers Yes.

Re: Breaking Cover That's up to the GM to decide, based on the situation.

Re: HA with Reduced Endurance B -- see 5ER 185.

Re: Autofire Skills and Penalties 1. No, you didn’t miss anything. Many rules in the system provide a benefit in certain situations at the cost of a corresponding penalty of some sort. 2. That depends on whether the GM allows you to buy PSLs to offset DCV penalties. In most campaigns and situations, PSLs are only for offsetting OCV penalties. 3. Using Autofire Skills does not prevent a character from using the Hit Location or Placed Shot rules, unless the GM rules otherwise. 4. First, as indicated in FH and DC, the Deadly Blow Talent already costs END, so characters can’t take the Costs Endurance Limitation for it. If it’s used with Autofire, or any other means of taking multiple shots, the END cost must be paid per shot.

Re: Ultimate Vehicles Question Sure, they're both in 5E/5ER. Just check the Index if you can't find them normally.

Re: Skills and CSLs in a Compound Power - Only 5-point or Others too? The rules say that only 5-point and higher CSLs can have Limitations. There's no rule saying a character can't buy any type of CSL without Limiting it and call it whatever he wants. For example, he might buy, say, +3 OCV (cost: 6 points) with his "Death Punch" (Drain BODY) and claim that the special effect of the CSLs is that they represent the way a living target's energies "attract" the Death Punch.

Re: A Linking Question See 5ER 300.

Re: Muliple-power attacks & martial arts followup First, to clarify: to resolve a Linked attack, you use the rules for Linked, not multiple-power attacks. The two are very similar, and Linked does refer you to MPA for further information, but I just want to make sure no one reads that as saying “Linked attacks always use the MPA rules.” 1-2. If a character can use a Combat/Martial Maneuver to perform a multiple-power attack (i.e., it could be used with either attack individually, per 5ER 359), then the character gets the full OCV and DCV modifiers from that Maneuver. If the Maneuver adds damage, it only adds damage to one of the powers in the attack, not both (and if the character’s already adding STR, such as to an HA or HKA that’s part of the MPA, he cannot also add STR to the Maneuver before applying it — it simply adds its extra dice of damage to the overall effect). 3. The character can add STR to each attack; see 5ER 360. No STR Bonus is a -1/2 Limitation, per 5ER 194. 4. There’s usually no “right” or “wrong” way to approach a particular design question in the HERO System. It’s up to your GM to decide if something’s not right for his campaign, or if he prefers some other way of designing an ability. 5. Assuming a GM even allowed that defense, AVLD would be worth +1 1/2.

Re: Hero System 5th Edition, Revised now in Online Store Darren can provide more details if he wants, but IIRC it's the same sort of glued lay-flat binding that 5E has. We haven't had any complaints about that book, and no reason to expect any here.

Re: Compound VPP Revisited No; see 5ER 358 or the old Rules FAQ.

Re: Multiple-Power Attacks, Martial Arts, and Drain First off, let me make sure you are (and everyone else is) clear about the rule you refer to. As 5ER 359 says: “Similarly, a character may not use a Combat Maneuver with a multiple-power attack unless he could use that Maneuver with any of the attacks individually.” What that’s referring to is using a Combat or Martial Maneuver to add damage, CV, or the like to the parts of a multiple-power attack. It’s not referring to using a Combat or Martial Maneuver as one of the attacks in the attack. So, a character could perform a multiple-power attack featuring, say, a Martial Strike together with a Drain or NCSLs. (I suspect most GMs wouldn’t let you combine it with an HA; they’re too alike.) But since Combat/Martial Maneuvers can’t affect Drains or NCSLs (there being no rules for that), a character couldn’t use them to modify (i.e., add damage or CV to) a multiple-power attack featuring one of those abilities. If the rules allow a character to apply a Martial Maneuver to modify (i.e., add damage or CV to) an attack, he generally doesn’t need a Weapons Element to do so, unless the rules for the genre, type of campaign, or setting specifically require him to buy one (as they do with, say, actual weapons in most campaigns). But of course, the GM can require the purchase of a Weapon Element if he thinks that’s appropriate — for example, the Rules FAQ recommends that characters with “natural weapons” (claws or fangs) purchase a Weapons Element to use them with Martial Maneuvers.