bjbrown

The original (first edition) Dungeon Master's Guide for AD&D had a good herb reference in it, along with a lot of other useful things (for example, supposed magical properties of gems, equipment you might find in a wizards lab). I still use it to get "atmosphere" information.

I think it's a good practice to warn a player before his or her character gets caught up in a hopeless situation. PC: I know how to solve this situation, we'll just kill the princess. GM: Are you absolutely sure you want the king, with all of his vast henchmen and armies, ruthlessly pursuing you to avenge that death. PC: On second thought, maybe we'll think our way out of this situation instead. Especially if you have a game that does involve a lot of combat, your players may have an expectation that they have the option of fighting their way out of every problem. They may not be able to always distinguish between a situation in which you have a difficult but beatable NPC waiting to be vanquished, and the situation that you consider hopeless for the characters.

XP in my game normally goes like this. At the end of the session, players as how much XP they get. Then I try to think of what would be fair (maybe 1-3, with 2 being a good session, 3 for when I am exceptionally amused by the characters, 1 on an ordinary session). While I'm thinking of what value would be fair, one or more players may rush my decision, and I say, "Okay, half a point."

There's a FAQ ruling (under Combat Skill Levels) that deals with using CSLs with a sweep. CSLs can only be applied to the Sweep, but not to any other manuevers used within the sweep. (So you can't use your CSLs with your martial art when doing a sweep of two martial strikes, for example.)

I think that since a 3-pt. skill level applies only to related maneuvers, a character would have to actually be using a maneuver taught in the style to gain the benefit of using the skill level (such as for DCV). Further, the UMA (pp. 113-4) clarifies that the 3-pt. combat skill levels cannot be used outside of the manuevers associated with the martial art, and suggest that martial artists are still better off buying 5-pt. levels than 3-pt. levels if they want to use those levels when not using a maneuver within their pre-defined martial art.

If the shield were positioned correctly by the grabbed character, it might prevent the grabber from closing his hand and doing crushing damage. It isn't necessarily the case that, by the rules, that this particular focus is disabled (the rule says that most are disabled, not all). This sounds like one of those judgment calls, based upon the special effects of the powers. I wouldn't say that it's a cut and try ruling, but it's a reasonable ruling.

A bag of holding could be Extra-Dimensional Movement, Usable Agaisnt Others. (With a limitation that limits it to storing and recalling objects only.) If you don't mind stuffing people into it, the limitation could be that it requires a successful Grab. The glove could be similar- Shrinking, Reduced END: Zero, Persistent, Usable Against Others (again with a limitation to prevent combat use). Returning the object to normal size would simply be a matter of halting use of the power (0 phase). If you went the Transform route, you could use the Trigger advantage to give you the 0-phase snapping it back to normal size.

The rules are pretty clear in the distinction between Concealment and Stealth- concealment applies to remaining stationary without being detected, while Stealth applies to moving without detection. Concealment has a few additional uses, in addition to concealing oneself (and the rulebook does mention using Concealment on oneself)- one can use it to hide others (allowing them to avoid detection while stationary), it can be be used to hide things, and it can also be used to detect concealed people or things. Concealment is an Intellect skill, and Stealth is an Agility skill. If you're wondering which applies, ask yourself the simple question- is the character trying to hide while stationary, or hide while moving? Stationary uses Concealment, moving uses Stealth. Each skill is so highly useful on its own, that each is worth its own 3-pt. expenditure. It also makes sense to have a character who has one and not the other. In the FH game I run, every player character has Stealth (of all skills, Stealth is probably the one mandatory skill- because one character without Stealth prevents the party from sneaking around as a group). Only a couple of the characters have Concealment, since they really only need to assign one character to search a room, or hide their supply cache. So I see no reason to lump the two into one skill.

I use the optional rule for Desolidification that wouldn't require Affects Physical World for Desolification just to avoid damage from a certain physical affect. (So it's a power with a real cost of 40: Desolidifcation (40), Reduced END: Zero (+½), Persistent (+½), Only to Protect Against Limited Type of Attack.) If you use Desol. in that way to simulate complete immunity from a certain form of damage- fire for example- I think Life Support vs. Intense Heat is unnecessary. The Desol. already provides complete immunity to heat damage. I have been creating custom elementals for my Fantasy Hero game, and just like Fire Elementals get Desol. for immunity to fire damage, Air Elementals get Desol. for immunity to air-related damage. Maybe an air blast is less common than a fireball, but if for some reason my air elemental gets hit with an air blast, I don't want it taking damage. So at least in my case, the immunities to their own elements cost about the same.

Or Desolidification, 0 END Persistent, only to protect against heat damage.

Life Support will protect from damage due to a Change Environment kind of effect, but not from an attack (pg. 298 of 5th. Ed.). So basically, Life Support can help a character withstand almost anything that isn't an attack power; attack powers can still damage the character normally.

I don't see why you would need Trigger, for two reasons. The power with the Linked limitation does not have to be used when the power to which it is linked is used. So if you put the Linked limitation on the Holy Blast, you couldn't use the Holy Blast without the HKA, but you could use the HKA without the Holy Blast. Also, I don't think you can get away with 2-pt. skill levels for OCV for the sword anyway. Any skill levels you use with a linked attack must apply to both attacks. A 2-pt. skill level, by definition, can only apply to one single attack. At a minimum, a skill level with "magic sword powers" would be a 3-pt. level. And since I assume that the accuracy from the skill levels comes from the sword (and would thus apply if another character used the sword), you may as well make them 5-pt. levels with OAF. What is the purpose of the AOE on the Holy Blast? Is that to be accurate with the Holy Blast, or is that to damage more than one demon if you catch more than one in the same hex?

There's no real inherent limitation to it. The FAQ (under the general section on Advantages) suggests the GM not allow it except for very good reason. If you haven't read the FAQ yet, it's probably worthwhile to take a look at it. The first post by ghost angel has a few good examples of when a Naked Advantage might be proper, because all of the examples are situations in which it would be difficult or impossible to simulate the desired effect any other way. The one inherent limitation is that you can only use it on one power at a time. So you couldn't, for example, use a Naked Reduced END: 0 advantage on both a Force Field and an Energy Blast in the same phase- you have to choose one or the other.

There is a paragraph on Linked in the rulebook deals with this kind of situation. Linked attacks must have the same target and the same attack roll. Since you didn't buy AOE for the HKA, I'd have to think that you use the HKA attack roll for both (thus, one roll against the target character's DCV).

A 50-point IPE (all sense groups) Naked Advantage could be used with any one power of up to 50 active points. A 50-pt. Reduced END: Zero Naked Advantage could be used on any one power up to 100 active points. It's based on how many points the advantage would cost if actually bought with the power. Naked Advantage Cost = (Max. Power Active Points x Advantage Multiplier) So if you wanted IPE (all senses) (+1) to be used with any power of up to 50 active points: 50 = (50 x 1) If you wanted Reduced END: Zero (+½) to be used with any power of up to 50 active points: 25 = (50 x ½)