Kraven Kor

A "rule of X" would be more useful, to me, for evaluating whether published NPC's or other resources I don't / don't want to build myself are going to match up to my PC's. I've done fairly well at balancing stuff against the players and ensuring every player has a moment to shine or is more or less matched up to one another. And it can be an issue; in this or any other system with any kind of "building" to it, including D20; a very optimized character is going to "steal the thunder" from a not-very-optimized character. Characters don't have to be identical or even need it to be a "fair fight" between them; but all characters should be able to contribute and a poorly built character playing second fiddle to Captain Optimal may cause some friction or boredom. I'm sure we've all had that player who just has to excel at everything, win every encounter, and have a defense against every attack; and they can be really, really annoying to the other players who might have more interest in a compelling story and have thus put together a more believable, flawed character.

No, that's statistics. Trig is Math with a sadistic personality. (Note: Kraven Kor does not actually know what, exactly, trigonometry is.)

Exactly as the book recommends: Basically, a dispel does not "destroy" a power; it turns that power off until the power can be re-activated. Which, in the case of a focus, is up to the "reason from effect." How does your dispel work, and what is the nature of the focus being affected? In my setting / system, the focus would need to be re-charged or re-prepared, and "dispel" suppresses and disperses magical energies. A truly "independent" magic item would not be destroyed by dispel; but rather turned off for the duration of that scene or for up to a day, or until recharged in some fashion (most of my magic items require a "full day of recharging" using some arcane / magi-tek process, if they use charges.) Note: the new forums are, apparently, giving me fits and/or trying to make me look bad

SPD can always be used for abort-to defensive actions which may or may not require END usage. No "Rule of X" is ever going to be a completely infallible way of comparing two characters, but SPD should definitely be a factor. I would recommend using the Active Points of (edit) the highest defensive and offensive powers rather than just the dice of damage or DC's though. Will / might better reflect advantaged attacks / defenses? Dunno. Is 15 rDEF < 15 rDEF (Hardened), in this light?

This is why Drains vs. END are kind of a "Warning" power. I usually force them to be very low # of dice, or to split their Drain damage between END and REC or something. Even a 1d6 to 2d6 END Drain, in a heroic setting at least, can be a one-shot KO power, really. Yeah, but only in that "Oh god it's a train wreck, I can't not look!" way Who were you again? We're trying to have a conversation here

For the record, I was not refuting your point, just asking for clarification, Tasha The bolded part is what I was missing; I did not think it was "fully penetrative" by default.

Thus far, HCM's functionality has eluded me. I watched the videos; I can't get it to do anything other than have a bunch of information duplicated in yet another place and format I'm sure the problem lies somewhere between the chair, and the keyboard, and not with the program itself

That is my take, and apparently Steve's as well, to an extent.

And, Steve Long has already addressed this http://www.herogames.com/forums/topic/73777-night-vision-clarification/?hl=nightvision&do=findComment&comment=1885593 Basically, a non-answer (and that isn't a bad thing) leaving it up to the GM with the note that, in typical write-ups, fantasy races that dwell underground would just have standard "Nightvision," but that GM's are to use their discretion. In my case, "reasoning from effect." I'm going to apply a -1/4 limitation "Low-light Vision" to the nightvision of the racial packages to ensure equity.

I guess I'm missing how Spatial Awareness is "better" than sight? By default: Spatial Awareness is ranged, and a sense, but not discriminatory nor does it have analyze; it is targeting, but not tracking. Yes? Now most people build spatial awareness as 360-degree, discriminatory, etc. but I don't think - or don't see how - it is inherently better than normal sight? IR vision I get. There is some confusion re: Nightvision right in the text, and again I would rule "absolute darkness" as equivalent to a darkness effect vs. normal sight and UV vision.

But destroying the focus, in general, does not "permanently remove the power from the character." Most of the time, destroying a focus just means the character can't use the power until they can replace the focus, but for a few cases.

My concept is that there is a constant weather cycle between the north and south hemispheres resulting in a very consistent pattern of near-daily storms and showers across most of the temperate equatorial to tropical zone - the region which has a day / night cycle. These storms follow nearly the same path every day; they boil up out of the southern seas (the south pole, which faces the sun, is all ocean with most of the water of the planet kind of "pulled" toward the south) and then roll north. The areas the storms traverse are tropical, wet, and lush; the bands between the storm tracks dry and arid. The moisture then freezes at the "twilight circle" (above which the closer sun never shines, and it has a half-year-long day where the more distant blue dwarf star provides a sort of twilight-day) and there is a massive glacial wall that quickly builds up above that latitude.

Eh, plenty of other things can slow things down. AoE explosions can be tricky; but I just remove the highest dice rolled (roll 10d6, add up for full damage; remove highest die for each increment as DC's are removed.) Heavily advantaged attacks and adding or removing DC's can be tricky. Calculating things with autofire attacks on multiple targets with AF skills can be tricky. Drains and other stuff with a fade / return rate can be hard for some players to track - I try to track for them but then I'm juggling more than I'd like. I have pretty good results so far as speed of play when running HERO, but YRMV.

Well, trying to do "gritty steampunk fantasy." So I'm thinking natural nightvision, as granted by the racial package, is as stated - PSL vs. darkness penalty. "Magical" nightvision, or "magi-tech" will be "darkvision" - built as non-sight spatial awareness that is targeting, discriminatory, etc.

Question: Does nightvision work in "absolute darkness?" My assumption is that the base nightvision power is, essentially, "light amplification" or something similar; it cancels out penalties from normal darkness. True "darkvision" like for dwarves would be something else; spatial awareness based on a not-sight sense group or something. N-Ray vision, maybe. But if in a no-light-to-amplify situation - deep underground or in a sealed chamber - does "nightvision" as the base power work? Or is "absolute darkness" essentially a form of the darkness power?

Skill-Levels-as-Powers works for "Fate" type stuff, or probability manipulation, as much as it can represent insane skill. Danger Sense, Combat Luck, certainly. Maybe a "9-lives" type resurrection regeneration with charges and a condition in which it would not work; they "can't die" unless that is, indeed, their fate, or their destined moment to die?

Yeah, well, these youngin's didn't learn on an abacus or with clay tablets and a stylus like we did (My worst offender is actually older than me LOL.)

Yeah, again I've ran combats with dozens of NPC's and all "by the book" and can get through all my NPC actions in a few minutes so long as it is all just standard attacks and such. It only bogs down - for me and my group - if there is the need for a clarification to the player, they can't decide what to do, or there is just a lot of :math: to do as part of a more complicated action. Some of my players also just cannot grasp how to quickly add up totals (I can roll 30d6 and have it totaled up in seconds; an acquired skill more than any mathematical genius on my part.)

Not much you can do on that; it seems that how HD handles STR addition to HTH attack powers is binary; it's either "on" and you get your full bonus STR regardless of advantages or STR minimum, or off and you have to calculate yourself. Or that has been my experience.

I also tend to not use END tracking for new players until they are getting the hang of the basics, at the least.

My setting:

I will say that, for me, HERO combat *does not* take longer; it just appears to. We always get "more stuff done" in a typical HERO session than in a comparable D20 session. This is, however, partly due to me running a fairly "gritty" setting; NPC's generally don't keep fighting after a solid hit or two, whether KO'd or wounded, NPC's do not fight to the death in most cases, etc. So you don't have NPC's taking 10-20 attacks before dropping. I can run larger combats, especially, with much less hassle or time expenditure than trying to do so with D20. Each individual action can, indeed, take longer (some actions more than others) but this has not been a consistent occurrence for me. I can certainly do a HERO "phase" faster than a D&D "round" if comparing a standard HERO attack to, say, casting a spell with its own individual rules / exceptions, saving throw, etc. Working up an entangle with AOE: Explosion and 1 character in the area of effect with duplication and differing duplicates, sure, that's going to take a bit Superhero fights, without the gritty wounding and hit locations and such, certainly can take longer (and perhaps *should* given that superheros are supposed to be able to take a beating.)

Why? Dispel does not permanently remove magic powers from a magic-using character; just the effects of said power. Nor does the dispel power outline anywhere that it would destroy a focus. Again, it begs the question "How does dispel work in your magic system?" Sometimes the "dispel" power is not going to actually reflect what "dispel magic" could do in D&D terms. "Disjunction" (a spell which specifically destroys magic items) would not be built using the "dispel" power; but rather (most likely) a killing attack that only damaged magic items. Or a transform if you want to get all wonky with it.

Correction: Martial Maneuvers you paid points for do not cost END *above the END paid for the STR used.* Sorry if that was implied elsewhere or whatever; just wanted to be sure it was clear.

That is one way. If you think about it, a "temporary" enchantment is going to "require a focus" or be linked to the focus; you could thus dispel the effect, or break the focus. A "permanent enchantment" is the focus; you can't (or, perhaps, "shouldn't be able to") dispel a magic sword because it is not an "effect;" it is an item. Of course this kind of brings in "how does dispel magic work in your magic system?" So dispelling an enchantment placed on an ordinary sword will end the effect; dispel on an "enchanted sword" would suppress the effect? If I'm understanding dispel correctly?