Kraven Kor

Re: Spell: Animate Object. Help... me.... Animated Object -- Big 'n' Slow [this represents large objects -- such as boulders, heavy dressers or chairs, large tables -- which run over or smash their victims.] Player: Val Char Cost 20 STR 10 9 DEX -3 10 CON 0 5 BODY -10 -10 INT -20 -10 EGO -20 -10 PRE -20 0 COM -5 4 PD 9 4 ED 9 3 SPD 11 5 REC -2 22 END 1 6" RUN00" SWIM-24" LEAP0Characteristics Cost: -42 Cost Power END 60 Automaton (Takes No STUN) 0 12 Damage Resistance (4 PD/4 ED) 0 10 HA +4d6 (20 Active Points); Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Cannot Be Used With Multiple-Power Attacks (-1/4), Cannot Be Used With any combat manuever but strike (-1/4) 2 Powers Cost: 82 Cost Skill 0 Breakfall 8- 0 Climbing 8- 2 +2 OCV with unarmed strike only Skills Cost: 2 Total Character Cost: 42 Base Points: 42 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Spell: Animate Object. Help... me.... Animated Object -- Very Flexible This represents ropes, drapes, and other non-rigid objects which can grab and constrict their victims. I gave them martial manuevers to represent this Player: Val Char Cost 10/20 STR 0 17 DEX 21 10 CON 0 4 BODY -12 -10 INT -20 -10 EGO -20 0 PRE -10 0 COM -5 5 PD 12 2 ED 3 3 SPD 3 4 REC 0 20 END 0 3" RUN-60" SWIM-26"/8" LEAP4Characteristics Cost: -32 Cost Power END 60 Automaton (Takes No STUN) 0 5 +10 STR (10 Active Points); Limited Power Only for grabs / disarms / throws (-1/2), No Figured Characteristics (-1/2) 1 Powers Cost: 65 Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 4 Choke Hold: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab One Limb; 2d6 NND 5 Takeaway: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, Grab Weapon, 20 STR / 30 STR to take weapon away Martial Arts Cost: 9 Cost Skill 0 Breakfall 8- 0 Climbing 8- Skills Cost: 0 Total Character Cost: 42 Base Points: 42 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Spell: Animate Object. Help... me.... Animated Object -- Flyer This represents small objects such as books, candelabra's, buckets etc. that will fly about and harrass their victims. Player: Val Char Cost 5 STR -5 20 DEX 30 10 CON 0 1 BODY -18 -10 INT -20 -10 EGO -20 0 PRE -10 0 COM -5 1 PD 3 1 ED 0 4 SPD 10 3 REC 0 20 END 0 6" RUN00" SWIM-20" LEAP-1Characteristics Cost: -38 Cost Power END 60 Automaton (Takes No STUN) 0 16 Flight 10" (20 Active Points); no Noncombat movement (-1/4) 2 4 HA +2d6 (10 Active Points); Only to add to movement based attacks. (-1), Hand-To-Hand Attack (-1/2), Cannot Be Used With Multiple-Power Attacks (-1/4) 1 Powers Cost: 80 Cost Skill 0 Breakfall 8- 0 Climbing 8- Skills Cost: 0 Total Character Cost: 42 Base Points: 42 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Spell: Animate Object. Help... me.... Animated Weapon Player: Val Char Cost 10 STR 0 10 DEX 0 10 CON 0 5 BODY -10 -10 INT -20 -10 EGO -20 0 PRE -10 0 COM -5 1/4 PD 0 1/4 ED 0 3 SPD 10 4 REC 0 20 END 0 0" RUN-120" SWIM-20" LEAP-2Characteristics Cost: -71 Cost Power END 60 Automaton (Takes No STUN) 0 10 Flight 6" (12 Active Points); no Noncombat movement (-1/4) 1 10 HKA 1d6 (15 Active Points); No STR Bonus (-1/2) 1 27 Armor (3 PD/3 ED) 0 Powers Cost: 107 Cost Skill 0 Breakfall 8- 0 Climbing 8- 6 +3 with any single attack Skills Cost: 6 Total Character Cost: 42 Base Points: 42 Experience Required: 0 Total Experience Available: 0 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Spell: Animate Object. Help... me.... 8d6 HA is actually less than 40, 27 actually. I'm not allowing him to give them ranged attacks, these creatures are generally not smart or agile enough to use combat manuevers or tactics. Big Rocks strike, small rocks move through, drapes grab, etc. You also have to understand that 8d6 normal attacks in my campaign, so far, have been relatively ineffective since most everything I put them up against (that is meant to be more than filler) has resistant defenses of some sort. Most creatures have at least 10 PD once you add inate PD and any Armor or whatever so such attacks are rarely doing more than stun, whether vs. PC or NPC. That, and I really love using automatons as bad guys (undead, trolls, golems, and the main bad-guys the gith are all built as automatons.) These summoned creatures generally have very low defenses, low BODY, their attacks are defined as unable to be used with any combat manuever BUT the one thing they are designed to do. Things like drapes and ropes and such I gave Choke Hold and Takeaway and a decent DEX, but low STR and such. Edit: Ack, automaton doesn't make PD/ED resistant -- I feel silly. I'll post the "pets" I have made so far when I get them looking somewhat complete. Still looking for ideas.

OK I have a mage in my campaign who has an animate object spell. It is built as a summon, 2x 42 point characters, slavishly loyal. It has -3/4 RSR which is subject to Skill vs. Skill, -1/2 Lockout (can't cast other spells while animated objects are in use), -1/4 Conditional: Must have objects to animate, and -1/4 Incantations. I'm wondering if this covers this spell properly or not. The basic concept is that he animates the object, giving it a semblance of life so long as he keeps the spell up. It does not cost him endurance or require any detailed concentration -- the objects more or less think for themselves and act on their own, fueled by his magic. Issues I'm having: 1. First off, automaton is expensive and I don't see drapes, rocks, or furniture as being stunned. They are not very smart so I gave them an INT of -35, EGO -0-, PRE 0, and generally buy off swimming. This gives me enough points to make them useful, at least, but not enough to buy the life support they should inherently have as non-living objects. For now, I'm cheesing it by putting a -5 "Keep it simple, stupid" limitation on the life support. Automaton does not make these overpowered (yet, as the points increase on the objects it could) but I have my dignity as a FH GM to preserve here so I hate BS solutions. 2. If I buy the INT that low, they should require an INT roll to obey any command of his. If I don't, I can't afford the automaton or whatever. I'm having a very difficult time building balanced, useful "animated objects" that still fit that description and don't feel more like homunculi. So, how do I best represent the ability to animate objects so as to create, for now, what equates to general nuissance and light attacks. I want them to be able to do 1d6k / 8d6 tops for damage, have low defenses but take no stun, and fit into a 30 point max multipower as a "low powered" spell. I also want them, by power or disadvantage or whatever, to fit the description of "animated objects." Anything non-living can be animated.

Re: New (old) site found :City of Solis OMG!!! That calendar creator is soooo cool! If it only output to a grid style calendar!

Re: How to limit NCM? I do it without point adjustments on the maximums, then charge for "raising the minimums." What you have to remember is that whether you buy it in a package or not, 1 STR = 1 Character Point. Raising max can be seen as a bad thing, depending on your players and whether they will min/max right off the bat or not. Two examples: Human, base 10 str, spends 10 points to be STR 20. Orc, base 10 str but +2 STR for racial modifier (costs 2 points) spends 8 points to have STR 20. Still costs him 10 points. Now, if you adjust the NCM Max, sure the orc gets to, say, 23 STR for 13 points which would cost a human 16 points. I fail to see the problem. I use the following racial NCM Max: Human -- 20 for all primary stats; 8 PD/ED, 5 SPD, 10 REC, 50 STUN/END. Elf -- 18 STR/CON/BODY, 23 DEX/INT, Infinite COM, 20 EGO/PRE; 8 PD/ED, 5 SPD, 8 REC, 50 STUN/END Gnome -- 16 STR, 28 DEX, 20 CON, 16 BODY, 30 EGO/INT, 15 PRE, 20 COM. 6 PD/ED, 6 SPD, 8 REC, 40 STUN, 50 END. Dwarf -- 20 STR/EGO/INT, 17 DEX, 23 BODY, 28 CON, 15 PRE, 16 COM. 10 PD/ED, 4 SPD, 12 REC, 75 STUN, 50 END. I'd list the rest but you get the picture. Each race has advantages and disadvantages, and humans do NOT get screwed if only because they don't have 1/5 of their points dedicated to racial abilities.

Re: What do you think is the best way to balance armor use? I'm making a custom Armor list, and will be using a few things. Number one, I'll be using a Maximum DEX by armor, though I'll be letting them buy skill levels to offset this. Number two, not all armor will provide its full defense against energy attacks. For now, the highest DEF of the party in my game is 6 and that is from combat luck. None of them took money as a perk, so none could afford better than chain armor. I'm going to be trying to make sure they all stay around the same DEF so I can steadily throw deadlier attacks at them. But, the best way to balance armor is with the attacks you are using against them. 6 DEF armor negates 1d6k and lower attacks, while 3d6k is a bit much vs. this DEF (9-10 avg. body.) Also, hit locations very much balance armor -- especially if some areas are left unarmored though this can get VERY nasty and is not recommended if you dislike the idea of killing your players.

Re: Long Timelines Well, for my world, I used a combination of the above ideas. Now, lets look at this from another angle. Every now and then you'll hear some funky story which tosses our idea of history on its ear. I am no historian, but in high school Egypt was ranked as the oldest society at about 5500 BC as its "dawn." Then they find ruins somewhere that date to 6000 BC. Then someone claims this temple in Peru is actually 17,000 years old and still has accurate solar, lunar, or celestial calendars built into it or whatever. Then you hear about a battery, that should have worked to produce electricity, is found in some sumerian ruin. So exactly how well do we know our own history? Was Noah's Ark a legend, a true story, or some part of both? I can pull up scientific evidence that the flood did or did not happen, and I can show you one expert who will say it covered all the earth and another who claims the whole story is folklore about when the Mediterranean overflowed into the Persian Gulf and took out many inhabitants of a once fertile valley, and that the great flood hardly covered the whole world. This uncertainty is a great tool in thinking of Fantasy worlds. I make up history as it actually happened -- a general idea at least -- but only focus on recent history for the real details. My world has three (now starting the fourth) "ages." The First Age was a span of time unknown, and was the time where the gods were creating the old races (Elves, Ogres, Gith/Lizarmen, Gnomes, Dwarves) and nobody knows much about this time -- this is the equivalent of cave man times. The Age of War was when the races began fighting their gods' jealous wars, and is a long story. During the age of war, the world did indeed have high tech -- energy weapons, nuclear devices, aircraft -- and the destruction they caused is one of the main reasons they will likely never be seen again. After the Age of War, Vau -- "GOD" -- did a number of things to ensure the Age of War would never repeat. The world took a LONG time to recover, still hasn't in places -- but the Age of Darkness lasted for god knows how long while the world recovered, and now the Age of Men has begun. Humans, too, advanced to almost industrial age technology before the Gith Wars gave them their own Dark Ages to deal with. Humans have a history of about 5500 years, a little longer if you include their legends and folklore concerning the earlier times. Elves have a written history of about 20,000 years -- from the day their new city, Solacia, was founded on Telos. They know of what happened prior to this, but not how long it took to transpire. The elves spent the dark ages wandering the wilderness, and in most places are still a nomadic and primitive people, only in Solacia have they reclaimed their former nobility. Most people, even most young elves, find anything further back than the Gith Wars as mere legend. Few landmarks remain to tell these tales -- there are some ruins and ancient writings that hint at things, and I even plan on introducing some very very ancient stuff to the players at some point. Long histories mean tons of lost civilizations, ancient runes, and long-sought-after items of power. In short, long histories are easy to pull story ideas from. They don't make sense, and are impossible to justify to anyone who tries to throw real world logic at them. Tech doesn't exist (much) on my world partially because magic makes it impractical, partially because everytime anyone gets close the world tries to blow up, and partially because the powers that be like to ensure that their creation does not wind up a smoking cinder again.

Re: If magic cost full price...

Re: Traps, Tricks, and Treasures - what should go in it It would definitely have to include this trap.

Re: What is restrainable? Restrainable is defined as restrained by something other than grabs or entangles, if I recall correctly (no FREd at work.) That being said, I can't think of any reason to ever use this limitation. Anyone?

Re: SF Novels for Star Hero? I really like the universe as described by Bujold in the Vor series, excellent socio-political structure to work with and nothing too far out in left field so far as tech goes. The enderverse? That would be a boring game, though I'd love to see the continuous-uncontrolled-sticky-NND-megascale-AOE 20d6 RKA "Dr. Device" in action

Re: Language Trees: Do you use them? Thieve's cant is more like slang and hidden meaning, not a language or often even a code. Take modern drug slang, for instance, where saying something as simple as "Hey, is Mary there? I owe her 40" is actually a drug deal in progress. The slang is ever changing but those "in the know" catch on pretty quick while the authorities can take some time to catch up.

Re: Language Trees: Do you use them? I use a tree for Lostorum. Lostorum's languages are based on gradual digression from one of several "root" languages. Human language is the most fragmented, as humans were not created during the First Age and instead evolved during the Age of Darkness. Thus, human language was crafted on its own and does not stem from one of the original tongues spoken by the created races. I'd post it somewhere, but it is just a word doc and I don't know the first thing about hosting and such.

Re: How do you reveal magic items? I do it a number of ways: Many items -- mostly lesser items -- are bought as "independent." How it is revealed depends on the function. If it is simply a + OCV, I tell them what it is right off but the "in character" definition is "You pick up the weapon, it is unnaturally light and balanced, and the blade shows no need of sharpening." If it is a "Wand of Fireballs" I make them spend some time discovering its secrets, ie. they make an Analyze Magic roll and/or cast their Detect/Analyze Magic Spell (I make detect magic a descriminatory and/or analyze sense if they choose to buy it that way.) If it is not independent, then they must spend character points to unlock the item's powers. This is generally for items with multiple powers (like a wizard's enchanted staff) or items of high power.

Re: Deadly Blow talent too powerful? Well, when my characters start doing that much damage, they'll start fighting A LOT more guys at once. If you are doing a Ninja / Martial Arts fantasy campaign, and your characters do that much damage, throw more ninjas at them! This is HERO, after all, not Harn, so no harm in having your players be bad-asses, you just have to adjust your villians to them sometimes. But yeah, in low fantasy, it may not be appropriate. And that is right where GM Discretion comes in. Very little in the book is truly "broken" or "abusive" if you have an eye for balance and can work around, or say no to, the suspect power(s). When my fantasy players start doing 4/5d6k damage -- they'll be fighting bad guys who can do the same, or they'll be fighting so many at once that if they didn't drop each in one shot they'd surely lose.

Re: Deadly Blow talent too powerful? It is all about the limits you place on things. The "raw modifier" rules are there for a reason. Also, note that the HTH and HKA attacks are written as "plus HTH or HKA damage." Use whatever rule you like. If you are using Hero rules, where equipment is not bought with points, there is no harm in allowing the wielder to modify the attack with skills or powers. A wizard spell that adds 1d6k lightning damage to a sword is perfectly legal -- the sword is paid for in points when you look at how it is built, just that those points aren't charged to the character. What is or is not legal is entirely up to you, the GM, for your campaign. You have the final say, and if they are trying to do something which gives them too much damage or whatever, say no. If they want to argue that "well the book says this" then kindly direct them to the page in FREd which states something along the lines of "the GM is always right." For instance, in my campaign, I have no active point limits or defense limits or anything. But, if a player comes to me on spending xp and presents an attack that I feel will imbalance the game -- via damage done, active points, flaky rules interpretations -- I simply say no and they've learned to listen to my rulings on such. I want my players to be Heroes, but I also want them to be challenged without having to myself resort to badly worded transforms and uncontrolled 0-end drains

Re: Fantasy Races You must face the Gazebo alone.

Re: Deadly Blow talent too powerful? I don't use it as it is listed. I allow players to buy + xd6 killing attack damage with limitations, but I have tighter controls on those limits and I ensure they aren't wildly outdamaging the rest of the group. My rogue has a +1d6 HKA, Only if target surprised (-1/2), Only to add to an existing attack (-1/4 -- this is so he doesn't have an "unarmed" killing attack.) So, all said and done this costs 9 points to make his shortsword do 2d6+1k with strength on a sneak attack. Similarly, I let my archer buy a cheap multipower consisting of +1 pip Killing attacks with raw modifiers (compound power in HeroDesigner 2.x) -- so he has an Armor Piercing 2d6-1k, Autofire 3-Shot 2d6-1k, and a triggered 2d6-k if he kills a target and another target is directly in line. This multipower costs him about 12 points. Of course, I'm going for cool LotR style SfX for my characters -- the archer wants to be like Legolas, so I built powers to allow him to be so.

Re: Question on how much to charge for a custom talent... I don't want all magi doing it. Most Magi in my world are not combat oriented. They hide away in laboratories and secret lairs or towers and eventually die of their own curiosity. So, the base rule is part of the magic rules -- the rule concerning casting time by active points. I don't want a magi to buy this off entirely, ever. I want him to be able, in emergencies, to cast faster. It is not something they will be allowed to buy for the whole MP or for a particular spell -- it is something they can choose to do if needed, and spend the END and hopefully succeed in the penalized roll. Does that make more sense as to why I want it as a talent? Since some magi will have it some won't? I could also see it as an advantage on the MP but that effects the active points of everything in it. I could also see it as an advantage on the spell itself (the original way I wrote it up, +1/4 advantage per time increment the spell would be able to be 'hastened' by.)

Re: Divine Grace? Depends on a few things, for me. If I have a Pantheon, I use Elemental Controls where I can taylor the abilities to fit the ethos / dominion of the Patron Deity. If it is a monotheistic thing, the VPP would be best. NCC is one way of doing it with the VPP either way, another is to make it a limited selection of powers available based on the god or simply on the type of miracles you want to allow. Using the "Limited class of powers available" limitation you could actually make a list of things he would be capable of. Depending on the size of that list, an EC may be cheaper.

My campaign uses a Multipower for magic. A house rule is that spells are required to take extra time based on active points -- anything over 30 is full phase, over 50 is "full phase + extra phase," anything over 80 is full turn, and anything over 120 is minimum of full turn among some other limitations (must be a ritual, etc.) Now, I want mages to be able to cast spells quickened by using extra END. x2 END for each increment they reduce the cast time by. If the spell does not cost END, the first increment reduced makes it cost END and further increments are x2 END each. In addition, each reduced increment applies a penalty of 1 to his spellcraft check. Example: Theodycyones wants to cast a 100 AP Energy Blast. Normally, it would take him a full turn to get the spell off -- unfortunately, time is not a commodity he has at the moment. So, he decides to quicken it to 1/2 phase attack. This would be 4 increments so the spell would cost 8x END to cast (Magi nearly always have END reserves by the time they get a MP this large) and he would be -4 penalty on his spellcraft check. If the 100 AP spell was bought with charges, the total would be x6 END and -4 to the check. How would you build this? I want to just call it a custom talent but am unsure of how many points to make it cost. I would just have them buy off the extra time, but with it being tiered there is no logical way (that I know of) to make it a limitation on the pool, beyond creating a custom mod with an arbitrary value, so I just made it a house rule.

Re: Losing items or death? In HERO, I'd ask one question: Did they buy it independent or not? If it is not independent, I would treat any "destruction" of a magic item as a suppress. The character would be unable to use the item(s) until I deemed they had taken enough time aside (during downtime) to repair / replace the item. If they bought it independent, *poof-tinkle-tinkle* is the line the comes to mind.