Richgee

I loved the rm game. I came to it in the late 80s. Combat is dangerous so the death rate and extended healing didn't seem like an issue. The system out shone dnd which is where I started. Only real problem it had was the exp system. The worst example I can show is as a player I had a 3rd level magic user who had picked up a wand of fire bolt as reward on the last adventure. We encounter a dark drake the gm had placed to discourage us from travelling in a certain direction. We foolishly thought cool let's take it down. After some sneaking we got close on round 1 two out of 6 pc's died and I hit it with a fire ball. I then topped out on my first crit role, topped out on the second then again on the 3rd. This was enough to pretty much vaporize the drake. If you still have the books check how much experience you get for killing a creature 27 levels higher than you for the first time, using a magic wand for the first time, with killing blow bonus and it was your attack plan that lead to the victory. If your having trouble it elevates you to about level 12 if I remember right. All that from one fluke hit and stupidity. Also it annoys your gm hugely

You could factor any inherent powers into a background package and then discount the package deal to encourage players to use them. Such a package could include perk follower in good standing, ks own religion, and a few tangible bonuses. This would be offset by psy lim follows religious doctrine and obeys religious leader. Then discount it with a package bonus. The danger would be penalizing players for not wanting to have their characters to follow a religion. Also you may be creating a system where every player is a Palladian of some type. If you were to reward players for their characters Faith then for balance you need to reward their lack of Faith too. In the old game "supernatural" all characters get powers except the true nonbelievers who's very presence reduces every one else's effects. The theory being their absolute disbelief in anything magical, mystical or supernatural is a tangible power that infuses the world around them.

To go back to your initial question there are no rules to prevent a heroic character from buying 20 str and as many dc as they like plus martial manoeuvres, except those you enforce on them through campaign character creation guidelines. If your players are the type that push the limits in damage constantly their characters will lack in other areas. If no one pays for pre or ego stats have monsters intimidate with pre attacks and teach them the value of the other stats. A brick barbarian martial artist with a 12d6 hth attack is no good to anyone if he runs from tough talking pixies.

Back to your magic system and explaining how it works, the concepts in role master of essence, channelling and mentalism work quite well. Essence being the magical force that permeates the world in a swirling flow. This gives rise to areas of power and lack there of. Channelling is a connection to your God and is dependent on your Faith. Mentalism is drawn from your inner reserves of Will. The flows of essence allow you as a gm to cap active effects in certain areas as a basic limitation on all essence spells. This can be useful to push players to adapt their play style dependent on their location in the world. This also allows you to introduce less powerful enemies that pose new problems for characters used to weighing in with 3d6 RKA, 2" rad fire balls when confronted by a goblin patrol. Channelling is dependant on your connection to your God, which introduces the notion that failure to adhere to the tenents of your Faith reduces the effectiveness of your magic. As Prattchet fan the notion of small gods might be fun. All God are only as powerful as the number of followers they have. This leads to priests of major religions having access to large active point spells but having a God who takes very little interest in you except to punish your transgressions. Where as as the last worshipper of a small God your spells are limited in power but your God really takes an interest in your daily life. Perhaps granting abilities not generally open to the standard priest. Mentalism could run from an internal endurance pool with average active effects limited by your ego with the ability to push for an endurance multiplier. When drawing your maps add the essence flows as an over lay this adds picking your ground for a battle super important for mages. This can also explain why a magic rich world puts up with those dark cultists on their door step, since they naturally set up camps where the essence is weak and their channelled powers are unafected. The actual interactions and history of your pantheon of God's is less important than how they interact with the world and pc's. If you create a basic out line you can fill in the blanks as you go. You just need to note the new information for consistency. So you don't need to know how much the spider God of the deep dwellers likes the God of objects jamming the kitchen drawer at the concept phase but just how annoyed he is when the pc who worships her is when he steals the 8 point ruby eyes from the giant spider golem he sent to protect his temple. Try not to kill your self getting bogged down in deatail, and definitely acquire a copy of the old shadow world box. If you insist on going the hole hog look at space master planet creation for calculating average rain fall and temperate zones. Some traveller source material covers this as well. Good luck with your project

Surely there are two distinct notions here that need very different approaches. 1 creating holy ground is a function of a professional skill "priest" that requires ks "religious rituals". The effort in role playing terms that it would take to have the head of your religion authorise the use of this would make it self limiting. The perk "priest" is required to create holy water on holy ground. 2 holy weapons are major magic items, and should be created using those rules. With the advantage damage is holy. What is more problematic is what effect do holy ground and items have on creatures that don't believe in your God. For example what effect would Christian holy items have on Shinto vampires. If you accept that holy is limited to only those who believe then the comparative ease of access to holy water is balanced. I had to have a head scratch on this one when running a horror campaign a few years back. And found if you allow it as a transformation you end up drowning in holy submachine guns and hand grenades.

You could treat it as a multi power, only to summon friendly spirits or those defeated in combat. Then give each slot a different creature with appropriate psychological disadvantages. Your ability to control their actions depends on their ego and psychology. At creation you set aside points for some future slots. You would then require in game earned points to buy off the creatures disadvantages which would increase your control. If you took the lesser no conscious control disadvantage the interactions between character and being would then be negotiated through role play rather than number crunching. It may be a bit low tech but as a gm it would be my preferred approach.

The concept of AC doesn't sit well in the hero system, since regardless of what the dnd rules say in reality it is quite simply how good your armour is. The effect of armour drops off quite quickly in dnd and hit points becomes the real currency of combat. The joy of hero is that armour stops your characters dying but let's them fall unconscious from stun damage. If you are looking to simplify and make combat more deadly I would consider ditching pd/ed and only counting rpd/red convert all damage to killing dc. You will need to remove all restrictions on purchases of body even reducing the cost and force an allocation of character points based on class for every "level" the character attains. Take a mid level 10 fighter with 65hp it takes approx 12 successful hits with a 2 handed sword no strength bonus to kill him. In the hero system not many non superheroes will walk away from 4 such hits even with good armour. In hero terms your lv 10 fighter needs a body of around 40 even with 75 percent coverage of def 5 armour to come close to sustaining that volume of damage. In the hero system avoiding damage is way more important than it is in dnd, so you may need to consider that body and stun are not comparable to hp when calculating your hit chances.