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JPicasso

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Everything posted by JPicasso

  1. I think these are good rules of thumb. I did something similar, with 325 pt chars. They all had a limit slightly lower than yours, 50AP for example, but they could boost one area, (AP, DEF, OCV/DCV, or SPD+1) If they downgraded one , they could upgrade another. Seems like we agree. Luckily, my group is green, and I built the characters they described, so shouldn't be any gotchas.
  2. I'm new again to the 6e Champions game, but I"ve played 4th ed quite a bit... so I'll take a quick look. 1. First off, what are the campaign's limits on AP, OCV, SPD, DEF? 2. Where will these adventures be taking place. I live around Chicago and can say there is probably only one day a year where the temp is > 100F. 3. I've never heard of anyone pushing a multiform, and wouldn't allow them to magically get points in the middle of the adventure for their alternate form, so talk to GM about that limitation. That's just the main guy. I didn't dig much into the spirit form. Okay, quick look at the ice form. #1. You can't take (I would not allow) OIHID for a multiform. You are, by definition, in the alternate id by being a multiform. #2. Under multiform, it defines how focus interacts. You cannot take more limitations for a focus, if your multiform originates from a focus, b/c it's understood that your multiforms will already have the focus with them. #3. You've taken three levels of characteristics, some with expendable focus. I would allow that, but it might just be cheaper (less of a headache) to add another multiform, and have THAT multiform defined as needing some expendable ingredient so that it can be stronger. It would be easier for everyone to track what form you are in with this method also. #4. Again, what is the maximum Active points allowed in your game? Summary, yes, you've cheesed the rules a bit. Revise and return, and pull the lever again to see how it looks.
  3. Thanks for the feedback. Generally, I like the lower powered heroes, more like x-men on their first mission rather than x-men after they've trained for a while. But I am becoming aware that 4th edition point levels need to be upped some. Also, they will be quickly brought up to 350-400 level soon enough but there will be powers that they will want to purchase in order to maintain effectiveness so I want to start them lower and give them opportunity to purchase those powers and defenses at effective levels. Good points on the one villain vs many supers. I hope to level out the heroes sooner than later so I have a better idea what my numbers should be. Although I think I'll be getting some Champions source books soon enough, that should help more.
  4. Page 35 is what I was looking for, for the campaign limits. How does anyone judge a villian vs a team?
  5. Okay, been away from the super hero Genre for a long time. I'm most familiar with 5th, and but I very much want to set up a game for my kids in the 6e universe. So, I'm going to make up some characters for them quick like, so they can start playing and then they can change modify or completely redo anything they like. But I'm at a total loss for the kinds of limits that would be reasonable for a silver age 300 point super team. Are there any "accepted" formulas for max damage levels / combat levels etc that people use? Also, what rules are good for villian levels? for instance if I have a 3 man super team at 300 points, what point/power levels would a single villian with nominal henchmen use? I know a lot of this will come with experience, but looking for a jumping off point where the heroes are not going to be easily defeated by the BBEG. Thanks in advance.
  6. Re: Staff of the Druid I think we should focus on why a druid would walk through a tree when he could very well walk around it? I mean, even a large fantasy tree would only take a couple of extra steps, why would this druid risk damaging the tree? I don't we've defined what advantage the druid would have, by walking through the plants/trees. Is it for improved movement or is it for concealment, as in another fantasy settings' pass without trace? I think the tunneling could be bought as a single power, requiring medium to heavy plant cover and have tunneling be at a decent movement rate. And unless you are going to be almost always in a thick forest/jungle setting, I would think the Plants only limitation would be worth well more than -1/4. -1 or more is my vote. As for the ESP, you might limit it to plants that were alive at the time of the event. So events near long-lived oak trees would be perceivable, but only events after the catastrophic brush fire would be available in the grassy plain. This helps give the GM an 'out' if knowing the info would ruin a plot. ditto what the others said about the attack and telepathy.
  7. Re: Are those PC balanced/well made? Hard to say without knowing how your run, but I'm running a similar campaign... basically a 'B' team supers, where all of the 'A' level supers are batteling an interplanetary meanace... But, I built all the characters on 220 pts with lots of player input, and will take them to 250 very quickly. As to how your guidelines compare to mine: SPD: I limited every hero to 4. Players are new to HERO, but not to RPGs so picking it up is pretty easy, still I didn't want a 3 spd brick overshadowed by an 8 spd speedster. So far, it works out, mooks get a 3 spd, leiutenant level baddies get a 4 and boss/ more powerful ones get a 5 or 6. CV or ECV: No mental powers. That takes care of 1/2 the equation. CV around 6 or 7, balanced vs the attack level. High level damage characters should be offset a bit by a lower ocv, and the reverse is true. (Took this from Mutants and Masterminds, it's worked for us so far.) Powers : around 40 pts. powersuit is 45AP, brick has a 50 STR, Batman can bring about 35 attack but never misses, etc. Def: around 10-20, half of that resistant. Pistols mostly don't hurt, but rifles can smart. skills: noone has more than 3 pts into a skill. Not saying my numbers are "right", just telling you what I'm using. At first glance your levels seem slightly higher than mine, except for Def, which would make for powerful attacks that drop people after one or two hits. If that's the style of the game, then rock on, brotha. As for balancing your game: have a big part in the character creation. give a bonus point or two at character creation time for anyone that supplies two or more plot hooks. Also, have everyone think about what role they play in the game. We have one char that has Area knowledge and supers knowledge, and contacts with police to help on the "city" aspect. We have another that has uncontrolled esp, for recurring plot threads. We have a "science guy" (who competes with Ed begly jr) for dealing with fallout from previously mentioned interplanetary threat. Every group has a munchkin or two, if it's a problem, set a minimum number for skills, require code against killing, or some other limit. Don't allow "loner" characters. Every team perhaps needs one outsider, but others should be team focused. More long-winded than I thought. I did not view your links, but if I see any glaring problems, I'll respond again. One last thought: I've never been on a team or ran a team that ever, EVER ran from a villian. They've been captured, or rendered unconscious, or otherwise ineffective against said villian, but never have run. It just doesn't happen.
  8. Re: Teleportation Power Ideas? I had a swordsman a while back with teleport powers... He had an area effect attack, non selective, he teleports everywhere in the area and attacks, desolidification (with some limits), he was effectivly teleporting to a safe location and back a lot. (although damage reduction would probably be a better mechanic) also, and this gets cheesy, he had darkness power by teleporting himself everywhere in the area, getting in everyone's way, but avoiding damage by not really being there. It also had limitations, but was fun now and again. You could have some neat effects with teleporting the sword, or throwing it and teleporting it back to yourself, but that didn't fit with my char. Still lots of possibilites with the effect of teleporting things to and fro.
  9. Re: cowboy brick How about a steam locomotive based char? I'm thinking steampunk or wild wild west (for effects only) he has a move-through with xtra knockback (the cow catcher) , and lots of running (straight line only), some sort of flash and/or darkness (steam) and a wicked punch. Possibly would make a nice villian ala juggernaught.
  10. Re: Clockwork and Chivalry in HERO: rule development stuff I still think an End reserve is the best course of action. HERO handles higher "level" spells with active points. Active points are how different abilities are measured. While not perfect, it does a decent job of keeping things "even". AP also determines how much END a power would use. (see where I'm going here?) So, your lower "level"... and lets drop the term level right now. Your lower AP spells will cost 1 or 2 END per the typical 1END per 10 AP in the spell. your Higher AP spells will cost more END. This kind of handles what you are looking for. Another thing to consider is that by forcing the spells to be 0END, and THEN put a limitation on them that they work through the BODY of a focus, really raises their AP unnecessarily. You'll end up with powers costing more than they would in another Fantasy setting. Not that that is a bad thing, but it is another factor to consider with your BODY focus. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that HERO has a mechanism for this, I vote you use it, and tweak a bit, with the ablative effect, rather than coming up with your own, and complicating the process. And, if you have not yet visited, killershrike.com has some very cool takes on different magic systems in the HERO world. Worth checking out.
  11. Re: Clockwork and Chivalry in HERO: rule development stuff You could sort of mimic this with an endurance reserve (call it a mana reserve) that would power a wizards spells. Instead of normal recovery, the caster would have to make a skill roll with, say, -1 per 10 end already in the reserve (or -1 per 20, whatever works) Sounds kinda what you are doing, and it's already there. Would also handle if you have any high-mana zones where the caster might get an automatic REC/ day on an item. One problem I see with this, is what is to stop a wizard from carrying a pocket full of one-shot foci in their pocket? If all I have is low level spells, I would have no trouble powering up a gob of foci, and never having to worry about increasing my reserves in a single object.
  12. Re: Photographic Reflexes This might be better balanced if the character could only have x points of skills / MA and would require him to re-observe someone exhibiting those skills (in real life, no videos) for a certain time. I'm not familiar with this task master, but it sounds like he has powers that "as written" are too unbalancing for an RPG.
  13. Re: Do you think this use of Personal Immunity is reasonable? Ha! Reminds me of a 3.5 game where our sorcerer would CENTER the fireballs on our thief with improved evasion (or something like that). That was one of our standard tricks. But I digress... It would certainly get stale, but would be fun for an adventure or so. Especially if you were up against a particularly difficult master villain who's minions were proving to be most of the trouble. Back to the drawing board where the gageteer passes out a newly minted weapon to everyone from their VPP that took advantage of a vulnerability of the minions.
  14. Re: Anyone have a terminator statted out? Vondy, Thanks! I was directed to that site for another item, but there were no links to the top level. Surbrook had done a very nice job with the content. IJ, Yes, it seems like all my needs are met in the Beastiary. Might be time to pony up for it. Hows the art in that one?
  15. Re: Do you think this use of Personal Immunity is reasonable? Your reply only leads to more questions. So I'm thinking you are in one of three situations: 1 - You are a PLAYER and your gm has given your group a new toy. 2 - You are a PLAYER and another player showed up with a new toy. 3 - You are a GM and a player told you they were bringing a new toy to next week's game. If I'm way off on the situation(s) let me know. So, here is my response to the above situations. 1 - have fun with it. Prepare to be power-gamed. 2 - have fun with it, but perhaps drop a couple of hints like "WOW, that's so cool, I didn't even think the rules allowed for that kind of thing!" 3 - This should never, NEVER happen. There should be NO time where the GM is not privy to the private goings on of each character. Every power from your basic EB to your 1 point destroy the world power should be reviewed and thoroughly vetted by the GM. The only time the GM gets surprised is when they have forgotten a basic rule, even after reviewing the characters. I would not even consider running a game where I did not have finalized character sheets for at least a week before running a game. Anything "new" would just not work/be allowed/exist. Hopefully you are in one of the first two, and not the third. If you are, a simple, "Sounds Cool, bring it to the game next time and I'll look it over, but for now your character does not have that power yet."
  16. Re: 6E What happened to HKA? Ice, the difference is KA vs normal damage. The brick puts on brassknuckes and gets a 1d6 added to his punch. OK, I'm cool with that. The same brick picks up a pairing knife and suddenly he can cut down a door with it? No. He should just be punching. The difference is using STR which normally does normal damage vs paying 5 points to make your 55 STR all killing. Maybe "killing" ought really be an advantage? Hmmm, this is turning out very heavy. I think I'll stop here and just keep my x2 STR adder with Killing damage, but I do recognize that arguments against it are founded.
  17. Re: Do you think this use of Personal Immunity is reasonable? As a player, it sounds like a fun trick. Everyone runs in and fires away with no regard to anything, knowing your teammates won't be harmed. As a part-time GM I can see it getting abusive. But I would probably let my players use it and have some fun, but let them know that there are only so many charges, or make the charges very hard (requireing quests and what not) to recover. But set it up to force the players to redesign the powers when it's time to find another toy. I think we need more information. Is this a supers game? normals? Fantasy? Also you mention "given" to them... given to them how?
  18. Re: 6E What happened to HKA? Well then, I think I agree with most of you. 1. I do not agree with the idea that base damage was complicated. 2. The concept of arriving at a 6d6 KA with only paying 5 pts for the first 1pip is ridiculous. 3. The doubling rule is a good one. 4. Pres, I do like your idea of buying HA the same as HKA and using str to double it. I think I like it a lot. One could still buy large amt of str to counter grabs and escapes, but the "attack" value of your str would be limited to doubling your HA. This would bring both of these two powers in line with each other in terms of DCs and would make a multipower with both HA and HKA more efficient and useable. In truth we rarely ran into this trouble with HA, it was usually tacked on as an extra 1 or 2 d6 to enhance a strong, but not "primary brick" strong. However, now I suppose I have to mosey on over to the HD forums to find a good way to include the doubling rule w/o editing every description on KA.
  19. In 4th, and presumably 5th, there was a built in limitation on Hand-to-Hand Killing attacks that the damage from STR could only serve to double the base damage on a HKA. The 6ed seems to have removed that, and Hero Designer confirms. Is this an oversight? Is this to model the fact that if I'm strong enough, I can throw a 1pip shuriken through someone? and boost it up to a 3D6 HKA with my 25 str? Personally, I found the x2 dmg very handy for keeping KA more reasonable level. ...I see this is handled with the "real weapon" modifier. Does any one play with this?
  20. Looking for a perspective on a terminator ala Arnold for an adversary. One of our group is very T2-ish and I'm hoping to tie into the genre with some T1 enemies. I suppose I could stat my own up and "show you mine" first, but I'm new to the villain creating biz. Any input would be great.
  21. Re: Need a dinosaur, okay two. I just needed human sized dinos with teeth. And I just put down quite a bit of $$ for the 6ed rules and pdfs, so I have not spent on anything else. I'm a big fan of the HERO system, but the group I'm in is not very familiar, so I wanted to see how it goes before I spent anymore. As is went, I just picked an attackvalue, ocv and spd and attached them to a CON and STUN and a nice description. It worked for the evening, but I was looking for a better baseline to start from.
  22. Re: Need Help with Low-powered supers Good points EL, but too late! the players are not familiar with the HERO system at all. One played a few games of CHAMPIONS in the time before, but not since. I settled on 225 point characters who are all very different, but since I created the characters from their descriptions they all feel cool, but certainly all my STYLE. I think we will play a few more times and as they become familiar with the rules, they can rebuild or create a new char as they want. And I do like the disconnect from DEX. The powersuit character has a 10 dex and 8 str, and is one of the heavy hitters in the group.
  23. Re: Need a dinosaur, okay two. Awesome, thanks! Know of any other HERO sites that would have dino-related source material?
  24. Anyone have a velociraptor and/or a T-Rex statted up? Thanks
  25. Re: Degenerating Activation Rolls IJ, yeah, I wish it would have been included with the rest of the limitations, that was my point. It looks like the power groups at the front of Chapter 5 that include adv and lim that are normally only associated with those types of powers. It would have added consistency if they could have all shown up in chapter 7. Good points with the comparisons I did. I would also never consider the power completley useless and allow infinte 8- rolls after 6 successful activations. (13,12,11,10,9,8) Right now I'm leaning twoards -3/4 because it seems somewhere between the -1/2 and -1 requirements listed for ablative defenses.
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