Mr. R

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Or take a page from "Sky High" Warren Peace Hero Mother, Villain Father!
 
Imagine the role playing:
"Hey mom I fought with dad last week!" 
"Oh dear!  Who was he working for this time?" 
"Dr. Demonicus!  Don't worry we won, but he got away!" 
"Thank you!  I'll have to talk to him again I see!" 
"Please mom, don't!  You either end up hooking up for the weekend, or arguing and almost getting into a fight!  What do you see in him?" 
"He has the bluest eyes, (Sigh)!"
"EWwwwww!  MOM!"
 
 

Deadly blow has its uses, but like anything can be abused.   Besides a thief’s backstab it can also be used for a paladin’s smite evil.   I allow it in a heroic game but usually limit it to a single die.

OK where did this get mentioned?  The thought of that old school villain the Monster with a 2d6 HKA and 60 Str can now do a whoping 6d6 HKA scares the *&^% out of me!
 
 
 
I like this as it seems easier to explain and implement.  I am going for Plug and Play ideas as I will never be sure whether I will have people who know Hero as players.  (Heck I was in a Palladium game where one of the players forgot to check what level her experience indicated for two whole levels.  After we checked it turns out she had just been adding exp pts since level eight and she was now technically level ten.  No one noticed because she was SUCH a great role-player. )

Hmmm I like that!

So thank you for all your help.  I think I'll go with the following ideas:
 
I think a more elegant solution is weapon based MA.  I like the Four Bs from a while ago, and it will make warrior types differentiate themselves more (Like a Bull [two weapon] stylist using twin axes, another twin daggers and the last a classic sword and dagger combo).  I will also include at least two non weapon MA, for those who want to play a Caine type PC.  One will be very defensive, the other very aggressive. 
 
Deadly Blow- only to mimic something like a strike from behind, the classic thief ability!
 
Combat Luck- Since I am limiting armor (Leather is Def 2,  Studded is Def 4,  Chain is Def 6,  NO PLATE), this will help give some resistant def.  One level per 100 CP with a second if limited, like only in heavy armor OR even better Only in No Armor.  SO yes the MA type could have 6/6 def, but the moment he places a leather armor on... POOF gone!
 
Ideas?

Halflings are the threat they don't see coming, the ones they never expect to be dangerous. And 90% of the time, they're right. But that other 10%...
 
That could be fun to roleplay. Act harmless, get your enemy to underestimate you. Probably won't keep working if it's overused or you develop a reputation.

Would you please explain how being free to make what you want leaves everything bland?

I do love this concept, just not as a player character.  Once its a player race, they're in the public and visible all over, and more of them show up to make the world seem like its filled and has all these races in it.  They go from "almost never seen" to "town full of them nearby"

This is a hold over from ADnD 2ed where the ONLY class a halfling could get ANY decent level in was thief.  No wizard.  Cleric was like level 7.  Druid was level 10.  Fighter was level 5.  And don't even think about Paladin or Ranger.  So Halflings were pigeon holed into Thief!
 
Now they can be any level and any class.  Do you really want to tangle with that halfling village as the local cleric is a level 12.  Or a group of halfling rangers who wander from town to town.  
 
My point is that NOW you are free to make what you want!

There was an article in an OLD dragon magazine where a GM did this.  
 
The players were getting bored of being the good guys and wanted to let loose their Inner Mr Hyde.  So he put the game on hold, they rolled new PC, all scums and creeps, and he gave them free reign to do what they wanted.  And they went nuts.  Robbing, pillaging, and ... other stuff.  Culminated in them getting a small gang together to attack and loot a small town.  Thus endeth the arc.
 
 
Now back to the regular PCs, who are coming back to town after their latest adventure, to find it ransacked, beloved NPCs dead (or worse), buildings destroyed, etc.  NOW the PCs got mad (as did some of the players)  But most used it as a chance to roll play, especially trying to bring their evil PCs to justice.
 
Now this was obviously a mature group, so be careful.  Make sure you know what they can tolerate, and remind them, what they can do, you can do back!

I find this is a common trope in some movies "Be prepared to root for the bad guy!"  Yeah!  because everyone else is worse than he is.  Ocean's Eleven is a perfect example.  We like them, but forget they are all crooks and con artist and pick pockets and safe crackers.  The ONLY reason we root for them is that their target is SO unlikable.  The Sting is another excellent example!

Have all your character's start with 8 in each main stat, rather then 10. Selling back those points gets them 14 extra character points to build their characters with.  This will provide more of a spread in their starting characteristics and allow them more points  to individualize their builds from each other. 
 

Actually 5th Ed

There was an article in an OLD dragon magazine where a GM did this.  
 
The players were getting bored of being the good guys and wanted to let loose their Inner Mr Hyde.  So he put the game on hold, they rolled new PC, all scums and creeps, and he gave them free reign to do what they wanted.  And they went nuts.  Robbing, pillaging, and ... other stuff.  Culminated in them getting a small gang together to attack and loot a small town.  Thus endeth the arc.
 
 
Now back to the regular PCs, who are coming back to town after their latest adventure, to find it ransacked, beloved NPCs dead (or worse), buildings destroyed, etc.  NOW the PCs got mad (as did some of the players)  But most used it as a chance to roll play, especially trying to bring their evil PCs to justice.
 
Now this was obviously a mature group, so be careful.  Make sure you know what they can tolerate, and remind them, what they can do, you can do back!

High Presence stat add in tactics, teamwork for a start

Gimmicky. Avoid, unless you're building the setting around it -- like, these weapons or other artifacts are central elements of the setting, and it's known that yeah, people have had to do this before to obtain the Big McGuffin.
 
Potentially interesting, especially if you connect this somehow to the "world is broken" premise you alluded to before. Whoever or whatever broke the world, however it happened, leaves the world open to these supernatural influences. Also privides an "endgame" in which the PCs can fix what was broken.
 
Dean Shomshak

Coleen Wing and Misty Knight.  Have to have KnightWing Investigations!

no. It's Where|While I Read

Over on RPGnet I am doing a WIR of the core rule book as I bought it recently.
 
Link:
 
https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/wir-coyote-and-crow.905053/

Also I think some dungeons should be alien in nature and thought. There seems to be this idea that everything in a Fantasy has to make sense. Heck even in the real world we don’t know really why people did what they did.