LoneWolf

The PRE attack charts have some modifier that can be applied. +1d6 for exhibiting a power +1d6 - +3d6 for violent action (assuming the illusion appears to be doing something violent) +1d6 - +2d6 for appropriate setting +1d6 - +3d6 for soliloquy (could be monster roaring or other appropriate vocalization) +1d6 for target being surprised +1d6 - +2d6 for making an acting roll. So potentially you have a +12d6 to the PRE attack. If this happens while in combat you will get a -1d6 for being in combat. If any of the characters have any physiological complications the bonus could go higher. If this is a well-known monster and the caster can duplicate it well enough you could impose a 0 point psychological complication on the targets for an additional +1d6 - +3d6 bonus. If all the factors line up the PRE attack could go as high as 17d6 with a 10 PRE caster. Chances are it is going to be a lot less, but it will still be enough to get the job done.

For the most part I see no reason not to use all the maneuvers. About the only one I can see not allowing would be suppression fire. Since normally there are no autofire weapons in a fantasy setting it makes it hard to perform this maneuver. The magic rules we normally use do require attacks spells be cast each time they are used so hosing down an area with an autofire spell is not possible. The rules are pretty clear that you can perform a haymaker with any attack. I see no reason to change this. Penalizing a player for choosing a different combat style does not really seem fair. I would encourage the players to reflavor haymaker and other maneuvers. An archer might say they are taking careful aim. A wizard might say they are spending extra time to gather their power. As long as the character is taking the extra time and the penalty to DCV they are good.

The biggest reason there are different ways to end the effectiveness of an opposing power is that the power are different. With the right advantage or limitation you can alter the method of ending a power. Having everything ended by the same method would severely limit creating the exact power you want, and kind of goes against the spirt of the hero system ideals. If every power was stopped in the same way that would mean that all a player had to do was to focus on that and they instantly win. For example if all power ended when you cannot spend END , END drains would become the supreme power. Likewise if all powers were able to be ended by making a STR roll bricks would rule supreme. By having different methods of ending powers it makes it harder to create a invulnerable character.

By locking in the special effect of magic can cause it to be affected by some advantages and limitations. If a character has defenses that only work vs magic he gets those on anything in the pool. In some cases a power will have multiple special effects. For example a fire spell will count as both fire and magic. It also should exclude certain special effects. I for one would not allow lasers or other scientific special effects in a VPP with the limitation magic only. You could do a light spell but that would not count as a laser.

I would go with ECV vs ECV based on ego combat value. Based on ego combat value in 4th edition changes the attack to ECV vs ECV. This often means the target is much easier to hit. This is not just because most characters ECV is lower than their DCV, it is also because most skill levels and maneuvers do not apply. This seems to severely weaken the advantage. Why is someone with a martial block able to apply his skill level to avoid this, but someone putting levels to DCV to avoid the hit not? In 6th edition you can actually define what CV you and the target is using. I believe the Ultimate Mentalist actually does mention using block vs mental attacks as part of the mind to mind combat. That was a 4th edition book.

Personally I don’t see the value of a published modern campaign setting. Most of the when we are using a modern setting we simply take from the real world. Sure books with character especially villains are useful for a super hero campaign, or a box on an organization, but that is about all. Fantasy settings are pretty common and not that difficult to create. Science fiction is where there is a real lack of settings. Of all the campaign settings the most under represented is probably the Post Apocalypse. Hero system would be a perfect this type of campaign.

I would not bother with the resistant def. Shields normally do not give extra DEF, just DCV.

A change environment could work if you only want to keep out smaller creatures. A 1 STR TK will be enough to push back something that weighs less than 18 pounds. Many giant insects fall in that range. If you are talking about something larger it will get expensive. Most creatures don’t like taking damage so you could also use the 1 pt of damage from change environment. It would probably be enough to kill normal insects and unless the insects are controlled in some way even the bigger ones would probably back off when they take damage. Apply the modifiers area of effect radius so it takes them more than a move to get in.

There used to be a variant on luck that allowed you a number of rerolls based on what you rolled for your luck. If you had move then 4 levels of luck you could affect the rolls of others. This would be a perfect ability for the character you are describing. The special effect is that your character is giving directions in combat.

Desolidifcation works well for a ghost but is expensive because all your powers have to be bought with the affects physical world. One alternative would be to give your character the ability to possess people. This could be done as a multiform. The first form would be the ghost form. This form is always desolid, and probably is normally invisible. It has no offensive powers, but has movement and enhanced senses. The second form is when you take possess someone. This is written up as a standard character. Give it some good defenses that don’t work vs certain types of attacks (Typically magic) and whatever powers you want your ghost to have. The powers could be tied to your original origin. For example if you were a medieval knight you could have a magic sword and armor, a gunslinger from the old west may have a pistol. These are not actual items but a manifestation of your spirit.

The easiest way to figure out the damage from a normal penetrating attack is to count the body rolled. That is the minimum amount of stun the target takes no matter how high his defenses are. If the regular damage is higher than the minimum the target takes the regular damage. For a killing attack it is slightly different. In that case you count the amount of body you would have done (before defense) if the attack was a normal attack. That is the minimum amount of body the target takes. Again if the regular damage is higher than the minimum damage the target takes the regular damage. The stun multiplier is handled as normal, but the target like normal you take at least 1 stun per body taken. So as Grailknight said you take 7 stun 0 body. But you take a minimum of 5 stun no matter how high your defenses are. If the attack had been a killing attack and the defense were resistant you would have taken 7 body. If you had 15 points or higher of resistant def you would take 5 body.

Keep in mind that incantations and gestures are usually a ¼ limitation. If you are giving more way to interrupt the spell you should also increase the value of those limitations. With the cover maneuver you have already rolled to hit so this should be automatic. Just roll the damage and if any gets through the spell is ruined. FAST draw simply allows you to draw a weapon as a 0 phase action. If the character does not have a held phase it does nothing. I could see requiring a fast draw roll if the character wants to attack and does not have a weapon ready. Your half phase/full phase option should definitely increase the value of the limitation. A zero phase action does not necessarily take less time than a full phase action. The difference is how much of your concentration it takes up. The option to cast another spell is a mistake. Since you can already activate a spell more than once you could simply cast the original spell. In that case the limitation is not limiting you and should not be worth any points. Keep in mind that unless there are other limitations on the spell you can activate multiple spells at the same time. The descriptions of the limitations are quite specific that you can activate multiple powers with incantation or gestures at the same time. Also keep in mind that a zero phase action still has to be initiated on your turn. Once you start the action you cannot for the most part do anything else until it is completed. Even for actions that allow you to do other things that has to be done on your next turn.

Holding a phase is always a good tactic. Having the higher DEX does not mean you get to go first, it means you get to choose when you go. The mage casting a spell is a perfect use for a held phase. Just because a power takes a zero phase action to activate does not mean it takes no time. What it means is that activating the power does not prevent you from doing something else. Both gestures and incantations specify that they are obviously out of the ordinary. That would seem to indicate a certain degree of complexity to them. A gesture is more than a wink, and an incantation is more than a single short sound.

That would be 4-9 or 2-12 assuming you are using 2 dice.

Aid is not the only way to boost stats. You could simply purchase the stats with appropriate limitations.

It depends on what the power up does and how long it lasts. The description in the link did not really give much I the way of details. Below are a couple of ways it could be done. If the power up transforms the character and they are able to stay that way for a significant amount of time it could be done by purchasing powers and characteristics with the limitation only in hero ID. If the character can only power up for a limited time, you could purchase power and characteristics with the charges limitation. Probably continuing charges would be needed. I built a character called minute man who was basically a martial artist who for 1 minute per day could boost his physical abilities to extremely high levels. You could also apply other limitation to this idea. For example if the power up requires an item that would be a focus. You could also probably apply the unified power limitation. As JmOz suggested extra time and or concentration could also be used. Basically look at what the power up does, and what it takes to activate it and purchase appropriate powers and apply the appropriate advantages and limitations.

I would not allow that for several reasons. First and most importantly it would be unbalancing. Second is the fact that when you coordinate you are basically hitting the person at the exact same time among other things. When you are using a multiple attack maneuver you still make one attack after the other. As to tracking endurance in a fantasy setting that is something that I always do. For one thing it prevents spell casters from becoming too powerful. And it helps to create a sense of realism that seems appropriate for a fantasy setting.

It really depends on how the campaign is setup. Historically there were two major authorities when it came to laws. First were the secular authorities usually the King and nobles. Second were the religious authorities. While there is some overlap considering that the authority of the king was supposed to come from divine right, each of the authorities often focused on different things. In a fantasy setting were magic has a strong influence it is quite possible that there is a separate authority dealing with magic. This could be some sort of mage’s guild or order of wizards like in the dragon lance novels. If there is an organization that regulates magic they should obviously have enough power to enforce their laws. They would also be better able to figure out if someone is not following the rules. Do your really expect the local lord to be able to figure out what spell was cast? If there is not any kind of organization regulating magic then the easiest way to keep the people safe is going to simply forbid the wizard from even living in the city. I could see a law that forbids a wizard from living in a city or town. Of course there would probably be an exception for the wizard employed by the crown or the local noble. Some races may have different laws regarding magic. Elves would probably have access to more magic so be more likely to organize and regulate it.

It is called the Hero system for a reason. I don’t know about other people, but most of the time when I come up with a concept for a character I want to play the concept is usually significantly more powerful than a normal person. Occasionally I might decide to play a character that starts out fairly normal but grows into a powerful hero as the campaign progresses. I want to play Hercules or Aragorn or at least Frodo, not Bob the butcher. Even in real life people optimize themselves its called training. Look at any professional athlete and tell me that person has not pushed their body and often mind to extreme. You can bet that any professional athlete is going to have some very good stats, probably similar to what is seen in a lot of characters. Other endeavors will have similar results, but focused differently. The kid who want to become a doctor or scientist and spends all of his time studying is going to have appropriate stats. In the real world maintaining this level of stats requires constant dedication and most athletes who slack off quickly lose their edge (The stats drop). One thing to keep in mind is that a limitation that does not limit the character is not a limitation. If you put the limitation IIF and charges on a power it should come into play. As a side note charges can be either a limitation or an advantage. If Spiderman is never running out of charges I suspect it is because he bought enough charges that it became an advantage.

If you are going to have caps it should include everything a character can do. Otherwise all your characters will be purchasing those things that allow you to circumvent the caps. That being said your caps are way too low. A cap of 6 DC means that a character with a 10 STR and an offensive strike is offensive strike is already maxed out. It also means that any character using a battle axe or similar weapon is already maxed out. I would probably raise the DC to at least a 10 maybe even to 12 with the understanding that is other than pushing that is the maximum damage a character can do period. Anything that pushes their damage over that point is not allowed. The caps should be on what the character can purchase, not what they can use. So if the character has a high STR and purchases a maneuver that adds +4 DC that is going to limit the number of combat skill levels they can have. Adjust your cap on OCV, DCV similarly and limit the character on all aspects. Don’t forget to factor in talents and free maneuvers as well. Since all characters can perform a haymaker with any attack that means that all characters can add +4 DC. About the only thing I would not factor in is pushing. Pushing is supposed to allow characters to go above and beyond their normal limits. Also in a Fantasy Hero game pushing is not guaranteed. One thing I would recommend is to use the characteristic maximums. Using that a soft cap works better than most of the caps I have seen people posting. Under that the maximum base CV are 8, if a characters wants to go higher it cost double. Most of the time the players are not going to want to spend double so will start looking for alternatives like skill levels or martial arts. If you are trying to simulate the D&D concept of starting at first level I would recommend reducing the number of starting points. MrKinster is correct that a 175 point character is a lot more competent than a 1st level character. Try dropping the characters to 150 point or maybe even as low as 125. Much beyond that it gets difficult to create a character that can actually do something.

I am not a big fan of hard limits. When I run what I usually do is to let the players know that if the players create characters that are too powerful in an area I will up thing to match. For example I normally prefer the DEX and SPD of the characters in a fantasy hero game to keep the DEX and SPD at moderate levels. If all the characters end up with high DEX and SPD I will boost up the opposition. Since as GM I have unlimited points to spend this is a war they can never win. After a while the players get the idea and don’t go overboard. Players want their characters to have cool power that makes them unique. Spell casters can create spells so can easily accomplish this. For characters who don’t use magic this can be a problem. The talents can often solve this problem, but there are not a lot of talents even with the extra talents in Fantasy Hero. The hero system martial arts book can add more options for your players. You can also allow them to create their own talents subject to your approval. If you are going to set limits keep them broad. Instead of putting limits on weapon master put a limit on the total DC they can achieve. Make sure to account for all the ways that a character can get his damage up and set a realistic limit. Many GM’s when they do this set the limit too low because they fail to factor in things like pushing and haymakers. So instead of putting a restriction on the base OCV and another one on skill levels combine them and put a limit on how high the OCV can go period. The same goes for DCV and damage. Trying to control the individual methods of how a character achieves the results is like herding cats. Maybe allow one player in the group to be able to go slightly over one of the limits to give them something unique. So maybe the thief in the group can get his DCV slightly over the limit, while the barbarian can go slightly over in damage.

In some cases the cost of an item in currency is based on how many points it cost. In those cases putting a limitation on the power makes it cost less in credits or whatever you are using for cash.

This limitation is one that is designed more for heroic campaigns where the characters are not paying points for equipment. So Iron Man would not be using it. But If the GM is building a starship that you can hook up electrical devices to power or recharge it may be appropriate. Not every power or limitation are appropriate for every campaign.

Even someone who has never been in a fight can try and block or dodge. This is not using player knowledge this is almost instinctive. When someone is trying to hurt you the first instinct most people have it try to avoid being hurt. Even a small child knows enough to try and get away from the bully who is trying to beat him up. Ever been picked on by someone tougher than you? What is the first thing you try and do? Get away from him (half move and dodge). If you are cornered and he is punching your face what do you do? Try and protect your head by putting your arms in front of your face (block). If elementary school student can do it, surly an adult in a dangerous world can. To me it seems that it is more likely that a person not trained in combat would attempt to block or dodge. They are not used to combat so are more likely to follow their instincts to avoid being hit. Deliberately standing your ground so you can get in a hit seems to be more likely the move of someone with combat training than a noncombatant. That would mean the character who is untrained in combat who does not cancel to a defensive action is the one that is more likely using player knowledge than the one who fights more defensively. If the supposedly noncombat character is a mage and does not block or dodge so they can get their spell off that is worse use of player knowledge.

While Hero system does not have levels that does not mean the characters cannot grow. The important thing is how much experience you give out. The one thing that is different about a Fantasy Hero campaign is that most adventures take multiple games which means if you use the guidelines in the book it progresses at a much lower rate. Typically our “Adventure lasts around 4-8 sessions to fully play out. To fix this we give out experience on a per session basis not a per adventure. At the end of the adventure we usually also give out a few extra points as a bonus. This works out to getting somewhere around 1-3 XP per session, and usually about 5-10 as the bonus at the end of the story.