LoneWolf

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.

Just because you are playing a mage does not mean you have no training in combat. Does your mage have more than a 3 OCV, 3 DCV and 2 SPD? If not he has probably had some sort of combat training. Both block and dodge are standard maneuvers that anyone can perform. All characters are able to use unarmed combat with no penalties, so there is no reason a mage cannot do the same. Mages are also the equivalent of nerds in a fantasy setting. It is not unreasonable to think that they were not picked on and bullied when they were younger. They may have actually been in more fights when they were younger than other types of characters. Sure they probably got beat up, but they obviously survived and probably being intelligent probably picked up some defensive strategies. Some mages may even have formal training in combat. The last game I played a mage in the character had to use a staff for all his spells. I gave him a very basic staff based martial art with 3 maneuvers, a martial block, a martial strike and a take down. During one of the first fights I got a lucky shot on a knight we were fighting and ended up taking him down in one shot. I was only doing 6d6 normal damage with the staff, but got a critical hit to the head. That kind of annoyed the other player, because they could not hurt him. Last thing to consider is once the campaign starts all characters are going to be in combat during the game. So unless the game has only just started the mage is been in just as many combats as the warrior.

Personally I would not give the players a bonus and the guards a penalty for the same thing. The penalty to perception for darkness is only for sight. Perception includes all the senses not just sight. Did you also include modifiers for other senses besides sight? If the area is quite the guard’s get a +3 bonus to hear the character, if they are downwind they get a +1 bonus to smell the character. Make the area noisy and the guards now have another penalty, if they are upwind that is still another penalty. What I would probably is to give the bonus to the character instead of imposing a penalty on the guards. With an opposed roll how much the character makes the roll by is the penalty to the other person roll. You could also say that if the guards miss by 2 they are aware there is something out there, but don’t actually see him. Maybe they heard something moving around, but because of the darkness they did not see him. I disagree with Archer about the infrared vision. Stealth covers all senses, but I would not give them the bonus for darkness since if they are have something to counter it.

The big advantage of aborting to defensive maneuvers is the ability to adjust your skill levels. If the character has no martial arts and no applicable skill levels it does not make that much of a difference. . Like anything in game the character needs to be built for it or it does not work well. If I have a mage character with low combat values and some skill levels with spells blocking is not going to do anything. Even dodging is probably not going to be that effective. This type of character has one strategy, keep away from people who can hurt him. Trying to convince the player to block is not a good idea. On the other hand a character with a good martial art and/or a decent number of applicable skill levels can be incredibly effective by switching from offensive to defensive as appropriate. I think blocking is more effective in a Fantasy Hero game then a champion’s game for a one important reasons. Most Fantasy Hero campaign use some form of stat maximum. This means if the character wants to be able to raise his combat values he needs other ways besides straight OCV and DCVV. This is usually done with skill levels and/or martial arts. For all those who are worried about missing out by not attacking every phase remember uncurious and dead characters don’t get to attack. Keep in mind that the odd are always in the GM’s favor for one reason. For the most part each player has only one character, the GM has an infinite number of characters. If you defeat the GM villain of the day he simply makes another. If you kill a minion the GM probably does not even care. On the other hand if he defeats you it usually means you face some sort of consequence. Often times it may have a long term detrimental effect on your character. In a Fantasy Hero game you may lose items or even have to create a new character.

Fantasy Hero already has stats for the BODY and DEF of shields. They also have rules for weapon and shield taking damage.

Don’t forget that you can also add your shields DCV bonus to your OCV when blocking. While many players may not do this the rules are there. This is more of a problem with the players than the rules. There is a whole thread about why players don’t block. I think that a lot of problems result because people picking up the hero system for the first time don’t have experienced players to demonstrate what can be done with the system. A lot of the other game systems have more exposure and support from their company than hero does. This leads to more mixing of new and older players. Piazo has a whole organized play organization for Pathfinder and let’s face it when most people think of gaming they think of D&D.

If all you are looking to do is to adjust the OCV, DCV and damage a skill level based martial art work fine. Where it has problems is trying to simulate the anything else. While anyone can attempt a disarm or a grab the standard maneuvers don’t give you any extra STR and skill levels don’t allow you to do that. Throws face similar problems. Martial maneuvers may not be the only way to throw you opponent, but other methods are often more difficult and many of them do not guarantee success. Without maneuvers things like killing strikes, martial flash and nerve strikes are going to have to be purchased as powers. This makes it a lot more expensive for two reasons. First of all you need to actually purchase those as powers which are usually more expensive than doing it as maneuvers. Second is that doing that will result in the cost of the skill levels becoming more expensive. A 3pt sill level only applies to a limited number of maneuvers. Adding in more powers will usually mean that you have to bump that up to a 5pt skill level. There is also no reason you cannot combine purchasing martial maneuvers with using combat skill levels. Purchase a martial arts with minimal maneuvers and buy combat skill levels. The minimum cost for a martial arts is 10 and 3 maneuvers. For a sword based martial arts you could go with a Fast Strike, Martial Block, and a Martial Disarm for 12 points. Use another 12pts for 4 3pt combat skill levels. You can achieve nearly identical results as the character who put all the points into 8 combat skill levels. Your OCV and DCV maxes are 2 points lower, but you get a +2 OCV when maxing out damage. you also get both an OCV and DCV bonus when blocking. When you attempt a disarm your max OCV and DCV are a little lower, but on the average better and you have a much better chance of actually disarming your opponent.

I don’t have a problem with a character changing out charges for another limitation. What I do have a problem is making changes to the charges limitation. So if the character wants to replace charges with something like extra time or reduced DCV that is fine. But once he chooses the charges limitation he cannot make changes to that or choose it again to get a new set of charges. I would also suggest that the charges limitation be paired with a focus limitation of some kind. When I run I usually make my players come up with a list of limitations they will be using. They can put whatever they want in the list but have to use from that list during play. This is done mainly to speed up combat. If they are combining limitations the combination needs to be on the list. I may allow some substitution to the list when out of combat under the right circumstance. For example if the wizard is lost his staff and is in the lab of another wizard he may be able to use some rare material component he finds there.

Like anything in the hero system skill can be purchased multiple ways. Having a KS, or PS of something accomplished by a full skill is perfectly legitimate and should be encouraged. You can even have different skills of the same name as purchased differently. Generally KS only give you the knowledge of the subject and don’t allow you to actually do anything. PS give you the ability to do something but limited knowledge of the subject. So someone with KS plumbing knows a lot about plumbing and its history, but can’t fix anything. Someone with a PS plumbing would be able to fix the sink, but would not be able to tell you when or who invented anything plumbing related. A couple skills jump out from that list. High Society would be the first. That one would cover a lot of “courtly grace” but if the person wants to be particular skilled at an aspect an appropriate KS or PS would be useful. Knowing how to dance without embarrassing yourself would probably be covered under it, but if you want to be really good at it purchase a PS dancing. Flirting would be charm. Hunting would be Survival Read is literacy. Tourney and battle would be martial arts and or combat skill level, and as Ninja bear state tactics. Falconry is animal handling.

The way to do it is to purchase a high dice attack and put increasing limitations on each dice past the base. So purchase the normal amount of damage for his punch with no limitations and put ¼ limitation on the first increment, then a ½ on the next, and /34 on the next until you reach the maximum dice. Check with your GM for what he thinks the limitation is worth. If your campaign has limits on damage this probably is not going to work without a waiver from the GM.

Blocking can speed up combat, especially in fantasy hero. In most fantasy hero games the players defenses are kind of middle of the road. The attacks they are facing are also not as high as in a champions game. This means that outside a lucky shot it takes a while to take down someone. When you block you stop the opponents attack cold. You don’t have to roll damage, and hit location or figure out how much they character takes. If you use the speed chart like my previous posts suggest you actually have a better chance of taking down your opponent. You are doing more damage and probably have a better OCV. Since your opponent just attacked chances are his DCV is also lower. This may be enough for you to be able to get a called shot in without lowering your chance to hit to low. You don’t have to go for a head shot, a chest shot is actually a good choice. Now instead of doing a 1d6+1 KA you are doing a 2 1/2 d6. So your attack went from doing 5 Body and 11 stun to 9 Body and 26 stun. This is assuming a 15 STR character using a long sword and gaining +4 DC from something like a sacrifice strike. Two characters trading blows without blocking is going to take a lot longer. While the character who does not block can also use the risky attacks it put them at a severe disadvantage. Chances are that the player is going to die is pretty high. Remember that the GM always has more opponent, so the odds are always in his favor. And while blocking or dodging is not an absolute defense it does greatly increase your chance of survival. One last thing to consider is that blocking also is the best defense against the lucky guy who always seems to roll low enough to hit. Seems like there is one player in every group that consistently manages to roll to hit no matter what your DCV is. If this person is the GM blocking is your only defense. Since blocking means he does not get to roll to hit his luck is negated.

That is completely untrue. The only time you cannot abort to a defensive action is if you have already gone. Besides if Bob is smart he is not even going to try to go first, he is simply going to declare he is blocking.

Actually when Steve stabs Bob in 9 he does not abort he continues his block with a 10 or less chance. A 10 or less is actually a 50% chance. Even if he misses Steve still needs to roll to actually hit. This means that the odds are that Bob does not get hit. So on 10 he can attack Steve. Basically by blocking Bob gets two segments of attacks out of 5. Steve on the other hand is probably not going to get any attacks off. Bob blocks in 12 & 3, attack in 5 blocks in 6 & 9 and attacks in 10.

Using martial arts instead of standard maneuvers is the way to go. Buy a couple of extra damage classes to get the damage where you want it. The big thing is not just the damage, it is also the ability to do cool things and keep out of reach. Passing disarm and Flying Dodge are two examples of what you should be looking at. Martial Escape is also one you want to consider. The special effect of that is you move to fast to be held. For the stats you probably want your SPD to be around 1.5 to 2 times the SPD of the average character. Movement should be at least twice that of the average character. An increased non-combat and/or Megascale movement is also something you want. Consider a two slot multipower for this. Your DEX should be the highest in the group One thing to keep in mind with a speedster is that a high DEX and SPD does not mean you go first. It means you choose when you go. Use the SPD chart to get away with things other cannot. This often means waiting until someone else acts. Delaying phase until the end of a segment on a phase where no one else acts besides you allows you to deliver a one two punch before your target can do anything.

Blocking is quite common in the group I game with. I suspect the reason your players are not blocking is they are not familiar enough with the system. Hero system is a very complex combat system with a lot of options Players from games like the D&D often don’t take advantage of the tactics it allows. I guarantee if your players went up against the players from my group they would get slaughtered. Proper use of blocking often depends on using the SPD chart to your advantage. This works very well if your SPD is different than the opponents. It works if you are faster or slower than your opponent. If you are faster than your opponent blocking is a good way to recover from an all-out offensive maneuver. If you are going in a phase when your opponent does not you put everything into taking them down Use maneuvers that give you a bonus to attack and damage, but penalize your DCV. This type of attack has a high chance of taking down the target, but leaves you exposed. After the attack is over and you are about to be attacked you abort your next phase to block. This also allows you to adjust your skill levels as needed. Most of the time your will put them into OCV to increase your chance of blocking, but sometimes putting them to DCV is better. Since you can continue to block at a -2 penalty per attack you can keep going over multiple phases. Eventually you will reach a phase where you are going and no one is attacking you. At this point you simply repeat the process over again. With this tactic you can safely take down a lot of opponents with minimal to no damage to yourself. You can also reverse the strategy for someone who is faster than you. Use block to avoid his attacks until you have an opening and then take advantage of the opening. If you are still being attacked after your big attack, go back to blocking until your next opening comes up. Dodge can also be used the same way. The idea is to create an opening that allows you to attack your enemy without endangering yourself.