LoneWolf

If you really want to simulate D&D type magic look at the advantage Delayed Effect. Although to me using the Hero system to simulate D&D is kind of like turning steak into hamburger. One thing to keep in mind is that if you use a VPP the Wizard essentially knows every spell. You can require all spells to be from a prewritten list, but nothing prevents the player from writing a huge list of spells. For Fantasy Hero you don’t really need a framework. Spells in Fantasy hero tend to have a lot of limitations on them so often end up being incredibly cheap. Most of my attack spells are under 15 points and the other spells are usually even cheaper.

The first step in any successful tactic is assessing the situation. Part of assessing he situation is understanding your opponent, but it also includes being aware of your surroundings. You also need to be aware of your own abilities and those of your teammates. Once you have assessed the situation you can start looking for opportunities. Hugh is right about all tactics having a counter tactic. That is why it is so important to conceal your tactics from the enemy. This is what Sun Tzu means when he says “All war is based on deception”. Forcing your opponent to abort his action is often a good tactic. Not only does it prevent you opponent from attacking it can allow your teammates to take advantage of the situation. For example if the villain aborts his 2 to dodge my attack in 1 I can move back to allow my teammate to use his area of effect attack and the villain cannot dive for cover because he has already acted. It can also allow a teammate to get off his haymaker. It also creates a situation where now the entire team can go all-out offensive in phase 2 because the villain cannot act. At this point I have forced my opponent to act and have created an opportunity for my team. Whether my team can exploit the opportunity is another thing, but at least I created the opening. The large group of low powered opponents is using the same tactic against me that I used in the first example. The first example was based on the idea that I am attacking a smaller number of more power full foes. There defenses are higher including DCV so I have to work harder to affect them. This is not the situation when I am facing a large group of less powerful opponents, so I will need to adjust my tactics. I should have an easier time hitting the weaker opponents and my attacks will be more effective. At this point I switch to a defensive stance putting more into defense while still being able to attack. Areas of effect attacks are particularly useful in this situation. I also use the terrain to try and limit the number of opponents that can attack me. This will be along drawn out combat. In each case I assessed the situation and adjusted my tactics appropriately.

The VPP is the best way to go. If your wish is for the genie to fight something the VPP is used to summon the genie. Special effect is everything in the hero system. There was a college of demon summoning written up in one of the old Fantasy Hero companions that had very few actual summoning in it. Most of the spells were written up pretty similar to the spells from the other colleges, but the special effect of all of them were you summoned up a demon to do your bidding. There was an attack spells that was written up as a simply RKA that you summoned up a demon to attack your opponent. After the demon made the attack it disappeared.

On good tactic is to hold phase until just before your next phase. This allows you to go twice before your opponent can do anything. If your enemy does not act in that phase it allows you to go fully offensive in the first phase and then take the appropriate strategy in the next phase. For example you hold phase twelve and allow you opponent to act. Just before your next phase comes up you attack all out putting all skill levels to offensive and using a maneuver that gives you a penalty to DCV. If you manage to stun you opponent you continue attacking full out and will probably take him down. If you did not stun him then you switch to a defensive maneuver so he does not take you down.

I have done something similar to this with an NND KA that does body. The defense was surviving the attack. This is very expensive or it is completely useless, but it does work. Probably need at least 6d6 which puts it at 270 active cost minimum. This is probably not something a PC is going to be able to afford, but works for a major villain.

Does having an obvious focus mean that others automatically know that you have the power the focus provides even when the power is not in use. Your answer to dsatow’s question on invisibility raised this point. I have always gone by the assumption that an obvious focus is only obvious when the power is in use. For example if you have ring that shoots energy beams it is only obvious that the ring is the source of the power while you are actually using it. If that is the case would invisibility not cover the obvious focus while not in use? If that is the case would not the armor be invisible unless the person takes damage?

Under the old rules most package deals also reduced the maximums on other stats. Most of the times the net cost of the racial maximums were 0. For example elves had reduced maximum on CON and BODY to pay for the cost of INT and EGO. Also disadvantages from the package deals did not count towards your point cost they just reduced the cost of the package deal. So most package deals cost around 5-8 points. So if played a race that had a package deal cost of 5 points you still had another 145 points to spend. The package deal may have given you 10-15 points of stuff, but that did not count towards your maximum. Not saying it was a better way, just stating how it was.

I am trying to create a mending spell that will repair objects. Can healing be used for this or would it require transformation? If it does work does that mean that normal healing can be used on object or does this require some sort of advantage or limitation?

Flash vs Hearing NND with defense being hearing flash defense Mental paralysis with the special effect of fascination Images vs hearing

Do the characters without code vs killing have any limitations stating they are casual killers or the like. Normally in a champions campaign there is an understood 0pt reluctance to kill. This is not the case in a dark champions campaign, but a standard champions campaign is usually assumed to be this way. Actually if the players with a complication are ignoring it you can in fact enforce it. At the least you can require them to either buy it off, or change it to something else. This is no different than a character with a vulnerability choosing to ignore the extra damage. You players with the code against killing need to decide if they want to keep it.

Unified Power is basically the idea that powers actually one power. Doing it with stats can be dangerous especially if apply it to all your stats. Like Doc Democracy said any drain on any power is a drain on all powers. If you really want to put a limitation on your stats a better choice would be only in Hero ID, or even a focus.

Your marital art needs some adjusting. The martial strike and offensive strike are very similar maneuvers. Both give a bonus to DCV and damage. A better combination would be fast strike and offensive strike. You use your fast strike on fast hard to hit targets that don’t do a lot of damage. The offensive strike is used on targets that are easy to hit but soak up damage. You may also want to include a martial dodge to use vs ranged attacks. Other maneuvers would also allow you to do more than just hit your target. Also consider dropping your OCV and DCV by 2 and picking up 4 more skill levels. This will allow you greater flexibility to adjust to the situation. That way you can adjust your combat values to adjust to the situation. For example if you are fighting something that is hard to hit, but does not do much damage you can boost your OCV to be able hit them. If on the other hand you are fighting something that will do a lot of damage to you, you can boost your DCV to avoid being hit. If you do like I suggested and pick up a martial dodge you can really pump up your DCV to extremely high levels.

For a campaign like you described what you could do is to start with a heroic character and then add powers. Build a heroic level character which would mean 175pts. Don’t go above normal human maximum for stats, but include all the skills you should have. Leave out extra damage classes for martial arts. Essentially create a heroic level ninja. Make sure to give him any background skills he would have, but no powers. After the heroic level character is complete add 225 pts of stats and powers to it. Choose a theme for your powers and try and stick with that. The theme can be as broad or as narrow as you want, but it should be a factor in any stat or power you buy. For example you could be infused with the power of a mystic creature like a dragon. That could justify heightened stats and a wind assortment of powers. For a character like this I would probably look at some Asian mythology. Maybe one of the four mythic creatures?

END use is based on the active points in the power. The formula is 1 END per 10 points with a minimum of 1. So for running it cost 1 END for up to 15” of running. From 16-25” cost 2 END, and so on. Martial Arts have two things you purchase directly. The first are the maneuvers themselves, the second are extra damage for the marital maneuvers. Maneuvers add flexibility to your character by allowing you to do more things in combat. Having more options is always a good thing. Throws are a good example of this. Depending on the situation throwing someone can either be a minor setback for them, or it could ruin what they are trying to do. Many of the maneuvers are improved versions of standard maneuvers, but other allows you to do things that standard maneuvers cannot. A martial art allows you to create a fighting style for your character that can be highly effective and unique to your character. You can also buy combat skill levels with a martial art. Combat skill levels are essentially floating bonuses that you allocate as needed. You can do three things with a skill level, but only one thing can be done at a time. You can use a skill level to increase either your OCV, or DCV. Each skill level give you a +1 to the relevant STAT. So if you have 6 skill levels they can be dived up in any combination that equal 6. You could put 3 into DCV, and 3 into OCV, or you could put them all into one or the other. If you are dodging for example you would put everything into DCV. You can also use 2 skill levels to increase the damage of your attacks. So with 6 skill levels you could increase your damage by 3 DC, but that would mean you cannot put anything into OCV or DCV. Skill levels are incredibly useful and allow you to adapt your fighting style to meet the situation. A multipower would be a very good investment for your character. I would highly recommend you purchase one even if it means you have to sacrifice some of the other things you have purchased. Reduce some of your stats if you need to. You could drop also drop the CON to 23, the INT and EGO to 13, PRE to 15, BODY to 13-15 and STUN to 30. Put a focus limitation on your resistant DEF to reduce the cost and invest the points in a multipower. In all honesty your character as it is written in the original post really can’t do all that much. Your character can basically trade blows with another character. Who would win is going to depend solely on who is more has better attack or defenses. This character would not last long in the campaigns I play in, but that is because we all have years of experience with the system and have a good sense of tactics and strategy.

Lucius covered how the movement and SPD work pretty well. About the only thing I would add on this subject is about REC. When you get a Recovery you add the amount of your REC stat back to your END and STUN totally up to your maximum of that STAT. There are two times you can take a recovery. The first is after segment 12, but before segment 1 of the next turn. This is referred to as POST 12 Recovery. Normally everybody gets it at the same time without doing anything. The second is when you take a recovery in combat. When you do this you drop to 0 DCV so unless no one can attack you this can be dangerous. So basically how much END you burn over your recovery determines how long you can realistically fight. From the STAT’s you posted in the beginning of the post you have a STR of 60 which means you use 6 END per segment when using your full STR. You also had a 20” running which would cost 2 END per segment. So that means if you used your full STR and running each segment it would cost you 8 END. You have a SPD of 6 so this would be 48 END per turn. Your REC is 20 so you use 28 END beyond your post 12 Recovery. So at the end of the first turn you are down to 32 END, by the end of the second turn you are down to 4 END. So you start burning stun after the second full turn. This assumes that you are using both STR and Running at full. Chances are you won’t use both at full each segment, so will last a little longer. If we drop your STR to 30 and running to 15 the numbers change significantly. Now instead of using 48 END per segment you use 24. If we drop your SPD to 5 this number goes to 20. This will allow us to reduce the amount of points you spent on REC and END and still allow you to fight as long if not longer. Say we buy your REC to 15 Instead of 20, and your END to 30. Now you burn 5pts more END per turn than your REC. This means it takes you 6 turns to burn through your 30 END instead of going through your 60 in a little over 2 turns. If you only use your STR and don’t need to use your running you can fight until knocked out. You originally paid 114 pts for these stats, my way costs 36. I can take those points and put them into a martial art and skill levels and will still be able to do the same amount of damage, but also have a lot more flexibility. 31 pts will get me a decent martial art with about 5 maneuvers. Buy 6 levels with the martial art for another 30 pts and you have spent 97 points.

You spent way too many points on stats and not enough in other areas. First thing is to drop the STR down by around 20-30 points minimum. Also drop down the SPD by at least 1. As it stands your character can go full out for about 3-4 turns before he is out of END. You also spend quite a bit on mental stats that you are not really utilizing. Drop the INT and EGO down to around 13. Also lower your OCV and DCV down a bit. You can also reduce down the amount you spend on END, REC and probably STUN. Spend some of those points on a martial art and skill levels. This will keep your damage around the same, but give you a lot more options. The skill levels will allow you to adjust your fighting style to the situation. If you are fighting a speedster with a high DCV you will be able to boost your OCV higher by putting everything into OCV. If you are fighting something that does a lot of damage you put the skill levels into DCV to avoid getting hit. Being able to run as fast as a car is not that hard because as your SPD goes up so does your effective movement. With a 5 SPD and no increased movement you are 2.5 x faster than a normal. Adding only +3” of running brings that up to about slightly over x3. Buying your running up to 15” will also keep the END for running down to 1. Pick up a x4 NC instead of extra running and you will be running faster than a car. A more versatile character is actually a lot more effective than a one trick wonder.

No reason you can’t have a built in silencer and flash suppressor. Depending on the campaign you don’t even need to use gun powder. In a science fiction or super heroic campaign my cane gun could use magnetics instead of gun powder. Or it could be a needle pistol that uses compressed air. The video earlier in the post was a perfect example of what I am talking about. Build in a silencer on that brief case and that is a perfect example of an IAF. Again it really comes down to special effect and how the person building it wants to define the power.

What really defines how a focus functions is the person buying the power. The cane gun is a perfect example of this as it could be built both ways. If the bullet comes out of the bottom of the cane and it is aimed like a rifle that would probably be defined as an OAF. On the other hand if the gun is built into the handle and I can fire it while seeming to use to walk that would probably be an IAF. In the first case anyone seeing me is not going to have a hard time figuring out what I am doing and where the bullet came from. In the second case people may know the general direction the sound came from, but will not automatically know I am the one that shot the person. In the Hero System special effect is everything. You can have two identical power look completely different from each other. My 2d6 RKA OAF, with 16 charges could be six shooter from the old west, or a blaster rifle from star wars. Saying a particular weapon has to be this is almost contrary to the spirit of the rules.

The difference between an IAF and an OAF is that with inaccessible focus I can use the power without people realizing it is being use. So with the cane gun I can appear to be holding the cane and fire without people being automatically able to know what is happening. With a sword cane I have to draw the sword from the cane at which time everyone realizes that I am about to attack. With the gun cane even when I am pointing it directly at someone there is no indication of what it is, or what it does. With the sword cane once I draw it everyone knows what it is.

As someone with a real world disability I understand that a person can overcome a lot more than people give them credit for. In some cases learning to overcome the disability can actually give you some advantages over people without the disability. My disability is a hearing loss. Because I cannot always hear everything I have learned to make the most of what I do. This sometimes allows me to understand what people mean even if some of the message is missing. People are often surprised by the fact I can read a partial message and understand what a person means. I can often understand someone who has limited command of English better than someone who does not have a hearing loss. A one handed man could easily lean to adapt to be able to perform most tasks that a person with both hands could perform. There will of course be some things that will be difficult or even impossible for the one handed man to do, but those should be very rare. This was the reason I suggested a 0 point complication. The basic rule of Hero system is that if a complication does not hinder you, or only hinders you in very minor ways it is worth no points. About all I would say is that the character is unable to get a bonus for using two hands. They would not take a penalty for only having one hand even if the activity normally uses two hands. To me that would be a 0 point complication.

Someone who has had a disability for a long time will often find way to adapt. Often the person will be able to almost anything a normal person can do. What I would do is require the character to take a 0 point complication. This will mean that almost anything a normal person can do he can do. So he will be able to do almost anything a two armed person can do. He will not take any penalties for having one arm, but on the other hand he will not be able to get any bonuses for using more than one hand. Another thing to consider is how much of the arm is missing. If the arm was cut off at the elbow or lower he would be able to use special equipment for a lot of things. For example he could use a bow that is able to be strapped to his stump. Likewise a shield would also not be a problem. If this is the case he would be able to get the two handed bonuses with proper equipment.

It depends on the type of campaign. When I run a Fantasy Hero game I am the one creating the deities not the players. As such I create the moral code not the players. Generally in a Champions game the players have a lot more flexibility. But don’t forget the rule that if a limitation does not limit you than it is not worth any points. If a player in a Champions game uses the moral code limitation he should be required to specify what is against the code and the GM set the value. If his code never causes any problems then it is a -0 limitation.

It seems to me that what this and other threads are heading towards is list of prepackaged powers that you choose from with minimal to no modification. If that is what you want there are a lot of game systems that do that. The big draw to the hero system is to be able to build anything you want. These proposals seem to limit this. The hero system gives us a basic framework to work with. Without that framework each GM will have to do all the work themselves. As a GM if I see a character has an OAF and 6 charges on a RKA I don’t have to worry that much and checking the math is easily done. That gun should also cost less than one with 16 charges. As to the being too much bang for the buck there is a point of diminishing returns with the current system. Past a certain point you have to significantly increase the value of the limitation for it to be worthwhile. A -1 limitation on a power cuts the cost by 50%, but a -2 only gives you an additional 17% reduction. Adding an additional -1 limitation cuts the cost by an additional 8%, and going to a -4 limitation reduces the cost by another 2%. Beyond this you gain almost nothing for each additional limitation.

Our group has a house rule that if your character is too complex for you to handle without slowing down the game it is not allowed. For example if you are not familiar enough with the system to create powers on the fly you a VPP is generally not allowed, or you have to have all the powers worked out in advance. This is mainly in combat and more flexibility is allowed out of combat. As others have suggested having a precompiled list of combinations should fix most of the problems.

I had a player do something similar and he just used accidental change. I did not need to take control of the character because the player was an experience role player, and GM. He did a superb job of playing a villain. His character was the most interesting character in the game. The character was the best hero and the best villain of the campaign. Once during a time travel episode he was both at the same time. The problem with the enraged/berserk is it is going to only affect combat. If that is the affect your player wants that is fine, but to me seems to waste a good opportunity. What it does not allow is for the character to do anything really sneaky and subtle.