LoneWolf

A feint is supposed to be a false attack that causes your opponent to be at disadvantage vs the real attack. Because of this I would say you have to declare the dodge or block before the feint. Basically consider feint a combined attack not a separate action.

What you really need to do is lead by example. For your next villain create something with a lot of skills and use it against the party. Make the villain a little weak on the combat side, but go nuts for skills. His combat abilities should also be designed to be able to take advantage of his skills. The idea is to create a synergy between the villain’s skills and powers. Once the players have been beaten down by something supposedly weaker than they are they may get the idea. Most of my characters are built this way and they seem to be the most powerful characters in the group. Another thing to do is to allow the characters to fail if they don’t have the skills. Many GM’s will bend over backwards if the characters don’t have the right skills or powers. This often leads to situations like you are in. This encourages the players to ignore the things they should be purchasing. The way to fix this is to let them fail form time to time.

Having killing attack damage dice changes the dynamics is a lot of ways. While rolling a large number of dice seems to be more satisfying it actually has a huge drawback. Once you get past a certain number of dice the laws of average take over and the damage is pretty much the same. People look at a10d6 attack and think I can do 60 points of STUN and 20 BODY. In reality you are going to do 35 pts of stun and 10 body. You might get some variation but not a whole lot. Chances are you are never going to do over 40 stun, but probably also never do less than 30. The body will be around the number of dice you roll, again with some variation, but not much. A standard killing attack is a wild card. If you are using 5th edition rules, or 6th edition with hit location a killing attack is a wild card. The lower number of dice allow for a lot more variation in damage. If I am rolling 3d6+1 the chance of getting maximum damage is a lot higher than if I am rolling 10d6. The down side is I will also have a greater chance of rolling crap for damage. This makes for a more exciting game. If hit locations or the old stun multiplier rules are being used, it is even more pronounced. I have seen many a villain, and a few heroes go down to a lucky shot with a killing attack. This rarely happens with normal attacks. This would make the game a lot more boring especially for a Fantasy Hero game.

I think Steve is right about using mental illusions, but I would require both characters to make perception rolls. You need to make a perception roll to be able to feed her accurate information. She needs to make a perception roll to be able to compensate for the fact that your point of perception not going to be exactly the same as hers. What type of character is your wife playing? Does she have any area of effect attacks? Those go against the DCV of the hex to target so are usually a lot easier to make with a reduced OCV. If she makes a non-targeting perception roll and has an area of effect attack she can still probably hit. If you want to purchase a way to do this permanently consider combat sense UBO. Put Cost END, UBO, Grantor Pays the END, Grantor can only grant power to others and it will only cost 7 pts. Or she could buy some sight Flash DEF through a focus.

I was wondering how big of a penalty people usually give on computer programing rolls to hack into a system. The books mention a penalty of -5 being reasonable, but to me this seems to be actually pretty low. It seems to me the penalty should be much higher. What you are really doing when you hack into a system is making a skill vs skill roll against the person who setup the system. This got me thinking about what a decent network engineer would have in game terms. I came up with the following skills for good network engineer. He starts with a slightly above average INT, say a 13. For skills he has the following Computer Programing 13-, Cryptography 12-, Security Systems 12-, Science Skill Computer Science 12-, Science Skill Mathematics 12-, and Professional Skill Network Engineer 12-. All these should be complementary skills to the base computer programing. Assuming a roll of 11 for all skills, that gives him a base roll of 18- on computer programing. The base setup of a network probably takes around a week to complete. After it is setup he goes over it for about a year to give him an additional +3. That brings his roll up to a 21- Again assuming a roll of 11 that would mean a -10 for someone trying to hack into the system. The above number would be for a small company with a single dedicated engineer. Most large companies would have a team of engineers. Highly secure networks like most government networks would probably have very large teams of highly trained engineers. Does this look reasonable?

Make the players responsible for their characters. If the player does not understand something about their character they should not be allowed it. As a GM you have enough to worry about running everything else, and should not have to worry about a player’s ability. Before allowing a player to purchase an ability make sure they understand how it works. Try and explain it before the game, but if they still don’t understand how it works don’t allow them to purchase it. Keep SPD reasonable. Lower SPD keeps the combat more easily manageable. If the average SPD is 6 try cutting in half so the average is 3. If characters have the same ratio in SPD a lower number plays pretty much the same. So let’s say your campaign has a character with an 8 SPD and one with a 6. If they both cut their SPD in half the first player still gets to act 8 times to the second players 6 times. The only difference is it is done over 2 turns instead of 1. Also keep CV reasonable. The biggest slowdown of the game seems to be doing the math. Most people have a difficult time dealing with large numbers so having 10+ skill levels to distribute will cause a bottle neck. Use the 11 + (OCV –DCV) method to determine your chance to hit. Take your OCV and subtract the defenders DCV and “add that number to 11. If the number is a negative number you follow the rules of mathematics and subtract it. So if you have an 8 OCV and the defender has a 5 DCV subtract 5 from 8 to get 3 and add that to 11 for a 14 or less. If the values were reversed subtract 8 from 5 to get -3 and add that to 11 for an 8 or less. From a mathematical standpoint it is the same thing as the standard 11 +OCV –DCV, but you end up dealing with smaller numbers which most people find easier. The OCV +11-3d6 method actually involves more calculations and comparisons. The most important thing to keep the game manageable is for the GM to know and understand the rules. Nothing and I mean nothing slows the game down more than having to look up a rule in the books. Hero System is a great system, but it is complex. If you are new to the system and no one else in the group has more experience limit yourself to the standard rules and avoid the optional rules until you have a chance to learn them. As you become more familiar with the rules you can start adding in some of the optional rules. Pay attention to the recommendation in the books as to which rules are more appropriate to what campaigns. Critical Hits for example usually don’t work well in a super hero setting, but work much better in a fantasy setting.

From the looks of it you are using 5th edition. In 6th edition you can define the area to any size you want. A 2” Area of Effect is now a +1/4 advantage so your 8d6 blast only cost 50 active points.

Does spatial awareness have range built in? The rules do not list it as being built in, nor does Hero Designer. It does list fully penetrating and targeting, but not range. I am trying to figure out how you can have a sense that works through walls, but is not at range.

Low point variable power pool would be a good way to handle what you are looking for. If he was the professional student type then give him a lot of skills, especially knowledge skills. He does not have any one skill on a high roll, but has enough complementary skills that he is actually more effective than people realize.

Animal handler is not an everyman skill. This means if you did not purchase it you don’t get a roll at all. Skill levels can only be applied if you have the full skill. That means the skill levels with all interaction skills do not apply unless you already have the skill. The cost of animal handler with all the categories is 14, add +6 for +3 to the roll and you get 20. What animal friendship really is, is animal handler at +3. Most of the talents are really things that can already be created with the rules. They are listed as talents so that a person who does not fully understand the system has an easy way to figure out how to get the effect. It is probably also a way to add bulk to the books so you think you are getting more for your money.

There is an option for cost END only to activate. That would get around the END issue. You also don’t need such a large area of effect. That lights up a 50’ radius. I also would not use explosion. It may not be what you are looking for but a darkvision spell is actually much cheaper. Nightvision is 5 active points and does not cost END.

I think a lot of the glass cannon syndrome is actually pretty normal. It is a reflection of both reality and game design. Take the example of a gun vs armor. You typical armor is bought using resistant defense with an OIF limitation. The gun on the other hand is bought with either blast or RKA with an OAF limitation. When you break this down by the points you see that the armor gives less bang for the buck. In most games characters tend to by similar amount of physical and energy defense. This means that armor has to pay twice. Since armor is also using a lesser restriction it costs more. For 10 real points you get DEF 5 armor. The gun on the other hand only has one energy type, and a more restrictive limitation. For the same 10 real points I get a 4d6 blast. The blast will do an average of 14 points, so 9 after adjusting for armor. So for every 1pt you spend on blast you get .9 points through. Armor on the other hand prevents .5 point per point. If we using nonresistant defense the numbers improve slightly so now every point spent prevents .75 points of damage. This means that characters are paying 20% to 80% more for defenses than attacks. Next we factor in the fact that a character can normally only make one attack, but may be attacked multiple times. This means I only have to have one attack available. On the other hand since I can be attacked by different things I need to have all my defenses operating all the time. In game terms this is often represented by a multipower. If multipowers are used or the character has multiple weapons they can switch to attacks become even more efficient. So now the person with armor has 7 DEF for 14 real points. The gun is now a 20pt multipower with 4 slots for 14 points. The multipower has a 4d6 blast, a 1d6+1 RKA, a 2d6 NND, and a 2d6 Drain. Now for every point I am spending on the gun 7 gets through. This brings the ratio down to .5 which matches the armor. Except now I have two attacks that completely bypass the armor. There will of course be a lot of variation from my calculations, but the idea behind them remains sound. Simply put attacks are more often than not more efficient than defenses. This also reflects the real world. We have guns now that can shoot through any armor we have.

Most characters who are stunned twice in a row should go down. Unless your character has a very low CON getting stunned means he took a hard hit. There is a balance between getting hit and being able to take damage. The harder you are to hit the more the hit should affect your character. A speedster should rarely get hit, but when he does it should be a big deal. A brick should be hit often, but each hit is less effective vs. him. Hero system allows you to build a both types of character equally well. You can also build anything in between. If you are having trouble building a tank you don’t understand the rules, or the GM is probably throwing too powerful of attacks.

Are you already using the encumbrance and endurance rules? A suit of full plate weighs 40 kg, add a large shield for an additional 7 kg, plus a few more for all the other stuff the characters are carrying and you are easily over 50 kg. Unless you characters all have 18 STR this meanst they are taking -2 to their DCV/DEX rolls, as well as -2m of movement and paying 1 END per turn. This also means they lose 1 LTE per turn. If this is for heroic characters they pay 1 END for every 5 STR instead of 1 per 10. If you use the LTE rules this means the high STR character with a good SPD runs out of END very quickly. A character with an 18 STR and a 4 SPD uses 16 END per turn in just STR alone. If they are moving or doing other things that require END they can easily push this to 20+ END per turn. Unless they have over a 10 REC this means they lose 2 LTE per turn. Most combat focused characters have decent STR and above average SPD. Figure a character with an 18 STR and 3 SPD. They spend at least 12 END per turn when going full out in combat. That means they only last a few min. before they are exhausted. Out of combat they will probably need to reduce their SPD or they will be out of END all the time. Dropping down to a 2 SPD they can avoid exhausting themselves so quickly, but now are moving a lot slower. Most people don’t consider this, or ignore it. If you really want to keep amour in check this is one of the best ways.

I wish I had known that before I spent the money on the character pack. That will be the last purchase I make for this program. The program is turning out to be a big disappointment. The basic program itself is actually pretty good, but it is terrible at anything beyond that. I use Hero Lab for other games and have invested over $300 in it over the years and would have been willing to invest a similar amount in Hero Designer. If I have to load and unload prefabs each time I add something to a character they are not worth the trouble. I can create the item or power myself quicker than searching through all the separate files to find the item I know this will not change anything, but I wanted to give you my feedback about the program.

I just purchased the Hero System Equipment Guide character pack. When I try and load them into hero designer it runs out of memory and either crashes or unloads all the prefabs. I have already increased the memory available in the preferences to 512 MB, but that still does not seem to be enough. I did a quick search on this forum and from what I found is that is the only way to give the program more memory under Windows. My system is running Windows 10 and has 16 GB of memory there should be no reason for the program to be having memory issues. How can I give the program more than 512 MB of memory?

It depends on the character, but most of my characters have a decent amount of skills. Having the right knowledge skills often means not having to rely on others for information. Some of my characters actually have skills that are part of their power. I have one character that is a precog that has a lot of skills to allow him to be able to do what he should. For example his streetwise is not the fact he knows everyone, but rather he gets hunches and visions of where he should go, or who he should see. The same is true for things like deduction, concealment, or even shadowing. He has a good amount of knowledge skills to allow him to always seem to have the answer.

I would strongly advise against using a house rule like that, because you are actually doing your players a disservice. What happens when if they end up playing in another campaign run by someone else? By changing things around you are making any future gaming they do more difficult. A better way to handle the subtraction is to subtract the targets DCV from your OCV and add that to 11. For example if the player has an OCV of 5 and the target has an 8 DCV, subtract 8 from 5 to get -3. Then add -3 to 11 to get a 8 or less. Where most people seem to have problems is when dealing with large numbers. Since a lot of times the values for OCV and DCV are not that far off using this method avoids having to work with large number. 11+12-10 will confuse people more than 11+2.

What is the special effect of the usable by others? Special effect is everything and if the special effect does not match up with the powers they should not be allowed. In my games if the player cannot tell me how a power or a power modifier works they are not allowed it. Now somethings don’t really require all that much explanation, but something like this would. So if the player wants to buy some extra running I don’t question it. On the other hand if someone wants to be able to fly or teleport they need an explanation of how they do it.

My guess is that he would have some sort of limb reaching out to grab the other characters.

Another way to do it would be to use a PRE attack. You would get a bonus for appropriate use of any interaction skills you make. This would allow any character to try, but those with good PRE and appropriate skills have a much easier time.

The equipment section has an option for weight. I am looking to create a couple of Fantasy Hero characters and the game will be using encumbrance rules. Is there any way to have Hero Designer calculate and apply the DCV penalties automatically?

This is actually a compound power instead of a single power. The best way to build it is to purchase the initial attack however you want. Link a triggered power to the initial attack and this will do everything you are asking. If the initial attack can be different attacks each time you simply increase the value of the trigger, and do not link it to another power.

It is the right of any GM to do what they want with their campaign. But often a GM will get an idea that he thinks is a good idea, but it turns out to be a bad one. I have done this myself on occasions. If this is something that Brian’s players will enjoy than by all means there is nothing wrong with it. My concern is that while Brian may find the idea fun, his players may not. The limitations of the forms are that often people cannot fully explain their ideas at first and other may not fully understand what the other person is saying. This just means it takes a little longer for the discussion to be played out. It is not that uncommon for a warrior to be trained in the use of many weapons. They may not be experts with all the weapons, but they understand how to use them. This is what familiarity with common <group> represents. If I have familiarity with a weapon I should be able to use it fully without penalty. For example if I have familiarity with halberd I should be able to use both the blade and the spike. There used to be an optional combat maneuver that allowed you to convert killing damage to normal damage. I don’t have access to all my books right now so I cannot look it up. This is what you would do to use the flat of the blade. For weapons like the axe with the spike I would consider them to be custom weapons. They would still be considered part of their original group for purpose of familiarity, but would allow the wielder more option in combat. It may take a little practice to learn how to use it properly, but I should not require seeking out someone to train you. A day or two practicing with the weapon to learn it balance would be about all you need. I strongly disagree with some the ideas about the weapons vs armor type. The book states that plate armor is not as effective vs bashing damage. Plate armor is designed to spread the kinetic energy of the hit over a wider area. This allows the padding under the plate to absorb the energy so it never reaches the target. It also suggest that piercing damage be made armor piercing. The arrows used for hunting do not penetrate armor very well at all. They used a different kind of arrow when they were going against armor to allow it to penetrate the armor. In game terms the hunting arrows may have even been considered reduced penetration. By treating all weapons using a similar type as being the same it seems to make the situation worse.

This is a very bad idea because you are taking away something the player actually paid points for and are artificially limiting the character. As a GM I would never do this to my players. And as a player I would strenuously object if my GM did this. As long as the player paid for ability he should be able to use it the ways the rules permit. This also prevents certain concepts and fighting styles. Many martial arts have both a slash and a thrust. The thrust is obviously using the point of the blade and would be doing piercing damage. The slash is just as obviously doing slashing damage. My character bought weapon familiarity with common melee, and a martial art with blades with the maneuvers mention above. Under your rules my starting character is unable to use one of the maneuvers he actually paid points for. He also cannot effectively use many weapons he paid points for. Since my weapon familiarity is with slashing that would mean I cannot use maces, hammers, clubs, fist-loads, spears, and many polearms. You are also placing artificial limitation on my characters background. If I spent the last decade training under a master swordsman it is entirely reasonable that he would have taught me how to use the weapons to the fullest extent. It makes absolutely no sense that after spending decade training under the world’s greatest swordsman I need to run over to some local drunken teacher to teach me how to thrust with a with my sword. I can understand what you are trying to do, but you are needlessly complicating things. Let your players use what they bought and allow them to have full control over their background. Many of the weapons in fantasy hero already have some advantages. For example hammers typically have a +1 stun multiple. Stilettos are already armor piercing. A better way to make different weapons more appealing is to modify the weapon stats on a case by case. If you look over the weapon tables you will probably find that for the most part much of this has already been done. If you want to have more variation, create a couple unique weapons for your game and gives them an advantage. Be careful not to go too far or you will create a weapon that become better than any other weapon and that is all the players will use.