LoneWolf

I think a lot of people are underestimating the speed of a two handed weapon like a great sword. You use a grip where the hands are spread apart on the hilt. One hand basically holds the weapon and the other pivots the weapon. The weapon is mostly held in front of your stomach. A small movement with the end hand results in a large movement of the blade. The end of the blade is moving a lot faster than the part near the hilt. This is basic physics; it’s the same thing as the fact that the outer part of the wheel is moving faster than the inside. You can use the middle and lower part of the blade to block with and to keep you opponent at bay. The over the head full body swings are almost never done. They are more of a Hollywood thing, than something done in actual combat. For the most part you never raise your hand higher than your shoulders. In reality a person with a dagger vs a great sword is at a severe disadvantage. It is very difficult for them to get a shot in at all without exposing themselves to hit from the person with the great sword. What really matters is the skill of the people involved. If the person with the dagger is more skilled he will probably win, if the person with the great sword is more skill then more than likely he will be the winner. The types of things people are suggesting seem to be how an expert with the smaller weapon can do. These types of things should be purchased as talents.

Another way to do it would be to use the focus limitation. Reduce most of his physical characteristics and then buy them back to the level you want for the character with the limitation IIF body. Buy any additional characteristics and powers you want the character to have with the IIF limitation. Buy regeneration like you planed, and also purchase some extra defense without the focus limitation only to prevent death. You may need shapeshift to allow you to look like the new body. Purchase any abilities the maggot form would have without the limitation. Many of them would have a limitation not when in meat suit.

I start with the concept and make sure that he character can actually do what the concept entails. After I have a rough outline I fine tune the character to make sure he will be an effective character. The character does not need to be good at everything, but he should be very good at what he does. I usually have better system mastery and tactics then most of the other players so my character may end up seeming more powerful. This is often why I will take a strange concept that weak and see how far I can push it. I actually go out of my way to make sure my characters are not significantly more powerful than other in the group.

One thing to keep in mind is that dodge and martial dodge are HTH maneuvers. The DCV bonus does apply vs ranged attacks because that is what it is designed to do. If the levels are with martial arts he gets the extra DCV because he has trained (bought skill levels) at dodging among other things. HTH levels would also apply because martial dodge is still a HTH maneuver and therefore can be applied to dodge and martial dodge. Levels with specific weapons apply when actively using the weapon, not just for having in your hand. They cost the same as levels with martial arts, but are different. Levels with martial arts can only be applied to specific maneuvers. Levels with weapons can be applied to any maneuver used with the weapon. So your scenario with the character with levels in swords is in error. He can apply his levels with martial arts to the his DCV, but not the levels with swords. He could use the levels with sword on a maneuver that was not in his martial art as long as the maneuver involves the sword. In Kendo from 5th edition if you wanted to purchase dodge as a maneuver you were required to buy a bare hand element for Kendo.

I don’t think being a mutant qualifies as a special effect; it is more of a background. If you allow this for mutants you should allow it for all other backgrounds. If my character is a dragon then I should be able to apply it to almost everything on my character. To drain all mutant powers at the same time will require the Expanded Effect advantage. You cannot simply buy drain mutant powers. You cannot take a limitation for something that is an advantage for the attack power. If this did work any drain that hit the character would drain all his powers at the same time. The reason being is that any power could be a mutation, since this is true any drain could work on a mutant if it has that power. Since the Unified Power limitation states that if you drain any power all of them with the limitation are also affected, this means any drain will drain mutant powers.

If all you want is the accuracy you could use the require roll with the roll being an attack. This would still use charges, END and any other prep for the power. The attack roll may need to take a penalty based on active points, but you could purchase skill levels to compensate. You could possibly use the trigger advantage with the trigger also being the attack roll. I would say you would need to be able to define the trigger with each use, you would also need the automatically reset, and probably the can expire as well. This may allow not to spend the charges or END. It would of course be a GM’s call, but may work.

If your power is based on sight don’t forget about the simulated sense group rule. Enhanced Senses (Unusual or otherwise) automatically acquire some or all of the following Sense Modifiers for no additional cost when assigned to a Sense Group: Discriminatory (to whatever degree indicated in the descriptions below), Range, Sense, Targeting. You did forget to take the tracking adder on the detect so if your power is based on sight it cost 10 pts. Without the tracking adder you can locate, but not follow tracks. You could also see about simply purchasing the tracking adder for your sight, but that would be a GM call. The character will still want to purchase the skill tracking so that he can hide his tracks from other using tracking on him.

This could also be done by requiring the character to take a hunted. Since every casting of a spell does automatically draw attention this is probably more accurate. It would probably be infrequently, more powerful, and harshly punishing. That works out to be about 15 points. Noisy just means that nearby creatures with magical sensitivity can notice you when you cast a spell. If the villain is half a world away the penalty on perception is going to mean he never notices.

Maybe indirect would work. I believe that was how smart guns were done in a previous edition. Not sure if it was 5th edition or 4th edition.

How does damage negation work vs an attack with the advantage explosion? For example I have a character with -3DC of damage negation. The villain throws a 10d6 Blast with the advantage explosion at a character 6m away from my character that does not have damage negation and hits. The rules for damage negation state that you roll the dice for the character with the most damage negation which would be my character, but the rules for explosion state that you remove the highest dice first. How is this handled? Obviously the character in the center of the explosion will take 10d6, while my character will take 8d6 (adjusting for the explosion advantage). How are the dice rolled? If the 8d6 is rolled vs my character first then the subsequent dice may not be the highest. If the 10d6 is rolled first which dice do I take off for my character?

Most animals do cause difficulty for their owners. You need to feed and take care of them. If they are not properly secured they tend to run away. You need to make arrangements for them when you can’t take them with you. While most of this is ignored by the GM, it still happens. Most fantasy setting expect people to use horses and the settings provided for them. Most if not all inns have a stable attached, or at least nearby. So in that sense the horses are DNPC’s. A falcon is more exotic and unusual so there may not be the same level of support for it as there are for horses. With a horse you can simply turn it over to the stable boy and have him feed and take care of the horse, with a falcon this is probably not the case. The extra effort needed to take care of the falcon could be the complication. If it is a 0 pt complication it should not be that much of a burden. It really depends on how the player wants to do it. Using the example of the war horse if the player wants a horse pretty much straight out of the book than it should be treated like equipment. If he wants something like Silver out of the Lone Ranger, that would be a follower. If he wants something slightly more powerful than the standard horse he could do it as a DNPC. It all depends on what the player wants.

How does having it be a DNPC affect what the player uses it for? In the hero system there is often more than one way to define something. You could easily have the same creature as a follower or as a DNPC. The only difference is that if it were bought as a follower it does not cause any problems for the player. As a DNPC it would occasionally cause problems. You could define it as a DNPC as powerful with an appearance of infrequently for 0 pts. The problems it causes could be related to feeding and caring for it, or the fact that it draws attention to him, or a whole lot of other things. If the player just wants a slightly better normal falcon this would be a good way to handle it. If he wants a significantly more powerful falcon he should purchase it as a follower as per the rules.

Surrealone is on the right track. Treat the falcon as a DNPC instead of a follower. Even though the falcon is there all the time the frequency is how often it causes problems.

Overall skill levels for when you succeed by sheer luck. You make the perception roll because you just happen to glance up. You made the knowledge roll because you just ran into someone who mentioned the answer. Danger sense would also be appropriate. The special effect is that you just happen to move when the person is attacking you.

I have a telekinetic character I am building who has various powers based on telekinesis. I want to be able to use all the powers similar to the way telekinesis is used. What would the value for the indirect advantage be? The power always comes from my character so it altering the source point does not seem to fit. The path of the power also does not change so that also does not fit. I can use it affect things behind a wall or barriers.