Toxxus

This line states that you have to take STUN/BODY damage "while taking a recovery". In the case of recovering from being stunned - The time window starts and stops on the characters DEX on their Phase. Why would getting hit before the recovery starts or after it ends stop the recovery from happening?

"A character who is Stunned or recovering from being Stunned can take no action, take no Recoveries (except a free post-Segment 12 Recovery), and is unable to move." They cannot logically be treated "the same" or you would never get to recover from being stunned. Clearly that is not the intent. Similarly, I doubt the intent was that you can only recover from being stunned during the free post-Segment 12 Recovery. Even still they are not treated the same for the reasons Hugh points out above. Tactical Power Build: 1pt NND - Mega-Scaled to planetary - defense is not already being stunned or wearing a Legion of Evil synaptic regulator, invisible power effects = "A strange malady has afflicted the world. Anyone who suffers a stunning blow or fall - never recovers. They are trapped in their stunned state until they die from lack of food & water.".

It's right there in the wording. They are obviously different things. Consider this: If being stunned means you can take no Recoveries - then how do you recover from being stunned? The only solution to this is that they are, in fact, separate game terms. Unless someone wants to argue that being stunned is a permanent condition. Syllogistically speaking you are choosing between two choices given the wording: A character who is Stunned can take no Recoveries. Recovering from being Stunned is a Recovery. Conclusion: A Stunned character cannot Recover from being Stunned. OR - And I would argue more sensibly A character who is Stunned can take no Recoveries. Recovering from being Stunned is NOT a Recovery. Conclusion: A Stunned character can recover from being stunned.

This is a great point. When I recently modeled several D&D spells into HERO for my players one thing that consistently happened is that the stupidly over-powered spells became hard to do without prohibitive costs. "What do you mean the force wall breaks??" - HERO has some absolutes, but not many. And this is a very good thing. Not having a hard list of codified spells and monsters also keeps players on their toes. It re-introduces the fear of the unknown and makes for a much better game, imo.

This insane thread spans two decades already. Another six months will make it three decades. Someone should find the OP and see if they're still around to admire it.

Don't forget they get a +1 to break out each phase they are in the CE. Within a turn or two they are practically immune to it. Granted, the fight is probably long over by then. Personally I would cap it. Since I'm mostly working with converted D&D players this would be capped at current proficiency modifier (+2 LV 1-4, +3 LV 5-8, +4 LV 9-12, +5 LV 13-16, +6 LV 17-20).

If you've been playing D&D 5th Ed for several years (especially the dumbed-down Adventurer's League version) then here are some things you'll get from Fantasy HERO: 1- Hit locations - These really spice up the randomness of combat. 2- Realistic Armor Interactions - Armor makes you safer at the cost of being slower, clumsier and easier to hit. 3- Monsters and Enemies are scary - The unlimited build potential for villains means players can't rely on their innate knowledge of the Monster Manual to know what is happening. Each creature can be a terrifying and unique thing with custom powers. 4- Character Creation is INCREDIBLY open-ended. There are endless character concepts you just can't do in D&D. In HERO - You can do them. My Current saturday group: Fire sorceress (pretty straight forward), a witcher built on the Witcher 3 model, Udyr from League of Legends, an Air Bender, a dwarven explosives expert and a dragon born priest with powers based on cold 5- Combat overall feels more engaging with a larger number of moves and a limited number of hit points. Did you take an arrow - in the eye? You're down and dying. Weapons are actually scary. The only REAL drawback about HERO that my players continue to gripe about is that character creation is painfully open-ended. They know what they want, but not how to model it. My two tables alone have resulted in at least 3-4 additional sales of Hero Designer. Players love being able to make their character the way they imagine it and not being constrained by classes.

I wonder if that rule was in place in 4e. I don't recall it being that way in ancient times. Regardless, there is exactly zero chance I will run it that way. It's bad enough losing your turn, but to lose several in a row by taking 1pt of STUN damage per phase? Nope.

Hmm, actually, that is incorrect Mr. Massey. Here is the text I read from "A character may be hit by an attack in the Phase in which he’ll recover from being Stunned before getting to do so (i.e., by another character whose DEX is higher than his). If the character takes no damage from the attack after applying his defenses, he may still recover from being Stunned as normal. However, if the character takes any STUN or BODY damage from the attack, he cannot recover from being Stunned that Phase" This seems to make getting stunned an absolute death trap. If you take any damage on a phase in which you WOULD get to recover from being stunned - then you have to wait another phase. Especially in a multi-attacker situation this makes very deadly and further ups the value of a high DEX.

WHEW! That's how I've been running it, but I read it early this morning between meetings and without coffee. It did seem rather extreme.

I allow several standard moves to be used in mental combat: Block, (a use for OMCV!), dodge and haymaker. Most of this came out of my desire to minimize the insane deadliness of Mental Paralysis.

I've found this to be true and a great sign that HERO is a better system. The typically overpowered-for-the-level spells of D&D are cost prohibitive in HERO. Change Environment is turning out to be quite handy to simulate a goodly number of spells. Based on the +30pt cost for stunning with Change Environment I've broken it up into two categories. Tier 1 Change Environment effects - Characteristic roll or lose 1/2 a phase (fall prone on ice/grease) or lose visibility of those within the environment (smoke/gloom/etc.). Tier 2 Change Environment effects - Characteristic roll or stunned or similarly negative effect works out well for Hypnotic Pattern or Confusion (can't tell friend from foe, may be stunned) - Costs +30 pts. Would probably use T1 effect for Sanctuary since it doesn't hurt your CVs and all that really happens is that you waste an attack.

This is why I didn't like conservative censorship back in the olden days - lead mostly by the evangelicals - and why I dislike so intensely the desire of the control-left to censor any voice with wrong think in modern times. Let the ideas out in the light of day so the good ones can be celebrated, the bad ones rejected and evil ones condemned. Silencing dissent is the first step of fascism and should be rejected by everyone.

I hadn't realized until recently that - technically - if you take any stun damage on a phase where you would try to recover from being stunned - that you can't. This seems like it would be easily abused and result in a permanent stun lock on an enemy after 1 good hit. I haven't been using that limitation on recovering from being stunned as it is already a near death sentence. Am I reading this wrong?

5th edition really simplified the game to the point where normals could play it. Additionally, the original players had enough time to grow up, raise families and have kids that were now old enough to play it with them. Add to that the absolute smashing success that Critical Role turned into and it exploded beyond anyone's expectations.

To mitigate this difference in systems I have been handing the players 5pts per session +/- 1 point based on goal progression. This allows characters to advance at a pace that feels more commensurate with D&D style games. My current Saturday group is in book 5 of 6 of the War for the Crown adventure path and they have gone from 125pts to 270pts. This is working out pretty well in terms of difficulty with the tier 3 monsters they are encountering.

I agree with you on the magazine capacity of larger pistols, but two pistols are nowhere near comparable with an AR-style rifle. The rifle is substantially more accurate and produces wounds that are many times more lethal. Copied from a website I just lost track of: The ammunition used by the AR-15, a .223 Remington cartridge, travels at approximately 3,000 feet per second and causes a significant cavitation effect — where a bullet is travelling so fast that it sends shock waves through the body and severely damages or kills displaced tissue. It's also worth mentioning that lower tier bullet proof vests will be penetrated by the rifle and leave a dead security officer when handgun rounds would be stopped. Rifles are so much worse.

The Pathfinder adventure paths are broken up into 6 smaller books, but take the heroes from level 1 through to level 20 on an epic story arc. Like an episodic TV show each book has its own story arc which ties into a larger arc that spans the length of the heroes development from relative newbies to legendary beings of near godlike power.

My view of it from the original Superman movie series was being confined to a pane of glass spinning end over end through the universe for all time. Like some murderous spinning amusement ride that never ends and confines you to two-dimensional space and prevents you from aging - for eternity.

Cygnia brings up a good point. My first thought was paperwork being shoddy/incomplete and not specifying exactly the type of firearm used.

Great ideas, guys. Thanks!

I hope you meant semi-automatic pistols because fully automatic pistols are way harder to get. It's mostly pistols. And when you look at total deaths (not just mass shootings) it is pistols by a much, much larger margin. More people get beaten to death with blunt objects than killed by rifles each year. I demand common-sense chair-leg bans now! Why with these four-legged-chairs you can equip your whole gang to kill with just 2 or 3 of them. Outrageous!

This also brings into play the issue of the phantom zone, which in earlier incarnations, was a fate far worse than death.

1- Repeat violent offenders should probably be staying in prison longer until they can get the kind of training and behavioral modification they need to stop returning to prison. I cannot properly state how strongly I hate our current system which almost guarantees an endless death spiral of recidivism. Ex-con's need a fair shot to be able to survive w/out resorting to crime. Get them the interpersonal and professional skills they need so they don't come back. We could learn a LOT from Norway in this regard. 2- All the rights should be retained for all the people. Even the violent criminals. Even the people who vote for politicians we don't like or feel differently about hot topics than we do. Besides, a violent criminal is going to get another gun. He/she is just going to have to work a little harder to get it. The percentage of illegally obtained firearms used in commission of a crime is roughly 80%. 3- I'd be fine for a national level process for rights restoration if the current abuses of rights weren't already being run by the government. Here's a fun sample from the ACLU on what to do if you've been placed on the No Fly list: You should know that the letter does not confirm or deny whether you have been included on the No Fly List, whether you remain on it, or whether you can fly in the future. The government also refuses to provide any notice or reason for inclusion on the No Fly List or a meaningful hearing at which you can clear your name. Unfortunately, currently, the only way for a non-citizen to discover if they have been removed from the No Fly List or not after following this procedure is by purchasing an airline ticket and attempting to board. Aka - You have no legal recourse to resolve the problem. There isn't even a judge or jury involved. Not only is this impossible to resolve - It clearly violates your right to due process. I feel like most people forget that the Bill of Rights is to protect us from our government. The Founders were painfully aware of how tyranny worked from personal experience and they wanted to stave it off for as long as possible. We somehow act like that could never happen here while we ignore thought crimes being imposed in the UK and Venezuela abusing its own starving citizens.

It's a despicable class of person, no doubt, but if you're OK with constitutional protections vanishing in that situation you're opening a Pandora's box of abuse for yourself and others. Those rights need to stay intact - for everyone - whether we like them or not. Especially when you factor in the possibility of error and corruption in the justice system.