Toxxus

"To use Incantations, a character must be able to speak freely and clearly", so 1. 
Unless of course the Incantations were defined as playing an instrument or some other non-vocal noise, in which case there'd be some other limb to grab to shut down the Incantations. 

It's situational.  To explain what I mean, for #1 (incantations not being possible in the circumstance you described -- which was a called head/neck shot), I think more than just a called head/neck shot while performing a Grab is needed before you can deem incantations 'impossible'. Specifically, I think someone needs to go for the throat (neck) or the mouth (head) in order to prevent proper/clear enunciation of incantations and, if successful, then (in most cases) it's pretty cut/dry that if the Grab is followed by a squeeze, proper/clear enunciation will not be possible.
 
Anything less specific than a called shot to the mouth/throat using a Grab maneuver is something I feel gives rise to #2 (incantations are possible but only with great difficulty - requiring an ability/skill check).  i.e. A called shot to the head/neck that isn't specifically to the mouth/throat, so it just generally hits the head/neck and has the called shot effect per RAW.  Once damage is computer, if the hit does significant damage after defenses (GM call on what constitutes 'significant'), I feel it could then result in a skill check to see if the character can continue to enunciate words properly/clearly.

And then there's #3 (head/neck being squeezed doesn't interfere with incantations).  There's room for this, too.  For instance, where, exactly, is the head/neck of a Doppleganger or a Changeling? Given their abilities to adjust their bodies, if one is incanting, then it's a special circumstance that gives rise to the throat/mouth being successful Grabbed … having no meaningful effect.

That's an interesting note, Toxxus, but not on the topic that I was replying to, so much, which was when the extreme polarization started. My reply had nothing really to do with the Tea Party movement or its motivations or goals. In fact, I was only using the TP movement to set a time frame.
 
During the Clinton era, the Right-leaning media, the likes of Limbaugh, were starting to ramp up. During the Tea Party era, is when I think the left was starting to really ramp up. This, based solely on my own memory of the levels of rhetoric in the media and from politicians. Whenever it started, I'd say it's definitely snowballed into absurd levels on both sides by now.

I've been using pathfinder content for my Fantasy Hero table so when I run into a pathfinder item that I don't know (pretty  much memorized the 5th ed D&D ones) I make something up on the spot.
 
One of the more popular items so far:  Hounds Foil Boots  (Invisible to smell, always on, persistent) + Flight (always on, persistent, only in contact with a surface, only to avoid leaving a trail).
 
 

So 1 PIP is both cheaper and 100% reliable vs. the more expensive and only 50% reliable 1/2d6 ??
 
That makes no sense at all.  I would houserule that instantly.

I didn't actually build any of this stuff in the rules, although it would be simple enough to do.  I just list the effects and how to use them, details on where they are found, etc. 
 
I know, Hero heresy but the focus in this book is details for running a game rather than how to make things.

So 1 PIP is both cheaper and 100% reliable vs. the more expensive and only 50% reliable 1/2d6 ??
 
That makes no sense at all.  I would houserule that instantly.

This encounter can be really fun when done right and give the characters a reminder of how powerful they are between battles with incredibly dangerous opponents.
 
The Dwarven Sapper from my Saturday game hit the streets at night to get some information on the big bad they're stalking and missed his streetwise roll by a large amount.  So to spice that up I had the two street toughs he was chatting up pull knives on him and tell him to "hand over the gold, little man.".  I had them set as DEX 11, OCV 4, Speed 3 and the Dwarven Sapper is north of 250 pts and Speed 4 with a modest number of magical items to boot.
 
In a single turn he has both goons down, one badly unconscious and damaged, the other out-on-his-feet without even going for his real weapons.  One guy at the table remarked it was like the punks and decided to mug the Punisher and they all had a good laugh.
 
 

True, you won't be the next superman, but a person who can quadruple their aptitude at anything for short bursts would still get tons of media attention.
 
Reporter:  How much can you bench?
Guy:  Hmm, maybe 200?
Reporter:  Can you lift that 700lb barbell?
Guy:  Sure, hold on, ~huff, huff, huff~  RAAAAAAAHHH!
 
Repeat for how fast can you run.
 
How fast can you solve this rubic's cube.
 
And so on.

Somebody wrote a grant proposal and got funding approved.

I liked the 6th edition rule books, but I'm a software engineer.  My players are mostly above average intelligence with experience playing multiple game systems and they ALL looked at the 6th edition rule books and promptly gave up on learning the system.
 
I've had a little more success getting them to read through the Fantasy Hero Primer and Fantasy Hero Complete.
 
Actual game play has been great.  The HERO combat system is just as good as I remembered from the 80s.  It's simply the best, imo.
 
Character creation is so overwhelming that I get concepts from players and then I'll pull up HERO designer and create a basic skein and we'll tweak from there.

You're correct that you assign what type of penalty a PSL applies to is defined when you buy them -- e.g., Ranged Skill Levels or Targeting Skill Levels. In most cases there isn't any question of "assigning" PSLs the way you do with CSLs, since PSLs just apply to offset one specific penalty. I left that language in just to be clear that if any issue about assigning them does come up, in some rare situation I can't conceive of right now, the same rule applies as for CSLs:  you can't allocate them more than once per Phase. Just me being cautious, that's all.

It still happens, but it takes a bit more work.  On the flip side - especially in organized play (Adventurer's League) the DM has to put up with your broken character.  I'm looking at you Padlock, Sorlock, and Sharpshooter/Crossbow expert with a hand crossbow.
 
I've DM'd at conventions and watching the look on some new players face when he realizes he's being out-classed by a massive scale is kind of sad.  You can see the fun drain from their souls.
Player 1 - My level 11 fighter swings his axe for 3x (1d8+5) = 28.5 pts of damage per round.
Player 2 - My level 11 fighter sharpshoots his hand crossbow for 4x (1d6+15) = 74 pts of damage per round and ignores range penalties and cover and doesn't have to deal with moving into position.
 
That's probably my least favorite aspect of organized play.  It would be like a player buying +12 OCV with swords - only to attack eyeballs - and being forced to allow it.
 
Bob sweeps and hits 3 enemies in the eyeballs at once - ooh, aaah, feel the balance.

Though in the same D&D game I have seen players contrive to make monsters and useless characters, achievements made more obvious by their existence right next to one another...  :-)
 
Doc

It also covers the flip side of that equation.  It makes it harder to build an overpowered game breaking monster of a character.
 
Constrained values make a more predictable power curve and allow for designing monsters of specific challenge levels that are more likely to work.

My workaround for this to keep the "feel" of D&D is that I am using the Active Points to calculate the endurance cost but I've made the "learning" or "access" to a spell a five point Real Cost skill.  In addition I tie in a Custom talent called "The Gift" and it cost 10 Character Points.  Each 10 CP Spent on the Gift earns you access to another DND level of spells.  So 10 CP get's you access to the Cantrips, and 20 CP get's you access to Level 1 DND spells and 30 CP get's you access to Level 2 Spells, etc.  All spells are powered by a Magic END reserve that grows commensurate to your Gift investment. 
 
I'm going to playtest the cost of the spells themselves.  I'm waffling between 1 to 10 points per spell.  1 CP for a cantrip and 2 CP for a 1st level, 3 CP for a 2nd level, etc. 

And he’s be a disaster why?

Illegitimately elected? Please take a civics course.

Yes apparently he was so much a bigot, everyone wanted a picture with him while he had the Aprrentice show but as soon as he won the Presidency, he is pitted as a bigot. Really? 

My understanding of history is that they pushed a very egalitarian socialist agenda until they had some real power and then swerved hard-right with the racist genocide hyper-nationalism stuff.
 
But while they were building power they offered a list of goodies to the working class to gather influence that reads like a Democratic party wish list.
 
1-  Nationalized education.
2-  Nationalized healthcare.
3-  Gun Control.
4- Old Age Insurance
5- Rent Supplements
6- Disability benefits
 
You can wikipedia this stuff pretty easily.
The Nazi social welfare provisions included old age insurance, rent supplements, unemployment and disability benefits, old-age homes and interest-free loans for married couples, along with healthcare insurance, which was not decreed mandatory until 1941.[6] One of the NSV branches, the Office of Institutional and Special Welfare, was responsible "for travellers' aid at railway stations; relief for ex-convicts; 'support' for re-migrants from abroad; assistance for the physically disabled, hard-of-hearing, deaf, mute, and blind; relief for the elderly, homeless and alcoholics; and the fight against illicit drugs and epidemics".[7] The Office of Youth Relief, which had 30,000 branch offices by 1941, took the job of supervising "social workers, corrective training, mediation assistance" and dealing with judicial authorities to prevent juvenile delinquency.
 
I'm no fan of Trump either, but comparing his policies and administration to those of actual Nazi's is pretty disgusting stuff. 
 
Those same detention centers (concentration camps?) on the border were in play during the Obama era and nobody said a thing.
 
There's plenty to dislike about Trump without resorting to the reductio ad hitlerum.
 
 

Yeah mounted archers got pretty good at shooting while moving, Mongols especially liked to do it while riding circles around infantry.  A good archer can be shockingly good, almost unbelievable. Most of the penalties to using bows should be possible to buy off with points (training and talent) in Hero, but they should exist for lesser trained people.

I actually ran that one back in the 80s and the first hit landed by our team that insta-killed one of the Gold's made my players so mad.
 
Guilt felt:  None.
 
Player anger towards GM:  Massive.

I went for the Hero/Champions reference instead of the obvious.

I guess that's kind of my point.  Those liquor levels would diminish to the tune of rougly 1.5 drinks per hour as part of liver function.
 
If the Life Support was maintained for 8 hours shouldn't they be reasonably OK when it drops?

The video game Assassin's Creed could help with Notre Dame restoration