Hello, all. I've been GMing a group for the past 2 years playing 5th edition D&D but we've decided to jump over to 6e Hero. I have never run Hero before and I am trying to decide between running the game with heroic 225 pts and a 40 AP limit or superheroic with 400 pts and a 60 AP limit. We are reimagining the players' characters in Hero so I'm not looking for conversions like what's on Killer Shrike's site, I'm more curious about maintaining a similar feel in terms of power level as well as manageable combat times.
We played from 3rd level to 12th level but started running into the normal problems that occur with high level D&D characters. The player running the Fighter wanted to use his strength to toss enemies around and utilize improvised weapons but those actions aren't well supported by the rules. The Wizard player felt she had analysis paralysis every turn as she consulted all her prepared spells each turn before acting. The Rogue wants to have some fire magic but the multiclassing rules left him feeling underpowered in exchange for having more flexibility. For my part, after about level 8 it was hard to challenge all four characters because at 2.5 hours per session, we generally have time for about 4 encounters, including 2-3 talky scenes, 1 puzzle or skill type challenge, and 1 fight. With access to 8 encounters worth of resources for a single battle, the PCs could walk over most monster manual monsters, and the ones they couldn't usually were written up with attacks that could one shot a character on a lucky roll. So for the past year I have had to homebrew all the opposition anyway. We tried switching to Mutants and Masterminds a few months ago but the players felt like it was bit too vague/abstract. The tone of the campaign is lighthearted pulpy noir, sort of fantasy Godfather meets Ducktales with a dash of Lord of Light.
At level 12, the characters already feel like fantasy super heroes. If I go with the 400 pt superheroic option, how long should I expect combat to take with 4 players and appropriate opposition? Alternatively, if I choose the heroic option, will the characters feel "fragile", always close to dying?