pawsplay

On the other hand, a lot of the equipment is unrealistically heavy.

Deadly Blow is ultimately just CSLs with limitations, so if you ban it, you're basically telling people to go ahead and take CSLs or lots of Martial Maneuvers. If you'd rather rogues use Offensive Strike with their daggers, by all means, ban it.

I might built it as Clairsentience with No Conscious Control, GM controls the effect, with a custom -1/2 modifier, Only gives the answer to a specific yes or no question, and a -1/2 must suit the interests of the deity, 3 Charges. Really, though, it sounds like an extraordinary skill use. I'm just trying to figure out what skill-as-power construction would give you all the categories of knowledge a deity might possess.

If a fireball truly requires no physical aim or gesture by the mage, but can be dodged, it's just OMCV versus DCV, which is a by-the-book advantage. Any spell aimed that way is based on concentration or mystic strength or spiritual blessings and so forth. Whereas a conventional OCV v. DCV spell conjures an actual object or quantity of energy that is aimed no differently than a gun or a guided rocket.

5d6 HKA is still only an average of 17 BODY. If your knight in shining armor has full plate, plus a ring that adds 2 rPD/2 rED, and BODY 15, he might be able to take two direct hits if the dragon doesn't get lucky. If you have teammates healing your character, the dragon might actually be in considerable trouble. As for its fiery breath, I think about how old school characters handled it; a combination of tactics and likely magical fire resistance of some kind. If you allow Dive for Cover, a big dramatic fight against a dragon is the perfect time to go diving out of the way of monstrous claws and deadly dragonfire.

When I was working on my World Beneath the Sun setting, one thing I noticed was that in a lot of the fiction and myths I enjoyed, wizards usually did not have lots of spells. Like, one wizard might be able to turn into a wolf, another animates little wooden dolls, etc. It was kind of freeing to work with that kind of concept. One of the bigger obstacles is that wizards of that sort are often trying to steal each other's formulae and secrets. So I ended up using a VPP approach for "academic" spells with lots of requirements, like having to find or invent new spells, and then separately a system for minor magics and signature spells. By using a Magic skill roll, I tried to make it where wizards were specialists, but they could cast other spells with effort.

Doesn't take damage at the +1 level requires there to be a common, fairly accessible way to escape. I don't think that's going to apply to mental paralysis unless that spell has a particular counter (touch of cold iron, singing a musical tone, etc.). I think also a typical "hold person" type spell would not have resistant defenses, as they are expected to wear off.

Is the cost divisor discussed in any 6e source?

I was pondering this some today, and while I don't see much value in doing a whole hog conversion, I was thinking about how some 5e elements would convert. Like, I think a wolf totem barbarian conversion would be fun. Fighters with the Champion archetype would not be so different under Hero from Battle Masters; the Battle Master I think would mostly just have Tactics as well as more Martial Maneuvers, while the Champion would have some special traits. Remarkable Athlete is easy (+1 leaping, maybe a Skill level) but is Survivor better as a specialized form of Regeneration, or is it just a really high REC characteristic? Warlocks are kind of fun, in that you could built out some of their abilities as straight up powers, while others are traditional spells.

I would define the source material, squarely, as AD&D.

"attacks with a specific Special Effect (e.g., magic, ice/cold)" Honestly, if you want less than total immunity, Damage Negation (-1 DC) versus poisons seems pretty solid. It feels like maybe it deserves a Limitation for some kind of price break, but I don't know what to apply. Another option is immunity to poisons, but with Requires a CON roll. You could model it after skill rolls, with more powerful poisons inflicting a penalty of -1 per 10 Active Points.

If you want to define it, as in the source material, as a weapon that somehow magically ends up chopping off a head, I'd go with +1d6 HKA plus enough naked Armor Piercing advantage to cover the whole attack, with the Limitations Cannot Use Targeting (-1/2) and Requires a Roll (must hit the Head location -1 1/2). With Hit Location multipliers, this should be more than enough to take out most "normal" opponents. Instead of the Armor Piercing route, you could make the extra damage be a NND attack (defense is having no neck, or having a neck 2m or more in thickness, or not having vital organs). This is one case, however, where I don't think it's worthwhile to try to be too literal with a conversion. Basically, it's a weapon that is not generally more effective against armored opponents, but on occasion, does a hideous amount of damage capable of overwhelming the toughness and armor of even a very powerful foe. I would probably just bump the damage a bit, add Penetrating, add some Lightning Reflexes for flavor (representing the blade's overwhelming speed as well as power), and call it a day.

Re: room filled with water I think the core power is Transform (nothing to water). CE and the rest are really good ideas for a multipower.

Re: I'm curious, why is Dex still more expensive than other characteristics?

Re: Armor Vulnerability But what if I want to make it so that if a psychic attacks the armor directly, with a Ego Attack or an EB defined as Psychic Damage, the armor breaks? Build the armor as an Automation with Armor, Usable by Others. Give it Susceptibility (BODY drain) to those attacks.

Re: The great debate, this time with Java! That's a values statement. Unfortunately, in HERO, we have to accept a certain level of consistency. It may simply be that a lot of comic book characters we wouldn't think of as Very Powerful simply are, and that comic book martial arts DCs tend to be very high. I know that unarmored supers definitely don't like to get shot by guns. I don't find this issue convincing as a problem in genre emulation. It seems to me to be purely a pet peeve from a gaming standpoint.

Re: The great debate, this time with Java!

Re: Chess Grandmaster - KS, PS, or something else?

Re: The great debate, this time with Java!

Re: The great debate, this time with Java! Missile Deflection. If you want to stand around looking cute like Superman, that's how you do it. I don't think it's clear that "invulnerable" characters take no STUN from bullets, at least, not all of them. Characters who are completely immune, as you say, probably qualify as Very Powerful Superheroes. Martial artists frequently have Find Weakness. Also, comic book writers are often slavish to the phrase "bulletproof." If you want a really genre correct 1960s radior or TV adaptation character, or the Savage Dragon, add some extra PD, "only versus firemarms."

Re: The great debate, this time with Java! 7) occassionally do massive STN damage to invulnerable characters that they can't inflict BOD on at all: Highly undesireable in supers genre. I don't get this. It seems to me that Superman getting taken out by cruise missile occasionally--but not severely wounded at all--is perfectly in genre.

Re: The great debate, this time with Java! AFAIK the program is not flawed. The interpretation, however, is not strong. If his opponent has a Force Wall, I'll be happy to take that bet. Let's poke some more holes in this example. First, it's 27.5 active points, which means firing five shots costs 10 END. Second, just because you fire five shots does not mean you are going to hit with five. In fact, you are pretty much not going to. Third, there is a far greater likelihood not a single shot will even do 1 STUN to the opponent, even if all hit. According to the guidelines in the rulebook, r PD 10/nPD 20 is normal, which means even even on a very powerful hit, you are talking about 30 STUN or so against a tough opponent. Hence my comment about +5 CON and SPD... with just a slight statistical edge, the chances of taking someone out rapidly vanishes.

Re: The great debate, this time with Java!

Re: The great debate, this time with Java! The average over a character's career is about the least relevant statistic I can think of. Who cares how many times Killer Man rolls high, until he is finally turned to stone by Madam Medusa or the campaign ends or whatever? What is interesting is the question: which is going to take down a foe first? If the lottery result is not reliable, doing good solid average damage over and over again is probably going to win. In theory, that means EB will be better against more vulnerable foes, including less powerful ones, and RKA stronger. But there are reasons to be suspicious of making that assumption. Why not give your master villain +1 SPD and +5 CON? For a pittance of 20 points, you have made a character vastly less vulnerable to being stunned. Compartively, he has gained all of +2 STUN versus Concussion Man's attacks in terms of avoiding being knocked unconscious. And let's imagine the villain is stunned. What is going to happen in the next phase? It is very unlikely the villain is going to be stunned again, even by Killer Man.

Re: Chess Grandmaster - KS, PS, or something else? It's only in uncertain in the sense you don't know how the game will end, yet. Each move is completely certain.