Dust Raven

If I recall correctly, you can target yourself with a constant, AoE power automatically. It's when you wish to target someone else and have it stick with them than you need UAA. Otherwise Talon's writeup is exactly what I was thinking of, plus Continuous.

It including hearing. The thing for me, is that a film isn't a good representaton of some "psychic" powers, such as psychometry or telepathy. In a case such as this, you really can't tell the difference. I'm starting to lean back toward Clairsentience just because it's vastly cheaper, and I really don't think this ability is worth of over 120 active points of trouble. It's just flashes and insight. If I can do that, accurately, with Clairsentience, I'll do that. I'll have to rule that the "distance" isn't related to a place, but to the person David is seeing the past of. In this case, it would be "No Range" which would happily represent the need to touch the person to see their wrongdoings.

I guess I need not mention that Multiform need to include the entire character... Asa note, however, since some have mentioned using Multipowers and such... I have a villain that used power armor, and he has about half a dozen suits for various occasions. Most of his suits have unique Power Frameworks built into them, which you can't simulate with just a Multipower (can't put another Multipower, or any Framework, into a Multipower). I was only able to do this by using Multiform. I'm currently experiementing with VPPs though...

Cool fire spirit! Wait, no.... Smokin' fire spirit! So the spirits aren't like elementals, but actually human-looking spirits (with some distinctive features)? After reading your description of the Adept and the one spirit, you've piqued my curiosity about the rest of your campaign world. What other types of spirits are there?

The guy in line at the ball game. He hadn't done anything bad yet. And he might not have caused any trouble, but he was trying to sneak a weapon into the stadium, which is bad. If he was going to cause trouble, it might have been Danger Sense that detected it and pinpointed it. I believe he just senses the present or past wrongdoings of others, particularly those which they have not been held accounted for. I don't think he'll pick anything up off of a guy who'd just got out of prison unless he was already commiting other crimes. If I recall correctly, David Dunn & Mr. Glass never physically touched, even through gloves and clothing, until that final scene. It's been a while though, but I'm pretty sure they did touch until then. In any case, at the end it did work on him, which a high EGO has to be accounted for.

What he said... ...but because I'm OCD, I'm compelled to mention that the Spirit Adept doesn't have the Call Spirit or Mind Strike skill, both of which his spells require him to make rolls on.

Hey Badger3K! TMBG Rules!!!! Definately see the movie! Anyways, in the film, the events he "percieved" were shown from an outside perspective. I'm leaning toward Telepathy at this point, but it's looking expensive. I've got to make sure it can still effect characters with high EGO and possible Mental Defense (although it could simply not work against such people).

I think it goes without saying Steve's a cat person. He made cats more intelligent and better looking than any dog. Now, I'm a cat person too, but I think dogs a geting cut short in the Beastiary. For one, they have only 1" of Leaping, when cats have 2". Cats were given a DCV bonus and a Combat Level and dogs were given neither. Small animals should get a DCV bonus just due to size, and guard dogs should have at least one Combat Level. I've also seen dogs leap fences that cats have to climb (though these are only certain breeds).

As noted above, the Autofire would cost an additional +1 because of the Area Effect (not a normal attack roll). Other than that, you can look at it one of two ways... 1. the EASY way: Determine how many shots you will fire (1-5). Roll to hit against DCV 3 to hit the desired hex (or DCV 0 if adjacent). Treat it like a nomral AF attack, if it misses, everything misses, or if it hits, you get an extra hit for every 2 points the attack roll was made by, up to the number of shots fired. Example: You fire 5 shots at a hex 4" away (no range penalty). You have an OCV of 8, giving you a 16- to hit. You roll an 11 and hit 3 times. The remaining 2 shots just miss. 2. the HARD way: Do everything as above, but for every shot that misses, treat it as a missed AoE attack (FREd page 248). This can get messy and I don't recomend it for Autofire AoE attacks. Example: Same as above, but roll a d6 to determine which direction the missed shots go. You roll a 5. The 4th shot hits the hex directly to the left of the target hex and the 5th shots hits the hex 2" over.

Oh, I didn't know the character's had to pay points for normal equipment (usually don't in a fantasy setting). Personally, I'd still go with the EDM, but a small VPP to simulate the "I think I've got one of those...I'll check" nature of having lots of stuff might be a good idea. He'd have to explain how all of that stuff got in there in the first place though...

As a simple work-a-round for smartguns I do the following: +2 with Smartguns (3 point Combat Skill Levels) OAF cables. Total Cost 5 points. (The total cost reflects that CSLs with Limitations must cost at least 5 points each.) If the character needs the goggles as well, he might get an additional -1/4 Limitation (total cost 4 points). For those ever popular "induction plates" where connection is through plates in the character's palm and plates in the gun, it would simply be Restrainable (-1/2) for a total cost of 7 points. Induction Plates cannot be used with goggles, naturally. As for the guns, it's just part of the SFX if it is "smart" or not. If the character's pay points for their equipment, you can assume that any gun they pay points for is a smartgun. If not, it's up to the GM.

It's inexpensive only if all you are doing is using it to spy on people. If you want to manifest using Images, Mental Powers or Telekinesis, it's much cheeper to use Duplication. Also, A Duplicate has not range limit, if you had the time to get there, you could observe events on Mars.

This could never be done using Summon. For out of combat spells and the like, it would be fine, but in combat the ritual of summoning and parleying would either get the mage killed or take too long. Even if you ruled that the actual parley takes no time, role-playing it does. In these cases, it may be best if you allow the mages a few spells where the SFX is that they quickly ask a spirit to do something specific (like an EGO Attack or Telekinesis). You could have it Require A Skill Roll and have the skill be Persuasion or a specific skill related to parleying with spirits. It all happens in a single Phase, and there isn't a need to role-play it out more than the mage asking a spirit to do something (Incantations).

If a portable hole, by default, happens to have everything imaginable in it, then I could see it as a VPP or Multipower. However, when any just says "portable hole" I immediately think of the D&D magic item. I especially think of the D&D magic item when the guy who mentioned it says it's kinda like the D&D magic item. The D&D magic item is definately not a VPP or even a Multipower. It's just a closet that can fit into your pocket. There is no way a VPP can cover what can be inside, especially if such things can just be handed out to everybody. You can even put other player characters in there (though they may run out of air). If it turns out not to be like the D&D item, then it could be anything, though I would still vote against VPP just because it wouldn't allow you to have more than one or two things out at a time.

For Astral Travel I almost always use Duplication (example in FREd pg. 101). I figure it works better than Clairsentience because it's easier to attack through, and it makes the character vulnerable to binding and such. It works better than Desolid because there are abilities you'll have in Astral Form that you don't have normally, and vice versa. The Astral Form woud of course have Inherant Desol though.

As a house rule, Clairsentience can be uses as a targeting sense if it's bought as one (+10 points). It does't grant any special abilities to any attacks you might make using it though, if you wanted to attack "through" a magic mirror, the attack would have to be bought Indirect. Actually written into my house rules is a way to make Clairsentience targeting for Mental Powers. It involves buying it versus the Mental Group in adition to targeting, and anyone with Mental Awareness can sense the "perception point" and attack the mentalist with Mental Powers through it.

Two things: First, if you are doing it using Summon, then you don't need Transdimensional or anything else to "reach" the spirit world, it's all built into the Summon Power. If you'd like a bit more flavor, you can have your mages buy Detect Spirit, and have Creature Must Inhabit Local on the Summon. Second: So you magic system doesn't allow for things like Fireballs and Magic Missiles? If a group of adventurers is suddenly ambushed by orcs, I doubt that the mage will make a target of himself trying to ask a spirit for help, and even if he does, and dosn't get killed trying, the fight's likely to be over before he's done making his deal with the spirit. So what would mages of this type do in such a situation?

Following the "reason from effect" path, something like a portable hole is much more complicated than just buying extra STR. It always does the same stuff, so a VPP would be out of the question. Basically what we're doing, is putting stuff into a pocket dimension for storage until we reach in and yank it out again. I'd go ahead and rule that all you need is EDM and let the GM define the properties of the hole. It would natually be OAF, proabably take a Full Phase to activate (unfolding one takes a while you know), and use the Gate arangement found on page 149-150 of FREd. Let the GM rule whether or not the properties of the hole allow anyone to actually into or out of it. If the players actually wanted to use it for a clever hiding spot I'd also make them buy it as a Base as well, and then simply define the portable hole as they way to get ot it.

That angled view is exactly what I didn't like. I've only used the maps a few times during actual game play, and the the angle of the walls led to some confusing about how far something is from something else when hear the wall. It wasn't that big a deal, but I didn't like it. Other than that, the only think I can think to mention is detail. Don't do it. To be perfectly honest, I like to know where the table lamps and foot stools are too, but I like to be the one to decide where they go. If I have a map that already has all of the detail drawn into it, then I either have to use it as is, or draw my own map (which I really wouldn't be needing anything published in the first place). If all I see is an empty room, perhaps with a suggestion or list of contents in the text or key, then all I have to do is copy it, enlarge it (if necessary) and use it for play, drawing in what I need to when it's printed.

February then? One more (well, three more) thing to buy with my tax refund...

So it does exist. It just hasn't been released yet. Cool. Most of the players in my new gaming group are new to HERO and don't own a rulebook. I was thinking something like this would make excellent Christmas presents.

Was there ever such a thing called "HERO-Lite"? I seem to recall some simplified for-beginers publication of the Hero System rules called Hero Lite or something like that. Only I can't seem to find any such thing. Was I dreaming? Am I hallucinating? Did it just get up and walk away while I had my back turned?

I'm sure this has come up before but... Unbreakable (the movie). He had this ability to touch someone and sense/see "bad" things they had done. How would you write this up? I'm think Telepathy or Clairsentience (retrocog), but I can't figure out how to make it always, involentarily, activate upon physical contact without some over complicated combination of Modifiers.

Most of the SFX I see for these "entangle" powers seem to point to the use of other Powers for their effect. Mental paralysis is just Mind Control with the command to "not move". Entangles can be blasted out of, and even if it's based on EGO, meaning only "ego powers" can be used to break it's effect (in addition to EGO), it's just replaced the rules that another mentalist can break the effect of a mental power by rolling higher than the original effect. Mind Control is already there and it works. The same thing goes for most other types. A PRE based Entangle might be better bought as a huge amount of extra PRE with "Only To Make People Freeze In There Tracks For A While". It might even be cheeper then the Entangle. The "mental puzzle" sounds like a Mental Power (Control or Illusion) too.

Unless there's something in the environment that would do more damage, squeezing does the same damage as throwing/slamming the target into something. You can even maintain your hold when slamming him into something. I've never thought to have my players make attacks rolls for subsequent squeezes/slams, but it makes sense if you still need to use an attack action.