Maethalion

Re: Absorbtion and Duplication? Dramatically speaking, the 'half goblins' would be smaller and weaker. Each iteration would be about 3/4 Body and Stun of the previous goblin. So a 150pt Goblin would summon 2 120 point goblins (19pts). The 120pt goblins would summon 90pt goblins, 90->60, so on and so forth. It would be infinite if the 150pt Goblin summoned another two 150pt goblins, and they in turn summoned another two 150pt Goblins, etc. If I used duplication, I would start at a 150pt goblin, then 125p goblins, then 75pt, etc. Keeping in mind that each iteration after the first pays 2 forms of duplication - cost of its creator, and it's own duplication power. So the first goblin has 120 points to spend, the second 70 points, then 40pts, then 20pts on things like characteristics and claws. And they all share damage, too. So I looked over Summon again last night, and it seems to me to take an extraordinarily long time to execute. Full phase to use, and then a full phase to recover (in which the goblin cannot take any damage, as per the Stunned Rules). I didn't see anything to speed up the recovery process as part of summon, so all the PCs have to do is deal 1 point of stun to the goblins as they're Stunned and Recovering, and then the monster's cool-ness is moot. Using trigger would mean the goblins appear instantly in the phase it's killed, and spend the next phase recovering. Which doesn't really speed it up any. I could buy each of them +1 SPD (only for recovering from being Summoned, 1 charge, Never Recovers) and rule that the pt of speed occurs between the current phase and their next phase. So if they got summoned on phase 4 (SPD 3), and they would go again on phase 8, the +1 SPD allows them to recover on phase 6. But that seems to me to be a GM call just to make my monster work. I.e. "because I said so" instead of following the base or optional rules on p 357 of the 5th Ed. Rev. Rulebook.

OK, so this is a question from a GM's perspective, on how to build a monster's ability (namely for FH, but the rules should apply to any genre). The ability is described Dramatically: The Hero makes a mighty swing with his two handed sword and cuts the goblin in half. Much to the Hero's surprise the goblin's two halves reform into 2 more goblins! Only by killing the goblins with Fire is the Hero able to stop them from reforming! The ability is described Technically ... with Hero Rules? So here is where I'm confused on how to build this. Option A: Absorbtion: 5d6 (max 30 active points) --> Duplication Duplication: 0 Base As the character takes damage, the number of points in his duplication power increases to the maximum active points in absorbtion (assumedly bought with a long enough return rate). For 30 active points in Duplication (25 Base, +5 x2 duplicates) Option B: Duplication: 25 base, +5 x2 duplicates (Triggered: When character is at half BODY or below) When the character is at half body or below, the duplication power activates. Option C: Summon: 25 base, +5 x2 duplicates (0 END, Triggered: Just before character is killed with a PD dealing weapon) When the character dies, it summons two more copies of itself. My feelings on the Options Option A seems a bit cumbersome, the more I look at it. Option B doesn't seem to really describe the power. In this case, you need to find the original and kill it to keep more from respawning. Option C seems almost an infinite loop if you summoned a summon with summon. Unless I made 6 different monsters, each of them with 5 points fewer in it's summon power (and thus 25 active points fewer in the next creature). What do the Guru's out there think? How would you build this?

Re: Would this be simpler? Personally, I'd love to see the even/odd point structure of the base 5pt/DC change. If it was changed to a power of 2 (ie 4, 8, 16, 32) Then all of the fractional math would be a lot easier to compute. Or even 10pt/DC.

Re: reverse vulnerability

Re: ~ All Out War~d&d Vs Hero Vs Palladium I doubt that... unless of course Fantasy Hero Revised (hypothetically) comes out with HERO "talent" conversions of the new DnD IV Feats/Abilities. I mean seriously, you have to pay a ridiculously high number of points for "animal friendship" (I think it's 20). For the same cost I could buy 25 strength (NCM). That's just silly . d20 gives the same class ability for free for those archetyped characters - natural, like it should be.

Re: ~ All Out War~d&d Vs Hero Vs Palladium Personally, I am a fan of all 3 game systems. Having played Palladium first, then DnD 3.X, then Fantasy Hero, I admit my view might biased. I'll say that Palladium would go down first. While the gameplay is quick to pick up, there are some severely unbalanced rules (such as paired weapons) that make it unstable for any lengthy story telling. That and the campaign world they present sucks. ugh. Then, I'd say that Fantasy Hero would go down. Why? Well, I love the flexibility of Fantasy Hero rules, but every 'talent' in the FH book is a copy of a DnD Feat or Class Ability. I'm sorry, but the only thing I kept thinking as I went through the FH book was "Oh great, DnD Hero. I paid how much to play DnD with a more complex rule system?" Sure, HERO can describe any sort of fantasy Genre you want - take Tuala Morn for example - but any self-generated content takes an IMMENSE amount of EFFORT and TIME from the GM. Almost an INSANE amount of time. And if you want to use your own monsters or magic system? You're SOL. Good luck finding any resources that don't use the 'standard' magic system. How do you mediate between mages and other PCs who can pick up weaons more powerful than the standard heroic 60-point cap? (and they don't have to pay character points for) It's a lot more headache than it's worth. DnD (3.X) would win in my opinion. If only for it's basic play-style and long-standing history of doing-it-right. Sure, there are lots of idiotic things in DnD - right down to the random treasure tables, random encounters, and the basic idea of Duneoneering itself. I think the rules do provide a backbone upon which you can hang lots of different campaign settings. For instance, I'm running a hugely successful year-long Arthurian/Norse/Celtic campaign - where the only time the rules come in is during combat and combat only happens once every three or four games. Yes - I'm running a DnD game where combat happens at most 1/3 of the gaming sessions. Shock and Horror! but when combat does happen, everyone jumps in and it's over QUICKLY (unlike most HERO combats...) enough to help motivate the plot. I don't think that the fight between DnD and FH would be easy. Maybe not even a sure win for DnD 3.X. But I do think that DnD would eventually win, especially with what I hear about DnD 4.0. Those are my thoughts! -S!