Kdansky

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect And instead of an EC, you can always use the "Unified Power (-1/4)" limitation, which is essentially: drained as one. I really hope this Limitation replaces EC outright in 6th. But then, I have loooow hopes.

Re: Complex Sectional Armor That certainly is interesting, you have found a quirk in the limitation system

Re: Multipower Variable Slot Question And there is actually a "move PD <-> ED around" advantage, you know, at least I saw it in a supplement (ultimate something I think). That was priced at +1/2 to +1, I'm not sure, but +1 seems excessively expensive. I would allow the flexible slot version, assuming that the PC does not go overboard. FF 40 points 8: 30/10 8: 10/30 definitely going to fly with me FF 40 8: 40/0 8: 0/40 borderline pool 40 2u: 20/0 2u: 0/20 4f: 20/0 4f: 0/20 2u: 10 powerdefense 2u: 10 flashdefense 2u: 10 mental defense not so much. Flash example from above: Go ahead. It's a rather weak construct to begin with. Using an attack at less than 8d6 of 10d6 will probably bounce off completely and you would rather use 10d6 flash instead anyway... I'd rather buy the Attack with ultra slots and a small flash linked to the EB slot if you want to have both effects at once.

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect Yes, Constant means it runs by itself without you doing anything for it. Like Force Field (you only activate that once) or any "Poison"/"Burning" attack which does continuing damage without you doing anything. Technically, you would have to start it at some point (and pay END all the time), but since Aid does not cost END and you add persistent, even that is not necessary. Also, you are *VERY* hard to KO, as your "-10 Stun" starts technically at -30 (or else, the aid will bring you above -10 very quickly in a phase or two). That is probably the most interesting part of the power and will make you hellishly annoying. You could also buy some additional defenses / aid which only work when below 0 stun (-1 or so) for "impossible to take out for long"-effect. The same is true for kippup teleport: Since it is triggered you only spend a zero phase action for it (meaning: You can only do it in your phase, but that's it), and another one to reset the trigger (and pay the END if necessary). full phase action: you can do one of these per phase, and that's that. 1/2 phase action: You can do two of these per phase, but any attack will instantly end your phase right there. zero phase action: You can do as many of these as you want during your phase, but not after attacks, only before them. That would be the level you want your trigger to be at. action that takes no time: You can even do these when it's not your turn. speaking eg. If you fall over at the end of your attack, you remain prone until it's your phase again. Then you instantly revert to being standing. You could also just buy lots of breakfall (only to get up quickly -1) so you always make your roll to do that. Multiform ending: Instant Change disadvantage in the Multiform. State a condition and a roll (in your case: "badly hurt at 0 BODY" 14-) and you have to not roll 14- every phase or you revert automatically. If that is what you want. There might also be a limitation on MF, but I don't remember that. REC: Yeah, exactly. Instead of having 36 REC which only comes into effect post-12, you just agree with the GM that you will take half your post-12 in post-12, and half of it in post-6, or even 2 REC per phase. In the end, the difference is minor, but it makes sense to do this at some point of high REC (after all, if your REC is 40, and you only have 40 Stun, you will never reap the full benefit of your stat, that's hardly fair). Also, I recommend the Edit button instead of replying two times in a row.

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect If you just want basic Stun regeneration, buy a multiple of your speed in REC and just distribute it about your phases for a +0 advantage. Fair enough. Using a complicated Healing power is just more dice for no difference.

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect That's fine I'll read it tomorrow. Different timezones and such... I really liked my Aid (without inherent, it's exactly 60 AP, 40 real points for 2d6 per phase and 20 maximum effect, talk about neat numbers), and I think some sort of encounter will use that soonish. Only problem: That enemy is already high-speed / high dex, it might become quite invincible by just going for a abort-dodge if attacked a lot and then recovering quickly. I wonder if my players can take him on...

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect I actually didn't expect you to be sensible about it Most people react very violently after I tell them into their face that their character concept sucks (in the sense of: YOU won't have fun playing it). Ok, some clarification: Yes, Constant Powers only work during your phases. So Healing, Constant, Always On, Persistent will heal you in every of your phases. Technically, it's illegal, because you cannot heal yourself for more than max Effect (1d6 = 6) per day (or up to per turn for a +1.75 advantage I think). Let's try some other approaches: First off: "Standard" Regeneration 1 body/ turn, or a few more (but not needed, I'll get to that). Second: Instead of Healing, we use Aid. Reason: While you cannot Aid more than Standard Effect either, you can add it as often per time as you like. Energized: Aid Stun, 2d6 (20 points) increased maximum effect +8 (for 4 points), Constant (+1), Persistent (+1/2), Inherent (+1/4), Always On (-1/2). 66 Active points, 37 real points. How this works: In every of your phases, you roll 2d6. These add to your temporary stun value. If you take damage, these go down first. These points are allowed to go above your normal maximum. You can have up to 12+8 = 20 stun like this. So if you have a maximum of 30, you will start all battles with 50, 20 of which regenerate extremly quickly. The power is legal, quite powerful and quite useful. If you take many hits in quick succession, you will go down. If you only take one every now and then, you can totally shrug it off. Buy decent REC with it. Actually, this power sounds like fun Next on the list: Tiny hits shall not do much to you: Use Flying instead of Running, that makes you take +1d6 Knockback Have good Defenses, defined as "Yeah, you hit me, and I fall over, but I regenerate so quickly that I am as good as new in my next phase." Sure, you don't write down any damage, because it bounces off. But isn't that what you want? You bounce attacks because they cannot really hurt you. High defenses it is. Do not forget unusual defenses. Also, make them either Armor or resistant (!) PD/ED, because that way, they are always there and since they are resistant, you won't take BODY (which makes sense). That is also why you don't really need lots of regeneration. How often does someone do more than 25 Body in a single hit? *NOTHING* can hurt me: Healing 2d6, self only (-1), broad special effect (+1/2): Any characteristic below maximum value, one stat at a time. Keeps those pesky drain Con and what do I know at bay. Sure, you have to spend a phase to use it, but still worth it. Flashed? Yeah, right, not for long. Get Up Quick: Teleport 1", Trigger "When I fall over" +1/4, Trigger resets itself (+? look it up), Shift Position Adder (+5cp). Everytime you fall over, your teleport will make you get up with the position shift instantly, and because it is triggered, you don't have to do anything for it. The trigger will reset itself every time, and the power costs about 1 END to use.

Re: Energiser Bunny Effect When you build characters, especially PCs, think about this: Will this character be fun to play? Interesting? Will other PCs want to depend on him? Because honestly, a character who primarily does not die sounds very, very boring after a couple times. Because guess what? All other characters are not likely to die either. You are good at something everyone else is rather good too. It's very similar to the player who recently told me he wanted to play a character without combat abilities. Problem is: I told my group in advance that my next campaign will be very combat heavy. If you think sitting out half the time (for a couple months!) is fun, you might lack some experience in sitting out. The same holds true for your character: He is basically a brick with different special effects (and I would model him as such, with high defenses or damage reduction, SFX being: I get smacked down, but hey, I can take it and get up again). The get-up teleportation is a great power too, because that's something unique and fitting (and actually useful). You could also add triggered movement to get back to where you where after knockback, or crazy high PD/ED with a mediocre activation roll ("You call that a punch?") in addition (!) to your already above-average defenses. And what do you do? Punching supers (after you have collected exp!)? Now that is extraordinarily interesting! Be prepared to be underwhelmed. "Maybe saving hostages" Assuming there are some. And assuming the Speedster isn't better at that. Or the brick, shielding them with his body (much better, since you get knocked around easily), or the teleporter just grabbing them. Yeah, roleplaying the underdog is definitely interesting, but even the underdog should have something to do during the day. Yes, this heals you for 1d6 stun in every of your phases. 15 points for 6d6 stun recovery a turn (about 21), a bit cheaper than buying straight rec. The teleport grants you a free stand-up action due to it's trigger.

Re: Defences against the stun of KAs That is how I would want to have Killing Attacks redefined in 6th. Only resistant defenses work, and KAs are more expensive. We can then also go and roll them the same way as EB. The only sad thing about it. I like to have choices which are different, and this one is not so much.

Re: Always on for size and/or density altering powers Yes, but the 5 points of PD you get from Growth alone is not quite enough for that. And if I have to pay 20 points to get enough armor (or +4 DCV persistant etc) to make that difference, I don't quite see why the -4 DCV I am compensating should not be worth 20 points of disadvantages. I like the "tough enough to take it" approach, but it should not be more expensive than the normal DCV for doing the same.

Re: Fistcannon? I advise to go one step further on this: There is really no problem if a player redesigns his character sheet from time to time. There are two cases for this: A: Rules During the game, you might find a rules problem. Or one of his powers is way too good (or useless), or completely mispriced. Or the Limitation he took is not limiting at all. Or it's coming into play every three minutes and annoying everyone. Or the character is supposed to be fast (speedster), but in practice, all other characters have about the same speed and movement powers, so he is average at best. In short: If rules conflict with how the character was envisioned, just rewrite the character. There is really no point in having an unhappy player at the table, or being forced to design around a particularily broken power construct. B: Concept When I write up characters, I have certain concepts in mind. Certain personalities, and certain powers. But none of that is finalized before first session. Sometimes an interesting twist comes up, or the character relates particularily well/bad to other PCs (resulting in a Rival, or making him unplayable in the context). You might have envisioned the character as a total smartass, but at the table, you get outsmartassed by another PC (because his player is better at it than you are, true story ). So again, spare yourself the ugly problem of having to stick to a concept which does not work well, and just rewrite the sheet. After all, the sheet has to fit the concept, not the other way around. My first (hero) character started out first session as a smart brick and ended up an overconfident, naive speedster. And it's one of the best characters I ever had. But his background story never changed, because that is not rules and character sheet.

Re: Always on for size and/or density altering powers I would always go for the new way. Mainly because DI (and even more so Growth) are horrible point-value, compared to raw Strength (but then, I blame figureds...). And last: -4 DCV is a bit of a game balance problem, since you are basically at half DCV nonstop... Nothing will miss you ever. Ouch. So just don't take that.

Re: Disadvantage Point Limits. Without reading all pages in this discussion: One important reason to have it is Psychological Limitations. I can easily come up with more than a 100 points of valid, real, but non-problematic limitations in psychological by just writing a detailed personality. It sums up really, really fast. I can usually write up twice as many points as allowed in psychological for all my characters, at least a hundred. Therefore it is good to have a max

Re: How would you use a true name as a vulnerability? Assume three Attacks: 4d6 (small), 6d6 (medium) and 8d6 (villain). Basic PRE/EGO is 15 for everyone else, 30 EGO (but lousy pre) for him. Attacks are 14, 21 and 28, respectively 28, 42 and 56. Against the others, that is: No Effect, EGO, EGO + 10. Against him, that is: No Effect, EGO +10, EGO + 20/30. Ok, assuming I use it a lot, it is a real disadvantage...

Re: How would you use a true name as a vulnerability? I would go for vulnerability I think. PRE Attacks x2, or even stun. By the way: I've got a character in my group who has vuln versus PRE Attacks, but since he is a Telepath, he also sports an insane EGO near 30. In Essence he's not vulnerable so much more than anyone else. How would you deal with it?

Re: Lower Water and Part Water Doc, too much double and tripple-posting First thing that came to my mind: Life Support, AoE, Megascaled. By the way: Megascale is *perfect* for this problem. Big area, not quite perfectly exact (but that's definitely not required, we're talking big after all) and brings down the cost a lot. Next idea was Tunneling, and I also like all other movement-based approaches. Then Desolid is really elegant, although kinda funky in how it behaves (not effect-based at all). EDM and Transform obviously catch-alls. I would probably go with Life Support and Elemental Movement. And yes, that does not allow you to crash down the walls and do immense damage. If you want to be able to do that, buy a EB 10d6, Area of Effect Megascaled, will you? After all, powerful stuff costs lots of points. "Only works on big bodies of waters" is easily -2 or more, depending on campaign, so that is where points get reduced by a lot. You know, Moses was a pretty powerful guy (in the same way Magneto is. Fictional, but powerful ). Why should his stuff be very cheap? You want a power which allows hundreds of people to cross an ocean and then kill a legion of soldiers. For cheap? Certainly not!

Re: END Reserve that begins with 0 END in it? You are misunderstanding me I think. Bloodstone said: "Buy x END in a Endreserve, to know the maximum you can hold." That is incorrect. If you use Absorption, you don't need any maximum, since the absorbed points increase not only the current amount of END you have, but also the maximum amount of END that can be inside the Reserve. So spending 0 points for a 0 END, 0 REC reserve would be enough (or 1 point) I would do it like this though: 16 charges (+0), Hard to recover because character has to get hit by certain things (-1), Automatically deplete at end of scene (-1). Choose numbers so it fits. Basically think about how often he does get charges and use the value for Increased Recovery Time, and then think about him not being able to use any charge in the meantime and add a value to that according to how long it is. If he cannot use his powers every second battle, that's -1/2, if he can only use them every 5 battles, that's 1 1/2. Etc. This is one of the few things that Hero is not good at doing. Another idea: I assume the Power in question is an EB for 60 activepoints. You have 6 charges on it, so each charge is worth 10AP (further limitations make this complicated...). Now use the absorb to fill the power, and for each 10 AP filled, you get a charge back. That's how you would use charges in a VPP. Still, you would essentially need to buy an absorb to be limited. Kinda sucks. Last version: Instead of absorbing END, do it like this: simple version: EB 1d6, no end (7.5 AP), Absorb 12d6 (60 AP), feeds into EB. That's it. Your Absorb will now not power the amount of shots, but the strength of the attack. In essence, you can only use the power a couple times and then *it will just run out*. It will also run out like that. Points are fine, you get a theoretically very big power, but you cannot use it without getting hit. Sure, the concept is slightly changed, but it has gotten rather more interesting than less complicated version: Assuming you don't want to be able to use the EB without getting hit, but you also don't want the absorbing to take eternities to get a decent EB. Do this: EB 4d6, 0 END (30 AP), cannot be used until absorbed up to 8d6 (-1), and Absorb 6d6 (30 AP). The usual absorb will give you just about 8d6 at 0 END. There you go? If you want to really build your concept, try to do it somewhere along the lines of VPP + Charges, that's what does the same.

Re: Knockback "realistic"? By the way: "No Knockback (-1/4)" is really chaotic in pricing. If you have 2d6 KA (str inluded), you will more or less never see any KB at all (max body 12, minus 3d6) and get a handful of points for not being able to do so at all. If you have a 15d6 EB on the other hand, you will rob yourself of about 5-10" knockback on any hit. Not doing knockback is totally rare (requires you to roll no sixes but 3+ ones on 15 dice, PLUS rolling 12 on the two KB dice), but you only get a -1/4 limitation for it. Now for 30d6, you lose a major damage factor (you will usually do about an extra 23 extra dice of KB damage), and it's still only 1/4. In fact, on infinite dice, you basically get a free second hit in. Very rarely the Hero Limitation/Advantage System does fail at this, since usually a disadvantage gets bigger if the power gets bigger too. Similar things can be said about Double Knockback, although that scales so bad it's marked with a CAREFUL sign already...

Re: So, what don't you like about HERO 5th? Most will have come up already: How Aid works. I want to have self-only-Aid which is cheaper than buying the stat! Damage Shield is too expensive for what it does, also, cumbersome. Life Support is way too complicated and expensive for stuff that is fluff only (living 200 years? My campaign lasts *THIS WEEK*!). Suppress is way too good/cheap compared to drain/transfer. Regeneration should be regeneration. 20 points minimum, +3 per +1 body per turn healed. Or so. Figured characteristics suck (yay 6th!) END/STUN is too expensive (yay 6th?) KA stun lotto (I hate this with a passion!!!) Growth being a worthless power (tied into figureds + str) Transform is too complex/expensive Damage Reduction being a totally uninteresting power which only produces math (75% of 27 is how much?) but has no effect that could not be solved by buying more BOD or STUN. 50% DR? Double your stun and body, that's the same, but easier math.

Re: Suppress, Transfer and Drain questions Even if it is correct rules-wise to use Suppress Speed, I would highly advice against it. Consider this: 30 points Suppress, Area of Effect (+1). Gives you 6 dice for suppressing at range, and you can easily hit 3-4 people. only 60 AP. You basically pay 6 END per phase (if you are non-speedster that is doable), and they lose a full 2 points of speed. All of them. Now do it a second time. Sure, you do pay 12 end per phase, but they are probably speed 0-2 now. You can still attack four times. And if you use continuing charges, it's massacre time. Or: 60 AP: Suppress 12d6. Average roll: 42. Use it twice, pay 12 END per phase until the enemy is dead. Note that he is at -8 speed and therefore will not fight back. If he does, use it three times. It's automatic win. If you allow suppress on "speed", make the user split it up between SPD and DEX or something similar. Still very, very powerful, but it's not outright broken anymore. Also, Entangle might be the better choice, it's balanced better. Drain and Transfer are also not so cost-efficient.

Re: END Reserve that begins with 0 END in it? That actually does not work. 10 pts: Endurance Reserve 100 END, 0 REC. Now if you absorb 25 points, your Reserve goes to 25/125, not 25/100. So you really do not need any maximum, because Absorb already increases the maximum. You would need to use one of the following tricks: - Maximum of 0, but some recovery, Using the Absorb to boost the max, and then the recovery to fill the new pool you have (can be used multiple times, and is probably the most fun and useful). Also, you will need to buy up the amount of possibly absorbed points you can achieve, since 3d6 absorb only goes up to 18 (36 end, the 1:10 is not used here IIRC). - Use the "buy END reserve without recovery" approach, but use healing + Trigger to fill the maximum. - Use charges and "hard to recover". My favourite, it's simple, it's a limitation and works easily. Always think about this: Does your power get worse than the generic "uses generic END/ has 16 charges" version? Because if it does, it's a limitation and paying points for a endurance reserve is not the right way to do it. Absorb is usually *very* expensive, and you might end up paying 50 points to get an effect which is far worse than the advantage 0 END for +1/2.

Re: Realistic Aviation: Discuss I would not try to model such a plane at all. It's basically the Campaign Setting, and we usually also don't model castles, towns and lakes. If it's stalling, then it's stalling because the GM says so and it's time for some serious Profession Skill: Piloting rolling.

Re: HERO Noob, be gentle Yay, someone to ask questions! We love that kind. This forum is basically the opposite of Open-Source-communities. Instead of forcing everyone to read every single detail before they are even allowed to ask a question, we generally require only that you ask questions. If you cannot find a certain rule, usually someone will give you a page number roughly three minutes after asking. Nope, I'm not joking. Of cource, you'll get seven other page numbers too which are related, and two more which are not but nontheless very interesting.

Re: Is combat in HERO strategic? Neat. Cannot rep, must spread. Is there any more of this kind of essay around? Since I have noone to practice on, I would be interested in articles about hero-tactics (when to use what?), just because I like reading that. And yes, RPG is nearly always 'tactics' and not 'strategics'.