Fearghus

Re: Damage Negation behind Barrier

What Greywind said... In this case the barrier is a separate entity from the character. The barrier must be broken before the character can take any damage. Only when the character takes damage can he instantly regenerate from it.

Re: Powered Suits as Vehicles

Just a word of caution: If you intend to have both Wizard and Golemsuit users as player character' date=' beware that the Wizard characters won't feel underpowered to the Golemsuit users. Imo this happens easily if they are built with same amount of character points: Vehicles in practice multiply your character points by five and thus Golemsuit users have 5 times more bang to their character point.[/quote']

 

Yep... this is the point I made in my first post.

Re: Powered Suits as Vehicles

Those that don't have the ability to manipulate magic but do want to keep up with those that do have two real alternatives (at this time' date=' may expand it later) 1) Ride a Golemsuit and then either modify and improve it, if they can, or hire someone to work on it themselves. 2) Use magical items, runes crafted in flesh or the like.[/quote']

 

If you have a soft spot for mecha that is all well and good but magic is just a special effect... you don't need a mecha or magic items to equalize the power... character points are character points. You can equalize magic with skill, gear, psychic power, pink fuzzy bunny power... or any special effect you want. There is nothing preventing a "Non-Magic" character from building an RKA and defining it as superior skill with a bow... or an exploding blast defined as some sort of chemical bomb... or a flight ability that only works against surfaces that is defined as acrobatics... or an invisibility power defining it as superior stealth. Granted there are some powers that you would be hard pressed to realistically define as skill based... but the idea that "non-magic" can't compete with "magic" is ridiculous in the HERO system. So long as all characters are built on the same character points with similar levels of defense and attack it doesn't matter what the special effect of the powers is.

Re: The fine Elven Mithril/Mithral Shirt from the Lord of the Rings movie

Ummm... Resistant Defense with a focus?

Sorry to be snarky, but really? It provides defense, and is an item = ResDEF + Focus. The fact that it is light means nothing... or at best means your don't apply a limitation to it.

Resistant defense is obviously the power, you just have to decide how much defense and what limitations/advantages to apply to it. How much DEF and the limitations and advantages will be campaign dependent.

Re: Powered Suits as Vehicles

First things first... This doesn't sound like a vehicle to me it sounds like a focus, or some kind of multi-form. I'd be very wary of allowing a character to build it as a vehicle much less forcing them to. Points spent on vehicles are significantly cheaper than points spent on your character. They are cheaper for a simple reason... You are not expected to have your vehicle with you at all times. Vehicles should have logical limitations. You can't remain inside them indefinitely, they may require maintenance or fuel, they are too large to be brought inside most building, their powers can not be pushed, they don't naturally have limbs or fine manipulators, characters can not perform most physical skills while inside a vehicle etc. That is not to say you can't build a giant automaton vehicle, but I would be very hesitant to let a player build it that way, and if I did I would make them pay for EVERY SINGLE THING that vehicle can do.

Second... What's the point in playing HERO if you want all knights to be the same? It seems to me that is counter to what HERO intends to accomplish. play D&D if you want to pigeon hole your players. Create a template for a knights powers as a launching pad, but I would once again be very wary of forcing a huge template onto any character.

OK Off my soap box now.

Having said all that Vehicles use the vehicle's characteristics. As was pointed out above Dex and Spd are special you use the character's Dex or the vehicle's Dex which ever is LOWER, and the same goes for speed. As I said above vehicles don't automatically get many of the things characters get. Leaping, and Swimming Movement, limbs with hands on the end, they don't heal automatically, senses... In fact a real argument could be made that being in a vehicle can hamper your senses. So when building your golem suit you have to be very careful that you build it properly and completely, and you are not letting your player have powers like life support or enhanced senses for free.

Re: Independent multi-targeting?

Yep... everybody else got to it first. This is Auto-fire with penalty skill levels or AOE with advantages depending on how you want to build it.

Re: NND vs Barrier

I have been paying close attention to this thread because this problem has occurred to me in the past. I am not certain that giving every no normal defense attack indirect for free is appropriate either though.

I have thought of various NND attacks I have built in the past. Most of them have been things like choke holds and stuff but I had one PC that had a wind blast attack that (forgive the pun) knocked the wind out of the victim. Basically it was that characters get away from me move. It is totally reasonable that the wind attack would b blocked by a normal barrier, on the other hand... the sheet of news print in the above examples should have been toast.

So after some though it occurs to me that maybe we shouldn't be house ruling the attack, but the barrier. Does a sheet of newsprint really have a whole point of body?

Maybe it is an object with zero body so any damage at all (even stun damage) destroys it? Maybe some fragile objects need an object form of the stun characteristic, and it is not destroyed until it's stun is used up? I am not certain of the answer here, but I just thought I would throw this idea out there. Though this could be opening a can of worms because then NND attacks could be used against fragile objects which doesn't make sense for some special effects either. After all why should a sonic scream that does stun damage to people with loud noise be able to have any effect at all on the sheet of news print?

In the end I think this is a case where you have to reason from special effect. Maybe apply certain other advantages or limitations to a power based on that special effect. building exotic attacks is always tricky because of the advantages and limitation that the special effect may imply anyway.

Re: symbiote,how whould i make it?

Yep everyone else has it right. Focus with some form of usable on others.

In 5th Ed there used to be a limitation Independent that allowed anyone to use a power, but the drawback was that the power could be taken away and used against the player or even be lost to the player forever. The power is under the sole control of the character that possesses it not necessarily the character that paid the points for it. It was intended to simulate things like weapons or armor that grant powers to anyone who wields them. You could always house rule independent back into 6th ed. It sounds like a perfect fit for what you are taking about. you may wish to adjust the value though. I was always very very skeptical of allowing a player to use that limitation.

Re: 1d6x2 attack

For the life of me I can not figure out why you would need this mechanic, but I would personally just hand wave it...

Spend your points on 2d6 RKA and just roll one die and multiply it. I can see an argument for making it either an advantage or limitation... after all you have a greater probability of rolling max damage rolling fewer dice, but you have a greater probably of rolling minimum damage as well, so I think it washes.

Re: Deflection Vs Area of Effect

I find it best to work from special effect on this sort of thing. If the special effect of an AOE Blast is a grenade... then I may allow a telekinetic ability to swat it away. the grenade still goes off and does damage, just not where the attacker wanted it to. Most things like this are GM calls. It also helps if the power is built with limitations to simulate the real game effects.

Re: How do Hero System players/GM view DnD?

Yep. Everything in the end boils down to personal preference.

Whoa guys! the OP ask what my opinion of D&D was, so told him. My opinions are just that MY OPINIONS. I listed things that I don't like about D&D. In general I find the game too complicated and restrictive to be fun to play. I didn't mean to start an argument about the merits and flaws of D&D. If you like it good for you... keep playing. I'll stick with HERO.

Re: How do Hero System players/GM view DnD?

Is it just scoffed at for being a simple game?

Actually I think just the opposite. D&D is too complicated. This spell counters that spell but not that other one. You want an ability that is only in a specific prestige class so you have to build your character in advance before to reach your max level... plan every level, feat, and skill at character creation or face being behind the power curve compared to the other players and the monsters you will face.

All that being said I have a HUGE LIST of other things I hate about D&D.

Why is it that in order to be a master crafts man (Expert 20th level) you have to kill stuff to earn experience in your craft?

Why can a fighter of any respectable level do a swan dive off of a 100' high cliff rather than waste the time climbing down... stand up... dust himself off and go kill a couple hundred kobolds and walk away with only minor injuries?

Why is it that a 5th level fighter who is specialized in an exotic weapon is actually worse at using it than any 20th level magic user who has probably never even laid a hand on the weapon?

Why are shields so worthless? Anyone who has actually trained with a weapon and shield know that the shield is the piece of armor that soaks up almost every single hit you would otherwise have taken. It's should certainly be worth more than a +1 to AC.

Speaking of armor by the time you are of a level that you are facing high level fighters and monsters you might as well not wear armor at all because similar to saving throws BAB and to hit bonuses grow faster than your AC does.

I hate the fact that armor effects your ability to be hit rather than soaking damage

I hate that you gain hit points every level... It plays like a video game and makes it so a long sword is deadly at first level but by the time you get to 5th or 6th level taking a sword hit is no big deal.

I hate that Saving throws out strip spell DCs so that by the time you reach 10th level you might as well give up casting spells that have a save because your opponent will almost assuredly pass.

Well I guess that pretty much illustrates my point. D&D as a game system is a dinosaur that just has not died yet. I had high hopes for 3rd edition, but was hugely disappointed in it. At this point I have decided I am never going to buy another D&D book (or pathfinder... since it was mentioned) and I play it only because in many cases it is play D&D or nothing at all, but I can say for myself I would be content to never play D&D again.

Re: DCV vs. beneficial "attack"

I tend to handle this in the same way D&D does. If the target wants to be effected by the power then it hits automatically. I might require a roll against DCV 0 with appropriate modifiers for combat situations or something if you really want to put a mechanic to it, but in my mind DCV represents your ability to avoid the attacks you want to avoid. If you don't want to avoid the attack then you just don't try to.

The way I see it there is no need to make it more complicated than that. Like others have said if you make it too complicated you will simply slow down combat.

Re: SPEED Beyond 12

I'm just picturing a Dragonball campaign where everyone has like 20+ Speed' date=' but it still takes over 2 turns to power up some of the bigger attacks...[/quote']

 

Not to get drastically off topic but it just occurred to me that the power up part of the power always seems to act like a presence attack in the cartoon. Maybe it must be a linked power of some sort...

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money?

Nor was 4th Edition' date=' nor probably any edition before it. But new editions do offer their own enhancements.[/quote']

 

With HERO each new edition has been an evolution of the rules and not a sweeping change. I prefer it this way. lets face it. There are 5th ed books that are still valid and with very little effort can easily be converted to 6th. I think this is by design. each edition is essentially a really long play test for the one to come.

Re: SPEED Beyond 12

It has also been suggested in other threads that extra phases could be used for abort actions rather than aborting your next action you may use one of your extra phases. So if you have 14 phases you could essentially dodge twice for free. I have never played with such a house rule, but it might make taking speed above 12 worth the points. If you try this house rule or some variation be sure to let us know.

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money?

OP: you just walked into a Ford dealership' date=' and asked if this here Expedition is a good value...[/quote']

 

Actually he walked into a Ford dealership and asked if the expedition is a good value compared to his existing expedition. I get the impression the OP is already a hero gamer. He is simply asking for an opinion on the new edition.

Re: Is 6th Edtion worth the money?

I own the books and have read them over. Not quite cover to cover, but enough that I have a firm grasp of the differences. I like most of the changes I have read. There are a few things I am not crazy about but I understand the reason for them. I am considering when I do get around to playing adding back in the Find Weakness power. Like what was said above the loss of calculated characteristics doesn't sit well with me, but reducing the cost of characteristics overall has helped to balance that.

Overall I approve of the new rules. Like previous editions they are more of a refinement rather than a redo. because Steve had the foundation of previous editions and was simply correcting perceived problems rather that trying to reinvent the wheel I think it is overall a better game than 5th edition.

Re: DCV Drain

For 60 AP, I can Drain 6d6 STR. That's a 20 point drop from a marginally under average hit. Now your 12 DC Brick has 8 DC's, and many other archetypes are at or approaching 0 STR. That seems pretty effective.

 

How about CON? It's defensive, so that's 10 from a marginally below average hit. Many characters in that 12 DC game have 20 - 25 defenses and a 23 CON. Drop that CON to 13 and they are stunned by a typical hit.

 

INT? EGO? PRE? These drop by 20 on a slightly less than average hit, putting many characters to 0. A second hit has most characters with a stat below 0, very problematic.

 

DEX not so much, but that's largely because DEX is overpriced at 2 points.

 

PD or ED drop by 10. Similar effect to CON, except they take more STUN as well, at the cost of not helping all attacks. Not the best, but useful.

 

SPD? From 5 to 3 to 1 to 0 is pretty nasty.

 

REC? Average drop of 10 puts a crimp in PS 12 pretty fast - especially for those heavy END users.

 

END? 25 END lost for a below average hit seems like quite a bit.

 

STUN? About 20 lost (defensive at 1/2 point per), but your 25 REC doesn't help it come back faster. And with 20 - 25 defenses, that's about the same damage as a 12d6 Blast.

 

CV? Well, losing 4 OCV a hit is pretty painful.

 

DCV may be the worst bargain at 2 per, especially since (as noted above) the targets it's most effective against are the ones it has trouble hitting to get the ball rolling.

 

Drains aren't instant kills, nor should they (or pretty much any power) be. But useless/overpriced? No, I don't really think so. Not unless we let everyone in the game have some power defense, which kind of erodes the claim it is an exotic, rather than a universal, defense.

Whoa! Calm down there! First>>> I didn't say that drain was "useless". I just said I find it to be less effective than other relatively "conventional" (for lack of a better word) attacks. I have nothing against drain... I have just found it to be less effective in practice. It certainly has it's place... indeed there are many builds that can not be accomplished without it.

As for it being overpriced In 5th ed there is no doubt that it was overpriced... 6th ed has gone a long way to make the price more fair by making drain have a standard range rather than no range, but I didn't say it was overpriced either.

Re: DCV Drain

In general I find drains to be very expensive with a low bang for your buck so to speak. for the same 60 AP you could build a 12d6 blast... an average of 42 stun and 12 body. granted most characters are going to be unaffected by the body but most of the stun will probably get through any character accept a brick.

Once you start draining characteristics and defenses and drain becomes even less effective. Just hit the guy. it will get you farther.

Re: How big is a computer?

Like Prestidigitator said. computes can be as large or as small as you feel it appropriate to make them.

I probably would not build this as a vehicle though depending on what the vehicle does.

Depending on what the vehicle can do I might even make it a physical manifestation of one of the characters powers. If say the wrist watch turns into hover disk, and the only thing the hover disk does is allow the character to fly (doesn't have any weapons or sensors or provide defenses or anything) then just have the character take flying with the physical manifestation limitation. When he is flying he is on the hover disk when he is not the disk is a wrist watch.

Re: 5e Multiform and the 5e Bestiary

I have always understood that the total disadvantage points are what count when calculating multi-form the real points mean nothing. So you would use Snake 135, Spider 130, Rat 115, Raven 115, making the snake the most expensive form. I could be remembering it wrong though

Re: Gun-Kata or Gun-Fu, Anyone?

First rule of GUN-POW-THUD is... In a fist fight the man with the gun wins.

Everybody beat me to Ultimate Martial Artist. check it out... it is very worth while. I have enjoyed pursuing the other resources others have posted as well.

Re: Mortal Wounds

I have never seen any game system that has such a rule in it, but I have had a GM allow a player make in HERO terms an ego roll to allow him to keep functioning even with negative body. Think of it kinda like pushing where you are so devoted to keeping going that you just won't fall over. Beyond that I agree with other posters and I would just hand wave it if it is important to your story that someone functions as the walking dead for an encounter, then just let that happen.

Re: How to... Holy Water

I consider this a vulnerability of the undead as opposed to a power of the wielder of the holy water. I could see using holy water as an expendable focus for some clerical powers in a fantasy game, but I would write up vampires, zombies or demons with a vulnerability to holy water instead of building it as a power... especially if anyone can use the stuff against vamps and the like.

If you don't want to do it that way I would simply write up any power (RKA, Blast, Drain... what ever effect you want) with a custom limitation Only works against undead.