Old Man

There's no one site that I found, but regoogling for 'hindu yoga siddhis' gives http://www.indiadivine.com/tattva12.htm http://www.yogichen.org/chenian/bk29.html http://www.yogichen.org/chenian/bk29.html among others. The "Siddhis" are the mystical powers we're interested in. There's between five and thirty-some of these depending on which site you hit.

I'll usually start with a character concept first, and then flesh out the background after running it through kind of a survivability filter to make sure it'll last a little while. It's a process that goes back and forth a number of times, rather than just three or four steps. For example, I recently had an urge to play a spellcaster, but something unusual, not the stereotypical wizard. I poked around on the net for ideas and came across the supernatural powers associated with Hindu mysticism and yoga. Perfect! I could whip up a style of magic based entirely on the character's mastery of his own body and mind. Defensive powers fit pretty easily into the framework--we've all seen these guys walk on hot coals and lie on beds of nails, etc. Offensively the magic would be weaker, since I couldn't see a way to justify any kind of spell other than clairvoyance with a range outside his own skin--so no RKAs, drains, or mind control. So he'd have to use strength aids and the like, and wade into combat like anyone else. That's when I actually started to scribble things down and work out the points. As usual I didn't have enough, but he fell into place pretty quickly now that I had a clear picture of the concept: a highly flexible, hairless yogi who could do make his body do all kinds of weird stuff if you gave him a minute to meditate. In this case the background actually came last, as the concept didn't really lend itself to a lot of interesting history. As a result the disads gave me a hard time--those are the most background-driven portion of character creation.

For the melee reflection, I would go with an adjusted Missile Reflection also. The mechanics are already there and it's much more reasonable than Damage Shield.

That works too, but to me altering the actual cost of the power is cleaner. Besides, I don't use Hero Designer. That's only part of the solution. Wizards can dominate non-combat campaigns just as easily, with telepathy, clairvoyance, desolid and invisibility. I've found active point caps just don't work. All they do is encourage use of the cheaper powers at the expense of cooler but less cost-effective ones. I have no problem with piling on the lims as long as they're limiting lims--ritual magic is like that. In fact I encourage limitations because they are what sets a magic spell apart from a superhero power. ECs have their drawbacks but they do put a stop to the one-spell howitzer.

Ah, but it's not Persistant, so it turns off when you go to sleep

Re: Is this the most abusive HERO character ever? Not the most abusive. You cannot avoid the DEX 41 SPD 12 guy. ex 1: GM: You're walking down the street on routine patrol. TD: I activate my Time Stop Power GM: OK, everything stops. Now what? ex 2: GM: You're walking down the street on routine patrol. TD: Anything goin on? GM: Nothing happen until your second hour on the beat. You see a bright streak of light coming towards you. Phase 12..

Might even be worth putting Only vs BODY (-1/2). Good guys get stunned and knocked out all the time, but they rarely die outright.

Damage Reduction 25% PD / 25% ED (30) nonpersistent (-1/4), luck based (-1/2) --> 17 real points. Penetrating still gets through, but I can live with that.

I've seen these problems before. There's two root causes: first, some powers are just not costed correctly for the fantasy genre, in particular flight and force field, as well as most other movement powers. Second, there's no mechanic in the 'stock' FH magic system to prevent mages from allocating a huge number of points to one attack spell. So to an extent the system encourages floating howitzers like the example here. My solution to the second problem would be to either force spells to be bought in an EC, or impose a tight real point limit per spell--maybe INT/3 or somesuch. I don't see a way around the first problem without changing some of the power costs. FF ought to cost 5/2, flight should be 5/1", and leaping should be 3 or 4/1". A couple more comments on the 22 point RKA example. 1.5 in limitations is nothing; if that's all the player has they're not trying very hard. It's fairly easy to get up to -3 in lims on any spell. And I hope that mage isn't flinging his 3d6RKA anywhere near his buddies with an OCV of just 5.

Actually my problem stems more from my being very casual about magic. The only restrictions that I have are: must have KS: "Spell Casting", Active Points limit based on 2x INT or 2x EGO (whichever is higher) and "spells" be in a multipower. Multipowers are good because it allows a spell caster to have more than a couple spells - variety is a good thing. I don't require limitations of any kind for two reasons. The first is that the "spells" can represent things that aren't exactly spells - a monk's faith or training powers, a sword master's sword tricks, etc. The second is that some spells just don't need all the arm waving, chanting, incense burning, mumbo jumbo. Not even in D&D which is famous for such things do all spells have the same limitations. I can see RSR but other than that, I can't logically tack on the others. Actually all of that isn't that bad. It's just that some powers are very cheap for the genre. I'll admit to being too lazy to go through the entire Powers list to modify costs.

So you're more in favor of the Damage Reduction, Non-Persistant, Based On Luck route? That kind of makes sense...

Moments past are as aeons to me, while aeons yet to come flash by in a heartbeat. Why? I can barely remember what day it is or what I did at work yesterday. Conversely, bills and deadlines rush up on me with breathtaking speed. If this trend continues, in a couple of weeks I'm gonna wake up and I'll be ninety years old and I'll be like, "what? Hey, wait--" and then I'll die.

I'm starting to run into a few minor problems of my own, but now that the game has started, it's almost impossible to change things. Ah well, it's my first shot at it anyway.

Macarrandir was in his element, scouting ahead of the group looking for signs of ambush. As he moved ahead, he left signs for the group to follow. Even though he was a mere 15 yards ahead, his companions could not see him. An odd shift in the foliage before him caused him to stop. The motion didn't continue so the tall Wythir moved forward with more caution. Pushing a final thich branch aside brought him face to dripping mandibles with a huge blade beetle. The creature immediately took notice of Macarrandir and charged. The loud snapping of branches and thrashing bushes caused Yor, Aleister, Zin and Chip to stop. The commotion alerted them to a threat but they didn't know what it was until the crashing started to circle towards them. It was then that they heard Mac shouting "Big....Bug...Coming!!" The scout ran through the group and back into the forest. Zin didn't need further prompting, she scrambled up into a tree with almost no effort. Yor chanted prayers to the All Father while Aleister gathered his dark powers. Chip barely had time to pull hig great mace free before he was knock over by the largest bug he had ever seen. The creature was truly fearsome, 30 feet long, 10 feet wide covered in thich armored shell. Lying on the ground he thought he was a dead man, but the beetle completely ignored him and continued to trundle after Macarrandir. Gathering his holy forces, Yor unleashed a glowing bolt of justice at the beetle's retreating back. The white mote drilled a small hole in the armored skin causing a clear goo to leak forth. Zin proceeded to throw a hail of daggers at the beetle every time she caught of glimpse of the creature. None of them seemed to cause any damage but several were caught it's armor. Macarrandir was doing his best not to become beetle food, just barely staying ahead of the rushing monster. Feeling that it was close to catching it's prey, the beetle started to drip a green ooze from it's jaws. Not wanting to get lost in the forest, Mac circled towards the group again. As Mac ran past, Chip hefted his mace and swung at the beetle as it came into range. The blow was like hitting a wall, sending a shock up his arm. But that wall of armor now had a crack in it. The pain was just enough to turn the beetle from it's prey. Yor rushed forward trying to summon his holy energies, but failed. Finding some small amusement at the monk's failure Aleister waited for an oportunity to strike. When it came, he send draining energies towards the beetle. His senses told him the spell worked, but no outward sign was visible. Zin continued to throw daggers at the armored shell hoping for a lucky strike. Several hits landed on the beast's head but none of them penetrated the thick carapace. The rain of daggers didn't distract the blade beetle from it's new target. It lashed out with both of it's massive claws gouging deep furrows in the earth next to Chip. Chip reacted by taking another swing with his mace. The studded steel head landed squarly in the dirt forcing Chip to regain his balance. Yor once again sent prayers to Saint Sebastian but his fist did not take on it's usual glowing might. Striking the armored hide made him flinch and did nothing to the beetle. Mac continued to run in a large circle coming around to the side of the beetle. Drawing forth his short swords, he charged. Hacking away at the legs of the beetle did no damage but he continued his assault hoping for a lucky hit. Aleister summoned an unsettled spirit which lifted Chip off his feet and landed him on the beetle's back. The creature focused on Yor and tried to bite off his head, but with cat like grace, the monk avoided the dripping jaws. The monk focused again, and said another prayer to Saint Sebastian but again, his prayers were ignored. Without the infusion of holy might Yor was unable to harm the beetle. While the rest of the group provided a distraction, Chip gripped his mace with both hands and started to hammer the armored back of the beetle. The swaying beetle made one of his swings go wide, but in a short time, Chip cracked open the shell causing clear goo to splash over him. The huge monster gave a final shudder before settling to the ground. "Hmm," Chip said as he slid down the side of the beetle, "smells like mint." Rubbing the goo off his face, he commented, "Tastes kind of hot though."

Thanks... but right after I posted I found a hardcover copy on amazon for like six bucks. It's being shipped from the UK, though, so I will have to wait another aeon.

I've been looking for that book for aeons, but it's been out of print for a while and the only times I've found it online it was vastly overpriced (approx. US$60). Bah.

Traditionally, the D&D gods and demi-gods had immunity to a lot of the instant kill stuff. A high enough CON in D&D gave you immunity to poisons and stuff. In theory, if you really wanted an instant kill, you just have to hit the guy hard enough with whatever special effect you want.

It took a couple days for the group to fully recover and get equipment repaired. If the tanning shop and smithy hadn't burned down, the work might have been faster. During this time, Lavenus and Macarrandir found two people interested in actions against the muskies. Zin, a travelling Manling entertainer; and Chip, a Vashon priest in exile. The townspeople were still clearing the debris from the fires as the new group set off through the burned section of wall. They had not gone 50 yards before Lavenus stopped. "I have to go back." Ignoring the questioning remarks, he turned around and went back towards the town. He called, "I'll be back soon, don't worry." Needless to say, they didn't worry. After half an hour of waiting, they still didn't worry, they started to get irritated. Mac was about to charge back to town and drag Lavenus back by the horns when they spotted a figure approaching. Neither Zin nor Chip recognised the man for what he was, even though his clothes, the pale skin, the sunken eyes and skull decorations gave it away. Yor was a little surprised to see the black clad necromancer. "Greetings," Aleister said "we still hunting muskies?" "We were told you were helping the muskies, not killing them." Mac mildly accused. "I didn't think it was true, but we haven't seen you for days." "Your friend, the stone-man told us he saw you giving aid to the ones that raided the town." Yor commented. "You haven't been praticing evil necromany have you?" He glared. "No, no," Aleister said in an offhanded manner "I was fighting off a nasal slime demon. It took longer than expected. So, what happened to Lavenus? "That bastard probably went to take another bath. Let's get going already." With that, Macarrandir took off at a trot, following the light trail into the forest.

I'll agree, the game itself is pretty lacking but the worlds and backgrounds are pretty good. I know some people that enjoy the Darksun setting. I HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender. If I had to play in a campaign, I would take Extreme Hatred of Kender 20 pts as a Disad.

The question is, how do you make it so the "IT" moves to another person.

http://www.thewarp.net/war/tiger/ Try looking there

I've found plain old 75% damage reduction to be good enough to make a character nigh invincible, especially if combined with an average level of regular defenses. If you have a 20/20 force field and 75% DR, on average you take six stun from a 12d6 EB and eleven stun from a 20d6 EB. You never have to worry about being stunned. Even a critical hit from an 8d6K, enough to outright kill anyone else, inflicts just seven body and 55 stun.

I understand WillS's issue. There's this number on the character sheet that defines how much time the player gets to spend playing the game. As long as you're within one or two SPD points of the average it's not usually that much of a problem. That said, Hero combat is pretty complex, and it will slow down unless everyone at the table is ready to go when their action comes up. At that point they should know what it is they're going to do--in any game, and in Hero especially, it is really not acceptable for any player to sit there trying to decide what to do when his phase comes up.

What Shadowpup said. I'd go with: 6d6 RKA (90) only damages living creatures (-1/4) all or nothing (-1) activation roll (based on target CON) (-1/2) You can't ordinarily do this with Major Transform, which explicitly can't be used to kill things (though I never understood why not). Ideally your Finger of Death ought to be AE 1 hex (to handwave the lack of a to-hit roll) and NND, but of course now you're way over 100 active points. Which is how it should be.

There are some pros and cons, I think, between 4th and 5th. 5th is a much meatier book. Plenty of examples, much clearer power and skill descriptions, some rules changes that needed to be made (and a few that really shoudn't have). 5th is a much denser book. 4th, however, had better layout. I have the damnedest time finding things in the 5th ed book, not because it's disorganized, but because not much effort went into setting sections apart from each other. Maybe my eyesight is just getting worse, but I never had any trouble instantly finding the paragraph I wanted in the BBB; in Fred, I've had trouble even picking out the cost breakdown that's supposed to be at the end of each power description. 4th also had much better artwork--none of this computer-rendered mannequin crap that seems to be all the rage in gaming circles today. This last, of course, is a matter of opinion.