Steve Long

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. Yes, the halving effect applies to Simplified Healing.

Typically weapons built with the STR Minimum Limitation (and related Limitations, such as STR Does Not Add Damage) are built with the Advantage Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2). The END cost for using them then depends on the amount of STR used to wield them, not on the Active Points of the powers used to build the weapon. Ordinarily weapons like this are used in Heroic campaigns, so the END cost is 1 END per 5 STR. In most cases, a character only pays END once for STR in a Phase, no matter how many different ways he uses it in that Phase. However, the main exception to this rule is making attacks. If a character makes multiple STR-based attacks in a Phase (such as a Multiple Attack while wielding weapons), he must pay END for his STR once for each attack.

A rules question someone posted today raises an issue that I thought was worth discussing: How common is it for characters in your campaign to use CSLs to add damage? In my experience, it's pretty rare. Over 35 years of playing this I've probably seen someone do it less than ten times. But maybe the groups I've played with are unusual in this respect. Is using CSLs for damage common in your games?

The PDF posted above has not been updated since it was posted. I am heading out of town to a con today, so I can't update it now, but I will make a note to do so next week.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. As a default rule, using CSLs to increase the damage of an attack is not considered to increase the Active Points of that attack. Therefore a naked Advantage bought to cover just the Active Points of the attack and nothing more would still work, even if the attack currently does more damage than normal due to the character applying CSLs. But as always, the GM can change this answer if he feels that better suits the game balance of his campaign. That might be appropriate if the character tends to frequently use CSLs to add damage. (In my experience this is rare, but obviously my game experiences aren’t necessarily indicative of common practice.)

The core rulebook is correct. I'll make note of that for the errata. Thanx!

Beyond what it says in the rulebook, all of this definitely falls under the purview of the GM and his common sense, dramatic sense, game balance sense, and Spider-Sense.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. I’m going to restate your questions more generically, to make it easier both for me to answer and the folx out there in Herodom to follow. Q: If a character is trapped in an Entangle, and uses one of his attacks to try to break free, can he do Knockback to the Entangle, and if so what effect does this have? A: For the sake of simplicity, the default answer is, “An attack against an Entangle by a character trapped in that Entangle cannot do Knockback to that Entangle, even if the attack has the Double Knockback Advantage.” However, GMs who are willing to deal with the additional complexity and time required can certainly roll for Knockback against the Entangle if they wish. If any KB occurs, the character trapped in the Entangle goes right along with it. The Entangle takes the KB damage as usual, and any damage that gets through the Entangle (i.e., that breaks the character free) passes on to the trapped character. Depending on special effects, doing KB to an Entangle this way may be more difficult than normal. For example, a glue bomb Entangle might stick to the character and to the ground. Before any KB occurs, the KB would have to overcome some amount of “Clinging,” assigned by the GM to represent the Entangle being stuck to the ground. Q: Does the weight of objects a character has picked up or is carrying have any effect on the Knockback done to him by an attack? A: For the sake of simplicity, the default answer is, “No.” However, if the GM wants to take this into account, he certainly can. Check the Mass Templates in 6E1 to determine how much “Knockback Resistance” the amount of weight the character’s holding/carrying should apply, and reduce KB accordingly.

What you suggest would probably be one way to do what you want (I'll leave the value of the Limitations to the GM). Depending on your GM, there might be others. For example, assuming a character had a large enough cape, I personally might allow him to hide his actions (within reason) by voluminously wrapping his cape around himself and using Sleight Of Hand (though this would only last for a Phase). I'm sure Herodom Assembled will have plenty of ideas, too. Whaddaya think, folx?

My first suggestion is this: Choke Hold is defined as a type of NND, so just define the force field you describe as providing the defense that negates Choke Holds. That still leaves the character vulnerable to various forms of suffocation while protecting him from this one specific Maneuver. A more obscure way might be to buy Life Support (Self-Contained Breathing) with the Limitations Costs Endurance (-1/2) and Only Applies To Prevent Damage From Choke/Choke Holds (-2). That's really just a form of my first answer (since that LS is one of the defenses to the NND), but with the Limitations I figured it was worth suggesting.

Per APG 53, Hit Locations have no effect on Adjustment Powers.

Your first two questions really aren't rules questions so much as they are topics for general discussion, and the third is a rules design/philosophy question (which I don't answer). So I've moved this to the "Discussion" board where anyone can answer (here only I can). Welcome to HERO! We hope you enjoy it. Snacks are on the table over in the corner.

The rules for this are on APG2 44. Ordinarily I wouldn't reprint them here, but in this case I'll make an exception so I can post an additional comment. If this doesn't fully answer your question, please post a follow-up. Alternately you could, of course, buy Reduced Endurance directly for the naked Advantage. You'd have to pay the "doubled" cost, of course, but it would keep things simpler.

The rules for how Adjustment Powers affect Linked powers are on APG2 19. I think that answers your question; if not, or if I've missed something, please post a follow-up.

Happy 2017 yourself! First, just so no one's confused: Severe Transform is 15 points per 1d6, so your example is a 45-point power. That doesn't change the answer, of course. Dispel works against Transform like it does against any other power: the total on the Dispel dice has to exceed the Active Points in the targeted power. The effect roll for the power itself isn’t relevant, even in the case of Partial Transform (unless, of course, the GM wants to change the rules for his campaign). In a situation where a character has been hit with Transform multiple times, each use of Transform is a separate “power” and must be Dispelled separately (again, unless the GM prefers otherwise). If the Transform has already taken effect (i.e., the target has taken enough BODY “damage” from the two or more effect rolls to equal or exceed twice his BODY), it does not cease to affect that character until all “parts” of it have been Dispelled — Dispelling just one of the effect rolls won’t undo the Transform, you have to Dispel all of them. If “using Dispel Magic” is a healing condition of the Transform, then a successful Attack Roll with Dispel Magic immediately undoes the Transform — you don’t even need to roll the Dispel dice. (Before someone asks: changing the healing condition to “a successful effect roll with Dispel Magic” is not a legitimate healing condition for a magic Transform — by definition a successful Dispel Magic against a magic Transform always works. That might be a valid healing condition against a non-magic Transform if the GM approved of it, but even that strikes me as highly dubious.)

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. To make sure that everyone understands what’s being asked, and what my answers are, I’m going to restate and summarize some of this, using the standard form of power notation Hero Games uses in its books. 1. First question: Q: What are the effects and implications of the following power construct: Any movement power with: Trigger (in any Segment when character has, has had, or Aborts a Phase and wants to use this power, activating Trigger takes no time, resetting Trigger is a Zero Phase Action; +¾) A: For the sake of discussion let’s say that the base Power to which a character applies this Advantage is Running 30m. So the power would cost 52 points (or 22 points as a naked Advantage). Here are some of the things this power would let a character do (subject, of course, to the GM agreeing): 1. Move up to 30m before or after using his Action in one of his Phases (though if he’s already taken a Full Phase’s worth of Actions, moving is all he can do; he couldn’t, for example, Grab something at the end of his movement, or perform a Move Through). If the character wanted to try to interpose between an attacker and target using this ability, he could do so, assuming as always that the GM has no objection. If he wanted to chase someone who’s moved away from him to avoid his HTH Combat attack, he could do so (unless the GM rules that the way he began his attack would prevent this — for example if the character declared a Haymaker, or the GM thought that starting the attack would put the character off-balance somehow). Regardless of the Trigger, the character could not use this ability in the same Segment when he takes a Recovery. The rules are absolutely strict about this: if a character wants to take a Recovery in a Phase, he can do nothing else, not even Actions that take no time. Nothing. 2. Move up to 30m when he Aborts a Phase, either before or after he performs the Action he Aborts to perform. This could include, for example, Aborting to Dodge a HTH Combat attack and moving so far away from the attacker that his attack automatically misses because the target is out of range for HTH Combat. I think that covers every issue you raised. If you think I overlooked something, please post a follow-up. 2. Second question: Q: If a character has a Triggered movement power, can he use Noncombat Movement with that power? A: No. 3. Third question: I’m not going to address this directly. If you define a Trigger properly the issue should never come up, as far as I can see. I don’t even see much reason to buy it as a naked Advantage. But of course I sometimes overlook things. If you feel there are significant implications here that need to be addressed, please post a follow-up and go into the issue in more detail, and I’ll be glad to try to help. 4. Fourth question: issues of the “appropriateness” of a Limitation’s value I leave to the GM. If you were playing in my campaign, personally I wouldn’t allow nearly as high a value as -2. Maybe I’d allow -1. While I agree with you that the circumstance in which a character could use this power is relatively rare (at least in my campaign), you are also building an ability that allows you to, relatively cheaply, negate what would otherwise be an absolute defense to a HTH Combat attack, and that needs to be balanced. And as always — if I missed something in your questions, please post a follow-up and I’ll respond.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. There is no rule under Stretching that specifically prohibits characters from Stretching any specific body part, such as the neck, head, or knee. However, the rules generally contemplate the stretching of limbs and/or the whole body. Otherwise, Stretching would de facto take on all sorts of abilities it’s not meant to have: Clairsentience (Sight Group) for seeing around corners; Desolidification for oozing through small openings and cracks; Area Of Effect for STR to simulate “stretched-out fists,” and so forth. Generally, subsidiary abilities such as these are built as “Stretching Tricks” using other Powers, with the special effect being, “This is a specialized application of the character’s ability to stretch his body.” There is a sidebar with the Stretching description in 6E1 describing several of these abilities. And if you look in Champions Powers, in the “Stretching Powers” chapter, you will in fact find a power called “Peeking Around Corners” that builds exactly the sort of ability you’re looking for. It uses Clairsentience (Sight and Hearing Groups) with a Perceivable perception point. In this case, since the perception point is Perceivable, and has a physical component as well, common and dramatic sense indicate it could be targeted with an attack, as the standard -8 OCV modifier for attacking the head. (In fact, the power should probably have the Physical Manifestation (-¼) Limitation to represent that — my bad.) If you want to be able to target attacks while Peeking Around Corners, just add the Targeting Sense Modifier to the Clairsentience, as discussed in 6E1 under that power’s description. Now, all that being said — what the GM’s willing to allow a Stretching character to do “for free” is entirely up to him. Some might say that Peeking Around Corners is so trivial an ability that a character with enough Stretching can do it for free in their campaigns. Others might not. Hope that helps! If you have any related questions, please post a follow-up.

"Legal" is entirely up to the GM. There's nothing in the rules that would forbid that sort of power construct, but that doesn't mean the GM will let it into his game.

There are rules for "jointly Linked" powers in the description of the Linked Limitation in 6E1.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. As far as I can recall, no specific rule speaks to this, and a quick, non-exhaustive search didn’t turn up anything. So it sounds like it’s time for me to address the issue. The “official” example of how to build a “Transfer” power is one of the example powers in the sidebar for Drain in 6E1. That example uses both Trigger (+1) and Linked at the -½ level for the “Aid” portion of the power. So either the assertion that the rules forbid using Trigger and Linked together is incorrect, or I changed my mind since then and published a change (which I don’t think I have, but like I said, I don’t have access to all my materials right now). So, to put it plainly: the rules don’t say you can’t use Trigger and Linked for the same power. However, that’s not the end of the analysis. This is one of those classic situations that shows why we have GMs. The GM should examine the proposed ability to see if Linked is a legitimate Limitation in a situation where there’s a Trigger in place. This may depend on how the Trigger is defined, the GM’s preferences for his campaign, and other factors. In some cases the GM may think that the Limitation is unnecessary (or an attempt at “min-maxing” that doesn’t properly restrict the use of the power) and forbid it.

'Ello! I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. Yes, it’s possible for characters to use Drain (or other Adjustment Powers) on non-living or inanimate objects. Since the recovery rate for an Adjustment Power is set by how the power’s bought and doesn’t depend on the target’s REC, the lack of REC is no obstacle. If the object has Power Defense, that of course applies to protect the object. And the GM may establish other restrictions based on common sense, dramatic sense, and game balance. If you haven't done so already, this might make an interesting conversation topic for you to post on the Discussion board.

Sorry, I overlooked that. Let's go to the instant replay: Based on the strict reading of that rule, yes, a character could create the sort of Barrier you describe -- though remember that this is a Caution Sign game element, so the GM should evaluate it carefully. Personally, I might allow it but I certainly wouldn't reduce the Advantage's value. But the second the players introduced that into the game, it would be fair to use it against them -- and my players, at least, are smart enough not to poke that particular bear.

That's a perfectly viable way to handle magic -- you can find plenty examples in published material of magic systems, or even individual spells, represented as Multipowers. In your case, just put Limitations on the Multipower reserve that restrict when a character can change slots. If you haven't already, I'd suggest posting about this on the Discussion and/or Fantasy Hero boards, to get input and suggestions from other players. Lots of clever minds and great ideas in Herodom! Good luck designing your magic system!

The rules specify that you always have to use an Advantage on a power; you can't "turn it off" or choose not to use it. (Adders are different; you can choose to use them or not.) This is one reason for the rules on "naked Advantages," which allow you to not use an Advantage if you don't want to. And of course you can appeal to the GM's common sense, dramatic sense, and game balance sense for a ruling in your favor on this issue. Speaking only for myself, I would probably have no trouble ruling, "When you englobe targets, the Transparent does not apply to your Barrier" -- though I would still make you pay the END cost for the Advantage.

Couple of problems here, but both easily fixed. First, you're misunderstanding the Advantage/Limitation rules slightly. You don't add the Advantages and Limitations together, you apply their values separately. So instead of subtracting the Limitation from the Advantage value, as you did, you multiply by the full Advantage value, then divide by the full Limitation value. Second, and more directly related to your question, you're overlooking one rule about VPPs: "Advantages and Limitations apply only to the Control Cost. Characters never apply Advantages or Limitations to the Pool cost; it always remains unmodified." (I would provide a page reference, but my books aren't at hand right now. ) Glad to hear you've gotten into HERO -- we hope you're enjoying it!