ScottishFox

Nothing set in stone yet. My Saturday group is pretty tolerant of my systems tinkering so we're trying to get the right feel while maintaining a good balance between characters. Stats converted pretty much directly. The only tricky stat from PoE is Perception which contributes to Accuracy (OCV) and Reflex (DEX Rolls). Characters get 5 CP per level for Stats and Skills along with their level up active/passive ability choices. Weapon conversion turned out to be very easy. PoE max weapon damage is 200% of max weapon damage in HERO. Ex: Saber max damage (prior to skill / STR bonuses) is 18 points. Cut that in half and max damage 9 = 1.5d6 K. I tested several weapons and the formula works pretty consistently. PoE weapons with +5 Accuracy are +1 OCV in HERO. I brought back the older FH edition power of Piercing. Rather than making weapons armor piercing they get a flat piercing amount based 2/3rds of their DR bypass rating. Armor in PoE is 50% higher than HERO system values so as an example they have Plate Armor as DR 12 where HERO would have 8 rPD/rED. So far we're using the "per encounter" resource system of PoE 2 since limiting spell casters to a very small number of daily casts would require those spells to have very large effects on combat outcome. So far so good. If the players are amenable I'll upload some character sheets in the near future.

I recently wrapped up War for the Crown with my Fantasy HERO group. They started off as 150 pt characters and wrapped up as 350 pt characters with a LOT of magic items. They were easily on par with 450-500 point Champions characters by the end - at least in terms of offense / defense. In the beginning they were all around 5 OCV/DCV and doing about 2d6K or 6d6N at SPD 3. Most characters ended at SPD 4, but a couple ended at SPD 5. My wife's Fire Witch was hitting 14-15 OCV and doing 4d6 RKA AP or 3d6 RKA AoE AP with her most common attacks. The Witcher based character was around 15 OCV when maxed out (levels, martial arts, magic weapon bonuses) and doing 4d6 HKA while simultaneously only 5 DCV due to armor penalties (end-game magic plate 15 rPD/rED - hardened). The Dwarven Sapper had an array of explosives and ammo-consuming gauntlets that allowed him to boomstick punch enemies for more than 10d6N. When I compared them to my last Champions campaign they overall had puny defenses (7-15 rPD armor plus 5-7 PD) but much higher CVs (14-15 OCV/DCV depending on level allocation). Your concern is well justified. A character in 8 rPD/rED field plate cannot soak repeated hits of 5d6 KA from an ancient dragon. They're mangled after 2 hits and dead or dying after the 3rd. The way my group dealt with dragons and major demons and other end-game threats was to avoid damage as much as possible by way of blocking, dodging and diving for cover. Action economy is how a Fantasy HERO group typically defeats a big bad. Also, end game threats are great for thematic side quests to build anticipation. "No living creature can survive the dragon fire. You must bring me 3 fire orchids to brew you potions that will let you live long enough to fell this beast.". Completing a couple such quests and then facing attacks that would have been certain death without the additional preparation work will make the characters feel like their extra work is paying off and that their opponent is truly deadly. I'm at work, but when I get home I'll see if I can upload my combat calculator sheet for the end of that campaign. I basically set a starting value and then intermittently bumped it 5 points to simulate D&D tiers.

Given the usual offense to defense ratio in Fantasy HERO I just flat out disallowed Combined Attack and limited Multiple Attack to weapons based on weapon type. * Two-Handers can sweep (hit two adjacent opponents). * One-Handers can hit the same target (2 hits for dual wielders / Bash and Stab if using a shield and Grab and Stab if your off-hand is empty). In my current campaign all spells are bought outside of power frameworks and here's a scenario I wouldn't allow - ever. Wizard: DM - I'm going to cast all of my spells on the Orc King. DM: Which spell? Wizard: ALL of them. And then the Orc King is magic missile'd, fire balled, lightning bolted, scorching ray'd, etc. ??

For all of its flaws 5th edition D&D is a pretty compelling blend of crunch and playability. Definitely lighter weight than the editions that sent casual players running for the hills, but complex enough to leave room for clever builds, maneuvering and play styles. What my convert players like best about HERO is the ability to get off the rails and create something much, much closer to the character concept. The extra combat maneuvers and options are pretty popular as well.

Possibly a typo - but these seem like they should be Divination (clear school) items - especially the 1st one. Overall, a well thought out and interesting framework. When I do mine I generally require a minimum of +1 in limitations from Incantations, Gestures, Extra Time, Extra End and Concentration.

That's a pretty massive upgrade in the effectiveness of the Penetrating advantage under the proposed method. Old way a 2d6 RKA averages 2 points of penetrating BODY damage. The new way your 6d6 RKA would get 6 BODY through? If I'm understanding this correctly the Penetrating advantage would probably need to be bumped to a +1 in this scenario.

I looked at getting custom killing attack stun multiplier dice made with the following pattern: 1,2,2,3,3,4. Ultimately, I decided not to get them made as the cost was fairly prohibitive. Initially I found the 1d3 (avg 2) multiplier to be too low in Fantasy HERO where hit locations generate an average closer to 2.8. Over time the prevalence of AoE killing damage which is much harder to deal with in HERO system (automatically eat the hit or abandon your turn for a chance to avoid damage while you lay prone and vulnerable until your next phase). The 1d3 works very well for the AoE killing attacks in our Fantasy HERO campaign because it makes soaking the occasional larger area, but relatively weaker attack a viable tactical option. That being said - I like the original dice methods - and I wonder - How would you apply the penetrating advantage to killing attacks using proposed idea of treating them like unresistable normal damage?

I wanted to bring up the first point you made because it cuts the time in half and feels pretty accurate for a standard person. Most people in real life would have to make Ego rolls to voluntarily do something painful enough to cause STUN damage every phase. We're not Navy Seals and holding your breath until you're seeing spots and your muscles are spasming is beyond us (certainly me). I'm pretty happy with the HERO system handling of this and find it far superior to say D&D 5e where characters can hold their breath for 3-5 minutes while fully active.

As long as you're tacking the impossible I'd love a solid fix to the issue of low power entangles with the Takes No Damage From Attacks advantage. I only run Fantasy HERO so having enemies reduced to 0 DCV - even momentarily - results in fight ending called shots to the head. I've considered limiting the DCV penalty from Takes No Damage from attacks entangles to 1/2 DCV, but would love to hear your thoughts.

I've been watching UFC since 1993 and after watching thousands of matches the number of times someone got attacked from behind is incredibly small. It's a jarring break from common and dramatic sense to allow 1v1 fights to turn into two fighters running behind each other for back stabs. It just doesn't happen. Even in the comics this usually can't be pulled off without teleportation, massive speed differences or advanced martial arts moves (dodge a heavy strike and step behind the opponent). As an example - in 5th edition D&D - you can't get sneak attack without an ally also engaged with the same target OR some scenario that grants advantage (invisible, hidden from the opponent, attacking a prone opponent, etc.). Just allowing all combatants to constantly half-move around each other big bonuses on their chances to hit is going to skew players towards big defenses and minimal DCV since it is permanently halved with this approach.

Is the KA vs. Normal Damage really that big of a problem for the players? For me it's one of the things I really like about HERO - A real split between lethality tiers. I love that HERO has killing, normal and stun only attack types. If the solution is going to be effective it has to avoid any costly math crunches which shifts the complexity of learning how KAs work to having to learn how the new version of KAs work. I think the simplest way to make this work would be a +0 adder that makes the attack only stopped by resistant defenses. This, however, forces you into a weird position where you either have an attack mode that is simply better for the same cost KA > Normal. I liked several of the solutions provided, but they all just add more complexity when the primary goal of the change of a decades long feature of HERO was to remove complexity. * Make it a +1/4 advantage. This works for me, but it makes everything harder. +1 DC for every 6.25 STR instead of 5. Probably have to modify Haymaker and other DC adding maneuvers as well. The player will now need a chart. * Make it do -1 STUN per die rolled. I like this a lot, but now it's another math operation and the goal was simpler - not more complex. In fairness, for non-hit-location attacks this is a tie. * Adding Killing attacks to normal attacks as Mallet suggested is a creative solution. I like it, but my players would not. It's too complicated. My Saturday group is well over a year into playing HERO - every week - and I *still* have to make their character changes / design new spells / etc. Killing attacks were understood by all of my players after just a couple of sessions.

To stop the endless daisy chain of characters back-stabbing each other I had to set down a house rule for this as well. You either have to approach from stealth or have a total of 3 attackers on a single target to get "behind" them. Otherwise I assume the defender is responding in real time to avoid getting flanked. It really does make for some ugly game play to have players endlessly running behind each other for a flanking bonus.

In my late 80s / early 90s game we experimented with per segment movement. It made things like holding a defensive line more possible, but it was a LOT of work. (Movement x SPD)/12 = Movement per Segment. You could move at full speed up to 1/2 your total distance and use a Half-Phase or up to total distance if you were doing a Move Through/By. I really like this in computer RPGs where it is real-time movement with pause for commands as it makes it much harder for enemies to just walk around your front line and smash your back line. The balance between realism and playability is a tricky thing, but sometimes the very chunky chess like moves result in comically bad scenarios.

Given the absolute unsubstantiated garbage that they HAVE been willing to run with in the last three years I find the corporate answer here to be 100% unbelievable. Amy goes on a rant for several minutes and she clearly believes that she has WAY more evidence than she needed to run the story including an eye witness they talked out of hiding, pictures, etc. They have run stories that were debunked within a single day with onsite footage - Covington Kids being one that comes to mind. This thing got buried in the same fashion Epstein did. People in power wanted it gone so it was gone. The fact that they reached across to their supposed competition and had a sacrifice made just makes them look all the more guilty of suppressing a real Truth-to-Power story. It still bothers me, tremendously, that Amy seems more upset by being scooped than she does about letting a massive pedophile ring run for another three years. There is no level of hell sufficiently vile for people who would suppress something like this.

How long before I can force you to take my money?!

One episode of Deadliest Warrior pitted Cowboy's vs. Mafia. The cowboy rifleman could clear a room of hostiles faster than the guy with the grenade. He hit all 4 targets and had time to hit one of them a second time with lethal rifle hits in a 5 second window. 5 killing shots in 5 seconds.

That would be pretty interesting as Michael Reagan is very conservative (did a talk show for a couple decades if I recall correctly). You could have advertisements for both party using the likeness of Reagan. How about a virtual debate where Democratic Reagan and Republican Reagan debate issues?

I LOVED that movie and it is not the right tone for me. In a way that the rare rap or country song will hook me - this movie got me. It is SO well done. It's just so well done that I can't not like it.

Actors will have to be much more careful about signing away their likeness for movie rolls. Sorry Mr. Rock, we won't need you for the next 5 installments of Fast and Furious. We're going to use a digitally created version of you to save on payroll costs...

And corrupt media continues its unholy attempt to suppress Epstein story details from seeing the light of day. Apparently they can investigate to squash stories that interfere with serial pedophiles, but won't release the actual story. https://www.foxnews.com/media/cbs-fires-former-abc-staffer-epstein I can't even get my head around this. How is this the hill they want to die on?

That's a mixed bag. I love the actor and wish his show had continued, but the tonal change required to put him on the self-deprecating and often outright silly Legends of Tomorrow is painful. It literally convinced me to stop watching the show. They ruined Constantine.

This is my approach as well. I never liked the use of Images for this.

I've been growing increasingly cynical regarding the media over the years, but this one is BAD. As in - If they'll bury this one then they'll bury literally anything. This level of corruption in the 4th estate is bad for all of us. More and more often I'm getting my news from Tim Pool.

And my trust in media drops to an all time low with the recent ABC / Epstein / Powerful Men bury job. https://www.projectveritas.com/2019/11/05/video-leaked-insider-recording-from-abc-news-reveals-network-executives-killed-bombshell-story-implicating-jeffrey-epstein/ They catch this lady on a hot mic and she's talking about how the execs at ABC buried the story. They had an eye witness / victim, photos, etc. And the reporter is genuinely upset. Upset that she couldn't run the story for three years and then got scooped. Not upset that pedophile island continued to run for three years ruining the lives of many more young women, but that she got scooped.

This is the best kind of question. Are you pausing to THINK before you do the math?