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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 251133" data-attributes="member: 63">First, I need to point out that the rules I present are simply a way for DMs to balance their games without having to give out treasure.  It does not mean that Regdar can walk into a 7-11, plunk down 32,000 gp, and learn to fly.  Rather, the DM should tell her players, "I don't plan to give out too much treasure, so instead I will award you Hero Points, so you can gain your own powers."Of course, if you want, the DM could allow characters to sacrifice their money and goods as an offering to the gods.  Say a paladin does not want to be weighted down with worldly goods, so she gives her magical armor and magical sword to a temple.  In exchange, her god may bless her with natural powers.Second, I wanted to clarify that the Hero Point rules in Nat20's book are wholly compatible with D&D.  A lot of other companies (Green Ronin, Fiery Dragon, etc.) are putting out wholly distinct sets of superhero rules, so we decided to make ours as modular as possible.  It's balanced to work with D&D just fine.  A Fighter 5 is balanced against a Hero 5 or a Sorcerer 2/Hero 3.  One of the sample characters in the book is a Druid 6/Fighter 4/Hero 20, though she may need to be revised once I see how the epic-level rules actually work.Morrus also assures me that the rules port over to Spycraft just fine, so for the moment we're endorsing the Spycraft system for modern games, though you don't have to use departments if you don't want to.  Hopefully we'll also be balanced with the d20 Modern rules, whenever they come out.  We didn't feel like waiting 'til November.Really quick, the sample NPCs from the book are as follows.  Oh, and FYI, Specialist is a new class we came up with to represent wholly skill-based characters.  I know that other systems have their own classes like that, but the closest D&D has is the NPC-class Expert, which is too weak.  The Specialist is a better Expert, on par with PC classes.  Also, Detective and Gadgeteer are prestige classes.Blitz Jagger, 'The Shade':  Pulp 1930's detective with the ability to pass through walls as a ghost.  Hero 5/Specialist 3/Fighter 2/Detective 1.Layla Adrian, 'Larcen':  Modern day art dealer and cat burgular extraordinaire.  Specialist 3/Hero 9/Rogue 8.Rianna Soliogn, 'Gale':  Steam-age Elvish eco-terrorist turned hero when she is forced to fight her nemesis, Cog (see below).  Druid 6/Fighter 4/Hero 20.Tinker Oddcog, 'Cog': Steam-age Gnomish engineer turned villain because of his desire for revenge.  Others spurned him and his ability to naturally control machinery, so he seeks to kill them by causing disasters with the new modern technology of the era.  Hero 12/Specialist 8/Gadgeteer 10.Zidi Wheatling, 'The Halfling Titan':  Traditional fantasy setting halfling girl, blessed by fey to have phenomenal strength and resilience.  Hero 8/Fighter 1. Third, to Forrester:  Reading this thread last night, I began to wonder how accurate my rules were in depicting how much weaker a no-magic character is than a full-magic character, to see if my idea was backwards compatible.Okay, each level of Hero grants you 8 Hero Points (HrPs).  So a 13th level Hero has 104 HrPs.  Using a little algebra and some assumptions, we'll say that any 13th level character is the equivalent of 104 HrPs.Now, the recommended wealth for 13th level PCs is 110,000 gp, which is worth 20 HrPs on the scale I devised for exchanging super powers for money.  Thus, a 13th level Hero with magic items is worth 124 HrPs.A plain 15th level character with no magic items is worth 120 HrPs (15 x 8), so by my scale, a 15th level character without magic items is about the same strength as a 13th level character with magic items.Mind you, I haven't tested this backward version of the rules, so I can't be sure how accurate it is, and it generally assumes you'll be getting a few powerful abilities (i.e., only big weapons and items count, not potions and scrolls), and not a lot of small ones.  However, I think it might serve as a way to gauge relative power when one is deprived of your items.I hope that clears things up, or at least opens up new ideas for discussion.</blockquote>

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