So with that in mind almost all who have my past posts would know my dislikes of certain magic systems.
Since I am wanting use magic,psionics and/or powers in this campaign I dislike systems where each spell and/or power is either a skill, feat or advanatge. I like freeform magic/power, effect-based or spell/power list.
In Hero system, there essentially is no mechanical difference between blasting someone with a plasma gun, or a PSI energy bolt or a beam of mystic energy. There are different types of attacks (Vs Physical, Vs Energy, Vs Ego, Drain, transform, etc...), but none of them are restricted to a "Source". If you want it to be Plasma vs mystic energy it's pretty much just a matter of special effects. Though you as the GM are free to limit certain types to certain "sources".
So in building an attack power, it goes like this.
Ranged Energy Attack is 1d6 for 5 points. So 10d6 is 50 points.
Then you stack on the advantages and disadvantages.
Let's make it Armor Piercing which is a +1/2 (.5) advantage.
That makes it cost 50 x 1.5 = 75 pts.
Now let's give it 8 charges a day (eight uses). Which is a 1/4 disadvantage.
That makes it cost 75/1.25 = 60 points.
You do this for the various powers you wish to have and there are numerous power "frameworks" which let you group and organize your powers. Such as a Multipower, where you buy a pool of say 75 pts and then buy "slots" for that pool of points, that let you use a power of up to the total points in the pool (so a Ranged Energy attack would have a maximum of 15 dice, or a 10ds Armor Piercing Ranged Energy Attack, or 40/35 pt Physical/Energy Defense Force Field or 10d6 Ranged Energy Attack and a 15/10 pt Physical/Energy Force Field).
If you dislike a system where everything is a "Set" power, then Hero may not be for you. There are provisions for more free form usage of powers, utilizing what's called Variable Power Pools, that give you X points that you can use to create what ever powers you want (potentially limited to certain kinds if you wish), but it does require the player/GM to be able to crunch the numbers for a power "on the fly" so to speak.
With a little experience it does speed things up greatly (1.5 x 50 is always going to be 75), but it is still number crunching.
I have thought about using HERO but uncertain about the combat rules being too complex for me.
As Thanee said the combat is actually very straightforward and a model of simplicity.
The thing that frightens off many people is the character creation, which does involve multiplication and division, but that's what spreadsheets were invented for and they sell a java based computer program that will do all the math for you.
