Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="HeapThaumaturgist" data-source="post: 2096923" data-attributes="member: 12332">Hrm.  HPs, I think, give the GM a great ability to gauge how deadly any particular combat is going to be with a damage save.  The first time I ran the game, I thought basically the same thing.  One of my players got wiped out a few rounds into the first combat with an unlucky one, spent an HP to reroll ... got a three or four, was still down.  But spending an HP lets you reroll AND Take 10.  Didn't read that close enough.  Taking 10, that HP would have resulted in only a Hit.  And that's the thing.  You compare the damage bonus with the Take10 damage saves of all of the PCs.  An exceptionally damaging foe will Stun some PCs even on the 10, but most should still give a hit.  HPs mean that characters are out of the game only when the foe is exceptionally more powerful or they decide not to spend HPs.  Because they know the damage DC, players will always know if they need an HP and what the result of spending it will be.  That's very powerful and very key.  And, I think, that's one of the things I wish they'd make a little more obvious.  A little side-bar in the next printing or something that reiterates that information, because it's just included in the flow of text and most people think:  "Wow, rerolls.  That's powerful." and don't get to the take-10 part before their brain shuts off and they move to the next bullet point.I think Extra Effort removes alot of the point of Variable Effect/ Gadgets ... at the same time, VE and Gadgets are VERY VERY powerful.  In play, the guy with Gadgets pretty much owned the day.  Superhero Villian Plots usually circle around a theme.  Say, like, "Evil Plant Dude and His Evil Plants!":  When the boy-wonder pulls out his plant-specific Drain herbicide, he can ride that pony pretty much to the end of the arc.  So I think that VE/G are worth a HP, in the end.  Thinking on it, one other way to do it without spending HP and have it balanced may be to let them use it Extra Effort Style (one encounter, one round) without paying any cost X-times a day.  Something small, though, or it becomes horribly overpowering.  That would additionally keep Batman from pulling out his Bat-Robot Blinding Spray-Arang and keeping it out the entire time he's fighting "The Case Of The Vile Robots" story arc.--fje</blockquote>

Verification