I can't bring myself to buy the two books needed to do my own review of 6th edition HERO System. But from reading online, these two reviews at RPGNet hit the high points: Character Creation and Combat and Adventuring.
They seem to be rather well done and match what I've read elsewhere with the reviewer hitting most of my own reactions.
Point Inflation. Beh. I knew this would happen, and the reviewer does an good job pointing out why it is a bad thing.
The nerfing of Killing Attacks stand out. The original design considered their advantages to be balanced by their disadvantages, i.e. for most settings not-killing is the preferred option to killing combined with consistent result and better knockback. Long disagreed and dropped the stun multiple markly (and unrealistically) to 1d3 instead of 1d6-1 (or 1x-5x with 3x as the average for those like me who use hit locations).
You could buy it back up of course, by spending many more points. One would have to buy more than just a mere +2 stun multiple however as non-resistent defense apply against stun (even when there are no resistant defenses) to produce the same effect against unarmored targets. Which of course changes the balance unless you buy some piercing likely with it's own limits(which may or may be in 6th, I haven't read anything saying one way or the other on that).
Reviews like this don't cover many minor but significant changes. So I imagine things are even worse than the review indicates. For example, Long changed Dive for Cover in 5E such that it worked against direct single target attacks, melee as well as range.
Brain. Dead. Stupid. Free (worthless) game design points to the reader who first tells me why (my players excluded).
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9 comments:
Well in a melee fight a dive for cover might get you out of the way of a single attack... then you're lying on the ground prone behind your rock or whatever and the guy swinging at you steps around the rock and boots you in the head.
That is a result of the mechanic presented in 5E (assuming roughly equal speeds and with no held actions on either side).
But it's not the problem with the rule change from 4th and earlier where only ranged Area of Effect attacks could be avoided.
or maybe it was any area of effect attack...
I never had many that weren't ranged. would have to check, but it's not worth it. The point I have in mind remains.
I don't get it. What is the conceptual difference Dive for Cover and Dodge? Is Dodge gone?
In 5th (I haven't read 6th or about this detail in 6th), both was present.
Dodge provides a bonus to DCV and increase the chance that you would be missed by an attack.
Area of Effect attacks don't normally use DCV, and Dive for Cover was the original defense against these. It's basic a Dex roll (modified by how many hexes you need to move in order to escape the area).
In concept one could look at them this way- Dodge is ducking a punch while Dive for Cover is leaping away from a grenade.
Personally in a game of super beings, I don't mind the idea of a dive for cover being applicable defense in Melee, say I made a character that was designed to do high-flying acrobatic swordsmanship similar to what you see in Monty Ohm's Dead Fantasy videos. Sure it's a stupid idea in any game with realistic physics, but in Hero dudes are supposed to be able to throw tanks right?
So I take my melee monkey and use dive for cover to dodge attacks moving hexes away from the opponent while using a secondary power to bound off of some object and back-into the fray, effectively having a far greater mobility which is kind-of the point of an acrobatic melee monkey.
Long likely used similar reasoning as you just did Helmsman. And completely forget the effect it would have outside that limited viewpoint.
Allowing Dive-for-Cover against individually-targeted attacks breaks the offense-vs-defense relative nature of Hero combat. Suddenly, a character with a great DEX and SPD can reliably avoid most attacks no matter what the attacker's OCV.
Imagine Dodgy Dan, a character with Dex 30 and Spd 5. Marksman Max (OCV 35, SPD 4), has no better chance to hit Dodgy Dan than Butterfingers Bob (ocv 2, SPD 4) if DD Dives for Cover against each attack. Kinda sucks for MM.
Correct, pity you're listed as Anonymous. You deserve bennies.
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