Character Creation

The characters are built on 300 character points, 60 of which come from complications. The following maxima and minima apply (this will hopefully make more sense later).

Characteristics

The 6 main characteristic in hero system are Strength (STR), Dexterity (DEX), Constitution (CON), Intelligence (INT), Ego (EGO) and Presence (PRE). You may be more familiar with the last two as Wisdom and Charisma. Though, you should be warned that Presence also covers bravery and leadership qualities, and is as such not the dump stat it would normally be. The second favorite dump stat among new players is Intelligence, so let me just warn you that it covers Perception as well. One of Hero System’s greatest strengths is the lack of a clear dump stat. Choose your weaknesses with care.

For normal humans these go from 5-20, with 10 being the norm. To summarize: 5 is bad, 10 is average, 15 is above average, 20 is good (and the highest a normal human can get), 25 is excellent and 30 is the max at campaign start. The exception is Strength, which directly affects damage, and so can go up to 40. Most players will likely only pass the 20 mark with their best characteristic or two. (At least at character creation; the maximum values are going to change as the game goes on.)

Heroes also have some other characteristics broadly categorized as Combat Values (CV), Speed (SPD), Defenses (DEF) and Status (Status is not a proper term; I just made it up). SPD, CVs and Defenses we’ll cover later, but we’ll look at Status now.

The relevant characteristics are: Recovery (REC), Endurance (END), Stun (STUN) and Body (BODY). Recovery is a measure of how fast a character can bounce back from damage and how quickly he heals. Endurance is a measure of how much energy the character has to use and how long he can keep going. Stun is how much it takes to knock him out. At 0 Stun the hero will likely be out for about 3 seconds and at -31 or more he’s in a coma. Body is a measure of how much it takes to kill the hero. (Note that Body and Stun are measured on very different scales.) At 0 Body the hero begins to bleed to death and at negative his total starting Body he is dead.

For Recovery 5 is decent, 10 is excellent (and the highest a normal human can get), and 15 is the max at campaign start. Most players will likely be in the 7-12 range.

For Endurance, 30 is enough to keep an average character from running out of steam unless fighting a really tough opponent, 45 means rarely having problems having problems with END unless he has a lot of high energy attacks, 50 is the highest a mortal human can go, and players have a maximum of 60 at campaign start. END usage varies immensely from build to build so I won’t hazard a guess to what the average will be.

Stun runs in the same range as END. 30 implies some combat experience and is fine for heroes who don’t expect to be front line combatants (gadgeteers and energy projectors), 40 indicates the equivalent of a tough as nails military veteran and is fine for front line heroes, 50 is approximately as much as Rasputin had(/has?) and is a good brick level stun total, while the maximum at character creation is 60. Most players will likely be in the 30-45 range, except for bricks who’ll on average be 10 Stun higher.

Body is unusual in that it doesn’t have a maximum value. This is because buying insane amounts of Body is generally a waste of points in a super-heroic campaign. The minimum values for defenses described later are high enough that outside of special circumstances players will rarely take any Body damage at all. Most players will probably be happy leaving it at 10. On the other hand, without some kind of supernatural healer getting BODY back takes a while, so you may decide it’s one of those things you’d rather have and not need, than need and not have.

Speed

Speed (SPD) determines how often you get to act. A Speed 3 hero is about as fast as a trained police officer or an agent of VIPER. Speed 4 is the highest an unaltered human can have (and were we hope the average will be in the beginning of the campaign). Speed 5 is a good level for heroes who are superhumanly fast. Speed 6 is generally too high (and extremely expensive), but some speedsters pride themselves on being faster than everyone else, so this level of speed remains open (given the permission of a GM) to cater to such characters.

Combat Values

Combat Values (CVs) measure how accurate and hard to hit the character is. There are two types of CV; the normal type, and the mental variety. Unless the character has mental powers, or otherwise justifiably difficult to target with mental powers it is probably better to leave the MCVs at 3. If he does have mental powers, however, the guidelines below apply. Also note that the various skills (mostly martial arts and skill levels) that increase CVs count towards the campaign limits (except: count martial dodge as though it gave +2 DCV), so a distinction is made between base level and the maximum level a hero can reach.

A CV of 5 is at the base level of a well trained soldier, or a mentalist that has received formal training with his powers. A CV of 6 is the average base level of a superhero, high enough for a mentalist to be virtually guaranteed to hit Average Joe, and the normal maximum for a trained soldier. A CV of 7 is the highest base level for starting characters, it’s a good level to place your maximum and finding a non-powered character with this high CV is rare. As usual a buffer level (CV 8) exists for the unusual cases; attacks that very seldom miss (but don’t do a lot of damage), extreme defensive maneuvers, et cetera.

Damage Classes

Damage in hero system is measured in Damage Classes (DCs). For normal damage this is simply the number of dice. For killing damage this is three times the number of dice. So a 6d6 normal attack is 6 DCs, and so is a 2d6 killing attack. To help players relate DCs to real world effects here is a table with some examples.

Player attacks will vary somewhat based on what kind of attack it is. A straight and simple attack (one without any advantages) is capped at 8 DCs. Attacks that are END expensive for the character to use, rarely work and/or are in limited supply (for example the “Widow Maker” seen in Iron Man 2) may go up to 10 DCs with GMs permission. Attacks that hit multiple targets, like Area of Effect and Autofire powers, are capped at dealing 6 DCs to secondary targets (meaning capped at 6 unless it’s an explosion, which can go up to 7). Other attacks are capped at 7 DCs.

Whether you should use a killing or normal damage attack depends on what you want the attack to do, as well as on the special effects. A killing attack does more BODY but less STUN, so isn’t likely to be useful in most superhero fights. On the other hand, zombies and robots tend to be immune to STUN, making killing attacks extremely useful against them. Most players will probably want to leave their options open, and pick some of each. Keep in mind that the public does not look too kindly on people who use lethal force whether or not if it’s called for, and the Public Relations house rules given later.

Defenses

A character’s defenses are subtracted from incoming damage, so having high defenses means taking less damage from attacks. As well as coming in resistant and normal varieties (only your resistant defenses count against the BODY of killing attacks) and in physical and energy defenses (every attack is either physical or energy), there are a number of more exotic varieties protecting against rarer attack types.

Total Physical Defenses (PD) and total Energy Defenses (ED), meaning the sum of normal and resistant defenses of the appropriate type, can range from 10-30. A well trained unarmored human has 5, while the toughest normal human has 8 without help. Obviously most heroes will neither be normal or unarmored. 

A total of 10 is a good level for young heroes, normal people without any more super powers than a bullet proof vest and some gadgets and martial artists who prefer not being hit in the first place, relying on stealth and high DCV instead of armor. A level of 15 is fine for most second line combatants; you’ll rarely get stunned by an average opponent, but probably should avoid the fire of bigger bosses. 20 is a good level for most heroes who can take a punch, especially front line warriors. 25 is a good brick level; combined with 20+ CON it makes it nearly impossible for an 8 DC attack to stun you. The buffer range of 26-30 is reserved for special cases; mostly bricks who focus on defenses while having DCV 5 and low SPEED. 

Resistant Defenses can range from 8-15, and are a lot more individual than the total defenses. How much or how little of one’s defenses should be resistant depends a lot on the hero’s concept. As such I’ll give examples rather than guidelines. The uniforms used by the police and criminal organizations provide 6. A good bullet proof vest provides 8-9. Having 12 essentially means being bullet proof (never taking BODY damage from an assault rifle). And 14-15 is the special case level.

Some players will undoubtedly have trouble finding explanations for a full 8 in resistant defenses, so here are a few ideas: Solid Mutants and Aliens often have skin that protects against killing attacks. Agile characters often buy a level or two of Combat Luck (6E1 110) representing the “just missed me!” effect. Several corporations in the Champions Universe produce bullet resistant costumes for heroes (ranging from 5 – 10 resistant defense, depending on price and how maneuverable it needs to be, aka what the player wants to buy). Mages often have a “Force field” spell, or an item that grants something similar. For that matter, tech heroes often have actual force fields, or power armor.

Active Points

Active Points give a measure of how powerful an ability is and is as such a useful GM tool for conserving game balance. However, I am hesitant to give an absolute maximum, as doing so is detrimental to the creative freedom that is the hallmark of the Hero System. That being said, most player powers will probably be at about 40 active points or less, with powers with significant limitations occasionally reaching the 50-60 range. Obviously, this varies a lot from character to character. A straight brick might have enough strength that this main attack is just a punch and his super punch is a 10 active points Hand To Hand Attack, while an energy projector might have a Multipower full of 40+ active point attacks for various situations.

When we’re first discussing powers this may be a good place to talk about /!\ and STOP powers. Simply put: /!\ powers can be overpowered, STOP powers give GMs headaches. As such a few pointers are necessary. First of all, don’t use a /!\ power unless a) it fits your concept, and b) there is some limiting factor that stops it from making you unbeatable. STOP powers are slightly thornier. Here the cardinal rule is don’t create headaches for your GM.

Which basically means time travel. Most of the other STOP powers are self policing enough that you have to set out of abuse them in order cause trouble. But time travel causes any number of problems. So ask yourself, what do I want time travel for? Moving a bit into the future to avoid damage? Model that with increased DCV with an END cost. Having a trap door built under where the opponent is standing? That’s a transform or a Usable-As-Attack tunneling power. Going back in time to fight alongside yourself? That’s Duplication. Time Travel is a special effect; use the power Time Travel only when necessary.

Skill Points

There are two points that matter when discussing skills; how many points to spend on them and how high a level to buy them at. Handling the second question first:

An 8- means a very rough understanding of a skill; with only a 25% chance of succeeding the average roll. An 11- means being competent; it’s not exactly super heroic, but you don’t need to roll for the routine stuff and you have about a 65% chance on the tougher tasks. A 12- is skilled; also known as above average. 13- is the first truly heroic level; the lowest level a skill can be and still be called a main skill for a superhero. 14- is the accepted normal value for something a superhero is good at and means rarely failing a roll. 16- marks you as one of the best people in the world with the skill and is the max at character creation. Consider 15-16 to be the “buffer zone”.

The amount to spend on skills is of course highly individual, but remember that unless you have a skill you basically suck at it. Anything less than 20 points spent will probably mean being useless in skill based situations.

Complications

Complications are the single most important part of the character, and the first part a GM is going to look over. Not because of balance issues, but because complications give a good impression of who a character is. You have 60 points worth to spend. For some people that’s a lot, while for others it is far too little.

The first rule of complications is: A Complication that isn’t a complication isn’t worth any points. The rulebook states this, but it bears repeating just to avoid seeing “Social Complication: Male” and other such heinous builds. The second rule is that complications will be used in game. This is somewhat self-evident, but has important implications. For example: buying Social Complication: Secret Identity means that you’ll regularly have trouble getting away from a civilian affair to go fight villains, or have bad guys blackmailing you after figuring out who you are. Not having this complication doesn’t protect you from this, but makes it effect you far less often. Some notes on specific Complications follow:

Distinctive Features: The United States have a trading relationship going with the mermaids of Atlantis, one of the greatest international celebrities is a gorilla in a lab coat and most of the planet’s population accept that magic is real. Your spandex costume isn’t that distinctive (having four arms or being a gorilla is, however). Secondly, this is a super heroic campaign; you’d be surprised what a trench coat and hat can hide. I don’t expect to see a lot of non-concealable features.

Hunted: There are a number of people and organizations that could well “hunt” a player. UNTIL (the United Nations’ response to super crime) always Watches heroes working for them (see the Package Deals later) and sometimes Watches ex-villains and heroes with a bad reputation. VIPER (an evil organization dedicated to ruling the world) often hunts tech based heroes and mutants (Especially if the mutant has reptile like DNA); furthermore, they created more than a few mutant superheroes by doing experiments on captives. DEMON (a mysterious cabal of evil mages) often hunts mystic heroes. Dr. Destroyer (an egocentric ex-Nazi scientist with a personal army who actually once managed to rule the world for a week, and who, as stated, is responsible for the destruction of Detroit) could hunt just about anyone, especially if they’ve insulted him. His evil twin (that’s the best theory we have, at any rate) the Shadow Destroyer hunts heroes for similar reasons, but also for their tech and/or magic. All of these are “more powerful than PC”.