Heroic Abilities - some new ideas

[Vagni]

Heroic Abilities in the Core rulebook are mainly combat orientated, while designing some Ancestor spirits the other day I thought up a few alternatives and variants that might be of interest:

Born in a Boat
Requirements: POW or DEX 15 or higher, Boating 90% or higher
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Until the river terrain or situation has been cleared, or a number of rounds equal to CON, as most appropriate.
This is basically the same as the Born to the Saddle ability but instead relates to all Boating skill rolls.

Musician
Requirements: DEX 15 or higher, two Play (Instrument) skills at 50% or more
Hero Points: 8
Duration: Several hours
As per the Linguist ability but applies to learning to Play (Instrument).

Healing Touch
Requirements: POW 15 or more, Healing and First Aid at 50% or more
Hero Points: 10
Duration: One skill roll per location healed
You are a natural healer, you may ignore situational modifiers for any Healing or First Aid skill rolls and, if you make a successful roll, then the healing effects are doubled (2D3 points healed for a First Aid injured location, 2 points on a serious wound, successful Healing skill doubles the critical bonus added to resist a disease etc.)

Lucky
Requirements: POW 15 or more, Persistence 90% or more
Hero Points: 12
Duration: POW in melee rounds
Once invoked the player may re-roll any one dice roll within the duration. He may not re-roll a dice roll made before the ability was invoked.

Hawk Eye
Requirements: POW or CON 15 or more, Perception 90% or more
Hero Points: 10
Duration: POW in minutes
You are renowned for your keen eyesight and the ability to find hidden things. For the abilities duration you may add a bonus to your Perception equal to your POW+CON%.

(Element) Immunity
Requirements: POW 15 or more, Resilience 70% or more
Hero Points: 10
Duration: Continuous - body automatically burns 1 MP when attacked. Fatigue levels are burned if no MP are available.
You are naturally resistant to one type of element, typically this is either fire, water, darkness, earth or air but other elements are possible. When you are attacked or sustain damage from this element then you may either reduce the damage inflicted by your damage modifier or take a +20% bonus to your Resilience/Persistence to resits any damage or adverse effects (choose one of these before damage is rolled). This immunity does not necessarily extend to any equipment carried.
[Note: as an alternative for the above you could just reduce any element damage by half instead]

 

[ThatGuy]

These are great! Any others out there?

I still use this one:

Minotaur’s Blow
Requirements: STR 15 or higher, Unarmed skill at 90% or higher
Hero Points: 8

Your punch is brutal, a solid hammer-like fist that shatters opponents skulls and flattens enemies foolish enough to stand in your way. By drawing upon your inner strength and your physical might you may expend a Combat Action and two Magic Points to channel your energy into your fists, transforming them into weapons as deadly as the heaviest hammer; for a number of combat rounds equal to your STR your unarmed attacks do 1d10 points of damage.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Minotaur’s Blow ... for a number of combat rounds equal to your STR your unarmed attacks do 1d10 points of damage.

That seems like a long time.

 

[ThatGuy]

Its from an old RQ supplement, but could easily be modified to be CA's.

That would make it roughly 5-9 Combat rounds. A longer fight.

 

[Vagni]

Minotaur one duly stolen and adapted. Thanks! :lol:

The Hawkeye one can be adapted for almost any skill really, just modify the characteristic and skill required and Bob's your uncle, for example:

Artificer
Requirements: INT or DEX 15 or more, Mechanisms 90% or more
Hero Points: 10
Duration: POW in minutes
You are renowned for your grasp of mechanisms and how things work. For the abilities duration you may add a bonus to your Mechanisms skill equal to your INT+DEX%.

and another one:

Survivalist
Requirements: CON 15 or more, Survival or Lore (Regional) at 70% or more.
Hero Points: 8
Duration: 1 day or 1 skill roll as appropriate
Your ability to live off the land, build shelters and find safe drinking water is uncanny. Once this ability is invoked you may treat all successful Survival rolls as though they were a critical success. Any rolls against Resilience for adverse weather may also be ignored and any adverse modifiers to travel based on terrain are halved.

 

[Isengrim]

Another area which could use some extra (re)work is the Rune Touched abilities. Are there any new or better ones anywhere?

 

[Ultor]

Here's my list of additional heroic abilities, taken mainly from the 1st edition supplements:


AVOIDANCE, Dex 16+, Evade 90%+, HP 8
+1 CA, usable only for Evade/Avoidance
May attack the CA after using the Evade/Avoidance ability

BLACK WALTZ, Dex 15+, Melee weapon 90%+, Dance 90%+, HP 10
Enter Black Waltz requires 1 MP, a CA and a successful difficult (-20%) Dance test
Doubles CA
Melee skills +30%
Evade +30% (usual restrictions apply)
Parry -30%
No damage modifier
Can remain in BW for CON combat rounds. On leaving BW, gain 2 levels of Fatigue.

BLOODHOUND, Int 15+, Tracking 100%+, HP 10
May ask GM 3 simple questions about the tracks, which GM shall answer truthfully
Know exactly what has passed through area and when
Cannot be lost unless infeasible to retrace your steps

DOPPELGANGER, Cha 15+, Disguise 100%+, HP 10
Can automatically mask your voice to match Disguise
If observed target for an hour+, +20% to Disguise as them
Cha subtracted from Perception tests to see through Disguise
If an hour+ to prepare Disguise, test cannot fumble

GADGETEER, Int 15+, Mechanisms 100%+, HP 8
Can tinker with any mechanism to make it into something related that you need
Can turn “junk” into a related working device
Can tell what any mechanism is designed for at a glance
-50% penalty to anyone tinkering with a mechanism you designed

HAIL OF WOE, Bow 90%+, HP 12
Ignore all terrain between you and target. Add 1 dice damage and +10 to Hit Location chart

LORD OF THE MOUNT, Born to the Saddle, Ride 125%+, HP 8
Any penalty to Ride skill reduced by 50%
No penalty to weapon skill
Impart Born to the Saddle abilities to a number of riders with you equal to your Cha score

MAELSTROM, Str 15+, Melee weapon 90%+, HP 10
May use all offensive combat actions at once

ONE WITH THE WILD, Pow 15+, Survival 70%+, HP 8
Can survive for Pow weeks in the wild on a single Survival roll
With successful Survival roll, can make any survival item out of scavenged materials
Can feed 2xInt additional people on a successful Survival roll

WEAPON MASTERY, Combat style 150%+, HP 12
Start a new [Weapon] Master skill at Dex+Str; successful roll after hit with weapon doubles base damage dice (not damage modifier)

MARTIAL PROWESS, Two combat styles 125%+, HP 12
Start a new Martial Prowess skill at Str+Pow; use as a combat action. If successful, any enemy wanting to attack (who does not have MP skill) must succeed in an opposed Persistence test against the original success roll or suffer a -20% penalty to combat style. Critical success gains a CA (fumble loses one).

PINPOINT THROW, Dead Eye, Dex 15+, Athletics 90%+, HP 8
Double range for throwing items
Ignore 1 AP with every throwing attack (including thrown Combat Styles)

SIREN’S VOICE, Cha 15+, Sing 125%+, HP 8
Can hide an Influence test in the song at -10%
Lower the guard of the audience (number = 2xCha): reduce their, Perception by 50% and Combat Styles and Evade by 25% for duration of the song or until end of first round of combat (whichever is less)
Sing a haunting ballad that reminds audience of their mortality – Persistence test vs the original Sing success or as if under effects of Demoralize spell

SPIDER CLIMB, Wall Leaping, Athletics 125%+, HP 10
Ignore up to 60% of any environmental penalties to climb
May use a one-handed weapon at no penalty while climbing
Can use Athletics skill rather than Evade to dodge missile attacks while climbing

SPIRIT OF THE OCEAN, Con 15+, Swim 90%+, HP 8
Reduce environmental penalties to Swim by 20%
May use large or huge weapons underwater without penalty
May hold breath for twice as long as a normal character
May use Swim skill instead of Evade when dodging missile attacks
Double swim movement speed

TITAN’S HEFT, Str 18+. Brawn 100%+, HP 14
Can multiply Str score by up to 4 for the effect of feats of strength, but immediately gains the multiplier in levels of Fatigue

TRUE SIGHT, Pow 15+, Perception 125%+, HP 12
Can use Perception skill to see through magical barriers to perception
Automatically see anyone with less than 100% Stealth

VANISH, Pow 15+, Stealth 90%+, HP 10
Can hide in plain sight at -10% to Stealth skill for each onlooker
Can only be seen on a Critical perception roll
(Vanish and True Sight cancel each other out)

AGELESS, Con 15+, Resilience 100%+, HP 10
Immune to effects of natural ageing

ACCURACY OF THE GODS, Dead Eye, Dex 18+, HP 12
Increase missile weapon’s range by a further 50%
Increase missile weapon’s damage by 2

CHARMTONGUE, Cha 15+, Influence 90%+, HP 8
In any opposed Influence test with someone of lower Cha, reduce their skill by your Cha
If fail an Influence test, make a Persistence test to retry (fail means future Influence tests against same individual at -20%)
Any successful Influence test (even as a Combat Action) results in opponent doing whatever you ask, even at their own disadvantage

HEART OF OAK, Str 15+, Con 15+, Resilience 90%+, HP 10
+5% to all Resilience tests (does not cost a MP)
If fail Resilience test, may re-roll once
Gain a bonus of Con+Str to Resilience tests for Resilience/10 combat rounds)

MINOTAUR’S BLOW, Str 15+, Unarmed 90%+, HP 8
Any successful unarmed attacks in the combat round do 1d10 damage (plus normal damage modifier)

SUDDEN STRIKE, SR 15+, Melee combat style 90%+, HP 10
SR permanently increased by 5
For 1 MP, gain +2d6 to SR until GM calls for new SR rolls

REGENERATION, Disease Immunity, Poison Immunity, Con 18+, HP 12
Heal 1 point in all locations every ten minutes

SALMON LEAP, Dex 15+, Athletics 70%+, HP 8
Start Salmon Leap skill at Str+Dex
Leap your own height in the air
Use SL skill instead of Evade to avoid missile attacks, but may still attack next CA
Use with a melee combat style attack to add +1d6 damage in addition to DM

SHIELD KICK, Str 15+, Dex 15+, Melee Combat Style 90%+, HP 10
Kick an opponent’s shield up, leap on it and attack
Spend 1MP, make a successful Athletics test and ignore opponent’s shield in combat for the combat round

SPEAR CATCH, Dex 15+, 1H Melee Combat Style 90%+, HP 8
On a successful IH opposed Athletics test against a thrown missile attack, the hero catches the missile. If they gain a combat maneuver, they can throw the weapon back.

DOOR OF BATTLE, Str 15+, Shield combat style 90%+, HP 6
When wearing no armor, shield skill is doubled and any protection gained from the shield is doubled

DIEHARD, Con 15+, Resilience 75%+, HP 15
On receiving a wound, a successful Resilience test allows the hero to treat the wound as one level less

MONSTER SLAYER, Str 16+, Combat Style 90%+, HP 12
When fighting a monster twice the hero’s Siz or greater, double the damage modifier
When the hero slays such a monster, he/she may devour the monster’s heart and gain half the creature’s Con and Str for one day, dropping by one point each day thereafter until back to normal.

ALWAYS SOMETHING TO SWING FROM, Dex 15+, Acrobatics 50%+, HP 8
There is always a rope, line, chandelier or vine to swing from unless impossible (eg middle of the desert). The hero may use this to disengage from an opponent on a successful Acrobatics test or swing into combat gaining +5% to style and +1d4 damage.

DASHING/BEAUTIFUL, Cha 13+, HP 4
Gains +20% to Influence tests involving the opposite sex

FEARSOME AURA, Cha 15+, Combat style 70%+
All foes within your Cha in meters are intimidated, suffering your Cha as a penalty to any Persistence of Resilience tests.
Use a CA to terrify enemies in an Influence vs Persistence test. If failed, they suffer your Cha as a penalty to combat styles until the end of the combat.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Most of those abilities are missing a Duration

 

[ThatGuy]

But are very cool!

My question would be: how would the "DOOR OF BATTLE" work? Double the Size of the Sheild? Treat it as two steps higher? If so...it almost better than armor. I would got naked before a Dragon before I went clothed with that Heroic ability!

But these are very good. I will be co-opting a few of them for my game...

 

[cerebro]

Hero abilities are too expensive. They are like feats,why not make some cheaper?.

In the next edition of Runequest you should be able to pick them as a starter character. Feats,among other things,was what made d&d 3.0 so successful . Having to wait for 10 hero points is a lot of time.

 

[languagegeek]

Here's my list of additional heroic abilities, taken mainly from the 1st edition supplements:

Is there a heroic abilities section on the wiki? I guess I could go and check... but you might consider adding these so I can use them in the future.

 

[Ultor]

Most of those abilities are missing a Duration

Yeah, but as I tend not to keep track of time in combats I just wing it. If you need a duration, then "duration of present combat" seems to work well, but if you think some are overpowered, then 10 combat rounds or [governing characteristic] in combat actions would seem worth trying.

 

[Ultor]

But are very cool!

My question would be: how would the "DOOR OF BATTLE" work? Double the Size of the Sheild? Treat it as two steps higher? If so...it almost better than armor. I would got naked before a Dragon before I went clothed with that Heroic ability!

But these are very good. I will be co-opting a few of them for my game...

That's how I'd run it. It's from Slaine so is precisely there to encourage naked warriors in battle...

 

[Ultor]

Hero abilities are too expensive. They are like feats,why not make some cheaper?.

In the next edition of Runequest you should be able to pick them as a starter character. Feats,among other things,was what made d&d 3.0 so successful . Having to wait for 10 hero points is a lot of time.

Highly experienced characters can have heroic abilities, so the RAW already covers that. Having 18 year old newbs with heroic abilities just seems wrong to me, but in a hero-level campaign, I'm sure you could get away with just having them select one as indication of potential.

I note that some of the MRQ1-era supplements had low-powered abilities (like Beautiful/Dashing above) that cost only a few hero points.

 

[ThatGuy]

It's also up to you as a GM as far as how easily Hero points are achieved.

I was in a game where the GM handed them out like water, and as a result the players were always happy, responsive and eager to to do something "heroic" as they knew they would be compensated. And the costs and requirements of Heroic abilities was such that it still took a long time to get enough points to get one (about 2-3 adventures).

Also, because they were given away more often, players were more willing to spend them in the attempt at creating a heroic situation (the GM was very good about this- if a player sacrificed a Hero point to do something heroic and it worked he would give the player a hero point- or two- immediately), ie- forcing an opponent to re-roll a difficult evade opposed roll so that the numbers would be more even for the group as far as attackers and defenders.

He would even give hero points for non game things- bringing pizza or drinks, making a coffee run, etc. It made it so that the environment was a very fun, participative one in which everyone raised their hand when a question was asked.

I'm just pointing out that the distribution of Hero Points is up to the GM, and he can be as creative as he wants with the mechanic.

 

[Vagni]

It's also up to you as a GM as far as how easily Hero points are achieved.

I was in a game where the GM handed them out like water, and as a result the players were always happy, responsive and eager to to do something "heroic" as they knew they would be compensated. And the costs and requirements of Heroic abilities was such that it still took a long time to get enough points to get one (about 2-3 adventures).

Also, because they were given away more often, players were more willing to spend them in the attempt at creating a heroic situation (the GM was very good about this- if a player sacrificed a Hero point to do something heroic and it worked he would give the player a hero point- or two- immediately), ie- forcing an opponent to re-roll a difficult evade opposed roll so that the numbers would be more even for the group as far as attackers and defenders.

He would even give hero points for non game things- bringing pizza or drinks, making a coffee run, etc. It made it so that the environment was a very fun, participative one in which everyone raised their hand when a question was asked.

I'm just pointing out that the distribution of Hero Points is up to the GM, and he can be as creative as he wants with the mechanic.

I also allow my players to 'buy' Improvement Rolls with HP's and also put Hero Points toward increasing characteristics alongside IP's - I've found that the players don't go mad with this option and I keep a final say as GM on what's acceptable to increase or not. They tend to use these extra IP's to gain spells or bunk up little used skills.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Is there a heroic abilities section on the wiki? I guess I could go and check... but you might consider adding these so I can use them in the future.

There is a page:
http://mrqwiki.com/wiki/index.php/MRQ2Heroic_Abilities
I'm going to add the abilities from these pages, unless anyone objects.

One thing I'm not sure how to handle is alternative versions. For instance, I think that the durations should all be 1 Melee Round unless there's a convincing reason why it has to be longer than that. I think the answer is to have one section per contributor, so if I have a Vagni section with his versions, then the PhilHibbs section might have the same ability with some tweaks.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Any thoughts about this:
Dodgy
Requirements: DEX 15 or more, Evade 90% or more
Hero Points: 12
Duration: One melee round
You are adept at avoiding blows, and so may evade without losing the ability to attack on the next Combat Action.

Evade requirement too high? Hero Point cost ok?

 

[sdavies2720]

...One thing I'm not sure how to handle is alternative versions. For instance, I think that the durations should all be 1 Melee Round unless there's a convincing reason why it has to be longer than that. I think the answer is to have one section per contributor, so if I have a Vagni section with his versions, then the PhilHibbs section might have the same ability with some tweaks.

I'm not sure if this is what you're proposing: My preference would be to have the heroic ability as the main sorting mechanism, then variants below it (one for Vagni, one for PhilHibbs, for instance). That way I can look at the HA and evaluate the variants.

If the contributor is the main sorting mechanism, I will have to flip through multiple sections to see variants. Much as I respect PhilHibbs, I care less about seeing all of his cool HAs together.

Steve

 

[PhilHibbs]

...One thing I'm not sure how to handle is alternative versions. For instance, I think that the durations should all be 1 Melee Round unless there's a convincing reason why it has to be longer than that. I think the answer is to have one section per contributor, so if I have a Vagni section with his versions, then the PhilHibbs section might have the same ability with some tweaks.

I'm not sure if this is what you're proposing: My preference would be to have the heroic ability as the main sorting mechanism, then variants below it (one for Vagni, one for PhilHibbs, for instance). That way I can look at the HA and evaluate the variants.

If the contributor is the main sorting mechanism, I will have to flip through multiple sections to see variants. Much as I respect PhilHibbs, I care less about seeing all of his cool HAs together.

Steve

I suppose you're right, but collaborative rule-writing is always going to be difficult and confusing, where you don't have a final authority to say "this is the way it is".