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BUILT IN COMBAT OPTIONS
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The Combat & Adventuring section of the main rulebook provides
numerous options to make combat more realistic and dangerous
under "Optional Effects of Damage". Various genre
supplements provide further expansion and discussion around
these options and occassionally some new ones as well as appropriate
to their subject matter. Dark Champtions and Fantasy HERO in
particular cover this topic in more detail. Below are my views
on the basic "more lethal" options provided in the
main rulebook.
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HIT LOCATIONS
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By default damage is "generalized"; its abstracted
to a certain extent rather than applied to a specific body part.
Generalized damage has a lot of advantages; its easier to resolve,
avoids ugly questions of collateral / impairing effects of damage,
works well with Area of Effects (AoE's) and basically keeps
combat at a "higher" level. It has a lot of disadvantages
as well; it naturally detracts from a sense of realism, it makes
called shots largely meaningless, and removes a level of tactical
decision making from characters in combat.
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Fortunately for those wishing more grit, the HERO System also
offers an "optional" but well integrated Hit Location
based combat resolution. As you might imagine, the Hit Location
rules add another level to hit resolution to determine where
an attack strikes specifically and then alter damage up or down
based upon what location is struck based upon multiples (including
sub-one multiples). Multiples are applied to damage after defenses
are applied, and in addition Stun Multiples are fixed rather
than randomized as they are in generalized damage. Under this
system Head shots do considerably more damage than hand shots,
and so forth. Some locations are harder to hit than others,
as measured by differing to-hit penalties.
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Hit Locations are a major and important step towards increasing
lethality in the HERO System and also immediately adds a more
granular set of tactical options (at the cost of additional
complexity in combat resolution), but though some locations
such as head and vitals take more damage than normal, other
locations take less and overall the net effect on deadliness
isn't as great as might be thought. Also, hit locations
also force defenses to be tracked by location which can get
complex. Less obviously, using Called Shots on hit locations
is an all or nothing proposition which can be very odd in actual
play -- characters that are highly skilled and declare Called
Shots will either hit exactly what they are aiming at or miss
entirely.
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However there is another aspect of Hit Locations that must be
considered; it is effectively a gateway to further optional
systems that make damage more persistent. While these options
don't cause immediate death they make damage more persistent
and subsequently successive combats are more lethal.
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IMPAIRING & DISABLING
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These two sets of optional rules are similar, with Disabling
being more extreme than Impairing. You can use them together
or individually. Both result in long term damage to particular
body parts; whether temporary or permanent.
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The benefits of these rules are it makes combat a very dangerous
affair to enter into and makes for an extremely gritty game.
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However, the cons are notable; either option will slow combat
even further, and many players will not enjoy having their characters
get seriously, even permanently messed up. And as the principal
focus of a campaign, PC's are much more likely to suffer
from the effects of these rules than NPC's.
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WOUNDING
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Wounding is, in my opinion, misnamed. I think of it as "Shaken"
as its effects are more morale oriented. Basically if the Wounding
rule is in effect injured characters have their ability to take
offensive actions inhibited unless they can make EGO rolls.
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I've personally found over the years that the Wounding rules
stack the deck versus small groups of PC's since if the
group all take damage in close segments, it can cripple their
ability to react and make a bad situation unrecoverable. In
a larger group this isn't as likely to happen and in fact
encourages a team dynamic as it provides a very good reason
to have teammates -- to cover you when you get hit. In my opinion
this option is most appropriate to the most gritty and "realistic"
of games and not appropriate at all for more cinematic games.
There are a few types of games where it is absolutely not good
to use (at least not for the PC's).
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BLEEDING
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Bleeding is a more immediate side effect of damage than Impairing
/ Disabling that has a very immediate impact on increasing lethality.
Using this option individual wounds can continue to bleed out,
which makes every injury potentially lethal if bleeding occurs
and cannot be stopped. Note that this is different from and
in addition to "bleeding out" when below 0 BODY. It
requires more administrative work to keep track of damage in
discrete increments (per wound), and can slow the game. It's
big pro (from a lethality is good perspective) is that each
wound inflicted is more dangerous and potentially harmful, and
it is rarely necessary to administer a coup de gras to a casualty
to seal the deal.
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Allow me to stress that this is a very dangerous option to employ.
I personally consider it to be appropriate for really ultra-realistic
normal level games deliberately attempting to simulate reality.
It imposes severe consequences to combat and even a minor encounter
can remove a character from play for either a prolonged recovery
or forever.
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HAYMAKER
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Everyone can use the Haymaker Maneuver, and in 5th Edition it
adds its Damage Classes as effect to a lot of different Powers
as well as just strike damage. Most people don't use Haymakers
because of timing difficulties and the stiff DCV penalty it
imposes. However if players could be encouraged to use the Manuever
more often lethality would increase due to the extra damage
inflicted.
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If a little natural encouragement doesn't do the trick,
the GM can offer some incentives. The most direct incentive
is to simply replace the Haymaker stat line with the stat line
of the Martial Maneuver Sacrifice Strike, which is basically
just a better "Martial" version of Haymaker that removes
the timing component and reduces the DCV penalty.
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PUSHING
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Along the same lines as Haymaker above the GM could allow characters
to Push their Strength for the purposes of doing more damage
as a matter of course. I personally am not a fan of Pushing
or allowing its use as a casual matter, but some play groups
routinely do this anyway. Its an option at any rate.
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DEADLY BLOW
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The Deadly Blow Talent presented in Fantasy HERO, Dark Champions,
and other supplements is a very direct and easy way to dial
up lethality, but make characters pay for the privilege. This
will result in characters that have invested in being deadly
being more lethal than other characters, but this is consistent
with the point-buy mentality of the HERO System and works well
in practice. I strongly recommend that if Deadly Blow is used
that limits be placed on how many levels a character can have,
and on how it interacts with inanimate objects (which I discuss
in detail here).
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I'll also point out here that one level of Combat Luck roughly
counters one level of Deadly Blow, which should be considered
if you are allowing either one of them in your campaigns; I
personally see them as companion options as allowing one but
not the other will skew your game towards one extreme or the
other (assuming characters take the abilities).
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