TEXT: 1 
  HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION
  W
  elcome to the HERO System, a com-
  plete set of universal roleplaying rules 
  that lets you create characters for any 
  setting or background, from fantasy, 
  to modern-day action heroes, to science ﬁ ction, to 
  comic book superheroes. Using the HERO System 
  rules, you can create any spell, technology, power, 
  weapon, ability, or other effect you can imagine. 
  This volume provides you with all the rules you 
  need to create characters and campaigns set in any 
  time, place, or genre. Even if you don’t want to use 
  the HERO System rules to run your games, you 
  can still use them to create things for use in other 
  RPGs.
  Many of you are already familiar with the HERO 
  System; after all, it’s been about 20 years since it was 
  ﬁ rst published as Champions, and about ten years 
  since the last edition of the HERO System, the Fourth, 
  was released. This Fifth Edition expands, revises, and 
  clariﬁ es the rules from the Fourth Edition. The result 
  is a game system which is more fun and ﬂ exible than 
  ever.
  Those of you who are new to the HERO System 
  should read If You Aren’t Familiar With The HERO 
  System immediately following this section. It provides 
  a brief glimpse of what the HERO System is and does, 
  and shows how you can use it to create some of the 
  most enjoyable roleplaying games you’ve ever played 
  in. After that you can dive into character creation or 
  whatever other subject catches your fancy. If you get 
  confused by any of the terms (like all game systems, 
  this one has a lot of its own “gamespeak”), look them 
  up in the Glossary (page 6) or in the Index.
  If you’re a reader who’s used the HERO System 
  before, skip on down to If You’re Familiar With The 
  HERO System, below. That will serve as a good intro-
  duction to the Fifth Edition for you.
  IF YOU AREN’T FAMILIAR 
  WITH THE HERO SYSTEM
  The HERO System seems complex at ﬁ rst glance, 
  but don’t worry, it’s easier than it looks. Unlike many 
  game systems, which have different types of rules 
  for different parts of their games (combat, magic, 
  character creation, or what have you), the HERO 
  System has a lot of consistency and internal logic. 
  Once you learn the important parts, it becomes easy 
  to ﬁ gure out how other parts of the system work. 
  You can always refer to the Glossary if you can’t 
  remember what a particular term means or how to 
  do something in the system.
  Basic Rules And Concepts
  The HERO System uses six-sided dice (d6) to 
  resolve combat, the use of Skills, and similiar situ-
  ations. The number before the “d6” notation indi-
  cates how many dice to roll; for example, 12d6 
  means 12 dice; 2d6+1 means roll two dice and add 
  one point to the total.
  Most dice-rolling in the HERO System requires 
  you to roll 3d6 and get a result equal to or less than 
  some number. This is written in the text by a minus 
  sign (-) following the number. Thus, a Skill which 
  your character can perform successfully on an 11 
  or less roll is written 11-.
  Whenever you attempt any 3d6 roll — 
  whether an Attack Roll, Skill Roll, Characteristic 
  Roll, Perception Roll, or other roll — a result of 3 
  (three ones) always hits or succeeds; a result of 
  18 (three sixes) always misses or fails. The Game-
  master (GM) should consider giving a character 
  some advantage when his player rolls a 3 (perhaps 
  some extra dice of damage), and some disadvantage 
  for rolling an 18 (perhaps reducing the character’s 
  DCV for a Segment or two).
  In the HERO System, you use Character Points 
  (see below) to purchase all of your character’s abili-
  ties and powers. Sometimes this requires calcula-
  tions involving division or multiplication. When 
  calculating the cost of something, always round 
  off to the next whole number in favor of the player 
  character. Numbers from .1 to .4 round down; 
  numbers from .6 to .9 round up; and .5 rounds up 
  or down depending upon what’s best for the char-
  acter. The only exception to this rule is calculating 
  SPD — SPD always rounds down. A SPD of 2.9 
  is still a SPD of 2, not a SPD of 3. If a calculation 
  involves two or more separate parts (such as REC, 
  which is STR/5 plus CON/5), round up at each sep-
  arate step of the calculation. Thus, a character with 
  BODY 10, STR 15, and CON 15 has a STUN of 26 
  (BODY; plus STR/2 = 7.5, rounds to 8; plus CON/2 
  = 7.5, rounds to 8; 10+8+8=26). However, the 
  minimum cost of anything is 1 point; a character 
  cannot get a single point of END or COM “for free” 
  because it would round to a cost of 0, for example. 
  Movement and maps in the HERO System use 
  hex-shaped inches which, despite their name, are 2 
  meters (approximately 6.5 feet) wide. The text often 
  refers to “hexes” or “inches” interchangeably; inches 
  are written 1”, 2”, and so forth.
  INTRODUCTION TO 
  THE HERO SYSTEM
  
  2 
  HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION
  Character Creation
  The heart of the HERO System is its rules 
  for character creation. Using them, you can create 
  any type of character, power, gadget, or ability you 
  want, subject to the GM’s campaign restrictions.
  You build HERO System characters with Char-
  acter Points. Everything the character can do, from 
  his ability to lift heavy objects to his ability to use 
  magic or superpowers, is purchased with Character 
  Points.
  Your GM will tell you how many points you 
  have to build your character with; the more points, 
  the more powerful the character, generally. Some 
  of your Character Points are “free” (given to you 
  by the GM); you acquire others by taking Dis-
  advantages, or complications for, your character. 
  The main purpose of Disadvantages is to simulate 
  character conception, but they are also worth 
  extra Character Points. For example, your character 
  might be Hunted by an old enemy, or adhere to 
  a Code Of Honor, or be missing one eye. Each 
  of these Disadvantages give you extra Character 
  Points to build your character with. 
  There are ﬁ ve things that can be bought with 
  Character Points:  Characteristics, Skills, Perks, Tal-
  ents, and Powers.
  CHARACTERISTICS
  All characters have eight Primary Character-
  istics (such as Strength and Intelligence), which 
  represent physical and mental capabilities; and six 
  Figured Characteristics (such as Physical Defense 
  or Stun), which are mainly used in combat. The 
  text beginning on page 19 deﬁ nes these Charac-
  teristics for you. An average human has Primary 
  Characteristics of about 8-10.
  Primary Characteristics all have Characteristic 
  Rolls equal to 9 + (Characteristic/5) or less. For 
  example, a character with a DEX of 20 has a DEX 
  Roll of 13- (9 + (20/5)=13). When the GM asks 
  you to make a Characteristic Roll (such as a DEX 
  Roll to walk along a narrow beam), you roll 3d6 
  like normal. The more you make (or fail) the roll 
  by, the greater your degree of success (or failure). 
  The GM imposes negative modifers on the Charac-
  teristic Roll when you attempt particularly difﬁ cult 
  feats, making it harder to succeed.
  SKILLS
  A character’s Skills represent specialized 
  knowledge or training he possesses. This includes 
  such things as knowing how to ﬂ y a plane, inves-
  tigate a crime scene, or ﬁ re a blaster pistol, or the 
  character’s in-depth knowledge about any subject 
  you can think of (physics, Fire Demons, Great Brit-
  ain, alien races...). Skills are listed and described 
  beginning on page 26.
  A character can try to get information, per-
  form a task, or gain other beneﬁ ts from knowing 
  a Skill by making a Skill Roll. Each Skill has a Skill 
  Roll, typically between 8- and 18- (the higher, the 
  better). Most Skills are based on a Characteristic, 
  just like Characteristic Rolls, and all of them are 
  rolled the same way:  roll 3d6; if the total on the 
  dice is less than or equal to your Skill Roll, your 
  character succeeds; if it is higher than the Skill Roll, 
  he fails.
  PERKS
  Perks are special resources a character has 
  access to — money or property (like a really fast car 
  or headquarters), contacts, permits or licenses, and 
  the like. The Perks which a character can purchase 
  are listed and described beginning on page 55.
  TALENTS
  Talents are unusual abilities or attributes a 
  character possesses. They are usually better than 
  Skills, but not quite as powerful as Powers — in 
  fact, they’re sort of a cross or “middle ground” 
  between the two. They include things like a natural 
  sense of direction, a “sixth sense” for danger, having 
  extremely fast reﬂ exes, or being able to speed read. 
  Some of them involve rolls similar to Skill Rolls; 
  others function automatically. They are described 
  beginning on page 61.
  POWERS
  Powers are abilities possessed by some char-
  acters. Typically they are abilities “beyond those 
  of normal men,” though Powers can also be used 
  to create many abilities and devices which are per-
  fectly appropriate for characters who are “normal 
  men.”  Each Power costs a certain amount of 
  Character Points, depending upon how powerful 
  or useful it tends to be. Some Powers have an incre-
  mental cost, such as 5 Character Points per d6 of 
  effect. They are described starting on page 67.
  You can create any ability you can think of — 
  ﬂ ying, becoming invisible or intangible, changing 
  shape, ﬁ ring energy bolts or mental blasts — using 
  Powers. They can simulate a superhero’s powers, 
  a wizard’s spells, or a vigilante’s super-skills, just 
  to name a few. You also use Powers to construct 
  equipment and weapons.
  POWER FRAMEWORKS
  Sometimes Powers are bought through Power 
  Frameworks — ways to group Powers so they cost 
  fewer points. However, this savings entails some 
  restrictions on when and how the character can 
  use the Powers in his Framework. There are three 
  types of Frameworks — Elemental Controls, Mul-
  tipowers, and Variable Power Pools — which are 
  explained in detail on pages 203-210.
  Combat
  HERO System combat offers your character 
  the chance to do just about anything you can think 
  of. The rules provide lots of options, but you don’t 
  have to learn them all at once. Instead, start out 
  with the basics, and learn the details as you play. 
  The basics are:
  INITIATIVE
  Two of a character’s Characteristics — Dexterity 
  (DEX) and Speed (SPD) — determine when he acts 
  in combat, and how often. The rules divide combat 
  time into 12-second Turns, with each second referred 
  
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  HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION
  to as a Segment. The character’s SPD indicates which 
  Segments he can take an Action in; these Segments are 
  his Phases. Thus, a character with 5 SPD has 5 Phases 
  — ﬁ ve times each Turn when he can act. The Speed 
  Chart (page 232) indicates the Phases for each SPD.
  In each Segment, several characters may have a 
  Phase — for example, characters with SPD 3 and SPD 
  6 both act in Segment 4. All characters who can act in 
  a Phase act in order of DEX, from highest to lowest. 
  Thus, a character with DEX 20 acts before one with 
  DEX 18; however, a character may Hold his Action 
  and act later in the Phase if he wants.
  ACTIONS
  A character may take an Action in each of his 
  Phases. His Actions may include Full Moves (which 
  require his entire Phase) or Half Moves, which require 
  only half of his Phase (in other words, he can perform 
  two Half Moves per Phase). Full Moves include using 
  more than half of your inches of movement or recov-
  ering from being Stunned. Half Moves include using 
  up to half your inches of movement.
  Attacks are a special type of Action. A character 
  may make a Half Move and then attack; in that case, 
  the attack is considered a Half Move, too. But if a 
  character makes an attack before making any Half 
  Moves, the attack is considered a Full Move. In other 
  words, once you make an attack, that’s all you can do 
  that Phase.
  Some Actions take so little time to perform that 
  they are Zero-Phase Actions. Characters can perform 
  Zero-Phase Actions at the beginning of a Phase or 
  after making a Half Move, but not after making an 
  attack. Zero-Phase Actions include turning a Power 
  on or off.
  Some Actions take no time at all, and can be 
  performed whenever a character wishes, even if he 
  doesn’t have a Phase or has already acted in a Phase. 
  No time Actions include making a Presence Attack, 
  speaking, or making a roll when the GM asks you to.
  See pages 233-237 for more information.
  ATTACKS
  A character’s Combat Value, or CV, determines 
  his chance to hit targets in combat, and to avoid being 
  hit. A character’s CV is equal to his (DEX/3). Thus, a 
  character with DEX 20 has a CV of 7 (20/3=7).
  CV is divided into two subcategories, Offensive 
  Combat Value (OCV) and Defensive Combat Value 
  (DCV). OCV and DCV are both equal to CV. Thus, a 
  character with a CV of 7 has OCV 7, DCV 7. Various 
  Combat Maneuvers, Combat Skill Levels, and other 
  factors may modify a character’s OCV or DCV.
  To attack, roll 3d6. To hit, you need to roll less 
  than or equal to a number calculated with this for-
  mula:  11 + Attacker’s OCV - Defender’s DCV. Thus, if 
  the attacker has OCV 6, and the defender has DCV 4, 
  the attacker must roll (11+6-4=13) 13 or less to hit.
  Mental Attacks are slightly different. They use 
  Ego Combat Value (ECV), equal to (EGO/3). Other-
  wise, making a Mental Attack is basically the same as 
  making any other kind of attack.
  See pages 243-246 for more information.
  DOING AND TAKING DAMAGE
  If your character hits his target with an attack, 
  the attack does damage. There are two basic types of 
  damage in the HERO System:  STUN damage and 
  BODY damage. Taking STUN damage decreases 
  your character’s STUN and can knock you out; 
  taking BODY damage decreases your BODY, which 
  causes injuries and can kill your character. All types 
  of attacks cause one or both types of damage. Some, 
  such as Drains or Ego Attacks, only cause STUN 
  damage. Most, such as Energy Blasts, punches, guns, 
  and knives, cause both STUN and BODY.
  Another important distinction is between 
  Normal Damage attacks and Killing Damage attacks. 
  Most attacks do Normal Damage, but Killing Attacks 
  do Killing Damage (which, as its name implies, is 
  deadlier). Normal Damage and Killing Damage are 
  calculated differently and applied to defenses differ-
  ently. See page 273 for more information.
  Characters have defenses which protect them 
  against damage. All characters have Physical Defense, 
  or PD (which protects against physical attacks like 
  punches and clubs) and Energy Defense, or ED (which 
  protects against energy attacks like energy bolts or 
  ﬁ re). PD and ED are Normal Defenses; they protect 
  against Normal Damage. The character subtracts his 
  defenses from the STUN and BODY damage done 
  
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  HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION
  to him, and applies the remainder (if any) to his 
  STUN and BODY. If a character hit with a 22 STUN, 
  6 BODY physical attack has 10 PD, he takes 12 STUN 
  (22-10) and 0 BODY (6-10). But Normal Defenses 
  offer no protection against Killing Damage; for that, 
  characters need Resistant Defenses, such as Armor or a 
  Force Field. See page 273 for more information.
  THE EFFECTS OF DAMAGE
  If a character loses more STUN from a single 
  attack than he has points of CON, he becomes 
  Stunned (dazed and unable to act). In the above 
  example, if the character has a CON of 12 or higher, 
  he won’t be Stunned by that attack; if his CON is 11 
  or less, he’s Stunned. A Stunned character must spend 
  a Phase to recover from being Stunned before he can 
  act again.
  If a character loses all of his STUN from one 
  or more attacks, he’s Knocked Out (unconscious) 
  and completely unable to act. However, he wakes up 
  when he regains STUN. Characters regain lost STUN 
  by taking Recoveries. For each Recovery taken, the 
  character gets back his Recovery Characteristic (REC) 
  worth of STUN and END.
  If a character loses BODY, he’s injured — he 
  suffers burns, cuts, bleeding wounds, broken bones, 
  and so forth. If he loses all of his BODY (down to 
  0 BODY), he begins to bleed to death. When he 
  reaches his negative BODY (for example, -10 BODY 
  for someone who normally has 10 BODY), he dies. 
  Characters heal BODY damage at the rate of REC in 
  BODY per month.
  See pages 273-275 for more information.
  What Else You Need To Play
  The HERO System Rulebook, 5th Edition contains 
  everything you need to create characters and settings 
  for a roleplaying campaign. All you need is paper to 
  write your character down on and some dice. If you’re 
  the GM, you’ll either have to create a setting and 
  adventures for your campaign, or use published ones.
  The Ultimate Gamer’s Toolkit
  Maybe you’re used to playing other game sys-
  tems. We hope you’ll switch over to using the HERO 
  System, but even if you don’t want to do that, you 
  can still use the HERO System to improve your other 
  game.
  The HERO System is the ultimate gamer’s toolkit. 
  It can be used to build anything, from characters, to 
  weapons, to spells, to vehicles, to whatever else you 
  can think of. Because of the system’s internal rules 
  and logic, characters, spells, and other game elements 
  which have the same or similar point cost have the 
  same or similar effectiveness or power, all other things 
  being equal. This makes it easy to determine whether 
  a new item, spell, or power is unusually powerful and 
  effective before you use it in game play. Few game 
  systems provide this sort of resource. GMs and play-
  ers who want to create something new typically have 
  to “guesstimate” whether it will be effective and bal-
  anced, or unusually powerful (and thus unbalancing 
  within the campaign).
  With the HERO System, you can be more precise. 
  Figure out how to create your new item or spell using 
  the HERO System, then create a similar item or spell 
  from that other game and compare the two. This will 
  give you a good idea of whether your new creation 
  works well as-is, or needs some adjustment. Once 
  your new creation is effective and balanced, simply 
  convert it over to the other rule system, and you’re set!
  Go Out And Be A HERO!
  Those are the basics. Now you can start design-
  ing your ﬁ rst character and get ready to play your ﬁ rst 
  game!
  IF YOU’RE FAMILIAR WITH 
  THE HERO SYSTEM
  You’ve waited for it a long time, and here it is:  
  the Fifth Edition. You’ve been helping us playtest it 
  for ten years, and it’s taken months to pull together 
  our notes and your suggestions and write it. It reﬂ ects 
  an additional decade’s worth of experience with the 
  system, and incorporates new rules from Dark Cham-
  pions, the Ultimate series, the HERO System Almanacs, 
  and other products published during that time. We 
  think the new HERO System rules are at once the most 
  comprehensive and streamlined ever — the best we’ve 
  yet produced — and we hope you’ll agree.
  Where’d It Go?
  You’ll ﬁ nd that some Skills, Talents, Powers, or 
  rules have moved. For example, Fast Draw is now a 
  Skill, Find Weakness and Luck are Powers, and Instant 
  Change has been eliminated as a separate Power (it’s 
  now a type of Transform). If you have trouble ﬁ nding 
  something, just consult the Index.
  Converting Fourth 
  Edition Characters
  Many of you have run or played in HERO System 
  games for so long that you’ve got dozens, maybe 
  even hundreds, of characters. You’ll probably want to 
  convert them over to Fifth Edition. In most cases, no 
  substantial changes are needed. That was our inten-
  tion; we didn’t want to make changes which were 
  marginally useful but would require the revision of 
  thousands of characters.
  If the cost or nature of some of a character’s abil-
  ities has changed, the GM can use several approaches 
  to resolve the situation. Guide yourself by what the 
  player wants to do, what’s most appropriate for the 
  character, and what ﬁ ts the character’s concept the 
  best.
  In some cases, such as Flash, the change is really 
  only cosmetic. In that case, you simply double the 
  number of dice of Flash you have, since the cost has 
  been changed, but so has the way the Power works — 
  you don’t have to buy more, or fewer, dice to achieve 
  the effect you were already achieving. Just change the 
  
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  HERO SYSTEM 5TH EDITION
  number on the character sheet and move on.
  However, there are cases, such as Aid, where the 
  cost of a Power has increased, but the effectiveness has 
  stayed the same. In short, a Fourth Edition character 
  with, say, an 8d6 Aid now can only buy a 4d6 Aid for 
  the same points. Several options are available. The 
  fairest one is for the GM to “grandfather” the char-
  acter, giving him the additional Character Points he 
  needs to keep the character at the same level of power 
  for free. It’s not very equitable to cut a character’s 
  power in half just because the rules have changed; if 
  the character was doing 8d6 Aid before, he probably 
  ought to continue doing 8d6 Aid. Penalizing the char-
  acter because of a change in the game system isn’t just. 
  Sidebars throughout this book provide speciﬁ c notes 
  on grandfathering characters.
  However, in some situations, many GMs would 
  rather not “grandfather” characters this way for 
  reasons of campaign balance or fairness between 
  characters. In that case, players will just have to reduce 
  their characters’ level of power. At his option, the GM 
  might give them some free Character Points to buy 
  some other abilities or powers to make up for the loss, 
  or eliminate a Disadvantage or two.
  Sometimes the Fifth Edition rules provide a way 
  to do something easily which was difﬁ cult under the 
  Fourth Edition rules. For example, a character might 
  have bought Summon with a Linked Mind Control 
  effect to guarantee that his summoned creatures 
  would obey him. Now Summon can do that by itself. 
  The character should reconﬁ gure his power according 
  to the new rules. If the new power costs more, the GM 
  should consider “grandfathering” him, as discussed 
  above.
  In any case where a change in the HERO System 
  rules saves your character points, congratulations! 
  You have some additional points you can spend (per-
  haps on new abilities from this book). GMs should 
  not deprive characters of saved points just because a 
  change in the rules makes something cheaper.
  
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