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I've just listened to the interview Thursty and Dustin did for the Rise of the Runelords podcast, and wanted to bring up something Dustin mentioned: Hero Points in Starfinder! It was just an offhand mention without going into further detail, but it got me thinking. I'm so used to playing with "one free re-roll per session," either via Promo Boons in Society games, or as a ubiquitous house rule everywhere else, that it's easy to forget that Hero Points aren't already "a thing" in the SF1 rules! It'll be nice to have that codified.
Anyways, I did some looking in the Paizo Three Action System rules, and it looks like Hero Points are just for pulling yourself out of death, or re-rolls. No further uses that I saw, but I also didn't look super deep. So, I wanted to ask: people more versed in PF2 play than me, are there other uses for Hero Points? Are there feats or class features that cost Hero Points? I guess that's sort of the space Resolve Points occupy in SF1, but it's not exactly 1:1, both in use and intent.
I'm not sure that I have a preference between "Hero Points are sacrosanct and only used for re-rolls and saving oneself from death" and "Hero Points can be used to power ridiculous abilities." I suppose the latter is more interesting, as it forces people make tactical decisions between uses resources or keeping them for a rainy day, but that also means that anything that is powered by Hero Points needs to be really good, or else run the risk of people never using Hero Points. If there are additional uses for Hero Points, it'll be neat to compare/contrast with the expanded RP uses, in Enhanced!
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There's the Hero Point Deck which has additional Hero Point uses and effects, but it's a relatively recent accessory and I haven't heard much about it.
Hero Points always struck me as a little awkward in how disconnected they feel from the rest of the system (no ability, spell or feat references them, best as I can tell), and how GM-dependent they can be to regularly obtain (either because your GM forgets to hand them out regularly, or isn't easily convinced by your Heroic RP - though my GMs have thankfully been reasonable about them, but I know I've been a little forgetful in my brief time as GM).
Hero points are very much a meta currency that doesn't really interact with the rest of the game. The way they currently work and are gain do not fit the role of resolve points without a serious overhaul... at which point they should just port over resolve point instead. Personally I could see them as a form of focus points that you can use as a martial with 0 magic(and being recovered on a 10 minute rest keeps it from being a daily resource which martial generally dont have in pf2).
And personally I'm terrible at remembering to hand out hero points, which would be terrible if it was an expected resource to have for your class to fully function. The hero point deck is probably the best options if you want to get more out of it, not that I would know since my players don't even remember they have them...
The Hero point deck by Jason Bullman is great!! I use them in every PF II game and is quite a hit, the extra text is nice, and just right as not to OP or means nothing, a nice thing to have to spice up the game, as well as the PF II Crit Hit and Fumble decks.
Can't wait to see what new card decks we will get for SF II!!
Ha Ha
Tom
it looks like Hero Points are just for pulling yourself out of death, or re-rolls. No further uses that I saw, but I also didn't look super deep. So, I wanted to ask: people more versed in PF2 play than me, are there other uses for Hero Points? Are there feats or class features that cost Hero Points? I guess that's sort of the space Resolve Points occupy in SF1, but it's not exactly 1:1, both in use and intent.
No, not really. Hero points are only for avoiding character death and re-rolling really bad rolls.
You could use them to go crit fishing on a mediocre roll hoping for a really high roll, but that is generally a bad use of a Hero Point.
There is the Fortune trait as well. This doesn't make things cost Hero Points. Instead what it means is that if you are already getting a re-roll or a 'roll twice and take the better' because of a Fortune effect, then you can't also use a Hero Point on the roll if it still fails. For example, Halfling Luck.
Hero Points don't really share the same design space as Resolve Points. There actually isn't a direct equivalent of Resolve Points in PF2 - not even if using the Stamina variant rule (Since those 'Resolve Points' also don't interact with character's features and abilities. Just restoring HP during a rest).
The closest design space match to Resolve Points is Focus Points. They don't have the interaction with Stamina (which isn't standard in PF2), but they do power Focus spells and possibly other Focus abilities.