One aspect of DnD 4e I like is the relationship between types of damage and defenses.

In Hero System types of damage are handled by determining the kind of attack and then the special effect. Its actually a very flexible system that allows you to represent fairly easily any kind of damage and special defense. However, it leaves it wide open for you to determine for your world how exactly it works.

For me i wanted to support a simliar idea in my campaign world to what DnD has by default. So I started with a list of the types of power sources that the characters can use. Then I mapped them to a set of damage types. Then I wanted to add some flavor and give them an associated material. Finally, I wanted to reflect the occurance of the power source for reference. NOTE: I don't use this to advantage or disadvantage any powers in terms of mechanics but it could be used if you desired. Here is what I came up with:

Then after I created the mapping of Power Source to damage type I needed to map the damage type to the appropriate Hero System defense. Here is what I came up with for that:

So with this I can take any spell description a player would like to create and quickly match it to the defense it would go against by just finding the kind of spell it is on the table. Makes for quick and easy explanation to new players of spell casters in my game as well.

I hope you find this idea helpful to you in the design of your Fantasy Hero or other campaign.