This may be hard to implement, but usually when a bad guy hits me (or any of the party I am with) with a Heckhound, noone knows for sure how many pips it is. When the spell is cast, above the door to the doghouse is the fire sign. Is there any way that could be made into a number? That number would be the amount of pips the Heckhound is using? If they are using 3 power pips and of course are fire, the number 6 would show up instead of the fire sign? If you are playing with 4 people and have 4 bad guys, the screen can be busy and you have NO clue how many pips you were hit with until its your turn. Depending on your current health status, it will allow you to toss up a shield or not, if you have enough life to handle all 3 hits. I would assume the storm hound routine is handled the same way. I can't say for sure if I've ever seen it.
