Ice9

Re: Starting points

The Background Stuff' date=' that never comes into play simply falls under "What not to spend points on".[/quote']I was thinking not only background PS skills, but various skills/talents/perks the character has in order to fit the concept, which are sometimes useful but not directly boosting the character's "action" effectiveness.

Re: You Make the Call

I remember seeing something similar to this before - someone here proposed an alternate way to get the "can know any skill" effect, with a pricing that seems more appropriate:

1) Buy every skill at the 8- level, possible with an "Only when selected" limitation.

2) Get either Overall Levels or Boost (any skill) to amplify the one you have "selected".

For the purpose of KS/SS/PS skills, there's potentially no limit, so the Universal construct above would be a good idea.

Re: Starting points

For a typical superheroic game, 400 points, with an bonus 25-50 points only for background stuff. Could be higher or lower depending on the specific campaign, of course.

Re: Common superhero types you've never seen in play

Evidenced by the Atom Syndrome' date=' I don't see enough Nimble Distractions, characters whose purpose is to set the enemies up and let someone else take them out.[/quote']I think a contributing factor there is that HERO combat just takes too long if you do anything to extend it. I know that I've made characters with the intention of acting in a support/hindrance role, and then later switched to more direct offense because I wanted the fights to end in less time. Same reason you don't see many low-SPD characters - too much real-time between turns.

Re: High Range Radio Perception (Radio Group)

Usually, for HRRP, the range of the transmitting source is the operative factor. The only case where I'd apply a range penalty is trying to listen to a source from beyond its normal transmission range, or trying to snoop on a directional transmission. But, for example, there's no penalty for listening to a radio station that's 25 miles away.

Re: Power Use for Entangle/Barrier between 5E and 6E

Barrier is Instant like Blast, IIRC. So the walls it creates last until destroyed, regardless of whether the power is switched/drained/whatever.

While Transform is the primary way to create things, Barrier also does create actual objects, just limited in how detailed they can be.

Re: Can a vehicle w/ multiple weapons fire them at 1 time w/1 operator

Yes, you can (assuming the weapons don't specifically have a crew requirement), although IIRC the operator will be subject to the normal action limits. So for example, for a vehicle with two weapons:

Full Crew of 3: Take a full move, fire both weapons at no penalty.

Single Person: Fire both weapons, but it counts as a Multiple Attack (-2 to hit, and you need Rapid Autofire to also move while doing so).

Re: Common superhero types you've never seen in play

It depends on what you mean by "one power". I've seen a number of characters that had only one superhuman power, but they supplemented it with equipment, skills, martial arts, combat luck, and so forth. I don't think I've seen any characters that had literally normal human stats outside of one area though.

AP caps are a part of that. One build I saw for Cyclops had his eye beams as a high-DC Blast with an auto-reset Trigger (to represent the fact that he projects a continuous stream of energy, and it will hit anyone who gets into his LoS), total cost almost 200 points. Now with "one power" like that, you naturally have less points for everything else, and you've always got that niche. If Cyclops' blast is 12d6, and so is Iceman's ice bolt ... but Iceman also has a bunch of other abilities, then players who pick the former are going to be feeling a bit sidekick-like.

Re: Life Support and NNDs

I think there are some LS types that come up outside of defenses - LS: No Sleep means you'll never get ambushed while sleeping, for instance.

Re: Creating items with magic

How you implement this depends (IMO) on your campaign rules. Specifically, can you buy equipment with money, or does it cost points?

If using money:

Major Transform is all you need. Personally, if making something from nothing, I would use the BODY of the item you want to create as the target.

If using points:

You need the appropriate powers (HKA for a sword, Resistant Defense for armor, etc), probably via a Multipower or VPP.

Major Transform could still used to create items that don't significantly overlap powers.

Re: Cheshire Cat question

From the way it's written, it can only be used to move after attacking - so pretty much, it's just a Move-by. For 18 less points, a speedster could get Passing Strike and actually get a bonus on Move-by.

Even if it could be used to (effectively) Dive for Cover ... there's Flying Dodge. Which does the same thing, for 5 points, except potentially a much greater distance. And gives you a DCV bonus for doing so.

Re: Could FATE Aspects Work In HERO?

Mechanically speaking, FATE aspects could be represented as a Multipower with two slots - Overall Skill Levels and Luck, as they can be used either to give a bonus on a roll, reroll, or make a plausible change to the world (such as declaring that there's a discarded pin you can use for a lockpick, or that you happen to have a friend in a given city). Personally, I would just put them in as a house-rule, ala HAP.

Re: Statting out a tornado

Long Lasting actually does have a specified duration, based on how many points you spend. Maybe not ideal for one that stops on command or KO, but if it's going to linger anyway it's a simpler and cheaper method.

Re: Statting out a tornado

You don't even need Continuous, in fact - Long Lasting is an adder for Change Environment that basically makes it Uncontrolled, for the specified duration.

Re: Experimental Alien Martial Artist

To be honest, I was expecting more commentary...but perhaps no one knows what to make of it!

Nonetheless - is there a specific reason for the 1 point of Power Defense, or is it just for the concept?

Not specific to this one, but I like the way you list abilities, gives a clearer picture of the character. I've tried doing something similar when I manually format characters (grouping things by their source instead of skills/talents/powers), and I like the way it comes out.

The palindromedary is noticing a couple of vulnerabilities I had overlooked besides the too-easily-stunned

Re: Experimental Alien Martial Artist

Interesting - I started reading from the top down as by the time I hit CON I was . It definitely feels alien!

I've tried extreme constructions before, but not quite to this extent - it works, though.

One thing - why the INT 1? Is it that he's naturally imperceptive / slow on the uptake? Or he can only think in certain ways?

If it's just for mechanical reasons, I doubt the utility - Int 8 is cheaper. But there is a certain charm in constructing it this way, just for the .

Re: Just saw 6th Edition and got a chance to leaf through it...

While most INT skills may not be used too often, PER rolls are made all the time - at least as often as DEX rolls, IME. Now it might depend on the genre, but when you're dealing with invisible foes, smoke clouds and other environmental conditions, reinforcements sneaking up, people attacking you from long range, and so forth, there tend to be a lot of PER rolls. It even plays a similar roll to initiative - if you don't spot the ambush, you're not going first, no matter how high your DEX is.

PRE depends on whether Presence Attacks are used much (varies by GM) and whether foes with high PRE are common. In some campaigns it might be pretty optional, in others you will get trashed without it.

So, IMO, it would be better priced at 1:1. Now admittedly, I've mostly played modern-day or high powered stuff - it's possible that in genres like gritty fantasy it's more important.

Re: Gremlin-like Mutant

The exact capabilities of Gremlins seem to vary between depictions. One thing they often have in common is the ability to disrupt technology, causing devices to malfunction or break. For this, I would go with a small set of abilities:

Murphy's Law - Multipower, X points, all Slots Gestures, Limited Range

1) Sudden Glitch - Dispel (Devices) Xd6, Expanded Effect (Any Technological Power, One at a Time)

2) Buried Flaw - Dispel (Devices) Xd6, Expanded Effect (Any Technological Power, One at a Time), Trigger (variable, full-phase to set, auto-triggers; +1/2)

3) Progressive Corruption - Severe Transform (Device to Junk; Healed by Repair) Xd6, Partial Transform, Limited Target Group (Technological Devices)

Adjust the total points to fit the level of power you want. One thing to note is that if your points in Dispel are low - compared to the overall campaign - then it probably will fail to work, and Drain would be a preferable option.

Re: Powers with their own Speed? What will that accomplish?

Consider poison gas grenades. The SPD 4 gadgeteer makes some and gives one to the SPD 6 martial artist. If the gadgeteer throws one, it damages everyone in the area on his phases, four times per turn. If the martial artist throws it, it does damage on his phases, six times per turn - even though it's the exact same type of grenade. Or a mastermind villain with SPD 6 can make a bunch and give them out to his SPD 3 minions - the gas cloud does damage only three times a turn if one of the minions uses it.

 

Or consider a spell, say, Belevan's Circle of Hellfire. It creates an area effect attack that does fire damage. If a SPD 3 wizard teaches the spell to a SPD 4 wizard, the latter's version does more damage over a turn - despite supposedly evoking the exact same forces in the same way.

Re: When, if ever, would your character kill?

I agree with most of what you have said. A properly run Stronghold can give a sense of permanence, but goes against the genre convention of easy escapes. How many genre conventions are upheld varies with every campaign, and this has always been one I can't decide whether I like or dislike.

Re: Casual STR and Grab

I think Grappling Block is different than Grab and Block, despite having a similar name. I know that in 5E, it was specifically a "someone tries to punch you, you grab their arm" maneuver, and I don't think it was changed in 6E.

Re: Arcane Detective Byron Harte

Minor tweak - since the +PD, +ED, and Armor are all OIF, it would make more sense to set them all to "add to Secondary value", so his DEF would look like:

6/30 PD

5/30 ED

His EGO seems rather low, given his high stats elsewhere and arcane theme. So unless that's an intentional weak point, you may want to raise it.

While it's no different mechanically, you may want to note the source of his extraordinary strength and agility. Rune tattoos? Magical workout routine? Tiger blood?

Re: Create Object?

Actually, Barrier would cover the things you listed as examples (stone support structures for a falling building or stone slides for rescues from a burning building).

While you can go for a whole VPP to cover every possibility, a Multipower with the right slots is probably enough if you just want to do a certain range of things. For example:

Stone Shaping, Multipower

1) Barrier - Covers walls, support pillars, bridges, ramps/slides, and crude towers.

2) Change Environment, AoE, Varying Combat Effects - Covers making the ground uneven, slippery, or spiky (CE can do damage, albeit not very efficiently), or even creating lots of thin columns to obscure sight.

3) Transform - Covers creating any "ordinary" object that doesn't have a specific combat effect. You could create a club or whatever with this, but it would only be as effective as an "object of opportunity".

Optional:

4) Entangle, probably with Variable Advantages. For encasing people partially or fully in stone. You can trap someone with Barrier, but they'll still have their hands free and be able to use any power to break out. Entangle would be a "tighter" binding.

5) RKA, AoE, Constant, Uncontrolled. If you want your "spiky ground" to really hurt, this is more effective than the Change Environment version.

6) HKA, Usable by Others. If you want to create stone weapons that are significantly effective.

Re: What would you do for a Klondike bar?

Titanium Chef* has superhuman cooking ability, and a folded-space pantry in its torso, so it would just make one from scratch.

Catalyst would - just buy one, I guess. If they won't sell him one, he knows where a vending machine that has them is.

Mr. Silver would send his figments to pilfer one.

Slick doesn't eat, but if convinced to get one (fairly gullible) would do tricks like turning into a giant klondike bar, or bouncing off the walls (literally).

*I know someone else on here has a character by this name. I guess great minds think alike?

Re: Lim Value: 'Only to increase throwing distance'

You want me to picture a 60 STR Brick. His entire ability to act in combat (Raw DC, Grab/Disarm STR, using throwables in combat), his movement (can go through Doors/walls with enough) and even some of his defenses (resisting/escaping entangle, grab disarm) is based solely on this SINGLE Characteristic, like no other archetype is based on one single charactersitic.

Then you want to to picture the exactly same build - except with half the STR, but a one shoot +30 AP RKA.