Steve Long

This is covered in the rules for the Invisibility Power in 6E1.

No problem; glad you found it.

Personally, I wouldn't Link them at all, since it seems to me that it would be possible to set off the bomb, or start a timer on the bomb (perhaps as the villain's dying action!) even if it hasn't Tunneled. I'd just use Trigger. I'll leave it to the GM to decide the appropriate level of Trigger, but what you suggest seems reasonable at first glance.

I'm sorry, but I don't answer game design/philosophy questions. In any event, this seems more like a topic for the Discussion board (where anyone can respond), so if you haven't posted it there yet, I suggest that you do -- should make for an interesting conversation.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. What you’re describing (Passing Strike + Autofire attack) is a Multiple Attack. The rules for Multiple Attack specifically forbid the use of an Autofire attack as part of one unless a character has the Rapid Autofire Skill (6E2 75). So the answer to your first question is No. If the character has Rapid Autofire, then the answer is Yes. Whether he has Two-Weapon Fighting or not doesn’t matter.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. 6E1 326 and APG2 43 discuss this issue. Beyond that, it’s up to the GM.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. I’m going to re-state the question more generally; if I mis-state things or overlook something, please PM me or post a follow-up. Q: Since Adjustment Powers’ effects on defensive abilities (such as CON, STUN, or Resistant Protection) are halved, what happens if the roll for the Power’s effect is a 1? A: The 1 is halved, becoming ½. But half points round in favor of the character, so it rounds back up to 1, thus providing 1 Character Point’s worth of effect to the ability unless the GM rules otherwise.

That's a matter best left to the GM to determine based on special effect, common sense, dramatic sense, game balance sense, and possibly even Spider-Sense. I can think of some campaigns or types of gates where "environmental phenomena" would "flow through," and others where they might not. If it were particularly important to the campaign (maybe in a dimension-hopping campaign, for example), the GM might want to define a Power Modifier that would specify what happens. (If I ever get back to working on APG3, I will consider writing about this further -- thanks for the idea!)

Yes, it would be legal in a technical sense -- but whether the GM would allow it is another thing altogether.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. If a character Aids a power bought with Area Of Effect (Explosion), determine the effects as follows: 1. First determine the new Active Points in the power. 2. Next, recalculate the effect of the base Power using the existing value for the Advantage(s) on the power. 3. Last, recalculate the Area covered by the Explosion based on the drop-off rate of the un-Aided power. If this makes the Explosion exceed the maximum Area for the value of Advantage the power has, the GM decides whether to let it exceed that Area, or to cut if off at that maximum. Example: Let’s suppose a character has a Blast 8d6, Area Of Effect (18m Radius Explosion; +½). That costs 60 Active Points. The Medic uses Aid on this power and adds 20 Active Points’ worth of effect. Allowing for a +½ Advantage, 80 Active Points yields a Blast 10d6. (Well, technically 10½d6, but let’s keep this simple.) To have the same drop-off rate as the un-Aided power, 10d6 would require a 22m Radius Explosion. That is still within the 17-32m Radius provided by the +1 level of Area Of Effect, so the power now has Area Of Effect (22m Radius Explosion).

Yes, HA damage would add to STR for breaking out of Entangles -- but, as you say, special effects matter. We'll just leave that final determination to the all-wise GM.

My previous answer stands. If you prefer, think of it as paying the END to be able to turn the power on in the first place so it can be used, or as the first step in the overall "use of power" process. Regardless of how you want to phrase it, though, the END has to be paid, and any effects of that END usage resolved, before the power can achieve any sort of effect.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. No. Characters performing Move Bys/Throughs, or acting as the “fastball” in a “fastball special” maneuver, are not projectiles that a character can deflect using Deflection.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as part of my home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. A character has to pay END for a power as soon as he uses it — it’s a prerequisite for being able to use the power, and thus for the power having any effect. So in the situation you describe, the END cost is incurred first. This results in STUN damage that immediately takes effect, Knocking Out the character before he can use the Healing (whether that Healing STUN or Healing STUN and END). But as always, the GM’s free to change this in the interest of, among other things, dramatic sense. I can easily envision some scenes where a GM would want to let a character make the sacrifice of Knocking himself Out to get that one... last... crucial... bit of Healing effect.

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as I prepare for a major home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. As stated in 6E1, in the “Advantages And Adders” section under Damage Reduction: “Damage Reduction does not affect the minimum damage caused by a Penetrating attack. For example, if a character with 50% Damage Reduction is hit by an RKA 4d6, Penetrating that does 12 BODY, 36 STUN (roll of 5, 3, 2, 2), and his defenses plus Damage Reduction would reduce the BODY damage to 2 BODY, he takes 4 BODY — the minimum BODY damage the Penetrating attack can cause with that roll.”

I don’t currently have access to all of my books and materials, which have been packed up as I prepare for a major home renovation project, so I reserve the right to edit or change this answer at a future time. 1. Adjustment Powers bought to affect Long-Term Endurance typically wear off at the standard rate for such Powers (which can of course be extended with the Delayed Return Rate Advantage). But given that the LTE rules are optional, the GM’s well within his authority to change this if he’d prefer for the recovery/return rate of LTE Adjustments to work over the same long-term framework as LTE itself. 2. LTE is subject to the “half effect” rule for Adjustment Powers that regular END is.

Suppress is considered to have an Active Point cost of 10 Character Points per 1d6 at a base level. If the GM allows a character to buy the Reduced Endurance Advantage for it, that would increase the Active Point cost to either 12 or 15 points per 1d6, depending on which form of the Advantage he allows. (The Real Point costs in this case would also be 12 and 15, since as noted on 6E1 197 the value of the Costs Endurance Limitation decreases to -0 in this situation.)

Yes, you could impose a maximum effect on a Drain with a Limitation — in fact, I think I’ve done that for published characters a time or two, though I can remember specifics. (Maybe something in the Super-Skills in Dark Champions or Weird Talents in Pulp Hero?) The value of the Limitation would depend on how restrictive the “cap” is in the context of the campaign, so the final call is up to the GM.

6E2 74 states that Combined Attack “counts as” a form of Strike. Therefore a character can’t perform one with other attacks that are considered Combat or Martial Maneuvers. This includes not only all Combat/Martial Maneuvers, but attacks with weapons. As I’ve stated a couple times in the past when answering similar questions: Where this leads to some confusion, both for you (I think) and for other gamers, is that technically speaking, using “powers or similar abilities” also is a form of Strike. Pretty much any time a character makes an attack with anything other than some other Combat/Martial Maneuver, technically it’s a Strike. That’s the HERO System applying its principle of “generic game elements” and “you specify the special effect for what you buy or do” to the concept of attacking. For that reason, the fact that Strike is a “Combat Maneuver” is usually ignored for purposes of rules restricting things that characters can use with Combat Maneuvers. (For example, a character can Haymaker with a Punch, which is a type of Strike.) Combined Attack is not a rule that ignores the fact that Strike is a Combat Maneuver. But that means the issue you raise can’t be answered by saying “you can’t use any form of Strike with Combined Attack,” because that essentially makes it impossible to use Combined Attack. Instead the rules should provide some (hopefully relatively simple and straightforward) guideline for GMs to apply to determine when to allow a Combined Attack. And that guideline is this: it depends on a common sense and dramatic sense interpretation of what the rules specifically state that Combined Attacks are for: “sing two or more powers or similar abilities[.]” That primarily refers to superpowers in Champions campaigns, but it could also apply to spells in some Fantasy campaigns, psionic powers in some Science Fiction campaigns, and so on. In both the everyday sense and the gaming sense in which the gaming community uses the term “power,” neither hitting someone with your hand or foot, nor using a weapon, is a power. (This holds true regardless of whether a character pays Character Points for his weapons, gets them as free equipment, buys them via the 5-point doubling rule, or any other method.) It’s up to the GM, using his common sense and dramatic sense, to determine whether an attack is a “power or similar abilit[y]” (and thus can be used to make a Combined Attack), or is a Combat/Martial Maneuver, a weapon, or something else for which the rules do not intend Combined Attack to be used (they, instead, use Multiple Attack). In the example you cite, I personally would rule that both objects are de facto weapons, and thus your character couldn’t use them to perform a Combined Attack. That’s part of the price you pay for the cost savings you get from taking the Focus Limitation. But other GMs might prefer a looser interpretation of the situation.

1. Here’s what I posted on this several years ago, when someone asked essentially the same question: 2. It’s based on the END cost calculated for the power’s Active Points (but, per 6E1 345, without the Reduced Endurance Advantage itself affecting the Active Points). So in your example, the power costs 5 END. Halving that yields 2.5, which rounds down to 2 in the character’s favor as usual. You don’t halve the Active Points and then calculate from that.

Buying a CSL with a weapon does not give a character a WF for free, nor eliminate the -3 OCV Unfamiliar Weapon penalty. In your example, Shooty is at +2 OCV because he still has the Unfamiliar Weapon penalty.

1. Yes. 2. If a character has a Movement Power that’s Usable As Attack, he can move the character up to the power’s full meters of movement as part of his Attack Action. This remains true even if he’s already taken a Half Phase Action himself (such as making a Half Move or maintaining control of the target as discussed on 6E1 359). 3-4. It is not possible for a character with Teleportation Usable As Attack to “blind teleport” someone, either on purpose or by accident. If he tries, the attack simply fails, unless the GM rules otherwise in light of the circumstances. 5. No; see 6E1 158.

1-2. There is no specified “range” for Presence Attacks. The issue is whether a given person can perceive the character well enough to be affected. This often means being able to clearly hear him talk, but it might be possible for some “communications” to be purely visual. (“Sir! I was watching the enemy ship through a telescope, and their captain just gave us the finger!” “Launch torpedoes!”) 3. Presence Attacks are already, in essence, Area Of Effect attacks, since a character can use them against anyone who can perceive him, and that could potentially be hundreds or thousands of people clustered around him. (In fact, that’s one of the things that makes Presence Attacks so effective at times.) So buying Area Of Effect for them is pointless. 4. That’s up to the GM. Personally I doubt I’d allow it unless you have a name like “Zeus” or “Thor” and your job description begins with the words “god(dess) of...”.

1. That depends on the special effect of the Darkness and what Senses if affects. A Shadow Sphere of inky black energy would certainly cast a shadow. A field of light so bright it blinds anyone inside wouldn’t; nor would a Sonic Screamer that makes it impossible to hear or speak within a 10m radius. 2. By “sonic Darkness,” I assume you mean Darkness to Hearing Group (if not, please PM me with an explanation of what you mean and I’ll update my answer). Again, it’s a question of special effects. A magical Field of Silence would, I assume, absorb the sonar waves and thus create a “blind spot.” (I may be wrong, though — I’m no expert on sonar.) The Sonic Screamer described above might by intensely “bright” on sonar, or distort it somehow.

No. In fact, the rules on 6E1 103 state that a character typically cannot spend his own Experience Points to improve a Follower once that Follower enters play. From that point on, the Follower gets his own XP to spend.