Steve Long

No in both cases. The Crab Pinch is specifically defined as adding damage to Squeeze. “Squeeze” in this context is a defined term related to the Grab Combat Maneuver. Since neither type of garrote does Squeeze damage, by definition Crab Pinch can’t add damage when they’re used.

I’m going to restate this question generically so I can answer it more broadly: Q: Suppose that a character is the recipient of a power granted to him via some form of the Usable On Others Advantage, and the granted power then gets enhanced by an Aid (or some other method). If the granted power is then taken away, does the character retain the Aided (or enhanced) portion of it? A: No. When the granted power’s removed, any “enhancements” go with it.

Fortunately for ol’ Coop, that’s not how the Adder works. When a character buys Alterable Origin Point, he pays for it once and can then have the attack in question originate from any part of his body that the GM permits. He’s not restricted to some pre-defined body part, or list of parts. And before anybody asks, yes, a character can buy Alterable Origin Point as a naked Adder and then apply a Limitation that it only allows the character to shift the origin point to certain pre-defined body parts: -½ if he can only shift to one part; -¼ if he can only shift to two parts; -0 for any greater number of parts.

6E2 63 has rules for what happens when two or more characters Grab the same character. Just apply those, treating the Entangle’s PD + current BODY as the “BODY rolled” for its “Grab.” Though as usual, the GM’s free to adopt some other method if preferred — the possible combinations of Grab, Entangle, special effects, dramatic sense, the phases (Phases? ) of the moon, and other factors create so many possible permutations that the rules can’t provide a hard-and-fast answer for each of them specifically.

You mean just "babies," right? "Monster babies" is redundant, said the bachelor.

Hard to say just yet, but on my "potential to-do list" if sales justify it are scarecrows, bloody brides, dread doctors, Fear Children, burrowers, and possibly some sewer monsters. In part this is driven by the demands of my Route 666 campaign, so we'll see what I come up with to bedevil the PCs. I want to showcase some traditional horror movie monsters, but also come up with some weird ones of my own. I just ordered a bunch of cheap medical instruments on eBay, so a dread doctor or serial killer doctor is definitely in the works.

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If a character wants to use Teleportation with Area Of Effect, he has to have enough Increased Mass to take with him all the people (and any other object the GM deems “significant”), or he cannot Teleport at all. At the GM’s option he could buy Selective for his Area Of Effect so that he only takes the people he wants — but again, this is probably much more easily handled if you buy Usable By Nearby instead of AoE.

I'm gonna leave that one up to the GM. Personally I doubt I'd allow it -- Targeting Skill Levels are already cheap enough -- but other GMs may feel differently.

Since I built the Strangling Garrote as an HA, yes, STR above the STR Minimum would increase the damage per the Adding Damage rules on 6E1 99-102. Arguably it would’ve made more sense to build it as a Blast, No Range, with a Limitation to prevent STR adding to damage, since STR isn’t really a factor in this sort of strangling (AFAIK — it’s not like I’ve been allowed to do experiments ). But clearly I didn’t think deeply enough about this subject. Rassafrassin' garrotes. Did someone write a Thugee-based scenario I don't know about? If this keeps up I'm gonna come after all y'all and gather some empirical data using my favorite garrote, Stringcheese.

If you want the Lightning Reflexes to apply to a single mode of movement, you buy the "Single Action" form of the Talent and must of course specify which mode of movement you can use it with. If you want Lightning Reflexes to apply to multiple modes of movement, you buy the "Small Group" or "Large Group" form of the Talent (depending on how many modes of movement you want to use it with), and again must specify which modes of movement the Talent applies to.

For his 4 points, he's gotten a Choke Hold maneuver. For his +1 point, he's basically gotten nothing, since you can't add damage to a garrote that way. I suppose there might be some benefit from the OCV/DCV modifiers, but the simplest answer is "Steve wasn't thinking and shouldn't have included Garrote as a Weapon Element for any style." Generally speaking, a character only gets the Hit Location damage multiplier for a location if he takes the full OCV penalty for doing so. That’s why “Must Target Head” is a Limitation; it requires you to do something disadvantageous to use the power/weapon. Choke Hold automatically assumes it hits the head without requiring a character to take a -8 OCV penalty, so there’s no damage multiplier. (This really isn’t any different than a player saying, “My character punches Dr. Destroyer in the face!” but just making a normal Attack Roll and damage roll — the description is a “special effect” with no rules effect.) A garrote still suffers the -8 penalty to hit the head, and thus gets the damage multiplier (assuming the GM’s using the Hit Location rules at all).

A character can use a Barrier with the Non-Anchored Adder to englobe a character in mid-air (provided the Barrier’s long enough to do so, of course). Whether the globe will then fall is up to the GM, and may depend on special effects. For example, common sense and dramatic sense tell us that a Barrier defined as a “wall of rock” will plummet to the ground. On the other hand, a Green Lantern style “energy Barrier” might have no mass to speak of and would just float there. On the other other hand, some GMs might rule that unless the character in the Barrier continues to use Flight, his own weight will make himself and the Barrier fall.

Choke Hold is built with the NND Dmg Element, which means it must also have the STR - Element at the “No STR” level, so that STR doesn’t add any damage. Nor is there any other rule for adding damage to NND Dmg-based Martial Maneuvers (other than Extra DCs). Therefore a garrote’s damage cannot add to Choke Hold. However, the GM could certainly permit this anyway if he felt it were appropriate for his campaign. In light of that answer I think the second question is superfluous, but if there are aspects I’m overlooking that you still have questions about, please post a follow-up.

I don’t see why not. Given how long it takes for starvation to take effect, and how easy it would be to counteract, it probably wouldn’t cost very much. However, if you wanted to specify that the starvation effect couldn’t be overcome through normal eating, but only by (for example) a counter-spell, the cost would go up — but even then, it takes a long time to starve to death, so it can’t cost that much. Strictly off the top of my head I’d say 3 Character Points for the first version and 10 for the latter, but determining a final cost would require a little more thought.

If a Variable Power Pool takes more than a Full Phase to change, that means the Extra Time Limitation has been applied. Therefore, the rules on 6E1 374-75 apply. I won’t repeat them here, but generally speaking they specify that unless an attack is involved, a character may take other actions while waiting for the required Extra Time to pass.

Ahhh, gotcha. Sorry I misunderstood. That definitely falls into "I wonder why no one's asked this before" territory -- I guess Shape Shift just isn't the sort of Power most characters buy via a Focus. If a character buys Shape Shift with the Limitation Focus, and the Focus is Obvious, then the Focus is Obvious both when he is in his normal shape and when he changes form into a different shape. Of course, he may be able to hide it (the same way a character could hide a pistol or an amulet underneath the clothes he’s wearing), but that depends on the circumstances, the nature of the Focus, and other factors.

1. Yes. 6E2 183 specifically cross-references 6E1 209 where those costs are listed as a helpful pointer. 2. The ability to take pictures, videos, and audio is typically bought as a Limited form of Eidetic Memory. The devices you’re talking about aren’t independently sensing anything; they’re just “remembering” sensory impressions they have no understanding of. To transmit the data you’d need Radio Perception/Transmission, HRRP, or some other appropriate Sense with the Transmit Adder. 3. No — since most Computers are built into Bases, Vehicles, suits of powered armor, zombie brains, and whatnot (in other words they’re often just “software”), those issues rarely (if ever) arise. That’s the sort of detail I’d’ve gone into if we’d ever had the chance to create and publish The Ultimate Gadgeteer. Until we get to do that, the best solution if you need to know that information is to rely on the Breaking Things rules on 6E2 170 to determine PD, ED, and BODY for a Computer.

In the rules as they currently exist, there’s no way to “harden” Damage Negation to counteract the Reduced Negation Adder. But this is the HERO System, so we can find a way to do anything! As an optional rule, a character can buy the Adder Enhanced Negation for Damage Negation. Each +2 Character Points spent on Enhanced Negation counteracts one “level” of Reduced Negation.

That's entirely up to your GM. Personally I would probably require that you pay for this in some way, unless I felt that the drawbacks to it balanced out the beneficial effects. But I'd have a hard time definitively making that call until I'd seen the character in play for at least a few game sessions. Interesting idea, though -- good luck with it!

Assuming by “shape change” you mean the Power Shape Shift, the text discussing that Power in 6E1 points out that it “allows a character to change his form, but not his powers or abilities.” Therefore as a default it has no effect on a character’s Foci (or equipment in general), since they’re powers/abilities in the broad sense referred to in the text. But of course the GM’s free to rule otherwise if that seems appropriate, or he could create a +5 Character Point Adder, Affects Equipment, for characters who want to be able to do that. Assuming by “shape change” you mean the Power Multiform, it specifically does allow a character to change powers and abilities, so it could affect a character’s Foci/equipment.

This is a conversation topic, so I've moved it to the Discussion board.

Yes, you’re correct in both cases — unless your GM rules otherwise.

We're talking about Damage Classes here, and the only Advantages that affect how DCs are calculated are those that affect how damage is dealt, as discussed in 6E2. So Reduced Endurance, for example, wouldn't be considered for purposes of DCs, and thus not for Damage Negation either.

No, you can buy as much Lightning Reflexes as your GM allows. That just indicates how many points of DEX (max) you get for spending 1 Character Point. It says "Up to" because not every character wants the full total of DEX -- he can take up to the listed maximum, he doesn't have to take just the listed maximum.