Steve Long

This isn't a rules question but a game balance/campaign management/GMing question, so I've moved it to the Discussion board -- that way lots of people, rather than just me, can offer their opinions, suggestions, and ideas.

Yes -- Regeneration, as a Persistent Power, continues to function while a character's not conscious (see 6E1 128).

Let me start by stating outright something that the rules for the Reversion Power Modifier imply but do not say directly: reversion occurs at the very end of a Segment, after all other Actions except taking a Recovery. Thus, if a character is Stunned before he’s taken his Action in a Segment, he recovers from being Stunned on his DEX and doesn’t revert to a different form. (Related issue, before anyone thinks to ask: a character cannot voluntarily choose not to recover from being Stunned. Therefore he can’t trigger reversion to another form that way.) If a character has Multiform with the Separate Physical State (+½) Advantage described on APG2 31-32, the following rules apply: If the Multiform also has the Reversion Power Modifier (6E1 271) and an attack Stuns him, when he reverts to another form that form isn’t Stunned. However, when he returns to the form that was Stunned by the attack, that form remains Stunned until he has a chance to recover from being Stunned. If the attack Knocks him Out, the same rule applies: the alternate form isn’t Knocked Out, but when he returns to the first form, he immediately falls unconscious until he takes enough Recoveries to wake up (or is otherwise brought back to consciousness). There is no “lockout” or “being thrown out” of Multiform effect such as you describe. That defies common sense and dramatic sense. When the character chooses to return to a form that’s Stunned or Knocked Out, he has to accept the consequences of that choice and deal with his hampered state normally. The issue of whether alternate or true forms age while a character is in another form is separate from the Reversion or Separate Physical Form Power Modifiers. The answer is that unless the GM rules otherwise, the default rule is that all forms (true or alternate) age at the same rate, regardless of how much they are or aren’t used, unless a form has Life Support (Dinminished Aging) or some other ability that overrides this rule. Of course, there are plenty of character concepts where the GM may want to change that (your example of Captain Marvel being just one of many), but since character aging rarely has any sort of effect on a campaign it shouldn’t matter much.

As noted on 6E1 166, if a character has Absorption that applies to STUN, it only acts to increase his STUN after he suffers the damage from the attack he’s Absorbing from. If that attack Stuns him, the additional STUN from Absorption does not counteract this effect. He still has to recover from being Stunned as normal. If that attack Knocks him Out, and the added STUN from Absorption restores him to positive STUN, he has returned to consciousness and is not considered Stunned. However, as usual for a character who’s awakened from being Knocked Out, his END equals his current STUN total (see 6E2 106, which specifically mentions Aid/Healing in this regard, thus providing a guideline to work from). I believe the rule re: CON from Absorption and Stunning in the middle of the right-hand column on 6E1 166 answers your follow-up; if I’ve missed something please post a separate follow-up.

There are a number of issues to look at in this situation. 1. What Combat Maneuver do you want it to be? Given what you describe, you could declare that your character's performing a Move Through, a Move By, a regular Strike at the end of a Half Move, and perhaps several other options (esp. if you have Martial Arts). However, given the mechanics of Haymaker (the need to use an extra Segment, etc.), you probably couldn't define this attack as a Haymaker without your GM's permission or special circumstances. (And in any event you can't Haymaker another Combat Maneuver other than Strike, as explained in the rules.) The issue here, aside from the GM's permission and what he'll allow you to do given the nature of the situation, is what you choose to do. In generic terms, you pick a combat effect you want (including a set of penalties you're willing to accept), and you use the Maneuver that provides that effect. For example, if you're unwilling to risk taking the damage you suffer from performing a Move Through, perhaps you choose Move By or Strike instead. Generally speaking the HERO System doesn't lock you in to specific results ("This form of attack is always X Maneuver"); instead it frees you up to choose what you want to do -- at the cost of accepting the potential drawbacks of your actions. 2. There is no way under the rules for a character performing a Move Through (or Move By) to avoid taking some damage from performing the Maneuver. However, it is possible for characters to buy extra defenses that only apply against Move Through/By collateral damage -- speedster characters often do this (for example, see the "Impact Resistance" power on page 293 of Champions Powers). 3. As a default rule, characters cannot use the velocity from falling to increase the damage of attacks by performing Move Throughs/Bys, due to the uncontrolled nature of falling damage and the possible game balance implications. However, the GM’s certainly free to allow this if he wishes; it could definitely make for some dramatic combat scenes! In that case normal Move Through/By rules (including CV modifiers and damage the attacker takes) apply.

This definitely earns a gold star for creative HERO System thinking, I'd say. I don’t believe anything in the rules specifically forbids this, but obviously it would require GM’s permission, and I suspect many GMs would take a dim view of it. At the very least they might require the character to buy Regeneration + Resurrection twice, rather than just buying the Adder twice.

It worked like that in 5E. In 6th Edition I changed it so that a character with MegaMovement could scale anywhere from 1m = 1m to 1m = his maximum with MegaScale. This simplifies things so that characters don't have to buy Multipowers to move at different rates of speed.

Both of those appear to be errors -- almost certainly cut-and-paste errors on my part. Good catch! And mea culpa.

You’ve asked some good questions; I’m surprised some of them have never come up before. 1. If a character has a Multipower with a Variable slot that contains a partially-Limited power, any reserve points allocated to that slot must be divided proportionately (based on their Active Point costs) between the “parts” of the power. He can’t allocate points for full use of one or more parts while ignoring the others. For example, suppose a character has a Variable slot with Blast 6d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +½) + Blast 9d6. He can’t allocate 45 reserve points just to use the Blast 9d6; any points allocated to that slot are divided proportionately between the two (50/50 in this case, since both have the same Active Point cost). 2. It’s certainly legal to buy two different slots containing variations of the same power (Flight, in your example). But it’s not legal to combine them, as stated on 6E1 398. In your example your character would have one Flight 10m slot and one Flight 38m slot; he couldn’t add them together to get Flight 48m. 3. Regarding Adders, as noted on 6E1 408, since Adders aren’t mandatory a character with a Variable slot in a Multipower doesn’t have to allocate points to the Adder in that slot if he doesn’t want to use the Adder.

Thanks. I have considered the possibility of dividing MH into two books, simply because sheer size may require me to, but even if I do that I will wait to publish them both at the same time. I don't want to publish one, then get halfway through writing the other only to discover I forgot something or need to change something. Plus, that way I can at least consider the possibilty of creating a slipcase for the books.

For game purposes, being asleep is the same as being Knocked Out, unless the GM rules otherwise.

Technically speaking, because MegaScale is an Advantage it’s mandatory — a character can’t choose not to use it, and therefore must pay END for it (see 6E1 316). However, I think logic and common sense both dictate that MegaScale is one of those Advantages to which most GMs would grant an exception to this rule, and in fact the text describing the rules for MegaMovement on 6E1 341 presumes that characters can “scale down” to regular movement and thus not use the Advantage if they don’t want to. In that case, whether the character has to pay END for MegaScale is up to the GM. The rules on 6E1 136 state as a default that a character still has to pay END for an Advantage even if he doesn’t use it, but as always the GM can ignore that rule if he sees fit.

You are correct that you don't have to use any defense that you buy. It's rare that characters turn defenses off, but they can if they want to (as in your example, where a character's de-activated his Energy Defense and Mental Defense but kept his Physical Defense turned on). The second part of your question I'm not sure I understand. If a character wants just one of those defenses to be Resistant, then he buys Resistant (+1/2) for only that defense. There's no "proportionality" requirement, or rule that mandates that Resistant Defenses be used in some ratio to one another. Characters often buy Resistant Defenses in equal amounts for ease of game play, but that's not required by the rules. If I've misunderstood your question, please post a follow-up.

Pages 220-23 of The Ultimate Speedster have rules for Controlled and Uncontrolled Movement, including for Skidding (what you're referring to as sliding). I think they pretty much cover the issues you raise to the extent necessary, or provide the GM with enough information to make a ruling for his campaign, but if you have further questions after reviewing that material, please post a follow-up.

Certainly it's possible. It's a question of whether the Barrier's large enough to form a complete globe around the target. How big the Barrier has to be is up to the GM, but as a rule of thumb assume the Barrier has to have at least one dimension that's at least twice as large as the target's largest dimension.

No and no. As stated on APG 45, Expert applies to any “Language, KS, PS, or SS.” Thus, a character can’t buy Martial Arts or WF via Expert.

To keep things simple, a power cannot have both Time Limit and Always On. To construct a power such as the one you describe, I’d suggest working with the GM to use a Limited Power Limitation to achieve the desired effect.

Here's what the rules say re: Fixed slots: "The amount of reserve points a character must assign to a Fixed slot is determined when the power is bought — it equals the Active Points in the power." So in your example, to use either slot the character has to allocate 22 reserve points. This prevents him from using the other slot, since the reserve only has a reserve of 30 points.

1. The answer is neither. You and the designer of those vehicles (probably me ) simply have different perspectives on the issue of "taking into account" various energy costs. The whole point of having a weapon that uses over one-third of a vehicle's END is to make the user of the vehicle think carefully about when and how he uses that weapon. It creates drama and tension in a way that having all the END/Charges you need doesn't. It may also reflect setting concerns (the engineers at Starport Alpha suck, so their starships are routinely underpowered; this ship isn't intended for combat but has one big weapon "just in case"; the weapon is really a tool for mining asteroids that can be used offensively in a pinch; etc.). 2. As stated in 6E2, Movement for Vehicles ordinarily does not cost END. Therefore Costs Endurance (-1/2) is a valid Limitation for Movement for Vehicles.

This is really more a conversation topic than a rules question, so I'd suggest posting on the Discussion forum if that's what you're after. But yes, STR is used to break out of the Direct Current Paralysis Entangle as it's written up in Champions Powers. As to whether it's "worth using," I'll leave that judgment to each individual player.

See my post in Company Questions for further information, or if you have a question about this. Thanx!

Howdy Herophiles! I just wanted to let you know that for about a week, maybe a little more, starting January 5, I won't be available to answer questions here. I'll answer any questions posted when I'm once again able to, but I wanted to let you know there'll be a delay.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding the question, but you're completely incorrect. I'm pretty sure every villain ever published for Champions since 1981 has at least some powers with Limitations; many have Limitations on nearly every power they possess.

If you just want to keep people from teleporting into or out of the Base, but not within the Base itself once they're inside, determine the cost of the PD and ED of the outside walls (which in many Bases are stronger/tougher than interior walls, of course), including the basic PD/ED the Base gets "for free," and apply the Cannot Be Escaped With Teleportation Advantage to just that cost. If you want to keep people from teleporting anywhere into, out of, or within a Base, determine the cost of all the Base's PD and ED (including any extra defenses bought for smaller areas such as exterior walls, cells, safe rooms, the Hulk's bathroom, etc.) and apply the Advantage to that. If you want to keep people from teleporting into or out of a specific area of a Base (e.g., a cell designed to hold teleporting characters), apply the Advantage to the cost of the extra PD/ED bought to define that area. If the area doesn't have extra defense, apply the Advantage to the Base as a whole, then use the Partial Coverage Limitation (6E2 189) to define the area the Advantage applies to.

I think this is meant to be a Discussion topic -- and in any event it works better there, since I don't answer game design/philosophy questions. So I've moved it there, where no doubt a lively conversation will ensue.