Doc Democracy

I am definitely in the camp that this depends very solidly on the perception aspect of things. I was immediately thinking of invisible effects as that would mean that the attack would not be perceived. My problem is the the OP is looking for an absolute effect in a system almost designed to ensure absolutes do not occur. So, for the purpose of a riposte, the trigger might be someone attacking. The trigger might be someone doing damage to someone, something. IPE works for the first but not the second. The trigger would 'notice' damage as that would not be invisible to the person damaged (and thus the trigger). I was therefore thinking, what about Darkness (all sense groups), only versus triggers? That would effectively make it impossible for the trigger to notice anything while the darkness is in place. The tricky thing here would be that the darkness would have to be targeted at the thing/person targeted by the power, that should be easier fro some things than others. It would essentially mean that any attack was supplemented by a very small area effect darkness to all sense groups targetted on triggers. Someone might want to stat that up but I do not think it would be horrendously expensive for the effect provided... Doc

ha! I wasn't thinking straight. I was not thinking of whether the snake had limbs or not, simply using the extra limb to demonstrate that using its body to constrict a victim would not interfere with the normal use of any other limbs the character might have. I am now wondering how to model a snake with no limbs but able to constrict and hold an opponent...

The big thing with constriction is the squeezing, not so much for damage as for preventing breathing. I think that while there are ways to simulate that kind of thing, the route to go is the extra limb, grab and choke hold. Obviously the choke is not round the neck, it is, instead, a full body strangle, but it will engage the rules in the same way... Doc

You need to get busy on PowerPoint or some similar software and design the sheets that you want. I am of the opinion that you need build sheets for the GM which have all the detail and points etc and then you need playing sheets which more prominently display the information useful for gameplay at the table. Only you will know what you really need but there are few games that my group does not actually produce their own sheets for... Mess about, show your players and change a few times. You will come to a decent design pretty quickly. Doc

The big advantage with a power is that things work when you want them to rather than relying on rolls, judgements etc. My friend who wanted to pick people up and slam them into the ground as a signature move decided to buy that as power (he was not interested in whether they were prone at the end, so we went with an EB which would pick up bonus dice which were bought dependent on the surface used to slam the opponent). This meant that when he wanted to do it the whole thing depended on one to hit roll, just like everything else... Doc

Would not be HERO if there were not other ways to accomplish it. I don’t think I want my myrmidon needing a better EGO than the mage I am fighting to herd him into a corner, or to prevent a rogue running past me to stab someone else. I guess I could base the mind control on STR or PRE but it can add additional bureaucracy. My intention was to incentivise the opponent to do what I want rather than force them, I am thinking that this works for players as well as against them. Doc

The other thing about PRE is that it is less and less effective as a combat goes on, this should continue at the same level...

You know, the whole thing about controlling an area is about a person who is more unwilling to risk injury than he wants get past an opponent. Anyone can walk past an opponent with a blade, it is just that they will likely get hit and injured. The thing is, in real life, people are less likely to risk injury than players working out that they have enough PD and STUN to “take a hit”. What you need to do is put the same kind of fear about a hit into the mind of the player. so. I was thinking that a decent swordsman might buy a power that can only be used if they are dominating their opponent, so if they face someone whose base CV plus levels is less than their own, they can use a power, which only triggers if the opponent does not give ground, it is area effect and the attacker achieves added OCV if the opponent is not using defensive manoeuvres and gains NND to damage (does BODY) if the opponent offers no defence/seeks to run past. Essentially the swordsman is throwing up a wall of steel that the opponent can avoid by moving backwards. If they do not move backward but seek to fight, the swordsman gains a better chance to hit and, if they try to run round, the attack, if it hits, is likely to hurt. Doc

You know, for an emotion vampire, I like the idea that the feeding element is covered by addiction/dependence, driving the vampire to seek sustenance. I would make the feeding be a transform attack, creating a psychological disadvantage, first to crave the company of the vampire, then to deaden the emotional highs and lows, removing likes, loves and hates from psychological complications, removing berserk etc. Ultimately the vampire cannot draw sustenance from the victim and it has to move on, leaving the emotionless addict wrecked behind it. A wicked GM, might have the final transform change the craving to an actual dependence on the vampire... Doc

I actually like the idea of purity being the equivalent of an obvious inaccessible focus. It might not be able to be disarmed but you might tempt a paladin into losing his focus. Finding it would be the subject of a quest... :-) Doc

why are you thinking about ranged at all? If the area effect begins in front of him and projects out then I would simply be looking at area effect...

This all really depends on how you see things working in-game. you have some questions to answer, beyond being a great disguise, does the body provide protection? If it has enhanced sense, does maggot gain the use of them? In its most basic form, I see you as having a killing attack, a shapeshift (only to mimic the last person he has killed within the last 7-10 days). I see maggot having a complication of no limbs (only when not mimicking). you can layer on stuff that might be gained when 'inside', added defences, potentially additional STR, a VPP, to cover powers the body might have had. There are other more complex ways to do it, I think that the vehicle idea is clever and possession gives you other potentials, such as mining the person's memories etc to enhance the mimic role. Each has its strengths and drawbacks and it really depends on how you intend it to play in game. Doc

I have never actually used damage negation in anger. However, in my head it is sitting as an SFX based defence rather than an effect based defence. So it is the tool I might reach for if the character is resistant to fire in a way it is not to other attacks. So other energy attacks or physical attacks, or drains or anything affect him far more profoundly than they would if they were based on fire. is it properly costed? Dunno. I think that to begin breaking it down by attack type though goes counter to it being a broad based defence against a particular SFX. Doc

I don't agree. The thesis of this discount is that despite being multiple powers, they are all the same one, different manifestations of that power. if you reduce that power by draining a manifestation of it, you are reducing the power and so all manifestations of the power suffer. if you cannot rationalise why this is a single power manifested in different ways then, in my game, you cannot take the limitation. In the telekinesis example, you have, mechanically, provided multiple routes in to drain the core power. Doc

As Neil said, this is very much about getting the game right but not getting so focussed on the rules that you ruin the atmosphere. Part of the reason for somethings are that the name of the manoeuvre does not evoke the right image. I think dodge is easy, you can see someone moving around to evade hth or ranged attacks. The question comes when you have weapon elements and levels with those weapons. I cannot remember who said it, might have been Steve L, but "this is why we have GMs". If you have +2 with swords, then convince me as GM why that expertise increases your ability to evade that spray of gunfire. If it is a convincing story then the mechanics and the atmosphere are maintained...put the burden on the players!! Doc

Would all of your troubles vanish if levels with martial arts were more expensive than levels with HtH?? That is the bit the jangles my reading. I think I can see why the martial dodge works and can even justify an armed ninja being hit less than an unarmed one - whether using the blade to move, distract, threaten or (in extremis) block bullets heading his way. I would also question the value of levels with swords being used with a martial dodge unless the person had been trained to use weapon elements to enhance his skills. As a GM I would also be very wary of allowing huge numbers of levels being built up - indeed, I have had one game where I ruled that levels could not exceed the base OCV (or DCV depending on what they were being used for). That means that your bog standard CV3 person could not acquire an OCV or DCV greater than 6 (though they could get to both if they had bought that many skills and acquired that many bonuses). Doc

Another option, this is HERO after all, would be to give him a complication of "Mutant". That is limiting because he triggers alarms etc simply by being a mutant, it also means that "any" drain that specifically targets mutants will drain those powers in the Mutant list. It does not make the powers themselves cheaper but it gives you added mechanical detail for that complication. That would be a reasonably weighty complication if there are things that target mutant powers in the campaign, less so if there are not.

I think what you are missing from your explanation of your understanding is that someone does not have to have Drain Mutant Powers. If someone drains STR then every power that is connected to the STR gets drained a similar amount. It reflects that they are all one thing and pulling a single thread in the bundle affects the whole bundle. Doc The whole thing looks fantastic by the way...

I would also have a drain on STR (grab only) as victims would have difficulty holding onto things.

The limitation is very much about the specific query of the OP. The SFX are that if a shot is missed, it uses no END and depletes no charges. That implies that there is indeed an attempt to attack but it saves you resources. As such, being able to abort the shot would not be in the spirit of the power...would work for other situations though. Doc

Bizarrely, for me, I think that the cover option is now both more and less appropriate for this depending on the situation and reason that you get lock-on. :-)

You thought about buying clairsentience? The GM could allow the use of that power to cover the to hit roll. I would allow the use of the power to allow the player to roll a dice and discover whether it hit or not, it would be a half phase action and could be followed with movement or an attack (though an attack on the character targetted would utilise the roll made for the clairsentience). This does not get rid of any of the rolling bureaucracy etc but it does provide the ability to avoid the use of END and charges unnecessarily. I might be tempted to give you less of a limitation on your charges though - this makes the limited use less limited...

It is nice of you to welcome him, but he has been here since 2008! :-) Just not as vociferous as some of us!

I was with you right up to this point. More specifically the (Focus Limitation or not) element. If you meant "if all your players are not stripped of their powers now and then (Focus Limitation or not), you're doing something wrong IMO." then I have more sympathy with the statement, though if it happened too often to me then I might be playing elsewhere... ...even if it had to be in the Care Bear group. :-) Doc

I think it all comes down to communication. As long as everyone is on the same page then all is well...