Doc Democracy Posted May 22, 2017 Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 My friend decided to run a fourth edition game as he just bought the bundle of books. I was excited and gave Ben digging out old books to build a character. I have just experienced an edge case that drove the demise of elemental controls. The character manipulates dimensions and mostly operates while shrunk. When shrunk he is also faster (better able to manipulate the fourth dimension). He has two big cost powers - shrinking and flight and so I bought an EC which gave a reasonably modest point saving and tied the powers together. The additional SPD was not costly enough to fit in the EC, so I bought it outside. Then I noticed that my SPD3 character now can switch to SPD 7 when shrunk. For a VERY modest investment of points (about 6 to my rough calculation), I could purchase an additional 9 SPD in the EC rather than an additional 4 SPD outside... It is only by revisiting the old rule sets that you begin appreciating some of the changes that have been made over 5th and 6th. Doc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninja-Bear Posted May 22, 2017 Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 I see your point Doc. I believe though you make a great point of the adage-just because you can leagally buy something, doesn't mean you should. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Democracy Posted May 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 Oh absolutely, I am a good boy, I did not succumb to the evil optimisation urge - not least because the Gm is notoriously allergic to high speeds. :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher R Taylor Posted May 22, 2017 Report Share Posted May 22, 2017 Yeah, Elemental Control resulted in a lot of curious builds in my experience, just to make stuff fit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted May 23, 2017 Report Share Posted May 23, 2017 4th Edition warns about including characteristics in ECs. Page 60, BBB: "Characteristics bought with the Multipower Power Framework never add to Figured Characteristics. Characteristics can only be bought within other Power Frameworks with special permission from the GM." For comparison, 2nd Edition says (page 27): "Elemental Controls should not contain any Skills or Characteristics, unless the GM allows it (there should be some very compelling reasons for this!)" The statement in 2e is actually stronger ("should not") than the one in 4e. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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