About Multiform and a sane version of Duplication

[Greywind]

6 hours ago, unclevlad said:

 

That presumes the writers will abide by them, doesn't it?

Don't they have editors? That is (was?) part of the editors job once upon a time.

[dialNforNinja]

9 hours ago, unclevlad said:

The problem is that, the comics don't care about points.  Each duplicate is exactly as effective as the writer wants him to be in that issue/book...and that may not hold true next time.  Sure, that's always true...but duplication doesn't readily translate to simple comparisons and numbers.  And writers aren't bound by the action economy, so for Company Man to split into 30 duplicates is nothing.

(...)

Writers do things that simply cannot be translated into points sanely because their conception simply doesn't match the rules.  Or, force you into, IMO, serious distortions to try to make them work.

 

Unfortunately true, and I tend to think far more IC than meta so prying at what in HERO terms are just the SFX to see how they can be leveraged to get more benefit from what a character is already shown doing is my natural mode of operation... but the more things a character can do, the more it costs, even if in character it's all just various applications of a single simple thing. The most versatile example is telekinesis with a decent amount of force and arbitrarily fine control; you can do nearly anything physical with it down to mind control via manipulating brain chemistry, but no one is going to argue that the game's TK Power should allow all that.

 

It would be a textbook case for a VPP with TK as the special effect, of course, which is kind of the point, but at the same time doing something like buying the Fine Manipulation adder two or three times is a good justification (and investment in points) to get away with a good cross section of those tricks on a Power skill roll, at least some of the time. If you want to excite the air to high temperature in a coin-sized circle just a bit past your fingertip and direct the result into a cutting/welding torch on the regular, you need to buy a fire-FX Blast or Transform, but one time to weld a bent rebar into restraints on Dabrickly F'Chozme you might get away with.

 

That still doesn't change my main point, though, which is...

 

7 hours ago, dmjalund said:

The default version of Duplication, I believe is inspired by Triplicate Girl from Legion of Super heroes, who became Dual Damsel when one of her duplicates died

 

...if you're going to call a power "Duplication" in a supposedly generic superheroes system, it should be based on the most common expression of the power, not a single character who had a particularly nerfed but quantifiable version of it. One niche enough that as someone who followed a few specific lines but only has cultural osmosis for the majority of the comics scene I had never heard of, and only knew her entire massive team as a name other people had mentioned sometimes, that had something to do with OG young-Clark Superboy and handed out flight rings as their membership badge. Size Increase, when you actually look at what the Size Level modifiers are, is just a prepackaged group of other powers effects, so it's not like there isn't precedent for something similar, even if it's more of a tricky character example build than a Power to go in the list on its own. Maybe a small collection featuring the various approaches that have been suggested? Would anyone else be interested in helping with that, or at least seeing it once the effort was put in?

 

On a lighter note, talking about the LSH (and a relatively quick wiki walk, I only spent three hours on it honest!) leads to...

7 hours ago, unclevlad said:

(stuff)

 

What's an "unclev?"

 

...

 

Oh, right, it's "uncle Vlad!" 🙃

[unclevlad]

6 hours ago, dialNforNinja said:

...if you're going to call a power "Duplication" in a supposedly generic superheroes system, it should be based on the most common expression of the power, not a single character who had a particularly nerfed but quantifiable version of it.

 

First, are you sure you know which form of duplication was the most common when Champions was being written?

 

Then, do you want the most popular, or a form that can be presented reasonably, or is more adaptable?  How about cross-power considierations?  Duplication can easily be considered as a special case of Summon;  Summon works great for the kind of short-term, disruptable "instant minion" or "instant horde" forms...the massive replicators don't often have a whole lot of powers on their own, and they rely on overrunning by numbers, or creating too much of a distraction to ignore.  Duplication gets the inherent advantage of full cooperation, to the point of self-sacrifice, for free...so it needs a downside when it can be included in an arbitrary build.

 

One thing this discussion is pointing out...one could probably dedicate at least a chapter to duplication in all its intricacies.   

[dialNforNinja]

Too bloody right. Or at least a few added entries for a Champions Powers revision/web enhancement.

[Tech]

On 8/20/2020 at 10:38 PM, dmjalund said:

The default version of Duplication, I believe is inspired by Triplicate Girl from Legion of Super heroes, who became Dual Damsel when one of her duplicates died

 

I could easily see the power having been written with duplicates dying off and not losing those points. If this has been a Champions game, in this case a player wanting to change the power and concept of the hero so it went from 3 heroes to 2.

If you don't like Duplication, I vaguely recall someone writing their Duplication in an entirely different way. It's only vague so I'll take my best guesses:

a) are your duplicates all attacking one person? Buy it as bonus OCV or autofire

b) are your duplicates attacking different people? Buy it as selective area effect

c) etc

Of course, this won't work if one duplicate is flying away to check on a crime scene while another sneaks into a suspicious warehouse, and yet another is piloting the team airplane. Still, it was an interesting take on a hero with 'duplication'.

[HeroGM]

I'm not a big fan of loose the points if X happens on anything. Should the player automatically get them back? Depend on what happens and the concept. A dupe dying should come back eventually or have the points put into a hidden power or skill. Some skills or other powers may be altered (tri-jitsu with one less?). If the dupe is energy related perhaps it takes awhile to build up a new one.

 

In the end like any game it's a matter of the GM setting up his rules and possibilities.

 

[unclevlad]

But if a non-duplicating character dies, ALL the character points are lost.

 

Resurrection's not a terribly expensive adder, but the points you put into it have no value other than as insurance against this happening.  If there's no real downside to a duplicate dying because you'll get the points back, then...sure, it's more points, but you're getting a LOT out of it.

 

Also note:  if you want to be strictly mechanical, it only costs 5 points for a new dupe...and even then, only sometimes.  Now, granted, it tends to be concept abuse, and the kind of action taken because the rules simply scream to do it because NOT doing it is far more damaging.  At the very least, the temptation is there, at least when you're talking someone with a very low number of duplicates, obviously with 1 dup being the extreme case.  

[dmjalund]

just have a resurrection adder to Duplication

[Spence]

On 8/20/2020 at 6:46 PM, Greywind said:

Which is why, in my mind, comic publishers need a character bible for each character.

 

On 8/20/2020 at 8:22 PM, unclevlad said:

 

That presumes the writers will abide by them, doesn't it?

 

Which is probably one of the big reasons comics are on their death spiral.

 

No consistency, poor writing, shamelessly pandering to the "issue" of the minute and hugely over inflated costs. 

[dialNforNinja]

For a particularly egregious example of multiform abuse, consider a character with Summon at 5pt, Slavishly Devoted (+1 ) for 10ap, giving you a 25pt Summon creature with its stats sold down until it can have a 96rp VPP w/60pt reserve and Control, changed as a half-phase action and Only for Multiforms. A 60pt Multiform can then be any character worth up to 275pt. This is where the GM smacks you with a rolled up newspaper and makes you use a pregen of course, but it is fun rubbing your hands and cackling in grinchy glee up until then.

[HeroGM]

Try this one from John Byrne's Next Men.

Vanguard is a basic Superman clone. Really he is a brother and sister who merge to become him. Ok, that's PART of it. The kicker is sometimes he's male and. sometimes female, both with different attitudes.

 

 

 

[HeroGM]

 

I'll have to post "Three" ( Rock) from Byrne's Trio. A brick (literally) that shifts forms to be an african american teen.

 

[dialNforNinja]

Oh, physically transforming between a civilian and powered-up state is nothing new or alarming - but making your 400pt build as a 100pt normie with 300pt in Multiform is obviously going to cause problems unless it's a cosmic-level game, in which case why does one character only have a 400pt budget to begin with? The downside of Hero's system is that creatively leveraging a "weak power" costs just as much as half-assing a "strong power" so while that plot element is certainly open, on the mechanics side a point disparity is probably going to be decisive as long as the players have an equal understanding of the system. That's why I've been on the side of only allowing Multiform to result in the same or less points as the character who has it on their sheet, barring, like, a DBZ campaign setting where everyone has a transformation or two to pull out of their ass when the chips are down.

[unclevlad]

On 8/27/2020 at 8:49 AM, dialNforNinja said:

Oh, physically transforming between a civilian and powered-up state is nothing new or alarming - but making your 400pt build as a 100pt normie with 300pt in Multiform is obviously going to cause problems unless it's a cosmic-level game, in which case why does one character only have a 400pt budget to begin with? The downside of Hero's system is that creatively leveraging a "weak power" costs just as much as half-assing a "strong power" so while that plot element is certainly open, on the mechanics side a point disparity is probably going to be decisive as long as the players have an equal understanding of the system. That's why I've been on the side of only allowing Multiform to result in the same or less points as the character who has it on their sheet, barring, like, a DBZ campaign setting where everyone has a transformation or two to pull out of their ass when the chips are down.

 

No sane GM is going to let youl build like that.  Ever.  Stop worrying about it.  The GM is the last word on what's allowed, and you'd have to offer up   And even just looking at the base form...first, 300 points for ANY POWER is far, far beyond the recommended limits.  (Even for a cosmic heroes, 750 point campaign.  See 6e volume 1, pages 34-5.)  Then, #2...it'd be broken out probably as 190 points to get a 950 point character, and another 110 to buy off 550 points of complication.  Geeeeeee, nothing to suggest clear, unadulterated rules abuse there, huh???  And a 950 point character when the rest is 400? ??? ???

 

Don't worry about such gross distortions.  Just Say No.  The GM *always* has the last word on what's allowed.

[dialNforNinja]

16 minutes ago, unclevlad said:

No sane GM is going to let youl build like that.  Ever.  Stop worrying about it.

 

If CC has that list of recommended limits I missed it, and though that wouldn't entirely be a surprise I did specifically look. Don't have 6e1 or 2, and have no idea what you're talking about with "buying off points of complications" in this context. As for the rest, yes of course, but when I'm here in my Alonecave just messing around with the books...

[unclevlad]

7 minutes ago, dialNforNinja said:

 

If CC has that list of recommended limits I missed it, and though that wouldn't entirely be a surprise I did specifically look. Don't have 6e1 or 2, and have no idea what you're talking about with "buying off points of complications" in this context. As for the rest, yes of course, but when I'm here in my Alonecave just messing around with the books...

 

 

Ahh...I see.  CC is somewhat streamlined.

6E v1 includes guidelines for a number of things, such as attack ranges, max points in a power, defenses, etc.  For a 400 point game, max active points in a single power is suggested to be 80.  Even in a cosmically powerful, the implication is 150 for a 750 game.

 

The CC writeup does NOT allow, as I read it, buying an alternate form on more points than the campaign rules support.  That's in the full 6E rules, which is also where the rules about buying off Complications are.  It does allow you to spend XP poorly;  I'd change that, personally.  For every 5 XP you add to the alternates, you also have to spend a 6th to raise the base form's Multiform cost.  That rule makes far more sense, and it's a lot better balanced, than RAW, seems to me.

[dialNforNinja]

CC contradicts itself on Multiform -- it was half of why I started the thread. Taking what it does say as "other forms can be more powerful than the base form, but still have to fit the campaign guidelines" makes more sense, but holy cats is it ever unclear if that was the intent.

 

WRT point caps, really, 80ap? 90ap powers are common in the CC examples and Champions Powers, though, with more than a handful in the 120 range and I recall at least one in CC hitting 187. A Multipower with a 60pt reserve and 30pt of powers is [i]the[/i] standard building block in the probably-not-authorized Superhero Gallery buffet-style build-a-super pdf I have ... seen ... around ... and definitely didn't save at all whatsoever. Do Multipoewer slots not count as part opf its AP?

 

And guidelines for defenses would have been [i]really nice to have[/i] as I set out to fill a character sheet or two, testing how the system is supposed to work. I did eventually slap myself and check out the spread in the provided builds of the Champions team, for a range of 15 total PD/rPD or ED/rED on the squishy caster and speedster to 25-28 on the bricks, but I'd have happily settled for losing an illustration if it meat adding an actual table of suggested values like that. Well, maybe if there's a CC Revised Edition...

 

If Fifth Revised Edition was FREd, would that make it C-CREd? Sounds more like something for Star Hero. And would 6REd be "sacred?" At least it's not Champions ME

 

While I'm at it, what's the suggested cap at Heroic 125/-50cp?

 

Back on the topic of Multiform, assume a Kamen Rider with the toyriffic collectible gimmick of a dozen or so transformation trinkets that can be combined in pairs or trios, a mix of OOO and Build if you know the series. Assume I have been set straight on actually building the relevant forms, as is hopefully the case. Further assume that the GM has okayed approving the triple-combo Super Mode forms and letting the (inherently lesser) pairs and non-matches slide so managing the combination explosion is my problem to deal with, not his. How do I actually go about mechanically representing that the main transformation item, a belt for tradition's sake, enables a default form, and adding one to three of the power up trinkets adds on their specific enhanced stats/Powers/etc., but any one or two of them can be used untransformed at reduced effect, and with no combo-abilities?

 

Just make the multiforms and fluff it with Focus?

 

Some permutation of multiple Foci?

 

Not a Multiform at all, but a VPP with the Limitation that it only provides the powers programmed into the active trinkets and changing it requires physically switching them around? (This might make the set bonus combo powers illegal/troublesome, I know framework slots are supposed to not affect each other.)

 

Something that will make me say "D'oh!" and set off a whole new round of muckin' about with the new refinement, completely obvious in hindsight?

[Grailknight]

The easy way: Two multipowers with Limitations on the trinkets set. If they can be used without the main power then write them up separately and just place the Limitations that on them. Sometimes simple brute force is the answer.

[unclevlad]

What are the point levels of those builds?  The rule of thumb is that power active point cap is about 20% of the character total points.  There are occasional exceptions;  Desolid, 0 END, Selective Desolid...120.  But if you want a Desolid type to have a viable attack, Affects Physical World is uber-expensive too.  

 

Also, that's for individual powers.  For a Multipower, it's the active in the multipower...the slots don't count  For a VPP, it's mostly for the Control Size;  you might build a VPP that's 100 points with a 60 point control size.  The notion is you've got more than one power up at a time, like an attack, a defense, and a movement power all through the VPP.  The GM needs to look at that, tho.  One straightforward, perfectly legal approach with a VPP is that you can use the Power skill, which you often buy (No Skill Roll Required is a +1) and apply Requires a Skill Roll to *all* the slots.  That gives you a -1/2 limitation, and the skill cost itself is already covered.  It actually doesn't reduce the total control cost by much...but the pool size is Real points.

 

And yes, it sounds mostly like multipowers, or do it as a VPP.  You can use the Lockout limitation to control some of the combinatorial explosion, or just be careful with the point costs and pool sizes.  I have a pretty high-power teleporter build with a VPP.  The use cases I pre-built:

 

1.  Long-range teleport + long-range clairsentience (uses Megascale)

2.  Long-range teleport + mid-range clairsentience (x64 Range, IIRC, but the perception point is mobile)

3.  Combat teleport + NND HA + Stretching (to do damage only)

 

If I was feeling nasty with what you're talking about...I'd argue that you pay for several Multiforms;  I'd allow you to make a common definition for all of them, with the only difference being, let's say, a VPP or multipower that'd be tied to the trinkets.

 

BUT...this sounds even more like Only in Alternate ID, not Multiforms at all.  And a gadget pool for the trinkets.

 

 

[dialNforNinja]

@Grailknight, what would the two Multipowers be for your version, the belt and a trinket pool? I think putting the trinkets in anything but a VPP is going to get prohibitively expensive quickly when you're talking about three each of however many sets, even as Fixed slots.

 

@unclevlad, the Superhero Gallery is all 400/-75cp characters, while C.Powers is only the powers, no characters. I don't remember  in CC but there aren't that many example characters, so most likely those were "how to build X" powers examples also.

 

The combination explosion [i]is the point[/i] of doing a character like that - [url=https://kamenrider.fandom.com/wiki/Eiji_Hino]OOO[/url] canonically has 1,729 possible forms with twelve sets of three Medals (actually thirteen and three singletons, but one set is incompatible with anything but themselves, and that's not counting the Shocker Medal or [i]forty fucking seven[/i] Legend Rider medals from crossover movies and video games) though obviously only a very small subset appeared in the show. Probably no skill roll for changing powers, unless it's DEX based to not fumble the trinkets trying to swap them, and definitely none beyond normal attack rolls for using them - that's almost completely off-genre, with the only exceptions being when someone first gains a final form or attack and needs a training montage to handle it. Needing to swap trinkets around would definitely make changing the power Restrainable even without taking them away, though.

 

Taking a full phase to transform or switch sounds about right in general though by at most can do it while moving or driving his motorcycle, which would mean buying that down to at least the half-phase, mid-series a Rider can usually transform instantly (between jumping out of frame and landing, or going around a corner, or just between cuts) when the run time or effects budget is getting tight or they need to jump in front of an innocent to protect them from an attack. Original Kamen Rider could [i]only[/i] transform while riding, as the belt had a wind turbine in the buckle that generated the power. No, really, that was the explanation, though later he learned to do some Gestures that made enough wind for it to work, and Skyrider once used the wind from an enemy's attack when he was being pushed too hard to have an Action to spare. A cunning use of the "you can do that [i]once[/i]" type of Power skill stunts, no doubt.

 

Exactly how to get new trinkets - Riders typically only start with a single form or power/speed/balanced trio - varies, but usually has to do with copying something from an enemy, taking  it directly after defeating them, or providing the necessary gimmick to get around their I Win Button trick. Often it's because the enemy uses and/or is the source of them to begin with, which makes the Hunted: Evil Organization and Rival: Secondary Rider (or after Power Of Friendshipping him, a more violent Evil Rider replacement) that are just as much a part of being a Rider as the armored suit a little more palatable even if you do still have to beat the monster of the week first. Which will inevitably explode, so don't forget to append "Humans" to your Code Versus Killing. Limitations similar to a Mimic Pool might apply?

 

So, you'd suggest a Shapechange (SIght and Touch groups) for the actual turn-into-a-cyber-ninja-bug-man part, and slap "only in alternate ID" on everything applicable? Doesn't sound so bad. It's pretty much how I saw someone do Transformers for Hero, actually.

[Hugh Neilson]

While a lot of players and GMs focus on active points, and 6e provides a "typical range of Active Points in characters’ Powers.", Steve Long indicated back in the SETAC days that the system was not designed around AP caps.  I find it better to focus on DCs, defenses, CVs and SPD.  A 12d6 Blast is a lot more powerful than an 8d6 Blast Affects Delid (+1/2), 0 END (+1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4),even though the former is 60 AP and the latter is 90 AP.

 

Supers tends to gravitate to a 12 DC attack (6e suggests a range of 6 - 14 DCs for standard Supers, but I don't see many with attacks less than 10 DC and a lot of GMs cap at 12 DC).  Defenses are suggested at 20-25, of which 12-18 are resistant.  SPD is suggested as 3-10, and CV ranging from 7 - 13.  The rules also note that "As the tables’ names indicate, their numbers are guidelines; the GM can alter them as he sees fit."

 

I think 4e was the first version to set guidelines.  I find most very broad, and especially noteworthy that defenses have the smallest range of the four items I listed.  I have never seen a game where SPD or DC varies more widely than defenses.  Of course, it also doesn't discuss how many characters would be in the average range (say 10-12 DC, 5-6 SPD, 9-10 CV) and how common outliers would be (e.g. 1 in 8 characters would have a SPD of 3, and of 10, or 1 in 1,000 would have such SPD).

 

A lot of games seem to result in a "maximum is a minumum" model.  That is, you can't exceed 12 DC and 25 defenses, and every character has 12 DC and 25 defenses.  In my view, there can be some tradeoff, but the greater the deviations, the more issues that can arise, and those ranges are way too broad for most games.

 

The ratio between DC and Defense is a crucial one, in my view.  A survey done pre-4e through the old Adventurers Club magazine found incredible variation between groups.  They saw some where DCs averaged 10 and Defenses about 35, where combat would be a slow process of whittling down the opponent, and others where DCs of 15 and defenses of 15 were common, first strike and use of cover, dodge and block becoming far more important.

 

One key, to me, is that defense + CON should be enought to weather a typical, or at least slighty above average, damage roll without being Stunned.  After that, how long do you want combat to take?  A game featuring 12 DC attacks (average roll 42) that hit 50% of the time, with defenses of 25, will mean an average hit does 17 STUN past defenses.  If characters typically have 40 STUN, it will take 3 average hits, or six attacks, to KO a target - more if the target gets to recover in between.  Drop defenses by 5 or raise DC by 2 (+7 average damage roll) and combat will be bit quicker.  Only two hits needed.  If being Stunned is also more common, combat will be even quicker, and more volatile.

 

Make average defenses 35, so only 7 points trickle through from a typical attack (6 attacks to KO, plus more to cover recoveries) , and a single combat could easily take up the entire game session - and feel never-ending.

[Hugh Neilson]

One crucial point - Hero (and this includes CC) is not a game.  It is a system with which you can design a game. 

 

Set the dials for the game you want.  If you want an Iron Age feel where Supers risk death, and are often bloodied, those DC to defense levels won't do it - Supers rarely take BOD.  If you lower the defenses, they will take STUN really fast. 

 

But if the standard is lower defenses and some Damage Reduction, say 50% Reduction and 8 defenses (12d6 averages 42 STUN -8 = 34 x 50% = 17) the same 17 stun gets through from an average 12DC hit, but 2 BOD gets through as well.

 

Or use Damage Negation.  Maybe we have typical Damage Negation of 6 DCs and 4 Defenses.  That 12 DC attack drops to 6d6, 21 average.  17 STUN gets through, and 2 BOD.  A high roll will ramp the BOD up quicker, as will more DCs, and the rolls become more volatile as large numbers of dice don't vary as wildly from their average rolls.  

[IndianaJoe3]

1 hour ago, Hugh Neilson said:

While a lot of players and GMs focus on active points, and 6e provides a "typical range of Active Points in characters’ Powers.", Steve Long indicated back in the SETAC days that the system was not designed around AP caps.  I find it better to focus on DCs, defenses, CVs and SPD.  A 12d6 Blast is a lot more powerful than an 8d6 Blast Affects Delid (+1/2), 0 END (+1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4),even though the former is 60 AP and the latter is 90 AP.

 

This turns out to be a problem, when the Active Point limits are built into the system (mostly Power Frameworks, but probably other places as well). 

[unclevlad]

AP is for non-attack powers, and it's still a fairly good guideline.  If nothing else, something exceeding that number should be treated as a warning-sign power.  

 

But, yeah, DCs are the measure for attack, and by implication defense.  For stunning, I use 4 STUN per die;  that'd be 48 STUN on 12 dice.  I also use 1.25 BODY...so 15.  Those are high rolls, but 48 STUN or higher will happen about 1 time in 6, so I want to be under that.

 

Another major issue in the discussion of defenses is the prevalence of killing attacks, because they are wildly erratic.  The STUN total is dominated by a single die, so an average BODY roll, with a 5 or 6 on the stun multiplier, yields a massive amount of STUN.  4d6 killing delivers 54 STUN or more, 25% of the time.  And it forces players to take serious resistant defenses;  that same attack will deliver 16 BODY or more, with only resistant defenses applying, 25% of the time.  By the same token, they'll also do basically no STUN a lot...altho you still need to worry about the BODY.

[unclevlad]

14 hours ago, dialNforNinja said:

The combination explosion [i]is the point[/i] of doing a character like that - [url=https://kamenrider.fandom.com/wiki/Eiji_Hino]OOO[/url] canonically has 1,729 possible forms with twelve sets of three Medals (actually thirteen and three singletons, but one set is incompatible with anything but themselves, and that's not counting the Shocker Medal or [i]forty fucking seven[/i] Legend Rider medals from crossover movies and video games) though obviously only a very small subset appeared in the show.

 

Because all of that is under the total control of the writers.

 

Trying to do this in-game is very likely impossible.  It's insanely hard to build, and it tends to really bog things down as you work through "gee, what do I want now?" and of course the tracking might be insane.  Plus, it's highly likely the combinations will largely fall into a much smaller set of groups, where differences within the group are minor.  

 

Some archetypes support a very large, universal-power VPP;  the character sheet might literally have the VPP as the ONLY power, if the GM's willing.  Alternately, it might well have some of the special powers (enhanced senses, life support, regen) that are discouraged in a framework as standalone powers, but otherwise it's the VPP.  This can lead to a very large pool size with an appropriate control size.  In a case like this, standard advice is to get the player to develop the power sets and combos (as I did above) so he doesn't bog the game down by figuring out how he's manipulating his pool.  That's the scenario 1700+ configurations lead to.

 

Authors never care about points, never care about complexity, and rarely care about consistency.  Their characters will have what they need to have, when they need it, and things will go off without a hitch.  Because it's all plot device.  Yeah, well, that doesn't work in a game that has to make everything concrete.  I might be hard-pressed to define what you're talking about sanely even in a descriptive system like Fate;  in a GURPS or Hero...gahhh.  It's not worth the effort, before the game AND in the game.  If I'm a GM, and you're presenting me with a dozen character sheets because you've got that many Multiforms...I'll tell you right now, I hand them back and say No.  I can't spend THAT much time doing my due diligence that these are all feasible and balanced, just for one player.  Nor am I gonna be happy, because with that many...odds are, you're gonna find the Perfect Form To Defeat My Plan.  No matter what the plan is, or close.  This kind of character looks VERY STRONGLY to be a total spotlight hog...and a solo.  So I really have to worry about the group dynamic.