"High-Tech Enemies" book: Mr. Tanner

[Tech]

One of the enemies in this book, Mr. Tanner, is an odd one. He has an Ego of 10, yet has bought the autonomaton power: Takes No Stun. What might happen if an Egoist attacks him with an Ego Attack? Obviously, he takes no stun damage, yet he has an ECV to attack. Would the Egoist notice anything or not? Can the Egoist attack him with a non-damaging attack, such as Mind Control?

[steriaca]

Of course he can be attacked with Mind Control. Takes No Stun only affects his ability to take Stun. Also, if an Ego Attack (Mental Blast in 6ed) with the advantage Does BODY affects him he will take BODY damage. 

 

A mentalist feels like his blast hits a 'mental wall's. Unlike Invisible to Mental Senses he still senses a mind where he is standing, it is just that he can't penetrate it with his Ego Attack (Mental Blast).

 

Only attacks which would affect STUN would be affected by Takes No STUN. 

[csyphrett]

Is mental powers still divided up for Sixth ed? it used to be that machines were their own category for mental powers and have to be bought against Tanner's computer mind. Most mental people who only affect people will not be able to affect him at all. Only cybermancer types will be able to mind control him. Then he gets to roll for ego against disobeying his orders/programming

CES

[steriaca]

3 hours ago, csyphrett said:

Is mental powers still divided up for Sixth ed? it used to be that machines were their own category for mental powers and have to be bought against Tanner's computer mind. Most mental people who only affect people will not be able to affect him at all. Only cybermancer types will be able to mind control him. Then he gets to roll for ego against disobeying his orders/programming

CES

In 6ed, yes it is. You default to a category of minds and add an extra one for +5 points.

 

In Champions Complete mental powers are like they were in 4th edition, affecting all types of minds unless the player limites it with a limitation. They don't even offer a Type Of Mind as an option. I don't think it exists in Fantasy Hero Complete either. I'm sure Star Hero would of reintroduce it as a option, if what had happened to Hero Games didn't happen. But it did and we didn't get a Star Hero Complete. 

[Tech]

steriaca, I'm not sure I'm onboard with the Egoist/Mentalist/etc feeling like he's hitting a mental wall. If a hero with a 40 Str (8d6 damage) hits a tough guy with a 35 PD and doesn't affect him, he doesn't necessarily feel like he hit a wall. I guess the special effects kick in here: Tanner is artificial. What would an Egoist feel trying to hit something artificial? Throwing out an idea is that the Egoist might feel a buzz in his head when trying to attack Tanner with Ego Attack/Mental Blast, but otherwise is unaware that he's doing no Stun damage. He doesn't have a power "Detect how much damage I did".  Thoughts?

[steriaca]

Then he would not actually know except that Mr. Tanner would not be clutching his head complaining about a headache. 

[Tech]

1 hour ago, steriaca said:

Then he would not actually know except that Mr. Tanner would not be clutching his head complaining about a headache. 

 

Which, in itself, is telling.

[Lord Liaden]

FWIW I consider High Tech Enemies to be overall the strongest "themed" Enemies book from Fourth Edition. Creative and varied concepts, solid designs, some of Hero's better artwork from that era, and very much on-point to what the book was aiming for.

[BoloOfEarth]

On 11/17/2020 at 9:24 PM, Lord Liaden said:

FWIW I consider High Tech Enemies to be overall the strongest "themed" Enemies book from Fourth Edition. Creative and varied concepts, solid designs, some of Hero's better artwork from that era, and very much on-point to what the book was aiming for.

 

Agreed.  I got a lot of use out of that book.  Destruction Company, Cy-Force, Montgomery International, and Weasel made numerous appearances in several of my Champions campaigns.  Kudos to Sean Patrick Fannon for a great piece of work.

 

As to mental attacks against Mr. Tanner, if running 6E and he's not affected due to machine class of minds, I'd think the mentalist would at least know that his mind is not human (but not necessarily that he's a machine mind).  But if he does affect machine minds, and uses a Mental Blast (that does no damage because Mr. Tanner takes no STUN), then he'd just notice that the target didn't appear to react to the attack (and may draw whatever inferences he wishes from that info).

[Hermit]

On 11/17/2020 at 9:24 PM, Lord Liaden said:

FWIW I consider High Tech Enemies to be overall the strongest "themed" Enemies book from Fourth Edition. Creative and varied concepts, solid designs, some of Hero's better artwork from that era, and very much on-point to what the book was aiming for.

 

On 11/21/2020 at 11:52 AM, BoloOfEarth said:

 

Agreed.  I got a lot of use out of that book.  Destruction Company, Cy-Force, Montgomery International, and Weasel made numerous appearances in several of my Champions campaigns.  Kudos to Sean Patrick Fannon for a great piece of work.

 

As to mental attacks against Mr. Tanner, if running 6E and he's not affected due to machine class of minds, I'd think the mentalist would at least know that his mind is not human (but not necessarily that he's a machine mind).  But if he does affect machine minds, and uses a Mental Blast (that does no damage because Mr. Tanner takes no STUN), then he'd just notice that the target didn't appear to react to the attack (and may draw whatever inferences he wishes from that info).

 

Third this... I really got my money's worth from that book when it came out. The Destruction Company became regular foes who fit in smoothly where Montgomery International was THE big bad for a time. I think I must have used 90% of the characters in that book at one time or another.

 

 

[Jhamin]

Fourthed!

High Tech enemies was one of my favorites from that era (and may be in my list of favorite hero products!). 

My old games had a fairly robust "Super Merc" thing going on with masterminds hiring teams of muscle as needed.  The Destruction Company and H.A.W.K.S. both showed up frequently in those plots (and my PCs really started to hate Powertool & his callous treatment of Lifewire). 

I also got a lot of mileage out of Cy-Force as I had a cyborg PC at the time who got pulled into the Cy-Force/Cyberknights conflict.  The Cy-Force version of Interface is one of the most hated villains to every grace my game table. (I always portrayed Doc Digital as being callous but not actively cruel.  He really didn't think about what he made others sacrifice in service to his view of the future.  Interface *knew* how much cruelty was involved in bringing about Doc Digital's Utopia and she Just Did Not Care.)

 

The Anti-Tech League showed up several times in my more mutant-based plotlines as one one of the underground "rebel" mutants groups getting more and more militant about Genocide.  They were zealots, but not as hateful as some of the other mutant gangs.

 

The Wormhole Gang never seemed "high tech" enough for me, they came across more as alien than tech enemies, but that may have just been where my head was at the time.  I recall retconning the Warlord into a *loyal* servant of his empire and using them as an elite taskforce for an alien empire the heroes ran into (Think the shi'ar imperial guard from the 80s X-Men)

 

 

Somewhere I have a bunch of Cy-Force and the Destruction Company converted to 6th.  Do we still have a thread going for conversions of bygone enemies like that?