Favorite Abuse

[JmOz]

Okay, it is time again to play your favorite abuse, the rules for you all:

 

The abuse MUST BE book legal

 

There are two types of abuses: reasonable and Munchkin. The reasonable is one that you can normaly get past a GM (say 90%), the munchkin one is one that you could not get past 90% of GM's

 

My personaly ones:

 

Reasonable: I am a charge whore, I love having a MP with lots of slots and charges on most (My current character has something like 15 powers in his MP with a combined charges around 120)

 

Munchkin: If you take a MA (Ranged or Melee), Find weakness with one manuver, and a MP of different attacks defined as a weapon of some type you can use all your MP with the one manuver that you can find weakness on. You also can use the one manuver for all your skill levels etc...

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

I'm pretty fond of movement multipowers, esp. for bricks. Such as:

 

20 MP (20)

2u +10" Running (16" total)

1u +10" Swimming (12" total)

1u +10" Superleap

 

Of course, I don't view it as abusive.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Never done it and likely wouldn't allow it, but it might slip by...

 

Define all abilities as coming from END reserve. Sell back all END and use the points to buy an END battery.

 

More END, recovers faster, doesn't disapear on KO. Only cost is loss of per phase recovery when you have time to rest.

 

CONSIDER:

 

23 CON character with 10 REC who would normally have 50 END (paying 2 points to round up)

 

Sells END for 25 points,

 

Buys 120 point END battery with 13 REC.

 

How 'bout that 40 CON, 80 STR brick with 80 END, 25 REC?

 

Sell END for 40, buy 150 END, 25 REC END battery (or make it a 100 END, 30 REC battery for faster recharge).

 

Attempt only on drooling GM with seeing eye dog:

 

All powers have 1 googolplex charges which never recover, for a -1 limitation overall. If you don't have LS: Immortal, you can't run out of charges.

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

:sigh:

 

A thread designed to make us *want* to break the rules.

 

I can see all you you frantically cutting and pasting on to Word!

 

Shame!

 

Hawksmoor

[Hawksmoor]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Oh and I think it is expressly forbidden to sell back END if you have an END Battery. So Hugh's first example fails the litmus.

 

Hawksmoor

[Force]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Oh and I think it is expressly forbidden to sell back END if you have an END Battery. So Hugh's first example fails the litmus.

 

Hawksmoor

 

Let's hope so. After seeing how everyone is trying to come up with ideas about end, this only goes to show how borked the end rules can be.

[austenandrews]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

When 5E first came out I built a PC for a friend, playing in a FH game I wasn't, who had a pile of spells defined as 30 Active Point Suppresses and Succors with Continuing Charges in a Multipower. I don't know if that qualifies as reasonable or munchkinny.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Oh and I think it is expressly forbidden to sell back END if you have an END Battery. So Hugh's first example fails the litmus.

 

Hawksmoor

 

Quote a page reference, please. Most automotons do this as a matter of course (though they aren't PC's). The END battery writeup does caution against large END batteries combined with "Extra END" on powers that draw from it, but even this is not technically illegal.

[CrosshairCollie]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

The other downside to having END 0 is, depending on rules interpretation, getting END Drained means you take STUN damage instead ...

 

Should I mention how much my players hate my 5th Edition reincarnation of Power Crusher?

[Gary]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Let's make this more challenging. Favorite abuse without:

 

• Autofire
  
• Rapid Fire
  
• Charges
  
• End Reserves
  
• +2 or greater in Advantages or Limitations
  
• Megascale
  
• Usable as Attack
  
• Any of the 1 for 5 Powers such as Duplication or Multiform
  
• Any Fmove Martial Maneuver
  

[Gary]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

The other downside to having END 0 is, depending on rules interpretation, getting END Drained means you take STUN damage instead ...

 

Should I mention how much my players hate my 5th Edition reincarnation of Power Crusher?

 

 

Well, the actual rules and FAQ states that being Drained to negative doesn't mean that you take damage. You actually have to spend the End yourself to take Stun damage. All negative End does is force you to take longer before you're at positive End.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

:sigh: 5E did away with my Resistant DR + Armor + Persistent Triggered Aid (Healing) munchkinism. GMs would shake their heads, but since the character had absolutely no offensive capability, it was usually, "squeaked in."

 

I'll be bitter about that one for years!

[prestidigitator]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

I'm pretty fond of movement multipowers, esp. for bricks. Such as:

 

20 MP (20)

2u +10" Running (16" total)

1u +10" Swimming (12" total)

1u +10" Superleap

 

Of course, I don't view it as abusive.

Why not 20" of Swimming and Leaping, since they are each 1 pt per hex?

[prestidigitator]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Let's make this more challenging. Favorite abuse without:

 

• Autofire
  
• Rapid Fire
  
• Charges
  
• End Reserves
  
• +2 or greater in Advantages or Limitations
  
• Megascale
  
• Usable as Attack
  
• Any of the 1 for 5 Powers such as Duplication or Multiform
  
• Any Fmove Martial Maneuver
  

Can we add Independent to the list?

[Gary]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Can we add Independent to the list?

 

 

It's already there. The 5th item.

[austenandrews]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

I forgot the part of my above abuses that made them truly munchkinny - lots of Extra Time + Trigger.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Absorbtion, absorbs 1/2 to X and 1/2 to increase the maximum points absorbed.

 

X can now rise infinitely if you keep getting hit.

 

That's one that likely gets by (hey, he DOES need to get hit).

 

Add in Damage Reduction so you don't take as much damage from those hits.

 

Now it's likely to raise an eyebrow.

 

Rather than Damage Reduction, add in a 0 END Area Effect 1 hex Continuous attack. Make it standard effect. [sUCKER! Thinks the GM - that lowers your average damage.]

 

Character gets out of bed, starts his 0 END area effect attack at, say, 2d6 in his own hex (12 STUN, 4 BOD, soaked by defenses) and gains 2 STUN per phase. Let's assume X is 1/2 STR, 1/2 STUN. After an hour, assuming a lowly SPD 4, Our Hero has gained 1,200 STR and 1,200 STUN. [maybe direct some to END so you can use your 1,210 STR ).

[Supreme Serpent]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Why not 20" of Swimming and Leaping' date=' since they are each 1 pt per hex? [/quote']

 

Yeah, well I use it as a "reasonable" way of saving points while still having reasonable movement, not to turn characters into Namor or Leap-Frog. For non-water-based characters I try to keep Swimming speeds at least a little slower.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Yeah' date=' well I use it as a "reasonable" way of saving points while still having reasonable movement, not to turn characters into Namor or Leap-Frog. For non-water-based characters I try to keep Swimming speeds at least a little slower.[/quote']

Ffff! "Reasonable," was defined as being able to slip it past your GM.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Absorbtion' date=' absorbs 1/2 to X and 1/2 to increase the maximum points absorbed.[/quote']

Oh yeah! Forgot about that one. I had an Aid version of that, with a slowed fade rate and affects multiple Powers at once. I can't remember exactly how I got it to work. I think I had enough +2s on the max effect that it could add to itself (including the maximum effect) and get away with positive results. It was slow though. I'll have to dig it up sometime.

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

It doesn't conform to Gary's restrictions, but my favorite has always been:

 

Simulate Death, Usable as Attack, add a few advantages to taste, such as One Hex Accurate and No Range Mod, and it still costs less than 20 points. It is guaranteed to take out an opponent*: if he makes the CON roll, he is immobile and helpless for hours; if he fails the CON roll, he's dead.

 

*Unless the opponent is the GM.

 

How 'bout:

 

Buying lots of STR and CON and then selling back all or most of the STUN you'd get. You essentially get STR and CON for half price and still get the associated PD, ED, REC, and END. In fact, you can leave out the CON and just get Xd6 HtH damage** for 2.5 points per die!

 

**You can do damage at range too, quite easily, by simply throwing something.

[Beastial]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Inspector Cluseau rides again:

 

25d6 Luck. You'll have ON AVERAGE four 6's, plus or minus. Given the descriptions of this degree of luck, you're foes automagically defeat themselves at that point. Anvils rain from the sky, and the universe goes out of its way to make you happy. Silliness abounds.

 

--------------

 

My own semi-abusive version of a movement munchkinism:

 

40 point multi

20" flight 4u (40" non-combat)

5" flight, x128 NCM 4u (640" non-combat)

5" flight, megaspeed x 12 (1" = 1x10^12km)

 

That works out to about mach 6 for the NCM version and WAY over the speed of light for the megascale version. The speed of light would be around 6 levels of megaspeed... so we're looking at something around 1 million times faster than light. The turning radius might leave something to be desired, but you'd get there in a big hurry.

 

--------------

 

Buy all your stats -1/4 Costs END to start. That's not so bad, but now you can put it in an Elemental Control... and you could go and give them all an activation time (1 turn perhaps?) for a rediculous number of points. As you're out of combat, you can also give the EC an activation roll, and save yourself even more.

 

So every morning, you wake up and power up. No combat effects at all, you just go from schmo to x2 as good stats as everyone else in your campaign every morning... at least until you're rendered unconcious... then you revert back to joe schmoe, and are at the mercy of whoever managed to defeat you (ie the GM), who'll probably be a bit irked at you for pulling a stunt like this.

 

I wouldn't recommend buying your END this way though, or you probably'd KO yourself in this infinite goto-10 power-up-loop. (particularly if you went and -1/2 linked them all together).

 

--------------

 

Summon->Aid

Buy summoning, any of a small group (+1/4 right?), friendly (+1/4). You can summon these little genies with aids built on extremely slow power fades (say 5 points per week). Take the activation time (1 week) limitation, and spend some points to summon more than one at a time. You summon them, they beef you up and go away. You could sell back all their combat-useful stats, phsyically limit them into a near-vegitative state, etc. A 20-point genie could have a pretty hefty aid.

 

Actually, that could be a pretty cool way to build an uber-villain. He has to summon some demon-beasty to beef himself into his normally-unstoppable state. He can only perform this summoning during some event (summer solstice, lunar eclipse, whatever), so the summon is cheap and HUGE. The players eventually learn of this and have to disrupt the cerimony in order to have Uber-Villain-Conjurer-Guy weakened to a point where he can be defeated.

 

 

--------------

 

Another summoning trick:

Build a summoning to duplicate the effect of missiles, buy their self-slaying attack as penetrating (more than once for those swine who go and buy hardended defenses), and give them a whole pile of Teamwork and flight , make their attack a 1 hex AoE). Each hit will only do a little damage, but then you drop another 20-30 points to summon a whole bunch of them in one go. 2^6 = 64. If each of those missiles does even a couple points of damage to their target, the combined attack is sure to stun just about anyone. Lather, rinse, repeat.

 

You could also use charges/auto-fire instead of the whole +5->double number of summoned critters to spew an equally large number of these missiles.

 

4d6 double penetrating (+1), AoE 1 hex (+1/2), Side effect (-1 enough damage to kill itself), 1 charge (-2). Heck, you could make this a lot more than 4d6. Instead of the "1 charge" route, you go go with x10 END (-4 IIRC) AND sell back all their CON. They'll die anyway. You could theoretically do both... END-using charges is another disadvantage!

 

Don't forget lots of flight, -1 "Only directly at designated target", - a whole pile for "1 continuous charge lasting X (however much range you want to have)"

 

The only downside to this is that you'd have to buy it with the +1 "Slavish loyalty" advantage... that's the only way to get summoned beings willing to throw their lives away (like for example using an ability that destroys themselves)... IF the GM is savy enough to catch on to your suicidal-freebee-auto-stunning-missle-horde ways.

 

With a little extra work, you could figure out how to target multiple foes with the same barrage... spewing 64 missiles at 8 agents ought to be enough to drop them all.

 

 

Now throw all this in a multipower with different kinds of attacks: stun-ony, HA's, KA's, NND, AVLD, you name it. Maybe even a drain or two (though they don't stack well... or pick up a +1/4 advantage to get a tight group of different missiles.

 

Heck, as far as the drains go, you could buy each one 1d6 with a bunch of +2 max drain for 1 point... then they would add up together just fine.

 

U R Teh UB3R!

 

Madness!

 

--------------

 

What else can my devilish little mind come up with? Lessee here...

 

"Buy" all your stats/powers as an aid with the +2 adjustment advantage "all in a given special effect", and pile on enough time-chart fade rate advantages to make all your other abilities fade at a rate that doesn't particularly matter (5pts/day or something) You then slap an activation time on it to match its fade rate. Over a couple days (or whatever rate you go with) you'd reach the maximum your aid could give you. In fact, you just buy a 2d6 aid (so the average comes out to more than 5), and sink the rest into increasing the maximum. Over the course of a few days, you'd slowly cap out all your powers (quite possibly including the aid itself) You then buy sad, weak little versions of all the powers you want and watch the aid buff them into the stratosphere.

 

You might want to throw in a +1/2 0 END on this one... the active cost is likely to grow rediculously large, particularly with the aid-to-the-aid thing going (though with all the advantages you'd hit a point of deminishing returns relatively quickly).

 

Potential Limitations: Only self, activation time, can only be activated at X time of day (sunrise, sunset), OAF: Imobile (-2!), 1 charge (per day)

 

Heck, a particularly cheesy person would put the aid gizmo in a vehicle/base/summon to get the 1->5 point thing going... but then you're back to one of my other suggestions. Hey! Aid the summon! that's just evil. With the x5 multiplier you might never hit a point cap on the aid. Every [whenever] you become more and more powerful. You could then pick up additional powers at some rediculously low level and watch them rocket off to catch up to the rest. Going through a summon, I wouldn't be suprised to find that this can reach exponential growth.

 

Now go get a small cosmic VPP, and you end up with a virtually unlimited number of small powers. IIRC the aid wouldn't affect the max active points of any power, but would affect the total points available. Spend all your XP on that maximum, and you're off to divinity.

 

In fact, you only need the two powers: summon and a VPP. Get stupid with it... 240pts for a 80pt cosmic pool, and 10 on the summon. In short order you'd have all the 80pt powers you could ever want. 80pd, 80 ed, 53rpd 53red, 80 lack of weakness, 80 flash defense (for senses X, Y, and Z), a Really Nice find weakness roll, etc. Your attacks wouldn't be half bad either, tailored to the Foe Du Jur... Think of the multi-power attacks you could pull off! Heaping piles of AP, penetrating, NND, AVLD, you name it.

 

Galactus is a WIMP!!!

 

 

I think I've sown enough mayhem and destruction for one day. Carry on.

 

-----------------------

 

EDIT: Uh oh. Thought of another one. With "Major Transformation" you can add powers and limitations. Each extra body worth of damage gives you 10 character points to play with. Buy yourself a transformation, give yourself about 30 or 40 points in extra powers/characteristics/etc, and a transformation that is a slightly more powerful version of the last one, with an extra 15 points of transform (1d6). Heck, you could go and do this to the rest of the PCs as well. One instant Parthenon, just add water.

 

To be particularly evil, give yourself a limitation: x2 effect from transformations (and try to be specific enough that it'll only be your OWN transformations). That just won't fly with most GMs.

 

You don't need any kind of extra time/end cost/whatever mumbo-jumbo. You just keep transforming yourself over and over again.

 

Yes, this is straight munchkinism... the transform power specifically states that you should use multiform to do this sort of thing.

 

Two ways around it:

 

1) Absorb/aid/whatever the multiform (and the aid of course).

 

2) Followers. You can't transform yourself, but the example in 5ER specifically mentions transforming some followers. You transform him, he transforms you, back and forth. Same result. Now it's technically legal. You could have quite a few initially-feeble followers. After ping-ponging with one of them for a bit, you go back and transform all the others, then go back to ping-ponging. You end up with a bunch of Really Powerful followers, one uber-follower, and the Uber-Leader. The followers don't even have to start off with a transformation power... it can be "inflicted" on them in the first iteration.

 

I'd recommend building those followers as sub-human. Wouldn't want them to go thinking for themselves now would ya. Uber-follower will be just as powerful as the leader (minus the few paltry points that initially seperated them, if any), and with the aid of another follower or two could easily rip Uper-Leader a new one.

 

[BNakagawa]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Unfortunately, it takes 5 minutes to prepare for the use of Simulate Death...

[mattingly]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Simulate Death is so much more fun as a Damage Shield...

 

Anyway, one that I like is to put Does KB and 2x KB on a cheap d6 power, like Dispel or Flash Nontargeting. In a 12d6 game, you can do 20d6 of KB!

[TheEmerged]

Re: Favorite Abuse

 

Book Legal:

The "Mind Mole". Tunnelling + X-Ray + ECV Attacks...

 

"Bouncing Boy". Moderate-High STR + Moderate-High Movement + Absorption PD into STR (and sometimes Absorption ED into Movement). Takes advantage of the "blowback" damage of Move By and Move Thru to make your character do more damage each time they hit something...

 

 

Book Legal, and don't even THINK of running these by me...

Megascale on a AE:One Hex power. This one has seen print (the Mind Control Laser in Champions)

 

Trigger, "Whenever I need it" -- has seen print as an example in FREd

 

Entangle, NND -- Ditto Flash NND to a lesser extent

 

Honorable Mention "Book Legal But Doesn't Work the Way You Think It Does"

Dispel to Knockback Resist, Does KB, Double KB. Powers which adjust a defense still have the defense applied to that attack...