Help with a character's powers

[VR Dragon]

I am working on Powered Armor Character and I am having some trouble with what type of damage his powers do.

 

I am kinda modling his abilites after the energy blast powers of City of Heros and I am at a lose. The energy blasts do a kinda combo damage of some phyical and the rest energy. So how do I pull this off? or if I make his blasts are bolts of force ( the same stuff as a force field? ) what that be a phyical damage or energy?

 

Also, IF I bought damage reduction for his armor power is it wrong to have Dam. Reduction for enery and phyical linked to his armor power?

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Help with a character's powers

 

Linking the Damage Reduction with the armor is a bit reprehensible and munchkinly, and as both are persistant always on abilities I'd be inclined to say its not even legal, but I don't have my book nearby to check. As for the blasts, its all up to you...there's no hard and fast rule. If you want them to be Energy, then they are energy. If you want them to be physical, then they are physical. Iron man's repulsor blasts, for instance, are probab;ly defioned as physical attacks even tho appearance wise they look like energy bolts. Its all up to special effects.

[Mike W]

Re: Help with a character's powers

 

Actually, I'd define the Replusor blasts as energy and the pulse bolts as physical(because they are based on kinetic energy and building force). But the basic point is - define however makes sense. You can have "energy blasts" that work vs. physical defense - this is how you build say, a blunt-tipped arrow. Just decide what kind of "energy" you are throwing and use that to determine the most appropriate defense.

 

You can't link damage reduction and armor. You can buy both, but they should be bought separately.

[gojira]

Re: Help with a character's powers

 

I played CoH in beta, over a year ago, so I'm having problems remembering exactly how it worked. But pretty much I'd say any beam attack is just an EB vs ED. Physical attacks would be more for guns and swords.

 

Some attacks had more range or less (or more) knock back, or other side effects. But if the effect of an attack is just damage, then it's just a EB vs. PD or ED, your choice.

 

Repulsars would be either extra knockback, or no damage at all (only does knockback). (I remember my Tech? Defender? had an attack that also tossed enemies a fair distance away. I'd model that as an attack that does extra knockback.)

 

You can't link armour and DR, as Mike said. But you could use the same OIF (Power Armour) for both.

[TheEmerged]

Re: Help with a character's powers

 

Well, you *could* build the power with Reduced Penetration and fiat that the "second half" is applied to PD instead of ED.

 

You could also build two seperate blasts -- one to PD and one to ED -- and link the second one as part of a designed multiple-power attack

 

You could also build it as a single attack with Limited Variable Effect and having the character take 3-shot autofire, defined as only being 2 shots of different effects than 3 shots of the same effect. Add on Concentrated Autofire and a +1 OCV for the second shot to have the same OCV roll and you've got a plan.

 

/humor on

And since this is HERO, you could also build it as Transform -- Person to Person with less STUN than they had a while ago

/humor off

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Help with a character's powers

 

Hi, VR (may I call you VR?) As it's not clear from your questions as to how much familiarity you have with HERO System, I'm going to couch my answers to include addressing some basic concepts which you may not be fully conversant with yet. If I'm underestimating your experience with HERO, I apologise.

 

One thing to keep in mind regarding attacks in HERO is that although they may have the special effect of doing Energy or Physical damage, that doesn't really affect how they work mechanically. An Energy Blast Power defined as working vs Energy Defense and one vs Physical Defense will both do STUN and BODY damage, Knockback, are potentially Spreadable etc. Other than the type of Defense they work against they're pretty much the same, and both will do the same "physical" damage to the target, so you can define your character's attack whichever way you think makes the most sense. If you actually want some of the damage to be vs Physical Defense and some vs Energy Defense, you've already received some good suggestions as to how to build that.

 

It's also unclear from your question about Damage Reduction and Armor as to whether you want one of those Powers to take the "Linked" Limitation connecting it mechanically to the other (and giving it a break in cost), or whether you just want the same suit of armor to have both the Armor Power and Damage Reduction built into it, and hence "linked" by the armor. If it's the latter, there's no problem; both Powers would take any overall Limitation that applied to the suit of armor, such as Focus or Only In Heroic Identity (OIHID).

 

If you want to apply the actual Linked Limitation, note that while it is legal to Link a Constant Power, if said Power is on most or all of the time - such as Defenses - it's the GM's option to rule that the value of the Linked Lim is 1/4 less, i.e. -1/2 becomes -1/4.

 

I hope that was clear. If not please feel free to post followup questions, and we'll keep trying.