Speedster Trick: "Bullet Catching"

[TheTemplar]

Hi Steve. I posted this in the Champions discussion room as well, but I was curious as to what the official answer would be. I need to make sure that this power will work the way I want it to. My character is a speedster, and I'd really like for him to be able to grab bullets or other light physical missiles out of the air before they hit their targets. This would be used to keep thugs from firing on a trembling mob of bystanders, or to protect teammates from a hail of agent fire (assuming non-energy weapons...hard to catch plasma.) I've built the power as Missle Deflection, up to Bullets and Shrapnel, and selected the Full Range option w/ MD, w/ the SFX being that I can run around the group catching all ranged attacks fired at them, and would start my next phase from the same point where I started deflecting (since the running around part is built as SFX.) Will that work the way I built it? What is the shape of the "Range" on Ranged Deflection? Does the " shown denote a radius? A line? Ideally...it would be a Radius..if not, then I would need to by AoE Radius on my MD, and drop the "Full Range" from my MD....which would be (I believe...no FREd here) more expensive, but I'll do it if it more accurately describes the SFX I want.

Thanks!!!

-T

[Steve Long]

This sounds mostly like a "how to," but I guess there's a sort of a rules question in there somewhere.

 

If I were building such a power (like, say, on USPD 205, though my version doesn't have Range), I'd use Missile Deflection, as you suggest. However, that special effect doesn't allow the character to move -- he can't go to a different hex other than the one he's standing in when he uses the power. He'd have to always run back to where he was standing. If you want to let him end up somewhere else, you need to add a little Linked Teleportation (see the "Teleportation Boxing" power in the Online USPD for something similar).

 

You should probably also buy the Range as a naked Advantage and apply appropriate Limitations, like restricting the Range to within the character's Combat Move with Running.

 

The Range Advantage for Missile Deflection is not a "shape." It allows the power to be used at Range, that's all. To the extent you want to think of it as having a "shape," it would be a radius, since the Range extends an equal distance from the character in all directions.