What power sets do you like, but never play?

[Kristopher]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

Almost all the power sets I come up with, I never get to play, because no one around here runs HERO since the two other HERO GMs left the area.

[Ranxerox]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

You can add me to the list of frustrated would-be mentalist.

 

Also, I've been wanting to play a character whose major power was Transform or Summoning. Unfortunately, these are both concepts that are hard to balance with a party of players.

[Kenn]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

This is caused by GM's who are themselves humanoid aliens. Spreading the disinformation that aliens can pass for humans assists their people in remaining secret among us

 

SSSShhhhhhh.

[Doc Samson]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

Holy Cow, I just got a new one this week. One of the members of our current group is playing a Flying Brick Move Through specialist (loosely based on Nova). I thought focusing so heavily on a single combat manuever was a neat brick idea (he has cool powers like a Triggered Tunneling to smash through walls). I decided to copy him and make a Brick specialist based on Grabs for a side campaign. I made a Grab MP with all kinds of powers Linked to Grab; such as NND damage (Choke), a STR Drain (Joint Lock), a Clinging Damage Shield (Hold), ect.

 

After one battle, the GM decided Grab with Linked Powers was too powerful and made me change my guy. Definately chalk this one up as a concept I would like to try again sometime.

[prodigyduck]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I've been interested in a while with playing a size-alteration character (both growing and shrinking).

 

I have also wanted to play a character with Multiforms for a while.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I noticed a few mentions of the 'Flying Brick' as an archtype that is difficult to balance and I just wanted to offer up some useful tips.

 

Lookup some common speedster builds. The biggest difference between them and the Flying Brick will be STR, DEX, Def and SPD. The classic speedster usually has 20-30 STR, just bump this up. The DEX and SPD get lowered and the limited movement (flight only on surface) gets un-limited.

 

The trick to getting a low-end complete superman-esq package is defining an achilles heel of some sort (magic word, radio-active plot meteorite, alien technology, etc..) that gives the GM an optional way of disabling the character without having to resort to brute-force overpowering (which usually outclasses the other PC's built without such a twist).

[assault]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

ILookup some common speedster builds. The biggest difference between them and the Flying Brick will be STR' date=' DEX, Def and SPD.[/quote']

 

I've noticed the relationship between speedsters and flying bricks. You can do some pretty neat stuff with this approach.

 

There's still a problem with stuff like Life Support, Enhanced Senses and so on. That brings us to the next point...

 

The trick to getting a low-end complete superman-esq package is defining an achilles heel of some sort (magic word, radio-active plot meteorite, alien technology, etc..) that gives the GM an optional way of disabling the character without having to resort to brute-force overpowering (which usually outclasses the other PC's built without such a twist).

 

OIHID, and even focus limitations, are very useful for this kind of thing. Of course, they can also be used by other types of character, which can ruin the effect somewhat.

 

I have never quite been cheeky enough to try "Not in the presence of X" (where "X" is something like fire, radiactive plot meteorites and the like). I've seen builds that have used it though. The obvious thing about it is that "X" then becomes a major factor in the game. That's not necessarily a problem, but you have to sweet talk your GM, and make sure that you have at least one Hunted that has access to it. Obviously that's less of a problem when "X" is something common like fire, and more so when "X" is something relatively uncommon like the stereotypical plot meteorite.

 

The other thing, of course, is that you need to trust your GM! After all, you are asking him to hose your character every now and then. That can suck after a while. But that's like any limitation, isn't it? Being hosed is part of the genre, and you need to learn to appreciate it when it happens...

 

Having an arch-enemy that can turn your powers off can be pretty scary though!

 

I guess a lot of the effectiveness of this stuff really depends on what other PCs there are. Essentially, what we are discussing is controlled munchkinisation, where we are grubbing points to buy extra stuff. Of course, since our hearts are pure, that extra stuff mostly won't be all that useful in combat. Mostly.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I like speedsters, but every time I get into a game where I can play one, it folds. My most recent attempt is still going thank heavens, so I may finally get a chance to play one.

 

Full blown Mentalist. I've run two in my Champions history, the first was my first character who went through a number of changes, and got a fair amount of play in. The second was for a game my wife GMed, but that went on hiatus. The reasons why not - usually campaign balance - many GMs don't want high power telepaths in the game... or there is something I want to play more. I'm still hopoing that when she has the time, the wife will resurect her old game.

[logomancer]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

1) Vehicle Guy: Normal guy with a kick-ass, multi-use vehicle. Think Owlman in Watchmen; think Batman, but without the detective angle. Most GM's find vehicles sorta' annoyingly invulnerable, and hence, I rarely get to play it.

 

2) Mentalist: I've had a lot of GM's make up house rules to stunt mentalists because they fear the "game warping" powers of them. Hence, they end up being a little blunted and not fun. Else, the GM's who are afraid of mentalists make everything a +30 on the charts, hence ineffective.

[OddHat]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I've never had a problem with Flying Bricks in the 22+ years I've had players running them. I'll look back through the thread and maybe comment more later.

 

As to the thread question:

 

Time Stop Artists and True Speedsters. Both are easy to build on 350 points with no optional rules, and even easier with the Ultimate Speedster. Both vastly out-power other PCs unless you strictly limit them.

 

So, I limit them. However, I would like to really be able to let loose with a Flash or Prof.Gibberne homage. I've done it in single player games, but I can't make it work in a full group without everyone feeling like second bananas to the true Speedster.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

It's interesting that I have never played a classic "sport model brick" as we call flying bricks with other stuff - I love Mon-el, Superboy, Superman, WW and such in the comics but never played one. The closest I ever had were two differed powered armor characters - both of them were flyers, minibricks* and had some sort of energy projection.

 

 

* But Ballistic has a 60 strength and ungodly defenses, so I don't think he fits in the "mini" catagory any more.

[OddHat]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

What a coincedence, I was just wondering abouit Growth Supers. I would like to expand the question to include:

1) How would they be used in a Standard Champions run? I mean with such characters reaching nearly 60 feet as Giant Man is said to do.

 

Would this not limit playability? That is if a large percentage of encounters are indoors or such.

 

So how have other people used Giant Characters in their games? Let's see what kind of "Growth" we can muster from this idea. [Excuse the pun, I couldn't resist ]

 

That's always a problem with Growth characters in Champions. The easy answer is to put Growth into a multipower with other powers.

 

In a Multipower with DI and Shrinking, Growth Guy still has some options in doors.

 

Another choice is to make Growth Guy a moderate Brick even without Growth. When inside he tries to move the action outside, fighting without his Growth advantage. Once outside, he can grow and pump out the damage.

[Mentor]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I never get to play the basic Brick. As one of the longtime Champions players and GMs, I am a victim and instigator of the "let the new guy play the basic Brick" mentality. Hopefully, a new campaign "one off" will give me the chance to play the basic Brick PC.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I never get to play the basic Brick. As one of the longtime Champions players and GMs' date=' I am a victim and instigator of the "let the new guy play the basic Brick" mentality. Hopefully, a new campaign "one off" will give me the chance to play the basic Brick PC.[/quote']

 

Yeah,

 

I ran into that problem in our last campaign. I made a 'Doc Samson-esq' brick/mArtist (Titanium Chef) who relied on leaping to get around. Great origin and fun character to play except for the fact that ALL the other team members at the time could fly. We also had a player with a terminal case of munchkinitis who all but forced the GM to escalate the power of his npc's in reaction to his characters power level (Doctor Fate-ish/Iron-Man everything type called Iron-Lich). That player eventually quit the game after we audited (or Nerfed, his term) his character. Since we were almost always short on players for the game (averaging 3-5) and we had neither a speedster or straight brick I decided to trade in Titanium-Chef for my namesake Hyper-Man (flying-brick) who could through the copius expendeture of END via his Brick/Speedster-Trick Multipower play the part of the classic Brick when necessary. He was usually the first character stunned or knocked out in a lot of early battles but this was ok. I could gauge his power level via being cautious or impulsive depending on how many other players showed up which made it easier for our GM to balance the power level of his NPC's when he never new exactly how many players would show up each Monday night.

 

The game is on hiatus due to lack of players and GM burnout. He ends up GMing one game or another on an almost permanent basis (years). I hope to run my own game soon once I get HD3 installed on my new Dell system I purchased last month.

[OddHat]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

Looking through, it seems like the Flying Brick comment was actually on the expense of a full range Superman type.

 

I can only agree. The Flight and Strength are easy, but when you start getting into the whole long list of extras it gets absurd. Mostly I end up doing some serious trimming if I want a Silver Age Superman type on under 600 points, ant the actual character is easily 1500+.

[Doc Samson]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I never get to play the basic Brick. As one of the longtime Champions players and GMs' date=' I am a victim and instigator of the "let the new guy play the basic Brick" mentality. Hopefully, a new campaign "one off" will give me the chance to play the basic Brick PC.[/quote']

 

A basic Brick may be easy to play, but a full Brick with an assortment of "Brick Tricks" can be fun and challenging to play.

[assault]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I can only agree. The Flight and Strength are easy' date=' but when you start getting into the whole long list of extras it gets absurd. Mostly I end up doing some serious trimming if I want a Silver Age Superman type on under 600 points, ant the actual character is easily 1500+.[/quote']

 

The easiest way, of course, is to build a Captain Marvel type character. You still need Life Support (but you can trim that to a degree), and I prefer to burn at least a few points on enhanced senses, but the extras aren't that big a deal.

 

Where I tend to become a little indecisive is in the choice between building a "Brick Tricks" type character, or an old school Characteristics Guy. The former ties in well with the character having various Speedster-like characteristics, since everything is basically bought in a Multi-Power! The latter, unfortunately can tend to leave relatively few points over to buy actual flight, resulting in Slowly Flying Bricks.

 

Sticking modifiers through the character helps a lot, of course. You can use the points you shave this way to actually have both Strength and a reasonable facsimile of "superspeed".

 

But then, I'm likely to start looking at all the points I trimmed off Life Support, and decide that I really do want my character to be immune to diseases and poisons, which brings me back up against my inclination to over-specify characters...

 

I've come to the conclusion that simple character concepts work best. A character that only does a few things has the option of doing them well. Except, of course, that I also tend to think that every character I would want to play should be able to deliver a decent "right to the jaw" to the bad guys, even if it isn't their main attack. Once again, concept creep sets in...

[OddHat]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

The easiest way, of course, is to build a Captain Marvel type character. You still need Life Support (but you can trim that to a degree), and I prefer to burn at least a few points on enhanced senses, but the extras aren't that big a deal.

 

Where I tend to become a little indecisive is in the choice between building a "Brick Tricks" type character, or an old school Characteristics Guy. The former ties in well with the character having various Speedster-like characteristics, since everything is basically bought in a Multi-Power! The latter, unfortunately can tend to leave relatively few points over to buy actual flight, resulting in Slowly Flying Bricks.

 

Sticking modifiers through the character helps a lot, of course. You can use the points you shave this way to actually have both Strength and a reasonable facsimile of "superspeed".

 

But then, I'm likely to start looking at all the points I trimmed off Life Support, and decide that I really do want my character to be immune to diseases and poisons, which brings me back up against my inclination to over-specify characters...

 

I've come to the conclusion that simple character concepts work best. A character that only does a few things has the option of doing them well. Except, of course, that I also tend to think that every character I would want to play should be able to deliver a decent "right to the jaw" to the bad guys, even if it isn't their main attack. Once again, concept creep sets in...

 

 

Agreed.

 

I do have a pretty good 350 point Superman tribute right now, using a mix of high characteristics and a Multipower. He's a PC in my New Circle Convention games. The trick that made him work was to take his secondary powers with Increased END cost, and use the Power Skill for the really rare stuff (Coal into Diamonds). Superspeed was the toughest thing to fit; I settled for Megascale Leaping; he can't do much more than move in an absurdly fast arc at Superspeed, but at least the "Philadelphia to Paris in the blink of an eye!" thing is covered.

[Cardinal]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

1) Luck based character - I would love to play a luck based character. Unfortunately, last time I tried, I could not create a 350 pt character that was remotely balanced. Luck FX powers can get very expensive once you try to cover all the angles of indirect, multiple fx, and game impacts). You also have to be on the same wavelength with the GM on how Luck will be handled. My personal sense is that you will need for them to be very generous about handwaving stuff, which can be difficult if other players things you are getting favored.

 

2) Summoning based Mage - I have been wanting to play something other than a standard heremetic MP or VPP mage and love the idea of a summoning f/x. Haven't had a chance to put it into play.

 

3) Teleporter - I would love to play a tporter on the Tesserect end of the power set rather than the nightcrawler El Picario end.

[Matt Frisbee]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

To be blunt -- I'd love to play any character concept from a rabid ninja beaver to old school Space Ghost (minus the kids and monkey). I GM most of the time.

 

Matt "Loves-being-a-GM-but-still-wants-to-play" Frisbee

[TheRavenIs]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I have played a Space-Ghost C myself in the day, and yes without the kids and monkey.

 

I owe Matt Frisbee rep.

[The Souljourner]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

A Teleporter

someone using absorption

a brick (other people always make the brick before I get a chance)

 

I love the idea of someone with such a huge presence, they knock people over. I had a guy with a lot of presence, but found it hard to use on a regular basis. The 40th "freeze, evildoers!" kinda gets lame.

 

-Nate

[Zed-F]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

I have all sorts of ideas that I never get to play.

 

Top of the list is a full-on VPP Supermage (or Pan-psionicist, or MacGuyver-style omni-gadgeteer, or even a high-powered metamorph.) For some reason, nobody seems to like having the guy with an answer to everything in their game. Even the one time I played an adjustment-powers-only VPP mage I felt like I was walking on eggshells all the time. While I can see their point, it still would be nice to get to play such a character sometime and really go wild. Part of the reason I never play in high-point games is that once you start to get up around 500 points or so it seems silly NOT to be using a VPP.

 

Mentalists often get the shaft, especially if you go for the dreaded plot-busting powers like Telepathy and Precognition. The other problem with these guys is that ethics can get blurry fast. The closest I've been able to come in-game are a mental illusion specialist in one short-lived game, and the occasional mental or EGO drain gimmick attack as part of an MP.

[Mentor]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

A basic Brick may be easy to play' date=' but a full Brick with an assortment of "Brick Tricks" can be fun and challenging to play.[/quote']Honesty compels me to admit that my definition of basic still includes its share of the "Brick tricks" to which you refer.

[Cancer]

Re: What power sets do you like, but never play?

 

My big problem is that I want it all .

 

My only Champions experience so far has been with a character with four different shticks (a big Multiform). I've yet to use the energy blaster form; the mentalist form has seen action twice; the speedster form has been used but not in combat. The form I've used most is the invulnerable form, who is exceedingly hard to damage but has no real offensive powers, just a couple of guns that are of at best marginal effectiveness against other supers.

 

I'm hammering together a martial artist for another campaign. That one is probably a month or so away from starting.