Most interesting power

[braincraft]

In terms of special effect or point build/design, what is the most interesting power, characteristic, or ability you've ever seen in one of your games?

 

I've heard some really funky ideas, but I'd like to hear more. If the Vanquisher has some elegant way of simulating a magic bullet that does damage based on how impure your heart is, or if Nanoman has some unusual disadvantages on his power to create robots from debris using his nanomachines, or if you have a guy who can secrete a liquid from his skin that absorbs kinetic energy, tell me here.

[VictorVonDoom]

Absorption is a life savior

 

Absorption is a lifesavior...combine that with weapons or other nufty tools and your hero can kick serious butt ...

 

[Hugh Neilson]

Absorption to STUN (or partially to STUN) combined with Damage Reduction at a hugh level can be very effective.

[VictorVonDoom]

Bodyarmor/Forcefield/any defence

 

Body armor or forcefields or any defence mechanisme in Hero might be interesting but with some GM it might be abusive or overpowered

[braincraft]

I had meant 'interesting' in the sense of 'cool or unusual' moreso than 'cost-effective', in case I have not made myself clear.

[OddHat]

Originally posted by braincraft

I had meant 'interesting' in the sense of 'cool or unusual' moreso than 'cost-effective', in case I have not made myself clear.

 

One I hadn't seen elsewhere. I had a southern belle supervillainess with a PRE of 90, COM 40, and lots of PRE skills. She wanted to become the first female president and eventually rule the world by asking people politely. Could have been a heroine except for her lack of empathy and tendency to make remarks like "I wish someone would do something about that man" in front of love-stuck thugs. Had PD, ED, and KB resistance defined as "You just can't make yourself attack her."

[Mordacius]

My favorite powers were mostly in this horrendously powerful hard SF game I played in ("The Nanotech Gods" - many, many Phillip Jose Farmer steals in it ).

 

- Data Haven (Racial Memory)

Contacts: Dead people whose souls my character ever devoured (Organization, Slavishly Loyal, requires Concentration of 1/2 DCV to access)

 

This was sort of complicated - gods took the souls of the dead to return them to the cycle of life, and had limited access to them to learn information. My character took it a step further and archived everything anybody had ever perceived in one gigantic compressed file. Unfortunately, the more obscure the information, the longer it took to find. (My character perceived it as a virtual place, and had to look for remnants of people to question, hence the concentration lim.)

 

- Jeeves, the Virtual Avatar

Computer (INT 30, EGO 10, SPD 2)

 

Since I couldn't run month or year long queries myself, I partitioned off a section of my brain as a dedicated search engine named Jeeves, with full AI. He was later recoded by a viral program left in my character's compressed memories. (Jeeves was cool - he appeared as a butler that only I could see.)

 

- Security Jeeves

PER +2

 

I liked the whole "Virtual Avatar" thing, so I later partitioned off another section of intelligence, whose job was to keep an eye on all of my senses in real time, and make sure I didn't miss anything critical.

 

Other Powers from that game:

- Know the Worth of a Soul:

Detect Subject's Basic Moral Tendencies (Sense, Ranged)

 

Another god could immediately size up how trustworthy someone was. He revolutionized his society in something like a decade.

 

- Healing Blood:

Heal 3-5d6, Affects Limbs

 

We had nanobots in our blood that could be used for massive, massive regeneration. Some of us learned how to reprogram it to heal anybody, and bottled it up as healing potions, complete with herbs and spices as preservatives.

 

(It was a long time before the fact that that was blood became public knowledge. )

 

- Relationship Sense

Sense How Subjects Relate To Each Other (Sense Simulates Danger Sense)

 

One of us came complete with a 40+ point Danger Sense that he later learned to tune to other frequencies, so to speak - in addition to picking up on hostility directed his way, he was able to pick up on emotional responses from anybody to anybody else in his immediate area. It was cool - could tell if people would be good coworkers, or if someone was secretly in love, or immediately tell if someone was a spy...

 

Active Sight:

Telescopic Vision, Ultraviolet

 

Some of us got tired of being limited by regular optics - had to see further up. So someone got the bright idea to rewire his eyes as laser emitters. (That was cool. We later used that trick to contact people who were effectively on other continents.)

 

There were literally dozens of other unique abilities in that campaign world, but those were some of my favorites.

[SleepyDrug]

One guy I gamed with played a mage named the Eternal Dragon. He had a VPP with a skill roll and side effects.

 

The story was that, once upon a time, he was a young naive apprentice who tried to intervene when his master erred in banishing a demon. The artifact he used caused him to become a prison for the demon (and other demons trying to breach the portal).

 

Thus, his body was a prison for a 1000 demons. Each demon could be tapped into for a specific magical effect. But every time he used a demon to cast a spell, he had to fight it (skill roll) to maintain control or risk becoming possessed or freeing the demon (side effects).

[Blue Jogger]

A demon who could be quite charming or fearful, if you fell under his spell.

Charm/Fear Spell, +40 PRE, (May be resisted by EGO roll at -3 bought as Act 14-)

 

"Hey guys! I know a shortcut!"

Folding the Tesseract, Extra-dimensional Travel (to the "shortcut" dimension and back) with extra mass for the whole party. 1 Charge/day

[Derek Hiemforth]

This is technically not legal because of the way Persistant/Constant Powers work (specifically, SPD bought as a Power), but we used it the way we did because it was cool, not unbalancing, and fit the character perfectly.

 

A speedster had a 6 SPD all the time. He then bought an additional +6 SPD with the Limitations Costs END and Increased END Cost: x10. The net effect was that he normally went only on even-numbered Phases, but if he "Pushed" (i.e., spent 10 END), he could go on an odd-numbered Phase. He wasn't allowed to use it as some kind of perpetual held action, however. At his DEX in each odd Phase, he had to declare whether he was kicking in a SPD point that Phase and coughing up the requisite END. (It also meant he generally couldn't use these extra Phases to Abort.)

 

Another one I liked was a spell my sorceress character came up to deal with the problem of "heroes" hitting enemies while they're unconscious "to make sure they stay out." The Binding Pentacle of Lasting Slumber. It's a simple 4d6 NND, the defense to which is "being conscious." To a conscious foe, it does nothing. To an unconscious foe, it takes them to GM's option on an average roll (after doubling the STUN because the target is unconscious. )

[GamePhil]

I had a character named Tachyon, never used. He was based around a Tachyon Laser Pistol. This was bought as follows:

 

SPD 4 (mentioned for reasons that become apparent)

 

Effect Before Cause: +4 SPD, only to use the Tachyon Laser (-3/4), IIF (-1/4)

Tachyon Laser: 2d6 RKA, Indirect (+1/2), Invisible to All Senses (+1), 0 END (+1/2), IIF (-1/4)

 

Total cost: 92 points

 

At about one second in a potential future, he would (will?) fire off the weapon (it's Indirect because he could move a bit before firing). It then travels back in time and hits the target. He then decides not to fire it. So, his now non-existant future self shot an enemy, so he didn't spend the END. It's Invisible both because it's hard to tell where it came from and because it's just hard to detect tachyons. It's IIF because he just needs it on him, he never has to actually fire it.

 

I was thinking that eventually he might start pulling other stunts with it: future selves firing it for Autofire or Area Of Effect, and so on.

 

Technically, he could use the Laser on his Phases, but it didn't seem worth a Limitation to restrict it considering the savings on the extra SPD: if it's worth a -1/4, it reduces the cost to 80.

[Blue Jogger]

Beaten Senseless

 

Villian: Ah ha! I've got you now! (pulls out a gun)

Player (to GM): Danger Sense, I made my half roll, sensed his attack and I'm going to Missile Reflect it back!

GM to Player: Wait, I roll my Danger Sense. (Makes half roll) Ok, I'm not going to pull the trigger, because that puts myself in danger. I put my gun away.

Player: Wait, what just happened???

GM: Your Danger Sense went off, but nothing obvious happened.

[Markdoc]

One of my favourite old characters, called Nexus, had horrendous levels of duplication, with the special effect that he was calling "future versions" of himself back through time. The cost was reduced by a side effect - teleport through time to a specific location, plus side effect, in that he took the damage of all the duplicates at the end of the time hop.

 

Effect: on phase 2 - a flood of Nexuses. Phase 4, they all disappear. 11 phases later Nexus reappears where duplicate #12 was.

 

In terms of combat effectiveness, it was pretty dubious, but in terms of comic effect it was priceless.

 

cheers, Mark

[Talon]

My personal favorite is pretty simple: Entangle, Explosion, defined as growing a tree.

 

One power I saw at GenCon was a defensive Mental power: whenever someone went to attack him, the GM would try to convince them it was a bad idea. Worked for a while, too. However, I don't think it was written up in Hero System terms (although it may be shortly!).

[Arthur]

Had one player build a version of Marvin the Martian. You know, the short pitch-black guy with the Greek helmet from the old Warner Bros cartoons ("I am very very angry").

 

Noticed he had a listing for "Disintegrator/Reintegrator Gun". It had appropriate Powers, but he hadn't taken the Focus Limitation. Asked why:

 

"Because he always has another one."

[Derek Hiemforth]

Just thought of another one...

 

I have a Spider-Clone character in Champions, and wanted to give her the ability to make a web shield that provides some defense, is gradually shot away, and uses up web fluid when created but doesn't otherwise require maintenance until she creates another one. I played around with Armor, Force Wall, Force Field, etc. but nothing seemed quite right.

 

Then I got it: I bought it as Entangle with Personal Immunity. To create a "shield," she simply Entangles herself! It doesn't hinder her because she's immune to it, but anyone attacking her encounters the Entangle's DEF and BODY first. And when the Entangle has been destroyed, she can create a new "shield" by simply Entangling herself again.