Advice on a Gravity Control power

[CptPatriot]

Hi, everyone. I've been trying to port a character from V&V who had Gravity Control into the Hero System. Gravity Control, as in increasing and decreasing its its hold on a target.

 

This is what I have so far based on insight from 6th Edition Star Hero:

 

Gravity Control: Telekinesis (22 STR), Area Of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4), Attack Versus Alternate Defense (make a STR vs STR Roll w/o Density Increase added, at least 2 pts innate Resistant PD for each 5 pts of STR subjected to, defenses based on anti-gravity or Flight with No Gravity Modifier; All Or Nothing; +1) (74 Active Points); Only To Pull Objects Straight Down To Earth Or Hold Them Off The Ground (-1)

 

Your thoughts?

[Doc Democracy]

What are you trying to achieve?  That is always the tricky bit and there are so many little aspects of gravity that sometimes the mechanics do not provide for.

 

With the area effect TK you get an area where the people within can grapple with the TK either to be able to move freely or to not drift off the ground, yes?

 

It is a pretty much all or nothing kind of thing, either you lift up or you do not based on a STR roll.  You keep moving or you do not, based on a STR roll.

 

That is pretty much how I have done things in the past but it has always felt not quite right...I always wondered how my STR helped me not drift off the ground unless I was actively grabbing onto something and in a zero-g environment (or low G) surely I would not drift unless something acted on me to do that...also all of the objects in the field would be lighter (or heavier) if those in the field wanted to use them.

 

I considered looking to raise or lower the effective STR for the purposes of jumping, lifting and throwing which gave some nice effects.  It did not have immediate impacts on movement that you might be looking for except for those characters who lost all of their STR and did not have, for example, flight.  I needed to look at changing the mass of those in the field because changing the mass of the person with flight might overwhelm their carrying capacity, or teleporting capacity.

 

I have no worked up builds, just a lot of frustration at never having played one that really felt like I had been manipulating gravity...

 

:-)

 

Doc

[Ninja-Bear]

I've seen entangle used with appropriate modifiers to represent intense heavy gravity. For lighter gravity I have seen flight. I agree with Doc. gravity powers can be frustrating.

[Ninja-Bear]

You could have an EB NND vs density increase / high pressure. Special effect: a sudden increase of gravity and release. At a higher level, it could be a killing attack instead of EB.

[bigdamnhero]

I've typically handled it as TK with AOE, with a straight STR vs STR roll to move or break free. Entangle works too, but TK is simpler and allows you to squeeze/throw/etc the target once you've grabbed them. I'm not sure about the AVAD/NND part tho? Do you see that as affecting the target's attempts to break free of the TK Grab? Or just the squeezing damage?

[Christopher]

There is one big issues with Gravity powers in Hero: Gravity is logically able to do stuff no balanced hero power should be able to do.

Effectively it works like Telekinesis that has no defence. The one property Hero powers should never have.

 

Some model that aspect with Flight, Usable as Attack. Personally I am more a fan of using straight TK (inlcudng that a taget can break out). But that is mostly because I dislike Movement, UAA.

The bases in Champions 6E actually contain some writeups for "gravitiy generators" and "gravity pinner". Those are moddeled as TK, AoE.

 

More so then most other special effects you have to make concession against detail and exact simulation for the sake of balance and counterability in gameplay. It is far easier to make a gamebreaking Gravity power then a balanced one.

[Hyper-Man]

FWIW, Steve had ruled in the 5e FAQ that NND was not a legal Advantage for TK.  That was really the only RAW reason to use the Flight UAA method to model Gravity effects.  Since that ruling has evidently changed for 6e I agree that NND TK is the cleaner way to go.

[CptPatriot]

So, that being the case, Hyper-Man, what do you guys think about how common the defense is?

 

Rare? Uncommon?

[Hyper-Man]

I think it depends a great deal on how common the Flight Power is in the campaign world.

[CptPatriot]

Well, the campaign is of the standard Superhero sort.

[Haventhrow1]

Its a minor (or major if you plan to do damage from the transformation) transformation attack, but it gets very expensive very fast depending on modifiers. To be a true "Gravity Hero" you almost have to put it in a VPP with the limitation of gravity powers only. This lets you use Tk, Flight with usable on others and uncontrollable, and transform attacks. At least that's how I built my guy. He's fun to play, but it usually takes a couple of phases to transform someone (especially if they have any power defense). However, you will own perps that use foci. When you make Binders gun weigh 10 tons...he is kinda screwed..8)...

 

I had a player try to use density increase usable on others with the limitations of only applies extra weight and kb res, but this was kind of a stretch. Plus it was really powerful for pretty cheap. But if that would work in your campaign more "Power" to you.

 

Sorry to repost..it timed out on me the first time.