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How Do You Build _____ In Champions Now?


Pariah

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4 hours ago, Pariah said:

How would one go about building a telepathic attack that kills? I'm thinking Blast based on Ego, but what else would be necessary?

 

Blast with Ego-based is the easiest.  There is no Mental Blast.  Telepathy and Mind Control with Lethal also works and is *extremely* nasty.  I'd have to look a lot closer to see how the target could shake off the mind control or break contact from the telepathy...cuz if not, it looks like you have 1 attack roll to make, pay END for a few rounds, and.......dead meat.

Interesting comments starting at the bottom of p. 203 about Mind Control, BTW.

 

 

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As I understand the rules, Telepathy with Lethal would be an Ego attack that does body based on the Core roll of the Telepathy dice and the the defense would be Special Defense: Ego, so yeah, pretty lethal. However, I also read telepathy as only rolling dice when it is initiated, so I'd say the damage only happens the first phase, then you have to make another ego attack to do more damage. That seems supported by the rules and also removes the effect of continued lethal attack for only a +1/2 advantage.

 

Blast with Ego Based would cost the same per dice and would do both Knockout and Body, while Telepathy only does Body but does let you root around in someone's brain. Your choice depends on what you want. 

 

Also, if you take Mental Discipline, you can do Mind Stab for knockout damage without buying a power and also have access to some other cool maneuvers. Self-Mastery is useful because it's how you can reduce or break mind control, images, or a telepathy probe.  

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It does become a question, as Mind Control talks about maintaining the effect if you pay END.  So is the damage integral when Lethal is applied?

 

Also, Lethal, as I read it, if attached to Telepathy would let you root around AND do the damage.

 

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The attacking Power which would otherwise do no Body damage (Entangle, Telepathy, Mind Control, Flash, Drain) applies Body damage as rolled in addition to its other effects. It is reduced by the appropriate Special Defense, or by resistant Defense for Entangle, not by Defense.

 

I do agree that if it's allowed to be continuous simply for paying the END is unreasonable, mind;  but it would seem to be supportable for Mind Control, and I'd be very leery of using different rules for MInd Control and Telepathy in this regard...that's the kind of definition by exception that makes for a rules nightmare.  That actually brnngs up a question...Entangle with Lethal.  OK, it does the damage when the vic's first hogtied.  Does it do it after?  Does it do damage if the vic tries to break out and fails?  Let's just keep the SFX simple...tungsten steel concertina wire, and the breakout attempt is just using STR.

 

Buying Mental Discipline would seem uncommon for the power levels Ron's targeting;  it'd be much more justifiable in a higher-power game, especially one where supers are formally trained in their powers.  

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I take the principle that Lethal only does damage when you roll effect dice. Entangle only rolls effect to initiate, so you'd only do damage once. Mind Control and Telepathy both only roll effect when started, so you do damage for each only on the initial effect roll. 

 

Mental Discipline is only 10 points! Very affordable. Who says a 200 point character isn't formally trained?

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When I was trying to build an Ego Attack type power, I saw two basic approaches (not including the method under Mental Discipline):

 

Blast with the Ego-Based advantage.  This allows a character to use Ego for the attack value, but the attack is still against the target's normal Defense.

 

Blast with the Severe advantage.  The Blast is still based on Dexterity, and the textual defense is defined as Ego Defense.  However, any amount of Ego Defense will completely stop the attack.

 

Of course, these could be combined for a total +1 advantage, Ego-Based and Severe.

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Here are a couple of powers I'm rather fond of, but which are a bit tricky. Any ideas?

 

Causing fear.

Causing vertigo.

 

I'm not sure what effects they should have, which makes life difficult. All I've really got is: "This villain has this power", for each of them.

 

Also, how could they be defended against?

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2 hours ago, assault said:

Here are a couple of powers I'm rather fond of, but which are a bit tricky. Any ideas?

 

Causing fear.

Causing vertigo.

 

Think about what mechanical effects you want the special effect to manifest. Mind Control. Weaken PRE, Extra Presence, Flash, Weaken Dex, and Entangle (maybe ego based) are all possible.

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I'm thinking that Vertigo could be modeled by an Ego based Entangle.

 

Basically, the target wouldn't be able to move or do much of anything, and wouldn't be able to break out by normal means.

 

Fear could be a mind control and/or a reduction in PRE, but I'm not quite sure. Again, an entangle might work too - basically the character is paralyzed by their greatest fear. But that makes it too much like Vertigo. I want the two characters to be distinct.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/27/2020 at 1:15 PM, unclevlad said:

Perhaps.  What I'm getting is a sense of trying to force-fit things.

 

I didn’t invent this for Champions Now. It’s Something I already came up with for Hero System, because I don’t like the bookkeeping for Hero System Absorption.

 

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But there's one big aspect here...all those limitations start impacting your ratio.

 

I’ve only suggested two Limitations here, and  a single character isn’t that likely to want both. Let’s look at the one for absorption. It’s a ½ Limitation which won’t be applied to the associated defense(s). So a starter version of Sebastian Shaw can have up to 174 Active points of with said Limitation, while a heroic version thereof would be limited to 114. This seems quite sufficient. 

 

On the other hand, the ratio does seem to get in the way of building possession (Deadman, Jericho). I have not, however, priced a solution out yet to be certain of that.

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37 minutes ago, megaplayboy said:

I think the "destructive" advantage is supposed to emulate killing attacks.  

 

No, Piercing is.  The key point on a Hero killing attack is that nonresistant defenses don't apply for the BODY.  That's what Piercing does.  Destructive is for unusual, nasty damage...think lye or lab-grade nitric acid.  Some burning materials like napalm.  Many poisons...certainly a necrotic like brown recluse venom, probably hemotoxins too (rattlesnake venom).  Hard radiation damage.  Appropriate to now...lung scarring from TB or serious coronavirus infection, or for that matter, from long-term smoking.  

 

Piercing should be pretty common;  anything you'd define as a killing attack.  3 DCs of killing attack -> 2 dice + Piercing in Champs Now.  Destructive, OTOH, should be pretty rare.

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1 hour ago, unclevlad said:

 

No, Piercing is.  The key point on a Hero killing attack is that nonresistant defenses don't apply for the BODY.  That's what Piercing does.  Destructive is for unusual, nasty damage...think lye or lab-grade nitric acid.  Some burning materials like napalm.  Many poisons...certainly a necrotic like brown recluse venom, probably hemotoxins too (rattlesnake venom).  Hard radiation damage.  Appropriate to now...lung scarring from TB or serious coronavirus infection, or for that matter, from long-term smoking.  

 

Piercing should be pretty common;  anything you'd define as a killing attack.  3 DCs of killing attack -> 2 dice + Piercing in Champs Now.  Destructive, OTOH, should be pretty rare.

Makes sense.  I just skimmed the 290 pages this evening.  

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The Coyote is a technical genius on a quixotic quest. He builds many wondrous devices in the name of accomplishing that goal. The problem is they don't always work the way he intends them to.

 

This is no mere Unluck. The Coyote will try to build highly complex machines, down to the last excruciating detail, with research materials about as useful as IKEA instructions. There are almost always two or three important details he misses. Unlike the Coyote of fiction, his devices haven't led him to self-destruction -- yet. The the PCs probably fear that he could take out multiple city blocks with an especially disastrous failure. But while his devices frequently backfire on himself or his friends, they always backfire on his enemies. So since you're not going to dissuade him from his mission, he can actually be useful if you keep on his good side. And he really is very smart -- he just dives headlong into projects he's not ready for because it would lead hjim closer to his goal.

 

Nobody has gotten a coherent answer after asking just what that goal is...

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm still wrapping my mind around what I propose. I wonder if it is better to put it into the Situations (Psychological Limitations: Creates devices that are pron to backfire) or putting Activation rolls on virtually all his powers. His quixotic quest would be one of his Social Limitations (in the cartoons, the Coyote's obsession with the Roadrunner goes several levels beyond just hunger -- it is a challenge the Coyote must meet head-on for some unfathomable reason.)  Our fellow's quest might just to take done one particular, nasty enemy to avenge some great wrong.

 

The Coyote probably needs a name chance, though. Because I might want to use the First Nations trickster god Coyote in a campaign. Coyote "makes the world better", so he is semi-benevolent but in ways that often conflict with the actions of superheroes. His motives are unfathomable by limited human minds.

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  • 4 weeks later...
20 hours ago, Jkeown said:

So... what about Autofire? I have a player who doesn't realize it, but he will be asking that question. Soon. So very soon. 

 

Keep in mind that Champions Now has no one to one conversion relationship with Hero System and does not attempt to make a literaly translation between special effects of the power and the way it is built. Ask the player to describe what the power would look like if it were drawn for a panel of a 1970s Marvel comic. What are the common uses it would be put to? Hitting a single target hard may well be a simple 10d6 blast with the special effect of a shower of bullets. Hitting multiple targets may be an area effect. Selective fire will have to be slots in an elemental control (multiform is NOT multipower, it's for actually changes of form, not ammo).

 

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Autofire is a special effect. Since a lot of little bullets don't penetrate as well as one big blast, maybe forgo Piercing. You could built it as Multiform with one slot being a cone area.

 

Machine Gun - Multiform (60 points)

Concentrated Burst: 12d6 Blast

Spray and Pray: 5d6 Blast, Area (cone), Piercing

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16 hours ago, pawsplay said:

Autofire is a special effect. Since a lot of little bullets don't penetrate as well as one big blast, maybe forgo Piercing. You could built it as Multiform with one slot being a cone area.

 

Machine Gun - Multiform (60 points)

Concentrated Burst: 12d6 Blast

Spray and Pray: 5d6 Blast, Area (cone), Piercing

 

I agree that autofire is a special effect. I do know, straight from Ron, that multiform is intended only for actually changes in form. A gun with different modes of output does not qualify. Elemental Control is the choice for items like this.

 

[28] Machine Gun -- Elemental Control (28)

[32] Slot: Concentrated Burst: 12d6 Blast (60)

[28] Slot: Spray: 5d6 Blast, Area Cone (3/4), Piercing (1/2) (56)

 

Yes, you need to put more points into an EC, but it doesn't require a half phase to switch between slots like a multiform. And anyway, multiform is for changing FORMS, not selecting options.

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