Ice9

Re: What have you Summoned? I don't find summoned creatures too hard to manage, as long as you construct them appropriately. I try to stick to single attacks and static defenses, which makes running 2-3 summons no more labor intensive than a single moderately complex character.

Re: What have you Summoned? Robots for a super-inventor, and dream creatures for another character.

Re: overmentalizing Sure, the AP isn't that high. Of course, the AP for an antigravity belt (Flight 2m, Fuel Charge, OIF) is even less, and actually, so is the AP for a perpetual motion generator (TK, No END, OAF Bulky). I'm not saying that psi-scanning devices are inherently improbable, just that AP is not a good guideline for how common something is. Sure, it makes sense that some organizations would take measures against it. And that they would also take measures against teleportation, clairvoyance, invisibility, n-ray vision, super-pheremones, cyberpaths, desolidification, shapeshifting, standard spying, tactical prediction,, and pretty much opposing forces in general. How much resources they can devote to each of those areas depends on the organization, but if the answer is "plenty", then we're looking at a group that you can't use anything but brute force on. And if everyone operates like that, it makes things rather monotonous, IMO.

Re: Powering Up With Multiform Of course, since Aid is exponential, it will eventually beat any linear method, even Multiform. The question is - can you find 32 or 64 things to Aid that actually synergize with each-other? HTH would seem like the best route to really maximize this, since so many different things add to it: STR + Growth + Density Increase + HA + Movement (for Move-by) - that's five direct sources, plus a theoretically unlimited number of Damage Shields. Of course, go too far in this way and you risk GM-smiting.

Re: Powering Up With Multiform It may be that long before the Aid is gone completely, but even by 1 Minute it will be significantly weakened. Let's compare +60 STUN: Time Aid 1m TL 5m TL 1t 55 60 60 4t 40 60 60 1m 35 0 60 2m 10 0 60 24t 0 0 60 So we can see that it's not even close to 5m. Comparing it to a 1m TL, the 1m TL is better in the 1t - 4t range, and the Aid is better in the 1m - 2m range. Longer than that, and neither does you much good. Now personally, I've seen more fights/action scenes that last 1t - 4t than 1m - 2m. Sure, extended chases/escapes can go longer, but most of those go well past 2m.

Re: Powering Up With Multiform That's a point in favor of Time Limit + Characteristics though. Aid already (with no limitations) takes a half-phase and END to activate. That's an extra -3/4 you get to put on the characteristics to get the same result. And actually, since you have to apply Aid twice to get the maximum result, you could bump the non-Aid version to a full-phase and still have equal effectiveness. And if you don't have Delayed Return Rate on Aid, then a Time Limit of 1 minute is actually a lot better than what Aid effectively gets you, since it will be significantly depleted after a couple turns. Now all that is comparing Aid to Characteristic + Time Limit. Multiform is unquestionably cheaper, once you reach a certain threshold. Let's try that with Multiform. For 240 active points, you can have a 1200 point Multiform. Unless your original character was >720 points, the Multiform is a better deal here, even with no limitations at all. Factor in Time Limit, and the difference soars. Of course, Multiform doesn't work so well when you just want to make minor changes, and it's not always the appropriate tool to use. But point-efficient - unquestionably.

Re: overmentalizing

Re: overmentalizing No offense, but this sounds like a pretty big waste of Telepathy. "Look, I have the powers and abilities of some headset walkie-talkies, and I can find out information that we would have discovered anyway!" Fine as a "side power", but not something I would base a character around. It seems like this new player is just using mental powers to their actual potential. Now if that potential is screwing up all your plots, and you're not having success in adapting to it, then you may just want to level with the player and ask them to make a different character. Better that then a bunch of stealth-nerfs that will probably just create bad feelings in the group. This. I mean, I know that mental powers are hard to deal with, and I would not think less of a GM for disallowing them in a particular campaign. And of course, a lot of the suggestions are fair game - compartmentalize information, give out false details to minions, have a villain mentalist plant false memories - go for it! But some of the ideas seem like ham-handed GM-fiat, along the lines of "Oh, you have long-distance flight? Um, all the villains have permanent windstorms in a 50 mile radius around their castles, and also people will think you're a demon if they see you using it." And that's just not cool.

Re: Area Shield Can the shield be broken down by enough firepower? If not, I would consider an AoE Drain, using the "Suppression Field" option - i.e, any attack that passes through it is reduced. If it can be - IIRC, there's a Transparent option for Barrier, either in the core or in the APG.

Re: many wolves > one chimaera O.o It also depends how the characters and enemies are built: * If you want one powerful creature to defeat an army of weak ones, then go with static defense like DEF and DCV, and make AoE attacks widely available - including melee AoE's like Whirlwind Attack. * If you want numbers to be the deciding factor, focus on "ablative/limited" defenses like Blocking, Ablative or limited-Charge DEF, Triggered powers, or just high STUN/BODY. Also, make AoEs rare and/or more costly.

Re: Counters to problems? (Such as AoE spam and magic overuse) I don't think Multipowers are inherently a balance issue. In fact, even removing them doesn't really change the balance of magic vs non-magic - it just makes some types of magic (ongoing charms, shapeshifting, summoning) superior to others. Measures like a large magic skill investment and incompatibility with armor will put a clearer delineation between mages and other types - no "warrior with a few magic tricks" characters - which may or may not be what you're looking for. What you might need to address is the much greater flexibility "magic" has as a SFX. I can think of a few ways: 1) Reward Specialization. Set your AP/stat caps very high, relative to the total points, so that you can't be good in every area, and frameworks are more of an effective limit. A warrior may not have as many tricks, but he will hit harder than any mage. The downside is that it also penalizes having any side-skills. El Ravager the killing machine will trump a swashbuckler who also has social skills. 2) Limit Magic. Not in terms of literal Limitations, but have a defined scope for what magic can do. A rule like "Magic cannot directly affect someone wearing or holding a significant quantity of iron" or "All spells require inscribing a runic circle on the ground" will have significant effects, and carve a definite niche for non-mages. 3) Everyone Has Magic. Break down the mage/non-mage wall. HERO is a classless system anyway, so why limit magic to one type of character? Runic warriors, thieves blessed with charms, divine knights with the power of light, and so forth. 4) Everyone Has Powers. There are more SFX than magic for having a variety of powers. Mythic warriors who can slice through mountains, heroes of destiny whose improbable luck lets them do the impossible, etc.

Re: Pulse, teleporting martial artist. C&C welcome. Given that "Magic Only" is listed as -1/4, I would call "Teleportation Only" at least a -1/2, maybe -3/4. Sure, it can include a fair number of things, but not nearly the portfolio of something like "Magic", "Matter Alteration", or "Energy Control". Also, from his MP, he's not including the more tangential things like "I teleported away, grabbed this piece of equipment, and teleported back".

Re: Aid vs. Time Limited That is legal - and effectively, the same as buying: +10 STR, No END Naked Advantage: No END, on 10 points of STR

Re: VPP active point costs Whoops.

Re: VPP active point costs If you really need to lower the cost, since all your gadgets have a focus, you can reduce the pool size - it only needs to hold the RP of the powers, not the AP. So for instance: VPP (40 RP Pool, 60 AP Control), 70 AP; Change Powers at Base (-1/2), all Slots Focus (-1/2), 55 RP.

Re: Partial protective life support What if the LS is the result of a transformation though - such as turning into a living statue, or a being of pure energy?

Re: Free no character point equipment simulating not very powerful powers The one thing about building all gadgets as powers is that the Wealth perk does cost actual points. And the fact that this character can teleport around retrieving stuff quickly also cost points. So "pay the full point cost for any and all items" doesn't seem quite right. A quick back of the napkin calculation: Wealth ($0.5M) = 10 RP VPP (6 RP, 12 AP), Half-Phase to Change (+1/2), Must Resupply (-1/4), all Slots Focus (-1/2), Real ___ (-1/4), Variable Limitations (-1/2 worth; -1/4) = 10 RP So gadgets in the 10-15 point range seem entirely reasonable.

Re: Limitations on Combat Skill Levels - same as the attack itself? I think limited the CSLs makes sense, if they are specific to, and considered a part of, the attack. With Martial Arts manuevers, we have the concept that some attacks can be inherently more accurate. Fast Strike has a higher OCV than Offensive Strike, as part of the maneuver itself (and thus could have any relevant limitations, such as OIF (magic black belt)). Now let's say that we want to do something similar with energy projection. For instance: Laser Eye Beams - 60p Multipower 1) Heavy Beam - RKA 4d6 2) Precision Beam - RKA 3d6, +6 OCV 3) Rapid Beam - RKA 3d6, AF 3 Ok, works well enough. But now we figure it should have some limitations to reflect how the power works - No Knockback and Concentration. Suddenly, the Precision Beam is treated differently than all the others? Makes sense to me that if the Precision Beam is considered on-par when not limited, it would still be on-par when limited.

Re: Limitations on Combat Skill Levels - same as the attack itself? I could swear I've seen - in official books - weapon builds where the additional CSLs for accuracy and/or PSLs for range had the OAF limitation.

Re: Conceptual Idea: A world full of supers If everyone gains powers, the relative strength may stay the same, but equipment and (in some cases) training become much less important. Currently, an armed and trained SWAT team will easily overcome the same number of average people. If both sides are bulletproof and fire lasers from their eyes, the difference diminishes.

Re: How To Delay Effect Trigger would be one way. Specifically, Variable Trigger, No Action to Activate, Half-Phase to Reset, +3/4. Whether you can set multiple triggers on the same power is up to the GM, but it is commonly accepted for powers with charges, such as landmines (or timed explosives).

Re: 6th Edition Brick Agreed on that - I've found that in 6E, you can be very effective with no DCV to speak of, and with AoE attacks, not much OCV either. Low SPD, I'm not so sure. It doesn't mechanically prevent you from being effective, but personally, I'm not patient enough to wait much longer between turns than everyone else.

Re: Spiderman's Web A combination could work though. Flight to negate their falling velocity, and then a barrier for them stand/walk on.

Re: The Creeper First thing I thought of was:

Re: Is it possible to build.... No, it's still in there. It just doesn't do BODY by default, unless you have that specific advantage. And you can make it do Knockback with the relevant advantage as well.