Ice9

Re: GAME RELATED: Anyone know the science behind an orbital nuclear burst? Buying Double Hardened non-Resistant ED seems a bit unlikely, so I'm going to assume it is. In which case, he takes (on average): 52.5 - 25 (vehicle) - 20 (personal) = 7.5 damage. At that point, he's just injured, not even dying. However, he's also taken ~60 STUN (6E, 86 in 5E). So he might be unconcious. If he falls, that's still not enough to outright kill him, but he'll be in critical condition. Although if you're using the VF rules, I think terminal velocity caps out a bit lower (24d6, IIRC), in which case he'd be all right - seriously injured, but not in danger of dying. Also, the last time I saw the nuke writeup, I believe it had a pressure wave that did a fairly large amount of Blast in addition to the RKA. What effect that has depends on how the attacks are applied. If the Blast applies first or simultaneously, I think the suit may be strong enough to resist it, so the player wouldn't take any damage. If the RKA is considered to occur first, destroying the suit, then the Blast would at least be dealing additional STUN, and maybe BODY.

Re: Variable power pool? Questions... I think that character concepts that include "do anything, without significant limitations" are the issue, more so than VPP. You can get the same effect with Multiform, with generally the same issues arising. But a VPP limited to a reasonably tight portfolio, and/or with significant limitations on its use, doesn't seem particularly problematic.

Re: Not Quite Free Equipment I'd agree that if one player voluntarily decides to take only a small subset of the powers available, excluding many of the more versatile options, then some (effectively) extra points for them are probably not going to break things. However, I don't think "free equipment" necessarily accomplishes that, for the simple reason that wizards can have free equipment too. Armor already stacks with magical protection unless specifically limited not to, and weapons combine quite well with the right kind of spells. All it means is that spells like "Spirit-Guided Arrow" and "Strength of the Titan" are better combat choices than "Lightning Bolt". Or just use spells for non-combat utility, and do your fighting with a sword. Now sure, you can - with campaign rules - make combinations like that more difficult. Making "armor failure" mandatory for spells, requiring a high "buy in" for spellcasting and/or combat prowess to make having both impractical, prohibiting spells that directly stack with normal combat ability, and so forth. But in that case, the real balance factor is not "free equipment", but instead "non-spellcasting characters get some extra points". Which may be the right rule for some campaigns, but is only indirectly related to equipment.

Re: Not Quite Free Equipment I think the issue here is pretty much the "Subject to Real Weapon" thing. Just having a straight Multipower of weapon attacks doesn't seem like a bad value at all - I've seen plenty of Champions characters who had something similar. However, when you factor in that most weapons are only using a small portion of the available power, with limitations like Strength Minimum that reduce that further, then it starts to lose ground against a comparatively "open" magic pool. Especially with the whole HKA/RKA STR thing, weapons are just not constructed in a framework-friendly manner. Also, for 6E in particular, having "partially" Zero-END attacks (in that the STR costs END) is not a good value (point-wise) at all.

Re: More Blockages Actually, for me it was "DN that works just like Block" vs "DN that works much better than Block, for 10% more points". I guess this more of a problem with heavily limited powers in general though - when the AP are way out of scale with the RP, you get strange artifacts.

Re: using powers two times (mostly tk) I believe multiple "arms" add logarithmically though. So if you had 25 STR TK, you'd need: 2 phases for 30 STR 4 phases for 35 STR 8 phases for 40 STR 16 phases for 45 STR 1.5 minutes for 50 STR (assuming SPD 5) 3 minutes for 55 STR ... 1.5 hours for 80 STR 1 day for 100 STR 2 weeks for 120 STR 2.5 years for 150 STR (And obviously, Life Support to maintain it that long) With that much Extra Time, it would be pretty cheap anyway.

Re: Vehicles with Vehicles? While you could theoretically get pretty crazy with "nested" vehicles: Pilot (50p normal) has 150p Control Pod. Control Pod has 500p Mech. Mech has 2000p Space Extension Frame. I don't think they're inherently problematic. As mentioned, spending 55p for two 250p vehicles is something you can already do. For this particular example, I don't know if it's necessary, but I would definitely use them for something like a heavy star cruiser that had a squadron of fighter craft docked in it.

Re: Area Effect in 6e I find it an improvement in general - at the +1 level, I found AoEs often had problems even dropping agents. It is pretty tempting as an attack staple now, however. For instance, I was thinking about a psychokinetic brick - "The Egomaniac", and realized that putting AoE (16m Line) on Strength or HA, as a telekinetic shockwave, would be extremely effective. Negates DCV, gives you multi-target attacks, and effectively gives you a (short) ranged HA with no range penalties.

Re: Is our approach to ' Combat Levels' fundamentally flawed That has bugged me for a long time. Personally, I blame the writeup of "Limited Power". It seems to assume an exponential curve, where -1 is half (correct), -1 1/2 is a third, and then -2 is "ultra limited". The reality of point costs, however, is the reverse. The higher the limitation, the fewer points each -1 counts for. Not only is -4 not exponentially more than -2, it's not even twice as much! Something which is only 10% as good should seriously have a -9 limitation, but you will never see that in any official example. Also, the limitations for defensive powers, in particular, suffer from using the same limitation values for physical/energy specific defenses, and general ones. Obviously, "Only vs Metal" is more a limitation for Desolidification than it is for PD.

Re: More Blockages As several people have pointed out, this would make Block fairly useless, at least in it's classic form. Forget Superheroic - even for most Heroic characters, a 2 DC non-resistant Block is close to useless as a way to spend an action. So we'll need to boost it up. For 4 points, we could have a 4 DC block ... or Martial Dodge. Martial Dodge is generally going to be the winner there. But hey, what about when your feet are stuck in place, or something? Dodge won't help you then. So let's consider: Powerful Blocking - 8 DC Block (as above), 16 points. Always Blocking - 7 DC Damage Negation, Nonpersistent, RAR, Perceivable, 17 points. For a few points more, you could be blocking every attack (including KAs) with no penalties and no actions spent. The large amount of limitations on Block, as constructed this way, mean that the very important distinction of taking an action barely makes a point difference at all. Once you figure in likely limitations such as Focus, the difference is even less.

Re: Enhanced Senses query: when do you need to buy Discriminatory? In that case, what would you define Discriminatory sight as telling you, beyond what normal sight does? And after that, what would sight with Analyze provide?

Re: Enhanced Senses query: when do you need to buy Discriminatory? Yeah, I've never agreed with sight being only "partially" Discriminatory either. I mean, sight tells us the color, position, size, apparent texture, motion, luminosity, shape (down to individual letters on a page) and orientation of objects and projected light. And not just a single object, but everything we're focusing on simultaneously (and to a lesser degree, things in peripheral vision). That's probably more information than most Discriminatory senses would get you. In fact, it may be close to what Analyze would get you. Seriously, try to imagine a "Detect Magnetic Fields" or "Detect Insects" that gives you that much information with Discriminatory, without making Analyze obsolete.

Re: AE Accurate War! Ugh ... what is it good for? (Absolutely nothing?) I find Accurate is often more useful when combined with a large AoE. For instance, a 32m Radius Accurate attack is unavoidable for many characters - albeit expensive. And AoE Line + Accurate is an interesting method for making an attack semi-Ranged.

Re: Electro Magnetic Pulse Dispel doesn't seem particularly suited, cost issues aside, because it produces a very temporary effect. If your car gets fried by EMP, you can't start driving it again just by spending a half-phase action to re-activate it. RKA actually seems the most accurate in that regard as: A) The device is permanently disabled. But ... It can be repaired, at the normal rate. The only problem is the Electronics vs Structure issue. On the one hand, it makes sense that you can fry the electronics of a car without physically destroying the entire thing. On the other hand, I don't think most people would allow a "Nervous System Zapper" that dealt BODY damage directly to the brain, circumventing any armor or physical toughness. Transform is a possible alternative. However, of the things it should affect, some have BODY, some have INT, and some just have Active Points. You'd need a bit of kludging to get it working.

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam! Warp would be Xeno's Paradox, then? Still not sure about Purity and Persuasion, though.

Re: Dr. Terror's not so terrifying PRE I would go with this one, and actually add more intermediate levels - so +10, +20, +30, +40, +50 maybe. Just making PRE attacks harder in general kind of sucks for anyone with high-PRE - they paid to be impressive, and now a lot of foes just shrug off their intimidation with no effect. But with more intermediate levels, it doesn't go so easily to "insta-victory". Also, I'd add an option to "focus" your Presence on a single person, granting a +10 or even +20 on the result. Allows you to scare the crap out of a single foe without winning the entire battle.

Re: Top 10 most powerful scrolls A list of powerful demons' true names. Each demon can be compelled once by their name. Summon (X point demon), Devoted (+3/4), Variable Effect (any demon; +1/2), X charges that never recover (-?), Limited Power (only one task; -1/2), NCC (powers of demon are unknown until summoned; -1/2) The Story A scroll describing the setup to a story, with the conclusion left blank. If the conclusion is filled in, everyone within the surrounding kingdom will be compelled to help those events occur, until the next sunrise. The better the story is written, the more reliable the effects will be; otherwise, changes may slip in. The writer is also subject to the effects, and cannot break the compulsion once it begins. Mind Control, Cumulative, Megascale, Continuous, Uncontrolled, RAR (PS: Storyteller), Side Effects

Re: Narf's Fantasy Stuff Minor point, but why is Reflexive Skill built with a Trigger? Also, I believe you could save a few points by leaving the PS skills as 2/1 instead of based on Int. On Alastar, I would make Spell Shield either more powerful (to use the entire pool) or slightly less powerful (39 or less active points, so you can use it simultaneously with other things). Probably more powerful, because IIRC how Dispel works, this would only stop spells that were 9 AP or less, and have no effect otherwise. It's interesting to see characters using the "Normal Man" parameters - definitely a different feel than standard Heroic!

Re: Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device -- How'd I Do? Looks good. I'd agree that requiring you to have LoS to both ends is worth more than -1/2; maybe -1. Not being able to go through walls is pretty big. You could also have a limitation for the "only one pair in existence at once" thing.

Re: A Boy Scout - First HERO System Character The 10-pt levels do seem rather underwhelming. But the 12-point "everything" levels can be quite useful, for skill-heavy characters, especially those that use a variety of attacks. If you have skills in all three categories, increasing them via stats is more expensive and doesn't give you CVs.

Re: My Very First Character (and Diffiulties Within)! Re: Elemental Controls. Those powers look fine for an EC - they're all telepathy-based and from the same source, so I think most GMs would be cool with it. Generally, you want powers that are used simultaneously in an Elemental Control (where applicable) and powers that you only use one at a time in a Multipower. So the Calmness Control, Mind Link, and Mind Scan would definitely be in an EC. The Ego Attack and Telepathy could either also be in the EC, or in a Multipower with each-other. Point-wise, with just two powers, the EC would probably be less expensive. However, putting them in a Multipower makes it easier for you to expand your powers in future.

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam! Hmm, you may be on to something there. Cheshire seems like he could have a quantum uncertainty thing going. The Green Man could be light, specifically ultraviolet light. Persuasion - Charm Quark? Not sure how the rest fit into this, though.

Re: using powers two times (mostly tk) Rapid Fire would let you fire it multiple times in the same phase, but you can also activate it multiple times in separate phases without any penalty. For instance: Phase 12: You activate TK and lift up a car. Phase 3: While keeping the car in the air, you activate TK again and lift a dumpster. Phase 6: Without dropping anything, you activate TK again and grab a foe. At this point, you're holding all three in the air, and each one individually can be up to your maximum TK weight. However, you're also spending 3x the END (so for a 30 STR TK, that would be 3x4 = 12 END/phase). The same thing applies with Continuous attacks, and indeed, you could stack several copies on one person, as long as you had enough END to keep them all going. That's why Continuous attacks that don't cost END are a caution-sign item and require a reasonable way to counteract them.

Re: Partial Invisible Forcefield Since a fully invisible force field would be +1/2 (I don't think it makes sense to charge for both 'Source' and 'Effects' on a self-only power), then I'd put these at +1/4. EDIT: Whoops, was thinking 5E. For 6E, what Chris said.

Re: Automaton Vehicles Speaking of Automatons, am I the only one who finds the "x3 for all defensive powers (including DCV)" to be rather mysterious and not mathematically correct? Really, it should only apply to things that subtract a static number from incoming damage. So primarily PD/ED. For instance - Damage Reduction. 50% DR has exactly the same utility to an automaton as it does to a human - it reduces incoming damage by half. Unlike PD/ED, it does not have a larger effect when only BODY damage is being taken. Ditto DCV, obviously, as well as Damage Negation and Desolidification. There's no actual balance reason that these things should cost more, unless your goal is just to discourage anyone from having Takes No STUN (which would be better accomplished by the GM disallowing it). Actually, I think a cleaner approach (in that it interfaces better with Growth and Density Increase) would be that the cost remains the same, but the amount of PD/ED granted by any power is divided by 3.