Ice9

Re: VPP Change #1 - Seems fine to me. Certainly to the point of making limited SFX the default, although I might give the normal cost reduction for that. #2 - No, screws up too many legitimate uses. #3 - I wouldn't go this far for every limitation - specific limitations are what make a lot of spells interesting. However, it's true that things like Gestures, Incantations, Focus, and so forth are a lot less limiting if they only apply when it's convenient. I could see ruling that "usability" limitations like those had to be applied universally.

Re: VPP Frequency? I use them pretty frequently. For broad powers, covering all the applications of one versatile power, and simplifying utility belts. They're also useful for making sure you don't run into the "the character should be able to do X, but I forgot to buy it" problem. I'd agree that super-broad SFX like "magic" or "cosmic energy" or "ultra tech" are usually undesirable. I'm not going to say they should never be used, but it's a big caution area, more so than VPPs in general.

Re: Blip : Update now I ju8st need a back story Minor notes: 1) I assume the significant vulnerability to mental powers is intentional? 2) With Long Range Porting, I don't think you need a separate slot for City Travel - 6E Megascale can be scaled down as small as you want.

Re: Can be used as... You know, I've never paid attention to the "you can't lift yourself, by any means" rule. Because honestly, having a floating car stop moving if you jump onto it creates more disconnect and WTF than it's worth. I've not found this to be an issue though, because Flight is a form of movement, which doesn't end your phase and you can do maneuvers with, and TK is an attack. Also, somebody being lifted directly by TK is effectively Grabbed. But then, I also let Transform actually do useful things, so you should take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Re: Can be used as... You know, thinking about it, this comes from the same root as several other edge cases in HERO - the fact that Strength breaks all the rules. The Strength stat gives a large number of abilities, many usable simultaneously, that should really require a number of separate powers and probably cost a lot more. The reason it doesn't is so that "high strength guy" can be a viable character. That's an important goal, and not something we want to give up, IMO, so maybe we'll just have to accept that anything relating to Strength (TK, HA, HKA) is going to get a bit wonky sometimes.

Re: Can be used as... Not really. TK, when used to crush or strike, injures/kills people. Killing Attack injures/kills people. There's some mechanical difference where normal attacks are more effective against high defense targets and KAs are better when rPD is low or you only care about BODY, but the "in game" effect is not that different - you wouldn't even necessarily be able to tell the difference from seeing them. So for example, let's say we buy both powers. TK (40 STR), RKA 2.5d6, 100 points Average Result: 9 BODY, 18 STUN Or we could just put those points into more TK TK (65 STR), 97 points. Average Result: 13 BODY, 46 STUN Now maybe there are some instances where the KA has more effect, but in general, the straight TK is doing more damage. And to boot, it can also lift more, grab better, and generally outperform the TK/RKA combo. That doesn't seem like an RKA that's appropriately costed. Personally, I'm still in favor of the "TK Martial Arts, Killing Strike, done" solution. Simple, reasonable cost, no new rules needed.

Re: Can be used as... TK Martial Arts actually sounds like a pretty elegant solution to me. From my reading, the Killing Strike would benefit from the TK Strength, so it covers that aspect, and improves the grappling maneuvers to boot. Ironically, it actually does cover the "poke somebody in the eye" (Martial Flash) and "squeeze air from lungs" (Nerve Strike) options that were mentioned.

Re: Doureo For the flight, 300mph is ~483kph, so ~1600 meters / turn. At SPD 5, that would be a speed of ~320m. Depending on how maneuverable he is in combat that could be Flight 20m w/ x16 Noncombat, or it could be Flight 40m w/ x8 Noncombat. Or higher/lower, but those are the typical range. DR 50% isn't out of bounds for a superheroic character, just make sure to take it into account when deciding your other defenses. Now whether you can fit it into your starting points budget depends on what that budget is. One idea if you find yourself running short is that many of his enhanced abilities (Superhuman Strength, Durability, Healing, Flight) could be partially in a Multipower, representing that he has to focus his energy to reach his maximum potential.

Re: High Powered Super-heroes Personally, it's about how they compare to other characters. I'd call a superhero high powered if non-supers posed virtually no threat and even agent/tech organizations like VIPER or UNTIL were mostly below them. Also, having certain "extreme" powers like "mind control a whole country" or "make permanent dimensional gateways" could catapult someone into high-power territory even if the rest of their abilities were normal. Rules-wise, that's usually more about active points than total points, and also about whether certain constructs (like "Nigh-infinite Multiforms", or "Cumulative megascale effects") are allowed.

Re: Regenerative Shields As far as the limitations go, you could put nearly equal limitations on DN. For example: Damage Negation (16 DCs physical and energy), Visible (-1/4), Limited Movement (-1/4), Shield (-1/4), 91 points By Limited Movement, I mean the fact that Mobile only gives the Barrier a certain movement speed, so if you want to teleport or have someone faster carry you, it's not going to keep up. By Shield, I mean both the fact that it blocks tactile sensation and that it won't work against something that was already in your body when you activated it, like a poison dart. And as DN, it does block most AVAD attacks that a non-opaque barrier would.

Re: Regenerative Shields Too tough for the cost? 180 AP would get you 60/60 Armor, or 18 DCs of Damage Negation (to both). Too tough for many campaigns, sure, but it's not exactly getting defense on the cheap.

Re: Magic pistols There's three different takes you can do with the SFX: 1) The fire/ice is magically created, but once in flight is not magical. In which case, it would be just fire/ice for damage purposes, and magic for drain purposes (see post #17). 2) The fire/ice is magical in flight as well. In which case it is both fire/ice and magic for all purposes. 3) The fire/ice is actually pure magic energy, it just looks like fire/ice. All of them are valid, and (IMO) none of them would have a cost difference. I've seen the argument about multiple SFX costing more, and it doesn't convince me. SFX are generally neutral - there are as many things that resist/drain that SFX as are vulnerable to it. If a given SFX has much more benefits than downsides, then that SFX should require an advantage, not the fact of having multiple SFX. In the example above, having the shots be magic as well as fire would be advantageous when you face a foe vulnerable to magic, but a disadvantage when someone has an anti-magic field. What's also been mentioned is that if a single attack can switch between multiple effects, it requires the Variable SFX advantage. That's only an issue if you use the same Multipower slot for both the fire and ice blasts, which is doesn't sound like you're doing.

Re: Deflection that can reflect? Well, as mentioned, you could already buy an attack with Trigger that shot at your foes when they attack (whether you deflected it or not), and you can already buy Deflection to prevent any (non-AoE) attacks in an area. In 5E, the argument could be made that Reflection's ability to redirect arbitrarily powerful attacks was only balanced by the ease of avoiding it, but that's not really the case in 6E anymore.

Re: Meta Effect Seems like whether it was unfair would depend on the cost. In the Bleeding example, since it could be built normally, it should be fairly straightforward to give it the same cost as an adder / power / whatever.

Re: Deflection that can reflect? Given that Reflection is now based on the cost of the attack, is there any reason these have to be mutually exclusive any more? Seems like the restriction just stayed in by default.

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor Mythic GME is a tool for either running games solo, or to assist the GM in deciding things. Primarily, it's a chart where you cross reference the likeliness of a given thing being true with the current "chaos factor", which goes up and down over time. That gives you a % chance for the thing to be true. Also, rolling certain numbers causes events to happen, related to one of the PCs, villains, or other plot threads. I've found it useful for determining how "off screen" events go. My main gripe is that a higher chaos factor just makes everything more likely. IMO, it would be better if a low chaos factor was like a bell curve (unlikely events very unlikely, likely events almost guaranteed) and a high chaos factor was the opposite (even rare events have a decent chance, even sure things can definitely fail).

Re: From 4E D&D to 6E Heroes: The Intimidation Factor In addition to the Bestiary, there are a fair number of fan-created monsters out there. Unfortunately, you won't get anything like a CR or Monster Level - Hero characters are divergent enough that a given monster could be a deadly match for one 400p character and a walk in the park for another. To get a quick idea of a monster's threat, look at its key characteristics: * Offense Factor: Speed, Chance to hit the PCs, and Average damage past defenses. * Defense Factor: Chance to dodge, Average damage taken, and STUN/BODY total. Speed also factors in, although not as much as for offense. * Special Options: Anything game changing that the monster has and the PCs don't. May or may not include flight, incorporeality, special senses, mind control, lockdown attacks, and so forth. On the plus side, when creating monsters, you don't have to follow a point budget like a character. Which means you don't actually have to fill in every stat and count every point. For example, you could just do something like this: Scorpion Cultist STR 10, DEX 13, CON 13, INT 10, EGO 12, PRE 10 STUN 30, BODY 8, DEF 12, rDEF 6, LS (poison) OCV 6, DCV 4, DMCV 4 Scorpion Fist: 3d6 HA + 6d6 NND (LS: poison) Spit Blinding Venom: Flash 6d6, NND (LS: poison), Limited Range 4m Which took me about a minute or two. Fill in any remaining details if they become necessary. Since you're using the Mythic GME anyway, that would be a good way to decide whether they had a particular skill or ability.

Re: Barnstormer, flying speedster One idea for defense that might be suitable is Combat Luck, defined as the result of his extraordinarily quick reactions - although being inherent tough makes sense as well, if he flies around at jet speed unshielded. If you need a few more points, it should be noted that since you have 6 SPD, you could drop your Running down to 3" (and Swimming to 1") and still have a faster running speed than a normal person. Minor note - why is Air Superiority 46 points when nothing in it exceeds 45?

Re: Making a Summoned Being a Follower If bound creatures are permanently gone when they die, and the lost energy doesn't come back, that sounds like the 5E Independant limitation, which was -2. Which suggests that 1p -> 15p would be a good ratio for the Follower conversion. However, if you're taking those points out of Summon, that could still hamstring your summoning power considerably. In fact, if we're talking about classical fantasy summoning, with limitations such as Extra Time, Incantation, Focus (summoning circle), and so on, then it's possible the character is only paying a 1:15 or cheaper ratio already. Which means you have the "binding one creature of maximum strength takes away all your summoning" issue. In either case, you've also got the "first one is expensive, later ones are increasingly cheap" issue. Something that might solve both is to figure out the maximum number of creatures that could feasibly be bound, and ammortize the cost over the total. So for example, let's say you're binding 200p spirits, and at most you can have eight of them: Maximum Total: Followers (8x 200p), 55 active points; Independant (-2), 18 real points. Cost per Creature: 2 points. Ok, that sounds excessively cheap, right? However, consider the effect on the summon power: Example: Summon (200p spirits), Expanded Class (+1/2), Friendly (+1/4), 70 active points; Extra Time (full delayed phase; -3/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4), OAF (-1), Costs END to maintain (-1/2), 25 real points. Result: Every creature bound reduces the strength of creature you can summon by 21cp. That seems pretty significant.

Re: Using a limitation only on an advantage Actually, why are advantages requires to be used all the time anyway? It's supposedly a trade-off to use Naked Advantage, but I'm not actually seeing it as such - you would have to pay END for the advantage anyway, because it would raise the AP. At most, the Naked Advantage version would cost an extra 1 END due to rounding. Given that you can already voluntarily lower the strength of the powers you use, why not the advantages?

Re: Help with the Zombie template That looks correct.

Re: Stunning attack If using an Entangle, I would just have the time limit as the "reasonable common and obvious" way to break out of it, not as a separate limitation. But yeah, if using the APG, you can do it with Change Environment.

Re: One VPP Mimicking Another VPP... I don't think it's out of line. After all, the Multiform VPP construct, used for this SFX in Ultimate Metamorph, can straight-up mimic entire power frameworks. But it's possible it would reduce the limitation value somewhat.

Re: How can I build a power that does all knock-back? Yeah, AoE Strength seems like a good way to go. Assuming you have 10 Strength normally, it would look something like: 30 +30 Strength, Only to Shove 30 Naked Advantage: Area of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2), Personal Immunity (+1/4) for up to 40 points of Strength.

Re: Initial Character Maxima I don't have maxima, but I generally make an "average character" example - for every area that your character is better than that, it should be worse in another area. Also, any kind of Summon/Vehicle/Follower that you have control over is limited to the same point level as the characters. So for example, for a Champions game, "Average Man" might look like: 5 SPD, 25 DEF, 8 CV Normal Attack: 12 DCs Special Attack: 16 DCs Presence Attack: 8d6 Where "Special Attack" means something with a small number of charges and/or significant limitations on its use.