Ice9

Re: Variable Power Pools... If it's a "mimic only" type, then (IMO) you don't have to worry too much about it being overpowered for skills. For example, another construction sometimes used for the Mimic effect is a Multiform VPP, which would be ridiculously potent without that limitation. So personally, I would just go by the normal rules for control cost. You probably still want the control at 15+ points, to handle high skill levels and CSLs.

Re: Ifrit Well,you could sell back Running and replace it with Flight (I know Teleport is the main movement power, just talking about a few meters worth so you can hover). Also, this could count as a very obvious Distinctive Feature, and possible a small Physical Complication (can't operate vehicles, wear a spacesuit, etc).

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? I'm with you on this. I feel like the normal 8 BODY is ok for some genres - even "normal" people tend to be more durable in a lot of comics and pulp - but if you want gritty, then the standard should be more like 4 (or else weapon damage should be much higher).

Re: Naked Adder Answer 1 seems correct - since you would be applying it to that number of points if they were a single power.

Re: Hardened and Resistant - Why so strange? Actually, to be honest, I found it odd that you had to apply Hardened to Damage Resistance back in 5E. I mean, if you have a RKA, and some OCV specifically for that RKA, it's not like you have to apply Armor Piercing to the OCV. Still felt like a kludge to match the cost of Armor. You still have to buy the whole defense Hardened? I don't think I've ever used that rule, it makes no sense that giving Diamond-Man a suit of armor somehow makes him less durable.

Re: Hardened and Resistant - Why so strange? It just seems like a kludge for the existence of Resistant Defense though. If there was no such power, and people just bought PD/ED with Resistant and Hardened, I doubt anybody would be saying "17 points is too cheap, it should cost 19". I have very mixed feels about that power. From a "purist" standpoint, I feel like it's redundant (and it causes things like this). But from a practical standpoint, I know that many newbies would be turned off by something like "a suit of armor" requiring a compound power.

Re: Slayer Depends entirely on how well known her activities were. In a setting where the existence of monsters is not widely known, then no reputation among the populace at large. However, she could potentially have a major reputation among those who know about the supernatural world - monsters, other hunters, magicians, and so forth. On the other hand, if she covers her tracks and changes identities periodically, she may be mostly or entirely unknown, even to those groups. Opposite end, if she turns into a wolf-creature in public, that'll get a wide reputation pretty quickly. So pretty much, as large or small of a reputation as you want her to have. For questions like "should she have Forensic Medicine", you've got to give us a bit more info to go on. Does it fit the concept? It could, that depends on what the details of the concept are. Is it a useful skill? Depends on the campaign. If you're a detective who has to determine when a supernatural creature is behind a killing, it's very useful. If you're hunting blatant monsters like a fiery demon who shows up in the middle of downtown, it's not so necessary.

So I've heard from various sources that Hardened has to be bought on the Resistant advantage itself, in addition to the defense. This is an odd interaction, unlike how any other advantage works, and I'm wondering a couple things: 1) Is this actually listed in the book anywhere? It's sort of implied by the way Resistant Defense works, but I don't think I've actually seen a direct statement. 2) Did Steve Long directly confirm this? I think I remember him doing so in response to a question, but I don't remember exactly what he said. 3) How many people actually run it that way? Personally, I don't - I don't see a balance need for it, and I'd rather "roll my own" Resistant Defense than have an advantage work entirely unlike the rest. I guess this is just a pet peeve - it's not like the point difference is very significant. I just saw a mention recently and it reminded me of it.

Re: One for the purists Not even just falling - "normal people" in HERO are pretty durable, actually. An average person has 8 BODY. Most pistols do 1d6 or 1d6+1 RKA. So an average person will always survive a shot to most locations (any with x1 BODY or less), without medical help. Even with a shot to the head, they'll survive without medical help more than half the time, and would never be instantly killed. That fits with a number of genres, but if you want a more lethal game, I'd start by cutting BODY in half.

Re: Creating a Shadow Demon In terms of ideas, here's some powers that might be suitable: * Turn to shadow - Desolidification, affected by light-based or holy attacks. * Meld with someone's shadow and puppet them - Mind Control, requires Total Concentration, +Clinging * Step into one shadow, come out another - Teleport X", Position Shift, Only to/from Shadowed Locations * Reach into one shadow, stick hand out another - Stretching X", Does Not Cross Intervening Space, Only to/from Shadowed Locations * Pin someone's shadow to the floor, they can't move - Entangle, Transparent to Physical Attacks * Create evil shadow twin - Summon, Expanded Class, Loyal, Requires Target to Create Twin Of * Stab someone's shadow, they get injured - RKA, Indirect, Invisible Power Effects * Create a field of obscuring shadows - Change Environment (-X to Sight PER rolls), AoE Radius, Personal Immunity * Move like a shadow - Flight, Only in Contact with Surface * Poison bite slowly turns people into shadows - Major Transform, Damage Over Time, Linked to Bite * Animate a shadow, have it do one thing - Telekinesis, Requires Shadows at Target Location * Animate a shadow, have it fight for you - Summon, Loyal, Requires Shadows * Partially insubstantial - Damage Reduction, Not vs Light-Based or Holy attacks

Re: Creating a Shadow Demon Well first off, I'm not sure you want it to be 1000 points - power doesn't go up linearly; a 400-450 point character could be stronger than four 250p ones. Actually, the important thing when balancing foes is not the point total, its how their stats compare to the PCs. For example, let's say that your PCs have OCV ranging from 6 to 10. If your demon has DCV 11, then even the most accurate people only hit it half the time, and the less accurate people will need to try a different tactic (like attacking from hiding, or waiting for it to be prone/stunned/blinded so they can hit it). On the other hand, with DCV 6, even the least accurate have a good chance to hit it, and the most accurate will almost always be doing so (which might be fine, if they demon is tough enough to stand it). So the first step would be to check the PCs stats and see what the range is. You want to be looking at: OCV / DCV DEF, STUN, CON (to see how powerful a hit would stun them, and how many would KO them) Average damage they do, whether they have AoE attacks, and what kind of exotic attacks they have. Also, when making a foe to go up against all the PCs at once, make sure they're not easily "stun-locked". By which I mean, have methods for dealing with tactics like Entangle, Knockback-juggling, Flash, and so forth, so you don't spend the entire fight recovering from conditions while being pummeled. That doesn't mean "be immune to everything" though - ablative defenses are a good way to handle this. For example, a Shadow Demon might be able to tear itself in half, leaving the half that was Hypnotized / Frozen / Cursed / whatever behind and continuing to fight, at the cost of taking significant damage. That way the tactics aren't useless, but they don't immediately end the fight either.

Re: How strong is... It seems like the issue is this - "realistically", getting hit by somebody who can carry around battleships will turn anyone without equivalent durability into red mist. But we don't want the game to work that way (and comics often don't work that way), so the logarithmic thing is inserted instead. But then, we have the issue of inanimate objects. By the comics standard, inanimate objects should be treated like lifting is - i.e. Superman tears apart any non-unobtanium structure, no problem. But by the gameplay standard, the problem is that we gave the other characters equivalent damage attacks, and being able to rip apart a tank in seconds by throwing (non-super) knives at it sounds pretty stupid. I think the possible solutions are: 1) Fudge certain things and don't think too much about it. 2) Add relevant advantages and limitations to things (Bank Vault DEF: Not vs Super-Strength, Knife Throwing: Not vs Objects without Weak Points). 3) Give attacks certain keywords, and make those keywords have a mechanical effect. For an example of the third: we could tag damage DCs as either [Force], [skill], or [Deadliness]. A given attack could be split between those - for example, a Martial Strike from a STR 15 guy has 3 DCs of [Force] and 2 of [skill]. * [Force] is treated exponentially against inanimate objects. Either a multiplication of effect, or objects just have a certain threshold where they get automatically destroyed. * [skill] doesn't even count against homogeneous objects (a wall), and only counts linearly against objects with parts (a vehicle). * [Deadliness] doesn't even count against objects, unless they're partially organic or especially delicate. This would be things like barbed blades, or radiation fallout from an energy beam. You'd need some other effects besides this, because it currently favors [Force] exclusively. A couple thoughts - [skill] still works when you're not using your own body/equipment. [Deadliness] works even if you couldn't see the target accurately, [skill] might not. [skill] could give you more leeway when using the Power skill.

Re: My First 6ed (BR) Villain: Doctor Dair (Coments Welcomed) No, I counted that. He has 16 PD/ED, 10 of which is resistant. Against his own Wave Beam, he takes an average of 26 damage, more than enough to Stun him, and in 2-3 hits knock him unconscious. He's in a lot of danger from an equivalently strong KA. That's low even for a super-fast dodging type, and with 6 DCV he's unlikely to be that (unless the typical foe has ~3 OCV). An important question would be - what type of campaign will this character be used in? Standard Superheroic? Low-Power Superheroic? Dark Champions? That's going to determine how high his stats need to be in general. Although right now I can say he's a definite glass cannon.

Re: My First 6ed (BR) Villain: Doctor Dair (Coments Welcomed) A little more defense might be good. Right now, if he was to fight someone of the same strength as himself, he would be Stunned on the first hit and KO'd in two or three. In fact, he's likely to take serious injury from any killing attack. There are several forms this defense could take: * Use graviton manipulation to make a cloud of debris orbit around him. This would just be more Resistant Defense with the Requires a Roll and Costs END limitations. * He's lucky, so how about some Combat Luck? A couple levels would put him into the normal range, and 3-4 would make him quite durable. * Graviton Deflection - Missile Deflection with Uncontrolled, maybe Only vs Physical Projectiles which should allow him to block most ranged shots while he maintains it. * Operate from hiding: get Stealth and Invisible Power Effects, and fight people while they can't even see you. This might not fit his personality though. * Be more durable - maybe the cybernetic implants boost his stamina as well, giving him more CON (12 is asking to be Stunned a lot), more BODY, and a little Regeneration. Powers-wise, here's some more uses for the Graviton Negation Multipower: Fluctuating Graviton Negation: Change Environment: -4 to DEX rolls to stay standing, -4 to CON rolls to avoid nausea, Long Lasting (1 minute), Area of Effect (32m Radius; +1), Personal Immunity (+1/4) He creates a field of fluctuating gravity that makes it hard for people to keep their balance (they need a DEX roll at -4), and makes them nauseous (if they fail the CON roll). It lasts a minute after triggering it, and he's immune. Focused Graviton Negation: Blast 6d6, AVAD (defense is zero-gravity experience or different physiology, all or nothing; +1) He creates fluctuating gravity waves that disorient and nauseate most people so much it can knock them unconscious. People with zero-gravity experience or zombies/robots/aliens are unaffected. Also, while it's not like you're short on points, you can save several in the skills department by getting skill levels with all Presence skills, all Dexterity skills, or even Overall levels. For example: 3 Acrobatics: 12- 3 Breakfall: 12- 7 Charm: 16- 3 High Society: 14- 3 Navagation: 12- 3 Persuation: 14- 3 Power (Gravitron): 12- 3 Tactics: 12- 24 +2 Overall Levels Net savings - 8 points. And this also gives you a bit of boost to your CVs, which are on the low side.

Re: Character with one side of his body being human and the othe side being mutant Characters that can resurrect themselves do tend to get killed more often than normal.

Re: Character Size and combat Growth (the power) does have the cost of AoE for Strength built in. In a campaign where HTH combat was rare, it might make sense to eliminate that element, reducing the cost of Growth (or the size template) accordingly. Then you could use the saved points to buy up-sized ranged weaponry with AoE built in.

Re: Character with one side of his body being human and the othe side being mutant That would be Regeneration with the Resurrection adder, the Extra Time limitation (or maybe just the slowest base rate), and the Charges limitation (2 charges that never recover). If he also has the "heals really fast" type of Regeneration, then the Extra Time and Charges limitations should only be on the Resurrection part, not the entire power.

Re: Automatic for the people Personally, I make a slight change to how Takes No Stun interacts with defenses. Instead of changing the cost, you simply divide any static amount of PD/ED the character has by 3. Works more nicely with things like Growth and Density Increase, and avoids the strange situation of charging more for things that aren't actually more effective (like DN and DR, or most egregiously, DCV). Now arguably, you could say this should apply to Mental Defense and Power Defense too, in the case of AVAD Does Body attacks. However, those are fairly rare, it unfairly denies people effective Mind Control / Drain defense, and you're paying 60 points for the base power anyway. I didn't even remember that the power comes with Mindlessness, have never used it that way, and don't intend to start now.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? It's handwavium, true, but it's sort of balanced by the opposite-direction handwavium in the "Enter the Speed Zone" pricing. Normally, dimensions don't have a variable (very high) cost to enter, and definitely don't require END to stay in. ... which itself could be said to be balancing the handwavium of even having the speed zone as a dimension. The whole thing is largely an entirely new power with new pricing masquerading as XDM.

Re: Character with one side of his body being human and the othe side being mutant For the stunning, if you already have a decently strong HA, then you could accomplish it simply with extra dice "Only to Stun". The exact numbers depend on the campaign - these are for Standard Superheroic characters, so adjust to fit your campaign. So for example: STR 15 Mutant Arm: +25 STR, Only with Left Arm (-1/2) Hardened Fist: HA +4d6, Hand to Hand (-1/4) (For a "street level" campaign, the numbers might be more like +15 STR for the arm, +2d6 for the hardened fist) That gives you an 12d6 strike. Most foes (in a standard superheroic game) will have 20-30 DEF, so you're getting average 12-22 STUN through on a hit. Now if you add: Stunning Punch: HA +4d6, Hand to Hand (-1/4), Only to Determine Stunning (-1) Then you'll be doing average 26 STUN (for Stunning purposes) against even tough foes, which will be enough for most. Less durable foes have no chance. Adding another few dice will make it impossible to resist for almost anyone, which may be excessive - ask your GM.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? But yes, that works. It's similar to more SPD in many ways though.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? On another point - high Speed being balanced out by the points spent. I find that this varies a lot by the character guidelines used for the campaign. * Equal limits (12 DC attacks for everyone) actively encourage high Speed, to the extent it's allowed. Why be slow and powerful when you can be fast and equally powerful? * No limits makes it more of a trade off, but Speed is still a very potent thing, and nobody's going to want an actually low Speed. * Adjusted limits is what you need to make low Speed a non-sacrificial choice. As in, the brick with SPD 3, OCV 7? He needs to hit much harder than the SPD 5, OCV 12 martial artist. Not like +2 DCs harder, more like twice as hard. I came up with a system to actually calculate this, measuring Offense Factor and Defense Factor. IIRC, Offense Factor was: (SPD+1) * (Hit% vs Avg) * (Damage - AvgDEF) So if the average foe has DEF 15, DCV 8, then: SPD 5, OCV 12, 8 DCs -> OF 74, and the SPD 3, OCV 7 brick would need a 15 DC attack to match up. Of course, there's defense too, but Speed helps to an extent there as well, by allowing more defensive manuevers and recovery. However, in practice, I found that system unnecessarily rigid and haven't used it. Instead, I just have an "Average Hero" example character, and the guideline is that for every area that you exceed that, you should be below it elsewhere, by a roughly equal amount. That said, I probably would limit SPD to a small spread, if the issue ever arises.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular? The one issue I've seen with representing speedsters entirely via powers instead of Speed is that you get "gaps" where the player didn't anticipate a particular situation, or it's unusual enough that making a power to cover it is unwieldy. For example: Ok, so you're the Flash. You have SPD 4, but that's ok because you have enough Running and Autofire to blitz through a whole room of mooks. But suddenly, you need to run through a base, quickly entering a number of rooms, hitting commands on the computers inside, and locking the doors behind you. Entirely in-concept for the Flash to do - but your powers won't cover it (this would need either some rather dubious infinite-Triggered TK, or an extremely expensive AoE TK + Clairvoyance thing). Now a GM can handle this, if they're willing to be a little loose with the rules and allow "reasonable" actions with a power skill roll, regardless of the hypothetical active points. But as a player, there's certainly the temptation to take the guaranteed effect which doesn't rely on a generous interpretation.

Re: Are Overall Skill Levels overpowered? I find 11 to 15 rather low for superheroes, actually. Sure, it's fine for "non-super" skills that the character just happens to have, but for anything where the character is supposed to be world class or beyond that? Insufficent. As a guideline, I tend to rank things by "tiers", where someone in a higher tier can with often do things that would be nearly impossible to others, or trivially do things that would be challenging for others. So for example, I call 12- a "professional" level of skill. That's what you'd get if you're either naturally suited to the skill (stat 13+) or put a little more work in (one skill level). For a professional: * A task with a +3 bonus is trivial - they have a 95%+ chance to succeed. * A task with a -2 penalty is challenging - they have a 50% chance to succeed. * A task with a -7 penalty is nearly impossible - they have less than a 5% chance to succeed. Based on that, you can see that the next few tiers would be something like: * Master: 17- * Legendary: 22- * Godlike: 27- Incidentally, by this reasoning, "novice" proficiency should be 7- instead of 8-, or else "professional" should be 13-. However, 13- seems a high rating to require for the typical person, so I'd rather overlook this. I set the boundary amount at 5% instead of 1% for a couple reasons: * It keeps the gap between the tiers at a more reasonable level * It makes it easier to use this as a conversion guide for non-bell-curve systems. I would say that a fair number of superheroes should have "master" (17-) level skills in their specialty areas, and some could go higher.