Ice9

Re: Mutant Inventor with Technopathy Rules-wise, either OIF (if the armor can be stolen or damaged), or OIAID (if those are extremely rare). In terms of concept? There's a lot of options - here's some ideas: * STR, DEX, Running, Leaping - Hydraulic / Smart Fiber Amplified Movement * SPD, DEX, CV - Neural Induction Interface * STUN, BODY - Gel Impact Cushioning * PRE - Impressive Speakers Up to you. A lot of power armor types are, but if this guy is a cyberkinetic, he could quite possibly create a suit from spare parts or even junk. Or, he could be given (or steal) the suit from a military research program.

Re: Power Armor Characteristic Purchase Extra SPD, I could easily see costing END (probably from the armor's END Reserve). Extra CVs? Maybe, but it wouldn't be my first instinct - running a tactical computer takes several orders of magnitude less power than moving a heavy mech around or firing energy weapons. The other thing (that I should have mentioned earlier) is that point total is only one factor in "how powerful" a character is, and not at all the most important one. Compare stats like CVs, SPD, DCs in the primary attack, and DEF to the other characters, and you should be able to see how well the power armor character is balanced. Saving points can get you more versatility, but so can something as simple as picking "magic" for your power origin.

Re: Lucky Luck is a power he would definitely want, but it's not the only one he should have. "Being lucky" can be the SFX for a number of powers. For example: * Never gets hurt too badly - Combat Luck, and/or DCV * Always finds a loophole when mind controlled - skill levels with EGO rolls to break out * Manages to hit the foe's weak point somehow - Armor Piercing or even AVAD on his attacks, and/or just extra dice with No Knockback * People show up to help him when he needs it - Summon, Friendly, Arrives under own Power, Must Inhabit Area * Manages to say the right thing - skills levels with PRE skills * The enemy's gear just glitched - Suppress, Drain, or Dispel, with Invisible Power Effects * His allies seem to be in the zone today - Aid, Invisible Power Effects * Timely warning - Missile Deflection * Always guesses right about some things - Clairsentience (Precognition)

Re: Power Armor Characteristic Purchase Also, while power armor is not technically any more vulnerable to adjustment powers than anything else, I find that in practice tech-glitching things like EMPs,electrokinetics, super hackers, and giant magnets are some of the more common SFX-specific hazards. Re: Costs END. What I often do with power armor is to have a "base" level of operation which is just bought normally - no extra limitations, maybe even 0-END on the movement. Then I have an "Overdrive" ability - often a variable-slotted Multipower with extra strength, speed, weapon boosting, etc - with some fairly heavy limitations like extreme END cost, side effects (being at depleted power after use, or having a chance of breaking something), or few charges.

Re: A curse that returns? Ah, forgot that Transform counted as Instant. In that case, you'd want something like: Form Regeneration - Transform 1p (Self to Original Form), Constant (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Reduced END (0 END; +1/2), Self Only (-1/2), Extra Time (whatever interval is appropriate; with no Extra Time this would work within a few minutes). Which I think would accomplish it. The only problem would be if the "Curse Breaking" transform removed Form Regeneration as part of its effects. The only solution I could see to that is putting Damage Over Time or Uncontrolled on Form Regeneration, which is a little dubious but probably ok for this particular case.

Re: A curse that returns? If you're talking about a character who is built with the curse already in effect, then Dispel is going to be meaningless against them anyway - if somebody Dispels one of your powers (that isn't built with Focus) then you can just turn it back on when your next turn comes up. If anything, you would put a "disabled for [amount of time] when Dispelled" limitation on the relevant powers and complications to make the curse dispellable at all. Transform is a little trickier. What you could actually do is your own Dispel to get rid of it. Something like: Form Regeneration - Dispel Transform 1d6, Cumulative (300 points; +2), Constant (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Self Only (-1/2), Only vs "Curse Breaking" Transforms (-?), Extra Time (whatever interval is appropriate; with no Extra Time this would work within a few minutes).

Re: Selling back OMCV This is true actually. As far as DCV is concerned, it makes sense to either buy it up to a competitive level or to drop it entirely. For example, the following: Zen Mental Training (1 RP) -3 DMCV, +5 to Breakout Rolls Instead of trying to struggle against the wind, bend with it and let it flow past you harmlessly. Which would be fairly reasonable explanation for selling off OMCV as well. Or alternately, there's this: Tower of Iron Confidence (1 RP) -3 DMCV, 10 Mental Defense With my unshakable confidence, I have no need to avoid mental influence - let it bounce off my will! Now yes, this can be countered (by Autofire mental attacks, for one) but against typical threats it works quite well.

Re: Telephone conversations in combat Since my current character is a robot, and can make phone calls inside his head, he tends to do so often, keeping UNTIL appraised of any incapacitated villains for pickup or last known directions of escaping foes. Given how fast combat moves though, it's rare that any reinforcements will arrive before the battle is over - the exception being when fighting someone like Grond, where stalling him may be the best option.

Re: Ragdoll You're right on the borderline between Desolidification and just having lots of defenses here. Which way you'd want to go depends on what the character can do in Ragdoll form. If it's just "get blasted around while mocking your foes", then Desolidification is the way to go (with a limitation for having more than the usual number of weaknesses). If you can fight at full strength, then just having very high defenses in certain areas may work better. In either case, you'll need Life Support (self-contained breathing). Also, depending on how different the Ragdoll form is, it could potentially be a Multiform. Most of the ragdoll abilities just count as defenses, but a couple of them are Complications: Vulnerability (fire/plasma) Physical Complication (takes extra knockback, frequent, minor) Physical Complication (sinks after a few hours in water, rare, major)

Re: Night vision goggles I think they would actually give you Flash Defense, with a Side Effect (minor, always occurs; goggles are disabled for the Flash duration). If the goggles reset quickly, the disabling could be for a shorter time; or conversely if they're delicate they could be disabled until manually recalibrated.

Re: Buff from kobold god, to aid kobolds To aid in the tactics kobolds often use, and negate some of their weaknesses, how about some shadow powers, like so: Cloak of Shadows 1) Concealing Shadows - Change Environment, Radius, -X to Sight PER, Personal Immunity 2) Freezing Shadows - NND (LS: Cold), Constant, Personal Surface (Damage Shield) Makes them hard to see, dangerous to hit, and if their normal attacks are bouncing off the adventurer's armor, they can punch them with the NND.

Re: Experience Point Costs & Multipowers Your two examples would cost 0 points and 2 points, respectively. There are several reasons why this makes sense: 1) The player could have just built them without limitations (losing, say, 4 STUN), and then later used just two points to buy STUN. 2) Even aside from that, instead of spending 8 points (in your first example), the character could just spend 2 points and get an entirely separate multipower slot (without the limitation). 3) Charging the higher amount would discourage starting with "getting the hang of it" limitations (something that is often appropriate to the source material) and would encourage switching characters whenever you wanted to make changes (detrimental to continuity).

Re: advice on power advantage It's certainly potent in the right circumstances, but I wouldn't call it broken. For one thing, it pretty much just loses against certain types of opponents, and it's overall utility depends on the tactical situation. Not even close to how dangerous something like Summon can be. As far as "build from effect" - I agree with that, in general. But the Barrier power explicitly does make solid objects. So yes, if you make a ramp, you can walk up that ramp, and if you make a pillar, you can stand on that pillar (or set things on it). Creating a wall in front of a moving vehicle doesn't need a separate Blast power, it can follow the normal rules for crashing into things. And as has been mentioned, you don't need a separate power to make the wall be brick - Barriers are made out of actual normal matter, and (unless bought as temporary) are no different than any other surface once created. That said, there certainly are things that you would use another power for (most uses of spikes, for instance), and so turning it into a Multipower/VPP might be the way to go. But the base power does do a fair amount by itself.

Re: Just saw 6th Edition and got a chance to leaf through it... I agree with some of those, but not all. * Defense - Yes, in fact I'd prefer if it worked this way regardless of space. * KAs - Sure, but I'd just make a "Deadly" advantage instead of special case for AVAD with custom rules. * Telekinesis - Yes. * Blast - No, Blast is one of the most used powers, and requiring two extra modifiers on every weapon ability is clunky as hell. * Tunneling/Desolidification - Teleport does not cover it as is, because it does not include the ability to move through a wall, see the other side, and change your movement path based on that information. I think "simpler powers" is better than "less powers" as far as reducing page count is concerned. Explaining how to achieve Tunneling via 2-3 powers with several modifiers each may take up just as much space as the power itself. Also no new player wants to see a power like this: Pistol - 20 Strength, Ranged, Only to Do Damage, Unstackable, AVAD (Resistant DEF; Only BODY is AVAD), Does BODY, OAF, Charges (12) It doesn't even matter how elegant the construct is, new players will look at it and go "No, this system is too confusing, you have to buy strength for a gun? With like 10 modifiers? Forget it." (Actually, weapon writeups are already kind of horrible if you're using all the modifiers. Accuracy and Reach being adders would help.)

Re: Unusual Magic Items Spool of Distance Employing metaphoric alchemy, this silver spool converts distance into thread. If you wind it while traveling, you will cover distance faster (and thread will appear from nowhere to be wound onto the spool), until it fills up. If tossed into the air, the spool will violently release the thread it holds, displacing anyone nearby by quite a distance. The removed/added distance "prefers" to be in places that fewer people are watching and that disturb objects less, so it will add extra room to an empty field before a city, and only split a building if no other spot is available. Xeno's Coat Woven from thread made by the above spool, this coat has a unique property - the wearer is considered to be an additional distance away from anything that touches the coat. How far exactly varies by the quality of the coat. So for example, someone wearing a 10 yard coat would be immune to any melee weapons hitting the covered area, and any projectiles or spells would have to travel an extra 10 yards. The space only partially exists, so objects cannot remain there very long. If someone attempts to hold an object inside it (sticking a spear in, for instance), then a repulsive force will build up until either the invading object or the wearer is thrown back. Blazing Hilt A failed attempt at a better flaming sword. If refitted with a blade, and activated with a command word, it will burn much hotter than a normal flaming sword - hot enough to melt the blade to slag in under a minute. The hilt itself does not heat up, but the wielder is not protected from the molten metal.

Re: APG II Commentary/Discussion thread The guidelines sound a little strict. My guideline for making objects with Transform has been "anything you could buy with money". So if we're playing Fantasy HERO, and you can buy swords with money, then you can conjure swords with Transform. If we're playing Champions, then you need to buy a HKA. Personally, I think the same guideline would be suitable for Create Object.

Re: 4e Battle Report: The Dissidents versus Viper Nice, another of these! A lot of fun to watch so far.

Re: Magical Weapon For the powers, build them with the Focus limitation - OAF if he has to actively wield the sword, OIF if he can just touch it. For the sword's personality, there are a few ways to build it, depending on its relationship with the character: * Almost always helpful - Follower * Sometimes helps - Contact * Antagonistic - Hunted (complication)

Re: Complementary Social Skills This post seems relevant, specifically the section on persuasive argumentation (scroll down). It's for a different game system, but the different categories of arguments seem like a pretty good framework.

Re: "Hail to the Condiment King, baby!" Maple Syrup - Change Environment (could be either sticky floors reducing movement, or makes equipment sticky requiring a DEX or STR roll to draw). Oil and Vinegar - Change Environment (slippery floor), Change Environment (drop held items), or +X to Lockpicking Powdered Sugar Blizzard - Sight and Smell Darkness Irresistible Seasoning - Mind Control (on carnivorous animals) to try to eat the target. Alternately, could be a Summon (arrives under own power, must inhabit locale) to the same effect. Horseradish - Flash vs Smell, and NND attack against anyone with enhanced smelling abilities. This guy would probably work best as part of a team, or at least with more conventionally armed minions.

Re: I made the GM cry.... To me, "get a mentor hero to fix it" is pretty much universally worse than the method they used. Both methods skip straight to the end, but at least the players solved it themselves, not just phoned it in. I'm not saying there can't be mentor heroes that are more powerful, but at the point when they're the ones solving all the problems, why are the PCs even there? Besides, knot cutting is memorable. You wouldn't want every adventure to be solved that quickly, but it's good when a few are.

Re: Why do people post power costs on their character sheets?

Re: 4ed: Firewing versus Champions Battle Report Exciting stuff! Firewing is definitely deadly - and quick to recover. I wonder if the rage will actually make it easier to stop him, or if everyone will be toast (literally).

Re: Do opposed skill rolls work? Wait, that's how you do opposed rolls? We've been doing them wrong for years - both people make a skill roll, whoever has a greater margin of success is the winner. A tie is a tie (or goes to a second roll). Although reading this, I'm going to stick with my "wrong" method - I'm puzzled why the actual rules work the way they do.

Re: 5th Edition: TK Trick And Teamwork The electric one just has a Blast or RKA. The telekinetic has Naked Advantage: Indirect for up to X points of Electrical or Projectile attacks, Usable by Other, perhaps with the limitations Instant (he has to grant it on the phase it will be used, not ahead of time) and RAR: Teamwork.