Heckus

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Villainess group that will soon be appearing in my campaign:

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine Here's a couple of my heroes, ThreeD (stretchy speedster) and Hero-Zero (Gravity manipulator)

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" There's a difference between being nobody special and being unrecognizable. This comes dangerously close to the perk "anonymity". Depending on the campaign, what you have described could be more of an advantage. Pg. 78 revised 5th ed: Cost: 3 or more Character Points For many characters, a high degree of anonymity is a valuable asset — what the authorities don’t know about someone, they can’t use to catch him. With the GM’s permission, characters can buy this Perk. Anonymity means no offi cial or police records exist regarding the character — or if they do exist, they don’t contain any truly useful information. If Anonymity is bought before a character has the chance to establish a record for criminal, dissident, rebel, or other illicit conduct, it costs 3 Character Points. If purchased aft er the character has attracted the attention of the authorities, it may cost more than 3 points (possibly much more). Th e cost depends upon how much information the authorities have on the character and how damaging it is. (Of course, the GM should not allow a PC to buy this Perk aft er the game begins without running an appropriate adventure to explain its eff ects.) Like many Perks, Anonymity can be nullifi ed. If the authorities acquire information about the character aft er he purchases Anonymity, the eff ects of the Perk are diminished or lost. In this case, the character does not get the Character Points he spent on Anonymity back — and if he wants to preserve his Anonymity, he’ll have to purchase the Perk again.

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" That's why it's a variable point limitation now (as opposed to the old "10/15"). When you make the disad, you choose how limiting it will be. In the cases listed above I think Spider-man's Secret ID is worth more Cap's or the Flashes. Spider-Man has (had) a particular well-known wife, a job for a boss that specifically hates his alter ego (at least in the past), and a vulnerable Aunt. if his Secret ID is discovered there's a lot of peril involved. Cap has no one left alive after all these years and the Flash has no relatives of note and "being the Flash" wouldn't necessarily invalidate his day job (crime lab tech). It's he difference between kid of limiting and extremely limiting on the value list. Other examples of characters with No specific identity (IMO): Red Tornado/ Vision (androids; occasionally they may dress up as humans but that's a disguise, not a sustained alter ego) Swamp Thing/Man-Thing (peramently transform; they may have had a human persona in the past but they've changed and can never go back); Darksied/Thanos (Alien entities; They don't pretend to be anyone else and knowing who they really are provides no advantage) Hercules/Loki (Mythological creatures; they are the real deal, don't claim to be anyone else, and good luck going to their homes to kidnap their families) Best example of a Public Identity (hands-down, IMO) is the Fantastic Four. They are celebrities, easily regonizable and the live in the big building downtown with the "4" on the roof. They also have children and loved ones that villains constantly take shots at. As far as face recognition, that can vary greatly with the moment in the campaign and who is seeing you making it harder to quantify points-wise.

Re: Nothing can stop me now! REDUCTION, not resistance. Reduction means that any damage that gets past regular defenses get reduced by 25/50/75%.

Re: Nothing can stop me now! A couple of options I use: - Don't have the villain 'achieve ultimate power' in the same room as the PCs. Let them see it via closed-camera or telepathic broadcast. Make them work their way to him through a wall of minions or a maze of traps. It makes the villain "seem" to last longer and adds a few fun encounters before thrashing the bad guy. It might even wear them down a bit so that the villain seems tougher without the cheese. -CONDITIONAL ultimate power. Yeah, the villain might have 75% resistant PD/ED hardened Damage Reduction and 40 mental defense, but he also needs a weakness. Maybe there's some item that nullifies his uber-defenses or a certain attack type that his power doesn't defend against. But you also need to make the PCs work to find it so that it feels "earned". -Give the Ultimate power some unexpected downside that the villain wasn't expecting. Turn the adventure into a testament about how "absolute power corrupts absolutely". This way he gets to rampage around for a little while before the downside kicks in and consumes him.

Re: Help with a power So if you're still advocating Trigger then what are you suggesting as his Trigger condition? "Every time he teleports next to a target"? Would it go off if he teleports next to a friendly target? Is he going to have to spend a half action reseting every phase (which defeats the purpose) or is he going to pay extra to reduce it? He's already paying a good bit for ALVD or NND that does BODY.

Re: Senses in a multipower--legal build? You're not supposed to put 0 END persistent powers in frameworks (senses, armor, LS) and the framework represents that they all come from a similar source/ability (not just "here are some random powers i want cheaply"). A multipower in particular is used to represent "one power" that you can use a variety of different ways. That said, you see it all the time with things like utility belts. If you declare it's a conditional use power (like on continuous charges, or costs END, or as a device that must be activated and deactivated) then it's usually ok (GM's descretion). In these cases you've made the power no longer always on or persistent. Example: Multi-spectral goggles: Multipower (OIF = Goggles, -1/2) ultra-slot: Telescopic vision Ultra-slot: IR vision Ultra-slot: Microscopic Vision Ultra-slot: "spectral analysis", Detect energy (like radiation or magnetic fields) In this situation he can only use one sense at a time, they all come from the same source, and they are dependent on the goggles (the "source" of the multipower"). Now, if he wants to be able to use multiple senses at the same time and they are just powers that he has with no obvious link then i'd recommend making him buy them independently.

Re: Help with a power A couple things: 1. If you're looking for a power that lets you "teleport to the target, attack, and then teleport away without anyone striking back", Consider a penetrating Indirect RKA and explain the "indirect" part as the rubberband porting. Or a NND or ALVD. 2. If you're looking for a way to move, attack, and then perform other actions, as a GM, i say "tough luck". The hero system mechanic is designed for 2 actions per phase. If you want to be inhumanly fast then buy more speed. 3. I think both linked and trigger are "if-ie" options. With trigger you have to define one very specific circumstance to set it off. Unless you pay more for alternate means of activation, you can't use it without meeting that condition (not that much different from linked and possibly more limiting). Also, once you've used a triggered power you have to use a half phase action to reset the power before you can use it again. Sure you can make it so that it resets either as a 0 phase action or even automatically but that costs another +1/4 (for 0 phase) or +1/2 to 1 (for auto-reset at GM's option). Trigger is great for traps, reflexive attack backs, bombs, and reactive defense but as a primary attack it's kind of a cheese IMO.

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" There was also an episode of JLU where Lex Luthor and the Flash switch bodies. Lex says "well at least I can find out whose behind this Mask". pulls it off. Short puase. "I have no idea who this is."

Re: superuseless superpowers The Human Clog!! Growth (12 levels), No Stat Gain (-1/2), May only use as many levels as it would to take up all available space, no more/no less (-1); 0 END, Continuous, Uncontrolled. with linked: Shape Shift, linked to growth (-1/2), Only to take the shape of the enclosure that is filled by Growth (-1/2). He basically expands to completely fill whatever room or hallway he's in.

Re: Not "Secret", not "Public", just "Identity" Another downside to Public ID is the vulnerability of family and Friends. Unless you're an alien, an orphan raised by wolves, or a robot, you probably have family somewhere and, close or not, villains like VIPER will harass them if you piss them off. Have a girlfriend? She's fair game too. Your DNPCs are that much more vulnerable. Also be prepared for the bi-weekly house/apartment bomb or vengeful villains showing up on your doorstep at 3 AM. To have neither a public nor a secret ID is to be a person who either has no ID apart from his super ID (see examples above) or whose normal ID is so unimpressive that if his real name were to be revealed no one would care. Dr. Destructo: "Ha-ha!! At last to reveal the identity of my arch nemesis, Punch-Man." "ummm....who the hell are you?" Punch-Man: "Gary Garison, lawn-care consultant." Dr. Destructo: " You gotta be $%-'n me." A player of mine once tried to get points for public ID and then said he was an only child and his parents and grandparents were dead, he had no lasting friendships, lived in an trailer outside the city (illegally parked), and worked as a homeoffice internet salesman (obviously trying to completely invalidate the "public" downsides). While he was away on his first adventure, his mobile home was stolen by his hunted, filled with bombs and detonated on the steps of the City Building. The charred license plates led the police back to him.

Re: superuseless superpowers Actually I've always liked the idea of Taste as a targeting Sense. "I have the power to blast whatever is on the tip of my tongue". Or better yet, an R-Ray sense: "I can taste through walls".

Re: DMA Super Spies Major Villains: Rex Manning III: skilled normal; Billionaire Industrialist (weapons design); Last of the Big Game Hunters. His grandfather worked with Nazi Germany and the mysterious Thule Society. Both dad and grandpa were villains killed by the Secret Six. He was raised from birth to hate Metahumans and is believed to be in league (if not in charge of) the Omega Objective (see above). A surprising twist is that his 10 year old son Rex Manning IV is a Meta with the power to talk to animals. Iron Wolf: Russian cyborg whose specialty is bringing down metahumans. he always does his homework and has hi-tech traps design specifically for his prey's powers. Always has trained agents for back up. As a member of the former-KGB he usually just gets deported (prisoner swap) when caught only to return later. Elijah Gibson: A seemingly immortal psychic "Omega-level" meta who can steal another's powers by eating their flesh. Creep factor of 10. The team unwittingly released him on the world while investigating a Thule Stone buried in an old mine in Arkansas. There is also evidence that he may have beaten the PCs to a recently discovered Ancient city on the Moon where he stole an artifact off unknown importance. Migraine: Former DMA gone rogue who is gathering an army of Metas to take there rightful place as masters over mankind. Jealous over having a relatively weak power, he injected himself with an underdeveloped strain of the meta-boosting drug called "Jump" and has since developed massive psychic powers but was left severely deformed. He leads the "Rejex" a team of Lurkers that hate mankind.

Re: superuseless superpowers The Amazing Mr. Oven-Mitt: LS: immunity to heat, for hands only (-1) +40 Ed, only vs. Fire (-1), for hands only (-1)