Trebuchet

Since you took a -1/2 Limitation on the SPD, it's not as useful as "full" SPD. I would rule that Recovery is an action, and therefore you must still meet all rules for REC (Not taking Stun, not using END, not Holding an action, etc.) in order to qualify to take a REC in a "mental only" Phase. Since I presume your mental powers use END, that seems fair to me. This kind of question is why I wouldn't allow Menton as built in 5th Edition in my campaign. It's simply too much of a hassle to figure out this kind of stuff.

Re: What is 0.1c? Yes, c is the standard symbol in physics for light speed; as in Einstein's famous E = mc² formula (Energy = mass X velocity of light²).

Damaging foci can be handled in other ways than just direct attacks. Tesuji has suggested several excellent ways to deal with such situations. In fact his ideas are so good I wish he'd write an article about it for Digital Hero or to post online here. (hint, hint.) Here is how I dealt with a tough focus in my game: Cyberknight (Played by Mentor), a powered armor type, is the only tech based character in my campaign. His DEF is provided almost entirely by his Hardened Armor, and vastly exceeds campaign-normal damage. Anything that can break his armor will probably kill Cyberknight anyway. His sophisticated armor contained a vast array of weaponry and sensors, along with Flight, Life Support and an onboard computer. About two years ago, I ran a scenario where a sorcerer cast a spell over Manhattan Island which put the entire island under an "anti-technology" area of effect. This wasn't absolute, but built up over time, with more sophisticated devices first becoming less reliable ((Decreasing Activation rolls as the scenario progressed; rolls made exactly meant the ability still worked but at reduced efficiency; failed rolls meant the tech finally failed permanently. In other words, I broke Cyberknight's armor bit by bit and power by power, and in doing so I made the destruction a central motif of the story. By the time the heroes reached the sorcerer, holed up in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Cyberknight's armor was practically useless. Only the Carbon-60 based Armor (as in DEF) and partial STR (40 instead of his usual 60) still functioned. None the less, Cyberknight bravely fought on even though he was the only "normal" human on our team, and if his armor's servos had failed his high-tech armor would have become his coffin. They defeated the villain and his werewolf minions, with Cyberknight playing an important role in the battle. His armor was by then was totalled, so he had to replace it with an upgraded set. He had fun being heroic, I had fun being evil. Isn't that what it's all about?

Yep, Dive for Cover and Roll with the Punch feature prominently in Zl'f's combat repertoire, along with the old standbys of Martial Block and Martial Dodge. As for a "character who can't be beaten [making] for a pretty dull campaign," I couldn't agree more. I enjoy having my character rise above her limitations by being heroic; it's a wonderful roleplaying challenge.

It'd be nice, but not in concept. Oh well... Thankfully this is a 4-color campaign; deliberately reminiscent of the early 60's comics.

PD/ED of 12/12, DCV during max (10d6) attack is 13. I used Sacrifice Strike instead of Offensive Strike because I think an all-out attack should lower DCV. She has one HtH Skill level, which was included in her DCV. My character's most-used attack is Martial Strike for 8d6. We have another martial artist with a 7 SPD. Campaign average damage is 12d6, with the brick doing 15d6 IIRC and most of the other characters doing 12d6. And yes, a campaign-average 12d6 hit will KO her; a mere 9d6 will Stun her (18 CON). For what it's worth, Zl'f gets KO'd and/or Stunned almost 2 out of every 3 adventures. She got Stunned even in our fight versus Eurostar discussed in this thread.

Not that it really matters since I'm not playing Zl'f in your campaign, but I'm curious as to what kind of limits you'd require in order to permit a 9 SPD character into your game? My character already has the lowest PD & ED, the lowest DCs (10d6 max) for her attacks, the lowest STUN (29) and the lowest CON (18) on our entire team. What else can she do?

Zl'f's total defenses are 12 PD and 12 ED, literally half of that from Combat Luck. So if Mentalla had Stunned Zl'f before Scorpia had hit with her claws, Zl'f's defenses would have been only 6 PD (2 rPD), and Zl'f would haave been badly injured (with Scorpias's lousy roll, probably not mortally although Zl'f would have certainly taken several BODY). Zl'f has no "non-conventional" defenses at all: No Power Defense, no Flash Defense, no Mental Defense, no Lack of Weakness, etc. I deliberately keep her vulnerable to odd attacks because she is so hard to hit; it's part of her concept.

I certainly wouldn't say Scorpia isn't dangerous; simply that against my SPD 9 DEX 43 martial artist she was simply too slow. Without Mentalla's interference Zl'f would have defeated Scorpia by Phase 8. She did actually manage to hit Zl'f once, but failed to do BODY to Zl'f (8 rPD) with her HKA and then got a lousy Stun multiplier to boot. To quote Spock: Random factors appear to have operated in our favor. Against our team's other two martial artists (SPD 5 and 7 respectively, neither of whom was present for this fight), I think she would have been much more of a threat.

You can always purchase and download the character files from CU for HERO DESIGNER. That's what I did, and I don't have CU at all.

There's a bigger difference between the two in my campaign; but they are still related. Indeed, the real and philisophical differences between users of "magic" and"psionics" were a potent dividing force, and were amongst the issues that ultimately led to the Atlantean civil war circa 3000 BC. Psionicists tended to be more "internal," drawing off their own resources. Magicians tended to use their abilities to draw power from external sources, including items of power, demons and other extradimensional entities. The two are not entirely exclusive; many Atlanteans have abilities in both fields although true competence in both is extemely rare. 80% of the Chosen are magicians rather than psionicists; and the vast majority of the rebels in the Atlantean civil war were magicians as well. For this reason the Synod, a powerful group of sorcerers and one of the Atlantean groups which actively opposes the Chosen, is viewed with some suspicion by most Atlanteans. Relations between them and other Atlanteans tend to be rocky. (For the sake of convenience, I'll collectively refer to Atlantean groups which oppose the Chosen as "Ishtari." in the future.) BTW, "Atlanteans" is not the term they call themselves; it was coined by their enemies/victims referring to their island city and plagarized by Plato. Their name for themselves (as with most primitives, even sophisticated ones) simply means "the people." (Hmmm, I've never put this much information in print about the Atlanteans before. I think I'll collate and expand upon all this and put together a "GM's Guide to the Atlanteans" for my campaign.)

There's much more to the Atlanteans than what I've given here. Lots of stuff is still unknown to the players in my campaign, including ones who read this forum such as Mentor, so I'm not going to reveal too much. I can give you more info directly. In my campaign anyone who can inately manipulate magic or psionic energies is of Atlantean blood. Indeed, in my game the two are considered variations on the same basic force; a crude analogy would be electricity and electronics. One is generally more powerful but cruder; the other is typically less powerful but more subtle. I do like some of your ideas, so I hope you won't be upset if I steal some to fill in a few minor gaps. I really like the use of psionics to prevent stillbirths; it explains much about their poor reproductive rate and why they haven't populated the world. Most of my Atlanteans are not truly immortal; just very long lived. Most live between 800-1500 years. Only those who reach a certain level of mastery of their powers are able to modify themselves to become truly immortal. There are probably only a dozen over 3000 years old, but those tend to be very powerful indeed.

That's a good point, and we've taken measures to reduce that problem. First, the Atlanteans are rare. There are only a few thousand of them in the entire world. They can seldom reproduce, so their numbers have remained virtually stable for literally millenia. (70% of them died when their ancient island city, now submerged under the Black Sea, was destroyed by the shattering of the Dardanelles 5000 years ago.) 50% of all persons of Atlantean blood have no idea of their true nature, but are simply considered gifted humans even by themselves. Many over the centuries have simply been considered persons with "the gift", which has always been a mixed blessing. (Many more have been burned as witches than have made fortunes or ruled nations.) And of the remaining persons of Atlantean blood, the majority simply wish to get along and pay no real attention to the struggles between good and evil. So the actual number who get involved in the struggle are small in both real and relative numbers. Many of the Chosen factions are just a few members, and they mostly use human agents. Secondly, the Atlanteans are human; they've simply been gifted with psychic and/or magical abilities and longevity. Atlantis was both more and less than it is often thought to be. It had indoor plumbing thousands of years before Rome, but captured and used slaves for labor and as fodder for war. Magical light sources and writing, but most buildings were made of clay bricks. Atlanteans had immense magic powers, and engaged in constant political intrigues and rebellions. They are no better than humans because they are humans, with all that that implies, both good and bad. And the ordinary humans constantly thwarted their plans, because those ordinary humans had their own ambitions.

Most of human history in our campaign is influenced by the constant battle between the Chosen and their enemies (Hitler and Stalin were both pawns of different Chosen factions.). Prodigy's mentor, Uruk (the ancient city in Babylon was named after him), is the most powerful mentalist to have ever lived. He's now 8000+ years old, and has been such notables as Gilgamesh and Merlin through his long life. He tends to take the long term view, but he's utterly ruthless and extremely pragmatic. He's a good guy, but his view of what is "good" is not quite the same as modern sensibilities. For example, Uruk persuaded the Mongolian hordes to go westward in order to break the Muslims since Mohammed was a Chosen (Mecca is still a Chosen stronghold; and the Kaaba stone is a powerful magic artifact). Mentor and I are both big history and conspiracy buffs, so our campaign universe incorporates a lot of those elements.

Hmmm. Maybe we ought to exchange plot ideas? If your're interested, e-mail me. (Obviously we can't discuss it here, as my players frequent these boards.) One of our PCs (Our mentalist, Prodigy) is an Atlantean, and a founding member of the Knights Templar. The Templars are a group founded by the good Atlanteans as a specific counter to the Chosen, who were working within the Catholic Church through most of the Middle Ages. So in addition to being an immortal, he is also an ordained Catholic priest.

This sounds like it might be just the ticket. I'll have to float it past my GMs, but I think they'd both be OK with it.

I like the idea. I don't have a villainous agency such a VIPER in my campaign per se, but I do have something that fulfils much the same purpose. In my campaign I have the Chosen, a loosely knit group of immortal sorcerers and mentalists. Refugees and descendants of the rebels in the Atlantean civil war ~5000 years ago, the Chosen operate in individual groups with anything from 1-50 Atlanteans. The Chosen believe it is their birthright to ultimately rule over the world's human cattle, enslaving humanity in perpetual bondage. In this, they are opposed by a number of mostly informal Atlantean groups, most notably the Circle of Light (powerful mentalists) and the Synod (sorcerers). The Chosen often work through human fronts; Hitler was a Chosen puppet although it is uncertain which of his "advisors" was actually Chosen; most probably Eichmann. Only occasionally does a Chosen directly show themselves as a power, such as the infamous Morgan le Fey (still at large, and one of the most powerful Chosen sorceresses who has ever lived) from the days of King Arthur. (Need I add that Merlin was an Atlantean working to oppose Le Fey?) Fortunately for humanity, the Chosen spend as much time intriguing amongst themselves as they do attempting to take over the world, and backstabbing is a high art amongst them. Alliances are for convenience only. That's the price one pays for being evil.

LOL. Less, if I take Limitations.

I'm looking for a way for my character to fully heal minor cosmetic injuries, such as bruises, minor cuts and scrapes, minor bullet wounds, contusions and the like, much faster than normal humans. She's already got Healing (Regeneration) to cover actual BODY damage. What I want is for her bruises and other external effects of the superhero lifestyle to fade completely in mere hours instead of days, and to leave no permanent mark. (She wants to keep that 20 COM, not look like an escapee from a horror movie.) How would I go about creating flawless skin? A cosmetic Minor Transform(Damages Skin to Flawless Skin) seems the most obvious way to go about this, but is there a better way? Or would the Healing already cover such minor damage?

Re: Re: Re: Question I'd forgotten about the EGO Drain; although it ultimately made little difference in the fight vs. Mentalla since her EGO was higher than Prodigy's anyway. And I'll second those kudos for Blackjack; he snookered us good. An outstanding adventure, especially since Blackjack has been GMing for only 8 months or so. I'm going to have to go back to GM school for some refresher courses; the new kid's making me look bad.

I've wanted to be able to do something like this with my own MA/gymnast, to simulate the bounce off the wall and attack/climb up the alley wall you see so often in kung fu movies. Steve Long basically vetoed the idea as a variation on Leaping, so I partially simulate it with a Teleport like Blue did. Unfortunately, you can't get velocity modifiers for a Teleport, and I wanted something that would allow bouncing around corners. I'd still rather do it as a modified leap, but I've never figured out the mechanic. But I don't think Autofire is the answer. (Clever, though.)

Re: Question Fair question. It's really not that complicated, although I may have a couple of the details wrong. (Understand I was paying more attention to Durak and Scorpia than what was going on between Mentalla and the rest of the team.) Mentor may have some corrections to offer, but this was how I saw it. Mentalla was in fact hiding in the cargo hold when we arrived; and just as was stated attempted to attack Prodigy with a mental attack (Ego Blast, I think.) through a Mind Scan. Her Ego Blast mostly bounced off Prodigy's high Mental Defenses. Since the other villain team we had just beaten and rescued was missing its previously encountered mentallist, Prodigy still had his 90 point VPP set with extra Mental Defenses. He then rendered himself invisible to Mind Scan, which caused Mentalla to come up from the cargo hold to attempt to gain LOS on her opponent. She hovered a few inches above the cargo hatch to get her bearings. Once outside the cargo hold, she was fair game. Thunderbird, our energy projector, also had some Mental Defense supplied by Prodigy, so she was unable to stun him. Meanwhile T'bird summoned a Megascale storm (Change Environment) which reduced her sight PER rolls by -3 and flight speed by 5". IIRC she Ego Blasted Thunderbird a couple more times and finally succeeded in KOing him, but not before he'd he'd shot Ultrasonique out of the sky and hit her with a couple 13d6 EB lightning bolts. Then Mentalla turned to Ego Blast my martial artist Zl'f, who was fighting (and fairly handily beating) Scorpia due to her vast SPD advantage (SPD 9 vs SPD 5). Mentalla managed to stun Zl'f and get her within 3 points of KO, but as that was Phase 12 Zl'f got her post-12 recovery. Zl'f managed to put down Scorpia immediately in phase 2 of the next turn, then turned to deal with Mentalla in phases 3 and 4 Zl'f first ran over and leaped attempting a Move Through on Mentalla, but narrowly missed. In her next phase she made a successful hit with her Sacrifice Strike (10d6) for 44 points of stun, which put Mentalla out of the fight. Since Prodigy had already mentally paralyzed Durak, that pretty much ended the fight. Mentalla might possibly have done better to go higher up , but going too high up not only risked her losing LOS with most of her opponents, especially Prodigy who didn't need LOS because he could Mind Scan, but really puts her in Thunderbird's element since he is truly awesome in aerial combat and has Personal Immunity from the effects of his own storm. Zl'f can run 30" and jump 6" straight up; Mentalla is not the first flying villain to discover that merely being airborne does not make one safe from Zl'f.

Sounds to me like your problem is more that your players don't play heroically than a problem with your villains. What, no Codes vs Killing in your group? Even the police will start to balk if every time the "Revengers" swing into action the body count goes into double digits. You can handle this two ways: 1) Sit down with the players and explain that you think they are on the wrong track, and that they need to ramp down the lethality. 2) Increase the power and lethality of the villains to match. Every time a villain dies, kill a PC hero in retaliation. Call it cosmic karma. See how long it takes for the PCs to find a "kinder, gentler heroism." Option 1 is smarter, but #2 is more fun.

Ye Gawds! Your team is unbelievable! Stomping Eurostar should be a cinch for your group, unless of course your GM realizes that and has subjected Eurostar to a nice healthy radiation accident. Of course, he's probably also added a couple new "provisional" members to his Eurostar lineup: Dr. Destroyer, Menton, and Firewing all want to join.

Sure, but giving 2-3 XP per adventure/play session still adds up fairly fast. Even if (like our group) you only play once a month, that's basically 24-30 XP a year. That's enough to do some nice skill or characteristic improvements , several new MP slots, or a whole new EC power. Or in the case of a martial artist, several new maneuvers. Our group is fairly skill-intensive; my martial artist Zl'f has Riding (Horses), Animal Handler (Equines), Downhill (Combat) Skiing and Chess as hobbies and Bureaucratics, Computer Programming and PS: Executive Assistant as Secret ID-enhancing job-related skills. She's also picked up 3 points of Norwegian (she lives in Norway). Other team members have non-combat skills as well; for example our team brick/scientist is an expert piano player. Our mentalist speaks 7 or 8 languages.