Trebuchet

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please A much better formula and presentation than your original idea, although I still think it's a solution to a non-existent problem. But I'm glad we didn't scare you off.

Re: DEX vs. CSLs

Re: DEX vs. CSLs

Re: Order of the Stick New OotS up.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please Correct. My version prevented only BODY damage from physical and/or energy attacks (even Advantaged ones); it did nothing to stop Stun damage or Adjustment Powers. It was intended to be another useful tool in the toolkit, not something that would rework the entire Hero combat system as this thread's OP was proposing.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please I proposed just such a Power two years ago and linked it upthread. I'm not saying it's perfect, but I still feel it would be a good starting point and is worthy of playtesting.

Re: My first character (Speedster) Quite so. Remember your character has to turn off his Desolidification in order to attack non-Desolid characters or objects. That's a HUGE window of vulnerability.

Re: My first character (Speedster) I'll third that. I run a Champions character with DEX 43 and SPD 9 and she gets hit about one out of three sessions. Her defenses are 12PD and 12 ED; 6 of each are provided by Combat Luck. With a 4 PD or ED like you've got she'd have been dead several times over by now. The extra BODY was a good idea. Welcome to Hero.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please I say that still falls short of an absolute if characters can recover lost HPs. Monsters don't level up because they're just sword-fodder for PCs.

Re: Excel Spreadsheet for tracking Combat Order I had exactly the same problem. Just post it as a .xls file; it can't be all that large.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please I'm not sure that qualifies as an absolute even by the definition of the OP. Yes, the target loses 2 dice permanently, but I'm pretty sure he can regain them as he levels up and there may be other ways as well. The only absolutes I can think of in Hero now are that a natural 3 roll of 3d6 is always a hit and a natural 18 is always a miss. That might be an adequate precedent for some.

Re: Possession I wouldn't use this for a PC except in a very Iron Age game (and our MidGuard campaign is Silver Age) either. But it works fine as something for supervillains or supernatural evil critters.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please

Re: Possession

Re: Possession No. They're not intended specifically as infiltrators although they might try it; they're supposed to be a combat threat (and challenge) because they can occupy the bodies of persons heroes won't want to risk hurting such as civilians (or teammates).

Re: What costing for noncombat movement without penalty? Megascale movement per the rules is explicitly non-combat only. Megascale is new in 5th Edition.

Re: Possession Dear God, no. It's for a race of extradimensional bad guys. I suppose that the non-corporeal body might be damaged by the right Affects Desolid sfx. The plot device approach might be the simplest to put it together. All I need to figure is how to stop or counter it; knowing full well my players will figure out another way I didn't anticipate.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please

Re: Possession Not sure yet. I'm still putting the scenario together in my head. Again, maybe. Probably. It can move to another unoccupied body nearby (within range). Yes. Mental Defense; and possibly with an EGO roll. The build will determine the answers to most of these questions.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please NOT the one who brought the pizza.

Re: New option: Absolute Abilties, help please That's a philosophical difference more than anything. I do understand where you're coming from; I just don't see any need for (and lots of reasons to dislike) such a capability in a role-playing game. There's no precedent I'm aware of for this kind of absolute in the source material and it creates a host of problems in a role playing game; the largest of which is it creates tremendous problems for the GM to create a suitable challenge to characters possessing such Absolute abilities as you've proposed. You've left it no Achilles heel; no flaws for those characters who lack some sort of Absolute to exploit. (Even Superman had kryptonite.) That's inevitably going to mean that the only realistic way to challenge such a character is going to be another character with an Absolute; meaning these kinds of conflicts are probably going to be a lot more common that you seem to think they will be. It's not a problem for the GM who has infinite points to design bad guys; but it's going to be a major one for players. If you actually playtest this in a campaign I think you'll find it far more problematical than you expect. If you're bound and determined to use this in your game, then I think the idea upthread of having it be a percentage of total character points rather than a fixed cost has a lot of merit. 33% or 50% of total character points seems about right. In the meantime, keep the ideas coming. Just because we didn't like this one doesn't mean you won't have the next Great Idea.

Re: Things Foxbat should try to steal Nah, Foxbat'd show up at the heroes front door and tell them "You know how you incompetent morons have been searching for Dr. Destroyer for years? Well, he'll be here in another..." *looks at his Foxbat-watch* "...22 seconds. I'll let you help me defeat him so people will respect you."

How do you build a non-corporeal being which occupies human bodies; and then can jump from that body to another one nearby?

Re: Combining Genres Remember that the amazing thing about a dancing bear isn't how well he dances but rather that he dances at all. IOW, if a super can do something none of the non-supers can do (such as fly, see through walls, or use telepathy) then he doesn't need to be overwhelmingly powerful. He's important because he can do things others cannot. The TV show Heroes is a pretty good illustration of this. Most of the characters have a very limited range of superpowers; often only a single power.