Snarf

Of course I got it. Everyone got it. I must've read all 5 of those books an average of 3 times each. That doesn't change the towel master's awesome destructive power.

I think the level of conceability in a focus could occasionally be useful information, such as in places where everyone is searched for weapons, but I've never been willing to do the work rquired to simulate things like that. Actually, It sounds lke you could make a great superhero with all those towel powers. I'll call him either towel-master or the towel-inator. The Gameboy Advance SP. Is it the images power in a focus? A computer? A light source?

What would you do to turn the power non-selective, as in using the big green hand? Limited TK? Change Environment with varying effect?

Except it couldn't disguise itself as anything; it could only look like pen. That sounds like another limitation on disguise.

Woo! Third time's the charm!

Looking like someone famous isn't always a disadvantage. It could be handled as a reputation instead, which would allow good or bad effects from different people.

When using other RPG systems, I would often plan so that there was only one major fight per game session. That didn't speed things up but at least it left enough time for role-playing.

In this case, the GM might rule that personal immunity was now worth +1 or more. As much as required to balance the two powers.

If a deceptive item can be given disguise skill, then maybe a concealably small item could be given concealment skill with -2 (only usable with this item). Or at least give a bonus to anyone using concealment skill with them. Implementing that change would require modifying almost every piece of equipment in the game...

That sounds balanced, but not very fun... Could you buy something like autofire or some other advantage to allow you to cheaply affect many targets?

In that case, all those ideas I had for building the power with point efficiency are err... pointless. If it's a heroic, then the character point cost of the mancer's items doesn't even have to matter. They wouldn't have to pay character points for them at all if you were willing to treat them as equipment instead of powers. You could just have them find or pay for these items and limit what powers they can use from them based on innate abilities. example: Mancers Boots: Walk through fire with -1 OAF and -1(only usable by Pyromancers) plus Walk on water with with -1 OAF and -1(only usable by Hydromancers) plus Walk on Ice with -1 OAF and -1(only usable by Hydromancers) plus Knockback resist with with -1 OAF and -1(only usable by Terramancers) plus Armor 1PD/1ED with an activation roll at covers only feet level and -1 OAF and a limitation for weight and -1/4 real armor And to be considered a Pyromancer, they would have to possess an ability with a fire special effect. The real cost would be ridiculous, since the item technically contains 5 powers at full price, but that wouldn't matter in game terms for a heroic level campaign. All you would have to do is assign a balanced monetary value to it or control how easy it is to obtain. The advantage of doing it this way is that it's incredibly simple. Just a thought. This is probably all useless to you but at least I'm having fun =P. I hope all my rambling has at least helped you feel certain that your method is the best. I'm totally going to steal your finished product and work it into one of my games.

Using how area effect usually alters damage powers as the precedent, I would say that the assumption is that area TK can affect everything there with 30 STR per item, with selective making it possible to not affect some things in the area. I think the big green hand is a limited form of the power. Maybe the big hand power would buy the area affect one half or one quarter the cost. Or the price of explosion could be used as a guideline for how much a weakened form of area effect should cost and a new advantage called distributed effect (or whatever) could be bought instead.

If you've got all those powers completely statted out somewhere, it sounds like all the possible effects are predefined. In that case, it would usually be much cheaper in points to have the players buy some form of multipower, rather than a variable power pool. Variable power pools are generally intended for when a player can make up their own powers as needed, rather than choose from GM defined abilities. Does each character only have one speciality or is it possible to have many? For example, could a pyromancer also learn terramancy? Also, is this a heroic or superheroic level campaign?

You seem to have this power pretty figured out already, but here's an alternate form which might give you some ideas. Instead of one complex pool, you could have players buy seperate powers. I can't calculate point costs until I get the fifth edition book but it would be something like this. first they buy their innate powers: control fire, etc. then they obtain foci: Mancers Boots: 40 pt. VPP with modifiers on the control cost of +2 Cosmic, -1 OAF, -1(only to create movement powers), -1(only to create GM defined powers based on special effects of innate powers) Mancers Cloak: 40 pt. VPP with modifiers on the control cost of +2 Cosmic, -1 OAF, -1(only to create self-affecting powers), -1(only to create GM defined powers based on special effects of innate powers) Mancers Glove: 40 pt. VPP with modifiers on the control cost of +2 Cosmic, -1 OAF, -1(only to create close range attack powers), -1(only to create GM defined powers based on special effects of innate powers) etc. etc. Here's another form which is less flexible but doesn't require as many new power limitations to be created. Pyromancy: 40 pt. Multipower slot 1, Innate Power: Fire Control slot 2, Mancer's Cloak: Fire Damage Reduction with -1 0AF slot 3, Mancers Bow: Energy Blast with -1 OAF etc. etc. In other words, each item would contain a bunch of multipower slots, some of which might be useless. Mancers Cloak: 1 slot for Pyromancy, Fire Damage Reduction, 1 slot for Hydromancy, etc. all of which have a protective effect. Either of these methods represents the role of items more mechanically than the big pool, but adds a lot more work.

Couldn't they defend themselves just by grabbing onto something and holding tight?

Your reasoning sounds good to me Keen. Can they be deprived of their enhanced powers if these enhancing items are stolen or damaged? If so, there should be one more limitation on the control cost to reflect that, but the focus limitation sounds innapropriate. Maybe it could be -1/4 or -1/2 and the wording could be something like: changes require special items. Except replace the word special items with whatever these things are going to be called . Post the final version of this system when you're done! I want to see how this turns out.

I don't currently have a 5th edition book, but I think the focus requirment can be included in the limitations somehow. Also, I think you don't have to buy cosmic if you're putting any kind of limits on how often and how easily they can choose new powers. I'm not too sure about any of this, but you might want to double check if you're also unsure. Damn, I wish I could be more useful. It's a great concept but all I have right now is Star Hero.

Several of those modifiers could be done with power advantages. You might be able to handle the effect as a naked power advantage, such as explosion, in a focus that could apply itself to any psi power that makes sense. This would save you the trouble of paying for it many times but makes it difficult to change the powers drastically. A VPP would be way more flexible. Another method you could consider is having the players buy the pool and initial slots of a multipower and gain additional slots in the power through foci. But this would only add enhancements to one power at a time, instead of giving all their powers the ability. Oh well, just throwing stuff out.

It sounds broad enough to me, but you'd have to describe the campaign world.

It seems like there are as many advantages as there are limitations to me. Maybe it should just be a 0 point option.

Does it count as visible to sight when you can see the object hovering in the air and such?

You might be able to use armor and the absorbtion power. Absorbtion could convert the body damage into character points for some sort of always on fireball power or hostile change environment effect.

You can buy the +1/2 power advantage persistent, listed on page 165 of 5'th edition rules. The power will be "constantly on until the character consciously decides to turn it off or dies." But it can only be used with a power that costs no endurance or is bought with reduced end(0 END).

The only problem with buying a pimped out computer is that you have to think of every single skill you could ever want and spend a half hour writing it all down. Let's see Transport familiarity with cars ... trucks ... bikes ... choppers ... hovercraft ... mecha ... rollerblades ... pogo sticks ... It depends how much you want to be able to know anything. I'm not too sure about this, since I'm still reading through my hero basic book, but there seems to be a way to buy skill levels in everything for 10 points a level. That sounds like it could work if you limited it with a delay while your operator downloaded things you haven't used yet. Rapid fire attacks sound great to me because it seems like they don't act with continuous high speed. They fight at normal speed most of the time then attack really fast in short bursts when they need it. I've seen all of these powers appear in some form: missle deflection, flight, super jumping, super strength, super speed(rapid fire and +OCV/DCV), ressurection/teleportation (the agents take over new people after being killed or left behind), turning insubstantial, and all the random powers Neo invents when the plot calls for it.

That sounds about right, except you start out already able to transmit sound for free. So, I'm guessing you would get ultrasonic transmission for free, when you buy ultrasonic hearing, or only have to pay 2 points to add transmission for one sense, since the rest of the sense group is already covered. Done this way, the total would be either 3 or 5 points.