Chimera 12

Re: Lycanthropic Bite Yes, but that's not Always On; that's Linked, specifically the "jointly Linked" special case described in the writeup for that Limitation in 6E1.

Re: Weighted Net Actually, in 6E at least, there is. First, the GM can simply decide, based on the Entangle's special effects, whether or not some given escape attempt is likely to work. And second, an Entangle can be bought with Susceptible (-1/4 to -1) if it "can be completely removed by some substance or effect that wouldn't damage an ordinary Entangle". (The Handcuffs writeup has what seems to be an example of this among its other Limitations -- -1/2 for being escapable with a modified Contortionist or Lockpicking roll.) While I'm not sure off the top of my head what precise roll to use to escape a 'simple' weighted net in combat (though probably something along the lines of "unmodified Contortionist or a DEX roll at some decent but not crippling penalty"), it sounds like a good candidate for -1 based on the notion that pretty much anybody should be able to wriggle out again in pretty short order if not for the fact that somebody's likely trying to kill them at the same time.

Re: Possession? Huh? It has aspects of Mind Control and Telepathy (and, if one wants, either the "Astral Form" of Duplication or else the Projection form of Desolidification also introduced in the APG), but it's very much its own Mental Power with its own writeup.

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP Just as magic in turn gets around "Suppress Technology"...well, unless it's 'magitech', I suppose.

Re: Lycanthropic Bite

Re: THE Grim Reaper Well, that depends on how one sees him. If Death is just the "doorman" into the afterlife, so to speak, then there wouldn't be much reason to ascribe powers over the dead who have passed beyond his care to him. And the undead could be argued to be somewhat antithetical to his entire concept in the first place -- after all, in a sense they defy him simply by existing. That said, if the Grim Reaper does have power over the departed still, why stop at zombies? Let him summon up the actual ghosts of the greatest heroes and/or villains that ever lived...much more tidy, at least as much potential for drama, and he doesn't even have to necessarily be a villain himself for that.

Re: With Great Power... It's not that uncommon a trope, actually. (My apologies in advance to everybody whose life was irrevocably ruined by following the link. ) It hasn't come up in my campaigns much, but that may be owed more to a certain dearth of such campaigns in recent years to begin with than anything else.

Re: Lycanthropic Bite I don't think this is necessarily a case for Always On at all. Rather, it looks like what you want to do is Jointly Link the werewolf's bite attack and the Transformation power so that neither can be used without the other. Also, this looks like a power designed to turn the victim into a new werewolf right on the spot. Which for a superhero setting may be an appropriate choice ( "Defender, are you all right?" "GRAAARRR!!!" "Um...my, what big teeth you have..." ), but if you're willing to let the 'curse' take hold more slowly, you could potentially buy a smaller base Transform with Damage Over Time.

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP Well, that's the problem with the book listing "Only Attacks" as an example for a "Slightly Limited Class of Powers" Limitation without then going into any detail, I guess. (Same as with "Only Magic", really...) Personally, if a player suggested taking that sort of pool (maybe as an OAF "all-purpose gun", for example) to me, I'd certainly want to spend a few minutes hashing out just what sort of constraints he or she thinks that would impose on it before deciding on the final Limitation value. (Since attack powers are going to be highly useful in all but the most unusual campaigns, my instinct would be not to go higher than -1/2 without seriously compelling reason by default...but the player might surprise me.)

Re: Duplication vs Multiform... I don't know...for some reason, the whole "scientist has a bunch of remote-controlled drones" bit says "Followers" or maybe "Summon" to me more than it does "Duplication". Any reason why they couldn't be built that way?

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP I can't think of anything right now that I'd call a -4 Limitation (well, maybe something along the lines of "Character dies, no save, standard means of resurrection will not work"...), and I'd be generally wary of giving out as much as -2 for any one Limitation just on principle. That's because, while it's easy to look at powers in a hypothetical vacuum and say "well, obviously a Blast that only affects Demons is horrendously more limited than one that can damage anything", in practice players (a) can be expected to get creative in working around their characters' limitations -- which is actually a good thing, but means those limitations can easily end up not being quite as limiting as they look -- and ( will naturally expect to see a return on their invested points. That "Blast only vs. Demons" could all too easily belong to a character who's a dedicated hunter of said beings (which will of course exist in this campaign and play at least an occasional role, otherwise the player shouldn't have to pay points for it at all) and for whom it'll be convenient to be able to hit them while not risking harm to innocents or collateral damage in general... With regards to the "Attack Pool" we're discussing here, remember that last point: "Powers with the Usable As Attack Advantage". This character wants to fly? He can! He just has to define his Flight as an attack and hit himself with it rather than anybody else -- it won't be as point-effective as buying the power straight, but I'd certainly consider it a valid use of the pool.

Re: Presence power framework

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP Okay, the nominal list of "Attack Powers" as per 6E1 144 is as follows: Blast Change Environment Characteristics (STR only) Darkness Dispel Drain Entangle Flash Hand-To-Hand Attack Images Killing Attack Mental Blast Mental Illusions Mind Control Reflection Telekinesis Transform Powers with the Usable As Attack Advantage Limited selection, relative to "all powers"? Sure. There'll be things you won't easily be able to do with this kind of pool. Limited enough to warrant more than -1/4, in and of itself? You be the judge -- I for one still see plenty of utility value in here, especially with the character free to customize his or her 'attacks'.

Re: Presence power framework *checks book* Um, doesn't a 60 PRE cost 50 points? (Granted, it has other benefits as well, including the potential for truly awesome Interaction Skill levels. Still, at this point we are talking about a fair-sized point investment...)

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP

Re: How to model Jade (from Whately) Duplication with Altered Duplicates (and both Ranged and presumably Easy Recombination, as well as Time Limit) would seem to be at the core of it, yes. The default condition of the duplicates should probably be to be both Desolid and Invisible -- while one can see and attack the animated object, or a 'person' duplicate with suitable makeup (like Shroud), in their natural state they're invisible, intangible, and basically immune to physical attacks. The Advanced Player's Guide offers some Desolidification options which might be worth checking out, too -- most notably Merging.

Re: My Heroes Have Always Been GIANTS! (Long) In fact, that's IIRC the default Marvel way of handling growth/shrinking/density manipulation. (The mass for density increase has to come from somewhere, too, after all; a character altering only his or her density while keeping mass constant would necessarily end up shrinking or growing as well.) Doesn't really explain why that mass is in that conveniently accessible other dimension in the first place, of course, or why it always automatically matches whatever it needs to be applied to, or why it shifting back and forth like that seemingly at random (that is, as needed by the character in question and/or the plot) never seems to incur any unexpected side effects whatsoever. It's Handwavium at its finest.

Re: THE HERO SYSTEM BESTIARY: What Do *You* Want To See? Well, technically you can 'derive' all these things from just the core rulebooks. So why do we need a Bestiary at all, again? Honestly, there are people out here who want to throw more money in Hero Games' general direction and are just looking for the proper excuses. The least one can do for them is try to provide those.

Re: Eldritch Wizardry VPP I agree, Only Magic as a Limitation greater than -0 on the pool only makes sense if that does limit you somehow -- say, in a fantasy or "mystic masters" campaign where defenses, Dispels, and so on vs. magic are fairly common. In a regular superhero game where a Magic VPP is basically "I can do anything as long as I call it a spell", Only Magic isn't really limiting (and if your sorcerer-type character needs to gesture, incant, or concentrate to use his or her pool powers, well, those are Limitations in their own right). For comparison purposes, consider that the other example -1/4 Limitation listed is "Only Attacks"...

It may be that I'm just being dense, but...shouldn't the required 'minimum' dimension for explosions be a straight 2m per Damage Class, rather than (2 * DC) + 2? Let me take Kasdrevan's 8d6 Radius Explosion Blast from 6E1 323 as an example of what I mean. If I understand correctly, that Blast does its full damage to anything within 2m, then loses its successive highest dice for every 2m or fraction beyond that. So it's 8d6 out to 2m, 8d6 - (highest die) out to 4, 8d6 - (2 highest dice) out to 6...until we get to 8d6 - (7 highest dice) out to 16m. That's it; beyond that range, we're removing 8 or more dice out of 8 and so not dealing any damage at all. Yet Kasdrevan's Blast is bought with an 18m Area Effect Radius, not 16. (Which is indeed the by-the-book notional minimum for an 8 DC Explosion and also incidentally just happens to cross the threshold to the next larger AoE Advantage, making the power that much more expensive.) But, why? It's not as though he's actually getting anything out of those extra 2m at the outer edge, after all; the damage drops off to zero before it gets there. Right now, I can see three potential explanations: 1.) Yes, Area Effects bought as Explosions are supposed to include and pay for that "no effect" outer edge (possibly to compensate for the reduced Active Cost relative to standard Area Effects), and the fact that this occasionally leads to spending points on nothing useful is a feature, not a bug. 2.) I'm misunderstanding how explosion damage is supposed to drop off and thus underestimating the damage radius by just those 2m. 3.) The formula in the book is just off. (It could happen. ) But which is it?

Re: Quick Question from a New Hero

Re: Quick Question from a New Hero Actually, I'd consider J. Jonah Jameson Spider-Man's main Hunted. No, really. All the assorted villains in Spidey's Rogues' Gallery, well, they pop up from time to time so he has somebody to fight for the readers' entertainment -- but who's the person who's always there and on his case, no matter what else is going on? JJ, that's who.

Re: Common 6E House Rules Well, yes, it's entirely possible that I'm getting hung up on the mechanic. Then again, if the mechanic is what I want to model in the first place, I'd say I'm just a little bit entitled.

Re: Common 6E House Rules