Armitage

It's certainly not unprecedented in existing character designs. I grabbed one of the Champions Villains books and one of the first characters, Anubis, takes 2x STUN from Life/Holy attacks and 2x STUN from Water attacks. While a weapon based on a high-pressure jet of holy water might not be common, that's what Variable Special Effect is for. The Advanced Player's Guide specifically discusses being Vulnerable to two special effects for a single attack. "A character may have two or more Vulnerabilities that are affected by a single attack - for example, a character who's Vulnerable to Ice/Cold and Vulnerable to Magic could get hit by a Frost Bolt spell. In that situation, multiply the larger multiplier by the smaller multiplier to get the overall multiplier. Thus, two x1.5 multipliers become a x2.25 multiplier, a x1.5 and x2 multiplier become a x3 multiplier, and two x2 multipliers become a x4 multiplier."

Okay, this calls for posting this Shortpacked comic.

You'll get to him enentually, but I always had an issue with Virtuoso. The guy has a Cosmic Variable Power Pool that requires music, art, or poetry to use, but it never actually describes the nature of the power. Apparently he just plays an instrument or recites a poem and rewrites reality.

The Advanced Player's Guide has Two-Dimensional as an option on Area of Effect (1/4 less Advantage). It creates a Radius or Cone that's a 2m high circle or triangle instead of a full sphere or cone.

I've never actually used it in a game, but I've toyed with the idea of using Resistant Protection and Damage Negation to distinguish between flexible and rigid armor, like the Light Armor and Heavy Armor powers in Wild Talents. Resistant Protection is flexible armor, like chainmail, kevlar, a "bulletproof spandex" superhero costume, or a superhuman's bulletproof skin. The armor resists penetration but flexes enough to allow some energy through. The defense will stop BODY damage, but some STUN is likely to get through. Damage Negation is rigid armor, like plate mail, heavy tactical armor, powered battle armor, or skin covered with slabs of stone or metal plates. If an attack isn't powerful enough to punch through the defenses, it bounces off completely with no effect. If it does get through, the damage that penetrates tears through whatever's underneath, unless there's additional armor of another type. The only problem is that Damage Negation works on AVADs and Drains, but that can be handled with a Limitation. The 6e rulebook has examples that only work against bullets and only against punches.

The 4e Minuteman robot in The Mutant File had a 10 PD/10 ED Hardened Force Field that only defended against the last type of attack that did BODY damage (-1). It only worked against one special effect at a time. Punch the robot hard enough to do BODY damage and it gains extra defense against future physical Normal Attacks. Hit it with a blast of flame and the physical protection changes to extra defenses against fire. Punch it again and it has no extra protection from that punch, but it will be protected from the next one (unless it's hit with something different before then). The Minuteman was an Automaton with Takes No STUN, so the Limitation might be less for a living character if the defense reacts to STUN damage as well.

A day after posting I realized that I may have been mistaken about that. I didn't read far enough when I grabbed my rulebook yesterday. In retrospect, it makes sense and I should have realized that. Not being able to switch between PD and ED would defeat much of the purpose.

What they mean is that you can't use Variable Special Effects to simulate other Advantages. If your punch becomes a poison attack, it's still a Normal Attack resisted with PD. It doesn't become a Drain or an NND attack. The main Advantage of VSE is to take advantage of an opponent's Vulnerabilities or any Limitations that they have on their defenses, e.g.turning your fists to silver to take advantage of the Not Against Silver that a werewolf has on its extra PD or ice against a fire-wielding character who takes 2x STUN from cold attacks. However, a lot of Limited defenses are ED, e.g. Resistant Energy Defense, Does Not Work Against Fire. Flaming fists wouldn't affect that since the punch is still against Physical Defense.

Well, they didn't know that he was a vampire. Just like they didn't know that the Genocide leader he reported to was secretly a mutant whose powers included complete invisibility to mutant detectors.

The 4e Minuteman Mk VII in The Mutant File was equipped with a Multi-Contingency Weapon System, a 12d6 Energy Blast with Variable Advantage (up to +1/2) and variable Advantage (any). I'm not really sure how it was supposed to work. A single technological weapon can project fire, electricity, acid, radiation, rubber bullets, a swarm of killer bees... One of Genocide's lieutenants was secretly a vampire. Maybe he covertly recruited some evil wizards disguised as weapon designers.

I had a player create (but never play) a character who could turn into a griffin with a fear-inducing roar/screech that I think totaled about 12d6. Against an average person, that would typically make them faint or run away with an average roll. This player had a tendency to try to create characters whose main power could one-shot a significant percentage of opponents, like the time-manipulator with a Radius Selective Target SPD Suppress or the shrinking leaping brick whose STR + Velocity damage could turn 4e Mechanon to confetti.

The mecha chapter of The Ultimate Vehicle recommended giving a vehicle that relies on heat sinks an END Reserve that represents both the power of the mecha's engine and the efficiency of its cooling system. The more systems that the mecha uses at once or for prolonged periods, the more strain it puts on the cooling system. The mecha takes a Dependence Complication that inflicts 11- Activation on all of the mecha's Powers when the END Reserve is below 25% maximum capacity. A alternative also described is 14- Activation at 40%, reduced by 1 for every additional 5%.

Adventurer's Club #22. He lost most of his powers after prolonged exposure to Stonghold's power suppression technology and formed Castle Security, Inc., a private security firm employing reformed supervillains. Himself, Ultraviolet, who quit the Geodesics and divorced Dart, and Piledriver, who got a normal cybernetic arm after Viper took back his weapon arm. I liked that version of Ultraviolet better than the one in Dystopia, from Atlas Games. Her fate was depressing, especially compared to the Castle Security version.

Sites like that one make me regret installing NoScript. Will enabling this script make the page work? No. Maybe this one? Nope, but it made five others appear. Maybe this one? No. This one? ...and so on. Unless I just want to say "Temporarily allow all this page", which I never like.

Citadel was updated to 4e in the Viper sourcebook.

The Stepping Through Shadows power in Champions Powers and the UNTIL Superpowers Database has Only Through Darkness/Shadows as a -1/4 Limitation, and that's including the requirement that the departure and arrival shadows be at least 2m x 2m x 2m in size, "big enough to cover an adult human".

The 5e version was in Champions Universe, the GM's Vault section on the Institute for Human Advancement. They're described as "ten feet tall (and sometimes a little taller, depending on options and upgrades)" The Mk V in Enemies was 30 feet tall and the Mk VII in The Mutant File was 50 feet tall. The typical Sentinel is 20 feet tall.

Several years after successfully playing through Day of the Destroyer, our GM started a new campaign with new characters, set in an alternate timeline in which our previous PCs failed to stop Destroyer and his weapon killed most of the Earth's population. Unfortunately, he was a terrible GM. Based on his initial description, we all created characters who were superhumans struggling to survive in the blasted ruins of civilization. The actual campaign jumped to 20 years in the future, when everything had somehow been rebuilt and it was virtually indistinguishable from a normal Champaions campaign, except there may have been a few less civilian bystanders. Most of us redesigned our characters or created new ones, but the game didn't last.

I've been running into a similar situation cataloging characters for conversion and use in my campaign. e.g. this character is a Brick, this character is an Energy Projector, this character is a Mentalist and a Gadgeteer, etc. For characters whose primary archetype is one that doesn't necessarily include superhuman powers (Gadgeteer, Powered Armor, Martial Artist, Weaponmaster), I indicate whether they're a normal human or if they actually have powers. I occasionally run into characters like Dragon Master. Ostensibly just a highly trained martial artist, he can leap 38 meters, 152 meters noncombat. I've classified him as a Martial Artist with a secondary classification of Speedster-Leaping.

Her Vulnerability could be psychosomatic, similar to how Bulldozer used to take 2x STUN from females in hand-to-hand combat. "He thinks women are wimps, and whenever a woman strikes him in hand-to-hand combat, he is likely to go into shock." "Gasp! You hit me! Aaahhh!!!"

It would be funny if Shockwave were written up with an additional Energy Blast, Armor Piercing, but with a low Activation Roll because he hasn't used it in a long time. In universe, Arrowhead's name was changed to Shockwave in the 4e Champions Universe book. The publicist that the team hired told him that it was dumb for him to call himself Arrowhead just because he had an arrow on the mask of his costume when his powers were explosive in nature. But if you go back to the pre-4e versions of the character, his Energy Blast is Armor Piercing, not Explosive. Almost as if he were projecting an "arrow" of force.

I assume that you're referencing the Military Laser Rifle on page 194 of the 6e Hero System Equipment Guide or page 190 of 6e Star Hero. I'm not sure if it appears elsewhere, but it has the cited point cost. 2d6 RKA is 30 Base Points. +2 OCV is bought as two 2-point Combat Skill Levels for 4 Base Points. +4 RMod is bought as four 1-point Penalty Skill Levels for 4 Base Points. Now we look at the Max Shots and Notes on the weapon table. They're defined on the Accessories Key/Notes table on page 195 of the HSEG or the Key on page 190 of Star Hero. These apply to the Killing Attack, not the Skill Levels. 32 Shots: +1/4 Advantage. AF5: Autofire-5 shots, +1/2 Advantage. IMR4: Increased Maximum Range x4, +1/2 Advantage. 30 Base Points x (1 + 1/4 + 1/2 + 1/2) = 30 x 2 1/4 = 67 Active Points. 67 + 4 (OCV) + 4 (RMod) = 75 Active Points Next we look at the Limitations, in the STR Min and Notes columns. These are also defined on page 195 of HSEG and page 190 of SH. Str Min 10: Strength Minimum 10, Cannot Add Damage, -1/2 Limitation. Ranged weapons don't get the extra -1/2 that melee weapons get for not adding damage. 2H: Required Hands, Two-Handed, -1/2 Limitation. BBS: Blocked By Smoke Or Steam, -1/4 Limitation. Beam: -1/4 Limitation. OAF is assumed: Obvious Accessible Focus, -1 Limitation. Since this is a Heroic-level weapon, Real Weapon is also included: -1/4 Limitation. 67 Active Points / (1 + 1/2 + 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/4 + 1 + 1/4) = 67 / 3.75 = 18 Real Points. Page 195 of HSEG indicates that the OCV Skill Levels are bought with OAF, Required Hands, and Real Weapon, for a total of -1 3/4 in Limitations. RMod Skill Levels are bought with OAF and Required Hands, for a total of -1 1/2 in Limitations. 4 Active Points / 2.75 = 1 Real Point for OCV. 4 Active Points / 2.5 = 2 Real Points for RMod Hmmm. That only totals 21 Real Points, not 24. I checked the errata that I printed out before it vanished from the web site, and there's nothing for either book. I guess it's a typo. I know when I was calculating the cost of melee weapons, I always forgot the points for Reach, but that's obviously not the case here. Here's a copy-and-paste from Hero Designer. Maybe someone else can see what I missed. Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6, Autofire (5 shots; +1/2), Increased Maximum Range (1,200m; +1/2), 32 Charges (+1/4) (67 Active Points); OAF (-1), STR Minimum 9-13 (-1/2), Required Hands Two-Handed (-1/2), Beam (-1/4), Blocked By Smoke Or Steam (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4). 18 Real Points. +2 with any single attack (4 Active Points); OAF (-1), Required Hands Two-Handed (-1/2), Real Weapon (-1/4). 1 Real Point. +4 to offset a specific negative OCV modifier with any single attack (4 Active Points); OAF (-1), Required Hands Two-Handed (-1/2). 2 Real Points.

She could need to destroy something with really high ED that isn't specifically thermally shielded. A 4e M1 tank had 16 PD/ED (20 on the front) and 19 BODY. Comparing her 6d6 RKA to her 4d6 cumulative Transform, it would take 3 hits with the Transform vs. 8 hits with the RKA to destroy the tank, rollling average damage. It wouold take 38 hits with average damage if she were exclusively attacking the front armor. "Heat so intense no Earthly object can withstand it" and all that jazz. It's probably that or a double Armor Piercing, double Penetrating Killing Attack.

Champions Powers has the following, as part of the Heightened Touch power in the Hyper-Attributes chapter. Reading By Touch: A character with this power has such sensitive fingertips that he can read printed words by brushing his fingers across them. Discriminatory and Analyze for Normal Touch. 10 Real Points.

Who says Punk and Metal can't get along?