randian

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

There are often exceptions and anecdotal evidence, so "I've seen..." doesn't mean much without more detail. What are the "higher SPD spreads" that worked well for you? In what way did they work well?

In higher-power games, 5-10 SPD. By well I mean everybody has their day in the sun. Typically, high SPD characters compromised on defenses and some damage, so any time area effects were common their SPD advantage evaporated in aborts, and against tough boss monsters they'd do piddling damage after defenses. Typically, low SPD characters compromised on CV and had high defenses, so high CV opponents were a problem, but they rarely need to abort and were great against most boss monsters due to superior damage output. It was a tossup against mooks. Both seemed equally bad or good against mentalists and sense-affecting powers.

I'm interested in hearing from you: What do you think is/are the best determinant(s) of combat effectiveness? Why?

In Hero I'd argue there's no best determinant. It's too highly situation dependent. I've seen everything be "best" at one time or another. SPD is real nice, but what did you give up to get it? If the answer is "nothing", that's the problem right there.

(Whether STR is overpowered or not is totally off-topic, but again, STR doesn't mean much in games that are about more than just combat.)

I was making an analogy, not starting a discussion of STR.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

It seems to work well when all the PCs' SPD scores are clumped close together (3-5' date=' 4-6).[/quote']

I've seen higher SPD spreads work quite well. Sometimes the martial artists shine, sometimes the bricks do. SPD is hardly the only or best determinant of combat effectiveness. This reminds me of threads about how overpowered STR is.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

Technically' date=' by definition, playing superheroes is POWER gaming.[/quote']

Also, I see quite a few people conflate "abusive" with "high power".

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

That is "less unfair" than such systems does change the fact that the "face time" problem exists when there is a large disparity in speeds.

Why is "face time" a problem? Players need to keep their ego in check, not whine about "face time".

As it happens, I love bricks. I'm not wasting all those extra phases I might have had on defensive actions, and I know that when I act something is going to happen. When I play martial artists they're typically light on attacks and defenses to afford the extra CV and SPD. More often than not my extra SPD is just being spent on aborting, and I'm not doing much damage to the bad guys. Anybody who's complaining about the "face time" I'm allegedly getting needs to spend more time looking at what's actually happening in the field of battle.

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

I've never understood the argument that "SPD is predictable". Nearly all other games are round-based, so characters have exactly the same number of actions as every other, and since initiative is normally done once per combat (redoing it once per round, for example, would be murderous on the speed of your combats) everything is perfectly predictable. If anything, constraining SPD as some advocate would seem to reduce Hero to D&D. Everybody SPD 4? How's that different than round-based combat? If Hero deserves demerits for "predictability", then all games do.

Indeed, I find the use of the word "predictable" in this context odd. Generally, it is the result of a character's action (hit or miss, damage total) that is random. Though I am sure such an RPG exists, I've never seen one which attempted to randomize character abilities. "For this combat, you have d3+2 SPD". "You have 9+1d6m Running". "Instead of 50 STR, you have 40+1d20 STR (maybe the villians attacked when you were sick)". I'm not convinced of the merits of "unpredictability".

Re: Why is Speed so unpopular?

I've found high SPD to be a "so what", generally. You want a 10 SPD martial artist to the other player's 5 SPD brick? That 50 points is going to really hurt somewhere. Your defense, your offense, whatever. You will frequently find yourself acting often but doing little or nothing, especially against Boss Villains. A properly done SPD chart and an aggressive GM makes combat fast; cards, tokens, and calling DEX/SPD out slows things down. Players should always have their move planned in advance so when the GM calls they're ready to go immediately. Most of the time, you can figure out your next move right after your last phase, and it will still be what you want to do when your next phase is called. Teaching neophytes that one thing tremendously speeds up combat.

Other speedy things:

Total up your dice in groups of ten

Count BODY in an "up X/down Y" style

Re: Evasion Talent

I had read it as "a person is pointing a weapon at you. Do you want to take a defensive action (including dive for cover)?"

Forcing the player to guess at what they should do makes defensive maneuvers worthless. It's the sort of "gotcha" thing I dislike from GMs.

Re: Evasion Talent

But wouldn't the Desolidification only last for the duration of the attack' date=' allowing you to attack back on your next phase?[/quote']

Only in the sense that all powers that you turn off at the beginning of your next phase do that. It was designed as an active power turned on during your phase. I didn't use Trigger or somesuch to make it turn on automatically in response to an attack. It was more of an escape or trap avoidance power. Trigger would have made it more effective, but too costly.

Re: Evasion Talent

I bought a similar power using Desolidification, but with a twist. I defined the special effect that ignores the Desolidification to be "any DCV-targeting attack", rather than just "fire" or "electricity". That's basically Improved Evasion from D&D (take no damage from area-effect attacks on successful save) while still being vulnerable to every kind of regular attack and being unable to attack (since I'm Desolid).

Re: Always on Death Touch

If you want the character to be deadly whenever she touches someone or someone touches her' date=' you need to buy it with the Area of Effect option Damage Shield (+¼).[/quote']

Isn't Damage Shield a total of +3/4 in 6E? AoE Personal Surface (+1/4) and Continuous (+1/2).

Re: +1 DC only with Haymaker

There are the rules for how to add damage to weapons. Those'd make it a bit hairy to just use STR.

Which rules are you talking about? The "advantaged attack" rule? Just buy more STR.

Re: +1 DC only with Haymaker

Wouldn't "+5 STR, only with Haymaker killing attacks" be the simplest solution? No rules contortions are required.

Re: ISBN for Champions Deluxe (4E)?

Thanks.

Is it 155806205X? It's weird, when I search for that ISBN I get references to a book called "First Heal the Children".

Re: Knockback Attack

One of the guidlines is that is has not combat effectivenes effect. Changing mass for KB is a combat effect!

It's true that cosmetic Transforms are not permitted to cause knockback, but you forgot one of the most important caveats in Hero: "unless a power advantage says otherwise".

Not changing the density of your body so you could increase leaping' date=' get blown away with a slight breeze etc[/quote']

Since I said the change in mass has no combat effect, it has no combat effect. Targets cannot increase their leap. They are not blown away by breezes. They can't be carried by 0 STR beings.

Re: Knockback Attack

It has to do with' date=' plain and simple, 0-Mass is not "cosmetic" in any way[/quote']

Sure it is. It's cosmetic because I said so. This is comic-book physics, not real-world physics. I could also define a Fire Blast in Hero to be Stun Only, notwithstanding the real-world observation that "fire attacks burn things".

Re: Knockback Attack

making a target 0-Mass has a bunch of Mechanical effect on a target' date=' Teleport being just one of them (otherwise there'd be no Mass Adder).[/quote']

The target wouldn't have zero mass (or be inertialess) for the purposes of another power, whether the target's or not. They couldn't be Teleported without requiring an adder, use flight without having a turn mode, jump extra high, be carried with 0 STR, etc. Hence it's cosmetic.

 

"Frictionless" would work as a special effect for a power I have in mind (speedster's "Hyper-Throw" power).

Re: Knockback Attack

I thought Cosmetic Transforms couldn't have combat effects.

It doesn't. There are no mechanical alterations to the target. Their powers and abilities are as they were before. They just suffer a bit of sudden acceleration.

Re: Knockback Attack

Oh' date=' I like that one! Here's how I'd define it. [i']Target:[/i] person standing on his feet. Transformed into: person knocked flat on his @$$!!!

Cute. I was actually thinking of Transforming the target into a zero-mass object. This has no mechanical effect on the target, and hence is cosmetic, but does allow me the temporary ability to do as you say.

Re: Knockback Attack

If Dispel doesn't work, Cosmetic Transform should. Still 3/die base, and no problems with the target lacking something.

Re: Knockback Attack

Also' date=' it does nothing against a target with no Knockback Resistance.[/quote']

How do you figure?

Re: Knockback Attack

In my opinion, the cheapest and best way is Dispel Knockback Resistance, Does Knockback +1/4, Double Knockback +1/2. 5.25 points per die. For 58 points you do an average of 30m knockback ((22-7)*2) and ignore the first 15m of Knockback Resistance possessed by the target.

Re: Need help understanding Variable Advantage

Except the cost of reduced END increases for Autofire attacks' date=' doesn't it? But the base END cost is always 10.[/quote']

Oh yeah, forgot about that.

Re: Need help understanding Variable Advantage

A 50 base power with +1 variable advantage has 100 active points for all purposes, including END cost, range, Suppress, and Drain. It costs 10 END to use and has 100x10m range. If you take 1/2 End (+1/4) as one of your advantages it costs 5 END to use. If you take Autofire 3 as your other +1/4 it would take 5x3=15 END to use.

Re: Kill, jail, or rehabilitate, what happens to your villains?

In supers, jail until their inevitable breakout/escape. Rehab is pointless, and unlike fantasy characters their powers are usually innate so you can't take them anyway. That, and the PC can rarely afford to pay the character points for the villain's super-gadget, since it's usually better than what the PCs have.