JMHammer

Re: Anyone remember Erg / Wildfire?

The animated Justice League International TV show has a character named Captain Atom who looks like Captain Atom from the DC comics but is an energy being in a containment suit as was Wildfire from my 70s-80s comic-reading days.

Here's a link to an early draft I've created of the AJL's Captain Atom. Maybe you can adapt some of this for your planned build of Wildfire:

AJL Captain Atom "first draft"

Best wishes,

John H

Re: What is up with falling?

CrosshairCollie said:

So, if armor doesn't help in a fall, why do skydivers wear helmets?

We wear helmets so that other flying things that might hit us in the head don't cause problems. They also help protect the brain if you fall and hit your head after you've hit the ground. If your chute doesn't open, you don't try to hit headfirst.

...LOL...

Sorry, I blew some ice tea out of my nose there and had to mop my keyboard.

Almost off topic but worth noting: For purposes of game mechanics, even something with the Real Armor Limitation will protect against the type of damage with which it is specifically designed to deal. Unless it's just a piece of crap, like those magnet bracelets being sold to ward off the flu.

John H

Re: CSLs and the Speed chart...

Nevenall said:

As I read it, the basic rule is, no matter what, you can't have two phases in the same segment.

Holding a half action is a good way for a character to be on alert and ready for anything. Anything they "see" coming anyway.

But if you're holding a half action, the "basic rule" makes it go poof at the beginning of the segment which includes your next phase. The unmodified, official rule will always add that time, however brief it might be if your Dex is very high, when you will not be able to take any actions at all other than aborting. Hence the house rule I use and suggested above which prevents this problem while never allowing more than one full phase in a segment.

John H

Re: What is up with falling?

In my games, any defense built with the Limitation "Real Armor" does not provide protection against falling damage (and a number of other things...). Force Fields, Armor, PD (Resistant or otherwise), and so forth all provide protection against falling damage unless it has that Limitation applied.

John H

Re: CSLs and the Speed chart...

The official rule regarding held actions is that the held action evaporates at the beginning of the segment of the character's next phase. Powers, skill levels, etc. that were activated/allocated in a phase do not so evaporate.

And frankly, there's no need for the "held action goes poof at the beginning of the segment of the character's next phase," either. I understand why Steve slipped it in there, but it's extremely counterintuitive and often gives a marked disadvantage to a character who is "waiting for an opportunity" to act. This rule is easily replaced with, "If a character is holding an action when a segment including his next phase occurs, the character's previous phase is voided and the phase being held is the phase to be triggered in that segment. Because the character is holding his phase, he may take an action at any time in that segment (or subsequent segments), even before his usual Dex order."

John H

Re: What is up with falling?

The optional falling and velocity-based damage system beginning on page 292 of FRED handles this much better than the default system.

Giganta "first draft"

Giganta

Player:

Total Character Cost: 425

Disadvantage Points: 100

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 125

Total Experience Available: 125

Experience Unspent: 0

My Notes:

-I set up the Linked modifiers in a way that definitely violates the strict rules but I think works very well for this character. First, I broke her Growth into three distinct groups. The "Bigger..." power is Growth levels 1-3. "And Bigger..." is Growth levels 4-6. "And Bigger!" is Growth levels 7-16. Each has different modifiers. Naturally, they all add together, and just as naturally, Bigger... has to be used at full power before And Bigger... can be used which has to be used at full power before And Bigger! can be used. Powers Linked to Growth get -1/2 for requiring Bigger..., an additional -1/4 for requiring And Bigger..., and a final additional -1/4 for requiring And Bigger! Relative active points of the two Linked powers and other minutiae are ignored here for the sake of simplicity. I know that a lot of people reading this are going bughouse, but examine the entire character and you might agree this was a better way to represent the additions to powers and characteristics which rely on Growth than strict use of Linked.

-Note also that a slightly different approach was taken with respect to the Skill Levels which rely on various levels of Growth.

-Due to Endurance and Recovery limitations, she can't maintain full size and use her full strength for very long. And her full size is very large indeed - she simply won't have the headroom to get that large in many situations. If you want to make her more powerful, start by giving her additional Recovery and Endurance linked to Growth.

-Don't forget that Giganta is actually an ape that was transformed into a super-powered human by Gorilla Grodd. She speaks English and knows how to comport herself in a reasonably human manner, but has very little normal human experience.

-Considering her powers, she better have underwear with that outfit!

Re: No Frameworks?

The only Power Framework that I find to be an ocassional issue during character creation is Elemental Control. Except for some minor interaction with Adjustment Powers (and, by a strict reading, Multiple-Power Attacks), all Elemental Control amounts to is a discount on the expense of building a set of powers; it has no significant effect during play. Therefore, nearly every player who is trying to game the system tries to use an Elemental Control regardless of its appropriateness for the character.

When I adapt characters or create my own, I usually don't use Elemental Controls. I allow players to use them, and often even allow zero-endurance and special powers to be placed in them, but there has to be a good reason for an Elemental Control - the player can't just be looking for a way to get free points.

Take the character Witchcraft from the 5th Edition Champions. She has both a Multipower and an Elemental Control. (She also has a Variable Power Pool, but let's ignore that for now.) The Multipower seems to provide her with the ability to meet her special effect: A number of powerful spells which can only be used one at a time. The Elemental Control consists of two powers, a Force Field and a Flight. This does nothing in-game except for a minor limitation of being affected together by negative Adjustment Powers but gives her a pretty significant cost break on the purchase of those two powers. This is an example of an Elemental Control which I probably wouldn't allow in my games.

As a counter-example, let's suppose a character called Fire Guy like The Human Torch from Marvel Comics. He flies because of his flaming body, he has a force field because of his flaming body, he has a damage shield because of his flaming body, and he can gather up some of the flames on his body and toss them a short distance (Energy Blast with Range Based on Strength). Maybe he even has a Change Environment that allows him to make things hotter in his immediate area. All that would be a fine collection of powers for an Elemental Control because all the slots are defined as a different application of the same power (lower-case "p"): Flaming Body.

Best wishes,

John H

Re: Another Take on the Animated Justice League

Nexus said (in reference to the Tsukuri character):

What effect does "Offensive Stance" produce?

If someone attacks her in HTH combat and hits, she gets to make an immediate attack roll to score damage on that attacker.

In terms of game mechanics, it's just a Damage Shield. She has to make an attack roll to do damage with it instead of the damage being automatically applied to any attacker which successfully hits her in HTH combat. Plus she can't use it to score damage on her own phase even with a Grab.

If that's not clear enough, let me know and I'll explain further.

John H

The Shade "first draft"

The Shade

Player:

Total Character Cost: 590

Disadvantage Points: 115

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 275

Total Experience Available: 275

Experience Unspent: 0

My Notes:

-We don't know much about The Shade. (Forget all his printed-comics history as a maybe-undead; this incarnation of the character appears, cosmetics aside, to be entirely different than the comics version.) Fairly powerful but nearly all his powers run through his Nightstick, which is not only an OAF but Fragile as well. (The Shade does seem to be able to replace it quite easily.) His motivations also seem to be very simple: He wants money, and lots of it, and as little trouble as possible. The Shade is not a bloodthirsty killer; quite the contrary, he just wants to grab loot and seems to use only enough force to do that and get away.

-This part I'm entirely making up, but I think it would work well in-game: If The Shade loses his Nightstick or it is destroyed, he can remake it if he has 6 hours and a dark place. He remakes it just by concentrating, then it reforms itself out of the darkness around him. The Nightstick is a Personal Focus: It will not work for anyone else. If The Shade makes a new one, the old one will become completely inert. I don't think this is any worse than a character with an OAF Gun or something who keeps spares at "the base" which he can use to replace his gun between adventures or even during an adventure given enough time. (The Dark Glasses would not be quite so effortless or easy to replace; assume they would require a one-week "ritual" effort or access to proper materials and tools.)

-There's just no reason to think The Shade is particularly strong, tough, resilient, or otherwise physically exceptional, so I made him fragile; enough so that Superman would kill him with one punch if he's not careful.

-The Shade will cast his darkness field and then use his attack powers as he deems prudent. He is not stupid enough to put his darkness field where it will impede his own teammates as much as his enemies. The Shade will usually be the first to suggest "the better part of valor" and use his darkness and teleportation abilities to help his comrades and make his own escape.

-GMs should allow both of The Shade's Uncontrolled NND powers to begin doing Body damage at some point if they are not properly dispelled, assuming the powers still have Endurance remaining once their targets are unconscious. This should happen only at The Shade's option at the time he casts the power on a target. This is not recommended if The Shade is to be player-controlled.

-I think the character could be made a bit less expensive by breaking out some of the powers in the Elemental Control. For instance, if the no-defense Entangle which is a part of both NND attacks were made a stand-alone power, and the EB portion of those attacks were placed into a Multipower along with the Darkness Blast with the two NND slots linked to the Entangle, that would probably be much less expensive. But the version presented here represents the character just as well and his point total is only about 12% over that of 6 of the original 7 JLers.

Re: How do I do this? (Pt. 2)

I'd have the witch buy it as a Follower. If it's sentient, there's no reason to make it a character with the Automaton packages or build it as a vehicle with a computer or AI; just build it as a seperate, normal Follower character that has some appropriate powers and Disadvantages (particularly Physical Disadvantages) so it will behave like a broom. I assume you'll give it Flight, which will allow it to move itself around (since you'll buy down its ground movement) and your witch can fly with it as long as the broom has enough Strength to carry the witch without encumbering the broom.

John H

Re: How do I do this?

I don't know "Slayers" but here's how I'd model the effect you described:

-Flight moves the targets. 10" Flight translates to 5" straight upward. Adjust the base Flight inches to suit the needs of your spell. Flight UAA is better than TK for this effect because each target's Strength should have no effect on the spell's ability to move the targets.

-Combat Acceleration/Deceleration puts the targets at full velocity as soon as they start to move. Not necessarily a critical component, but if the targets are being "exploded" into the air they should have full velocity when their movement begins, not increasing velocity as their movement continues.

-Area of Effect is pretty self-explanatory.

-Nonselective means you have to make an attack roll on every potential target in the Area of Effect whether you want to attack that potential target or not. If you want to be able to not affect certain potential targets, change Nonselective to Selective. But use one or the other, as it just doesn't seem fair to apply a Flight UAA to an area without giving the targets some chance of avoiding the effect. Requiring an attack roll makes it a "fair" effect.

-Usable As Attack makes it an attack instead of a personal Flight power or a Flight power you bestow on another.

-Instant means you get the quick upward movement and then the effect stops (and in most cases that means the affected targets will begin to fall in the next segment).

-Levitation because this power is just for upward movement.

-Up Only because you can only move targets up, not up and down as with the usual Levitation Limitation on Flight.

-No Noncombat Movement because this is an attack and has no use for noncombat velocities.

An Energy Blast with Area Effect, Indirect, and Double Knockback (and maybe Reduced Penetration), could do the job, too.

Best wishes,

John H

Re: Opinions requested on an application of Side Effects

Derek,

Where are you getting that it's not likely to hit? He has a 12 OCV in a world where DCVs are usually 5 or 6...

I think these objections are coming because of the nature of the advantage being applied. If you're trying to use Indirect, that often – not always, but often – means that you can't hit the target without Indirect because there's something preventing a direct-fire shot, usually a wall or something like that. Therefore, if Indirect doesn't snap on because you fail the skill roll, you still take the shot but the arrow will just impact and stop at the surface which the special effect would have defined as your first "bounce point" for the attack if the Indirect had been successful. Therefore, in many cases (admittedly not all cases), the attack is going to miss the target automatically even without the Side Effect you are proposing.

Maybe you would consider adding another Limitation to the Naked Advantage, something like, "Indirect only for purposes of defining an origin and direction for the attack (from the surface of the final bounce of the special effect), but cannot be used to get around anything blocking direct line of sight between the attacker and the target." That might get more positive reviews for your idea.

Best wishes,

John H

Re: My Player Betrayed Humanity. Now What?

There's always Mind Control to get the character to behave differently. Good luck using that method to get the player to change...

Re: Reasoning from effect/I think I have finaly done it/GL Bubbles

Yep, perfectly legal build.

Legal, yes. Appropriate...

The more I think about it, the less I like it. You just get too much for the points you're spending. For 34 Active Points (and only 34 Real Points even without any Limitations) you're getting:

a- 15 PD/15 ED Force Wall, 0 END Cost, with some extra height and width. Let's lowball this and say it's worth 100 points.

b- 16 PD/16 ED "extra" defense for the Force Wall which has a form of Ablative applied to it except it comes off after the base defense. And it's also 0 END Cost with the extra height and width. Pretty nice: Let's say 25 points.

c- Life Support (Safe Environment: Zero Gravity; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing), Usable Simultaneously (up to 2 people at once; +1/2), Ranged (+1/2), Area Of Effect (4" Radius; +1). That's 60 points. It could be a little less in certain cases by dropping the AoE and increasing Usable Simultaneously for more individuals as required.

Leaving off the Telekinesis or whatever else needed to move the group to be contained by this thing because the base/vehicle version has the character doing this anyway. But you could build in movement, a lot of it even, and get even more of a cost break.

That's a total of 185 points of effect. And you're getting it for only 35 points. Apply (-2) total Limitations to both versions and it's 62 Real Points vs 12 Real Points. And the only additional downside to using the Summon is having to wait a Phase while the Summoned thingy "gets its bearings" and then maybe another Phase or two while the passengers embark.

None of this would be a problem if this just moved a group of characters or what-have-you out of combat, but the combat effects are significant. It could all just be hand-waved if the effects on combat were negligible. But they're not.

How does one build a power whose effect is to pick up and move things around without touching them? Well, there are a number of reasonable ways. The most straightforward is Telekinesis, another good option is Stretching with some extra Indirect and Doesn't Cross Intervening Space, a third (usually frowned on) is Strength with Usable at Range. But you could also build a Summon with an Invisible (maybe even Desolid), strong critter with a lot of movement – or heck! a powerful TK build of its own – and a Mind Link which will skitter around and move things at your bidding and WOW you can get the effect you want for maybe 1/5 of the points you'd spend building it one of the "normal" ways because of the cost basis of Summon. Again, you'd have to wait a Phase or so after you first summon the thing, but after that little bump (which can happen way before combat) you get your TK-like effect and it can work independently of your main character, allowing him to put the double-whammy on his opponents. Is this a reasonable way to build a telekinesis power?

Reason from effect, but don't ignore the straightforward way of doing things. Any of you experienced guys can come up with ways of making things happen that are better in almost every respect than the straightforward methods; Duplication, Summon, Followers, Vehicles and a few other powers often figure prominently in these techniques because you get multiples of points for each point you invest. But just because the exact mechanics of the rules allow you to do something a certain way doesn't make it a good way to get what you want.

To repeat something I said in an earlier message in this thread: Yes, the "protective force bubble" power is expensive. It's expensive because it provides a great number of benefits. And if you're trying to make it a stand-alone power or want to build it on the fly from a small Variable Power Pool you might have difficulty or might not be able to do it at all. But if you already have all the components of the power except for the Usable on Others part of the Life Support then it really doesn't cost much at all; at worst you use a Naked Advantage for that which itself can be built on the cheap as a Multipower slot or for a few allocated points from a Variable Power Pool if you want it to be as inexpensive as possible.

-Does your character have some TK? Check. (You can make multiple Grabs with TK even if you don't have Area Effect on it, one Grab per Phase. And it's safe to assume these are unopposed Grabs so you can do them as Zero-Phase Actions up to the limit of your TK's total Strength.)

-Does your character have some Force Wall? Check. (You don't have to keep the Force Wall up just to fly around, even in space, unless you're anticipating that the to-be-englobed passengers are going to be subject to attack.)

-Does your character have the requisite Life Support? Check. (This isn't an expensive part of the package and can come entirely from a 60-point or even smaller VPP. But it's easy to just build it all for the character or all but the Usable on Others / Ranged / Area Effect parts and add those as a Naked Advantage through a Power Framework only when needed.)

...and that's it: GL-style protective flying force bubbles are at your command with no (or very, very few) extra points invested. That's reasoning from effect: Effects of powers, used in combination, which you already have. The bubble is just a special effect of two or three powers working together.

Respectfully,

John H

AJL Tsukuri "first draft"

Tsukuri

Player:

Total Character Cost: 360

Disadvantage Points: 115

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 45

Total Experience Available: 45

Experience Unspent: 0

My Notes:

-Tsukuri has serious mental problems. She tends to fixate on a goal or ideal and pursue it to the exclusion of all reason and without regard to her own safety. Tsukuri has absolutely no regard for the lives of anyone who is not part of her current obsession unless she believes an individual can assist her with her goals or is an employer or she is somehow honorbound to leave that person unmolested. Although she prides herself on her ability to kill undetected, she has no qualms about committing a mass slaughter if that's what it takes to get to her target or accomplish some larger goal.

-We didn't see her use any throwing stars in the "Fury" episode, but it seems to be a reasonable thing for a ninja-type assassin to have. It also gave me an opportunity to fluff out her points and design a couple of nasty poison throwing stars in the process.

-Be sure to enforce the Real Weapon/Real Armor Limitations. For example, Tsukuri's Armor will not protect her from falling damage; Tsukuri's Sword will not cut through a stone wall even though it can generate 4d6 of Killing Damage; and the poison on her Throwing Stars will get stale after awhile or wash off in the rain and won't work on robots or plants, etc. On the other hand, be generous with allowing her to pick up and use weapons of opportunity as she has paid for Weapon Familiarities and Weapon Elements.

-Tsukuri could become extremely dangerous (as if she isn't already...) if someone were to equip her with proper "super" equipment to replace her "real" gear. Imagine Tsukuri with decent full-coverage armor or a force field or perhaps an exoskeleton with jump enhancement; a lightsabre-type sword with maybe 3d6 Killing base damage; and explosive throwing stars...

edit- Poison Stars should have the Can Be Missile Deflected (-1/4) Limitation. This does not change the cost of that Multipower slot.

Star Sapphire "first draft"

In most respects, Star Sapphire is a Green Lantern ripoff so she was very easy to do by starting with my Green Lantern file as a template. She's a little weaker in most categories, can't fly as fast out of combat, trades in the Emergency Shield for what amounts to a persistent TK Grab (defined as an Entangle), has a small Force Field instead of GL's minor Armor power, and a slightly more limited VPP. On the other hand, she doesn't have any "recharge" or particular vulnerability issues.

As with many of these builds, especially the early drafts, Star needs more disadvantages.

Put the image file in the same folder as the .hdc file for the image to display properly if you use Hero Designer 2.

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Star Sapphire

Player:

Total Character Cost: 425

Disadvantage Points: 90

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 135

Total Experience Available: 135

Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Reasoning from effect/I think I have finaly done it/GL Bubbles

JmOz said:

I disagree, The issue is not if you are running with only a Moderate VPP, but rather if you are using a MP & EC combo, which is what my gut says to do with it.

 

As I said above, I explored the idea of doing it essentialy as you did but I found it to be to expencive for what it does, Your own version dedicates something akin to 200 points towards it.

I hear you and understand where you're coming from on this. But my version "dedicates" hardly any points at all toward this effect. If the character has all the component powers already anyway (save, perhaps, for the Usable on Others / Area Effect modifiers on his Life Support) then it doesn't cost much at all to perform this feat. In fact, it costs nothing at all!

John H

Re: Reasoning from effect/I think I have finaly done it/GL Bubbles

I see nothing wrong with doing it the way you describe. It just seems unnecessarily complicated to me. Here's how I did it for my Animated Justice League Green Lantern adaptation:

First, he has Telekinesis:

Str 53 TK, Affects Porous, Fine Manipulation, +1/4 of Variable Advantages (+1/2)

If you're using a VPP instead of a Multipower, you wouldn't bother with the two adders and you'd probably need less Str and a simple Area Effect-1 Hex or something similar for an Advantage (or even Area Effect-1 Hex-Nonselective, which is how the above build does it instead of making multiple unopposed Grabs with the TK).

Second, he has Life Support:

Whatever Safe Environments you need plus Self-Contained Breathing, Usable Simultaneously-2 People At Once (+1/2), Ranged (+1/2), Area Effect-4" Radius (+1)

This lets you apply the Life Support to the character himself plus everyone within a 4" Radius whose center hex can be some distance away from the character.

Using both of these together on a group of targets means the group is picked up and moves with the character while being protected from "the elements" - if real protection from damage becomes an issue, there's a seperate Force Wall power that can be applied. The special effect, whether the Force Wall is running or not, is that all of the targets are englobed together in a single sphere of green energy.

With reasonable Power Frameworks and/or Limitations, it's really not that expensive. And all the powers which contribute to the effect are used by the character in combat and for other purposes anyway so there is no need to build this as a special, one-use, effect. Your Summon construction might be the only way to do it if the character depends entirely on a fairly modest VPP to create all his effects.

Best wishes,

John H

Re: Another Take on the Animated Justice League

Tech said:

I've been out of the circuit with the Justice League for quite awhile, comicbook-wise. Now, as I recall Grundy's origin from like over 20 years ago, he's not undead. His origin was that he came alive from a mix of chemicals. Has his origin changed? If so, I wouldn't be surprised.

In the episode, "The Terror Beyond," what I refer to as the "Grundy SMASH!" episode, we get the big pale guy's complete origin story. Is he undead the way Dracula or The Mummy are undead? Who knows; but that's the way I interpreted it. Anyway, definitely no mix of chemicals. Cyrus Gold was killed and thrown into a swamp, blah-blah-blah nonsense, and rose from the dead as Solomon Grundy. But he was definitely, without a doubt (at least as far as they went in that episode), stone cold dead before getting thrown into the swamp.

freakboy6117 said:

And now for a completly different take on the Justice League proudly presenting MY LITTLE JUSTICE LEAGUE

Heh-heh. Very cute.

Killer Shrike said:

I'm the same, though I generally don't alter published characters to suit. I encourage characters without a SFX justification for high SPD to keep their SPD between 3 and 5. Scrappy types like MA's or just good rough-knuckled brawlers, genetically engineered types, and similar that are just "better" than normal I try to keep between 5 and 7, and reserve 8+ for Speedsters and other characters with a direct justification for that kind of nearly constant activity.

 

SPD escalation that results in nominally "physically normal" characters needing 6+ SPD just to be competitive is not good for the game in my experience.

Agreed. I just set slightly lower caps for non-speedsters. I particularly like to have all the players use characters with speeds within a fairly narrow range as one of the biggest gripes I've seen from players is having a lower speed (like 3 or 4) when even one other person in the group has a high speed (like 8 or 9). After the bitching during play, this almost always leads to the lower-speed player bumping his speed up, up, up, and then the fastest player bumping his so he can maintain the edge in his special niche. GMs who insist on making all their mooks Speed 4+ with CVs in the 7-9 range when the typical mook should be Speed 2/CV 5 with the high-end soldiers being Speed 3/CV 6 (including Combat Skill Kevels) add to this problem. Keeping the range narrow, letting Normals be normal, and enforcing hard caps based on character concept, heads all that off before it begins. Since the AJL 7 were designed to be played together I kept them within a somewhat narrow range of Speeds 4-7 even though I was tempted with Flash to go for a much higher Speed.

Best wishes,

John H

Solomon Grundy "first draft"

Presenting The Incredible... whoops, I mean, Presenting Solomon Grundy!

The Animated Justice League Grundy has so many Hulk-like characterstics I'm surprised that McDuffie et al weren't sued, especially after that "Grundy SMASH!" episode which concluded with his death. (Or did it... Hmm...)

Anyway, here's another early draft for comment and review. I'll be posting some of the other AJL villains soon.

-----

Solomon Grundy

Player:

Total Character Cost: 450

Disadvantage Points: 200

Base Points: 200

Experience Required: 50

Total Experience Available: 50

Experience Unspent: 0

Re: What's the best way to learn Hero?

This is Jack! His reaction to Carter's scientific musings are usually... "Uh... Sam... English please?" or "So that's bad... right?"

It's been pointed out a great number of times that Jack is a lot smarter than he wants people to realize. Sure, he does not have a Ph.D. in quantum physics, and he's very impatient; but his interest in astronomy goes beyond having a telescope to peep at the neighbors.

Re: What's the best way to learn Hero?

So would it be better to use the perk to signify the military rank instead of the profession skill? or should I use both?

The Military Rank Perk will give Jack the ability to make lower-ranking members of the military follow his orders and all the usual nice things that go along with being a military officer, especially a high-ranking one like a Full Bird Colonel. The Professional Skill (PS: Air Force Officer) means that Jack knows how to fulfill his job description, can quote from the book of regulations, remembers which forms to fill out, etc. So use both.

Re: What's the best way to learn Hero?

The typical Jaffa warrior is pretty much like the typical modern human warrior in ability. The main differences are the regen/High REC (assuming we're not talking about rebel Jaffa who have removed their symbiote and are using Tritonin to stay alive), increased Strength (ditto), and less need for sleep and sustenance. Of course, there are a passle of disadvantages that go along with those bonuses so on balance they're about the same as an American military grunt. I'd set them up on 0 net points exclusive of equipment, just like any other Normal. Their regen and other special abilities and their improved Str etc. will be paid by taking some countering Disadvantages or one or a few lowered Characteristics.

If you have Jack at 15 on Str, Dex, Con, and Bod with a 4 Spd, then a typical Jaffa would have primaries of 10 across the board except for Str 15 and Dex 11. For figured, a few extra points of PD and ED like any other individual with some combat experience, a Spd of 2, and a few extra Rec thanks to the Goa'uld larva. Naturally they'd have Familiarity with Jaffa/Gou'uld weapons (a 2-point group including a mix of high tech and low tech, missile and melee). Typical Jaffa probably have 1 Combat Skill Level with Goa'uld Staff Weapons.

I bet most people would disagree and put these guys at Dex 14 and Spd 3 or thereabouts, but to me: Grunts is grunts and every mob of baddies shouldn't be composed of elite-level soldiers.

Be careful when creating the Staff Weapon and Zats. It's been proven over and over again in the series that these weapons are no more effective, and in many cases far less effective, than modern American military gear (i.e. guns). As Jack himself said, "This [referring to a Staff Weapon] is a weapon of terror; it's designed to terrorize the enemy. This [referring to a P90] is a weapon of war; it's designed to kill the enemy."

Looking forward to your further adaptations,

John H

Re: Old school champions player

I WHO AM HE said:

Thematically, I went with FTL and dim-travel (EM) tied w multiform to allow for bouncing around the world (otherwise a very expensive cost if teleport)...

You'll find the Megascale Advantage easier and more straight-forward for long-range teleporting than your more complex construct. Not that it won't work the way you want as long as your GM is OK with it; but as you've described your character, if I'm understanding it correctly, a Megascale Teleportation will get closer to representing the special effect you want.

By the way, while all sorts of things have changed from 3rd Edition to 5th Edition, none of the changes will affect your ability to understand the revised game because all the core elements are the same. After you read the new rules you'll find that converting your old characters to be very easy. Their point totals will likely be different, and the 5th Edition book has several suggestions for GMs needing to handle this.

John H