Zed-F

Thanks. Definately an unusual character.

You could also do a power vs. power check -- roll damage for each and compare the BODY scores, higher value winning as for whether a particular patch of fire got put out.

You can choose 1 hex area (+1/2), accurate (-0) to hit exactly one character in a hex at DCV 3. They can then dodge the attack and don't have to dive for cover to avoid it, though.

Thanks for the formatting help. I've updated the post. Seeing as how I just bought FREd, and how little I have actually played Hero over the last several years, I'm finding it hard to justify considering purchasing Hero Designer ATM. Especially since it would be about $50-60 CDN...

Well if 100-point chars like Zardoz can be here, I guess I could throw Warg into the ring. His stats and background can be found in this thread. As a contract mercenary, Warg would probably be cheap muscle, but the kind you hire when you want to make a statement rather than do something quietly. One thing an employer could count on is that he'd get noticed. An unscrupulous employer might see potential to use him as bait for a trap. Warg wouldn't advertise his ability to change into Warg form, and it might take a bit of background digging to find out about it, but he wouldn't deny it if the subject came up. Depending on the nature of the contract, that ability could be seen as an asset or a liability -- and assuming the Enforcers know about it, it's something they might or might not want to communicate to a potential employer, depending on whether they want to influence the outcome of the contract. Warg would probably be uncomfortable taking a contract where he was expected to rough up someone who he thought was innocent of any crime, but he wouldn't have compunctions about bounty hunting or taking a contract from someone dirty to go after another dirty rival. He'd also be relatively easy to dupe, assuming one took some care as to how one approached doing so and didn't fly in the face of his streetwise knowledge. From the employer's point of view, Warg's two main advantages are he's noticeable, and he's cheap. Warg has pretty much no business sense and no money management skills, and the two of those combine to keep him perpetually broke and a small fish in the mercenary pond.

Found HTML Hero, so here's the character in HTML format. It doesn't seem to be as nice as Hero Designer (at least as far as output goes) but it has the virtue of being free. ) Thanks to Killer Shrike for helping clean up the formatting. Warg (Humanoid Form) Val Char Cost 30 18 23 15 8 8 20 0 14 12 4 11 46 42 STR DEX CON BODY INT EGO PRE COM PD ED SPD REC END STUN 20 24 26 10 -2 -4 10 -5 8 7 12 0 0 0 Cost Powers and Talents END 12 8 7 7 2 2 4 17 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Warg Form: Multiform (Monstrous Wolf), 250 Base pts (50 AP), No Conscious Control: Accidental Change Only (-2), Reversion (to weaker, -1/2), Costs END to Change (-1/2) Tough Skin: Damage Resistance (8 PD, 8 ED) Regeneration: Healing 1 BODY/Turn, 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Extra Time (1 Turn, -1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2), No max regen (-0) 1/2 END Cost on 30 STR +1" Running (Total 7") LS: Immune to Microbial Toxins Stability: 3" KB Resist, Requires STR roll at -1 (14-, -1/2) Mutant Form: Multipower, 25 Active Pts, Restrainable (arms/hands, -1/2) 1.(u) Sledge Slam: 3d6 HA (9d6 w/ STR), 0 End Cost (+1/2), HA Lim (-1/2) 2.(u) Double Blow: 5d6 HA (11d6 w/STR), HA Lim (-1/2) 3.(u) Shiver Blow: 3d6 HA (7d6 w/ STR), Penetrating (+1/2), HA Lim(-1/2) 4.(u) Shockwave: 3d6 HA (7d6 w/STR), Explosive Cone (5"/11", +1/2), Stun Only (-0), HA Lim (-1/2) 5.(u) Toxic Spray: 5d6 Sight Group Flash, No range (-1/2), Not against Desolid (-1/4) 6.(u) Toxic Glob: 0d6+3 EB, NND (Fully Enclosed or LS: Microbe Toxins, +1), Continuous (+1), Uncontrolled (Washes off, +1/2), Area Effect (4" Radius, +1 1/4), 1/2 END Cost (+1/4), Cannot be bounced (-1/4), Range Limited by STR (Thrown Attack, -1/4) 7.(u) Quad Charge: Leaping +15" (21" w/STR), Accurate, 1/2 END Cost (+1/4), Forward movement only (-1). Note: Full move requires STR exert 5 1 1 0+1 2+1 2+1 2+1 2 1/Phase 1 Cost Skills and Perks Roll 2 3 2 10 2 1 3 3 2 Animal Handler (Canines) Climbing CK: Home City CSL: +2 w/ HTH combat KS(People): The Downtrodden Language: Spanish (Basic) Stealth Streetwise Survival (Urban) 13- 13- 11- 11- 13- 13- 11- 100+ Disadvantages 20 25 15 15 15 10 Accidental Change: when takes BODY damage (Uncommon, Always) Distinctive Features: Hideous (Not Concealable, Extreme Reaction) Physical: No fine manipulation (Frequently, Greatly) Psych Lim: Multiform Amnesia (Uncommon, Total) Psych Lim: Recluse -- Mistrustful of Others (Very Common, Minor) Vulnerable: x2 Stun from Gas Attacks (Uncommon) OCV:6 DCV:6 ECV:3 Phases:3, 6, 9, 12 Costs Char 106 Powers 94 Total 200 Disads 100 Base 100 Warg (Warg Form) Val Char Cost 30 23 23 15 8 8 25 0 15 15 4 11 46 42 STR DEX CON BODY INT EGO PRE COM PD ED SPD REC END STUN 20 39 26 10 -2 -4 15 -5 9 10 7 0 0 0 Cost Powers and Talents END 10 30 7 7 14 2 4 5 21 7 Tough Skin: Damage Resistance (10 PD, 10 ED) Dense Flesh: 50% Physical Damage Reduction (Resistant) Regeneration: Healing 1 BODY/Turn, 0 END (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Extra Time (1 Turn, -1 1/4), Self Only (-1/2), No max regen (-0) 1/2 END Cost on 30 STR +7" Running (13" Total) LS: Immune to Microbial Toxins Size: 2" KB Resist Scent Prey: Tracking: Normal Smell Bite: 2d6 HKA (4d6 w/ STR), 1/2 END Cost (+1/4), Restrainable (-1/2), Restricted target size (-1/4) +15 PRE (Only for Presence Attacks, -1) 1 2 1 Cost Skills and Perks 12 6 CSL: +4 w/ Bite (Grab, Move Through, Strike) +2 PER w/ all senses 100+ Disadvantages 25 25 25 25 25 0 0 25 0 Accidental Change: when not enraged or in combat (Common, Always) Distinctive Features: Terrifying (Not Concealable, Extreme Reaction) Enraged (In combat, go 14-, recover 11-) Phys Lim: No Hands (Always, Fully) Phys Lim: Animal Mentality; instincts dominate thought (Always, Fully) Phys Lim: Limited language comprehension (Always, Greatly) Phys Lim: Heavy (400 kg) Psych Lim: Feral (Very Common, Total) Social Lim: Menace to Society (Very Frequently, Severe) OCV:8 DCV:8 ECV:3 Phases:3, 6, 9, 12 Costs Char 125 Powers 125 Total 250 Disads 150 Base 100 Background----------------Warg: Humanoid FormHeight: 6'Weight: 200kgHair: Colourless & PatchyEyes: Lime Green (no Iris/Pupil, Glowing)Skin: Pale Gray, streaked w/ Rust & stained w/ Algae Green secretions Appearance: As a humanoid, Warg is a remarkably ugly specimen. His head and neck are malformed, being little more than a cylindrical stump atop his shoulders, missing a nose, jaw, and obvious ears. Instead, he has a pair of large gill-like apertures at approximately neck-level on either side of his head, which act as combined ears, larynx, and breathing apparatus. His unusual breathing mechanism is quite efficient and provides ample oxygen for his muscles, but is relatively more exposed to hazardous gasses than a normal human's; additionally, Warg's voice is something akin to a loud but raspy stage whisper. Warg is quite stocky, has a barrel chest and is strongly muscled in his upper arms and legs, but his lower arms and legs bear further deformations. Warg's lower arms flare out like bell-bottomed pants, ending in large sledgehammer-like protrusions composed of a pair of extremely thick fingers and an opposable thumb, which are sufficient for grasping but too large and unwieldly for fine control. His lower legs flare out similarly and terminate in large, flat, oval-shaped pads for his feet; this doesn't affect his ability to walk, as the foot is flexible enough to not need an ankle -- in fact his whole body is flexible enough that he can charge on all fours at a fairly high velocity. Warg eats by spreading pretty much anything organic over himself and absorbing nutrients through his skin. He is mostly hairless, and what hair he does have is short, patchy, and colourless; instead of hair, Warg's body is covered with an algae-like slime waste that is naturally secreted from his pores. Aside from being visually disgusting, it also strongly smells like a combination of chemical waste and organic compost. He typically does not wear clothes other than some ragged cutoff jeans, being more comfortable without them.Personality: Reclusive and mistrustful, Warg has few enemies and fewer friends. Most people who know of his existence tend to keep a wide distance and let him have his space except in the case of dire necessity, which is fine by him. Warg knows that life is cheap and doesn't have many compunctions about hurting people, but he's not a killer by inclination. Quote: "Go away."Powers/Tactics: Warg may start with lobbing a Toxic Glob if outnumbered or facing a fast opponent, but prefers to close quickly to melee range. If he is having trouble hitting he may use Shockwave, or pick up something to make an area attack on a hex, or if he's getting nowhere with melee combat he may switch to Toxic Glob. If wounded for BODY damage, he will automatically switch to Warg form.Warg: Warg FormHeight: 4' Tall, 6' Long, 2' WideWeight: 400 kgHair: Gray/Brown FurEyes: Lime Green (no Iris/Pupil, Glowing)Skin: Pale Gray (covered w/ long fur)Appearance: In Warg form, Warg is a huge canine, generally similar to a wolf but about the size of a pony and very heavily built. He has ragged gray-brown fur covering most of his body, with pale gray skin, black nails, and a black nose. His head and jaws are disproportionately large, the fur around his mouth is stained with saliva, and a snarl displays some very impressive teeth.Personality: Feral dog. Raises hackles and snarls in warning at the slightest provocation, and will attack with sudden, lethal intent if that warning is ignored. Once all immediate threats are disposed of, will pursue any nearby prey exuding the scent of fear. Becomes confused when an attack comes from a non-obvious source, and will lash out at any nearby target of opportunity.Quote: "Grrrrrrrr…."Powers/Tactics: A straightforward and unsubtle killer, in combat picks a target and pursues it singlemindedly. Favours a Grab & Squeeze bite attack against stronger opponents, Move Through or Strike otherwise.Warg: GeneralBackground: Gary Lamonde never had much, nor much hope for more. He was born into a poor family which was always struggling to make ends meet, and his parents were often too busy or too tired from working to spend much time with him or his siblings. He was pretty much allowed to grow wild as a weed; his parents didn't enforce any rules concerning things like school attendance, so his education suffered. Things went from bad to worse; when he was 14 his father died, and since his mother couldn't support them both, she turned him out to fend for himself. The legacy of his misspent youth came back to haunt him, as without a trade or formal education, he found it difficult to get a job, and even when he did get one he could never keep it for long. Even the street gangs found little use for him, as he was reluctant to prey upon those even less fortunate than himself, and his meager abilities as a thief were not enough to justify the burden of providing for him. Ultimately, Gary wound up as one of society's homeless, what some would call human waste. He lived from day to day on what he could scrounge, beg, or steal, sleeping at night in any place that offered a convenient shelter. Since it seemed to him that society had turned its back on him, he turned his back on society; he rarely took advantage of any of the services for the homeless provided by various local charities, as it seemed to him that coming to rely entirely on handouts from others would be to surrender his last measure of self-respect. Still, he had hopes of making something of himself one day, and finding his place in the world. Then one day, that dream too was taken from him. He had been sleeping in an abandoned garbage dump with his dog, a stray which he had befriended, when an electrical storm came up. A bolt of lightning struck a pile of barrels near his sleeping area, bursting them and sending fluid splashing over both of them. The electrified contents of the barrels, which turned out to be toxic waste, caused a bizarre metamorphosis to take place, merging his being with that of his dog, and mutating the both of them still further. Gary, now known as Warg, had even more reason to retreat from society, and has staked out the junkyard as his home. Even the gangs respect his claim; he is quick to dispose of those that disturb the privacy of his domain frivolously, and seldom ventures outside of it. Campaign Use: As a hero, Warg is the reluctant champion of the destitute of his city, and only stands up for them because no-one else will. He recognizes that not all of them are worth helping or will appreciate his help, but those who make an honest effort to improve their lot have his grudging respect. He will work with a hero team mainly because disorder tends to prey on the downtrodden first. As a villain, he could be a neutral party forced into villainy by a stronger/more subtle villain, or he could just be angry at the world and not care about who gets in his way.

I guess Zardoz's background doesn't really allow for total anonymity, but that would be a very valuable Perk for snipers who rely on long build-up invisible power effects powers. It'd be fairly easy for anyone with Streetwise to turn the tables on him, and as you say he's easy to deal with once you've spotted him. He's much better at playing the role of a hunter rather than the hunted.

Sure I have a couple more characters floating in my memory too, I'll see if I can get another written up as well...

Since no-one seems to be intersted in this thread I just posted a character for this campaign here...

Well, this isn't a Pulp Adventurer, but... I finally managed to finish rebuilding a char. It seems all my old 4th edition stuff has vanished over the years, so it took me a while to put this char back together from memory. He should be pretty close to how I originally designed him, though there are some differences. Basically, this char is a moderately powerful brick with a bit of a twist. Let me know what you think, bearing in mind this is for a 200 point campaign. Since I don't have Hero Designer I put this together in one of the character sheets available on this site (in Excel). I planned to export to images and display them here, but apparently this board doesn't support displaying images directly, so please follow this link. EDIT: Updated like to point to the Hero Designer version Killer Shrike posted on this site...

Why not use Cramming as the power skill?

Does that imply that the intention of the bonus leaping inches acquired from STR is that they be treated just like any other movement power -- i.e. you don't normally need to exert STR to use them, and for the purposes of applying advantages/limitations/etc. they can be treated just like any other movement power with free inches? Returning to the example of a character with 60 STR who can normally leap 12", then he could leap his full move for 1 END rather than 6 (unless he wanted to exert his STR as part of the move, such as with a Move-Through.) Adding 20" of purchased leaping and buying Reduced END (1/2 END Cost) would follow the usual rule and be applied to all 32", for a cost of 8 points. Is that correct? I hope so since it seems much simpler and more consistent with other kinds of movement than exerting STR to pay for base leaping END costs.

Most normal combat maneuvers can be performed with most attack powers. For instance, supposing I have a character with sharp pincer claws (2D6 HKA), I can strike with them, perform a Move-Through with them, etc. If Pincer-boy performed a Move-Through at 15" movement with his claws, he could add +3 DC (or +1D6) from velocity damage. Could he then exert his STR to top up the damage to 4D6 HKA? Would exerting his STR in this case cost 1 END (from exerting at 15 STR) or 3 END (full STR cost)? Does this also apply to Squeeze damage from a Grab attack? Supposing Pincer-boy has 30 STR with which to boost his HKA, could he attempt to Grab and Squeeze for a 4D6 Killing damage?

From FREd pg 126, a character with Leaping does not have to use his base STR when leaping. So, if a char had 60 STR (for a 12" base leap) plus 20" Leaping for a total of 32" leaping, he could leap up to 10" (a 1/2 move) using his leaping power, for 1 END. If he wanted to leap 16" as a 1/2 move, however, would he have to use his STR (and pay 3+1 END) or would he just use his leaping power for the full distance (and pay 2 END)? Similarly, if buying reduced END cost on leaping, presumably one has to pay for reduced END cost on the STR separately. So, in the example above, could the character buy 1/2 END cost on the leaping power for (20 x 1/4) = 5 points? This seems to be an exception to the general rule that advantages apply to the total cost of a movement power including free points. Supposing the character didn't want to pay for reduced END cost on his STR for some reason. Could he buy 1/2 END cost on up to 32" of leaping for (32 x 1/4) = 8 points, or would he have to buy 1/2 END cost on 20" leaping (5 points) plus 1/2 END cost on his STR with a limited power: Only for leaping (-2) for another ((60 x 1/4) / (1+2)) = 5 points? My suspicion is the latter. Assuming that's the case, if the char then wanted to exert his STR at the end of the leap, would he then pay his full STR END cost, less the amount already paid for the STR portion of the leap?

That would be what counts, then.

IMHO, appropriate caps on powers (especially attacks/defenses) is more important to limit munchkinism than the number of CP available. With appropriate caps, a munchkin can be more versatile than a non-munchkin, but still can't really overwhelm the opposition. I can easily come up with very points-efficient designs at the 250-point level due to my familiarity with character design under the 3rd & 4th edition rules. 200 to 250 points is probably my favourite points range. I don't like higher points values nearly as much as it just seems to get silly. Lower than 200-250 points seems more like heroic range to me, which I'm less interested in.

Sorry if I wasn't sufficiently clear earlier about what the restrictions entail. The Typical PC Ability Guidelines table is taken directly from FREd so I just used the same format. My interpretation is that these numbers are intended to represent a "normal" range into which most characters will fit, but there's certainly room for certain individuals to posess exceptional ability relative to the normal range, within certain fixed limits. For instance, I would expect most Bricks to have between 30 and 50 STR, with a maximum of 60, while most other chars would have 30 STR or less. The only hard-and-fast restrictions are the ones I have added in parenthesis, which are intended to achieve the following: Character attacks will typically not exceed a given level so I know how much punishment villains need to be able to absorb. Obviously there will be exceptions (e.g. fast move-throughs with high STR chars) but they should be just that -- exceptions. Defenses should not exceed levels where normal thugs in sufficient numbers don't pose a threat. Basically, by implementing a 60 AP cap on most powers, with typical powers in the 30-50 AP range (leaving a little room for exceptional cases) this would hopefully acheive some consistency in regards to creating suitable challenges. Some of the restrictions I added need a bit of tweaking, however; for instance, the current limitations don't allow for is PRE-attack-based chars. My intention was not to make linked or multiple attacks useless; rather, I worded it the way I did specifically to restrict the amount of STUN and BODY that an attack could do. If for instance, a character wanted to have, say, a 50 AP EB linked to a 50 AP flash attack and a 50 AP Drain ED, that would be fine. Just not a 50 AP EB linked to a 50 AP RKA or NND, thereby causing more damage than the opposition would be built to handle in one shot. Does that clarify matters? Incidentally, that restriction doesn't really have anything to do with multipower frameworks -- just multiple attacks and linked attacks. In a multipower you could still have several 50 AP attacks if you wanted, as you would generally only be using one at a time or spreading points between several of them. I'll try to clean up the wording. The problem I foresee with not including limits on the total AP of defensive powers is that opens the door to chars with lots of damage reduction, missile reflection, etc. such that they are basically invulnerable to normal attacks. A 30 AP attack should be viable in this setting, both for the villains and for the heroes -- it may not do a ton of damage, but it should still be felt. I don't think just limiting PD/ED/rPD/rED would cut it. I thought the rule as stated was fairly straightforward. Do you have another suggestion? I'll update the campaign rules above to clarify some of the restrictions.

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look.

No-one likes the idea of 200-pt. supers? I would have expected some comments on the campaign format then... If you feel the campaign restrictions I included above are too limiting, but want to contribute, please go ahead and ignore them and build a 200 pt. character as you see fit. Or comment on the campaign format.

Re: Re: Re: Need help with an upcoming campaign... Think of it as the ultimate "ends justify the means" question.

I'm dreaming up a campaign setting and have come up with a set of limitations for character generation that I think would work out. Taking a look around I see there are a few threads already where people have generated characters, so I'd like to do the same here. If you want to make this a "challenge" format, that's fine with me, but all ideas are welcome. Also, if you have suggestions as regards to playbalancing aspects of the character ability guidelines, let me know -- it's more-or-less a scaled down version of the low-powered superhero guidelines with some additional restrictions to encourage rounded PCs and keep the threat level posed by normal weapons fairly high. Here's the campaign format [uPDATED, v1.1]: Very Low-powered superheroic campaign. Potentially gritty/realistic but not overly so (e.g. Bronze age comics - alternately, Dark Champions:TAS, conspiracy, or post-apocalyptic.) PCs should generally try to "do the right thing" but may find themselves in morally ambiguous situations. Typical opponents will be organized and disorganized crime, with potential for conspiracies, espionage, etc, as well. Plot scale limited to events affecting home city (no saving the world) though PCs may occasionally interact with higher-level heroes & organizations. PCs are built as follows: Base Points: 100 Max Disads: 100 Max Disad Category: 50 Total: 200 Typical PC Ability Guidelines: Char: 10-30 (Max 60 STR/PRE) SPD: 3-6 Base CV: 6-10 DCs: 6-10 (Max base DCs for any attack of 12, linked/multiple attacks may not exceed 12 DCs of STUN/BODY damage) Act Pts 30-50 (Max 60 APs in any single power, excepting GM approval) Skill Pts 25-80 Skill Roll 8-14 Def/rDef 10-15/6-10 (Max rPD/rED of 10, Max total 60 AP in defense powers, talents, & figured stats beyond those derived from primary stats) What I'm looking for: Some Independent Hero NPCs - should be built according to same rules as PCs, and generally be fairly well-rounded Some Independent/Flunky Villain NPCs - built at about the same power level as the PCs but don't have to be well-rounded A couple Mastermind Villain NPCs - built at the Standard Hero power level (350 pts), should be well-rounded Unfortunately I don't have HeroDesigner but I may post some of my own ideas at some point as I flesh them out. Anyone up to the challenge? Here's a thought to get the ball rolling: Heroine w/light-based powers, significant use of Images power