prestidigitator

Ah! I will have to look that up. I have the Ultimate Mentalist (at least an old copy of it).

I would just call it the Accidental Change Disadvantage. It lets you specify the conditions under which the accidental change occurs. You can just make one of these conditions, "when the character falls asleep." You might even wake up during the accidental change, as a Special Effect. I would call the problem of the one form not always being controllable a pretty hefty Psychological Limitation on that form (maybe a Berserk/Enranged as well or instead?).

This might be dangerous. For NND, where the target gets no defenses to reduce the damage, it might make sense. But for AVLD, or Area of Effect attacks? No way. The Autofire rules, as is, apply each hit to the target's defenses seperately. That means if your attack just barely cannot normally get through their armor, hitting them 3 extra times isn't going to do any damage either. If you just add to the DCs, you are effectively getting a more powerful attack (some damage which ignores defenses), rather than multiple hits of the lesser attack.

Hmm. Or maybe not. I just realized maybe this is the No Range Modifier Advantage instead of BOECV. Perhaps with an Automaton there is no "mind" to hook the attack on. Wow. It seems like it might make sense to have an Advantage that lets you use your ECV against their DCV (not DECV). I wonder what that would be worth. Probably less than BOECV.

Is that right? An Automaton is immune to Mental Powers that work against Ego, but does this mean that any attack based on ECV cannot be used against them? I don't have the book, but I would think I could target an Automaton with my BOECV RKA (so long as it is still based on a non-mental defense); all I have to do is concentrate on the target I want to hit, not "aim". As a GM, I would probably even make the Automaton 0 ECV to hit, since it cannot mentally "evade" the attack (0 Ego).

Well, the way I choose to interpret Megascaled Range (this does seem to disagree with the FAQ a bit) is that you cannot be more accurate than your scaled 1". It doesn't make much sense that if I am 9.5km away I can't Teleport, but if I move a little further so that I am 10.5km away, I can pop right exactly to the spot I want. Here's an idea: buy the character a Base, and buy the grounds of the base out to a radius of 10km. Then you will never need to escape to home if you are only 9km away.

Agreed. I don't think 8-point CSLs have much of a place in superheroic games anyway. I think superheros should be buying Dex instead. As a GM, just make these CSLs more worth it. Give them little benefits here and there which you never get from Dex. For example, let them apply to Tactics rolls under some conditions, or add them to a character's Per rolls when determining if (s)he is surprised when already in combat (even if the levels are currently being used for OCV, DCV, or damage). Little things like that. Maybe not even all the time. Just enough for them to be a little bit cool as skills unto themselves. Actually 2 CSLs allocated to damage would only add +1d6 normal damage. But you are right that this is an application which you can't mimic with Dex.

I don't think this is a rules change at all. It just looks different. I'd let players roll like this, or with the "X-" rolls, or whatever, so long as the probabilities didn't change. Same system. Same rules. Incidentally, you can change all rolls, including characteristic and skill rolls, to look like this. See my post under the "HERO/d20 house rules and mods?" thread.

I wouldn't apply this to your whole Running, nor would I construct a naked adder for the Noncombat Multiple. I would just consider the Noncombat Multiple an already present (Everyman) 5-point adder on your Running. That means you could take Limitations on it, and get the points that make up the difference. Use full Limitation values, but only apply them to the 5-point Noncombat Multiple, rather than your whole Running (it doesn't limit your combat movement, after all). Incidentally, being able to run at 60-70mph is going to be expensive. The cheapest would just be to buy a bigger Noncombat Multiple, and no extra combat velocity at all, but it doesn't sound like this is what you want. If you are really going for cheetah running, in fact, I'm not even sure you want to use noncombat velocity: cheetah's use their sprinting for running down prey, and are pretty good at scoring a hit when they catch up. They probably aren't doing a Move Through at 0 OCV. Just buy the Running to use a buttload of End, and buy yourself some extra End (maybe even an End Reserve, but that depends on your concept).

Hmm. I wonder if you could define something as AVLD vs. Damage Resistance. So normal PD, Armor, FF, etc., would all be useless, but if someone actually made their natural defenses resistant using Damage Resistance (and maybe Density Increase).... Certainly it would work to do a NND vs. Damage Resistance, and AVLD is more expensive, right?

I don't know. I guess it depends on how effective you make Knowledge Skills as a GM. If they will be pretty useful, I can see how you might not want to allow 3-point levels to affect them all. Also, how much sense does it make? That you can base Knowledge Skills on Int makes them easy enough to boost (right along with all Intellect Skills). Why buy up a single Knowledge Skill when I can increase all of them for 3 points? You'd have a world full of know-it-alls, and no one who specialized. Another point: Skill Levels can apply to one task at a time. Well, I can't think of many circumstances with Knowledge Skills when I won't be able to use all my Skill Levels on every roll.

True. Of course, throwing them to do Str damage at a distance can be nice. For anyone who can actually lift the truck, the Area of Effect is nice.

Re: Re: VPP Fireworks Is it always in the target's favor? I'd think that the character with the Armor Piercing attack is, in this case, the one who is instigating the halving, so it would be rounded it the attacker's favor. Of course, I don't have the book in front of me, and can't remember whether there is a specific clause there....

I would base Leaping solely on Running, not on Str. For every 5" of Running velocity, you'd get +1" of jumping distance. Leaping would start at 0" (2" with starting non-combat Running velocity), and could only be increased as a Power (not as a Characteristic--or maybe as a Characteristic with a normal maximum of 0" ). That way a normal human with maximum Running (10"), going at non-combat velocity (20"), would be able to jump 4"=8m, which is about the world record. A standing broad jump would be the same as a 1" start (5" of velocity for a jump of 1"=2m). I might allow Pushing the Leaping based on a Str roll rather than an Ego roll, however.

This is totally on. "Perception" is rolled up into the effects of a heck of a lot of skills. Otherwise, you would have to roll Per along with other skills to do just about anything: "Roll your Per to see if you detect the flaws in that gem--it isn't just a PS: Appraiser skill." "Roll your Per to see if you grasp the situation on the battlefield--it isn't just a Tactics roll." "Roll your Per to see if you detect an opening in your opponent's defenses--it isn't just an attack roll." "Roll your Per to notice the meanings others might miss in the conversation--it isn't just a Conversation roll." "Roll your Per to notice the footprints--it isn't just a Tracking roll." etc. I play a D&D game where the DM has created a "Perception" ability score. It is utilized as much as every other score put together--with the result that everyone creates a character with a high Perception. Rediculous. Base things on skills as much if not more than Per. Let Per have its place: mostly for opposed rolls to Stealth and Concealment (when it is bettern than Concealment), and also where something is purely based on Senses--not connected to skills, etc.

The Suppress Body is a good idea, but here is an even better one, based on a direct Power: Transform to "Dead body." According to the Transform power, you cannot actually deprive a living being of life, but you aren't really doing this if there is a way to heal it back (as there must be for any Transform). You could leave the healing as standard Body recovery (maybe a Limitation to make it come back faster), or you could define it as "the passing of 42 hours" (it would normally take most characters far longer than 42 hours to heal back enough Body, so I don't think this is unreasonable). Bam! It can be used as an attack on other characters, or on yourself. Even most Enhanced Senses will be fooled, because you are a dead body (for a while).

Oh yes! Stun and Body. It's all about Stun and Body. Can you see SDC->Stun/Normal and MDC->Body/Killing? Not an exact conversion, but it sure makes sense in terms of what armor/normal defenses do for you, the difference between the different types of weapons, etc. An overabundance of Killing Attacks is sure to put the (heroic) characters behind armor/magic. Here's an idea. Use the suggested differences between heroic and superheroic mentioned above, then give a heroic number of Base points, and a really high limit on Disadvantages (and play those Disadvantages for all they are worth, at least on an individual level--don't punish the hero-powered PCs in the party because one PC decided to take a 50-point Hunted!). Players who want superhero-powered characters will wind up paying for it.

Re: Re: 10. Curiosity – Why An 8-point Combat Skill Level Right on! Points are only part of it. I personally think that, even if 8-point CSLs are a little less useful relative to their cost (I don't think they are way out of proportion), it is not enough to keep me from buying them. So I will when they fit the concept.

Hmm. Costs, assuming NCM: Dex 26: 66 points Dex 20 + 2 Overall Combat Levels: 48 Dex 10 + 6 Overall Combat Levels: 48 The guy with 6 CSLs can have an OCV or DCV of 6 when his Dex is gone. By the way, the guy with a Dex of 26 loses a point of Dex per 3 active points drained, even though he payed 6 points to get each.

Well shoot! In that case, use Hero with a d20 instead of 3d6, and you have the d20 system! It will even look almost exactly the same if you transform "an X- roll" into "+Y on a roll", as I suggested a while ago. You might want to double all bonuses to a roll (including Chracteristics bonuses, skill increases, and Skill Levels), since a bonus means less on a d20 (these values are about the values d20 uses anyway). You could also eliminate the Stun and End Characteristics, and make everything a Killing Attack. Preserve Stunning with something like, "a character is Stunned if the amount of Body (s)he takes after defenses is more than one-third his/her Con," if you choose. Bam! d20, Hero-style.

I guess this doesn't have the same kind of "surprise factor," but you might be able to buy a Dispel, Persistant Suppression, or something to that effect, that works against "all powers that ignore normal defenses." I might allow this as a GM based on the principle that defenses should be easier/less expensive than doing damage....

This sounds pretty reasonable. I agree with a No Body attack still doing Knockback, too (of course, I would say that the Kockback itself still has the potential for doing Body...). Remember that the extra dice are being added to the power, as well, so any Active Point limits should really apply to the whole thing. It doesn't sound like this is a problem in this case, though.

Well, I just hope everyone took careful note of the ramifications of the Chucking Power introduced by the FAQ....

The description of 5-point Skill Levels do not say they can apply, for example, to "anything which is based on a Dex roll." The example given in the table says Agility skills, which would actually not apply to a Professional Skill bought based on Dex (it is still a Background Skill, even though it is based on a Characteristic roll). Of course, it is pretty much up to the GM to determine what a "related group of skllls" is. And the FAQ does say something like "a skill level for Int skills can apply to your Per rolls...." Eh. I actually have kind of a problem with the rule about not being able to apply Limitations to anything below 5-point SKill Levels, myself. I even find myself buying 5-point Skill Levels with Limitations such as, Only for Stealth (-1), just so that I can buy the darn thing through a focus. I'm sure the game guru's would have a fit over that, saying it's a -0 Limitation, but come on! I want the thing to be limited, and I want to give players a reason to buy it rather than just a straight 5-point Skill Level! Remember, too, that a 5-point Skill Level bought for all Knowledge Skills would apply to Knowledge Skills which you also based on Int, as well as all those bought as an 11-, etc.

I'd say this is totally up to your GM; I might allow you the 600m Teleport, but with a Per roll or attack roll (even though it is a fixed location). You might arrive right where you expected if you made the roll, but wind up anywhere within a 10km radius if you failed.... Then again, maybe a fixed location should ignore the normal granularity rule for Megascaled range. I often bend my mind over the thought of a wizard with Clairsentience studying a location in order to place one of his/her Teleport locations there, and being able to teleport exactly and without error anywhere "on the same plane of existence."