prestidigitator

Sure! Just buy a Knowlege/Professional Skill or two that reflects the character's knowing the inside of the ship like the back of his hand, being a good smuggler, etc. Your GM will probably let you use something like this as a Complimentary Skill. Bam! The character knows the nooks and crannies which are hard to reach, for which the bulkheads provide an unusual amount of shielding, etc. This is the whole beauty of the Complimentary Skills rules. They offer a way to completely tailor-make your character for his/her specific theme.

Normally the damage is just a character's Str dice, I believe. The maximum is the object's Def+Body. I think the rationale is that a bigger object does more damage, but it takes a greater Str to swing or throw it anyway.... Of course, this has never really sat well with me when I consider things like clubs adding to a character's Str damage. I will admit that I could do more damage with a baseball bat than with my bare hand, but wouldn't a car have the same effect if I could swing it? Good point. I would probably base this on the amount of Str which would be needed to lift the object, and a Move Through maneuver with whatever velocity it has achieved when it hits.

How about a Mind Control because of the hypnotizing affect on every person who has a little pyro in them.

I think someone should kill this thread before the server goes critical....

LOL. Right on! I personally have a bit of difficulty with Batman having lasted so long in a superhero world, when he could be killed with something so simple as a single bullet. Decent physical prowess, vast intelligence, experience, and a butt-load of skills can really only get you so far. Unless you want to talk about my 250-point supra-genius with Int 260 (10^75 times more intelligent than your average joe), who just sits in the back room and decides which arrangement of dominoes will cause Chaos Theory to bring about the downfall of his enemies....

If a "Fuel Charge" is bought for a Summon, can a fraction of the duration proportional to the number of summoned creatures be expended, rather than a whole charge? If yes, I would assume some minimum time should be defined for the fuel charge?

The FAQ answers this question for Suppress, but what about Adjustment Powers? If Aid, Absorption, Drain, or Transfer is currently affecting a character's Body, is it the new (adjusted) Characteristic which determines the negative Body at which the character dies, or the old (unadjusted) value? Example 1: My charater's normal max Body is 10. I use my Aid to increase it to 15. Assuming the Aid doesn't fade first, do I die from wounds at -10 Body, or -15 Body? Example 2: My character's normal max Body is 10. An opponent uses Drain or Transfer to take away 5 Body. Do I now die when my current Body reaches -10 or -5?

From the FAQ: I'm not sure about Drain. I'll post a question for Steve.

I meant what I said. The following quote is (part of) a Q&A on the Rules Questions board: So actually I did make a mistake, but not where you thought I did. My mistake was in talking about HA. It is not considered part of the base attack, so it, Skill Levels, and Martial Arts together cannot more than double the base DCs of your Str. Steve makes the normal rules pretty clear, although, like always, you are free to ignore them. As a side note, I wonder at the Armor Piercing Advantage, if the Str is the base attack. For powers where Str normally adds to the base attack, Advantages are supposed to increase the amount of Str needed to add a DC (+1/4 means 6 Str would be needed to add a DC). I guess I would still do things this way, even if Str is the base attack.

How about this: you could do both a Move By and go through obstacles if only you could mix movement types. I myself would probably let you do this if both your Flight and Teleport had the same speed (or you limited your total movement to the lesser of the two). Base the End on the more expensive of the Movement Powers and be done with it. For example, let's say you have 10" of Flight and 10" of Teleport. Why couldn't you move 3" while attacking 2 opponents, teleport through a 1" wall, and move another 6" while attacking 3 more opponents (for a total of 10" of movement--I believe Move By lets you do a full move). This could just be considered a normal Move By in which you moved 10" total. You just couldn't attack the hexes you happened to teleport across. If your GM doesn't like this, buy them linked. LOL.

This is non-logic. I said I would not allow an EC for (because of) a stereotype. That does not mean I would disallow an EC because of a stereotype (A does not imply B is not the same as not A implies not . I was stating that the criteria should be different, not that stereotypical characters should not be allowed ECs.

I disagree. Depending on the GM, plain Postcognition could be used in the same way (I'd like to see all the attacks used against me in the next combat). Remember that Postcognition is pretty expensive (I wouldn't really see any justification in placing any Limitations on it in this case). However, the total immunity part of it is not true at all: The VPP isn't going to be able to be huge, so (s)he probably won't be able to prevent all damage (just reduce it). There will still be a choice to make. The defensive power still cannot be changed more often than once per Phase (of the Computer, or whatever). This whole power construct is just like being able to Abort without losing the character's actual next Phases. In fact, you might forget the whole Computer/Duplicate idea, and just buy +X Spd, Only to Abort (-1/2), along with maybe Danger Sense (so that you aren't unaware of attacks). You might also need some kind of Discriminatory Enhanced Sense for attacks that have Invisible Power Effects (including Mental Powers if you are not a mentalist). Then you wouldn't even have to deal with Postcognition. It would probably be a lot cheaper.

I would say that mechanics-wise TK has two primary purposes: 1.) to grab and manipulate things, and 2.) to damage things (including grab->squeeze or grab->throw). These two probably have approximately equal value (though it may depend on the kind of game). I might break the manipulation up into grab (as in the maneuver--let's say the immobilization part of it) and manipulate (as in do useful non-combat things; e.g. pull a lever). Let's say these have equal value as well. Let's consider two options for "Only Downward:" Can Do Damage: The damaging half of the power is limited by the difference between Indirect: Any location any direction, and Indirect: Any location (as noted, the difference is -1/4). The manipulation/grab portion really isn't affected at all (you can still immobilize someone with it). The straight manipulation part is hampered pretty severely (you might be able to add weight to something, or push down a lever, but that's about all I can think of at the moment). So let's call that 0.5*1/4+0.25*0+0.25*2 = 5/8, which I would round to -3/4 (rounding in a standard .5 manner for the player ). Can't Do Damage: As above, but the damaging part of it is completely gone. Call it 1+0.25*0+0.25*2 = 1 1/2 (-1 1/2).

By the way, the part about other characters being able to see what your portal shows may need to be bought as some kind of Usable on/by Others or Area of Effect. On the other hand, your GM might be willing to let it just be part of the Special Effects. Don't know.

I don't know that it is really all that obvious. It seems that multiple, simultaneous, uses of TK would be just like that number of separate characters lifting something. If two people, each of whom can lift 100kg at the Earth's surface, lift the same character, they could lift a 200kg body. I don't think I would have the same problem thinking about Area of Effect. After all, an Area of Effect attack affects each target the same, no matter how many hexes big each target is; the target only has to overlap the area. An Area of Effect TK could probably lift any and all targets within the area, each of which can only be affected by the Str of the TK. I guess you could think of the multiple uses of one TK the same way, although it seems a little bit artificial to say two completely independant uses of it cannot affect the same object. Would that mean that two different characters who have TK cannot put their TKs together to cooperate in lifting an object?

I agree completely. But, from the description the character is not creating "clones of himself." The description, "If they get hit once, they just dissappear in a puff of smoke, else they can fight with a bit lower power than himself, think independant and have got a good team work," doesn't sound like a clone to me. The "duplicate of self" just sounds like a Special Effect (the shadows look like the character). What is actually created sounds like something with virtually no defenses, less powerful attacks (if they are even the same), probably no skills (except the additional Teamwork, which the original character may not even have), likely limited Characteristics, etc. That sounds so far from a "duplicate" that I would have no problem making it a Summon (especially because destroying one has no impact on the power--it can just be "summoned" again). Heck! A character could have an Continuous, Autofire Energy Blast which has the Special Effects of, "Duplicates of myself jump out and attack an opponent or opponents," without the character needing to buy it as a Duplication. That may even be a valid choice for this power, with the condition that turns off the Cotinuous power being, "The shadow of me is hit by an attack." It depends on what these shadows can actually be used for, etc. Any Special Effect, but not any mechanics. Transform and Summon have their own built-in rules, and behave quite differently from other Powers in some respects. Not to mention that if you really build it as a Summon (for example), then it is affected by things that affect Summon, not some other power (Dispel maybe--although I'm sure we could argue all day about whether the effects of Summon can be Dispelled--I would say it depends on the Special Effects). By the way, I agree with you about missiles. I am particularly uneasy about Star Hero's choice to make missiles separate Vehicles. I have to think about that one.

Yes! And I think it is an iterative process. You can't always, as GM, decide exactly how you want everything to behave or be bought up front. There are literally an infinite number of possibilities, so you can't decide exactly how all of them work or should be done. Additionally, some things have to be playtested; sometimes powergaming players need to show you that you really shouldn't allow some construct, or should make a particular construct work differently (and thus change what is needed to get the effect the player wanted). If a player creates a character without consulting me, then some perfectly standard construct (s)he has may work a bit differently in my game than it would with another GM. That doesn't necessarily mean that if the player has an EC with a -1/4 Extra Time Limitation on the pool I am going to tell him/her that (s)he needs to change it. I may, however, need to say, "This is the way that construct will work in my game. If you are looking for a different effect, let me know and I can help you build it in another fashion (it may cost more points)."

They could boost damage for superheros in 4th edition, too. The suggested methods have always been different between heroic and superheroic (DCs vs. straight damage value).

Actually, I can tell you (from my progress in mapping Feats to Hero) that most Feats (at least the ones in the d20 SRD) are worth 3-4 points, although a couple (such as Blind-Fighting) climb as high as 15-25. Of course, some could be built in different ways, and are a little subjective, but most of them are definitely 3-point Skill Levels of one form or another.

Man! This seems a lot too complicated. I think I will just take the compliment of the Cannot be Spread Limitation. Isn't it a -1/4? That means a power with just that Limitation is worth 4/5 the value. So Can Only be Used to Spread should make a power worth 1/5 of its value, which comes to a -4 Limitation. Let's just call it -2.

You are confusing Special Effect with mechanics. Mechanically, the desired effect is that of Summon. It doesn't matter if the shadow is, "summoned out of thin air," or if it is, "a small bit of his essence menifested in solid form," or, "gating in a shadow simulcrum from the Demi-Plane of Shadow." The crux of the matter is that you should not use Duplication with a whole slew of Advantages and Limitations just to do what Summon is meant for.

I just realized that I distracted myself a bit in my post. I meant to make the following point: the GM has to (at times) look at things from the opposite vantage point as players. Players think of what they want to do in-game, and construct powers based upon this. A GM has to look at how a power is constructed, and figure out how it should behave in play. As a GM, why not look at an EC with a -1/4 Limitation on the pool, and think of how to really make that a -1/4 Limitation? If you look at things this way, it doesn't matter if the player bought it in the first place. Let them. Think of what that Limitation merits, based on its value. Instead of thinking "effect -> what points?", think "points -> what effect?" I don't see this as limiting the game any. I see it as the opposite.

I've never seen this in anything but House Rules. Where do you get this? Combat Skill Levels are also not affected by Drains or Transforms that reduce your Dex. If they are affected by Adjustment Powers, they must be reduced by 8 points to have any effect, rather than 3 points. It even seems to me that you might be able to buy them Persistent (particularly if they are granted through a Focus), whereas this might make less sense for Dex.

Re: 09. How To Do – Auto-Defense – Especially NND Defense Costs How about just Dispel (or Suppress): Any NND attack, Trigger: NND attack used against me?

Hmm. So outside of combat, you essentially have an infinite Str TK? Consider this: I need to lift a building. So I just apply my TK. Then I apply my TK again, and again, and again. Let's just say I bought it to 0 End, since I only have to buy, say, 15 Str in order to lift that building, or pull the moon out of orbit, or grab 1000 people, or....