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Re: Tactics and a young gamer

Re: Club 400 Mirth

Re: 5ER Intercepting Fist? Depends on what degree you want to take it to and what aspect of Intercepting you are looking at. Intercepting is often thought of in terms of a simultaneous block/strike, but there's more to it than that. On the cheap, Lightning Reflexes/Held action will let you Intercept the opponent before he hits you. Grapple, Stun or Knock Down said opponent and his attack is effectively halted, with the actual "Intercepting Fist" SFX being left to the realm of colorful description.

Re: Club 400 Mirth True! Though it really depends on the type of bow and your intentions. My recurves only 45#, but it's primarily for target archery. I can handle more poundage, but I'm not out there shooting at heavily armored opponents. Most guys I know that hunt deer shoot 60#. A few shoot 80#, including a fairly big fellow that bowhunts elk. But they all use compound, which is cheating of course In the comics, Hawkeye and Green Arrow have both stated they shoot 120# bows... and those are self/composite bows so that takes serious muscle... potentially ridiculous amounts of muscle based on the things they do in comics written/drawn by people that don't understand much about archery... (my archer swapped out bows based on the needs of the mission, but had a real preference for traditional bows over compounds)

Re: Club 400 Mirth

Re: MMA for Dark Champions HERO lacks good rules for ground fighting in general, but ground and pound is essentially just the SFX of a Grab/Squeeze sequence performed while prone.

Re: Olympic Records in HERO No one is trying to "short cut" anything. Ragitsu asked how easy it was and the answer is: very easy. Possibly too easy. It's very common in Champions games to play characters that are Olympic Class athletes or Peak Human. Characters like Batman, Hawkeye, Green Arrow, etc. The problem you run into is that these more or less "normal human" heroes probably have a SPD somewhere between 4 and 7 in your typical Champions game, with 4 being considered quite slow by Champions standards. Most of us wouldn't bat an eye at a Batman writeup with a 6 SPD and 20m of Running, but you have to realize he can sprint (NCM) at damn near 45mph! So you end up blowing away Olympic speed records pretty easily. Most people tend to ignore this for the sake of fun and playability though...

Re: Olympic Records in HERO Swimming and Leaping are both pretty record shattering at the "peak human" level of things. Assuming a SPD of 4, you can break current Olympic swimming records with 7m of Swimming. 6m puts you just under the greatest of all time. Long Jump world record is 8.95m. High Jump is only 2.45m. Though I point out, it's unlikely any Heroic character is ever going to use a Fosbury Flop to leap over something....

Re: Cougar (6e Update) ... did you just ask me to provide a reference for something in an official book... when I point blank said that I think it's being done wrong in the official books?

Re: Cougar (6e Update) Nah, the books are messing something up In 5E, there were many NND effects that required physical contact (often skin contact), a common defense against which was often Force Field (FF), a power that provided Resistant defenses. Unlike the Armor and Damage Resistance powers, FF cost END. Anyhow, the logic was that you couldn't get past the FF to touch the victim directly so many types of NND failed. This was especially true of things like disintegration beams, mystical life drains and even some contact poison type effects. Basically stuff that was really dangerous if it touched you. Even back then, I largely disagreed with the language used in those write ups, as one could very easily build the SFX of a "force field" by using some power other than Force Field. Such as using Armor to simulate an perpetually on FF that didn't actually cost end without having to buy the thing Reduced END (0 END) and Persistent. Anyhow, fast forward to 6E: we lost Force Field, Armor and Damage Resistance. Damage Resistance became the Resistant Advantage Armor became Resistant Protection FF became Resistant Protection, Costs End (and usually Perceiveable) We also gained the +0 Advantage Impermeable. If you read what Impermeable actually does (prevent skin contact), it seems quite clear that it's the one of the things that will protect you from many (not all) of these NND's. Because, if I am a metamorph that grows rhino hide (built as Resistant Protection, Costs END), it's going to logically be less effective against something like a modulated energy beam than being completely surrounded in a glowing force field that prevents the beam from ever touching you. (Resistant Protection, Impermeable, Costs END). IMO, what most likely happened is the idea of Impermeable came along AFTER several of the NND's were written up, with Steve using the closest analog to the old 5E force field when he did those conversions. However, later books seem to usually use language such as: "NND (defense is PD(or ED) Resistant Protection defined as a force-field or the like," Notice how there is no mention of if the protection costs end or not? Of course, Impermeable is still left out in the cold for the most part, but that's ok, it's got the appropriate Life Support

Re: Cougar (6e Update)

Re: Cougar (6e Update) Resistant is one of the exceptions to the Naked Advantage END rules. Can't find the exact cite right now, but Hero Designer was changed to accommodate the rule back in October...

Re: Pulse, teleporting martial artist. C&C welcome. I was looking forward to your reply

Re: Cougar (6e Update) Yes. Depends on the campaign though. If Question Man feels 23 DEF is too high, he can obviously scale it down. Bear in mind, regardless of what the book might say, many of us prefer our Bricks in the 30-50 PD/ED range, so someone quicker, like a martial artist or speedster type, in the low to mid 20's is really pretty normal...

Re: Cougar (6e Update) I'm not going to get into the CV vs CSL debate. There are considerable pro's and con's for and against. However, don't get hung up on the names. CSL's are a mechanic, as are Martial Maneuvers. Mutant and Martial Artist are just SFX. Sometimes the best way to represent exceptional natural combat ability is via Martial Maneuvers, even if it doesn't come with all the rigorous training and fancy window dressing that most people associate with being a "MARTIAL ARTIST" In the end, it's all a matter of preference though. I don't know that it's "wrong" so much as it's just a rather unusual approach to a very common power build. Typically, any type of armored costume, be it Full Plate or Bullet Proof Spandex, adds additional Resistant Defense to your existing defenses. Personally, since the character total defenses are a bit on the low, I might encourage a player to switch to something like +8 rPD/+8 rED Resistant Defense, OIF (Biosteel Costume).

Re: Cougar (6e Update) They do. The character has 30 STR with +30 STR for escape, grab, disarm in a slot in his MP. This gives him a total of 60STR when he performs those combat maneuvers. The combined DC's and bonuses from Martial Grab and Martial Disarm also net the character a 60, so it was a wash. The character would actually have a 65 STR if he were to buy Martial Escape, which is why I noted it was +5 STR more than what he currently gets.

Re: Cougar (6e Update) I'll be honest, I was expecting an older woman with a thing for hot young heroes The Natural Born Warrior MP costs 39 pts. Doing the exact same thing with Martial Maneuvers will also costs 39pts, will generally offer better performance (bolded where it does not), doesn't cost END and will allow him to combine those maneuvers when using a Multiple Attack Killing Strike (lower OCV) Martial Disarm (higher OCV and DCV) Martial Escape (+5 STR) Martial Flash (+2d6 effect, lower OCV) Martial Grab (higher DCV) Martial Strike (higher DCV) +4 DC's Also, write Up doesn't specify what is used for the powers with Requires A Roll...

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? Man, I totally misread you there... I thought you were saying something to the effect of: "If you think COM is a just for flavor, what about PRE?" Which, framed that way, hopefully explains my response... Yeah, quite possibly. Depends on the nature of the build I suppose. See, as a GM I tend to make it a rule that if you spend points on it, it's important to you and it should get a chance for screen time. So it's either going to come up... or I'll say something along the lines of "Are you sure you want to spend points on that? It's background appropriate, but not core to the concept. If it ever comes up, we'll just assume you have it." Of course, attempting to do a completist write up of a character like Cap would result in a lot of bloat, as I hunt down issues, make note of obscure skills or one off gadgets and stunts to add to his character sheet. But I wouldn't necessarily play that build of Cap (assuming I could find a GM that would run such a build).

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? In my opinion, PRE has ample game mechanics supporting it. It is a mechanically useful and functional expenditure of points. Also IMO, COM does not have such ample mechanics and seems to be paying points purely for SFX. mmm... ample... mechanic...

Re: Hello new hero here.

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? My apologies. Of course we CAN throw Cheetos at them, though perhaps not as readily as some might like. We are also likely to be ejected from what ever event we happen to be at once said Cheetos are thrown at the offending parties...

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? But the thing with COM is it does "put them in the same 1 thorugh 10 order" (or 6-30, or -10 to 70.. whatever your games particular scale might be...) and expects everyone to react appropriately based on that preset numeric order. That seems to be at least part of the reason why people are saying they prefered COM, is it not? And I will point out, I have a friend that thinks Scarlett Johansson is ugly. Not "less attractive than starlet x" but actual ranting tirades on how we are all sick in the head for finding her attractive on any level. And he's apparently not completely alone, based on a quick Google search http://blog.aerojockey.com/post/johansson I myself have no love for Katie Holmes, despite her (frequently) short dark hair and generally nice figure. I don't think she's "ugly" or anything extreme like that, but I certainly don't consider her anything special either. Her lopsided smirk annoys me almost every time I see a picture of her (odd, considering my own crooked grin...). I'm positive I would peg her several points lower on the COM scale than one of my former GM's (big Dawson's Creek fan). Ah, but I didn't say that Superman or Captain America's good looks have NEVER been mentioned in the combined 1 bajillionty pages of story that have ever been printed about them. That wasn't the point. I acknowledged that they were very good looking. I'm asking when was it important to advance the adventure? (and I admit I could havephrased that better upon rereading my prior post...) Approving looks or compliments from random Jane Doe NPC are just fun role playing moments. They don't require someone to spend points to get there if they aren't having mechanical effect. Kinda like having an eye patch or a bad leg. If the eye patch doesn't screw up your aim or otherwise inhibit you, it's just part of your look, not an actual Complication. If your bum leg doesn't cause you to have 10m or Running instead of the normal 12m (or similar), it's really just something for flavor ("I'm gettin too old for this s#!+!") I'm all for flavor, but I only want to pay for it if it's appropriate for the character and the type of stories I want to tell with them...

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? Hey, they can both be plenty inconsistent, we just can't penalize the editors with reduced XP rewards and thrown Cheetos when they let something stupid slip by I'd have no objection to more granular system for SA (or many other things in the system for that matter...)

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition? Bolding and underlining mine Characters that are pretty that don't get any benefit out of it, shouldn't pay points for it. There are COUNTLESS characters in comics and other medium that are portrayed this way, even such iconic characters as Superman or Captain America. In previous editions such characters would either spend points they didn't really have to so that we as players could rate them on our virtual hotness scale... or would be considered plain (or possibly even ugly) due to a lack on investment in a stat with minimal mechanical value. Seriously, when was the last time someone swooned over the Steve Rogers, who among his many peak human physical characteristics is also a gorgeous blond haired blue eyed Adonis? When was the last time AIM Security Guard or Hydra Agent did something extraordinary for Cap on the strict basis that he's one of the hottest men in America ("Oh myyy!")? Now think about the Black Widow. She's basically a super soldier just like Cap, but she actually uses those perfect looks of hers. Now, I'll admit, maybe people used COM differently than my groups have, but in 5E I might give both Steve and Natasha a COM of 18+. Because they are both really, really good looking. But only Black Widow actually benefits from that point investment in her source material. In 6E, I feel I can freely describe both characters as really, really good looking regardless of how many points I have spent on the SFX of being really, really good looking. In Captain America's case, I've probably spent zero points on his looks. This doesn't make him plain or less pretty than he used to be in 5E. It just means I, as a player, am not expecting Cap to get in situations where his looks are going give him the edge. By contrast, for Black Widow, I'm sinking a dozen or so points into Striking Appearance. She will use her hotness to her advantage. It's a major part of her character and I want the GM to craft situations where her stunning good looks are absolutely critical to the progress of the story. I'm honestly not sure if I can illustrate it any better than that, so I hope everyone can see where I'm coming from even if they don't ultimately agree with my line of reasoning... As to one of the other points mentioned previously... Personally, I don't find that I forget that SA exists, but maybe that's just me. If anything, it is a more deliberate choice that I find myself only using when it's particularly appropriate. The clearly defined benefits seem to see more action in play now than they ever really did in previous editions and players seem more prone to ask "Can I use my bonus for Striking Appearance here?" once the dice actually come into play. I'll be honest, I used to buy a 12 or 14 COM just because I had a point or two left over. Because my heroes were often supposed to be just sorta generically good looking, not because they were supposed to get any real benefit out of those looks. I still do the same thing, my characters are just as pretty. I'm just not necessarily spending points on it...

Re: Superhuman women less attractive in 6th Edition?