JeffreyWKramer

Caris picked up on a big factor why "magic powers only" can receive a -1/4 Limitation - every Power in the VPP, and the Pool itself, could be subject to Adjustment Powers vs. the Magic special effect, defenses bought as "anti-magic", etc. As to what powers couldn't be magic - well, not too many, really. I have a hard time envisioning HRRP as a traditional magic power, but it would be fine for an arcanotech character. FTL is an odd magical effect, but it might fit for a mage in a cosmic/far future campaign. Your idea of the spellbook has some merit, as it adds flavor to the game and makes the character more distinctive, but it does take away some from the big advantage of a VPP - to do whatever one wants within the defined effects/Limitations and tailor one's powerset to a given situation.

Excellent ideas, Hermit. I personally think he's a much better idea for filling that niche than is ARGENT, but then, I think ARGENT as written up is a bit lacklustre. In my campaign, he has done favors like that for a *lot* of people in very high places... often after covertly creating the problem they needed help with in the first place - the daughter's rare birth defect, the cancer nobody else could manage to treat, etc. As a result, there is a lot less effort put into finding him and putting him behind bars than would otherwise be the case.

I assure you, I don't. Nanotechnology has very real potential that will start to be met in the next couple decades - not yet the sort of stuff we see in wilder SF, but I expect cellular-level surgery and things like that will be real, and so do a lot of people in the medical field - particularly neurology - who are studying this right now. Biotech for personal modification/expression is a very logical extrapolation from current social trends in body modification and from the general tendency for any new technology to first be utilized for people and businesses on the fringes of the mainstream. Sexual minorities were some of the first to greatly utilize IM, chat boards and the general distance-spanning potential of the Internet; the adult film industry has always been among the first to jump on new communications tech (VCR, DVD, the Net). Don't confuse someone who sees things differently than you with someone who doesn't know what he or she is talking about.

I think that is a fine idea for Teleios. As I see it, he should be the guy behind the scenes, a guy who is a major player because he has very useful, specialized skills more than being particularly powerful in and of himself. He's the guy who creates low-level metahuman muscle for crime lords, petty dictators and others in exchange for protection and non-interference. He's also the guy who has connections with other big names who might occasionally have specialized medical needs or reasons for seeking some bio-modification, and there's certainly nothing wrong with having someone like Menton on your speed-dial. Teleios is, in my opinion, the sort of character you wouldn't be particularly scared to face in a fight or a raid on his lair, but any character should be terrified of having him as a Hunted. If he really has a grudge against you, he can do things like: - genetically modify your other Hunteds so they are tougher - or have specialized abilities that are perfect for kicking your ass and playing on your vulnerabilities; - create clones of you and your loved ones to cause trouble, frame you, etc.; - offer his services to really tough villains who want to get tougher, in exchange for said villans taking you out; - come up with gene-replacing virii that nullify your powers; - etc.; you get the idea.

Biotechnology and nanotechnology will both have advanced enough in 22 years that they will start to be major factors in the way things work. By that time, fringe uses - designer-gene-mod for odd skin/hair colors, for example - will probably be well established, and some revoluationary medical procedures - neural replacement therapies, for example - will probably start to be reality. The ability for human beings to change themselves at a cellular and genetic level will call into question lots of old thinking about nature, identity, etc. If you're not already familiar with his books, I'd strongly recommend Greg Bear's SF novels - particularly QUEEN OF ANGELS and SLANT >, for a view of how such technologies will impact society.

Personally, I don't have the grabber make a second attack roll unless he is trying to change the effects of the grab in a significant way. Going for a more advantageous hit location would be one example (though I don't use hit locations in my games most of the time), other examples would be changing the grabbed character's position (for example, turning someone with an optic blast in a direction where they couldn't use the blast effectively), changing the grab so as to affect more than the typical/default number of limbs (as per the ULTIMATE MARTIAL ARTIST discussion on Grab), or changing grip so as to more effectively use the grabbed character as a missile weapon or club. If the grabber is happy with the effect of the grab, he can just squeeze away for so long as he can maintain the grab (i.e., continue to beat the grabbed character in a STR vs. STR contest).

Same here. The best example I can come up with is an effect sort of like a DnD "Maze" spell, which I suppose could be an Entangle vs. INT.

You do not have to target both rPD and rED of a Force Field or Armor if you want to affect only one of them. However, if the Force Field or Armor was bought with any Advantages (or if normal PD was bought with Damage Resistance), you have to account for the costs of said Advantages (or DR) when you drain the PD.

Caveman is correct. Hero A can use his TK against another target while still maintaining a hold on Villain #1. He would have to pay END to maintain the first hold and to do the second attack. He can also maintain it while using another power outside the MP, so long as he payed applicable END costs. He could maintain the hold while using a different power in the MP only if he had enough points in the MP pool to use the second power and the TK at the same time - or if the TK was bought with the "Continuous" Advantage.

You can drain Hardened PD, but you end up draining fewer points of PD, as your drain has to account for the cost of the Hardened Advantage. A Drain vs. PD will not affect Force Field or Armor. If you want such an effect to be maximally powerful, you might want to purchase it with one of the "Variable Effect" Advantages on Adjustment Powers - "Drain any one Power or Characteristic providing defense against physical attacks", or "drain any 2" such Powers/Characteristics, etc. Another option would be to purchase a Multipower of different Drains (PD, Force Field rPD, Armor rPD, etc.). Keep in mind also that any Adjustment Power, including Drain, that targets a Defense Power/Characteristic gives you only half the normal number of dice. Thus, 20 pts gives you only 1d6 of Drain vs. PD, rather than 2d6.

The character may also have Find Weakness, perhaps with the Limitation that it only works on technology-based defenses or some other special effect reflecting the character having advanced knowledge of certain sciences. Deduction at an obscene level would be good. DCV levels based on a PER roll or some skill, reflecting the character's intellect allowing him or her to anticipate an opponent's attacks. If you want a more funky power with a super-intellect special effect, you might try an Ego Attack or a boost in PRE for Presence Attacks, requiring Incantations and a shared language, reflecting the chararacter's ability to confound, confuse or awe people by throwing scientific gobbledegook or incredible metaphysical concepts at them.

I would give the last Limitation a -1/4 value, since, as you said, it is not a complete hosing, just something that the character will have to work harder to make useful. I also like the idea, a lot. By expanding it just a bit (in size or scope), one could mimic a lot of special effects, such as channeling spirits of the dead or receiving the blessings of a larger pantheon (the Aesir or Olympians, for example). Well done, Ghost!

I've used it in the past, and seen it used by others - implanted in agents of supervillainous types to prevent them from providing information to psionic characters when captured. Great idea, though, as it presents a moral dilemma to most heroes.

Re: OIHID and Nonpersistent OIHID is not the same thing as nonpersistent. A power that is normally persistent and is purchased OIHID remains in place so long as the character is in Hero ID. Now, if being knocked out returns the character to non-hero ID (a condition for Accidental Change, for example), then the powers will fade, but this is not an inherent aspect of the OIHID Limitation.

Yeah, it all comes down to what you set as the parameters for active points in the campaign. There's nothing wrong with Double Knockback - it's included in the book for a reason, in that it's a perfectly valid construct that helps mimic certain effects in the source material - but it is pretty tough. It pretty much assures most people hit by the attack suffere essentially the effects of a secondary attack, when they get slammed all over the place. It also serves to spread out the battle a lot, and to do a lot of collateral damage in the environment. This last factor is one to consider playing on should you decide to allow the attack. This character is going to cause a lot of environmental damage. If your campaign style is one in which players have to face the effects of their actions, you can play this up by having lawsuits and insurance adjustors follow the character around after he knocks opponents through cars, buses and buildings. I agree with Farkling though, that it's a lot less dangerous (i.e., deadly to others) than AP or Penetrating on STR. For that matter, it'd be more welcome to me, just because it is different.

Not necessarily, so long as your and his special effects each are more advantageous in some circumstances and less so in others.

Re: Experience and Multiform This is covered in great detail in the FAQ, but I'll try to cover the highlights here. Technically speaking only the Base Form spends experience. As you noted, +5 points doubles the number of Multiforms the character can choose between. Each can be made of up to as many points as the highest-cost Multiform, but need not be that expensive. I personally don't see this as particularly overpowering, so long as the GM is careful what he or she allows the player to purchase as Multiforms. Ones that are abusive, outside character concept or exceed campaign limits should be rejected out of hand. So long as these aren't the case, all having multiple forms does is give a player more options, with the limit that not all the options are available at any given moment. This is no more broken than a Multipower, and probably less so than a Cosmic VPP. Look at it this way. If Captain Zoology can already become an eagle, a t-rex, a shark and a tiger, five points allowing him to also become a giant squid, a cobra, a cheetah and an elephant doesn't really imbalance anything. Some of the time he can run faster, grapple better or be stronger, but he can't do them all at the same time, and none of those abilities is particularly outstanding for a superhero campaign. If the Medium (Multiform defined as being possessed by various spirits and gaining different powers/skills reflecting these spirits) already can become a gunslinger, a martial artist, a scientific genius and an Atlantean wizard, adding the forms of a deceased Golden Age hero, a Civil War general, a professional athlete and a medieval alchemist certainly adds more variety, but assuming these characters don't violate the campaign limits, that versatility carries it's own limiting factor - the wizard can't call on the general's tactics knowledge, the superhero's STR or the gunslinger's firearms skills. Alternately, one can spend experience to improve the various Multiforms. One point spent in this way translates to +5 Points for each of the various Multiforms. Thus, if a character has 8 Multiforms built on 350 pts, spending 1 XP makes the value of each Multiform up to 355 pts. Those extra five points can be spent to strengthen the individual Multiforms, buy off Disadvantages, etc. If one finds this potentially abusive - which certainly could happen if someone started min-maxing - a GM might go with Steve's suggestion in the FAQ and require a player to spend 5 XP points on non-Multiform aspects of the Base Character for every 1 he or she puts into improving the Multiforms. That way, you avoid the potential of 10 xp = each of the multiforms being 50 points better, which could (if they started at the campaign's point maximum or higher) translate to the Multiforms being effectively 40 or more points stronger than the other characters in the campaign.

That's why you rule a GM that some Dispel effects vs. foci, depending on the Foci in question and the Special Effect of the Dispel, don't entirely trash the item in question, but rather jam or break it, such that one can get it working again fairly quickly (2-4 phases, maybe), with an appropriate Skill roll (Weaponsmith, Electronics, Gadgeteering). Granted, that's going to make more sense for some sorts of foci (it's easier to fix a jammed gun than a suit of chainmail), but most of the time something reasonable can be devised with some thought.

I often make characters with "Hatred of ", with the "something" being something that is a major trigger for that particular character, something he or she just can't stand. Usually it's something pretty egregious, like "those who harm children" or "racists" or "casual killers", and I tend to take it at either Strong or (more often) Total. I also like "ego signature" characters, those with a compulsion to leave behind a calling card of some sort. Finally, whenever I play the jokester/smart-ass sort of character (Hawkeye/Blue Beetle-inspired sorts), I usually stick them with something like "Total Compulsion to Make Smart Comments and Insult Opponents". That often results in said characters being the target of Enraged villains, of course, but it's the cost one sometimes has to pay for fun.

All I can say to that one is... Damn!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Danger Sense Question I can think of at least one special effect for which it makes perfect sense ... For the "psychic invisibility" sort of character, ala The Shadow, with the ability to cloud the minds of men. This sort of invisibility would work by shutting off a viewer's awareness of the target. Whatever the special effect of the Danger Sense, presumably it would somehow be processed via the brain. The same sort of effect could make sense for a Suppress vs. different senses, with the special effect being that the attacker somehow affected the sensory processing areas of the target's brain. I agree that "Invisibility to Danger Sense" doesn't make a whit of sense for a chameleon/Predator/Sue Richards sort of character, though. But be careful about dismissing a concept out of hand. In one campaign long ago, we often went up against an assassin with psionic invisibility, which covered pretty much all sense groups other than touch (and also didn't affect electronic sensors or people with a certain level of Mental Defense). It made him very scary, but it made perfect sesne for that character.

Monolith is correct. Just because a solid being's Mental Powers, Flash, etc. can naturally Affect Desolid, that does not mean a Desolid Mentalist would automatically be able to affect those who are not Desolid. That would be even worse than the old "mentalist with lots of telescopic N-Ray vision" routine.

Yep, exactly like Tachyon. I hadn't noticed he had that before, as I've never used that character in an adventure. That's borderline-abusive, as far as I'm concerned - he's a brick, and for 3 points he can pummel someone in HTH while getting +8 DCV. It's not like it's totally insurmountable - mental powers and AoE stuff will still toast him just fine - and in fact I'd have no problem at all with that construct outside the MP, or even in an EC, but that much effect for 3 pts, when the character can still mount a pretty good offense (since a primary offense falls totally outside the MP), is pretty darn cost effective. For the record, I don't feel a great tendency to always allow something just because the books set a precedent. Captain Chronos' NND Entangle is a perfect example (at least in that one the write-up clearly states it's an egregious rules-twister).

I'm pretty inclined to not allow Skill Levels within a Multipower at all, other than perhaps constructs in which a standard Power is in the MP and some points in the slot go to improve the power (Missile Deflection with +5 to the roll, for example). In that case, since the Power the Skill Level goes into is part of the MP, it isn't abusive to have some points in the MP pool go to that power. On the other hand, I'd be extremely wary of something like, say, +5 with HTH Combat as a MP slot. Even if CSLs are built as a Power (with the Costs END Limitation, for example), I'd be very wary that someone not just drop in slots like +10 DCV as a U slot, total cost = 3 pts. At the very least, I would require an awful good special effect rationale, but such things seem way too cost-effective.

Well, in reality it doesn't work very reliably, but that doesn't mean it wouldn't work at all - particularly against a fairly unskilled (i.e., low-OCV) person firing at you. In comics, I've actually seen some of Punisher's feats attributed to this sort of thing - he's so good with guns, he can tell where a guy's gonna fire. Besides, we are talking comic books, pulp fiction and action movies here, and people in those genres anticipate and move out of the way of things like *grenade blasts.* Letting an expert marksman who is aware he's being shot at jink around a bit to try to throw off the other guy's aim doesn't seem too out there. YMMV, though.