Lord Liaden

Fair enough, YMMV. No disrespect intended.

Viperia was obviously patterned after Supergirl in terms of her power set, but no, definitely not heroic motivations; she was VIPER's most powerfull staff supervillain and principle enforcer. 4E came kind of close to a Superman with the first Captain Australia from Hero System Almanac I, his country's greatest hero - essentially a flying brick with enhanced senses. Not on par with Supes' power level, but his style and visuals were similar. He was crippled in battle and his twin sister, with the same powers, took over his role as Cap Australia.

I agree with everything WhammeWhamme recommends as far as Powers and Modifier value, but I'd drop the Power Pool as you're really only defining one compound Power; the ability to choose the individuals to whom you're nonexistent is part of how that Power is defined, and IMO balanced by the nonexitence of those people to you. Another approach would be to use Extra-Dimensional Movement, Usable on Others as an Attack, to move yourself and others to a "dimension" where they can't perceive you and you can't perceive them.

Of the options you present, I think that END Reserve gives you the flexibility you're looking for. The real trick is defining how Spidey reloads his web fluid reserve. My suggestion would be to buy the END Reserve as normal for the web shooters, but buy the Recovery for it with Charges to represent reloading it with replacement cartridges. I can think of three ways to construct those Charges, depending on how you see the reloading process proceeding. One, make each Charge a large enough Recovery to completely reload the web shooter - simplest but probably most expensive; two, make each charge Continuing, large enough and lasting long enough to completely refill the web shooter, and say that this represents the time that Spider-Man has to take to replace the fluid cartridges; three, assume that the web shooters hold multiple cartridges, and each cartridge represents one Charge of the appropriate Recovery, so that when you've used all the Charges that the shooter can hold at once, the END Reserve has recovered completely. Hope that helps.

Well, I've played with a few ways to make the mad scientist types interesting: One way is to play up the negative stereotypes of the scientific mindset: cool, dispassionate, devoted to knowledge and discovery whatever the consequences. Such people display almost pathological unconcern for ethical issues: they'll torture a subject to test brain responses to pain, with no sign of either disgust or pleasure - it's just an experiment, and sacrifices are necessary for the "greater good." Science is the highest ideal, against which all other concerns pale. A personality like this can be positively unnerving in the way they can discuss the most horrendous events as though they were merely interesting bits of data. Another stereotype is the psychotic personality who really only is comfortable and vital when dealing with his specialized area. The more abstracted this area is from normal human interaction, the more of an impact the character will have on your players. Mr. Matthews from the recent Champs/SAS villain showdown is a good example of this, as he displays obvious pride in, and even paternalistic affection for the hideous biological freaks of his creation. Then there's the tried and true "obvious mad scientist" schtick: weird mannerisms, laughter at inappropriate times, mercurial emotional swings, exaggerated behavior. Think Colin Clive as Doctor Frankenstein from those early monster films, or Kiefer Sutherland's character from the movie "Dark City." You shouldn't go too far over the top lest you make the character laughable and unable to be taken seriously by your players, but a strong dose of "twitchiness" can add a lot of distinctive flavor. Of course you can always take the character over the top deliberately if you want him to be comic relief at least part of the time. The Producer from Aaron Allston's Strike Force book served that function; his obsession with movie escapism, and with creating androids based on characters from those movies, left him unable to distinguish between film reality and real life. As a result his creations are often silly and/or harmless, but sometimes quite deadly since the Producer doesn't comprehend that everyone killed won't just get up when the director yells "Cut!" That edge of danger keeps the players from treating him as a total joke.

Hmm... I'm not sure that every supers universe needs an analog to Superman per se. It's more a matter of the roles that characters play in their respective worlds. Superman fills two main roles in the DC universe: that of the top powerhouse among heroes, the benchmark by which might is measured, who causes villains to go, "Whoa, I ain't fightin' him!" Superman is also the benchmark for courage, determination, and the highest ideals of heroism, and is almost universally respected by his peers and the public. Now in the Marvel Universe, those roles are divided between two figures: Thor as the standard of power, and Captain America as the standard of heroism. The problem with creating the top NPC powerhouse in a game world, is that when he's around he detracts from the PCs who are supposed to be the focus of the story. It's easier to write a way around that in a comic book than to deal with that reality in a role-playing game. OTOH an Elder Statesman of the superhero community can be a fun element to mix into a game; someone with the prestige to call the young bucks to task and remind them of what they're really fighting for.

Jhamin, I would like to put that on a t-shirt and wear it to every comic fanboy debate I'm forced to sit through. Well said.

Grond wear blue pants with green skin, not purple pants! Grond have stronger fashion sense than Hulk!

Hey, Mon, no criticism of you intended! Quite the opposite, actually: you and your cohorts are a big reason why so few of this type of error creep into 5E books. You can hardly be blamed for misinterpreting the math in the character construction in some 4th Edition products - it's almost proof of chaos theory.

You know, we're still both wrong. You're right that by the points calculation in Classic Enemies it should be three levels of Growth rather than one, but the book claims that that's already figured into Ripper's Strength listing. Well, let's see: he's got 12 pts. added to the Cost of his STR with the OIF and No Figured Limitations, which should work out to +25 STR for 35 total... 3 levels of Growth for +15 STR, brings the total to 50 which tallies with his character sheet... then the Strength boost is listed as +30, with 4 Charges, OIF and No Figured to bring the cost of the boost to 10 Real Points, that matches the writeup... which gives Ripper a maximum Strength of 80 without Pushing, still less than Grond's 90. Thank heaven for the 5E playtesters!

Certainly under 4th Edition a STR of 90 was the benchmark. The only characters with more that I'm aware of were Ymir the Frost Giant from the original Champions Universe at 95, and the generic "giant Japanese reptile" from the 4E Bestiary at 115. Contrary to earlier reports (and the implication of the text description of his abilities in Classic Enemies) 4E Ripper's temporary Strength boost as written on his character sheet would raise it to 90 (without Pushing, of course). The original version of Ripper from the Escape from Stronghold adventure did go up to STR 100, which leads me to think that he was scaled back so that Grond would still be the strongest humanoid. Mind you, the new CU sourcebook asserts that Ripper's boost makes him "consistently stronger than Grond." Don't know about anyone else, but I plan to graft much of Darren Watts's fine Hulk writeup onto Grond for my campaign. (So I want a Hulk clone, sue me.)

Well, by strict reading of the description of the Reduced Endurance Advantage, that first +1/4 will cause the Power to use 1 END per 20 Active Points, rather than per 10 as normal, not just halve the normal END usage. That would move the break point for rounding from every 5 AP to every 10. So, if the Power that Reduced END were applied to had been 70 AP, the END use would have been reduced to 3; but since it was over the break point at 75 AP, the END use is reduced to 4. Most of the published 5E characters that I've seen appear to be consistent with that thesis, but there's nothing in the FAQ about it specifically. But please, don't assume that I'm usually right; if nothing else that would put you at odds with several of my friends and almost all of my family.

A bit more detail would help to figure out how to help you : what exactly would happen to the assassin when he "kicks into overdrive," i.e. what ability does he gain and what would he do with it? What would be "hit with enough magic": a particular threshold of attacks accumulating until the ability "kicks in;" one attack large enough to trigger the ability; or every magical attacking increasing this ability until it reaches its maximum? How long would the overdrive last, and would it have any detrimental effects on the assassin?

Elvis Weapon This will be no help to you, but I can't help myself: Karate with Weapon Element: Guitar. Sorry.

Hello, Steve. The current discussion of Telekinesis had me wondering: Given that Telekinesis is "inherently Indirect in some ways" (5E p. 147), would there be a practical benefit to buying the Indirect Advantage for TK that would not be granted with the base Power? And if so, what level of Advantage would be required to gain that benefit: +1/4, +1/2 or +3/4? As always, thanks for your time. (P.S. Really looking forward to FH!)

I looked over the desciption of the Indirect elements of Telekinesis vs. the Indirect Advantage in FREd, and could find little practical difference between them. It is unclear, though, whether or not it must be obvious that the TK is originating from the character, i.e. having some continuous visible effect emanating from the character directly to the point of effect. I do think that the interaction with other Advantages is the key to balancing the effects. For ex, the 10D6 EB Fully Indirect costs 87 pts. and uses 9 END. TK STR 50 costs 75 pts. and uses 7 END. But buying both to 1/2 END use would raise the EB to 100 pts. and 4 END, and the TK to 94 pts. and 4 END. I do want to think about it more, though.

Re: Re: Afterthought King Cobra's Coil organization from Champions Presents II had a unique martial art based on snake's movements. Scott, will the maneuvers in your art have evocatively serpentine names like that one did?

You did remember "pathetic fallacy" pretty well, Tom, although it embraces responses from all of Nature (falling stars, animal behavior, etc.), can represent portents of the future as well as the state of mind of a character, and is normally only connected to prominent persons - kings and the like. Static, you might also consider sounds that distract or warn: sudden howling of the wind, or clap of thunder. Changes in temperature could mirror Coriolis's mood ("cold spots" are a classic sign of haunting, and might even provide a red herring for the players.) If there's ever an occasion when there's lots of smoke or fog around, it may be briefly displaced by a translucent, humanoid figure. And for something really eerie, the breeze may occasionally sound almost like whispered speech, especially to the ear of someone close to Coriolis. You don't necessarily have to use words (although that might be an option if your players need a clue to put them in the right direction), but the PC might sometimes hear something that sounds almost like a familiar voice...

Well, that has been the way the Hulk has been depicted most often over the years: the strongest of the other Marvel bricks could give him a solid fight for a certain period, until the Hulk got so mad that his power simply became overwhelming. In theory if you're going to beat the Hulk you have to do so early in the fight, but Darren has given Hulk such formidable defenses and Recovery that he would be difficult for almost any opponent to finish off quickly. This version of the Hulk is very similar to my own modifications to Grond to make him more Hulk-like, especially the use of Aid (although I had the Aid work for Endurance as well). The magnitude is about the same, too. Note that if you raise the Hulk's base Strength to 90, his max would be 150, doing as much damage as Dr. Destroyer's biggest attack Power, which seems like a reasonable upper limit.

I concur with Jayde Tiger. What happens to the NPCs under your control is always within your purview, as long as it's not the direct result of PC actions (and sometimes even then). It seems like you have a good idea of the kinds of effects that Coriolis is capable of, so you should just let them happen when it seems appropriate, especially if the PCs need a little extra break to win. I'd also suggest keeping an eye out for events that occur as a result of the game's normal progress, like exceptionally good rolls by the heroes or bad ones by their enemies, and see if someone in the vicinity makes a PER roll to notice that sudden breeze coming up. BTW, nice to see a reference to Coriolis. The Coriolis Effect doesn't get mentioned as often around here as some old Champs adventures, but IMO it was not only a fine adventure but a good object lesson in how to run multi-session story lines. And several of the characters in that book appeared in past games of mine in one form or another.

You can find it via http://www.gametrademagazine.com/ and clicking on "You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!"

I've known several GMs who allow their players to have free points for bases and vehicles. I'd charge the players for any future "upgrades" beyond the basic resources that you gave them to start with, though; otherwise the players may not appreciate what they're getting. I don't know of any free web resources, but the Champions genre book has several sample hero bases and vehicles of different types already statted out. Probably couldn't find that for free, though, although it is a good buy.

If all you would want is to make more Attacks than usual, that would be a good way to do it: buy a two-shot Autofire advantage, either directly on the attack Power if that's all it applies to, or with GM permission as a Naked Advantage for all the applicable attacks. A Naked Advantage would let you tailor the Limitations you want separate from those on the main attack itself.

Well, to some extent this will depend on what you mean by "extra Phases." It's certainly possible to buy extra SPD with an Activation Roll and any other Limitations you want, but then you get into the mechanics of changing SPD every time the Activation Roll is made or fails, which can get messy (see "Changing Speed" on pp. 232-33 of FREd). If I were looking at that effect as a GM, since changing SPD normally occurs as a post-segment 12 action, I would roll for Activation at that time. If the character makes the roll at that time he acts the rest of that Turn at the higher SPD, if he fails he acts at his normal SPD. Now, if you want to simply add a Phase to your actions whenever in the Turn you wish, I can't think of a way to do that offhand. Please feel free to post further questions, though, if you need to fine-tune.

IIRC Orb was described as being killed in the 4E version of Champions Universe. The two Geodesics updates probably took their cue from that. In a past campaign I substituted Dr. Yin Wu (from Watchers of the Dragon) for Dr. Lirby Koo for characters connected to the latter (the old Geodesics, El Muerto Obscuro from the BBB, Stormwatch from Day of the Destroyer, etc.). The parallels seemed close enough to work IMHO.