Metaphysician

Re: Code vs Killing, but Gods a little fuzzy about kneecaps. Vaguely related commentary: Champions has an extremely distorted view on how common and extensive CvKs are in actual comics. The supps tend to hand out Total CvKs like candy, when the only era of comics where they are that common, is the Silver Age. This is problematic, not because the Silver Age is bad, but because in an actual Silver Age setting, a Total CvK isn't worth 20 points. Just look at the JLA Big Seven in the past thirty years or so. The team has precisely *one* person on it with a Total CvK: Batman. And he both doesn't hold it for strictly ethical reasons ( he knows he's too broken to risk killing ), and doesn't extend the same degree of restriction to others ( he has no issue with police using lethal force, for instance ). Superman has a Strong CvK, not Total; he has used potentially deadly force against others before, outright killed Doomsday ( *before* it was known he self-revived ), and even executed the alt-universe Kryptonian criminals ( though he regretted it afterwards ). Wonder Woman and Aquaman outright lack CvKs, as they have used deadly force before with little regret; they just don't do it all the time. The Martian Manhunter has killed before, though it is rare, in extreme circumstances, and with regret. I'd peg him Moderate CvK. Kyle Rayner likewise has *tried* to kill on occasion before with extreme provocation, likewise a Moderate. Flash. . . I honestly can't think of any case of Wally using deadly force, but I'd still only peg him as a Moderate. You might be asking now, why I'd peg so many heroes as having such small CvKs, despite the sometimes complete lack of any actual instances of killing. There's actually a simple explanation: the strength of a Psych Limit is not based on how often something is done. It is based on how often it would be beneficial to break it, and yet, it is not broken. For most superheroes in most circumstances? There's no *point* to using deadly force, because non-deadly force would work just as well. Basically, for 99% of the battles and crises that, say, the Flash gets into? Even somebody with *no* CvK wouldn't be killing people, because it would be totally unnecessary. Thus, I follow the rule of assigning the *minimum* level of CvK necessary to explain a character's behavior. And the number of characters who actually have a Total CvK in comics? I think the only major one *is* Batman. I'm not even sure Norrin "Shiny Space Jesus" Radd would have one.

Re: Powerless This scenario has a major genre flaw: by stripping characters not only of any superhuman powers and tech they have, but also skills, intellect, and ( presumably ) willpower, it essentially rewrites them into entirely different people. Whereas *the* most important element of any "power loss" scenario is "its not the powers that make the hero." The fact that the character in question *remembers* how their life was, makes it all the more inexplicably out of place.

Re: [Characters, Hero Team] Strike Force One Ah, your right. Got those two properties confused. And yes, pocket knife.

Re: [Characters, Hero Team] Strike Force One TIM's defense is radically unbalanced. Automaton means he's utterly immune to Stun, so only Body matters. With 40/40 defense on top of that, he can bounce anything up to and including Dr Destroyer's main guns.

Re: Portal to another World Hermes: lives during the bronze age ( albeit a superpowered steam-fantasy version thereof ). He wouldn't recognize any of the uniforms. He *would* recognize that they are clearly different uniforms, and think "rag tag unit from multiple countries." When they turn their weapons back at the portal, it would click. "Refugees, fleeing from something. Desperate enough to travel to another world or time." At which point, nothing to it but to make contact with them and find out what they are running from, and what can be done to help. ( oh, and to warn them that they are popping right into the middle of a superhuman god war in mythic China )

Re: Transform: Class of mind

Re: Transform: Class of mind I disagree. It should be a Minor Transform. The change is significant and meaningful, but not automatically crippling. Ergo, Minor Transform. I'm kinda baffled as to the SFX, though.

Re: Sovereign vs Dr Destroyer That's Zertstoiten's only real chance, however. Remember, Sovereign doesn't have to choose only one stat to buff: he can buff four simultaneously, with each Absorb. Buffing PD and ED with the first absorbed attack, and the next averages 22 Stun. Not enough to Stun even against unboosted Con, and now the energy-based buffs are at their max of +48 points. At which point, the average 30d6 EB does no damage at all, if ED is buffed. This also means, btw, that knockback damage is mostly a non-issue, as if Sovereign buffs his PD as well, it won't really do anything ( except fuel further, independent, buffs ). There are some ways around this defense, on its own, but most aren't especially effective here. Mental attacks bounce of Sovereign's own psychic shields, Adjustments can be readily countered by Power Defense gained through the gadget pool. High power NNDs and AVLDs are probably your best bet, if you can arrange one that bypasses Sovereign's defenses, and then hit him enough to overwhelm his boosted stats. Problem being, finding one that actually works, and then surviving long enough to wear him down. . .

Re: Sovereign vs Dr Destroyer While its true that Sovereign's psychic power MP is not going to do much to Dr Destroyer, I think you all are overlooking Sovereign's biggest trump card: his Absorbtion array. Simply put, first time Destroyer hits him with any kind of physical or energy attack, Sovereign gets to add up to 28 points to four different characteristics, simultaneously, up to 48 total points added. Unless that first attack takes him down ( which is statistically unlikely even with the 30d6 EB ), Destroyer has to start figuring out how to beat someone with, say, Str 90, Dex 35, and defense totals in the 80s. . . who he still can't hit again, less those become even worse.

Through some hijinks involving time travel, a cosmic plot device, and a few random passing space gods, Doctor Destroyer, from the 20th century, and Sovereign, of the 30th, end up in a fight. Both sides have some time to prepare, but neither has functional access to outside resources ( presume whatever minions, vehicles, and such on each side are otherwise occupied ). Battle takes place in, say, a deserted 24th century city on Earth. Who wins? ( for the purpose of this thread, presume CKC stats for Dr Destroyer, since its unlikely most have seen the BotD stats yet, and Sovereign hasn't gotten an update yet )

Re: Eurostar delayed! Depends on how powerful your team is. . . but the more powerful you are, the more likely Eurostar goes for plan "cause mass civilian death", which just switches to a "do you save the bystanders or capture Eurostar" proposition.

Re: Eurostar delayed! How are Eurostar concealed on the train? Private car? Some or all hiding in a baggage car? After all, neither Durak nor Feuermacher can really sit in an ordinary train seat and not be noticed.

Re: Prisoner Exchange Is the Tiberius Syndicate something like the Mafia, or VIPER, or something else? Are they known to have superhuman level resources?

Re: Thebes is Doomed As Bc alluded to, my character Hermes is playing in a similar scenario. His response to being pretty much certain his home civilization is going to be wiped out. . . Well, at first he was pondering ways to cheat destiny, not so much by averting Thera's fall, as by ensuring a colony of Thera persisted elsewhere, either in time or space. Its still a possibility, but he's not focusing on it so much. Perhaps his biggest reaction, though, is in realizing that what makes Thera great, is the nobility of the human spirit, and this nobility exists just as much in the distant past and in the far future as today. The loss of Thera is/will be a tragedy. . . but to act like it is an irreparable, intolerable loss is to succumb to hubris, and the belief that *only* Thera can ever embody nobility and light, *only* Thera could ever make the world a better place.

Re: You Are President! Hmm. . . . . .you know, I don't think any of my characters actually qualify. They are either too young or not US citizens. Closest is Hermes, whose more or less old enough, and could exploit the grandfather clause for citizenship in the Constitution ( via time travel ) to get around 'native born'. The net result could be something vaguely like 'President Superman', albeit with more a penchant for mad science accidents.

Re: Guliver Syndrome part 2: The Amazing Colossal Character! Microman II: Would just shrink himself back down. Worst case scenario, he's stuck at normal size, but as he has fairly sophisticated shrinking, even that is unlikely. Hermes: Given that he *was* the team scientist, being 50 feet tall would be inconvenient for figuring out a cure. Would probably have to return to his homeland and get someone like Minos to cure him. Mereneptah: Is a spy. Who is now fifty feet tall. He would hope and pray White Crane can reverse the effect.

Re: Mutants and Masterminds Paragons

Re: Unwanted advances Microman II: Is an android. "Excuse me, but how much alcohol have you consumed recently?" Hermes: Would probably laugh, and say "Sorry, I've got an unrequited love waiting for me in interdimensional exile several millenia in the future." Mereneptah: Assuming he's not in a cover identity at the time ( in which his apparent gender and responses are dictated by the needs of the mission ), he'd probably give a Bat Glare until they got the message to go away.

Re: Let's Do Lunch Microman II: "Movie? But I have only been an active hero for approximately one week. . ." Hermes: Presuming either movie making came back to his home time, or this was while visiting another, he'd decline. Not that he's inherently opposed, but too many ways it could be dangerous to bystanders. Mereneptah: ". . .I am a spy. Even if I were to approve a movie, you don't know enough about me to make one." "Actually. . ." "You. Do not. Know. Enough. About me. To make. A movie. Right?" ". . .right."

Re: Wait - you punch WHAT?!? (or what would the damage from an atomic bomb be?) Pretty much what they said. Local radioactive contamination is a mix dispersal of the portion of the bomb that didn't fiss, fission byproducts, and neutron-induced instability in random nearby matter. I'm honestly not sure which would produce more raw radiation, though my instinct is to say the first two are the worst. After all, before the the stuff is blown up, the mass of the fission core acts to shield against its own radiation. As for supers and ambient radiation, really, even if they don't have LS: High Radiation, the guy with CON 30+ really should be less effected than the average CON 8-10 human.

Re: Wait - you punch WHAT?!? (or what would the damage from an atomic bomb be?) 12d6 RKA for a tactical nuke, 15d6 RKA for a strategic scale one. And I've seen nukes, and bigger, used fairly regularly in comics. Notably at the end of the Kang War story arc. Which did exactly dick to Thor. They were also used to blow up the Watchtower, or try, several times in the Morrison JLA run. And thats not counting all the planetbusting weapons that appear in, um, every single cosmic comic run. And frankly, the only reason the Hulk worries about *gamma bombs* ( not conventional nukes, note ) is because they screw around with his power source. ( as for real life? Only advantage a nuke has is that its smaller and more compact than an equivalent weight of conventional explosives. Nuke-level explosions have happened via conventional detonation, and nuke level destruction is entirely achievable via conventional bombing. It just takes more planes )

Re: Wait - you punch WHAT?!? (or what would the damage from an atomic bomb be?) Replace "a little" with "insanely vastly incomprehensibly stupidly", and you've about got it. Repeat after me everyone: "In a supers game, nukes are not unstoppable magic death artifacts." ( actually, they aren't in the real world either. . . )

Re: Wait - you punch WHAT?!? (or what would the damage from an atomic bomb be?) Figure. . . 4d6 Explosive RKA to represent the explosives, maybe slightly less. As for the radiation or toxicity, presuming the brick has brick class Constitution ( 30+ )? I'd just have him subject to a dramatically appropriate period of incapacitation due to radiation sickness, presuming everyone involved is smart enough to get him decontaminated quickly. After a week or two of throwing up his guts, he gets better. Remember, the stuff you make a nuke out of isn't *that* radioactive, especially if its uranium-based. Exposure has to be prolonged or internal to kill you, and a superhuman brick has a lot higher tolerance than a normal human.

Re: WWYCD: Escape Stronghold! Microman II: N/A. If your willing to just keep his body shut down, he's one of the *easiest* New Sentinels to keep contained. . . and there's several other team members for whom containment would be essentially impossible, anyway. Diomedes: Has no powers, aside from Athena speaking in his ear periodically. And he's 'just' a street level vigilante and detective, so naturally, no need to do more than stick him in an ordinary jail cell, right? Hermes: Presuming the cells somehow keep him constantly drained of quantum. . . he's still a super genius and superhumanly potent hand to hand combatant. Physically durable cells could stop the latter. . . but he's eventually going to figure out how to disable the quantum drainers, or better yet, reverse them. At which point, qeue super smart, time controlling speedster running amok inside the place. Mereneptah: He doesn't quite have a reputation as someone whose dangerous to talk to. Given how badly he's going to mind screw every one of the mortal guards that ever comes within hearing range of him, this means he's escaping pretty soon.

Re: A question of power level I would say the fundamental flaw in the afforementioned campaign idea has nothing to do with 'low power' per se, and more to do with the contradiction in the premise. "75-125 points" and "cream of the crop" don't so much go together, not as an actual supers game. If your doing something Heroes-ish, where most superhumans have fairly weak powers, are often entirely normal with no especially meaningful skills otherwise, and are not expected to run around in spandex? Yeah, you could do that, and it'd likely be fun. However, your character's significance is solely in that he *is* superhuman, not necessarily in what he can actually achieve from such. And he should entirely expect to be outdone in every way by highly skilled non-superhumans, *especially* in combat. And even Heroes has quite a few people who couldn't even be slightly done on 125 points. Whereas if the PCs are cream of the crop, well, there's not much hope of ever getting any better, is there. And if the only way to meaningfully grow from there is in domains outside of the minor powers, that just emphasizes the fact that the superhuman powers don't really matter all that much. Nathan Petrelli went this route in Heroes, essentially, but if a campaign exists where thats the *only* meaningful route to go? Problems. Put differently, I think the GM in your example fails to realize just how few 125 points is, and how little it goes around. The fact that he thinks 500 points produces a 'mega hero' just supports that idea.