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Fedifensor

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  • Birthday 04/19/1970

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  1. We had a character in one Champions campaign called Trebuchet, who had Shrinking, Usable As Attack, Only To Decrease Mass, Linked to Grab. I think it was 2 levels of shrinking, and may have had increased mass added to it for grabbing large objects. Since Trebuchet was a 60 STR brick, she could throw things VERY far.
  2. Well, it's a post-apocalyptic game. The PCs won't encounter machines very often...but when they do, communicating with a machine can be VERY helpful. Many automated defenses could be bypassed with the right uses of Telepathy. Most PCs don't have much knowledge of the language of the Ancients...but Telepathy bypasses language barriers. This game defines machine class of minds as computers and A.I. Looking at our modern society, there are mini-processors embedded in all sorts of devices...which could be scanned with Telepathy versus the machine class of minds. They may not have much info to give...but what they do have in their memory is accessible with Telepathy.
  3. There's a character in my upcoming post-apocalyptic game that can communicate with machines (Telepathy versus the machine class of minds). I was originally going to suggest taking Does Not Provide Mental Awareness...but I do want him to be aware of mental powers that target machines. Do any of you restrict Mental Awareness by the Class of Minds the power targets?
  4. I appreciate the suggestion. However, it's a bit different than guidance... Suggestion: "Weapon Master for 20 points and it covers all the Weapon Familiarities? Done." Guidance: "Buying all the Group WFs (Melee, Martial Arts Melee, Missile, Siege Engines, Early Firearms, Small Arms, Emplaced Weapons) costs a total of 14 points. While it can be difficult to estimate how many individual Weapon Familiarities will come up during the course of a campaign, more than 3 or 4 seems unlikely. You could charge 17 or 18 points, but rounding up to 20 to make sure everything is covered and to give a simple number may be best. You could also make subsets based on smaller categories (WF: All Melee for 8 pts, WF: All Personal Weapons for 15 points, etc)." I can ballpark a figure easily enough. What I need is the rationale on how that figure was determined, and why it is reasonable. I did a quick scan through my 5ER and 6E Hero core books, and didn't see the Slipperiness example. Can you let me know where to find it?
  5. Well, sure. The GM can make whatever they want for the game. But the point of HERO as a toolkit is guidance with the process. We have guidance on how to use Detect to understand languages...but no guidance is given on how to use powers to communicate what you're saying to another being. Likewise, we don't have any guidance on setting upper limits for points spent on Weapon Familiarities. Is 20 points too much for a Heroic campaign? What about a Superheroic campaign? That's the sort of help I'm looking for as a gamemaster.
  6. Buying a focus that gives a bonus to a skill can have a double benefit if it is also what is required by default to use the skill without penalty. Like others have said, I assume the character has the necessary tools to perform a skill unless there is an in-game reason saying otherwise.
  7. Languages: As mentioned earlier, Universal Translator isn't a full replacement for Language, and using a VPP is like hammering in a nail with a sledgehammer - possible, but likely messy. If Power Frameworks aren't allowed in your game, you're back to buying all the Languages.
  8. Honestly, if it's not in the book or an official errata I can download, I ignore it. I have better things to do than scour these boards looking for Word of Steve. It's great that there is added guidance available for those who want it, but I need quickly accessible rules if an issue comes up during a game. Plus, I'm using 5E for this game, which doesn't have purchasable OCV (unless I buy DEX with limitations). Universal Translator, at least in 5E, is not a full replacement for language. You can "understand any form of communication" and "communicate back in a crude fashion". It also requires an INT roll, while language is automatic (up to the amount of fluency). There should be a full replacement or a language cost cap, since there are over 70 languages on the Language Familiarity table for 5E. Without spending a lot of time on language similarity, you could easily end up paying over 200 points, which even in a cosmic level game is a large expense to be Cypher of the New Mutants. Well, that's basically what I'm doing in my game. I don't really call it a Talent per se - I just throw the points down on the sheet, see if it looks right, and call it good. Whether someone wants to call it a Skill, Talent, or Power doesn't make much difference to me as long as it has the desired effect. 5E allows Penalty Skill Levels to be used for that purpose, so it's 9 points, no limitation needed. I'm honestly not sure why it was so important to exclude Penalty Skill Levels from negating unfamiliar weapon penalties in 6E, since the final cost with your method is about the same...or even a bit cheaper.
  9. It should be pointed out that while this is true in 6E (cannot offset unfamiliar weapon penalties), it does not appear to be true for 5th edition - my 5ER rulebook has nothing on the subject. I doubt it matters much, unless you have some sort of weapon savant who would normally spend more than 9 points on Weapon Familiarities, or if you just want the Jackie Chan ability to use anything as a weapon. That said, offsetting the penalty doesn't give you the ability to buy Weapon Elements with unfamiliar weapons for Martial Arts, at least in Heroic campaign (pg 400 5ER). For 6E, the workaround is to buy 3 Levels with All Combat and figure out how much of a limitation Only To Offset Weapon Familiarity Penalties is (-1?). You'll also have to talk to your GM about letting you buy Weapon Elements if you use Martial Arts. This is an area where I would like to see 'caps' on certain things in HERO, instead of an endless descent into minutia. Say that a flat expenditure of points (say, 20?) gives you Weapon Familiarity with every known weapon, or you can play a flat fee based on the scope of the campaign to know all Languages, etc. I don't know if anyone has calculated how much it would cost to buy everything on the Language Familiarity Table with all discounts included, but I have better things to do with my time.
  10. I suppose if I want to be completely accurate, it's two limitations - OCV only (-1/4) and Only To Offset Penalties (-1/4). You can't use the levels to offset DCV penalties. That adds up to -1/2. Regarding the change in Champions Complete - I guess that's why Hero System is described as a toolkit, and not a bible.
  11. 1 Combat Skill Level with All Combat costs 8 points. 1 Penalty Skill Level with Any Attack is 3 points. I could buy 1 each of range and targeting penalty skill levels for the same price as 1 combat skill level with a -1/4 limitation, and have double the benefit. Based on that, I think a -1/2 is more in line. If you aren't getting OCV bonuses, no amount of penalty skill levels will help you hit a target with a significantly higher DCV. Champions Complete, pg 33: Cost 2 - A single condition (e.g. +1 vs. Encumbrance, +1 vs. fighting underwater) Cost 3 - A group of conditions (e.g. +1 vs. fighting in any environment)
  12. It seems uncharacteristic for Hero System to not have penalties codified. I suppose I could hunt and peck through the entire combat chapter and try to come up with a list of all the non-Power types of OCV penalties. However, at that point, it becomes easier just to buy X number of Combat Skill Levels with a limitation Only To Offset Penalties. That seems simpler than messing with Penalty Skill Levels, and will probably end up being cheaper if trying to cover a wide variety of effects. Is there any existing example of such a limitation in 5E or 6E, and if so what is the value? Interestingly, while 6E does state the requirement of one specific penalty for PSLs involving OCV, you can have PSLs for DCV that can cover a group of conditions, like fighting in any environment. In case anyone was curious, I'm trying to come up with a character balanced for play that is inspired by Cas Russell from Zero Sum Game. I could either give the character an obnoxious CV, or I could use PSLs and/or limited Combat Skill Levels to let her do things like bouncing a bullet off a wall to hit someone in the head behind full cover. The latter method would still allow the character to miss shots, but even the most difficult shots would be possible.
  13. These questions are for a 5th edition game, but I suspect they apply equally to 6th. Penalty Skill Levels can be used to reduce or counteract a specific type of negative OCV modifier. Examples include Range Skill Levels, Targeting Skill Levels, and Throwing Skill Levels. How many other types of negative OCV modifiers are in the rules? Can you use Penalty Skill Levels to offset a penalty that changes your OCV by a multiplier or drops it to 0 (such as the penalties for Lack of Senses in Combat, pg 349 5ER). Are Change Environment (wind field) giving a -2 OCV and Change Environment (vertigo field) giving a -2 OCV considered to be both under Change Environment, or are they considered different types of penalties for purpose of Penalty Skill Levels? In other words, are penalties categorized by rule mechanics, or by special effect, or some other rationale?
  14. Given the discussion points made, and that Change Environment does have the option to be made permanent, I'm going with Change Environment, with the general stipulation that the power removes 1 rad per second (segment). Here's a few examples: 10 Anti-Radiation Decon Wand: Change Environment 1" radius (Long-Lasting Permanent) (25 Active Points); OAF (-1), No Range (-1/2), 1 Continuing Fuel Charge lasting 1 Hour (-0) 20 Renew The Land (Mutant Power): Change Environment 2" radius (Long-Lasting Permanent) (30 Active Points); No Range (-1/2)
  15. Technically, this Change Environment isn't providing a positive effect to the character in terms of game mechanics. They are not receiving any OCV, skill rolls, or anything else that will directly help them. What the power is doing is countering an environmental effect that would give the character a negative effect over time (which results in damage only when it hits a threshold). Plus, if you defined the radiation as a Change Environment effect doing low-level damage, the GM can allow one Change Environment effect to cancel or negate a similar Change Environment power.
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