Fedifensor

Re: Suppressing Frameworks Here's my preferred methods of using Adjustment powers on Power Frameworks. Multipowers - An adjustment power affecting a single power in the multipower simply increases or reduces it directly, without having to mess with the reserve. If the character switches to a different slot, the boosted/reduced slot cannot be used (as normal) but recovers from the adjustment power at the normal rate. If the adjustment power affects multiple powers in the MP, then I treat it as multiple single power adjustments rather than messing with reserve adjustment plus slot adjustment. Elemental Controls - An adjustment power that reduces a single power in the EC goes against the base cost of the EC first, reducing every power in the EC by that amount. Once the base cost hits zero, remaining points of the adjustment are taken from the individual power. Adjustment powers that increase a single power in the reserve do so directly, just as if you were putting more points into the power with experience. Adjustment powers that reduce the entire EC affect both base cost and individual powers simultaneously as separate reductions. Adjustment powers that increase the entire EC are applied to the individual powers, without messing with the base cost. Example 1: A 30 point EC with a 12d6 EB and 30" of Flight is hit with 40 points of drain on the EB. The base cost of the EC is dropped from 30 to 0, then the remaining points of drain are applied to the EB. End result is that the character has a 4d6 EB and 15" of flight left after the drain. Example 2: The same EC is instead hit with a 20 point drain that affects all powers with the special effect of the EC. The base cost is reduced from 30 to 10, and each of the two powers are also reduced from 30 to 10. End result is that the character has a 4d6 EB and 10" of flight left after the drain. Variable Power Pools - This is the tough one. My inclination is that any points drained from an active power in the VPP are 'locked out' and cannot be changed until they are recovered. So, if the VPP contains a 12d6 EB with no advantages or limitations, and the EB is drained by 20 points, then the VPP has 20 points that cannot be reassigned until they are recovered. The 40 remaining points in EB could be reassigned as normal. An increase on a single power in a VPP only affects that power, and are lost if the power is changed to something else.

Re: TK & Martial Arts? That was the weak point of the build. I rationalized it with the damage being feedback, as he "became the wind" to an extent.

Re: New Limitation: Charges On Multipowers 60 Multipower #1 - 60 point reserve, 16 charges 6u 12d6 EB 6u 8d6 AP EB 6u 6d6 Entangle, 6 DEF 6u 4d6 RKA 60 Multipower #2 - 60 point reserve 6u 12d6 EB, 16 charges 6u 8d6 AP EB, 16 charges 6u 6d6 Entangle, 6 DEF, 16 charges 6u 4d6 RKA, 16 charges Multipower #2 is MUCH more desirable than Multipower #1, and both have the same point cost. That's why the change has been proposed...

Re: Charges is a limitation? It's a perfectly legal build. I can think of a hundred different ways to rationalize it. And not every slot has to be 16 charges...you could have a few using END, and a few using charges. Here's a sample multipower from a powersuit character I created a while back: 40 Weapon Systems: Multipower, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); all slots OIF (-1/2) 4u Force Beams: Energy Blast 12d6 (60 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 4u Laser: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6-1, Armor Piercing (+1/2) (60 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 4u Heavy Autogun: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6-1, Autofire (3 shots; +1/4), 32 Charges (+1/4) (60 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 4u Concussion Rockets: Energy Blast 8d6, 16 Charges (+0), Explosion (+1/2) (60 Active Points); OIF (-1/2) 4u Energized Multi-Bolas: Entangle 4d6, 4 DEF, Takes No Damage From Attacks (+1/2) (60 Active Points); 16 Charges (+0), OIF (-1/2), Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4) As you can see, it wouldn't make sense to put charges on the entire multipower. However, the multipower has three slots that don't cost Endurance, which means the character has a huge amount of staying power in a battle. And it only cost 12 points total for those three slots, each of which has enough charges that the character is unlikely to run out. Which is an artificial penalty imposed by the gamemaster. If the character had bought the multipower with charges instead of the slots, they'd be out that much quicker. As shown above, it's fairly easy to make a multipower that justifies having that many shots. And even if it was "Munchkin"...the point of the HERO system is that the points are supposed to show balance. 16 charges per slot versus 16 charges for the multipower (or a greater number of charges, for that matter) is where that equality breaks down.

Re: Charges is a limitation? Stevezilla, I think you're missing the point. Sure, you can cherry-pick a multipower build where buying charges for the entire multipower is nearly as good as putting them on individual slots. But, from what I've seen, that's not how it works out in most HERO games. Most multipowers I see (I generally play Champions as opposed to other HERO games) are 4+ slots, and they have the points to not need a large limitation. Charges are used simply as a way to avoid paying END on the power. A 5 slot multipower with 5 different powers at 16 charges each has much more staying power than putting 16 charges on the multipower as a whole. To repeat my earlier point, there is NO mechanical reason to use 16 charges on the entire multipower when you can put 16 charges on every slot in the multipower.

Re: Charges is a limitation? The point is that there is absolutely no reason to put 16 charges on an entire multiplier if you can give every single slot 16 charges at the same cost.

Re: Age and Sanction? In an old Champions campaign, my wife played an underage super. A group of government agents raided the base of a group called 'The Third Eye' (my world's equivalent of DEMON). One of the female agents found a dragon egg, which hatched before her eyes and imprinted on her. Fast forward nine years. Because of the imprinting, the dragon was able to take human form, and that form aged at a normal human rate. So, she functioned in most ways as a normal 9-year old girl...save that she was a LOT stronger and tougher (35 STR in human form), and was taught to be very careful. The government, seeing a dragon that could be very useful, wanted to use her as a superhero. Their reasoning was that since Amber was actually a dragon, the normal restrictions on age didn't apply to her (even though she was attending 4th grade...). Her 'mother' originally said no, and it was not until Amber took dragon form and stopped a crime on her own that the mother was forced to relent, and allowed it (with lots of restrictions). While Amber was more mature than your typical 9-year old, she still had the appropriate kid mindset disadvantages, and the other supers in the group eventually figured it out, to their dismay.

Re: Charges is a limitation? I seem to recall some old rule from a previous edition of Champions where charges assigned to a power in a multipower slot only gave you half the normal number of charges for the limitation. Was this actually in a previous edition, or am I confusing it with a previous game's house rules? For the record, I liked that rule...

Re: TK & Martial Arts? I had a wind-based MA villain who had Stretching, Invisible Power Effects. Basically, he used focused wind blasts to hit or trip his opponents. Maybe I'm just too lazy to mess with the TK rules in conjuction with the Martial Arts rules...

Re: How Many U S Heros ? For those that have the Dragon Magazine archive on CD (it was produced several years ago), I recommend the article "One In A Million" by Roger E. Moore. I think it was issue #107.

Re: Who are the top 5 most powerful characters in your Campaign.

Re: Robot with an adamantium shell? Well, if you want to make something Ultron-esque, buy extra defenses with the limitation "only protects against BODY damage" (assuming the robot can take STUN) or "can be bypassed with a called shot at -5" or "does not protect against AoE/Explosion damage". Or use combinations of the above. I've seen Ultron defeated a few times, mainly by shooting through an opening to destroy something non-adamantium on the inside. The Human Torch also did it in Secret Wars, by using a Nova Flame explosion that caused something inside Ultron to melt. For a 350-point 'invulnerable robot', I'd buy 30/30 Hardened Resistant defenses, then an extra 15/15 Hardened Resistant PD and ED, only versus BODY damage. It'll be tough enough to avoid taking BODY, but it'll still take STUN (12 Stun on the average 12d6 attack), representing a jarring of the delicate internal components. Make sure to keep the DCV low as a balancing factor.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game Concept? No. Effectiveness? Yes. The Regeneration changes in Issues 3 and 4 required a respec (which is why they handed out free respecs for people when these Issues went live). I stopped playing my Regen character after Issue 4 went live, and played my Fire/Fire tanker - which required a respec after the global defense changes of Issue 5. I then turned to my Electric/Devices blaster (who has 6 slotted damage in all his attack powers because of Targeting Drone). He'll now need a respec because the last three SO's in each power are now the equivalent of a single dual-origin enhancement. And that's just my main characters. I have all eight character slots on my chosen server filled with alts. Every single one has a major power with 5 or 6 SO's of a single type, which means I need to respec all of them. Just the fact that I'm forced to respec again in order to pull my weight in a team situation is enough to make me leave. Furthermore, there is no real difference between tankers and scrappers with Enhancement Diversification. When neither archetype can get above a 50% resistance rate to damage, the difference in the amount of damage each takes is minimal. Both are going to require defenders or controllers for anything beyond a solo situation on Heroic difficulty. It's even worse for blasters - when you increase the amount of time it takes to defeat a single even-con minion by 25% to 50%, they get defeated a lot more. I chose City of Heroes in part because I was tired of the standard MMORPG archetypes such as clerics and warriors. Which means I may be quitting MMORPG's entirely.

Re: City of Heroes - Online Hero Game For me, I think this is the straw that breaks the camel's back. Here's a Champions comparison. I may not like some of the rules in 5E, but at least they've stayed the same for the most part from 5E to 5ER. How would you feel if you had to rebuild your Champions characters every 3 months because of rule changes?

Re: Did anyone ever write-up the DC Impact comic characters? From an interview with the writer, Mark Wheatley: You mentioned not being able to get through the first 3-year story arc. What did you have planned for Nate? Quite a bit, actually. My proposal had plots for the three years. We moved into a new house last year and I'm not sure where the proposal is now. It ran a hefty number of pages and if I find it anytime soon I'll try to include some of the info. In general, I recall that I intended Nate to have a very long flirtation with the Hood - sometimes he would be the BLACK HOOD and then other periods would pass where someone else would have the hood. The first year was all set-up, introducing characters, concepts and antagonists. We were planning to start paying off on some of this in year two. ---------- So, as you can see, Nate was the 'primary' Black Hood. Other people would get it occasionally, but Nate was the main character. In Champions terms, the other Black Hoods were temporary 'radiation accidents' to give the player a change of pace. You can read the full interview at the following URL: http://www.mightycrusaders.net/wheatley.html

Re: Did anyone ever write-up the DC Impact comic characters?

Re: having problems with my 1st attempt at a multipower I think your version is probably best for a typical blaster in a superhero game. I'd modify the REC slightly, to 4 REC, Only Recovers When Plugged Into Recharging Station (-1) because I don't think it should have a self-renewing power source. Once plugged in, the blaster can be fully charged in 5 minutes.

Re: having problems with my 1st attempt at a multipower Try this... Variable Output Blaster: 33 Multipower - 67 points, OAF - Blaster (-1), Must recharge after X (64?) shots (-0) 3u) Killing Beam - 3d6 RKA, 0 END (+1/2) 3u) Stunning Beam - 9d6 EB, 0 END (+1/2), Stun Only Total Cost: 39 points For fun, here are a few more slots you can add with additional experience: 2u) Focused Killing Beam - 3d6 RKA, AP (+1/2), 4 charges (-1) 3u) Concussion Beam - 9d6 EB (versus PD), 0 END (+1/2) 2u) Improved Concussion Beam - 7d6 EB (versus PD), Double Knockback (+3/4), 4 charges (-1) 3u) Neural Disruptor - 5d6 EB, NND (not versus Force Field, +1), 0 END (+1/2)

Re: What's up with Charges? Buy the machine gun with 0 END, and a custom Limitation (Can Only Fire 100 Shots Before Reloading, -0). Although, the 0 END version will be more expensive, as 0 END costs more when applied to an Autofire attack.

Re: Name This Gun "This is my...FOAMSTICK!" Ahem...from what's been suggested so far, Extinguisher is a good name, or perhaps Foamy Friend if the character has a sense of humor.

Re: My New Project - 101 Days Of Champions You may want to restrict yourself on gaming websites as well - only going to HERO-related websites so you don't lose focus. Good luck with the project! If I wasn't currently involved with a campaign in another game system, I'd consider doing something similar.

Re: Naked Advantages in frameworks...

Re: Who is the best Archaic/Anachronism/whatever in comics? While I like Hawkeye, I always viewed him as a rip-off...er, Marvel's answer to Green Arrow. Maybe Green Arrow has gone downhill a bit in recent years (with the exception of his portrayal on the JLU animated series), but I have fond memories of some of his classic appearances. Especially the Green Lantern/Green Arrow team-ups.

Re: Aging Campaigns Email's really good for bluebooking, because you can copy and paste into different document files to keep track of things for the campaign, and print them out later. When everything's just written down in a single folder, you can lose it, spill soda on it, etc. Keeping things to email also keeps you from taking up 'face' time. If I have the group there, I'd rather GM for the group then have everyone sitting there scribbling in folders. Of course, since I type a lot faster than I write, I'm probably biased...

Re: New Powers I'll add another vote for Regeneration and Instant Change. I don't think the rule was 'defenses cost half the attack', so much as 'defenses should cost less than attacks. A 12d6 EB does 42 points of damage, which would require 42 ED to stop fully - so the ratio is more like 2/3rds. That seems fair to me. However, having to buy Flash Defense separately versus every sense, when additional sense groups can be bought for Flash for an extra 5 or 10 points, just seems unfair. Only getting a lousy -1/2 limitation for putting 'only versus fire' on your ED Armor doesn't really seem fair to me either. Defenses just don't get the same breaks that attacks get once you start adding advantages and limitations.