Fedifensor

Re: Champions fans on COH, read up! Because Virtue was designated as the Unofficial Roleplay Server, so I went there. Granted, roleplaying is sometimes hard to find regardless of the server. But I seem to have a bit more luck on Virtue than elsewhere. Now if I only had a schedule that would let me play for longer stretches instead of logging on for a half-hour and soloing the whole time...

Re: Stretching Power: Need Suggestions

Re: What are the limits of superhero martial arts? Personally, after seeing the Hulk thrown by a normal agent in an Avengers comic, I tend to ignore the weight limits if the player gives a good explaination ("I used his own momentum against him").

Re: Special Ammo Or you could buy a Naked Advantage outside the Multipower, like this: AoE (One Hex) on Entangle (adds to Entangle in Multipower), OAF, 2 charges. So, if for example you had a 3d6, 3 DEF Entangle in the multipower, the above power would cost you 4 points. Also remember that if you use a charge to make it AoE, you still have to use a charge from the main Entangle as well (so make sure to have more charges of the main Entangle than you have for the AoE.

Saw this question on the 5th Edition Rules Questions forum, where Steve said that a Mental Attack using normal CV versus CV might not be a limitation at all - it depends on the campaign. So, for a standard superheroic campaign (such as the Champions Universe), do you think a mental attack using OCV versus DCV would be a limitation? My campaign currently uses a -1/2 limitation for this. This includes normal range penalties that a ECV attack avoids, but does not include Visible or Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (each is an added -1/4 limitation, as per the rules).

I'm working on a group of agents who get more powerful when adjacent to each other. I've come up with two powers for them, and I want to make sure the stacking of UBO powers is legal. ---------- Shielding Link: Force Field (+2 PD/+2 ED), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Usable Simultaneously (up to 8 people at once; (+1) (10 Active Points); Must Remain Adjacent To Another Link Member (-1/2) Basically, the power of the agents' FF increases by 2 PD and 2 ED for every adjacent agent. The power is negated as soon as the agent leaves the link (moves more than a hex away from another link member). ---------- Energy Link: Energy Blast +1d6, Usable By Other (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Ranged (+1/2) (11 Active Points); Must Remain Adjacent To Another Link Member (-1/2). Defined as adding to the agent's 7d6 EB - individuals without that specific 7d6 EB cannot benefit from the UBO. Each agent has a 7d6 EB by default. The agent can either use this power to increase that to an 8d6 EB, or loan that +1d6 to the agent leading the link. This allows the leader to throw very powerful energy blasts if he has enough agents backing him up. Heroes can disrupt this by using knockback or other means to disrupt the link. --------- I searched the FAQ for Usable By Others, and didn't find anything to dispute the stacking of UBO powers. Is it legal by the rules?

Re: Killing Charachters/Villians in your games. Do you do it?

Re: Momentum Shift It's basically the manipulation of kinetic energy - all of the character's powers involve the addition or subtraction of velocity. Here's his current writeup: Terminal Velocity Val** Char*** Cost 40** STR 30 24** DEX 42 25** CON 30 14** BODY 8 13** INT 3 14** EGO 8 15** PRE 5 12** COM 1 * 13/27** PD 5 13/24** ED 8 5** SPD 16 15** REC 4 50** END 0 47** STUN 0 *6"**RUN02"**SWIM08"**LEAP0Characteristics Cost: 160 Cost** Power END 75** Velocity Alteration: Multipower, 75-point reserve* 4u** 1) Penny Toss: Killing Attack - Ranged 3d6-1, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (70 Active Points); OIF (Objects Of Opportunity) (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)* 3 4u** 2) Baseball Toss: Energy Blast 8d6+1, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Armor Piercing (+1/2) (73 Active Points); OIF (Objects of Opportunity) (-1/2), Beam (-1/4)* 3 4u** 3) Object Accelleration: Telekinesis (40 STR), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (75 Active Points); Instant (-1/2), Affects Whole Object (-1/4)* 3 4u** 4) Momentum Shift: Teleportation 1", No Relative Velocity, Position Shift, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Ranged (+1/2), Usable As Attack (x64 maximum weight per inanimate target; +2 1/2) (72 Active Points); Only To Change Direction/Amount Of Momentum (-1)* 3 7u** 5) Sudden Stop: Force Wall (14 PD), Transparent ED (+1/2), Invisible Power Effects, SFX Only (Fully Invisible; +1/2) (70 Active Points)* 7 21** Velocity Control: Elemental Control, 42-point powers* 14** 1) Object Riding: Flight 17", Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (42 Active Points); OIF (Objects Of Opportunity) (-1/2)* 1 23** 2) Velocity Absorption: Force Field (14 PD/11 ED), Hardened (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (44 Active Points)* 0 15** 3) Kinetic Reversal: (Total: 45 Active Cost, 30 Real Cost) Missile Deflection (Bullets & Shrapnel), Missile Reflection (35 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2) (Real Cost: 23) plus +2 with Missile Deflection (10 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2) (Real Cost: 7)* 4 8** Velocity Negation 1: Knockback Resistance -5" (10 Active Points); Nonpersistent (-1/4)* 0 3** Velocity Negation 2: Hardened (+1/4) (3 Active Points) applied to PD* 3** Energy Negation: Hardened (+1/4) (3 Active Points) applied to ED* Powers Cost: 185 Cost** Skill 10** +1 Overall* 6** Penalty Skill Levels: +2 vs. Range Modifier with All Attacks* 3** Acting 12-* 3** Bribery 12-* 3** Bureaucratics 12-* 3** Conversation 12-* 3** Criminology 12-* 3** Deduction 12-* 3** High Society 12-* 3** Interrogation 12-* 3** Oratory 12-* 3** Persuasion 12-* 4** PS: Lawyer 13-* Skills Cost: 50 Cost** Perk 4** Contact: District Judge (Contact has useful Skills or resources, Good relationship with Contact) 11-* 1** Fringe Benefit: License to practice law* Perks Cost: 5 Total Character Cost: 400 Val** Disadvantages 20** Hunted: Organized Crime 11- (As Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish)* 15** Hunted: Local Law Enforcement 11- (Less Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish)* 10** Hunted: Justice, Inc 8- (Mo Pow, Limited Geographical Area, Harshly Punish)* 10** Unluck: 2d6* 10** Reputation: Relentless Vigilante, 8- (Extreme)* 15** Social Limitation: Secret Identity Frequently (11-), Major* 5** Distinctive Features: Scars (Easily Concealed; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses)* 15** Enraged: When Witnessing A Murder (Uncommon), go 14-, recover 14-* 20** Psychological Limitation: Lethal Crusader Against Injustice (Common, Total) [Notes: Will kill murderers, rapists, drug dealers, child abusers, etc]* 15** Psychological Limitation: Code of Vengeance (Uncommon, Total) [Notes: Must avenge the murder of any friend, family member, or protected party]* 15** Psychological Limitation: Only Trusts His Brother (Warp) (Common, Strong)* Disadvantage Points: 150 Base Points: 200 Experience Required: 50 Total Experience Available: 50 Experience Unspent: 0

Re: Villains, Vandals, and Vermin: Who should be in it? There's no shame in being a 3-hit villain when you fight 2-hit heroes (Defender, Nighthawk, Sapphire, Witchcraft). She'll stun Nighthawk or Witchcraft with her standard attack, making the disparity even worse. Flight trumps all ground characters, so that's a bit of a straw man. Bracing with STR or using a martial throw only works when you have an action - and Thunderbolt has a 27 DEX. Chances are he'll go first - he will against any of the Champions. Still don't. CKC was the first compendium of Champions supervillains for 5E - I would have liked to see a larger focus on the starting character. Not the point. The point is that Bulldozer was comic relief in 4E. Heck, female characters could usually one-shot him. He's a lot less comic relief than he used to be. Try taking Firewing down with the Champions. Or Holocaust. Or Shrinker (you won't even find her). And many of the villains that are touchable by a standard superhero team have groups of their own. They're better one-on-one, and their teams are at least as large as the 5-man iconic hero group. I'm not saying the product is unusable. But I believe that novice GM's are better served with writeups that stay close to the campaign guidelines, while experienced GM's generally create their own villains, or rewrite published ones to fit their campaign.

Re: Momentum Shift Well, there is one more thing...what would you use as the defense against this power? Having momentum/kinetic energy powers is probably one defense, but not broad enough on its own.

Re: Momentum Shift From the FAQ: Q: Can using Position Shift change the direction/vector in which a character moves? A: That depends on the type of movement involved. For uncontrolled movement - falling or being thrown, for example - Position Shift has no effect. It changes the way the character faces, but not the direction in which he moves. For controlled movement - such as the use of Movement Powers - Position Shift can change the direction of movement. For example, if a character has Flight 10" and moves at full velocity eastward, but after he flies 5" someone hits him with a Teleportation Usable As Attack power with Position Shift and changes him so that he faces north, he'll flying the remaining 5" north (unless he has some way to avoid doing so). The GM has the final decision regarding what effect Position Shift has on a moving character. ---------- Because it's a bit nebulous, I made sure to take both Position Shift and No Relative Velocity - the logic being that if I can both reduce a target's velocity to 0 and shift their facing, I should be able to change the direction of their momentum. Another slot in the same Multipower has a 40 STR Telekinesis, for those times the villain needs to add velocity to a target at rest (via Grab and Throw).

Re: Villains, Vandals, and Vermin: Who should be in it? An average 350-point hero, or an average 350-point hero built on the guidelines Steve has set (12d6 attack, 5 SPD, 20 Defenses for a typical character)? Several of the villains you mention are built on 350 points, but many have a significant advantage in power level. Case in point - Lady Blue. 12d6 attack meets the standards above, as does her 5 SPD. But she's got 26/28 defenses. That's a significant advantage over a typical character built under the 5E standard superhero guidelines. Or Thunderbolt. He has standard 20/20 Defenses, and on the surface his attacks are pretty wimpy. But with an 8 SPD and 16d6 Move-Throughs, he can really tear apart a 350-point CU superhero. Or Hornet. A 19 DCV character is basically unhittable (using standard guidelines) unless your character is fortunate enough to have AoE/Explosion attacks. Which basically means that AoE characters will paste him, and everyone else will lose. You've also listed some supervillains that aren't designed to be the equivalent of a standard superhero. Brainchild runs from superheroes. Likewise, Cybermind is pretty much useless in a fight (unless one of the superheroes is a robot), and his psych lims back this up. What's scary is that Bulldozer is a serious challenge for superheroes created under the standard guidelines, and he's always been meant to be a joke. With 24/24 Defenses, a 30 CON, and 70 STUN, he has a lot of staying power. The problem I have with the CKC Villains is that many have cool concepts that just don't work out well in actual play. Shrinker is the worst offender - 5E turned her from an interesting opponent into a nearly unstoppable villain that you'll never see (quite literally, with Affects Real World and Transdimensional attacks). Maybe a third of the characters in the book can give a 350-point hero a decent fight in one-on-one combat, without either trouncing the hero or being stopped into the ground easily. Perhaps another third can be fought by a team of heroes (unfortunately, some are in their own team). The rest are untouchable without raising the campaign guidelines, or just have such odd power writeups that they're unsuitable for the game.

Re: Villains, Vandals, and Vermin: Who should be in it? I'd like to see more villains that 350-point heroes have a prayer of defeating.

Re: Momentum Shift It's 72 Active Points - the copy/paste from HD2 didn't get it for some reason. A good portion of the active cost is getting enough mass to affect objects that could be lifted with a 40 STR. If it could only affect human mass, it would be 47 Active Points. Of course, then the vigilante couldn't change the momentum of the car about to run him over. The villain (actually an extreme vigilante named Terminal Velocity) has it in a 75 point multipower. However, with the -1 limitation, it would be 36 real points if outside the multipower.

While working on a supervillain with control over velocity, I was thinking about creating a power akin to a villain in the old comic DP7. Basically, the ability to instantly shift a target's velocity to a different direction - something that can be very dangerous for speedsters. After a bit of work, here's the slightly unorthodox solution. Any feedback would be appreciated. Momentum Shift: Teleportation 1", No Relative Velocity, Position Shift, Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4), Ranged (+1/2), Usable As Attack (x64 maximum weight per inanimate target; +2 1/2) (72 Active Points); Only To Change Direction/Amount Of Momentum (-1)

Re: Upon Further Review: The Champions Or make the 11- Reputation roll for Ironclad, to get a good measure of his publically-displayed powers.

Re: Upon Further Review: The Champions One thing to add - Ironclad is significantly tougher than any of the other Champions. In fact, he seems to exceed the guidelines for a 'by the book' Champions campaign with 350-point characters. 12d6 main attack PLUS Find Weakness (effectively a 12d6 AP attack if he makes the roll), 5 SPD, 25/28 Defenses - a potent combo. He even has enough Leaping to tag most fliers. If he fights smart, he'll always be the last one standing of the group. His only weakness is a 7 DCV, and his 4 levels in HTH combat can compensate when fighting melee opponents. Any hope the Champions have against Mechanon relies on Ironclad. In fact, the ideal strategy has Mechanon open up with an 18d6 EB + 4d6 STR Drain on the metal guy, while putting its Overall Levels in DCV. Average damage will stun Ironclad, knock him back 4" (which means Ironclad spends a half-phase to stand) and drain him 14 STR. That effectively puts Ironclad out of the fight until phase 5, since he won't be able to stand, move next to Mechanon, and pull off a grab in segment 3. By segment 5, Mechanon will have two more actions (on 2 and 4) to do many nasty things to Ironclad's teammates. With an 11 DCV, the chances of enough of the team hitting Mechanon to stun it are extremely low.

Re: Upon Further Review: The Champions Anyone who thinks Mechanon can't handle the Champions needs to reread the rules on spreading an attack (FRED page 251). Mechanon can fill three hexes with his EB and still do 15d6 - enough to stun any member of the Champions except Ironclad. He also has an AoE Flash attack that will blind everyone except Ironclad (noticing a theme, here?) for half a turn. Once Mechanon starts stunning and blinding foes, they're easy prey for his big guns - the Disintegrator Beam and Meson Bolt. Mechanon's OCV is high enough to hit any member of the Champions easily without using his Overall Levels. While I concede he wouldn't start with the Overall Levels in DCV because of his Overconfidence, he'll switch to DCV once his foes take him below half STUN. When that happens, none of the Champions will hit on better than a 10-. In fact, Nighthawk and Sapphire only hit on 8 or less. I was rather surprised that this version of Mechanon doesn't leverage his advantages - Smoke Projectors (Darkness with continuing charges) to take advantage of his numerous Enhanced Senses, or Tear Gas Projectors (continuous NND) which he's immune to because of Life Support. Even without such accessories, he's still deadly to the Champions as written.

Re: Upon Further Review: The Champions Mechanon hunts half the team on an 8-, and a single 18d6 EB will knock out any member of the team except Ironclad. Heck, Mechanon could spread the EB by 4 dice and stun half the team in a single shot. With a 15 OCV using its levels (Mechanon is overconfident, so DCV isn't an issue), hitting isn't a problem. Likewise, Ironclad is hunted by Firewing on an 8-, and Firewing has a stronger EB than Mechanon (20d6). Firewing also has stronger defenses than Mechanon. The first time Firewing comes up, the Champions are toast. Mechassassin may not be in the same league, but Nightwing better pray that he doesn't get caught in a dark alley with him. Nightwing is definately being hosed on his disads, because Mechassassin is definately more powerful than Nightwing, not As Powerful as indicated in Nightwing's disads. Unless the Champions get a serious rewrite, similar to the one the previous team received in the 4th edition Champions Universe, they're no match for their Hunteds.

Re: Anime based games, have you done one? I played in a short-lived Anime High School game back in college. My PC was Breeze, the son of the North Wind (an exchange student, of course). Martial arts and some minor wind powers. It was fun, but the GM couldn't sustain it for more than a few sessions.

Re: Review: The Ultimate Brick I've had time for a quick read and it looks decent, but it seems they really shortchanged optional throwing rules. The comment, "GM's who want to use these rules should consider creating a Long-Range Throw Combat Maneuver." sums it up for me. How hard would it have been to go ahead and include such a maneuver, saving the GM some work? The page count is lighter than The Ultimate Martial Artist by 50 pages for the same price - the space was definately available. A total of 2 pages on throwing is not enough for something so integral to bricks in comics. What's even worse is that the "realistic throwing" rules don't include the effect of air friction...not very realistic if you ask me. The thing I'm most likely to use out of The Ultimate Brick is the Increased Damage Differentation rule - it finally gives a reason to buy a STR that doesn't have a value ending in 0, 3, 5, or 8. From what I've read so far, I can't really rate the product higher than a 6. Sure, some of the power writeups are new and different, but it's certainly not a required suppliment for a Champions GM. The Ultimate Martial Arts proved far more useful when creating supervillains.

Re: Looking for NEW words of transformation: (SHAZAM, Thunder! Thunder!...) Let's not forget... Captain...CAVEEEEMAN!

Re: Killing Charachters/Villians in your games. Do you do it? I have the villain blow up in a retributive strike. Seriously, though, I would hopefully know the player's tendencies in advance, and warn them of possible consequences. If they do it anyway, law enforcement will react as they would against anyone else. The hero might get away with it once because of their reputation as a hero. After that...it's vigilante time.

Re: New powers help

Re: Power help? Just remember that the only things that will hit Mosquito Man in game are AoE attacks and Mental Powers. Furthermore, with a -18 to opponent's PER rolls, mentalists will have a tough time finding him. You may want to read the section in Champions about the Artful Dodger (page 138) before allowing this character into your game. Basically, he's either untouchable...or dead.