Niles

Re: Soviet Superheroes

How about a perfect physical and mental specimen type called New Soviet Man.

Re: Iconic Villains

Viper (why am I the first one to mention Viper?)

Because Viper isn't a villain, it's an organization.

It's an iconic part of the Champions U though, even if none of the specific villains who work for it are.

Re: Iconic Villains

Foxbat

Mechanon

Firewing

Grond

and maybe Dark Seraph

Re: Armed Forces write ups

I'd use the "Master Villain's Agent (Skilled)"stats from Champions p. 177 with the equipment changed. More elite soldiers could be based on the Master Villain's Agent (Competent) on the next page.

Re: Eurostar vs Sentinels

They are outclassed. but then' date=' thats the eurostar of 5 years ago, vs the Sentinels of today.[/quote']

 

I think Eurostar was probably already peaked in power as presented in CKC.

First of all Fiacho and Ultrasonique aren't getting any younger and they both are at least in their 50s. Ultrasonique can probably weather it better as he depends more on gadgets than on athleticism in a fight and doesn't have that political background inhibiting his ability to benefit from "comics time". But Fiacho is only getting slower, and there isn't much you can learn about fighting in 25 years as a Superterrorist that you can't learn in 20.

 

Durak is solid. He's on the team out of personal loyalty to Fiacho.

 

Fuermacher is in it for the money, and the team isn't even enough to pay the bills now. If the team suffers a signifigant downturn in fortunes, or he gets a better offer from one of his side jobs, or if Scorpia leaves, then he's gone.

 

The situation between Scorpia and Mentalla is unstable. Unless one of them leaves the team first it'll blow up and one of them will have to go even if they both live through it.

 

Scorpia is a perfect fit for Eurostar, she epitomizes the murderously pseudopolitical nature of the team. She's evil european Hawkeye to Fiacho's evil european Captain America. She's only leaving if She's killed or forced out in a confrontation with Mentalla, and clever manipulator that he is, Fiacho probably senses that if he kicked her out Fuermacher would follow.

 

Mentalla is more likely out than Scorpia. After all this time if Dr. D attacked her after she left the team it would imply that he was intimidated by Eurostar. The Destroyer don't play that way. Mentalla is in a much better position than Scorpia to know what a problem their "relationship" is but if she tried to resolve thing preemptively Fiacho would have to try to kill her to hold the rest of the team together. As the closest thing to a rational political thinker on the team she's the most likely to realize the team is in a worse position vis-a-vis achieving their goals than they were when they started (heck many of them wouldn't even care). If I were updating Eurostar I'd have her ditch the team for some newly formed Masters-of Evil/Injustice-League-like organization of preexisting supervillians that would prove unstable in the long run then have her bouncing around freelance with an eye out for a new team. She might even end up on an all-female Gravitar led team for a while.

 

The Champions Universe needs more Solid high end Villain teams. I think part of the reason people are so invested in Eurostar is is because it's what we've got.

Re: Eurostar vs Sentinels

How exactly is Howler an As Powerful Hunted for Dr. Vox when Dr. V has 75% DR to everything Howler (and Ultrasonique) can do?

She also has 75% rDR vs Sonics. She Absorbs Sonic attacks too. How they hurt each other at all I don't know.

Re: [Fight Club] Firewing vs Gravitar

I don't think you're right.

In your example, the guy aborts his phase 8 to act on phase 7. His missile deflection only works until his Phase 8. Not 10. He Aborted to act earlier but phase 8 is still his action phase.

Also 1 DEX guy aborted his phase 6 but still got to take another action then.

1 DEX guy is also taking an increasing penalty every time he gets shot at multiple times on the same deflect action.

Re: The Things That I've Learned Facing Bricks

I think people are overstating the PD/ED advantage that Bricks have over other archetypes, the real defensive edge bricks tend to have over other archetypes is in STUN and REC. Flipping through CK&C it seem like the average 300-500 point non-Brick has 7-12 REC and 30-40 STUN while the equivalent Brick has 15-20 REC and 65-75 STUN. Free REC and STUN are one of the big perks of high STR as your main attack form.

If you build an attack that can put 20 STUN on anyone who lacks the appropriate exotic defense, it will impress a lot less against bricks than other characters, especially if it also bypasses DCV(which Bricks rarely count on as their primary defense).

On another point, Bricks and Martial artist are also the Character types least able mitigate a mobility disadvantage in my observation.

Re: Teen Champions Villians

No. While it may be the same writing style/perspective' date=' I don't see where Rowling ripped off his story.[/quote']

 

I don't see where she ripped of anyone else either, which is why Remjin's comment confused me.

Sure there are clear influences, but it's not like the Shanara books or anything.

Re: Teen Champions Villians

The first true school story may have been Tom Brown's Schooldays' date=' which was followed by innumerable Victorian era imitations, and magazine series. The Harry Potter series of novels has spectacularly revived some of the generic conventions. These include the idea that the action should be described, almost exclusively, from the pupils' viewpoint.[/quote']Clearer?

Re: Teen Champions Villians

I think I'm more bittee because I'm more a fan of the author(s) who originally wrote the story.

You mean Thomas Hughes?

Re: Richest Man in the World Disease

Clark Kent BECAME a world spanning, award winning, pulitzer prize winning journalist.

 

He did not START with this. He had to EARN it.

Clark Kent got his pulitzer for an exclusive on himself he submitted with his resume to the Daily Planet. If you call that EARNING it by dint of LONG HARD HONEST WORK, I don't know what to say.

Re: The best retcons of all time

Hypertime contains the idea that universes don't just split' date=' they also re-join. A character can wake up one day and remember both that he left his keys on the dresser and that he left them in his coat pocket, and both can be true simultaneously, even though there's still only one set of keys; the two universes "merged" when he picked up his keys off of the dresser.[/quote']I thought that pre-crisis world neither split nor joined they were seperate since the beginning. They were truly parallel. But hypertime universes were constantly splitting off from each other but often remaining so close that thing slipped between them without anyone noticing.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

My opinion is that a cost of 25 points to be a competent specialist in a profession' date=' and 40 - 50 points to be a top expert, is ridiculously expensive for the utility of these abilities. If I have two PC's, one of whose backgrounds causes his character to be a (top) neurosurgeon and the other whose backgreound makes him a tabula rasa with no skills outside adventuring, I don't think the latter should have 25 (50) more points to play with. In other words, those 25 or 50 points spent aren't generating 25 or 50 points of value. Unless, of course, I turn my game into one where neurosurgery is needed at least every two or three games.[/quote']

This is the crux of my objection to skill inflation.

 

However as it is clear that noone is going to change anyone elses mind this thread and my ability to care about the arguement enough to keep going till everyone has their account suspended is waning, I think I'm bowing out.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

And the part your obviously ignoring (or still unable to comprehend) from three paragraphs above on Paramedics: "Paramedics only provides immediate' date=' emergency care; it does not involve the long-term care and cures, intensive therapy, or invasive surgical procedures which doctors perform.[/i']" So a paramedic is not a surgeon, even if someone in a Fantasy campaign is using the Paramedics skill.

I note you left of the rest of the paragaph where it says that for such things you use SS: Medicine. Your credibility in this thread is rather worse than mine.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Again' date=' you simply don't know what you're talking about, aside from skimping on skills to bloat your self worth.[/quote']I am not the one bloating anything here. Does Bloating your characters skill list have the as much of the same effect on your own self worth as it appears?

 

Already you've contradicted yourself (and not the only time) by giving 10+ points more than your "many character concepts" statement.

Many character concepts do call for 0-6 point of skills, world renowned doctor is not one of them.

 

The next part is that you still cannot comprehend what I've stated. Having an SS: Medicine doesn't make you a surgeon. Not all doctors are surgeons. Not all surgeon are brain surgeons. And since you eliminated the KSs' date=' let me quote FREd, page 47 (that's the page following where you found the doctor requirements). "[i']Whereas Knowledge Skills give a character knowledge of how or why something works, Professional Skills give a character the ability to perform some task or do some type of work. For example, a character with KS: Plumbing knows generally how plumbing works, the history of plumbing, how much plumbers earn on a yearly basis and so forth. A character with PS: Plumbing might not understand the intricacies of water pressure and water flow friction, but he could fix a broken pipe and knows how to sue plumbing tools. A character could (and often should) have a KS and a PS of the same subject to reflect both a theoretical and practical knowledge[/i]." [Emphasis mine.]

Sure and as for a science skill:

A science skill thus functions as a combination of a PS and a KS' date=' since it provides both theoretical knowledge of the subject and the practical skills of working with the equipment associated with the science.[/quote']

I designed my character to know a lot about each of those subjects.

No you have actualy created you character to know something about each of those subjects over and over again, I created the character to be excellent at the practice of medicine into which category all of these tasks fall. Inventing new penalties for preforming the basic tasks of skills inculded in the main book is pure dickery.

 

As for what skill is used for surgery and if it uses takes a penalty to do so:

this skill is often known as Healer or Chirurgeon

chirurgeon

NOUN: Archaic, A surgeon.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

I could go on and continue to quote the text, but do I really need to?

 

I might suggest you brush up on that bit of text yourself, since it also goes on to explain that EveryMan Skills are Familiarities, which are 8-. Whereas your Obstretician example has a whopping 11-.

 

Now, I will accept one apology for being incorrect and one for smarm.

One PS at 11- (a characters job' date=' hobby or the like)[/quote']

One PS at 11- (a characters job' date=' hobby or the like)[/quote']

One PS at 11- (a characters job' date=' hobby or the like)[/quote']Who owes whom an apology?

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Obstetrician is NOT an everyman skill' date=' but lets pretend he actually paid the points for it.[/quote']Why don't you reread the rules on everyman skills, after you're done I'll accept your apology.

PS: Obstetrician would give you a -2 to diagnose a cold or cancer. It would also give you at least a -2 in surgery.

All of these things are the domain of SS: Medicine (with a complimentay skill bonus from Paramedic) a character with the skill list I gave is better at these tasks than the original character, not worse.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Quite frankly' date=' you're ignorant about what you speak. I didn't list any of the same skills under different names. I listed different, detailed skills. And your assumption that an 11- PS skill makes me "one of the finest doctors on the continent" and a better doctor than a 13-, is plain ludicrous. The fact that you eliminated specialized complimentary skills as well as necessary skills for his profession (Reproduction, [b']Surgery[/b], Anatomy, Biology, Fertility / Infertility, Gynaecology) shows that you have no clue what you're talking about. Try a dictionary for starters.

I eliminated redundancy and waste, your list was so bloated with skills that were restatements or subsets of other listed skills that it confused the issue. Though I admit I should have listed the PS as OBGYN.

I didn't assume that an 11- PS made this character one of the finest doctors on the continent, Page 46 of HERO5 lists the skills used in the HERO system to be a Medical Doctor. I assumed having all of these skills at 16- as well as as a complimentary PS made the character one of the finest doctors on the continent.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

2 Language: Latin (fluent conversation)

9 Paramedics 16-

3 Persuasion 12-

3 PS: Doctor 13-

3 Scholar

1 1) KS: Chemistry (2 Active Points) 11-

1 2) KS: Medicine (2 Active Points) 11-

2 3) KS: Reproduction (3 Active Points) 13-

1 4) KS: Surgery (2 Active Points) 11-

3 Scientist

1 1) SS: Anatomy 11- (2 Active Points)

1 2) SS: Biology 11- (2 Active Points)

2 3) SS: Fertility / Infertility 13- (3 Active Points)

2 4) SS: Gynaecology 13- (3 Active Points)

1 5) SS: Medicine 11- (2 Active Points)

2 6) SS: Obstetrics 13- (3 Active Points)

1 7) SS: Surgery 11- (2 Active Points)

2 Systems Operation (Medical Systems) 13-

4 TF: Jetskis, SCUBA, Small Motorized Boats, Small Motorized Ground Vehicles

 

Sure, I could be cheesey and do the powergamer stint of (0) PS: Doctor 11-, but I actually want my character to be something more than that. This character specialized in treating infertility. And guess what? I not only used these skills at his job, but I was able to use them during each adventure aspect as well. This way is not only efficient for me, but it is more effective.

Or you could buy your skills like a sane person:

9 Paramedics 16-

0 PS: Obstetrician 11- (everyman)

6 SS: Medicine 16-

3 TF: Jetskis, SCUBA, Small Motorized Boats

0 TF: Small Motorized Ground Vehicles (everyman)

1 Fringe benefit: Licence to practice Medicine

And you remain one of the finest doctors on the continent for less than half the points.

If you want to be good at a skill, get a high level in it, don't buy it a dozen times under slightly different names.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Ok' date=' we do that and I would still have over 20 pts in background skills. And this is me, as a person, by the time I graduated High School.[/quote']

 

I don't trust peoples ability to honestly evaluate their own capabilities, not even myself.

 

Certainly not someone who takes nine out of twenty one and still gets a result over 20.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

PS: Saxophone 11- 2 pts.

PS: Trombone 8- 1 pt.

PS: Baritone 8- 1 pt.

PS: Tuba 8- 1 pt.

PS: Clarinet 8- 1 pt.

PS: Oboe 8- 1 pt.

PS: Piano 8- 1 pt.

How is this better than?

PS: Musician 11- (Saxaphonist, plays a number of other instuments at -3 unfamiliarity penalty) 0 points(everyman)

Oh look, the same concept expressed both more eficiently and closer to designer intent.

Most long skill lists I've seen could use similar condensing.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Of course you could equally ask: "How many skills does Professor Stein have really?".

Professor Stein is probably best modeled as a computer.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

My X-men game teenager would have been more powerfull starting with Breakfall and Teamwork than not needing to (or even being capable of) eat or sleep. But the life support brought out some interesting roleplaying the skills would not have, so I have no regrets on that score.

We did have a Combat Wombat that game, he had spent more points on skills than I did.

Re: Skills? How many points are normal?

Ten-year-olds shouldn't be out fighting adults. That's setting the adult up for child abuse and not a heroic thing to put someone in that position. They should be getting an education.

Teen heroes (an occasionaly child heroes) are a part of the genre. I also note the way you are repeatedly ignoring every mention of everyman heroes for whom it is out of concept to have more skills than a standard normal.

How many skills does Ronnie Raymond have really?