Vanderbilt_Grad

I think that most experienced Hero players min-max to an extent. It’s only natural to want to build strong, powerful, or well thought out characters and the more you understand the game the easier it becomes to use the various break-points and other structures to your advantage in character creation. I don’t really mind min-maxing a long as the whole leads to an interesting character who can fit in a given game well. As for VPPs, I have to admit that without them it is nearly impossible to do some concepts nearly as well any other way. I don’t really have a problem with someone wanting to play with a VPP or with building one into a character myself. Even cosmic VPPs are perfect on some characters. However as a GM I understand all too well how a VPP can break campaign limits all too easily. I generally don’t have problems with stop sign powers but in a way I regard the VPP as a double stop sign. I would have to really trust someone before I let them play with a VPP. I don’t know what the answer is but in my gut I feel like something in the VPP structure itself seems broken but fixing it is beyond me at this point. Reading some of the other comments here I am reminded how some GM’s I’ve played under seem to regard gaming as a them vs. me affair. These are the sorts who are most likely to get upset at a clever application of a power or a tactic that they didn’t anticipate. I don’t like playing that way at all and I strive to not run my games that way. To me roll-playing is all about building a shared experience that *everyone* enjoys and you don’t have to compete with your players to do that. In fact I really like it when my players are clever, it forces me to think on my feet and enhances my enjoyment as well as theirs. Balance is a big part of this shared enjoyment in that everyone likes for their character to shine from time to time (both in and out of combat). If Joe Fighting man outshines the other characters in combat *every* time then eventually the others are going to have a problem with this and fun will not be had by all. Similarly if one PC has offensive and defensive powers far and above the others then it becomes supremely difficult for the GM to find foes that can be a challenge to the power-guy while simultaneously not being able to wipe the floor with the other PCs. It’s up to the GM to build an environment where everyone has fun and keeping characters reasonably balanced are part of this. If a player repeatedly breaks campaign limits or builds characters in such a way that the others don’t have fun then it becomes a real problem for everyone. In many other games loosing means dieing and few players like to loose a character that they enjoy. However in Champs loosing usually doesn’t involve death. It’s a learning curve for both players and GMs new to the system to use this to their advantage. I’ve rarely had more fun as a player than when my team is getting ‘payback’ on a team that beat us previously. It generates a much bigger sense of accomplishment than just beating up on some poor Joe that we’ve never met before. I would like to note that it’s not only munchkins that destroy fun, but that some role-playing concepts can do the same thing. I’ve seen character concepts that work mechanically & are balanced but that annoy the heck out of the other players in a very bad way. Similarly I’ve seen role-playing taken to such an extreme that the group ceases to have fun. In a shared environment everyone has to give a little and be prepared to compromise so that everyone can have fun and that covers a lot more than just munchkinism.

Obviously your game may vary but I would like to take a second to expound on what Blue posted. Let’s examine the setup you mentioned (a RKA and an AP RKA). Let’s further say both are 60 active points. Your RKA will be 4d6. Rolling all fours that comes out to 16 body and 48 stun. Assuming a character with 20/10 PD/rPD the hero will take 6 body and 28 stun if he is ever hit with the attack. That is major league damage and is quiet possible statistically with RKAs. Odds are that the 20/10 hero will be stunned & thus unable to do anything except recover when his next action comes along … whereupon he will, more than likely, be popped again and dieing if his BOD is 12 or less. Your AP RKA will be 2&1/2d6. Rolling all fours that comes out to 10 body and 30 stun. Your same 20/10 PD/rPD Hero will take 5 body and 20 stun. This is still pretty lethal. While less likely to stun the hero two or three hits will have him on the ground & bleeding his life away. Now I know better than most that point levels and defenses vary from game to game and character to character but many of the 350 point guys I build these days would worry a lot about a 4d6 RKA and would freak at a 5d6 RKA. It's worth noting that KAs can generate monster stun pretty easily too.

Question on partially limited advantages in Elemental Controls: Bob has three 40 point powers (Energy Blast, Force Field, and Flight) that he wants to put in an Elemental Control. Normally this would look like: 20 EC: Bob Powers 20a EB (8d6) 20b Flight (20â€) 20c Force Field (20, 20) However Bob also has a staff (OAF) that makes it easier to use his powers. Normally he gets tired fast when fighting but when he has his staff he is like the energizer bunny. Keeps going and …. Anyway in game terms all of Bob’s powers are 0 End, but only when he has his OAF staff. Bob has bought each power individually like this before putting them in the EC: 45 EB (8d6) 0 End [OAF] (50 active & 45 real points) 45 Flight (20â€) 0 End [OAF] (50 active & 45 real points) 45 Force Field (20, 20) 0 End [OAF] (50 active & 45 real points) Question #1 what would the point values in the EC be? Is the following correct? 22 EC: Bob Powers 23a EB (8d6) 0 End [OAF] 23b Flight (20â€) 0 End [OAF] 23c Force Field (20, 20) 0 End [OAF] Question #2 how does it work if only the EB is bought 0 End [OAF] and the other powers have no advantages or limitations? I.E. before putting the EC together Bob has: 45 EB (8d6) 0 End [OAF] (50 active & 45 real points) 40 Flight (20â€) 40 Force Field (20, 20) As far as I can tell most of the EC would look like this: 20 EC: Bob Powers ??a EB (8d6) 0 End [OAF] 20b Flight (20â€) 20c Force Field (20, 20) But how much would slot ‘a’ cost?

Traditionally speedsters rely on high DCV and thus are most vulnerable to Area attacks and Mental powers. With a Supermage with mental powers and a 75 Str Brick who can throw big things you are going to have to compensate for this in some way if you really want him to last. The Desolidification thing is a pretty good idea. You don’t even have to make it vibration, just call it ‘Superdodge’ or something and limit it so that he can’t go thru things. Buy it at the 60 point level and he can ‘Superdodge’ mental attacks too (slipper high speed mind). This would pretty much make him only vulnerable to Area and Mental attacks that also Affect Desolid. To further limit this power you might consider buying it with lasting charges (he can’t dodge like this all day so the heroes can try to outlast him), giving it an activation roll (heroes might get lucky every once in a while), or set it to not work vs. attacks that he doesn’t sense (this only if he also doesn’t have defense maneuver … and I *would* buy him with defense maneuver). ‘Faster than the Eye’ Invisibility can also make him a tough target to ‘lock onto’ and might be a good alternative or supplement to ‘Superdodge’. Giving him a ‘Doesn’t take damage’ entangle can be nasty too. It’s a *lot* easier to do a move thru on a target that he has already entangled. Another fun ‘speedster trick’ is an Instant version of Duplication. He will be fast enough to seem to be in more places than one. With four duplicates he can do a move-by, be kneeling behind a hero, grabbing the hero’s focus, and stealing something at the same time. Bottom line, instead of beefing up defenses, IMO the fight will be more memorable if he uses fun ‘speedster tricks’ and uses his high speed intelligently (dodging, rolling with punches, holding actions intelligently, etc.)

That was fantastic! LOL! Thanks for posting.

Oh, just read the part about the guy being slow. If this is a problem then I suggest making his character(s) as simple as possible. Do things like making his powers 0 End so he doesn’t have to keep track of End. Avoid Multipowers when possible and use Elemental Controls or no frameworks at all so that he doesn’t have a ton of choices to go thru in combat. Even this multiform, as cool as it sounds may be a bit much. IMO a player like this might do better with a Brick or combo-Brick/Energy Projector type character. What about an Archaeologist who gains incredible strength and toughness on a dig along with minor versions of the powers you listed? Instead of a complicated multiform instead you could do something like have an EC with Energy Blast with Variable Special Effect [i would just charge +1/4 for this setup but you could go with a more official +1/2 with a limitation on the advantage], Force Field 0 End (appearance depends on phase of the moon), and Flight with 0 End and Works in Water, or some other movement power. The special effect of the blast could then be dependant on the phase on the phase of the moon … and when the moon is dark he could still fall back on his Str. This is a pretty simple setup. You have get to choose between a ranged or close up attack but you don’t have a ton of character sheets or a list of powers to muddle things up and slow him down. Something like Str 40 to 50. PD & ED around 10 or slightly above. Spd 5 & Con 23+. 30 EC Elemental Powers 45a EB (10d6) ½ End, Variable SFX 30b Flight (10â€) 0 End, Works In Water, Combat Acceleration [so he doesn’t have to calculate how fast he is going at a given hex - he is always going 10â€] 30c Force Field (10, 10) 0 End, Persistent [so he doesn’t have to worry about keeping track of defenses when stunned] With STR 50 and EB 10d6 then he will always roll the same number of dice too ... unless he does a move-thru in which case his damage jupms to 13d6. Buy 1/2 End as a naked advantage on the STR too so the EB and STR don't use much END. This way he really doesn't have to keep track of it each phase. If you need to make things cheaper just slap Only in Hero ID on his EC & STR and then he becomes a bit like Captain Marvel … says his magic word & transforms! The alternative would be to slap a -1/4 Not in New Moon on his EC. I would avoid that though, instead I would just put it on his EB if anything. No powers in new moon is a nice idea, but just having no EB should be enough.

IMO Multiform is the way to go with this.

It was. While I find the situation … repulsive to say the least. As a father of two and having a close friend who was sexually abused herself as a child I hardly take the matter lightly. That said the situation has a moral grayness that this debate has expressed very clearly. To further relate the matter back to more standard Champions fare, let me raise a few more questions… What happens if this sicko is exposed in a world where politicians are trying to regulate super-beings already? One incident like this and it could lead to something very like the Patriot Act, a sweeping set of laws passed very quickly and without much review, only aimed at superbeings. The press would have a field day with this sort of thing. Just how much would it energize the super ‘hate groups’ like Institute for Human Advancement if word of this guy got out? How much could that in turn burn the heroes later? And what happens to all those righteous killers when two weeks later when someone the character cares for is dieing and only this sicko could have saved them? Would they feel guilty before the end? Oh, and if it clarifies the debate at all I was thinking along the lines of Duplication, Useable as an attack, Invisible, Trigger.

You are correct. I do need to re-word that.... And I apologize if anyone finds this topic offensive.

While on patrol, going home, or otherwise being ‘out and about’ one evening your character happens to glance into an open window in a downtown condo and see a horrific scene. An older man is having sex with a young child … and worse yet one that your character recognizes. However just as your character are about to burst in he finishes and the child literally vanishes into thin air. Deciding quickly your character mentally marks the man’s home so that he or she can come back and then heads off to visit the child at their home. Strangely though when confronted the child has no memory of the ‘encounter’ your character just witnessed and the child’s parents confirm that they have all been at home for the last few hours and that the child has been there the whole time. Disturbed your character heads back out to observe the man. The next day he heads over to a popular park where he helps a few children up when they fall or have the inventible bumps and scrapes but otherwise does not behave in an odd manner. That night though, your character watches as he stretches out his hand and one of the children that he helped earlier appears and the man prepares to repeat the previous night’s performance. When your character bursts in, again, this new child vanishes. Provided that your character simply does not kill him out of hand the man confesses to being able to ‘copy’ children and then recreate them later at will. The two your character saw were not ‘originals’ but copies instead. The man laughs if your character mentions the police. “What would they charge me with? There is no victim.†What would your character do?

Oh, and don't forget to add Density Increase, Growth, HA, HKA, etc. to STR for the limits test. Just generated a hero on you site (300 points) with 40 STR & 12 levels of Density Increase. 100 STR is a bit much for many games....

Suggestions Allow folks to type in DC, AP, CV, limits and the like. These vary by games a lot IMO. My 350 point games may have completely different limits than yours. Allow folks to enter a minimum number of points to be spent on skills. Add a power consistency check. One time I got a character generated by your site that had a high DEX, high SPD, low STR, Fencing martial art … and no sword … or any other attack power for that matter. It looked like the program accepted the martial art alone as sufficient. It’s also disconcerting that the ‘Special Effect’, ‘Source of Power’, and the actual powers generated usually seem to have nothing to do with one another.

Buying a new slot in a MP doesn’t always mean getting ‘new’ power. If the character already has a light based EB (12d6) then IMO it’s not much of a stretch to buy another light based EB (8d6) Area Hex, EB (10d6) 1/2 End, or an RKA (4d6). All of these are merely new ‘flavors’ of the old power and it seems to be that it should be pretty easy to learn new variations like this. It’s a different ballgame if lighboy wants to buy something brand new that he doesn’t have much of a pre-existing basis for. Say adding Force Wall to his MP. Then you may or may not want to allow it. IMO the best way to do ‘brand’ new powers in a MP slot is to require that they be limited at first and slowly let the player ‘buy off’ the limitation as he practices the new power. For instance that Force Wall might be bought with Requires Skill Roll, Full Phase Activation, 1/2 DVC Concentration Throughout. After a game session or two let him buy off one limitation. Then after a while they will have the power they wanted & will have role played learning it. I don’t think that players should be limited to just buying skills all the time.

I really like the change environment idea and it fits well. To give a little more detail most of the character’s powers are bought OIHID. In Hero ID his body is composed of crystal that absorbs light. He is built with an End Reserve OIHID that recovers only in light. He also has images only to create light that glows brighter the more full his End reserve is. This part is good & bad since it gives some positive PER bonuses to overcome darkness but can alert foes as to how much power he currently has. Among other powers Cascade also is built with a big honking Aid that affects pretty much all his physical characteristics & I was thinking of having him glow super brightly while the Aid is active. Again this would be a visible clue that he is ‘pumped up’ alerting foes who have fought him before but it would have some beneficial effects as well.

True. Don't forget the downside though. Friendly ranged aid, bam! Blind. Friendly heal, bam! Blind. Makes it kind of hard to do media interviews as well.

Hmm. Not having DH #11 I can’t really comment on Trigger. Without the auto-reset though it would be problematic vs. multiple attackers. Invisibility is an interesting suggestion I’ll have to think about that more, but my gut tells me that *I* have afterimages in my eyes after looking directly at the sun that sometimes makes it hard to see in general. I’m pretty resistant to the explosion affect idea. I really don’t like the extra bookkeeping explosion generates & I want the effect to be the same for someone trying to hit him in hand to hand range and trying to snipe at him from the top of a building. I am also in agreement that if you use an Area Effect instead of Range that the power should also be No Range. However as I have seen write-ups of Area Affect Damage Shields & Triggers in the past they affect *everyone* within the Area and that doesn’t seem to fit at all. If thug A is targeting the character and thug B is within the AoE but targeting the character’s teammate why should thug B be affected? AoE can also lead to a huge Active Point inflation though by the time you apply all the limitations the real cost might be close to the same. As for the Darkness and DCV penalties I just assumed that the penalties for being flashed would be enough though it would be easy to build in something else on top of that too. Any thoughts as to whether or not Ranged (+1/2) can be combined with Damage Shield in general? Thanks for all the feedback so far!

Think how ridiculously easy it is to get water in our modern world. All you have to do is smash a fire hydrant, bust a water main, set off a sprinkler system, etc. and *bam* you have water. Heck he could carry a squeeze bottle for emergencies. I think that I've see write-ups with needs water as -1/2 though really it varies by the how much water is needed, the game & the GM.

If a PC has EB (10d6) Megascale (+1/4) applied to range can he use this power to blast someone standing a mere 8 hexs away?

The concept is a character that is glowing so brightly that someone looking right at him will be blinded. Obviously this is some sort of flash … but what I’m looking for is something that will affect opponents who simply *target* him whether or not they actually hit or miss and something that will not eat up one of the character’s actions. My thought is that Damage Shield meets most of these requirements but I have two very sticky issues with it. First DS only works on attacks that hit. Secondly DS does not affect ranged attacks. My inclination to solve the first issue would be to create a custom increase to the cost of DS to have it affect attacks that miss as well as ones that hit. My gut says that +3/4 would be about right but I’m looking for feedback here. Thoughts? For the ranged aspect, one solution would be to buy lots of area on the DS Flash, but I’m not really sure that this does what I want. I’m not looking to flash everyone in a 6†or so radius, just the folks who target the character. So is it legal to buy the Ranged advantage on a DS? The DS description states that it turns ranged powers into no-range powers, so for +1/2 could one buy ranged back? The final power would then look like: Flash (3d6) 0 End (+1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Continuous (+1), Damage Shield (+3/4), Ranged (+1/2), Only in Hero ID (-1/4) 64 Active Points & 51 Real Points.

The biggest problem I have with EDM is that you move back in time & now there are *two* of you. One who has lived the next 5 seconds & one that hasn't. What happens when the 'past' you decides not to travel back since everthing worked out this time? That's only a small sample of the kind of paradox that EDM can lead to. Precognition is cleaner IMO.

I seem to recall seeing a 3rd Ed write-up in a magazine of a new power that did exactly this ... but 15 years can make the memory fuzzy. Anyway, EDM could work, but what I would really do instead is use precognition with a trigger. Whenever the NPC or PC wanted a 're-do' he do something that would trigger the precognition 5 seconds earlier. In game terms what would happen is that the last 5 seconds would be lost and only the character would know what was about to happen and he could now act differently. For a PC in play this is pretty disruptive and can slow combat down something fierce. It is also *really* hard for other PCs to play as if they had no idea of what was coming next either after the Time Lord PC pulls this little stunt. IMO charges, activation rolls, or something is a must to keep the PC from using this power constantly. All in all this is not something that I would want in the hands of a PC even with limits.

Oh, and I'll second the reply that said that Life Support should be Linked (-1/2) at best.

First off SPD seems *very* low for a superheroic 350 point game. With only two actions per turn vs. a likely 5 or 6 from most others this PC will be out of the action most of the time. Secondly Dex, PD, & ED should be bumped *slightly* or perhaps an ectoplasmic force field could be bought somewhere. Her Con should probably be slightly higher as well. As written she is toast against *any* affects desolid attack. She will be stunned and probably take body every time she is hit and being stunned will cause her desolid state to end since it isn’t persistant. Third Telepathy probably shouldn’t have the Affects Desolid advantage since most desolids don’t protect against metal powers. Only if ‘ghosts’ are commonly defined as having the 60 point version of desolidification should this stay … and since her desolid doesn’t protect her from mental powers it seemed like ghosts wouldn’t have this protection either. Fourth, *none* of her attacks, with the exception of telepathy or maybe the images work on normal folks when she is desolid. As is she is either invulnerable and can’t do much except move or she is wide open to any sort of attack and can do a fair amount. Fifth that rep is going to be a killer. Odds are with something like that you will be spending points to buy that off long before you get to spend many points on improving Wraith. In many games it doesn’t take long to ‘prove’ yourself to the hero community. Sixth, why the +/- 16 per on the images?! That’s a *lot*. How would her images improve someone’s per roll by 16? Normal light or darknsess wouldn’t do better than +/- 4 or so. As a personal note I’m pretty leery of buying any DNPCs or Hunteds above 8- and 11- is usually my max. At 14- that hunted or DNPC is going to be in almost every adventure. That can be very constraining to the GM and other players. As for the pathos thing … you might consider buying something like Enraged and have a susceptibility that kicks in when she is enraged. Also between the rivalry, DNPC, & Hunteds as is I would expect her to be less than calm an collected most sessions. If I were to re-do this character I would buy SPD up to at least 4 and would prefer 5. I would buy up Con. I would increase her MP pool and move the Desolidification into it. I would add a Force Field power and at least one or two powers she could use to affect the physical world when desolid. Some sort of NND & Affects Solid HA would be perfect IMO. You might even consider buying a naked advantage in her MP to let her use her STR on solid targets to lift things, however lots of GMs will not go for that. I would change the DNPC to 11- (still fairly common) and the Hunted to 8-. All that said this is a cool concept.

He can do either a 4d6 Penetrating attack -or- an 8d6 normal attack. When an advantage like Penetrating, AP, or the like is on a HA you can add up to an equal number of DCs as the base HA. So a 2d6 Penetrating HA can only ever go up to 4d6. A 4d6 Penetrating HA could be doubled to 8d6 via some combo of STR and Martial Attack by the same fellow.

OIHID is a reasonable way to have armor that isn't taken away like armor OIF can be. FRED even mentions this if I remember correctly. Any IMO there are only a few outstanding issues I see. First the lack of movement powers could be a *real* problem for C.A.T. Running or Leaping are the two most obvious. Secondly why is being 'the new hero on the block' a bad reputation? I would think that it would be a positive rep and thus a perk. Third why is the Alpha Police dept hunting her? Seems a bit out of place for a hero with a code vs killing. Fourth that's a lot of point for 'personality change' while in armor. Combined with lack of secret ID or public ID it seems kind of out there on it's own. I might allow this but would want a darn good backstory & reasoning for it. I would also have to have examples on how it can be a disadvantage to the character. The ED seems a bit low but not so much that it really bothers me. However when combined with the vulnerabilities ... well this suit can be tosted pretty easily by EPs with the right SFX. As long as the player was aware of this I would let it slide. I'm still not 100% comfortable with the Normal Char Max disad. I've never really liked it that much in a superhero game, even for the armor guys (and gals). Just don't think it's appropriate but YMMV. I like the changes to Int & skills numbers. I wonder if a single level of Density Increase or -1" of KB for weight would be appropriate for this PC?