The Souljourner

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon Really? I didn't think it worked that way. I don't have my book with me, and I very rarely create characters with killing attacks, so I could easily be wrong. I do have access to Herodesigner, and it seems to allow strength to double the attack even with the advantage (I realize it's far from being perfect at following the rules, however). Is this a special rule for HKAs (which I could totally see and just didn't know about)? -Nate

Re: Lose Weakness Lack of weakness, instant (if appropriate), costs END? Call the power "Suck it in"

Re: solid light holograms TK is a good answer. The other option is to make it a summon. You're effectively summoning into being something which can attack for you, has defenses and body, and goes away when attacked enough. I think a forcewall combined with images would be a good way of creating immobile solid holograms, but ones that have to move really shouldn't be done with force wall. You're trying to fit the special effect too deeply into the power. Just because it's made of force doesn't mean it has to be anything to do with force wall. Think of what game effects you want the power to have, and apply the special effects afterwards. -Nate

Re: Best way to model a booming voice? Well, here's the thing... in hero you have to pay for any and all effects you wish to have. Things can be loud and not deafen you, bright and not blind you. Honestly, if I was modelling fireworks, I'd probably make it a compound power, images and flash, because they obviously can deafen you, and are also visible/audible from very far away. Another thing I just thought of... just because something's deafening doesn't mean the sound carries a long way. Some frequencies travel a lot further than others. Low frequencies tend to travel further, whereas high frequencies don't, but are more likely to do damage to your ears. I can hear people talking across a 3/4 mile lake, because sound carries so well over water, but I wouldn't be deafened by them if I stood next to them. Some people's voices tend to carry better than others, too. Yes, I want this guy's voice to be loud, but I also just want it to be easily heard. -Nate

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon What I mean is, I want there to be a non-house ruled non-fudged link between the damage this thrown weapon does, and my strength. I realize that, which is exactly the problem, because that's the power I'm trying to model. Something that adds a fixed amount of damage to my strength. If you want me to pay for adding ranged to my strength when using the hammer, that's fine. But I want a non-fudged way to have the damage this thing does tied to my strength. It gets the bonuses of aids and the drawbacks of drains. Let's see... the character I'm working with has 40 strength and wanted a 4d6 weapon. That's 12d6, 4 of which costs no end. So that's 70 active points, OAF makes it 35 points for the multipower and 5-ish for the two powers. 40 points. As you said, it takes a house rule to allow modifiers to the user's strength to modify the EB... . Compare to HKA, which can have ranged added on... Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 2d6 (4d6 w/STR), Range Based On STR (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (52 Active Points); OAF (-1), Beam (-1/4) 23 real points. Now, you can only double the damage of an HKA with strength, so I had to buy a little more to do the same number of DCs, but still, that's nearly a 50% savings over the EB construct. -Nate

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon I'm all for paying for it, the problem is that there's no way to make the power as the rules currently stand. The one way that makes most sense - HA with range based on strength, is explicitly disallowed. There's no way to make an EB that allows you to add your strength to the damage it does. Above I made a suggestion for a house ruled advantage that does allow you to add your strength, but it's just that - a house rule. The kludgy "buy a big EB and limit it" kinda works, but has a lot of drawbacks, and is way more expensive than it really needs to be. -Nate

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon Unfortunately FReD has exactly that - a rule saying you shouldn't put ranged advantages on HA. -Nate

Re: Power writeup: Alter Reality, Radius Effect I think basil has summed it up here pretty well. The power you're asking for should cost a crapload of points, because it is insanely powerful. In my mind, if you have to resort to XDM, you're trying to do something too powerful for too cheap. XDM is never the answer. -Nate

Re: Range Mod Honestly, modern day snipers don't hit people from a mile away. Sure, the gun can fire that far, but real life "range modifiers" make it almost impossible to hit. Winds can vary quite a bit over the course of a mile, causing the bullet to go off course by just enough. 12 inches is enough to completely miss someone, and 5 inches is probably enough to miss any vital organs. 5 inches over 1 mile is a tiny tiny bit of deflection (someone else can do the math if they want). Not to mention the fact that unless your target is either perfectly still or moving at a perfectly constant velocity, he could just unknowingly move out of the way. Even a bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2500 feet per second will take over 2 seconds to travel a mile. That's two seconds during which time your target only needs to move 12 inches to be completely missed. *shrug* I don't want to get too deep into realism, but I'm just saying, I don't think real life snipers try to hit from that far, and if they do, it's probably someone snoozing in a chair (0 DCV). -Nate

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon I kinda like the idea of an HKA with range based on strength and does normal damage Here's what I proposed to my GM: Hammer of the Thunder God: Energy Blast (PD) 4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), May Add STR to Damage (+1/2) (40 Active Points); OAF (-1), Range Based On Strength (-1/4), Beam (-1/4) 16 real points This is in replacement of the old power: Hammer of the Thunder God: Hand to Hand Attack (PD) 4d6, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Range Based on Strength (+1/4) (35 Active Points); OAF (-1), Hand to Hand Attack (-1/2) 14 real points -Nate

Re: Ruling on this situation... Ever try throwing a ball while treading water? You get very little power because you can't brace against the ground and put all of your body's strength into the throw. It's like that for the guy without flight when trying to throw someone while falling through the air. Sure, stronger is better, but you still get only a fraction of your true strength. Of course, that's totally not true for the guy who does have flight... he can brace himself against his own acceleration, and use his whole body in the throw. It's strictly in house rules territory, but I'd put anyone who didn't have flight at 1/2 strength for any manuvers while flying/falling. -Nate

Re: Ruling on this situation... Honestly, if the flight isn't restrainable or using gestures, and he can lift the weight of the grabber, then he can indeed fly off. I don't see what the problem is. Now, flying up and back down to smack into the earth is an odd tactic, since he'll take as much as the grabber, but ok, fine. I would allow the grabber to abort to some kind of manuver to only take normal falling damage, though (basically, letting go before the guy gets too much downward velocity). And yeah, grabbing the character with one arm and something else with the other isn't a bad idea either. I honestly don't know why the answer to the FAQ is "no, he can't fly". There's no rules to support that, and it doesn't fit with common sense either. -Nate

Re: Best way to model a booming voice?

Re: Best way to model a booming voice? Some more information - yes, of course he can boom his voice when he's not using his change environment... but that doesn't really matter, since that would simply be a matter of adding Linked if it were dependant on it. Honestly, I think the Flash idea is silly. No where in Flash does it say you can give bonuses to perception checks to notice your Flash attack, any more than you get bonuses to notice an EB attack based on light or sound. You might give a coincident +1 or +2 to perception checks if the SFX suggest it, but you certainly shouldn't get much more of a benefit than that. To get like +5 to a perception check, you really should be using a power that adds to perception checks. A Flash is definitely not the way I want to model his voice. Yes, it can be very loud, but it shouldn't ever actually deafen anyone. There are a ton of things that are very loud that don't actually deafen you. Growth is an interesting idea, since it, too, makes you easier to perceive. I never really thought about it as being for perception checks other than sight, but I guess you make a lot more noise and a lot more stench when you're huge Armitage pointed out a use of Images that pretty much matches what I said in the beginning. The area of effect is great if you want to have your voice be the same volume across the entire area, but I don't really want or need that, so a tiny area of effect is perfect for me. People outside the area of effect can still perceive the images, they just take normal range penalties, which is how it should be. -Nate

Re: Thrown non-killing weapon I think one of the main problems is that Hand to Hand Attack is undercosted. It's like an EB with no range (-1/2) but with a free May Add STR to Damage (+1/2). At least, that's how it seems to work on Killing Attacks. I think that's the reason why they don't want you to put ranged on it, because they know it is undercosted. As for getting a limited EB, personally, I hate that construct. Buying "as much as you would ever need and then limit it" is impossible. How do you know how much you'd need? Maybe a friendly neighborhood Aid-based character comes along and hits you for +30 strength. The problem is that "only up to STR" really means "only up to STR, or the predetermined number I paid for, whichever is lower". I really like the +1/2 advantage on EB, and I think it's pretty fair. It's more expensive than HA with range, but like I said, I think that's because HA is undercosted. -Nate

I want to model a Thor-like thrown hammer in a superheroic campaign that does fixed damage which adds to the user's strength. According to the rules, it looks like you're not supposed to put Ranged advantages on a hand to hand attack, but I can't figure out how to make a ranged attack that does more damage based on the user's strength. Looking at killing attacks, it looks like the benefit of adding your strength to an attack is about equal to the benefit of having them be ranged (as that's the only difference between killing ranged and HTH attacks), making it about a +1/2. I realize you can make a multipower (EB/HA) to represent the thrown portion and the HTH portion of the attack, but that's kludgy at best, since if your strength changes, it doesn't change the EB portion of the attack. Really, what's so wrong with adding ranged to a hand to hand attack? If it were costed right, it shouldn't be a problem (in which case we probably wouldn't need EB at all). -Nate

I want to model a Thor-like thrown hammer in a superheroic campaign that does fixed damage which adds to the user's strength. According to the rules, it looks like you're not supposed to put Ranged advantages on a hand to hand attack, but I can't figure out how to make a ranged attack that does more damage based on the user's strength. Is there an advantage or something I'm missing? -Nate

Re: Best way to model a booming voice? I just want to give everyone else a bonus to hear me speak. The special effect is that my voice is so loud, it is easier to hear than normal. It's for a weather control character who wants to be able to have a loud, booming voice that can be heard over the howling winds he creates. -Nate

This is what I put together. Seems a little expensive given the limited use, plus a little kludgy, but it's the only way I could figure out to give everyone *else* a bonus to hear *you*. Booming Voice: Hearing Group Images 1" radius, +/-4 to PER Rolls, Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (25 Active Points); Set Effect (Only to make himself easier to hear) (-1), No Range (-1/2), Limited Effect Normal Hearing (-1/4) Set effect is supposed to be if you can only make one specific image, like only the image of a tiger, or only the sound of bells. I figure, only the sound of exactly what's coming out of your mouth is limited enough. That's 9 real points. Anyone have a better build? -Nate

Ok, so to make a presence attack, you roll 1d6 per 5 presence and if you equal or beat the target's Presence or EGO, you impress them. I'm paraphrasing from memory, but that's the gist. Here's what I don't get. 20 presence is 4d6 which is an average of 14. To roll 20 on 4d6 is really really unlikely. So most of the time you can't even impress yourself? In fact, most of the time you'll only be able to impress someone 2/3 your presence (well, 7/10, but close enough). Seems like presence attacks should be like 1d6 for every 3 or 4 presence, to make it a bit more likely that you can impress someone not so far under you. Thoughts? -Nate

Re: Using M&M's Rule of X in HERO Yeah, see, Sean hit the nail on the head - that's what character points are for. if you spend 20 points on defense, that's 20 points you can't spend on attack. Simple. It's just a hell of a lot more flexible than M&M overly (to me) simple system. -Nate

Re: Weight a minute You want to back that up with something other than hot air? Looks legal to me (though I'll admit to rarely using the linked limitation). -Nate

Re: Start BODY at 2 instead of 10

Re: Start BODY at 2 instead of 10 What everyone else said - current rules are plenty deadly if you use bleeding and hit locations (which are definitely suitable for a gritty heroic campaign). -Nate

Re: Teleportation with variable range... Palindromedary is a mash up of two words - palindrome and dromedary. Note his avatar.... it's a camel (a dromedary) that is the same backwards and forwards (a palindrome). Quite clever, really. -Nate