dstarfire

Re: Why don't you play online? I gave up on any sort of onlien rp'ing years ago due to the vast hordes of juvenile "dickwad"s out there.

Re: Lore Spell Yeah, a simple detect magic item with discriminatory, and analyze is the way to go. Discriminatory would tell you what the item does, the general school/theme of magic used to create it (divine, necromancy, thaumaturgy, etc.), how many charges it has left (if it uses those), the caster's approximate power level (or at least how much power s/he put into the device), and the like. Analyze would tell you all that as well as the creators name, where they were from, and what they'd had for breakfast the day they created that item.

Does Mind Link allow an affected subject to know the location of other affected subjects (from the same instance of the power)? I'm trying to build a set of communicators that are difficult for foes to jam, detect, or track, but allows the heroes (with the same style of communicator) to find and rescue lost or injured teammates.

Re: independent power supply? Thanks for the suggestions. I especially like the limited 0 end advantage.

Re: Doors, locks, and security systems. building the security systems: depends on what you mean by "security systems" if you just want various types of intrusion alarms, a simple security systems skill will suffice. Cameras and the like are a bit more complex. Check out Champions for some base builds.

How would you model a device that normally draws it's power from a generator, but can run off an internal battery for a short time if the generator is unavailable? I'm modeling the generator with an end reserve, and I know the battery can be modeled as a continuing charge, but how do you model the failover aspect? (charge is not big enough to be an advantage)

Re: END Reserve that begins with 0 END in it? building on bill's idea... a 1-pt End reserve, with 0 recovery. Then buy whatever level of 'increased maximum' as a naked adder , and call it your masochism power.

Re: Were these left out, or no? for an object ot have a power itself, is usually reflected by a lack, or reduced limitations, if this is done as part of world creation. If a player wants to imbue powers on items in game, that'd be transform. To illustrate the first case, let's build an invisible ring that grants it's wearer the power of flight. 15" flight, Reduced End (0 end, +1/2), that's it. If the ring were visible to the naked eye, it would take the focus limitation. Another classic, the throwing axe that automatically returns to it's wielders hand. This would be built as 1d6+1 HKA, Usable at Range (+1/2), Reduced End (0 end, +1/2). Here we simulate the special ability by not taking the recoverable charges limitation (which would require us to manually retrieve the weapon after each use).

Re: Homebrew Defense Applicable Power Advantage Interesting idea, but the advantage would render the level of the base power meaningless. To put it simply, what would the difference be between 5 PD NNO, and 10 PD NNO? Also, how would this affect Armor Piercing and Penetrating attacks? A better idea would be to model the effects with desolid that doesn't work against a certain type of attack, and a similar lim on their other defenses. however, you do have the right idea in making it ineffective against the body of any attack.

Mind scan has penalties for finding an unfamiliar mind. These are negated by a few minutes of mental contact or long term association. However, what happens when you're trying to find somebody based on the telepathic impression from somebody who's had a long term associaion? For example:I've got telepathic contact (at ego +20 lvl) with 'FlunkyBoy' who's been working with Bossman' (the person I'm really looking for) for several weeks to a few months, and is probably thinking about Bossman at this particular moment ("I'm a bit out of my depth here, better call Bossman"). Would this be sufficient to negate the unfamiliarity penalties, would it just reduce the penalties, or make no difference at all? Would it matter if Bossman were within the character's "detect minds" power?

How would you force an npc to make a minor mistake (i.e. misreport crucial info) that they could conceivably make on their own, and remember it as them simply making a mistake? I'm thinking it's some variation on mind control, but can't figure out the exact specifics.

Re: I had a descussion with Steve about buying some Hero's books...

Re: Motion Dependant Predatory Vision I'd say, buy some enhanced perception with the limitation 'only vs. moving/active targets'. Most predators have fairly acute perception, at least within the limits of their normal environment / prey selection.

Re: Extra Time and Constant/Instant Powers If they only have to do gestures, incantations, concentration, etc. to start a power, you use the instant value. For extra time, this would eb the reduced "only to activate" value. If they have to maintain those (keep chanting, concentrating, gesturing, ....) the whole tmie the power is active, it's worth more (typically 2x the normal value), except for extra time. The default mode for extra time is that every use of the power takes the extra time. In your example, every action taken while invisible would take extra time, unless it were purchased as only to activate. (normally maintaining a power is an 'action that takes no time', the limitation changes it to whatever level the Lim is bought at). In short, the less valuable limitations only affect the initial activation, while the higher value ones affect every use of the power.

Re: Images....abuse or no? How context-appropriate are these images? I have trouble conceiving of any static (or even preprogrammed) illusion that wouldn't seem totally out of place following a person around (seeing the same tree/rock/chunk-of-landscape next to them no matter how fast/far they run would be a good tipoff). Read and know the rules on images. Odds are there's a catch in there that would negate just this sort of abuse. Also, if the affected characters get attacked by any weapon or power with visible sfx (which is darn near all of 'em) they'll see the source of the attack, unless the illusion specifically takes this into account. Getting shot by an arrow from a tree would yet another dead give away that 'somethings not right here'.

Re: Telepathy I'd say that if the character's foolish enough to only grab what they think they want, without rummaging around for other useful/relevant info, that's their mistake. Though, I would give them at least a chance to correct that mistake the first time (are you sure you want to go straight for that information?). Of course, that can lead to other fun stuff like making your players worry what evil traps/wrong leads/dangerous secrets the gm might have waiting in that persons mind.

In the ultimate mentalist, the 'background mind' (pg 101) builds a 'hide from mind scan' effect as Reduced Endurance for up to 30 Ego. Can someone explain how reduced endurance equates to an invisibility to mind scan?

Re: Replacing Hexes with Squares If you're going to use a square map, I'd recommend switching to a tape measure for distances (range, movement distance, etc.) as squares do not handle diagonals well. On the other hand, who says walls, furniture, etc. have to follow hex boundaries? In reality, there aren't many spaces can be divided into a number of 6' squares, or even 1 foot squares, for that matter.

Re: Flash and AoE

Re: Limitation comments... This sounds to me like just a flavoring of the boostable charges limitation. You'd take a number of boostable charges with decreased reuse duration defined as 'when I get a chance to care for/repair my weapons', add in Costs end, no STR bonus, and ... voila.

There are a LOT of interesting tricks are represented by the absence of a limitation. (the classic 'bottomless quiver' is nothing more than removing the charges limitation, bouncing your thrown weapon of a surface so it returns to you, etc. ). How would you model the ability to partially nullify one or more limitations on one or more powers (with activation roll as a trick, only in certain circumstances, etc.)? What if you could do this for other characters? Basically I'm trying to make a power that nullifies another powers limitations?

5er mentions that you can use the sticky advantage to allow a continuos AoE power continue to affect people even after they leave the area of effect. However the book doesn't provide a value for this effect alone. In other words, what's the cost of Sticky only to keep an AoE effects continue beyond the boundaries of the AoE (without it's usual "contagious" effect)?

I've seen this misconception a LOT here on the boards, and even in my group a few times: that the autofire mechanic for successive hits is a penalty. Actually, it's nothing of the sort. If ya read the description carefully you'll notice that it's more a level of success type thing. I don't know of ANY advantage that causes a penalty for using it. It's very similar to the 'level of effect' mechanic used for mental powers, except you don't have to declare the target level before hand, just how many shots you're attempting. Have any GM's out there ever allowed psl's for autofire? and if so; how did it work out, balance-wise?

Re: Bracing and Haymaker You're either overthinking this, bnakagawa, or you're just arguing for the sake of argument. Modifiers from manuevers that are used in combat become - drum roll please - "combat modifiers", and follow the standard CV calculation checklist. If you really want to get technical about it, than when you're applying manuever mods in step 4, you'd apply them according to the same list for all other combat modifiers, thus you'd apply the -5 dcv, then halve the result.

Re: When success is a failure As for the rules issue, use a logarithmic scale to link success level with results. Thus: succeeding by 7 is little different than succeeding by 6, while succedding by 3 is much better than succeeding by 1. As my dimensional manipulator (who DOES understand multi-dimensional, and hence temporal, physics) would say ... Bah, stupid neanderthals. The reason "nobody can understand temporal physics" is because you persist in viewing it as a single axis along which everybody travels together. This is simply not the case. To use the example, if you go back and kill your grandfather, you'll still exist, you'd just be a complete stranger to the entire world. You'd still remember your own childhood and past since you acquired those memories while in the timeline where your grandfather didn't suffer an untimely death.