dstarfire

I'm using Danger portal (xd6 energy blast, variable sfx, variable +1/2 advantages) from the USPD, and need help coming up with descriptiosn for some of the varying power effects. If it's not obvious from the name, this power creates a portal between various places (i.e. surface of the sun) and your opponent. Some advantages I'm having trouble coming up with sfx for: explosion (and various AoEs) armor piercing / penetrating Autofire Sticky I'd like to limit the char to near-earth phenomena, if possible.

Re: Multipower of naked modifiers... please help Actually, your math is incorrect. You've already paid for the Str in your attributes section, so all you'd have to pay for would be the additional cost for the advantage, which comes out to a much more palatable 35 pts. To calculate the cost for naked advantages I usually use the formula: AP X advantage cost (would be 20 x 1.75 in the example). I'm surprised everybody's missed this error so far.

Re: How often is the Skill: Acting used by your characters? In my campaign, acting gets used all the time. Any time somebody wants to do a feint, pretend to do or be something their not ("I'm going to walk down the hall as if I belong there"). Basically any time a character tries to lie or deceive somebody else they have to make an acting check. It's so common that my current character has 9 pts invested in it.

Re: Question for Killer Shrike

Re: Dual-Type Explosions....

Re: Trading up with Skill Levels If you ever wonder if you can do something with a skill, perk, etc. just build it as a power construct and see how it looks. I've overcome many confusions that way.

Re: Thought I understood MP, maybe I don't?

Re: dietary quirks / religious rules for a character After a bit of thought (and only reading the first 2 replies to this thread) I eventually came to the same conclusion as Thia. Namely, to use the "only while serving god's purposes" limitation on the relavent powers. While having to follow a certain moral/philosophical code wouldn't normally be that much of a limitation since breaking it entirely a voluntary act, in this particular case, it's possible for the character to 'accidentally' break this code. I'm basing the concept of an old Eddie Murphy movie "The Golden Child". For those of you who haven't seen it, there's a scene where the 'golden child' is given what looks like a normal boal of oatmeal, but contains some blood at the bottom, or a bit of butterfly wing, etc. Due to some mystic awareness, he realizes it's tainted. My character, however, is a teenage boy, so I'm betting something might slip his awareness occassionally. On a side note for Thia: how does one use magic spell to atone for a transgression, when that transgression prevents you from using that type of magic anymore?

Trying to build some disads for an eastern-style mystic. The concept I'm having trouble with is the different rules he has to do to maintain his powers. I'd like to use the effects from dependence for this, but how do I build the things he CAN'T do? for example, if he eats meat or consumes the flesh of another living being he loses his powers (or they become less effective, fail occassionally, etc.) until he re-purifies himself (through meditation, prayer, etc.).

Re: Ambidexterty- too expensive? Dust Raven is correct. Unfamiliar weapon is a -3, same as unfamiliar weapon. However, all that junk can be eliminated by buying your weapons with character pts. Just one of the small prices you pay for that 80-100% price break.

Re: Keelhauling - in space! In some novels I've read, the alienness of 'otherspace' outside a vessel engaged in FTL travel was distinctly unpleasant, to the point of causing madness after several hours.

Re: Easily forgotten IIRC erasing memories was specifically given as an example of a mental transform. However using transform, or even mind control for this ability would get very kludgy and very expensive. Invisibility to all sense groups is fairly cheap by comparison. The luck option also works pretty well. It'd also give you a way to determine how much of you they 'forget' (your face, your general appearance, the fact that you're present at all, etc.). Of course, no matter how you build it you're going to need a good deal of GM handwaiving.

Re: So, what do YOU want out of hero? What I want is a system that lets me build any character concept I can conceive of (or copy from pop media) even if it's an unholy hodgepodge of a dozen different archetypes. Oh yeah, it has to do this and handle almost anything else without resorting to dozens of slapbooks. Hero does this all pretty well. Even better, there's only 3 products you really need to enjoy the full functionality of hero: 5er, UMA (for expanded and custom manuever options), and hero designer (for all the "crunchy bits" that aren't in the main book).

Re: Superfluous Powers Hmmm, I'm surprised nobody mentioned growth or shrinking. Rulebook explicitly states they can be easily built using other powers ("... for characters who are always unusually big/small, construct similar effects using other powers") Swinging's always been one of my pet peeves. A special power construct that's really in comic book settings. On the other hand, I'd recommend adding a section on 'common power constructs' that'd cover all things like swinging, swimming, regeneration, etc. While not powers in their own right, they still have a distinctly different effect than the parent power.

I'm trying to do martial arts via telekinesis and am having some trouble understanding the rules for martial arts, as they apply to TK and being used at range. Can melee martial manuevers be used at range via telekinesis? In building custom manuevers, should I use the ranged or melee element costs? Do you have to pay extra to do this, and if so, how do you calculate the cost? I've been through the UMA section about advantaged manuevers, but what it doesn't address what to do when the str being used with the manuever already has the desired advantages.

Re: Build me an a'dam Actually, I think the killing male channelers would be more of a Side Effect as it's obviously not a desired result (instead of a handy male slave they get a useless corpse), nor can it really be used advantageously.

Re: Build me an a'dam iirc, one of the three oaths was to not use the power as a weapon except in self-defense. The aes seda used a ter'angreal (the rod of something-or-other) that made made a person unable to break any oaths sworn while holding it. In that case, the target would already have those three oaths as a physical limitation, and since the transform wouldn't include removing that limitation ...

Re: A third sense type This argument brings us back to the original point: How do you build an active sense where the transmitter is seperate from the receiver? One of the problems with a passive sense is that it cannot detect obfuscation. If something blocks the flow of information (light, RF, etc.) from transmitter to receiver, it'll be detected, even if it is totally undetectable otherwise. This is one of the core benefits of an active sense: the perceiver's actions determine the effectiveness of their senses, not the object being perceived. Only with an active sense is the lack of sensory input (i.e. the absence of a return signal) information. No radar return means open space, a spot of black means something. What does silence mean when there's no noise? What does tasteless mean when you're not licking something? What does an odorless gas smell like?

Re: Build me an a'dam Seems like everybody's getting too locked up on the PAIN aspect of the item. Causing pain is only the mechanism used to achieve the goal of making the damane into a slave (or in hero-speak, it's the sfx used to achieve the Effect of making ...) . I think Eosin had the right idea with a transform, though Dust Raven hit the modifiers pretty much right on. My suggestion: Xd6 mental transform (depending on your campaign level) to slave with: 'usable by others (x1)' for all channeling-based powers some sort of mind link/telepathy/clairsentience construct (iirc, suldam could sense a damane's thoughts and physical sensations) See Dust Raven's post for the modifiers. Though, I'd add an rsr onto it with the sul'dam pitting their sul'daminess against the target's resistance or ego. Also, didn't it take a few days or weeks to really 'break' the damane.

Currently hero has 2 sense types: passive, which simply receives sensory information produced by the 'target' (or the target's interaction with it's environment); and active which broadcasts some sort of signal and senses how that signal is reflected/refracted by the surrounding environment. There's a variation of active that isn't very well addressed in the rules: active, with an independent transmitter. A perfect example of this is sight. In most cases, the sensory information gathered via sight isn't directly produced by the target, but rather how the target reflects/refracts that light. Another good example would be a tracking device (the transmitter is attached to the device you're tracking, and the receiver is carried by yourself). I'm sure we could come up with dozens more. Has anybody ever come up with some rules for building an active sense that has the receiver seperate from the transmitter? On a side note, this is why 'create light' effects are built with Images, rather than Change Environment, or some such.

Re: Favorite Abuse extra time (1 hour, only to activate) + persistent. Add in a life support no sleep of similar construction and you've got a char who spends a morning activating all his powers at the start of the campaign and is good to go forevermore.

Re: Favorite Abuse Actually the tunable option for forcefields was mentioned in an issue of digital hero. However, I'm pretty sure it was one of those gm's option tuype of things

What seemingly bizarre rules issue(s) have you encountered and how did they come up? I'd especially like to find out how about that one in the faq, about a pregnant woman's defenses applying to the fetus. Please, share your stories - and, hopefully, some laughter -.

Re: Multiform and OIHID Yes, there are ways to get around the obviousness of a heroic identity, but most all of them require the expenditure of additional points, or significant effort. Like the Gestures and Incantations limitations, a heroic identity should be fairly obvious and unusual. Sure you can disguise incantations by doing them in the middle of a shouting crowd, a sound-proofed room, etc. but most of the time it's still going to be fairly obvious. Take your example of the hulk in a trenchcoat a bit further: his face is still going to be green, he's still going to look like some sort of steroid experiment gone horribly wrong, he'll sound like barbarian. Even if he somehow conceals all that, any passers-by are going to be wondering why this guy's wearing a trenchcoat in the middle of summer, without an inch of skin showing and doesn't say a word to anybody. It's not their appearance that dictates the use of their powers, it's being able to use those powers that dictates their appearance. On the other hand, for OIHID to be a valid limitation, there MUST be some other identity in which they spend a majority of the time. Otherwise it's not limiting in any way. Anyways, it's your game, your call. I just wanted to point out some other aspects of the issue you may not have considered. Too often people fail to see both sides of the issue.

Re: Multiform and OIHID Just to play devil's advocate: OIHID is somewhat limiting even with the multiform construct you described. Even with the multi-form construction, Bruno could theoretically still pose as a 'normal', albeight unusually strong, person. If he were to do this, any powers with the OIHID limitation would not function, as a heroic identity is supposed to be pretty obvious, iirc. Additionally, if there's no added time on the multi-power, he could change into his superpowered alter-ego as a zero phase action. 'getting into costume' (i.e. switching to heroic identity) takes is normally a full phase action. Of course, most GM's I've seen only allow characters with the secret id disad to use the oihid limitation.