BrandonQ

Re: Is OAF worth a -1 limitation? Yes, it's very much worth the -1 limitation. Just look at it this way: If you have an OAF, you have the One Ring. Everyone knows that you have it, pretty much immediately, and that it's the source of your power. Plus, they can quite easily take it from you! *smiles* One way or another, it's going to cause all kinds of trouble.

Re: Powered Armor: OIF versus OIHID I'll do the quote for you, since I checked and you are in fact right: "However, someone taking one Turn out of combat can take an Inaccessible Focus away from a character. An Inaccessible Focus cannot be removed from a character who is struggling or resisting." Note that this is /outside/ of combat, and generally doesn't work unless the target is letting you do so. I'd consider this to be the invocation of 'quick release' safeguards, ripping off clothes, and otherwise removing stuff from a willing victim very very quickly. I.e., it's an exception to how long it needs to take to remove something (the absolute fastest time), as opposed to "everything that's accessible can be removed in one combat turn."

Re: Power duration I generally have to build such things as continuing charges. That's really the only effective way I've found to build things with a decent 'duration'.

Re: Disad Advice How much, if at all, having red skin is depends on the setting. In any superhero game I ran, I could easily see it being SOME kind of distinctive feature in general. Even at the "causes a strong reaction" level, in some cases, depending on the exact setting. Not everyone runs four-color stuff, and red skin is pretty weird looking. However, if he's only red-skinned when /NOT/ in Earth-oxygen, and the game isn't set in space or something, then I wouldn't give him any points. I agree that the dependencies are just silly. Hawks'moore has it right; IF that's a limitation at all (decide yourself; will it come up), then he should just buy the stats with a -1/4 limitation. This strikes me as someone taking advantage of the system, either on purpose or without knowing any better.

Re: Super Skills One of my favorite 'super-skill' constructions -- note that I didn't give this a required skill roll, simply because it was supposed to go beyond that. It was for a fantasy game, for a character who was SOOO good at seduction that it wasn't just a skill anymore. It'd easily fit in modern games, though, and is in fact a staple of the spy genre "Flirting" (8d6 of Mind Control). You can take some limited control over men by playing with them. Reduced Endurance (0 END, +1/2), Does Not Provide Mental Awareness (-1/4), Limited Class of Minds (Only Works on Men, -1/2), Only to Inspire Love toward Her (-1), Concentration (1/2 DCV, -1/4), Extra Time (1 turn; -1 1/4), Restrainable (-1/2), Must Actually Flirt With Target (-1/4).

Re: How to Build: "Wreaths of Holy Fire" Okay, I've been doing more reading and such and I think I understand a bit more of my misapprehensions. A lot of them came from other game systems. I didn't think about "Multi-Power Attacks", for instance, and was firm on the idea that you can only attack once in a phase. So, this is obviously just a Energy Bolt with some limitations added in. I'm assuming that it should be OIF? Since it's hard to 'take away' the power. While a Demon could disarm the character for one battle, that'd just last until the character could get his hands on *any* other sword. So, inaccessible. Am I correct in this thinking? If it required one particular sword, or some kind of special sword (one blessed by a high priest or something), it'd presumably be Accessible. Oh, and Caris -- that's a very cool idea and a very workable one. Not quite what I wanted to do, but it could make a very cool ability for some other character with a similar motif.

Re: Variable Power Levels for Heroes Oooh, very good question. This is one of those "in the source material," issues that doesn't work as well in a lot of roleplaying games. I mean, in Super-teams, how often is every individual member of the group balanced with all the others? Even the X-Men have their 'heavy hitters'. Nevermind other groups. The Authority, for instance, has a number of interesting roles. Apollo versus Swift, for instance? So it's definately the kind of thing that has potential. However, in Roleplaying games, you'd have to have players that are mature enough to not care about the 'power imbalance'. Supreme's method strikes me as an extremely good one, since it gives everyone their own niche. In a way it makes Hero a bit 'class based'. You've got the Combat class, the Non-Combat class, and the crossover class. This helps eliminate some of the problems. There's less worry about "someone else having a stronger character", because there are still things you can do that this other person can't. As noted, however, there are still other problems such as how to make combat interesting for both. I'd say that the solution is not to hugely worry about it. Just make sure that the game focuses on non-Combat stuff, as well.

Re: How to Build: "Wreaths of Holy Fire" Whoops, put it in the wrong board:) Oh well. Thanks! A lot of very good advise here, and I see exactly how I would do something like this now. The one problem I see is that 'add-on' damage to another attack seems like it'd be some kind of advantage. After all, it wouldn't require it's own attack roll -- only the attack roll of the attack that it's adding onto. As for the "Holy" damage bit, Dust Raven, that is indeed something that I added here because of the Vulnerable/Susceptible disadvantages. I've got a few Demons that I've written up that have those disadvantages to Holy types of damage. Also, the section on page 70 notes that sometimes special effects can give minor benefits and drawbacks in and of itself:D I'm not sure exactly what minor type deals a Holy weapon would have -- maybe like "fire" damage can warm you, "holy" damage can be used to see if there's a susceptible being nearby or something:) The drawback would be that it also warns the beings that there's a holy demon-hunter nearby. Neither of those sound impressive enough to be worth an additional power (not as impressive as a Detect with Side-effects, for instance). Just a hand story-thing, now and again:) Anyway, thanks for all the help!

I'm working on a magical sword, and I'm having a hard time deciding exactly how I should build a specific magical ability for it. How do you build a sword that does additional damage of a different kind, especially if it should be applied to the defenses separately or is otherwise 'different' than just another +2d6 HKA? For instance, a "Flametongue" sword that's wreathed in flame or a Holy Blade that does extra damage against demons?? Similarly, how would you build a power that let you add on 'extra holy/fire/whatever damage' to any weapon you were holding?