Fnord23

Re: THE ULTIMATE BASE -- What Do *You* Want To See? How about a sample superhero base, and then the same base modified after the heros have donated several points for base expansion? Is ther going to be a "Mastermnind Option" Circa old school champions? Are Agents (followers) rules included?

Re: Does anyone really roll 30D6? Ummm.... Hell yeah. I ran a mostly marvel based Champs (severely mutated) campaign for many years in college. One of the bricks threw around 24 dice haymakers. He got in a combat with a damage absorption (to strength) monster i created that just could not tag him for a several turns. When he finally connected with a haymaker his strength was at 155. (31 dice). The knockback was out of the building (through a nearby building) and into a construction yard. He landed at 30 dice damage. (Bad luck roll made the landing surface jagged rock.) Honestly. in my campaign Juggy could do 22 dice with a standard punch, and up to 26 or 28 dice with various maneuvers, but the real HIGH damage was created by knockback effects out of tall buildings. High altitude falls onto cement or into things like a razor blade factory did the most damage. 30 Dice was not uncommon. Oddly, no one ever died from it though. My group really point crunched (cheated) in building their characters. It took AP/PEN AF Killing attacks or being hit with an exploding car to do that.... (15 year campaign three character deaths) I left out: This was a 235 starting point campaign.

Re: Monster Island I was disappointed with this product. What I was hoping for was a more "Giant Monster" Kaiju/Tokusatsu genre book. What it is, is a good settings book for Champions. What it has is pretty good, but I was hoping for so much more like: Rules on running really BIG monsters. i.e. what happens when a 100 meter lizard steps on your Volvo? etc. What are the effects of two HUMONGOUS creatures slugging it out in downtown 'insert roleplaying city here'? Rules for really big HEAVY fists and tails etc. (Area affect attacks based on size and weight) How does size and weight change Knockback for these creatures, they would have loads of knockback resistance, but if you have ever seen a Godzilla movie the monsters get knocked back, only the buildings they hit crumble like the cardboard models they are.....how does that work in Champions? (Possibly the damage the creature does to the object it hits is modified by the weight/size of the creature?) I bought the book, and I do like it, but I would also EAGERLY buy any book with Kaiju expansion/genre rules. I hope such a thing is considered in the future. There is such a wealth of source material, you have Ultraman, Gamera, Godzilla, , Rodan, Space Giants, Johnny Sokko, Spectreman and so many others. This is such fun stuff, it would be great to roleplay.

Re: How to...Power Amplifiers... I mean it's not really a focus, because the power is there without the focus, however the power works differently with the focus. Argh! I am confused!

I wanted to make a character with raw power but very limited control over it. When he puts on his powered armor suit he can focus his powers much better and get much better results. For example, what if the char has a 12d6 EB (defined as an electric shock) with the limitation no range, but in his suit he can make the attack at range. How would you do that? Two separate powers in a multipower? One with the range limitation, one without but with an OIF limitation? This would me MORE expensive than a simple 12d6 eb! That doesn't seem right for a limited power. What if he could leap great distances without the suit but actually fly with it? Have any of you ever created a char like this? Any ideas how to go about it?

Looking for input on this. How would you make a character that has a power that is always on except when he is using some sort of dampener. One example is DC's Human bomb. He explodes on contact with anything unless he is wearing his protective suit. A similar idea is a Ghost like character who is always desolid unless he is carrying his personal protoplasm alignment unit. So the idea I have is the char has some power that is always on, but has a focus of some sort that allows them to turn the power off. Is it a limitation on the power, or a seperate physical limitation? What do you think?

Re: Martial Arts, Weapons, STR, and HA's Q Sorry, Dead Guy. I left something out. If that (1d6)HA were bought as a weapon doing "Normal" Damage in a Super Hero Campaign then there is no limit to the amount of DC's you can add. Yes the added damage from STR is limited to 5 otherwise, but the result stands as is.

Two rules when used together in the section "Adding Damage" on pages 405-409 of 5ed revised appear to have an unbalancing effect. Please read entire post before flaming me. 1) As stated on page 405 the general rule when increasing damage is "a character cannot more than double the Damage Classes of his BASE attack; no matter how many different methods he uses to add damage". I love this rule, I swear by it. 2) One exception to this rule is : Normal Damage Weapons in a SH Campaign. A superhero can use a 20 Str and use a (10d6) club HA for example. (Page 405). 3) BASE Damage for an HA as Str + HA. In this case (6d6). 4) Here is where the problem starts: Under the heading Adding Damage to Attacks With Advantages on Page 407 it mentions that "Damage bonuses from Haymakers, Martial Maneuvers and CSLs are not affected by Advantages. They add to the attack at the same rate and by the same rules as they do to an attack with no Advantages." 5) Compounding the interest: On page 408 it mentions that you can effectively double the effective dice of an attack with advantages using your strength. (Under Heading Strength and Advantaged HA's). 6) Putting it all together: I have a player in a Supers campaign who bought a (3d6) Martial Maneuver With Double Penetrating and Autofire. (Total +1.5 He could have just as easily bought it AP, Pen., AF) This was bought as a weapon. (See 2 above: no effective upper limit.) Effective Cost 37.5. He can double this with his strength up to (6d6) (Per 5 above, so far so good and I have no problem yet.) but is now arguing that since it is a Martial Maneuver he can perform this with Martial Strike and add an additional 2DC up to 8d6. Offensive Strike would add 4DC and take it up to 10d6! He argues that his BASE damage is 6d6 and so this is totally legal. Furthermore since the rule sated in 4 above says that Martial Maneuvers are not affected by advantages, he does not have to pay any more points. That gives him an effective Active point power of 125 points for the cost of 37.5 points. (Okay you have to spend 5 points on the Off Str and 4 Points on the Martial Strike but so what.) He says this is because the Base damage of the attack is Strength + Maneuver, and anyway because it is a weapon there is no upper limit (per 2 above). I argue the following: A) Page 408 clearly states that you can effective use your strength to double the non-modified dice of an advantaged attack. It does not mention if you can stack MA Maneuver DC's on top of this. In several places when dealing with MA DC's you show that when adding DC's to a Nerve Strike each 2DC = 1 Die of damage. Some similar rule should be in place for Attacks with Modifiers. My argument: Normal Dmaage attacks with lots of disadvantages are no longer "Normal", or at least don't act like it. (Adding DC's should be done in a manner like the rules for Adding DC's from Movement on Page 409. Totally logical.) C) I believe this is unbalancing when a player can pay for a (3d6) attack with +1.5 modifier and get (10d6) without paying for the modifier on the remaining (7d6). I believe The rule for Strength and Martial Maneuvers were not intended to be used together in this manner. D) Side note: Since BASE = STR + HA using his reasoning you could buy a (1d6) HA with +2 Adv. for 15 points. If your Strength is 10, your BASE is (3d6). So the max damage is (6d6). You could use you stength to double the intial (1d6), to (2d6). . You could use an Offensive Strike (5 points) to effectively give you +4DC or (6d6) AP, Penetrating, Autofire, Affects Desolid for 20 points. 90 Active for 20 spent. Something must be wrong here. I cannot believe a system as mathematically beautiful and balanced as this was intended to be interpreted this way. Please help.

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack Actually I am playing with the transform idea. A 1 pip Major transform continuous with 1 continuing charge for 1 week etc. etc. would do it. It works against power defense, so NND isn't necessary really, but I want to give the Disease immunity out so I will keep it. You found a way to make it even cheaper. Grats. There must be a bug with Hero Builder because it says the Area of effect is 3". And yes I expect the heros to beat it, just not with clean shorts. P.S.: Megascale at +1 1/2 would affect 7 Billion too, and it's in the rule book.

Re: Evil Idea: Doomsday Disease Attack Well first off, you are right, I need Continuous. I checked the char sheet, and I did buy continous Just forgot to mention it in my post. OOPS. Secondly, the Transformation attack would work almost exactly like I want, but it is a bit too complicated don't you think? Personally, I like my "Contagious +1" suggestion better. Like I said I could always just megascale it for +1 1/2. If I could Megascale an attack to hit the whole world, then a simple +1 for Contagious on top of Sticky is justifiable IMHO. Especially since it is a lot less powerful than a +1 1/2 Megascale. Why pay the points for a godawful Transformation attack? Thanks for the advice though. You proabably found the "Rules Proper" way to simulate this attack.

I wanted to simulate a Doomday Disease on a Master Villian. (I am the GM) Basically when he dies he releases a disease into the wild that spreads like wildfire wiping out (he hopes) humanity. Here is what I got so far. It is a RKA 1 Pip (5 points active). NND+1 (Disease Immunity or self contained Breathing is the Defense) Does Body +1 Area of Effect Radius (Unselective) +3/4 1 Charge (Continuous lasting a week) +1/2 Sticky + 1/2 Trigger +1/4 (Activates upon Characters death no conscious control.) and to top it off, Invisible Power Effects +1 to represent microbes that cannot be seen. No Range -1/2 The problem: According to Steve (and FRED Revised), Although this is what I want to simulate, Sticky will not transfer to second, third or further degree contacts. It only affects people that touch the body firsthand. This kills my evil plot dead. Any suggestions? I suggested having to buy multiple sticky to simulate the "Contagious" effect, but he did not comment on it. I will probably institute a "Contagious +1" advantage that has to be bought on top of Sticky in my campaign. I don't have to do this, I could always use a megascale +1 1/2 to infect the earth instantly instead. Anyone out there got a better idea? Here is one thing I also noted. The powers as I have listed them are pretty nasty in combination, and only costs 27 points. Right now people start dying as soon as they come to close to the body. A dead give away. However, if the power is bought with an additional Time Delay +1/4 set at one hour... It still only costs 27 Points! Then the poor saps that touch the body (or come within 3") won't realize they are contagious! They would go around infecting everyone for one hour until their bodies start melting! The fools! Mwahahahaha! Am I being too evil... What do you people think? Is this too much? I am just playing with the most versatile system out there. Not trying to break it. Ideas? Comments? Suggestions? Words of Evil Praise?

I want to simulate a Napalm Gun. I'll keep it simple. (1D6) RKA Continuous Charge. That lasts a Minute. (Buy it with the limitation can be put extinguished with water, sand, etc. pretty nasty stuff.) Here is the question: Character 1 is hit with the Napalm and is set on fire. Character 2 stupidly touches Character 1 so he is on fire as well. Is the Napalm on Character 2 Sticky as well? That is, if Character 3 hugs Character 2 does she burst into flame? This is how I want it to work, but the rules are unclear. If not, do you need to buy Sticky multiple times? If you do, I suggest Calling Double-Sticky "Contagious" to simulate the uncontrolled spread. Also, am I correct in assuming the whole fire goes out 1 minute after character 1 is hit?

Re: Help! Would You Allow This? Doesn't matter she is a light based char that WANTS to be seen.

Got a very clever character and only the unrevised Hero System 5th edition book. Here's my problem: It seems to me that buying the following limitaton "Concentration only for activation -1/2" on a constant power and then buying the power to 0 end is a WEAK CHEAT. Heres what I mean: CONCENTRATION ONLY FOR ACTIVATION FOR A 0 END POWER EXAMPLE: USE THIS DISAD FOR ALL YOU POWERS: Concentrate in the morning to turn your powers on and then never turn them off. You bought them to 0 end, so why not? (Well IMHO because then you are never affected by the 0 dcv while concentrating except for that 1 phase a day that's why!) Mind you, the player has to concentrate again if they ever lose consciousness, but is that worth the or -1/2 disad? The character in question bought Flight to 0 end and put the Concentration limitation on it. To make things worse she is parapalegic and cannot walk. (Who needs to walk when you can fly literally all day long?) In a revamp of the char she put the same limit on her force field. (bought to 0 end of course.) I don't want to allow this but is my justification strong enough? BTW She is also trying to buy the "full phase only to activate -1/4" Disad on these as well. So it's obvious she will never turn the powers off once they are on. Would you allow it??? I am squeamish about it myself. Is there anything about this in the errata? How about the revised Fred?

Got a very clever character and only the unrevised Hero System 5th edition book. Here's my problem: It seems to me that buying the following limitaton "Concentration only for activation -1/2" on a constant power and then buying the power to 0 end is a WEAK CHEAT. Heres what I mean: CONCENTRATION ONLY FOR ACTIVATION FOR A 0 END POWER EXAMPLE: USE THIS DISAD FOR ALL YOU POWERS: Concentrate in the morning to turn your powers on and then never turn them off. You bought them to 0 end, so why not? (Well IMHO because then you are never affected by the 0 dcv while concentrating except for that 1 phase a day that's why!) Mind you, the player has to concentrate again if they ever lose consciousness, but is that worth the or -1/2 disad? The character in question bought Flight to 0 end and put the Concentration limitation on it. To make things worse she is parapalegic and cannot walk. (Who needs to walk when you can fly literally all day long?) In a revamp of the char she put the same limit on her force field. (bought to 0 end of course.) I don't want to allow this but is my justification strong enough? BTW She is also trying to buy the "full phase only to activate -1/4" Disad on these as well. So it's obvious she will never turn the powers off once they are on. Would you allow it??? I am squeamish about it myself. Is there anything about this in the errata? How about the revised Fred?