Gravitron

Two things here.. First: "possibly even divide like bacteria forever" Well.. That's like giving a character infinite growth or an unlimited amount of any power. So nix on that. Second, I think the easy thing to do is just give the original character as much maximum duplication as you want (like 128 dupes or whatever), and then say that the special effect is dupes creating dupes. I'm not sure it would really matter. The character would get a benefit from the point of origin of new dupes being at range but also a limitation since he couldn't dupe instantly to his full amount because he has to dupe from dupes. Could always apply an advanatage or disadvantage modifier if you think that it is appropriate.

Looking at Volume 2 of Hero 6e in the "Living in a Dangerous World" section (pg 147), you can see that Chemical damage is listed per segment and in the Electricity section it talks about per segment damage as well. I think its reasonable to assume that it is meant as per segment damage. But.. like anything else.. if it seems excessive to you scale it back. :-)

I think the better way to do this is with Aid to OCV and DCV rather than levels. One really shouldn't be putting advantages and disadvantages on levels if it can be avoided IMO. I was recently working on a character who is prescient and I wanted pretty much the same power. The ability to aid her teamates with her knowledge of the future ("He's going to attack from behind! Watch out!"). Aid OCV and DCV work well for this.. but I think some of the write-ups above have the wrong cost of such a thing. It is quite expensive. Remember that according to the rules for Aids, Drains, etc. Modifying combat stats is 1/2 as effective. So 3d6 of Aid to OCV or DCV would cost 18 points. 36 points if you wanted to affect both at once with a fixed ratio of 1 to 1. The other way is to have +1/2 advantage Expanded Effect, which for some reason is more cost effective (only 27 points). :-) This would yield on and average roll of 10, 10 points of Aid to each stat, which would translate into 5 points of effective Aid, so 1 OCV & 1 DCV on an average roll. But keep in mind, if you rolled an 8 or less you would get no benefit at all since you can't get 1/2 of an OCV/DCV point (9 would give you the benefit of round-up). I also agree with psyber624 on the limitations.

As others have said: 1) You can most certainly chop down a tree.. or break a wall.. or destroy any physical object with an attack. There is a section of Hero 6e called "Breaking Things" (page 170, volume 2). 2) You can pick up opponents weapons and use them in the combat you find them. Like grabbing a gun and shooting it. HOWEVER, you can not keep the weapon unless you buy it with points (the reasons for this are many and we won't go into this discussion here). ALSO, unless you are already familiar with the weapon (Weapon Familiarity) you are going to have negative modifiers to do so. If you pick up up a sword and don't know how to fight with a sword, you might be just as likely to hurt yourself as anyone else. Same for any other weapon. Imagine grabbing a whip and trying to use it effectively. Or forgetting to take the safety off a gun.

This sort of thing always has multiple solutions, the key being how you actually want it to behave in game. If you are thinking of it like multiple beings that merge to become one super-being then duplication is probably a good way to go. The "super" form has all the abilities and buys the duplication while the duplicates don't have all the powers of the original and the original can not use those abilities when duplicated. That's a fairly "simple" write up IMO. But you might also need other abilities like Inivisibility or Desolid that only work for the duplicates depending on what their form is and how easily they can be seen and attacked. It's likely to be quite expensive overall though because of the duplication which is really a hinderance not a helpful power. Making this approach unappealing for actual play. For a villain it is fine though.. 'cause who cares about points, etc for a villain? I wrote up a player character like this where the hero was actually a ghost-like (bio-energy) alien that inhabited his "secret ID". His duplication power split him into the alien and the normal human. The combined form was the base and then he had most of his super-hero abilities (like Deoslidification, etc) bought only usable when duplicated.

This: http://s743.photobucket.com/user/larsb888/media/Centipede_zpsa7f14eff.jpg.html Was my first attempt.. its not bad. Done with Champions Online and photoshop. and another more recent attempt: http://s743.photobucket.com/user/larsb888/media/Centipedenew4_zpsc31cf188.jpg.html They both leave something to be desired.

Also, keep in mind that the Detect at its base level is NOT a "sense" at all.. so it takes a 1/2 action to use it. And yes.. he can assign it to a sense group (unless he wants it to be a "special" sense in no group). This comes with an up-side (you get free modifiers) and a down-side (it gets flashed with that group).

EXACTLY! I always use a screen for this reason. You never want the heroes to feel they haven't earned the victory. I really should have used your numbers when making up my examples, but consider that a normal attack does (on average) 3.5 * #d6 in damage.. So that's 67 points on a 18d6 attack (90 AP). That's a ton. A hero with 25 defense is likely to take 40+ stun and could easily take 50 or more. That is a one shot. Of course that won't be the case for someone with 1/2 damage reduction on top of that.. but be careful. I certainly have villains with 90 AP powers (or more), but I carefully consider the actual effectiveness of the attack. Generally, like Greywind said, I don't bother trying to "balance" the villains. I just give them the powers I want them to have and consider the effect of their attacks (and defenses) compared to the average values the heroes are likely to be throwing around. Consider.. a 6d6 NND (60 AP) is going average 21 points and be plenty effective against anyone that doesn't have the defense. A couple shots of that and most heroes will be going down. Now consider 6d6 NND, AE.. That's 90 AP and going to be very ugly. I don't have anyone in my game with that. :-) On the other hand.. one of my boss villians has a 110 point multipower with Aquatic summoning and control. Because it fits.. But summoning a whale is hardly going to bother the heroes much. And then.. there is my re-write of Blackstar who at 415 points is the most dangerous guy they've ever seen.. with up to a 75 strength and up to 45 PD/ED. It doesn't take a lot of points to be crazy tough. :-)

I look at the average dice my heroes are throwing and gauge defenses from that. I look at the average defense my heroes have and gauge damage from that. I look at OCV/DCV and gauge DCV/OCV from that. For instance.. the main character in my game is a MA/Blaster with 11d6 attack OCV 9, DCV 8 with 2 levels for martial arts and a 26 PD/ED So.. villains that are approximately equal to him are gunna throw 10-12d6, have OCV/DCV around 8-10 and approximately 24-27 PD/ED. NOW.. Here are a few things to consider... 1) You have 4 heroes that can gang up on any one char (the same goes for villains but you can control this). This means if your villain defenses aren't decent they will drop like flies. 2) Giving your villains lots of levels instead of OCV/DCV makes your life more complicated during combat.. and combat is complicated enough as it is. :-) 3) STUN is the great equalizer. Giving your villains a bunch of stun is a good way to allow your players to smack your villains around while not having them go unk instantly. 4) Players will ALWAYS surprise you and perform better than you expect. This is because the players are MUCH more familiar with their own characters than you are with the villains you write. All they have to think about is what they will do. You have to decide actions for multiple villains. They also get all the time in the world to think about it (while other stuff is happening). and finally... What you write down on a villain sheet is not set in stone. Hardly an encounter happens in my game where I don't adjust the villains on the fly as I notice they are not balanced quite the way I want. I fudge rolls, alter defense, change OCV/DCV etc all for the sake of the "feel" of the game. I just make sure the players don't know it is going on so it doesn't affect their enjoyment of the session. :-)

The way it works is this: If you start up the game without ever having played before.. they tried to make the costume editor simpler so you wouldn't get swamped with the myriad of options. So your first char you have very limited options on the menus. Once you log in, do the tutorial (and maybe get your first char to 10th level - which is very easy) then you have access to the full menus for any subsequent costumes you create. At that point, any costume that you could buy from their "C-Store" will be available in the editor (there is a check box to see or not see them). Then you can make costumes in the editor and take a screen shot of it without every loggin in. I do this a lot because i don't "own" all the sets. There are also many pieces you can only get in game through various methods (drops, purchase from Auction House, farm, etc). I have spent quite a bit of in game time buying and unlocking these other pieces but you can make tons of amazing things without that. In addition, in game there are now "auras" that allow your character to look like they have fiery eyes, or exude sparkles etc, which are great for making certain types of looks, but these can only be done in game not in the costume editor. In summary.. I highly recommend downloading the game.. make a char.. and getting them to 10th level to unlock the whole editor. Then make all the amazing costumes you want and never log in again if you like. I know the ability to create the characters/villains I have envisioned (and written up) adds a huge amount to my games. And certainly a ton to the enjoyment of reffing. Sometimes I design a villain then make the costume.. sometimes it's the other way around.

Ever since I discovered the Champions Online costume creator I restarted my Champions pen and paper game and started making costumes like crazy. I've become somewhat of an expert so here are some of the results: My most popular costume ever: "Iron Chef" http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/IronChef_zps6f218a54.jpg~original My friends say this is one of my best: "Komodo" http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/Komodo2_zps14019293.jpg~original Orignally she was orange and black as the name implies but this costume is prettier.. maybe I'll go back and change colors: http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/Monarch_zpsa4941e4c.jpg~original Nothing like good puns for names: "Concrete Cowboy" http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/ConcreteCowboy_zpse4315704.jpg~original and "Joan of Arcs" http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/JoanOfArcs_zps5468dce6.jpg~original Most costumes I create never make it to my paper and pencil game.. but this I did for a recent encounter with a Russian National Team.. "Moscow Missle" http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/MoscowMissle_zps51de1b81.jpg~original Your basic armored suit guy: http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/Sovereign_zps8f75a7ec.jpg~original And sometimes you just need something on the dark side: http://i743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/larsb888/Fallen_zpsd632bc1a.jpg~original Hope you like them!

I've been playing Champions since it came out in '81 and when I went to make one of my very first characters I was taken by Grond's four arms. In addition, pretty much all other games did a lousy job with martial arts and I decided I would try one in Champs. But of course, I couldn't have a 4-armed character.. because then he would be a a Grond "ripoff" so my character was a 6-armed martial artist named Centipede. In all this time I have never had a good picture of this character because I don't know any good artists and he seems quite difficult to draw anatomically. So 33 years later... my god.. am I that old? I still have his original V1 character sheet and no decent picture. I am an "expert" using the Champions Online costume creator but have had only moderate success creating a base and then using photoshop to create a picture. Here is his backstory: Gene-Probe had been involved in clandestine experiments for years with very little if any success until they secured significant "black ops" government funding under the top-secret "super soldier" program. At first Gene-Probe attempted direct modification of existing organisms, but this led to horrible results with all subjects dying within days or weeks of treatment. The scientists then decided to focus their efforts on splicing non-human genes into a human one. One promising line of experimentation involved the splicing of insect DNA into human embryos. The original concept was that by injecting key insect genomes into a human embryo a human-hybrid with greatly enhanced durability and strength might be achieved. After many horrific failures, the scientists seemed to have created a stable genetic combination in Subject I27. Subject I27 was born from a human womb by a volunteer surrogate mother, whose identity remains a mystery. Amniocenteses gave the scientists hope that their creation would be a success, and when I27 was born there seemed to be some proof in that I27 had 4 fully functioning extra arms. The subject grew rapidly, aging nearly 1 year every month for a time. As the months passed his aging slowed, but it became clear that although the scientist's creation was stable it did not have the desired characteristics. Aside from the six arms and harder than normal skin, the subject seemed relatively normal. Subject I27 was deemed a failure and held in captivity until it could be decided what to should be done. A few months later, I27's surrogate mother (who was still employed at the lab) overheard a conversation about the possible destruction of subject I27. She simply could not allow this to happen and so, one night after working late, she smuggled I27 out the lab. She knew that she would be hunted down and most likely killed so she gave the child to friends in the hope that it would not be found. It is presumed that she eventually was located and terminated by Gene-Probe, but no records exist that reference who she is, so this is unverified. Meanwhile, her child was raised in secret, in the home of a martial arts teacher. His adopted parents called him "Wu Gong" meaning "Centipede". I27's rapid growth slowed as he aged, eventually settling at an approximately human rate as he reached the equivalent of a 20 year old physically. In reality, Centipede is only a seven years old, but with his rapid aging, has also come rapid knowledge acquisition. His physical appearance, along with the calmness of spirit he learned from his father, belies his true age. As soon as he became mature enough, Centipede decided that he would fight back against the criminals that plague the world like those that perpetrate the type of atrocities that led to his creation. He believes his birth mother is dead, because his adopted family told him that it was likely the case, but he still holds some small glimmer of hope that she still lives. Although Centipede fights criminals with a passion, he does have a soft spot for those that have similar origins as himself. Descriptive Info: Despite Centipede's origin and his mixture of human and insect DNA he looks "relatively" normal. The only obvious clue to his genetic make-up is his six arms. His skin, although harder than a normal human, with a slight green tinge and a bit leathery to the touch does not look exceedingly unusual. His torso is quite long to accommodate his arms, but his shoulders are extra wide, his upper body is more triangular than normal, and his extra arms are slightly smaller and thinner than his "main" ones. Because of this, he can actually hide the extra limbs under an oversized trench coat (which he sometimes does to avoid over reaction). Other than that, he appears as a young, well muscled man, 6' 6" tall, in his early 20's with slightly strange features. It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what is odd about his face. Perhaps his bone structure is a bit too angular, his hair a bit too coarse or his teeth a bit too large and pointed, however, his mildly slightly "alien" features combine to form an overall appearance that is not unattractive. Centipede is a truly amazing martial artist. Even without his advantage of multiple arms he would be still be quite formidable. Although still vey young he has mastered a unique style of Kung Fu, based off the praying mantis style, but tailored specifically for him by his adoptive father. He never uses kicks of any sort, because his unique physiology has forced his brain to use processing power that would normally be allocated to his legs to coordinate his arm movements. This leaves him with sub-par control of his legs - a fact which he tries to hide. Instead he capitalizes on the difficultly in countering all six of his arm attacks to deal swift punches from multiple angles, devastating joint locks, and throws which are nearly impossible to counter. Centipede has recently learned to use six of the latest energy weapons "liberated" from some unlucky agents and has incorporated them into his arsenal. Because he can coordinate all his arms at once he can fire all the weapons simultaneously at a single target or multiple ones as desired. However, he dislikes the use of firearms and will avoid doing so if possible. (This is a recent addition primarily to give the character ranged abilities and could potentially be left out of the arwork if it is objectionable and perhaps replaced with a variety of martial arts weapons) I envision his costume would have centipede-like touches including looking "segmented" and being black and red/orange since he is also stealthy. A picture might also include a trenchcoat or overcoat of some sort.

Almost everytime I think about using Multi-form I end up asking myself "What am I doing?" It is usually easier and cheaper to write up with a multipower or disad "Only usable when...".

Urectum? You nearly killed him!