psyber624

Re: Character Creation Cheat Sheet Yeah, i would love to get Hero Designer, unfortunately i don't have the money for it (esp as buying it right now would preclude me buying another book in the long list I want.) And I am sure there are others in the same boat. Luckily for me I'm really good at math so the cost calculations are not an issue. This should in no way be considered an out to not buy Hero Designer. From everything I have heard that is an excellent program that will take most of the hassle out of building a character. This is simply a compilation of costs so that if you are familiar with the basic rules and effects of the power you can build it quickly without having to flip through the book for prices (as well as putting all the advantages and limitations in 2 areas, instead of spread out among different sections of the book, which can REALLY slow down building that tricky power as you search page after page for that advantage you KNOW you remember but just can't find).

Re: Question regarding Hacking Automatons Well, if your the GM what you say goes, but if you have any rules lawyers on your team be prepared. Mind Control doesnt work on Automatons unless they have bought a computer mind (then mind control bought to affect machine minds works just fine.) MD as a "fire wall" of sorts could be simulated in this way, but can really cause all kinds of problems (especially if you start dealing with complex AI's). YMMV of course. Also note that you can run into issues with the rule about mind control requiring some way to communicate with the target (when trying to use it on things like turrets and such). And as with many things a lot depends on what you actually want to simulate. If you just want the ability to "change programming" then i believe the skill approach works best. If you want more of a "now they can do anything i command them to" even if its not something they could ordinarily do then mind control is best. If you want them to do something they couldn't POSSIBLY do (ie the animating machines concept) then Transform is the way to go.

Re: Side effect: aging Well, if this was a long term character, there is always the fact that he BOUGHT his character like this in the first place. I would be sure to explain to the player what the potential effects were going to look like, and warn him of the consequences, but just like any other limitation/complication, if you buy it when you build your character, you should EXPECT (if not actually WANT) to have to deal with it from time to time. I remember years ago when I played Champions in college. Someone had his OAF sword stolen from him. He bitched at the GM about loosing his powers when no one else did... the GM told him "You were the one who bought the sword OAF. What did you THINK was going to happen?" and then kept the sword gone even longer......

Re: Two handed punch. Gestures isn't really intended to be used like that, it could be handwaved to it sure, but by definition its supposed to be "obviously out of the ordinary". Striking someone with two hands doesn't really qualify. Also, that sounds a lot like taking a limitation that isn't really limiting (the only way it effectively limits the character is if he can use one hand but not the other, which is a rare occurance, and since this is an attack power to boot i doubt it would be worth a limitation)

Re: Character Creation Cheat Sheet Well, Version 1.0 is done. I don't know how to put a file up on the forums (its currently 20 pages long using 11pt font). I'm looking at putting it up on google docs, but that looses all the formatting and played havoc with the layout so it will take a while to reformat it all to work there (its currently done on MS Word 2010). If anyone knows a better way for me to put this up for general use plz let me know. Otherwise till then i guess if you want you can PM me an email address and ill send you a copy. Edit: Adding a sample here so yall can take a look at it and see if its something you might want: The letter codes are a shorthand for the different power characteristics (Type, Duration, Target, Range, Costs End). A Key is provided. Note that some of the formatting is lost when posting here (it is all indented and such for ease of reading) Edit: Also, if anyone here is willing to look this over and give me any critiques, check for errors, etc. I would GREATLY appreciate this. The google link is https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h2A77CgEPzS4OAIEBde0nwLAJ929eq6T90ojLJ7tB-M/edit However that is not yet reformatted so is rather "ugly" and broken up in places till I have a chance to fix that.

Re: Create a Hero Theme Team! Cyberia was born Cybil Ann Haversmith. As a geek and an introvert she was frequently picked on and tormented by her schoolmates, and this escalated into series of viscous and cruel attacks on the internet, including a number of video's of her on YouTube that showed her in embarrassing (and in one particular one nearly totally undressed) situations. While multiple attempts to remove the offending material were made, they kept creeping up, and would show on other social networks as well. This became even worse when the cyber-bullies discovered that she generally spent most of her time online in various forums and online games and began stalking and harrassing her there as well. It was during a violent blizzard on a particular day that the change happened. Infuriated by another attack on her in one of her favorite online games she threw her laptop out a closed window. Disgusted with herself she went outside during the blizzard to retrieve the laptop in hopes that it was still salvageable when she was struck by lighting. The storm was not natural and had been created by a mystical villain as an attack against the city, and the lightning strike had the unsuspected effect of fusing Cybil with both the raging power of the storm, and the technology of her laptop. Thus was the hero Cyberia formed. With her ice and technopath powers she started an anti-cyber bullying campaign and started recruiting other members to form a team that would stand up for the weak, the picked on, and the bullied and would show that there was no reason to fear. The Fearless Five! was born! Cyberia was hosting one of her many guest speeches at a High School in Alaska when the call came in on her communicator that the Rogue Battalion was at it again. Making her excuses to the students, and ending with her catch phrase "Let's all work together to FREEZE out bullies!" She dove into the laptop to travel via the internet to the site of the attack. However she never arrived. Cyberia is now trapped in the internet. She isn't quite sure why she is unable to leave it at this time, but now she continues her fight against cyber-bullying by deleting post, freezing out internet access of bullies, and any other way she can. No one else knows that she is still alive, but many a repair man has been called out to handle another odd case of a computer frozen from the inside out.......

Re: Question regarding Hacking Automatons IMO it all depends upon how much complexity you want to work into it. In order for something to be an Automaton there must be some way to "program" it to accept commands (ie an interface). At that point I would simply allow some skills to be bought like powers, with advantages and such (Computer Programming, Ranged:LOS, Custom Advantage: No Interface Required) The value of the Custom Advantage would be set by the GM to make sure that the final cost is relative to the power level (how often is this guy going to run into automated sentries, robots, and the like.) Base the difficulty of the roll on the security of the creator (Retail 8-, Business Use 11-, Government 14-, Military 18- etc). Then you can simply use this as the target difficulty he needs to beat, possibly modified by a Security Systems roll. You could also then allow some appropriate limitations too (such as Focus, if this is a gadget he uses to manipulate other devices.) With this power he would be able to control anything without a "mind" that was controlled by a computer chip, from a Microwave to Robotic Sentries. If he wants to do anything more complex, such as enable them to respond to voice commands when they have no means of normally interpreting audible commands, its going to require either a Transform of some sort, or major Handwaverying The issue with using mental powers is that Automatons have no way to "break out" vs mental powers. And a robot, turret, etc shouldnt either, unless someone is monitoring them and actively trying to prevent the intrusion (which becomes a skill vs skill contest). The "Machine" class of minds is more appropriate for sophisticated A.I. which are NOT Automatons, they are simply metallic life forms (although they might be designed with some Automaton only powers at GM's discretion) These things DO have minds, have the ability to make decisions and such, and therefore qualify for Machine class minds (although if sufficiently sophisticated (ie Marvel's Vision) they should probably have dual class minds and be affected as Human and Machine, esp if they are PC's). As far as the suit goes, it all depends on what kind of limitations you want to deal with. Unified: (replaced Elemental Control) Anything which affects any part of the suit will automatically affect all of it (so any form of drain, supress, etc will seriously hurt you). OIHID: You cannot LOSE the powers, but you may be caught without them and have to do without them till you have a chance to "change ID's" Focus: You may LOSE your powers for some amount of time as they can be taken away from you. Other issues based upon the type of Focus you use (ie someone else may be able to get into your suit and use it.) Vehicle: Not really appropriate for this unless you are designing it SPECIFICALLY so that anyone could use it. Also, you shouldn't use it very often if this is the case. Buying these sorts of powers as a vehicle is very "munchkiny" Exposed passenger is easily done with Activation rolls on your armor applied to the "suit", or in heroic style campaigns (or ones where hit locations are used) you can simply determine which locations are affected and which aren't.

Re: Resistant mental defense? I am actually asking Steve about this in the rules questions boards because it's not spelled out and I could easily see either interpretation as being correct (and as intended). Edit: Also dont forget, AVAD's do STUN only so you ALREADY have to add an extra +1 advantage (Does Body) in order for any of this to actually matter.

Thanks for the response Steve, but the main question was regarding killing attacks vs MD (if the AVAD is set to MD, NOT rMD). Does Base MD affect the BODY of the killing attack? (assuming the AVAD is bought with Does Body). The same thing as if it was applied to non-resistant FD, PwD, etc... IE Do Killing attacks automatically always only get resisted by resistant defenses (like they do vs PD/ED) or do you have to buy the AVAD to apply to rMD (rFD, rPwD, etc) in order for it to ignore non-resistant defenses? To make sure things are really clear, if I buy the following power: 3d6 RKA (45 pts), AVAD (MD, +1), Does Body (+1): 135 AP/RC and attack someone with 20 MD, 0 rMD, will the BODY of the attack be resisted by the 20 MD?

Re: Experience and multiform Ranxerox, to an extent you are right, but that is true of any power construct. Someone with a limitation on a power will get more points of effect increasing that effect than someone who has a similar power without the limitation. That's how the game is worked. But if you give points to all the forms of a multiform, EACH of those forms can then get the same amount of effect from them on ANY power they spend it on. so a Multiform with 2 forms is getting twice the xp, a multiform with 4 forms is getting 4x as much. That is in effect how this works if you do it RAW anyway. The BASE form spends points on his Multiform power, and that automatically allows him to spend 5x as many points in every one of his alternate forms. So he IS able to boost all of his forms at once. Which honestly to me is one of the reasons I would closely regulate Multiforms (Note that I also closely regulate Multipowers as well). The issue that was being presented was that since the BASE form is having to spend points on his Multiform for his forms to get stronger, he is getting comparatively "weaker" than the rest of the party, over the course of time. If you do 1 pt in 5 on the Multiform (which is the most I would ever personally allow as I would never allow a character to use Multiform to make a form that costs more than the Base form) then all of the Forms are actually staying just as powerful as the rest of the players, it is only the base form, in this case, that is getting weaker. But in my opinion thats the price of using multiform as a POWER. Making your multiforms stronger SHOULD cost you xp, since your making your multiform POWER stronger. Noone else gets extra xp just to keep their other powers on par with the rest of the team. And really, your base form is already "weaker" since you have to pay for the multiform in that form anyway. At the end of the day of course its your game. If you prefer to let the multiform guy power up all his forms at once, and its okay with both the gm and the players, no harm in that. In reality we are talking about a difference of 1 point in 5... only if you are playing for a REALLY long time will that get into any serious balance issues.

Re: Would you allow this? The one thing I like about caps is that it gives your players an "idea" of what to expect and how to build their characters. No, it doesn't mean you can auto-approve their character if he/she/it falls under the caps, but at least it gives them some guidelines to go by. THEN you can start from their and hopefully weed out the rest of the bad stuff that can creep in even with caps. Especially with how much is "relative" in hero. Spd 3 is great in a campaign where that is the average, but lousy if the average is 6. OCV/DCV of 8 is just fine if that is average, but if the average tends to be around 12 your not going to hit anything, and you will almost always BE hit. If you tell your players the OCV cap is 12, you do have problems that suddenly everyone of your players is likely to have a 12 OCV (in some form or another), but if you don't, then suddenly you have players with way to low OCV (who never wind up hitting) or way to high (because there is little difference between OCV 12 and OCV 16 if most opponents are DCV 8) because they didnt know where you were aiming at. Personally I prefer to tell players the average, AND the cap, and limit how many things can be capped. But that's just my way

Re: Side effect: aging Time I have, now i just need to find some players!!!!!

There is a question in another thread about purchasing rMD and there was some discussion regarding when it would be needed. The one question I cannot find a clear answer to in the rule books is if you purchase a Killing Attack with both AVAD (MD) and Does Body (for a total of +2 advantage). 1. If you do this do you need resistant MD to protect against the BODY damage? or would regular MD apply against it? 2. If you do need rMD to protect against the BODY damage of the above attack, If you instead bought the AVAD as applying to rMD, would that only affect the STUN damage? IE now BOTH STUN and BODY are prevented by rMD? Or would you then need DOUBLE resistant MD to prevent the BODY?

Re: Resistant mental defense? I didn't mean to insinuate that if the GM uses exotic attacks on occasion he is trying to kill the players, but for exotic defenses (like rMD) to be cost effective they need to be useful fairly regularly. Spending 8 points for a defense that will only be useful against an opponent on a very rare occasion is not a good buy (unless it is part of character concept, like I mentioned earlier.) Especially since unless your GM allows advantages to NOT affect campaign caps your much better off spending those points on base defenses (which will apply much more often.) In order for the exotic defenses to be cost effective you would need to be facing enemies using them fairly regularly, and if a GM did that without warning his players, i'd have concerns about that GM. However, after some thorough checking in the rule books, I'm not exactly sure how AVAD works with killing attacks. If you apply an AVAD to a killing attack, and switch it to MD, with the Does BODY (for a total +2 advantage) would it then work like PD/ED? IE MD protects the STUN, but only rMD protects the BODY? If you instead did AVAD as rMD (for +2 1/2 total) would that only change it so that the stun requires rMD as well? (and rMD would still protect against the BODY damage? if not what applies to the BODY damage?) That may be one for Steve, I'm going to check the archive and see if its been asked before.....

Re: Mimic This is a question regarding rules, not a character critique, but how does she use the OCV with copied multipowers, when she only gains those powers in the multiform. Wouldnt she have to buy that skill for the multiform in order to use it with powers from the multiform? Also, is the OCV bonus only intended to be used with copied Multipowers? or is it intended to be useable with any copied attack (not everyone has a multipower...) Trying to figure out how this would work... the limitation requires her to keep all her normal powers in her multiform, as well as any powers that the target has. I am not sure if the intent is for her to copy characteristics/skills/talents as well as powers or not, but even if that is the case then she will not be able to copy pretty much anyone (100 control cost means max of 500 pt spent on the multiform, if she is copying all of herself in there then she only has 60 pts left to spend on copied powers, so if her target has more than 60 points of power her copy attempt will fail...) I get what your trying to do with this power, I am just wondering where my understanding of it is wrong. I am fairly certain I am just understanding something incorrectly this time, and just want to understand to improve my knowledge of the game. Not trying to say that you are wrong here.

Re: Experience and multiform My intention was that the multiform character spent XP RAW, i do allow him the xp, but he only gets it for his main form (the one with multiform), he then has to spend those points on his multiform to increase the level of multiform he has and then he can boost those forms. That is RAW, which is what i was saying I would allow. The issue that was presented was that if he does this, since he is having to spend xp on his multiform he has less xp to spend on other aspects of his character, which over time can make him "less powerful" than other heros (of course, I also feel this is a choice the player makes when spending his xp. He could instead choose to boost his attack powers or the like, but he chooses to make his multiforms stronger. Same thing would apply to someone that CHOSE to spend xp on a skill or non-combat power. If they continued to do so eventually they may be weaker than the rest of the players, but because they CHOSE to spend their points like that does not mean they are entitled to free points to compensate for this fact). And yes, I get that multiforms don't get all their abilities at once, but then very few hero concepts CAN do everything they could possibly do all at one time. And unless the multiform is built with limitations that mean it takes some considerable amount of effort, then it takes all of a half phase to switch to, and access, any power he has across any of his multiforms. While that may not actually be "all at the same time" it is very close to it. Especially in the concept of combat power where he can flip to whatever form is best suited to the current needs of the combat, not to mention that it can also be used to circumvent many limitations on powers and such. Multiform, IMHO, is most definitely a caution power (possibly even a stop power) because of the ease in which it is abused. Adding xp to each form all at once just seems to take an already incredibly powerful power, and make it even stronger. Especially considering the options it provides to the multiform player over and above those available to other players. And even if you limit the player to 1 xp per 5 spent on Multiform, ONLY his base form is weaker than the rest of the players, all of his multiforms are just as strong as everyone else. (and of course the base form is already "weaker" in this extent due to the fact that he spent points on buying his multiform.)

Re: Would you allow this? Yeah, at one point i was trying to do something along those lines with an X formula (an idea I stole from POWER CORE/FUZION), but I could never find a final value that seemed right, so if/when i get a chance to GM again id have to play it by ear.

Re: The Reaper NCM isnt always a "dropable" disadvantage. Sometimes it is a campaign rule enforced by the GM. You can't drop those just because you want to. Nor does reducing your speed by 1 point make a character go from awesome to worthless in combat. It helps, no doubt about that, but if all players are within a range of 2-3 SPD of each other you shouldnt run into too many issues. Note that Restrainable normally isnt bought with the focus limitation. Just because it is a weapon that requires your hands to use doesnt automatically entitle you to this limitation. Enhanced Physical Abilities can be part of a suit of armor (or a harness or whatever). Just buy them as normal (usually designated with a + in front of them, ie +1 SPD). Depends on the GM whether this will work under the NCM tho. Most will probably still require that you pay x2 points for abilities bought in such a way, although you can then buy limitations to reduce their cost... (Just remember that a limitation that doesn't limit you is worth no points, so if you buy all your powers with OIF or the like, don't complain when you suddenly loose that armor or what not on a fight. You are basically telling your GM when you use such a limitation that you eventually WANT to have to deal with the loss of all your powers.) Finally there is a special Stretching power call "Reach" that is used in 6e for just what was discussed about. It is an adder to a power, each 1m Reach costs 1 Character Point (which does affect AP). So for +1 point (NOT advantage, just 1 extra point) your scythe could hit someone 1m further than normal melee attacks. (6e1 284 if you want to see how they built it)

Re: The Reaper

Re: Would you allow this? IMO this is why campaign caps become important, because they do affect others fun. With no caps on things like defenses it is far too easy to build characters that are basically invulnerable, but still able to put out high damage. Granted in your case you said that he built him so that he wasn't, but if your not using any caps that is a huge concern. Caps also serve to encourage players to branch out. Now I will agree that this is very much an opinion, and others will differ, but without caps you are basically telling your players "Put all your points into attack, defense, and move, everything else is a waste of time". Because as soon as you let one person do something like that, the rest of the players either have to do the same, or go grab a snack during combat as Mr. Combat Whore can solo everything you throw at him (and frankly if your building something that he cant solo it will just obliterate any other type of character). This does lead to character uniformity problems, and I understand that, and it doesn't accurately model comics. But comics are stories, not games. They are supposed to be fun. And like it or not combat takes a sizeable amount of time. If you don't balance PC's to ensure that they all can perform reliably well in combat, your basically telling them to skip that part of game night. Again, YMMV.

Re: Experience and multiform It will vary by GM of course, but if you apply the same amount of xp to each form then you are essentially giving that player character extra xp over and above all your other players which will allow him to become even more overpowered if not carefully regulated. For instance: PC A is a regular Blaster, He gets 10 xp over the course of a campaign, he buys an extra DC on his EB, and maybe some other small special effect (like a detect). PC B is a Multiform, and his multiforms are wildly different (this is of course an extreme case, but bear with me). He gets the same 10 points on all forms, so on one form he buys a bit more EB, on another some HK, on another he gets a new detect, on another he gets some higher defense, etc. etc. etc. PC B is getting to "buy" way more stuff this way because he took a multiform. IMHO that really isnt balanced.

Re: Resistant mental defense? In my opinion applying resistant (or any of the other defense modifiers) to any defenses other than PD/ED is strictly for concept. Now I am ALL about concept characters, so if it's important to your character concept, go for it. But on a cost efficiency basis they are almost always a waste of points. Unless your GM TELLS you ahead of the time that you should be prepared for some kind of oddball attacks like that, you are likely to never encounter something for which those defenses apply. And if you did, it should be so rare that the cost should STILL not be worth it. Because frankly, if your GM is sending guys at you with oddball AVAD's like that all the time, he is basically trying you kill you (which is a sign of a BAD GM). And I mean, if that's his goal... he can, there is no way you can prevent it honestly. Not to mention the fact that if you DO take those defenses, and he DOES spring someone on you who they are good against... be prepared for some dark, suspicion-filled glares from the rest of your party

Re: The Reaper There is "legal" in HERO, but all the books will tell you over and over again, just because you can, doesn't mean you should. There is a lot of flexibility built into the Hero system that will let you do pretty much anything you want, but that puts the responsibility on the Players and the GM to make sure the game stays balanced and playable. As it stands, unless everyone in your campaign is building along these lines your character is way too powerful. And realize this, your character could not come close to withstanding his own damage output, so if all characters are built like this it all comes down to who lands the first blow. You have 16 points of PD/ED. Which means that you start taking damage around 5d6 of effect. For a 250 point campaign, that should be about right, but your attacks should probably be limited to about the 8d6 range, maybe 10d6 for an "ultimate" attack concept (really limited, but if you pull it off it works great). You are STARTING at 12d6 on your attacks, and they just keep going up, (adding strength, multiple NND's so there really is no defense against your guy), and to top it off you have pretty much every main kind of effect there is, you have darkness, entangle, melee, ranged, flash. And then lets look at less combat oriented stuff, you have 3 movement modes, swinging, clinging, and gliding, you have radio, self contained breathing, infrared vision, and that's just powers, that doesn't even look at your stats. All of this crammed into a character that only cost 250 points. There are 400 and 500 point characters that would struggle to get all of those abilities on one character, and you did it in 250. Yes, the RAW say that its "legal", but honestly? It's way too much. This guy could stand toe to toe with some of the 400 point characters being posted on here in terms of power... (of course he wont last long enough to use it, but I guess you have to be weak SOMEWHERE, right?)

Re: Experience and multiform That is how it is RAW, and I think it makes for a decent balance. Yes Mr. Multiform has to keep spending points on his multiform to make them stronger, but thats the cost of the multiform power. He may grow somewhat slower, but he is still able to access much more than non-multiform heros, so he shouldnt get "extra" xp IMO. There are exceptions to this rule tho. If his "multiform" is more of a progression of power state (classical example would be a Werewolf with human, Half were, full were, and full wolf forms for example) there is a case for keeping his form relative in power level to the rest of the characters.... but the guy with two totally different power sets? yeah, price of power dude.

Re: What if there are no super-prisons? Except even in DC the government didnt trust the Hero's that much, Project Cadmus anyone?