BNakagawa

Or rather, not currently living materials. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to affect leather armor, which isn't currently alive, but certainly isn't mineral...

Mystics are cooler, provided you follow the guideline set down by the Books of Magic (Gaiman) "Nothing's Free." Magic that has a cost is much more interesting than something you just get to do 4 times a day. Interesting costs could be like sacrificing a day of your life, weakening a spell that keeps a great evil at bay and so on. $0.02

That can be busted by a 1 INT, 1 PRE brick. (on the outside)

scaling the cost of such an entangle to the cost of the stat that affects it is a really bad idea. Con is a universally useful stat, and even with a cost four times that of Comeliness, the average villain has a higher Con than Comeliness. The number of villains that could mathematically affect a 2d6 entangle with a +1 def is pretty low. Most bricks seem to be on the homely side. It's real simple. If most characters can't get out of it most of the time, it's unbalanced. If you build an entangle that is affected by COM, then 90% of the bricks, martial artists and OAF wielders in the book are never ever going to get out. And that's WITHOUT it being half the cost of one that is affected by INT or PRE.

A based entangle that can be affected by standard damage isn't quite so nasty as one that isn't, but still... Many bricks/martial artists are designed to use STR as their only or a large component of their attacks. take that capability away from them and they're basically useless. Allow a INT based entangle and you've got a cheap attack that can completely neutralize Grond, the Monster, Bulldozer, Ogre, Black Palladin, etc. Still too unbalanced, IMO.

Perhaps what's more important is who does he know? It's pretty reasonable for his parents to have known a number of like-minded paranormals from their earlier adventures. It's pretty reasonable for one or two of them to have been younger sidekicks who have since grown into full blown supers. Maybe one of them can take their kid under their wing to repay the favor. If nothing else, this kid would probably have a lifetime of war stories to prepare him for the usual stuff. When to hold back and when to cut loose. How to pick the perp and how to smell a rat. The usual stuff that cop's kids usually get. $0.02

The images approach may not fulfill the requirements of the original post. It doesn't matter if they think the moon is full, if the moon appears to all applicable senses, as long as some physiological change isn't triggered. You could create an illusion of a red sun overhead, but if yellow sun rays are reaching superman, he's still super. Similarly, you could create an illusion of a lead box around the kryptonite, but he's still crippled. His perceptions of the sun or the lead box don't affect his body being superhuman or crippled. I think the CE is the most appropriate route.

Nah, they're just being cheese-monkeys. You can't justify a power that would neutralize 95% of all published villains with one hit. Not for 60AP, anyway.

Psych! Your mastermind needs Psychology. In order to be a good leader when you aren't imbued with the power cosmic or whatever sfx you use for enough power to trivially fry any of your underlings, you need to know how to push the right buttons. You need to know when somebody needs a pat on the head or a kick to the rear. You need to know the proper ratio of carrot to stick and you need to know the different offsets for your team leader, your rebel, your rank and file. You need to be a good judge of character and you need to keep your finger on the pulse of your team. You need to know when to make a move and when to stick with your current personnel. And when it's time to make changes, you need to communicate this to your underlings so it builds confidence rather than erode it. You need to study the leaders who get people to overachieve. Bill Parcells needs to be your role model. (I would consider Dick Vermeil, but you said villainous mastermind) Given that villains commonly employ underlings who aren't entirely sane, I would also put some points into KS: Abnormal Psychology.

Let's see, every week we're going to have a non-lethal combat between extremely well built, extremely garishly dressed, larger than life personalities. Are we talking about pro wrestling or Champions? I dunno. Well, how does pro wrestling keep it from being boring and repetitive? Well, you can argue reasonably enough that they don't. But that doesn't stop it from being extremely popular. So what makes it tick? Well, storylines are part of the equation. You've got to build up rivalries. You've got to establish alliances, use them long enough to make them seem unstoppable and then have somebody backstab their partner. Young blood arrives on the scene and gets whomped, gets trained by established veterans and end up betraying them only to find out that the old guy still has a trick or two up his sleeve. Love triangles? Sure, why not. Especially fun when DNPCs or followers are involved. Villains turned heroes, Hero turned heel. It's all been done before. And it doesn't matter. Don't forget the screaming fans. I figure that pro wrestling is only big because in the real world, we don't have costumed heroes flying through the sky and blasting villains. In a world with supers, you gotta figure there would be fan clubs. You gotta figure there would be online betting on typical matchups. You gotta figure there would be some format for fantasy hero team (draft 2 EB, 1 brick, 1 other; 1 point for an agent, 3 points for a villain, 8 for a master villain) This is all great feedback to get PCs to play more for style and less for tactical efficiency. (assuming that the survival of the world isn't on the line every damn week) $0.02

I'd use the +1/4 advantage for variable effect (5e 75) Just pick whichever power/stat matches your target best.

money money money money - MONEY! Super level scientists need to be rich. Hardware to support their work doesn't come cheap unless you're one of those mutant mcGuyver type gadgeteers.

In addition to anything else you use, you'll need a whole bunch of levels of rapid sense to keep up with modern processors.

Frankly, I've never been a big fan of this sort of power fx. I mean, if your guy has the sophistication to manipulate electricity at range on the level that allows him to take command of a PC and manipulate data on it without frying it, then he ought to be able to do the same thing to a human being (whose nerves are triggered by minute amounts of electricity) or more importantly, trivially lobotomize anybody he stands near. Stop your heart? Sure, why not. it's only a muscle after all, and it's only contracting because of electricity. Make you blind? Your eyes are connected to your brain via the optic nerve, which without electricity is useless. Granted, it's a genre convention, but it doesn't mean I have to like it.

On multiple occasions I have created mystic characters who had the physical limitation of not being able to use complicated electronic gadgets. They just generated some sort of aura which caused cel phones, calculators or pdas to malfunction in their hands. These items wouldn't be broken, and simply handing them to someone else would cause them to function properly.

Do the math. 12d6 punch, avg body x2 - 2d6 nets you an average of 17" of KB. Line up your target on somebody or something that can take it and you're getting more than your money's worth. Brick Billiards. It weighs in at 105 active points. If you're cool with that, then fine. If not, then break out the red pen of denial. $0.02

I am currently enjoying a character who is a cowardly hypochondriac who dislikes being touched.

If you're going to allow this construction at all (and given that it exists in the published literature, it's a little hard to exclude it) then you're obviously going to have to clear it on a case by case basis. My $0.02 is to pay special attention to any such example that can move from character to character, as it's bound to become incredibly unbalancing if you don't police it carefully.

Whether you house rule a 3 point level or not, it's going to cost about 3 points/DECV. You buy +3 EGO with the limitation (only affects DECV) which ought to be worth about a -1 limitation, it's 3 points. The level is simpler and cleaner. I prefer the 3 point level. $0.02

We're playing D&D this weekend. Must buy more dice!

your statistics assume nobody ever aims for a high yield target. Of course, NO PC would EVER do such a dastardly thing... ...the very thought. (or fudges die rolls)

IMO, every special effect simultaneously is the same as no special effect. You have generic damage, you get no vulnerabilities or susceptibilities. When GL flies close to the sun, he doesn't fry, even though the sun's spectrum contains yellow light of sufficient intensity to fry an unshielded human. (and GL's shielding doesn't work against yellow) So your power which contains elements of every sfx mixed together doesn't trigger limitations or susceptibilities. $0.02

Admittedly, this is FH, but it was pretty funny. I was playing a lightweight duellist with a massive 8 STR and no damage classes who had just recently rejoined the conscious after getting caught in the fringe of a very large fireball. The master necromancer was about to finish casting something VERY big and dangerous and options were limited. So, with no other options, she gets up and launches herself into the spellcaster, doing a pushed movethrough. The damage roll, as I recall was pretty high. The damage from the movethrough knocked her out. Burning stun for the push (she had 2 end) knocked her out. The damage shield knocked her out. I think there was some sort of side effect from the spell being interrupted and that would have knocked her out, too. In the end she was stunned, knocked out, poisoned and infected.

I have a similar character who does the same thing, but is smaller. I just use enough growth to fill a hex, stand in front of the protectee and take all incoming hits. (that way you don't have to worry about missing missile deflection rolls or funky attacks blowing through your force wall) A roughly 5" wingspan complicates things a bit. If you're doing the force wall, then just buy enough hexsides for 5". If you're looking for missile deflection, then maybe +3/4 would be good for 2" reach instead of the 1/2 for 1". If you're willing to take the hits, maybe you can buy some limited growth to fill the hexes completely. No rolls required. $0.02

Demolitions lab: Best located in somebody else's base. Paramedics lab: two doors down from the demolitions lab. Is there any way for one lab to handle multiple skills? The bar could be a conversation lab most of the time and turn into a seduction lab on single's night...