Cinniuint

Re: Herbs Kings foil comes to mind as an interesting healing herb. Herbs that have to be ingested or brewed into a topical paste, etc. But healing herbs are just the beginning. Gillyweed comes to mind from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Breath water + extra swimming + safe environment: cold + maybe safe environment high pressure for the salt water variant. All with a one hour charge. One of the best limitations on an herb is that it loses efficacy if not consumed fresh. This can be a fade toward zero or two different "modes" the more powerful when fresh, the weaker when dried properly. Other herbs could bestow infra vision or enhanced sensitivity perhaps with a vulnerability side fx. Remember to specify what environment the herb grows in, how difficult it is to find, what part of the plant is needed( leaf, root, blossom, fruit, pollen, petals, etc.) and what season that part is available. This should sometimes be thematic as an herb from which an oil can be extracted that protects from heat (safe environment + rED) which grows only near active volcanoes and hot springs/geysers. Psycotropic effects can also be produced with herbs. Zombie drugs that cause a person to obey any order given to them. Hallucinogens that cause confusion or allow The imbibed to have Visions of various sorts, cut a berry of the rare idififie plant in half, feed it to two people and those two people have mind link for X time. And it is a closely guarded secret of the Mendicants Guild (Beggars, pickpockets, and spies for hire) that you can extend the mind link indefinitely as long as both parties drink Y quantity of idififie juice every Z time period. To control powerful herbs geographic and temporal distribution, difficulty of finding, processing, preserving, onerous side fx and cultivability can all be used. I personally feel that some powerful fx should be common and in general use such as caffeine and nicotine in our own society. Side fx should certainly include addiction, but some herbs might actually have a burnout roll after which the user is immune. Method of use is another issue which needs to be addressed. Ingestion, topical application, injection, inhalation, sublingual absorbtion, suppository etc. These choices can be suggested by the speed of effect you want and the duration. A cigar that has to be continually puffed on restricts the use of incantations and takes the OAF limitation. This is all just of the top of my head, but the point is: Yes, I agree. The possibilities of herbalism are limitless. I would suggest doing a little research into aromatherapy for more ideas. And always be wary of Druids! Other possible

Re: Teleport redirection I keep coming back to this. We are not affecting the teleporters mind, so mind control does not suit the fx. We are not teleporting the teleporter, so teleport UAA does not fit the fx. We are affecting the manifestation of the power, so Transform does fit the fx, but is problematic in that we don't know the BODY of a teleport, and it is difficult to percieve a teleport before it is over. Missile Reflection fits the fx, but not the game mechanics. Is a new destination (within the range of the teleporters power) a Major or Minor transformation? I had a couple of game masters that defined transform locked lock to unlocked lock as a cosmetic change. I disagree in terms of game balance, but agree in terms of fx.

Re: Epic level Champions Experienced players are less power focused, usually. Or, at least, better players are. As a rule, the better role player will have more fun, and more sucess, regardless of point totals. I think the important thing is that the players understand that the gamemasters job is to keep the game fun for everyone. If it isn't, changes have to be made, possibly to PC's. If players don't understand this, then they aren't ready for a high powered campaign. I am in a campaign right now with a chacter with 32 personalities, on the condition that it is gone if it takes over the role playing sessions. The biggest problem so far, is that one personality came up with a psychic surgery power, and another PC has amnesia. We allowed just enough memory to be recovered to help the story along, without removing the characters amnesia limitation or significantly altering the PC's roleplaying potential. Sometimes, you just have to recognize that your PC can't do what it should be able to do, due to the needs of the story.

Re: Teleport redirection I have thought about this a lot since my original thread back in '07. A part of the problem is that while TP is a movement power, it use does not generally involve movement. The character is in one place, then another. If a character had teleport based on ultra fast movement (The Flash or a character that turns into energy) then my character would not have been able redirect that travel. Anyway this thinking of TP as not movement causes us to want treat it differently than running or flight. When we remember that it is defined in the game as a movement power, that causes other confusions. How do I do a move by with TP? How do I calculate my velocity? How is a move through different from a move by? TP is the same as running, shouldn't they both be constants? The character I designed, Janus might or might not be able to track or redirect a transporter beam (Probably not, if it actually is a beam) and might or might not be able to track and redirect a spaceship traveling through warp space (and probably not redirect in any case, unless it was a VERY small ship) I favor a TP UAA or Transform over mindcontrol, because the SFX are manipulation of the physics of the TP power or the TP path. I may also require a bit of clairsentience to allow the character to be able to target a combat teleport at all.

Re: Champions Sneak Peek #3: Just For Fun Regarding the unintended presence attack. A hero in one of our campaigns was being hassled by a street gang and he told them to leave him alone. "There are 4 of us..." said the gang leader. Hero replies: "I have 4 bullets." GM declares: "Roll a presence attack." I think the GM had him add 2 dice. The player was new and didn't know the term 'presence attack" but he clearly understood the concept!

Re: Heroes from All Fifty States My favorite NPC hero from my homestate of Washington was a Wind EC character by the name of Chinook. (Pacific Northwest Indian word for a warm wind after summer has ended. I think. Also called an Indian summer.) The character would fly in at the last minute, create a huge mess by clumsy power use, then hog the media spotlight. I think he didn't show up more than twice, and I still remember him vividly about 20 years later.

Re: Characters Losing Their Souls - How To Handle It? If the GM wants to go with the characters lose their souls only when they die option, then he needs to have an NPC die to show what happens. The NPC could have greatly enhanced powers in the service of his/her new owner, and would have to perform great evil, preferably in violation of the PCs psych lims, and ideally in violation of the NPCs known psych lims, as well. Somehow, it does have to have some negative consequence. That is the story. It doesn't, have to be immediate, but it does have to come into the story eventually. Another option is the Xanth solution. Another character can give up half their soul to allow the PC to keep half theirs. If half the soul is left, it can regenerate in time. The ultimate lesson of this thread is the GM should have some idea of the metaphysics of his world, and the possible story possibilities and consequences of those metaphysics. Oh! and don't start a story you don't have some idea how to end.

Re: Astronomers detect mystery flash Sounds almost like the birth of a new universe. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Universe

Re: Which is your least favorite archetype to play? Good roleplaying and GMing should make sure that a disad is a disad. Something almost always slips through the cracks though. And some disads aren't disads at all, and that can be fine too. A hunted is a tool for the gamemaster, to make adventure ideas easier. The character was going to be facing something anyway, if it is a hunted, then the character knows something about whats going on. That is an advantage, not a disadvantage. But, it make the adventure more personal, which makes it funner for everyone, and easier for the gamemaster, which helps the game. That is the real function of disads - to make the game more fun and interesting! And anything that helps the game should be worth some reward. I am not suggesting that hunteds be taken out of the rules, or not be rewarded with points. Back on topic, I don't like to play combat monsters. I enjoy detective work, story development and roleplaying more than I like combat. I do like to play bricks - their high STR is one of the more versatile powers in the game, and has many useful applications both in and out of combat. Havoc would be less interesting IMO. I have played Mentalists in one game system or another more than any other archetype. I have never felt that the gamemaster was deliberately limiting me, and only once felt that my character was overpowered - and that was due to gamemaster design, not mine. I warned him to tone the power down. (this was in D&D 3.0 not Champions, with a homemade character class) I have to admit, I have only played 2 or 3 mentalists in champions, and each had a short run. Hope to have another one constructed soon, though.

Re: Who are the really great Homage characters of the Champons Universe and beyond? IMHO, while many of these are clear homages, many more are just characters that happen to share the same set of archetypes, perhaps an homage to a specific archtype, but not necessarily a specific character. Or call them an analog of a specific character. Sometimes, a team is clearly an homage, but the specific members aren't really and are there to fill a tactical role. I guess it depends on the nuances of meaning one chooses to ascribe to the term "homage". I am meandering again (& maundering?), no surprise, but I like to pun, which means I like to parse sentences and words into fine shades of meaning, which in turn means I like to play with the potential interpretations of anything I hear or read. I'll stop now.

Re: How do you build: Multiple personality disorder? As changes will be not more than one or two a game session (I hope), not so much of a headache to play, albeit a headache to remember individual personalities and who did what. Am used to keeping character diaries from playing Amber, however. Not really a headache to pay for, but a headache to design. 64 300 point forms is only 90 active points, and with the no conscious control, that gets reduced to 45 or less, depending on other limitations and GM. Base personality stats: Str 10, Dex 18, Con 15, Body 10, Int 18, Ego 13, Pre 15, Com 14, PD 3, ED 4, SPD 3, REC 6, END 30, STUN The stats are intentionally weak, as the character is young, and built on the notion of a normal plus powers. If the personalities ever become reintegrated, the character will probably have a cosmic power pool. As is the character is a formidable teleporter. If the head-of-state option gets used, imagine the job of the body guards of a willful teleporting child. Sample personality: Ego +10 (23) Powers: Telepathy 15d6 reduced END usable only on alternate personalities Summon 1 300 point being, devoted +3/4, expanded class +1/4, specific being +1 the target is the characters alternate personalities. Extra time one turn -3/4 activation 15- -1/4 This character also has most of the skills of the base character, and is one of the personalities that is aware of what has transpired while submerged. This also makes the character one of the most mature and well rounded of the personalities, even though I don't plan for it to be a frequently appearing personality.

Re: How do you build: Multiple personality disorder? Yes, a binder full. Someone else was talking about almost the same character on the boards back in '03, but decided to just do a VPP, NCC possibly as multiforms only. I want recurring personalities, some with strong ties to the world, so I need character sheets for each one, and a very complex chart for determining who shows up under what circumstances. I think each character will have circumstances likely to cause them to submerge, and most will have to make an EGO roll at intervals determined separately for each personality to remain dominant. When a personality submerges, the circumstances determine which chart I roll on to determine who emerges next. Obviously some characters will want to come out in a combat situation, some won't. Tables will be weighted to allow appropriate characters to appear more often than inappropriate ones, weakening somewhat the NCC disad. But inappropriate characters will sometimes have to come out and either deal with what they find or waste time submerging again. One personality has the ability to summon any one of the other personalities, who will at least initially, be slavishly devoted. Role play may change that. My problem with that power is: does the summoned personality have its own body, or does it possess the body of the summoner? You could argue it either way, perhaps with a disad for the possesion version, but I favor the separate body version, because it is funnier.

Am working on a character with numerous personalities. This is based out of several sources, the most familiar to this audience being Legion from the X-Men and a character that I vaguely remember from an issue of Doom Patrol about the same time many years ago. The notion is much like Legion, The characters parents were assassinated in front of him when he was five by a Rogue like assassin, then the kid turns the tables and the assassin ends up in the kid, along with the kids parents. The kids personalities mostly derive from the shock of the event and either have flight of fight mentalities and powers. But some personalities derive from the kids fantasies, or from the assassin and the kids parents. Am trying for at least 50 and maybe many more personalities. Obviously the basis is multiform. Some of the personalities abilities are also based on the MPD, such as telepathy usable only on self, Summon to summon alternate personalities, and an astral projection usable while not dominant personality, only while dominant personality sleeps. Problem with that last power: Does the appropriate personality pay for it, with the advantage cost, or do each of the other personalities pay for it, since it is potentially usable only when the multiform is turned to them? And what is the value of the advantage? So: I am wanting two things out of this thread Ideas for personalities and Rules discussion for some of the more problematic abilities Ok, three, I also want some more problematic abilites (Those are the fun ones, after all) The character was five when his mind was fractured, most of the personalities are immature (about 8-10), relatively unskilled, male, and seldom seen. The primary is mature a bit beyond his real age of about 14-15. He might have inherited head of state from his parents, depending on campaign he lands in. A few of the personalities have some maturity due to coming out more often than the rest or due to having derived from the personality of the assassin or one of the parents. A few of the personalities are female, including all those derived from the characters mother. I need a name, so the character shall be called Janus, both because Janus' two faces imply the MPD and because He is the god of Portals and the primary personality is a teleporter, mostly working with teleport gates. This post has gotten long, so I'll sign off.

Re: Build Help CHAR: Motley Fool Champagne Poppers could be used instead of silly string for that entangle. Then use silly string for a sticky entangle.

Re: [Character] Taeser It may help the spelling to know that TASER is an acronym for Thomas A. Swift Electric Rifle. Apparently, the inventor was a fan of the Tom Swift books. Incidentally I have read that ACRONYM is an acronym for Aroused Citizens Representing New York Minorities. I like the character, but I do think that the 40 pt. MP might be the way to go. BTW, why the life support?

Re: Help with a name Ichabod Crane FruitBat Flittermouse Foxbat is taken... Batjockey? What are the little moties that tinker with stuff called? Watchmakers! There is a historical figure from London called Springheel Jack. Fire breathing is an easy trick, I imagine that eyes that throw sparks was probably doable back in his time, but he was most noted for leaps of 8 feet or more vertically. Sometimes leapt onto police boxes or over high walls. Numerous sightings across about 80 years suggesting that 2 or 3 generations posed as the same character. Never caught. Can't imagine any device that would allow the jumps, but could be interesting to update him for Champions. Seem to have wandered off topic... sorry is 5am here and I am up sick and bored.

Re: The Super Darwin Awards I had a character in D&D who was a cleric of chaos as in randomness. His weapon of choice was Wand of Wonder. I also have a copper wand I picked up at a con somewhere, which I have occasionally used as a game prop. Being attacked by giant bees, I grab up my wand and my character calls out "Do!" (the command word). I then realize that I have the silly thing in reverse. I get a fireball, and the DM adds extra damage for point blank. We were indoors, so the fireball filled the room and took out the bees, and the party. No Darwin award though, My character made his save and was the only one standing. Speaking of Rolemaster, (which we always called Chartlaw) poor Kraeco in The Rolemaster Companion earned a Darwin award when he met the Black Reaver....click,click,click. I did lose a RM character to another characters stupidity once. I don't think they died, but if they did, they sure earned the award. The characters were dropped into a Spacemaster universe and given some tech equipment. The archer got a number of blast grenades and was told they had a 50 meter blast radius, neither character nor player new what a meter was and didn't ask. The character used the grenade inside a hallway in a base on an airless moon at a range of 3 to 4 meters. E100 crit. nothing but dust remains.... The rest of the characters had to deal with explosive decompression.

Re: Need a name William Wright or Bill Wright. Oh, wait that's a private identity... Actually I stole that from a fiction story, can't remember the title, but the character's hero ID was Captain Constitution. The story collection was edited by John Varley. Superheros or some such for the book title. If he uses a blade he could be George Washington: Carver Okay that was really dumb. Past my bedtime the sanity censor is off duty. Freedom Fighter, Liberty's Lance... no he wouldn't use a lance. LAW of Liberty? He might use a Light Anti-tank Weapon. Is there some other bit of ordinance that begins with an L and is contemporary? Alliteration is not really necessary, how about The Champion of the Republic? Longwinded (like me). The Republican. Confusing but could be fun. Laser has an L. I think DC had a hero named Uncle Sam that claimed to be THE Uncle Sam. Too late to really do this query Justice.. wait TJAW Truth, Justice &.... 'nite

Re: Teleport redirect I believe that would be the advantage trigger. What other teleport abilities can people think of?

Re: WWYCD "super" registration Am just starting in a campaign which will have had such a law (or at least a lot of government opposition to paranormal activity) for a generation or two. I am building characters who grew up on the moon where a paranormal colony has been established. Am building that history into some of the character histories. One of the characters I am building for that campaign could possibly dispose of all the incoming nukes with a from the above mentioned strike on Mexico city. Just teleport them all away. No individual targeting, just megascale TP gate over the city. Of course unless he somehow Knew about the strike... which come to think of it, with all those supers present with danger sense and whatnot, he might.

Re: Teleport redirect Mind Control only makes sense to me if it is mind control. While Transform makes sense because I am changing the result of the power's use, Transform shouldn't be used if another power will work instead. (I think that is in the rules for transform, too lazy to look right now.) So, TP usable as an attack is best, I suppose. Should include a suppress, but that pushes the points way out of proportion to the effect, though as a master of teleport, the character will have TP as an attack and TP suppress anyway... I am still torn between Multipower and VPP. Prefer the former, but I want the character to be able to mimic TP based powers and fx. The really cool part is the base sense. Being a teleporter that can track teleports and target them is cool. But is still isn't all teleports. He can't sense a character moving at super speed from here to there, or stopping time and moving from here to there. I don't think that he could track a Star Trek transporter depending on the exact physics. On the other hand he might be able to track a ship in warp or a subspace transmission again depending on the physics. Variable fx on the Multipower as a whole solves a lot of problems, but what happens when I see a new power that I should be able to copy? That question leads me to favor VPP. Neat things like stretching, indirect, clairsentience via teleport gates, lots of other ideas...

Re: Need to get the Creativity Flowing... For a comical element, a character with Desolid and Invisibility always on, Strength usable against physical world and Prankster can work rather well. I created the character to fit with a player, and he chose to reveal his existence only to one PC. (writing notes in dust, then wiping them away before anyone else could see, etc.) His pranks were mostly reserved for that character, too. The victim enjoyed roleplaying his martyrdom and was entertained by the antics. The rest of the party played up not believing his claims of being haunted. Very inexpensive character, room for other abilities. Does not need to be a comic campaign, and the character has great roleplaying possibilities.

Re: Teleport redirect Is usable vs. people teleporting an advantage? Like usable against desolidified? Since I am changing the result of their teleport rather than teleporting them myself, transform seemed technically right, but I agree that teleport attack seems right in other ways. A friend once got a cosmetic transform to change locked locks into unlocked locks. Very inexpensive.

Have been building a teleport technician character. Base power that the character is built around is Sense path teleport, discriminatory, analyze, tracking, targeting, 37 points. Have been trying to make a power to retarget another teleporters use of teleportation. I played with mind control a bit, but it just didn't feel right. I am currently leaning toward transformation, minor. improved results, any viable target location (ie. not into a wall, not out of target characters teleport range) reduced target options manifestation of teleport ability. This should also allow me to move gates. Teleport is normally an instantaneous effect, so healing doesn't seem to be a concern, but what is the Body of a teleport? I was thinking 1 per 5 active points. Or am I on the wrong track? How would you create this effect? No matter how subtle the wizard a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style. Steven Brust in the Vlad Taltos series

Re: The Human Polygraph I would use detect lie. If telepathic in nature, use mental awareness sense group, and probably mental awareness as an associated sense. It sounds like you want more of a Daredevil, hyper-acute normal senses, so if should go with sight or sound group and that sense should be bought with levels for extra acuteness. Or the character might have normal senses but be highly observant due to intelect. Then the character could just have a high INT (which, of course, increases all perception rolls). In each case the detect (or sense): Lie should be bought with an additional supporting sense for the sake of character concept.