griffinman01

Looks good to me. I would go with explosion as well rather than an AoE but, if you're looking to save some points, thematically you could probably drop it down to half that range since 125 meters is pretty big (about 400 feet radius). Granted, if you want this to be like the things they used in like WW2 where they were meant to illuminate an entire battlefield, then it's fine as is. But, if you're just looking for the immediate area, going down to 64 or so is probably fine. If you wanted to do the cone effect then it would just be a similar build to what you have minus some of the constraints and probably 16m at best for range.

I find that the usefulness of your skills depends entirely on the GM. If your GM never puts you in a situation where you'd need to use skills (as in some campaigns that focus on combat) then skills are essentially dead points. However, if your GM puts out the effort and/or rewards people for coming up with alternative solutions, then they become vastly more important. Likewise, the number of points you put into a skill depends on the GM and how he assesses penalties to the rolls. As people have stated a 13- will pass about 80% of the time so anything more than that is a waste of points if your GM doesn't assign penalties such as rushing through the skill (picking a lock in 5 seconds is a lot harder than if you had 5 minutes) or use skill vs skill contests (trying to hack a hacker is a lot harder than a normal person). So there's little need to boost skills up to 17- or so unless your GM regularly gives you steep penalties. A -4 penalty to the roll on that 13- (80 % success) will tank it down to a 9- (39% Success) while going from a 17- (98% success) to a 13- (80% success) isn't so bad. Basically it boils down to the kind of campaign your GM is running and how he's running it.

I tried to get around the swift character idea with the AoE TK grab. If you're hitting the DCV 3 hex rather than the character, you're able to pin them far better. At that point you have to deal with actually escaping the grab and then it's a matter of your strength vs theirs, which if you put your strength high enough, you make it hard for non-bricks to get out of it. Granted, like you said, this isn't a perfect solution. There really isn't one, which is why I would hand wave most of the minor parts of it and also only use this kind of thing for cinematic purposes. Anyone who could do this much to everyone would be way overpowered, so most of the build is meant for one or two "shock and awe" phases before the fight begins (you know, the typical "you're nothing to me" and then he overestimates his abilities and gets taken down because he isn't taking you seriously bit)

I, for one, have never worried about the 10 point minimum for Martial Arts. People pick up tricks on their own all the time, they're not always part of a structured fighting discipline. A kid growing up in a rough neighborhood probably wouldn't know how to fight properly, but he probably knows enough to throw a kidney punch and get out of a grab.

Personally I've always thought that Gravity Manipulation needs like 3-4 powers to get it to work correctly. I recently put together a high-powered super-villain similar to Graviton from the Avengers episode mentioned earlier. I looked at a ton of different ideas and how things happen in that fight and pretty much came up with the following powers as needed to fit what I was looking for. 1) Change Environment for Negative movement - This is the only real way to simulate being pinned to the ground (or lifted up) since AoE Telekinesis you can break out of and be able to move normally. That being said, I think it's wholly believable for someone to "Push" themselves enough to get to their feet and walk a few inches. You see it all the time in comics and such so I think having the CE be LESS than most people's total movement is proper. 2) Telekinesis AoE - This is the second half of the "Pin people to the ground" (ie the part where people can get crushed by having the extra weight push them down). I think this is necessary because having enough force to keep you pinned to the floor would do more than just keep you rooted. It'll potentially break bones and cause enough pressure to black someone out. Having it linked to the Change Environment gives you the effect of being pinned and taking damage from the TK grab, which forces you to "push" yourself to get to your feet (ie break the grab) and then fight the gravity (still being affected by the negative movement change environment). Plus this will also be useful for when your character wants to lift and toss a group of people away. 3) Missile Deflection - This is more of a flavor thing, but being able to redirect the center of gravity of objects seems appropriate. You see these kind of people tossing boulders and other objects aside and this is the easiest way to make that happen. 4) Flight - These guys are always flying so they need to have something for that. I don't like to mess with the UAA Flight so this is strictly for the guy's personal use. Now, as I said, this was for a high-powered super villain. He cost around 600 points in powers alone so this is not feasable as a hero (nor would I allow it because this would be pretty damn powerful and make it a bitch to try and GM against). I do have a hero who has a VERY limited form of gravity manipulation that really only affects a single target. We did that one as TK since it's not an area and, again, I think the ability to use strength to "push" out of it and resist the force of gravity is perfectly reasonable. Like with everything in this game, there's a dozen ways to do any power idea. Picking the right one is up to you and how you want to flavor it and how 'realistic' you want it to be. Also, I'm not above handwaving a few of the minor rules snags to make things easier to work around.

Lowering EGO doesn't affect DCV so I added in the DEX suppression to it to help account for that. It's a pretty clean build and works fine with 5th edition. I think the Change Environment build only works well in 6th based on what people said here. I'm sure I can get the build to function well enough by altering the base cost as per the 6th rules, but, since this is pretty much a GM only power, I'm content to use the suppress and sort of 'hand-wave' the effect. Thanks for the input!

Where exactly are the rules for Stunning on a Change Environment? I don't have a 6th edition book and my 5th edition one (as well as the hero software) doesn't have that as an option and I'm curious as to how much it costs to add that ability. One other consideration, by using it as a change environment, which is AoE by default, even at no range, would you be targeting the character or the hex with that build? That could be potentially an issue since the suppress option can be easily dodged, much more so than a DCV=3 hex. In any case, both the Change Environment or EGO suppress sound like good options. I'm not too worried about "balance" since this will be something that NPCs or villains would use, thus the players wont be able to use them unless they disarm one from a guy. Fortunately my play group doesn't have any rule Nazis and, since I GM most of the time, I just have to find something close to it that doesn't piss everyone off. I guess I'm kind of lucky like that.

Is Pushing your Ego a core rule in 6th? I'm not sure since I typically use 5th ed revised, but I would see it as doable since it's no different than STR in the case of mental abilities. Plus you see it all the time where someone musters the willpower through grit and determination to tell someone to "Get out of my head!", overcome fear, or focus when needed. As a GM I would allow it depending on the situation.

I see it more as being able to muster the will to act despite the extreme nausea, cramping pain and other effects. But you could make the Entangle vs Con in that case or against the Higher of the two. In all honesty, I think any of the suggested methods work roughly as well and which is more "accurate" is a matter of taste. "What if the target is a 'robot' built with some of the automaton rules (has a CON but not an EGO)?" Wouldn't that fall into the category of having resistant defense (in the case of robots that can't be stunned in the first place), or having the appropriate life support (no internal organs)?

I thought about the entangle idea but I don't think it fits. It's not really holding them in place and the entangle wouldn't really disorient people like I was looking for. The more that I think about, the EGO suppress idea is probably the easiest and cheapest. I built it like this: The Sick Stick: Suppress EGO 8d6 (40 active points) OAF (-1) No Range (-1/2) 4 Continuing charges lasting 1 turn each (-1/4) Does not affect mental defenses (-1/4) Has no effect on targets with Resistant Defense or appropriate Life Support (-1/2) Total Cost 11 points 8d6 will drop most normal heroes and weak-willed heroes to negative EGO on average which will mean that they can't take any new actions until they make a recovery roll (which would be less than 9-). It makes it difficult to get through, but not impossible. You could push yourself to try and recover, which makes sense, and the fact that it only lasts a turn means that, while uncomfortable, it wont do any lasting damage. It's meant to quickly disable someone for a short time (assuming it affects them) in a non-lethal manner.

That sounds better than any of the ideas I had and seems to fit the bill pretty closely. With enough willpower you can work through it and overcome it, plus it doesn't do any lasting harm.

I had an odd thought after watching Kick Ass 2 regarding how to build something similar to the "Sick Stick" where the power physically stuns/incapacitates the person without doing any real damage (just extreme discomfort). The idea is that you would get hit with the power and get so disoriented or discombobulated that you are physically incapable of taking an action (very similar to being stunned). So, something like intense vertigo where the person is thrown off balance and can't take an action, a power that causes someone to throw up/double over in pain, or being tazed. I had a couple of ideas but none of them seemed to fit the bill: 1) NND attack (defense is appropriate life support) that will stun the character through defenses. I'm not looking for it to do that much damage though. 2) Mental Illusions based on CON - The effect would probably work but is seems like an odd way to do it. Anyways, I'm interested in seeing what you guys think would be the best way to build something similar.

Couldn't you buy an HA with the NND advantage (or just HKA for the killing strike) and a limitation for use only on the specific attack? That's pretty much what they did with Tiger Lily in the referenced book so I don't see why you couldn't do the same here.

I want to stress how useful the HeroDesigner software is. Nothing can kill enthusiasm for a character faster than having to juggle point costs, which is something the software calculates for you automatically. One of my very first Champions characters (back before they called it the Hero System) used a fire Elemental control and, when I was 15 and trying to build it, the cost juggling almost made me want to throw the idea away. Thankfully the 3rd edition we were using had an early DOS version of the software that made it 100 times easier. Now the software makes character sheets that are compact, readable, and have all the pertinent information for your character (background, combat modifiers, what phases they act in, and even a picture to add flavor). Plus you can easily make changes to the sheet without having to re-pencil in the entire power or erase things to make them fit. Also, as an added thing to post 2, if you're looking for awesome miniatures to represent your characters in the game, I suggest stuff from the Heroclix minis game. I had a ton of them from way back and they really help make the game board easier to keep track of and look 10 times more badass. Likewise, I came up with the notion to use a white board and dry erase markers to use for a changeable battle map. It's a clean, unobtrusive way to sketch out the fight arenas and add obstacles that you can change at will. Finally, most smart phones have some kind of dice roller app (i found one for the Hero system that calculates body and stun damage on the iPhone) that can be helpful if you're GMing and you don't want to calculate a bunch of attacks on the fly. Have Fun!

Those are all great ideas and I think I've come up with a simple method that any character can use (since none of my guys bought analyze or deduction). I'm thinking that Conversation would be the base skill, since the situation I listed was a simple question in the middle of a conversation (ie, "hey, didn't I see your face somewhere?" "I don't know what you're talking about") and then PER as a complementary (picking up any subtle nervous ticks or tells from the target) versus the target's acting (telling a convincing lie). Since acting isn't a given skill like conversation is in most cases I think it fits since not everyone can lie convincingly. Anyways, thanks for all the input.

I'll be starting a sci-fi/Dark Champions scenario (think space bounty hunters) and I know that there will be times where the PCs want to try and analyze if someone just lied to them. I'm not talking about through an interrogation but through conversation. Say you walk up to a target at a party and ask them if a question, what skill would you use to determine if they just lied? I was thinking that it would be Interrogation, but you're not coercing them through manipulation or torture so I started thinking it might be acting since the Ultimate Skill mentions that you can use that to fake things like an injured limb or emotions. Anyways, I just wanted to see what would be the best skill to use from the list.

Precise Sprayfire II has a caution in the book and also has a good way for the GM to curb it in the power description by limiting the number of shots by half the number of shots fired. I've ruled it using that suggestion so if a player uses PSII with a x5 autofire weapon, they can only get the benefit for the first 3 shots. So if you need an 11 to hit, 11 = 1 shot, 10 = 2, 9 = 3, 8 = 3, 7 = 4, 6 = 4, 5 = 5. It's worked out pretty well. It's still powerful but it's not as bad as it could be. Plus the 1/2 DCV hurts since pumping that kind of damage tends to draw a lot of fire afterwards.

It's also in the Ultimate Skill pg 86. Here's the actual text: PRECISE SPRAYFIRE II The character can use Autofire against a single target with great accuracy. Instead of hitting with one shot for every 2 points he makes his Attack Roll by, he hits with one shot for every 1 point he makes the roll by. The GM may cap the number of hits at some level (such as half the overall number of shots fired), if necessary. This costs 5 points and is an Autofire skill, meaning that it takes a full phase (unless you have Rapid Attack: Range which makes it take a half phase) and reduces your DCV by half.

I think this sums it up. Remember that each of the penalties that you suffer are due to some kind of environmental hazard and all it takes is a little bit of thought on how you could circumvent those hazards. Whenever someone uses Change Environment they have to specify what they're doing. When they create a field that reduces running, they have to specify that it's because the ground turned to mud, meaning environmental movement would get around it (or if you found some means of creating a solid surface to stand on such as a force wall). Dense fog can cause reduced PER, in which case other vision types (IR, UV, X-Ray) would penetrate it. Damage from High winds and intense heat/cold could be counteracted by creating a force wall to shield you (provides resistant defense to prevent burns or debris). Basically it takes some creative thinking and the OK from the GM for ways to get around it.

AoE with selective target would work, but it would affect everything in the AoE and not be limited by a number of targets. You could do Autofire but you would probably want to get it with some of the autofire skills, otherwise you'll be blowing up a lot of ground. I'd at the very least get: Accurate Sprayfire - Allows you to target multiple targets with a flat -1 OCV rather than -1 OCV per hex fired into Skipover Sprayfire - When targeting multiple targets you don't waste shots in the unoccupied hexes between targets. You get a -1 OCV penalty for using this. You could also get Concentrated Sprayfire - Allows you to shoot each target more than once. Going with autofire works best thematically IMO. It takes a full phase to use (requires a second to lock on before firing) and halves your DCV (gotta keep your targets lined up for the lock). Plus it also allows you to spread your attacks however you see fit and keeps track of how much ammo you're shooting off (so you can shoot 5 missiles per salvo or 10). Also, since these are separate attacks rather than an AoE, misses will scatter and hit random locations (much like real missiles). Lastly it still gives you the option to fire off normally at a half phase so that you can shoot without the lock in case you need to. So, while AoE would work, I think the autofire option fits the power build better and provides you with more options.

I don't see too much of an issue because of a few things that you didn't mention: 1) The summoned creatures have to spend their first phase to recover from being summoned (going by 5th ed rev here so disregard this if it changed in 6th ed). So, it takes their second available phase before they can act at all. 2) They can be targeted and attacked. Given that they're actual beings people can shoot them down before they reach their target (just like real missiles). 3) People can outrun them. Again, just like real missiles. Anyone who has high movement or high speed can physically keep away from them. 4) No personal immunity. If I was playing a melee character I'd grab the summoner, hold him tight, and then laugh when all the missiles take us both down (but hopefully leave me standing). If the target keeps close to the summoner, anything like that could backfire so you have to think about the situation as well. It's a cool ability and there's nothing about it that seems broken or overpowered to me. I had someone similar who could create little suicide drones (which is why I know about a lot of these disadvantages) and it worked out pretty well. I really had to watch it sometimes, but it could be really good for support or to take out someone who you can't get line of sight on,