Cardinal

Re: commonality of unusual defenses This is an interesting idea. Please explain a little more of what you mean by countering an EC. I assume that what you are trying to get at is that if you see Flame Lord coming down the street with his flame blast, flame flight, etc., your natural reaction is to grab a fire extinguisher or fire hose to bring Flame Lord down a peg. How do you mechanically treating this counter strategy? As a drain/suppress against the EC?

Re: Tactics Advice Thanks for the advice everyone (and the rules update on FW Chuckg - very handy). I love the mental image of playing basketball with mooks. Very mean, but, hey, they obviously deserve it. Metaplayboy, I found your post particularly helpful. In flipping through the book I noticed rapid fire. This is a new addition since I last played on a regular basis. How effective do people find it to be in combat? Do the cummulative minuses, dcv and movement restrictions limit the usefulness? Are there ways to position oneself to maximize the use? I get the impression that it could potentially be used with the Variable EB set to One Hex as a nasty attack (END expensive).

Re: Tactics Advice Thanks for feedback. Keep it coming. I apologize if my original post was unclear. The Variable Adv is on the EB only, not the TK. However, that is an interesting idea… ***thinks wicked thoughts*** As Hyper Man alluded, I plan to choose 3 or 4 and limit it to those to get the -1/4 break. Currently I considering the following: AP (pointy), One Hex Area (big car sized block), Explosion cone (a wave of force that spreads thinner as it moves out... though I am thinking about this one a little more), indirect (forming the block away from the character and going from there... though this may be redundant with TK), No Range Modifier (keep steering the ram as it flies... making it more accurate), and 1 1/2XKB (the normal block hitting with lots of momentum). Affects Desolid, normal explosion, penetrating don't seem to make sense for the SFX. Also, I do not think I will do reduced end for stylistic reasons (I wants the character to have to expend energy to use these powers). Do people have suggestions for other advs. that might work and more importantly fit the SFX? Most people seem to be tossing 12-15 DC attacks. However, with pushes, haymakers, etc. some numbers can get much bigger. On that note, I have a quick rules question. If I Haymaker a Variable Adv. EB, do I end up with 14D6 Variable Adv? One area that I am exploring with the GM is to have the character learn MA with the TK. I think maneuvers like passing strike, passing throw, leg sweep, etc. could be pretty fun with TK and Flight. Does anyone have experience with this? That being said, I would like to avoid the cheddar end of the spectrum. Has anyone run into problems with characters using this sort of power combination? How is this combination abused? Is there a way to prevent that abuse and still allow the conceptual use of that combo? My goal is to have the character be a versatile and creative combatant rather than walking artillery piece. Any thoughts on how to use these specific powers to knock people on their a$$es and thus lower their DCVs?

Well, I am back to playing after many years away. However, I am a but rusty, especially with combat techniques. In addition, I am running an Energy Projector for the first time (previously I tended to play very high Dex MA types). As such, I would appreciate some advice on effective tactics to use in combat from the great minds on the board. My character's power set (force field creation and manipulation EC) includes flight, force field, force wall, TK and EB with +1/2 variable adv (different shaped force rams). Dex and speed are mid to low for the campaign (23 and 5, respectively). So far I have been fairly standard using FF, Flight and EB or TK to blast away at people and the FW to try to protect innocents. The advice would be especially helpful if people could specify what type of foe a particular tactic would work well on (e.g. "Well your TK on Bricks is useless because of the competing strength issues, but rapid fire AP attacks work great because of their low DCV...", etc.). Thanks in advance!

I just watched Justice League Unlimited on Tivo. In the episode, Batman's plane is destroyed and he is forced to eject. While plummeting to the earth he radios his team in a deadpan voice: "Batman to all points: I could use some air support, since I can't fly...at all.... now would be good." This scene had me absolute rolling because when I first started playing Champions I played a martial artist. He had some crazy dex and was virtually impossible to hit. Whenever the GM got frustrated, some how the martial artist would find himself thrown off a building, in a plane that was blowing up, etc. It felt like he spent half of his time accelerating towards the earth. Anyone else have similar art imitating rp life moment? On an unrelated note, I love the fact that in at least 2 - 4 episodes, they have had the full JL come out to battle en masse. Love the footage of the whole horde mixing it up.

Re: Building the Animated Justice League Yes. He did it to two aliens in the last episode of the three episode intro to JL. I have not seen him do it since then, so you can probably rule that it was a (very generous) GM allowing him to power stunt his Str to NND damage. That being said, I think it is worth giving him the power.

Re: Building the Animated Justice League JmOz - can you please post the HDC file for GL, Flash and Hawkgirl. Once again, thanks for our work.

Re: Building the Animated Justice League I don't think that you need a VPP for MM. I think you can take care of it with decent stats (30-40 Str, 25 Con, 20 Dex, 20 Ego, 4 or 5 spd), flight, and an MP that has the following: * Desolidification * NND EB No Range (Resoldifying with his hand in someone. If you want to be nasty, you can make this a penetrating HKA.) * Shape Change * Density Increase * Telepathy (maybe cum to represent cracking into the Hawk soldiers mind) * Mind Scan (possibly keep this out of the MP to represent his ability to find and then communicate with people ala the first episode where he summons Superman). * Ego Attack (thought I don't really recall him doing this much). Most of his tricks seem to be power skill rolls more than any descrete set of new powers IMO. BTW, you have done a great job with all the past Animated JL characters. Very playable yet capturing the spirit of the show. One comment on HG. You might want to do her mace as a MP and put a second slot to represent missile deflection. I also think she might do with a higher PRE. She growls a lot and does not seemed phased by anyone. Keep up the great work!

Re: Show me the PC Blackmoor - I like your characters, especially Avalon. Cool power set, especially the open personality / telepathy vibe. If I can offer you one suggestion, I think you can save some points on her two flight powers. You have flight usably underwater and flight (same number of inches) megascale, both in an EC. If you take the flight once with variable advantage limited to two possibilities (usable underwater or megascale) it would be a 1/2 rather than 1/4 adv and you would not need two 37 point slots. I have not done the math, but I bet you would save net 25 points or so. Another advantage would be that you could also pick up combat acceleration, etc. with the same build (if you want it). Good work on your website. Lots of neat links, pictures and history.

I do not know if this is the right forum for this question, but I trust that you will point me in the right direction if it is not. I just got Until: DOF. Congratulations on a great book. I had two quick questions related to the build for the ADIS system on the Gateway Space Station (p.123). It is designed as a MP with two slots: "away" and "to". The difference between the two slots is that the later has ranged and usable as an attack. My questions: 1. Shouldn't "away" have the advantage usable as an attack? As it stands now, I read it to allow the space station to teleport itself, but no one else, between the stations. 2. Is there a need to have two different slots to take care of this power? It seems that you could use the second slot ("to") for both directions. For the away portion, the station would simply not take advantage of the ranged advantage. My assumption is that it was just a design style preference. Thanks for your help.

Re: Hawkgirl JMHammer - I was interested to read your versions of the animated Justice League (as well as those prepared by JmOz). Kudos to you both for your work. I am still digesting the builds, but had a couple of quick reactions. First, I am not sure that I would agree with the 10" variable flight and 15" combat flight for Hawk Girl. She seems to be by far the quickest of JL flyers in combat movement. As such, I would think she would be around 20"-25" (given the benchmarks set by the others). However, she has not shown any super speed that would be explained by the megascale option on the variable flight. Nor have I seen her flying underwater that would demonstrate the usuable underwater adv. accesible by the variable adv. I would recommend eliminating the flight MP, have it be for more "s and maybe throw on some advantages like 1/2 end or combat acceleration. Second, I was wondering what your damage benchmarks are. It appears that you have Superman throwing 15D6 attacks, WW throwing 12-16D6 punches, and Gl at 13d6. At that range, 20D6 seems a bit high for HG. I would agree that her all out attack is the biggest in the JL (hello honking big mace!), but I would put it closer to 16-18D6, with a huge end cost for the portion above 12-13D6. Third, did you consider ranged martial arts for Batman? I always thought that his batarangs were something closer to a 1D6+1 RKA range based on Str. used with ranged martial arts for things like ranged disarms (knocking guns out of hands, etc.) and ranged trip (to trip fleeing bad guys). As above, 12D6 seems a bit high batarangs if Superman is at 15D6. I do not see people being tossed around with the knockback that a 12D6 attack would cause. That being said, the explosive batarangs look good. Fourth, for JJ did you consider using just one huge MP for all of his powers with the mental slots put on multi rather than ultra? It would eliminate the use of multiple MPs. and allow his flexible access to his huge array of powers. Thank you for your work on these builds. They are a great resource and extremely interesting to read.

Re: Help Newbie with Power Thanks to everyone for the feedback. In response to Hugh, do you mean the 1/4 advantage would go on each absorption and then you would aggregate the totals from the two together (i.e. 4D6 E + 4D6 P = 48 pts Total), or would it be to allow both absorptions to feed into the same total (which in the case above would be 24)? Would you give any value to the limitation that only X is absorbed per phase despite having two separate absorptions that presumably would allow a larger number normally? WhammeWhamme, 5E (p.73) indicates that "if two different characters use separate versions of one of these powers on the same character's Characteristic or Power , the maximum number of points they can add to that character equals the largest maximum for any of the powers used." I can see how this would be interpreted to limit the total that can be absorbed in this case even though it is being done by one character with two different powers. What does this mean in terms of how you buy it. Do you need to buy up the max to be the same for both powers in this circumstances? For example, if the power was 4D6 E Aborption + 16 max - 40 total (28AP) plus 4d6 P absorption (20 AP), would you judge that Energy and phsycial could be any combination up to 40 or that E could be absorbed up to 40 pts, but the character would max out on P at 24 pts? Does it change the analysis if the power is bought with the 1/4 variable adv? Per the FAQ, in this case there would be a sep. max for each characteristic (i.e. a 4d6 absorption with the 1/4 adv. could be used to absorb up to 24 pts to each of the designated related group of abilities of characteristics - assuming 4 target stats, this would be effectively 96 total pts absorbed). How much of a limitation would it be that the aggregate pts. contributed to all characteristics is limited to X? Any additional thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

I am back to Hero/Champions after more than a decade away. I am trying to build a power and would appreciate the help of the great minds on the board. The concept is a character that is an energy absorbing demi-brick. He can absorb any type of energy (including kinetic energy (physical)), but can only absorb so much before “Bad Things Happen.â€(*) The catch is that the limit to the amount of energy that he can absorb covers all of the energy he absorbs. Let’s assume that I want our stalwart hero (SH) to be able to absorb 50 points worth of attacks. I want that number to work to cover 50 Energy/ 0 Physical, 10E/40P, 25E/25P, etc. Also, I want SH to be able to absorb both E and P at any given time. For example, assume that SH has gotten in a fight with Pulsar and Ogre in an attempt to protect Truth, Justice and the American Way. In Phase 12, the cowardly duo each attack and hit SH, doing 12 body. SH rolls 18 on his absorption. He absorbs 12 from Pulsar’s blast (the first to hit) and 6 of 12 from Ogre’s punch. He has now absorbed 18/50 of the total energy he can absorb. I have come up with two ways to model this. I would appreciate your feedback. First, SH could buy two absorptions of equal size with equal total absorption numbers, one physical and one energy. The problem is that these pools would be independent of each other. As such, in our example above, assuming the same roll for each pool, he would have absorbed 12 pts from Pulsar (and have 6 left for any other energy attack), and 12 from Ogre (with 6 left for any physical. In addition, each pool would be at 12/50 of its max. An alternative to the model above would be to put a limitation on each of the pools to indicate that it could not absorb more than the roll total in a turn and the total max counting all energy absorbed by both powers. What value would you give this limitation? -1/2? -1? Second, SH could buy one absorption pool with the advantage Varying Effect (+1) on it. Unfortunately, this provides that SH could absorb from either P or E, but not both at the same time. In our example above this would mean that either of Pulsar’s or Ogre’s attack would not have been absorbed and the total pool would now be at 12/50 of max. Are there any other ways to model this? Does anyone have any other suggestions on how to handle this concept? Thank you for your help. (*) Note: While not pertinent to the thread, I have taken care of the Bad Things Happen through a combination of a side effect and disadvantages.