Lucius

You called? Keebler Elf CHARACTERISTICS Val Char Points Roll 5 STR -5 10- 13 DEX 6 12- 10 CON 0 11- 10 INT 0 11- 10 EGO 0 11- 10 PRE 0 11- 3 OCV 0 6 DCV 0 3 OMCV 0 3 DMCV 0 2 SPD 0 2+3 PD 0 2+3 ED 0 4 REC 0 20 END 0 8 BODY -2 Total Cost 18 MOVEMENT Type Combat Noncombat Run (12m) 10m 20m Swim (4m) 4m 8m H. Leap (4m) 2m 4m V. Leap (2m) 1m SKILLS, PERKS, & TALENTS Cost Name Roll Keebler Cultural Template 3 1) Elven Magic: Power: Baking 11- 0 2) PS: Baker 11- 4 Hollow Tree: Base 7 Total Skills, Perks, & Talents Cost POWERS AND EQUIPMENT Cost Name Power/Equipment END 0 Keebler Racial Template 7 1) +3 DCV (15 Active Points); Perceivable (Noticeably short; -½), Limited Power Not in hand to hand combat with creatures the same size or smaller (-½) 10 2) Elven Luck Luck 2d6 0 6 3) Elven Combat Luck (3 PD/3 ED) 23 Total Powers/Equipment Cost MATCHING COMPLICATIONS (25) Cost Complication Roll 10 Base Points 5 Physical Complication: Short (Infrequently; Barely Impairing) 5 Distinctive Features: Keebler Elf (Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Hollow Trees) 5 As Appropriate (Subject to Orders, Obsessed with baking good cookies, etc.) 25 Total Complications Points Background/History: Keebler Elves live and work underground, accessing the surface via hollow trees. They are best known as bakers. Quote: "Have a cookie. They're uncommonly good!" Powers/tactics: This write up represents a minimal Keebler Elf. Most will have, at least, a few more skills. Leaders are apt to possess all manner of mysterious magical powers, usually related to baking. Campaign Use: Built on 10 Base Points plus 15 pts in Complications for a total of 25 pts, a standard Keebler Elf meets the guidelines for a "Standard Normal." Keebler Elves are a trademark of the Keebler Company, a division of Kellogg. Character sheet by Lucius Alexander Copyright Palindromedary Enterprises

That's a great question! Thanks for asking Lucius Alexander Neither I nor the palindromedary know the answer

.....oh. I don't think that's something to be avoided just because video games do it. I think it predates video games anyway; way back in AD&D, your initial choice of Class for example predetermined what would be available for weapon proficiencies. And Defense Manuever is an example of something in standard Hero already in which each step must be bought in order - I can't just spend the last 2 pts to get "Levels on DCV are Persistant" and skip the ability to negate multiple attacker bonuses etc. Basically, we're talking about some abilities being pre-requisites for other abilities, right? And as you say, "done right it appears to be natural progression." Lucius Alexander Riding and Animal Handler: Palindromedaries are prerequisites for PS: Palindromdary Rider

It's common in video games for characters to consult tree oracles before making decisions? Lucius Alexander Sometimes I consult a palindromedary

Yeah, sounds like that officer was petty. But then again at Loring Air Force Base I knew someone who got a few days extra duty for calling the Mobility NCO "The Mobility Dude." Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says the dude may abide, but some people in the military can't abide "dude"

Same sentiment here! Lucius Alexander That goes double for the palindromedary of course

That defines what is arguably THE major goal of Western Alchemy. What exactly is the goal here? To forge weapons that perform better in combat somehow - more durable, lighter, sharper? To forge weapons that will sell for a higher price? To forge weapons from silver and gold that are as effective as weapons of steel? Lucius Alexander No weapon forged against a palindromedary shall prosper

ACKS? Lucius Alexander Feed it to the palindromedary

How about if they collaborate on an entire series of movies? Lucius Alexander Starring a palindromedary?

Ummm.. yeah. So if I have Combat Skill Levels specifically with Dodge, I am somehow putting them on DCV before I'm actually dodging? I recognize that it's a moot point, but it's something I just don't get. Lucius Alexander It still looks like calling the palindromedary's hump a separate creature from the palindromedary

Give me 60 Active Points to build with and I don't need a Killing Attack to threaten a normal. Or to kill one for that matter. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is threatened by vampires, ancient Egyptians, and classical musicians

Using a Variable Power Pool for this is overkill. It could probably be done without even using Multipower if one is willing to make some compromises. I would probably use two Mutlipowers, though, one for weapons and one for armor, with liberal use of Variable Advantage, Variable Special Effects,and Variable Limitations. Lucius Alexander Variable Palindromedary

I built the ability as an attack, so it does require a targetting roll. If someone is actually holding the item, the penalties for Grab should apply, Lucius Alexander What if a palindromedary ate it? I'm not sure....

And possibly without charges, if she can so easily reload. Lucius Alexander Summoning a palindromedary

If I had it once, I can have it now: (Total: 105 Active Cost, 28 Real Cost) Teleportation 1m, No Relative Velocity, Alternate Combat Value (uses OMCV against DCV; +0), Ranged (+1/2), Line Of Sight (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+1), Grantor pays the END whenever the power is used, MegaScale (1m = 10,000 km; +2) (55 Active Points); Conditional Power Only for inanimate objects the character has held in the hand. (-1 1/2), Can Only Teleport To Fixed Locations (-1), Extra Time (Extra Phase, -3/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Unified Power (-1/4) (Real Cost: 11) <b>plus</b> Teleportation: Fixed Location (own hands) (1 Locations) (Real Cost: 1) <b>plus</b> Detect Previously handled object 11-/17- (Mental Group), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Targeting, MegaScale (1m = 1,000 km; +1 3/4) (49 Active Points); Limited Power Only to target an item for Teleportation (-1), Instant (-1/2), Nonpersistent (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4) (Real Cost: 16) Once word gets out, expect that any time the character asks "may I hold that?" the answer will be "No!" Lucius Alexander Teleporting a palindromedary to a Broken Location

How about using Professional Skills for things like ordinary blacksmithing, whitesmithing, silversmithing, etc, but define "Metalworking" or "Metalsmithing" as a kind of Power Skill that allows all the above plus Weaponsmithing (to make metal based weapons and armor) and similarly using Power Skills for other gonzo Trade Skills? Also, perhaps use the Extraordinary Skill rule for crafting truly wondrous items (Skill must be at least 18 and take at least a -10 to roll to "do the impossible.") Lucius Alexander The palindromedary asks, if a blacksmith works iron and a whitesmith works tin, what would a graysmith work?

Q: What reassures me that I have made very good choices in my life? A: The sound of a man dying Lucius Alexander Have the palindromedary and I been here before?

What if the object in question no longer exists? If you are trying to conjure your grandfather's journal that you once held as a child and forget that grandpa's house burned down years ago, do you get a handful of ash? The journal as it existed when you held it? The journal as it existed just before it burned up? Nothing at all? What about living things? If you conjure an apple you held long ago, and one of the seeds grew into an apple tree, are you now pinned beneath an uprooted tree? If you had the apple just yesterday and ate it, do you get the whole apple again, or a core? If you used to be SuperDuperMan's babysitter when he was a baby and held him and fed him, can you produce the adult SuperDuperMan here and now? What happens to the people SuperDuperMan was in the process of saving when you decided to conjure him? If he's still there saving them AND also here looking confused, have you in effect cloned him or is SuperDuperMan still a single consciousness and identity now struggling to reconcile two different bodies in two different points in space? If you conjure a sparkplug you once held that has since been installed in a car, do you get the car, or the sparkplug? Is someone now driving around with a spark plug missing? If someone swipes your wallet and you conjure it back, do you get it as it is now, empty where it lies discarded by the thief, or is everything back where it belongs? If she ripped it to pieces in anger because you only had two bucks in it, does it come back whole or torn? If you held a gold coin yesterday, can you conjure it several times today until you have a bag of gold? Or is it the same coin every time? We're not trying to give you a hard time. But unless we know exactly what it is the ability you envision can and can't do, it's hard to build a power for it. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says I probably will try anyway.

I'm a little confused about what you're talking about mechanically. Many of these could be Professional Skills, but for example Mechanic and Animal Handler are their own Skills, and so is Weaponsmith. I don't think it's a stupid idea at all. I'm intrigued. I just get real nitpicky sometimes. For example, I would say that Cook, Baker, Brewer, and Vintner, are all different trades (and I think if you ask someone following any of those occupations, they would agree.) But my understanding is that any silversmith can be a goldsmith or vice versa because the skills involved in working with those metals are not that different. When you say "provisioner" I think, not so much of a cook, as someone who knows the techniques of preservation; how to smoke, dry, salt, jerk, and pickle various foods for long journeys or long term storage. May I suggest Apothecary Scribe Cartographer Arcane Scribe (may or may not be a spellcaster, but knows how to select the right parchments, compound the exotic inks, and self-induce the meditative trance that enables safely copying a scroll or spell book without activating the associated forces.) Lucius Alexander Animal Handler: Palindromedaries

"We now rejoin our correspondent live from the front lines." Thank you. I expect this will be my last transmission before I evacuate, the situation here has escalated. This was recorded no more than two hours ago, and is the raw unedited footage. This will strain your credibility but I swear this recording is not a hoax. With what is being deployed on the field now, I do not expect the casualties to continue to be limited to horses and straw men. Immediately after this broadcast we will be heading directly to Scotland and checking into our accustomed waterfront hotel. Signing off before they deploy any more weapons of rhetorical overkill, I am Lucius Alexander Palindromedary News doesn't pay me enough for this, I'm going to the Inn before the Loch.

I think I read that one. Is that the guy who lumped together Norse traditional religion, Magyar shamanism, and Islam, as "Heathenism" as if they were all one undifferentiated "Not Christian" threat, ignoring the fact they had no more in common with one another than any of them did with Christian Europe? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary would like to postpone the Apocalypse indefinitely

Sounds like a winning formula to me. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says we should bottle it

Roll with it: (Total: 30 Active Cost, 9 Real Cost) Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); Requires A Roll (Block roll; Must be made each Phase/use; -1), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Restrainable (-1/2), Only Works Against Attacks the character is aware of (-1/4) (Real Cost: 9) As long as the character has freedom of action and is aware of an attack it is possible to make the same sort of roll as a Block maneuver (this does not require an attack action) to cut the damage of physical attacks in half. Lucius Alexander It should be obvious that the palindromedary has Defense Maneuver

Maybe I don't understand the question. This is a classic example of "begging the question." You're not asking "would you use a vulnerability for sound based characters?" you are asking "WHAT would you use as a vulnerability for sound based characters." It seems as if you are assuming that for some reason a sound based character must have a vulnerability. If that's your assumption, I am asking why you make that assumption. If that's not your assumption, I have misunderstood. Lucius Alexander It's probably safe to assume that there will be a palindromedary tagline here

I personally don't use Hero System to run comic book adventures, but I gather a lot of people do. Someone on rpg.net started a thread to discuss "Pros and Cons of EVERY Superhero RPG System." I thought I'd post a link so that anyone who cared to might join the discussion. https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?778437-The-Big-Supers-Thread-Pros-and-Cons-of-EVERY-Superhero-RPG-system Lucius Alexander The palindromedary says such a thread will be incomplete if the Hero System isn't mentioned.