Lucius

Old Haiku, Nu? February in Oh Three, nearly three years now Since last I was here. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary clears its throats and points out TO LUCIUS that anyone can count to seventeen, but that does NOT really make a haiku worthy of the name. To which Lucius replies, gimme a break, I'm out of practice!

Re: Labs in Bases...

Re: Advantages on Standard Maneuvers I would say, either buy psychokinesis, or STR based on ECV. It doesn't have to be much - I'd say you could use a single point of STR to block. (After all, if I'm not mistaken, a character with even less STR than that can use an ordinary block in combat.) Maybe with a limitation "only to block" or maybe "only to block or disarm" or however you want to use it. Lucius Alexander Ubiquitous palindromedary

New guy likes END

Stun Lotto And that, friends, is the real world reason WHY there's a "Stun Lotto." Lucius Alexander The palindromedary and I wonder if we can quote you on that in a couple of other threads?

How to handle RKA? I already posted this in the Killing Advantage thread - I thought it would fit here too. I wrote it while I was temporarily unable to get online, but still thinking hard about the conversation. Essay: Normal Killing (Killing Normals?) I thought I’d try to summarize the important points so far in these discussions. First of all, the core rules present two very different mechanics for determining damage. These two mechanics – the one for “normal†and the one for “killing†damage – play out very differently. In “normal†damage, the total rolled on the dice is STUN. One BODy is done for each 2-5, zero BOD for a 1, two BOD for a 6. Often many dice are rolled, creating a “bell curve†of damage where most results cluster around the average. This averaging effect is even more pronounced when it comes to BODy damage, given that most rolls on a given die do exactly 1 BOD. Thus a 10d6 normal attack is VERY likely to do exactly 10 BODy. The more dice, the more predictable the damage. In “killing†damage, the total of dice is the BODy, and one third fewer dice are rolled, diminishing the “averaging†effect. Furthermore, the STUN multiple is always rolled on a SINGLE die; because of the “Minus 1, but always at least 1†effect, the multiplier has one chance in three of being 1, but a 5 is just as likely as a 3 or 4. And no matter how many dice are rolled for BODy, only 1 is rolled for the multiplier – it’s an “anti-averaging†effect. So a 2d6 killing attack has 1 chance in 36 of doing max BOD; the theoretically equivalent 6d6 normal attack has 1 in 46656, by my calculations. (Feel free to correct; in any case, it’s long odds.) This unpredictability of killing attacks is great enough for BODy, but truly extreme for STUN, thus the common expression “The Stun Lottery.†Presumably, the core rules use one mechanic for “normal†attacks and the other for “killing†attacks because the original designers thought killing attacks should be more unpredictable. But there is no reason we HAVE to use these mechanics as presented. If you dislike the “Stun Lotto†simply have killing attacks rolled like normal attacks, but still applied as killing attacks; full damage if no resistant defense, BOD blocked only by resistant defense, STUN blocked by full defense if there is any resistant defense. If you like damage to be less predictable, you can roll normal attacks like killing attacks, but applied as normal attacks; all damage stopped by the relevant defense. An advantage of the latter course is that you can further differentiate by means of the Stun multiple; attacks meant to knock out can buy increased stun multiplier advantage, attacks meant to kill can buy higher dice but take decreased stun multiplier limitation. If you use hit locations, the “STUN lottery†is less of an issue, but the fundamental “averaged out vs. wildly unpredictable†difference remains. And the higher the power (number of dice) the bigger the difference. So far, I have merely been repeating the ideas of others; here is some speculation of my own. Instead of dividing these mechanics according to normal and killing, they could be used to define other different kinds of damage in a game. For example, if you want magick to be more dangerous and unpredictable than melee, you could have all melee weapons calculate damage the “normal†way (even if they are doing killing damage) and have damaging spells calculate damage the “killing†way (even if the damage is normal, or even if it’s No Normal Defense.) Making all side effects use the killing mechanic could really give wizards pause. If you want Energy attacks – fire, lightning, a superhero’s cosmic blasts, an aliens ray gun – to seem wild and scary, use the “normal†mechanic for Physical attacks, the “killing†mechanic for Energy. Just remember, this is NOT turning a normal into a killing attack or vice versa – the damage is still APPLIED the same, it’s just a question of how it’s calculated before being applied to defenses. Totally off-the-wall tangent: someone suggested that there was a +2 Advantage that turned 1d6 of normal damage into 1d6 of killing damage. My take on this is, if you want to imagine such an Advantage, it has other applications; such as making a Flash attack that would be “roll 3d6, count ‘BODy’ for segments,†into one that that is simply, “roll 1d6 for segments.†One could even apply it to simplified Healing, and roll for BODy and then for a STUN multiplier. This would allow “maxing out†a Healing roll sooner – whether you want that in your game or not is another matter, I’m just discussing options. So far, we have some very useful ideas. But the primary problem remains, that a killing attack is basically a kind of Attack Vs. Limited Defenses, Does Body, that you can get for free, when the relevant defense is a + ½ Advantage. That’s aside from doing slightly more BODy on average, and quite aside from the question of whether the lottery-like aspects balance out in the long run. Let’s look at it this way. Say I want to buy a normal physical attack that applies to limited defenses (resistant defense) and does Body (Thank you to whoever reminded me that “does Body†is an additional advantage to AVLD.) That’s a total +2 ½. So 1d6 (5 base points) costs 17 active pts. But resistant defense isn’t quite as “exotic†as, say, power defense. And there’s a further limitation; if the target has ANY of the applicable Limited Defense, then ALL physical defense applies against the STUN (but not the BODy.) Now, according to my FRED, AVLD is + ¾ if the defense “is simply a limited form of the Power’s standard defense.†I would assume that by “limited†here, it means “some but not all examples of the standard defense†such as, say, a force field – except that an example in the sidebar gives “PD force field†as a defense, and the AVLD is still full value. But resistant defenses, while relatively expensive, are still common – so let’s assume the AVLD is + ¾ and then with Does Body it totals + 1 ¾ . Now all we have to do is figure out the value of the limitation “If any of the limited defense is present, the target applies the full standard defense to the STUN.†We had already started narrowing down the range of what the Killing Advantage is actually worth; perhaps this will help us get closer. So I’ll put it to those of you who run games; if I came to you with a power like this: Energy Blast, Xd6 energy Advantages:AVLD (Resistant Defense), Does Body Limitation: If target has any of the Limited Defense, then FULL Energy Defense applies, only to STUN (BODy goes only against the Limited Defense) What limitation value would you apply? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary suggests turning it around. If I bought a killing attack with the limitation “Apply all relevant defense, not just resistant defense,†what would THAT limitation be worth? PPS (Post Palindromedary Script) : What if I wanted a No Normal Defense attack, Does Body, the Defense is – Resistant Defenses? That’s +1 ½ even for “extremely common defense.†And yet I could get the same effect by taking a killing attack with the LIMITATION “no effect at all on targets with resistant defenses.â€

Re: Third Magic System (Please Help) Also, if many of these beings have senses that Humans don't they will benefit from flashes and darknesses that effect Human sense but not theirs. LA p

Some questions...... My suggestion - don't try Variable Power Pools yet. Get some experience first. Multipowers may be a better idea. Here's another suggestion to simplify your life. Assume each cabal has spells that are in essense similar. For example, each has an Energy Blast of a given amount of dice - same base cost. Each has the same VALUE of advantages - same active cost. Examples: Fire: Fireball: Explosion, extended radius Air: Wind Blast : Indirect (any direction) Earth: Hail of Stones: Autofire 5 shot, 1/2 END Water: Water Jet: Does knockback (which fantasy spells ordinarily don't, so it's an advantage), does 1 1/2 X knockback This is assuming a total +3/4 advantage. you may want more, or less. And each has the same VALUE of limitations - same real cost. Besides the limitations you put on EVERY spell (gestures, to draw the symbol in the air, etc) you may have some that are on all of a given cabals' spells.... Fire: Must have an actual flame, if only a candle, in view. Air: Incantations (air being associated with words, communication, etc.) Earth: Concentration (stand as still as stone) Water: Variable limitations (water is flexible) Just remember, you do not want your players to realize that a different cabal's spells have underlying similarities; emphasize the different special effects, so that each cabal's (why did you choose to use that word by the way?) magick seems unique and different. Also, why are they "war magi" especially? Lucius Alexander Just ignore the palindromedary

Re: Growing Up Polytheistic My anthropology professor used to say that in any culture, no matter what the "official" cultural beliefs are supposed to be, there will be some atheists, some monotheists, and some polytheists. Often, they will all participate in the same rituals as anyone else in the tribe, and follow the same or similar moral and social codes of behavior - but if you ask WHY, or what something MEANS, and probe beyond the superficial level, you get different opinions. In other words, they're all doing the same things, but not necessarily explaining it the same way. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary warns me I will regret sticking my neck out here....

Long Term Stun Now, this idea I like better. Maybe even make it, every BOD you're down is 2 STUN down? Or possibly, every time you're stunned as well as every time you're knocked out... Lucius Alexander Coming soon to a palindromedary near you

Not Quite another Killing Attack Thread

Not Quite another Killing Attack Thread I apologize; I do not intend to offend. Perhaps you will find this more useful. While I was offline, I have been thinking about the issues and I composed the following, ready to post it as soon as I was back online. Note, I'm online today; I can't promise for tomorrow or next week. Essay: Normal Killing (Killing Normals?) I thought I’d try to summarize the important points so far in these discussions. First of all, the core rules present two very different mechanics for determining damage. These two mechanics – the one for “normal†and the one for “killing†damage – play out very differently. In “normal†damage, the total rolled on the dice is STUN. One BODy is done for each 2-5, zero BOD for a 1, two BOD for a 6. Often many dice are rolled, creating a “bell curve†of damage where most results cluster around the average. This averaging effect is even more pronounced when it comes to BODy damage, given that most rolls on a given die do exactly 1 BOD. Thus a 10d6 normal attack is VERY likely to do exactly 10 BODy. The more dice, the more predictable the damage. In “killing†damage, the total of dice is the BODy, and one third fewer dice are rolled, diminishing the “averaging†effect. Furthermore, the STUN multiple is always rolled on a SINGLE die; because of the “Minus 1, but always at least 1†effect, the multiplier has one chance in three of being 1, but a 5 is just as likely as a 3 or 4. And no matter how many dice are rolled for BODy, only 1 is rolled for the multiplier – it’s an “anti-averaging†effect. So a 2d6 killing attack has 1 chance in 36 of doing max BOD; the theoretically equivalent 6d6 normal attack has 1 in 46656, by my calculations. (Feel free to correct; in any case, it’s long odds.) This unpredictability of killing attacks is great enough for BODy, but truly extreme for STUN, thus the common expression “The Stun Lottery.†Presumably, the core rules use one mechanic for “normal†attacks and the other for “killing†attacks because the original designers thought killing attacks should be more unpredictable. But there is no reason we HAVE to use these mechanics as presented. If you dislike the “Stun Lotto†simply have killing attacks rolled like normal attacks, but still applied as killing attacks; full damage if no resistant defense, BOD blocked only by resistant defense, STUN blocked by full defense if there is any resistant defense. If you like damage to be less predictable, you can roll normal attacks like killing attacks, but applied as normal attacks; all damage stopped by the relevant defense. An advantage of the latter course is that you can further differentiate by means of the Stun multiple; attacks meant to knock out can buy increased stun multiplier advantage, attacks meant to kill can buy higher dice but take decreased stun multiplier limitation. If you use hit locations, the “STUN lottery†is less of an issue, but the fundamental “averaged out vs. wildly unpredictable†difference remains. And the higher the power (number of dice) the bigger the difference. So far, I have merely been repeating the ideas of others; here is some speculation of my own. Instead of dividing these mechanics according to normal and killing, they could be used to define other different kinds of damage in a game. For example, if you want magick to be more dangerous and unpredictable than melee, you could have all melee weapons calculate damage the “normal†way (even if they are doing killing damage) and have damaging spells calculate damage the “killing†way (even if the damage is normal, or even if it’s No Normal Defense.) Making all side effects use the killing mechanic could really give wizards pause. If you want Energy attacks – fire, lightning, a superhero’s cosmic blasts, an aliens ray gun – to seem wild and scary, use the “normal†mechanic for Physical attacks, the “killing†mechanic for Energy. Just remember, this is NOT turning a normal into a killing attack or vice versa – the damage is still APPLIED the same, it’s just a question of how it’s calculated before being applied to defenses. Totally off-the-wall tangent: someone suggested that there was a +2 Advantage that turned 1d6 of normal damage into 1d6 of killing damage. My take on this is, if you want to imagine such an Advantage, it has other applications; such as making a Flash attack that would be “roll 3d6, count ‘BODy’ for segments,†into one that that is simply, “roll 1d6 for segments.†One could even apply it to simplified Healing, and roll for BODy and then for a STUN multiplier. This would allow “maxing out†a Healing roll sooner – whether you want that in your game or not is another matter, I’m just discussing options. So far, we have some very useful ideas. But the primary problem remains, that a killing attack is basically a kind of Attack Vs. Limited Defenses, Does Body, that you can get for free, when the relevant defense is a + ½ Advantage. That’s aside from doing slightly more BODy on average, and quite aside from the question of whether the lottery-like aspects balance out in the long run. Let’s look at it this way. Say I want to buy a normal physical attack that applies to limited defenses (resistant defense) and does Body (Thank you to whoever reminded me that “does Body†is an additional advantage to AVLD.) That’s a total +2 ½. So 1d6 (5 base points) costs 17 active pts. But resistant defense isn’t quite as “exotic†as, say, power defense. And there’s a further limitation; if the target has ANY of the applicable Limited Defense, then ALL physical defense applies against the STUN (but not the BODy.) Now, according to my FRED, AVLD is + ¾ if the defense “is simply a limited form of the Power’s standard defense.†I would assume that by “limited†here, it means “some but not all examples of the standard defense†such as, say, a force field – except that an example in the sidebar gives “PD force field†as a defense, and the AVLD is still full value. But resistant defenses, while relatively expensive, are still common – so let’s assume the AVLD is + ¾ and then with Does Body it totals + 1 ¾ . Now all we have to do is figure out the value of the limitation “If any of the limited defense is present, the target applies the full standard defense to the STUN.†We had already started narrowing down the range of what the Killing Advantage is actually worth; perhaps this will help us get closer. So I’ll put it to those of you who run games; if I came to you with a power like this: Energy Blast, Xd6 energy Advantages:AVLD (Resistant Defense), Does Body Limitation: If target has any of the Limited Defense, then FULL Energy Defense applies, only to STUN (BODy goes only against the Limited Defense) What limitation value would you apply? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary suggests turning it around. If I bought a killing attack with the limitation “Apply all relevant defense, not just resistant defense,†what would THAT limitation be worth? PPS (Post Palindromedary Script) : What if I wanted a No Normal Defense attack, Does Body, the Defense is – Resistant Defenses? That’s +1 ½ even for “extremely common defense.†And yet I could get the same effect by taking a killing attack with the LIMITATION “no effect at all on targets with resistant defenses.â€

Stacking Defense Something to keep in mind about stacking ANY kind of defense: Hero System is a geometric, or exponential, system. It is not linear. For example, consider two characters with 20 STR. Working together can they pick up as much as a character with 40 STR? NO. Together, they only equal 25 STR, because each 5 pts of STR is a doubling. Similarly, if you have a wall of a certain thickness and it has, say, 3 body, then if you double the thickness - or put an identical wall behind it - it is only 4 BODy, not 6. Defenses, especially resistant defenses, work the same way. An attack doing 4 BOD is technically supposed to be applying twice the force of an attack doing 3 BOD. This is already part of the game's assumptions; so just as characters working together can't just add their STR totals, I would think it is entirely correct for a Game Operations Director to not allow different defenses to be stacked. If a chainmail shirt gives a DEF of, say, 4, then wearing two would give a DEF of 5, not 8. Of course, I'm not going to dogmatically say you MUST be inflexible about defense stacking. If I tried to do that, I'd probably get soundly flamed and ignored anyway. And rightly so. But I for one wouldn't let combat luck stack with armor. Has anyone asked Steve Long about this? Lucius Alexander Opinions expressed by Mr. Alexander are not necessarily those of the palindromedary

Not Quite another Killing Attack Thread

Essay: Normal Killing (Killing Normals?) While I was offline, I have been thinking about the issues and I composed the following, ready to post it as soon as I was back online. Note, I'm online today; I can't promise for tomorrow or next week. Essay: Normal Killing (Killing Normals?) I thought I’d try to summarize the important points so far in these discussions. First of all, the core rules present two very different mechanics for determining damage. These two mechanics – the one for “normal†and the one for “killing†damage – play out very differently. In “normal†damage, the total rolled on the dice is STUN. One BODy is done for each 2-5, zero BOD for a 1, two BOD for a 6. Often many dice are rolled, creating a “bell curve†of damage where most results cluster around the average. This averaging effect is even more pronounced when it comes to BODy damage, given that most rolls on a given die do exactly 1 BOD. Thus a 10d6 normal attack is VERY likely to do exactly 10 BODy. The more dice, the more predictable the damage. In “killing†damage, the total of dice is the BODy, and one third fewer dice are rolled, diminishing the “averaging†effect. Furthermore, the STUN multiple is always rolled on a SINGLE die; because of the “Minus 1, but always at least 1†effect, the multiplier has one chance in three of being 1, but a 5 is just as likely as a 3 or 4. And no matter how many dice are rolled for BODy, only 1 is rolled for the multiplier – it’s an “anti-averaging†effect. So a 2d6 killing attack has 1 chance in 36 of doing max BOD; the theoretically equivalent 6d6 normal attack has 1 in 46656, by my calculations. (Feel free to correct; in any case, it’s long odds.) This unpredictability of killing attacks is great enough for BODy, but truly extreme for STUN, thus the common expression “The Stun Lottery.†Presumably, the core rules use one mechanic for “normal†attacks and the other for “killing†attacks because the original designers thought killing attacks should be more unpredictable. But there is no reason we HAVE to use these mechanics as presented. If you dislike the “Stun Lotto†simply have killing attacks rolled like normal attacks, but still applied as killing attacks; full damage if no resistant defense, BOD blocked only by resistant defense, STUN blocked by full defense if there is any resistant defense. If you like damage to be less predictable, you can roll normal attacks like killing attacks, but applied as normal attacks; all damage stopped by the relevant defense. An advantage of the latter course is that you can further differentiate by means of the Stun multiple; attacks meant to knock out can buy increased stun multiplier advantage, attacks meant to kill can buy higher dice but take decreased stun multiplier limitation. If you use hit locations, the “STUN lottery†is less of an issue, but the fundamental “averaged out vs. wildly unpredictable†difference remains. And the higher the power (number of dice) the bigger the difference. So far, I have merely been repeating the ideas of others; here is some speculation of my own. Instead of dividing these mechanics according to normal and killing, they could be used to define other different kinds of damage in a game. For example, if you want magick to be more dangerous and unpredictable than melee, you could have all melee weapons calculate damage the “normal†way (even if they are doing killing damage) and have damaging spells calculate damage the “killing†way (even if the damage is normal, or even if it’s No Normal Defense.) Making all side effects use the killing mechanic could really give wizards pause. If you want Energy attacks – fire, lightning, a superhero’s cosmic blasts, an aliens ray gun – to seem wild and scary, use the “normal†mechanic for Physical attacks, the “killing†mechanic for Energy. Just remember, this is NOT turning a normal into a killing attack or vice versa – the damage is still APPLIED the same, it’s just a question of how it’s calculated before being applied to defenses. Totally off-the-wall tangent: someone suggested that there was a +2 Advantage that turned 1d6 of normal damage into 1d6 of killing damage. My take on this is, if you want to imagine such an Advantage, it has other applications; such as making a Flash attack that would be “roll 3d6, count ‘BODy’ for segments,†into one that that is simply, “roll 1d6 for segments.†One could even apply it to simplified Healing, and roll for BODy and then for a STUN multiplier. This would allow “maxing out†a Healing roll sooner – whether you want that in your game or not is another matter, I’m just discussing options. So far, we have some very useful ideas. But the primary problem remains, that a killing attack is basically a kind of Attack Vs. Limited Defenses, Does Body, that you can get for free, when the relevant defense is a + ½ Advantage. That’s aside from doing slightly more BODy on average, and quite aside from the question of whether the lottery-like aspects balance out in the long run. Let’s look at it this way. Say I want to buy a normal physical attack that applies to limited defenses (resistant defense) and does Body (Thank you to whoever reminded me that “does Body†is an additional advantage to AVLD.) That’s a total +2 ½. So 1d6 (5 base points) costs 17 active pts. But resistant defense isn’t quite as “exotic†as, say, power defense. And there’s a further limitation; if the target has ANY of the applicable Limited Defense, then ALL physical defense applies against the STUN (but not the BODy.) Now, according to my FRED, AVLD is + ¾ if the defense “is simply a limited form of the Power’s standard defense.†I would assume that by “limited†here, it means “some but not all examples of the standard defense†such as, say, a force field – except that an example in the sidebar gives “PD force field†as a defense, and the AVLD is still full value. But resistant defenses, while relatively expensive, are still common – so let’s assume the AVLD is + ¾ and then with Does Body it totals + 1 ¾ . Now all we have to do is figure out the value of the limitation “If any of the limited defense is present, the target applies the full standard defense to the STUN.†We had already started narrowing down the range of what the Killing Advantage is actually worth; perhaps this will help us get closer. So I’ll put it to those of you who run games; if I came to you with a power like this: Energy Blast, Xd6 energy Advantages:AVLD (Resistant Defense), Does Body Limitation: If target has any of the Limited Defense, then FULL Energy Defense applies, only to STUN (BODy goes only against the Limited Defense) What limitation value would you apply? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary suggests turning it around. If I bought a killing attack with the limitation “Apply all relevant defense, not just resistant defense,†what would THAT limitation be worth? PPS (Post Palindromedary Script) : What if I wanted a No Normal Defense attack, Does Body, the Defense is – Resistant Defenses? That’s +1 ½ even for “extremely common defense.†And yet I could get the same effect by taking a killing attack with the LIMITATION “no effect at all on targets with resistant defenses.â€

Re: Danger sense as "hears theme music"? I once gave a troll Danger Sense, Visible - he was very hairy (think Cousin It) and when he sensed danger, all his hair stood on end. Lucius Alexander Detect Palindromedary

Killing Attacks - Eureka! I like this idea. At least I know people are thinking about the problem creatively. Of course, it DOES mean the advantage of a Killing attack is assumed to be about +1/4 and I think that's too low, given that the cost of resistant defense is effectively a +1/2 advantage. Maybe if we make it -2 Stun per die? Also, for those who think a killing attack should have a higher average body, maybe we can consider making even a 1 rolled do body.... Lucius Alexander The palindromedary and I are here, but for how long?

Killing as an Advantage; OR Normal as a Limitation That's a creative idea. What if we defined "Normal" as a limitation on "Killing", you mean? Might be worth thinking about. Much as I'm loving this conversation and the Hero boards in general, I have sad news. I anticipate not being online so much for a while. We'll see how things play out. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary wonders when Lucius is going to buy down that damned 5 dice of unluck......

Killing as an Advantage; Some Alternatives Well, we can definitely cut it down further based on the fact that if you have ANY resistant defense, then ALL defense goes against stun. I had forgotten, by the way, that Attack Vs Limited Defense was normally STUN only. Yes, I think making it a +2 1/2 advantage would be too high. And we can narrow it down from the other side, in that if the relevant defense is a +1/2 advantage, then the offensive advantage should be at least +1/2. So we're looking at a minimum of +1/2 and a maximum of, say, +2? I'd say the balance point is near the lower end of that spread. I'll second the question: can anyone propose a further narrowing? Lucius Alexander The palindromedary fears classical musicians, for they sometimes use a weapon it is vulnerable to: the dreaded crab cannon.

Re: Combat Luck - Some Results The problem exists, and I've already acknowledged that the reference to Combat Luck is off on a tangent from the problem I was trying to focus on. I've already clarified the two seperate issues involved, and acknowledged that one is pretty much insoluble - unless we want to join DC Heroes in calling a gun a non-lethal attack, which is a worse kludge than Combat Luck. At that point, you might as well be playing Toons. You seem to be selectively interpreting one throwaway example I gave as an excuse to ignore the real issue. Lucius Alexander Thank brianca Alexander for the palindromedary avatar

Re: Fantasy Adventures Or Why are we always underground...again That's funny....I've never done it, but I have had the IDEA of basing one on the old Gnostic idea of rising through the planetary spheres..... Lucius Alexander "Wash the sin as well as the face" says the palindromedary, but it's all Greek to me.

Re: Tips/Tricks/Advice A lot of good ideas here. I tend to make sure characters have the same PD and ED, unless there's a good reason one should be much higher. I find that simplifies my game somewhat. Every attack goes against the same numbers, whether it's physical or energy. Lucius Alexander Thanks to brianca Alexander for the palindromedary avatar!

Combat Luck - Some Results

Killing as an Advantage; Some Results I'm afraid I have to disagree with calling the AVLD "minor." See below. Thank you. This is Not Necessarily the Case. I think another part of what bugs me is that they HAVE to be common. Resistant defenses are so bloody ESSENTIAL to having a survivable character, that they had to introduce that "Combat Luck" kludge to justify giving invisible armor to characters that have no reason to have invisible armor, other than that not having means they end up quickly dead or maimed. And then THAT leads to ridiculous situations like the character then being immune to blowgun darts - see the recent post elsewhere on the boards. Um, well, yes. and a 60d6 Energy Blast, or a 60d6 Energy Blast with Armor Piercing, are both likely to total the average Champions Superhero (unless they've been getting a lot tougher while I wasn't looking.) That's no reason to say Armor Piercing should be free. That depends. If I can aim to miss the armor, he takes full damage. If I can aim for the head, he takes 25 stun after the armor and PD and is stunned and nearly (it not totally) unconscious. If I can BOTH hit the head and miss the armor, he takes 7 Body and 35 Stun and probably an impairing or disabling wound as well. I think the part that really bugs me is the obvious (to ME) imbalance of having a free attack advantage countered by a defense advantage that costs +1/2. I just don't see how that adds up. Lucius Alexander Oh, THAT palindromedary

Re: Killing as an Advantage; Some Results