Doc Samson

Hello all.

I have a Champions character that is based on the mythological berserker. One of his powers allows him to change into a bear (with a few linked bear-like abilities). I bought this power as Growth because 1 level of Growth fits pretty well with what I want his stats to look like after transforming. Do I also need Shapeshift to look like a bear or can this be covered by the SFX of his Growth? For clarification, I in no way intend for the power to let the character pass as an actual bear.

In my mind, a good comparison would be a werewolf. I usually build werewolves as a group of powers (hka, regeneration, running, senses, ect.) with the SFX being that the character looks like a werewolf.

Thanks in advance for replies.

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Originally Posted by dmjalund

Guess the name of these two

 

A sonic based energy projector partnered with:

An invisible eyeless brick

I'll admit' date=' this one's got me stumped so far...hint?[/quote']

 

Yes, hint please .

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Hows this one:

Master Planner: SuperIntelligent individual who grants superhuman luck to those who follows his plans

Flyboy: He has telekinetic flight and can float others along side

Bad Ass: Brick/Gadgeteer with acrophobia

The Charmer: A shapeshifter with High Pre and Pre related skills

The A-team?

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Alice in Wonderland?

Correct!

The Mad Hatter

Alice

The Cheshire Cat

The Dutchess

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Good one!

McCoy's team inspired another one for me. This should be super easy to guess but I think they would be fun to play anyway. While I am using the Fantastic Four as a template, they are not the inspiration.

The Wonderful Four

 

Mr. Wonderful - a brilliant but eccentric Gadgeteer who stores all of his inventions in his tophat (Gadget Pool, OAF: tophat).

 

Growing Girl - the young girlfriend of Mr. Wonderful and sister to the Human Warp. She has the ability grow and shrink (Growth and Shrinking MP).

 

The Human Warp - a Teleporting thrillseeker with such fne control over his powers that he can teleport parts of his body separately without injury (Teleportation and Stretching, Does Not Cross Intervening Space).

 

The It - A hideously ugly woman with immense strength and invulnerability (STR and Resitant Protection). The uglier she gets, the stronger she gets.

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Hint please.

I was just going to throw out a hint...

Beetles?

But alas this is the correct answer.

A group of tomb robbers uncover the crypt of a long forgotten Egyptian pharaoh. Using the five mystics beetle artifacts they discovered, they have the ability to transform themselves into super beings. Can the heroes defeat these four-armed villains and recover the artifacts? I doubt it but my players will have fun trying.

Re: Guess the inspiration behind this superteam!

Thread necromancy powers activate!

If my group ever meets again, this will be a villain team that they may face.

Rhino - standard Brick

 

Tiger - running based Speedster

 

Bombardier - chemical based Energy Projector

 

Firefly - light generation based utility powers

 

Deathwatch - precognitive Mentalist

Guess the theme!

I have hints if anyone is actually interested but can't guess it.

Re: Campaign I dea; Tangent Champions

I think its a cool idea. As others have thrown in their war stories...

I plan on calling my next campaign "Public Domain". All heroes (as will be the villains) have to be drawn from this source: http://pdsh.wikia.com/wiki/Public_Domain_Super_Heroes. My preference is that none of the characters are currently appearing in comics (when the game starts). My hope is that we will have well fleshed out character histories and backgrounds. It will then be up to the player's to continue their character's story.

Re: How Much END?

I don't think my group has ever played it that way. If a maneuver uses a Power (including STR)' date=' then the maneuver costs no END. Maneuvers that do not use a Power (Block, Dodge, etc) cost 1 END.[/quote']

Ditto, we always used a flat APs/ 10 for supers games.

Re: Proper Whip Build in 6e

There are different types of whips and we are only MODELLING reality here. In my mind' date=' I would have thought a whip would be a normal attack but I've no problem with it being a KA.[/quote']

It's just a stray thought that has bugged me a few times. I agree with you on the normal attack.

Re: Proper Whip Build in 6e

If whips are killing attacks how can people receive hundreds (refence below) of lashes as punsihment and sometimes not die?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lashes

Re: Is DOT overpriced

2d6 rka AF-5, 0 endurance=75 points+16 points in skills=91 points

 

2d6 RKA (DOT as above)=120 points

2d6 RKA (DOT as above)=120 points = 12 dice over 18 segments, defenses apply 6 times, and the power must have a common and onbvious way to turn it off

8d6 RKA = 120 points = 8 dice in 1 segment and defenses apply once

In a 120 AP game, defenses of 50 (40r) are typical. The DoT will likely not do any damage against a defense of 50 and it were doing damage the character has a turn and a half to shut it down with a common and obvious circumnstance. If you want defenses to apply only once to the DoT, it becomes a +4 advantage.

I think you are right JmOz.

Re: Is DOT overpriced

IMHO DoT is not only overpriced, it's broken. While it seems powerful on paper, it is weaker in actual game play than a non-advantaged power at almost every increment until the +6 level at which point it becomes broken. Please note that defenses to the attack apply per increment unless bought otherwise making most attack types useless and the power must also have a reasonably common and obvious set of circumstances that will turn it off or negate it making long term or out of combat DoTs easy to negate.

My thoughts from a previous thread: http://www.herogames.com/forums/showthread.php/76781

While I love the concept, I have had some issues incorporating DoT into my campaign. Not even comparing to CEotA Continuous Uncontrolled, I don't think DoT compares well to normal unadvantaged attacks. It either seems not worth the points compared to a power without the advantage or totally broken, depending on how many increments you buy. My chart below assumes the power doesn't have the increments spread out past 1 Turn (in my case none of my players were interested in a DoT that lasted longer than a 1 or 2 Turn combat). While the book recommends AVAD and Penetrating when not using the "defense only applies once" option, this seems to only makes the divide even larger.

 

Example DoTs:

 

2 damage increments, damage occurs every six segments, defense only applies once (+1¾)

2d6 Blast x 2 increments = 4d6 total = 27.5 APs

5½d6 normal Blast = 27.5 APs

Conlcusion: less damage than an unadvantaged Blast of the same APs and takes a turn to do full damage and can be negated

 

3 damage increments, damage occurs every four segments, defense only applies once (+2½)

2d6 Blast x 3 increments = 6d6 total = 35 APs

7d6 normal Blast = 35 APs

Conlcusion: less damage than an unadvantaged Blast of the same APs and takes a turn to do full damage and can be negated

 

4 damage increments, damage occurs every three segments, defense only applies once (+3½)

2d6 Blast x 4 increments = 8d6 total = 45 APs

9d6 normal Blast = 45 APs

Conlcusion: less damage than an unadvantaged Blast of the same APs and takes a turn to do full damage and can be negated

 

6 damage increments, damage occurs every other segment, defense only applies once (+4½)

2d6 Blast x 6 increments = 12d6 total = 55 APs

11d6 normal Blast = 55 APs

Conlcusion: slightly more damage than an unadvantaged Blast of the same APs but takes a turn to do full damage and can be negated

 

6 damage increments, damage occurs every segment, defense only applies once (+5)

2d6 Blast x 6 increments = 12d6 total = 60 APs

12d6 normal Blast = 60 APs

Conclusion: same damage as an unadvantaged Blast of the same APs but takes a turn to do full damage and can be negated

 

12 damage increments, damage occurs every segment, defense only applies once (+6)

2d6 Blast x 12 increments = 24d6 total = 70 APs

14d6 normal Blast = 70 APs

Conclusion: potentially broken level of damage despite being spread out over a turn and possible negation

I could almost accept the costs being equal for equal damage attacks if the only difference was that damage was spread out a bit (the net result being the same) but I couldn't see any of my players creating a Blast that has a "reasonably common and obvious set of circumstances that will turn it off or negate it" without wanting some points back. Despite the coolness factor' date=' I see this getting very little use in our games. We will probably just continue to define poisons and acids as we had before (Continuous Uncontrolled or just via SFX).[/quote']

I was going to play my own Devil's Advocate and say perhaps for long term attacks (such as a disease or other chronic ailment) it is a good system but the "reasonably common and obvious set of circumstances that will turn it off or negate it" requirement makes any effect intended to last out of combat trivial. Drains (with long return rates) and Transforms remain better for building long-term effects.

 

IMHO to make DoT balanced, a DoT's damage/ effects should be increasingly (slightly) higher than that of a standard attack as the time between increments increases and the negation circumstances should be an option in the way that NND is optional for AVAD.

Re: Extra SPD only to Dodge

It's been awhile but I believe we stole the limitation from Combat Luck to describe what types of damage it didn't work against. For example, if the character were thrown into a volcano, he could escape and define the SFX as he landed in a safe area. If the character jumped into the volcano to willingly (such as to escape an enemy) he could not activate the power.

"it doesn’t work if the character is asleep,

unconscious, or deliberately throws himself in the

way of an attack (for example, to save a comrade

from injury). Nor does it protect him from

damage in most situations where he deliberately

does something he knows will hurt him (such as

performing a Move By/Through, both of which

cause him to take some of the damage he does

to the target)."

Re: Extra SPD only to Dodge

I don't know if this is relevant but It hopefully it will provide some inspiration. I once had a player who wanted essentially a "get out of jail free card". The idea was that he wanted to be able to survive seemingly fatal circumnstances like a comic book supervillain. He didn't wanted to be bothered with trying to define the defense as a dodge, block, dive, ect. so he bought it something like this:

"Ultimate Defense" Desolidification, variable special effect (defensive actions), trigger (action that takes no time), charges (1).

Re: Different Kind of Force Field

I think simply buying extra STUN and/or BODY with Regeneration (only for the extra BODY) would do the trick.

Re: Throg

Good stuff!

Re: CON Only to Resist Stunning

I think I am in the -1/4 group too. I can't remember the last time I made a CON Roll whereas resisting being STUNNED happens most phases of combat

Re: How do you make this?

If you use teleport' date=' you don't have to deal with the desolid bit.[/quote']

This sounds like s good way to build the power. If the character can hover, however, then I might add a small amount of flight.

Re: Steampunk-like world setting needs hero/power ideas

My favorite Steampunk(ish) setting is Deadlands. While it is not set in Victorian England (the setting is the Old West), I think you could probably borrow some concepts. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen has a very Victorian Super Hero feel as well.

Here are some random thoughts for a SVE (Steampunk Victorian England) campaign:

Steam Powered Armor (Powered Armor) or Gadgets (Gadgeteer)

Asian Martial Arts Masters from the Orient (Martial Artist)

Indian Shamans from the Colonies (Mystic)

Mr. Hyde style monsters (Brick)

A Nikolai Tesla inspired mad scientist obsessed with electricity over steam (Energy Projector)

An Aleister Crowley inspired Occultist (Mentalist)

A Sherlock Holmes style super-sleuth (Patriot)

A Jack the Ripper inspired antihero (Weaponmaster)

A Spring Heeled Jack based vigilante (Speedster)

Werewolves (Metamorph)

Re: VPPs and Aid, a problem?

We use a "Rule of X" to limit character designs in our game. We do not allow adjustment powers to violate the rule of X. If a player has an aid or absorption, it usually has a side effect that lowers another chatacteristic or power so that the character's X value remains intact. For example, in our game a STR Aid would likely have a side effect that it reduces the characters OCV or SPD. This has not slowed our PCs down at all. If I throw a giant monster or robot at them (i.e. low DCV due to size), I can usually expect to see an "Adrenaline Stimulant" or "Spell of Berserking" come into play the next phase.

Re: How do you make this?

I was wondering if I could get some help on building a power.

 

The hero/villain concept is that she is made of a hard substance that breaks apart when she move quickly, the reforms when she reaches her destination.

 

How do you build a power that represents her breaking into pellets or shards and damaging things she moves through then reforming after? I'd like to have it with Area Effect to represent the cloud of matter.

 

Thanks for your input, your Asian will be in the mail.

It sounds to me like a an attack power (Area of Effect: Line, No Range) Linked to a movement power. If the pellets or shards tavel through the air I would use Flight or Leaping, otherwise I would use Running. If you want to be able to pass through objects while moving, I might also Link Desolidification to the movement power (which means the attack power will need to be bought with the Affects Physical World advantage).

Re: The Statue of David

Good stuff, repped!

Re: Help name that superhero group

In the vein of awesome groups like the Legion of Substitute Heroes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Substitute_Heroes) and the Great Lakes Avengers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Lakes_Avengers), here are a few (bad ideas). Some may be taken but are not well known or "mainstream".

The Other Guys

The Dropouts

The Misfits

The Losers

The Oddballs

The Underdogs

Re: The Batman Option

There were two posts that came up recently here or the general forum that really changed the way I look at this issue (for the better I think). If someone knows the posts please link them. In summary, my group is back to making character generation the same for all characters and letting the players work out the details.

1. The first was a small but effective debate about Batman and Superman being on the same team. The message I took away from the discussion is..."Why does everyone think Batman is less powerful or built on less points than Superman when Superman has lost every battle between the two?"

2. The other was on the "Hidden Archetype". The simple idea was that characters who stack game mechanics (like Batman) are often more powerful than archetypical characters and for less points.

For example: a 20 STR character with 10 pts. of Martial Arts, 4 DCs, and a 4d6 HA bought through a focus (i.e. a weapon) can hit as hard as a character that can lift 100 tons (60 STR) and for less points.

The same type of stacking works for Defenses (normal PD/ ED + Combat Reflexes + OIF Resitant Protection (i.e. armor)) and Combat Values (base OCV/ DCV + Skill Levels + Martial Maneuvers).

This type of character also could also be considered "non-powered" by SFX if the player so chooses.