Rune

Re: Character for Comment : Coldilocks I think that Change Environment (-7 CV) is getting a little misused here. Normally, it applies to an area and doesn't stick to a person. Next, it is overly cost-effective when used in this fashion. There is a reason that 5th Ed. states that using Change Environment to reduce CV should be strictly controlled. To mimic the attack and make its cost resemble the special effect, I'd suggest a high point DEX Suppress with the Limitation that it does not change the target's position in the Speed Chart. The character probably could benefit from some additional Running. This could be a large amount of running if she can generate Iceman style runways. Limiting the Defense to the NND to LS: Cold seems a little narrow. Having ice powers, extra defenses against cold or may be an energy damage shield might be appropriate additional defenses. Wouldn't the Forcewall interfer with the character's ice attacks unless Personal Immunity is added to the mix? Just my thoughts.

Re: Character Post: Stopwatch You might consider buying one or more of those Overall Levels outside of the Multipower. Overall levels are so useful that it is handy to have them available when you're using a different slot of the Multipower. Putting Overall Levels in a Multipower can be overly cost-effective, particularly in non-combat settings, which is why Levels normally can't be placed in a multipower (without GM approval).

Re: Help with my character:Stopwatch My suggestion is to break both the Rewind idea and the Butterfly Effect into smaller pieces. I'm not altering any game mechanics so the players and the GM have to agree with the use of a special effect. Converting a villain's hit into a miss or near-miss: Missile Deflection at Range (it was a hit in a different time line) Stun Aid at Range Converting a hero's miss into a hit: EB Indirect, Variable Special Effect, possibly variable Advantage (yes, the blast really did hit after Stopwatch's chronal manipulations) Making Sure that a vital Int roll is made: Aid to INT, only for a designated skill roll Stop Watch might not know how to disarm a bomb. However, she keeps rolling time back and forward until the designated expert gets it right. As for the Butterfly Effect: A teleport usable against others will move them around. Transform for other changes. Add invisible power effects as desired and allowed by the GM.

Intelligent undead and many demon types should be covered by a full 20 pt. Code vs. Killing. They may be irredeemeably evil, but since they are sentient, they should be covered by the Code. Cap's justly famous battle with the Baron Blood is a case where Cap makes the vital EGO roll to do the only thing that will stop the Baron before it is too late. I think, however, that a point arrives where the cthulean demon types aren't covered by the Code. I'm referring to those things that are so removed from our plane of existence that their presence causes pain and you can't productively communicate with them. Besides being so antithetical to all existence on this plane, they just aren't sentient as we define it.

If your hero believes that theft is wrong and worth stopping, it seems odd that he would spend his leisure time with known, unrepetent thieves. I can't imagine a superhero spending time with Utility, who would be busy categorizing all of his weaknesses.

The Neutral Ground/Sanctuary concept never made sense to me. It made the conflict between superheroes and supervillains seem to much like a sporting event. They fight each other on the "playing field" but then go out for drinks afterward?

I don't use hit locations in my superhero campaign for genre reasons, play balance reasons and because I don't want to have to roll another set of dice. One way to build a "Bull's Eye" Effect is to have the character buy some additional DCs that only trigger when a certain condition is met. For example, the extra dice could apply only when the target has been hit by a certain amount over their DCV or if the target doesn't have large amounts of Resistant Defenses. Hitting the Thing in the head is not the same as hitting the Torch in the head.

There are certain types of attacks that should be handed out to agents only after a lot of thought. Entangles with the Area Effect Advantage or the Explosion Advantange are particularly obnoxious. These attacks can set up a high DCV, low Defense character to get flattened. Dive for Cover is an inadequate defense because the agents usually have a numerical advantage, which can offset their slower Speed. Drains against INT and Entangles based on EGO should be doled out sparingly to agents, if at all. Against certain character designs, they are just too effective.

At a certain point level, the GM can scale the world so that the heroes can do the sorts of things that are appropriate for the campaign. If the campaign is using a 14d6 max and the GM wants players who throw 12d6 to be able to one shot a battle tank, then 12 BODY (when delivered by a metahuman) will do the job because that is the way the world works. As for Marvel Comic's Sentinels, their strength has varied over the years. Some are one shot wonders. Others took a bit more pounding. Some writers have treated Sentinels as heavily armed, mobile one shot agents. Individually, Wolverine or Cyclops can mow it down. It was the Sentinels' numbers and powerful weapons that made them so dangerous.

You might want to consider giving Colossus some additional Knockback Resistance. The -2" KB from Density Increase and the Growth don't seem to be enough He normally doesn't get pushed around that much. A little bit of Lack of Weakness might also be appropriate.

A character like Firewing, who I can't imagine hiding in a cave to avoid detection, should beat any military force sent against him, even if they have some modest anti-super tech. If he doesn't, he should be rewritten. In a super hero-based universe, he is one example of why the world needs superheroes. There are some menaces that the military just can't deal with. This isn't selling military firepower short; they are just running squarely into a genre convention.

In the comics, it seems that the supervillains at the top of the heap have extra defenses usable against conventional weaponry, and that their attacks are extra effective against conventional systems. When the Abomination (or the Hulk) goes on a rampage, does any one think that conventional military might is going to stop him?

Adding to the capabilities of Cap's shield without actually pointing it out, I would add some basic armor (PD/ED) to represent those cases where the baddy actually hits Cap but he gets the shield in the way. The shield takes some, but not all, of the damage. I would also add armor that applies against Explosions, Area Effects and Damage Shields. When Cap uses the shield to punch the Porcupine, he isn't hurt by Porky's damage shield.

In a spy campaign (modelled on a mix of James Bond/Mission Impossible), how do you encourage players to design their characters so that certain stats don't all clump around certain break points? The characters are supposed to be trained agents but not super-human. I'm specifically thinking about DEX and STR. Please help.

You need to be a pretty mature player and have a good GM to handle a "I can Detect Anything" type of character. Locating a hostage or a missing widget becomes really easy if the Detector can just find it. Tracking down supervillains is also a lot easier.

Just a small comment. Envy's Transform does not seem like a minor transform to me. Any transform that can create loyal allies out of people who were neutral or hostile should not be treated as minor but as a major transform.

With regard to the Dealer, you may want to consider getting some levels that deal with Range mods. A couple dice in luck might also be appropriate.

It would probably depend upon the special effect. If the special effect was that you summoned (from the beyond/ether) the same creature every time, it wouldn't have "really" died on contact. It just got sent back to wherever it came. As an aside, I'm not sure why the Nega-Beam was bought with Summoning other than to get the cost breaks.

Transform under 5th Ed. is very powerful. A 60 pt Major Transform can take a character with 14 BODY and no Power Defense out of the fight in two hits.

Seems like throwing a rug over her head so that she can't see and tying it in place would do the trick. Alternatively, someone could do a grab by and get her away from the combat.

While a 10 OCV is perfectly respectable, martial artists in most superhero campaign when dodging should have no trouble exceeding it by a wide margin. Similarly, martial artists in most superhero campaigns should be able to Block this. From a play balance perspective, the Monster's OCV shouldn't be at the top of the campaign limits because the damage that he does and his defense are already so high.

Although the Monster is extremely tough with a big attack, its standard design has a very exploitable weakness. It berserks very easily in a combat situation. Its OCV is good but not spectacular. Since berserk causes the Monster to lose its tactical sense, its possible for a very brave martial artist to Block/Dodge repeatedly and tie the Monster up while the rest of the group blasts away from a distance. Of course, there is trouble if the Monster gets lucky. In the Mystic Champions campaign that I'm playing in, we've got a valkyrie on our team who can generate very high DCVs when she's dodging. As an aside, our group is not ready to handle two Monsters at the same time. That would be tough.

In the Mystic Champions campaign that my GM is running, the Monster is the creation of Takofanes, the arch-liche. What was really scary was when we discovered that the Monster is not unique. Takofanes has built a number of these engines of destruction.

With regard to designing villains, it helps to consider how long you want the fights to go. For example, if average defenses are 20 PD/ED and players are throwing 12d6 normal dice, that means 22 Stun is getting through per hit on average. In many campaigns, that is a lot of stun and can lead to comparatively quick fights. If the characters have a 20 CON, that means they will on average get Stunned by the attack and getting Stunned is usually the beginning of the end of the fight for a character. However, if the characters' DCVs are much higher than their opponents OCVs, they won't get hit very often and so fights will go longer. In short, the relative OCVs and DCVs of the characters also need to be taken into account.

With a proper shuffling of the characters, there is room for both COIL and VIPER. As has been mentioned, VIPER is Champion's version of Hydra, a world spanning organization determined to rule the world. I've always thought of COIL as being the product of a single person's vision: King Cobra. Everything is "snake-themed" in COIL. Although Viper in 4th Ed. had some snake-themed characters, they were not truly snake-centric. With regard to VOICE, I never liked the "ruthless killer" theme of the group.