Sidume

Tenzil rocks.

Depends on what you are doing with the other characters. If you are not making characters pay for "loot" in character points, then you can give the falconer some leeway in having a bird. If he is going to train it to do things that aren't standard falconry (kill or fetch bird/rabbit/etc.) then paying CP for the unusual stuff might be appropriate. Just keep it in line with what the other characters can find in their "loot."

Valid point have been made on the character build. My post will focus more on the Disads/Complications. For this, you will need to pick your GM's brain a bit. Get information on the setting so you can create a history for the character. If he has escaped from a lab, do they want him back? If so, Hunted/Watched, but you have that covered. Are they the only ones hunting him? Why are they hunting him? Don't think of Disads as points, think of them as a reward for fleshing out your character's history. Come up with a backstory. Look at the Red Tiger as an example. His DNPC, Hunting, and Secret ID are all a result of having a fleshed out backstory. They help define how he became a hero. And being a hero takes you to the next step - your personality. How are you going to play this character? Your character should be memorable not just for having flashy powers, but by being a memorable character. That will be defined by how you play him. Give him a personality, then take a couple psyche disads that define and/or reinforce that. Again, see the Red Tiger. This is a guy who goes out righting wrongs and protecting the innocent - and it's worth 30 points. If you don't want to be that "heroic," there are lost of other options, depending on how you define his personality. Mercenary? Vengeful? Fearful of being captured again? Your character's motivations and personality should be worth at least 20 points. On another note - if the guy is 1 ft tall, don't forget to buy Shrinking.

My apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but the search function wasn't really helpful. If a dedicated speedster (Flash/Quicksilver shtick) has tons of movement, but all of it is bought as Flight (only in contact with a surface (-1/4)), would Clinging be required to use this ability on the surface of a spaceship in zero gravity?

Re: Redundant Organs Another option is just go with the standard rules, use hit locations and have Damage Reduction or Resistance (w/ Ablative and/or Charges), only applies to body hits in vitals.

Re: Denying a character his OIF First - I'm not sure how this focus is "obvious" in what it does. Second - If he doesn't take them off, it ain't a focus. Does he wear them in the shower? Could someone steal them? Can he use their abilities if he's under a mental illusion that they have vanished? Do they set off security scanners when he goes to the airport??

Greetings all Before people jump down my throat - yes I ran several searches. I didn't find the answer. The Hero System does a really good job with supers and upscaling with the d6 system. I don't think it does quite as good a job with lower level characters whose stats fall within normal characteristics max. Not that it does a bad job, but I'm looking for ways to differenciate characters where Player A has stat of 11, Player B has a 12, Player C has a 13 and Player D has a 14. Stat based skills differenciate well between B and C, but there is little difference between A and B, or C and D. Have there been discussions on this topic, or has something been printed that someone could send me a link and/or reference to? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Flame manipulation? Another option is to buy a fire based EB/RKA. Slap on Indirect (+3/4) and Can only come from an existing flame (-1). This way you could justify a torch doing massive damage.

Re: Encounter Balance Something that wasn't mentioned that you need to take into account - game changers. Do any characters have any ability that might skew things? A character with a well designed power can be hard to defend against. If the PC has this ability - kudos to the player, but you can't let it dominate the whole combat. Area affect attacks (especially disciminatory ones), metal attacks, transparent entangles, Ego Drains or continuous attacks can be particilarly unbalancing. On the defensive side, Damage Reduction, Desolid, Enhanced Senses and Suppresses can make a world of difference. If you have a character who took the time to create a really effective combat character - you may need to be careful that the rest of the PCs don't wind up just being support. Also, be careful that too many of your PCs don't have similar vulnerabilities.

Re: Training exercises? Scavenger/Maguffin Hunt was covered, but I've found this to be a common trope so I'll mention it again. Problem Solving (if no one flies, how do you get to the burning yacht to save the passengers?) Skills challenge - Things that cause the PC's to think outside the box. Can you talk to the Seamonster? Give credit for creativity! In a similar game I had a character with limited combat abilities win a danger room session by mimicing the voice of the Principal.

Re: Looking for Everyman Skill ideas Honestly, I don't worry about it that much. It takes too much time to list everything. If it's a modern setting just go with what you think the average citzen would have. Keep in mind though, that certain characters might not have everything. If the character has the Disad "Destitute," they shouldn't have access to easy cash, cellphone, a place to live, etc. A character in Millenium City wouldn't probably know squat about the differences between Shiite/Sunni/Wahabi Islam, but a character growing up in the Middle East would be familiar with the differences. Characters who want specific backgrounds may have different skills. If so, they should summarize their origins accordingly. Just run with what you've got. If something requires a judgment call just remember - your the GM. Regarding KS regarding their enemy - that depends. If it's gained in game, don't worry about it. If it is in the background it might justify it, but it all depends on what happened before (in game or out).

Re: Need helps coming up with "arm" powers Stretch Armstrong - Stretching obviously. You may consider buying autofire attacks is the character is multilimbed, or extra speed to show that he is capable of doing things faster than others b/c of his multiple limbs.

Re: Is This Power Viable Viable? That's up to the GM. I wouldn't let it fly because it really does sound like a munchkinized version of acquiring skills really, really cheap. If your game is skill heavy then this character could easily become unbalanced from the other characters. I'd have several problems with the build. See the bold below. Rapid Learning ( x100) with Mental Group, Usable Simultaneously (up to 2 people at once; +1/2) (15 Active Points); Two people? Why? -Extra Time (1 Hour, Only to Activate, -1 1/2), This assumes that you can learn something instantly. Even if someone can speedread, few will be able to get the skills of an MD, JD, or PhD by reading books. It's cheesy to take a talent that reduces time, then limit it to make it take more time. -Side Effects (Side Effect affects both character and recipient of Power's benefits; 1 1/2d6 INT and EGO drain (Return rate 5/ hour); -3/4), I'd need an explanation on this one. -Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (1/2 DCV; -1/2), When is the last time you really learned something without concentration? I'd say this was assumed, & worth no negatives. You learn about osmosis in cellular biology. Osmosis can't teach you cellular biology. -Costs Endurance (-1/2), Costs endurance for what? Reading a book for an hour? On a 15 point power? Get real. -Activation Roll 14- (-1/4) Here's another method. It's not nearly as cheap, but may be subject to less abuse. Buy 5 Overall levels (50 pts) - Only on specifically studied subjects that PC has gone through study regimen on (-1). You could adjust this based on what the GM requires for "the regimen." Make the player provide you with the skills already done. Assume nothing. - Requires Skill Roll (Int or Ego) (-1/2) This version costs 20 points. The other way costs 3.33 points. Either or both could really unbalance your game. Be careful.

Re: Your favorite character type I really don't have a favorite type. Every character I play will be a bit odd, but something very different from the last character I played. Lately (meaning last several years) I've been doing a lot of support characters, but that tends to be because the other players in the group tend to gloss over such things. I could be playing the elephant-sized bear with the personality of Eeyore one game, the insecure teen power mimic the next game, the 50+ yr old psychic broad, or the Don Juan wannabee B&E specialist. That's one of the things that I really enjoy about the hero system. You don't have to be pidgeon holed into playing a particular role in a campaign. There are some players that only play variations on a certain theme (One guy I played with was so predictable we started calling all his characters Ninja-of-the-week). That would bore me to tears. If I didn't mind being stuck with the same thing I'll play a video game insted of trying to get people to coordinate their busy schedules to play a face-to-face game.

Re: Supervillains and Philosophy If you are looking at villians that have had an impact I think Black Manta deserves a mention. While Aquaman might not be as much of a pop culture icon as he was when he had his own show, what happen with Manta is a good example of how a villian makes an impact on a hero, or even on a genre. Black Manta's murder of Aquman's infant son redefined the entire Aquaman character, and was one of the first nails in the coffin of the Silver Age of comics.

Re: Favorite Anti-Brick tricks? Sounds like a place to spend some experience points . . .

Re: Favorite Anti-Brick tricks? Let me get this right. I appreciate the responses, but I was thinking more like how to defeat a brick, rather than just frustrate or stalemate it. So, you want to figure out how to poke a hole in the character's schtick? What's the point in having them make a character with a schtick if you're not going to let them play it out. The whole point of bricks is "tough to take down." And it makes a huge difference in the kind of brick you want to take down. Speedster bricks do not like martial throws. Big dumb bricks tend to be molding clay for a skilled mentalist. Heroic bricks can be neutralized for whole storylines when someone slaps an illusion of somebody tough and dangerous on an innocent bystander (who gets pulverized by the 75 STR brick doing a flying move through). "Death traps" might not mean much to the brick, but it might be a huge deal for his comrades, DNPC's, or next-door-neighbor. The disregard for others is part of what makes plain vanilla villian bricks such a pain to fight. The brick schtick is "physically, you can't hurt me." While this isn't impossible to do, it's often not worth the trouble. The real villians don't try to out muscle the brick. Look at Black Manta. Can he beat Aquaman in a fight? Rarely. But he's top of the list of Aquaman's most hated villians. Why? He killed his kid. Why buy a 90 point attack to maybe tickle the brick when 1 1d6 RKA pistol can scar him/her for life if you just aim it the right place?

Prefix: Rules Question/How to Build/Question/Observation Currently, Fine Manipulation is an adder on telekinesis. This is really handy, but it seems like this adder shouldn't be limited to only this power. Why not allow Fine Manipulation (FM) apply to any appropriate power? With the FM adder on your HKA & you could perform surgery with your claws. Slap FM on your heat based RKA and you could melt component X of the Macguffin, leaving the rest of it intact. Granted, examples like this would probably take heavy negatives if you tried to do them in combat. And you would need the appropriate skill roll to determine which organ to remove, or to know the melting point of component X, but the idea remains valid. Assuming this is acceptable, would it still be an adder? Should it be a naked advantage? How could you cram it into Heromaker? Forgive me if this has been covered before. I did run a search, but I got hundreds of pages that had hits. I figured polling the audience might be easier.

Re: Matter Eating (with linked powers) DF: Constantly nibbles on anything (pencils, nails, his hair, his tie, shoelaces, trees, shingles, etc).

Re: Is it Flash or is it me? Flash can be devastating. We usually use a house rule that makes it 10 pts/die instead of 5.

Re: Matter Eating (with linked powers) The HKA is a good start, but it runs against the problem that it caps out on the amount of BODY you can do. You might need GM approval for what I propose, but try it this way: - Keep the HKA, but put it in a multi. - In the same multi, buy a Transform (to harmless digestible material). How ever much you can afford, with the advantages of 0 End, Persistent, & Cumulative. This should allow you to digest anything, eventually, but certain things take longer (High body/DEF objects, special protections, etc). Slap on the disad that you can't attack with it (unless it fits in your mouth anyway). Make this slot the default for the power, and you can digest uranium while you sleep. Along the same lines, this would allow you to justify LS v poisons (-1 ingested only, doesn't apply to breathed/contact poisons). This could lead to stuff like this: Hero #1: What happened to 8 kilograms of uranium we found in the illegal weapons lab? Hero #2: Oh, Turtle ate it. It gave him some nasty smelling burps, but everything is good now.

Re: Ninja Gaiden Building a Ninja Garden? You don't grow ninjas, you mine them. What? Ninja Gaiden?? Oh. Nevermind.

Re: a limited mimic power Unless EBs are relatively common, I would think that the Conditional Power would be worth (-3/4) or (-1).

Re: The Price of Hiring a Villain Well, the boffin may realize s/he's in over her/his head and think it's the only way to solve the problem. Then it becomes "What did the boffin give in exchange for the cure?"

Re: a limited mimic power Building it from a VPP is an expensive way to do it. The Energy Blast with the variable effect advantage is probably your best bet. In addition, having an Power that you can only use when copying someone else's ability is a major limitation, so take that into account for your calculations.