GAZZA

Re: NND vs Barrier Possible, sure, but not free. If you want the psychokinetic power to squeeze the air out of someone's lungs, with the only proviso is that you can see them, then you ought to buy at least LOS on the NND. If you want some sort of meson based NND ray that can go through any intervening barriers, then you ought to buy Indirect for it.

Re: NND vs Barrier That's an interesting take on it, and I would certainly concede that an NND that does BODY might be able to select barriers as a reasonably common defence.

Re: NND vs Barrier The latter. The specific one I quoted was telekinetically crushing the air out of someone's lungs, but there are a few examples of it. If you'd let an AE non-NND do that, and I can certainly see an argument to do so, fair enough. AE changes the picture somewhat; in a sense all AE attacks are slightly indirect. So not to be snarky* but is this really an issue or am I just not seeing the full picture here? *(Forgive me but I talk to too many customers in my line of work where the first question is often something like "Did you plug it in?")

Re: NND vs Barrier No Normal Defence means, specifically, that the normal defence that stops the attack doesn't work. Thus, Blast normally is defended by ED (or PD); NND means that ED is no defence. However, a Barrier that has 8 ED will stop any normal blast that fails to roll at least 8 BODY; I submit that this is not a "normal" defence, and is not what NND is intended to bypass. The radiation example you provide should have the Indirect advantage to bypass walls. I don't believe it should get it for free. Let me put it another way. NND is a specific all or nothing limit for an AVLD defence. An NND where the defence is Power Defence, say, is not as good as an AVLD with the defence Power Defence (and doesn't cost as much). Are you suggesting that Blast AVLD (Power Defence) should go through a wall as well (assuming that the wall has no power defence)? If so, do Drains normally go through walls? Is the Indirect advantage useless for adjustment powers? I believe that barriers stop all non-LOS powers with very few exceptions; the exceptions are almost always spelled out in the power (Telekinesis is one, the Indirect advantage is another). I do not believe that NND is intended to give a free Indirect.

Re: NND vs Barrier Well, that's my point. If that's the case, then it's not really part of the NND description. To list is as a valid defence means that it normally wouldn't be. I mean, that's like saying: Blast 6d6, NND (defence is not having STUN) is valid. Listing PD Barrier as one of the defences implies that normally PD Barriers are NOT defences against NNDs - and if that's true, then it's coming as a surprise to me.

Re: NND vs Barrier Let me put it this way - to rule it the way you suggest, NND always comes with free Indirect. Does that seem right to you? Normally, if there is a wall (even a window, which is a transparent wall) between you and the target, your attack must bust through the wall in order to reach the target. But since an NND does no body (usually, and in this case), an NND cannot break through a wall.

There are a couple of constructs in Champions Powers 6e that use something similar to: Blast 6d6, NND, defence is rPD defined as force field or a PD Barrier ... I confess to being highly skeptical this is allowed. A Barrier is basically a wall, right? You can't fire NNDs through a wall unless you have some level of Indirect, and if you do have some level of Indirect, then you're already past the wall and nobody would get any protection from it. LOS powers might be exceptions - you can certainly Mental Blast someone behind a sheet of glass - but surely you can't fire an NND through a barrier without Indirect?

Re: SusAn Off hand, I can think of a few ways to do it. Extradimensional movement is very elegant, and I would be definitely inclined to that myself. However, here's a way that I don't think has been mentioned yet: Regeneration (or Healing), Able to Resurrect, and then either Trigger (by deactivating cryostasis) or Time Delay (if you are suspending animation for a given time period). That way you are literally dead, and you come back to life (which is, arguably, a reasonable way to represent the effect). The restrictions on this form of Regeneration state that you must define a reasonably common way to stop it; "dismembering the corpse" would be one, as of course would be not correctly triggering the power.

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" That sounds a bit wooly though. I agree no defence is absolute, but if I go with a Mind Control "Don't reveal your secret identity" or a Mental Defence/Damage Reduction/Damage Negation only to protect secret ID, then we have a quantifiable mechanism for how hard it is to break the defence. Also, this isn't a "pretend not to have a secret ID" or "pretend to have a different secret ID" effect - it is fine for an incoming mentalist to know that they're being specifically denied that information. So I don't think mental shapeshift, while an intriguing effect, quite works in this case.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e Yeah, I mentioned this a while back - my point was that the cheap cost of AP should imply a lot more hardened defences now, and I was asking if that tended to be the case (I don't have any of the new enemies books).

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e Is the shield just some super hard material, or is it a material that has some sort of kinetic energy negation power? The former would suggest, in Champions terms, that it would have no effect on knockback, but if I understand you generally speaking Cap is not thrown back when the Hulk hits him? Possibly that's because it's a Block, I suppose, but then (again, in Hero terms) the defence of the shield is irrelevant (assuming it's an Unbreakable Focus).

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" Yes, you're right, it sounds better coming from the Sarge or Nobby.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e Shifting series for a moment, I guess The Reflector from Wild Cards would need a lot of knockback resistance, which I hadn't considered before.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e No, I haven't. In my experience, most Drain BODY type powers tend to be bought with limitations saying that can't affect objects. I'm not saying it's not perfectly legal, or even that it doesn't make sense - just saying it never would have occurred to me.

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" Well it's used in the Discworld by Detritus a few times, and possibly Foul Old Ron. But I doubt pTerry invented the phrase. Yes, he could still be forced to divulge it under torture or whatever. This is strictly a "one villain telepath doesn't want other villain telepaths to know" sort of deal - and as I say, to begin with, even the PC himself won't know.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e It never would have occurred to me that you could Drain entangles, let alone Aid them. (Well obviously you can adjust the entangle itself; I meant the individual BODY or DEF of it). But then, I've never really understood where the "Wrap it Up!" craze came from. You know, the power that lots of bricks now buy that allows them to Entangle based on the available materials. I pretty much just always assumed you could, you know, do that, no power needed - the same way I don't need a brick to buy Blast 12d6 (physical), AE a few metres based on the size of the car, OIF car of opportunity, range based on STR. If there's a car there, the only power I reckon you need is STR; likewise, if there's a bunch of cables or rebars, the only power you need to wrap someone up is STR. (I can see the argument if you're a speedster, since you want to wrap them up really quickly, but most brick versions of the power have "at least a full phase" limitations as well).

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" The PC who will be getting this power will not be aware he has it to begin with, so that wouldn't work. But it's an interesting idea.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e That sounds like Steve, yeah.

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" Martial arts with mental powers? I'm sorry, I don't understand.

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" All good ideas. I'm with Naanomi in that I don't think a Mental Shape Shift would mean you don't know who you are, anymore than a physical Shape Shift would mean you didn't realise you looked different in a mirror - but a Mental Shape Shift would be more appropriate to pretend that you have a different secret identity (a cool effect, to be sure, but not what I'm going for here). Mr Nobody - I agree, it is harder to get to the secret ID, but that's why it's a Hidden Thoughts instead of just Surface Thoughts. Even if you push it to the EGO + 20 level, though, we're talking about a character with a 10 EGO and no mental defence (so an average 10d6 Telepathy can still pull it out 50% of the time). There is a villain that, for their own reasons, wants to make sure that this hero's identity doesn't become known very easily - they're the one imposing the block. Invisibility is an interesting option. Does Telepathy count as a sense then? I thought only Mind Scan worked that way. Though I guess if Mental Shape Shift can conceal your identity, it must be a sense.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e Well yes, that's a good point. Bad writing, I suspect. There's been a lot of that going around Marvel in the last few years - Civil War, One More Day, House Of M, and need I go on?

Re: How to build: "Mental Block" Extra levels with breakout, huh? That's a great idea (and no, it doesn't have to be inobvious; any telepath trying to find this out will become aware that there's something stopping them). If you use the APG rules to buy 0 END Persistent with the -1/4 "only so the power doesn't become easier to resist", a 12d6 Mind Control that says, for example, "don't reveal your secret identity" (an action you would be inclined to do anyway, one assumes) with a roll of, say, 45 against an EGO of 10 gives a 4- roll to break out. On average that would take 54 tries, which may exceed the heat death of the universe, so that's probably a pretty good way to do it.

Re: Armour Piercing in Champions 6e 1. Personal Immunity. 2. Technically all impact damage is about inelastic collisions, whether through falling or getting shot. (Although I imagine there might be some sonic and thermal energy involved with a bullet impact as well). If the shield operates by providing a highly elastic collision (similar to how I understand Kevlar works) then it is theoretically possible that it might dissipate most of the falling damage harmlessly. Close enough for comic book physics, I reckon.