DasBroot

This is the answer, plain and simple. I'd never pay 8 points for something I could use once, ever, when I could pay 10-12 for something I could use once and a while. There are a lot of questionable builds and powers in those books. You'll trip across more.

As an aside a player at my table pointed out that just because the entire Justice League is on one team doesn't mean they're all built on the same character points. A fully functional Batman being 600 - 700 points only means something to us trying to put him, or a character inspired by him, in a game. In a story it doesn't stop him from teaming up with a 5000 point Wonder Woman or "Active points: Yes" Superman. (Even at times when it should.) Maybe a problem with skills is the first rank costing 3? Even in a heroic level game, where skills tend to get used more than powers, perhaps 1 would be a more inviting cost?

Indeed. Even if they can't hurt a hero (a mook with a 4d6 energy blaster in a game with 25-35 defenses) they can potentially foul them up with Knockback if nothing else and knock a hero down ... which makes a follow up Move Through / Charge from Da Boss much more effective. However, if you really want to make players mad with low point enemies in a big fight ... it's Leg Sweep. As far as I've ever been able to tell nothing negates 'target falls' (I hope I'm missing something, to be honest - is it the same as trip? roll acrobatics with a -1 penalty for each point the attack succeeded by?). A lucky hit from an OCV 4 mook can turn a DCV 8 hero into a DCV 4 punching bag for the boss.

I demand that for the last minute of the decent the ground crew belts out the chorus of Jon Bon Jovi's "Blaze of Glory" as hard as they can and posts the results.

Fair enough and the expanded text about falling IS in 6e but not in CC, which I was quoting from. Sometimes they're farther apart than they seem. As Hugh notes, though, what's to stop a Desolid character, if you extend it to all collisions, from using Move Through without buying Affects Physical World (or turning it off, which is definitely a 'chooses to' condition, but one that technically they can't use off turn (such as when the bus is thrown at them while they have Desolidification on) ?

It's something I've given thought to as my own table tends to take the MMO approach (because it works) - the enemies spread out to engage them, comic style, but the player focus fire. So far what I've done to various levels of success (overlapping with mrinku): 1) Designed enemies that can't be engaged by the entire team due to logistics - such as high speed fliers making strafe attacks that only the ranged character can engage. 2) Recovery actions. NOTHING draws player aggro like unchecked recovery actions. Only effective if there's something they have to recover. 3) Cross defending - you have to deal with the henchmen because they're Blocking for or Diving for Cover to take the damage for their boss or each other. 4) Interrupt-able huge attacks. If three foes start punching out higher damage attacks with Extra time on them the team will split to deal with this - or get nailed to the wall until they learn to not let your opponent finish charging their Spirit Bomb. Especially potent when combined with number 2. 5) Split the team. There are lots of powers which can affect the shape of a battlefield - if someone ends up alone in a dome shaped Barrier with a foe they'll engage it. Limited success rate on this, though, as if it annoys a player often enough they'll build around it (a four meter teleport with double armor piercing, etc).

That's ultimately what GMs are for: If nobody else is going to take a Detect Magic and the detect was pretty limited (such as Detect Magic) I, personally, would allow it in a pool. If you were a mage who wanted to provide 'spell defense' (Power Defense to your team) and most of the campaign wasn't going to feature Power Defense targeting attacks I'd probably allow that in a pool too - rather than forcing a character to have 20 to 30 points tied up on something they're probably not going to use every adventure - let alone session. (Though if they did take it outside a pool I'd make sure to include power defense attacks more often than I originally planned so they get use out of it. This has actually recently happened - with my players going 'Wow, it's a good thing you took that power or we'd be getting creamed" ... unsuspecting that the encounters were designed as a reaction to the purchase of the power.)

I'm not certain I can get onboard with that interpretation (the damage part - they definitely need to buy flight): It then gives a very specific list of things that do still affect a character and doesn't including falling damage among it... and the limitation itself provides more info Falling damage is damage. I suppose someone could rule that it's not an 'attack' but that seems to violate the intention of the power. If you turn into water, for example (taking he 'cannot pass through' limitation) why should splashing all over the ground hurt you? It doesn't hurt water (at worst it displaces it all over the place so it evaporates easier - but that's a side effect of the displacement, not a result of impact). How about particles like visible light? It's a perfectly legitimate 'cannot pass through solid objects' (they can't get into room if it's perfectly sealed shut - but given a crack or keyhole light can get into the space, and so can they). I'd just have a hard time justifying being able to have a bus thrown through *you* without incident but taking damage if *you* were thrown by something (like gravity - in example, fall) at the bus.

I'd actually typed belt of many pouches first, including inevitable Liefield being proud commentary, but then I made the mistake of looking up the actual item name and 'ruining' the joke.

Silly example aside such a GM would only be proving the munchkin right and they'd come back with No Tricks out of you 2, Munchkin boogaloo, all slots Increased Endurance Cost (x10 END; -4), Side Effects (Side Effect only affects the environment near the character; 12d6 Blast, Stun Only; -3/4), Concentration (0 DCV; -1/2), OIF (Trilby of Power; -1/2), Gestures (Requires both hands; Double Bird Flip; -1/2), Costs Endurance (Only Costs END to Activate; -1/4), Incantations ("I'm the best around, nobody's ever gonna put me down!"; -1/4) Those take a 30 AP power down to 4 RC so instead of 13 they pay 20 and get all the benefits all the time. Once again, the GM would have to be asleep at the wheel but it's actually legal, unlike the MP. The ability to switch to any of those powers in an otherwise 'non-combat' cheap multipower would be incredibly advantageous and what should be the core of a character concept (the lifeform detect, for example), becomes a devalued afterthought. (Also the GM wins all arms races. His enemies are built on unlimited points. An AoE Accurate 100d6 Affects Desolid Blat should shut down the Trilby of Power nicely - but like all arms races both sides lose if that happens).

All the 'special' powers are disproportionately strong in certain situations... to the point where it becomes a no-brainer to include them. Taken to an extreme... 8 No tricks out of you, GM: Multipower, 30-point reserve, (30 Active Points); all slots Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect only affects the environment near the character; Blast 6d6, STUN Only (+0), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Armor Piercing (+1/4), Area Of Effect (8m Radius; +1/2) (60 Active Points); No Range (-1/2); -1 1/2), OIF (Trilby of Power; -1/2), Gestures (Requires both hands; Double Bird Flip; -1/2) 1f 1) I regrow my limbs when bored: Regeneration (1 BODY per Turn), Can Heal Limbs (21 Active Points) 1f 2) Nope: Mental Defense (30 points total) (30 Active Points) 1f 3) Knockback This: Knockback Resistance -30m (30 Active Points) 1f 4) LOL special attacks: Power Defense (30 points) (30 Active Points); 1f 5) Can't Flash This: Detect A Large Class Of Things (Lifeforms) (Unusual Group), Range, Sense, Targeting (27 Active Points) There we go. For 13 points someone covers most of the situational tricks the evil GM has cooked up that players hate. Also they can get an extra attack each phase by switching slots even if they don't need to (because Side Effects can be really abusive if the GM lets the wrong player design the power that gets triggered).

Which nobody in the business world seriously believes. If they haven't skipped town already they may want to.

Yeah, but I'm convinced he has "Because I'm Batman" = an illegal cosmic VPP for skills and a very lenient GM.

I feel that in a superheroic game transportation is rarely an issue or even a plot factor - anyone who wants to get somewhere fast has plenty of powers to pick from to fit a theme and if that theme is 'fly my Superplane into a firefight against alien attackers' they've already purchased combat piloting and gotten the TF for free (even if logically they learned the other way around sometime in their past). I'm more than happy to let Green Arrow or Batman pilot anything they come across at a novice level without having to spend dozens of points on vehicles they might encounter once. It's a genre thing to slip into the bad guy's new experimental supertank at his secret base, bang into a few walls getting the hang of it, and break through the lines to make a dramatic escape.

I've always thought that Alfred and Bullock are the best two things about the show.

Wow. Yeah, in that game I'd forget about buying DCV and OCV and focus on buying Resistant Protection and Area of Effect: Accurate on my attacks.

The analyse skill already gives you that rough idea if it's appropriate. I agree - it's way too meta for me as well but there's a certain amount of meta when CSL are involved anyways: you as a player know you allocate three levels - the character just knows he's trying his hardest. Still, there is a numerical component to the game and if someone wanted to spend the points needed to know exactly what kind of numbers they're up against I'd probably allow it... though I'd describe it as 'she's as skilled as you are when you try your best' over saying 'She's currently DCV 10'. (The closest this has ever come up to happening in my own games was when someone created a 'detect structural integrity' power - the idea was they'd know the pd of a target so they knew how hard they could hit. I allowed it but only the player knew the numbers: the character themself perceived it as comparing to other objects (ie: he's as tough as a brick wall). The player knew that was a PD of 4 ... the character knew it as 'brick'.) Also someone did once make a Detect Power Levels (Active Points) once as a joke. "Vegeta, what does the scouter say about his power level?" These, Invisibilty to this detect would about the same price as the Detect itself. Everyone would take it if everyone took the Detect power and you'd be back to square one. I've played it both ways. There are times where I've over-tuned an encounter in some way I hadn't anticipated or the dice are being particularly cruel to the heroes so the villain suddenly drops a few points of dcv or ocv - that fudging is harder when all the chips are out. At the same time I've had less important encounters laid out 'All the thugs are highly trained ex-military and have OCV and DCV 5.'

Only if Sam is packing something like this: Size Them Up: Detect A Class Of Things (Combat Values) 17- (Sight Group), Discriminatory (16 Active Points); Requires A Roll (Skill roll; Must be made each Phase/use; Analyse: Combat; -1) Sam takes his half phase to make an Analyse: Combat roll (hope he bought it to more than 11-) and then gets to make a 17- roll to get Mary's current combat values. He then knows how to allocate his CV to their best effect (or says 'DCV 10?' forget it). Otherwise Sam just knows she dodged and looks pretty good at it. Later on, if he spends 8 points to buy off the 'skill' limitation, Sam just knows people's combat values. He's just that good - he can usually tell with a glance (no half action because sight is a sense) what an opponent is currently capable of. So he sees Mary across the room fighting Joe, sees that she has a DCV 8, and is now free to half-move over, allocate his CSL, and attack (or allocate his CSL and then make a Full Phase attack, like passing strike or move through).

DC 12 with martial maneovers allowed to exceed that by their base *bonus dice* (ie martial strike adds +2d6 so could be a DC 14 on a non-advantaged attack) - not their total bonus (so /v attacks are still capped to 12, and + hth DC can still only take the DC to 12). Yes it does. It does make the martial skill characters hit 'hardest' if slugging it out toe to toe but conceptually the ranged characters don't have to worry as much about opponents with half moves larger than themselves always skittering out of reach (or being Knocked Back out of your half-movement reach by your own 14 DC attack) and I wanted something to reflect that technically melee is typically more vulnerable to terrain, etc - though it doesn't always pan out that way in a superhero setting. DC isn't as important as defensive caps, though. 5 DC, 12 DC, 24 DC ... all play about the same if you set the defensive cap at 3 to 3.5 x DC (you just make people spend more points trying to get their and feeling overwhelmed if they can't).

In my experience it's not 'Charges that don't recover normally (though 'never recover' will indeed lose you points forever, even in a vpp, as the wise palindromedary pointed out) that gives GMs the heebie jeebies - it's charges that do not recover on Universal focuses (giving the fighter a 1 non-recoverable charge inobvious accessible universal focus healing potion, for example). A gadgeteer *could* do the same thing with a universal focus gun but he's not as conceptually likely to share his toys (and thus is less likely to take 'universal' since it's not worth any additional limitation - his mega-ultra-hero-beam rifle is keyed to his bio-signs and can't be used if taken away). A potion brewer is conceptually more likely to pass the potions around (and by making them universal foci is completely bypassing the powerful and expensive Usable On Others advantage at the small risk of an enemy grabbing away a potion from his belt in combat and quaffing it themselves).

Unless you have a Detect power or perhaps an appropriate Analyse skill you never know your target's combat values. They're not stamped on people's foreheads If the character in your example is worried about being clocked by his opponent he should have allocated to DCV in the first place - by choosing to go on a full offense he has chosen to leave himself open to counterattack. The order is simply initiative: Assigning CSV is a zero-phase action so can be done at the start of a characters phase or after a half-phase action that isn't an attack, as normal. If he loses the dex 15 tied initiative roll off he'll have to abort to allocate them because it's not his phase yet (so might as well block or dodge at the same time) - or save them for a counter attack. If he won the roll off he's going first so presumably has already attacked the other dex 15 character with +3 OCV if that's what he wanted to do.

Yeah, this only really works if Ben's player (or the GM) knows themselves lf how they're going to allocate their combat values. Massey's way is cleanest - and cheaper, too, than trying to get a telepathy damage pool high enough to overcome ego +20 or +30. And it covers all the psychic ninja "I knew what you were going to do before you did" tropes out there. Heck, it could even just be something as simple as buying DCV with a telepathic SFX (maybe with a -1/4 to -1/2 disadvantage 'doesn't work on automatons).

I wish we'd stuck with 'pollution bad' instead of switching to 'climate change.'.. it *worked*. We stopped using CFC and the ozone layer has mostly healed itself! That's pretty cool. 'Pollution bad' shares the same solutions but hasn't been turned into an 'us vs them' buzz topic - because it's more 'tangible'. Far fewer people, no matter how 'fact resistant' humanity has become, can seriously look out their windows on the smoggiest day or look at trash floating in a harbour and say 'this is fine'. Sigh.

I'd return to the game but to me it's not much different than coming across a super-villain with +40 ED vs Ki SFX attacks when I'm playing the only Ki SFX using character in the campaign. Maybe it's to 'tell a story' - but it's a story I wasn't involved in: I didn't take Mr Anti-Ki as a Hunted or Rival.

Fire of Unknown Origin - Blue Oyster Cult