Ockham's Spoon

Re: Clinging for only two hands I think it depends on how the power is used. For feet only, I'd give maybe a -1/4, but for hands only, I would give the -1/2 since hands are generally more useful than feet except when it comes to walking.

Re: Wind Protection I would offer two suggestions. First, the Damage Negation is good, but instead of defining it vs. PD or ED, define it vs. Wind-deflectable attacks. Then the GM decides if the attack is affected. Mostly you are looking at physical effects, but the GM might rule that a punch from someone with Density Increase won't be affected, or that spent uranium bullets are heavy and fast enough not to be affected. But then a nominally energy-based flame attack might very well be deflected by wind. Now you have the sfx defining how the power works rather than having both physical and energy Damage Negation and lots of limitations to make it play right. This is kind of like taking Damage Negation vs. Magic; the damage vector is just alternately defined. Let me also throw out a wind shield protection power I have used. Basically it is +3 DCV vs. wind-deflectable attacks linked to a 5d6 Blast vs. PD (wind) Damage Shield, Double Knockback. First off, this make the character hard to hit initially. The Blast isn't much damage-wise (except to low-level thugs) but it makes melee with the protected character very difficult because most attackers will get tossed around almost every time they try to throw a punch.

Re: PSLs, Combat Manuevers, penalties, etc. I hadn't read that bit yet in 6e; thanks for pointing it out. In our games the house rule was if you can maintain the grab with casual STR then you didn't suffer any combat penalties beyond having your arms occupied, although it could be somewhat situational. Lois Lane might not have any chance of breaking away from Superman (as if she'd want to) but she doesn't exactly fit into the palm of his hand either and could get in the way in some circumstances.

Re: PSLs, Combat Manuevers, penalties, etc. Oh. Yeah. Good point. (Doh!) Depending on the STR of the grabber, you could buy TK, no range, only for grappling manuevers, the sfx is you have full DCV while grappling. It wouldn't be cheap for a brick, but for a martial artist with a 20 STR it would only be about 10 real points, and if your GM is nice he will let you use it with your Wrestling package.

Re: Enatangles with mass If the slimes just add weight, then use the Encumbrance table to find the effect (penalties to DCV, DEX rolls, Movement, and END usage). Give each slime Clinging so it can hold on, and then define them to weigh 10 kg each. Low STR characters will suffer, but a big brick won't even notice. I don't normally bother with Encumbrance for supers, but the effect is what you are looking for here so I would make an exception. You might have to rule how much weight the hero normally carries too (obviously more for a heroes with weapons and equipment), but whatever that amount is should be low enough that under normal circumstances they can ignore it.

Re: PSLs, Combat Manuevers, penalties, etc. I'm not sure of the rule in 6e right off, but in 5e you couldn't apply limitations to levels that weren't at least 5 point levels (or was that 4e?). Anyway, from a balance standpoint, any limitation you put on the levels should not make them cheaper than what you would have paid for the equivalent PSL. On a slightly different note, if you look at real world martial arts (and the HERO manuevers for them) you will notice that there is no emphasis on having a good defensive position while being grappled, because by definition if you are in a hold you are in a bad position. Rather the focus is getting free. That is why a Martial Escape manuever just gives you +15 STR for breaking the grab, but doesn't affect you DCV. Once you are free, then you can deal with your attacker on equal footing. So if you want a character who is a good grappler, either buy him a Wrestling package or buy him extra STR, only for grapple manuevers.

Re: Ranged STR in 6E If you want Ranged Strength without TK (because you can hitch a ride on a passing vehicle or something) you might consider Stretching, which is considerably cheaper in 6e than it was in 5e. You can buy it so that is does or doesn't (depending on sfx) cross the intervening space.

Re: Killing Damage in 6e

Re: Killing Damage in 6e That is not a bad idea, except that with a 60 STR and a 1 pip KA, I can go from a 1/2d6 KA (5 pts) to a 4d6+1 KA (7pts) for the cost of 2 points, which is trivial. Obviously STR was somewhat broken in 5e. Does STR cost too little still? I don't think so. 5 points will buy you 1 DC of Blast or 1 DC of punching damage. Blast has range, but STR gives you lifting and grabbing utility, so I think that is reasonably balanced. Ternaugh highlights the key problem which is real weapons differ from cinematic ones. Realistically it would be ridiculous to be able to kill someone with a toothpick, but in a supers game you could envision a Brick Trick of throwing the toothpick with such velocity it worked like a flechette round. And as pointed out earlier, from a cost perspective buying a small KA to get massively boosted by STR isn't much different from putting two big attacks in a Multipower. So really I think it is a matter of ruling it to match the realism level of your game.

Re: Bag of Holding The extra STR with IPE is a clever build, although I have always used Transform for this effect, pretty much as Chris outlined except that I only used 1-2d6 since the bags were always small so only hand-held items would fit (this precluded any discussions of putting people in there after once incident where the party wizard who could only teleport his own mass tried to stuff the rest of the party into a bag of holding so they could teleport straight to the head bad guy, bypassing the bulk of the adventure). I also had one character that could transform any hand-held item into a patch on his robe instead of putting it into a bag, and another who turned small items into tatoos on his body; same power, slightly different sfx.

Re: straw poll: Does a Shadow Demon have a "living body"

Re: Killing Damage in 6e I think the change with STR stacking on KA is probably a good one, although one I wouldn't generally use. The reason is that the HERO system is set up to give you as much flexibility as possible. GMs make restrictions for particular genres or campaigns all the time (damage caps, limited powers, etc.), and the doubling rule on KA's would be another example. Personally I would be much less likely to ignore a rule that is obviously intended for balance than I would be to limit some power to give the right flavor to my own campaign.

Re: Mental Parasite So does this villain retain the powers and/or skills of the possessed person? I think I would build this guy as Desolid with Clinging to stay with the body as noted above. Then he has a Major Transform (cumulative of course) that gives the body some major Complications: Slavishly Loyal to Parasite, Dies If Parasite Leaves Body, and maybe Accelerated Aging to represent that the body gets burned out (you might also add Braindead if the original mind is completely wiped out except for its ability to follow orders from the parasite. I think 6e breaks Transform into 3 parts depending on whether it affects body, mind, or spirit, so you might need to link more than one Transform together to do all of this. Throw in Mind Link so the parasite can talk to the body in order to control it. Now add some Aid or whatever other powers the body gets from having the parasite. The parasite itself might have the Complication that it Takes Same Damage as Host Body (or it might not depending on how you envision it). A couple of notes on this build. First, this could get expensive since the parasite is Desolid and all its powers Affect Real World, as it should be. But at the same time, the parasite gets all the abilities of the body without having to pay Affects Real World for them. That is probably fine for an NPC villain, but I would never let a PC do that.

Re: The Millennium Bugs You picked a neat team to feature. Any restrictions on power levels/point totals/damage caps or whatnot?

Re: Killing Damage in 6e I think the change to the STN multiplier was a good change; it keeps players from using it for knockout effects in superheroic games and it makes it more likely to outright kill your foe in heroic level games which means you don't have to worry so much about players debating the slaughter of unconscious goblins or whatever (which may be practical but it is not very noble). So yes, the 6e Killing Attack is definitely better. That said, KAs are still just as volatile when it comes to BDY. Which is fine for most KA builds, and it puts another tool in the toolkit, but it means you still have to be careful with them because they can potentially end a combat quickly (and messily).

Re: straw poll: Does a Shadow Demon have a "living body"

Re: Speed and a Deck of Playing Cards I actually think that the players planning their actions around SPD is a good thing; it shows they are engaged and making good tactical decisions. That said, I have had this issue come up before, but only in a couple of heroic level games where almost everyone had a 3 SPD, except for one or two characters with a 4 SPD. Those 4 SPD characters figured out pretty quickly how to put that extra PHA to good use and when it was going to happen, and it came to be aggravating for the 3 SPD folks. Rather than futzing around with the SPD chart, I just had some of their foes hold their PHA, so the heroes never quite knew when the blow would come (this worked less well in one-on-one combats though). To randomize attack order, everyone rolled 1d6 and added it to their DEX to determine attack order; the high DEX characters most often got to go first, but not always.

Re: straw poll: Does a Shadow Demon have a "living body" This is really a GM call of course, and personally I would count them affected as long as they weren't desolid (unless the pain inducer affects desolid). But more importantly is that you think about the ramifications of your decision (which you obviously are since you took the time to post), because you don't want an arbitrary off-the-cuff ruling to come back and bite you later. Case in point, I had a player who was playing a "restored" vampire character who had vampire-type powers but was actually human. As such he has the Distinctive Feature: Looks like vampire. At one point he nearly blew his Secret ID because I told him he wouldn't show up in a group photo (since vampires don't show in mirrors or pictures). I was thinking this was just a sfx of his Distinctive Feature. But the player later noted that if he didn't show up on cameras, then he shouldn't be picked up by security cameras so skulking about suddenly became much easier. Really that should have been bought as Invisibility only vs. mirrors and cameras, but it never occurred to me to write that up in the vampire template. It was awkward to say the least, so kudos to you for trying to head this problem off before it happens.

Re: Life (Energy) living conduit... Heal+SE? I agree that the side effect should only go off if the power works; that is good a common sense ruling. Decreased Re-use Duration, as I read it, doesn't allows the Healing to stack, but applications of Healing after the duration can go beyond its maximum dice roll. So if I have a 2d6 Healing, I can only restore a maximum of 12 points in a day (without DRD), but the following day I can restore another 12 points. If I buy DRD down to 5 minutes, every 5 minutes I can restore an additional 12 points (BTW, I don't think you can buy it down to more frequently than 1/Turn). I might have to roll several times to get the maximum roll, but with 5 minutes to work with I can probably manage that. You can see why the advantage is so high since you could restore a group of heroes from near death to fully recovered in a fairly short time span. The custom advantage I mentioned above that just lets Healing stack doesn't mess with the maximum effect, just with how quickly you can achieve it (in combat rather than out of combat).

First off let me say that I am loving 6e, so thanks! One of my favorite new aspects is Damage Negation, esp. for representing invincibility, but I have a question as to its application for mental powers. 1. As I read it, Mental Damage Negation does not affect Mental Paralysis (Entangle) or a Mental-based Flash, but it will affect Drains and RKAs bought as Mental powers. Does Mental Damage Negation affect the dice of Telepathy, Mind Control, Mental Illusions, etc.? 2. If an attacker uses Mental Illusions to inflict damage, does Mental Damage Negation affect those dice? Thanks for your help!

Re: Distinctive features Distinctive Features serve to make the character stick out, but as a GM I would not give more than 5 points for it unless it were really out of the ordinary or freakish (Unearthly Beauty only gets more than 5pts if the character pays for a power that reflects it). The one exception would be if the DF tips others off to your other Complications; i.e. if you take DF: Vampire then you get more points than DF: Goth Girl because everyone knows how to kill vampires, but goth girls don't have any particular limitations. Similarly, if your world has a smoldering hatred of orcs, DF: Orc gets you more than DF: Elf because of the accompanying Social Complication. As a GM I tend to discourage high point DF because I find they often inhibit gameplay rather than enhance it, because so many interactions with NPCs are dominated or derailed by the DF, and stealth missions are too frequently nonstarters.

Re: Logical Adjustment Powers I would say this is a good way to handle things. To some extent you are really just building the adjustment power to better fit the sfx, which is generally a good thing in my mind. I have done similiar things in the past, but only on a case-by-case basis, while your approach is more cohesive as it applies across the board. Repped. Edit: Okay, I would rep you if I hadn't done so recently already.

Re: Psionic powers -- any comments? You have some neat mental powers here, but I would make a couple suggestions. First, your Mind Shield is bought as Resistant Protection, but you don't have any mental Killing Attacks, so you might as well buy it as regular Mental Defense because it will offer the same protection for less. That said, the only mental attack you list is Sleep, which means Mind Shield will only be useful against this single attack unless you are planning to expand the list to include Mental Illusions and Mind Control and such. Sleep as listed is only 5 Damage Classes. On average it will do 9 STN per hit, which may be right where you want it, but in my experience players will turn to heavier firepower unless Sleep has other advantages (like Continuous or Invisible or something). Your Awareness ability is bought like a combat sense that compensates for blindness (Spatial Awareness) but with the limitation Character is totally unaware of nearby events which means it can't use it in combat. If this is some kind of clairvoyant-type power, you should buy it as Clairsentience. If it is meant to allow characters to operate in the dark or when blinded, you need to drop the limitations. I like your Enhancement powers. Why not add an Adrenaline Boost: +10 STR? You might consider more defensive powers. Since TK is established, you might have a Missile Deflection ability. In a similar vein, you could have a Telekinetic Block power which is extra levels with OCV only for Blocking. If you want it to be passive, just buy the TK Block as extra DCV. You also might consider psychic powers in addition to the psychokinetic and psionic ones you have. A simple ESP bought as +3 Levels with PER rolls can be amazingly handy. Or consider Premonition, bought as +2 Overall Levels. Combat Intuition could be extra levels with All Combat (or possibly broken down into a Brawler and Sharpshooter version for melee and ranged respectively). You could also buy a defensive ability Saw It Coming as Combat Luck. A psychic character might also have a Find Weakness ability which could be bought as a naked Advantage: Armor Piercing.

Re: How to build a Vampire Template?

Re: Life (Energy) living conduit... Heal+SE? I fully understand the reason for not letting Healing stack, but it has always rubbed me the wrong way, so we have a house rule that you can buy an Advantage +½ "Healing Stacks". The maximum effect still applies (so a 2d6 Healing can only restore 12pts max). The reasoning behind this is that once out of combat, you could just keep Healing until you rolled the maximum eventually, so the limitation on stacking is really only a combat issue. And perhaps more importantly, is simplifies my life as GM since it typically only takes two uses of Healing to reach the max value, so that is one less thing to keep track of. Arguably the Advantage should be more, but I haven't had any real problems with it. Anyway, you might try this approach for the bio-transfer, since each use will provide about the same amount of benefit and penalty, up to the max you can roll on the dice.