Ockham's Spoon

Re: Mundane Item Buildng: Rope The rope automaton is an interesting build and potentially a better representation than just the TK build. That said, while I would allow it if a player really wanted to, it is a bit cumbersome to spec it that way, so I would have to go with the TK build personally.

Re: vampire blood drain Yeah, Transfer was useful notationally, but I guess it was really just Drain + Aid anyway, so that is how 6e models it. It makes the rule book that much shorter, but it makes writing out a transfer power on your character sheet that much longer. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

Re: Proper Whip Build in 6e I believe that whips built as Killing Attacks are those that have metal tips or barbs in them, giving some cutting power (still you ought to apply Reduced Penetration though). For a less cruel version, such as Indiana Jones' iconic equipment, I would probably use a small HTH attack instead. In either case, you might care to give the character +5 PRE only for attacks just because the crack of the whip is so intimidating.

Re: Armor Wars Some of this has been covered, but I see power suits as limited in production for the following reasons: 1. Too expensive. Yes, tanks are pricey too, but the high tech needed for personal body armor is well beyond even that. This is also why you don't have supertanks everywhere. 2. The required materials are exceedingly rare and difficult to obtain. You simply don't have enough unobtainium in the world to build more than a couple of suits properly. 3. The suits require fine-tuning to the "pilot", so you can't easily mix and match which limits versatility, and it requires lots of pilot training. Something goes wrong and you have to overhaul the whole thing. That is putting too many eggs in one basket for the military. Alternatively, the suits are too easy to use and they don't want them being stolen by enemy soldiers or terrorists. 4. Does the army want to be responsible for one of their power suit soldiers going rogue and stealing the suit (or even getting a bad case of PTSD)? People stealing high tech and setting themselves up as supercriminals happens all the time in the comics, so you might guess that the military would be wary of giving any single soldier that kind of readily transportable firepower. 5. The inventor is a genius and the simple fact is that no one else has figured out how to do what he did, or at least as well as he did it. The inventor could have any number of reasons for not widely distributing the technology, from a concern of the technology falling into the wrong hands to simply being too busy inventing to bother with some kind of business plan to do so.

Re: Quick questions for a Martial Artist Powers I have always house ruled it as such: if you have a HTH attack with an advantage on it, either you pay for the STR to have the advantage too or the DC that STR adds are reduced by the value of the advantage. So for a 30 STR added to a 4d6 Penetrating (+½) attack, you only get an extra 6d6/1.5 = 4d6 for a total of 8d6. If it were an NND (+1) attack, you would get 6d6/2 = 3d6 extra from STR.

Re: Ultra sonic interference device The idea of an ultrasonic generator sounds like something that inhibits the mentalist rather than aids his victims to me, in which case a Suppress does seem to be the way to go. If Mind Control has already be thrown before the Suppress goes off, then the mentalist wasn't at any disadvantage when the commands were given, so the ultrasonic device gives no help to someone already affected. If you are looking for something that just dampens the effects of all mental powers in the area, thrown or not, I think I would go with Mental Defense, AoE (do you need to add UBO on that too?). Or maybe you would still go with the Suppress and house rule that instant powers with continuing effects will still be affected. I think most GMs would allow a Dispel vs. an existing Entangle, and this is a similar case. The only fly in the ointment is would it be an advantage to be able to affect continuing powers or a disadvantage not to? I think I would rule the latter (-¼).

Re: Mundane Item Buildng: Rope My first thought was a multipower with an Entangle and Swinging and Stretching, etc. but I think Mattingly has a very elegant solution with TK. My only addition might be to give it a built-in Power Skill roll (rope tricks!) so you can pull off stunts that might be a little outside of the normal TK effect (like making a makeshift fuse with rope and gasoline).

Re: Would like help with a Champions game

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... I am running a Champions game with my two elementary school-aged kids. They enjoy playing superpowered people, but are still working on the heroic aspects of it. In our last session the heroes were sealed inside a robotics lab with a swarm of deadly spider-bots that had been programmed for the infiltration of enemy bases. Of course the programming malfunctioned and so the heroes were there to stop the robots and save the technical staff. Players: Iceman (my son): Same as Bobby Drake of the X-men but with a different secret ID Whirlwind (my daughter): mage with weather powers Shadow (my wife): Mutant with shapeshifting powers Rumble (me): Mentalist/martial artist Shadow:"Do the lab techs have any spare clean-room suits that I could borrow?" GM:"Yes, although they seem puzzled you should ask for one." Shadow:"In case I get hit by one of the robots electrical attacks." Whirlwind:"Will they make us immune to electrical attacks? Can I have one too then?" Shadow: "It isn't for protection. If I get hit with an electrical attack, my shapeshifting shuts down and I revert to my true form." Iceman:"So what? We know your Secret ID already." Shadow: "Yes, but I can't shapeshift clothes, so I don't normally wear them. If I get eletrocuted I might end up naked, and the robots aren't going to stop to laugh." Both the kids did laugh. It took several minutes to restore order. GM: "You can hear the spider-bots scuttling around in this next lab area, but they have killed the power to lights so you can't see them, except for Iceman because he has IR vision." Iceman: "Yes! I don't have to worry about getting surprised!" Whirlwind: "Great for you. I'll wait outside while you fight the spider-bots." Iceman: "Maybe you could start a fire with one of your lightning bolts so we can all see." Shadow: "I'll ask one of the technicians if they have a flashlight; surely they must have a flashlight somewhere." Whirlwind: "Yeah, but if we start a fire we can burn the lab down and then we won't have to fight them at all." Rumble: "Uhh, you realize that the military isn't going to be happy with us for destroying millions of dollars of equipment..." Iceman: "Isn't that why we have secret IDs?"

Re: Rigging Elections in Champions Who needs an election? The Master villain has his superteam engage in highly destructive acts of terrorism, often disguised as other supers and even some heroes (might as well smear some names in the process). The president is forced to declare martial law to deal with the metahuman threat and, by previous political manipulation, finds the best candidate to wage the war on metahumans is Jim Smith (which happens to be the Secret ID of the Master villain). The Master villain now has carte blanc to do almost anything he wants as a matter of national security.

Re: Damage Class and Balance While I agree with most of what has been said, I interpreted the initial post a bit differently. If you are talking a 7DC attack and a 5DC attack bought as say, a 35 STR with a +5d6 HA club, then the net result is 12d6, which is no different from a damage standpoint than the brick with a 60 STR. What is different is how the powers are purchased. In most cases I would say that stacking attacks is more cost effective, especially if part of that stack is from Martial Arts or a Multipower. Often, however, part of the stack is bought through a focus, so there are limitations. Also stacked attacks usually provide a bit less flexibility (e.g. a 60 STR can be used for lifting too; a 12d6 Blast can be spread more easily, etc.). The nice part is that you can have two totally different character concepts and still keep both heroes at close to the same DC level for the sake of balance.

Re: Inflicting Drowning... Yeah, a Suppress on REC would work well in place of the END part of the Drain; then the Drain could go from STN to END to BDY. Should have thought of that. Good call.

Re: Inflicting Drowning... I haven't done a drowing power in 6e, but in 5e I worked it with a Drain. You have to define what the Drain goes against when you buy it, so by definition the drowning Drain was 2d6 Drain NND Continuous vs. STN +1d6 Drain NND vs. END Continuous until STN is gone then it switches to END until END is gone (or vice versa) then both Drains switch to BDY. Since it is a Drain, REC doesn't come into play, although you have to slow the recovery rate down to once per 5 min just in case you are drowing a high STN, high BDY brick-type. But then you also get the limitation (-¼) that the recovery rate jumps to 1/PHA once the Drain is stopped (you could have it come back instantly, but I think nearly drowning might slow you down a bit more than that). As for slowing down the target's SPD so he doesn't drown as fast, I ruled that although normally a Continuous power affected the target on the attacker's SPD, for drowning (and gas attacks as well) it is based on the target's SPD which was a -0 limitation (yes it will probably make it slower than basing it on the attacker's SPD, but it tends to force the victim to slow down, and a voluntary SPD drain has to be worth something, and this makes book-keeping easier). This build has the flaw that the victim can still recover STN from other attacks while drowning, and recover whatever END they have left normally until unconscious. But in practice it worked out pretty well, which is why I throw it out here.

Re: Resistance to Wind I would buy this as Flight, 0 END, Persistant, Always On, Invisible, Only to resist effects of wind powers. Then buy as many meters of Flight as fits the conception (or that you have points for). The only sticky part is how it affects a TK grab, and there my inclination would be to subtract the active points in the Flight from the active points in the TK and let the TK run on the lowered value. Alternately you could buy it as Clinging, only vs. wind powers, and sweet talk the GM into handwaving the sfx so that it works even when not in contact with a surface. That isn't strictly legitimate, but is keeps it simple and it isn't a power that will become abusive.

Re: How to build a variation of Mental Transfer You might be overthinking this. I would buy this simply as Regeneration with the Resurrection adder, and the limitation Requires nearby freshly dead body. The sfx is that he reappears in a new body. If you want to shift around characteristics and/or abilities, just treat it as a "radiation accident" and fiat it. It isn't really a Multiform, since he isn't likely to go back to a previous body. The power to swap bodies strikes me more as a plot device than a useful ability, beyond the fact that it means the character is really hard to kill once and for all (which is why he needs to buy Resurrection). If you want to be hard line, you might make the character buy Shapeshift with No Conscious Control to reflect the fact he looks different each time, but I would probably be inclined to handwave that.

Re: How best to replace "Find Weakness" Lots of good ways to do a Find Weakness as mentioned already. The thing I never understood was why FW should let you keep halving defenses for each successful roll, either logically or in game terms since it was so potentially unbalancing (not as bad as the old STN lotto, but still problematic). In my mind there shouldn't be a discussion on how to replicate the multiple halving mechanic in 6e because that was a good reason to get rid of it. Maybe its just me, but I don't miss it at all.

Re: rounding Armor Piercing I can't cite a page number or anything, but I am fairly confident that Defenses round up when hit by an Armor Piercing attack. Of course maybe I have just been playing that way for so many years I assume it must be true.

Re: A Number Six 'follower' First off let me say I am not familiar with Six, so maybe I am off base here, but this really sounds more like a plot device than an actual power. Yes, she will get some potentially useful info from it, but it isn't a power per se. Consequently I would build it as "KS: Previous Gem Bearer" or somesuch, with the sfx that the info comes to her through an apparition. You only have to spend a few points initially to add some unique color to Esper this way, and as she has more visions or gains control of which visions she sees, you can just buy up the KS to reflect her mastery of it.

Re: Storn Idea to full picture Year 7 Thanks to Death Tribble for the opportunity to throw in our 2 cents. Here's mine: Aether: A mentalist who could astrally project from a young age. She did so often to escape her abusive environment, gradually becoming more anchored in the astral plane than in ours. When her physical body was killed during a particularly violent episode, her psyche lived on in the astral plane. She ultimately learned how to project her astral self back into this world, most often appearing like a ghost, but she can maintain a solid form with some effort. She now stalks those who would prey on the helpless as the superheroine Aether. My primary reason for suggesting this character is because I am totally incapable of drawing her as I envision, so I am hoping a master like Storn can do it justice. Her ghost form is translucent and seems to be made of smoke, with vortices swirling within her form and wisps flowing off her when she moves quickly. Her hair seems to float as though she is underwater. Normally she appears as just a grey, semi-transparent figure with bottomless black eyes, but she can color and texture her form as desired, and generally does so when she wants to be solid.

Re: Worst Hero Names (of your campaigns) I have started a superhero game with my elementary school-aged kids who came up with some naively creative names. Unfortunately upon suggesting they might want a different name, they decided to go with a completely different character, leading to further humor/embarassment. To wit: My daughter started with a weather contoller called "Wind-Breaker", who was then replaced by a druid with thorn powers called "Prick", who was then replaced with a fire-based character named "Flaming Queen". (She ultimately renamed the weather controller "Whirlwind"). My son tried out many names and characters, among them a martial artist brick patterned after James Bond's foe Odd-Job called "Hand-Job", then renamed "Rock Head", then "Rocky". I suggested he think about his martial arts abilities too when coming up with a name, resulting in the "Karate Kid", and then "The Abuser", and a spin on the Street Fighter video game "Street Walker". That character concept got ditched, and he wanted to have a living skeleton character called "Big Bone", and then "Monster Bone", then renamed "Dead Head", and then a play on Jolly Roger with "Deadly Roger". Finally he changed to a cold-base character originally called "Snow Man" then "The Freezer". Ultimately he decided to go with "Iceman" which I always thought was a lame name from the comics, but at this point I was thinking it was great.

Re: Rally Point 5ER Since this is for an NPC team (and hence can be abusive) I would simplify this power by saying that instead of a fixed location, that the teleporter has floating locations, one for each team member. He "memorizes" each team members location signature, and then can grab them from where ever and teleport them next to him. Kind of like like using the floating location in reverse, teleporting from the floating location instead of to it. You don't get a cost break for "fixed location only", but you don't have to buy Clairsentience either, which streamlines things in my mind. On reflection, I might let a PC have this power (with some restrictions), since it would be an easy way to assemble the group, and it would make for amusing role playing if the a hero was teleported away from his date or out of the shower or something.

Re: The Batman Option I think this sounds like a neat option, but I'm not sure that you could make up a 400 point disparity between a cosmically powerful hero and what is essentially a skilled normal. When I am trying to mix hero types like that, typically the skill guy has lots of little abilities, gadgets, and powers that in sum put him on a more equal footing with the powerful mutants and such. For instance he will have Martial Arts, probably with a couple extra DC, and some kind of weapon to give him a few more dice of damage (possibly electrified or powered in some way), and then maybe a "critical hit" or "sharpshooter" ability that pushes his attacks into the same league as more powerful heroes. He will never match them in combat (he is just a skilled normal after all), but he can face the same villains without feeling useless. Plus, in noncombat situations, he shines. And on an unrelated note, my OC brain insists I point out that Buffy's sidekick was not Zandar, but Xander (a version of Alexander).

Re: Presence power framework

Re: Presence power framework I would definitely say that PRE for attacks only would never be a -1 Limitation. Given how powerful a PRE attack can be, I would even argue that PRE for attacks should only be -¼. Considering that in 6e the HTH attack is bought as STR with a -¼ limitation, I don't think it is a stretch to say that the same value should apply to PRE as well.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Kudos for Bolt, both for the mile-a-minute-mouth that is so appropriate, and for the ability to actually talk that way extemporaneously during play. And of course because its a funny quote.