Jhamin

I'm kind of uncomfortable myself, but the power description of TK in FREd says you can buy standard and optional rules for TK, and I believe that the old Ultimate Mentalist said you could use martial maneuvers, so this isn't really much of a leap. I am willing to allow it as an experiment if nothing else.

A friend pointed out that while Superman was much more formidable, he was also probably more vengeful than that character should be. I know he has his reasons, but Supes is supposed to be bigger than that. "I'm not stopping till your a smear on my fist" is not what you would normally think of as something Superman would say. Batman is supposed to be the dark one, and Superman holds his own by showing that honesty, compassion and earnestness get you just as far. I hope the new season won't lose sight of that.

It sounds like you already have the answer (VPP) but can't use it. Maybe if you could tell us why a VPP is no good it would help. I mean, if a VPP is out but a monstrosity like a Multipower with naked advantages is in then it sounds like you are running in a pretty nonstandard game.

Not to beat a dead horse but... The problem with NND entangles is that there are way more effects than just movement you need to worry about. There may still a way for some characters to break out, so you are presented with a time stop that affects different character differently. (Some can get out, some can't) Don't forget you also need to buy lots of darkness to make sure nobody sees (or mind scans, or sonar detects, or X-ray visions) you moving around while they are entangled You need some way of simulating that all continuous effects are suspended while the power is active. Oh, and you have to stop them from invoking mental powers or command word type effects. And you have to stop them from summoning or duplicating, because those people will arrive after the attack has gone off and be unaffected. ANd so on.. Speed drains are a little more effective, but it will cost so many points to make sure that you can stop all those SPD 9 Flash clones that you either can't afford it or are a GM fiat character and don't need a real strong writup anyway. Once again, this power either involves coming up with ways around about 20 different things that are going to crop up, or GM fiat. If you are going with GM fiat then while it may be less satifying, EDM is the cleanest way to go. Yamo is correct in saying that this isn't going to work on a cost balanced system. Just forbid the power or go EDM and be done with it.

I have a player contemplating a new character, and I was just wondering what the consensus was on a power limit. According to FREd, Telekinesis can be used for strike and grab maneuvers, and you can buy extra standard and optional maneuvers for 3 points each. So far, so good. Now you buy martial maneuvers with the TK weapon element. Also good. Now, the character has to gesture with his body to use the maneuvers with his TK, if he is entangled or otherwise unable to move he can't use his maneuvers. Does this qualify for a "gestures" limit? Raw TK might, but this character is concenved as being able to use TK but not his martial moves when entangled. I know that you normally cannot take gestures on a martial maneuver (that is assumed in the maneuver) but is this an exception? And what abut the 3 point moves used to buy basic and optional maneuvers? I vaugely remember this being discussed when FREd was released, but can't find the discussion now.

Actually, Downtown had it bought as a vehicle. Sort of the precurser to the Star Hero missile writeups.

I would have to say 60% RP/40% combat. We tend to have a moderate amount of RP in combat, but players usually only have their dice out 40% of the time on average. Of my three players, two had only gamed 3-4 times before the game started & they were new to Hero. That was 7 years ago (during the Hero Darkages). My third had gamed on and off for years before he joined us but was new to Hero. That was about 3 years ago. He had to get his BBB in the used bin at a dusty comic shop not often frequented by gamers.

I take it then that this is not the same interface from Cy-Force? If not, too bad. I always kind of liked her. (not so much the rest of the team, but her and Doc Digital were great villians)

I've been doing this in my Champions game for about 6 months now with no complaints.

With this I agree. Flying across the country in 10 min is cool and should cost points, but if you make somebody buy x1024 NCM on their flight it gets real expensive for not alot of utility. As long as nobody is doing mach speed move-bys I really don't see a problem.

Megascale is for more "plot device" or "out of combat convenience" type effects. Megascale movement has a long tradition in the genre. If we go to the comic books: *Angel from X-men is supposed to be able to reach mach 1, but only in unusual circumstances, and never in combat. *Iron Man used to do this trick where he would fly into low orbit, wait while the earth turned underneath him, then fly down and land halfway across the globe. *Flash can go anywhere on earth in like 1/10000 of a second. *Name escaping me, but the new mutant who could teleport across the galaxy to a private Dyson Sphere. *Superman pretty much goes as fast as he wants. He has flown from the Moon to Metropolis in about 10 seconds. None of them "come apart" when they pull this trick. It's comic book physics. In story they all have various reasons why it is ok for them to do this, but in general nobody worries about it. Megascale is a great idea. It cleans up so many writups. Back in the 4th edition days there were lots of characters who had 10 points of flight with like x1024 NCM. I think 5" megascale works just as well, is alot cheaper, and is easier to work with.

I am far from being a DC continuity nut, but as far as I know Apocalypse and New Genesis are in fact part of the DC universe. Darkseid and the GL corp were known to each other, but he is the legitimate ruler of his world and knew about their yellow vulnerability. I think there is an out of continuity story where they tried to unseat him, but he had his minions painted yellow and had their weapons adjusted to fire yellow beams. It was not pretty.

In the "for whatever it's worth" catagory, this is a rule that existed in 1st & 2nd edition, but was removed for 3rd edition. Some may still use it, but it isn't in the rules anymore. I suspect we may be dealing with what folks remember from 10 years ago rather than what the rules actually say.

Ok the golden age wonder woman had the lasso that makes men tell the truth just like the modern version. Apparently she also had this deal where if you could chain her magical braclets together and then tie her down she would lose her mighty will and become docile and submissive. This then left her vulnerable to spankings. Almost every issue Wonder Woman was apparently bound and often gagged by her rouges gallery. One of the comics they showed on the program had her bound and thrown over the lap of a little midget guy spanking her with a brush. Wonder Woman is looking toward the viewer and winking in her best Petty Page impression. One of their comic book guru guys said that as far as he could tell nobody in the general public of the 30s "got it" and they were able to go on like this for years. It gets better. According to the history channel special she was created by the psychologist who invented the lie detector. In his private life he apparently lived happily in a big house with this wife and two kids, and another woman (a former student) and their two kids. Apparently this second woman was never seen without a pair of metal braclets on each wrist.....

Well, to be fair Vahn is hunted my Tyrannon, who is bought as more powerful. If this is the same Tyrannon from the old 4th edition Mystic Masters then I'm suprised she still has her billion dimensions. He was one bad dude. He kept gods of healing imprisoned in orbit around him just in case he got hurt and had avatar duplicates built on more points than the current Dr. Destroyer. If he is in fact the same guy (and how many Tyrannons were in your graduating class?) that might well explain what keeps her busy.

Ok, does anybody see Wonderwoman in a new light after hearing about her golden age escapades and the real life family arragements of her creator? I mean there has always been some teasing, but really....

Pretty cool, Just one small point, you aren't normally supposed to buy restrainable on attacks that are foiled by having your arms tied. I don't think the claws qualify. Restrainable is mostly for things like wings or hovering power crystals.

Oops! I misspoke, I meant to say a Thanos/Darkseid combination. I think Dr. Destroyer's personality and special effects are defiantly reminiscent of Doom. I'm mostly thinking of his power level and the apocalyptic battles that seem to erupt whenever he shows up. If there was ever a villain in CKC that demands a "superhero summer crossover" to defeat then it is Dr. Destroyer. I find Dr. Destroyers power level leads to stories that have more in common with Thanos or Darksied than with Doom. Doom fights the Fantastic Four on even odds. This is kind of like what Mechanon, Firewing or the Warlord do. According to the Champions U, when the Bid D fights personally he fights multiple teams at once and leaves a trail of bodies behind him. This is a very Thanos like mode of operation. He also has a legion of soldiers and super powered minions reminiscent of Darkseid, another mega baddy that sends his underlings to pound on the heroes rather than simply killing them himself.

By the way Bluebudda, I appear to have hijacked your thread. Sorry, didn't mean to. So, anybody have any more good advice as to how this hero can improve his ability to whomp over my villians?

This really comes down to special effects. You can define a HKA as anything you want. It may be claws, or a sword, flaming fists, a disintegration touch, or a spike-covered body. If your special effect indicates that grabbing your arm stops the HKA, then it is stopped. If it logically wouldn't be, then it isn't. There is an art to balancing the pros and cons of a good special effect with keeping a charcter within concept. It is logical that some charcters could fire an energy blast from either hand, and that should help them from time to time, but having a "gun arm" would probably come in handy about as often. It's all about special effect. Now a charcter that can fire a blast from both hands at the same time is markedly better off than a character who can fire from either hand one at a time. This means that he has to pay points. It is explicitly stated that when you have a special effect that starts being useful far beyond what is normally found in a special effect you have to pay points for it.

Precisely To me, the first aspect of this (Using multiple slots in a multipower while only buying one) is kind of abusive. The second aspect (Using a bracer on one arm when another is grabbed) is probably worth 5 points. Don't get me wrong, I really like the +5 pts, x2 equipment rule. I just think it needs to be limited to spare gear and not used as a cheap way to buy duplicate slots or even extra multipowers. Bluebudda's been using Rachis in my game in this way ever since FREd came out and I have really felt that the point cost pretty accurately reflects the utility he gets out of being able to use two slots in the same phase. The multipower attack rule was one of my biggest issues with FREd when I switched to 5th. I have to say that I've been pleasantly surprised. As long as you make the character pay for the ability it is both usefull and balanced.

Yes you could, but in this case the character often wants to double up with the same slot, fireing a pair of Spikes or Poison Darts at the same target. To do this you would have to buy each slot twice, which defeats to savings of combining them into one Multipower. You are also vulnerable to having the whole thing impared with a supress or dispel which is less likely with a pair of multipowers. Rachis could likely save a few points by having an "omnibus" multipower that includes all the slost listed and a second "combat" multipower that only has attacks in it, that way he only buys his attack slots twice and his utility slots once and can stil make multiple power attacks, but for symmetry and special effect purposes this is alot cleaner.

Bluebudda is correct in stating that these powers aren't in equipment, they are part of his arms. Seeing as the rule is explicitly for equipment I don't think it applies. (Does it?) I have seen and used this rule, but just for the record it states in the last sentance on 309 that: "This is a quick and easy way to simulate characters who carry lots of back-up weapons or who want to own a fleet of vehicles". Seeing as it is meant for "backup" weapons I have ruled that you can't use your extra gear as part of a multipower attack. It seems to me that it is intended more for the guy who carries four pisols, but only actually uses one at a time. I have generally asked folks who want to use a gun in each hand to buy two guns and then spend the +5 for backups.

Speaking as BlueBudda's GM.... DOH!! We will just keep using it as is unless it causes problems. And I will read the rules more carefully in the future. Considering that Rachis was the second charcter I converted to 5th, I still think I did pretty good. This is kind of the effect he gets by buying two multipowers. The way I read it he would save 17 points by combining his multipowers and only having to buy each slot once, but He would lose the ability to make Multipower attacks, which has been a really effective tactic. (He has taken out a rouge Silver Avenger in one phase with a double Poison dart attack and some good rolls.) I also don't know how you would justify it with his special effect. In the game Rachis is described as having a "gland" in each arm that allows him to excrete a resin that can either be sticky or hard, and can be formed into long cables. It ain't science, but it is Comic-booky. This might not be a bad idea. Hornet kind of took Rachis to town last night. Bluebudda was doing great until he got hit with that 6d6 Stun drain. I would say that given the origin of Rachis's powers it would not be at all unreasonable for him to have defences against biological based attacks. Mental Defense is debatable, I can easily see it as part of his powers, but I can also see why he might not have it. As the GM I would mostly be concerned about a character with both Power Def and Mental Def being too hard to hurt. Or am I overly sensitive? It isn't great but he usually keeps up. As BlueBudda has said, Rachis has proven to be able to get just about anywhere he needs to go. And Buzzsaw thanks you for not abandoning him.

While I think this was absolutely true in the past, I think the 5th Edition version of Dr. Destroyer is more of a Thanos/Apocalypse combination than a Dr. Doom homage.