GRiM

Thanks, Hyper-Man. Your response makes sense, and I agree that Beast Boy is not objectionable given the limits on the forms. Ben 10 strikes me as somewhat more potentially overpowered, since the alien forms have widely divergent powers - although in the series that seems adequately controlled by the forms either being somewhat involuntary or otherwise limited. I'm just thinking about some of the people I played with in college, who would have abused the heck out of this mechanism. I take your point that it's always within the GM's remit to simply say "no" to an abusive design, but my recollection is that it worked a lot better if there was something you could point to in the rules. My recollection is also that back then we solved the "Hulk / Banner" dilemma through a limitation called "only in hero form," which seemed simpler.

I'm just getting back into Champions with my kids after last playing over 20 years ago, so this question may result from an idiotic misreading / misunderstanding of the current rules, but here goes: Let's say we're building the DC character Beast Boy, using the standard 400 points and 75 points of Complications. So we give his base form (green humanoid kid) a Multiform with 64 shapes and reversion to base form when knocked out. Let's say each of those shapes is also built on 400 points. Let's say (for the sake of argument) the multiform costs 63 points - I think some of the limitations I attached to lower the cost might be questionable (for example, all forms must be green, all forms must be animals), but it doesn't matter much. It could cost 120 points and wouldn't really change the question. Which is this: doesn't allowing him to have 64 different 400 point characters make him incredibly overpowered? In Beast Boy's particular case, every form is limited to being an animal, but as I read the rules, there's no reason you couldn't use this to create a full-power Energy Projector, Brick, Speedster, Battlesuit, etc. Yes, the base form becomes weaker, but the character could spend very little time in the base form (especially if you build it without reversion to base when knocked out). As I recall from 4th edition and previous, the alternate forms couldn't be built on more points than the base form *minus* the cost of the multiform. That seemed more reasonable to me, as it kept the alternates from being too powerful. Thoughts? Am I missing something here?