Psylint

Re: [Character write up] Pargaon As for the linguistics He takes the 2pt. Fluent rather than the 3 pt. Fluent with accent, because he has a persistent French accent. I speak both French and German, and in both I still have a Southern draw. To clarify on the Code of Chivalry: 1. Bare no false witness 2. Uphold the King's Justice, both high and low 3. Treat all women with courtesy and respect 4. Defend the weak, protect the innocent. 5. Serve unfailingly your lawful king. 6. Forswear no oath 7. Allow no dishonor to go unchallenged; (history lesson, in several "knighting" ceremonies the candidate was given a "final blow" named such because it was the last such he could take without challenging the other to feat of arms). There is in the Chivalric Code (both historical and in the presentation in the movie Excalibur which was the original inspiration for the character) for a knight to be "itching for a fight" so long as the proper form was respected. Given the breadth of the Code, I figured it worth the extra 5 points. So essentially, you have a character who cannot strike women, lie, fail to save innocents etc... all tolled more than 40 pts. of Psych. Lim if taken individually. As far as the force wall goes, if the damage cap is 12 dc's then your slightly below average haymaker drops it if physical, and a only slightly above average energy attack drops it. Any grab or entangle drops it. It's a lot defense against "mooks" but in practice not that much against super powered foes, I would think. Admittedly, I've never played a character with this kind of defense before, but when any energy projector with a slightly pushed energy blast takes down your defense for 3 phases. To Enforcer: Thanks for the support! Relative to the limitations I think they're all legal and want to keep them. I really don't want knockback, or the ability to "pull" my punches with the sword (just doesn't make sense to me), similarly while I could see being able to Push my STR to do more damage, I can't quite wrap my head around how I would push an inanimate object to "heroic levels of performance. As far as the reduced penetration for Hack, there's a reason for it. Essentially, I envision hack as a brute force attack rather than the surgical strikes he uses when he thrusts for the heart or slashes a hamstring. It's a preliminary set up for a linked power that I want to add later on called "Batter" which is just a drain PD power. The idea being that the more surgical strike hit weak points in the armor, whereas hack tears rents into the targets armor. As far as Multiple power attacks go: Yes, I want the ability to strike with each of the HKAs against a single target in one phase. If multiple power attacks are banned, then I'll covert them to a multipower, and build a second multipower with linked "secondary effects" like "Batter." If linked powers are disallowed, I'll convert it to a variable advantage HKA and I guess I'll shore up the holes in my defense: flash defense, armor, etc. Peace

Re: [Character write up] Pargaon 1. Not an anti-brick per se, just a character concept that got stuck in my head, and I wanted to see how it panned out. What aspects of it, other than the Force Wall do you find especially munchkin? I'm not doubting you, just want the feedback. 2. Relative to the Chivalry and the picking fights... Did you ever watch Excalibur? It's exactly what Lancelot there was doing. He set out with his armor, sword, lance and horse and blocked the way goading other knights into challenges so that he could find "a king worthy of serving." The Code of Chivalry, for Lancelot, is about being honorable, protecting the innocent, defending women, keeping one's word, uttering no false testimony, keeping good care of your horse, tack, and gear etc. Knights were professional killers, and Lancelot, in particular, had a big complex about being the biggest and baddest killer of his era. 3. He does have normal martial arts attacks (martial strike comes in at 8d6 normal), and as far as the Killing attack thing goes, it's Excalibur. I just can't justify modeling Excalibur as a H+H attack. 4. Bypassing the munchkin comment for a moment, all of Paragon's HKA's have indirect (originates outside of force wall) per FRED. I would have put indirect on his hand techniques, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it... Indirect on Strength? Actually if I were going to categorize Paragon, I'd call him a brick: high damage, high resistance, low speed. I'll admit my inner munchkin, and perhaps the force wall is set too high. I don't think that using a force wall in this manner is unfair, after all how many bricks worry about normal machine gun fire? I also wanted a resistance based defense that could be temporarily brought down, and that's force wall. I modeled the shield after something in Gadgets and Gear (though it was a lot more powerful: 18rpd/18red hardened x2, usable by others). It may be difficult to bring down the shield, but once it falls, Pargaon has an amazing 8 non resistance defense to everything until his next action phase? I really like the shield concept, so what in your opinion is an appropriate level of resistance for a force wall that is the character's only resistant defense in a 350 pt. game? And as a point of comparison, most "bricks" in the campaigns I've been in at that level have at least 30rpd. Thanks for the thoughts! 1. Two-Weapon Fighting: is a known quantity that deals with limiting the penalties of Sweeps. As off-hand modifiers and the like are not generally applied in 350 pt. games where folks purchase their weapons with points, it was a short cut rather than adding +2 H+H combat levels, only for sweeps. But as you wish. 2. 5pts or 10pts for illiteracy. I went with 10 because I figured it was "Frequently" and "slightly" limiting in the modern world. I'm fine with 5 pts. or 3. 3. Dimensional Traveler... bouncing through the dimensions before landing in the campaign. Do you not gain a certain familiarity with an area even when someone else drives? I figured it'd be the same kind of thing, if not, it doesn't bother me to drop it. I only included it as a seemingly necessary background skill relative to his backstory. 4. I think, if allowed multiple power attacks, Paragon could make 3 attacks. Or he could sweep and use different maneuvers, but I could be wrong. The maneuvers where there because I thought they were needed. Assume for a moment that Excalibur is a military long sword, smashing that into your knee may very well sweep you off your feet. Similarly, a thrust (martial strike) is likely to cause more damage than a simple hack. Block is parry. 5. Combat Horsemanship was required by his backstory. Lancelot rode in the joust, he needs to have that skill. Will it ever come up? Probably not. And as far as missing his right hand, it is my understanding that most horsemanship is in the legs, balance, etc. that very little of it has to do with the arms. Watch Olympic Dressage sometime, they hardly move their hands at all, and if they're directing the horse with them, I can't tell. Peace

Re: [Character write up] Pargaon Paragon is an "alter Lancelot" who rather than succumbing entirely to his attraction to Gwenever, left Camelot in search of a "cure" for his condition. He travels from Camelot north, through Scotland, into Viking country, and as far south as the deserts of Arabia, upholding his chivalric vows and always searching for the Lady of Lake (while Arthur is at least apparently Christian, Lancelot's true faith is entirely "pagan"). After years of traveling and various adventures, Lancelot finally encounters the Lady of the Lake, who orders him to attend to Arthur, who is just then preparing to meet Mordred and his army in the field. Lancelot races to the battlefront, but arrives late. He rallies several of Arthur's wounded knights and leads a reckless charge to Arthur's flag deep in the battlefield. He and the few survivors arrive just in time to witness Arthur mortally wounded by Mordred. As Mordred recovers Excalibur and moves to behead Arthur, Lancelot vaults from his horse, interposes his right arm, saving the dying king's head but losing his right forearm. In the ensuing bloody battle, Mordred's forces are temporarily beaten back, Lancelot and Sir Kay escape with Arthur's body. The Lady of the Lake appears and charges Lancelot to hold Excalibur in trust for the "Future King." Using her prodigious magical prowess, she sends Lancelot to various dimensions seeking this Future King, until arriving in the campaign. Comments welcome. Peace

Re: [Character write up] Pargaon Disadvantages; 20 Normal Characteristic Maxima 10 Phys. Lim. Illiterate 15 Phys. Lim. Missing right hand 25 Psych. Code of Chivalry (Total, Very Common) 15 Psych. Lim. Overconfident 10 Psych. Lim. Sees it as a holy duty to keeping picking fights with competent H+H opponents. 15 Soc. Lim. 8- Subject to orders by Lady of the Lake 0 DNPC. Lady of Lake 8- (More powerful, useful) 25 DNPC 8- potential "Arthurs" (a group of 8 minors) 15 Hunted Mordred and cronies 8- 5 Vuln. 1.5x Seduction (both the related skills, conversation et. al and Mind control w/sfx) ?? Soc. Lim. Anachronistic (Paragon is still stuck in the Middle Ages, totally out of synch. with modern customs) Total Disadvantages: 155 Notes: I know Illiteracy is often only a 3pt. disadvantage, but I think the Physical Lim. makes sense because he can't be compelled under Mind Control to read, because he simply cannot read.

Pargaon 25* Str.. 13 *No figured Characteristics 20 Dex 30 20 Con 20 20 Bdy 20 15 Int 5 15 Ego 10 20 PRE 10 16 Com 3 8 Pd 4 8 Ed 4 4 Spd 10 10 Rec 4 50 End 5 50 Stun 10 Char. Cost 148 Skills 3 Acrobatics 13- 3 Analyze Combat Technique 12- 3 Breakfall 13- 3 Combat Horsemanship 13- 3 Conversation 13- 3 Fast Draw 13- 3 High Society 13- 3 Paramedics 12- 2 Survival Temperate 12- 2 Survival Desert 12- 2 Survival Arctic 12- 3 Linguist 3 Traveler 0 French Idiomatic (archaic) 1 English Fluent (arachiac) 1 Gaelic Fluent 1 German Fluent 2 Navigation land 12- 2 Navigation extra-dimensional 12- 2 Navigation air 12- 3 Weapon Smith Blade 25 +5 Hand to Hand 10 Defense Maneuver 10 Two-Weapon Fighting 5 Rapid Attack 24 Martial Arts: Leg sweep, Strike, Dodge, Block, Disarm, Weapon element (blades), +1 DC Skills cost: 112 32 [81] Shield of the Pendragons.. +14rpd, +12red Forcewall 1/2 end +1"; self only -1/2, no range -1/2, restrainable -1/2 17 [37] Slash... 2d6 HKA, Indirect +1/4, OIF -1/2, no KB-1/4, beam -1/4, cannot be pushed -1/4. 16 [45] Thrust ... 1d6+1 HKA, Indirect +1/4, A.P. +1/2 OIF -1/2, no KB -1/4, beam -1/4, cannot be pushed -1/4 15 [45] Hack... 2d6 HKA, Indirect +1/4 OIF -1/2, no KB -1/4, beam -1/4, cannot be pushed -1/4, reduced penetration -1/4. 2 [5] Mental defense 5 [5] Power Defense 3 Life Support Longevity 800 years. Powers cost: 90 Total Cost: 350

Re: Rant? Speed in Hero Several reasons: 1. It's a concept thing. The character, as I envisioned him, couldn't run & gun, but only run or gun. Also the concentration limitations were key to the way the character felt. 2. As for the extra speed to offset the limitation, a lot of that was "quality of life" I wanted to keep up with the group. Sometimes you just make sacrifices to be "playable." At speed 3, the group I was with tended to out pace me. With all of my protective and interrupt powers (forcewalls, entangles etc.), I was often rear guard or "the last man out" or the sacrificial lamb sent to hold off the big thing of uber nastiness while the rest of the team snagged the objective. Some of it was concept, it didn't bother me that the character could intermittently sprint 12 meters in a second, but 24 meters in a second stuck in my craw. Peace

Re: Complex power build advice needed I"m with JmOz, You could do this as Transform air into replica of adjacent object. A major transform, that's partially limited. xd6 Transform, + xd6 Transform extra time, + xd6 Transform activation roll + xd6 Transform Increased endurance cost etc. Peace

Re: Complaining about damage shield You can't take "no range" on ranged attacks? That makes no sense to me. So if I want to buy a "static shock" attack that only does energy but dissipates quickly outside of melee range, I have to buy Hand to Hand Attack (energy) and put a limitation on my STR "does not add to HtH attack?" xd6 HKA, no STR bonus is -1/2 xd6 RKA, no range is -1/2 They both end up being xd6 Killing dice at melee range, so why give a player smart enough to use HKA instead of RKA a cost break (isn't that quintessentially munchkin?). I think this is one of those "freedom to ignore, amend or supplement the rules" situations. Certainly, where I GM, I'd allow "no range" on ranged attacks for -1/2. Peace

Re: [Character] Riot (II), Revised I like it. You might have some issues with offense, without the teamwork. I would however add.. Social Lim: Subject to Orders: The court can always order you to represent an indigent client, and/or the bar association may assign various duties it is hard to refuse. (Jus' speakin' from experience you understand) Psych Lim. Subject to Professional Code of Conduct.. this is real, and could come up what with keeping client confidentiality, swearing to uphold Due Process, i.e. not turning the blind eye when Sir Smash of "Rent-a-Hero" uses his considerable "intellect" to "interrogate" a suspect. I'd be a little wary of the time powers. As a GM, I'll take everyone's Vuln. and specifically make attacks that they're vulnerable to (after all if it never comes up, it really shouldn't be worth anything), but other than speed drains what are time powers to which one could be vulnerable? Your hunted (public ID or easily to find) clashes with your Secret ID. I'm sure there's a rationale like, the hunter all ready knows where you are, but no one else does, or something. PS legal secretary is decidedly not an "every man skill" If you went to law school, where's PS law? and Law license Perq? etc. Or did you got to the FBI? Finally, unless you are an incredible savant, 22 is really young to have a law degree, the normal minimum is 25 (18 +4 years of college +3 law school). Or are you pulling $100k as an 8- legal secretary? (some of the best at the biggest firms do make that much, but they're not "every man") For what he is, he seems a little overly skilled.. at 22 he's all ready an expert (even renowned) Detective, criminologist, disguise artist, interrogator and cuts through red tape like a weed whacker. Again, rather savant like. My view, I'd prefer that he had a little more experience... Criminology isn't something one usually picks up reading on the weekends, but as you wish. Peace

Re: MPA v. Sweep v. Combo of Two So let me get this straight. If I wanted to be completely munchkin I could Purchase, rapid attack, two weapon fighting, 4 HKAs, martial arts, stretching, extra limbs and end up with potentially: (Just think Kali or Spiral) Sweeping 3 times with 4 unblockable (indirect), HKAs with the first 8 at full OCV, the last 4 at -2 OCV (I understand that I'm only rolling 3 times to hit, once for the first 4, and again for the 2nd, with the third being at -2), and only a -2 DCV penalty (assuming all attacks used martial strike.) and paying endurance for strength only once? So that's potentially (assuming I don't miss and forfeit the 2nd or 3rd "sweep") 12*4d6 Killing dice of damage, in one half phase action for a -2 DCV penalty. Heck, I'll do it at 1/2 DCV penalty; if I can hurt it at all, after 12 strikes, it's not gonna be in any shape to fight back. That should kill some people. Peace

Re: Power Help Paladin, It's easier to model a power when you give specifics. In the case of the AID, what you want is +X pts, and only +X pts, only usable on the target's next phase, and only on the target's next phase. So, +18 pts. of AID (6d6 standard effect) [active cost 60] Limitation hastened recovery time to 1 phase -1/2; Increased recovery x4, i.e. 20pts per increment -1/2 (a house rule applied to drains/transfer et. all based on standard multipliers i.e. -1/4 for 2x, -1/2 for x4, -3/4 for x8] So you get +18 pts of AID for 1 phase for for 30 pts. Peace. Also relative to the "powering guns with no bullets" power I'd seriously look at your campaign, 6d6 RKA is, by itself, a 90 AP, 18 DC attack that averages 21 Body killing damage, significantly more than a howitzer round. That kind of smackdown, is generally, only appropriate at the Cosmic level. But seriously, you've gotten good responses to your request: X d6RKA (where X is the killing dice of the heaviest RKA that's still a "gun") Variable power advantage (to cover whatever funky advantages it might have, if there are AP, Penetrating, no range mod sniper rifles, then this one will get expensive very quickly) active points of RKA and advantages limited to active points and advantages of underlying focus of opportunity. If you wanna be chessy add.... +30d6 AID to RKA, only on "guns", only to max of twice active point cost. But seriously, friend, take a look at what you've already been provided, before asking for more. If you don't understand a suggestion, maybe send a PM to the author thereof and let them explain it to you. Peace

Re: Power Help

Re: Thoughts on SPD Check, you might be right... gonna look over my maths. But the basic idea was that there is only 1 way for a brick to lose, they have to miss all of their attacks, and the MA has to hit with all of his. Thus at -5 the brick is hitting at 6-, or 9.25% of the time/attack The probability of missing all four times is just shy of 68%, so... darn it, I forgot to subtract back out the 1. Hate it when I make a stupid error like that. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll agree that some of the environmental stuff is rare, except fly swatters which are the single worst offenders to "balance." Any time you're in any kind of urban or developed area there are flyswatters: cars, dumpsters, steel girders, buildings. It's virtually impossible to put a brick into anything that can be construed as an urban environment and not have a flyswatter handy. Out of doors, boulders, old growth trees, uncle tom's cabin/suv/etc. If my GM is overly biased towards bricks, and I suspect he is, then yours must be prejudiced against if you've never had a car or a building or the like handy. Seriously, where do your combats come up? The middle of the Mojave? I also forgot "fighting dirty." There's nothing that says your brick can't throw sand in my martial artists eyes, a reasonable 1 hex, flash for 0 points if there's any sand, gravel etc. to hand. The flyswatter problem, even if you dive for cover, it takes you out of the fight for 2 phases, 1 to dive for cover, 1 to get up and move back into hand to hand. At which point the brick, smashes you with the flyswatter. Tell you what, if we're ever in a campaign, we'll agree to a house rule, I'll forgo my martial arts NND, and you agree that all attacks that do not specifically purchase an area of effect advantage operate against targets normally, i.e. full DCV.

Re: I hate adding damage JmOz, I guess folks also tend to run around with non forcefield resistant defenses? Because, if not, why not just have an HKA? Peace

Re: Thoughts on SPD Sorry Outsider, but, read my previous post, where I accounted for the martial artist's combat priority in a slug fest. In that post, I assumed that the Martial artist was hitting on anything on 17-, since 18 always misses,so assume OCV 400,000. As I note, the -DCV factors a brick takes in any case are irrelevant, because they do not increase the Martial artist's chance to hit, since it's capped at "anything but 18." What you're talking about, I'm assuming is actually a -8 gap, i.e. the MA is using +2 martial strike and the brick is at -1 for grab, so the net gap is 8 (5 for the differences before maneuvers, skill levels et. al) Under that circumstance, yes a martial artist wins 84% to 13% for the Brick (the remainder being those times when both survive the 1st Turn conscious). Hopefully, we've cleared that up. I prefer the net gap formulation, because then maneuvers, skill levels, darkness fields, flash, invisibility, multi-attack bonus, set, etc. can all be taken and used in a simple chart, i.e. the net gap one in my previous post. I think we just need to agree to disagree. I just don't see how I can convince you, when I've provided the calculations above, and even assumed a much higher to hit rate in favor of the martial artist. You bring out good points relative to "sweeping in the gap" i.e. sweeping 3x with martial strike in those phases where the martial artist would get another phase prior to the bricks next phase. [[i'll have to remember that next brick I meet!]] In many ways this is the classic clash of absolutist builds... the martial artist is toast if the brick lands any of his attacks, but the brick has (variously) next to no chance to do so, the brick has to be hit early and often to overcome his resistance, high damage soaking ability and high regeneration. Your point on sweeps is particularly relevant, and indeed was one I brought up much earlier when I expressed the few that the combination of sweeps, multi-power attacks, sequential blocks might make it appear that a highly trained real world martial artist has a speed of 6, when in actuality it could very easily be 4 or even 3. But to take your challenge, how does a brick win against an opponent he can only hit at on 3-? Assume net gap is 8 [[for purposes of analysis we're assuming net OCV is 5, DCV is 8 and the MA dodged, for +5 so net DCV 13] 11+5-8-5=3 Free tactics always available: Pre Attack (0 phase, no end cost action) Pre +20 = target 1/2 DCV (7- or 16%) Pre Attack (0 phase, no end cost action) Pre +30 = target 0 DCV (17- or 99.5%) Set, (full phase action) = +1 OCV against target, persistent (4- or 2%) Block (not likely to work, admittedly but +2 OCV (5- or 4.5%) Free tactics somewhat environmentally dependent Flyswatter = attack vrs. DCV 3 (SUVs, et. al) Fight on narrow surface = DCV-2 (5- or 4.5%) Ice/mud = DCV -1 (4- or 2%) Microgravity = 1/2 DCV Cluttered area, underwater, etc. = -2 DCV Target climbing = 1/2 DCV Attack from behind = 1/2 DCV Power dependent tactics Flash, darkness, invis = 1/2 DCV Mental Illusions Ego +30 = 1/2 DCV Teamwork dependent: Target resisting KB with STR =1/2 DCV Target prone = 1/2 DCV Munchkin specials Clinging damage shield = 1/2 DCV or at least a penalty, because the target is grabbed as they hit you. KB damage shield = 1/2 DCV on those "skip phase" i.e. MA attacks and brick has a phase before the MA's next phase. And, of course you can stack these up, so you can set, in the mud, use your massive Presence to intimidate the MA (might as well doesn't cost nothin') and punt him into next week. The presence attack is particularly valuable as it will also cause the target to lose a full phase at +20, and give up at +30. Unless you're in a campaign where flyswatters are excessively rare, i.e. you're never in an urban or industrial environment, it's still possible for bricks to win against targets they can only normally hit on a 3-. My question to you and those on the brick side of the fence is this, if I submit to your request to stomp on my schtick of not being able to be hit, would you sacrifice the ability to one punch me to do it? I.e. you could boost your to hit probability to 60%, but half your damage? Or, would you prefer that the martial artist be able to one shot you with a 6d6 NND, swept 3x, rapid fired and two-weaponed (6x 6d6 NND or more)? Or for the vicious among us, allow us to use multi-power attacks sweep, two weapon fighting and rapid fire with our 2d6 HKAs? (don't suggest that, 'cause not much survives 6 * 4d6 killing dice; and yes I've built it, and yes it really isn't that expensive). To conclude to the OP. You got two options, seems to me, either allow a lot more sweeps, rapid fire and multi-power attacks, or increase Speed. Personally, I prefer the former to the latter, but the latter is far easier to implement. Peace

Re: Karate Kid vs Karate Kid Mr. Giggles, with an exploding Boston Cream Pie at 30 paces. Peace

Re: I hate adding damage Bloodstone, What's the difference between an RKA no range and an HKA? Mostly the STR bonus to HKA, so just buy the attack as an HKA -1/2 no str. bonus and you've no worries. I'd also like to know what the SFX is and what the limited defense is. Seems to me that 1d6 killing damage AVLD that does body is rather close to a Death Reaper. E.g. Sweep x3 with this attack against a target without the defense, and, on average it's bleeding to death. But perhaps the limited defense isn't that uncommon, or folks routinely run around with 15 or more body in your neck of the woods.

Re: Help me name this hero! Da Fool Jester Sangunity (taking off from the Hippocratic humors) Spastic Gelastic (if he's as bouncy as Joker/Batman and educated like Raz) The Gag Man (slightly different motif, take off on the Bag Man of Mob conventions) Something like an introduction... That droll detective,that gelastic gag man, that farcical fool, the one, the only..jovial jester of doom.... Lewd-uh-Chris? Peace

Re: Thoughts on SPD Thanks Hugh, need more coffee. I agree the balance should be more than the one on one slugfest cage match. What I was trying to convey was how vital the CV gap was to the martial artist, and how even when the CV gap is considerable the brick can still win, even without using any of the myriad ways to reduce or eliminate that gap. Trying to create "balance" between a flying energy projector and a grounded character is always going to be hard ('cept bricks get to toss SUVs, and what exactly is my 15 STR martial artist to do?). While some folks argue, well Martial Artists should just take higher resistances. They could, but that tends to take away from their schtick? I'm not Bat-Clone the wonder boy because bullets literally bounce of my naked skin, I'm Bat-Clone the wonder boy because puny mortals can't hit me unless they get really lucky, or use aoes, or my movement is constricted.... If the gap is 6, the brick can set for a phase, and then almost doubles his to-hit chance on every subsequent attack, which increases his to win percentage in 1 Turn from 42.7% to over 60%. And that's for just 1 +OCV. Imagine a multi-attacker bonus? or if the martial artist swept, or flashed, under a mental illusion etc. and is at 1/2 DCV? Lights out! Treb, I and others have all pointed out no cost and low cost ways to negate or limit the CV and Speed gaps, other than Nerve Strike, what are the no and low cost ways to negate 30 DEF?

Re: Favorite Anti-Brick tricks? Actually, I was thinking about just going stupidly munchkin... The Eternally falling brick gun 2" teleport usable as an attack, gates, limited use (gates must always be parallel, one over the other) ranged. BFG of Brick Slaying... AutoFire RKA x 10, variable SFX, variable advantage, penetrating, armor piercing x4. +12 OCV with autofire. Brick what brick? Tunneling, ranged, UAA, fill in. Gravity's a [censored] Flight UAA, ranged, defense is flight, desolid. You annoy me.... Desolid, UAA, ranged (only vulnerable to gadget o'doom #13's special effect) Punt... multipower attack change environment 0 Gravity, Flight UAA ranged, EB 2x Knockback, ((should be Body 2x - knockback resistance) Do not Pass Go, Do not Collect $200... Teleport, Gates, Mega Scale, only to fixed position [jail cell of ultimate impregnability] Continuous... + martial throw. Summon Mongol Horde... Summon 128 150pt. martial artists...(sure, they can't win, but how long is it gonna take to plow through them?) Spoiled Sport.... RKA, no range, time delay, AP, Penetrating... series of limpet mines with unbreakable glue staggered to all detonate on Phase 2 of Turn 2. Or just say the heck with it, re-roll as a telekinetic martial artist with 12 speed and missile deflection (for those pesky SUV's they like to toss about). Peace

Re: Creative or just munchkin? Sorry more detail. Character is well... weird. He's more an interrupt character: entangles, flash, darkness, NND's (volcanic vents)... and the like, coupled with using entangles that work like forcewalls (just figured great big rocks thrusting up from the earth's crust should stay there, be opaque, etc.). The net result of this power is that I get 15 character points of Stun, Con, Bdy and armor, (5d6 Succor, +1 Variable effect, standard effect 3pts./dice) so when I'm "stoned..." Armor is 9rpd, 3ed (total) Con is 30, but no figured characteristics so it's just for purposes of determining Stunned Bdy is 18 Stun is 47 My current understanding is that Aided characteristics are not susceptible to Recovery. There are lots of limitations like "foci: earth/stone of opportunity" -1/4 or -0, only able to be activated while character is on the ground -0, etc. As far as the ripping up the local environment, I was thinking about a side effect RKA local earth -0 or -1/4 as the GM prefers. I might increase the underlying value of the Armor a pip or two, depending, but just looking at the net resistance, I'm slightly less than average physical, and off the edge on energy. There were two concerns I had with this power, using the +1 advantage to cover both characteristics and Armor, I think it makes sense to create an ablative like armor this way, but I'm necessarily biased. The other concern is that I'm contemplating force wall around 10rpd 10red. Given the endurance costs, I think it's still balanced, at least at first glance, but I'm biased. Other things to consider, the character is SPD 6, but all of the "earth control" powers pretty much take a full phase, so no half move and attacking, more than a few require concentration as well. I envision the character having to stop, call upon the earth and then direct it where it needs to go, so DCV penalties, extra time are common, but because it is earth, durations are long. The NND attack, for example, is an aoe gas attack that works only on the ground and the SFX is that he opens up volcanic vents laden with sulfur, carbon monoxide etc. Peace

Re: Thoughts on SPD Okay Checkmate, So your position is "Bricks and martial artists should both be at the damage cap for the campaign and roughly equally OCV when skill levels are included (but not the bonuses for martial maneuvers, that is to say that the OCV gap between the two is perhaps 1 or 2 skill levels and the net difference between e.g. martial strike +2 and strike +0, so essentially 3-4) and martial artists should have half the resistance of bricks." All of this because, in a slugfest assuming both players are not stunned or otherwise interrupted, the spd 6 marital artist gets 2 more attack opportunities? Well, I did a little thought experiment and compared probabilities of winning in 1 Turn using your numbers (Recovery skews things more than my mathematical prowess) Assumptions: SPD 6 Martial Artist, 15 pd, 35 Stun, less than 30 Con with 12 DC's. Spd 4 Brick, 30 pd, 65 Stun, 30 Con, with 12 DC's Martial Artist (100% hit rate) * 6 * 42 Stun (average damage roll) -30 Def= 12*6= 72 Stun. Brick Hit rate varies based on gap * 4 * 42 Stun -15= 32 Essentially what you have is Martial Artists win, using your numbers, if he hits all 6 times, and the brick whiffs all 4 times. Because 1 hit will almost certainly stun the martial artist, the brick will win if either the brick hits in any one of the first 3 attacks or the martial artist misses one attack and the brick hits in any one of his 4 attack phases. Gap MA wins Brick wins 10 95.7% 1.4% 9 91.7% 5.7% 8 84.2% 13.8% 7 72.5% 26.2% 6 57.1% 42.7% 5 39.4% 61.4% 4 23.7% 78.1% 3 12.1% 90.3% 2 5.1% 97.6% 1 0.0% 103.0% Gap for the purposes of the chart above is the difference between the brick's OCV and the martial artist's DCV. Martial Artists were assumed to hit on everything but 18's. Of course the analysis could change if the assumptions are off, a Brick with 60 or less Stun is taken out in 5 attacks instead of 6 (but it makes the math a lot harder!) a martial artist with more than 30 Con isn't stunned by the average brick attack. Overall, in my campaign, these are fair assumptions, if they aren't in yours, that may be a source of the issue. It seems that the Gap should be around 5 or 6 for simple slug-fests. Of course, if we include odd things, like leg sweep, martial throw and bricks without breakfall, 0 phase action position shift flight/teleport (I really do play with munchkins) it starts to skew toward the martial artist. But if we include those, we should include flyswatters, SUVs, shockwave attacks, Set, multiple attacker bonuses and it starts skewing back to bricks. I'll admit I'm partisan, but y'know I ran the numbers, and what the numbers indicate to me, is that if your martial artists in your campaign are twice the speed of your bricks, then bricks probably do need OCV enhancement (which might not be DEX and skill levels, but instead an environment filled with flyswatters); if however, your martial artists are only 50% faster than your bricks, as in your example, then then OCV enhancement on bricks should be tightly regulated, and/or "munchkinisms" tightly controlled e.g. 1 pt of forcefield to avoid martial arts NNDs, breakfall, position shift, continuous aoe "knockdown" damage shields, etc. Always keeping in mind that -DCV is a heck of a lot easier to come by than -Pd or + damage. And that those things that increase damage penalize the DCV based character much more heavily than the resistance based character. In the brick/martial artist slug fest, the brick is all ready getting hit nigh 100% of the time, so why not sweep? It can't get any worse, and the extra offense means you're almost certain to put the annoying gnat in the hospital. If you don't police the DCV gap, I'll bet you'll get more and more super high speed martial artist, who then can use sweep in the consecutive phases, i.e. those phases they get to act, and then get another phase before any one opposing them gets to act, to really devastate any semblance of balance. Now you've got high CV characters who can sweep to multiply their damage with no effective cost... just like bricks. There's a relationship between DC, SPD, and CV here, to get back to the OP's point. If speed 6 becomes "normal" and the DCV gap isn't maintained, then martial artists will all gravitate toward the insane end of the speed spectrum (11,12) because they need 6 attacks to put out "effective offense" against one of the principal opponents likely to be in their range (those pesky flying energy projectors!) and they need to dodge or block all 6 of their opponents attacks. Checkmate, I invite you to show me where my assumptions are wrong relative to your campaign, or heaven forfend where I've made an error in my mathematics, but it seems to me, particularly in any area with flyswatters, the deck is pretty slightly towards bricks to begin with, even discounting the extreme efficiency of STR and CON. Pardon the formatting on the table, things just don't cut n' paste from excel well Peace

Re: [Character writeup] Zl'f (revised) Love the back story. Kinda wonder how you're gonna beat that brick from the other thread, unless your GM allows you to sweep and or rapid fire with martial art NND attacks, but as to the build.... Little confused about the "subject to speed or dex drains" which recurs frequently throughout. Does it mean that if you were subject to a speed or dex drain, that all of the powers so limited would be affected simultaneously, even if the drain itself were not purchased with that advantage? And if not, what's the limitation? I've seen some weird stuff, but I'm not sure how often someone will purchase a drain H+H attack with an sfx as a speed or dex drain. Or even if they did, that it would trigger the limitation. Not judging, just confused. Philosophically, I have a problem with OIHD limitations in general; how often does it come up? But that's neither here nor there. On the susceptibility, i'm assuming it's a stun & body susc. I'd be careful of the "ghost" characters that sweep punch, 'cause that could kill you outright pretty quickly, without any recourse. Overall seems to be an effective, well rounded character with several "playable" combat and noncombat "flaws": aoe, apparent minor status, knockback, grabs, entangles [[may be projecting, but my .. former.. GM wouldn't allow martial arts maneuvers against entangles, even escape.]], lack of burst damage ((outside of sweep/rapid fire)), and a plethora of occupational and social campaign hooks. I'm a little surprised not to see some form of Presence Defense. Most gymnasts I have known are pretty freaking fearless, and besides Zl'f will be up close and personal with the scary and violently misbehaving. Cheers

So I'm updating one of my old characters from back in the day, an earth elemental and I wanted to change his primary defensive power from forcefield to something more ablative.. The special effect is that rocks and other earth leap up from the ground and form a kind of loose exoskeleton or armor. Instead of a forcefield, what I want to do is... Gaia's Embrace.... Succor Body, Stun, Con, Armor simultaneously (self only, extra time: Full phase, etc. etc.) My thought is that the damage that is being resisted, is actually being deflected by the rocks, or absorbed by the earth, but as these rocks and earth take this damage, they ablate or erode. Since most of the damage is being done to the rocks, I should be harder to Stun. Of course if I am stunned, knocked out, I'm no longer "controlling" the rocks, so they fall out of the way. Couple of worrisome munchkin concerns, it weighs in at 50ish active points, and I want to put it into an elemental control with a base cost of 50. The character also has entangles with area effect, opaque, only to produce barriers... sfx, is causing a fault which sends a sheet of rock straight up. I honestly think that my intention is not to be a munchkin, but your opinion would be appreciated. Peace

Re: Build Question: Alethiometer Sounds sort of like the old John Doe routine, that is to say, "I can know anything and everything that has ever been written down and use it analytically." If it weren't portable, I'd build it as a mystical supercomputer for a base with a huge collection of sciences, database connections, AI etc. How individual can these answers be? E.g. "what did john forsythe of 312 baker street eat for breakfast on January 17, 1734?" when that's never been recorded anywhere, and john forsythe is a singularly unimportant, unremembered individual.