Psylint

Re: Charisma EC Fair point. Really, it makes more sense as a multipower, after all the regular use of incantations limits the player to one "power" at a time. The "Elemental Control" thing was just sloppiness on my part. When devising characters or power sets, I conceive of them as "elemental controls" even if they're not. That said, I actually do like the "drain Heroic Pulp Mojo" but I would say that it would be drained as PRE as PRE is the analog for charisma if you look at the skills, so it makes some sense. Also most of these "powers" are just friendly Presence attacks on steroids if you think of it. Others I thought of: 1. Browbeat. Telepathy, language barrier, incantations, 2. God loves him. [to replicate the running through crossfires without a scratch] +5 DCV and 3/4 physical damage reduction, only versus non selective area of effect attacks. 3. Get up and soldier, Soldier. Aid Stun, Incantations, Gestures (requires an "affectionate" pat on the head.) limited power, only works on unconscious targets. 4. Inspiring Presence. Aid Pre and Ego simultaneous, area of effect selective [There's just something about the Old Man. Sure he's crazy, but standing next to him... Hell, we'd walk into the Gates of Hell and set up shop if he led the way.] 5. Move! Move! Move!. Aid Running and Endurance simultaneously, incantations, aoe selective. Peace

I was thinking of making a charismatic leader type elemental control/multipower just thought I'd throw it out there for comments. 1. Snap out of it. Dispel any mental affecting power 1 power at a time (+1/2? I wanted it to handle Mental Illusions, Mind Control, Presence Attacks and the like), Incantations, limited range. 2. Fortune favors the bold. Aid Armor, AoE Selective, Incantations. 3. Bleed Later. Aid Body. Incantations 4. Come on you apes! You wanna live forever?... Aid Dex, Str, Pre Simultaneously [Adrenalin boost], AoE Selective, Incantations. Of course, that much Aid gets into Active point cap problems, but watcha think?

Re: The intersection between Dark Champions and Champions. I try to work backwards. If I want a "realistic" game where heroes can handle, but not ignore high powered rifles and are scared of artillery (for the most part). I set it up that. I propose Campaign Guidelines with several different levels of "uberness" and use it as a basic guide for "balancing" things out. For example: v. Low Low Medium High Extreme Very Extreme Damage 4 6 8 10 12 12+ OCV 4 6 8 9 10 10+ DCV 4 6 8 9 10 10+ ECV 2 3 4 5 6 6+ Spd 2 3 4 5 6 6+ DEF 4/2 8/3 10/6 15/10 20/15 20/15+ The "average" hero should be Medium in all cases, shifts "right" are qualified by equivalent shifts "left." The antagonists are built so that even someone throwing out 6d6 will eventually knock them out (in most cases), and each shift "right" is a significant benefit. In damage for example, this usually means that a person with High Damage defeats most opponents in at least 1 fewer attacks than someone with Medium damage. This system, still not fully tweaked, requires some rather bizarre antagonist builds. For example, my "senior mooks" are running around with less than 10 DEF but 50-60 Stun. It also suffers from an "eye ball check" Speed is really hard to balance, particularly when paired with high levels of OCV and damage simply because taking folks out quickly is great defense. All that said, I can easily build 350 pt. characters with not more than 10 dc's and really like them. They just tend to have lots of other neat stuff a great deal of which has limited or no actual use in a campaign, e.g. when was the last time you had to make a Quantum Physics skill roll? or the value of that Persistent monocolor light sculpture? I prefer limiting power levels in this way, rather than having to resort to making antagonists that regularly combine killing attacks or well thought out tactics. I'd also prefer to see Brick types take huge Stun Body totals and Damage Reduction than literally be able to bounce artillery shells off their hides, but that's just me. Peace

Re: Are Defenseces to low? Maybe I'm strange, but I prefer lower DEF campaigns generally. I really don't like having to bring in MOAB bombs or at least armor penetrating sabot rounds from M1A1 Abrams to "discourage" supers. I'm also in the "Just cause you can manipulate gravity doesn't necessarily mean that you're at or beyond the peak of human potential." I think some of the "epic" fights of Spider-Man etc. are done by "Roll with the Punch" rather than having a 25/30 DEF. Spidey has phases to burn, for the most part, so he could abort to RwtP a fair amount and give a good fight with the epic feel. By contrast, the 30 DEF brick simply can't be seriously hurt by anything this side of nuclear bomb. There's a whole bunch of complicated psuedo math I use to balance stuff out, Speed, OCV, DCV, DEF, etc. but why should a "normal" energy projector have 35ish Stun? If you want more durability, why not 40 or even 50? Or add Damage Reduction? As far as making Darkness, Invisibility, Flash more effective, why not? They're expensive enough. My character Winter relies in part on a Darkness with Personal Immunity, and it costs 50 or 60 points. A lot of it is just tone anyway. I want heroes to be at least a little concerned about charging machine gun nests, and scared of artillery. But that's more Batman/Electra rather than Silver Surfer/Superman who are supposed to ignore most everything. Peace

Re: Knockback Only, No Direct Damage From the Y files: Repel: 3" Teleport Usuable as an Attack, Position Shift, fixed location 3" directly in front of character, Continuous, AoE short radius, Reduced Endurance. Defenses to UAA: Density Increase, Flight, Desolidification, Teleport. Essentially, while up, the Repel Field sends everyone who gets within normal melee range of the character 3" back and on the ground unless they have Density Increase, Flight, Desolid, Teleport or weigh more than 100kg. It's cheap, it's effective, and after the first play session will likely result in someone calling you a munchkin. Peace

Re: EC unsuitable? Seems to me that an elemental control is just a special +1 limitation (in that it's taken off the top) combined with a +1/4 limitation (drained as a single power). In my compromise, I would try to keep that in mind. So if the Elemental control was based on a 25 pt control cost and general 50 active points, A player that wanted 30 active points of forcefield would get a 15 pt EC bonus, and just calculate off that. This I think helps prevent the abuse of giving it essentially for free (25pt EC bonus) while still rewarding the character for having a tight character conception and putting an appropriate EC power in the EC even if it has to be fudged a bit to fit mechanically in the rules. Just my two bits

Re: EC unsuitable? I prefer the PreCog defense "Precognitive defense" using his superior psychic powers X knows when and where he is about to be targeted and adjusts appropriately +Z General Combat Levels (only towards DCV or DECV), costs endurance. At 8 pts a level, it stack pretty quickly. Alternatively "Iron will" using extreme power of Ego, X recognizes that most "damage" is really psychic in nature the giving up, summoning his Iron will, X shuts down pain receptors and otherwise shrugs off damage. +z rpd +yred +q mental defense + b power defense, hardened, 1/2 endurance cost. "Telekinetic shield" Forcewall, no range, self only. X uses his telekinetic power to pickup debris scattered about the battle field and interpose it between himself and danger. [also used with missile deflection] Alternatively you can just buy additional stun, body, constitution to represent the iron willed ability to shrug it off. Peace

Re: How To Build Half A Brain ? Or use the specificity of Hero System to do it instead. How sporadic are the abilities? If it's more of a "Well so long as we're talking about astrophysics or chemistry and the like, he's a genius, but if he comes across something new or tries to deduce a simple word scramble he's essentially a doofus." That's just low INT plus lots of skill levels in the "genius fields" If it's more random then maybe +15 INT No conscious control works better. Perhaps it's a memory deficit induced stoopidity, such that his reasoning faculties are fine, his memory is just so poor that he can't use them. Such a character might then be able to exert their full intelligence if he had memories aids, like notes, a computer data, other players, etc.

Re: WWYCD Genocide - or Genocide? Revenant: Use the world wide confusing as cover to go exterminate the real evil, while piling up a reasonable body count against the aliens?

Re: [Character] Winter Thanks, all. Particular merit to Death Tribble for calling me out on my dates, I just can't remember dates to save my life, so I'll have to go back and revise. As far as Narratio's idea that Winter can't have LS extreme heat, well we'll just have to agree to disagree. The original concept (hard to actualize on 250 or even 350 pts) was that she inherently radiates cold really, really bitter cold, so she just doesn't get hot or cold really. [an idea I had was Change Environment 2" radius, no range, lower temperature 4 levels (which should transform balmy spring day to Siberian Winter, I think) 0 end, persistent, inherent; but the cost was insane]. Peace

Okay, this may sound strange but: Suppose I buy Images that works against Sight as a Targeting Sense and Hearing as a Non-targeting sense so create 3 dimensional holographic television. I'm assuming, against normals this will create images that can be seen and heard, but what about Super Ear, who has normal hearing but as a targeting sense? Infared Boy, who has infared vision Opera Lover, who has high frequency hearing, but not as a targeting sense? All of these folks should be able to perceive the Image, but do their enhanced senses give the Image away as fake? or what? Thanks!

Re: Weapon From Anything??? Couple of things: 1. inanimate things don't heal, so they wouldn't "revert back normally. 2. I honestly think the transform, + varying dice based on the success of the transform, creates a lot of book keeping nightmares, and threatens to break any campaign damage limits in addition to taking a fair amount of time. Character takes one phase to grab improvised focus, one phase to transform it, and can't attack with it until his third phase? A lot of fights are over by that point. 3. An easier way to limit the dice to the "hardness or quality of the material" would be using limited power on the dice themselves. +2d6 Hand to hand attack, lim. power only things that are Moh's scale 2 or harder, +2d6 Lim. power only things Moh's scale 4 or harder, etc. (Moh's scale is used by geologists to measure the hardness of rocks/minerals and the like. I don't know much more I just dated the geologist

Re: Weapon From Anything??? Weapon of Opportunity Multipower u. +xd6 hand to hand attack, OIF blunt focus of opportunity. u. xd6 HKA, OIF "sharp" focus of opportunity. u. xd6 HKA AP OIF "sharp and pointy" focus of opportunity u. +xd6 Hand to hand attack, AoE 1 hex, OIF "large blunt" focus of opportunity etc. Transform xd6 Major Transform any physical thing into "blunt or sharp weapons of opportunity" linked to appropriate ultra slot above [but only if you want to make sure that the trash can lid "sword" stayed a sword rather than reverting to a trash can lid.] Cheers

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Actually, the general rule to prove murder is that the State must demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that: 1. a human being is dead 2. the accused caused the death of that human being 3. the accused intended to kill or at least seriously injure the human being, or was depravedly indifferent to whether or not his or her actions/inactions brought about the death of that human being. The State doesn't have to prove why you did it, only that you intended to do it. As far as the 1-way ticket to Extra-Dimensional Space... I'm not sure. There are ways to prove murder without a body and I'm pretty sure that there are a few "activist" judges out there that will "read the legislature's intent" when they said "bring about the death of a human being" to mean something more like "render a human beings continued existence on this planet impossible" or like that. The State legislatures should then act quickly to specifically include the 1-way ticket to Extra-Dimensional Space.

Re: Munchkin Build Contest? Good point Doc, But I don't think the Entangle is legal on its face. As I recall, Def or Body cannot be purchase at greater than 2:1. I always interpreted this to mean that if you bought say 5 Def 5d6 (50) then you could buy no more than 5 Def or 5d6 Body individually. If you wanted an 11 Def Entangle, you had to buy at least 60 points for a 6 Def 6d6 and then 5*5 for the remaining 5 Def. I also think works against Ego not STR by itself is lame, though I could see it maybe as a direct current electrical attack, which as I understand it, causes all of the muscles to contract and stay that way. But then I'd also require Transparency and just for "game balance" a low level of Def. (Then again, perhaps it's better constructed as a limited Mind Control).

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? Be wary of characters or NPC's with mental powers. They are more likely to kill a game than many other things. On the one hand, Mental Powers are extremely fragile, many of the effects folks want to do require very large dice rolls, and then the initial breakout is still more likely passed, and thus negating the mental attack entirely, than not. The flip side, is that when mental powers are throwing heavy amounts of dice or are combined with things like penalty levels to breakout rolls they become on the unfun side of powerful. No one particularly likes to get that note across the table "Sorry Joe, but you've been mind controlled and failed your breakout roll, maybe you'll break free in a Turn." Or the more likely, "Sorry Joe, you're subject to an absolute mental illusion that has placed you in the bowels of Hell, where you'll take damage but be unable to affect the real world for at least a Turn. Good luck!"

Re: Never GMed HERO before, a few pointers? A lot of it depends on the campaign. Defensive power limits: Start with how lethal you want the campaign to be. Check the rule book for the section on common weapons to give you an idea. Is it a Supers game where all but the weakest players regularly ignore pistol shots? then 12rpd is probably a minimum. On the other hand, if you want your players to be concerned about getting shot by pistols, then 11 rpd is a maximum. Note also that while damage rolls generally increase regularly, that is to say overall 12d6 is about twice as effective as 6d6, defenses do not, that is to say that 20rpd is much more than twice as effective as 10rpd. I usually start out with what kinds of antagonists I'm throwing at the players and how easily they should be able to overcome them to establish the "damage cap." Then I use the analysis above to find the defensive cap. As far as bookkeeping, you probably do want a copy of all the PC's character sheets, and I like to keep a tally sheet for END, Stun, and Bdy for each player. As for conventions, folks differ. A lot of 350 pt. campaigns have damage caps of around 12-14 dc, and an AP cap between 75-90. A lot of campaigns allow "outliers" i.e. if most players are 8-15 rpd, then "brick" type characters are often 20-25 or even 30. When balancing a campaign, I start with the stable of antagonists that I have, and then tweak things until there's a good challenge for each of the players individually and as a team. Either that or I make the antagonists much smarter, more likely to take hostages, set ambushes, etc. Peace

Re: Forward Only Force Field ? It actually sounds more like a forcewall. Just take no range, self only, limited shape (only the 3 hex sides to character's immediate front), linked with flight. You'd have the problem of something "breaking the wall" but you could put it back up next phase.

Re: Foxfire... Okay Images Sight Group: Usable as an attack +1, Lim. Power. only "harmless flames" +2 (or more to taste) to folks perception rolls. -2 (or more to taste) DCV (Combat Skill Levels 5pts or 8pts per campaign convention) Usable as an Attack +1, Ranged +1, Lim. Power. Linked with Images. Peace

Re: Foxfire... Images Sight Group: Usable as an attack +1, Lim. Power. only "harmless flames" and rely on the GM to give the "sanity bonus" of being able to more easily perceive someone ringed in flame, particularly at night or in the dark.

Re: Calling all lawyers--Supers and unique legal issues Contain yourself Comic, 1. You're generally misreading Rule 703. The Rule states "If of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field in forming opinions or inferences upon the subject, the facts or data need not be admissible in evidence in order for the opinion or inference to be admitted." Meaning that if telepathic information was reasonably relied upon by experts in the particular field, then the use of otherwise inadmissible information by the expert to form their expert opinion is fair game. However, the Rule continues " Facts or data that are otherwise inadmissible shall not be disclosed to the jury by the proponent of the opinion or inference unless the court determines that their probative value in assisting the jury to evaluate the expert’s opinion substantially outweighs their prejudicial effect." So first you have to establish your telepathic expert as an expert in his or her field, then you have to establish that the use of information gained by telepathy is of a type reasonably relied upon by experts in that field in closed session. Such telepathic expert could then testify as to their opinion, in part informed by telepathic information, but in general being barred from disclosing any such information to the jury to shore up their credibility. As far as your Clairsentience hypothetical, you're completely wrong. A hero using Clairsentience can give direct testimony because they did directly observe whatever it was they observed. Such a hero would have credibility issues until they established their ability to perceive in that way. However, the reputation of a defendant is generally inadmissible as "character evidence" unless and until the defendant has "put character in issue." So, legally speaking, testimony concerning a supervillain's reputation would only be admissible after the defendant opened the character issue either by putting forth character witness, Dear Old Henchman, "I been with Dr. Destroyer for thirty years, and he ain't killed nobody what didn't need killing!" or by testifying himself, "I Dr. Destroyer, never kill but when it is justified by law." And once again you are choosing poor sources for your "legal education" Perry Mason, LA Law, Night Court and Law & Order are generally massively off-base in the ways they present legal issues, particularly evidence. Though to be fair, trials actually complying with the Rules of Evidence tend to be rather boring, stop and go affairs and make bad television. And I think you mean "precedents" not "precedence." "Precedents" refer to the body of case law informing the current rule of law, "precedence" generally refers to who is prior in right. Peace

Re: New build Brilliant my Lord, I've been trying to model a "stagger" effect less than stunned for a while. Repped

Re: Measuring Cunning

Re: [Character] Winter This is how I envision Winter as a potential "convert" to heroism. At this point, she is a very messed up girl who has been institutionalized by State Security for perhaps two or three years. 5 STR -5 20 DEX 30 28 Con 36 11 Bdy 2 11 Int 1 11 Ego 2 15 Pre 5 10 Com 0 2 Pd 1 6 Ed 0 13 Rec. 12 56 End 0 28 Stun 0 Cha. Cost 104: Skills: 3 Stealth 13- 3 Concealment 13- 3 Tactics 11- 9 +3 OCV with Entangle and EB Powers: 9 Life Support, Immortal, and survives extreme heat and cold 119 Elemental Cold Domination Control Cost 25 25 Frozen Armor, +20 rpd, +20 red 1/2 End [Active 50] 17 Snow Storm, Darkness to Sight Group and normal hearing 3" Personal Immunity, 1/2 End; No Range -1/2 [Active 50] 17 Ride the Storm 20" Flight 1/2 End; linked with Snow Storm -1/2 [Active 50] 18 Block of Ice 5 Def 5d6 Entangle 1/2 end; Vuln. to Fire -1 [Active 62] 17 Freeze Ray; 10d6 Energy Blast, Full phase -1/2 [Active 50] Total Cost: 250 15.....Distinctive Features: Blue Skin and Low Body Temperature (Not Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) 25.....Enraged: When Takes BODY (Uncommon), go 14-, recover 8- 15.....Hunted: KGB (Later the FSB) 11- (Mo Pow, NCI, Watching) 10.....Hunted: UNTIL and Other Government Agencies 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Watching) 15.....Hunted: Enemies of the Soviet (Later Russian) Peoples 8- (Mo Pow, Harshly Punish) 15.....Psychological Limitation: Abandonment Syndrome (Common, Strong) 10.....Psychological Limitation: Vengeful (Uncommon, Strong) 15.....Social Limitation: Secret ID: Natasha (Frequently, Major) 25.....Social Limitation: Subject to Orders (Very Frequently, Severe) 5......Social Limitation: Legal Minor (Occasional, Minor) 15.... Physical Limitation: Character is always 4' tall, takes +3" KB Total Disadvantages 165 The 350/360 version is similar, but the attacks are pulled out of the EC, and set up in a Multipower with range drains, an armor piercing energy blast, and the other usual suspects. Peace

Re: Measuring Cunning How about this.... You ever have one of the scenarios where a whole bunch was going on at once,.... GM: "Right so a great big spot light pops up displaying Jane Doe Normal dangling over a bubbling vat of noxious chemicals, while "Men in Black" suits are wheeling away several chemical drums on dollies across a cat walk. Meanwhile, Punchline has a gun to the head of the Mayor and is laughing hysterically. An oversized alarm clock is ticking toward noon, or midnight, and with dozens of bundled wires coming off of it to stacks and stacks of red cylinders approximately a foot long and an inch in diameter, and in all otherways appear to be dynamite....." and have a player say, "Huh, what was that again..." Such a player with a high INT character gets to hear the spiel again, a low INT character has to take a half phase, make a PER roll, and then react. The problem with intelligence in gaming generally, is that it is very hard to separate a player's intelligence from the character. I agree with you Hugh, it seems that INT did get a short stick (personally I preferred the house rule for Mental Illusions being based off of EGO [i refuse to the believe this] or INT [something's not right] at the option of the target, but that's me). To return to the OP's point, how is the player's character being too cunning? For example, if the character is always bouncing attacks or using impromptu weapons; maybe start requiring PER rolls at penalties based on the "cunningness" of the tactic? Is the character demonstrating excessive knowledge? Like they always avoid the Holographic duplicates of the antagonist, because they know that she's almost always invisible? Then require KS Super Antagonist. Do the bluff a lot of their interactions? Call the bluff. I think it would help to understand what kinds of things are at issue, to address it specifically. Peace