LoneWolf

You cannot abort to any action after attacking or performing a full phase action until the next segment.

The one thing to consider on a normal grab is that it will end the characters move. Maneuvers without the FMOVE element take place at the end of your turn. You can perform a half move before using the maneuver, but after you make the attack roll your turn ends. This makes it difficult to run in and rescue the hostages as you end your turn next to where they are. The solution to this is to buy a few martial maneuvers with the FMOVE element. In this case a flying grab would be what you want. Most of the time a speedster will end up with a martial art with most of the maneuvers with the FMOVE element. It also depends on exactly what you want to do. If all you want to do is to be able to grab one or two people and get them to safety a flying grab with good movement and enough STR to carry the targets should be enough. If you are looking at getting more people out, then you might need to build it differently. Moving the bus for example is not going to work unless the character actually has enough STR to move the bus. Without further details on what you want to accomplish and how the power works it is difficult to give anymore advice.

I don’t know that any edition has rules stating that when you grab something it automatically has to do damage. In 6th edition the book states that you can grab an enemy just to hold on to him and prevent them from doing anything. If you want to hurt the person you grabbed you can squeeze, slam or throw them doing normal damage. When you throw the character after a normal grab you do not add velocity damage like you do on a marital throw. The 5th edition book does not specifically state you don’t have to damage your target but uses the word can. That seems to indicate damage is optional. There is a Grab By maneuver that basically combines a grab with a move by, but that is usually for grabbing things from people as you move past them. I think that if you want to you could damage the target by doing a grab and slam, but do not have to. You might want to purchase a flying grab for this character. The fact you are moving at a high velocity should not matter.

In some cultures, destroying the body may prevent the soul from finding peace. Egypt is an example of this and until fairly recently many Christian faiths also disapproved of cremation. Burning the bodies of the dead may actually create more undead than burying the body does. Most mindless undead are created by necromancers raising them as troops. The only time this becomes a problem is when the necromancer is trying to concur the land. Other undead are tied to the site of the burial or death. These types of undead usually don’t bother people unless they are disturbed. Undead that interact with society are fairly rare, vampires being probably the most obvious. Vampires probably don’t create a lot of minions because they don’t want to competition. Too many minions make it harder to feed. One reason that something may become undead that I have not seen mentioned in this thread is it being a curse. They may be cursed because of their actions in life were so evil that their soul could not find rest. Or maybe they offended some powerful creature, and that creature cursed them to become undead.

There is no reason you cannot define your base form as a car, but that would mean you are always a car. Shapeshift is to allow you to change from the robot form to the car form. Shapeshift to sight, touch and hearing groups will allow you to change your form into a car. The touch group allows you to alter your physical shape and mass distribution. Sight makes you look like a car. Hearing would make you sound like a car and cover sonar.

What can a character built as a vehicle do that a normal character cannot? I am not talking about how the character is built, but rather what they cannot actually do. Other than the fact they don’t take stun or use END I don’t think there is anything a character built as a vehicle can do that a normal character cannot. So, the real question is do you want to allow a character to be able to not worry about stun and END. The other thing to keep in mind is that a vehicle is normally not a sentient being. In order to make a self-aware vehicle you purchase an AI using the computer rules. This means in addition to the vehicle the character also needs to include the cost of the computer in the multiform. This also means you have to buy each and every skill the base character has that the vehicle can use. If you are ok with the character ignoring STUN and END you should require that both forms have this ability. That means the robot form needs to purchase automation powers and add 0 END to all his powers. This is going to increase the cost of the character by at least 45 points and make it significantly more powerful. Next thing to consider is what the car can do that the robot cannot? Do they have similar STR and movement capabilities? Is there DEX and SPD radically different? The robot is already 12’ tall so is probably about the same size. Looking up the size of sports cars in the book I am seeing they have 800kg of mass, which is the same as a character with the first level of growth. Both the sports car and a character with growth have a 25 STR. I am not really seeing a lot the car can do the robot cannot except maybe having a higher movement. I am not sure that a multiform is really the best way to go for this concept. Multiform is used for when a character has two radically different forms that has different skills and abilities. If each form has a lot of different abilities that only that form can use a multiform is going to be the best way to build it. But if both forms share most of the abilities shapeshift may be a better way to go. You can put a limitation on the powers that only one form has only in <insert form>, which is probably going to be a -1/2. This would allow you to purchase some extra movement for the car form, or a weapon for the robot form. If two forms do have radically different abilities a multiform is appropriate. You still don’t need to use vehicle rules to do so. I think in the end using them is going to actually be more expensive and complicated. Using the vehicle rules you are going to need to write up the robot, the car, and the AI for the car. I know you want to have a general rule for this, but that might not be the best idea. The strength of the Hero System is its flexibility and the ability to build exactly the character you want. Imposing set ways of doing basic idea usually ends up restricting the players ability to have the character they want. Some general guidelines are fine, but strict requirement on how to build a character is not keeping with the spirt of the Hero System.

Putting them in stasis is the special effect of the LS. You don’t need to purchases anything to do this. Just like when you build a bow and arrow you don’t need anything more than the RKA. The concentration limitation represents the fact they are unconscious the entire time. It really does not matter if you use concentration or a custom limitation. The custom limitation should be worth the same amount as it is essentially the same thing. You don’t need the UOO advantage. The focus would be considered a universal focus so anyone could use it.

I have to agree with using LS on this. In addition to the focus add Concentration O DCV character totally unaware and must concentration throughout use of constant power. Transformation is not needed.

If you look at the comic books death is usually not the end of the character. More often than not death is just an excuse for a radiation accident. Look how many times Jean Grey died? When I did a quick search to see Bing said she has been killed and resurrected 15 times. When death is incredibly rare in the source material is it any wonder if a game follows that? Outside of the Marvel movies how many superheroes have actually been killed and stayed dead. I am not talking about dying from old age, but actually killed in action. Even those that died of old age tend to be from a much earlier time and die offstage. The only Marvel Superheroes I know that have died and stayed dead were the original Captain Marvel and Bill Fosters Goliath.

Depends on what you mean by dying. If you mean taking enough damage to put you at negative of your BODY, than I have had 2 characters die. In both cases it was a good excuse for a radiation accident. If you mean a character that remained dead that is a different story.

This sums up things perfectly. I think a lot of the people that prefer figured stats are thinking they are getting more for their points. In reality the difference is trivial and being able to directly buy CV has some advantages.

Can the ship be flown while he is not downloaded to it? If it can and the other players are contributing to the ship, I would allow him to buy his second form as a computer. He is still going to have to pay for all skills and mental characteristics, so it is not like he is getting anything for nothing. This would allow the other players to assist in ship-to-ship combat. He is basically acting as the pilot for the ship, and it is really not all that different than a normal character doing so.

From the sound of it I would do this as a multiform. Create one form for the robot and another for the ship. Do not use the AI rules for the character just write him up as a normal character. Most robots in champions do not use the computer rules, Mechanon is written up as a standard character. Use complication to give him any computer related weakness the character has. The ability to download into other computers is going to be a bit more complex. I would not use multiform for this for one important reason. When he is in the computer, he is going to be limited by the computer he is downloaded to. Does the computer he is downloaded even have the capability to support the entire character? In real life computers have limited resources like memory and storage. Can just any computer support the characters full consciousness, or does it require a powerful computer. Think of trying to load a modern operating system onto an older system. Trying to download the characters full consciousness could be like trying to download the latest version of windows onto an early 286 computer. More than likely all he can do is to download something like a virus that takes over the computer. That can probably be handled by a few mental powers targeting computer minds.

What can the character do when his consciousness is downloaded into a computer? Is he able to access or control the computer? What happens to his body when he is in the computer? One way to do this could be by taking the concentrate 0 DCV, character is totally unaware, must Concentrate throughout use of a constant power on an appropriate power.

Using a compound power would be the best way to handle it. Doing so allows someone looking at the character to clearly understand how the sword works. This is going to be important if the campaign has multiple GM’s or the campaign is paused for a while before going back to. When you are first writing up the character or are using it regularly you will understand what the custom adder is. But let’s say you want to use that character in a new campaign or the campaign restarts after 5 years, you might not remember what that custom adder is or the pricing behind it.

23 DEX became the default because it was mathematically the best deal. All of the Goodman’s School of Cost Effectiveness was based on Math. If I remember correctly it suggested to go with a 24 DEX to beat all those cost effective a*****e’s that had a 23 DEX. Removing figured stats really reduces the incentive to purchase inflated stats especially DEX.

The way I see it the reason for the “normal people” having high stats is because a lot of the published material was that way. That kind of set the expectation on what characters needed to have for stats. If the baseline SPD is 5 and you want a character that is a little fast you are going to buy a 6 SPD, which means if you want to be really fast, you need a 7-8 SPD. The same is true for DEX and other stats. This is compounded by the fact that most stats are kind of abstract and their only real measure is against themselves. Other than increasing the rolls based on the stat and in earlier edition the figured stats there are no measurable benchmarks for the stats. What does a higher DEX mean? Other than going before a lower DEX what does a DEX 23 do? With some stats there are some benefits to having the stat but those are all in game terms. Having a high CON can prevent you from being stunned, but that again is based on taking damage. STR is about the only exception for this. The STR chart shows how much weight your character can lift. That is a real-world example that anyone who has no familiarity with the system can understand. Once the baseline is established it is maintained by inertia. Each character written to those ideals reinforces the baseline making it harder to adjust. The only want to adjust it is to drop the stats in published material before using it. A good rule of thumb would be to drop the SPD of all character by 1 point. Since all characters are affected equally their relative SPD is maintained.

I would put Batman at about 25 STR, 23 DEX and 5 SPD. In the group I game with we try and keep the DEX and SPD down unless the character is supposed to be superhuman. In our games most superhero are a 4 SPD and a speedster is 6 SPD with a really fast character having a 7.

I am actually favoring getting rid of figured stats. My post was more about reasons why people seem to want to keep them. Figured stats make it easier and quicker to write up a character, but that does not mean the character is better. In my opinion getting rid of figured stats makes for better characters because now you don’t have the incentive to purchase primary stats higher than they really need to. My example of 25 STR & CON was an attempt to illustrate that. Not all characters need huge amounts of END or high REC. Having character with a different OCV and DCV allows for better defining of their fighting styles. Now if someone wants to be good overall in combat, they don’t need to be an Olympic gymnast.

The player buying the DEX up was actually in 1st edition. It was a long time ago in college and the guy was not really that bright. But it does show that some people do not want to think too much about their characters. It’s a lot easier to boost up a few stats than to go over all the stats trying to figure out what is appropriate for your concept. 5th edition has 17 stats including 3 movement stats. 6th edition has 20 stats including 3 movement stats. 6th edition also eliminated COM so it actually has 4 additional stats. In 5th edition I can buy up STR and CON to 25 and DEX to 20. That gives me 5 PD & ED, 3 SDPD 10 REC 50 END and 36 STUN. I may or may not need to increase the PD & ED depending on what powers the character has. I will probably want to buy up the SPD, but other than that it is not a bad starting character. I don’t have to worry about my CV because those are based on DEX and under 5th edition are not really stats but are still calculated. In 6th edition if I buy the same base stats, I still need to figure out my OCV, DCV PD, ED, SPD, REC, END, and STUN. I can probably leave the OMCV & DMCV at base value, but all the rest need to be bought up. Having to figure out 5-8 extra stats is not that complicated but is still more work.

I think that @rjcurrie may be right. With figured stats three primary stats do most of the heavy lifting and you only need to worry about make minor adjustments. Without figured stats players have to actually think more about what their character can do. I had a player who was complaining about how it was impossible to build a flash clone because it was too expensive. He wanted a 12 SPD so was buying his DEX to 110 points. When I asked him why he did not just buy a 12 SPD, he gave me a blank look and got confused. Getting rid of figured stats does mean the players need to spend more time and effort on the characters stats. In my opinion this usually leads to better characters. You end up with less primary stat inflation and get more nuanced characters.

I have to agree with density powers not being appropriate for a special effect that affects a desolid character. Most density powers are going not going to be attacks. They will usually be things like growth, density increase, shrinking and various defensive abilities. Many of the attacks using density powers are going to be those powers UAA. Gravity control usually has more straight up attack powers like blast or TK.

In all honesty transform is going probably going to be your best bet. From the sounds of it this would be a minor transform so it will only cost 5pts per die. Changing a dagger into a sword is one of the examples under minor transform. Transform also has the improved result group so one power would allow you to do both. You should only need to buy it at the +1/4 level to get what you want.

My first though was the same as Lord Laiden, but then I started thinking about it and came to a different conclusion. Normally gravity affects every atom, but this is the comic books and that might not always be the case. I could see a gravity power that worked by producing targeted localized gravity fields. Those may not affect every atom. Then there is the fact that there are a lot of other special effects that can affect every atom. Most of the effects that affect every atom are usually have some variant of area of effect. It seems that anything that affects the entire area the character occupies would be able to affect the character. So, anything with the advantage AoE could affect the character.

DEF is not just the ability to stop a blow it is also being able to absorb the kinetic energy. A person in armor can be beaten to death physically without the armor being penetrated. That is why actual armor also includes padding underneath to help distribute the kinetic energy of a blow. The outer shell of the armor spreads the force of the blow over as larger area and the inner padding further absorbs the energy. Diamond by itself would probably transfer the kinetic energy fairly well. How well it would work vs energy depends on the type of energy. Diamonds would probably give decent protection vs heat. But I don’t diamond is going to stop light-based attacks that well. I agree with Duke about just giving it the defense you think it should have, but still think this is an interesting thread.