LoneWolf

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.

Diamonds are harder than steel, but are very brittle. I am not sure they would actually have more defense than steel. You can cut a diamond with a blow from steel. Diamond should probably not have more defense than steel and might have the ablative limitation. Don’t forget that it is not that hard to make artificial diamonds. Despite that they are not used in modern armor. If they were effective armor the military would use artificial diamonds for protection.

I think that not using figured stats are better. Figured stats lead to cookie cutter characters where the majority of characters have similar stats. With figured stats buying up your primary stats is the most cost-effective way to build a character, this leads to less variation in all stats. With figured stats almost all characters are going to boost up DEX and CON. CON actually gives you more in figured stats than the cost of the CON. Under 5th edition rules the only way to increase your base CV is to buy up your DEX. You can use skill levels to boost the ending CV but there are times when you cannot use skill levels. DEX is also more efficient at increasing your CV than skill levels. For 26 points I can get a 23 DEX which gives me an 8 OCV and DCV. That works out to 5.2 point per point of both OCV and DCV. Add in DEX also giving you SPD and it becomes too good to pass up. Even STR gets you more figured stats than it costs. Most experienced players ended up boosting the primary stats more than they needed to be. Not having figured stats leads to characters purchasing stats that are actually more in line with their concepts instead of boosting stats to get what they want for less. Almost every Fantasy Hero game that lasted ended up with all the characters having maxed out DEX. The supposedly heavy fighter having the reflexes of an Olympic gymnast seems to be a little farfetched. By not having figured stats it seems to lead to more nuanced and interesting characters. Now if I have a character that is supposed to be incredibly hard to hit but is not equally accurate, I can buy up my DCV higher than my OCV. Or I can have a character that is good with almost any weapon but does not fight like Spiderman.

AI is simply a new tool. It has the potential to allow people to easily create things that previously took much more effort. In some cases that will mean that people are going to lose their jobs. But it also means that new jobs are going to open up. The new jobs will require a different skill set; so many people may not be able to transition to the new jobs. It is also will probably mean there are not as many jobs in those fields as their use to be. This has been happening for centuries. The luddites of 19th century England had a similar fear of sewing machines. The same panic I am seeing here occurred then.

If the reflection is just the normal being able to see things reflected in the mirror you may not even need to buy anything. Common items normally do not need to be defined or purchased with points. You only need to define or purchase things that will have a real impact on the game. A key that unlocks a door does not need to be written up or paid for with points. If you can use the mirror to project images or otherwise have an impact on combat you will need to purchase the effect, but just using a mirror to see your reflection or similar purposes does not need to be paid for. Focusing the light to melt things on the other hand will require you to pay for it.

That sounds like three separate effects. Reflecting light-based attacks would be reflection, the reflection effect would be images, and the melt lead would be a blast or RKA. To do all three you would need to purchase three separate effects. If frameworks are allowed, you might be able to use a multipower.

A parabolic mirror could be the used to create numerous powers. They would be more of a special effect than something that needs to be defined. For the most part each parabolic mirror is going to be useful for what it was designed for. The parabolic mirror to create a laser is probably not going to be able to be used as a telescope without serious modification. If the character has the ability to modify equipment that drastically and quickly, they really should have gadget based VPP.

The problem for me is that the character is spending points on something that is rarely going to be used and when it is used is not going to allow them to do something they could not already do. As a GM I try to be fair with my players. Too me this seems to be a bit unfair to the player. He is paying points for something that does not do what he wants it to, and that in all honesty is going to cause him problems. Allowing a player to spend points that makes their character weaker and causes problems just seem wrong. To me this is like stealing candy from a baby. Characters should pay for what they can do, they should not pay for stuff that does not work.

As a GM I would highly encourage a player to avoid conditional SPD because of all the headaches it creates. Not only does this create a lot of bookkeeping nightmares it often ends up not working as well as the player thinks it will. For example, let’s say a character has 3 + 3 SPD. The player acts in phase 4 and does not need to deflect until 7. By then phase 6 has come and gone so if the character wants to protect the innocent, he needs to cancel his phase 8. In 10 he can only deflect so gets no action until phase 12 unless he is deflecting. If he deflects it resets his penalty to 0, but he still cannot attack. The character could have deflected in 2, Attack in 4 deflect in 7, reset the penalty in 10 and attack in 12. The character still only attacked twice and spent the rest of the time deflecting. A character with a SPD of 3 will be able to attack the same number of times and still deflect anything the other character can if he can make the roll. If the character simply bought a 4 SPD he would be able to attack in 3 and 5, cancel his 9 in 7 to deflect and be able to attack in 12. The above case is pretty specific but illustrates the point that conditional SPD does not always deliver what the character expects. Factor in the increase END and other problems and it makes the idea of conditional SPD a real pain. To me a better way would be to simply buy more SPD and lower the characters movement.

The same thing could be achieved by buying extra SPD equal to the characters own as long as your SPD is 6 or under. At 7 and above you would need to purchase SPD high enough to bring you to 12. In all honesty a character with a high SPD probably does not need this as they will usually have enough phases, they go in to be able to protect those that need it. Something like this is more useful for a character with a low SPD. The thing to keep I n mind is that buying extra SPD is going to affect your character in other ways. You still need to pay END for ongoing powers on those phases. This can easily cause character to run out of END way sooner than they normally do. Now in addition to purchasing the extra SPD you need more END and probably REC. Don’t forget that deflection also cost END which means you have an extra 2 END per phase in addition to all the other END you normally spend. The character with 5 SPD who usually spends 3 END per phase will have spent 15 END at the end of the turn. That same character with an extra 7 SPD will have spent 47. Assuming a 10 REC and 50 END the first character can fight for 10 turns. With the extra SPD the character is run out of END in phase 2 of his second turn. That means he needs to start burning STUN to act. If the character uses more than 3 END per phase, he will probably not even last a turn. Even if the character does not have anything else that costs END he still needs to pay for the deflection. That means the 5 SPD character with an extra 7 SPD that normally uses 3 END per phase is spending 29 END instead of 15. Playing an effective character with a high SPD is more than simply purchasing more SPD. Taking a recovery in combat is dangerous and not always possible anyways. All it takes is a single agent with a held phase to prevent that.

There is long history of characters having a single dehabilitating weakness. Bram Stokers Dracula had multiple weakness including being destroyed by sunlight. Werewolves being harmed by silver and the fey being harmed by iron also predate the appearance of superman. Then there is the most famous disadvantage in history. The term Achilles Heel comes from the Greek mythology that is thousands of years old. Giving superman credit for the idea a character having a weakness is ignoring a long history of other characters having weaknesses. Even in gaming there are numerous examples of this. When AD&D first came out Magic Users could not use armor and clerics were limited to specific weapons. Champions might have been the first that gave players the choice of what their weakness was but is not the first to build weaknesses into characters.

There are two ways you can limit how a power works. The first way is to create a power that prevents the power from working. The second is to put limitations on the power. Transformation would be how you accomplish the first case. The second case could be done by requiring all necromantic powers to be built that they do not affect all bodies. Depending on how the necromantic power is build this could be an additional limitation. If the necromantic power uses an expendable focus, you could increase the value of that to account for the fact that not all bodies can be raised. I would say that a character with the perk priest and PS priest would be all that is needed for the second case. For most religions this is going to be part of their normal duties and not really require any special training. Cemeteries are usually consecrated and considered holy grounds. That might create problems with creating undead in them. When I am creating a campaign like this, I spend some time on figuring out how I want things to work. If there is going to be magic involved I lay out some ground rules for how things should work.

The reason that defensive powers are not supposed to take the area of effect advantage is that they normally only apply to the character that purchased them. To use a defensive power on someone else you should be using the Usable on Others advantage instead. That power includes a usable nearby option that allows it to be used on all characters within 4 meters. With the GM’s permission that area can be larger. As it stands Area of Effect on absorption would not give others the defense even if the acts as a defense is taken.

As @Ninja-Bear said you can have a single maneuver represent multiple real-world maneuvers. You can also use skill level to further define those maneuvers. Skill levels can be used to increase your OCV, DCV and even damage. It does take 2 skill levels to increase damage. This allows a martial artist incredible flexibility. Take whatever Kung Fu maneuvers you want and use the skill level to represent specific stances or maneuvers. For a defensive stance put most or all the levels to DCV, for a more offensive stance they go to OCV or maybe damage. Mix them up as needed with the special effect of taking whatever stance you want. If you are running a martial arts focus campaign, you really should pick up the Hero System martial arts. The book has a lot of useful advice and examples. They even have a way to build a martial artist without using the martial arts maneuvers. Basically, you simply buy a huge amount of skill levels with a few maneuvers and use skill levels to simulate the maneuvers. For example, if you had 8 skill levels you could use 4 for +2 OCV, +2 DCV and the remaining 6 to get +2d6 damage, or you could go use all 8 to get +4d6 damage. This is what gave me the idea to use skill levels for the stances. This gives you the best of both worlds. The maneuvers can get you things the skill levels cannot, but you still have some of the flexibility of the skill levels.

My advice was based on the OP stating his player wanted to be able to use deflection to save more people. I was pointing out that deflection can already be used in the manner the player seems to want to use it. There is no reason for the character to have extra phases that can only be used to deflect when he can already deflect every phase until his next phase. A character with a 5 SPD who acted in 3 can on phase 4 cancel to deflection and continue deflecting thorough phase 7 without needing to buy anything. The cumulative penalty starts to add up so I had suggested purchasing skill levels to allow the character to deflect despite the penalties for deflecting multiple attacks. If a character wants to act more often in a turn, they should simply increase their SPD. Don’t put limitations on it as that complicates things and actually ends up giving them less flexibility. Part of building an effective character is recognizing what the character will need to function. A big part of it is giving the character adequate stats. If you have a defensive ability that requires you to spend time for it to work your character should think of purchasing more SPD. Don’t assume that you are going to be able to attack in ever phase your character goes in. A character with a power like deflection should factor in the fact that using it will reduce his ability to attack. If you want to be able to deflect without spending a phase build your deflection with a trigger that automatically resets immediately after use. You are probably going to need a variable trigger, so it is going to be expensive. This is likely to get vetoed by a lot of GMs.

As I said before deflection is based on the block maneuver so it sounds like they can already do what they want to. Once you start blocking you can continue blocking additional attacks until your next turn comes up. The rules specifically state you do not need to abort to do this. Each block after the first takes a -2 penalty. Once you miss a block you cannot make further blocks. I have a character that does this. The deflection is in a multipower which he has 4 skill levels with, and he has an additional 6 skill levels with deflection for a total of 10 skill levels. He actually has a low SPD compared to the rest of the characters so spends a lot of time deflecting. He has been very successful in protecting others including saving a lot of innocents. Purchase the deflection with the advantage No Range Modifier and the character will be very effective at stopping attacks. Since deflection’s base cost is only 20 points it only costs 30 points to buy it with No Range Modifier. If the character has a high OCV in addition, they have a good chance of completely shutting down an energy blaster or other ranged combatant. Part of being heroic is making the choice to protect others even if it costs you something you want. Being able to save someone and still attack is in my opinion less heroic than having to decide between saving the innocent or taking out your opponent.