LoneWolf

As Doc said Fantasy Hero does not contain the rules. All you really need to run a 6th edition game are the core rules books. Those contain the actual rules; the other books are more advice on how to run a particular genre. They usually include some expanded options like more talents and perks that can be helpful but are mostly advice aimed at the GM on how to create a campaign. Of all game systems the Hero system has had the least amount of changes over the editions. The basic game play has changed very little over the years. The most significant changes are mostly in character creation. Once the character is created the results are very similar to the older versions. You can use the stat blocks from a creature from almost any edition of the game in another with minimal modifications. Most of the rule changes affecting game play are more refinements and clarifications on how they work. Personally, I think the 6th edition is extremely well written and actually improved on an already great system. The biggest complaint seems to be the fact that they got rid of figured stats and characters are more expensive. The lack of figured stats actually allows you to create more precise characters. Before 6th edition almost all Fantasy Hero characters ended up buying up their DEX to as high as they could afford. That was the only way to raise your base CV and it raised both of them at once. Under 6th edition if you want to be extremely accurate with any attack you simply buy up your OCV. If you to build a defensive character, you can buy up your DCV without increasing DEX or OCV. 6th edition gives you more points so the slight increase in cost is mostly illusion. Your starting characters will have about the same stats but the point totals will be different.

Gliding gives you enough control that if someone is trying to catch you, you can simply avoid them. Since you are moving you can actually use your velocity to damage something on the way down. For example you could do a move through or move by on the way down. You have to decelerate at the end of the move so you probably don’t have a lot of velocity when you hit the ground. If you reach terminal velocity it will take about 12m to cancel the velocity.

One big problem with desolidification as a defense is that it prevents you from attacking or requires you to add the affects solid advantage to your attacks. This would prevent you from dropping down and attacking. Another way to do this would be to buy gliding. Since you can dive for twice your normal flight all you need to purchase is 30m of gliding to handle terminal velocity. 30m of flight with the limitations, gliding (-1), no noncombat (-1/4), and limited horizontal movement (-1/2) costs 11 points. This would allow you to land in any hex directly bellow where you could jump to. So, if you have a 4m jump you could land in any hex directly below a hex within 4m of where you start. This also means you automatically land on your feat without having to make any kind of roll.

Actually looking at the clip the building is only a 4 story building at best. That is not high enough to reach critical velocity. If the character has 20m of vertical leaping they can just use that to eliminate the damage from the fall. If I memory serves me the vampires in the movie made some pretty high leaps. That means they had bought up leaping. Assuming they had at least a 10m vertical leap the most they would take from the fall is 5d6 normal damage. Any vampire in the movie can probably shrug off that damage, especially one focused on combat. Figuring out how to survive critical velocity may be an interesting idea but has nothing to do with what is shown in the clip.

I would not put Thor or a calm Hulk at 100 STR. Hulk at full rage I can see being at a hundred STR, but not starting out. Thing starting out is probably about 50 STR and at his strongest would probably be about 70. Unlike a lot of bricks he actually does know martial arts, so does not need to be as strong. Part of the damage he does is because he knows how to use his STR better than they do. As to not being able to use it in a game, what I meant was not being able to use it in anyone else’s game. You could add an extra 0 to everyone’s STR and adjust the defenses and it would work out. But means you cannot use the character in any other game without doing the same thing. That is what I see being done. It seems the character you are writing up are so far from the baseline Champions they cannot be used in a normal champions game. I would lower your STR of your characters by about 20 points. Making these character useable in a standard Champions game would be more helpful to others. I also see the same thing happening with other things like OCV and martial arts. That is one reason I prefer 6th edition. Divorcing OCV from DEX allows you to create a low DEX character with good OCV. It also allows you to have characters that don’t have the same OCV as they do DCV. Sometimes a character should be better at hitting than avoiding being hit. One thing a brick can do to deal with a high DCV character is hit them with large objects. When the object is large enough to become an area of effect attack DCV no longer matters. Give the Thing WE with large objects (need a better wording, but it is late)

The Hulk states in his description that he starts out at that range and gets even stronger when he gets angry. The Thing is not that strong, nor is he that good in combat or the skills you gave him. This character is way too powerful for the thing. But at the same time his other defenses are kind of low. What is the point of writing something up if it can never be used in a game. Unless you all the characters are at that level in your game this write up is pointless. If all the characters in your game are at that level the game you are running is so far out of the norm that they have no relevance to anyone else. I am not trying to be rude or disrespectful, I am just wondering what the purpose of these posts are?

According to the old guides I had published by Marvel in the 80’s Thing was able to lift about 80 tons. That should put his STR around 60 not 90. 90 STR is able to lift 6.4 Ktons. Thing should be something a player could play especially the earlier versions, not something that can defeat anyone. Champions was designed to simulate this type of stuff. Something may be out of reach of players, but the Thing is not one of them.

The marvel wiki lists human torch as aways being flaming. If you look at the top under pyrogenesis it states he has the ability to transform his pody into plasma. It also references his the molecules his body is made of not only generate energy but also have larges store of latent chemical-energy bonding energies. Basically his molecular structure has been altered. In game terms he has a decent PD & ED and some resistant defense.

Not sure what your sources is, but could they be talking about the original Human Torch? He was after all an android so being extremely durable might make sense.

Since the character really does not have control over what power he gains they do not need a detect powers. While the player may have some control over the pool the character probably does not. He simply gets whatever power the character he touches has up to what he can mimic. The VPP is going to be very expensive and you are probably not going to be able to gain more than a few powers. This is why I said the player may be disappointed in the character. This is probably going to be a very weak character.

What I would probably recommend for the character would be something like 60 point MP Slot 1 40 STR TK Slot 2 16 STR TK Fine manipulation, Area of effect 8M selective 12d6 Physical blast 3d6 AP RKA 6d6 DEF 6 entangle Barrier 12 DEF 0 BODY, 14m long 4m tall ½ thickness Deflection All the slots are U so cost 6 points (except deflection which costs 2) for a total of 98 points. Put the flight and resistant defense outside the MP. The power are straightforward and will be easy to play. Adding indirect to the powers could be done, but will reduce the damage. Being able to deal appropriate damage is more important than being able to bypass some defenses.

The character is a lot different but I can give you the basics. He has a 30 STR so some of the powers would not work on this character. 45 points multipower Slot 1 30 STR TK Slot 2 6 STR TK affects porous, fine manipulation, Area of effect 4m, selective Slot 3 +9d6 HA Slot 4 2d6+1 (3 1/2d6 w STR) HKA, AP Slot 5 2d6-1 RKA Indirect, Penetrating Slot 6 1d6+1 Sever Transformation Indirect, Improved result group Slot 7 Deflection, indirect, ½ END plus at +6 Slot 7 4d6 Healing (body) He can perceive molecules and his TK works at a molecular level. He can rearrange molecules so can turn alter an object or even create items. That is how he heals; he fixes damage by knitting together the tissue. I bought him special awareness with Discriminatory, Analyze, Microscopic (10,000,000) and Range for 68 points. He is a full out scientist with and has some items he uses like a suit of armor and has a small VPP for gadgets he creates. His TK is weaker than many but can affect a lot more. The character also has the skills to use the powers in a lot of different ways. He has the following sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Genetics, Metallurgy, and Physics all on 14 or less. He also has computer programing, Demolitions, Electronics, Forensic Medicine, Inventor, Lock picking, Mechanics, Paramedics and Security Systems. To do real damage he needs to get up close and into melee range, but he can still mess with things at range. One of his most useful things to do is to stay back and deflect any ranged attacks aimed at others. It only works vs ranged but if it works it does not matter how powerful the attack is. It’s also great for when the villain is threatening an innocent. The penetrating RKA is used to target foci or other objects. The transformation and healing is used out of combat but has come in handy.

Having a character that can do lots of things is not a problem, but they should actually be different things. Having multiple similar powers actually makes the character less versatile. Each power should be able to handle a different situation. This character has 3 attacks that do similar damage with very little difference between them. The 40 STR TK is actually better the straight 7d6 physical blast and can do everything it can. The autofire can hit multiple times, but I don’t see anything to improve the accuracy of the character. That is going to result in the character spending more END and not actually hitting more. The character has no real way of damaging tougher objects. 8d6 is not going to be enough to get through heavy doors or damage most foci. A focused telekinetic blast written up as an AP RKA would give the character that option. Neither of TK slots has fine control so he cannot push buttons or manipulate small items. He has barrier so can envelop someone, but they can still use their foci. An entangle would give him the option to capture opponents without harming them. Missile deflection would allow him to block ranged attacks aimed at others. I have a telekinetic character and he is one of the most versatile characters on the team. This character is a 3-trick pony.

There is no need for a MP for movement or defense, all he is doing is paying more points for duplicate abilities. When building a character think of how powers interact with each other. There is no reason he cannot use TK while flying. So use the TK to “grab” his teammate and move with his own flight dragging them along. If he does that he eliminates the need to buy flight twice. He could also form a barrier and have people stand on that instead of carrying them directly. The most efficient way to use a multipower is usually for things requiring an attack roll and put the other stuff outside. With 40 STR TK he can already do 8d6 damage so don’t bother with the blasts he has. A higher dice physical blast would be better. As it stands his offense is very weak and his defenses are too strong. Missile deflection may be a better option for defending others. And it can stop a lot more than resistant defense can.

My suggestion would be to reduce the MP to 60 points and put in a 40 STR TK, a 15 STR TK with area of effect 8”, selective and fine manipulation, and a barrier 10 PD/8 ED Dismissible, Non-Anchored, Configurable. Use ultra slots instead of variable slots to save points. Put the unified power on the MP but not the slots. Outside the MP buy 12 DEF resistant protection and 30 meter flight with x8 with unified power. This comes to 129 points You can use the TK to do 8d6 damage so the blasts are not needed. The auotfire blast is going to suck up your END and probably not do that much. Use one of your TK to bring people along using your own flight instead of using UBO. With the points you save add some more slots to the MP. Maybe a 12d6 physical blast and some missile reflections. Also bump the INT to 18 to get a 1+ on INT based rolls including perception.

I would not put everything into the multipower. You are not really saving points by doing it and it will slow down the game. With the way it is setup you have to figure out wich powers are being used each time. Most of the time the best bet is to put you attacks in a multipower and purchase the rest outside it. I am also seeing a lot of unnecessary and duplicate power. If you want to carry people just use your own flight and use TK to carry them. Having flight and flight along surface is paying twice for the same ability. Having barrier and resistant protection UBO is basically the same thing. A lot of GM’s are not going not going to like a character who adds extra defense to other characters, especially if they have any kind of defensive maximums. Taking unified power on a multipower is questionable. I believe that if you do so that means any drains actually have double effect. Both the pool and the all slots are drained at the same time.

About the only way I see this being able to be done is if the character can only mimic a single power, and can only mimic up to a certain power level. Even so that would be fairly expensive. I would probably do it as a 60 point cosmic VPP (No skill roll required and can change as a zero phase action) with a -1 limitation only to mimic a single power less than 60 points. That works out to be 105 points. The character could choose any power of the other character that is 60 point or less and gain that. They take all the limitations on the original power. Since the only thing they need to check is if the power is not more than 60 active points it will not slow down the game. Since they can change the pool at will this would even allow them to mimic a multipower. Technically you are not mimicking a multipower you are just changing your VPP each time you would normally switch slots. Anything more complicated is going to be a nightmare and should be avoided.

One thing to keep in mind is that while the concept is cool the implementation may not be as much fun as the character think. To keep the character balanced and playable requires putting limits on what the character can do. Often this means the character turns into a less powerful version of what is copied. Just because the character touches DR Destroyer does not mean they are going to get all his powers. What it comes down to, is can the character afford to buy all the powers the other character has. Even a multiform will not prevent that. Mimicking Bulldozer is fairly simple, but the character is not going to have the points to mimic DR Destroyer or Firewing. The other thing to consider is that this concept has the ability to ty up the game. Using a VPP or Multiform is probably the way to go. But that means that the character may have to create a character on the fly. This often means that the game is stopped while this character figures out what powers they end up with. Do you really want to pause the game, while the player writes up a new character? This could happen multiple times in a combat. Personally, I would be very hesitant to allow this and would only allow a player that knows the system inside and out to do so. Even then I would put limits on how long they can take.

Now that I have a better idea of what you want I think all you really need to do is to use the luck rules from the APG. Having your opponent reroll his attack roll has the same end result as increasing your DCV. Both decrease your chance of being hit. The rerolls are actually more efficient for a couple of reasons. The first is you only need to use them when you get hit. If your opponent misses you anyways you don’t need to active the power. Second is that since the new roll has to be “better” than the first it actually has a better chance of working. Since the player decides what is rerolled it is completely under the players control. If I were to assign a value to requiring normal luck, I would probably consider it to be equivalent to NCC, so worth a -2 limitation, adjusted for the amount of luck. Someone with a lot of luck might end up with a -1 limitation. Using the luck from the AGP I would say it is worth a -0. I have a character with 6d6 luck and that is usually enough to last almost any session. The majority of the time I have at least one roll unused.

Is DCV the only luck based power you are purchasing? If so purchase +3 DCV with the limitation 4 charges for 7 points. To me luck can be used for a lot more than just DCV. Since overall levels can be used for anything including increasing your DCV, using overall levels allows more versatility. Instead of buying each thing your luck can affect separately buy one power that can apply to everything. 3 overall levels with the limitation 4 charges cost 18 points and can be applied to almost any roll. About the only thing it does not apply to is skills that you only have a familiarity with. To be able to apply the luck more often increase the number of charges. If you have multiple things your luck can do putting them in a multipower and applying the charge limitation to the multipower might work. Skill levels are normally not allowed in a multipower but check with the GM to see if they would allow it. The problem with using luck level for a limitation is by default you only roll them when the GM decides to. This means your access to the power is so random it could be worthless. If you use the luck rules form the AGP you will have levels available so often it is probably not worth a limitation. My advice is don’t link the luck power to luck, use it as a special effect and build the power the way you want them to function. If you want your luck to run out use charges or something similar.

The APG rules I favor are fairly simply. At the beginning of the session you roll a number of dice equal to you luck dice, and count the BODY. Each BODY allows you to reroll one roll. If the reroll is not better than the original roll you keep rolling until it is. So, if you roll 5 BODY at the beginning of the session you have 5 rolls you can tell the GM to roll. The way we do it is if your body is more than 3 the rerolls can be other characters rolls, otherwise you can only reroll your own rolls. There are a few more variants in the AGP but I find this one to be the best. If used carefully it can be very powerful. Someone with a large amount of luck can really have an impact on the game, especially if they can alter rolls of others. Longshots in your favor occur much more frequently and low chance rolls against you are a lot more difficult to make. High probability rolls are not affected as much, but still shift in your favor. If you want to have something that always increases the chance of you succeeding just buy overall levels. Put whatever limitations you want to make luck work the way you want it. I already suggested activation roll if you want some amount of randomness. If you want your luck to be something that you can run out of use charges. Skill levels look kind of mundane on paper, but they work surprisingly well for luck.

I agree that the standard luck is kind of boring and often does not seem to be that impressive. I have used the optional luck rules in the APG for a couple of characters and that seemed to work out a lot better. Being able to have some control of when your luck is used is a big part of it. Normal luck is more something that happens to your character instead of something your character does. Used properly it can have a really dramatic impact on the game. It was on several occasions the reason we succeeded. If you save the rerolls for when things are really close it can be very helpful. Once in a Fantasy Hero game I used it when the attack on the main villain missed getting a critical hit by one point. Since you have t roll better on the reroll that guaranteed the hit was a critical hit. I had a precog in a champions game the used as his main power. The precog was actually changing the future but the game mechanics I used was luck. He had the whole mysterious vibe going and had a physical limitation he could not tell what he saw in his visions. He would give the other characters cryptic advice that often did not seem to make sense. When the other character followed his advice things usually worked out better. After a while the other players would usually do what he wanted them to.

Since anyone can grab two people just by using your other hand, I don’t see why someone with TK could not do the same. I would say you are limited to two targets and do have to pay END twice. It may also be appropriate to reduce the STR by 5 like you would for a one-handed grab. If you want to grab more than two people, you should buy the TK with the advantage area of effect selective.

If you want the luck to have a chance of running out, make it a jammed roll instead of an activation roll. The limitation Jammed on a 14 or less that has to be made each phase is a -3/4 limitation. The way it would work is every phase you want to use the power you need to make a 14 or less roll. If you fail not only does the power not activate you cannot use it for the rest of the session.

The big problem with shapeshift is that the name they chose does not actually do what it says. It would have been better to call it something else and call multiform shapeshift. If you really want to change into something else, you don’t use shapeshift you use multiform. Alter Appearance would have been a much better description than shapeshift. It is counter intuitive that if you want to be a shapeshifter you don’t use the power called shapeshift.