LoneWolf

With the shapeshift you are not altering the tracks, you are altering yourself, so you leave different tracks. If I have shapeshift vs sight and someone takes a picture of me in a different form the picture shows the altered form not my true form. In this case there is not picture but the tracks I am leaving are not those of my true form they are the tracks of the altered form. If I change my feet to that of wolf to both touch and scent the footprints and scent, I leave are those of a wolf not a man. The shapeshift does not need to include sight looking like a wolf does not affect tracks. What the OP wanted was something that lets him leave tracks of something else. Shapeshift seems the best way to build this. The way I would build this would be shapeshift to touch and smell groups, Any shape for 17 points. You could reduce it to a limited group if you were only able to leave tracks of a certain type of creature. I would say if the person tracking you made his roll high enough, they might realize that there is something wrong with the tracks.

Yea the PRE attack is probably going to be used from the beginning. A high enough PRE attack will probably result in the opponents taking up a defensive posture and not rushing past him. I think that even the targets PRE for the PRE attack should be enough to prevent the opponents from doing anything that is going to reduce their DCV much less halving it.

In the early Avenger issues Wasp was not forgotten she was ignored. She had no real attack powers, so most supervillains did not pay any attention to her. When your attack is NND with the defense being resistant defense almost anything with superpowers will ignore you.

A naked 5 shot autofire on 4d6 HKA with the limitations OAF and suppression fire only costs 12 points. Suppression fire is a half phase maneuver so can be combined with the optional guarding rules. This will allow you to make an attack on anyone moving through the area. If they ignore you and try and move past you they are at ½ DCV. The suppression fire means you can attack every segment, not just the phases you go in. It also means you can attack the character once for every hex they enter. The only limit is you cannot hit more than 5 times (or the number of shots fired).

One thing that might work is using a block maneuver instead of an attack. Since you can continue to block as long as you keep succeeding you should be able to block multiple characters. Combine this with the guarding rules and you can stop multiple opponents by continuing your block. If you have a higher SPD, you can use a sweep maneuver after they have been stopped and then return to a guarding action. Let’s say you are have a SPD 4 character facing multiple SPD 3 opponents. In 12 you start a guarding action with block as your declared action. You can block anyone approaching you. In phase 3 you use a sweep maneuver to cut down those you have stopped. In phase 6 you go back to guarding with the block as your held action. They approach you in 8 and you use a block to stop them. In 9 use another sweep to cut down your opponents. In twelve the cycle starts again with the same results. This assumes that the opponents are going to try and attack you because to ignore you would put them at half DCV. To pull this off you will need a high enough OCV to hit and block and be able to deal enough damage to take out your opponents. While the rules are not clear if a block would stop someone trying to get past you, I would allow it in a game I am running. If you do need to build a power for this, consider an autofire attack. Simply use the suppression fire option to be able to attack anyone who enters the guarded area.

One of the examples of change environment in the book is a locking spell which is written up as a -6 to Lockpicking rolls. I have also seen change environment used as a cleaning spell in serval editions. In both those cases the targets is being changed from one state unlocked/dirty to another locked/clean. The way I see it transformation is mainly used for when you can target something individually. Change environment is better suited for things you cannot target. Keep in mind that the tracks are more than just foot prints. Tracks could include the scent left behind by the creature, plants being pushed out of the way, or things dropped by the creature. So if I am using transformation what am I targeting? Is it the ground or the bushes pushed out of the way, or is it the things the creature dropped? Shapeshifting is more about leaving a false trail not changing an existing one. You alter yourself so the trail you leave is different from what you normally would leave. If you include other sense groups someone tracking with those sense groups would think the tracks are from what you want. With it you could leave the tracks of a wolf instead of those of a human.

Actually there are some rules for this. The optional guarding areas and ignoring opponents and interposing are in book 2 in 6th edition. Something similar was in the ultimate martial artist for 5th edition, and I think the 4th edition Ninja Hero book also had them. Guarding does not actually prevent someone from going past you, but if they do they are at ½ DCV. Interposing is basically taking a penalty to DCV that becomes a bonus to OCV is the person attacking attacks what you are defending. Both of them use a held action. While these do not prevent someone going past you they do put anyone who tries at a big disadvantage. The penalties for doing this should be obvious so anyone trying to get past someone who is guarding an area is going to know they are at ½ DCV. If you are guarding an area and the opponent moves up to attack you instead of ignoring you they are at full DCV. Knowing that ignoring you is likely to get them hurt or killed will often be as effective as actually preventing them from moving. A group of experienced combatants used to working together can probably get around you, but that is often the case in real life.

The reason I suggested an activation roll is that one of the best luck based powers I ever created was simply 3 overall levels with an activation roll of 11 or less. This gives the player control over what the luck effects, but at the same time allows for some randomness. 11 or less means the player can count of the luck about 62.5% of the time. Throw in about 6 dice of luck with the reroll option from the APG and 2 levels of combat luck and you have a very effective luck-based character.

Why would change environment not be able to change the tracks? The book specifically lists a -1 to a characteristic Roll/and or related skill Roll(s) as an option. In this case I am defining it as a in -1 to the skill tracking. It also specifies it can create any other noncombat effect of equal magnitude listened in the table. If I can have a change environment that cleans and tidies up a room changing tracks should be allowed. With the shapeshift you would not necessarily have to change your feet and shoes to what you want to leave tracks of. You are changing them to something that will leave tracks of what you want. Think of boots that leave the tracks of an animal. They had something similar to that in one of the Fallout video games. In both cases I could see a GM requiring the player to have the skill tracking and use it as an opposed skill to determine how good the tracks are. This would replace using disguise in shapeshift.

It will depend on exactly how the spell works. Shapeshift would work fine if the spell allows you to alter your own tracks. If I change my shoes to that of a woman’s high heels and walk I will leave tracks a woman’s high heels. This would be shapeshift to the touch sense group. Shapeshift touch allows you to actually alter your body, but only redistributes your weight. Adding the scent group would allow you to leave the scent of the creature you are imitation. The Imitation adder may be a good idea. It would make it very difficult to spot that the tracks are false. A limitation only for leaving false tracks may be appropriate. Change environment would be more appropriate for a spell that can alter existing tracks or even create ones where there are none. Change Environment can give a penalty to a skill roll, so just buy it as a penalty to tracking. You will probably need the long lasting adder for or the alteration will only last a short time. If you want to be able to change the type of tracks left you will need the varying effect advantage. That could be anywhere between a +1/4 to a +1 depending on how much you can alter the tracks.

If it is an item creating false tracks change environment is probably the best way to go. If you just want to obscure the tracks you could allow someone with the tracking skill to cover the tracks using an opposed skill. Basically the person trying to cover the tracks makes a tracking roll, the person trying to follow the tracks takes a penalty on his roll equal to how much the first person made the roll by. With a minimum of a -1 penalty if the first person makes his roll.

I prefer to use the alternate luck options out of the advanced players guide instead of the standard luck. Specifically, the one where you roll your luck dice and count the BODY and get to reroll a number of times during the session equal to the BODY you rolled. By being fairly selective on what is rerolled you can be really effective. Since you have to roll better saving it for when you almost made it makes it really reliable. I have used that on several characters in both Champions and Fantasy Hero. The Champion's character was a precog, so the special effect of the luck was not actual luck. He saw the future and would change something in the past when he wanted to change the outcome. He had enough luck that he could affect others. From a game mechanic point I would decide I wanted to use one of my rerolls and the roll would be rerolled. In game I would give a warning or change something before the event happened without getting into too much detail of what I changed. It might have been a cryptic warning before the event happened. It could be something like a warning for another character to check their gun earlier in the day when I wanted a reroll on a failed burnout roll. For a luck-based character buy some luck using these rules, but use the activation roll instead of requires luck for the other powers. This will get you a really effective character that is actually lucky. Buy a few overall levels as well with the special effect of luck. They don’t get any limitation and work like overall levels, but you can get fairly creative is the actual reason you succeed. When a character misses you because you put the overall level to DCV they slipped on a banana peel just enough miss hitting you.

How many dice of luck do you have? The more dice of luck you have the less of a limitation it will be. You also might want to reconsider this. Luck is most often used when a character is at a disadvantage or in a bad situation. In earlier versions of the game, it specifically stated to only use it when the character is having a hard time. The general rule was rolling luck when the player was having bad luck, and unluck when he was having good luck. Personally, I would use a normal activation roll instead of a luck roll. This would give you more control over when it activates. This would allow the character to be lucky more consistently. The idea of having power based on the level of luck seems like a good idea, but in reality, it makes for a very unreliable character. If your concept is the character alters probability in his favor so always seems to be lucky the activation roll is going to work better. If the concept is weird stuff happens around the character the luck level could work.

One thing I would bring up is that some limitations are not really limitations they are simply special effects. The whole idea that a power is limited by the mind of its user in not a limitation it is a special effect. The GL rings are a good example of this. The ring may be limited only by the imagination of the user, but that is not a limitation that is a special effect of how the ring works. In the hero system you pay for what you can use in the game. If you have a power that has is theoretically has infinite power, you still only have to pay for what you can use. Different characters may pay different price for the same power, because the game mechanics are different. For example, two different green lanterns may pay different prices for their ring. The ring may be physically the same, but because one can use it better, he pays more for it. The value of the limitation is based on the character purchasing the power. So, if the limitation does not limit the character purchasing the power it is considered a -0 limitation. Prior to 6th edition this might be an acceptable limitation on a VPP with the GM’s permission assuming the limitation would actually restrict what the VPP could have in it. Limitations on how you spend your XP should never be allowed. If this is allowed any power or stat the character does not intend to buy up will have a limitation on it. Do you really want characters putting a -1/2 limitation most of their abilities?

This is something I would be very hesitant to allow. I could see allowing it on a VPP or a multipower, but only if the pool was significantly higher in points then the cap. If the character can use the full point of the pool it would not really limit them. If I have a 60 point pool and can only use 60 points that is not limiting me in any way. For a -1/2 limitation the character should be limited to using no more than 2/3 of the pool, a -1/4 would allow you to use about ¾ of the pool. Anything more would be a -0 limitation. Allowing it on anything else should not be allowed.

The way the groups I play with handle that is for everyone to limit their stats especially DEX and SPD. Our normal SPD is 4. A few characters like martial artists may have a 5, speedsters usually have 6. Some characters like bricks may even have a 3 SPD. Most agents are 3 SPD. We also reduce the SPD of any published characters. We warn people when they join a campaign. It actually works really well in keeping combat moving and character functioning. The lower SPD also reduces the need for END. If too many people boost their SPD, it will trigger a SPD increase for all NPC’s. When the players know that they cannot win the SPD war most of them don’t even bother trying to fight it. We occasionally need to warn new players of this, but they usually come to understand it is in everyone’s best interest to keep the stats reasonable.

With a flying tackle you are crashing into to someone and knocking them down with your own body. When you do this you should also be taking damage. This is closer to a move through than a throw and the character doing it should be taking damage from it. A character performing an untrained flying tackle should take the same damage as if they performed a move through. When you purchase it as a martial maneuver part of what you are paying for is to be able to do it without injuring yourself.

The combination of self-contained breathing and impermeable works for what the OP wanted, but there are still some things it would not work on. For Example, the blood of the Aliens in the movies eats through the deck of the ship. Impermeable is not going to work that well vs something that can destroy the armor itself. VS things like NND’s drains and most of the oddball attacks it should work, but depending on special effect some things will not be stopped.

Self-contained breathing takes care of the gasses. Impermeable will cover most of the other but may not be total. It works fine vs low grade threats that have to contact your skin but will not work vs everything. For example, if it may not protect vs an acid attack strong enough to eat through things.

Before 4th edition there martial arts for the most part simply multiplied damage and did not have maneuvers that did unusual things. So these maneuvers were added to allow them to do things that could not otherwise be done. Someone wanting to kick for more damage should simply use the haymaker maneuver. The old kick multiplying the damage can quickly get out of hand especially in a champions game. As you said you can already do everything the hold does with the grab maneuver. Standard maneuvers are something that everyone is supposed to be able to do. Not every high school bully knows how to hit so that it causes broken bones or internal injuries. Killing blow is and should be a martial maneuver. The flying tackle also gives more than a standard maneuver should give. I would treat this as a move through and trip. Basically, I would waive the rule you cannot combine maneuvers in a combined attack for this specific maneuver.

The way Hero Designer works is you need to load the prefabs for the files you purchased. They show up in a separate prefab subtab. You can then select those abilities from the prefab tab without having to build them. Depending on how many files the package is split up into this may mean you need to load quite of few of them to get everything. When I first got the software, I purchased some of the packages, but found this to be very cumbersome and had some performance issues when too many prefabs were loaded. I did try and load all the ones I purchased and due to the memory restrictions in the program it was taking causing issues. I ended up unloading all of them and have not bothered with any packages since. The base software actually works really well, but the add ones are in my opinion more trouble than they are worth.

DEX does not mean you go first, it means you get to choose when you go. Pay attention to holding actions and aborting. Going last on a phase and aborting the next to a defensive maneuver is incredibly effective. Block few, dodge many.

If the only complications the entire team has are hunteds that is probably going to be a problem. That would certainly lead to the problem the OP is asking about. A well rounded character should have a variety of complications, not just hunteds. A team should have something to tie it together and a common hunted is as good as anything else. Often when I am running will have the players take an unknown hunted at the beginning of the campaign representing the major villain of the campaign. The idea that if a complication/disadvantage has no effect does not count cuts both ways. If the character is going to suffer the negative effects of something it should count. So, if I don’t allow a hunted for a character because the hunted does not exist in my campaign, I should give the character credit for the hunted I am going to impose because of the campaign.

Assault has a good point on working hunteds into the story. If the GM is going to have a particular group show up a lot, he might want to encourage or even require all characters in the campaign to take that group as a hunted. Many campaigns I have been in almost all the characters have Viper as a hunted. Other campaigns often have other groups, but there is usually a lot of shared hunteds. For some characters buying a DNPC pool works better than defined DNPCs. Instead of writing up specific characters the player defines a fairly broad group of characters that will get involved. This could be anything from the girlfriend of the week to random friends. Have the character define a number of points for the complication/disadvantage and the GM decides on the details. One week the DNPC could be an old military buddy, the next week it could be your teenage niece. One thing to keep in mind about DNPCs is they are supposed to create more trouble than they are worth. So, the competent DNPC is usually going to get into some really dangerous situations. If the DNPC is providing more help than hindrances, they are not DNPC’s, and the character should be buying them as followers. Followers are the NPC most likely to cause problems. The way I handle followers is that their screen time is taken from the character that purchased them. If you have a lot of competent followers your only screen time may be giving orders.

For me it is going to be a matter of special effect and the type of campaign. For example, I would allow a Jedi in a Star Wars campaign to use a martial maneuver from a lightsaber based martial art with missile deflection. I would not allow the boxer in a James Bond inspired Danger International campaign to use his Boxing Block to deflect bullets. In most Champions games it will probably be ok, but will again depend on the special effect of both the maneuver and the missile deflection. If the missile deflection is bought with a focus (weapon) the martial art will need to have that as a weapon element.