LoneWolf

Why not drain the appropriate STAT? A character with 0 DEX, or EGO must make an appropriate roll to perform an action. 0 DEX only affects physical actions, but EGO covers doing anything. 0 PRE prevents you from performing any offensive action.

There are plenty of places not connect to the grid. For the Megascale teleport there are lots of wilderness areas that are not on the grid. Sure most places in the urban areas are within a KM of the grid, but lots of places are not. For the standard teleport there even within the cities there are places that would not be reachable. For middle of the field on a football stadium would not be reachable. Even lawns in a lot of suburban areas would not be able to be reached directly. It would also mean you could not teleport to a car, plane boat or most other vehicles as they are not connected to the grid. The limitation only to places connected to the grid also would mean where you teleport to has to be directly connected. So for example you could come out of a light socket or maybe even an electrical appliance, but often would not be able to choose the precise hex where you emerge. So after you teleport into the room with your target you may need to make another move (or half move) to actually reach where you need to be.

The word gun or pistol is a legitimate description that does not rely on game terms. The point is a character (not the player) should be able to discuss any power or skill being used in the game without using game terms unless the game mechanic uses a commonly understood term. Personally I find it breaks the roleplaying when characters start throwing around game mechanics in game. I wrote up a proof of concept character for another thread that did not name or fully define his spells and half the people on the thread jumped all over me for doing so. It was never intended as a playable character but none the less I got a lot of criticism over it, and was told by multiple people that no way they would allow such a cheesy poorly written character in their games.

The character.

How a power works, and how the character thinks it works may be totally different. I have no problem with a character now knowing the source of their power, but often in those cases there are people in the game who do know how it works. You should be able to describe a power in the game without using game mechanics. While a gun may be defined as a ranged killing attack in the game, how many people in the real world refer to it as such? When someone is killed with a AK-47 the news does not say Man killed with 2d6 5 shot autofire RKA, it says man killed with an assault rifle.

A power can be written up in multiple ways. But a character in the game, not the player should be able to describe the power without having to use game terms. The classic example that is used in the book is lightning bolt. That could be written up using a number of powers including RKA, BLAST or even something more exotic. But a character in the game should be able to describe it so that another character can understand it. Put it another way you should be able to describe any power in a way that a person not familiar with the Hero system (or any other game for that matter) can understand it. When was the last time you heard someone outside of the Hero gaming community describe a gun as a ranged killing attack?

The difference is that mental entangle is strictly a game mechanic, and could have many different special effects. You could also create the same special effect by using a different power. I could define my mental entangle as a telepathic command to not move. I could also achieve the same affect by using mind control with a limitation single command only. Both powers are legitimate ways to achieve the affect the character wants. Mental entangle is probably the better way to achieve the goal, but a character with full mind control could also choose to use that to accomplish the same thing. The advantage for the character with full mind control is that he can also force a target to do other things. In the hero system special effect is everything, and is independent of the game mechanics. That is outright stated on page 12 of the rules. A well written power will be able to described without using any game mechanics at all. In some cases the words used for the game mechanics may be the same ones as the game mechanic, but that is because the game uses English words. In other words a character in the game should be able to describe the power in game and explain how it works. If that cannot be done it reeks of cheesy design, and would not be allowed in my games. The value of a limitation is going to vary from campaign to campaign. I don’t know the specifics of the campaign so I cannot say what is appropriate. In a campaign I run the -1 limitation would work, but would be defined as only works vs mental restraints. That would mean it applies to mental entangles, but also vs mind control and mental illusions with the relevant commands or affects. If in the campaign mental entangles are so common that it is only worth a -1 limitation, I would require a lesser limitation.

Unless it has limitations on it Mind Control can make the target do just about anything. I have actually seen a telepath with mental illusions use it on a speedster to make him think he was tied up. That allowed the other characters to attack him without having to worry about an entangle giving him defense. It did not last for long but it lasted long enough to take him down. The character had very little defenses and relied on DCV to avoid being hit. His Ego on the other hand was not that good so the telepath was able to make him think he was tied up which dropped his DCV down considerably

What about if someone uses another type of mental power to prevent her from moving? A mind control can easily be used to prevent someone from moving. A good enough mental illusions could be used for this although it would require a very high result. Even change environment with the right special effect could be considered a mental power that limits your movement. Why does the ego not apply to those powers? Mind control is actually a lot more common than mental entangles. If the ego applies against those powers it should be at most a -1 limitation. If you have an actual reason why it would only apply to mental entangles a -2 would be appropriate, but I don’t see any justification besides wanting to get out of a mental entangle to purchase that.

For something like this you will probably want to go with things that will almost always be useful instead of those that will be more specialized. 1) Overall skill levels. This is going to be useful no matter what he is doing 2) Damage Negation 3) Summoning (A random person show up and helps him) 4) Variable Aid to any attack (Expanded weapon master) 5) Striking Appearance (Bonus to social skills and PRE attacks)

If you only glow when you take damage I would not consider that worth a limitation. On the other hand if you glow whenever the power is active that would be worth a -1/4 limitation. Being able to determine that a your defenses are up does give your opponents some tactical advantage. For example they can wait until the power is not active to shoot you.

If it is not a -0 limitation it would need to be an advantage which would increase the cost of the attack therefore allowing you to take less damage. In previous editions you simply defined the attack as doing stun only. 6th edition they tend to use more -0 limitations for it.

One thing that no one has mentioned is that a psychological complication can reduce the affects of both mind control and PRE attacks. Any character who is supposed to be immune to fear should have a total psychological complication in addition to any powers to simulate his bravery. For PRE based fear attacks it is going to reduce the PRE attack by 3d6, for Mind Control based fear attacks it will set the difficulty at EGO +30, or gain an additional +10 depending on circumstances. This should be added to any method for purchasing immunity to fear. The way I would create this would be to purchase +20 PRE, & +20 EGO with the Inherent advantage, only vs Fear. This ups the cost of what is found in Fantasy Hero 6th edition to 16 points instead of 14, but means the PRE or EGO cannot be drained or dispelled. Add that to the total psychological complication and it is unlikely that any fear based attack will work. Even if the characters normal stats are drained to 0 they still have 20 when it comes to fear based effects. While inherent is a stop sign advantage in this case it makes since especially if It is the GM trying to create a talent. At this point all the GM has to do is to declare this power to be absolute and the character is immune to fear.

For the most part if the vehicle is the target of the attack the damage is not going to affect the passengers. On the other hand destroying the vehicle may cause it to crash and that might damage the passengers. If I shoot the engine of a car traveling at 50 mph the bullet is not likely to hit the driver of the car. But since the car is no longer able to be controlled by the drive it will probably crash. I would treat that as a move through based on the velocity of the vehicle. Things like wearing seatbelts and airbags may reduce this damage. If the attack was an area of effect and it was able to penetrate the defenses and body of the vehicle the passengers would take any remaining damage. This is the same thing as if the characters where behind a wall. Now if the attack was targeting the passengers instead of the vehicle that is a different story. In that case the character takes the damage from the attack minus the Def and Body of the vehicle. Depending on the nature of the vehicle it may cause other damage when it is destroyed. For example a modern vehicle with a combustible fuel source may explode when destroyed. On the other hand a small unpowered sail boat is just going to sink. In the first case the characters would take damage from the explosion, in the second case about all that is going to happen is they get wet and have to swim to get away. In any case that damage is completely separate from the damage that destroyed the vehicle.

That sounds like a straight up side effect that always occurs, and as such would be worth a -1 limitation. To avoid taking body simply apply the -0 limitation Stun Only from the description of the Blast power. This results in exactly the effect you are looking for.

For the most part it’s actually pretty difficult to kill someone in a champion’s game unless you are using high dice killing attacks. Even when using powerful real world weapons they cannot outright kill most normal people. Take a Desert Eagle pistol, it is a 2d6+1 RKA which means it does a maximum or 13 Body, but on the average does 8 Body. A normal character has 10 Body and does not die until they have taken 20 Body. Using a rifle will increase the damage a little, but not that much unless you are using a weapon capable of autofire. Anything with any kind of armor is going to reduce this significantly. To really threaten someone one with death in a Champions game you have to use powerful weapons designed to kill people. Most characters other than normal innocent bystanders are going to have enough defenses to withstand the Body of a normal attack. Sure they may take a Body or two here and there but for the most part it rarely comes into play. About the only time that characters take a lot of body is in a heroic level campaign using the optional hit location and critical hits. In those campaigns combat can be deadly and characters are taking are risking their life by engaging in combat. The biggest consequence I see for ignoring body is that it is going to make it difficult to threaten innocents. If you are running some sort of bugs bunny campaign then it may be ok, but in anything more realistic without the chance of taking body it going to be hard to threaten normal. A big part of most Hero systems games is actually being a Hero. If the players know that the people the villain is threatening is not in any real danger they have less reason to try and save them rescue them quickly. Now instead of worrying that if they don’t take out the person holding the hostage before they can hurt them, they will ignore the danger to the hostage and use a safer way to take out the villain In my opinion the real reason the rules for taking Body damage exist in most Champions games is to give the players something to worry about. Sure Spiderman does not need to worry about being killed by most of the things he goes up against, but Aunt May on the other hand will be obliterated by them if she gets hit.

Another thing to consider in the example is that contact with an organization means you can get multiple people involved. Contact with an FBI agent is only 5 points. For the 15 points you know multiple people willing to help you. With the 15 point contact you could arrange for agents in multiple agents to help you. So for 5 points you could have one agent you know feeding you information. The 15 points could allow you to setup surveillance on multiple targets around the clock, or it could be you have agents in multiple cities looking into the problem.

The other difference between a membership and a contact is that with a membership you still have to do the work. With a contact someone else is doing the work. For example if you are a member of the FBI you have access to their files and information, but you have to find it, which may skills or abilities to properly use. Having access to the FBI database without having the skills to search it does not get you much. On the other hand if you have a contact with an FBI agent they probably do have the skills and may have them at a higher level than your character.

In all honesty find weakness was completely unbalancing in the older editions. Removing it from 6th edition was in my opinion a good thing. It was expensive, but if the target did not have lack of weakness it allowed you to reduce their defenses to next to nothing. If the target did have lack of weakness it made it useless. In 6th edition instead of using find weakness you can use skill levels to increase your damage even in a super powered game. While the mechanics are different the end results are similar. In both cases the target takes more damage from your attacks. Using skill levels to increase your damage is better balanced because the amount of damage it is increased is based on how much you paid for skill level. With find weakness the amount of damage increases is based on how much the target paid.

Hero designer works for me. With my handwriting it takes way too long and the character is unreadable. Doing on the computer allows me to not only create the character faster and make the end product legible. It also allows me to put in a background and notes. I can type much faster and more accurately than I can write by hand.

Impersonating a person would fall under acting not mimicry. Mimicry would be a complementary skill, but the primary sill would be acting. The first line in the description of acting even mentions speech patterns. Mimicry by itself allows you to alter your voice so the tone and pitch matches the person being mimicked, but does not cover things like accents and speech patterns. Those would be done by acting which is a PRE based skill. Many tasks actually require more than a single skill to pull off properly. That is what the complementary skill rules are for.

Why does the character need to have his parents involved? Unless the character took a complication to represent his parents he does not need any. He could easily be an orphan or otherwise separated from his parents. A lot of fantasy stories have similar characters. You are also project modern social constraints on a different time period. There was a book that I read about King Arthur that stated most warriors started training by age 7, and began fighting when they were 14 and dies by the time they were 20. Have the player build the character and see what he comes up with. If there is anything you think is going to be a problem discuss it with him and works it out between you. I have actually played a couple of characters that were kids. The youngest was in a Champions game and was a mutant that so even at 12 was stronger than a normal man. He was also a genius and was able to hide the fact he was so young.

Having a high DEX does not mean that you go first. Having a high DEX means you get to choose when you go. The biggest mistake most people make with high DEX characters is always going first. Knowing when to go first and when to allow someone else to go first is what makes a character effective.

Considering disguise is an INT based sill, and mimicry is basically disguising your voice it should also be a INT based skill. PRE based skills are skills that involve interacting with other creatures. While mimicry often also deals with interacting with other creatures sometimes it does not. Mimicry could be used to fool a device like a computer or voice activated security system.

How much damage does someone take if they are hit with a penetrating killing attack in a game that uses hit locations? For example let’s say I have a 2d6 RKA hit in the head for average damage against a target with enough defenses to stop the attack, but the defenses are not impenetrable. Since I rolled 2 for the “Body” that means that 2 points get through no matter how much defense or damage reduction the target has. But a head shot has a x2 multiple for body. So does that mean the target takes 4 Body, or do they take 2?