mushoku

If penetration is applied to a ranged killing attack that does 0d6+1 damage, does that then mean that 1 point of damage gets through regardless of defenses (excepting hardness, of course)? The rules state that "the taget takes a minimum of 1 point of effect for every 1 'Normal Damage BODY' rolled on the dice." However, there is debate on whether that includes the +1 PIP or not. Thanks!

Re: Constant vs. Persistent Actually, it's not wrong. If you look at the healing power in the book, an optional rule for regeneration is given - requires 0 END Cost and Persistent, but only heals 1 BODY per d6 instead of the norm, though it then is cumulative. Note, though, that healing is an instant power (IIRC, I don't have the book with me). My thought is that Continuous provides added advantage for attack capabilities (continuing to do damage between phases without rolling for each segment), whereas persistent requires a new attack roll. Maybe, I don't know. Good question for Steve Long, me thinks.

Re: Detect: lie Yes, yes, this is quite true *evil grin*. Ahem, right, yeah... 0:-) But what you say is precisely true - it all depends on the GM/player interaction.

Re: Detect: lie *bleep*-ing magic. It was used in a D&D game in effectively the same situation as the following example: a level 20 fighter has bought their Jump skill to max (23 ranks), has a +5 strength, and some other misc modifiers, giving a total of +30 to Jump. They roll a 10, modified to a 40. That means that they can, with a 20-foot running start, jump 10 feet up. That is humanly impossible - without bringing the laws of physics into the mix, the highest high-jump is 8'0.5" (according to wikipedia), 2.5'-3' of which is simply the lifting of the legs, which the D&D game does not account for (since, if you jump up to a ledge you are not then considered prone). That would be explained as "FM" - it's not really magic, it's just a mechanic of the game that you simply accept. Heh, I still don't quite understand how the power would work in that case, though I'll take a look at it later today since I'll have access to the book, and someone who knows the system (that should help ;-p). I do understand what you mean by saying that these powers are simply building blocks, I just don't know all the mechanics.

Re: Detect: lie Naturally what you all are giving as possible situations could come to pass. It could also come to pass that a player will use "it's just woman's intuition" as an excuse for attacking someone their character has no reason to even think is a villain (I've seen it). It's called bad role-playing. And it's called bad GM-ing if the GM allows the player to get away with it or doesn't do anything about it. All of the possible abuses and misuses (which Steve's text seems to be bent on preventing) aside... If I were the GM and not the character, I would make the rolls myself without letting the player know whether they succeded or not, just whether or not they detected a lie, as necessary. As the player, with the assumption that the GM will do this (as I know he most likely will), I would NOT be an annoying little twit and "DETECT LIE! Is he lying?!?!" every sentance (or question). Anyone who does should be kicked out of the game on the basis of player immaturity. Look at the Luck power - it comes into play when the GM decides it should. I have a considerable amount of faith in this GM. As far as the opposed rolls - I've been thinking about this since yesterday. While thinking about the Detect power, I've noticed that it, like so many other powers, is infallible (assuming the wielder makes their roll(s)) excepting the appropriate defense. Naturally a character who is far more skilled at lying will have a greater ability to fool someone using a skill, but even with all the PD in the world, if you have no rPD or resistant damage reducation, that physical killing attack is getting through (or, at least, so I have recently learned). Bottom line, if the GM wants the lie to be believed or undetectable, either they will plan for it (some kind of specific defense power), or plot device. Or just good old forgetting that my char has that Detect power. Now, Robyn had said something about the methods of detection being unreliable. That's where one simply replies, "It's FM." It's not the real world, and not everything will have a completely valid scientific explaination. The power would be extreme intuition about whether someone is lying or not, combined with the reception of subconscious or otherwise undetectable audible/visible/et cetera signs, combined with supernatural (or, rather, super heroic) accuracy (based on PER rolls, of course). Beyond that, maybe they are sweating over something else and that gives an in-game explaination as to why I detected inaccurately (when I fail the PER roll). As far as the whole "self-convincing of the truth of what is actually a lie"... that might be a power or plot-device that either applies a modifier to my PER roll or makes it undetectable altogether. Though, without some serious brain-washing, I'd say the first. Convincing one's self as such is not exactly an easy thing to do (note the skill whose name does not come to mind that deals directly with being able to resist interrogation - ie, it requires a skill to do), and certainly cannot be done quickly - it has to be premeditated. Don't believe me? Go take a lie-detecter test where you don't know ahead of time what the questions will be, and try convincing yourself of the truth of the lies on the spot. Good luck. Anyway... Robyn - your idea of using telepathy or mind-link caught my eye. Can you expand on how these limitations work and how they would make the powers allowable in the setting? I don't have a book and don't know the game very well. Thanks Sean - the idea would that there would not be opposed rolls, though modifiers (possibly based on the "victim"'s roll, as applicable) might be used. But, yes, your point is valid that the GM could very well use it to the character's disadvantage if they desired to do so. Sorry if I rambled too much, or came across harshly or too strong in any way. I tried to be coherent and precise, and intend no bad-vibes or what-have-you. Oi... I'm tired. Thanks for the discussion - it definately keeps me thinking about this. And I've got plenty of time to figure out how or what I'm going to do with this - I don't think we'll be starting up this game for at least a month, maybe a lot longer.

Re: Detect: lie I guess I need to further define the ability, as well as the setting. The setting is that there are no mental powers whatsoever - so no telepathy. Here's how the power is set up: Detect A Single Thing: Lie 18- (no Sense Group), Range, Sense (13 Active Points); Sense Affected As More Than One Sense [very common Sense] (-1/2) It is affected as more than one sense in the way that he must hear and/or see (or otherwise perceive with the appropriate sense(s)) the subject or lie. So if it's a person talking to him, he would perceive that they were lieing by their voice, language, and body language (to include sweating and the likes); if it were a note, he would perceive by the language, possibly the handwriting, circumstances surrounding the note itself, et cetera. The character himself is intended to be based on the Shadow, who was able detect if a subject was lieing to him quite easily (though his ability was mental, this one differs in that it is not). Lastly, those who have mentioned it are correct - this is "detect lie," not "detect falsehood or inaccuracy."

Re: Detect: lie I personally like Robyn's idea that discriminatory tells what chategory of lie (falsehood, omission, half-truth (deceptiveness), or unsurety) is being told. However, analyze, I think, should give what pinecone suggested - type of motive. Thanks for your input, and please feel free to continue to discuss!

Is there a limitation to how many time a character may use the heal power pay day, or is it "as long as you have END to spend"? I noticed the "decreased re-use duration" advantage for the power which is defined as "allows a character to apply healing more than once per day," but it doesn't make sense that a character would be able to do so only once per day regularly (seems more appropriate as a limitation than as the norm).

I took the power "detect a single thing: lie," which is, in this case, storyline appropriate. I'm wondering what 'discriminatory' and 'analyze' would do in this case. I would think that: discriminatory - gives a few details about motive, what the lie pertains to, and/or yadda-yadda analyze - gives a little more detail about the above, and may even give details about the truth of the situation Thoughts? Or is this just way out there?

I've asked this question a few times of other people and never really got a definitive answer - it always side-tracked to what I could do with the Images power. On Invisibility, I have the "only while not attacking" disad. For this purpose, does using images count as an attack? I ask because I've been told that images is a very offensive power (if used correctly). It seems to me that it would not be considered an attack for any purpose because it, by definition, cannot have any direct effect of consequence, like causing damage, even though it can be indirectly lethal in such ways as making a cliff appear farther away than it really is. On another note - I was not able to post a response to the thread I had posted earlier (extra time on a characteristic). Is this by design? I couldn't find anything to suggest that it is locked or what not.. Thanks!

I'm completely new to the hero system, so please forgive my lack of experience. I created a character with a power that gives a boost to EGO (+15, 30 active points). Since the concept for the character is someone very timid in alternate ID, but not in heroic ID, I gave the disad of "only in heroic ID." However, to play it up a little more and to simulate that he gained confidence in himself gradually, rather than the very moment he entered his heroic ID, I added the "extra time (1 turn, only to activate)" disadvantage. My thinking is that since this is heroic ID only, the extra time would be allowed, and since it is persistent while on, "only to activate" would be required. Is this an ok disad for a characteristic? I have other rules questions, but I want to find out first if this is the correct place to post them, and if it is preferred to post them all in the same thread or separate threads. Thanks in advance!