voards

an idea having spent some time in the fantasy mmorpg's over the last few years, a character type that might appeal to you based on the above paragraph is someone who isn't very good on their own, but makes the team better. in everquest, for example, no good party can really function in a rough environment without without crowd control. best character for that is a class called an enchanter. on their own, an enchanter is not to powerful. but, they can stun or charm incoming monsters so the players only have to fight one or two at a time, as an example. how about a character who takes this one step further? some type of telekinesis or entangle, or a martial throw, but enough to hold someone in place a moment for the team brick to nail the target. some defensive abilities like missile deflect at range or a force wall to help a vulnerable teammate. maybe a little bit of healing to help out a person who is down. as for a character type, make this a person with some skills and training, say ex-military, who has some scientific and gadgeteering abilities. with some tactics and leadership, he makes his team all the more effective without being a powerhouse. and for the roleplay side, he's not sure he should be doing this because of his relatively weak power level on his own, but he's successful at making the team better. give him a wife and family to make him question this even further for even more angst potential. -v

one thing to look at in regards to applicability is whether or not the special effects would allow an EC as part of a powered armor. i've been examining this lately as i try to work up a powered suit character idea i've had. the FRED rules talk about a very good point for determining if an EC is appropriate. look at whether a drain/supress could affect all of the powers at once. not all powered armor suits can match up to this requirement. the classic 'iron man' type of suit with a slab of metal for armor, boot jets, and several kinds of weapons isn't very good for an EC. a drain/supress might be able to affect one power, but not others, unless you're getting into some very exotic special effects for your drain/supress. on the other hand, a more tight concept armor suit, let's use 'lady blue' from champions as an example, would have a concept for a powered armor that would could be easily affected by a single drain. her powers come from gravitic and/or force field manipulation, if i recall. i've really had to rethink how to use EC's under the FRED rules, but i think being more strict is helping me build more realistic characters under the rules. it is awfully easy and tempting to slap a lot into an EC in order to save points. however, all those powers in an EC are also getting more vulnerable in some ways due to how a drain/supress affects all of the powers in the EC, and how powers are lost from an EC when it's part of a focus in the case of a typical power armor. you need to look at what you're comfortable with here. if you feel your concept of a suit wouldn't lose several related powers from a penetrating hit or a drain/supress, then maybe an EC isn't the way to go. standard points in FRED are higher, which gives you room to eliminate a number of disadvantages while keeping the same rough power level. also, in looking through the sample characters for 5th edition products, i've noticed that the technology powered armor types do not have elemental controls as i remember. multipowers are common, but the non-attack powers that normally would be placed into an EC, such as flight, armor, force field and such are all on their own as seperate powers. -v