dsatow

So a long time ago (about 15 years IIRC) in a gaming house now but a distant memory, I ran a 5th game and introduced a lowered powered hero NPC trying to get into the main hero's roster.  That hero was MinMax.  When 6th came out, the new cost challenges for growth made that a bit difficult.  I think I finally got it down where I think power, CV, and damage variability is still playable.  She may still require some tweaking but on the whole seems okay.  Sadly, I am the only GM I know doing Hero right now and the only one doing 6th so she may be on hold for a while.
 
Power Level: Game Average: 12DC, 8 CV, 5 Spd
 
Sex: Female
Age: 18
Height: 157cm (5'2")
Weight: 51kg (112.5 lbs)
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Black
Handed: Right
 
Background: 
Maxine Ming is a mutant teenager with the size changing power. She found that within a limited range of her body, she could shrink herself and things she has to about the size of an ant. Later on, she found that she could enlarge herself. She trained a unique fighting style involving her shrinking/growth and the martial arts she studied her entire life. Now, with a new suit (which shee keeps in an altoids small tin), she fights in the San Francisco bay area as MinMax.
 
Personality/Motivation:
She's always had the push to be a doctor or lawyer from her parents.  Now in college, she's studying to be an engineer (an acceptable profession) but what she really wants to be is a superhero.  So she hides her adventuring behind a mask and suit while slowly earning an engineering degree.
 
Quote:
I'm MinMax.
 
Powers/Tactics:
Inside buidlings, she tends to stay small and use martial arts.  Her costume can change colors to help blend into the background.  Outside, if she needs a push in damage, she can grow to about 2 stories.
 
Appearance: 
She's 5'2" and weighs 112#.  She's fairly curvy for an Asian woman with a petite frame.
 
Notes:
Against opponents using only direct attacks, she's pretty unstoppable.  Shrunk, her DCV is around 24.  In normal size mode, her DCV can be on the average 12 assuming she's doing a martial punch and making her acrobatics roll.  She doesn't fly and that is something I'm a bit torn on.  Flight might be incredibly useful.  When she's big, her martial punch can land a whopping 14d6.  Her defenses go up to 20 points, and with 6 damage negation classes, an average 12d6 attack should do a point or two of stun on the average.  Her big weakness is area of effects.  When shrunk or normal sized, the area of effects negate her DCV.  When grown, while her PD/ED still go up to 20, she no longer gets her damage negation.  Combined with the bonus to hit her at that size, she's at a disadvantage with a cheap area effect being just +1/4 on 10d6 normal (doing 15 stun when grown or 21 at any other time against her 15 Con). 
 
MinMax.pdf

I think one of the best location ideas is from Urusai Yatsura is the school where just about everything seems to happen (all because of Ataru's massive unluck).  Spirits, aliens, magic, tech, etc.  Of course, that might be a bit too zany for some games/players.

Instead of Doctor Destroyer, maybe Science Teacher Destroyer, before he got his PhDs and paying off student loans.
 
It could be his evil origin story, he was going to be the greatest superhero but those teenage heroes drove him mad!!!!!
 
 

I would think that any supervillain is fine so long as they are scaled to the heroes.  Here are some themes which might be good for a campaign.
 
Evil authority figures:  basically along the theme of preventing a teenager from blossoming into a healthy individual
A group which promotes a "proper" line of thought: Fanatical religious groups or something like the Stepford Wives but with students Uncaring or evil teachers: Kind of like The Faculty (aliens). Evil tempters: getting teenagers to do wrong
A coven tempting PCs to the dark arts A gang tempting the PCs to be bullies and vandals The evil geek squad trying to be a power to manipulate society in their image.  More chess club, less football! There is no such villain villain: Villains which no adult believes exists
The hidden demon The silent take over aliens Replacements

This seems like a good idea, a nice place and in accordance with the rules let me say now.....Nazi’s suck.   
    P.S.   So does Hydra.
              P.P.S.   Although watching them get their butts kicked does make for a fun night of gaming or a fine evening of programming on the History Channel.

Instead of Doctor Destroyer, maybe Science Teacher Destroyer, before he got his PhDs and paying off student loans.
 
It could be his evil origin story, he was going to be the greatest superhero but those teenage heroes drove him mad!!!!!
 
 

Instead of Doctor Destroyer, maybe Science Teacher Destroyer, before he got his PhDs and paying off student loans.
 
It could be his evil origin story, he was going to be the greatest superhero but those teenage heroes drove him mad!!!!!
 
 

I would think that any supervillain is fine so long as they are scaled to the heroes.  Here are some themes which might be good for a campaign.
 
Evil authority figures:  basically along the theme of preventing a teenager from blossoming into a healthy individual
A group which promotes a "proper" line of thought: Fanatical religious groups or something like the Stepford Wives but with students Uncaring or evil teachers: Kind of like The Faculty (aliens). Evil tempters: getting teenagers to do wrong
A coven tempting PCs to the dark arts A gang tempting the PCs to be bullies and vandals The evil geek squad trying to be a power to manipulate society in their image.  More chess club, less football! There is no such villain villain: Villains which no adult believes exists
The hidden demon The silent take over aliens Replacements

I would think that any supervillain is fine so long as they are scaled to the heroes.  Here are some themes which might be good for a campaign.
 
Evil authority figures:  basically along the theme of preventing a teenager from blossoming into a healthy individual
A group which promotes a "proper" line of thought: Fanatical religious groups or something like the Stepford Wives but with students Uncaring or evil teachers: Kind of like The Faculty (aliens). Evil tempters: getting teenagers to do wrong
A coven tempting PCs to the dark arts A gang tempting the PCs to be bullies and vandals The evil geek squad trying to be a power to manipulate society in their image.  More chess club, less football! There is no such villain villain: Villains which no adult believes exists
The hidden demon The silent take over aliens Replacements

This is just how I adjudicate complex gestures vs regular gestures.  Other GMs may adjudicate otherwise.
 
If you have no issues doing something else with your hands, it's not worth the limitation gestures.  
If you can do something else with your hands but it might ruin what you are doing unless you succeed on a Dex roll, its normal gestures.
If you can't do something else with your hands, its complex gestures.

I would do vulnerability to magical effects(not damage) at 1.5x or 2x for 15/30 points.  This would allow magical chains of binding spells to affect her closer to how a normal human might be affected.
 
A psych lim that isn't mentioned which seems to happen a lot with super people, is the desire to fix whats wrong to the point it starts to become self destructive.
Ex: "Why was I late Lois?  Well, I was headed home with the chinese food, when I heard a little girl crying about a cat in a tree.  I fixed that problem, when a 1 alarm house fire went off.  I got that done, but a mugging on 5th and vine ..."
 
Another issue that tends to come up are Hunteds that seek a name recognition.  Take out Superman and you instantly become an A-Listed.  In fact, Superman had Maxmia for a while who came to breed with Supes.  Not really a harming hunted, but still keying off the fact that Supes is an extremely powerful entity.
 
Another is the classic NPC of the issue meme.  Basically, a flexible DNPC for the GM to use as a damsel in distress or a fan.  
Ex: The PCs meet Sister May who runs the orphanage.  Without her, according to her patrons, the orphanage will fall to ruin.  She works 16 hours a day, 365 days a year helping the orphans.  Then a villain takes a hostage who is of course Sister May.
 

Punisher Lite - Great Taste, Less Killing

How about oil slick grenades to cause people to slip and fall?
Flash Bangs are popular though I think I may over use them.
Aerosol numbing agents - Touch flash.  Makes it harder to fight in HTH.
Holographic 3D emitters.  Make 6 of you with images sight and sound.
Stun Knux.  Basically Tasers built into brass knuckles.
An ugly stick.  A linked PRE drain only vs. attacks.  You bloody then up so badly its hard to take them seriously.  I might have to do this against my players soon.  heh heh heh.
 
I have a couple of HTH fighters with neat gimmicks.  Most of these are on villains but a couple are on heroes.
I have a hero with 0 END Strength and martial arts.  However, he has a naked advantage on his entire punch damage that also costs 0 end with an activation roll of 8-.  The advantage is autofire 3, so yeah, it's expensive.  What happens is, I make a normal punch.  If I connect, I roll 3d6 and on a 8-, I find an opening and the regular attack becomes up to 3 more hits.  Note if I miss or I don't hit him well enough, it doesn't matter.  So far, its never activated properly. I have a villain which has 1d6 aid on a trigger.  Every time he misses, he aids his OCV (6th ed).  Eventually, he will get so good in combat as to always hit you.  The aid is only good against one hero, so different heroes have a different bonus to be hit.  The trick would be to constantly change who fights the villain.  So far, his OCV against a hero only got up to about +3 before he gets double teamed and knocked out (see below about one of the attacks). The same villain also had 2d6 aid to DCV on a similar trigger but only if he got hit by a direct attack.  He only got to +1 DCV before someone haymakered him to oblivion.  The main problem here was the players had poor CVs and he had a good DCV so he was hardly hit. The no martial art martial multipower (6th) basically has 20 strength, and 4 OCV and 4 DCV in multiple variable slots.  It also has HA area of effect hexes for groups of agents, HA AP as a find weakness attack, HA NND, and HA autofire. I am one of the few GMs which will allow speed drain and I have one martial artist with a 1d6 speed drain.  This probably isn't useful for most PCs as most GMs abhor this.  But you could also drain PD, ED, or CON per hit.  Basically wearing down of defenses and making it easier to stun the target. I have a gunfu character with a naked variable advantage on her gun (5th).  It allows her to do head shots (+ STUN), autofire, AP, or indirect with her single shot pistol as a form of trick shooting.  
 

You can abort to dodge.  The rules specifically say Defensive Action.  Dodge is a defensive action and is abort-able.  Dodge is not an attack action.  Its just an action which ends your phase.  This is important because you can dodge on your phase and then abort your next phase to block.  (For example, to abort your own dodge to block an attack for someone else.)
 
As far as if a character "powering up" for OiHID, I would say aborting to dodge would ruin the change.  Of course, this all depends on the GM, but most GMs I know would rule this way too.  This is also very comic bookie.  A lot of heroes have to dodge, dive for cover, etc. which interrupts their change into a superhero. 
 
You might be able to get your GM(especially if they played before 5th) to allow you to buy Instachange for 5/10 points.  Instachange was an older pre5th edition power that allowed you to instantly change into a superhero costume.

I wouldn't allow it.  I know it's listed in the rules, but it's a really dumb idea.  I don't think they thought it through very well.  Clinging is a movement power, hence why it's so cheap.  You're basically looking at a cheap auto-grab that doesn't cost End, and we don't want to go there.

RAW, I would say "No". The rules say:
For this Limitation to be valid, the character must have some difficulty changing forms — the change must take at least a Full Phase, if not longer (during which the character can do nothing else) So, it seems clear to me that it is intended to take time and fully occupy the character.
 
A GM might be lenient and interpret it differently, either across the board or on a case by case basis depending on SFX.
 
Otherwise you could take steps to mitigate your risk before activating the change, or potentially stop-gap the momentary weakness by taking a defensive ability with the Lim "only while transitioning between forms" if it bothered you enough. 

This is just how I adjudicate complex gestures vs regular gestures.  Other GMs may adjudicate otherwise.
 
If you have no issues doing something else with your hands, it's not worth the limitation gestures.  
If you can do something else with your hands but it might ruin what you are doing unless you succeed on a Dex roll, its normal gestures.
If you can't do something else with your hands, its complex gestures.

I would do vulnerability to magical effects(not damage) at 1.5x or 2x for 15/30 points.  This would allow magical chains of binding spells to affect her closer to how a normal human might be affected.
 
A psych lim that isn't mentioned which seems to happen a lot with super people, is the desire to fix whats wrong to the point it starts to become self destructive.
Ex: "Why was I late Lois?  Well, I was headed home with the chinese food, when I heard a little girl crying about a cat in a tree.  I fixed that problem, when a 1 alarm house fire went off.  I got that done, but a mugging on 5th and vine ..."
 
Another issue that tends to come up are Hunteds that seek a name recognition.  Take out Superman and you instantly become an A-Listed.  In fact, Superman had Maxmia for a while who came to breed with Supes.  Not really a harming hunted, but still keying off the fact that Supes is an extremely powerful entity.
 
Another is the classic NPC of the issue meme.  Basically, a flexible DNPC for the GM to use as a damsel in distress or a fan.  
Ex: The PCs meet Sister May who runs the orphanage.  Without her, according to her patrons, the orphanage will fall to ruin.  She works 16 hours a day, 365 days a year helping the orphans.  Then a villain takes a hostage who is of course Sister May.
 

This is just how I adjudicate complex gestures vs regular gestures.  Other GMs may adjudicate otherwise.
 
If you have no issues doing something else with your hands, it's not worth the limitation gestures.  
If you can do something else with your hands but it might ruin what you are doing unless you succeed on a Dex roll, its normal gestures.
If you can't do something else with your hands, its complex gestures.

I would do vulnerability to magical effects(not damage) at 1.5x or 2x for 15/30 points.  This would allow magical chains of binding spells to affect her closer to how a normal human might be affected.
 
A psych lim that isn't mentioned which seems to happen a lot with super people, is the desire to fix whats wrong to the point it starts to become self destructive.
Ex: "Why was I late Lois?  Well, I was headed home with the chinese food, when I heard a little girl crying about a cat in a tree.  I fixed that problem, when a 1 alarm house fire went off.  I got that done, but a mugging on 5th and vine ..."
 
Another issue that tends to come up are Hunteds that seek a name recognition.  Take out Superman and you instantly become an A-Listed.  In fact, Superman had Maxmia for a while who came to breed with Supes.  Not really a harming hunted, but still keying off the fact that Supes is an extremely powerful entity.
 
Another is the classic NPC of the issue meme.  Basically, a flexible DNPC for the GM to use as a damsel in distress or a fan.  
Ex: The PCs meet Sister May who runs the orphanage.  Without her, according to her patrons, the orphanage will fall to ruin.  She works 16 hours a day, 365 days a year helping the orphans.  Then a villain takes a hostage who is of course Sister May.