Comic

Re: Crusader, version Skuld only knows... I seem to remember Crusader as the archetypal Find Weakness martial artist.

I'm trying to come up with how to implement an 'en passant' maneuver that works as an extra HTH attack under limited circumstances (mainly triggered by an opponent doing a half move -- like standing up or taking a step) on an opponent in or passing through an adjacent hex. I'm not sure whether to build it as +1 SPD, as an Extra Limb, as a martial maneuver, as a triggered attack, or as an MPA. Is there something I'm overlooking on how to simply implement this idea I've seen in other games (chess, for one) for exploiting an opening created by an opponent's tactics?

Re: Help Creating a Desol Character For the later version of the Doctor, instead of Desolid you may opt for 3 Levels Shrinking (Always On) and Images (One Image Only), plus appropriate Life Support. That would let the image disappear while the Doctor (his mobile emitter) is knocked out.

Re: Prefect Duplication? Page 155. Duplication > Powers > Absorbtion. For every point absorbed into Duplication, 5 points for the purposes of building Duplicates becomes available. I know this doesn't answer the question, but it's where I'd start if I were building my own version of this power. So much of the rest of the answer depends on the details: Fade Rate, total character points, how many 'free' duplicates you get before absorbing anything, how fast you want to absorb...

Re: Sell my friends on DCV So, how are we doing so far? What do your friends think?

Re: Darth Vader vs. The Hulk Hulk's ranged attacks: Sonic clap. NND, defense is Immunity to Disease. AoE. Earthshaker. (Doesn't apply if Hulk can't reach the ground with any attack.) Stretching. Kirby Perspective fists can reach anything. Gamma Field. Sure, it's only a powerful radioactive globe surrounding the Hulk, but it's also Deus Ex Machina. Wonder how midichlorians deal with that, huh? Spit in the Eye. That's radioactive green Hulkspit. In the eye. Take that, Sithboy. Purple Spear. One recoverable charge. OIF Purple Pants. One phase delay to remove pants and spin into a rat-tail-like projectile. Sure, it means Hulk is naked, but that's never exactly been a disadvantage for him. Grunge from Under Hulk's Fingernails. Ten charges. Gamma-irradiated Hulk-Grunge, thrown with Hulk Strength...

Re: Powers for a Growth Brick Absorbtion to Stun, to simulate that the little tiny pinprick attacks help his lethargic giant circulation overcome gravity and distance. Combined with Damage Reduction, and Armor proportional to size, might help against the 'lucky shot from a mile away', too. Environmental Movement - Urban, has a special meaning for Growth Bricks. Darkness from the dust kicked up by his movements, and at least some Change Environment, could be handy and is at least in concept.

Re: Witchcraft is up She doesn't look as much like Eliza Dushku as I expected she would.

Re: Sell my friends on DCV Repeating somewhat what has gone before, with examples. For some characters, DCV could be exactly what your friends agree -- quite sensibly -- couldn't work for normal people. The ability to reliably dodge out of the way of bullets is a power or superhuman-level characteristic or skill beyond the range or ordinary humans. The Flash, Superman, Neo, Spiderman, Jedi Masters, Blade.. can all be built using the Hero System with DCV explained by their incredible rapid perceptions and reflexes, plus at least some degree of toughness beyond normal humans. For other special effects of DCV -- small size (the Atom), partial invulnerability (Wolverine), misdirecting the shooter's hand (Batman), dumb luck (James Bond) for example -- they may also be describing something between 'improbable' but faintly plausible odds against success and outright genre conventions. DCV covers all of these as a mechanic. This allows James Bond to meet Luke Skywalker, if they want, in a meaningful way, in one game system. DCV is just one aspect of the universality and flexibility of the Hero System that makes it so much more playable than many others, while still satisfying play balance and conceptual creativity.

Re: Mental regen Not to be unkind, but.. have you considered: Step 1. Firmly grasp upper left quadrant of character sheet in left hand. Step 2. Firmly grasp upper right quadrant of character sheet in right hand. Step 3. Ensure both elbows are at roughly a 90 degree angle, hands upwards in front of your chest. Step 4. Draw left hand toward right shoulder. Step 5. Simultaneously push right hand toward the horizon, to the right. This is clearly a rp situation you don't enjoy. Move on.

Re: Darth Vader vs. The Hulk Now, if they're built on the same 350 points with a 75 AP Cap, a Brick vs. a Martial Artist with an OAF HKA vs ED and a small VPP Gestures RSR (Power Skill Force).. I'd have to say it could go either way, depending on Stun Lotto, but experience favors the Martial Artist by odds of about 5:2.

Re: Dark Matter Being Nice. Might also look at Stretching, Tk, Change Environment, and attacks with large AoE's to reflect Dark Matter's diffuse nature.

Re: Tk with no strength defense And a good thing it is! Swinging UAA is bad enough. But seriously, if you can see why buying "Normal Vision, UAA" shouldn't try to replace Images/Flash/Darkness, then it must be clear why buying any movement UAA is so suspect. It's easy to overlook how powerful an effect putting a character a few inches other than the place they want to be is, even if you've seen it happen time and time again. It's hard to find a balanced price for this effect when the defense is something other than the common one, STR. As a general guideline, I feel looking for the core attack for moving someone else at range should start with Telekinesis, because there is a defined mechanic for this attack that is designed to be used as an attack. Likewise, looking for an Advantage that works for 'resisted by other than STR' seems to match most closely something like AVLD Does Body (+2.5), though I have the sense that this may be too cheap for what is obtained. I'd allow at most one such power per character, for example, to keep them from switching around until they find a quality their target has little resistance in. I'd also allow substituting PRE or INT or DEX for EGO, for example, since there are alternate means for breaking out of Grabs than pure STR (Contortion/Double Jointed/Desolid/Shrinking/Growth/Teleport) which also, I imagine, won't be useful if STR is no longer useful.

Re: Does anyone really roll 30D6? Back when Dispel was 3 pts/d6, I had a character with a 30d6 Dispel PD IPE Always On Damage Screen, with some fairly steep limitations. She was introduced to the campaign as the sacrifice for a DEMON summoning ceremony. Apparently the heroes conducting the rescue goofed, and let the ceremony go too far. The summoned evil arch-prince of whatever (I never did find out) arrived, picked up my character with both hands, and the GM rolled 30d6. One guy at the table winced, and looked shocked, saying "Ouch. Rough way to lose your character, before you even got a chance to play." The GM said, "Oh. That wasn't the DEMON-guy's attack on her. That was her attack on him." And then someone asked for a description of what happened. "You notice nothing at all. But the DEMON-guy seems suddenly nervous." In the pile-on by the heroes, the pyro-girl had no effect with her EB, though the knockback did stun that got through the very much reduced PD. The mentalist had no effect at all. The (total CVK) Martial Artist punched through the demon's rib cage, before it fled back to its home dimension, vowing revenge on the Morbanes for their 'deception'. Alas, poor Fluffy. Her main power was zero help to everyone on the team except the one guy who didn't want it.

Re: The power of Recovery If the game has AP caps on attacks, then it'd also be fairly easy to work out the maximum Power Defense needed to stop the maximum extended Drain. Say 75 AP; 6d6 Drain +1/4 Delay Return 5 AP/Minute => 36 AP Power Defense needed. (Cumulative won't matter, since the Defense is applied against each separate roll.) Since the odds against getting hit with a roll of 36 is so low, the net Limitation might be slightly higher; call it -2. 12 points to recover 5 AP/Turn from all Drains, Transfers, or Transforms seems about fair, for a 75 AP cap game.

Re: Does anyone really roll 30D6? I fall a lot. From high places. When I'm lucky, it's 30d6 Normal. Sometimes, it's 10d6K.

Re: Darth Vader vs. The Hulk Doom's cunning and subterfuge defeated the young Beyonder's innocent naivete. (However briefly.) Wolverine's ability to understand his opponent allowed him to subvert Lobo's flagrantly feeble values. Spiderman's (yes, I know it really was just because his name was on the cover; face it, no one wanted to read three different Firelord titles a month in the 1980's if Spidey lost) humble stick-to-itiveness overcame Firelord's arrogance, vainglory and impatience. All of Vader, summed up, against all of Hulk, summed up.. Well, Vader could blow up the Earth from somewhere outside the Moon's orbit. Hulk can't destroy the entire Empire. Vader wins at that level. Face-to-face, the contest is equally one-sided, in the other direction. Cunning Hulk has more guile than cunning Vader. Strong Hulk is orders of magnitude stronger than strong Vader. Smart Vader has the apparent edge on smart Banner, but Banner's been extremely quick to pick up and radically improve new technologies, where Vader was raised in the world of advanced technology and only made incremental improvements.

Re: The power of Recovery So.. What about an advantage for a character to recover from Drains and Transfers at a faster rate? How would you build, say, a Speedster who instead of losing STR that recovers at 5 points every 5 minutes, recovers it at 5 points per Turn? Is there a better way than limited Healing?

Re: Tk with no strength defense So much cheaper if it's Leaping UAO, by the way. Sure, doesn't affect airborn or swimming targets, but since you're looking for something that isn't resisted by STR, you're mostly targeting things with high STR anyway.

Re: Dark Matter Being Invisibility and Desolidification? Since you can't see or be affected by the stuff, other than its gravitational effects.

Re: Tk with no strength defense Not conscious = not resisting. You can treat non-resisting targets as if they were inanimate. Except for the part where they take Stun damage, and the part where they die if they take enough Body damage.

Re: Tk with no strength defense Seems cheap to me. In effect, it's Tk AVLD, Does Body, which at least is +2.5 True, 'resisting Tk' by STR is not a defense, but it's the common way to resist Tk grabs.

Re: Multiple Power Attacks: How much is too much? The point of the system is to be able to build any character that can be imagined. MPAs reflect a real ability of characters. Getting the mechanics to balance is the job of the players and the GM to collaboratively arrive at. If MPAs are overused or unbalancing in play, there's likely some compromise or adjustment that can be made to counter the effect.

Re: "Neat" Pictures Convergent evolution predicts that for cases where an organism fills the same niche and has similar gross features, analogous structures frequently develop. True bats and flying foxes both have wings, sonar, poor night vision and almost identical (in appearance) reproductive systems, although they are not closely related species. OTOH, flying fish look nothing like flying foxes. A convergent evolutionary process could be attributed to this situation, and satisfies all xenozoological niceties. Given that we're already talking about a genre where there's faster-than-light travel.

Re: Wonder Woman on 350 points Isn't her modern suit supposed to be magic Olympian armour with its own secret weaknesses?