Nekkidcarpenter

Re: Does anyone have any idea why this is legal?

And of course a huge mp reserve with a whole bunch of ultra slots which aren't bought to the full cost of the reserve, but no two of which are usable at the same time due to their size. Not exactly min-maxing.....

Re: How would you build?

You can also just go with a Physical Limitation or Side Effect, which is what I'd do. It will make your GM's job a hell of a lot easier if you just have an activation roll and side effect(gm's option), indicating your power doesn't always do what you want and you can't control what it does very well.

Frankly, when a pc says 'I want to be the most powerful guy ever but my powers only work half the time', I say 'Interesting special effect. In game terms you're the SAME POWER LEVEL as everyone else. But you do have a cool background and limitations and go ahead and rp that and if you do it well maybe someday it will come into play. Someday. Once.'

Re: Flying Dodge

Especially as it guarantees that someone targeting you with HtH (rather than ranged) attacks will miss.

Except that if you abort your phase to get +4DCV from Flying Dodge, I suspect most GM's rule as I do that the attack is rolled and the result applied, and if you're still able to do that full move only then is it allowed.

Re: Blocking/Counterstriking... Knockback (unrelated)

Being proactive' date=' in Hero, like in real life is always better than being reactive.[/quote']

 

 

 

 

Except that Hero doesn't use that ridiculously overused fake terminology 'proactive'. The opposite of reactive is ACTIVE. As in 'it is better to be active than reactive'. Proactiv is some sort of hair or skin product. It isn't something you do, it's something people with bad hair or skin BUY.

Re: SFX for Darkness with IPE?

A long ago campaign used this power for one very simple purpose- to obscure targeting. I'm puzzled by several poster insistence that this effect somehow generates Darkness that is only detectable if you're in it (or outside of it, whichever). Darkness with IPE creates a field which duplicates the game effects of Darkness but can't be detected. So you think you're seeing normally, but when you try to attack someone whifff! Also, you don't actually have line of sight so you might try a mental power only to find you can't

target your intended victim.

It's more about paying attention to what Darkness does in the game and not basing your interpretation on the name, sort of like Shape shift.

Re: Entangle

Don't have my book near me, so I'm trying to remember if you can Push your Ego to bust out of Mental Paralysis. Personally, I'd tend to allow it, but I suspect there are rules involved.

Re: Normally Small character who can Grow

Or you could simply say that your characters normal size is Minute, and buy some DCV levels without spending all those points on Shrinking. Buy a few levels if you want, but you don't have to buy all those levels if you just want to be small. A housefly for example, doesn't have the DCV 20+ that it would have if it had all the levels of Shrinking it requires to be that size, and your character doesn't need to spend all those points either. SFX, my good man, sfx.

Re: Pet Powers

I tend towards the highest DCV, lowest defenses in the group. If I don't get hit, I don't take ANY damage, and therefore have to do no paperwork. If I get hit, I frequently go down which also minimizes paperwork.

Similarly, I usually buy all my stuff to 0 End. And frequently sell back most of my Endurance.

Re: Desolid and Strength

Whats interesting to me about the Turbofist build isn't the Aff. Phys World aspect, but that anyone would think the '+3 Hearing roll' limitation was worth -1/4 on the EC. This basically meaningless limit saved the character around 40 points. The power level of the character is obviously campaign specific, but limitation values are pretty generic. When I'm evaluating a limitation I like to look at how many sessions worth of experience the character is saving before I allow it.

Aff. Phys. World is definitely worth a stop sign, and it can become unbalanced very quickly. It can be a cool effect though, and fun as long as it's properly moderated.

Re: I am so, so old...

Man, you are frickin old. Ancient. Prehistoric. If only this world was run like Logan's we wouldn't have to deal with dinosaurs running around posting on forums.

Re: Munchkin Build Contest?

Come on people, a little more imagination please.

Detect dislike or intent to harm 12- (Unusual Group), Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees), Microscopic: x10, Perceive into any dimension, Range, Rapid: x10, Sense, Targeting, Telescopic: +13

Teleportation 1", Conditional Power Only vs. things that trigger Detect (+0), Inherent (+1/4), Personal Immunity (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Affects Desolidified Any form of Desolidification (+1/2), Usable As Attack (+1), Invisible Power Effects (Fully Invisible; +1), Continuous (+1), Transdimensional (Any Dimension; +1), Damage Shield (Offensive; Affects Mental And Physical Attackers; +1 1/4), Trigger (Activating the Trigger is an Action that takes no time, Trigger resets automatically, immediately after it activates, Three or more activation conditions apply simultaneously; +1 1/2), MegaScale (1" = 1,000 lightyears; +4 1/4), Area Of Effect (786432" Radius; +5 1/2), Conforming (+1/2) (40 Active Points)

If you don't like me, I teleport you into the sun. Well, not OUR sun. Some sun, somewhere.

Note that the Detect is actually 60 AP as it's really hard to munchkin build Detects. And Danger Sense might be a little better fit although it's more about actually being in Danger, so I didn't think it was appropriate. And it might not really need Targeting as once it Triggers the Tport will automatically hit the offending creature and remove it.

Re: Rant? Speed in Hero

I had this argument over Jet Li's The One. I argued that Li's character just used a lot of sweep maneuvers and built his attacks with Area Of Effect.....

I would suggest that it's more basic than that. Any sort of combat chart progresses through it's interpretations of people's actions, assigning values to abilities starting with the least capable combatants and culminating in Jet Li.

Re: Rant? Speed in Hero

Disassociating the Speed Chart with actual time makes a lot of things seem more believable.

Re: [Character writeup] Zl'f (revised)

Variety is the spice of life. I know for a fact that if I tried to submit a character with an extensive history and description of permanent physiological changes and then attempted to claim 'Speed,et al-OIHID', I'd just get laughed at. Congratulations on shaving points that way! Zl'f is an inspiration to all of us who have gm's that expect our stories and limitations to match.

Great story, hope you get your 100 xp soon.

Re: Thoughts on SPD

Actually, 42 - 15 = 27. This is probably still enough to Stun the typical Martial Artist, however. That's the key to me. If the MA gets hit, even once, the battle is probably over for him. Once he's stunned, he becomes very easy to take out.

 

This is rarely the case in my experience. A long time MA player, I can remember several occasions where the GM gleefully announced that he'd defied the odds; hitting and stunning my character. The sequence that followed was usually something like this.

Me- Recover from being stunned. Abort my next phase to block, dodge or whatever was appropriate. Eventually catch back up due to higher Speed and renew my whittling down of the brick.

GM-Frown.

And this was with a 7 Speed character vs 4 or sometimes 5 Speed opponents. I find it unlikely in practice that a 9 Speed MA who can leak ANY damage through a 4 Speed Bricks defenses will lose to that Brick. And there are certainly many potential mitigating factors that can swing things either way, but consider this.

100 mock MA/Brick fights are run. You win a years salary if you correctly guess which one will win the higher percentage, or if it's exactly even. So you try to eliminate your bias and kneejerk reactions and predict the winner based on facts instead of opinions. You may have a preferred character type, but who are you willing to put your money on?

In the words of a wise man, 'the race may not always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. But that's the way to bet'.

Re: Thoughts on SPD

That still doesn't justify giving a brick a higher OCV than an MA. It may justify an equal OCV, though even that is pushing it.

 

First of all, if a brick has a higher OCV, then most of the time when it comes to Brick vs MA the brick will win in one or two hits. He may not knock the MA unconscious on his first hit but he will probably Stun him; and at that point Mr. MA is dead meat because he lacks the high CON and STUN the brick has. You're worried about the brick going down in 7-8 hits, but you don't see a problem with the MA taking a fall in 1-2 hits?

Rock beats Scissors.

THAT is part of the genre. You may not like it and it may not play that way in your campaign, but R-P-S is a core concept of the entire universe, and that's just the way it is. Now if your Scissors were made out of Rock you might have a chance to reshoot the match, but Scissors NEVER wins.

Unless the Rock has a high cellulose content.

In other words, some characters have no chance to beat certain other characters. Zero. Nada. Nil.

In practice very few characters are just one thing; they add a little Paper to their Rock to give them a chance to beat other Rocks, but this makes them slightly vulnerable to Scissors. But there are also those to whom 'Good old Rock. Nothin beats Rock' is more than a Simpsons quote, its the definition of their character. And if you're Mr. Pointy, you're gonna get smashed.

Re: Rant? Speed in Hero

I've been away from my computer for a month and I thought to myself as I signed on this morning, 'at least I won't have to read any more on that Speed rant I started waaay back when'. Although I must admit, having Treb and Hugh going back and forth made reading it worthwhile.

The idea that dropping Dex by 9 and Speed by 1 saves everyone points 34 points is correct in a limited way, but in fact it saves significantly more as then players can rethink their Endurance. Frequently a End hog that had to overbuy their Con or Rec just to avoid having to burn Stun after 2 turns finds that the lower Speed

makes them into a more efficient character. Similarly, characters who formerly bought 1/2 or 0 End on their powers may be able to stretch a little bit and buy no reduced End or 1/2 End instead.

Overall, one of the things that I like most about reducing Dex and Speed is it the way it gives more points to spend on the interesting aspects of character creation. Trying to create a cool Metamorph but can't quite squeeze all the points you want to build his powers? Hey, this campaign has a lower average Dex/Speed! Now I can actually buy those Enhanced Senses!

Also, while initially some characters may think that buying CSL's to make up for the 'lost' Speed are a good idea, when all the other characters become more flexible (which IME always translates in the long run as 'more effective') he may rethink that stragedy. I don't think I've ever posted it here, but I also advocate increasing the max AP for powers and Defenses, because stats really aren't that interesting. What's interesting in Hero is not the characteristics that define the characters physical being, it's the POWERS. And less points on stats means more points for cool POWERS!

Re: When the good cosmic being motiffs are taken

Triangle Man!

Don't mess with him. You don't want a repeat of what happened to Person Man.

Re: How to rescue civilians

...but I can still throw (the manouvre) someone 30" and not hurt them?

As someone that was once thrown out of a moving vehicle and 'skidded along at an oblique angle' for about 50 meters (25") I can say with authority that it hurts. That ruling is obviously ridiculous and someone deserves a major boner award for it.

I'm not sure who thinks road rash is less damaging than other types of impact but I'd be happy to drag them along behind my truck for a while and then run into them to see which they'd prefer.

(Kidding, I don't even have a hitch)

Re: Would you allow this?

take all that stuff i wrote' date=' fix it so that i don't sound stupid, and go with that... [/quote']

 

I've found my new sig!

Re: Heroic Endurance and Stun

I absolutely hate ideas like this. If you want to make things tougher on pc's, hey, YOU ARE THE GOD, er GM, that controls the world. Rules that don't equally impact pc's and npc's are especially egregious as far as I'm concerned. How frequently are the pc's likely to encounter npc's who've already been in multiple fights so that they're taking penalties?

If you as the GM can't figure out some way to keep your players from running roughshod over their opponents and you want to come up with some arbitrary system to keep them from fighting multiple times in a day, try this one.

You: If you guys get into another fight today you're going to be at hideous unrevealed penalties. You'll usually miss and do reduced damage. Oh, and when you get to that fork in the road turn left. And give the tavernkeeper 100 gold. And that wand I gave you last week is too powerful so it's out of charges. Have fun playing your characters in this unique shared environment.

Re: Your Superhero Identity for Today

Your Superhero Identity For Today Is:

Name: Thunder Snake

Secret Identity: Woger Frobelbush

Special Power: Blazing Hands

Transportation: Quantum Train

Weapon: Flame Cannon

Costume: Fibersteel Cowl

Sidekick: Hop-a-long Cassie

Nemesis: Tim the Younger

Tragic Flaw: Fear of flying

Favorite Food: French Toast

Hah! All you fools running around naked with Boots or Booties are jeopardizing your secret ID. My feet might hurt, but at least no one knows what I look like.

Re: SPD and DEX for superheroic martial artists?

To me the issue is that if you put 'Speed' in the header of your post, you will get a lot of very emotional responses.

Re: Logic v Balance

 

And on a simular note, I have never seen anyone who can preform a successful movethough on the Earth. Well not that isn't near cosmic levels.

That depends on your definition of 'successful'.

Re: Looking for House rule suggestion

Frankly, I think in the vast majority of non-superheroic games, End should't be kept track of at all. It adds bookkeeping, which automatically lessens fun, and is usually nonrepresentative of the genre. Sure, in novels it's cool when the exhausted heroes slog their way through the wilderness and have to fight a horrific battle with the last vestiges of their strength, but in a game do you really want to burn all your Stun as End in the climactic battle cause you're down 20 LTE?

Neither do I.