BoloOfEarth

One of my players seemed to specialize in weird character concepts. For Fantasy Hero, he wanted a mage with an "exploding porcupine" spell, whose primary spell component was a live porcupine. For Champions, he proposed Frat Man and his trusty sidekick, Keg Boy (aka the Boy Kegger). He also talked about a version of Waffle Man well before the one that appeared in Mystery Men. His version would jump on foes from up high, flattening them and branding them with his distinct criss-cross waffle pattern. Another player proposed that each character on the hero team would pay points for his or her own car (but all of them were Yugos), and that the cars could come together like Voltron. Only in our case, it would have been Yugotron. Thankfully, none of these character concepts made it as far as an actual writeup. But they've been the source of running jokes in our gaming group for years.

If a character has Multiform, and is in his base form when granted a UBO power (e.g Flight), then changes to another form, does he maintain use of the UBO power in his new form, or is that only in the form in which he received it?

Spoiler alert: The South loses the Civil War.

Interesting idea. However, the character concept for Live Wire is he's semi-mindless after the accident that gave him his electrical powers, so I'm inclined to keep the power (however it's written up) at the -2 level of No Conscious Control (and then have it kick in outside of combat when it's dramatically appropriate, or maybe on an 8- roll in any given Phase of combat). I don't see him as able to think through how to turn it on or off himself.

Conceptually, a high-STR character shouldn't be as bothered by that as a low-STR one. (And conceptually, why wouldn't such a gravity well CE also affect Leaping?) To quote from 6E1:176... So I'd say that if a character is willing to expend extra END for using his/her STR, he could reduce the movement penalty by, say, 2m per 5 STR. So a CE reducing Running by 16m could be overcome with, say, having 40+ STR (and spending the 4 END to exert that much STR while Running).

Yeah, I thought about the Mind Control route as well, but didn't like it because most of the equipment he'd be affecting have no EGO, or even INT, to compare the Mind Control effect to. (Yeah, as GM I could simply handwave that. However, I like to have a solid writeup and idea how to handle things if a player later decides he or she wants a similar power.) Christopher, I really like your idea of Mind Control vs. BODY not EGO. (Call that a +1/4 Advantage, as with Entangle vs. EGO not STR?) That's a neat idea, which gets around the idea of machinery not having an EGO or even an INT to go off of. How did you handle Foci (which get rPD / rED from the number of Active Points, but only 1 BODY per power on them)? It seems that power would be overly powerful against mostly 1 BODY devices.

I'm talking 6E. Yeah, you're probably right, 5 STR TK is probably too much. That's 25 points of effect. On the other hand, you would need a decent amount if you're going to spread it out for multiple smaller effects (e.g. -2 to all Sight PER, -4m Running, -2 DEX roll to control Flight, etc.) Maybe go with 3 STR TK (15 points) instead? Or just 2 STR (10 points)?

Expanding on that, if I'm reading all of that correctly: If you had, say, AP on 50 STR, and also an HA +2d6, AoE (2m Radius), then the attack would simply be a 10d6 AoE (but no AP, since that wasn't on the HA). That's what the part that eepjr24 quoted says, at least as I read it.

Starting with your second part first: What you were referring to is if STR has the Advantage but the HA doesn't. I'm talking the other way around (HA has an Advantage that STR doesn't have). Reading a little further. Meaning that you consult the table to adjust the STR by the amount of the Advantage(s) on the HA/HKA that aren't on STR. And as to your first line, since the STR already has 0 END on it, as do all the HAs, you'd only have +1/4 on each of those HA slots that isn't on the STR, giving you 8d6 from STR plus 2d6 from the HA, or 10d6 each time. As to the Autofire, since that changes the Advantage value for Reduced END, I was assuming the GM would go with the 0 END on the STR becoming Half END (based on the +1/2 value paid for it). At least, that's the call I would make. Of course, YMMV. Finally, as to doing that to avoid GM permission, heck, it's perfectly legal, but if the GM objects, it wouldn't be prohibitively more expensive to remove the Multipower entirely and have each HA slot as a separate power. (22 + 1 + 2 + 1 = 26 for the Multipower + slots, versus 14 + 17 + 14 = 45 for individual powers)

Or am I overthinking this and should I just make it a very broad Change Environment? For example, Change Environment (5 TK STR), Varying Combat Effects, AoE (256m Radius; +1 3/4), Varying Effect (Limited machinery haywire effects; +1/2), 0 END (+1/2); No Range (-1/2), No Conscious Control (-2). And then handwave / wing it with the actual effects? ("Joe, your IR goggles seem to be fritzing out, make a PER roll at -2. Dana, your jetpack seems to be acting up, make a DEX roll at -1 to maintain control.")

As mentioned in another thread, I'm updating the Destruction Company from High Tech Enemies, and have finally gotten to Live Wire. One of his powers is the ability to occasionally make unshielded machines go haywire. This is bought as: Change Environment, 128 hex area: Causes all unshielded (rED of less than 5) electronic machinery to go haywire; O END; No Conscious Control, No Range. Have to admit, I'm typically not a huge fan of Change Environment, and I don't see how this effect falls within any of the Combat Effects listed for that power. (Granted, in 4E that power had a much looser definition.) However, I don't really see any other power that jumps up and says, "Oooo! Use me to do this!" How would you suggest drawing this up? Please keep in mind that this seems like a mainly non-combat / flavor power; I don't think it should be able to, say, render a PRIMUS assault team useless by disabling all their high-tech gear, but I'm fine with it messing with individual pieces of equipment and causing minor combat effects.

Given that it's not legal (without GM permission) to put Naked Advantages on STR into a MP or VPP because Naked Power Advantages are Special Powers, but Hand-to-Hand Attacks (HAs) are Standard Powers... What if you built a series of small HAs with the Advantage(s) you want in a MP or VPP, and then add the STR at a prorated amount based on the Advantage(s) on the HAs, as explained on 6E2:102? So if you have 50 STR, Reduced END (0 END; +1/2) and then: Multipower 22 points f - HA +2d6, AP (+1/4), 0 END (+1/2) - 17 Active Points f - HA +2d6, Autofire (3 shots; +1/4), 0 END (+1) - 22 Active Point (I'd consider the +1/2 worth of Reduced END on the base 50 STR to then become Half END) f - HA +2d6, AoE (2m Radius; +1/4), 0 END (+1/2) - 17 Active Points etc. Then you could do 10d6 AP punch at 0 END, or 3x 10d6 punches at 2 END each, or 10d6 AoE 2m Radius at 0 END, etc.

One thing - 0 END on anything with Autofire would be +1, not +1/2, so you'd probably need to factor the cost of that additional +1/2 into that slot.

Maybe add that a Segment effectively equals one second. I was going to say Presence Attack, but maybe that's something that could be added later. Perhaps an Advance Terminology page, with stuff like that plus Stunned, Non-Combat, etc.

Hmmm... not sure the best way to go about that. A linked TK Grab?