Tonio

The rules say that Knockback is determined normally for each attack, then added.

How would that work if the attacks being coordinated come from opposite directions?  Or, in any case, different directions?

In the case of opposite directions, would that result in no Knockback movement, but damage as if hitting a wall?

If I teleport from directly in front of someone to several hexes behind them, do I break their LoS to me? I understand they don't have to literally be looking at me, and I'm pretty sure running or flying behind them wouldn't break LoS (they could track me as I go). And I'm sure they could re-establish LoS easily, especially since TP has no "invisible power effects", but for the purposes of maintaining a Continuous Power (or maintaining a UAA Power), does LoS break? No obstacles in the way, just Teleporting out of visual arc.

Who is affected by the OCV Penalties from a Change Environment?  The characters inside the area of effect, the characters targetting characters inside the area of effect, or anybody targetting anybody else into, out of, or through the area of effect?

(And am I correct in understanding that Darkness affects anybody perceiving anybody else into, out of, or through Darkness's area of effect?)

If I buy a AoE attack (say, Darkness) as UAA, with Range, and I want to attack an opponent with it (so that it "sticks" to him and follows him around), do I target the hex he's in (DCV 3), or him (whatever his DCV is)?

Or, put another way, if I target and hit a Hex with a "Darkness, UAA, Ranged", does the Darkness "stick" to the all the characters in the AoE range of the Darkness, or does it "stick" to the Hex that was targetted and hit?  If it "sticks" to the characters, and they move, does the AoE move with them, or just the effect on them?  (Say, for example, that a 2" radius Darkness, UAA, Ranged, hits a hex in the middle of two characters, so that they're both covered.  When they move out, do they now "generate" a 2" radius Darkness around them, or are they just under the effect of Darkness even if they move out of the area?)

If a power, say, Change Environment, is used during combat, and it involves PER Roll penalties, do attackers need to roll PER in order to target those inside the area?  If so, will a failed roll mean not being able to target (at least with that sense), or an OCV penalty?

How does the "Class of Mind" concept apply to mind control (or mental powers in general) based on CON? Does the "class of mind" still matter, or is it replaced by a "class of body", or is it ignored entirely?

If two powers are Linked (and are in fact part of a Compound Power), and the whole power has a Side Effect, to which power do I apply the Limitation? I'm guessing both, but I figured I'd make sure.

(I know the name of the forum says "6th edition", but I'm currently playing 5ER, so if at all possible, I'd like to know whether this applies to 5ER or just 6th.)

Regarding the Sweep and Rapid Fire maneuvers, when are the targets chosen? I know you can attack a single target multiple times, or multiple attackers (and I'm assuming any mix thereof, like "target 1 once, and target 2 three times, for a total of 4 attacks"), but when are these decided? Do you announce you're doing a "sweep, 4 attacks", and then proceed to roll and determine each attack, possibly deciding the "next" target based on the results of each attack, or do you have to determine who gets attacked how many times before starting to roll?

Re: New Mechanic: Scale

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deca-

 

For reference. Let me know if I still have things wrong.

 

- Christopher Mullins

Right, 1 dekagram/decagram = 10 grams = 1/100 kilogram.

Edit: oops, nevermind... thought you were pointing to that URL as a way of saying "that's not what it says here". My bad!

Re: A DC Animated-style HeroMachine

has anyone used City of Heros Character Creator? I downloaded it the other night and changed the language from Korean to English and vua'la all the perks of CoH character creation looks without the.. game. I can try to find the link if anyone wants it..

Please do!

Can I apply the "Self-Only" Limitation to the Change Envinronment Power?

Re: core "modes" of gameplay

But that's how does it, so it won't work.

Re: Cotu!

So is it Cognition and Dexterity, or Coordination and Discernment? o_O

Re: Buy Off Disadvantage

A Partially Limited Buy-off is possible...see John Wrath's Cybereye as an example (Depth Perception).

Indeed. On the other hand, it's usually efficient (points-wise) to do so, since you end up with less total max points (the points you spend buying off the Disadvantage come out of your total points). You're usually better off just lowering the frequency of the Disadvantage (like, what would normally be Always becomes Infrequently if you're rarely without the Focus, for example).

Re: Questions from a New Hero

I just composed a reply, but the @#$#%$ Internet just ate it. I'll try to recompose it (and myself).

 

I'm sorry, but shouldn't you have to decide which one (AP, Penetrating, or Indirect) the level of Hardened protects against when you buy it?

 

It would be like buying 20 pts of Damage Resistance, and waiting to be hit by something, and then saying, 'Oh, my Damage Resistance will apply to my PD this Phase.' I just don't see what the difference is.

 

And the murky waters just got murkier . . .

Nope. What you decide is, from one point of view, how you "break ties" if a "tie" occurs.

So if you're hit by an attack with only one type of Advantage (of the ones countered by Hardened), then you apply all your levels of Hardened towards it. But if you're hit with an attack with more than one type of Advantage (of the ones countered by Hardened), then you have to choose what each level of Hardened counts against. This is a decision you can make when you buy Hardened, but you apparently don't have to.

Re: Questions from a New Hero

Edit - Any limitation that is not actually limiting is not worth anything. Buying high STR, not usable when dead, is not worth any limitation. Buying something with "not usable in space" is not a limitation for a ground-based fantasy game. Buying something that will not work on Wednesdays, while not technically illegal, will be worth nothing unless the game keeps track of days, or a lot of the game takes place on Wednesdays (it could happen).

 

(although, looking at my first example, if the game involves frequent death and turning into undead, the first may be worth something, but that would be a pretty rare case (albeit maybe an interesting game))

Right! The game itself has rules to prevent munchkinism, hehe.

Re: Questions from a New Hero

Hardened does not have to be specified when purchased (it says you can, though, not must) (p115 is where this is from). One level can only apply to one of those at a time. If you get hit with an AP attack and have one level of hardened, it applies. If you get hit with an AP Penetrating attack and have one level of hardened, you apply it to whichever one you want, and the other goes through. That's why you can buy multiple levels - to counteract more then one effect at a time, or to counteract multiple levels of an advantage.

 

For references, skimming though some books I can't see any Hardened where it is assigned a specific advantage. The body armor in Dark Champions just lists Hardened, same in Ultimate Energy Projector (that I can see) - I'm pretty certain the advantage is for all. If you want to limit it, maybe lower the advantage to +1/4 or +1/2, depending on how common the attack it defends against is (and how uncommon the others are).

Hm, true... says you can define it. Although why you would is beyond me. In the example, though, it says Defender bought his Hardened as working towards Penetrating first (did he, really??).

In any case, what you define is, basically, the order in which it applies, not which one it only applies to. (That is, if you define it was working towards Armor Piercing first, that doesn't mean it won't apply to Penetrating, but rather that if you're hit with a power that has both, then it applies to Armor Piercing instead of Penetrating.)

I guess it's kinda hard to explain. =/

Re: gravitic well

Does he have to buy the personal immunity for his AoE' date=' no range TK or is the forcefield supposed to compensate for that?[/quote']

 

Well, it's Selective, so I guess he can simply choose not to attack himself.

 

Not to mention that even if he did target himself, he'd only pull himself towards himself.

Re: A few questions

I also try to throw in an encounter at some point for a new campaign or players where they are NOT expected to win, but usually engineer it in such a way that the players and characters can "learn from the experience" (e.g. not be dead and recover pretty easily from it, both in story terms and in terms of bruised egos ). Not to "put the players in their place," but as a point of reference; I think it is useful from both player and GM perspectives to know what an overpowered challenge looks and feels like.

 

An example of such an encounter would be a professional rivalry of some kind, or a misunderstanding where one group thinks the other is up to no good, but the other side is basically good and/or honorable and will not simply dispatch of the party when they win. Or simply enemies that don't have the motivation (yet?) to do so. This can be a great story element as well, setting up rivalries, setting the tone, giving that initial adventure motivation, etc.

Being in encounters you don't win also serves to accentuate the feeling of victory in those encounters you do win. Beating the bad guys can stop being fun if you always succeed, and especially so if it becomes effortless.

Re: Questions from a New Hero

OK.

 

Whilst in the Laundry room, I was looking through The Book. I have a question about Hardened (No Viagra jokes, plz ).

 

Do I buy 3 levels of Hardened on my Resistant PD at the same time or do I need to buy 1 level at a time stating whether it applies to Armor Piercing, or Penetrating or Indirect? And would you (as a GM) allow this in your game? Currently, Allura has 20 rPD/20 rED.

 

Also, I've seen the term 'Munchkinizing' (or something like that) on these boards. What does it mean, and is that what I'm trying to do with Allura?

You can buy as many levels of Hardened as you wish, and you have to specify what Advantage they work against, for those cases when more than one applies. For example, if you buy one level of Hardened, and specify it works against Armor Piercing, and are attacked with an attack with one level of Penetrating or one level of Armor Piercing, the Penetrating or Armor Piercing is countered by your Hardened. If you are attacked with an attack with one level of Penetrating and one level of Armor Piercing, then the Armor Piercing is countered, not the Penetrating. Basically, when you buy Hardened, you decide what it works against when it could apply to more than one thing.

"Munchkin" is a term used to describe people who blatantly ignore common sense, unspoken rules, fairness, and character concept in favor of power. For example, trying to apply a Limitation "Not for Offensive ECV" on your EGO when you have no mental powers (and hence no use for ECV) is considered munchkiny (and, I believe, not rules-legal). Stacking Limitation upon Limitation on your powers when you believe the Limitations overlap or won't be an issue, in order to reduce the power's cost without actually limiting it, is also considered munchkiny.

Re: Does Not Work in Water

Personally, I'd distinguish between "Doesn't Work In Water" (which I'd probably give a -1/4 Limitation) and "Doesn't Work When Wet" (which I'd probably give a -1/2).

 

Assuming you had the -1/4 version, I'd probably make the Limitation no effect for the bucket, and a small reduction in power for the fire hose (immersion would invoke the Limitation completely, of course). The rain would start out like the bucket (no effect), but would start reducing the power's effectiveness based on how heavy the rain was and how long you stayed in it.

 

If you had the -1/2 version, all of these things would fully trigger the Limitation and shut off the power.

Exactly, it should depend on how much of a value you gave the Limitation (and of course, the text of the Limitation should accurately reflect that). A Limitation "Does Not Work In Water" worth -4 would probably represent a power that would fail to work in the prescence of any water, including the water vapor normally present in the air (and should probably be renamed "Only Works in Absolute Vacuum" or somesuch). If worth -1/4, then it'd probably take immersion in water, or at least a heavy and thorough wet-down, to stop them from working.

Re: "It really isn't that unusual" Power

As described, it sounds just like a lack of a Distinctive Features Disadvantage. Normally, someone wearing what you described would need DF to represent the fact that people always/usually notice it, and react accordingly. In your case, they don't. In fact, people react to your character like they would to any normal person... to a person without DF.

It's like saying your character is covered in flames all the time, except the flames are magical and don't burn. They're just part of the character description, you don't need to buy a power to represent them.

Re: New Mechanic: Effective Attack Modifier

I'm liking it but I sense a problem:

 

Poison dart, 5d6 NND, stopped by resistant PD and LS: Poison

 

5d6 25 points

Uncommon defence (resistant PD) +1

Reduces to zero -1/2

Additional very uncommon defence (LS: poison) -0

 

Total +1, -1/2: 33 real, 50 active

 

Now, built this way:

 

5d6 25 points

Very Uncommon defence (LS: Poison) +2

Reduces to zero -1/2

Additional uncommon defence (Resistant PD) -1/4

 

Total +2, -3/4: 43 real, 75 active

I think those aren't supposed to be individual modifiers, but rather you're supposed to add them all together to get the final modifier, which might end up being an Advantage or a Limitation, depending on the total.

Re: gravitic well

Actually, the fact that TK doesn't work as well against more massive objects doesn't have to be a problem. More massive objects are also affected more by local gravity, which usually makes them tougher to move. Also, while it's not accurate, it can "feel" right to have more massive objects move slower because of inertia. So while TK won't accurately model real-world gravity, it can be a decent model for comic-book gravity.

Re: Handcuffs on a budget

I know what a mote is, I just can't figure out your context for using it.

 

- Christopher Mullins

Archaic. "Must", "may", "might", etc... "So mote it be", as Maur points out, roughly "May it be so" or "so must it be", akin to the hebrew "amen", or the pastafarian "rAmen".