Tonio

Re: questions about disads for dryad-like race The first two I'd do as extremely minor Phys. Lims, if at all. They're really variations on the human norm. Maybe a little less convenient? The third, well, either a DNPC, if you, as the GM, decide to never kill the character by killing their tree, or some sort of Phys. Lim (like Thia mentioned) and a Social Lim (to reflect the fact that they have to keep it secret)?

Re: Dark Elves: Compelling? There's nothing silly about evil Dark Elves having dark, even black, skin. At least nothing more silly than evil Dark Elves having light, even pale, skin. Or good Dark Elves. Or whatever. It just that evil Dark Elves having black skin have been done so many times, used so much, and appeal to such a munchkiny crowd, that a lot of people harbor a lot of hostility towards the idea. Same reason why, ages ago, when the Dark Ages of Camelot MMORPG came out, Thanes were reviled in Midgard. There was nothing wrong with the class. But all munchkin, power-gaming, griefing artards picked Thane (ok, not all, but a LOT). So if you came across a Thane, odds are you were coming across someone around whom you'd rather not play. Ditto for Rogues in World of Warcraft. (Ok, so those actually were a little broken, hehe.) Point is... don't slam a concept just because it appeals to the "wrong crowd".

Re: Is the Hero the Ultimate System? There's an adventure plot seed in there, somewhere...

Re: Stealing Powers Keep that VPP. Also add an initially empty MP (or put whatever powers he's already previously gained in there). "Move" powers from your VPP to your MP with the XP he gains. Voila. =)

Re: Desolidification and Teleport Damage

Re: "Sense Motive" In Hero

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion No logic error there. And you'd both be right, given true statements. The more people included in the "many others", the more solid the clue. There can be clues supporting both arguments (changing cost to 2/1, and keeping cost as is), even if they're mutually exclusive.

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion

Re: Desolidification and Teleport Damage Remember SFX don't give you abilities, they give you the justification to buy abilities. Being able to go Desolid is a perfectly good SFX justification to buy Safe Blind Teleport on your Teleport. It's also a perfectly good SFX justification to avoid taking damage once or twice by using the Power skill you bought for your Teleportation-based powers. It doesn't give you Safe Blind Teleport for free, though.

Re: temporarily negating limitations Oh certainly, for the case I described, Variable Limitation would be a better match. But that wouldn't work for the UBO case dstarfire described. =)

Re: temporarily negating limitations Same as you'd do for a Naked Advantage, I'd say. Like, say you have a 12d6 EB, OIF: Ring of Power, costing 40 pts. Now, you have another "power" that's Buying Off OIF for up to 60 pts of EB, with Activation Roll, 11-. Costing 10pts total (20 pts is the buyoff, the Activation Roll, 11- is a -1 Limitation). So now you have an Energy Blast which you normally need the ring to fire, but you can try to fire it w/o your ring, and succeed on an 11- roll. You could also apply UBO to the buyoff, so you can negate other people's Limitations, too.

Re: Desolidification and Teleport Damage

Re: The Cost of STR & Other Characteristics: An open discussion This stems from the problem that STR isn't REALLY a Power/Characteristic, it's an SFX. Or should be, rather. Currently, STR represents (at least) two Powers, including (at least) one that doesn't currently exist. Buying STR gives you Lifting and HA, apart from the Figureds. There's no reason why Lifting and HA should be, mechanically, tied. In fact, you can already buy one without the other (HA). The "oops, my Brick can't lift as much as he should be able to, cuz then he'd break the attack power AP/DC cap" problem shouldn't exist. It's like saying Energy Projectors are limited in how much Force Field (or Flight, or some other aribitrary Power) they can take before breaking the AP/DC cap with their Energy Blast. I'd say get rid of the HA component in STR, and have all characters start with 2d6 HA "for free". Have HA cost 5 per d6. Use HA instead of STR to add to weapons, maybe? And you can certainly sell back your HA, so that your STR 5 old lady can do 1d6 punches, as is appropriate. =)

Re: Would you allow this mental power? I understand your points regarding the detail of emotions. I still disagree, and believe emotions can be detailed enough to include the object of said emotion. But I don't disagree strongly enough to make an issue out of it. =) In my game, you could. Were I to play in someone's game, where you couldn't, I simply wouldn't and wouldn't raise an issue about it. I do agree regarding other points, though, like the monk's emotionless fighting style, or the crazed berserker's indecipherable morass of emotions.

Re: Regeneration

Re: Regeneration I think Sean meant to say that whoever he endorsed (me, in this case) was vilified and threatened with death.

Re: Regeneration

Re: Summon, weak willed

Re: Would you allow this mental power?

Re: Would you allow this mental power? Hrm, I must've not expressed myself clearly... I did not mean to say you're sensing your opponents desire to kick or punch. You're sensing how your opponent feels about what he's doing, or what you're doing. He's kicking, but he's worried about how open that leaves him to attacks. He's punching, and feeling confident about how that protects his upper body. He's doing whatever, and is expecting kicks from you. You feint as if to punch, or start punching, and don't sense a reaction from him, so it's likely he hasn't noticed the attack. Or you sense a defensive reaction from him, so you pull back your punch, turning it into a feint, and kick instead. I don't think emotions are limited to general blanket feelings. I can certainly feel angry, but that anger is almost surely directed at something specific, and can be tinged with worry for my wellbeing, specifically the wellbeing of a specific body part, and also feel hostility towards a specific person, and confidence that my punch will be enough to slip through his defenses and smack into his smug face. Sensing "anger" is pretty shallow, sensing "anger towards me" is deeper, "anger towards me, worried that I'm going to hurt his torso" even more so, etc... I'd say a Detect that's Discriminating and Analyzing should be able to sense the whole thing, which should give you some combat advantage, since you know he's vulnerable in his torso, and you know he's inclined to attack with punches and to your face. (Not for free, of course... just saying I feel it's justified to buy CSLs based on this.)

Re: Would you allow this mental power? Sensing emotions can be extremely helpful in combat, if you're familiar enough with it to be able to use it. You start a punch, sense your opponent feel confident about you not retaliating, and you know he hasn't noticed you're attacking. You sense your opponent is worried about using this maneuver, because it leaves him open to attacks on his left side. You sense your opponent is expecting kicks from you, so attacking with punches will catch him off guard. Etc. It all depends on the detail with which you can sense emotions. General "he's hostile" or "she's happy" feelings won't help much, but detailed enough can be great help.

Re: 1 pip RKA, Penetrating Exactly. =) Although I don't quite agree with the book's definition of what should and shouldn't be counted when it comes to damage classes. I mean, NND? Certainly. Reduced END? Certainly not. That much we agree on. But Continuous? A power doesn't do more damage because it's Continuous. Uncontrolled? Trigger? Damage Shield? Those shouldn't count, I think. Damage Shield already makes for powers that are way too expensive... having it count towards Damage Classes makes it even worse. =/

Re: 1 pip RKA, Penetrating

Re: 1 pip RKA, Penetrating Well, even if Penetrating raises the DCs of the attack, it certainly shouldn't for the purposes of determining how much damage penetrates when using this rule. So a 2d6 KA would still be a 6 DC attack. Against resistant defenses of, say, 50, rolling 3 would do 3 BODY, rolling 5 would do 5 BODY, rolling 6 would do 6 BODY, rolling 11 would do 6 BODY. IMO, the optional rule doesn't really work well for attacks not based on the 1d6 per DC concept, nor for heavily Advantaged attacks. Consider, for example, an AoE (Radius) RKA. It comes out to 6 DCs per d6. Meaning it gets NND (Defense is Hardened Defenses) and Does BODY (a +2, total), for the cost of Penetrating (a +1/2). What would a 2d6 RKA, Continuous (+1), Penetrating (+1/2) (Active and Real cost: 75pts) do? Compared to 2d6 RKA, Continuous (+1), NND [Defense is Hardened Defenses] (+1), Does BODY (+1) (Active and Real cost: 120pts)?

Re: Instant Unluck UAA