Tonio

Re: Stats And Hero Purity The HERO concept is built around defining abilities in terms of effects (not SFX, but "what they do; how they affect reality"). Strength isn't an effect, it's SFX. "I can lift a lot because I have a hydraulics exoskeleton." is a different SFX from "I can lift a lot because I'm super strong.". Having STR as a stat is useful and convenient, but it "breaks" the HERO concept. It's like having a "Fire" stat, which would give you a fire-based Damage Shield, fire-based Flight, fire-based Energy Blast, and Change Environment to raise temprature. 50 Fire gives you 5d6 EB, 2d6 Damage Shield, 10" of Flight, and +5 temp. levels at a 5" radius. (Numbers made up, not based on any sort of AP cost or anything.) That's what STR is doing right now, only it's lifting capacity, HA, Leaping, PD...

Re: Clinging, UAA Well, the whole point of UAA is using a power that normally benefits the user to penalize an opponent. Normally, clinging to a surface helps you: you can climb walls, walk along ceilings, etc. When controlled by someone else (i.e. UAA), it can hinder you: you can't STOP clinging, so you can't jump off that wall you were climbing, drop from the ceiling, etc. It's not behaving differently from the base power at all. It's just under someone else's control; you can no longer turn it off or direct it as desired. I believe it does. Entangle would have to be limited considerably (to allow normal bodily movement (not Movement), to only work against targets touching a surface, and maybe to allow Movement along the surface, depending on the interpretation), and custom advantaged (only breakable with a STR vs STR contest) to simulate the concept. TK is closer, but would behave somewhat differently, since you'd have to "grab" the target to the surface he's touching, something TK doesn't currently do. Note this is different from "pushing" the target against the surface, or holding him in place, since it allows you to break off the surface and move it along with the target without "breaking" the power. Clinging UAA is a distinct effect, with similarities to both Entangle and TK, but different enough to merit building it like that instead of heavily modifying other powers. Again, don't do "HA, Ranged, Can't add STR", do "EB".

Re: Clinging, UAA Why a power built for an SFX? I mean, I understand how initially they might've thought about Spiderman when they made Clinging, but the mechanics seem to be well defined and SFX-independent. Gravity SFX is appropriate, I think. You're simply "sticking" to a sheet of sand, which gets "broken off" the rest of the sand easily. Imagine your character being lifted off the ground with a block of sand, shaped like the extension of your Gravity Field, stuck to his feet. He's still firmly attached to it (assuming the lifter didn't overcome the STR of the field), but it got broken off. Some sort of glue SFX would behave the same. So would a TK SFX (bear in mind Clinging with TK SFX would have you "grabbing" the surface with TK, not "pushing yourself onto" the surface). Etc.

Re: Clinging, UAA Dunno, given that you're standing on sand, which I'd say has no DEF, only BODY (unless it's packed sand?), then anything above 0 BODY (getting all 1s on his STR dice) would hoist you up along with some sand.

Re: Clinging, UAA Hm... well, since Clinging is not a Movement Power, I'm gonna hafta agree it won't stop you from moving along the surface when Used As Attack, for the same reason it can't be used to move you along the surface. By the way, you don't overcome your full STR in a STR vs STR contest. You overcome the full Clinging STR, which is 10 plus whatever's been bought, not the target's plus whatever's been bought. The target isn't Clinging with his/her STR, but with the Power's. And the Power's base STR is 10 when bought UAA.

Re: Brainstorming assistance -- SFX Tough one... since a very common (most common, maybe?) SFX for Sight Group Flash is some sort of energy... kinda odd that the force wall lets through damaging energy attacks, but not blinding ones... Mebbe some sort of polarized plastic? Like those "transitions" lenses for eyeglasses, only faster and more powerful? Energy attacks are reduced by a negligible amount (no ED), but Flashes get stopped, and the plastic offers PD?

Re: Clinging, UAA I assume you're talking about Clinging UAA preventing the target from moving along the surface... because Clinging very clearly talks about preventing moving off the surface. "Against your will" turns into "against the power user's will" because of the UAA. So effectively Clinging UAA will make it so someone can't move off the surface w/o a successful STR vs STR roll. Well what about that rule (unwritten? I think it's somewhere in the book, not sure) about not "hacking" powers to have them simulate others? The reason why you don't buy HA, Ranged, Can't Add STR... you buy EB. You're using a custom limitation ("Only to hold a target in palce against a surface") on a power, rather than using a pre-existing Advantage on another power.

Re: Clinging, UAA While I agree that Clinging UAA preventing the target from moving along the surface is unclear, I have to insist that it preventing the target from moving off the surface is clear. One possible use of Clinging is to "stick" to a surface in such a way that to be "pried" off a STR vs STR roll is needed. Given that the user of the power controls it when it's UAA, then the user of the power can decide to use it for that purpose. The target can't decide not to use it that way, since he has no control over the power.

Re: Clinging, UAA The rules ARE clear: When using UAA, the base STR is 10:

Re: How To: Sensory Overload as a Attack Power What about a BOECV Entangle? "Mental Paralysis"-type effect?

Re: Clinging, UAA I'd have to disagree. Consider Flight, UAA. Target "gains" the ability to fly, but the character with the power gets to control the flight itself. Now consider Flight, as is. You can certainly choose to fly at 1", even if your Flight is much higher. You can also choose to land softly, without taking damage, and to fly up to a wall without crashing into it. Does this mean that with Flight UAA you can't "force" the target to fly, and can't fly them into walls? I'd say Clinging works the same way. While it's working, you're stuck to the surface. If you control the power, you can turn it off to leave the surface, including turning it off momentarily to lift your foot (or whatever), then turning it back on when you set your foot down. If you can't control it, then you can't leave the surface, even to move along it. That's why you get KB resitance from Clinging.

Re: Clinging, UAA Thanks, that cleared it up perfectly, SteveZilla... that was precisely the info I was looking for. =)

Re: Clinging, UAA Well, when using UAA, the base Clinging STR is 10, not Character's nor Target's, as per 5ER, which helps balance it out, I guess. I do understand it can be used offensively (that's basically the whole point behind UAA!), and I did understand the 'tar baby' DS, but I'm still unsure as to whether hitting someone with Clinging, UAA will make them stick to the ground in such a way that they can't move along it, not just off it (i.e. will it root them in place, or just prevent leaping?), and whether they can use other movement powers (e.g. Flight) to "unstick" automatically, or do they have to "break" the Clinging with STR (if so, I'd think it appropriate to add or substitute Flight points as STR points for this).

Re: Brick tricks

I'm unsure as to exactly what this does. I'm sure it can be used to prevent someone from getting knocked back, to have someone stick to a wall (if they're put there, for example), all against their will... but will it, for example, prevent them from running? flying off? (unless they make a STR roll and break out of Clinging, of course... probably adding Flight points as STR for purposes of the roll) Or would I need a transparent-to-damage Entangle (Only to prevent movement, -1? -1.5? -2?), a running/flight/etc. suppress, or some other construct?

Re: Rolling mechanic question

Re: Missile Deflection and Skill Levels... Sure, it's the same as using your own CSLs to boost your attacks... your skill with the attack doesn't make it stronger, it just makes it hit better enough to do more damage (the laser hits steadier, so does a bit more damage, the thrown axe is thrown faster, so it does a bit more damage, etc...). No reason you shouldn't be able to do the same thing with Reflected attacks.

Re: Multipowers, VPPs, and Limited Slots I dunno... I dislike the fact that VPPs are limited by SFX by default. It prevents Silver Surfer-ish characters (a valid concept), and it runs into iffyness when you compare SFXs. a Fire VPP is inherently more limited than an Elemental Control (as in control of the elements, not as in the power framework!) VPP, but both are valid SFXs for VPPs, I'd say. I'd either apply a limitation to the VPP control cost for "common SFX", or require a "Variable SFX" advantage on it for cosmic-type VPPs. I'd lean towards limitations for common SFXs, since you're already paying a lot for a VPP. I know Sean will disagree (hee hee), as will probably many others, but the fact is that while a VPP DOES give you a humongous amount of versatility, it gives it at the expense of significant power. Especially if you count the control cost along with the pool points towards some sort of campaign AP limit. =)

Re: Charisma EC

Re: Variable power pool? Questions... Sean, are you sure you can use an Aid in a VPP to boost another power in the VPP? I'm pretty sure an Aid in an EC can't boost another power in the EC, but the rules for VPPs might be different.

Re: Extraordinary Characteristic Rolls Ugh. I'm all for "comic book physics" allowing all sorts of funky stuff... but making the Earth spin the other way making time run backwards is just too much for my taste.

Re: Rolling mechanic question 3d12 gives you more granularity, but the same curve. Maybe more granularity is a good thing... I'm not sure it's needed at all, though. Maybe for low-powered games, where CVs are lower?

Re: Variable power pool? Questions... Y'sure? I think the book says you can't transfer/succor/aid any framework by using a power IN that framework. So you couldn't boost a VPP by using the VPP to make an Aid to VPP, but you could boost the VPP if you had an Aid to the VPP bought separately (not in the VPP).

Re: The More I Kill, The Stronger I Get! Just have him gain more XP than usual from encounters, but only award him XP when he kills. Then have him decide to spend the XP only on STR, CON, etc.

Re: Missile Deflection and Skill Levels... While I think I agree, I'm not sure exactly why, or how I'd fix it. Scale the cost of Invisibility to what, your total point cost? Meaning you need to invest in Invisibility constantly as you get XP, even though the power itself is not doing anything differently? I guess a correct measure would be scaling it to the average PER roll in the campaign (not just PCs, not just villains, but basically "everybody involved"), since it's utility is directly proportional to it (in a campaign with all blind people, the power to be invisible is useless... in a campaign where everybody has the eyes of an eagle, the power to be unseen is more valuable)... but then how do you determine the "average PER roll"? Assuming you're really going to average them all out, how much weight do you give normals? supers? And does the cost change whenever you write up new characters? In fact, it is arguable that the problem comes with SCALING powers, rather than non-scaling ones. In a high-powered campaign, everybody's EB will be higher, and so will the defenses, so that part of combat stays the same... it's not "high-powered" at all. But more characters will afford fixed-cost powers, and as long as not everybody picks the same ones, that part of the game IS "high-powered": now you have to deal with the usual energy projector who can now go desolid, but no biggie, cuz you're the usual brick who's now got 75% damage reduction against energy. I'm not sure which way I'd argue, or even if I'd argue either case... but I do know the issue isn't that clear. =/