Haerandir

Re: Armor Wars In addition to the technical and financial barriers to widespread deployment of powered armor, there are political and cultural barriers, too. Frankly, for all the money the military spends on R&D, there's a strong conservative element in military thinking, too. "So, you want us to completely discard nearly a century's worth of tactical, strategic and logistic doctrine in favor of this here whizbang-gizmo of yours? You sure it'll work under battlefield conditions? You're sure it won't malfunction every time it gets sand in its gears or someone hits it with microwave radiation? You're sure it's soldier-proof? Trust me, you give something like this to a pack of grunts, and they'll find SOME way to screw it up you've never even considered. I know tanks work. I understand tanks. You'll have to convince me that this thing isn't just better than a tank, but that it's as dependable, too." Not to mention, defense contractors have billions invested in current technologies (ongoing R&D projects, existing factories, etc.), and armies of lobbyists to keep congressmen from approving budget expenditures for 'untested and potentially unreliable technology'. "We'll just have to appoint a committee to explore the possiblity of writing up a proposal to investigate the potential of your prototype, Mr. Stark. We'll get in touch with you... eventually." Under those conditions, if there is any technical, financial or tactical drawback to powered armor, you can be sure someone will find it and start dragging their heels over it.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... A light week for Amber quotes (forgot to write them down, again), but here goes: ----- Before the session starts, Alaric's player goes in search of beer: Vincent (OOC): BTW, if you're having trouble finding it, the bottle opener is a magnet on the fridge. Alaric (OOC): Aha! You lied to me! The bottle opener is actually TWO magnets on the fridge! ----- Sharp-eyed readers may detect a recurring theme from earlier sessions: Leandro: Let's see... I could go talk to Dworkin with Alaric and Conrad, or I could do something useful. Quintus: I'm going to find the wine cellar. You're welcome to join me. Leandro: No, I think I'll just take a nap. ----- Dworkin: A reflection of the Pattern and a reflection of the Logrus, in the same place? Impossible! Conrad: We have it on good authority that Oberon described it as 'a natural phenomenon'. Dworkin: Well, sure, that too. ----- Another recurring theme... Alaric (OOC): I don't understand why no one trusts me. I'm so nice, and likable, and reliable, and trustworthy! Leandro (OOC): Just like the rest of us! Alaric (OOC): Right. Only nice, and likable, and reliable, and trustworthy. Conrad (OOC): Whatever you say, Mr. "I Pass Secret Notes to the GM Every Five Minutes." Alaric (OOC): I do that as a courtesy. This way, I don't deprive the rest of you of valuable playing time. Otherwise, I'd be grabbing the GM and dragging him into the other room constantly. Conrad (OOC): We don't do that, either.

Re: Help with power I'd say they're 'equally common'. Everyone has both (unless they go out of their way not to), and they cost the same amount these days.

Re: Has anyone ever played a setting where the mutant's actually ARE evil?

Re: Has anyone ever played a setting where the mutant's actually ARE evil? Apart from the fact that your baddies are 'mutants', rather than 'vampires' or whatever, that sounds like a pretty straightforward horror setting. You might want to cannibalize any horror-themed RPGs you have access to for ideas (Call of Cthulu, Dark Conspiracy, Hunter: The Reckoning, etc.). One particularly apt possibility is Aberrant, White Wolf's superhero setting, which has 'superhumans going evil' as part of its metaplot.

Re: Expanding the War Machine That's because Warbird is already the leader of the team.

Re: Champions: Powers -- Great Book That depends entirely on how many Powers you're planning to duplicate, and what your definition of 'little effort' entails. I don't buy the HD prefabs, because I find that entering published characters into HD by hand is the best way to really get a feel for them, but it can be a laborious process. If you're a player going through Champions Powers looking for that one thing that will complete your character, entering it by hand is trivial. If you're a GM planning to use Champions Powers as a shortcut for generating lots of characters, a prefab is well worth paying for, IMO.

Re: WHY CSL's Don't forget Bouncing an Attack! Hey, it's *A* reason to buy CSLs. As far as the relative point costs of CSLs vs. OCV/DCV... At the very basic level, point-for-point, you're almost always going to be better off with some combination of CV and DCs. At least in comparison with CSLs with All Combat. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. That doesn't mean that CSLs are never a good buy. There are several issues at work: 1) All-Combat CSLs have to be more expensive than Hand-to-Hand or Ranged CSLs, and have to be cheaper than Overall Levels. That means that their actual price is effectively set for them by other abilities. The dirty little secret of All-Combat levels is that they've always been over-priced, and probably always will be, because the only way to price them 'fairly' would require them to be much too cheap in comparison to H-to-H/Ranged levels, or push Overall Levels up into the realm of 'too expensive to buy, period'. 2) The more things an ability does, the harder it is to price 'fairly'. This was the issue with STR and DEX in previous editions... If you wanted all of the things you could get by buying more DEX, it was insanely efficient at 3 CP/point. If you only wanted some of those things, it was about right. If you only wanted one those things, it would have been over-priced at 2 CP/point. All Combat Levels suffer from a milder form of this problem... Most characters don't really need to be 'specialized' in all forms of combat, so you really shouldn't be buying All-Combat levels without a very specific reason. If you want to be 'good at everything', Overall Levels aren't that much more expensive, and do a LOT more. 3) The Fifth Edition pricing structure wasn't broke, but they decided to fix it anyway. By simplifying the rules for adding damage (and allowing Ranged CSLs to be used for DCV), 5-point levels were noticeably better than they had been before, 'necessitating' an increase to 8-point levels for H-to-H/Ranged Combat, which pushed All-Combat levels to 10. Personally, I liked the old system better, but I can see why the change was made. Now, as for why you would want All-Combat levels over more OCV/DCV... Well, the flexibility/added damage does help. The tipping point (for me) is the point at which buying more base CV starts giving you diminishing returns. If your base OCV/DCV is already above the average values for your campaign, buying another +1 gives you less benefit (in terms of hit percentage) than the points you've already bought. At that point, you're better off buying something that you can use to give you one of several bonuses, depending on the actual situation you're facing (i.e. bonus damage against most opponents, bonus OCV against speedsters and MAs, bonus DCV against opponents with high-damage or exotic attacks), instead of something that gives you a minor benefit all of the time. For example: In a campaign where the average CV is, say, 8: if your base OCV/DCV is 8, you will connect with your attacks, and be hit by opponents, rougly 62% of the time. if your base OCV/DCV is 9, you will connect with your attacks 74% of the time, and you will be hit by the average opponent 50% of the time. 10 points = roughly 10% improvement. At this point, spending the same points on +1 with All Combat is clearly not a good plan (though 3-5 point levels are viable). if your base OCV/DCV is 10, it will improve those percentages to 84%/38%. Which is impressive, but if you can hit 'more often than not' anyway, the option of converting two CSLs to an extra DC of damage is fairly attractive. At higher values, the bonus CV becomes less and less effective in terms of generating additional hits (or misses), but extra damage is always handy. The percentages tail off quickly after 'average CV +2'. And if you're fighting opponents who are below average CV, they quickly become meaningless. The other thing is that comparing '1 CSL' to '+1 CV' is always going to look bad for the CSLs, since so much of their actual utiiity is only expressed by having several of them. Honestly, if I buy them at all, I almost never buy fewer than 3 CSLs. That's a good amount, since it'll take your average 11- chance to hit up to 14-, or cancel out a Dodge, or give you +1 DC and still let you increase your CV a bit. It ends up coming down to an intersection of character concept, campaign environment and play-style. For a fairly straight-forward brick or energy projector, straight OCV/DCV or cheap, restricted-purpose CSLs are a good choice. For a character who is already well above campaign-average in OCV/DCV (such as a speedster or MA), CSLs become increasingly attractive (and often tend to reinforce the character's concept). For a character who has below-average CVs and not a lot of points to spend on OCV/DCV, the flexibility of CSLs allows them to adapt their limited combat ability to their situation, giving them a puncher's chance to hit anyone, or a panic button for when they're in over their head, or the option of a death-or-glory gamble to drop the opponent quickly. Plus, frankly, I find that CSLs generally lead to characters that are more fun to play. Cheap CSLs force you to define what your character is good at because they only apply to certain things. Plus, switching between OCV and DCV adds a level of tactical complexity and drama to combat that you lose by always having the same CV. In a sense, it's an illusory benefit, but all role-playing is an illusion, anyway, so what the heck.

Re: Expanding the War Machine I was toying with a similar idea, myself. Never got around to doing writeups, and most of my name ideas have already been mentioned. One that hasn't come up yet however is War Widow. Never did come up with a power set for her, but there are possibilities (spider-themed assassin, perhaps?).* The other thing I was considering was leaving the War Machine the way it is, but having the Warlord recruit a second team of supers (or perhaps promote deserving Shadow Army soldiers and equip them with Hzeel tech). This team would be more of a functioning military unit than the War Machine (which includes several amateurs), and would play the role of the Warlord's 'Left Hand', specializing in covert ops and intelligence work. I wouldn't give them 'War' names, though. Perhaps a 'Battle' theme (Battleaxe, Battleplan, et al.). Or name them after legendary warriors (Achilles, Hannibal, Spartacus, etc.) Another possibility, particularly if you only need a temporary increase the Warlord's power level or prominence in your campaign, is to have him actively recruit military/mercenary supers (Mechassassin, Lazer, Steel Commando, etc) either for one-off missions, or as new members of the War Machine. They're unlikely to stick around for very long (it's hard to imagine Mechassassin, for instance, putting up with Warhead's pretensions for any length of time), but they'd make the War Machine very scary while they were available. * - OTOH, that name would also work for a hero (or anti-hero) motivated to seek revenge on the Warlord because she blames him for destroying her family in one of his operations. (Heck, you could make a whole team of them! War Orphan, War Debt, War Guilt, War Hero...)

Re: Icons - The Costume and Superpowers Store Timeline-wise, I think 'about a year' works fine. I'd suggest that you're better off erring in the direction of 'too short' than 'too long'. Given the aura of secrecy surrounding Icons, it should be relatively easy for you to push your timeline back if it turns out you need the store to have been around longer, but once that 'First Wave' feeling has worn off, it's not gonna come back. If you need to nail things down more than that, try making a list of events you need to establish the setting you want (i.e. the first appearances of well-known Icons, major news events involving them, less-public events known only to the Icon community), then come up with ballpark figures for how long those events would take and arrange them in some logical order to form a timeline. When in doubt, just separate events by a week. That should give you your campaign starting point. One thing to keep in mind is how long some events can drag out... It's entirely possible that between legal wrangling over whether costumed individuals can testify in court, whether using Icon powers constitutes 'Assault with a deadly weapon', mistrials, dramatic courtroom escapes, etc., that no Icon will have been successfully convicted of a crime even after a year or so. As for the Icon Effect, I originally suggested it as a name for the tendancy of the Icon costumes to prevent direct revelation of the wearer's identity. But it could extend to protecting the wearer from discovery by more indirect means, too. One superheroic trope that rarely gets dealt with is how Secret IDs survive the sheer scope of modern media and surveillance/investigative technology. Depending on how pervasive you make the Icon Effect, Icons themselves might be cosidered pure urban legends (like Batman in some of his solo books). If police, reporters and government officials simply ignore or fail to follow up on reports of superhumans battling in the streets, then the existence of Icons will never rise above the level of rumor, and even ordinary citizens will tend to ignore the existence of Icons unless they directly witness one in action. A less-drastic option is that the Icon Effect simply clouds the senses of witnesses. Thus, the existence and costumed identities of Icons will be widely-known, but investigators will have trouble pinning down any hard data that can be used to identify who is wearing a given costume. This would probably require both a physical component (photographs and film footage are blurred, fingerprints are smudged, DNA evidence is always compromised) and a psychic component ("What did the perpetrator look like, ma'am?" "Oh, officer, it was awful! He was so scary looking!" "Scary-looking how?" "You know, scary-looking!") Another possibility is that people who aren't actively looking for an Icon's identity simply fail to make the connection between the character's unusual behaviors and Icon activity. Perhaps any explanation, even the lamest excuse, will suffice to convince your Aunt April that you weren't out fighting Doctor Arachnid last night, even though you missed your curfew, came home with a black eye and weren't at your friend Jerry's house when she called looking for you. One thing to consider is how 'strong' the Icon effect should be. If it's impossible for anyone to figure out your Secret ID, then it's less of a Complication, and should be bought at a lower value (at the very least). On the other hand, the first time some reporter or paparazzo 'outs' an Icon (thereby demonstrating that it's possible), it'll only be a matter of time before every major Icon character is found out. The lure of an exclusive scoop will have the TMZ contingent out in force. One possibility is that the Icon Effect can be overcome, by someone with sufficient dedication. A burning need to discover the truth, perhaps... Of course, in Icons Earth, that kind of single-minded emotional focus tends to be limited to the exact sort of people who are drawn to Icons in the first place. Food for thought: Is it a general effect (perhaps tied to the store itself), or a property of the costumes? Could you convince your girlfriend that you had a good reason for standing her up last night, really, as long as you had your suit on underneath your clothes, but not if it was in your closet? Does it extend to concealing bulky/brightly-colored costumes under, say, a t-shirt and ripped jeans? Is it 'smart' enough to only cover-up your Iconic shenanigans, or does it just foster a general lack of curiosity about you and your actions? Does it work differently for Heroes and Villains (i. e. Heroes' identities are always concealed, so long as they live up to their code; while villains can do anything they want but can be exposed)?

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! It's a question of interpretation. The Clairsentience rules state you need GM permission to use it for LOS, but the Mental Powers rules state that all you need is to know where the target is. To me, that means 'no you can't use Clairsentience to target your 10d6 LOS Laser Blast on someone halfway around the world'. As a GM, I'd allow Clairsentience (with the Targeting Sense modifier, of course) to work for Mental Powers unless some other circumstance precluded it.

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! Dunno... If she's jumping from a possessed animal to a new animal, she should be able to get LOS on them with Clairsentience. She'd only need Mind Scan if she was trying to initiate a possession from scratch. That doesn't give you the option of the 'discorporeal hostage', though, which does sound promising from the "It's called a 'Complication' for a reason" perspective. I'm thinking of writing up the straight-Duplication version for my own use. I've got a super-mage for whom it would be ideal. That's the other great thing about Hero... Pinching bits from other people's characters to build your own!

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Have you read the Amber novels by Roger Zelazny? Because they're what the game is based on, and none of what I'm about to say will make a lick of sense if you haven't. I'll spoiler it so people who aren't interested can skip it: So, essentially, after a campaign where every few sessions we discover that "Everything We Thought We Knew Was Wrong" and "Powerful Forces Are At Work" and "Reality As We Know It" is in "Grave Peril", we went down into the basement and discovered compelling evidence that: "No Really, EVERYTHING We Thought We Knew Was Wrong" and "We Have No Idea What Is Going On Now". In a different kind of campaign, we would naturally run back to the rest of the party and report our discoveries so that we could pool our resources and Save the Day. But that's not how Amber works. In particular, that's not how Alaric works. So, we've decided that it's simpler just to not tell him. That way, he'll spend the next couple of sessions scheming a way to winkle the information out of us, or discover it on his own. Instead of spending the next couple of sessions scheming a way to turn the situation to his advantage, possibly dooming us all in the process. Managing Alaric's propensity for scheming is one of our most vital tasks.

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! OK, I see where you're coming from now. I was working from the assumption that you were trying to model the effects you'd described in the Quote of the Week thread, which made it more of a minor knack for a secondary NPC. If you're planning to expand her role to include actual adventuring and superheroic combat, you'll definitely want a more robust build. Do you really need an 'Astral Form' build at all? Does she actually spend any time roaming around on the Astral Plane looking for animals to possess? If it's primarily a target-driven process, you can get the effects you want with a suite of standard Mental Powers that apply to the Animal group of minds. You can model the 'leaves her body behind' effect with Concentration (0 DCV, unaware of surroundings, must Concentrate throughout the use of a Constant Power), and the 'damage feedback' becomes a Side Effect of her Mind Control (Major Side Effect, happens whenever certain circumstances occur). Make the Mind Control Cumulative, and she can take over ordinary animals quickly and easily, but may have to spend more time on smarter/magical/mutant animals. Over and above that, you can buy Mind Scan (if she can initiate the possession beyond LOS range), Telepathy and/or Clairsentience (Linked to the Mind Control). Buy them as an EC or Unified Power (depending on which edition you're using), rather than in a Multipower, since she'll generally be running multiple Powers simultaneously.

Re: Quote of the Week from my gaming group... Last night's Amber Diceless RPG session: ----- Before the session starts: Vincent (OOC): According to this (CD case), "Taste It" was one of INXS' greatest hits? Conrad (OOC): That's the second greatest hits compilation. Their definitions get a little more elastic. Quintus and Conrad set out to recruit an army: Quintus: We're going to the rescue of a bunch of elves, right? We should show up with an army of orcs. Conrad: That would be amusing. Quintus: But not a horde. I prefer more disciplined troops. Conrad: Right, Orcish legions, then. (OOC) Like in the Warlord CCG! Quintus: We should make sure they have some sort of Trolls, with big spiky clubs, who can hurl boulders. Conrad: Alaric requested wizards, too. I suppose he'll settle for orcish war shamans. Right, sounds like we have our shopping list, then. Quintus: Don't forget, you wanted dragons, too. Conrad: If I'm going to charge into a battle between elves and demons, I do it on dragonback. Style counts in these things. ----- Quintus and Conrad find their army, but it's already fighting someone: Quintus: Right then. Which side are we on? Conrad: Well, it looks like the besiegers are winning. They don't need our help. We'll just ingratiate ourselves with the locals by slaughtering everything that stands between us and them. ----- Quintus and Conrad succeed in breaking the siege through a combination of clever tactics and personal combat with the enemy's leaders, and are introduced to the leader of the defending army: Orcish General: So, you're Prince Conrad of Amber? If you're here, that means that the Dark Times are truly upon us! But you will lead us through them, to victory and glory! Quintus (sotto voce): Good Lord! There's a prophecy, isn't there? Conrad: There always is... ----- The GM asks for everyone's plans for the upcoming epic battle. Conrad senses a pattern: Conrad: You know how you can tell that Quintus and I are military geniuses? Our plans are always the simplest... "Heavy cavalry charge, right up the middle!", "I ride in on dragon-back and set fire to anyone who looks evil.", "I stab the evil sorceress with a magic spear." That's the hallmark of a really good plan. ----- Leandro is used to being the worst swordsman in his peer-group. Indeed, he is resigned to it... To the point where he forgets that he's actually a pretty darn good fighter: Leandro (OOC to GM): Do I think I can fight off the crew of the siege tower long enough to block the door? Conrad (OOC): I don't see why not, they're combat engineers, not frontline troops. Leandro (OOC): "Top" engineers, no doubt. GM: Dude, you're ranked 4th in Warfare, even if they were front-line troops, you could take them. Leandro: Sweet! I charge in on my pegasus and attack them. GM: You mow down these hapless mooks, barely breaking stride. Quintus (OOC): Savor this moment. Leandro (OOC): Trust me, I am. ----- Conrad has attempted to fly directly at the evil sorceress on dragonback, and been rewarded with a lightning bolt to the head: Conrad (to Bucephalus the Truly Enormous Dragon): All right, the frontal attack didn't work. We'll have to land and sneak up on her. You can do 'subtle', right? ----- After the epic battle, Quintus and Conrad investigate the castle's basement, and find a Very Bad Thing That No One Was Prepared For down there: Conrad: I have a plan. Would you like to hear it? Quintus: No. But please, do go on. Conrad: We go back out, lock the door, and never mention this to anyone. Quintus: Funny, that was MY plan, too. Conrad: We'll need to reinforce these locks. Quintus: Maybe fill the whole room with concrete? Conrad: Good idea, but it needs something more... Something with poisoned spikes, and maybe a deadfall. Quintus: We should brick up that secret door, too. Conrad: And post a sign saying, "Beware of the Leopard". ----- Alaric is curious... Alaric: So, what was in the basement? Conrad: Nothing. Absolutely nothing of interest. Some broken up old furniture. You don't need to go look. Alaric: I see... Quintus: There was a leopard. Leandro (OOC): "And the lights were out. So were the stairs." ----- Conrad attempts to clarify the situation: Conrad: Look, it's not so much that we're concealing important information from you... Well, that's exactly what it is. Alaric: That's what I thought. Conrad: You won't like it. Frankly, you're better off not knowing. Alaric (oozing sarcasm): I'm sure. ----- Conrad makes a second attempt: Conrad: It's not so much that I'm concealing something that's a threat to you, as something that would turn out badly if you knew about it. Alaric: You don't trust me? Conrad: Nothing personal. I'm not telling Vincent, either. I like Vincent, but I don't trust him. ----- Vincent fears that his moment of self-sacrificing heroism is going unnoticed: Vincent: Hey! I set myself up to get completely curb-stomped in the battle, unless you all rode in to save me.... Conrad: And we did ride in to save your bacon, didn't we? Count your blessings. ----- Leandro heads back to Amber and makes his report to the king: Leandro: So, that's pretty much everything that's happened up to this point. Oh, and I believe that this here Jewel of Judgement belongs to you. We found it lying around somewhere. ----- Alaric is shocked to discover someone might doubt his motives: Alaric: Wait a minute, you're telling me that Vincent and I are the least-trusted members of the group? Conrad: Er. Yeah. Alaric: You and Quintus are the least-trusted members of the group! Conrad: Well, admittedly, at this particular moment we are. ----- Edited - Forgot a couple: ----- Alaric has come up with a perfectly reasonable plan to keep the enemy from wondering where he is while he infiltrates their army. Unfortunately, he's set it up entirely with private notes to the GM, so none of the rest of the group knows what's going on: Alaric (to GM): I send my duplicate to join Quintus' army. (To Quintus): A guy who looks like me shows up and says, (in a robotic monotone)"Hello. I am Alaric. Please allow me to join your army and fight alongside you." Quintus: Well, this isn't even remotely suspicious. (To GM): Why are you letting him have robot duplicates, anyway? Alaric: Fine. He has a note pinned to his shirt, it says, "I am not a trap. Signed, Alaric." Quintus: Oddly enough, that doesn't help. Fine, you can be a centurion. Take that platoon of orcs over there. You shouldn't be able to do too much damage with just a century. ----- Later, during the battle, Vincent is preparing for his death-or-glory charge to distract the evil sorceress from Alaric's assassination attempt: Quintus: Don't forget to pin a note to your shirt that says, "I am not a trap. Signed, Alaric." That trick always works! ----- Vincent is attempting to strangle the sorceress faster than she can take over his mind: Vincent (to GM): If possible, I try to maneuver her into an enclosed space where it will be difficult for her to shapeshift into some monstrous beast and eviscerate me. GM: Well, you're on an open battlefield, so no luck there. Conrad: I've got the perfect place! (points to Bucephalus) I call it, "a dragon's gullet." Vincent: You're yards and yards away. I don't have that kind of time.

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! Duh. It just occurred to me that you could probably model the effect with Mind Link, too...

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! I think you're over-thinking this. You don't need anything but the Duplication power to model this effect. Set aside what the power is called, and how it's described. It doesn't really matter whether you call it "Mutant Psionic Animal Possession" or "Scroll of Polymorph Self", the effect you want is "this character can lurk around in the form of small animal, doing small-animal things, then turn back into a human". So, the Duplicate isn't an Astral Form that has to do other stuff to control the animal - the Duplicate IS the animal. The presence of a given animal is just a necessary precondition to initiate the power, satisfied by a found object in the environment that happens to have fur (and/or feathers/bristles/scales), thus it's a Focus. Metaphorically speaking, when you activate the power, you 'pick up' the critter and 'use' it to achieve the effect, just like picking up a bar stool and hitting someone with it (+3d6 HA, OIF: Barstool of Opportunity). I haven't had a chance to sit down and tinker with the writeup, but by my estimate, a 150 Duplicate should be more than sufficient to model any small animal you're likely to possess (this is where the Shapeshift and Animal Powers VPP comes in), and should run you somewhere about 10-15 Real Cost after the "Leaves original body helpless','Feedback', OIF and any other appropriate Limitations. The ability to 'possess' elephants and tigers will run you more, of course.

Re: My Cat Is Possessed! I've never cared for the Desolidification + Clinging build. Always seemed inelegant to me. Possibly a form of Duplication (or perhaps Multiform) with the 'leaves physical body behind' limitation. The target animal would be a Focus, I guess (OIF: "Small, ordinary animal of opportunity"? Sounds funny, if nothing else). The alternate form could be built with Shapeshifting and VPP to mimic the appearance and abilities of the possessed animal... Eliminates the need for all of the Mind Control/Telepathy/Affects Real World/Clairsentience jiggery-pokery you end up wanting to cram into such a build, and there are already rules for damage to the alternate form being communicated to the main form.

Re: Ego Attacks in 5e Plus, with Mind Scan, you can attack someone even if you can't see them, so Ego Attack has essentially unlimited range, above and beyond the fact that it was Line of Sight to begin with. Given a successful Mind Scan, you can sit in your apartment in New York and attack some poor slob in Los Angeles whenever you want. Can't do that with Energy Blast (at least, not without a bunch of Advantages that make it cost at least as much as Ego Attack). Let's see, there was something else... Oh, yeah. Ego Attack, like other Mental Powers, is invisible to anyone but the target and other mentalists. Which is nice. Also, it's significantly harder to accidentally kill someone with attacks that don't do Body. Short of your GM ruling that the shock causes a heart attack, or they fall down and hit their head, or something like that. I've had characters with Code vs. Killing who've accidentally killed opponents by punching them too hard, which is awkward to say the least. So there's value in having a non-lethal attack option.

Re: Beating Dr. Destroyer...how do (or did) you do it? I suspect it boils down to 'too narrowly-focused'. Ultimately, it was driven by a combination of setting plus power level. If it had covered a broader range of topics (including space adventure in different eras, time travel, alternate universes, etc.), it might have appealed to more people. I bought the book, but I've never actually made use of it. I think I'd have gotten more out of a broader, "Cosmic Champions" book, even if that meant it was twice as long and cost more.

Re: Batman! Collect them all for 350 Points! I once used a similar concept to build a Green Lantern homage... Essentially, the base form was a basic energy projector build, and the various Multiforms were power-ring constructs he could make (like a spaceship with FTL Movement, Life Support and Force Field, all UBO... or a bulldozer with AoE Telekinesis and Force Wall).

Re: Quick Fix for a Newbie Well, this sort of thing is one of the great strengths of the Hero System. Basically, once you have an idea of the basic effect you want, you can slap a few Limitations or Advantages on it, and it can come from a gun or a spell (or something) instead of being an innate power. Like Gojira says, the Focus Limitation is going to be a great friend to you. Basically, some flavor of Focus (OAF, OIF, IIF or IAF) is what you use to model just about any type of gadget, weapon or device. Other things which you might find come in handy... For spells: Icantations, Gestures, Extra Time, OAF (wand/staff/spellbook/whatever), Concentration... You don't have to use them all for every spell, but some combination of these is a good way to make something feel & play like 'magic' instead of 'mutant powerz'. For things like potions & scrolls, those are probably also Obvious Accessible Foci, but you'd probably also want to apply the Charges Limitation (with the Expendable option) to them, as well. So, just as a quick and dirty example, you can take a Lightning Bolt power built as a 10d6 Blast and turn it into a: Ion Rifle: 10d6 Blast, OAF: Rifle, 32 Charges or Scroll of Lightning Strikes: 10d6 Blast, Fragile OAF: Scroll, 1 Expendable Charge (difficult to replace), Incantations, Gestures People post character writeups and rules questions on these boards all the time, so if you just keep an eye out, ideas will fall into your lap fairly frequently.

Re: A Cerebro on the Cheap Well, MSS isn't necessarily the worst thing in the world. This sort of build certainly makes sense for any number of character concepts (Professor X, anyone with Astral Projection powers, etc.) It's just something to keep an eye on. It's like hackers in Cyberpunk games... Some games/groups can handle having a guy stay back at the crib to run interference for the rest of the team, and some need a reason to bring him along.

Re: A Cerebro on the Cheap Well, by default, Mind Scan has a planetary range and allows you to use Mental Powers on anyone you lock onto with it. If all you want is the ability to use Mind Scan more effectively, then you can buy +10 OMCV for 20 Active Points. With the right combination of Limitations (some combination of Fragile Immobile OIF; RSR: Systems Operation; maybe some Side Effects), that drops to around 6-7 points. This will cancel out the penalties for trying to scan the entire planet. Your comment about defenses raises the dreaded specter of Mental Sniper Syndrome. If the team's telepath can use his abilities from the safety of the base, never exposing his fragile personal body to harm, why would he ever leave the base? If you and the rest of the group have no trouble with one member sitting around in perfect safety while the rest of the team risks life and limb to perform heroic deeds, then that's fine. Just be prepared for times when he can't help the team because he's not physically present, or when he's trapped in the base by himself while enemies infiltrate the building. If it's just a question of finding a way for a pure telepath to survive in combat, there are ways to do that without resorting to telekinetic shields. It's not hard to justify a variant of Combat Luck which operates off of precognition or low-level telepathy, for instance. Other possibilities include +DCV defined as 'the ability to cloud men's minds', or just using Mind Control and/or Mental Illusions to prevent your foes from attacking you.

Re: Thulkos as a campaign setting. The Kings of Edom definitely lend themselves to a 40K atmosphere, as well, as they'd do a good job of filling the Chaos gods' niche. Which would make Tyrannon equivalent to the Emperor, which isn't that much of a stretch, either. It lines surprisingly well.