Opal

I still drop by D&D spaces, and a very common topic of discussion/hand-wringing is how to "fix" published adventures, customize them to the "OP level" of your party, etc.  You can find major re-writes by fans and influencers on line.
 
Difference is Hero has (is) tools that let you do that.
 
I guess this is relevant to the discussion due to D&D's persistent market dominance, and it's tempting to think there was something other than name recognition and timing to explain it.
 
They are more than adequate explanations, imho.

I don't know how many versions of the game I may be mixing here, but aren't there sweep and multiple move bys and grab one guy, slam another, and martial throws?
 
There's a lot of ways for a sufficiently superior hero to hold many lesser foes at bay!
 
And once you've done a dramatic one, Roll that PRE Attack!

A naked 5 shot autofire on 4d6 HKA with the limitations OAF and suppression fire only costs 12 points.  Suppression fire is a half phase maneuver so can be combined with the optional guarding rules. This will allow you to make an attack on anyone moving through the area.  If they ignore you and try and move past you they are at ½ DCV.  The suppression fire means you can attack every segment, not just the phases you go in. It also means you can attack the character once for every hex they enter.  The only limit is you cannot hit more than 5 times (or the number of shots fired).  

Was not sure whether to build it as a 0 DEF barrier with BODY, or a Barrier with no BODY.
 
I am inclined to go with 0 DEF as it all about being overwhelmed rather than a single massive attack succeeding.  Can see arguments for both though.

I don't know how many versions of the game I may be mixing here, but aren't there sweep and multiple move bys and grab one guy, slam another, and martial throws?
 
There's a lot of ways for a sufficiently superior hero to hold many lesser foes at bay!
 
And once you've done a dramatic one, Roll that PRE Attack!

There's no latter D&D AoOs,,no, but held actions and multiple attack option cover it, in concept.
Sounds fine.  Weave a web of steel and hold back three men at once!
Until one finally breaks through your defense. ( I'm assuming Barrier is like earlier versions' Force Wall.)
 
Or you could do a continuous-controllable AE around yourself, everyone passing by you gets hurt.
 
Extraordinary Intimidate could do the trick... Or power based on that.  Oratory to impugn their honor if they don't face you honorably could work similarly.
 
 

For the most part you are responding to this ancient story with modern mores, the ancient army if honour challenged must respond to Horatio one at a time or lose their honour. To them the loss of honour was a worse fate than death, for in death they would be remembered as facing off with a hero. 

(several nuns shuffle by piously)

Perhaps all the robots can join together into a giant robot?

Android Multiform? So, like Cutey Honey, then. 😘

Like I said, I played in campaigns where the assumed speed was "shifted" - generally, if your power set didn't include superhuman speed, you didn't go above 20/4 (and if nothing else like that, Normal Characteristic Maxima disad).  One benefit was that it aligned the PCs with the "meaning" of the stats.  Another was having slightly less basket-case levels of disads or some more points to flesh out a powerset.
 
So, yknow, 15 years of doing something is not theorycrafting anymore.
 
I also took those characters to conventions, and they still worked.
 
You can shift campaign assumptions, and get good results, but you can also defy them and get good results...
 
At least, you could.  I assume NCM is gone and the points saved by backing off 3-10 DEX and a point or two of speed would be trivial in 6th.
 
 

Like I said, I played in campaigns where the assumed speed was "shifted" - generally, if your power set didn't include superhuman speed, you didn't go above 20/4 (and if nothing else like that, Normal Characteristic Maxima disad).  One benefit was that it aligned the PCs with the "meaning" of the stats.  Another was having slightly less basket-case levels of disads or some more points to flesh out a powerset.
 
So, yknow, 15 years of doing something is not theorycrafting anymore.
 
I also took those characters to conventions, and they still worked.
 
You can shift campaign assumptions, and get good results, but you can also defy them and get good results...
 
At least, you could.  I assume NCM is gone and the points saved by backing off 3-10 DEX and a point or two of speed would be trivial in 6th.
 
 

Which is weirdly realistic, in itself.
 
 

Maybe, in spite of being between the attacker and the ones hit, she wasn't in the AE? 
 
Then there's those AEs that roll to hit everyone in them...
...and, maybe...
"not the face" +5 DCV, 5 combat luck, limitation: look like a putz (can't make PRE attacks for the rest of the fight)

Which is weirdly realistic, in itself.
 
 

I know I am behind in the conversation, but I wanted to say that we might have gotten lyckier than most: Jim, the GM that taught me Champions, was very bit the comic book guy that I am not, and I am just curious when it comes,to abstracts.
 
We got curious about _exactly_ where "super" started, since so many supers are listed as "the peak of human potential" but avoid (with some real work, sometimes) "superhuman."
 
So we grabbed various Guniess Book of Records from across a few years and started looking things up.
 
We pinned STR world-record level at about 23, even recognizing that this record would one day be broken, but that a person who just lifted that much wasn't really able to do that much else with the strength, so he hadn't reached peak human potential until he could use this strength for a prolonged period, etc.  All other primsries being 10, we figured their peak human potential was around 23.  This left us with an SPD3.3, so we figured peak human and super were probably around 4, with super-super going up from there. 
 
Yes; we assumed there was overlap.  A legendary fighter could train relentlessly to achieve speed 4.  A sixteen year old kid with super powers might also poses a a speed 4.
 
When FH pinned Maxima at 20, we figured we had pretty much nailed it.
 
 
So between some,of us wanting to know where human kind of stopped, in the real,world, and a xomic guru as a GM--
 
Jim pointed out things to us from comjcs that I and some od the others would,never have really known, and he had bices and bices if comjcs from which to grab examples.
 
It boiled down to this:  Batman and iron man and most of the superheroes- even the ones with actual super powers-  traded,blows with each other.  Starfire (I think that is right; google gave me the correct picture) fought-- attacked and dodged, hit and for hit-- at the same rate as Cyborg and the girl,in the red leotard (sorry; name,is lost to me) who was superpowers for real, and all of then we're _slower_ that Robin, who was a trained normal.  The yellow Flash xharcater was faster than Robin (duh).
 
He used that xomic series a lot, because the aet was amazing, so we all paid attention.  He used Firestorm xomics a lot too.
 
Rhe point is, people,with SPD higher than highly-trained normals, in the sourve material, we're -rare-..  The Flag, Superman- those were the ones that broke SPD5: the absolute gods.
 
Considering just how lopsided a boxing match between the Flash and pretty much anyone except,Superman would,be, it mde a sort of sense:  there couldn't actually,be legitimate combat if superhuman reflexes and,reacrions were too often betond the barely-attainable for normal,un-super human beings.
 
We geared bow _powerfully_ the villians,could hit us, not,how often.
 
So we never really got into the DEX SPD escalations that apparently everyone else had to endure.
 
 

ROCK-M
and 
SOCK-M

You can.  Enough levels, or the right power set, and finesse the speed chart just a bit...
Even the super-efficient 23/5 is 16 points the 20/4 character can put into 5 martial arts levels, or 4 & a DC, or 2 all-combat if they're more diverse combatants.
 
That works.
DEX/SPD is relative, if everyone backs off a little, you don't miss it. The groups I was in, '84-99 were like that.

Android Multiform? So, like Cutey Honey, then. 😘

Again, that depended on the scenario.  That sample dungeon level in the AD&D DM Guide sticks with me.  Level one characters exploring and one character cleverly figures out how to get up to the upper opening where there used to be steps and is rewarded by the GM by... a level 3 monster killing and eating him.  That's what Gygax thought adventures should be like.
 
I think initially, game designers did not realize how attached people would get to their characters so they were much more lethal in their scenario designs.
 
 
And in Warhammer, if you play perfectly and get really lucky, you might live most of the way through the scenario

ROCK-M
and 
SOCK-M

ROCK-M
and 
SOCK-M