Kdansky

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics

Re: Does anyone have any idea why this is legal? Eh, you mistook me there. I also dislike anti-characters. I just wanted to get the "kill off the character if he's incredibly annoying"-message across

Suppress? One attack roll in the beginning, then pay end every phase. That's it. It's constant. It's like drain with "pay end every phase", but return rate of zero. And it's only 5 points, range included. Drain is twice as much, no range (making it three times as much with range), and you probably have to buy the return rate up one step on the time chart to make it really annoying. Yes, Suppress OWNS. Supress 1d6, ranged (default), 0 end (+1/2): 7.5cp per d6 Drain 1d6, ranged (+1/2), costs end (default), one step up on chart (+1/4), 17.5 cp per d6 And supress is A LOT better still. Pack uncontrolled on it, and it's like drain with Return Rate "Infinity", but still cheaper than basic drain. Never allow constant + uncontrolled

Re: Not Taking Advantage I like NPAs: Evil Thingy That Might Hit You: EB 10d6. AP 50, real cost 50 Evil Thingy That Will Hit You But I Can Only Do That So Often: NPA on 50 AP, AoE 1 hex (+1/2), 1 charge (-2), AP 75, real cost 8. total 58 cost. Can't do that clean without NPAs, and MPs are too expensive for this (since you have to make the reserve 75 AP). It's just cheaper and I might allow you to break the usual DC limits there, if you put enough disads onto that NPA.

Re: Teleportation, Triggered I never allow Trigger: Mental Command. That's basically: "Get get as many free actions as you want". Also, it's not a "trigger", because you are acting, not reacting. Trigger: "When x happens which is not something I do myself" is fine.

Re: Autofire Option I'm not sure how balanced that is, although you would sacrifice AP limit due to taking high autofire advantages and not "using" it. I suppose I'd allow it, but I'm wary of giving out +1 OCV per shot wasted. Possibly +1 OCV for the first shot, +2 OCV for 1 plus two shots, +3 OCV for one plus two plus three, etc. Something non-linear. Meh, I'm not sure.

Re: Does anyone have any idea why this is legal? A few Armor piercing attacks hurt anyone who abides by defense limits, meaning Defenses = DC*2. That's not really a problem. I also dislike the "cheap TK" he bought, and think grappling + transporting to shadowworld is extremly problematic. But what I'd do: I'd allow it and take a look at what he's doing with it. Build some anti-character to his (affects desolid attack, 60 str against being grappled, edm movement into same dimension or something, should be very easy) and if he abuses it, kill him off. Then explain to him that if he wants to play cheap, the GM always wins. Yeah, not nice, but if someone metagames this hard (assuming he did, his actions will prove it), he deserves it. Then find a new player

Re: Knockback on a speedster Ah, turn mode, that's what I forgot. Sell Running, buy 3" Knockback resistance, and you are fine But you still got a turn mode, which can only be removed by taking an advantaged flight, making flight more expensive. Would you guys allow "Flight, Always On"?

Re: 1 pt CSL's, can I do this? You could buy it with "normal shot" I suppose. The gun has an advantage, that's not your problem then... On the same note: Could I use that level also when braced/set? Or does that change my "Maneuver"?

Re: Knockback on a speedster Ah, ok. Another question: Why is Flight the same price (2cp per 1") as Running? Flight is just better.

Re: Double The Hero Excitement! Ctulhu: I honestly don't see Hero as a good system for that. A system always conveys a feel with how you roll dice (bellcurves = realism, d20 = randomness) or lethality (gurps = highly lethal, cthulu = even more so, hero = extremly low). I just don't see hero as very suitable. Sure, you can do it, but that does not mean it's the best solution. If you want to play Ctulhu, then go and do that. CoH / Heroes (TV): What point is there? The TV Series is just a modernized Marvel/DC story, CoH might even be called oldfashioned. That would be extremly boring to most of the userbase, I think. Hero6: Very unlikely, but I would be very intrigued by a completely overhauled H6. Hero5.5: Again? We've already had two Versions of FRED, what do we need a third one for? It's not like the errata is very big.

Re: Teleport Tactics I would go even further: Either a MP or directly a limited VPP. VPP 60 pool, 30 control - Can change powers as a zero phase action, possibly requiring a skill roll (or not). - Only powers which can be justified by teleporting mass or himself -1 (heavily limited group) - Usually requires focus of opportunity (cars to drop): -1/2 I'm a bit unsure on the second limitation, but not taking any would be wrong, but not all powers have it. You can just assign these points to Teleport Megascale, and there you don't need any OAF... If you go for MP: base: 60 3: Drop things on my enemy - OAF car of opportunity, EB 8d6, Area of effect one hex accurate +1/2 ....

Re: Knockback on a speedster Question to that: Why would one take Flight Only In Contact With Surface instead of Running? To run up walls? I'd use clinging for that, seems way more approapiate.

Re: Does anyone have any idea why this is legal? He doesn't have a VPP...

Re: You can't move! Ha ha ha! I would blame "speed is too cheap" for this We all know that for a 350 cp character, speed at a lousy 10 cp is really way too cheap. You basically double your power from 3 to 6 speed, and that is less than 10% of your points. If there wasn't such things as concept, I'm sure the most efficient build would be a speed 10, STR 60 (no end) brick.

Re: Whipping myself into shape Works, but it's rather crude, I think. Also, Draining Frameworks is usually involving more math than I'd like during play.

Re: Ranged Martial Arts and TK or Entangle TK can benefit if you buy a Weapon Element: TK (1 point) for the MA. Entangle usually doesn't.

Yeah, crappy pun, sorry for that. If you're a player in my group, you're not allowed to read on. I am currently designing a character with this power: He can restructure his own body, but not like shapeshift (cosmetic), but rather permanently, like crafting a blade onto his arm and killing people with it. My take: VPP of some sort. I'm troubled with this problem: Assume you create a Ranged Attack with this ("My arm is now a gun"), technically, you will shoot bullets made out of your own body (ow), except if you get your hands onto a magazine to use. I have no clue how to model that. The effect I'm searching for: If you "throw away" your axe-arm, you lose some portion of the AP of the VPP until you can pick it up again, similar to gadgeteers who lose a gun. Neat builds?

Re: Block vs Dodge Well, it should be kinda obvious that if your character has way more DCV than OCV (or the other way round) that either dodge or block is superior. If that wasn't the case, one of the two would be a lot worse. The interesting question is: How much more do you need to make one better than the other? Seems to be in the area of 2 points.

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics 18 makes sense from a figured/heroic point of view. You get the PD and the REC, and quite a few heroic PCs don't care about that fourth d6 (since their weapon restricts them in how much str they can add). Also, the +1 on STR skills is largely meaningless, as well, how many str skills are there? If you think that "everyone has lots of str" is a good thing, then certainly, str at 1:1 is great. But for everything except champions that is not very fitting (mages with 18 str? kinda weird). So the default should not be Champions, but Generic. That's one of the most cited problems of HERO, btw: It's roots in champions, which are (sadly) still very strong. HERO is not really generic, but it can be used as such. And yes: STR is negative points. You would have bought defenses (PD/ED) in some form anyway, so that's worth it. REC you also need, stun is never useless and at that point, you're already at negatives. Leaping is a bonus, so is the strength itself. Show me a champions character with less than 15 strength which would absolutely not gain points by "buying" str for free (and possibly selling some defenses in the process to stay at the same level).

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics This post takes the cake (which is, of course, a lie). If str was 2:1, we would probaby not see dozens of "OMG, STR IS TOO EXPENSIVE!!111one" theads, because even at 2:1, you get great value out of your points, better than any EC and possibly even better than most MPs. And for the "build a character" challenge: The built brick is a viable base, you've still got a huge 88 points left to spend, that's more than 20% of base 350 cost. Also, restricting "no HA" and "no MA" is really cheap, as these two things let high STR shine even more. And this question was not answered: What is good about str at 1:1? If that's the perfect pricing, why should str not be even cheaper at 0.5:1? If you name anything mathematical which was called for 2:1 vs 1:1, you basically agree that 2:1 would be superior to 1:1. Yeah, you can now make the 3:1 argument, I've not thought that through yet.

Re: Discussion on costs of Characteristics So let me ask a simple question to the "Str is priced fine" crowd": What is good about str at 1:1 except "it's by the book"? We've had dozens of counterarguments (my powergirl build which is a blaster with free 60 str, or the multiple free AE/free Lift/free NND examples), but none in favour. And I don't count vague "it's better that way" things. Be precise. 5ER was mainly streamlining, and no reworking of erhm... let's call it "things that were like this since first, but probably should be changed". So if it's by the book, that does not mean anything to me. Steve wrote himself that backwards compatibility trumped balance for fifth edition. So, do you worst: What is good about str at 1:1 except "it's by the book"? What makes free NNDs (lakes of opportunity) grab immunity and AE (throw Cruiser of Opportunity) balanced against spending 5 more points to have 50 less strength?

Re: Power Thresholds Paingasm? repped. Even though "I think I just had an Evilgasm." still wins. Your construct has one huge problem: First power uses OCV/DCV, second one ECV. Your mentalist might have quite some troubles hitting with the drain. And you forgot to up the recovery time one step, this will go away in seconds.

Re: Multiform, OIHID or just sfx? You can do both. Or a third (least point-efficient way): Silver as main form, buy Normal Person as Multiform (will probably not be very expensive). I don't think it's very sensible, since you basically pay points for a disadvantaged form.

Re: Weird Idea: Clairsentience as a Disad I'd go with disadvantage. I also "give" plot powers to PCs, but these are all priced at 0. They only work when the plots wants it so.