Talon

Re: Save or Die? Nope, not without house rules or stretching requirements (a 0 END UCC BODY Drain could /eventually/ kill anyone, for example). I suppose you could do it legally but with cheese: Extra Dimensional Travel (either to dimension where target is dead, or to dimension where target is killed and instantly transported back), UAA, with the defense being "make a CON roll". Those games also generally make lots of assumptions about the types of characters that can be affected by such things. Hero can't make those assumptions -- thus, there's always a defense that someone could choose.

By the rules, this isn't much of a Limitation. I'm assuming you have something like: Multipower: Arrows, X points. Slot 1: Arrow #1, 1 Charge. Slot 2: Arrow #2, 1 Charge. etc. I would try putting the Limitation on the pool: Extra Time 1 Extra Phase to switch to 20 of the slots, must choose which 20 in advance (takes 1 minute to switch). Extra Time for all the slots would be -3/4, so I would probably allow the above limitation for -1/4 -- but I would make the character hand me a written list each time he switched, just to keep everything above board.

I would also consider suggesting some sort of timer for each character's Phases -- if everyone is taking several minutes to decide on their action, low SPD characters are going to feel left out. My favorite SPD anecdote was a gritty supers campaign where my character (the white supremacist/casual killer/sensory-based mentalist) and the combat monster (SPD, DEX, STR, Armor, big stick) were assaulting some normals. I kicked the door down and dropped one of them with an NND, and then he got like 3 phases and before I could blink the rest were taken out. It was actually very funny.

Yeah, I like the Missile Deflection too. Clean mechanic.

I'd want to see the rules made more consistent and "standardized". FREd was an improvement, but there are still a lot of things that are inconsistent for no real reason (for example, the damage rules around page 270).

I think your last paragraph sums it up; it's "better" mathematically, but more complex and too radical for a general change.

There's the bizarro rules way: Variable SFX as a naked Advantage, bought Usable Against Others. Technically, Transform can't work because the power itself has no "BODY" and is not a valid target. I would think about how the GM wants to limit the power: should it be harder to change the SFX of a candle than a river of lava?

I think Steve the right answer: No, but some GMs may allow it. I'd rather have the default be to discourage it, so that GMs who may have trouble dealing with some players have some backing.

While the rules don't specifically mention any way for a Triggered power to auto-reset, Steve has been pretty loose about it in published characters. If the GM is willing, I'd build it as Flight with 0 END, Persistent, and Triggered and leave it at that. It is a rules area that I'd like to see addressed someday, though.

I actually knew someone who thought that you could fire two powers together in 4th Edition without taking the Linked Limitation.

For myself, I highly recommend Startide Rising and Uplift War, both excellent books. The next trilogy (actually, now being billed as books 4-6 of The Uplift Series) starts out good but IMO sucks big time at the end. Thus, the above two books will ask some questions and start some long-term plotlines that may force you to read the other books; but you were warned.

Heaven's Reach in particular, I believe, was the one that made me no longer care about the "uplift mystery". Did not like it one bit.

Heh, if you want to call to mind an appropriate Robin Hood movie scene, try the "let's ride into Sherwood" scene from Robian and Marian. "Next time you ride through Sherwood...keep yer visor /down/."

What's that URL again? trekrpg.net gets me a sports betting site...

I have found that a combination of charging more END for encumbered characters to move and applying CV penaties as END decreases is a great way to balance heavy and light armor characters. If the light armor people can move around a lot, they will quickly gain the upper hand as the heavy armor people become tired.

I have exhaustion and encumbrance rules at http://www.shalott.com/hero (seems to be down at the moment) that help somewhat. However, IMO a heavy armor character is going to be better in combat than a light armor character, all other things being equal. After all, who is better in combat, a cop or a cop with Kevlar on? In my games, I try to emphasize the skill penalties and END usage (via optional rules).

Other than curse at it over the quality of the last book or two?

What Old Man said -- don't forget that mages get access to a huge range of special effects, while fighters do not. If mages can equal fighters in damage and defense, they are going to be too powerful, since they will also have lots of other abilities. Put the fighter up against a mage with Invis, Flight, and Ego Attack and see how his CSLs help him.

I interpret the specific individual text as applying to specific individuals who have significance outside the character's backstory. If a mage wants to always summon the same fire demon (and thus have it remember past incidents, etc.), I don't see a problem with that -- fire demons generally come from a nebulous Realm of Fire or something so it's no big deal. However, a mage who wants to summon their follower doesn't get a free "teleport the follower to me" effect.

Watch out for those Autofire attacks!

I would buy the Follower with a Multiform as you say, but have the "clothes" form be nothing but defenses to simulate how hard the clothes are to damage. Drop all the physical stats down so it should cost next to nothing. Add a Physical Limitation "Does not provide cover" to make it extra clear that the PC wearing this form does not give him the form's defenses. Then, have the PC buy the clothes powers with the extra Limitation "not when Follower is out of clothes form", probably a -1/4 but maybe a -0 depending on specifics. That way, you don't have to buy a whole ton of Affects Physical World stuff.

You could also use some of the same mechanisms used for the "Character is normally Desolid and turns it off with END" problem -- for example, buy the points required to buy off the Incantations Limitation as a separate power and then apply whatever limitations are appropriate.

Don't forget Distinctive Feature: Walk.

What if there's a bomb (on a timer) in the hero's car during a parade, and the bomber is watching from the crowd? Would his intent set the Danger Sense off, even though he has no control over the bomb at that point?

Check out http://www.shalott.com/hero/fred/5th_strmins.asp for a suggestion on how to handle exactly this issue. Using this house rule, the little people wouldn't be able to wield large weapons regardless of their STR -- the leverage just isn't there.