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Wyrm Ouroboros

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Everything posted by Wyrm Ouroboros

  1. Given: 6e1 p.212: Sense Modifiers do not belong to any Sense Group — they improve Senses, either individually or by Sense Group. ... Sense Modifiers are not Adders. This series of questions functionally ignores the extras granted by Sense Groups; please do not bring them into the discussion. Part 1: Advantages and Disadvantages. When purchasing advantages -- Megascale comes to mind -- would the baseline detect/sense ('Detect Object', 10 pts) act as the base point value of the power, immaterial of Sense Modifiers that might be capable of enhancing the detect/sense? Or, perhaps, would the character only be able to use the Sense Modifier(s) added into the base point value, to which the Advantage is then applied, with that Advantage? With Disadvantages, one would likely apply a disadvantage to everything involved, but that sometimes might not be necessary. For example: Example 1: 'Detect Object', 10 pts: Megascale (1m = 1 km, +1): 20 active pts, 20 real pts. Sense with Detect Object (2 pts) Range with Detect Object (5 pts) Microscopic with Detect Object (3 pts) Total: 30 pts. Example 2: 'Detect Object', 10 pts, Sense (2 pts), Range (5 pts): 17 pts, Megascale (1m = 1 km, +1): 34 pts. Microscopic with Detect Object (3 pts) Total: 37 pts. I can see arguments for either case being appropriate, but I'd like to get a more official verdict, especially because there can easily be reasons to seperate the base detect/sense from Dis/Advantaged Sense Modifiers. Part 2: Adjustment Powers and Sense Modifiers with Levels A limited number of Sense Modifiers (Concealed, Microscopic, Rapid, and Telescopic) have open-ended levels like any other Power. Presuming at least one level is purchased for a detect/sense, would it then be able to be amplified (or suppressed) by an Adjustment power? With 1 level of Microscopic on his super-vision, can CapeMan's ability to see tiny objects be amplified by The Helper so that he can truly see at levels out of the reach of human sight, or is the only chance to see the Amazingly Shrunken Kids a lot of XP -- or a scanning electron microscope?
  2. As I understand the Harbinger of Justice, while he might do bad things to looters, he'd be as likely (if not moreso) to go after bad cops.
  3. Mmmm. 'Locking on' usually takes time; that time could, I think, be represented by the 'Cover' maneuver. Purchase the OCV with the Cover maneuver (which basically means 'I know I hit because I already rolled the dice') and then the shooter can decide at the end of the phase whether or not the shot actually gets taken. Otherwise the lock-on doesn't happen (i.e. the Cover maneuver doesn't succeed) and no shot is taken, no END or Charge expended.
  4. ... most of my characters eliminate him, with prejudice. Whether that's Freedom (he's clearly too stupid/irresponsible to use such power wisely, i.e. what Megaplayboy said), or Kiershia (because he's inversely a threat to K's own activities), the guy is toast.
  5. I think I'd personally go with either the UAA EDM or the Force Wall, with the side effect that the power user is always transported as well. Toss in that it only ends (moves both back, wall comes down) when one of the two is unconscious, and ...
  6. Actually, you just solved the issue that was being talked about after I originally posted that: 'what about too-weak shots that don't take the shields down at all?' Those would (presumably) be taken care of by the ship's basic DEF. Thing is, though, that ships in Star Trek don't have armor. Basic DEF from being a tritanium-whatever hull, sure, but they don't have armor, ablative or otherwise; get through the shield, and so long as you can damage the hull, hey, you're blowing holes in the ship. (In Star Wars, they have deflector shields, sure, but they also have armoring; this is one of the reasons why flying a craptastic TIE fighter is basically signing up for the Suicide Squad - barely any deflectors, no fraggin' armor at all.) However, what you're discussing, really, is a matter of 'appearance' and not 'function'. HERO's #3 rule is 'build what it does, not what it looks like'. Q.E.D.
  7. Because the mechanical limit is there to put a thematic limit into numbers. Characters have always been able to go above the Normal Characteristic Maxima - but at a cost, which is generally x2 cost for each point up to the hard limit. Setting your characteristic maxima is a statement that 'this is where you go from being a normal (if athletic) guy to a truly Heroic individual.' This is the sort of stuff that you set so that someone can go over it, and people are sure to go 'wow, that guy is strong/fast/smart/can take a hit!!!' When it comes to package deals for other races, the package buys off the 'x2 cost' for part of that characteristic increase; while it costs a little bit (per se) to be of that race, you can go above normal human without otherwise taking that x2 hit. On the flip side, if you have a characteristic that is lower, you're getting a discount because that x2 hit is going to come sooner - you're getting the points back to start with, because that Dex score for the Stone Men of Dargath just ain't as important, while they're all very buff sorts of fellows. It's thus easier to get a 25 STR Stone Man, but you're going to pay more to get a 20 DEX Stone Man. Yes, it might cost a bit, and make less sense if you're not going to go to the new max for your 'theme attribute' (such as STR for a Stone Man of Dargath), but that's what you get for the money, as it were.
  8. Having been a Shadowrun player, they often get played as 'all four' - the target (usually) isn't a player character, but often their boss or an NPC negotiator who is the target. What I've had some success with is rolling the dice - sure, in secret - for both sides, because at a meet, characters are ALWAYS tense, and often wind up with the target not dead, because why lose eight points looking for a head-shot if you don't have to? it provides a heads-up, makes the players go after him, and sometimes is a link to who might want the original target gone.
  9. ... and when you claim that something is physically impossible when it clearly isn't - because, y'know, a tire (or tyre) is actually a flexible object - you yourself completely lose credibility. The last bit especially gets me - how the hell can you say that someone never saw a guy wearing heavy leather gloves inflict a pressure cut on himself through extreme use of a weapon? Do you somehow mysteriously know that sharp metal can't cut through thick leather? If so, well, the cows of the world will undoubtedly be very happy... Geez.
  10. A double cost for 'slightly defy' seems to me to be extraordinarily steep, is all I'm sayin'. x2 for those last 5 points of STR? Sure. x2 for all your martial arts, though?
  11. Remember that Reduced END for an autofire Power is doubled.
  12. True. Could even take a disadvantage, -1/4 perhaps, that says that after X shots you have to take half a phase (or make a quickdraw roll) to 'change clips' ...
  13. If you wanted to really get technical, have a Naked Modifier for that one power. Hero Designer can't Naked Modifier a disad (which it default-designates Charges as), but it lets you use Differing Modifiers for Negatives, so I wound up with this: Thompson Sub-Machine Gun, .45 ACP: Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6-1, +1 Increased STUN Multiplier (+1/4), Autofire (10 shots; +1) (75 Active Points); OAF (-1), 100 Charges (+3/4) (Drum): 37 points. Differing Modifier: 4 clips of 32 Charges (+1/2) (37 Active Points) for up to 25 Points of Thompson Sub-Machine Gun (the base cost of the power): 12 points. Differing Modifier: OAF (-1) for up to 12 Points of Clips: -6 points. Total cost is 43 points (37 + 12 - 6 = 37 + 6 = 43).
  14. I have, but you wind up requiring things that would not cause one to be resistant to disease to put in a disad to indicate that their version of Power Defense, though it works fine against other things, ain't gonna do diddly against that little bug. Otherwise, well, if Power Suit Guy's non-sealed suit has backup batteries or surge protectors - bought as Power Defense - then why should he be resistant to diseases?
  15. *shrugs* It was the first time I saw her with a VPP, and it was immediately following our very interesting trip to the Diamond District and then Hell, wherein Allan and I did such interesting things, so I'll probably tend to think of it as being a clear cause/effect ... Pyronide, Christopher makes a very important point: remember to seperate teleportation the special effect from Teleportation the Power. Most Powers can be used with a teleportation special effect - duplication (moving so fast you're in several places at once), blast (whether teleport to him, take a swing, and teleport back, or the 'indirect' swing through a portal), damage reduction (multi-porting to make it so you catch only part of the blast), etc. Not everything needs to be created with the Teleportation Power. For example: Blast 10d6, Area of Effect (4m Radius; +1/4) (62 Active Points); OIF (Automobile / Truck / Large Object of Opportunity; -1/2): 41 points standard, 6 END cost. The special effect of this power is that Blip opens a gateway directly underneath a nearby large object - car, truck, or boulder - and another gateway directly above her targeted opponent. After impact, it is up to the GM whether or not the object has rolled or bounced off the target. Knockback done with this power will most likely be straight down.
  16. There's a couple reasons - and traditions. One, an MPow can be sort of a practice run for a VPP - you build and buy all your critical powers, test them out, that sort of thing. Two, in the short run, an MPow can be cheaper, especially if your GM has restrictions on what can and cannot be in the VPP - certain (or many, or most, or any at all) Power Disadvantages, Third, an MPow in the hands of a competent player can be very, very powerful - which means some GMs will ban them entirely, because it requires a snap judgement on a power built there at the table. Other GMs will require the player to have certain disadvantages (can only be changed in a lab, for example), or that a character cannot build any power at the table, that they have to be pre-approved. Is a VPP more powerful? In 6E, it can depend on the construction chocies, pool points vs. control points; in previous editions, the two were linked. However, because of its flexibility, a VPP is generally considered more powerful, yes.
  17. I ... would not have interpreted that image that way. To me, it looks like the unarmored guy is going for a hook-and-move - which he could do with pressure against the flat of the blade. But hey, that's me.
  18. Pretty much, yeah. On the other hand, in 'After The End' over on HC, the world was a limited-comic-book world: unless you had the sub/conscious knowledge how, your effect on other things worked with Real World Physics. Hydroman swimming at 300mph up through the Mississippi River would cause near-cataclysmic wakes behind him; the Flash 'teleporting' from here to there would cause a sonic boom all along his route. How I solved this, though, was to have the characters (like the quasi-Superman) to purchase the 'Power' skill, so that their personal defiance of the standard laws of physics would apply to reduce or negate the standard-physics negative side effects. Hydroman, when he swam, therefore half-converted into water, so that it was water intermeshing with water, a sort of intangibility; Superman could now lift up a ship by its keel, extending a subconscious personal force-field across the ship to keep it the same, structurally. Things like that. I required a minimum expenditure of 5 points before it would apply towards 'standard non-combat physics' issues; if they wanted to do it for power tricks and in combat, of course, rolling was required.
  19. Well, Blip started out with a MPow, but switched to a VPP when Beast saw what Allan and I could do with a VPP.
  20. Remember that Nightcrawler's teleport had a stun effect on other people. Also, an AoE Selective EB or something - indicating you teleporting to each person, punching them, and teleporting to the next, and the next, and the next ... until the last teleport is to where you started. (Or if a move, to where you are half-moving to.) The other thing is that, in order to make a good character, to try to keep your SF/X all within a narrow / singular range if possible, or else have one of them self-powered and one of them tech or training. Wolverine? Adamantium claws, sure, but mostly regeneration. Storm? Weather. Iron Man? Power Armor. Invisible Woman? Force Fields. Mr. Fantastic was lots of stretching, but he's one of those who has the tech secondary. If you can do that, do so - it'll make things easier.
  21. I ... have actually had some amount of success with having the player build the base (unpowered / pre-powered) character, then give me an idea of what they'd like. Then, with that in mind as well as watching their RP style, building their power set myself, and at several 'growth stages'. It let me decide how effective the build was going to be (mostly starting as 'Thog smash' and basic stuff like that), as well as enabling me to make sure the team meshed, power-wise. I still sort of wish I could have continued that campaign.
  22. This ... is not a bad way of doing it. If one shot both Stunned and KO'd you, though ... hm. I think I'd make Stunned +2, KO'd +2, cumulative.
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