Dr. MID-Nite

Re: Thoughts on Arcane Adversaries(Spoilers) My thoughts exactly, but worse(as reading their background will inform you). Rob

Re: National Warrior Archetypes Well... Turkey: Janissary Italy: Legionaire(Rome) Persia(Iran): Immortals Greece: Phalanx or Hoplite Russia: Cossack...or Streltsi India: Sepoys France: Musketeer Mongolia: Mangudai Spain: Conquistador Germany: Teutonic Knight Rob

Re: Thoughts on Arcane Adversaries(Spoilers)

Well, having picked up this and the Mystic World, I thought I'd chime in about it: 1)The writing...as usual for Hero...is well done. Well thought out and about as detailed as you need it to be. 2) The art ranged from only okay to good. I'm not a huge fan of grey scale, but most of the illustrations looked okay with only a few that were annoying. I could barely make out Demonologist at all for example. 3) As the Circle of the Scarlet Moon was composed almost entirely of low level...mostly noncombat characters...I didn't see much point to writing them up in detail. A summary like what was done for the Trismegistus Council in CU probably would have been better as it would have saved space for other characters. 4) The Devil's Advocates got a makeover, with only 3 of the original members remaining from the 4th Edition versions. Demonologist, Golem, and Vilsimbra are more or less unchanged. Of the new members, Gyre and Tartarus more or less seem like direct replacements for Maze and Apollyon respectively. Tatarus was a clear improvement over Apollyon, but Gyre was about as dull as Maze was, and both are redundant characters with Tesseract around. Kapilasa is the most interesting of the new members. Of note is some of the artwork depicts a character that looks like Shadowfire(from the old version of the Advocates), even showing him using his powers, but he's not to be found in the book. 5)The Lovecraftian inspired Kings of Edom were reasonably well done. I do note that none of them had any inherent insanity producing effects beyond merely high PRE. I was expecting something like the power written up in Champions 3-D, but it was suspiciously missing here. Still, Vulshoth is monstrously powerful....2000+ character points. The other characters were sufficiently scary. 6) Bocal Mcfarlane is the standout in the Sylvestri Clan. Read his interrogation technique to see why. EWWWW! Plus, interesting powers. 7)Not much to say about the Vandaleurs, except this is probably the first example of gay supervillains I've ever seen in a Hero product(Eduard and Anais Vandaleur). 8) Bromion isn't as interesting as Mrs. Meigs from the old Horror Enemies, but then again her design is invalid in 5th Edition so no surprise she was dumped. 9) Other old timers reappearing include Black Fang, Hell Rider, and Lamplighter. Only Hell Rider had a significant redesign...and his origin/background is unchanged. Mother Gothel seems a direct replacement for Granny Hex from 4th Edition. Overall, a nice companion piece for The Mystic World and one can always use more villains. Rob

Re: Pre-5e Heroes

Re: Captain America's Shield Gadgets and Gear has an EXCELLENT Shield clone. Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." Yeah...this character is one of the harder ones to do anything with. I'd probably give him normal characteristic maxima as well, but I can't see this guy being anything but a prologue to a more interesting villain. Rob

I'm using Mirage in an adventure soon. Anyone have clever ideas for using her illusion powers to best effect? Rob

Re: Adventure Dilemma-Help(GMs only) Well...I'm assuming they look around the park both now and later....though...later..I can solve the problem by having the heroes be away on another case..arriving back....only in the knick of time...maybe?

Okay....I have a new group..and I'm using Champions Battlegrounds with them. We're in the first part. Well....in an effort to make things flow better, I foreshadowed things to happen in part three: SPOILERS Anyways, the players decided to focus on the missing persons(The Sudsy Nomination committee) and have now gathered it may have something to do with Omegaworld(Fatal Attractions Scenario). Now, my problem is the players want to scour the park from top to bottom looking for clues and/or bad guys. Well, I'd like to run Fatal Attractions mostly as written, but that may not be possible now. Any ideas on how to salvage this situation...or maybe improvise something along the lines of the original scenario? As a note, our bad guy has all the hostages, but the opening is still at least a week or two away. Help? Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." I'm pretty sure 4th Edition Menton had Perfect Pitch as well....and that would predate this book...just as a useless bit of trivia. Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged."

Re: Good toys for use with Champions... Bandai vinyl figures come in various sizes and make great giant monsters.... Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." As I just used this creation on my player group, I can tell you that a properly built Glacier is plenty tough. I mostly left stats unchanged(reducing BODY to 25 and boosting DEX to 14), but I made him a true automaton, eliminating the CON score and making all his powers 0 END. I boosted his PD and ED to 15 each. Let me tell you, while this still doesn't make the monster immune to a military assault, player characters will beat on this thing in frustration in most campaigns(including mine). I put his ice breath powers in a Multipower and left it at that. I made his Regeneration both with the heal limbs and Return from Dead option to represent the fact that Master Villains can probably just recreate him whenever convenient. Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." My Facet update didn't vary too much from the original. I gave him the light refraction powers mentioned in the USPD to round out his character a bit more. I also gave him the "super tough body" Damage Shield from Ultimate Brick. I dumped the Find Weakness and boosted his DEX to 17 to increase his chances of actually hitting something with that AP HKA. I made the armor Visible as per the usual Hero way of doing " Body of " powers of this type. Tune his skills a bit..and he's done. Total cost: 365...an increase of 1 point. Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." Well, having updated Despoiler for my own campaign, I tried to solve some of his problems while keeping his concept more or less intact. I changed his origin(which was never fully explained) so that he is an avatar of the Lord of Chaos. Thus, his goal is the return of everything to the nothingness from which it came(read:Wipe out everything) Among my major changes: 1) I altered the Damage Shield so that it is now a CON/BODY Drain....that fits in with his new origin and eliminates the potential logic problem of him obliterating his surroundings. Now, he slowly erodes them away. Still scary, but without the " how can he stand, etc." problems. 2) I switched the values of his EGO and PRE so that it now reads 20 EGO and 30 PRE. The prior arrangement didn't seem as logical. 3) Put all his powerblasts into a Multipower...and added a 20d6 slot(at full END) to it to give him some punch against "hard" targets. I also also made his basic 14d6 energy blast 0 END. 4) I made The Despoiler Effect 0 END as well. It's scary for a reason. 5) Eliminated the logic problems resulting from his laguages skills by simply giving him Universal Translator instead. 6) The 0 END Persistent Force Field is more or less the same as inate defenses....so I went that route instead. 35 PD/ED...fully resistant..and I threw in 25% Damage Reduction for good measure. 7) Gave him a Detect Energy and Physical Objects to represent that he views the world in a way totally beyond humanity. 8) Gave him SPD 6 to make him a more viable opponent for hero groups. My version ended up at a total cost of 923. A significant boost, but a lot of it comes from the 5th Edition changes. Rob

Re: Arcane Adversaries

Re: Arcane Adversaries I heard they update The Devil's Advocates. What are they like now? Rob

Since this is due any day now, any of the playtesters want to elaborate on what coolness they've seen....for the benefits of the drooling masses? Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." When I redid Black Druid, I tried to base him off the D and D version of a druid. So...he has shapeshift as a standard ability. I replaced the Multipower with a VVP. It just seemed a lot easier. I also altered the stats and powers so they made a bit more sense. I lowered the EGO from 30 to 20...as this guy doesn't use that many mental powers and in any event...I didn't think his EGO should be as high as Menton's. I altered the Life Support a bit. I didn't think being a druid or being in tune with nature would make you immune to radiation...or a vacuum....so I got rid of both of those. I gave him some barkskin armor to round him off and left him at that. My version totaled 438 points...so the "point inflation" wasn't too bad.(The original spent 392.) Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." Glacier was definitely mentioned in 5th Champions Universe. Maybe there's no current plans to ever post his character sheet. I used Glacier precisele because of his status as a Destroyer minion...for reasons I won't mention further in case my players are on the boards. Rob

Re: The horror, the horror. European Enemies "debugged." Good stuff. For my part, I actually updated Black Druid, Despoiler, Facet and Glacier, but I went so far as to make them reasonably efficient as well as just fix the obvious problems. Despoiler is pretty scary now! Anyone who wishes to steal my writeups...all you have to do is ask. Rob

Re: Tactical Challenge: Eurostar Well....my particular group has The Living EGO as a member. His astral form(Clairsentience) would make it easy to see what they're up against...and he's more powerful than Mentalla. So....between him and the brains of Lightmaster and Guardian....a stealthy plan to save the hostages could be arranged. We'd like to get Eurostar too of course, but first things first...save hostages...then...if there's time and opportunity...thrash Eurostar like the little b*****s they are..... Rob

Re: WWYCD #95: Leaden Curtain The Living EGO: As a powerful psi, this would severely hamper him. At 10 INT and EGO 19, he might still fight crime, but he wouldn't be a heavy hitter anymore. He'd likely retire to a background role, giving newer heroes the benefits of his vast experience. He'd get involved as often as logic poermets though. He hates being thought of as weak and helpless. Rob

Re: WWYCD #92: Back to the Future The Living EGO: He'd probably stay in the future. He's never really allowed himself to get too emotionally invested in others....and the world always needs heroes...so why not make the best of it? Rob