"Necessary Evil" OOC

perrinmiller · Mar 28, 2011

WD; That sounds ominous, lol.

It appeared to work fine in Gotham Squires and adding the bit of a boost increases the CMB and CMD some. She is still the scout and will be invisible in many cases until combat is joined.

I will copy her & her background to the new RG thread.

I forget, is this going to have any link to the old game IC-wise, or is this a new game? Just wondering if I need to revamp the background or not.

Walking Dad · Mar 28, 2011

You can revamp the background, if you like. In this case, the details of the old ones were just 'warps' from the reality changing machine.

jkason, your background will be slightly altered, replacing DC specific persons and places with this realities equivalents.

jkason · Mar 28, 2011

Walking Dad said:
jkason, your background will be slightly altered, replacing DC specific persons and places with this realities equivalents.

Ah, cool. I was thinking we were winding up in this reality remembering the previous one. Hadn't realized it in fact altered our base history. Works for me.

Herobizkit · Mar 29, 2011

Walking Dad said:
Herobizkit: You don't need to take it. I just figured out that you Str and Plasma attack use the same power source. Just scratch it, if you dislike it. Also note that your unarmed damage is weak for your PL. You could change the super strength to retractable plasma blades for a more PL melee attack for example.

I like that idea a lot. A plasma blade and 'shield'... hm.

I'm afraid I don't see how my unarmed is weak. I just don't understand the mechanics of this system.

perrinmiller · Mar 29, 2011

Octavia is now in the RG thread.

Ready to go.

Walking Dad · Mar 29, 2011

Herobizkit said:
I like that idea a lot. A plasma blade and 'shield'... hm.

I'm afraid I don't see how my unarmed is weak. I just don't understand the mechanics of this system.

The system assumes that

att + Damage = 2 x PL

but your current unarmed attack is

7 + 5 < 20

Your power armor plasma attack is currently

7 + 13 = 20

BTW, I noticed I forgot to remove the 'plasma control +13' line from the combat section of the sheet.

Arkhandus · Mar 30, 2011

Walking Dad said:
Yes, I would prefer this. The partial power to the feat sound like a really good mechanic for your description of the power.

I perfectly understand. But could you describe how the 4d-f powers look like work in-game? Did she manifest throwing weapons? Has she three sets of 5 throwing weapons that can be transmuted for some reason in only one way? Perhaps I will allow it once I know the 'story' behind the power.

1. OK.

2. Kunai-Hime never carries real weapons on her, aside from the occasional confiscated enemy's weapon or the few smoke bombs etc. that she sometimes carries to distract and disorient foes. She just psionically transmutes the air around her into metal blades for a few seconds or so and throws them, or wields them in melee, before letting them revert back into normal air (and sometimes transmutes her own skin into a metal or carbon fiber carapace for a brief moment to survive/deflect an attack).

The Unreliable Flaw is supposed to represent the fact that she can only manage such feats a limited number of times per day or for a limited total duration each day, before letting her mind and body rest and recover from the strain. Unfortunately there's no Flaw in M&M that can be used for an array or an individual power that would give something like 1 minute or 30 seconds of use per hour or 5 minutes per twelve hours or per day or whatever. And since M&M doesn't use Hit Points, I can't just represent it with backlash damage, nor is there any flaw to cause temporary ability damage or the like to similarly reflect such a strain.

Only the Tiring Flaw, which is far more drastic and limited to about 1-2 uses per day of Tiring powers in total before the character is an exhausted sloth on the verge of passing out. The Side-Effect Flaw is similarly problematic because it's likely to drastically weaken the character and leave them highly vulnerable after just a few random failed saves against, for instance, a Blast Side-Effect damaging the hero after each use of the power. Worse, the hero could botch the save and be knocked out or disabled/staggered so by one random use of their power.

I'm thinking about Kunai-Hime's set-up and whether or not to even bother with her in this campaign, given the difficulties with adequately implementing her concept into M&M (or this campaign in particular; certainly some stuff in Mecha & Manga would help with her ninja-ness, but even if they were allowed, I'm strapped for power points as it is and I already had to tone down her skills/feats/martial arts).

Arkhandus · Mar 30, 2011

Thanee said:
How about removing Unreliable and replacing it with the Action Flaw (making it a Full Round Action instead of a Standard Action to reflect the extra effort needed)?

Or, if you want something akin to the charges, you could make it Tiring (Fatigued after the use) and take some Ranks in the Luck Feat Second Wind that allows to negate the Fatigue?

Bye
Thanee

Autofire already requires a full-round action when attacking a group, so I figure that it might end up as two full-round actions if I extended the power's normal activation time to a full-round action. That or it would be cheating a bit. And wouldn't fit with the concept of how her mutant powers strain her mind and body, something she can't do too often. Also, full action powers wouldn't be useable with Move-By Action, and a ninja never stands still to let folks find and kill them.

Tiring is too restrictive, and Luck feats only grant hero points once, then they're gone forever once you use them. If Kunai-Hime needed to spend hero points just to use her mutant powers at all, then she'd be all out of 'em after one battle. She can't very well travel freely and incognito while carrying an arsenal of purchased (or stolen) weapons.

Arkhandus · Mar 30, 2011

Oh, and seeing Perrinmiller's comment above about Octavia likely being a scout and invisible until battle is joined made me wonder if Kunai-Hime's just redundant here, so I took a look at Octavia's skills/powers in the RG out of curiousity and it does seem to be the case........both have limited invisibility but slightly different, both have similar Stealth skill bonuses, and both have ranged attacks and mental attacks (though Kunai-Hime's mental attack is a melee technique similar to Dim Mak, albeit less deadly).

Both are apparently scouts/sneaks by nature, but with slightly different means......one flies and has total invisibility when not attacking, while the other is limited to slow, normal movement with a chance of being heard or spotted and has the minor advantage of some skill at overcoming locks/traps..... And I'm not sure if that would even matter anyway in fighting invading aliens and whatever alien-tech they might use for security.

I need to think on this a bit longer before I decide what to do......

Walking Dad · Mar 30, 2011

Arkhandus, I hope we will not loose you. Maybe will some of this information help you to decide what to do:

Unfortunately there's no Flaw in M&M that can be used for an array or an individual power that would give something like 1 minute or 30 seconds of use per hour or 5 minutes per twelve hours or per day or whatever.

Then let's create one!

Or we could make 4d-f like a 'mini-array' in the container and reply the '5-times' flaw on it.

certainly some stuff in Mecha & Manga would help with her ninja-ness

I allowed some of them and gave you reasons for the decisions. We can work on changing them in a way that I would allow them.

and Luck feats only grant hero points once, then they're gone forever once you use them.

As I understood, they are regained like standard HP between adventures. I usually do this between longer chapters (but not necessarily every scene).

...both have limited invisibility but slightly different, both have similar Stealth skill bonuses, and both have ranged attacks and mental attacks (though Kunai-Hime's mental attack is a melee technique similar to Dim Mak, albeit less deadly).

Your limited invisibility is actually more useful during combat. Octavia isn't really a melee build.

Both are apparently scouts/sneaks by nature, but with slightly different means......one flies and has total invisibility when not attacking, while the other is limited to slow, normal movement with a chance of being heard or spotted...

Octavia can still be heard. And I would allow rank 1 or 2 speed as 'ninja movement'.

...and has the minor advantage of some skill at overcoming locks/traps..... And I'm not sure if that would even matter anyway in fighting invading aliens and whatever alien-tech they might use for security.

Reminds me of posting more of the setting:

The aliens already lured the world’s superheroes into a 'trap' and killed or imprisoned the vast majority of them some years ago.
They sent another alien race, they use as soldiers and guards first, then posed as friendly allies who scared the 'Fins' away.
At a major speech, which almost all politicians, high militaries and superheroes attended, they unleashed their death beams and called the 'Fins' back.
They now act as earth's alien overlords. Their policy is to kill anyone exhibiting paranormal powers, the only option open for such individuals is fight or flight!

Important for your build: They use mostly the 'normal' buildings, so some skill at overcoming locks/traps will be pretty useful.

I'm not sure how much setting material I may copy and paste here, but I'm sure the good guys and gals at Pinnacle will allow me to share enough of it to be able to play the game