Living Supers - General Discussion Thread

[Salix]

Ah, gotcha.

*ahem*

"Zhe gauntlets work off zhe wearer's own bioelectrical field, storing zhe excess energy so zhat your touch becomes like a cattle prod."
"You mean, like a taser?"
"No, I mean like a cattle prod -- tasers are a ranged weapon. Not to say zhese gauntlets do not haff a ranged component -- zhe stored energy can also be emitted as an electrical blast, zhough it is more dispersed und so vill fry a foe razher zhan stun him."
"Gotcha. And this blue button?"
"Ah, yes, my personal favorite part of it: a force field generator. Again, it uses your body's own bioelectrical energy, to create a field of densely-packed energy zhat can absorb the impact of most blows. It can disperse energy beam fire, melt bullets before zhey hit you, und so on."
"Neat!"
"Ja, 'neat,' zhough zhere is one downside. See, since it's powered by zhe wearer's own bioelectric field, und since your own bioelectric field is not zhat much more intense zhan zhat of a normal person, it can only provide so much protection before needing to shut down und 'recharge,' by absorbing more of your body's own bioelectricity."

That work for ya?


Just realized, though, that Titan can't have the FF fully activated. He's PL 8, with a Defense of +6. That means he can only have a maximum Toughness of +10, and he's already got +5 from his Constitution of 20 (when at Medium size), so he can only benefit from 5 ranks of the Force Field.
I think he'd face even more problems when he's got his Growth or Shrinking active (though I don't have my books with me at the moment to check the size charts so I can't be sure).

So it would only be something he would use when medium or smaller, but still gets him to +10. I'll take that. Works storywise also.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

So it would only be something he would use when medium or smaller, but still gets him to +10. I'll take that. Works storywise also.

Not sure you'd be able to use it much while Small or smaller, either, since your Defense goes up (meaning Toughness would need to go down).

 

[Velmont]

Doesn't ablative means the Force Field fade out each time he is hit. in that case, it is a nice way to have it overpowered, that way the first ranks lost doens't affect the field. And at it is taken as an AP, it doesn't cost much.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Doesn't ablative means the Force Field fade out each time he is hit. in that case, it is a nice way to have it overpowered, that way the first ranks lost doens't affect the field. And at it is taken as an AP, it doesn't cost much.

Yeah, each time he's hit the FF will lose one rank ('till it either goes down completely or is shut off; not sure how long it takes for ranks to 'regenerate'; Ultimate Power suggests at least an hour). Even if the attack is one that the Impervious would negate the need for a saving throw.

But he can't have it "overpowered" like that, since the PL Limits are a "hard" cap. Folks have asked if a char could buy extra ranks in Protection, FF, or some other power to serve as protection against Drains and Nullifies and such, and I'm 99.9% certain Kenson's said "no".

Oh, and now that I've got my books back:

• Titan at Huge (Growth 8): Defense +4, Toughness +9. Toughness can go up to +12 with 3 ranks of Force Field. (And Attack +4, Damage +13 from Str 36... which breaks PL Caps.)
• Titan at Large (Growth 4): Defense +5, Toughness +7. Toughness can go up to +11 with 4 ranks of Force Field. (And Attack +5, Damage +9 from Str 28.)
• Titan at Medium: Defense +6, Toughness +5. Toughness can go up to +10 with 5 ranks of Force Field. (And Attack +6, Damage +5 from Str 20.)
• Titan at Small (Shrinking 4): Defense +7, Toughness +4. Toughness can go up to +9 with 5 ranks of Force Field. (And Attack +7, Damage +5 from Str 20 [due to Normal Strength Extra].)
• Titan at Tiny (Shrinking 8): Defense +8, Toughness +3. Toughness can go up to +8 with 5 ranks of Force Field. (And Attack +8, Damage +5 from Str 20 [due to Normal Strength Extra].)

He could have FF 5 and 3pp worth of some other power in the Force Field "slot." Power Feats like Selective, or a a few ranks in a Linked Sustained Immunity extra. I could see Immunity (cold) as the field keeps him warm, or Immunity (disease, poison) or even Regeneration as the field super-charges his immune system and metabolism.

 

[Velmont]

I've taken a quick look at ATT and Kenson tells you can do it with DM approval. As there is no LS ruling to allow that, It would be prohibited, but personally, I don't see a problem to have something like that if someone would propose it.

 

[Hand of Vecna]

Really? I was sure he'd flat-out said "No." Well, groovy, then!

 

[rgordona]

Yeah, each time he's hit the FF will lose one rank ('till it either goes down completely or is shut off; not sure how long it takes for ranks to 'regenerate'; Ultimate Power suggests at least an hour). Even if the attack is one that the Impervious would negate the need for a saving throw.

But he can't have it "overpowered" like that, since the PL Limits are a "hard" cap. Folks have asked if a char could buy extra ranks in Protection, FF, or some other power to serve as protection against Drains and Nullifies and such, and I'm 99.9% certain Kenson's said "no".

That sounds right to me, over buying is forbiden (by RAW) for exactly this reason. It is good too good for ablative and simple bruses (as well as against drains and nullifies etc.)

Imagine if you bought ablative protection +16 on a no-tradeoff PL10 character, it costs 8pp but will almost always be better than non-ablative protection +10 as you are unlikely to take 6 hits in a single combat.

I believe that Kenson's actualy answer would have been "No, but your GM might allow it as a house rule if you ask nicely."

[sblock=Terible search-fu]Actually he just says NO! [/sblock]

 

[Velmont]

From teh atomic think tank forum:

Can you buy up a power you plan on using a dynamic array with to a level well above your campaign's power level with the understanding that when you use your power, you're limited to your power level?

Only with the GM's permission. Technically, you're prohibited from buying powers that exceed the power level limits, even if you're unable to use the "extra" power. GMs can certainly bend this rule to suit certain allowable character concepts.

So, for now, he couldn't buy these gauntlet because the FF is too high, but with "DM Approval", he could have them. After all, you are never forced to use a power at full strength, so he could officially use it to a level that allow him not to bust the toughness cap. But as I said, anything that ask a DM approval need a proposition approved by the judges.

 

[rgordona]

Really? I was sure he'd flat-out said "No." Well, groovy, then!

Looks like he has said differnt things at different times :> As the answer I found is different to the one Velmont found.

 

[rgordona]

He could have FF 5 and 3pp worth of some other power in the Force Field "slot." Power Feats like Selective, or a a few ranks in a Linked Sustained Immunity extra. I could see Immunity (cold) as the field keeps him warm, or Immunity (disease, poison) or even Regeneration as the field super-charges his immune system and metabolism.

I think I have seen builds which got around this sort of problem by nesting the APs and then flawing each one so it can only be used at a specific size setting so:

Stun 4 (PF: 2 APs) [2x4 +2 = 10pp]
AP 1: Blast 4
AP 2: Force Field AP (6+2aps)
FF1Limited usable at huge size only) - Force Field 3 Impervious (6pp)
FF2Large size only) - Force Field 4 Impervious (Ablative on 2 ranks) (6pp)
FF3Medium or smaller) - Force Field 5 Impervious (Ablative on 4 ranks) (6pp)

Usually nesting APs is something I abhor but in this case it seems sensible. (Perhaps the different biometric signatures which Titan puts out at different sizes affect the gauntlets feedback circuits so that they produces different force fields)

PS How do ablative powers work in arrays, eg if an ablative force field took 8 hits so it was completely worn out could you still switch to the blast AP or would all the energy in the device have gone? (I guess the same question applies to powers with limited numbers of uses)

[Sblock=PS]I should probably stay out of such discussions as my understanding of things like growth is very poor[/sblock]