Walking Dad
First Post
Hi, here is the RG. Enjoy!
IC
OOC
RG
[sblock=Old Blog]
General Rules Changes
Posted 1st June 2011 at 10:20 AM by Walking Dad
Fatigue
Characters can suffer from fatigue as well as damage. This usually results from tasks requiring great effort, such as moving all out, exertion in difficult environments, and using extra effort. There are three fatigue levels: winded, fatigued, and exhausted.
Winded
The character moves at half normal speed. A winded character who suffers an additional fatigue result becomes fatigued.
Fatigued
Fatigued characters move at half normal speed and suffer a –2 penalty
to effective Strength and Dexterity and a –1 penalty on attack and
defense. A fatigued character who does something else or suffers an
effect that would normally cause fatigue becomes exhausted.
Exhausted
Exhausted characters are near collapse. They move at half normal speed and suffer a –6 penalty to effective Strength and Dexterity and a –3 penalty on attack and defense. An exhausted character suffering another fatigue result falls unconscious (and must recover from it, as well as the fatigue, normally).
----
Replacing 'Stunned' with 'Dazed' in the 'Toughness Saving Throw Table'.
Dazed is now defined as below:
Quote:
Dazed: A dazed character is limited to free actions and a single standard action per turn, although the character may use that action to perform a move, as usual. Stunned supersedes dazed.
Tags: m&m , mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 178 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Powers
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:21 PM by Walking Dad
Updated 23rd March 2011 at 04:08 PM by Walking Dad
CONCEALMENT
Delete the 'Close Range' power feat.
DEFLECT
Deflect is 'based' on the block maneuver, that is on itself 'difficult', because it mixes offensive and defensive traits.
The whole maneuver has to be deleted.
To keep the options of the Deflect power in the game, we will simply allow to purchase the Ranged, Reflection and Redirection extras for your defense trait, just as you can buy Impervious Toughness for your non-power Toughness.
HEALING
Remove the 'Persistent' extra.
IMMOVABLE
Immovable stays the same. It just adds the +4/rank to CMB to resist the mentioned maneuvers.
IMPERVIOUS ...
The 'impervious' extra is just to strong. Low level minions are not threatening enough and solo villains (higher PL than the PCs) who emphasize toughness over defense become too fast untouchable to damaging attacks. The cost remains the same, the effect is halved => Impervious Toughness 8 ignores Damage 3 and below attacks.
LEAPING
Leaping should be a flaw to flight. (You have to land after the movement each round and cannot change direction in midair.) This is worth to be a -2 flaw.
REGENERATION
Remove the 'Persistent' extra.
SUMMON
and Duplication need to have their cost increased to 3pp/rank.
SPACE TRAVEL
Should become a descriptive power and part of 'Super-Movement'.
SUPER SPEED
Should be more clearly presented as a 'Container' including Enhanced Feat (Imp Initiative), Quickness, Speed, and 1 2PP/rank power. Tags: mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 170 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Feats
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:18 PM by Walking Dad
some feats should be changed:
Critical Strike
-> delete this. 'Counter - counter' blocks are just a clunky mechanic.
Luck
-> is to good for a feat. Use these feats instead:
• Determination: Points usable for the improve roll aspect of hero points.
• Determined Recovery: Points usable for the recover aspect of hero points.
• Escape Death: Points usable for the escape death aspect of hero points.
• Improvisation: Points usable to cancel the fatigue of performing power stunts.
• Inspiration: Points usable for the inspiration aspect of hero points. For mystics, this might represent true “inspiration” from a higher power or occult entity (see the Powers section of this chapter for more on this).
• Inspired Feat: Points usable for the heroic feat aspect of hero points.
• Instant Counter: Points usable for the instant countering aspect of hero points.
• Lucky Dodge: Points usable for the dodge aspect of hero points.
• Second Wind: Points usable for the cancel fatigue aspect of hero points, except for fatigue caused by power stunts (covered by the Improvisation feat).
They cost the same as the old luck feat, but provide fewer options. The old rank limit remains.
Takedown Attack
-> should also work with ranged attacks
The feats Favored Opponent, Favored Terrain, Sneak Attack, and Throwing Mastery (and similar feats) can all be changed from ranked feats to single rank feats. In exchange for giving up some of their potential, a trade-off can be allowed where the benefits of Favored Opponent, Sneak Attack, etc. no longer count against PL, allowing their limited usage to exceed PL caps in those circumstances where they apply (Throwing Mastery already provides an ample enough pay-off for even a single rank without needing a trade-off). Tags: mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 172 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Skills
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:14 PM by Walking Dad
shortened skill list
Not much to change here, as most of the Pathfinder changes are already implanted.
My changes:
Athletics (Str)
includes swim, climb and the jump part from acrobatics.
Control (Dex)
This skill encompasses several specialties, each treated as a separate skill. The Control specialties, and the topics each one encompasses, are as follows:
Boats - Controlling water vehicles
Drive - Controlling land vehicles
Pilot - Controlling air vehicles
Ride - Controlling riding animals
Pathfinder also removed the Concentration (Wis) skill. That was a good move IMHO.
Use the concentration table as it is, but use PL plus highest ability mod as modifier of the d20 roll.
add new feat:
Improved Concentration (General)
You get a +4 bonus on concentration checks to maintain powers with a Concentration or Sustained duration
----
skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
OPTIONAL
simplified skills:
Each skill costs 1pp. The rank in this skill = 1/2 PL.
Also add following feat:
Skill Focus (Skill)
Choose a skill; you gain a +5 bonus when making checks involving that skill. You can take Skill Focus multiple times; each time, it applies to a different skill. Tags: mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 166 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Cmb / cmd
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:12 PM by Walking Dad
CMB / CMD
The M&M 2nd Grapple rules broke the PL. Or to me precise, Grapple bonus wasn't limited by the PL.
Despite of this, Grapple had the longest entry of all combat actions. It sounds like trying to adapt the Pathfinder rules are maybe a good idea.
Grapple was modified by:
Quote:
attack bonus + Strength modifier + Super-Strength modifier + size modifier
but also:
Quote:
Elongation gives you a bonus on Escape Artist checks and grapple
checks equal to your power rank.
Ignoring the powers, these are just the 'basic' d20 grapple rules.
----
CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier.
That would translate to:
CMB = Melee attack + Str mod + special size modifier.
Notes:
o I never liked Super-Str to give a bonus to grapple checks. I will delete this function and reduce it's cost.
o Elongation isn't in it, because it only affects grapple, while CMB has broader uses.
o Melee attack + str mod will be higher than the usual Pathfinder CMBs, but so will the CMD.
----
CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + miscellaneous modifier
Miscellaneous modifiers are in this case just modifiers that increase the Touch AC.
That would translate to:
CMD = 10 + Defense (melee) + Str mod + Dex mod + special size modifier
Notes:
o We don't need the miscellaneous modifier, because there is no difference between AC and Touch AC. Everything is just Defense. So we will use defense instead of att bonus (?)
----
I will use some of the the Core Book hero (melee) archetypes:
Martial Artist:
old grapple: +21 (-4 to escape his grapples)
CMB: +21 , CMD: 32
Powerhouse:
old grapple: +27 (-4 to escape his grapples)
CMB: +20 , CMD: 28
Speedster:
old grapple: +10
CMB: +10 , CMD: 31
So, the not super-strong Martail Artist has only a bad chance to hold the Powerhouse. But he isn't easily grappled by it, either.
The Speedster doesn't hit his Offensive PL cap, so he is a really bad grappler, but his speedy moves allow him to readily avoid maneuvers.
That seems much nearer to each other. Because Str + att bonus has already a PL cap, CMB is usually+20, barring characters that not reach it's PLs (speedster), size modifiers or feats that let's them use anther Ability for Grappling checks (like Grappling Defense).
Reasoning for a PL cap:
CMB should be limited to PL x 2
CMD need no limit, because it is only roughly worth as much as the immunity to interaction skills (5pp)
(Will add immunity to Combat Maneuvers as a 5 pt immunity (maybe this should not include sunder))
'Block' should also be based on CMB, but I decided to remove this action completely. Tags: mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 199 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Pathfinder changes
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:09 PM by Walking Dad
Pathfinder changes:
- CMB / CMD
- attack bonus / HD connection
- shortened skill list
- skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
- more feats
- changes how feats work
- racial changes
- favored class bonus instead of penalty.
- Magic item changes
- spell effects
- GMs can choose a between fast, medium and slow XP progression tables.
- Monsters are now worth a set number of experience points (Encounter budgeting).
- changes to special abilities and conditions.
ignoring the ones that were no problem or are not applicable leaves us with:
- CMB / CMD
- shortened skill list
- skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
- changes how feats work
- spell effects
- Monsters are now worth a set number of experience points (Encounter budgeting).
- changes to special abilities and conditions. Tags: mutants & masterminds
Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 180 Comments 0
Walking Dad View Public Profile View all blog entries by Walking Dad Find all posts by Walking Dad
Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:07 PM by Walking Dad
The new M&M edition isn't as far away from it's predecessor as D&D4, but I thought it would maybe an interesting experiment to try to update/revise the rules while retaining a closer resemblance to the d20 core rules. The closest successful this is the Pathfinder game that established itself aside to D&D 4.
I will analyze the changes in Pathfinder and decide which could/should adapted to M&M.
Then I will analyze the M&M skills, feats and powers and re-imagine them where necessary.
[/sblock]
IC
OOC
RG
[sblock=Old Blog]
General Rules Changes
Posted 1st June 2011 at 10:20 AM by Walking Dad
Fatigue
Characters can suffer from fatigue as well as damage. This usually results from tasks requiring great effort, such as moving all out, exertion in difficult environments, and using extra effort. There are three fatigue levels: winded, fatigued, and exhausted.
Winded
The character moves at half normal speed. A winded character who suffers an additional fatigue result becomes fatigued.
Fatigued
Fatigued characters move at half normal speed and suffer a –2 penalty
to effective Strength and Dexterity and a –1 penalty on attack and
defense. A fatigued character who does something else or suffers an
effect that would normally cause fatigue becomes exhausted.
Exhausted
Exhausted characters are near collapse. They move at half normal speed and suffer a –6 penalty to effective Strength and Dexterity and a –3 penalty on attack and defense. An exhausted character suffering another fatigue result falls unconscious (and must recover from it, as well as the fatigue, normally).
----
Replacing 'Stunned' with 'Dazed' in the 'Toughness Saving Throw Table'.
Dazed is now defined as below:
Quote:
Dazed: A dazed character is limited to free actions and a single standard action per turn, although the character may use that action to perform a move, as usual. Stunned supersedes dazed.
Tags: m&m , mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 178 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:21 PM by Walking Dad
Updated 23rd March 2011 at 04:08 PM by Walking Dad
CONCEALMENT
Delete the 'Close Range' power feat.
DEFLECT
Deflect is 'based' on the block maneuver, that is on itself 'difficult', because it mixes offensive and defensive traits.
The whole maneuver has to be deleted.
To keep the options of the Deflect power in the game, we will simply allow to purchase the Ranged, Reflection and Redirection extras for your defense trait, just as you can buy Impervious Toughness for your non-power Toughness.
HEALING
Remove the 'Persistent' extra.
IMMOVABLE
Immovable stays the same. It just adds the +4/rank to CMB to resist the mentioned maneuvers.
IMPERVIOUS ...
The 'impervious' extra is just to strong. Low level minions are not threatening enough and solo villains (higher PL than the PCs) who emphasize toughness over defense become too fast untouchable to damaging attacks. The cost remains the same, the effect is halved => Impervious Toughness 8 ignores Damage 3 and below attacks.
LEAPING
Leaping should be a flaw to flight. (You have to land after the movement each round and cannot change direction in midair.) This is worth to be a -2 flaw.
REGENERATION
Remove the 'Persistent' extra.
SUMMON
and Duplication need to have their cost increased to 3pp/rank.
SPACE TRAVEL
Should become a descriptive power and part of 'Super-Movement'.
SUPER SPEED
Should be more clearly presented as a 'Container' including Enhanced Feat (Imp Initiative), Quickness, Speed, and 1 2PP/rank power. Tags: mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 170 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:18 PM by Walking Dad
some feats should be changed:
Critical Strike
-> delete this. 'Counter - counter' blocks are just a clunky mechanic.
Luck
-> is to good for a feat. Use these feats instead:
• Determination: Points usable for the improve roll aspect of hero points.
• Determined Recovery: Points usable for the recover aspect of hero points.
• Escape Death: Points usable for the escape death aspect of hero points.
• Improvisation: Points usable to cancel the fatigue of performing power stunts.
• Inspiration: Points usable for the inspiration aspect of hero points. For mystics, this might represent true “inspiration” from a higher power or occult entity (see the Powers section of this chapter for more on this).
• Inspired Feat: Points usable for the heroic feat aspect of hero points.
• Instant Counter: Points usable for the instant countering aspect of hero points.
• Lucky Dodge: Points usable for the dodge aspect of hero points.
• Second Wind: Points usable for the cancel fatigue aspect of hero points, except for fatigue caused by power stunts (covered by the Improvisation feat).
They cost the same as the old luck feat, but provide fewer options. The old rank limit remains.
Takedown Attack
-> should also work with ranged attacks
The feats Favored Opponent, Favored Terrain, Sneak Attack, and Throwing Mastery (and similar feats) can all be changed from ranked feats to single rank feats. In exchange for giving up some of their potential, a trade-off can be allowed where the benefits of Favored Opponent, Sneak Attack, etc. no longer count against PL, allowing their limited usage to exceed PL caps in those circumstances where they apply (Throwing Mastery already provides an ample enough pay-off for even a single rank without needing a trade-off). Tags: mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Designing M&M 2nd revised (Pathfinder Style)
Views 172 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:14 PM by Walking Dad
shortened skill list
Not much to change here, as most of the Pathfinder changes are already implanted.
My changes:
Athletics (Str)
includes swim, climb and the jump part from acrobatics.
Control (Dex)
This skill encompasses several specialties, each treated as a separate skill. The Control specialties, and the topics each one encompasses, are as follows:
Boats - Controlling water vehicles
Drive - Controlling land vehicles
Pilot - Controlling air vehicles
Ride - Controlling riding animals
Pathfinder also removed the Concentration (Wis) skill. That was a good move IMHO.
Use the concentration table as it is, but use PL plus highest ability mod as modifier of the d20 roll.
add new feat:
Improved Concentration (General)
You get a +4 bonus on concentration checks to maintain powers with a Concentration or Sustained duration
----
skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
OPTIONAL
simplified skills:
Each skill costs 1pp. The rank in this skill = 1/2 PL.
Also add following feat:
Skill Focus (Skill)
Choose a skill; you gain a +5 bonus when making checks involving that skill. You can take Skill Focus multiple times; each time, it applies to a different skill. Tags: mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 166 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:12 PM by Walking Dad
CMB / CMD
The M&M 2nd Grapple rules broke the PL. Or to me precise, Grapple bonus wasn't limited by the PL.
Despite of this, Grapple had the longest entry of all combat actions. It sounds like trying to adapt the Pathfinder rules are maybe a good idea.
Grapple was modified by:
Quote:
attack bonus + Strength modifier + Super-Strength modifier + size modifier
but also:
Quote:
Elongation gives you a bonus on Escape Artist checks and grapple
checks equal to your power rank.
Ignoring the powers, these are just the 'basic' d20 grapple rules.
----
CMB = Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + special size modifier.
That would translate to:
CMB = Melee attack + Str mod + special size modifier.
Notes:
o I never liked Super-Str to give a bonus to grapple checks. I will delete this function and reduce it's cost.
o Elongation isn't in it, because it only affects grapple, while CMB has broader uses.
o Melee attack + str mod will be higher than the usual Pathfinder CMBs, but so will the CMD.
----
CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier + Dexterity modifier + special size modifier + miscellaneous modifier
Miscellaneous modifiers are in this case just modifiers that increase the Touch AC.
That would translate to:
CMD = 10 + Defense (melee) + Str mod + Dex mod + special size modifier
Notes:
o We don't need the miscellaneous modifier, because there is no difference between AC and Touch AC. Everything is just Defense. So we will use defense instead of att bonus (?)
----
I will use some of the the Core Book hero (melee) archetypes:
Martial Artist:
old grapple: +21 (-4 to escape his grapples)
CMB: +21 , CMD: 32
Powerhouse:
old grapple: +27 (-4 to escape his grapples)
CMB: +20 , CMD: 28
Speedster:
old grapple: +10
CMB: +10 , CMD: 31
So, the not super-strong Martail Artist has only a bad chance to hold the Powerhouse. But he isn't easily grappled by it, either.
The Speedster doesn't hit his Offensive PL cap, so he is a really bad grappler, but his speedy moves allow him to readily avoid maneuvers.
That seems much nearer to each other. Because Str + att bonus has already a PL cap, CMB is usually+20, barring characters that not reach it's PLs (speedster), size modifiers or feats that let's them use anther Ability for Grappling checks (like Grappling Defense).
Reasoning for a PL cap:
CMB should be limited to PL x 2
CMD need no limit, because it is only roughly worth as much as the immunity to interaction skills (5pp)
(Will add immunity to Combat Maneuvers as a 5 pt immunity (maybe this should not include sunder))
'Block' should also be based on CMB, but I decided to remove this action completely. Tags: mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 199 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:09 PM by Walking Dad
Pathfinder changes:
- CMB / CMD
- attack bonus / HD connection
- shortened skill list
- skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
- more feats
- changes how feats work
- racial changes
- favored class bonus instead of penalty.
- Magic item changes
- spell effects
- GMs can choose a between fast, medium and slow XP progression tables.
- Monsters are now worth a set number of experience points (Encounter budgeting).
- changes to special abilities and conditions.
ignoring the ones that were no problem or are not applicable leaves us with:
- CMB / CMD
- shortened skill list
- skill ranks / cross-class skills simplified
- changes how feats work
- spell effects
- Monsters are now worth a set number of experience points (Encounter budgeting).
- changes to special abilities and conditions. Tags: mutants & masterminds

Walking Dad
Registered User
Posted in Uncategorized
Views 180 Comments 0


Posted 14th March 2011 at 02:07 PM by Walking Dad
The new M&M edition isn't as far away from it's predecessor as D&D4, but I thought it would maybe an interesting experiment to try to update/revise the rules while retaining a closer resemblance to the d20 core rules. The closest successful this is the Pathfinder game that established itself aside to D&D 4.
I will analyze the changes in Pathfinder and decide which could/should adapted to M&M.
Then I will analyze the M&M skills, feats and powers and re-imagine them where necessary.
[/sblock]
Last edited: