[Supers] [My Campaign] Power Construction/Review

[Refplace]

Luckily we have TG coming out soon.
Currently a PIN is really really scary effective.
However if your ST is high enough you can shrug through it so the Hulk would not be bothered by this binding. Kromm has made several posts on that subject.
There is the walking through it using your Thrust damage like a force field and other posts.
However the other thing is that the scale of a Super does not mean immunity to this. An M scale Super that is not a brick may indeed be taken out by this power. This guy should be target number 1 for most villains.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

Check the Engulfing modifier, and the rules on pinned targets. Once pinned, you can do nothing except try to break free, .

No you can do things that don't require physical movement. Not that it helps when the Binding is Unbreakable.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No you can do things that don't require physical movement. Not that it helps when the Binding is Unbreakable.

Actually that is kind of debateable and not real clear by RAW.
Many people mix this up and house rule one way or another so I feel that section needs a lot of work. Grappling was kind of a off the cuff thing in Basic and unfortunately many things refer back to it, sometimes with their own rule tweaks (see entangling weapons for example) and often with contrary information so rules get kind of scattered and in general IMHO are the weakest area of GURPS combat.

Second weakest being non human scale or morphology.
Third being non standard environmental. Ie flying, 0 g, swimming, anything where your not both on the ground has some odd cases come up that don't work as well as they would in a more typical environment.

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No you can do things that don't require physical movement. Not that it helps when the Binding is Unbreakable.

I'm sorry, but given that you can't take concentrate maneuvers, and you can't take maneuvers that require physical movement, what can you do?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

I'm sorry, but given that you can't take concentrate maneuvers, and you can't take maneuvers that require physical movement, what can you do?

Shoot your innate attack. Ordinarily that would damage the binding.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Refplace

However the other thing is that the scale of a Super does not mean immunity to this. An M scale Super that is not a brick may indeed be taken out by this power. This guy should be target number 1 for most villains.

Heh. Absent context, certainly. With context, not necessarily.

For context: Daven Westerfield (the character who has "Field Containment" as one of his powers) is built as a roughly 2000/-~/-~ point character. His personal power framework includes two attacks (field containment, field projection), three defenses (force bubble, field bubble, aegis field) and one movement (field shaping) major power(s); all of his powers have varying degrees of combat and non-combat utility. He himself has the campaign setting's d-scale metahuman template, which gives him such things as "IT:DR /10" and "Super-ST +10/+100"; he also has a number of optional traits that are allowed by the metahuman template but not required by it.

The campaign's c-scale metahuman template includes "Super-ST +16/+1000" as a mandatory trait; the campaign's m-scale metahuman template includes "Super-ST +22/+10,000".

Being a control-type, he is an utter nightmare for non-supers and for I-scale or "common" supers (built on 1000/-~/-~). He may, or may not, be a nightmare to other D-scale or "uncommon" supers (built on 2000/-~/-~) depending on what they can do. Most C-scale or "rare" supers (built on 4000/-~/-~) and all M-scale or "unique" supers (built on 8000/-~/-~) are going to casually brush him off if he tries to handle them by himself.

(Also: The campaign setting uses Multiplicative Modifiers, which is why I include those values in my write-ups. I include the Standard Modifiers pricing because I realize that not everyone uses Multiplicative Modifiers.)

[Kuroshima]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

(Also: The campaign setting uses Multiplicative Modifiers, which is why I include those values in my write-ups. I include the Standard Modifiers pricing because I realize that not everyone uses Multiplicative Modifiers.)

I used to use Multiplicative modifiers, but Psionic Powers and Divine Favor made me discard them. I still feel they're fairier, but the easy of use of those supplements and the upcoming Chinese Elemental Powers wins over being slightly fairer. I feel that either the Hero way (1+enhancements)/(1-limitations) [where limitations is a negative number, and thus becomes positive when having it's sign reversed] or true multiplicative would be even fairer, but they're even less supported

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Kuroshima

I used to use Multiplicative modifiers, but Psionic Powers and Divine Favor made me discard them. I still feel they're fairier, but the easy of use of those supplements and the upcoming Chinese Elemental Powers wins over being slightly fairer. I feel that either the Hero way (1+enhancements)/(1-limitations) [where limitations is a negative number, and thus becomes positive when having it's sign reversed] or true multiplicative would be even fairer, but they're even less supported

Whereas I just re-figure the costs for those things and note the changed costs in the campaign's house documents when I use those books in a campaign. I have the time; and the character assistant program does the math for me. Tis easy enough.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Lighthawk is a c-scale "rare" metahuman. In-setting, he is classified as an "archetype plus"; as such he is considered to have super-strength, super-speed, super-toughness and to be literally unkillable. He possesses a number of potent abilities on top of his more physical powers. He also happens to be one of the bad guys.

Lighthawk has unlocked "seven wings" as of the in-game date the game starts.

"Lighthawk Wing(s)" ([Special])
Cost:

Spoiler:  

• Cost Per Level: [136] with Multiplicative Modifiers. [236] with Standard Modifiers.
  • Actual Cost Per Level (with Multiplicative Modifiers): Level 1, [138]. Level 2, [272]. Level 3, [408]. Level 4, [542]. Level 5, [677]. Level 6, [813]. Level 7, [949].
  • Actual Cost Per Level (with Standard Modifiers): Level 1, [238]. Level 2, [474]. Level 3, [710]. Level 4, [946]. Level 5, [1179]. Level 6, [1416]. Level 7, [1652].

Mechanics:

Spoiler:  

• Extra Arms 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Extra-Flexible, +50%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (SM+7), +700%; No Signature, +20%; Temporary Advantage (Shield), +10%; Power Modifier, -10%
• Extra Attack 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can substitute "extra block" for "extra attack"), +50%; Limited (Lighthawk Wings), -30%; Power Modifier, -10%
• Striker (Crushing) 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Damage Modifier (Double Knockback), +20%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (Any Reach) (SM+7), +700%; Melee Attack (Destructive Parry), +10%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Limb (Extra Arm), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Weak, -50%; Alternate Attack (Striker (Impaling)), *1/5
• Striker (Crushing) 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Damage Modifier (Double Blunt Trauma), +20%; Damage Modifier (Double Knockback), +20%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (Any Reach) (SM+7), +700%; Melee Attack (Destructive Parry), +10%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Limb (Extra Arm), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Weak, -50%; Alternate Attack (Striker (Impaling)), *1/5
• Striker (Impaling) 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Damage Modifier (Double Blunt Trauma), +20%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (Any Reach) (SM+7), +700%; Melee Attack (Destructive Parry), +10%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Limb (Extra Arm), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Weak, -50%
• Striker (Large Piercing) 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Damage Modifier (Double Blunt Trauma), +20%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (Any Reach) (SM+7), +700%; Melee Attack (Destructive Parry), +10%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Limb (Extra Arm), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Weak, -50%; Alternate Attack (Striker (Impaling)), *1/5
• Striker (Piercing) 1 per level
  Modifiers: Cosmic (Can purchase "Force Extensions"), +50%; Damage Modifier (Double Blunt Trauma), +20%; Force Extensions, +50%; Long (Any Reach) (SM+7), +700%; Melee Attack (Destructive Parry), +10%; No Signature, +20%; Selectivity, +10%; Limb (Extra Arm), -20%; Power Modifier, -10%; Weak, -50%; Alternate Attack (Striker (Impaling)), *1/5

"Lighthawk Wings" are stupidly expensive for what they do; this has its' upsides and its' downsides. A lighthawk wing is an indestructible and mostly-invisible energy construct that can be used independently as a manipulator, as a shield or as a variety of weapons at (relatively) close range; other powers within the framework can individually transform each wing into more focused and more potent abilities.

When taking the character's super-strength into account? A thousand-and-change dice of damage per attack -- with up to eight attacks per second assuming he isn't trying very hard -- isn't something that most people are going to casually shrug off. The primary defense against the wings themselves is range; staying at range is highly suggested. Unfortunately range doesn't defend against his other abilities ...

So. What mistakes did I make with this one? :grins:


(Note: Temporary Advantage (Shield) is not RAW. It essentially rolls a perk into the cost of the ability at the same cost that Affliction would use when afflicting an advantage on someone.)
(Note: Cost-per-level is calculated by taking the final cost for the purchased levels, dividing by the number of levels purchased and then rounding up so that the cost-per-level is a whole number. Lighthawk has purchased seven levels. Level 7 costs [949]. [949] / 7 = 135.blah. Rounding up to the nearest whole level, that means it costs [136] per level. This does mean that he is paying more than he technically should, but being a whole-number-cost-per-level enables cleaner math on his other abilities and so I don't consider it to be a bad thing. Y'all may have other opinions. :grins:)

[Sunrunners_Fire]

... and my boys put a kibosh on the supers campaign. Bleh.