Hero System ability design

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Oh, I'd forgotten about mind control based on Con, but it's not going to be very good unless the GM suspends active point limits -- "Do nothing" is around a +20 mind control effect, and Based on Con means it would go against PD or ED (probably ED), so against a fairly typical super target (say, Con 18, ED 22) you'd need a roll of 60 -- around a 50% chance with a 19d6 attack. A 19d6 EB (same 95 active points) probably oneshots that same target.

I've generally shifted 'based on Con' to be vs Power defense, at which point it's a credible but not great option.

Suppress Stun does work... but is not something you should allow anyone to bring into a game ever.

On the plus side, it wouldn't cost much - a -1 Limitation for Based on Con and another -1 for single effect. That would be 20 points for 12d. So it would be a very cheap option even if the GM strictly caps active points. Adding Armor Piercing might be a useful option. In general, Hero makes all or nothing incapacitating attacks expensive no matter how you do it.