supers: nine options

[Anthony]

I will say the last Champions game I was in we decided to just not use endurance because it was annoying to track. In practice it's probably not going to be all that important at the power level you're looking at, because endurance costs are per phase, and endurance recovery is per turn.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I will say the last Champions game I was in we decided to just not use endurance because it was annoying to track. In practice it's probably not going to be all that important at the power level you're looking at, because endurance costs are per phase, and endurance recovery is per turn.

It may be important for the speedster, and perhaps the flier.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So suppose we have a character who has SPD 12 and just uses the base 6" running. If they spend the whole turn running, that's 72", which costs 14 END, I think. They recover 4 END after segment 12. .

As Anthony indicates you pay END by the Phase even if free REC is by the Turn. So that 6" of movement is 1 per Phase and will add up to 12 per Turn. Champpions could easily annoy you with taking advantage of breakpoints and roundings.

Yes REC can be very important for concepts that spend END every phase.

[whswhs]

Working on through this, with the telepathic spy, in other treatments, I gave her improved ability to avoid being hit in hand to hand combat based on reading the intentions of her attackers (not as a freebie from telepathy, but as an added trait: Heightened Defense, Expertise, that sort of thing). I'm not sure how to do this in Champions. I see that it's possible to take +1 DCV with all attacks for 5 points, but I don't see a stated price for +1 DCV against melee attacks, which is how I handled this at least in Absolute Power and FUDGE.

[Irish Wolf]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Working on through this, with the telepathic spy, in other treatments, I gave her improved ability to avoid being hit in hand to hand combat based on reading the intentions of her attackers (not as a freebie from telepathy, but as an added trait: Heightened Defense, Expertise, that sort of thing). I'm not sure how to do this in Champions. I see that it's possible to take +1 DCV with all attacks for 5 points, but I don't see a stated price for +1 DCV against melee attacks, which is how I handled this at least in Absolute Power and FUDGE.

+1 DCV, limitation Only Against Melee Attacks. I'd place that as a 1/4 myself, meaning the cost would be 75% of normal, as melee attacks are common in that genre.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

+1 DCV, limitation Only Against Melee Attacks. I'd place that as a 1/4 myself, meaning the cost would be 75% of normal, as melee attacks are common in that genre.

I suppose you could do that, but it seems foreign to how combat skill levels are usually handled. They're a "skill" and don't usually seem to take modifiers, and broader or narrower applicability seems mostly to be treated as changes in the basic point cost. I'm wondering if there's a rationale for doing that?

[whswhs]

Creating the characters in Champions seemed fairly straightforward, except for my puzzle about the telepath's combat capabilities. The design process went fairly fast, except for the inventor's winged harness, which was an Elemental Control and somewhat tricky. I built them all on 50 points with up to another 50 points from disadvantages, which seemed to work okay.

* The telepath could spot a single mind, and had about a 50/50 shot at spotting one mind among ten; and she could read surface thoughts in people she could see or had spotted by mind scan. Beyond that, she had a bunch of social skills: acting, bureaucratics, conversation, high society, and persuasion.

* The indestructible man could actually stand up to conventional firearms, up to light anti-tank weapons, most of the time. His toughened skin let him hit harder and commonly stun opponents with one blow.

* The night stalker was skilled enough to hit his foes virtually every time, and was unlikely to be hit, especially at night.

* The speedster could run at 119 mph noncombat for 315 yards. In combat he had SPD 5, could hit nearly all the time, and inflicted enough damage with his superspeed punches to cause minor bodily injury. He was also an exceptional shot with a Browning 9mm.

* The strong woman had a good chance of hitting a foe, causing significant bodily harm and stunning most foes with one punch, while she could mostly avoid being hit and would rarely take bodily injury from an unarmed attack. Or she could jump 20 feet, body slam a target, and inflict enough damage to knock a normal man unconscious.

* The inventor was only modestly athletic, but his winged harness let him jump 33 feet (or half that far up), or fly 20 feet up, or glide at 20 mph (twice that noncombat) while descending 2 feet per second; and it boosted his bodily coordination enough to give him a serious advantage in combat. A good combat move for him was to glide toward a foe at full speed and strike them as he passed, typically stunning them. He was also a keen observer.

I tested them out against an average man and a street tough, and all of them did well except for the telepath; if I can fit in an improved ability to avoid being hit that might make her more viable.

So I think maybe I've got an acceptable performance level, and the time required to create characters isn't impossible.

[corwyn]

Does the telepath have an Ego Attack? That would allow damage that ignores defenses. A 30-pt attack would have a reasonable chance to stun a normal, quite affordable if the mental powers are in a multipower.

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by Irish Wolf

+1 DCV, limitation Only Against Melee Attacks. I'd place that as a 1/4 myself, meaning the cost would be 75% of normal, as melee attacks are common in that genre.

80%, actually, given how Champs limitations work.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by corwyn

80%, actually, given how Champs limitations work.

Though I'd probably place it at -1/2, Champs tends to be more generous on limitation values.