[Supers] What's the point of making Mêlée-oriented characters?

[Kuroshima]

First at all, Rapid Strike is HUGE. With Weapon Master or Trained by a Master, you get an extra attack per 3 points spent. Also, you can FEINT, giving you an extra way to lower the defenses of the target. Oh, and your offense doubles as a defense, since you get a parry of half your melee skill. So, for 24 points, you get: Two extra attacks, +6 to feints, and +3 to parry. You can also turn them into -3 to the target's defenses.

I concur with Kromm. Surviving is the most important thing. The GM has unlimited goons at his disposal, and it only takes one hit (Big enough to scratch the tank) to turn the glass cannon into glass shards. Now, DR is in my experience, a bad defense. Injury Tolerance: Damage Reduction, and Basic Speed are IMHO the best defenses, with some DR with absorption (healing) to recover from low damage/high RoF attacks.

Oh, and ST, with the proper force multipliers (Weapon Master, Power Blow, Imbuements, Super Strength) is actually a more cost effective way of dealing damage.

In my 1k marvel-inspired supers game, the most dangerous characters were the martial artist/imbuements guy with Crippling Blow at absurd levels (Inspired by Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star. I allowed him to use Crippling Blow at -30 for instant Death/Heart Attack), ATR and extra attacks. Of course, he had a teleporter/dodge monster that left him portals to get into melee.

[PK]

So far, no one's touched on grappling and incapacitation.

A brick is an all-purpose tool. A blaster is a rifle. You can't use a rifle to subdue a strong teammate who's being mind-controlled. You can't use a rifle to take down a foe carrying a ton of explosives. The ability to walk up to someone and grab him is amazingly useful, and it's often the fastest way to end a combat. (If you've ever managed to get pinned after a grapple and takedown, you know how there's nothing that says You Lose quite like a pin.)

In addition, there are times when you need to get up close. Say the bad guy stole something, and getting it back is the priority (e.g., a chemical weapon that's about to go off) -- someone needs to be able to take it away from him.

Basically, a brick can do dozens of things, while a blaster can do one thing. That's not to knock blasters -- you need a ranged attack or two in your group! -- just to say that bricks are really important as well.

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

So far, no one's touched on grappling and incapacitation.

A brick is an all-purpose tool. A blaster is a rifle. You can't use a rifle to subdue a strong teammate who's being mind-controlled. You can't use a rifle to take down a foe carrying a ton of explosives. The ability to walk up to someone and grab him is amazingly useful, and it's often the fastest way to end a combat. (If you've ever managed to get pinned after a grapple and takedown, you know how there's nothing that says You Lose quite like a pin.)

In addition, there are times when you need to get up close. Say the bad guy stole something, and getting it back is the priority (e.g., a chemical weapon that's about to go off) -- someone needs to be able to take it away from him.

Basically, a brick can do dozens of things, while a blaster can do one thing. That's not to knock blasters -- you need a ranged attack or two in your group! -- just to say that bricks are really important as well.

Supers games don't have to be hero vs villain combats either. One of the more enjoyable Champions games I played in the mid 80s involved a burning skyscraper and the mission was rescuing people inside it.

Fliers able to carry people to safety were invaluable. Fliers who could at least scout the building to see where people were at were greatly appreciated, Bricks who could take the killing attack of fire and ignore the NND of smoke (Defense is life support) and get TO the victims were the stars of that game. Beamers who could cut open exits in the outer wall helped.

Awesome fire shooting guy was the game's doofus.