A few questions

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 8:36 pm

Not sure where to post these, so I thought I'd just do it here in one thread:

1) Could Cosmic Powers be used at less-than-Cosmic levels? While I would keep things like Life's ability to resurrect the dead out of player hands, there are other examples in the comics (Green Lantern's ability to "turn his will into reality" is like a limited form of Omnipotence; Scarlet Witch *definitely* possess Fate in some limited form (and not so limited sometimes) etc.)

2) I'm trying to build Katana but I'm not sure how to handle the ability of her sword to steal the souls of those it kills (occasionally). As odd as it sounds, it may be a form of the Mentor advantage (she can speak with the spirits inside- or she could with her husband's anyway.) Or should I just write it off as a plot device?

3) Another character I'm building, Kaliman the Incredible Man (another Latin American superhero, but much more serious than El Chapulin) has a power called the Actus Mortis, that allows him to pretend to be dead for five minutes. But anything more than that and he might truly die. How to do this BASH?

Thanks to anyone who volunteers ideas!

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Sun Oct 04, 2015 11:31 pm

Oh yeah, forgot to ask: does the Onerous Change Disadvantage work on its own, or must the character also have some other Advantage or Disadvantage (such as Normal or Involuntary Change) as well?

Post by **BASHMAN** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 12:14 am

1. Yes, with Narrator approval. I often build characters with low-level Omnipotence to represent a low-end cosmic power (like the aforementioned ring bearer) and sorcerers. I'd not let it go above level 10, though, probably.

2. Yes, that's exactly how I'd make that work. In fact, there is a character in my campaign called "Jade Katana" whose sword has an ancestor spirit that lives inside it and talks to her, and this is exactly how we made it work.

3. The Deception skill might work for that. But if you mean he has no pulse, someone could jab him with a needle under his fingernail and he wouldn't flinch, etc, then you will need a power for that. It seems to me like a VERY specifically limited alternative to Mimic (you mimic a corpse) or Changeling. Either way, I'd say that power is worth only about 1 Character Point due to its very specific use.

4. Onerous Change is from a 3rd party supplement I believe, but I think it goes off the idea that the character has multiple forms. Usually this might mean you have something like Normal, but a character with Shapeshift might also change into something onerous even if they don't have the "Normal" disad. At least that's one thing I could think of.

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Mon Oct 05, 2015 8:51 am

Thanks for the quick responses!

1) What I'd like to know is if it is OK to take Cosmic Powers at less than 5 Levels. For example Scarlet Witch gets Fate at regular campaign level, which only allows her to manipulate Luck (Confusion effect is BASH) but when pushed it reaches Cosmic and can rearrange reality. (Actually I never liked this idea but there you have it...)

2) The thing with Katana is that if she ever kills anyone -and she DID kill a few people, including her husband's killer- with her sword, their souls might get trapped in it, and they would not likely be friendly to her. There's a ritual for freeing them (as slaves, obviously a Summoning) but Katana doesn't know it.

3) Actus Mortis is a perfect imitation of death, Kaliman doesn't even breath. Maybe I should buy it as Immunity to suffocation with a time limit?

4) Onerous Change is from the ADEL Files. So I guess you *do* need to have another transformation ability already? Thanks for clearing that up.

MrJupiter · Post by **MrJupiter** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 9:55 pm

Sijo wrote:Oh yeah, forgot to ask: does the Onerous Change Disadvantage work on its own, or must the character also have some other Advantage or Disadvantage (such as Normal or Involuntary Change) as well?

Great question, Sijo. Yes, the Onerous Change is meant to work on its own. BASH's Instant Change advantage reads like a cool, immediate costume change, useful for Normals that transform into powerful super heroes or for innate meta-human characters that have some gimmick that helps them switch identities without having to resort to a phone booth. While some heroes shout "Shazam!" and jump into battle, other heroes have a harder time getting ready for duty.

The idea with Onerous Change was to find a way to emulate the Normal to super transformation that was a bit inconvenient. This could be like Iron Man's armor pieces flying to him piece-by-piece, taking 1 full page, or longer, to complete the change and be ready for action. A werewolf character might be another example, assuming that they are able to shift at will, wherein the hero is busy for a few pages dealing with the transformation process.

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Tue Oct 06, 2015 10:03 pm

Thanks for the clarification Mr. Jupiter!

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:36 pm

Pardon me for still coming up with questions,

but I need a clarification on this: how many powers can you put in a Multipower? So far I have only seen examples of two powers, but I can think of characters with more (DC's Ultra Boy, for one.) If more than two, does the enhancement cost extra?

fairytalejedi · Post by **fairytalejedi** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 12:03 am

Each power that you put in a Multi-power increases its cost by 1 point if it's in the same power category, or 2 points if it's not.

For example, Wildstar (from my Megapolis thread) has an 8 pt multi-power with 3 powers in it: the base power of Force Field 4 (variable) costs 5 pts, Special Attack 4 (variable) is +1 pt since both it & Force Field are combat powers, and Telekinesis 4 which costs +2 points since it's in a different category than Force Field.

Sijo · Post by **Sijo** » Thu Oct 08, 2015 8:38 am

OK, thanks for the clarification!