Character Creation

[K Man]

DISCLAIMER: Again, this is my first time running a hybrid-system game and my first time running anything with the Mutants & Masterminds system. As such, please be lenient with me if I gloss over the rules and please point out glaring power-combos that I inadvertently create. This will be a work in progress for a while, so I encourage discussion as it gets created.

I will post modified tables for time/distance and what not in the Maps & Handouts section eventually.

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Character Creation Guidelines for "Orange Glow"

- Characters will begin the game as 4th level d20 Modern Characters.
- 32 Point Buy for Stats.
- Ignore the wealth score/stat since all characters will be issued standard gear for being in the military. (Gear to come later, unless someone wants to do the research on a WWII paratrooper standard gear)
- Beginning profession is yours to choose, (reminder, professions determine skills etc) but from levels 2 and up, your profession will be soldier. (I will post up soldier skills and stuff later) This will allow you to begin life as whatever you want (or go straight to soldiers for those wanting the military life) but then become a soldier through training.
- Characters will get to choose their rank, or it will be chosen for you. Some benefits will come with rank, this is the military after all, but its in-game effects will not be that significant.

Once that is all done, post your PC as a 4th level d20 Modern Character. Then, proceed with the below and post a new PC in the same character post. This will be done for the simple reason that you become supermen, not that you are born super. Your powers may get stripped from you in certain instances and I want you to be able to easily roll back onto a normal PC in a fight.

When you are ready to become a superman, here are the rules.

- You will be given 100 points to spend on superpowers, enhancements to abilities, feats etc.
- Purchase powers: Every power has a cost per rank associated with it. The rank of the power determines its distance, duration and effect. For instance, the blast power is purchased at 2 points per rank and each rank increases its distance. So to purchase 5 ranks in blast would cost 10 points, leaving you 90 to spend. Look for time and distance tables to appear shortly in the Maps & Handouts section.
- Purchase Feats: feats can be purchased at a cost of 1 point per feat. Feats can be used to enhance existing powers. For instance, you can take the blast power mentioned above and buy the Affects Insubstantial Feat so that you can hit incorporeal subjects with it. In addition to the powers feats, I see no problem allowing all d20 feats to be purchased at 1 point per feat after you become super. This will help eliminate some of the humming and hawing over feats at creation. Just be certain these feats are kept seperate from the base PC, they are part of your super abilities.
- Purchase ability increases: you can enhance existing ability scores by continuing to pay the cost as associated on the point buy table.

Expanded Point Buy Table

Ability Score	Point Cost
8	0
9	1
10	2
11	3
12	4
13	5
14	6
15	8
16	10
17	13
18	16
19	20
20	24
21	29
22	34
23	40
24	46
25	53
26	60

Thus, if you started your character with a 14 STR and wanted to be a superman with a 20 STR, you would pay 18 points out of your point pool - the difference between the 6 used to purchase STR 14 and the cost of STR 20 at 24 points.

Once all that is done, you're officially super and ready to go.

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Using Powers[/b]

The best rule I could come up with for deteriorating/harmful powers is this;

Each time you use a power (or a super ability, or super feat) you will need to make a FORT save DC 10 or take 1d6 temporary HP damage. This damage bypasses any damage reduction, enhancements or ability to supernaturally heal--it goes straight against your non-super HP total. This save only needs to be made once per round--so it does not compound if you use a power enhanced by a feat that requires a STR roll.

If you are successful in the FORT save, the DC for the next save increases by 1. This is cumulative and lasts until you rest for one day (24 hours) without using your powers and with medical aid. Remember, these powers are alien to you and hurt your body to use them.

Example:

In a fight, superman A uses his blast ability to knock down the commander of a Nazi platoon. He succeeds in his FORT DC 10 save, so takes no damage. The following round, he flies over to the other side of the field, landing on a mine and absorbing the blast without damage. He fails his DC 11 and takes 4 temporary HP damage anyway. The next round he absorbs some gunfire and grapples with a tank, making a FORT DC 12 save.

Etc etc. The FORT DC will continue to increase until superman A spends a day with medical aid to regulate his body to human levels once more.

This is my stab at it, I'm open to suggestions. If everyone is open to this creation and harmful powers rule, I'll open the call for players by the end of this week or next.

Are you allowing them to use points on raising their Fort Save? If so, then most characters will simply throw a lot of bonuses into it so that they never suffer the harmful effects.

You wrote that the harmful effects bypass any enchancements. Would this cover their bonuses to Fort? What about if they spend points in Con too. Would they have to keep track of their original Con as the bonus from Power Points not work?

Last question, are you capping the level of powers? M&M has a Power Level that players are restricted by. Since they're 4th level Modern characters, are you capping the Power Level at 4 too?m

[Toptomcat]

admin said:

Beginning profession is yours to choose, (reminder, professions determine skills etc) but from levels 2 and up, your profession will be soldier. (I will post up soldier skills and stuff later) This will allow you to begin life as whatever you want (or go straight to soldiers for those wanting the military life) but then become a soldier through training.

Does this mean that the benefits of occupation are effectively gained twice?

[K Man]

jolith said:

Are you allowing them to use points on raising their Fort Save? If so, then most characters will simply throw a lot of bonuses into it so that they never suffer the harmful effects.

No. I think the points distributed should just go to powers, feats and abilities. I know there are mechanics for upping those in M&M, but we're basing on the d20 system, a system that inherits a lot of bonuses from stats.

jolith said:

You wrote that the harmful effects bypass any enchancements. Would this cover their bonuses to Fort? What about if they spend points in Con too. Would they have to keep track of their original Con as the bonus from Power Points not work?

Well, if they followed directions, they wouldn't need to track their original CON, it would be listed in their first, non-super PC. I am OK with enhanced CON being used to resist the FORT save for using powers. It is their new bodies resisting, not their old. Also, with a cumulative DC and 24 hours of medically aided rest needed to bring it back down, someone will fail eventually. Yes, a smart player could spend many points to prevent themselves from being burned by their powers, but then they wouldn't focus on what they wanted to do with their PC--it's a trade off for sure.

jolith said:

Last question, are you capping the level of powers? M&M has a Power Level that players are restricted by. Since they're 4th level Modern characters, are you capping the Power Level at 4 too?

Yes, there will be a cap. I'm not interested in someone that can use Blast level 20 to annihilate a tank in one shot. Since I've given you 100 points to spend, M&M says the power level should be around 7th. I'm thinking I'd not like to see anyone with more than 5 ranks in a single power, but am open to suggestion.

toptomcat said:

admin said:

Beginning profession is yours to choose, (reminder, professions determine skills etc) but from levels 2 and up, your profession will be soldier. (I will post up soldier skills and stuff later) This will allow you to begin life as whatever you want (or go straight to soldiers for those wanting the military life) but then become a soldier through training.

Does this mean that the benefits of occupation are effectively gained twice?

I would say yes. The military (especially at that time) meant a whole new life for most. A new set of skills and experiences, a new conditioned body, a new mindset. It makes sense realistically that you are, in essence, getting a new occupation. I don't have my d20 Modern book here, but I can't imagine the benefit of two occupations would be that severe--especially in this high-power setting.

Thoughts?

admin said:

I am OK with enhanced CON being used to resist the FORT save for using powers.

This next question is for clarification more than anything else. I assume the enhanced Con, which in itself is a power (super resistance) will NOT trigger a Fort save, otherwise you'd never stop making them.

That does bring up another question though. Do passive powers trigger saves? Say I can hear really well all the time. Will I have to "turn it on" so to speak in order to use that power? Or will I have it on all the time and not suffer Fort saves? What about if I enhance my strength, dex, etc.

Just curious where you're going to draw the line of what is considered "using" a power.



And just want you to know, not trying to come off as critical, just trying to help you solidify your system that you plan on using.

[TheUdjat]

I was going to say that the penalty wasn't severe enough, but then I realized that we'll be having the HP of 4th level characters. 1d6 a few times could be pretty dangerous indeed. I think it'll work out.

I'm uncertain about damage, though. M&M doesn't apply rules for damage, they just have a condition track. So how much damage would a level 5 Blast actually do? 5d6? It'd seem like the M&M powers need to be converted to a more standard d20 style of doing things; that is, Touch Attack or Saving Throw and Damage or Effect. Like spells.

As a general guide, I would say that anything requiring a Toughness Save should have some kind of HP damage equivalent. But that's just an off-the-cuff thought.

[K Man]

jolith said:

admin said:

I am OK with enhanced CON being used to resist the FORT save for using powers.

This next question is for clarification more than anything else. I assume the enhanced Con, which in itself is a power (super resistance) will NOT trigger a Fort save, otherwise you'd never stop making them.

That does bring up another question though. Do passive powers trigger saves? Say I can hear really well all the time. Will I have to "turn it on" so to speak in order to use that power? Or will I have it on all the time and not suffer Fort saves? What about if I enhance my strength, dex, etc.

Just curious where you're going to draw the line of what is considered "using" a power.



And just want you to know, not trying to come off as critical, just trying to help you solidify your system that you plan on using.

I never assume you guys are criticizing me . We all need to develop this system so that all can enjoy and this discussion is how that happens.

To address, I posed this very question to Japic and we batted it around; if you do nothing but pump up abilities and consequently skills...do you ever use your super-human powers to the point that they become harmful.

The best answer we could come up with was...yes and no. We decided it would be up to the GM to determine the use of 'super' abilities--with an understanding of the Difficulty Class rules.

Battering down a barricaded door is a not a superhuman feat, but a person with a 30 STR would have little problem battering down normal doors left and right. They would never get penalized because they could argue nothing they are doing is super-human. However, if they came across a door that was held shut by five guys and a few sand bags, obviously the break DC would be higher (say above 25 or so) and that would be super-human.

The same goes for skill checks. We all make listen rolls constantly, but to pick conversation down a dark hallway is not super-human. However, to hear the drawing of a combat knife five floors down in a cement bunker certainly would be super-human.

In short, I feel that anytime the DC represents a super-human feat, (around 25 or higher), it would result in being super-human and require the FORT save. I know it sounds weak to use an arbitrary system like that, but its the best I could do.

theudjat said:

I'm uncertain about damage, though. M&M doesn't apply rules for damage, they just have a condition track. So how much damage would a level 5 Blast actually do? 5d6? It'd seem like the M&M powers need to be converted to a more standard d20 style of doing things; that is, Touch Attack or Saving Throw and Damage or Effect. Like spells.

As a general guide, I would say that anything requiring a Toughness Save should have some kind of HP damage equivalent. But that's just an off-the-cuff thought.

My thoughts exactly.

I just put up the distance, time and damage table and I chose 1d6 per rank as the number. Hence, a Blast level 5 would do 5d6 damage at a range of 50 ft (without penalty). I will try to catch all the powers that deal damage like this and modify them as needed, but for now, anything that deals damage will be translated into that schema. If you see a glaring oversight, let me know.

One thing I see as a problem is the amount of damage on could pump out. At PL 7, you could have a a person pump out 7d6 damage with a Blast power. That's an average of 24 points of damage. Now, I'm not sure how HP works in d20 modern (never played and don't own the book) but I'll go with d10 HP. If you have 10 + Con at first level, and then 3d10 + (3x Con) then you'll have (avg) 26 + (4x Con). Say you have a +4 Con mod, that'd give you 42HP. That means on avg, you can down someone in two shots, and if you roll well you could (possibly) knock them down to 0 in one. This is all assuming they have a high Con. The lower the con, the easier it'll be to knock him down.

Just seems a little high powered for a low level game. May want to tone down the PL, considering they're only 4th level Modern characters. Unless you want them to have the power to potentionally "kill" people of the same level in one shot.m

[Rojito]

I was thinking of playing a character with enhanced sense with infrared and/or x-ray vision, mainly i think of him as a sniper with powers to aid that. How would they trigger the save? anytime i look at a wall? a person? i thought of them as passive, but i suppose i could try to make them require some sort of activation...

[Toptomcat]

I think I'll go with a talented, dedicated medic with an extremely destructive but indiscriminate blasty power. Should make for some fun RP.

[chunker]

I agree damage is a bit high. In M&M Blast 5 is the same damage as heavy firearms (assault rifle, shot gun, etc.), 2d8 or 2d10. A bow (or sword or axe or spear or warhammer) is +3 = d8. Dice size progression: d4, d6, d8, 2d6, 3d6, ... seems like a better fit.

Also, are you using the damage threshhold rules? Blast 5d6 could be good for a kill every time.

Also, not forcing saves as often for enhanced abilities seems fair considering the exponential pricing for enhanced abilities (I think it should at least top off at 3 per point, unless you're really trying to discourage enhanced ability scores). In M&M, its 1 point for an ability point no matter how high. Note that the cost of enhanced strength is built into the cost of abilities like Density and Growth in M&M...

Anyway, it doesn't seem right that it costs the same 10 points for a 5d6 blast as it costs to raise your Wisdom from 14 to 18.

With no Wealth, an additional Occupation will mostly mean 1 extra feat (since we'll gravitate to the Occ's that give feats - I'll take a farmer over a doctor in this sitch...).

[Rojito]

What of us who wish to have been in the Military before the draft? So we want our first Occ to be Military

[Toptomcat]

They have an option for attacks to deal Hit Point damage in one of their expansion books. It goes 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 5d6...
Which makes a lot more sense in this context, I think.

[Deekin]

toptomcat said:

They have an option for attacks to deal Hit Point damage in one of their expansion books. It goes 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 5d6...
Which makes a lot more sense in this context, I think.

Yeah, it's in the Masterminds Manual. It's under the HP variant rule.
+1 = 1d4 +2 =1d6 +3= 1d8 and after that +x=(x-2)d6

Still, with having to make a DC 15 Fort Save or Die anytime you take more damage than CON Score, 5d6 at will is pretty nasty.

Toughness boni is Damage Reduction equal to the Rank times 2, or times 3 if it's Impervious

There is also the Power Surge drawback in the Paragons Setting. It represents powers running out of control.


Also, D20 Modern Defines Superheroic Acts as DC 35 or higher. And even then, sometimes it's still human, like Using escape artist to escape from handcuffs.

As for Char Ideas, I was thinking about a gunslinger who could boost himself to superhuman speeds.

[Rojito]

Ok how many characters needed? and Chunker what were you going to play? Right now there is a Medic and a Gunslinger. A Techie/Scientist and Brute are needed next. thats just to touch the basics of the 4 man team, Restoration, range, intelligence, strength. I can play any of these positions (if there is enough room) or a combo of these things. But i would like to know what everyone else is playing before designing a character to fit in with them


Edit: Oh yes, and BTW Gunslinger is easily abused, you can get them throwing lets see... i think i had mine throwing around 24d8s... or so a round... in a game that i didn't mean to break. Mighta been more than that now that i think about it...

[Deekin]

rojito said:

Ok how many characters needed? and Chunker what were you going to play? Right now there is a Medic and a Gunslinger. A Techie/Scientist and Brute are needed next. thats just to touch the basics of the 4 man team, Restoration, range, intelligence, strength. I can play any of these positions (if there is enough room) or a combo of these things. But i would like to know what everyone else is playing before designing a character to fit in with them

Edit: Oh yes, and BTW Gunslinger is easily abused, you can get them throwing lets see... i think i had mine throwing around 24d8s... or so a round... in a game that i didn't mean to break. Mighta been more than that now that i think about it...

Double Tap + Explosive Ammo + Five-seveN + TWF +Rapid shot =Win.

However WWII lacks Explosive ammo and Five-seveN. We could also use a Faceman, mind you.

[Rojito]

oh now i remember, 8 shots a round, 2 guns, 5d6 a shot you can even shoot at multiple targets for a grand total of 40d6 a round Oh and cause your a gunslinger... you dont have to worry about doing it in melee man gotta love that class!
Oh then once you hit level 10 of gunsligner (Possible at level 13) you can do an EXTRA 3d6 per hit gotta love it

[Rojito]

While the PN 5-7 is amazing i used a simpler gun, and i use Burst Fire. Either way it ruined gunslingers for me cant play that type of character anymore, i tried with the D20 game on here. But it ended just about the same way the other character did.

[TheUdjat]

I was thinking of a Comm officer who wound up with communication/telepathy related powers and other generally useful ones (teleport, movements, etc.). Would serve as a sort of coordinater in case we split up or anything. Like a Superhuman Logistics officer.

There'll probably be some other powers in there, since I can't imagine decent telepathy and some form of super-movement hitting 100 points.

[K Man]

Alright alright. Point made. I will use dice progression over a flat increase in the number of dice for damaging powers. I will edit that promptly.