almost cheating power combos

[Her0man0]

Ive been thinking lately of power combos that border on cheating, ones that play off of one another to create an effect thats almost (or is) munchkin level.....

A few examples ive thought of are

Animal Metamorphosis with Copy animal attributes - this guy would be able to gain additional superabilities by using it on himself when an animal.

A.P.S. Energy or any of the energy expulsion abilities with Energy Conversion - be able to change into or expel any type of energy.

Matter Expulsion Crystal with Gem powers - have all the gems they need to get powers from, no more money limitation.

Invulnerability with Massive damage capasity or Zombie flesh - now he's an unstoppable juggernaught

A.P.S. skeliton with unbreakable bones

I bring this up cause im curious to see what others have thought of, especially ones that players have come up with for games.

lets see what you've got

[DtMK]

I've thought about the Animal Metamorphosis and Copy Animal Attributes before, make the character Mystically Bestowed and call them Totem! Together the combination would be quite potent! I don't think that some combinations are too off center, look at Leviathan in Century Station. He's not a Mega, but Growth, Animal Abilities: Fish and others? He's a hefty boy! Especially when still wet and in water at full size.

I don't think that APS: Energy and Energy Conversion is stupid at all, the only downside I can see is that the energy attacks once converted would do half the damage as normal. But for Matter Expulsion: Crystal and Gem Powers, does it say you can literally create any kind of gem? If not, I'd think the best one could make would be quartz crystals for powers. On the other hand, Transmutation and Gem Powers could possibly give you the nearly unlimited powers you're looking for! Make them an Experiment with gem Powers, Matter Expulsion: Crystal and Transmutation, then you can create, convert and channel any of the powers! The same could go for Transmutation and Copy Physical Structure. I've once considered an Experiment character with Energy Absorption, Re-channel and Expel Energy and Copy Energy Pattern to make someone completely immune to energy, able to fire off the energy they'll be attacked with immediately or store it to be used later.

Invulnerability and Massive Damage Capacity or as I like to freak my players out by using its initials M.D.C., together would make someone nigh hard to kill in the best of circumstances. APS: Sand also makes one immune to physical attacks like Zombie Flesh, so one has options for being indestructible. The APS: Bone and Unbreakable Bones can be the equivalent of Invulnerability except to specific attacks. I thought of that a while ago as well.

If you had a Mystically Bestowed character who has Animal Abilities: Hoofed, their natural speed is increased by 5 times. AA: Hoofed also grants a speed boost of 10 points per level. Now you have one that gets 50 points of speed per level, or 35 miles per hour. APS: Liquid and Underwater Abilities would allow a character their water bonuses in both land AND water. Couple with Animal Abilities: Fish, you'd have someone who could Water Behemoth, have their PS doubled and speed X 5!

[Iczer]

Ive been thinking lately of power combos that border on cheating, ones that play off of one another to create an effect thats almost (or is) munchkin level.....

A few examples ive thought of are

Animal Metamorphosis with Copy animal attributes - this guy would be able to gain additional superabilities by using it on himself when an animal.

Technically you are not an animal. you just have the shape of one.

A.P.S. Energy or any of the energy expulsion abilities with Energy Conversion - be able to change into or expel any type of energy.

as stated above, cannot charge yourself. as for whether your copies could do it.......

Matter Expulsion Crystal with Gem powers - have all the gems they need to get powers from, no more money limitation.

awesome, except for the requirements section that states the gems have to be flawless, cut and polished. It's unlikely the power creates such perfect samples.

Invulnerability with Massive damage capasity or Zombie flesh - now he's an unstoppable juggernaught

Not really. all the things that can hurt invulnerbility hurt zombie flesh as well. zombie flesh dosn't add anything significant.

A.P.S. skeliton with unbreakable bones

Hate and love this at the same time. Of course I'd ban it, or rule that the character turns into regular bones, and not his bones.

I bring this up cause im curious to see what others have thought of, especially ones that players have come up with for games.

lets see what you've got

[Her0man0]

with energy conversion im not talking about the energy absorbsion and reflection, im talking about the one that allows you to turn a flashlight beam into a laser or make fire harmless lights and stuff like that, if you had energy expulsion whatever you would be able to turn it into what ever other type of energy you want once it left your fingertips.

now A.P.S. energy being turned into another type of energy or light now that i think could be debatable though id alow it in my game.

its not that zombie flesh would make your character invulnerable to those other weapons its that it would make them heal alot faster and not be debilitated if they were hurt.

Zombie flesh and indestructable bones along with A.P.S. skeliton, i can see how those could unbalance a game, but not as much as the invulnerability and M.D.C.

Animal metamorphosis does more than turn you into an animal, it says in the book that your character gets all the animals abilities and vulnerabilities, id say thats pretty much an animal with a humans intelligence and ability to speak. id allow it.

[Her0man0]

by the way here are a few more ive thought of...

Growth or Massive Damage Capasity with any of the following - A.P.S. Metal (Can you imagine the S.D.C. on this guy!), Plasma, Stone, Crystal, Zombie Flesh (This would actually be kind of cool when chunks of giant flesh blanket the city when this guy gets blasted by tanks and super E.E. Energy) Invulnerability, etc. etc., growth and M.D.C. would make these already unstoppable characters even more unstoppable.

Growth with Sonic Speed would be cool but entire cities would be destroyed when this guy broke the sound barrier.

Just a few thoughts

[Sir_Spirit]

Zombie flesh+Mega Imortality.IS the one off the top of my head.

[Steeler49er]

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Sorry Fer the long absence, I ONLY have 10min a week to post nowa days>>>>>>>>>>>>>

with energy conversion im not talking about the energy absorbsion and reflection, im talking about the one that allows you to turn a flashlight beam into a laser or make fire harmless lights and stuff like that, if you had energy expulsion whatever you would be able to turn it into what ever other type of energy you want once it left your fingertips.

Yeah MAN I was surprised to so may posters (EVEN ICZER ) thinking that you ment 'Energy Absorb/Redirection'!!!
No Hero, I Totally got EXACTLY wahtcha ment and I'm VERY glad that someone else saw the POWER of this Awsome Power-combo.
I've used it allot and it one of my favorites over on the Complimenting powers (REOPENNED fer business).
I use Energy conversion + Energy Absrb/Redirection Both with Bend Light to get the Best play. Convert Any type of energy into light that I wish and Truely "Redirect it"!

FYI-That afforementioned power makes for a Great combo from the thread... "Energy Conversion + Energy Absorbtion/Redirection" allows you to SUCK UP any type of damaging blast that hits you and Release it as something Other than Bio-energy (Seldom Known Fact-Energy absorbtion states in it's description that the absorbed energy is converted into 'Bio-Energy', and Not a release and doubling of the original energy type!).
Meaning that if your attacker throws a Fire Blast at you, you can Now throw Double the energy Back at them and choose to make it Fire, UV Laser Light, Radiation, or Even an Electrical Arc instead!

MOREOVER is that, with THIS combo you could Use 'EnergyConversion' to make a weak form of energy (like ambiant heat or the afforementioned Flashlight) do 1Die of damage [per level] and shoot said energy at yourself (thus absorbing it), then you can let it go back out at X2 power as whatever Other class of energy you'd like!

I used this combo to generate light for some friends (I converted a small flash light into a more powerful Damaging source of energy, absorbed it, let it out at X2 power, then converted it back out as a Much Much brighter form of light.
I Also did this once to generate Quadruple the Electrical energy for a village in Kenya untill the UN showed up (I don't like playing Supers Crime fighter vs. Villian, but rather more like Super EMS worker type games).

THIS combo ALSO means that you can ULTRA CHEAT (Game legally) the System by Converting your own energy blasts into "Harmfull" other energy attacks which you can (Yes) game legally absorb and redirect at X2 damage.

I'd allso use E.C. to convert my ambiant body heat into Visible light so as to see in the dark, or to do the same to Others, so that I could target (their heat run-off turned into light) in the dark.

[Iczer]

It lets you dodge if you can step to the side, and it is not the only power that lets you dodge bullets/energy beams with low penalties.

The various time manipulation abilities, Mechanical Awareness, Supersoldier Uncanny Targeting, Ancient Ranged Master (weapons lets you parry), Sonic speed, there's some others I think.

I can counter that combo easily with NUMEROUS powers, if it involves sidestep.

Get PU2, it's great.

I'd buy PU2 if I saw it. I haven't seen it anywhere. I'll be at a different game store this weekend and will pick it up if they have it.

As for my combo, it depends on how many powers we want to grant. However I believe in certain cases you can get away with 2 majors and 3 minors.

Karmic Power
Sidestep
Ext Physical Prowess
Lightning Reflexes
Ext Speed

The amount of auto dodge available from that set, coupled with the fact that the enemy gets nothing but unmodified die rolls against it (Karmic) means you pretty much never get hit at all. While there are solutions (spells and mind control), it is a pretty devastating set.

Until you meet some one who doesn't need to make a strike roll (Most psionics, a good deal of magicians) Or our friend with the negate powers ooptin and a handgun. (your power set has little in the way of SDC boosts) or a gravity controller (always fun).

Not really broken, just cheesy. It's worse too becuase eventually, a GM is vrtually guarenteed to come up with something to counter your example, and then it becomes an all or nothing event.

Or he waits for a natural 20.

Batts

[The Beast]

Energy Absorb & Redirect and Negative Energy (I think that's the name). While not unstoppable it's a fairly good combo IMO. The first power counters most (can't remember about magic/psionic-based attacks) energy attacks, while the second one makes it very difficult to be hit with a physical attack.

[Adventus]

A nearly truly invulnerable Character

First Physical Damage
Immune to Melee attacks: this power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or slower
Immune to High Speed Physical Attacks: This power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or Faster

Lets move on to energy.
Energy Absorption. Immune to Energy attacks.

Magic:
Immune to Magic
Immune to Psionics.

Immune to Poisons.

Now you are vulnerable because you need to eat, sleep and breathe. And to having your powers Negated
The last one is fixable.
You are an alien and these are "the Natural Abilities of your race". Therefore since they are "natural abilities", they can't be negated!

Sadly you have no attack powers but your almost completely invulnerable. without taking Invulnerability.

[Her0man0]

yea steeler, that is a good power combo, i read in another thread that bend light with a light expulstion like power would make for an interesting light show as the laser beams could be emited then spun around to create a sort of lazer protection or aura. just another thought.

also Invulnerability with immune to psionics, immune to magic and immune to melee attacks. this last one is special because it makes the invulnerable character immune to Supernatural P.S. attacks. no where in this power does it say that supernatural strength attacks do damage to this character, and it is a MELEE ATTACK. Also the Immune to magic makes the magic weapons do half damage (nothing completly takes away the damage of magic weapons)

Intangability with the same combo except immune to electricity replaces the melee attacks.

A.P.S. metal with invulnerablity - if an attack like sn strength or a magic weapon gets through then the high sdc and ar stops it.

Intangability with that earth possession ability. make a golem and be intangable inside it.

I wonder how APS stone or ice would work with zombieflesh, could the stone or ice guy get smashed or broken then come back together

[Severus Snape]

Let be honest, is there anything which can deal with the gravity powers?

Negate Super Powers comes to mind. Immune to (Most) Super Abilities might also work. Psionics work wonders too.

[Adventus]

A nearly truly invulnerable Character

First Physical Damage
Immune to Melee attacks: this power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or slower
Immune to High Speed Physical Attacks: This power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or Faster

Lets move on to energy.
Energy Absorption. Immune to Energy attacks.

Magic:
Immune to Magic
Immune to Psionics.

Immune to Poisons.

Now you are vulnerable because you need to eat, sleep and breathe. And to having your powers Negated
The last one is fixable.
You are an alien and these are "the Natural Abilities of your race". Therefore since they are "natural abilities", they can't be negated!

Sadly you have no attack powers but your almost completely invulnerable. without taking Invulnerability.

That's a lot of powers. Are they all minor(I'm too lazy to track em down)? If not you're gonna have a hard time getting so many.

1 Major and 5 Minors!

[Adventus]

Let be honest, is there anything which can deal with the gravity powers?

Having Gravity powers and being a higher level!

[Her0man0]

yea, the minor of weightless or that anchor power should work

[The Beast]

A nearly truly invulnerable Character

First Physical Damage
Immune to Melee attacks: this power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or slower
Immune to High Speed Physical Attacks: This power makes you immune to attacks 120mph or Faster

Lets move on to energy.
Energy Absorption. Immune to Energy attacks.

Magic:
Immune to Magic
Immune to Psionics.

Immune to Poisons.

Now you are vulnerable because you need to eat, sleep and breathe. And to having your powers Negated
The last one is fixable.
You are an alien and these are "the Natural Abilities of your race". Therefore since they are "natural abilities", they can't be negated!

Sadly you have no attack powers but your almost completely invulnerable. without taking Invulnerability.

IIRC, even with these two powers you're still able to be damaged/affected by them, just that everything is reduced and you're also able to save against spells that don't normally have a save.

[Steeler49er]

Grav powers make you impervious to other grav powers generally.

Blast the grav guy with energy weapons (though technically if you could make a local 50 G acceleration, you could lens and distort incoming energy attacks) maybe?

They're pretty ridiculous just as written.

Honestly, if I could distort spacetime in such a controlled manner, with my knowledge of relativistic physics, I am pretty sure I could crack a planet in half, or if I got a sufficiently powerful particle beam, generate a beam of lased gravity strong enough to make a stars core collapse, triggering a nova.

The distortion required to make a 50 G gravity well would basically stretch spacetime in the vicinity enough to visibly distort light passing it, generally it would take an object 50 times as dense as the Earth, the same size as the Earth, to generate that type of well.

So it's kinda like putting a new hyperdense planet behind someone, naturally they fall towards it, appropriately quickly.

>.>

They're ridiculously powerful if you know what you're doing.

When I was a kid, me and my siblings usedta sit around my dad every night as he would read us the Next ep. of the only WA State based super hero team, 'Power Pack'. Each of us was assosiated with one of the 4 powers kids, and being the oldest I was GeeForce!
Anywho, since the writer was into physics, at the end of every comic book there was a sort of Physics Alley if you will, where anyone who posed a cool point or interesting question may get it published and the writers would answere it as best as they could, and in the most scientific of ways.

Unlike my other brothers, this was the funnest part of the books fer me. Anywho part II; there was this guy who kept coming up with super Kewl/Niffy and creative ways to use physics to show just how powerful anyone could be with those powers. Finally he got around to GeeForce (Gravity Increase/Decrease & Redirection). The shear No# of sick things that guy came up with on how abusive one could be with that power (so much so that even the Editor was creeped out) makes me think that YOU Max are HE, returned from the grave to invoke more of His paticular brand of Weighty DOOM on us all.

THEREFORE, From this day forwards, I think we should ONLY allow MAX to tell us what creative thing he'd do with HUL's more Illogical powers, no more asking what he could do with the logical ones like those found in NMI-WIKI-BLACK VAULTS' Silly and Humorous section...
That way he'll at least be challenged a little.

[Steeler49er]

yea steeler, that is a good power combo, i read in another thread that bend light with a light expulstion like power would make for an interesting light show as the laser beams could be emited then spun around to create a sort of lazer protection or aura. just another thought.

also Invulnerability with immune to psionics, immune to magic and immune to melee attacks. this last one is special because it makes the invulnerable character immune to Supernatural P.S. attacks. no where in this power does it say that supernatural strength attacks do damage to this character, and it is a MELEE ATTACK. Also the Immune to magic makes the magic weapons do half damage (nothing completly takes away the damage of magic weapons)

Intangability with the same combo except immune to electricity replaces the melee attacks.

A.P.S. metal with invulnerablity - if an attack like sn strength or a magic weapon gets through then the high sdc and ar stops it.

Intangability with that earth possession ability. make a golem and be intangable inside it.

I wonder how APS stone or ice would work with zombieflesh, could the stone or ice guy get smashed or broken then come back together

Danka
And since you're mentioning APS: Metal, hows about combining it OR Petrification: Metal, with Metal Manipulation. I'm sure this will errk some posters to consider it a viable combo, but it IS currently a legit combo just the same, dispite how un-easy it makes one feel to realize this. Truth be told, I can't imagine this being to very easy to use on others, even if they ARE solid Metal... Nor can I imagine it being to very pleasent to use on yourself... But it Could be Very useful (slow, but useful). At the very least you could Cool yourself down when hit with Heat based attacks, or Heat yourself-up to prevent yourself from being frozen. And you could EASILY reshape you fingers into blades, slowly squish & pluddel yer shape so as to get through small opennings or out of some holds.

This could be used to turn yourself into a pretzel... Even IF it takes you 20 min to do it, and even if Alter Limbs & Elongation (Not to mention APS: Mercury) are all better choices and Much more efficiant, it is STILL a fun combo.

[Steeler49er]

BUT BOYYYY is it fun to do

[ShadowLogan]

Animal Metamorphosis with Copy animal attributes - this guy would be able to gain additional superabilities by using it on himself when an animal.

A similiar variation would be Lycantrope with Animal Ability to combine Animal abilities.

How about these:

Invisibility combined with Bend Light can make one harder to detect. I think Motion Detector and Sound are the only remaining ways, additional powers might take them out of the picture.

Shrink gives a pretty good Prowl when in use, but combine that with Intangible, ExtraOrdinary Attribute (EO) PP, and the Prowl Skill and you get +50% to prowl depending on how one views the Prowl bonus from the other powers. If it only stacks with the skill itself, this is not as good, but if it stacks with the power's Prowl it works out to 98%+ at 6inches.

This next one requires Physical Training Agility & Defensive Combo OR Martial Arts Master having been exposed to an Accident (as under the Experiment Category) to give them super powers:
EO: PP, EO: Spd, Slow Motion Control gives them an additional +7Auto Dodge (not counting the PP bonus), and +3 actions. Additional Powers can beef this up even more (AutoDodge not to sure on as I only have the Main book, but Actions is a positive).

A variation would be the Natrual Combat Ability instead of the PT/MAM class, at 1st level you have 8attacks PLUS 7 more depending on level when they are all active. The NCA might be illegal if you can't have 2Majors and several Minors.

Growth, EO: PE, and a Strenth based power (EO: PS, Superhuman, Supernatural, etc). At maximum Growth the PEx2 is added to the PS.

Adhesion, EO: PP, Animal Ability (Cat) results in a PP bonus of: 2d4+1d6+1 (4-15 improvement). Pull a PT: A&D combo with Experiment Accident and add +1d4. Not counting Skills.

APS: Liquid and Underwater abilities (if one regards being in the liquid form as being underwater). Or Control Elemental Force Water, create a wall of water turned on its side (so thickness becomes the new height) to use Underwater abilities. A bit more limited as you need a sufficient source of water.

Psyhic ability of Telekinetic Force Field to trap then and Pyrokinesis's Create Flame (Pillar), OR a Super Power combo to match. Create Force Field can be substituted for TKFF.

APS: Smoke/Mist, Control Elemental Force: Air will negate some of the vulnerabilities.

[Severus Snape]

I'm sitting here, thinking about some of these combos, and I'm trying to come up with my own. I read the beginning of the topic, and this was supposed to be those power combos that are almost cheating (but aren't), but it seems that the topic has devolved into another "Complimenting Powers" topic. Which is all fine and dandy - everybody has their favorite power combos, and yes, virginia, some of them may be close to cheating.

Anyhow, I was trying to come up with my own combo, and I think I hit the motherload combo. And I'm quite surprised nobody has come out with this yet. I will admit that this is the 3 major cheese, but it can happen. I personally have never seen any PC I've gamed with roll for 3 majors yet, but that doesn't mean someone out there cannot come out with this combo:

Jinx Power
Karmic Power
Negate Super Abilities

This character is now the bane of every hero. All who go up against him/her are jinxed, and have negatives to all rolls (including magic and psionics). The character himself/herself gets bonuses to all dice rolls when performing good acts. All with super abilities who come into contact with the character have their abilities negated.

If this isn't classified as almost cheating, then I don't know what is.

[Kovoston]

>.>

Did I mention Superluminal Flight would allow you to easily visit the past by constructing closed timelike curves?

<.<

Yeah, taking the physics required to produce the results listed for a power, and extrapolating them creatively tends to get ridiculous at times.

True.

[Iczer]

>.>

Did I mention Superluminal Flight would allow you to easily visit the past by constructing closed timelike curves?

<.<

Yeah, taking the physics required to produce the results listed for a power, and extrapolating them creatively tends to get ridiculous at times.

I dispute the bolded section. Easy? are we steven hawkings now? I am willing to place bets that the theory would take a month of math, followed by a lot of confusion when the first unaccounted for variable hits.

"I fly back in time"
"Ok. You hit the big bang. there is no space for you to occupy and you are disintegrated by the events in occurance. On the plus side, you have unwittingly created the entire universe. Paradox loop closed"

Batts

[Iczer]

all this presumes that current therories regarding time travel and relativistic travel are not only entirely accurate, but relevent within the same genre where faster than light spaceships exist without making time travel trips, and that temporal travel is not policed and monitored (a staple of the genre) And that doing so doesn't involve a set of unexplored laws of temporal physics.

Plus...aiming for where earth was last week, and then shooting back to where the light from last week is, seems about as much time travel as me looking at last weeks photos.

In addition, the power itself makes no actual mention of time travel in its description. Probably conservation of time is as obviously built into the power by default (in the same way that a speedster can accellerate safely to mach one without hammering into a wall of (relatively) solid air).

I won't claim to be a polymath, nor will I claim to have spent my entire life thinking in 4-D terms (the internet has a lot of experts under 30 nowadays). I will say that physics and superheroes were more passing acquaintences than close friends (from where does our FTL friend acquire the energy to perform his transluminal feats anyway? surely not from a heary breakfast) and that when players try the play obviously broken combinations (backed up the ever reliable 'trust me I'm a genius' card) they can expect a round of serious game masters giving a few quick belly laughs followed by a bemused 'no'.

Batts

[Iczer]

>>Shrug<<

Too much written. I compress this into 'super powers. that's how it works'

My way is easier. and If you are as young as you say, then I've been GM'ing for the span of your entire life. Palladium's set physics are the sandbox in which the rest of us are playing in. Feel free to join us. You might like it.

Batts
(who had to rewrite this a few times to be nice)

[Severus Snape]

Not necessarily a power combo, but it is a good one that I came across this morning as I was randomly rolling up a character (hey, I have to kill my spare time somehow, and why not come up with NPCs and BBEGs?). I ended up with a Super Soldier that had the minor power of Manipulate Kinetic Energy. His special weapon? The invulnerable shield. Yes, randomly rolled.

So, with a shield bash, the damage is 3d6 + PS bonus. When thrown, damage is 4d6 + PS bonus AND he would get +2 to strike. With MKE, he could charge the shield to double the damage, effectively making the damage (4d6 * 2) + PS Bonus. And if the object is charged, he can make the shield return to him. Plus it only counts as 1 attack to charge AND throw the shield, with an additional one to make it return. And with most characters having 5-7 attacks, this guy could use this ranged attack 2-3 times a round and do some serious damage (assuming he hits his target and/or doesn't roll a natural 1 to attack).

Again, not necessarily a power combo, but a power is involved.

EDIT: After some light reading, I need to add the Super Soldier enhancement of Uncanny Targeting and Throwing to give the guy a +2 to strike in addition to everything listed above.

[NMI]

Earth Possession and CEF: Earth

[NMI]

Why has no one mentioned Mimic+Multiple Selves? Add Mirror Mastery and Energy Doppleganger and you have an army of supers that can copy the abilities of other supers.

Been there! Done that!

[Iczer]

LOL. funny story that.

Maximus was a very short lived hero in one of my games (one where I was less than vigilant on character vetting)

He had multiple bodies, mimic and negate super abilities.

The gang had an argument (Flashback, the time controller, Weird wind the elemental and Maximus) and they decided a little friendly brawl in Danger Alley (long story)

anyway, Maximus wins initiative, and splits to make a copy. then he mimics Flashback while his copy negates powers in an area....

I had a good laugh though. The player realised too late that he can't keep his other powers active when his own clone's negating them (not that he could keep a copy of himself active when he's wearing another person's powers either) Flashback and Weirdwind kicked the Tar out of him.

He was a little more tactical then, negating single targets himself, and letting his clone do the mimicry, but he was cut that it was his weaker self doing the beat downs.

Batts

[Severus Snape]

And I know this doesn't work by listed rules, but a player came to me with APS: Metal, Shrinking and Sonic Flight, calling the character Bullet. The idea was so cool that I allowed it.

I've seen characters with APS Metal and Sonic Speed (Running) where neither the GM nor the player realized that when in APS Metal form he's not moving at full speed. And boy, did the GM get MAD when the guy rammed one of his BBEG's. Took the BBEG out in one move. And then the GM read up on the power combo and realized that shouldn't have happened.

[Steeler49er]

I haven't seen Mimic in combination with Natural Combat Ability yet. No you cannot use them at the same time, but it allows for the ultimate generalist.

Ah But, you Can...
Yes Yes yes, I know I've spent Years correcting peoples attempted combos of 'Mimic+Another power' due to the Mimic cancles/replaces said other powers while active rule...
But the ORIGINAL write up for the Mimicry superpower had it that you COULD and Did keep "All of you abilities.
So there is a Small loop hole.
I just never wanted to let anyone In on that fact.

[Steeler49er]

I haven't seen Mimic in combination with Natural Combat Ability yet. No you cannot use them at the same time, but it allows for the ultimate generalist.

Ah But, you Can...
Yes Yes yes, I know I've spent Years correcting peoples attempted combos of 'Mimic+Another power' due to the Mimic cancles/replaces said other powers while active rule...
But the ORIGINAL write up for the Mimicry superpower had it that you COULD and Did keep "All of you abilities.
So there is a Small loop hole.
I just never wanted to let anyone In on that fact.

But it specifically states that you cannot use your own original superpowers while mimicing.

You didn't read what I wrote.
Look again, slowly, and maybe you'll see what was Really hinted at.

[DtMK]

I looked at the Revised Heroes Unlimited, it appears that once upon a time, one could.

[Steeler49er]

EDIT: Post edited for trolling. - NMI

[NMI]

We are going to play nice from this point on in the thread right everyone?

[Iczer]

I'll weigh in for mimic here.

It's a fantastic equaliser, leaving you to rely on more rounded character aspects. Very few powers have any skill involved in them at all, so simply rely on your own. get the best HTH you can manage, pile on powers that are useful out of mimicing or remain when you mimick (Extraordinary IQ for instance grants a large set of extra skills, gives a decent skill boost and of course enhances an attribute that does not change with mimic)

The mimic cannot be 'out powered' by anyone except for a small range of targets, though he may occasionally be put out by a person who's very well developed in specific skills or has a power that relies on such.

Yes. On its own mimic does sort of flail around, but you would hardly build a character wth just the one minor power, and you get a choice on who you mimic most times. The easiest trick is to just mimic a teammate until you find a better power set. and yes, it's useles with no one around to mimic. If your GM wants to throw you at hordes of heavilly armoured robots just to thwart you then that's a GM problem, not a player problem. someone with control: others would be in the same predicamment, as well as transferal/posession, invisibility (how hard is it for robots to have the senses required to see him), multiple lives or a plethora of other powers that aren't specifically tailored for the situation.

YMMV

Batts

[Iczer]

How to handle a mimic character who manages to twink his way through lots of superconflicts: throw a normal shmuck with a gun at him, or any of the limitless numbers of scenarios where the copying of powers is of no use.

The bulletproof mimic character waits for the guy to run out of bullets before smashing him around the head and face. The Ex-PP mimicer autododges his way armoured him all the while smacking his face. The mimic with a gun just shoots back and relies on his significantly higher SDC.

I prefer interesting one trick pony types: ultra speedster, ridiculously strong brick, guy with a sword, time manipulator, gravity guy... more fun seeing what you can do with only what you've got.

True. and a mimic character has got a power with a few caveats that can make it interesting.

Invulnerable guy who has fairly normal strength/speed/etc is neat.
Supernaturally strong powerhouse who isn't much more durable than normal is neat.

Invulnerable powerhouse gets boring fast.

True, but palladium doesn't have many options for non invulnerable powerhouses.

I guess the power to mimic what others have, then see what you can do with it in that situation, until it goes away, with little grasp of what you can do, as a jack of all trades just doesn't appeal to me too much.

hang on...I thought you just implied you liked characters who are challenging.

Mimic a friend: you know what he can do, so there is no guesswork.
Mimic a powerful foe: Now you are as powerful as him. if you have friends then you also may outnumber him
Multiple opponent = multiple abilities: If I'm fighting a metal man, a regenerator and a gravity controller, I can be metal for a while, then use the gravity guys's powers to negate his efforts, switch back to metal man when he's dealt with and then borrow some regeneration to heal up afterwards. If my foes are unpowered then Is till have all my normal abilities to rely on, as well as any other superabilities or even crime fighting equipment i thought to bring along.
No suitable opponents: Well I figure once and a while every power meets it's foil. the invulnerable guy will occasionally face magicians. the Ice guy faces a bonfire. the stage magician meets anybody (J/K) It's a trope that you will occasionally find your powers to be less useful from time to time, not a weakness.

Batts

[Regularguy]

And I know this doesn't work by listed rules, but a player came to me with APS: Metal, Shrinking and Sonic Flight, calling the character Bullet. The idea was so cool that I allowed it.

Under the listed rules, couldn't one combine Invulnerability with Shrinking and Sonic Flight to play living bullet?

[Steeler49er]

The reason for APS: Metal is that is assumed that the "Metal man" can hold his/her form much more solidly then someone with invulnerablity could... Plus the Metal guy weighs more!
Still Yes, the rules say that you Can use Inv. instead.

Frankly though, NO-ONE seems to care for that "No two physical altering powers used together" peice of Ret-Con tripage of a rule anyhow. It was made to prevent some weird combos, yet no less than a few paragraphs later you are being told that "Hey, don't fret, you can Still be creative with APS type powers by combining them with Non-APS type powers... Wait, here's an example, you can combine ShapeShift and Mimicry so as to make that Perfect disguise!!! You could even use Mimic to grow 'working Wings', so as to fully complete a disgues. Yeah see, that's a cool combo right?"...
Obviously the writter of that lil "creative Idea" had forgotten that, with the NEW rules for Mimicry, you can't anylonger use IT together with anyother powers as, it replaces All of your powers and you'll end up loosing your Shpechanger power in the process!

Furthermore, By all definitions, Both Mimicry AND Shapeshift are in the same catigory as Other APS: Type of powers.
So the whole reason that stupidly thought out combo was ever even mentioned in the First place (which was to make it sound like the writer was "Still Fly/Dope/down with Us kids" one of us) was negated in the prior statements. He Musta thought that this was the coolest combo Ever, and likely loved using it But, he killed himself Twice by altering the Very rules that governed Both of those two powers.

Ouch!

Then of course, we Also see that the power "Multiple Beings" was thrown into that same list of No-No's... Even though it was Not in any way an APS power, and none of us had ever been restricted from using it together with any of the APS: Powers before... It was admitted Later on that it was Only thrown into "The List" because it was Realized that it could "Imbalance" the game...
Well Duh!!!
But we ALREADY had Invulnerability for that! And ME: Metal, and Gravity Manipulation, and Many many more powers at that.

So I'd say that it is Fully alright to combine APS: Metal and Shrink together... Especially if it keeps a player from seeking out the alternative and Taking the X10 more powerful "Invulnerability" power in it's stead!
Don't chu agree?

[Iczer]

And I know this doesn't work by listed rules, but a player came to me with APS: Metal, Shrinking and Sonic Flight, calling the character Bullet. The idea was so cool that I allowed it.

Under the listed rules, couldn't one combine Invulnerability with Shrinking and Sonic Flight to play living bullet?

every time you make a character with 3 major powers, I kick a puppy.

seriously, apart from the very hard to rationalise power combo as presented, the ability to garner three whole majors is pretty slim statistics wise.

and statistics wise, remaining at normal size would inflict the better damage.

Batts

[Severus Snape]

Imbued, Immortal, Experiment, and I think Empowered all give possibilities for 3 Major, or even 3 Major 1 Minor.

Let's not forget Mutant with the Continuous Mutation.

[Regularguy]

Imbued, Immortal, Experiment, and I think Empowered all give possibilities for 3 Major, or even 3 Major 1 Minor.

Let's not forget Mutant with the Continuous Mutation.

Not to mention Aliens.

[Steeler49er]

Yeesh Iczer, I created 5 chracters with 3+Major powers before breakfast today (Not that I ever actually play them as I perfer to abuse one power at a time) but at this rate mate, you're gonna be hunted down by PETA and struck to death by carrot and celery sticks fer extream cruelty to puppys! You're gonna go down in history as the Saloth Sar /Pol Pot of puppy murder

[Severus Snape]

If this one has been mentioned, I apologize. If not, then remember that this is not my idea. I completely thiefed this one from the Outsmarting Powerhouses thread.

Multiple Selves + Mental Stun + [insert any MINOR offensive power, such as EE Fire or Natural Combat Ability]

Let's see - you create a bunch of multiples, who use mental stun on an opponent, and then you finish him/her off with the minor offensive power. All of your multiples can stun him into submission in the first round (if you have enough and the target fails saving throws). The stun takes 3 actions, but you aren't the one giving up those actions - your multiples are. And if you have, say, 6 actions in a round, your multiples could each use mental stun twice, freeing you up to take however many shots at the guy as you have left (remember that creating a multiple is an action).

[Her0man0]

I know its been over a year sinse anyone has posted on this thread but i just thought of two more cool power combos

3 major - Sonic Flight, Multiple beings, and self explosion - you are your own air force with missles and everything; the multibomber lol

also 2 major - gravity waves and self explosion - pull the enimies close to you then explode, a dirty but fun trick

[Looonatic]

I made a Rifts super-powered mutant with three major powers:

Swarm-selves, Sonic Flight and Self-Explosion. Each of his 30 tiny selves could explode for 1D6X10 damage once every 3D4 melee rounds, maintaining an average attack rate of 4 explosions per melee round or one big explosion of 3D6X100 damage.

[AlanGunhouse]

With Armageddon Unlimited out, you can now be even MORE abusive with starting characters by having up to 5 Majors on the Demon Empowered character.

Personally, certain character rolls should never be made by the player, as some players can not be counted on not to cheat, and others have a very odd effect on dice (I used to be one of the latter...I did not cheat because the dice did what I told them. Right now, I tell them to be random )

[Hadeshorn]

Here are some of the ones we've used in our various games.

APS: Light, APS: Shadow and Hyperdensity.

Gravity Manipulation, Bend Light and Control Kinetic Energy.

[Hadeshorn]

I just remembered, I also made up a guy who had APS: Lava, Mega-Wings and Multiple Limbs.

[Her0man0]

I really dont understand how those are almost cheating....

but one i just thought of......

Intangability + Zombie Flesh + anatomical independance, the character can put his hand inside opponents head or heart then turn solid and let the hand go and then it will grow back....instant kill