Thevshi

Natas shoots at Giang again, but misses with a 17. Merc 12 fires a pistol at Giang, getting a http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4296160/'>21, which would normally hit, but her Defensive Attack boost means it misses. Merc 3 shoots at her as well, totally missing with a 7. Merc 13 tries to hit Thaelia with the butt of his rifle, missing with a 8. Good round for the good guys!

GM Reloading his speargun quickly, the mercenary leader turns to follow Giang's graceful movements across the deck of the ship. Aiming quickly he fires at her again, but the Asian teen easily twisted out of the way as she stayed focused on the enemies around her. The mercenary that had been operating the crane pulls out a pistol and takes a shot at Giang. The gunshot echoes out over the water, but the teenager had spotted the movement and had already rolled aside. The other mercenary on the mini-sub still held aloft above the deck again fired his smaller speargun, but the small spear came nowhere near the agile teen, sticking into the deck a good ten feet away. Up on the upper deck, the mercenary who had managed take a blow from Thaelia raised his rifle and tried to strike the Atlantean teen with the weapon's butt. However, his attack was far too easy to anticipate, and Thaelia simply caught the butt of the weapon with one hand and pushed back, causing the man to stagger backward slightly before righting himself.

As Solar Sentinel released the burst of cosmic energy, most of the thugs scattered about the room were too surprised to even try to avoid the wave of energy. One tried to dive behind out of the way, but even that prove futile, as the cosmic energy slammed into him and sent him sprawling on the concrete floor. The others were blown backward by the force of the burst, the table and chairs set up to one side overturned and broken. The stacks of money that had been on the table came apart, sending individual bills into the air. As the hero landed on the ground, he saw no movement from any of the men now scattered about the room. Outside, he could hear the sound of police sirens as the squad cars closed in to surround the building.

Well, if you took either of the complications, then you would have to roll to nullify/counter your own effects, as otherwise it would not be much of a complication. Similarly, even if you did not have a complication, but also lacked the Reversible feat, I believe you would still need to roll, as the effect is Independent of your character, but would have to look a bit more closely at that.

You certainly do not have to have the Reversible feat. I believe you have a wide enough selection of powers that something could be used to counter any of the three powers if you added Independent to them. Of course, the effects will eventually dissipate on their own. Taking the Reversible feat and having a compilation that sometimes things go a bit out of control and you would have to reverse instead of just instantly countering could be possible. Same for not having Reversible but having a complication that sometimes things get out of hand and they do not fade like they should, and you must try to reverse them.

Thomas, took a look at Independent, and that seems to fit perfectly for those powers (and makes sense in regard to the nature of your powers). The only thing is that once you start any of them, when you stop sustaining the power (ie shut it off) the effect will still be there, that is you cannot turn it off. You could of course pick up the Reversible feat for each, allowing you to instantly remove them as a free action if you choose to do so. We follow the normal cosmology from the Freedom City books, though there have been some changes over time on the site I believe. I am not aware of anything that lists them all thought. Might be a good idea to get into chat and ask questions about that sort of background stuff.

Thomas, I will take a look at Independent and some other possible means of having the obscure and other effects slowly fade away and will talk with some other refs about possibilities. Just to be clear, what was your thinking with wanting to make those powers Continuous? That if he was knocked out that they would stay in place? Something else? As for the range issue, I took a look back at UP and realized I had been making a mistake with my calculations for the Improved Ranged and Progression Ranged feats in your blast. You are correct that your Range increment is only 500 feet. What seems a bit less clear is whether the Max range is 5,000 feet like you say or actually 25,000 feet (as the book talks about the Improved Range feet possibly reducing the number of range increments used to measure Max range when there is no Progression bought to increase the Max range, but is a bit less clear on what happens when you have both feats). But it does appear that 5,000 feet is probably right for Max range (and even if it was 25,000 feet, with increments of only 500 feet, you would never be able to use it that far). So, with a range increment of 500 feet and max range of 5,000 feet, I am not really bothered by things, so forget any objection there. (It would probably be good to note how each of those feats changes things (ie: Improved Range 2 [500 foot increments]. Progression (Range) 2 [5,000 feet max range]).

Wow, he just makes it!

Velocity was not exactly convinced that the Stopwatch would be harmless in Smith's hands, but still allowed for him to pick it up and examine it. She then followed after Smith as he lead them deeper into the house, not particularly surprised by the laboratory that he had in the basement. Though she tried to watch what he was doing as he handled the Stopwatch, Smith had managed to keep the exact what he had done concealed, which was a bit troubling. She straightened up some as the Stopwatch stopped ticking and air around it went fuzzy. "I am not planning to stay that long." She answered in response to Smith's last comment, before answering his true question. "But as to where, or when, wherever Robert Harrow, or the one from this timestream, has been taken."

Giang gritted her teeth as her watery forcefield took the blast from one of the mercenaries' energy weapons and then the deadly tipped spear from Natas' speargun. The Asian teen then regarded the mercenary leader. "I would expect you to try no less mercenary. But I helped stop you before, and I shall do so once more." With that she was moving across the deck of the ship, her feet pushing herself up into the air as she flipped over and twisted to land once again facing towards the railing she had just been next to. As she landed, her hands came up in front of her as she turned slightly and a blast of water shot fort to strike the mercenary who has shot her with his energy weapon. The powerful blast of water knocked him into the railing and he crumpled to the deck unconscious. Giang then took a step back as she shifted into a low crouch, her hands out to either side as she prepare to dodge the next attack from Natas.

Round Twelve 20 Tsunami (bruised, fatigued) 20 Glamazon (unharmed) 18 Merc 5 17 Natas 16 Merc 14 13 Merc 12 13 Merc 15 10 Merc 3 9 Merc 2 (mini-sub injured 2) 5 Merc 13 Tsunami will use Defensive Attack, shifting 5 from atk to bost Defense by 5. She takes 10 an blasts Merc 5. He continues to roll well with a http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4294938/'>23 for his toughness save, but in this case, that still is not good enough so he goes down! Glam is up!

Merc 5 shoots at Tsunami, hitting with a 25. She easily makes her toughness save with a 27. Natas shoots at her with a spear, hitting with a 26. She misses her first Toughness check, so she will use her hero point and reroll: a 16 adjusted to 26, so she is fine again. Merc 3 shoots at Tsunami as well, but misses. Merc 13 shoots at Glam, just missing with a 14.

GM The mercenary that had somehow weathered a couple of attacks from Thaelia quickly focused on the newly arrived Giang, levelling his energy weapon and her and firing. The blast hit squarely, but the shifting sheen of water that swirled around the Asian teen was able to absorb the worst of the impact. The leader of the mercenaries turned his focus to Giang as well, his cold voice calling out, "YOU!" He quickly reloaded his speargun, this time with a razor sharp tipped spearhead and brought the weapon up trained on Giang. "This time I will gut you girl!" The spear shot through the air, striking Giang as well, though once again the swirling layer of water around her managed to prevent any serious damage. The mercenary operating the cane on the back of the ship swung it around, bringing the miniature submarine dangling from it swinging over the aft deck and over to the far port corner. The mercenary who had been piloting it and was standing atop was holding onto one of the cables connected to the submersible, while he aimed his small speargun at Giang as well. His shot went well wide of the Asian teen, flying out over the side to eventually drop into the water a ways out. Up on the upper part of the deck where Thaelia was, another mercenary came around the centre tower, quickly spotting the Atlantean teen. He fired his energy weapon at Thaelia, the blast of energy just missing her by a hair's breadth.

And he is down! Post away!

Things are moving forward Thomas, and the more work done here, the easier things should go for getting approval. On the complications, yeah, I would highly suggest adding more description to those to help them be useful. As to the history, well, that is your choice, but I will honestly say that a blank slate makes for something of a dull character. I understand that you can always build on this and develop him through rping, but it could be a problem for getting threads. If I were looking to GM a thread for Tempest, looking at him, I would have a hard time trying to craft a story that would be particular to your character. Of course I could just come up with some random encounter with a supercriminal (and there is nothing wrong with those, I have certainly done them before), but it could be hard to get those type of threads all the time. So, back to the crunch (the array and super sense): So, for Air and Water Control, you do not need Accurate 3, as you cannot use them to throw things like you can with Move Object. With Move Object, you are grabbing something, like a person or car and moving them (or just throwing them). With Air Control, you are moving the air, and using it to push other things (and people). You are not grabbing those other things. Same with Water Control. I spoke with another Ref, and there is a problem with the Obscure, Create Object and Environmental Control alts that I have been thinking about, but not raised yet. The Continuous duration is a problem, as that pretty much gets around the “disadvantage†of alternate powers. Normally if you have a sustained alt power like Obscure and you switch to another alt slot, you have turned off your Obscure and it goes away. That is why you get alternate powers so cheap, you can only use one at a time (not counting dynamic arrays like yours, but that is still pretty cheap as well). Continuous is not the same, as that is on till you turn it off (or it is countered), and switching to another alt power would not turn it off. So you could use Obscure, then switch all your points to another alt (say Blast), but still have the Obscure in place. You only paid 2 pp for the alt slot, but you suffer none of the normal disadvantages associated with an alt slot. Also, I wanted to know what the subtle feats were for in Environmental Control and Obscure? Is this to make it hard for someone with the appropriate super sense (not sure what that might be) to determine it is you controlling the environment or creating the mist? Otherwise, both those powers have effects that I do not see how they could be subtle. An Obscuring Mist is by definition not subtle, but a heavy mist that blocks visual senses. On the Blast, I still feel that the 2 ranks of Improved Range and Progression (Range) are a bit extreme and should be dialed back a bit. Similarly, I also feel the Extended 3 on the Super Sense is still a bit too much as well. These could both be issues in getting approvals. There are a number of formatting issues, but I’ll try to tide all those up and leave the things above for you.

Thomas, based on your conversations with Gizmo (and to a lesser extent me) in chat last night, going with a custom Very Common descriptor of Water and Air for the Detect should be fine and help bring the cost for the sense down a bit. At this point, it would probably be a good idea to put together an updated draft of the character to post making the various edits that have been discussed so far, as well as hopefully flushing out the history/complications and other fluff. That should help get you closer to a character that is ready to be submitted for approval.

Okay, out of 6 thugs, only one makes his Reflex save to reduce the damage. But, none of them make the necessary Toughness saves, so, they are all out. Lol. Even shorter than I expected. Hehe, go ahead and post.

19 Solar Sentinel (1 HP, bruised) 15 Thug 3 13 Thug 6 12 Thug 2 11 Thug 4 3 Thug 5 2 Thug 1 Listed everyone, but only Solar and Thug 4 will act in the surprise round. Solar’s up!

The skylight easily exploded, sending bits of glass raining down into the garage area below to the startled yells from several men that were moving around the van. Dropping down into the room below and coming to a stop to hover, Solar Sentinel saw six men scatted about in the room around the van. A pair were at a card table that had been set up a short distance from the van around which some folding chairs sat. They appeared to be in the process of putting stacks of money back into some bags. Two pistols were located on the table near them. A third man, the only one who appeared less startled than the others in the room, was standing near the table, and his hand was going for a pistol inside his jacket. Two other men had been moving around the van, apparently gathering some things up they did not want to leave behind, as each had their arms filled with a number of miscellaneous objects. The last man in the room had just opened the door to the driver's seat of the van.

Okay, with Solar’s explosive arrival, almost all the guys in the room are suprised. Thug 4 is not, so initiative please for the surprise round. Thug 4 gets a 11.

Okay, while the angle is not good to see if there is anyone in the van down in the garage area, Solar can see movement around it (shadows and a few glimpses of a person moving quickly by).

The police cars below all came to a halt for the moment, waiting to see if the vehicle's stop was just temporary or whether it had reached its destination. There were calls over the radio as the dispatchers that had been monitoring the tracking device provided the address for where the van had stopped. Solar Sentinel had a rough idea where the address was, though he did not have a good angle at the moment to see the street it was on. It was about three blocks away from where he and police cars below were holding, down a side street from the one they were on, so there were buildings between them and the address. The hero also heard a number of calls about other units that were on their way towards the area. After a couple of tense minutes, it was generally decided that the van had reached its destination and that the units should start trying to set up a perimeter around the block while waiting for back up. The squad cars down below Solar Sentinel had just begun moving when he heard a message over the radio from one of the dispatchers that had been monitoring the van. "Damn, the tracker just went dead. They must have found it!"

Velocity regarded Smith for a moment (a very LONG moment to her) as he was entranced with the Stopwatch. She was rather apprehensive about allowing him to handle the Stopwatch, considering the trouble it had caused when it first appeared. It was believed that only Robert could activate the powers of the Stopwatch, but the fragments of the prototype certainly did not appear to have that limitation. Could Smith also possibly access the Stopwatch's powers? Of course, she believed that part of her problems in dealing with Robert when he possessed the Stopwatch was that she had been hesitant to hurt him. The same could not be said for John Smith. "Well, if by 'original,' you mean the finished product, then yes, this is the Stopwatch." She replied as she gently set it down on the coffee table in front of her. "Although, I suppose one could say that it exists so that it can be created." "While I am hesitant about allowing you to handle it, I understand that it is probably necessary to try to help us get to the null time." She added, as she slightly tensed for the possibility she might need to act.

Thomas: Look forward to seeing an updated/expanded history section. Given what you said regarding my question about the Immunity: Aging, that is probably something you should include in the history, even if it is something your character is not aware of! (And it can also be a good source of complications. Impliedspider’s recent character, Starchaser, has a somewhat similar background and might be a sheet you would want to take a look). The bathroom psychic is a character that has the ability to reach out with his powers (typically psychic powers, but not always) to attack opponents from great distances, thus he is never in any imminent danger from those opponents. While having a base range increment of almost half a mile is not quite the same thing, coupling that with extended senses reaching out close to two miles, and it is getting along those lines. Hiding yourself in some mist to attack opponents is one thing, but being a couple city blocks away up behind a building while raining lightening down on bad guys is much more along the lines of the bathroom psychic. So on the crunch issues: The main problem I see with having too many feats in some of the dynamic arrays is it is something of a bookkeeping nightmare to try to keep track of which ones you have active and which you don’t at any given time. If there are feats you REALLY need at some point, that is what power stunting an alt power with those feats is for. The Variable descriptor sounds fine, could just be a bit more clearly stated. Indirect: Hmm, not sure indirect is needed to do that. The Flight: Well, again my personal view is that this is sort of one of those situations of “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.†Besides, there are other possible uses for those points if you really MUST spend every single point in the array for each Alt slot. You could make the flight Continuous, so even if you are knocked out, you stay floating in the air. Or, you could get Usable By Others extra, where you used the wind currents to allow others to fly along with you as well. The Super Sense: Well, here is the thing, for the detects, you need to describe what type of sense it is, it could be sight, hearing, taste, or, as you seem to indicate, tactile. You could also have it a mental sense. The tactile Detect Water and Detect Air are fine. You need to purchase each separately, as they are each a different common descriptor, so each (per our house rules) costs 2 pp +1 pp to make them ranged. Weather is its own descriptor (and excludes lightning) so that would be another 2 pp for Detect Weather, +1 pp to make it ranged. (and while there certainly is cross-over with the water and air detects, neither of those allow you to sense variations in heat). So you need to decide how many detects you want to have here to determine the base cost. As you have defined these at tactile senses, you get Accurate, Acute and Radius for free, so do not have to pay for them. As for the other additions to the sense, I understand them, and (other than feeling Extended 3 might be a bit excessive), don’t have an issue with them. You just need to make sure you are paying the right cost (such as Analytic costing 2 pp for the entire sense type. And per Ultimate Power, Penetrates Concealment has a flat cost of 4 pp. So, you need to do some recalculating of the costs for everything in the supersenses as right now I have you at 22 pp (assuming you include a Detect Weather). Dropping a rank of Extended brings it down to 21, and if you drop Detect Weather, it would drop to 18 pp, but that is still more than the 15 pp you have listed.

Tsunami gets a 19 for initiative.