[WT] Powersuit Character (Did I do this right?)

[BronyPwny]

(Skip to the middle for the powers, and the end for the actual character, and questions that i'd like answering)

Alright, so in the campaign that I'm playing in, 9 months ago a change happened amongst 1/4 of the population of earth, changing them. 1/4th of these changed got power significant enough to be called "Supers" (the others just got some dud effect.) My current light bending character has been hospitalized after being nearly choked to death by a garrote, so he'll be out of the scene for a while (Not just due to garrote injuries, but also due to some rethinking of himself, practicing, and other BSery that will allow me to change his character up and make him more useful), because of this, I need a filler character, this one is a good friend of my light bending character (They've worked extensively together, partners in DJ-ing, he provided the lights, she provided the sound), but changed much differently then Lightshow. She, instead, gained a sudden burst of knowledge in the electrical field (circuitry and electrical currents, her main form of sound was a rather "electrical" sound), and athletic prowess, but only while rollerblading (which was her main form of transportation, living in the city and no drivers license limited her movement). So, let's see if I've done this right, this is broken down into parts, as my DM wants character built on a 75/25/50 point system (total points being 150, 75 to build a man, 25 to build sudden burst of power, 50 is what the character has done in the past 9 months to improve), The first bit isn't the hard part, I put 2 dice in all stats, kill one die in body to add a die in Charm, then add 3 dice to "Career: Master DJ" to cover the skills my character would have.

Current character looks like this (75/150 pts used)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bo: 1d     Mi: 2d
Co: 2d     Ch: 3d
Se: 2d     Cm: 2d

Skills: Career: Master DJ: 3d
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Then, suddenly the change happens, so now I have 25 points to spend on the sudden "Burst" of power (Hyper<Skill name> is hyper of that skill). As such, i put 2 Hard Dice into hyperKnowledge: (electrical engineering)(4pts), 2hd into hyperKnowledge: (Inventing with electrical components)(4pts), 1d in knowledge: (Electrical Engineering)(2pts), 1d into body(5pts), 1d into HyperCoordination (flaw: If/then: when moving)(3pts), and 3d1wd in HyperAthletics (flaw: If/then: When rollerblading) (Extra: Booster: Speed) (7pts) (caveat: the If/then on this could possibly be very limiting, and could possibly be a -2 flaw, instead of the normal -1. If this is the case, add the "Native Power" extra to this, making Rollerblading at high speeds as natural to this character as much as walking and talking, Which, since she's had so much time on blades, it feels just as natural to her as just plain walking) . This represents that, when the change happened, she was suddenly able to go 34 miles per hour while rollerblading (Dayum!), and while she was moving (even just pacing back and forth), she had better coordination on how her feet were moving, and the ability to dodge and weave while going at that speed a little better. She also gained a huge chunk of sudden knowledge in the electrical engineering field and an expertise in inventing when it came to inventing. She also gained a small bit of natural knowledge and became more lithe as a result.

Current character looks like: (100/150pts used)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bo: 2d       Mi: 2d
Co: 2d (3 if moving)     Ch: 3d
Se: 2d       Co: 2d

Skills: Career: (Master DJ) 3d, Knowledge (Electrical engineering) 2hd1d, Knowledge (Inventing with electricity) 2hd, Athletics: 3d1wd (when rollerblading)(booster:speed)

Nothing too super other then the amazing speed she can get while rollerblading.
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Now, since the change, she put her knowledge of inventing and electrical engineering to build and invent a suit that provided a decent amount of protection, on top of some added benefits. The suit power, itself, would look like this (now, this is where the "did I do this right" question starts to come into place)

--------
---Powersuit of electrical means (2/4/8)
D: Self: Permanent (+4), Always On (-1), Armored Defense (-2), Focus (it's a suit that can be removed if knocked unconscious) (-1), Durable (+1), Obvious (-1)

This suit provide protection from attacks, and emits an obvious, personal electrical field, which also makes the area around it smell of ozone, where it get's this electrical energy? Who knows!
--------

Built onto this suit is a pair of boots that, when turned on, allow the wearer to hover and move over any horizontal terrain with ease, the movement is acted as though rollerblading, and the movement can be in any horizontal direction (Forward, backward, strafing)

-------
---Hover blades (2/4/8)
U: Self: Permanent (+4), Attached (Powersuit) (-2 [since the powersuit is a power]), Self Only (-3), Automatic (0, since powersuit is a permanent effect)

These built in Hoverblades grant ease of movement over any terrain when wearing the accompanied powersuit, it also makes movement act as rollerblading
-------

Finally, she needed something to shoot, so she got to work on a couple of pistols that she had for self-defense in her apartment, modifying them to fire electricity instead of bullets, and doing some rather heavy modification on them, to where they only vaguely looked like the pistols they once were.

-------
---Electric Pistols (1/2/4)
A: Range: Focus (-1), Accessible (-1), Adaptation: pistol (-2), Durable (+1), Operational Skill: Weapon: Pistols (+0), electrocuting (+1), Penetration 3 (+3), Spray 1d (+1), Obvious (a loud, zappy noise whenever fired) (-1), Attached (Powersuit)(-2), Environment bound: requires the presence of open electricity (-1)

These pistols are a rapid-fire, electricity shooting, death dealing combo that can get through some of the toughest armors out there. Unfortunately, they draw their power from open electricity, which can be dangerous! Luckily, the suit that they're plugged into generates enough of this electricity to power them. (this is a large power, and is open to interpritation, honestly, I could kill the "Environment bound" And a point of penetration, as those were just after thoughts. On top of obvious and another point in penetration, as those were kind of added in as just flavor)
-------

So, with those powers set, I got to spending the last 50 points I had on finishing this character. In the 9 months after the change, she got a sudden urge to just invent, modify, and otherwise use her new-found knowledge to create things. She spent most of the money from her gigs on components, parts, and other odd things, and spent her spare time working and tinkering, until she felt like she had completed... Something... to be honest, she didn't quite know what, other then the fact that it was a suit, with weapons, and boots that, theoretically, allowed the wearer to hover. I put 2hd into the suit power (8pts), 2hd into the hover blades power (8pts), this allows me to activate both of them without any problems, and 1d3wd (13pts) into the electrical guns power. She worked on using her focus while moving to work on her guns, a LOT. She found it rather easy, actually, and found that she could beat ANY normal sharpshooter easily, as long as she was moving. Putting 4d and 1wd into Hyperweapon: Pistols (Flaw: if/then: When moving) (extra: spray 1d), and adding 1d to HyperCoordination (if/then: when moving) (3pts) And 1d to HyperAthletics (if/then: when rollerblading) (booster:speed). Finally it was time for her to go out and do good! With the suit, she had a costume to protect her identity, and with her newfound abilities, she was a NATURAL at taking out criminals... Almost too well. Accidents happen, and with an untested powersuit, untested weapons and the like, her first act of good ended with the "villain" dead... She was devastated! She almost couldn't believe what she had created, it never occurred to her that the suit would be so powerful, so easy to abuse, and so deadly. She stopped and spent a week to just recollect herself, she convinced herself to go at it again. Thus adding a point of Base Will (3pts), and in the last of the weeks, spent her time just learning how to deal with these mistakes and deal with the consequences, gaining 3d in the Stability skill (6pts). Though, she still feels the passion to create music and DJ for the various clubs around the city, her best friend was attacked and nearly killed by some thug with powers himself, and thus feels the need to avenge her friend, and protect him in any way possible, even if that means taking on the entire city.


So, final character looks like this (150/150 pts used)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bo: 2d       Mi: 2d
Co: 2d       Ch: 3d
Se: 2d       Cm: 2d

Skills: Career: Master DJ: 3d, Knowledge (Electrical Engineering) 1d, Stability: 3d

Base Will: 6 (3 in passion: DJing, 3 in loyalty: Protecting her friends)

Powers: Hyperstats: 2d coordination (When Moving)
-------------Hyperkills: 2hd Knowledge (electrical engineering), 2hd knowledge (inventing using electricity), 4d 1wd Athletics (when rollerblading), 4d 1wd Weapon: Pistols (When moving)(spray +1)
-------------Powers: 2hd Powersuit, 2hd Hoverblades, 1d 3wd Electric pistols
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


SO! Sorry for the HUGE wall of text, technical jargon, "rise of the hero" story, and wasting of peoples times, but I just wanted to see if the powers and final character make sense, and the powers work together like I think they do. Also, I'm VERY sorry for they grammar, the typing, and the scatteredness of the entirety of this, I'm kinda 2.5 hours past the time I should be asleep, so I'm super tired, and thus not thinking straight. Also, I know this is all up to my particular GM on if the powers do what they do, and if the character is overpowered, underpowered, or powered just enough, but this is more of a "rules check" for me then anything. The ability to know that I know what I'm doing is the biggest thing I want. I would ask specific rules questions, like how would using the electric pistol power while dashing through the enemies at top speed (a multiple action) work? Would I use the Electric pistol dice (the lower of the two die pools), add on the 1wd from my skill (since the power operates with the weapon skill, which is also higher then the E.Pistols), then add the spray dice and roll that to see what happens? Orrr... yea, I'll be asking those questions after I confirm that I did make a low-powered powersuit character right.

Hopefully I'll be able to help others out, and add insightful discussion to some other posts, once I get my initial questions out of the way, and learn more about this game :P.

[Matt]

Ok, I'd like to offer as much help as I can. what better way to improve my own system mastery? But we should use bullet points for specific questions. 

From the looks of it you're aiming for a lightly armored speed skating pistoleer. 

Ok, First-

Powers with the operational skill flaw should not be bought with hard or wiggle dice- the dice rating in these powers caps the pool but is never rolled, instead your roll the skill. I only mention it because one of your pistol builds had the flaw and later I saw 3wd+1d for them. Those points are better spent on Hyperskill firearms. 

 as for multiple actions:

The number of dice in the pool = smaller of two pools -1d/action + any bonuses. In the event you have a Spray extra you do not subtract dice for multiple uses of THAT ability: Example- Driving While shooting an UZI. Driving isn't easier while you spray bullets but hitting something is easier when you fire 1000 rounds at it, driving or not. (tacking spray and No physics extras onto hyperskills is a good way to make a speedster too).

Once you've determined the size of the pool you decide which dice from each pool you're going to use, the only real limits are:

1) special dice (hard and wiggle) can only contribute to sets for the action type they came from

2) if you use any hard dice from a power you have to use them all. 

These two limits intersect harshly at times. As an extreme example:

Moltar has a 5hd engulfing lava blast and a 6wd tunneling power. He wants to take two actions to tunnel under a foe and blast him from below. 

Smallest pool is Lava Blast at 5, -1 for multiple actions, Hard dice are lost first leaving him with a 4d pool. He has to decide which dice come from where but here's the problem, his wiggle dice from Tunneling can't be used to make a set for the Blast, and if he uses even one Blast hard die he has to use them all which leaves no room in his pool to even use dice for Tunneling. This is why a mixture of normal and special dice is a better deal and allows for more diversity in actions.

More as I think of it. 

-Matt Conlon

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[Matthew Bielinski]

Looks like a fun character to play! I like the back-story and the way your GM has you break up the points into phases of the characters history.

 

I would definitely get rid of the Environment Bound flaw on the pistols; they’re already attached to the powersuit and as you say it provides an open presence of electricity.

 

Also, not having my book with me, how exactly does Operational skill work? Do you simply roll your own dice pool for the skill up to a maximum of what the weapon provides (as I seem to remember) or is it more complicated than that?

 

Den of Earth

[Daniel Kane]

You have to use the smallest pool, you can't mix-and-match dice from both pools.

For example, if you're performing a multiple action with 2d + 5hd and 4d + wd, you'll roll 3d + wd *and* have to use the wd for the action with the smaller pool.  You don't get to use any hard dice in that case.

~Daniel

[Daniel Kane]

No, that's right -- it sets a mundane skill to roll instead of the power's pool, capped at the dice in the miracle.

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[Matt]

Wow, really? That's harsher than I thought. I'll stick with the way I've been doing it. 

Reasoning: If I have a character with 2 miracles, say leap and blast, rated at 10wd then the idea is that he has unquestionable, effortless precision and power with both. But under that restriction he can't do both in a round because you can't mix special dice. Certainly a fringe case but the system breaks down long before 10wd in 2 powers. If I want to use my 6wd optic blast while I run the danger room obstacle course I can't without relying on a random set from my 6d dodge pool. Or if I have a 10d dodge a d the same 6wd attack I can't dodge and attack because I use the wd pool (smaller) but they can't be used to dodge (special dice can benefit other actions). 

Way too harsh for this GM. 

-Matt Conlon

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[Daniel Kane]

The more I think about it, the more trivially abusable that is, though.  It means a character with 5+ dice in any power, two or more of them wd, can succeed at *ANY ACTION* they have 5+ dice in normally by performing a multiple action with that power.

10wd in Hyperdodge.  Need to shoot someone in the face with a 6d shooting pool?  2x10 dodge, 3x10 shoot, problem solved.  It effectively gives you wiggle dice in everything.  This is madness!

~Daniel

[Matt]

I think you've missed a critical point. I maintain that special dice (hard, wiggle etc) can only benefit their source action. Using your example you could take three of your wiggle dice from hyper dodge for a 3x10 and roll the remaining 2 dice from your regular Shooting dice pool. However, let's say you have a 10wd hyper dodge and 3hd+3d Shoot Guns pool. 

You have 5 dice after the multi action, you have the choice of 3wd+2d, 3wd+2hd, 2wd+2hd+1d. You can never get the 3hd because the penalty eats one first but, However you split them the Wiggles will aways be dodge and the Hards will always be Shoot. 

Normal dice, while unreliable maintain versatility, you can ascribe them to either pool as desired, just as if you had a 10d pool of dodge and 6d shoot, you'd roll 5d and look for two sets, but if you rolled 5x10 you could decide that the set was a better deal as an awesome attack and go with no set for dodge. You made the effort by penalizing the pool and using the smaller of the 2, you shouldn't also Have to make a dodge set or further penalize your attack. 

Going back up to the earlier mixed pool, you could further complicate it by saying since there were no normal dice in the HyperDodge the normal die can't be part of the Dodge set but in that instance you're probably rolling for 10 anyway so I'm content to let them put it where they want. 

-Matt Conlon

[Daniel Kane]

I haven't actually had this come up in play — my players are stingy with their wiggle dice — but my preferred solution is that wd can be downgraded to normal dice before the roll if so desired.  Hard dice I'm happy to keep painfully restricted, since most of the time they're *so good* for their cost.

~Daniel

[Matt]

I respect your decision as a GM, but please give this consideration:

The multiple action rules already penalize the character by forcing the use of the smaller pool and penalizing it by #actions-1 (assuming you don't use the alternate high powered rules where any set is an action without prior declaration or using the larger pool). 

Now take into account that in a case like this your players paid for Wiggle dice in both abilities, by making them downgrade wd to d you are adding a penalty to multiple actions by making each wd 1/4 as efficient points wise and 1/10th as effective as it should be (since the odds of it rolling any given number you might normally set it to is 1 in 10).

In a combat situation the Brawl/Block master with 10wd in each degrades in effectiveness to an inability to do both simultaneously or the same level as a guy with 8wd+2d or 5+5 or 3+7. He's invested more points to represent a superior mastery of hand to hand combat (without resorting to Contingent/Reflexive defenses or giant armor) and is now penalized for it. 

That's my thinking anyway, but if yours isn't broke, don't fix it. 

-Matt Conlon

[BronyPwny]

Huh... So I'm wrong in thinking that if, say, you're jump n' shoot man, and you're trying to jump and shoot, and you're jump ability is 2d 3w, and your shoot ability is 2d 4w, that you don't just use the 1d3w die pool and try to get 2 sets with that? But, instead, you take that die pool, and mix and match the dice you have in both your abilities? Because that seems to be what it said in the book... (Goes to read book), OOooooh, Okay then, it never became a problem for me as I've never done anything past trying to do the same action multiple times, so I missed that particular piece of ruling.

So... Can I just say this? I'm going to just say this.. HOLY CRAP is spray a cheap extra! Especially for everything that it does! for 1 point I add 1d, plus I take no multiple action penalty. Meaning if I try to jump and shoot, instead of rolling 1d3w, and only being able to assign the wd to jumping, I roll 3d3w and assign the wd to jumping. That can get extremely dirty if abused... (Luckily I hate abusing things, and my GM already knows that it's a super cheap extra for what it does, so it's not going to happen)

Anyway, with that out of the way, I understand what Daniel was saying when he said "operational skill:" sets the cap on the skill used. Basically, if the skill goes above the power, then you use the powers dice. The one thing that made me think I could do things this way was 1: glossing over the "Hard and wiggle dice can only be used for the skill, and 2: it says, under operational skill, that you can use your skills wiggle dice for the power... But looking over that now, I understand what they mean.

Cool, so... Other then that,

• I DID make the powersuit and allocated the points to it correctly, yea? The character itself is flawed in being made, but the powers are right (Including the Hyperstats and skills)?
• If I have spray on my E.Pistols (since they don't have any real ammo to worry about, and fire as fast as you can pull the trigger, spray seemed reasonable here), and use the pistol skill (because of the lower die pool), which also has the spray attached to it (being able to pull the trigger faster then normal), does that mean i get both instances of spray, or just one? What if I'm also rollerblading fast, and my athletics die pool is lower then my guns die pool? Would I still get the spray dice? Or do I just get to ignore the Multi-action penalty?
  
• Also, for you GM's out there, how would you rate the flaw "If/Then: When rollerblading" on the athletics hyperskill? -1 or -2? It seems like a very narrow flaw (in that, if I'm not rollerblading, I can't run to save my life), so I feel like it COULD be a -2, but that, technically, isn't my call.
  

Reassigning the points are easy, heck, it saves me at LEAST 3 points by not putting WD in my electric guns power (points probably spent going into athletics or pistols hyper skills). This character is all about hit-and-run tactics, move through the group of enemies while firing at them, and then getting out of there faster then they can chase her. Things I could do or change is make her a dodgy character, making the suit a cheap utility that provides power to her other powers, and nothing else, and put hyperskills into dodge while moving. And adding some sense while moving, (yea she's sure-footed, but she can't weave through things going faster then she can see and process). Basically, this character gets shut down if bound. It's why I'm debating linking the gun skill to the suit, and not moving, as a simple bind power will shut everything of her's down.

Anyway, thanks again for your patience and answers, I'm loving how helpful they are, and how much they're helping me learn the system. Things in the book that were confusing me because of hey they were worded are starting to make sense, and it's making the entire experience that much more enjoyable!

[Matt]

If/Then when rollerblading is a 1 pt flaw. Rollerblades are portable, if they're custom fit they probably don't take more than a few seconds to put on and if they're your primary mode of transportation you're probably going to have them on when you show up and when you leave a place which accounts for a lot of time. It's basically social taboo to wear them in a house or store and most commercial offices probably won't look twice at them because of courier service personnel. 

Spray is cheap, but keep in mind it's only relevant for the actions it's added to, so spraying a gun at one target while running a complex obstacle course is 1 attack and 3 athletics actions, the Spray on the gun doesn't eliminate the penalties for all those athletics (but adding extras to hyperbody/hyper coordination/hyper athletics would). 

I think my interpretation of mixed dice pools with varying amounts of special dice is the most fair to the player, but it also seems to be the one most people are having a hard time understanding. 

When you're figuring out the smaller pool ignore the types of dice in them, just count the type of dice. How many are there? Choose the smaller pool. Now Look for an order of operations/protocol to figure out what kinds of dice you'll use:

-Are there enough dice to make as many sets as you've declared actions? If no you can't succeed, if yes read on

-What kinds of dice are in the pools and how many of each kind can you afford to use?

--If using only normal dice roll and look for sets

--If using any hard dice you have to use them all, if using them all means there's no room left in the pool for any other kind you can't successfully perform a multiple action with them. 

--if you have wiggle dice in either pool how many are you using? they can only be used for a set from the pool they came from.

Example: I have Harm 5wd and Uberdodge 6d+2hd. Using both in one round means 2 actions. -1 to the pool. HD lost first so I have a 4d pool 

(5 for the smaller pool -1 for the extra action)

which can be formed by drawing from 5wd that can only make sets for Harm OR a 6d+1hd pool (1hd because HD are lost first from penalties). my best bet here is to take 2wd from Harm and make my attack set, take the remaining1hd from Uberdodge and roll one die from Uberdodge praying for a 10.

Alternatively I could decide I was a dumbass during declaration phase or having seen no one was attacking me later in declarations and opt to use 4wd only, automatically failing to dodge (no big deal since no one was attacking me) and score a 4xn set on my attack.

Now let's add spray to the Harm power

Using the same example you have 2 more dice to roll.

Add Spray to Uberdodge, you have 2 more dice to roll.

-Matt Conlon

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[Daniel Kane]

"Huh... So I'm wrong in thinking that if, say, you're jump n' shoot man, and you're trying to jump and shoot, and you're jump ability is 2d 3w, and your shoot ability is 2d 4w, that you don't just use the 1d3w die pool and try to get 2 sets with that?"  (I fail at email quoting)

That is exactly how it works by the book.  Take the smallest pool by number, roll it, and only apply its special dice to the miracle/skill to which those dice belong.

Also, Spray is pretty awesome.  The big catch is that for best effect you need to have Spray on all your important stuff.  You can also use it to add hard or wiggle dice!  By my interpretation, Spray dice are added *before* determining what the smallest pool is, btw.  I don't think the book takes a solid stance on that.

I agree that (Only on Rollerblades) is a -1 If/Then -- if the player's power only applies when rollerblading, it's fair to assume that character will put on his rollerblades any time he plans on using them.

I think the most non-cheesy multiple action special die rule would be to include any special dice in the smaller pool and, if any of those special dice are shared with another action, they can be used for either.

For example: 4d+2wd Dodge, 6d+wd Shootin' Stuff.  Jump + shoot stuff pool = 3d+2wd, one wd can be used only for Dodge, one can be used for Dodge or Shootin' Stuff.

That makes multiple actions much more complicated, however, and with *my* players (including an "I DON'T MATH" person) the action declaration will grind to a halt as they figure out what their actual dice are.

Not that you're "doing it wrong" if you resolve it differently, e.g. Matt's method!  It just helps to be cognizant of the pros and cons, and two people may disagree on how much verisimilitude matters... or even whether a rules change increases it.

[matt]

Asking about another Multiple action variation... using one power instead of two.
What about having Telekensis 8d+2wd (A,D,U)
If I want to fly and blast a bad guy I would roll 7d and apply 1wd to each action (flying and blasting). Thus making both action succeed.

This is how I am reading it.

And why not just buy the Extra Action power for 1d and then using the two powers without losing any dice.

[Daniel Kane]

Sure, although with that many dice you may well get a 3x set for one of your actions, and can use both your wd to make a 3x or 4x set for the other.

Don't have the book in arm's reach and on my way out, so I'll leave the Extra Action question for someone else.

~Daniel

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[BronyPwny]

Sooo... Did I make the character right otherwise? I mean, other then putting the Wiggle Dice in the electric guns... All the hyperskills and hyperstats are right?