Heridfel

The henchmen don't seem to like that word (accurate as it may be), or being threatened by a real life fern spider woman. It doesn't take much insight for White Knight to tell that they aren't too happy, and that there are a lot more of them than her. "Keep your girlfriend in line," White Knight says. "If she keeps it up, I don't care how much help she gave us earlier. How much time would it take to lower those dampeners?" He looks jumpy just staying in one place, now that the possibility of a swift teleportation outside of the facility is out of the question.

Here's the roll to initiate the grapple check (26), and the opposed grapple check (22). If the demon beats that grapple check, I'll spend the hero point to reroll, giving me a minimum of 31 (11+20), which probably beats anything the demon can roll. It's a DC 27 Toughness save after that. I'm hoping to stun it so that I have a free round to do my power stunt: Dimensional Movement (Attack); Destination: The Terminus. Oh yeah.

Gravitic energy pulses around Heavy as he looks at the demon pinned to the ground. As frightening as the demon is trying to be, there's only so much you can do when you're stuck to the ground. Heavy doesn't underestimate him, though. That sort of an attack would have crushed a normal person (and probably some superheroes) into a pulp. That the demon still has strength and energy enough to curse him means that he'll have to try another tactic. The demon's flickering gives him that new idea. Maybe it isn't supposed to be here. Gravity can bend space; might it also be able to bend it enough to send it to another dimension? He's never done this before, and only vaguely has a sense of how it'd work. All he knows is that he'll have to give up pinning it in order to try; there's no way he can split his concentration like that. Before he attempts it, then, he grabs a hold of the demon as it lays on the ground, seeking to pummel it into submission. "I may be damned, but not by you!" he shouts.

It appears there's been a typo in Icarus's sheet, then. I see the same thing that you do - the Defense should be 10 with the numbers in Combat and Feats. My goal is to reduce the number of ranks in Dodge Focus, and I'll keep going on that. Defense is currently 14 before Dodge Focus and 20 after. The maximum it can be at is 19, based on tradeoffs. Reduce Dodge Focus by 2, and spend 2 power points to increase Defense by 2. This makes Defense 16 before Dodge Focus and 20 after. Then reduce Dodge Focus by 2 more, increasing Defense by 1. This makes Defense 17 before Dodge Focus and 19 after. It also means that his flat-footed defense is now 14 (and I don't feel like a bum for having such a high rank of Dodge Focus). Next month, I can do something more interesting, like skills and Charisma!

Hub's Boost is pretty good. The thing for me is, it's as good as it's going to get. I intend to increase my non-power stuff from here out, with possible minor additions as powers, but not making things higher rank. I might also try Ritualist at some point, to be the mystical yin to Nightrival's physical yang. Together, we're nearly as awesome as Master Lee.

I'll also keep Icarus' purchases for this month relatively simple. I'd like to spend 2 pp to reduce his Dodge Focus by 2 and increase his Defense by 2. That leaves me with Defense +9 (+3 flat-footed) and Dodge Focus 4.

Changes for Hub: Instead of two of the three ranks of Defensive Roll, I'd like to change it to 1 rank of Equipment (Uniform: Protection 3, Subtle; Commlink: Dr. Atom), and Quick Change. These changes would go into effect after the current thread I started where I didn't have Quick Change. The uniform was obtained from the Atom Family, which is why it has the commlink to Dr. Atom built in. I'd then increase my Will save by 2 and my Reflex save by 1 with the three pp that I earned for this month.

The only power which specifically notes that you can't use lower ranks of the power on their own without an AP is Insubstantial. You're always able to use a lower rank of a power otherwise, unless you have the Full Power drawback (which wouldn't be a drawback on Comprehend anyway).

Hub didn't even notice that Red Star got bruised. He'd need to be stunned to show that he needs healing, since he isn't currently using his Chi sight to determine who is injured.

"I can't believe I took that long to remember," Hub says to himself as he recognizes the two villains. He glances down at his costume. It looks like he could have remained in street clothes for all he's doing, but there are definitely more metahumans here than anyone could have reasonably expected. That noted, he'll go with the indirect route of helping them. The clerk being entangled by Grab suddenly finds himself feeling much stronger and capable of breaking free. At the same time, he'll reach down and start pulling on his pants again. "They never covered this in Superhero 101," he thinks to himself ruefully.

Let us think about this one for a bit. The main difference between the D&D feat and the potential M&M feat is the investment cost. You only get a limited number of feats in D&D, so choosing Insightful Reflexes means you're giving up other things which might help you more (e.g., a wizard that takes that feat could be taking Spell Focus, making their spells more likely to take effect). In M&M, it's a single power point for a pretty large benefit. We have approved a similar feat (Speed of Thought), which substitutes Int for Dex in determining Initiative, so like I said, we'll discuss this one as well.

I got called in to do extra work this weekend, so I may not be posting to the IC threads tonight, tomorrow, or Sunday. I'll do what I can to keep up on things.

Are you asking for 3 ranks of Perform: Stringed Instruments, or 3 pp worth of it? I am not granting 12 ranks of a skill in a single month. There should be some level of progression as Lullaby grows in her musical abilities.

Updated. With a +20 bonus to Acrobatics, you can "take 1" to succeed on the Acrobatics roll to stand up as a free action. In light of that, do you want to re-spend the power point that is currently spent on Instant Up?

Updated.

Based on the characters on the site, I wouldn't call the psychic descriptor a common one, and I don't think it's likely to show up every other adventure. If you increase the severity to moderate, I could see the frequency being worth the extra pp. I also looked more closely at the wealth drawback. We only have a complete lack of wealth worth 1 pp as a drawback, and that's living on the streets. It seems like Yukio has a bit more money than that, and that's a complication. The Character Creation rules have the general information on how Wealth works on the site.

Alice looks a little apprehensive at sharing her number in front of the criminal, but she realizes that he could look her up in the phone book as easily as the Emissary could. "It's 555-152-8242. Thank you again," she says before walking away from the pair toward the far side of the park. A minute later, the policewoman arrives behind the somewhat frenetic Velocity. She looks over to the Emissary, clearly seeing who the perpetrator was. "I'm going to need a statement from you, along with the basis for the detainment," she says to the metallic superhero.

Welcome to the site, Josh. There are a couple of places where the numbers don't add up. 56 ranks of skills is 14 pp, not 13, and I count 89 pp of powers total. Also, while it's not a problem, I will note that Tarantula is a little further below her PL-based caps in attack/save DC and defense/Toughness than other PL 10 characters. When reshuffling the two points that you're over, you may wish to increase them, or you may choose to save that for your power points earned during play.

A Battle in the Sky Kevin's first chance at super-heroism showed the downside of being unable to fly. While the Emissary fought a villain claiming to be related to a demon up in the sky, Kevin mostly contented himself with making sure that the civilians in the area were uninjured, and that everyone remained clear of the destruction. Even though he knew that he could heal minor injuries, he wasn't so sure of being able to heal larger ones... and he was always conscious of the fact that he knew he couldn't heal himself. Even if he felt a little helpless on the ground, he knew that bravery wasn't tied to powers. He might be unable to fly, but when he helped a man out of a burning building, he knew that he could work to be a hero.

"Pay attention, Mr. Jones." The voice comes from just behind him, and Sean involuntarily jumps in his seat. Maybe he's not completely over the neurosis that led him to stay in his armor for well over a decade. He certainly feels more nervous than when behind a half-inch of magically tempered metal. He looks back guiltily at the teacher and then over to his neighbor to see what they're working on. It looks like a grid of some sort. The teacher sighs, then reaches down to his keyboard and hits a couple of buttons. Microsoft Excel starts itself up. "If I didn't know he didn't know..." she mutters to herself. Sean can overhear her and scowls. What's he going to need this for? E-mail, using Google - that's all he really needs. He stays with the class for now, though. If he were to cause a scene leaving, then people will remember him. Being remembered is fine when you're in a disguise, but not so great when you're just being yourself.

You have your first approval.

The Mastery of Chi After he first healed someone, Kevin figured that he had to be a mutant. There weren't too many other possibilities. The Malones could trace their roots back for hundreds of years all the way to the Emerald Isle, so he couldn't be an alien, and he wasn't hit by any strange radiation, exotic chemicals, or mysterious energies. He was wrong then, and he probably would have remained wrong had he not found a scrap of paper at his feet with Master Lee's address on it. What he had thought was a mutant power was actually an instinctive manipulation of chi, a force contained within all living things. In some senses, chi is life, energy flowing and changing. There are two ways that it can be mastered - internally and externally. So far, Kevin's mastery of chi has been an external mastery. He has only exhibited one power that affects himself - the ability to perceive chi and how it is flowing. He has found several ways to affect others, from aligning their chi (temporarily granting them heightened human abilities, or improving superhuman abilities) to draining their chi, slowing them to the point of unconsciousness. Unusually, he has an easier time aiding others than injuring them. While he can heal lethal injuries without a touch, he still has to touch someone in order to drain their chi.

I haven't, but I trust that he'll be back soon. He's been here for a while and has had some gaps, but has come back after them.

Tonight's episode shows that they just have too many threads going on here. I could frankly do without seeing Maya ever again, but they teased us with Mohinder, and Matt Parkman's spirit journey, and Nathan's ... man, nothing really happened with him. That was the Nikki/new girl storyline (and how can Micah sense his mother, anyway?) But Ma Petrelli, wow. She makes up for nearly everything else. I still can't figure out why she [WE NEED REAL SPOILER TEXT].

Football and Kevin Kevin Malone was once an ordinary young man, skilled at football, but vastly overshadowed by his father's own football prowess. Jake Malone raised his son to be a football star, but Kevin avoided the limelight and took on the position of center: key to every offensive play, but easily overlooked unless he made a mistake. If Kevin were being honest with himself, there was more than one reason that he didn't seek to follow in his father's footsteps. Sure, he was a wingman more than a playboy, mostly content to help others before he helped himself, but it also meant that he didn't have to compete with his father's legacy. He wouldn't be throwing fewer touchdown passes, or sneaking for fewer yards. He could be his own man as long as he shoved himself to the side.