Toptomcat

I read "attacking her without endangering any bystanders would be very tricky" as Grab having cover from the bystanders, and attempted this strike-from-above stunt as an attempt to bypass it. Should you decide that the cover bonus remains, wholly or partially, I'll make my attack an Accurate Attack for two, making the attack a 25 rather than a 23 and letting the damage be +8 rather than +10. Also note that any knockback will be applied downwards to avoid endangering pedestrians.

Shinken explodes off of his feet, dashing after Grab's rubbery form. As he enters the alleyway, he turns the momentum of his sprint into a series of quick leaps off of the opposing walls, carrying himself higher and higher until he reaches the end of the alley- in a perfect position to strike from above. Pushing off of the wall in a final jump, he whirls in midair to avoid a pedestrian's umbrella and strikes at Grab with a rolling slash accompanied with a piercing kiai.

Keep in mind that despite being the most successful person in the room, and despite being quite a smart cookie, Benjiro is also the dumbest one here, both by raw Intelligence modifier and Knowledge: Technology bonus. Also: is Dart, Inc. publicly traded? And, if so, is Eric Micheals a majority or merely a plurality shareholder?

"Please- if he's busy, I can..." Benjiro trails off as his protest comes too late: when the secretary comments on her boss' dislike of being bothered in the lab, he nods with an apologetic smile. "Well, then. How do I get to Conference Room A?" The pale man's bodyguard doesn't need to be told to take his time getting to the conference room so as not to appear to have been kept waiting. Benjiro arrives at the door just as Mr. Michaels and Dr. Archeville do so, and he rises out of his wheelchair delightedly if a trifle unsteadily to greet them. The sight of such a young and bright-eyed man having difficulty rising to his feet causes a moment of queasy awkwardness, but one that is quickly banished by his amicable manner and surprisingly strong handshake. "Hello, Mr. Michaels! I'd hoped that I wouldn't be pulling you out of anything too important-" A glance at Dr. Archeville, a flash of recognition- "-but it looks as if my hopes are going to be disappointed on that front. The famous Dr. Archeville! I must confess, I have not read as much of your work as I would have liked, but I was fascinated by your series of papers on the applications of electromagnetic metamaterials with negative refractive indices. It's wonderful to meet you here." The solid man behind Benjiro pushes the wheelchair aside, opens the door to Conference Room A, and ushers everyone inside.

And making the Drain an aura may possibly make the character survivable despite the lack of anything traditionally recognized as a defense. I'm pretty sure that's more by accident than by design, though.

I'm not sure about that. It sounds like what is desired isn't an automatic dual effect like Linked is designed for, but an if-then sort of situation: if the first attack hits, make an attack roll for the second. If that hits, make a roll for the third...and so on.

Like many things, this combination is technically rules-legal, but has about the same chance of getting past the Refs as a snowball does in Hell, unless it's got some kind of *serious* balancing factor.

Is Conference Room A where the two of you are already, or is it an empty room where Benji is being asked to wait as you two come to him?

A car pulls up outside of the Dart, Inc. building- a sleek black limousine with oddly thick windows that rides low on its stiff suspension. A solid-looking man steps out of the driver's seat, then goes to the back, where he rolls out an elegant mahogany wheelchair. He then opens the passenger's side door and helps a frail-looking but extremely well-dressed young Japanese man out of his seat and into the chair. The big man takes a long look around, nods as if satisfied, and wheels the chair up a long ramp next to the stairs and through the main entrance. The chair's occupant glances at the magazines in the waiting room and flushes to see his own face on the cover of the top of the stack. Being a public figure is still new enough to him that he's still shaking his head in wonder as he's wheeled to the receptionist's desk. The young man gives her a glowing smile, voice and manner all politeness. "Hello. My name is Benjiro Fujisama. I wonder if I could have a moment of Mr. Micheals' time?"

You told me yourself that Geez3r would be away for a few days, I think...

That is, indeed, the net modifier. Damage is +12, Defense is +8. The strike is from the bokken, hence 'blunt sword'. I'll include these things in the notes for my Invisible Castle rolls from now on, I suppose: easier to keep track of.

Attack is a Power Attack and All-Out Attack for two. It's pretty low, but presumably catches Grab off-guard, and so I won't give up hope on it. Additionally, the Gather Information for Well-Informed on Grab is 18, and on Red Star is 15: note that the descriptors for this involve Shinken's suit querying a database of notable personages in Freedom City and automatically providing him with dossiers in a heads-up display whenever he encounters them.

With shocking suddenness, a red-and-gold blur whirls from the top of an office building, streaking past the fast-moving Grab and landing with an impact that cracks the asphalt. A masked figure clad in gleaming red-and-gold armor, holding a blunted sword of dull grey metal, becomes suddenly visible in the shallow crater. Damn, still not used to the leg servos letting me jump like that! Did I get her...? As he sees Red Star following in hot pursuit, his request is simple. "I'm with you. Fill me in!"

Simply patrolling works, I think.

Well, that's why I thought of helping with Grab. She's bouncing off of cars, buildings, sidewalks and streets at 200 mph- obvious and loud. All it takes is a pair of eyes and ears.

Hey, all. I've been starving for a thread or two to get in on, and Shadowboxer informs me that this superhuman throwdown is the embryonic stages of a team he's forming. Got room for one more? I could give Red Star a help with Grab.

I've noticed the same thing, and just want to let you know that I'd be eager to get in on whatever you start if you don't find anything.

Shinken is Japanese, but, being in the arms-dealing business, spends most of his time over in the States, where the military is big and the budgets are bigger.

This is my hero Shinken's headquarters. Villians wishing to attack it, as Shinken's headquarters, will need to do some legwork first: it's fairly well-hidden, with most coming and going occurring underground and by a very stealthy airplane. Probably the best way to figure it out would be digging around in Ares Macrotechnology's books. [if they just happen to start rampaging in the general area and attack it indiscriminately, that might happen too.] Heroes, on the other hand, don't neccesarily need to have so specific a reason to investigate this somewhat inherantly suspicious place. Misunderstandings welcome. :D

Can this thread still be used for its original purpose? It seems mainly to be used for announcing updates to the list, now...

Making the headquarters Large should be enough to address both concerns, adding enough grounds to establish a kill zone for the autocannons and sufficient space for outbuildings to house the personnel. As for the city limits, a call to a senator or two should ensure that if it wasn't technically outside of city limits before, it damn well is now. Fair enough.

That would seem redundant with the extant Communications power. I lowered the ranks on the Datalink and Enhanced Fortitude Save slightly, instead. Add four ranks in Notice and Stealth, as well as Improved Initiative and Improved Aim, to the Soldier archetype, as well as your revised battlesuit, and that will work fine by me. That's what Contacts are for. Weapons laws can be bent, especially for facilities owned by private military companies that can reasonably expect to come under supervillian attack. If you like, a feature can be included that causes the cannon rounds to harmlessly self-destruct before passing the property line. Making everything that happens effectively 'in Vegas', as it were. Note that this isn't a residential neighborhood- it's a converted auto factory in a bloc of abandoned auto factories. Most heroes don't have the vast majority of their Toughness coming from a suit of armor, such that any significant injury to the man inside would require a major breach of integrity. However, I didn't actually mean Disabled: that was a misreading of the tables. I meant Stunned from a lethal attack. Additionally conceding the point about biokinetics, I will add a point to the Drawback. Absolutely.

Nearly any combat feat or physical skill. Most non-magical Sensory effects. Most Movement effects not including dimensional travel or teleportation- including Flight if truly necessary, at rank 3ish, but mostly acrobatic/super-ninja effects like Leaping, Speed, Slow Fall, and the like. No Mental effects with the possible exception of Confuse drugs and a significantly flawed Mind Shield. Typical patrol configuration: Speed 3 Leaping 3 Super-Strength 2 Datalink 8 (Flaw: Headquarters computer only) Enhanced Fortitude Save 3 Bollocks. Mutants and Masterminds is as flexible as you want to make it. Edited to a more technically legal structure. Very well. I will temporarily drop the transport jet, later paying for it with standard Equipment: for the security force's vehicles, reduce the discretionary point allotment for one out of every five of the guards from five to four, paying for the vehicles out of their pocket. An acceptable kludge, so long as you feel okay about a Benefit feat that allows the Personnel to assist in the event of alien invasions, mass supervillian attacks, and similar catastrophic, world-ending emergencies. The suit is airtight by any sensible definition, but no seal is truly, totally impermeable, and even the smallest quantity of poison will put a serious strain on Benjiro's system. As for expanding the weakness, it would be fine by me- but any blood or contact toxin getting through the armor to actually physically touch Benjiro would have to be delivered by a lethal attack inflicting at least a Disabled status, and ingested toxins would be non-heroing territory, which would make the drawback debatably point-worthy and more Complication territory. And yes, the exotic saves are a known weakness. Yes, Uncommon frequency. An EMP that relied on brute force, such as one from a villain with electricity powers, would probably not qualify: a pulse specifically designed to slag equipment, pulsed, and modulated to bypass simple protections, like one from an evil inventor's gadget, would.

Updated version up. This makes the modular systems something that requires hours of work in a dedicated workshop to reconfigure, uses the points saved on them to increase the ability score increases the suit grants, uses the Strength increase that brought to split the swords into two devices, increases the differentiation between the different modes of attack the swords offer, pays two points for Attack Specialization (sword), adds Knowledge (technology) to actually get some use out of that Inventor feat, and spends all available Power Points. Submitted for your approval.

Not quite so. If facing a mixed group of mooks, some of which are robots and thus immune to nonlethal damage, and some of which are not, it could complicate a sequence of Takedown Attacks. However, I agree. This does not limit me appreciably. That is why- look closely- the two abilities are functionally the same in utility and cost, regardless of how many 'drawbacks' they have semantically, with no actual point savings or extra power gained from the nonexistent drawback. As for the Variable Descriptor power feat- good idea. That will be in the revision.