M&M 3rd ed. Equipment via powers and multiple quirks

[CelticREI]

As the title hints at, this is two things;

Enhanced Trait and Variable do not allow ye to buy Equipment (A hero who can summon up weapons like the old Weapon Summoning power from 2e might decide they just have Enhanced Trait: Equipment 2 or Variable 1 (Limited to Equipment) instead of building all the powers as a Variable or as a bunch of Damage effects). I understand why it's not there as ye can't buy Equipment via the Advantages Tab either, ye just buy stuff in the Equipment Tab and it purchases the correct amount of Equipment Advantage that ye need. It would be helpful if it was selectable via other means however.

Is there a way to make the Quirk flat act like the Limited flaw in that it stays on the list so ye may put multiple's on a single power? I know that ye can raise it via that arrow to its right but the character cap in that text box is killer (and I know ye can use Notes, it doesn't look quite as elegant that way). The Feature flat could use that love as well ^_^

 

[Duggan]

Offhand, if you override the Limited Flaw in the editor and change its Uniqueness to No, it will work.

Huh... that's funny. Apparently 3E lets you reduce your points below 0 and it affects your total points spent.

 

[Shadowchaser]

I don't have any trouble adding multiple Feature effects to a single character.

Quirk, on the other hand, could probably stand to be made not unique as a standard.

(edit) Ah! I see you meant the extra, not the effect. My mistake. Yes, we should be allowed to have multiples of both these.

 

[CelticREI]

Offhand, if you override the Limited Flaw in the editor and change its Uniqueness to No, it will work.

Huh... that's funny. Apparently 3E lets you reduce your points below 0 and it affects your total points spent.

What are ye suppose to do with that .user file? I haven't messed around 'under the hood' of HeroLab

 

[Duggan]

Drop it in c:\HeroLab\Data\Mutants3. I think it will just work by doing that.

 

[Deadmannumberone]

And to answer your other question, you want Create, not Variable. You/your GM will still have to add remove gear from the character as appropriate.

 

[Duggan]

*wince* In general, using Create to build equipment takes you down a dark road of players creating plot coupons left and right. Requiring the player to invest the points in Variable is a decent start, although even there, you have to talk with them to be sure that it's limited to reasonable things like common equipment, weapons, or vehicles. The cost savings of equipment is partly based on it being very specialized and partly on it being very breakable. Having a power that lets you summon any equipment you want and get new ones as the old ones break kind of bypasses the spirit of it.

 

[Shadowchaser]

Create is NOT meant to buy gear. It only provides a toughness stat over an area, that's IT. You can use the 'Objects' created by Create to do physical damage the way you would by dropping something or throwing something, but it's not meant for things like flashlights, lockpicks, or swords.

Now, for the Equipment thing, if I just want the character to have access to "10 Points in Equipment" I give them a rank 2 Custom Advantage "10 Points in Equipment."

I've had to do this for some builds like special forces soldiers who would change out their gear depending on the mission they're on.

 

[Duggan]

That's how I've done builds in the stock portfolios as well. It would be nice to be able to have powers which add "X ep of equipment" although as noted above in my post, I'm a little leery of allowing equipment summoning at full EP discounts due to the ease of production and replacement.

 

[CelticREI]

*wince* In general, using Create to build equipment takes you down a dark road of players creating plot coupons left and right. Requiring the player to invest the points in Variable is a decent start, although even there, you have to talk with them to be sure that it's limited to reasonable things like common equipment, weapons, or vehicles. The cost savings of equipment is partly based on it being very specialized and partly on it being very breakable. Having a power that lets you summon any equipment you want and get new ones as the old ones break kind of bypasses the spirit of it.

That was a route I was going with a player I was helping build a character with, he was going to have Variable 1, limited to ep to buy stock (core book) firearms (I included stuff like grenade launcher and flamethrower so he had more options than "I shoot ye with Bullet #42... which is Assault Rifle haha!") and could power stunt custom firearms that I've given the OK to beforehand. The power was kinda based on the character could 'banish' firearms into this sub-dimension and call them back when he wanted, and it also had a Power Loss Complication attached to it so I could pull out "Oh, that must have been the last gun ye had banished..." (I think he got the idea from Ultra-Violet actually lol, with their little wrist-portals that had tons of ammo or guns)