What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

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gaby
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What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

Unread post by gaby »

Tell me What do you think of the Powers in Powers Unlimited 2?

Are any of them Good?
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Iczer
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Re: What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

Unread post by Iczer »

Well, there is only 4 powers in the book (it's mostly a mix of good and broken classes)

Directed force (Major)
Usefull. Appropriately powerful for a major without being a game breaker.

Super power punch (major)
Inexplicably weak for a major power, and unnecessarilly complex considering it does...nothing. worse it penalises you for using it.

Sidestep (Minor)
Horribly broken. It gives an almighty huge autododge bonus, but backs it up with the caveat that you must be able to move a little to the side.
Yes. If you are trapped in chains, frozen in place, or paralysed you cannot use your autododge. Colour me suprised.

Spit spikes. (minor)
Very underpowered and certainly a second string power. It allows you to combine it with another power printed in PU1, but penalises it with a duration hump if you do.

All in all fairly dissapointing. One great, One broken and two that are.....kind of low rent.


I DO reccommend it for some of its new power categories from the sublime (Natural genius) to the awkwardly powerfull (Immortal deity characters) from the optional (minor heroes. No really) to the interesting (Symbiote, superinvention)

Some seem a little redundant (Empowered is all over the shop) but it does cater for a broad range of play styles.

Batts
"Sorry Drewkitty, the laws of physics were defeated by Iczer way back in like, the first ten pages of this thread." A.J. Pickett
“Iczer, you are a power generating machine.” - Mr Twist
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Daniel Stoker
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Re: What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Well I'm not Gaby, but what do people thing the good classes and the bad ones are in PU2?


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Al Blotto
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Re: What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

Unread post by Al Blotto »

Let's start with the powers.

Directed Force:
This is definitely an awesome major power. I feel like a lot of its aspects are later taken and changed around in Force Manipulation, but they do remain two separate powers with different explanations as to how/why they work. Directed Force only works by shoving forward which allows for bolts of force and lots of pinning moves (vehicles, doors, people). Force Manipulation is closer to full on Telekinesis with the ability to use the same force to lift things, hold things in the air, crush them and PULL them.

Super Power Punch:
This power would only be useful if it came with a giant bonus to strike. If you don't have a very VERY high PP, this is a giant waste of a power as you will probably never end up hitting anyone. However, if this were mixed with EX PP and Energy Fists and SKILLS that focus on agility/speed in combat, you could make a PC where this power wouldn't be totally broken.

Sidestep:
I personally like this power a lot. I always think of it as the really annoying character's power. The guy that everyone always tries to hit and can never get a bead on. The one that taunts you all day while the rest of his teammates destroy your team, leaving you the only combatant because you were too focused on this jerk.

Spit Spikes: Pretty much the biggest waste of space in a powers book that I've seen so far. You get 1D4 spikes + 1 per level, each spike does 1 damage, only goes 10 feet + 2 per level. At level 15 you're capable of doing...*drumroll please*...1D4+15 damage with your spikes! Totally lame.


And now on to the classes.

Empowered:
I like this class because it makes for good backgrounds. You have to have something to overcome, which means that your character has actually lived and experienced pain & suffering in life. Which is great for GMs to bring back some source of pain from your past and throw it in your face. I also like the "stress builds character" (or in this case powers) line of thought. Super-abilities brought out through tragedy or high-stress situations make total sense to me. Your body is releasing some deep seeded, hidden powers that saved your life in a certain situation.

Eugenic:
This class is really good for tailoring a character with lots of abilities. Some of the most powerful characters players in my games have ever built have been Eugenics characters. I don't think I would ever play one because more often than not, they end up becoming totally inhuman and I'm just not good at the whole "I'm a monster" RP thing.

Gestalt:
See last sentence above. Maybe I'd try running a Physical Human Gestalt, but all the rest seem like I'd get bored quickly.

Imbued:
This is one of my favorites. I think being a normal human except for a special pill that gives you abilities is awesome. It adds a lot to the background (where did you get the agent? Why do YOU have it instead of someone else? Are people coming after you for it?) and gives a few character flaws (addiction and duration of imbuing agent). Love it.

Immortal:
It's mostly Mega-Heroes, so they're Over-Powered but cool. This is the ability to become a god. And as I'm sure most of you read comics, there are a lot of gods around. Played correctly, this character can be an effective team member without stealing the spotlight. They can also totally suck and hog all of the glory.

Super-Invention:
Pretty sweet. The ability to have robotics that emulate super-abilities? Yes, please.

Minor Heroes:
Never played one. But I definitely like the choice to be the opposite of a Mega-Hero. Lots of people tend to make characters with the most powers and the most effective powers without thinking...but what if I only had EE: Electricity? What if I only had this kinda weak exoskeleton that I found?

Natural Genius:
I've been in games with two of them now and I've never really cared for the power category. They're supposed to be Mega-Heroes, but the two that I've played with have never really done anything...Mega. They've had ideas and done a few cool things, but never anything that wowed me.

Supersoldier:
Glad that they updated this from the Experiment category, because there are so many more options now. I'm playing one and he's one of my favorite characters. I think the range of capabilities available to supersoldiers is wide enough that you're not going to end up with a bunch of Cap clones.

Symbiotic:
Well fleshed out. The abilities table of "X power having to do with Y" always annoyed me. Mostly because I wanted to select whatever powers I wanted. But that's just me being spoiled.

Ancient Weapons Master:
For those who still want to be a swashbuckler/bowman, there is Ancient Weapons Master. I feel like with the inclusion of high-tech arrows and/or minor magical swords, this character can be underestimated and really take down some baddies.
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Iczer
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Re: What do you think of the Powers in P.U.2?

Unread post by Iczer »

Empowered: I like the empowered, but it does seem a little like a mixed bag. for the most part it seems like just flavour (instead of mutations, you have crippling injuries). some options are really good looking (I have to transform into an adonis to get my super powers? and my leukemia dissapears when I do? Why would I ever change back?) and some are a little sub par (I have a pair of psychic legs?.... why?) The most telling is the bionics section that gives you bionic parts to compensate. This makes you a bionics character with a lower budget and a sad backstory.

Eugenic: Build your own superhero. which is nice. as mentioned above there is a chance of physical mutation (AFTER you add your extra bits) and a chance of mental mutation. some abilities seem like frankenstein and some are right over the top. This power class is the first to add some freaking lightning fast regeneration options too, which was disspointing. Thankfully it's expensive. Also, you may want to get the errata from Palldium's website

Gestalt: Holy mother of.... Ahem. Really really powerful creatures abound here, even before adding powers. You are limited in shape though (you may not have much of a social life if you are nothing but a humanoid swarm of bees) but some (like the physical and psychic gestalts overcome that. these guys aren't mega heros per se, but are on par. of course, you can unbalance this a little further by making them megaheroes on top of gestalt. ..shiver..

Imbued: Imbued are nice. Better living through drugs/chemicals/teas/radioactive bug juices etc.. a decent alternative to mutant/alien/experiment combos, though we see a little more power creep here (possibility of 3 majors/1 minor cropping up) but it's not so hard to deal with. also, by taking your serum/pill/ meditation mantra all your on/off powers become switched to ON. which makes some choices more interesting (Try having to be intangible for your 4 hour duration)

Immortal: More megaheroes (this time they actually use the mega heroes experience chart, so you know they mean business) various flavours available from half deities, to demon princes, to aliens to mermen. middling range super abilities, but can range from powers to psionics to spells or combinations. much like aliens they also get the whole 'reason's for being on earth' as well as a probable magic weapon. most appear to have superhuman or better strength and the immortality mega hero feature.

Superinvention: gadgets and superpowers. meeting to have babies!. this is a road to a decent Tony stark suit, or even a Hal jordan. You are powerless, but are either the inventor, a chosen test pilot or some guy who landed with it. in any case there is a little skill bump which is always nice for flavour's sake. I am a bit puzzled why this is so complete, and yet magic items remain so rubbish.

Minor heroes: a template for turning down your other heroes. mostly this is taking a set of gimp shears to your normal favourites (no attribute can exceed 30, skill selection is pretty terrible etc) All in all this could have been handled with a little GM intervention, and a set of rules were probably unneccessary. However it's 3 columns, so I guess i could spare the page. The sad thing is that their experience chart is the same as experiments, meaning everything is harder and you advance the same rate as everyone else.

Natural genius: Low powered, but with lots of skills, and I mean lots of them. 10 skill programs, with most of the skills getting a 30% boost. I would heartilly reccommend getting a physical skill program, becuase you are going to need it with below par sdc and no other physical bonuses (more to the point, you are limited to 4 physical skills total).
The mental disciplines for this class give you a bit of an edge too. some are useful (Mind over matter: combat trance) some are fun (sexual charisma) and some are a bit whacked (Odds assesment which rewards you if the odds look good, but hinders you if the odds look bad. No thanks. I'll take my chances)

Supersoldier: It's an upgrade to the old experiment tack on, but very nice. More power creep, but slightly toned down. super soldiers are now all military men, and your origin can give you extra bonuses. you can start with 70 odd SDC without effort now (eat that minor hero). You gain powers + some super soldier enhancements in varying amounts. You can instead of powers, opt for a hugely powerfull pre constructed set of powers (which boil down to Crazy, Juicer and Terminator). also you now get a super weapon, battle armour and a supervehicle (in varying levels of quantity and respectability)

Symbiotic: I gush about this class. you have become a little too close to some alien organism, either attached to you or swimming inside you. this can mess up your love life a bit though so beware. there are some optimal combinations, so I get suspicious when they turn up more frequently than others. you get powers and a number of special 'symbiote' granted abilities. there are a lot of instances of more than 2 major powers, but it seems to be (curiously) set that all powers must relate to one another. I find it odd that this is the only place that enforces or even suggests having a character with a theme or focus (though to alesser extent, this is explored in superinventions as well)

Ancient weapons master: Solid. Ties with, and is pretty good in comparison to, the special training category. you are really good with either melee or ancient ranged weapons. The only real drawback are things like the suspect addition of weapons. I mean, it's kind of hard to win the public trust when you are carrying a broadsword or katana in public. You can make your own weapons, which is great, and the ability to make a hawkeye or green arrow feels good.
I have an issue with the disabling strike feature of melee weapon experts though, but that's a different post.

Batts
"Sorry Drewkitty, the laws of physics were defeated by Iczer way back in like, the first ten pages of this thread." A.J. Pickett
“Iczer, you are a power generating machine.” - Mr Twist
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