From: dvandom@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Dave Van Domelen)
Subject: Re: The Good things about Killing attacks as they are now
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1993 03:32:33 GMT

In regards to the stacking of advantages invalidating the merits of +1/4 
advantage for +1 multiplier:  Bullhockey.  ANY AND ALL ADVANTAGES ARE 
IMBALANCED WHEN YOU PILE MORE THAN +2 ON.  Period.  A character with a 3d6 EB 
with +3 variable advantage has spent 75 points for the power, but having run a 
game where I made the error of approving such a power, I can say that it was 
way more powerful than a 15d6 blast.  The problem is that almost all advantages
are balanced on their own merits.  A few nasty combos have been caught, like 
autofire NNDs and the like, but above +2 in advantages there are too many 
little imbalances adding up to keep track of.  Hell, lemme dig out Admiral 
Annihilation...the 250 point character who can destroy the universe.
     1d6 RKA] 0 END, Persistent, Uncontrolled Continuous, Personally Immune, 
Autofire/2560, Radius Effect * 2^80, Damage Shield, ALVD (Flash Def), Does Body
(+1, in Gadgets! from 3rd Ed.), AP, 16xPenetrating, Affects Desolid, Variable 
Special Effects, Interdimensional, No KB, No STUN, Side Effect (huge honking 
Entangle on self and STUN drain), Activation 15- = 201 points.
     This is, of course, totally ridiculous and designed to make people vomit.
But it evolved one afternoon as we found that by making the base dice smaller 
and smaller and slapping on more and more advantages we could get ridiculous 
amounts of power.  A 400 point KA straight up is nasty (26.5d6) but nowhere 
near as much as this piece of kllhe'mnhe.  Advantages get ridiculous in large 
amounts.  That in no way means that because +4 of Increased STUN multiple is 
really ridiculous at +1/4 per level instead of only ridiculous at +1/2 that 
+1/2 is the better choice.  Hell, beyond about +3 extra area effect doublings 
get outrageous...does that mean they should be +1/2 because putting them on a 
small base attack allows for so many?  No.
     By the way, 1d6 EKA vs ECV +4 Multiplier isn't much better than 4.5d6 Ego
Attack, since it does no body (suggesting that you need to buy Resistant Mental
Defense will get you buried in rubbish I have found) and is stopped by normal
Mental Def, and it is also fully visible.  It does about 23 STUN on average, 
where the 4.5d6 Ego Attack does 16 (you forgot the base 1 when calculating 
equivalent power).  But the EKA has a one in six chance of not getting past the
base Mental Def of someone with a 13 EGO (minimum 5 +13/5=8 MD).  The 4.5d6 
Blast has in the neighborhood of a percent chance of that.  But then, using 
more than +2 extra multiple is going into the munchkin realm anyway.  And at 
the +1/2 level, we get the same average STUN for either the 1d6 +2* KA and the 
4.5d6 Ego Attack.  +1/2 has to be munchkined before it starts being competitive
with no advantage at all!  And at 60 points, a +1/2 multiplier gives the 
figures above, average 23 STUN, while the normal Ego attack gives only 21 
average.  At +3/4 you finally have to go beyond reasonable active points for 
the extra multipled KA to beat the normal.
     I stand behind my +1/4 level for increased multiples, since I did so to 
let spending just +1/2 on it be worth something.  If you have players that 
insist on massive multipliers, use a sliding scale: +1/4 for the first two, 
+1/2 for the next two, +1 for the next two, etc....
     Dave Van Domelen, hell, just use Mode Ballistic and be done with it.  
KIUTC.