General Discussion and Suggestions

[Raineh Daze]

New special weapons? I have no idea, sorry. I'm not even sure which ones you added. @_@

[oslecamo]

Every one below Weapon Breaker.

[Anomander]

Question one of the super robot upgrades:

Mighty:You can expend 1 energy to make all of the super robot's in built weapons deal +1 damage. In the case of the main weapon it deals +2 damage instead. Picking this option multiple times allows you to spend extra energy to get a bigger bonus.

Is the bonus to the weapon's damage meant to last one one round or do you reduce your max energy for a given damage boost and the damage bonus lasts, like some kind of energy based Power Attack?

[oslecamo]

You spend energy per attack in an individual basis.

[Anomander]

Then it is unclear since it says all your weapons get that buff whenever you activate it. It would clearer if it was one weapon at a time; the one whose dmg is being buffed. If all weapons get one buffed attack per use then just add that it applies only on their next attack instead of an indefinite amount of time.

Also curious as to why you can get the hyper jammer in the Arsenal but not the regular jammer.

[Anomander]

Another question that just stroke me.
Mechas are destroyed when they reach 0 hit points, but what happens if they take nonlethal damage equal to their remaining hit points (or more). Are they disabled?

[oslecamo]

Then it is unclear since it says all your weapons get that buff whenever you activate it. It would clearer if it was one weapon at a time; the one whose dmg is being buffed. If all weapons get one buffed attack per use then just add that it applies only on their next attack instead of an indefinite amount of time.

Should be clarified now.

Also curious as to why you can get the hyper jammer in the Arsenal but not the regular jammer.

Very well, just let me decide what level it should be.

Another question that just stroke me.
Mechas are destroyed when they reach 0 hit points, but what happens if they take nonlethal damage equal to their remaining hit points (or more). Are they disabled?

As machines, mechas are immune to nonlethal damage, just as you can't deal nonlethal damage to a house or catapult.

[veekie]

Theoretically you could deliver disabling attacks in the form of energy overloads, damaging sensors, vents or joints, but mecha design is too varied for it to be consistent.

[Raineh Daze]

And attacking such sensible weaknesses will utterly fail when you get to super robots. Logical weak points? What're they?

[veekie]

Actually most of those examples I've seen are in Super Robot media. The monster-of-the-day loves to use an obscure attack to disable the super robot so they actually have to try something different so that their finishing move works.

[Raineh Daze]

Actually most of those examples I've seen are in Super Robot media. The monster-of-the-day loves to use an obscure attack to disable the super robot so they actually have to try something different so that their finishing move works.

I said sensible. If it's obscure or requires being a particular monster, isn't that already not sensible?

Mmm, but it was more a comment on the 'variable design' thing. No two Super Robots seem to share a design, ever, so they all end up with slightly different weaknesses, making 'destroy them' basically the only option.

[veekie]

More that things like redundancies, backup systems and shielding seem to happen more in Reals, giving them a graceful failure path as you take out their primary systems and cripple the secondaries.
For supers you just need to target their unobtainium, or pour glue on their joints.

[Raineh Daze]

More that things like redundancies, backup systems and shielding seem to happen more in Reals, giving them a graceful failure path as you take out their primary systems and cripple the secondaries.
For supers you just need to target their unobtainium, or pour glue on their joints.

And pray that the pilot is asleep or something so it actually... sticks?

[Anomander]

A Numan gets this ability:

Mixed Heritage: A Numan can count himself as any race for qualifying for feats, class abilities and prestige classes. If a Numan picks Monster Blooded, she automatically gains the related Monster Hybrid feat.

Perhaps it would be better to rephrase to say that the Numan can simply enter the respective monstrous classes as if he had the related Monster Hybrid feat as opposed to actually acquiring the feat. Otherwise a Numan could choose EVERY feat he gains to be a Monster Blooded feat and just retrain or "Embrace/Shun the Dark Chaos" the free Monster Hybrid feats into something else, effectively getting a number of ability points equal to the amount of feats they would normally have (or more if the feats replacing the Monster Hybrid feats are more Monster Blooded feats).
The infinite ability score cheat is easy to DM ban but I thought I'd point it out.

[Anomander]

Another thing that just got me thinking.
Mecha's aren't affected by abilities that increase their size, but what about abilities like Powerful Build? That abilities allows you to behave as if you were bigger without actually being bigger. If it does carry over to the mecha, does it allow it to use its weapons as if it was bigger as well, die size increase and so on?

[oslecamo]

A Numan gets this ability:

Mixed Heritage: A Numan can count himself as any race for qualifying for feats, class abilities and prestige classes. If a Numan picks Monster Blooded, she automatically gains the related Monster Hybrid feat.

Perhaps it would be better to rephrase to say that the Numan can simply enter the respective monstrous classes as if he had the related Monster Hybrid feat as opposed to actually acquiring the feat. Otherwise a Numan could choose EVERY feat he gains to be a Monster Blooded feat and just retrain or "Embrace/Shun the Dark Chaos" the free Monster Hybrid feats into something else, effectively getting a number of ability points equal to the amount of feats they would normally have (or more if the feats replacing the Monster Hybrid feats are more Monster Blooded feats).
The infinite ability score cheat is easy to DM ban but I thought I'd point it out.

That falls on my auto-ban list, but I guess editing your suggestion doesn't hurt.

Another thing that just got me thinking.
Mecha's aren't affected by abilities that increase their size, but what about abilities like Powerful Build? That abilities allows you to behave as if you were bigger without actually being bigger. If it does carry over to the mecha, does it allow it to use its weapons as if it was bigger as well, die size increase and so on?

Clarified that Powerful Build doesn't apply as well.

[Anomander]

I cannot find a note on the subject of Heavy weapons being used for pilot maneuvers.
Many maneuvers allow you to do something that involves making an attack with a weapon of your choice, but most of these maneuvers take a standard action while a Heavy weapon normally requires a fullround action. Unless a ruling is done on using Heavy weapons for these maneuvers, it makes it possible to use them as a standard action with these maneuvers. Just in case it was not intended.

IE:

Disabling Hit (Ace Pilot LvL 2 maneuver)
Standard action initiation
When you initiate this strike, make a single attack against an enemy. If you hit with that choose one weapon of your enemy. That enemy can't use that weapon for until the beginning of your next turn.

Then there are maneuvers like Return Fire (Ace Pilot 2) that allows you to make an attack as an immediate action as part of the counter. Not sure a weapon used with a fullround action is supposed to be usable as an immediate action with a level 2 counter.

Another concern:

Area:Instead of a normal shot, you may make the weapon fire a  line with the width of your mecha and the same lenght as the first range increment of the weapon. Roll to hit against all targets inside the line. If you target an oponent bigger than you with this, the line needs to pass trough the middle of their position.

I wasn't under the impression that mecha ranged weapons had range increments.
I see they have a 'range' section, which seems to be fixed.
A Gespent's Split Missiles have a 50 mu range. Are those meant to actually be a range increment? If so, the misunderstanding is probably due to maneuvers and spells having a range indicator, while weapons generally have a range increment property rather than a range property.

Since I'm already talking of maneuver range, here is a question on Multitarget (Ace Pilot 3)

When you initiate this maneuver, you may perform one basic attack against each enemy within reach of your weapon.

The maneuvers mentions 'reach' but it can be used with any weapon and is limited by ammo. The description, along with the maneuver's name, suggest that it is also meant to be used with ranged weapons, but ranged weapons have range/range increment and little reach to speak of. Is it meant to use a ranged weapon's range instead of its reach?

[oslecamo]

Yes, maneuvers that allow you to fire weapons as standard/immediate also work for heavy weapons, and Support Attack works as well.

Area:Instead of a normal shot, you may make the weapon fire a  line with the width of your mecha and the same lenght as the first range increment of the weapon. Roll to hit against all targets inside the line. If you target an oponent bigger than you with this, the line needs to pass trough the middle of their position.

I wasn't under the impression that mecha ranged weapons had range increments.
I see they have a 'range' section, which seems to be fixed.
A Gespent's Split Missiles have a 50 mu range. Are those meant to actually be a range increment? If so, the misunderstanding is probably due to maneuvers and spells having a range indicator, while weapons generally have a range increment property rather than a range property.

You're right, replaced Range with Range Increment on the Real Robots and Arsenal lists.

Since I'm already talking of maneuver range, here is a question on Multitarget (Ace Pilot 3)

When you initiate this maneuver, you may perform one basic attack against each enemy within reach of your weapon.

The maneuvers mentions 'reach' but it can be used with any weapon and is limited by ammo. The description, along with the maneuver's name, suggest that it is also meant to be used with ranged weapons, but ranged weapons have range/range increment and little reach to speak of. Is it meant to use a ranged weapon's range instead of its reach?

Yes.

[ketaro]

(click to show/hide)

Iron Wave
Into the Danger Zone (Boost)
Level: Any Pilot Class 5
Initiation Action: Standard action
Range:  You.
Target: You
Duration: 1 round
Save: Yes

For the duration of this boost, all your attacks cause oponents to be flinged in a direction of your choice when hit by your attacks, at a rate of 5 mu for 5 damage taken. They don't take extra damage for crashing against anything, but this movement provokes attacks of oportunity by your allies.

How do you use this with any kind of attack action that isn't just an AoO, barring doing something to give yourself extra standard/fullround actions. Cause it would expire before your next normally available standard/full attack action. 

[oslecamo]

It was suposed to be a swift action, fixed.