Welcome back to Heroclixin’s Top Tens, something we haven’t done since 2013. It used to be a nearly monthly feature, but we got away from it. [A little bit like how we got away on a vacation and didn’t update the blog from the road. Hotel didn’t have computer access.]
Anyway, we’ve been looking at the power creep LEAP in the game. And there are some figures that, while they aren’t game-breaking necessarily, they are still at least a little too strong for the character represented. For each, we offer our F.U.N. Fix suggestion of how it SHOULD have been done and, if you’re a F.U.N. player, how you can run it without being a jerk.
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No. 10
Falcon [Avengers Assemble] gets 12 speed with a SP allowing him to effectively full Charge and use Close Combat Expert. Even with the balancing prerequisites of no action tokens and not being able to carry, it’s a bit much for him to hit for 4 from so far away. The F.U.N. Fix, then, is to split the CCE modifiers or stack on Attack to hit for light damage.
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No. 9
3D Man: I read the comics where he joined the Agents of Atlas, and I saw nothing to suggest he had anything approaching Hypersonic Speed — not for the Speed values he got. The F.U.N. Fix: Something like Nova’s locked-speed version would be better. So opt to use it at half-speed, or to not hit-and-run.
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No. 8
Iron Man [Invincible Iron Man 001] at 300 points. That dial is way better than that classic armor should be capable of performing. The F.U.N. Fix: Run him at the still-strong but more plausible 150 level.
[tie]
Iron Man [Classic Avengers 004]: This is supposed to be Tony Stark’s first suit of armor built in his real lab, but this dial is nearly as capable as the red-and-gold suit built much later. I know there’s power creep LEAP to contend with, but COME ON.
F.U.N. Fix this by never playing this armor at 150 points. The 100-pointer, while still a super dial, at least seems like an optimized version of Stark’s clunky early armor.
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No. 7
Speed Demon [Deadpool]: Improved Movement: Hindering and Characters along with his very high Speed makes him overpowered and inaccurate. He has a move to run AROUND a foe and send him flying. The F.U.N. Fix: He should have to rely on his HSS-granted Improved Movement to put more actual risk into the power. Never run through an enemy square if he’s trying to spin that person.
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No. 6
Entities: Should really work for Lanterns only. In the comics, only actual members of each Corps get possessed, right? And even they seem to lose some of their real personalities or control of their actions. There ought to have been some risk to using the entities, such as this F.U.N. Fix: Occasionally, due to the overwhelming power, the character gets an action token and can’t act. So when you pick the power and values, roll a d6 and force a token on yourself on a 1.
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No. 5
Batman [Trinity War]: Bats has a lot of tricks in his Utility Belt, but nothing that should allow him to use Pulse Wave over and over! The F.U.N. Fix: Only pick each power ONCE per game. It’s conceivable that Batman would have ONE E.M.P. generator in his belt. More than that? Doubtful.
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No. 4
Electro [Deadpool 064]: Isn’t the whole point of zombies is that they eat and infect people by biting them? So how does this character feed and infect from range? Shooting shouldn’t allow eating! The F.U.N. Fix is to just ignore his ability to rack up Food tokens with ease and only get them from adjacent characters, although this is not strictly allowed by the rules of the zombies’ ability.
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No. 3
Banshee: This piece is still so mean. Back from the 2014 Top Ten countdown:
“He renders worthless most of the game’s defensive powers (Super Senses, Impervious, Invincible, Invulnerability) just by being a little close — without resorting to Pulse Wave — AND penalizes the characters using those powers with extra damage. He doesn’t care about Stealth OR elevated terrain and, sometimes, even blocking terrain.”
The F.U.N. Fix would be to reel the anti-defense trait’s range in to 4 instead of 6, or to have it affect friendlies as well. But there’s really no getting around this figure’s unfriendliness.
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No. 2
Bullseye [Deadpool]: There is no reason why Bullseye should have normal Probability Control. A Special Power version for his own attacks, sure. But not this. F.U.N. Fix it by only using it on his own attacks.
[tie]
Science Police [SLOSH 004] : These goons routinely call in the Legion of Super-Heroes for backup, for goodness’ sake. They shouldn’t be dealing free damage JUST FOR STANDING AROUND. There really isn’t a F.U.N. Fix outside of WizKids issuing an erratum to make the effect not stack, at least.
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No. 1
Felix Faust
This comes as no surprise after the piece’s domination at Worlds this year. Although the results of his d20 roll appear at first glance to be random enough to not be that terrible, in practice it’s incredibly powerful. Here’s what I wrote about it over on HCRealms.com:
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“If Faust’s d20 lands on the second special power on his card, “Green Bell of Uthool,” it’s as though the equivalent of three Black Panthers [81 points] had together used Outwit to counter:
- Flurry.
- Charge.
- Mind Control.
- Force Blast.
- Sidestep.
- Hypersonic Speed.
- Running Shot.
- Blades/Claws/Fangs.
- Energy Explosion.
- Quake.
- Incapacitate.
- Penetrating/Psychic Blast.
- Smoke Cloud.
- Precision Strike.
- Poison.
- Steal Energy.
- Telekinesis.
- Barrier.
- Regeneration.
- Ranged Combat Expert.
- Support.
- Exploit Weakness.
- Enhancement.
- Close Combat Expert.
- Empower.
- Perplex.
- Outwit.
- Leadership.
- Sharpshooter.
- Split.
- Merge.
- Duo Attack.
- Move And Attack.
- Throw A Grenade.
Targeting/Movement
…all without even needing range or line of fire, and against EVERY OPPOSING CHARACTER ON THE FIELD.
It would require TWENTY-FIVE THIRTY-FIVE Rookie Black Panther figs on a build of 7001000 or greater to almost duplicate this effect using Outwit, against a SINGLE character, much less a whole force. (And even here, A. 35 clear lines of fire would be needed — better put the old Coordination feat on a bunch of ’em — and B. the BPs would ALL have to be in Stealth because even they can’t otherwise prevent the target from shooting.)
Felix costs 80 and does it from the safety of his starting area, or wherever. And the target can’t shoot.
That’s just one of six such debilitating SPs his Necronimicon offers.”
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Now, in practice, we’re actually only talking about, say, seven or eight Panthers: Three or four to handle abilities such as Flight, Indomitable and Improved Targeting, and one each to counter Speed, Attack, Defense and Damage powers, respectively. That’s still nearly THREE TIMES Felix’s cost and only effective against a solo target of all that Outwit.
This was a badly, badly designed piece, all reward and negligible risk. The only F.U.N. Fix that won’t mangle it entirely is to give Felix a non-free action EVERY TIME he rolls the d20, and don’t roll it if he can’t.
