Again I was reading Opponents Unlimited, studying the Tarot Masters.

For such a great concept there are fundemental weaknesses in them I keep wanting to strengthen.  In looking at the Swords part of the Minor Arcana, I noticed their swords had a Paralysis carrier attack.

This brought to mind the question?  How powerful is that?  Would that make the Swords too powerful?  Able to go toe-to-toe with the best of the heroes.

I like the GM rule of 3 thugs to every average powered hero.  Would the sword with paralysis carrier attack elevate all of the Swords out of thug category?

I am wanting to structure it where the Ace, King, Queen, and Knight equal a Crusader level hero and the rest of the Suite are thug level.  So on average a team of 7 heroes would be able to fight a suite straight up.

Thanks for your help.

This is a tough one, I've used Paralysis Ray as a plot device to get the PCs to a certain point in the plot, but generally speaking, it's one tough power. 

I'd drop it from the listing if you want them to be thug level.  I think the HTH to hit with swords would limit the number of times they would hit, but the possibility that any hit could drop a hero is a little unbalancing.  Also, once they are down, it's not usually a quick wake up, % saves are difficult for most PCs whatever the case.

I actually have a PC with Paralysis Ray, a taser gun, and I always use it as a weapon of last resort, to prevent unbalancing things.

Did anyone read John's take on it in his new Rules update?

Paralysis Ray: Pr=7  takes 1d20 +modifiers off of targets movement and initiative.   If initiative is reduced to zero, target can not act.

THE ONI wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2010 at 8:17pm:


I like this!  To me, Paralysis Ray - as written - is too powerful to be in the hands of a PC or standard NPC.  I've written a house rule that it should be used sparingly, such as by GMs effectively using it as a plot device (to get all the heroes to a particular place).

I've seen paralysis ray work if you have a team against a team, or if there's a hero fighting thugs. But it doesn't work as well if you have a team against one foe, unless the foe has a defense against it.

Way back when, when the Rangers were fighting Hulk, one of the heroes in the group had a paralyzing gun. It effected Hulk only briefly. In game terms, it'd be like he was paralyzed at the end of one turn, then made his saving throw to recover right afterward.

Troy wrote on Mar 5^th, 2010 at 6:33pm:


That's true, and I hadn't thought of it initially.  Transmutation - for whatever reason - doesn't come up that often; maybe it's not as common on the various charts.

Transmutation also says that the GM can make it standard wake-up rolls or set a time limit for it.

You're right, though, it can be just as nasty.

I agree with Transmutation that is why I modified the power like this.  It can be found in my house rules.

Transmutation: same as the rules but it only fully transforms a living thing when all its basic hits gets changed .Structures are changed piecemeal. Ex:  Transmuto  blasts Meta Man with a transmutation ray.  He hits and rolls 20 damage.   Meta Man’s invulnerability deals with ten, and he rolls with seven more.  So he only takes  3 damage. This is nowhere near enough to turn him to stone, so all that happened was some hair on his arms turn to stone and fall off.

The Cougar wrote on Mar 7^th, 2010 at 10:05am:


This is the reason she's the deadliest piece on the board in Narnia Stratego as well!