Game-Breaking Powers To Worry About?

[toturi]

The best way to handle this is with Compels.  Everyone likes FPs, even metagaming munchkins.  Often, especially metagaming munchkins.

Everyone likes FPs. But not everyone likes the Compels that you'd have to accept to get that FP. Metagaming munchkins like weak Compels, but often the GM err on the side of caution and make the FP not worth the Compel, or at least that is the way it appears.

[Wordmaker]

Yeah, you have to be careful with compels. More than once I've seen a player bristle at a compel I tried to make.

[Tedronai]

If everyone remembers that Compels are negotiated, that becomes less of an issue.

[GryMor]

For a large multi group game, I'd pay more attention to effective skill levels (before fate points) than specific powers. Narrow (partial/conditional trapping) use above cap+4, broad use (multiple trappings of one skill) above cap+2, Universal above cap (every trapping of many skills)  very focused designs spending more than half their refresh on one thing (Evoker with lots of refinement on a single element is likely to be a problem, a Wizard with the same refresh expenditure, due to splitting between Thaumaturgy and Evocation, likely isn't). Limited uses or extra risk should generally allow for +1 each before you worry too much.

[vultur]

Incite Emotion is fine as long as you believe that the +2 bonus does not apply to attacks. Again, use doublethink if necessary.

OW at least backs this up.

EDIT: Cesarina Malvora's entry:
"an alpha strike (rolling her Superb Intimidation) that could drive an opponent to his knees in quivery fear (Weapon:4
attack doing mental stress) up to a zone away."

EDIT: Oh, and as Magicpockets said, the Nixie too: "can use its Good Deceit (vs. Discipline) to lay a Weapon:2 mental stress psychic whammy"

So I think that is the intent, though the power description doesn't really make it clear.

Would you apply the +2 to blocks, or just maneuvers?

[Troy]

OW at least backs this up.

EDIT: Cesarina Malvora's entry:
"an alpha strike (rolling her Superb Intimidation) that could drive an opponent to his knees in quivery fear (Weapon:4
attack doing mental stress) up to a zone away."

EDIT: Oh, and as Magicpockets said, the Nixie too: "can use its Good Deceit (vs. Discipline) to lay a Weapon:2 mental stress psychic whammy"

So I think that is the intent, though the power description doesn't really make it clear.

Would you apply the +2 to blocks, or just maneuvers?

To blocks, too.
If you treat Incite Emotion similarly to Evocation as for What You Can Do With It, then it makes more sense. At least, it makes sense to me when I read it in that context. Incite Emotion describes it's effects and the Emotion-Touch effect can be a maneuver or a block and you get a +2 to that action. This is explicit in the description. Lasting Emotion is an attack, this is explicit in the description, meaning that the +2 for maneuvers and blocks would not apply.

[Sanctaphrax]

I apply the bonus to blocks, but the book is written vaguely enough that I can't call the opposing interpretation wrong.

[PirateJack]

Enchanted items can get incredibly powerful if people specialize heavily in them. Watch out for them.

Our munchkin has gone for the Batman Wizard approach to solving problems. I've since discovered that it's rather difficult to blend regular magic with enchanted items (he uses water magic with acids kept in enchanted containers that have greater volumes than they should) and that anything he suggest should be examined and then rejected on principle.

Don't use Powers from Our World.

The same holds true for most of the example powers given at the end of YS. Never, ever allow skill boosts through spells or enchantments. That way lies Morrowind Alchemy and munchkins' wet dreams.

In theory Mimic Abilities could be broken in certain special circumstances, but I have never actually seen it be a problem. Nobody seems inclined to try to break it.

I've got a player that is using Mimic Abilities as a kind of Catch 'Em All powers thing. I'll see if I can test this a bit, probe where it can be broken and so forth.

Rebate Powers can be easy to exploit, depending on how the game goes. Item Of Power can be free Refresh if the GM doesn't make it otherwise.

Three players with IoPs, two of whom has good reason for it (one's gradually merging with an Egyptian Deity with an IoP as the catalyst and the other is the son of the Erlking with a Worldwalking Mask).

[blackstaff67]

Related, but not actually quite on topic:

I would strongly suggest banning both Demonic Co-Pilot and Feeding Dependency.

Demonic Co-Pilot because it's just annoying to track and deal with all the extra rolls - plus it's trivially easy to get the same feel off a -0 power that allows use of the sponsor debt mechanic for appropriate actions.

And Feeding Dependency because it just, mechanically, does not work.  Really, it doesn't.  Note that one of the rules for it says you can clear your hunger stress track by succeeding on a discipline roll to control your hunger after a scene in which you've used your powers... meaning the best way to recover isn't to go off-camera and feed, it's to be on-camera, make some trivial use of powers, and then succeed at controlling your hunger when the scene ends.
While it may be possible to house-rule the power into some semblance of functionality, I, personally, would prefer to replace it with a combined temporary power / sponsor debt mechanic - essentially, the powers you've bought and are on your sheet are assumed to be what you can reasonably sustain from your current lifestyle, and you can go beyond that temporarily at the cost of having to deal with the associated hunger later.

I'm interested in the temporary power/sponsor debt mechanic as a GM.  Can you give me an example of a WCV using his powers and then what happens next using this mechanic?

[wyvern]

I'm interested in the temporary power/sponsor debt mechanic as a GM.  Can you give me an example of a WCV using his powers and then what happens next using this mechanic?

How I'd run it: most of the time, you just use whatever powers you've paid refresh for.  Let's say you have Inhuman Speed on your sheet - if you use that in a scene, then you get some of the WCV visual effects (silver eyes, etc), because you do still have a "human guise" power - but the resulting hunger isn't overwhelming; your normal feeding habits (whatever they are) are enough to cover it.

But say you need Supernatural Speed for a scene.  Well, that'd cost two refresh - refresh that you don't have (or don't want) to spare; so instead, you pay for that with two points of sponsor debt.  You get Supernatural Speed for the scene... but it's going to come back to haunt you; at the simplest level, you could skip the next scene (because you have to go feed now), or you could kill some random unimportant mook - either of those would probably pay off a point of debt.  Rack up enough debt, though, and the GM is going to start getting evil with it - having you kill or cripple someone you care about, for example, or changing one of your aspects appropriately (which could go either way, really; a loss-of-control incident could promote either "Mortals Don't Matter" or "Afraid Of My Powers", depending on what direction the player wants to take the story.)

Another example of a one-point compel might be just visibly starting to lose control in front of your friends - even if someone like Mouse steps in and makes you back off, that still puts into play an aspect of "Can We Trust Him?" or the like.

[Sanctaphrax]

The same holds true for most of the example powers given at the end of YS.

You mean example spells, right?

In that case, let me add:

^&%$ Orbius.

I've got a player that is using Mimic Abilities as a kind of Catch 'Em All powers thing. I'll see if I can test this a bit, probe where it can be broken and so forth.

I wouldn't expect trouble if he uses it for Powers.

What worries me is the possibility that he could pick up a big skill from a powerful NPC and then keep it forever. One lucky opportunity lets you be overpowered indefinitely.

Mimicking the Merlin's Discipline makes using Refinement to boost your control seem weak. Mimicking Shiro's Weapons is way better than True Aim. And so on.

[Magicpockets]

What's so bad about Orbius anyway? Is it the grapple? Am I missing something?

[Taran]

What's so bad about Orbius anyway? Is it the grapple? Am I missing something?

It's a thing.  A thing that leads to debate.

I think the biggest worry is tthat it allows a wizard to do a DoT spell while doing other actions, which breaks the action economy.

A normal grapple requires a person to use up their action every turn, while a wizard can pump shifts a into duration and then do other actions.

[Tedronai]

It also allows the wizard to initiate a grapple without first establishing an appropriate aspect, and allows grapples of strength far in excess of normal (which isn't so much a problem in and of itself as it's something that makes all those other problems more apparent and troublesome)

[Troy]

The spell should have to be negotiated over multiple turns... The casting places the Aspect SUFFOCATING on the target, which is then freely invoked the next turn to damage the target. And the person who is suffocating isn't really grappled, right? They're just worried about breathing so they don't get taken out? Let them take Actions normally, but they continue to suffocate unless they try to stop the cow patty or whatever...

When I read that spell, I thought it should probably be more like a Thaumaturgy spell not unlike Victor Sells Exploding Heart trick.