Here's the situation people. I love using Vet Hawkeye from Fantastic Forces. He's a Transporter and I want to use the HSS-Lite option with him. I believe it makes you lose 2 attack points? Dropping Hawkeye to a 9 attack. Here's the situation:

I have T-bolts on Hawkeye and declare him Sinister Syndicate. Hawkeye taxiis Bullseye who has a 11 attack.

-Does Hawkeye drop to a 9, then bump up to a 11 because of the SS TA?

-Would that be in the middle of an action and he'd be stuck at a 9?

-Can he even make a HSS-Lite attack while taxiing someone?

Any and all help would be appreciated!

You can do the hss-lite part of the transporter ability while carrying. But while a character is being carried they are considered "off the board" until the movement ends, so hawkeye would not be able to use bullseye's attack if he was being carried. If bullseye was not being carried and was adjacent to hawkeye when he was makeing the hss-lite attack then yes you could use the syndicate to up his attack. Hope this helps.

blastzard- That definitely helps and makes sense, thanx!

In order to use the SS TA you would have to drop Bullseye when you wanted to make the attack. In order to do this and not end your turn you could move in to the AOE of the seperation field generator. So a little planning is involved, but it can be done.

Just want to point out to everyone that Hawkeye could still use the Sinister Syndicate as is described above (must already be in position, etc), but you still must contend with the -2 AV penalty of the transporter move and attack. That penalty is assigned at the moment of attack, not when the movement begins. The actual order of events would be like this:

Move up to Bullseye
Use SS TA to gain 11 AV
Subtract 2 from AV as Hawkeye attacks (leaving you with 9 AV)

Because of this, the V Hawkeye obviously does not benefit (he already has an 11 modified down to a 9). R and E would be ok, but you'd need a character with at least a 12 AV (like V Taskmaster or V Iron Fist) to really boost Hawkeye's AV.

You could try teaming him up with a V Taskmaster and a V Bullseye. Have him transport Taskmaster copying SS, then his attack would drop to a 10, and you could use Taskmaster's Perplex to beef up his damage for some extra punch. Then you'll have Bullseye to pick off things form a distance, and the fear of Taskmaster's 12 AV with BCF if anybody gets to close to Hawkeye.

If all else fails, there's always a touch of Perplex and ICWO ;-).

As has already been pointed out above, this won't work if Hawkeye is actually transporting the character from which he intends to copy the AV. The attack occurs during the movement of the transporter's move and attack option; as such, any character carried by the transporter is still being carried during the attack and is considered off the map (and you can't use its powers or TA). If Hawkeye want's to use Taskmaster's AV via Sinister Syndicate, Taskmaster must already be in place at the location from which Hawkeye plans on launching the attack.

D'oh!

Is this possible?

Hawkeye T-Bolted to SS, with V TaskMaster, V Bullseye, R Destiny, and Teleport Pad. Have Taskmaster walk up to a Teleport pad for free using Brotherhood and use the Teleport Pad to put him in a square that will be adjacent to Hawkeye's full move. Perplex Hawkeye's damage up, then do the running shot up next to Taskmaster?

That's fine; in fact, you can carry Taskmaster during the Running Shot, if you want.

Running Shot is worded differently that the transporter move and attack. With Running Shot, the attack occurs after the movement is over, so a carried character is back on the map when you attack with Running Shot (making its TA available for use).

The set up you describe, though, would be perfectly acceptable for the Transporter move and attack.

Gracias! Appreciate your patience and insight with the myriad of mistakes I keep making. Been a long time and a lot has changed, as well as going to change. Dig the Monarch avatar too. I keep trying to get work to produce Monarch shirts but I don't think its going to happen.

One question about the Teleport pad. If you position that at the third row in from the starting edge so that figures in the front row of the starting area are adjacent to it, can they use it during the same turn to be boosted 6 squares away and then use RS/Charge/HSS (if they have it) right after they teleport?

Nope. First, special objects must be placed at least 5 squares away from the starting area. Second, using the Teleport Pad is a power action, so you can't perform another non-free action after using it. You can teleport and Perplex (or Outwit or whatever), but you can't teleport and Charge/move/attack/place a Barrier etc.

Whew, you had me worried there for a second I thought I couldn't use the shield TA with a flying running shot character (let's say James Rhodes carrying AW Wolverine), in order to boost the damage. That has to be my favorite tactic since AW came out.

Also, I just want to add normalview you are the man, everyday I'm on the realms and I see questions like this and bam there you are already posted with total clarity. I mean seriously you should get paid by the realms or something your powers and insight into game mechanics are just too incredible.

Hate to burst your bubble, but you can't do that. Haven't been able to since Indy. You can't give a character a non-free action after it has been carried (SHIELD TA is a power action). Enhancement works just fine, but that's because it is a free action.

I just spend waaaaaaaaaay too much time on this and WK judges boards. But thanks for the kind words

I'm familiar with the NAAT but can't I just give him the action for the TA before he is carried, then carry him on the Running Shot. We will assume he is adjacent to the flying rs person at the beginning of the turn.

Nope, sorry. SHIELD TA specifically says "When a friendly character makes a ranged combat attack" and the attack doesn't occur until after the movement.

It just won't work... which is too bad, 'cause with all the Perplex, ICWO, and Enhacement out there, it is getting harder and harder to come up with good reasons to use SHIELD (other that because you want to use that particular character). From an efficiency POV, SHIELD just isn't as useful as many other types of modifiers :disappoin