Looking at the number of Duo Characters in the tBatB set and the new Blackest Night PAC I have thought about the Transporters and Duo Characters.

Transporters have the Move and Attack ability and the can now make a power action and use Hypersonic Speed with the attack value modified by -2 but does not halve its range value. During its move they can make a close or ranged combat attack as a free action. Before Transporters should be given a move action and during its movement make a close or ranged combat attack as a free action.

Duo Characters have the Duo Attack ability and can make a power action and can make a close or ranged combat attack as a free action.

Both for Transporters and especially for Duo Characters these abilities can be combined with very few powers and abilities. Most attack powers and abilities are close or range combat actions or even power actions and cannot be combined with Move and Attack or Duo Attack.

As I understand it their abilities cannot be combined with Flurry (makes sense), Charge, Mind Control, Hypersonic Speed, Running Shot, Blades/Claws/Fangs, Energy Explosion, Pulse Wave, Quake, Incapacitate, Psychic Blast/Penetrating, Smoke Cloud, Telekinesis, Ranged Combat Expert and Close Combat Expert.

A Transporter can then use Move and Attack using Hypersonic Speed at the same time as carrying other chracters. Duo Characters can simply use Duo Attack making either a close or ranged attack. This makes Transporters and their Move and Attack very useful and Duo Characters and their Duo Attack somewhat useless.

Given their general point values and the sheer numbers in recent sets Duo Characters should somehow be more useful. Instead of being able to make two either close or ranged combat attacks they should be able to make two either close or ranged actions. This would make them very effective and worth their often high point values. But they just might become broken and we have talked about trying this on Duo Characters.

Buddy, let me tell you something. The debate over making duo characters better is many, many posts deep.

and the new wording of the move and attack ability begs the question does Kid Zoom stop them from using move and attack since it says hypersonic is not usable by any other characters. just something to ponder may have to post it in the rules forum


Nevermind on that. I found the post where that was being talked about and debated.

No it doesn't. Duo Attack grants an extra attack roll with one action. NOT useless. Very useFUL.


Substituted Duo Attack with a power most people agree is not useless. What does work well with :

Prob Control. Perplex. Super Strength. Willpower (or ). Range greater than 0 (when you KO or knock back the target of the first attack, you can make the second attack a ranged one). Steal Energy. Outwit.

Just as Energy Explosion, Mind Control or Incapacitate are exponentially better with multiple , so too is much better in combination with one or more of the powers/abilities in the above paragraph.

Duo attack is a great ability, just like Hypersonic Speed is a great power.

Lots of people didn't like the original Shazam! figure, because he combined HSS (a great power) with Quake (an incompatible power). There's a similar problem with some duo figures - they've got a great ability, but their dials are not necessarily optimised to use it.

Quoted for Truth

I am in the camp with the people who want duo attacks to be able to be used in conjunction with more powers. I don't like the change to transporter move and attack because now you can nerf it with Inertia(?) or Kid Zoom (?), whichever one stops hypersonic.

This issue comes up once about every 18 minutes. I think Duo attack should use one action then grant an attack. So powers can be used on one attack but not both.

I like the Powers during the first attack for duos. That would be an easy simple change.

It just seems odd you cannot use Hypersonic Speed, Running Shot, Charge etc. with a Duo Attack when making an attack with a Duo Character.

Given the often hefty point values and the fact these figures represent two characters working together this is kinda hard to explain to new gamers.

I have seen Duo Characters making two attacks with Energy Explosion, Mind Control or Incapacitate but again given their point values most power players tend to avoid most Duo Characters and choose other lower costed figures.

I really like Duo Characters (and also Giants) and often advocate for these. However most Duo Characters does not bring enough to the team build.

As an example could be the new Green Arrow and Batman Duo. Despite a great dial I am pretty sure a team of OotS Bats and CR GA could take down the duo.

But I think having a debate forum makes it ok with threads and post on the same subject...