MonkeySpirit

The main issue here is that for a lot of us, it seemed like you were implying that you'd like to make a Defender who doesn't use any of his blasting secondary. This is an attitude that is usually associated with poor players and people who seem not to want to understand that Defender blasts contribute greatly both as a source of damage and impairment of the enemy. At first glance, I and many others probably read your first statement as "can I play a pure healer and still be effective?".

That's why I said a "pacifist" should avoid inciting others to violence. Any power that directly increases your comrades' fighting prowess cannot be considered "peace-keeping". The Empathy set as it stands now would only make for a hypocritical "do anything short of making my hands dirty" pacifist.

That's why they let you choose multiple power pools. Make an elec/thermal/earth controller. Wish granted!

Just pick Gravity and Kinetics. Slows, speed-ups, heals to "undo" damage, phasing powers, teleportation. All the time-space control you need.

Wait, how is it 'convenient' to condemn your character to walking much slower than he can? Walking is not a smart battle strategy, it's a self-imposed handicap. It should be clear why they're not bothering much to animate attack powers to segue correctly. It was given to the players as an RP tool. (Weddings nowadays look much better, without both partners running towards the altar like Cthulu was behind them, for example.)

Still, I'd like to see armors being suppressed instead of just turned off when you walk. My sexy mud-wrestler earth tanker would like to be covered in mud while she shashays her hips. Armour powers can play a big part in the character's costume, after all.

Really depends on how they justify it. In both Paragon City and the Rogue Isles there's the Medicom system that teleports you back to hospital when you're defeated in combat so you don't die. A simple hack in the hero or villain badge should allow you to exploit the system and teleport anywhere using the hospital network. I've come accross this explanation used by plenty of Natural origin characters. It just comes down to using your imagination.

For example, I have an earth/thermal Natural origin Controller. How can this be? Well, I've coloured his earth powers grey like concrete because he doesn't actually control the earth, but rather has such a good understanding of battle tactics and structural mechanics, that he can make sure the enemy always gets entrapped in the debris caused by the collateral damage of superpowered explosions (Debris Prediction, so to speak). Likewise, his "thermal" abilities derive from the fact that he has such a high charisma that he can inspire his allies to feel a "burning passion" on the battlefield, psyching them up to Willpower levels. All done by a simple human who's just honed his mental and social skills to remarkable levels.

I think Naturals did indeed get buffed up when the Well of Furies was opened, allowing them to reach higher levels of physical and psionic progress through training (Naturals are still regular humans, but the Well raised their health and damage caps, so to speak), as well as perform feats of higher intellectual inventiveness (thus developing super-Technology) and giving them the resilience to survive and assimilate adverse phenomena (and all of those weird Science explosions). Magic saw a new awakening with the blood of Mu manifesting in its bearers and Mutants suddenly started being born out of the blue.


On topic: When deciding between Natural and Tech origin, I usually ask the question: who does most of the fighting, the hero or his gadgets? That is, does the hero have to train and learn how to use his body effectively to fight, being only aided somewhat by his equipment? (This would be the case of Batman or an SoA who does have to train and develop strong muscles, or a strong mind if they're psychcially inclined.) Or does his technological gizmo provide most of the power behind his punches? (Like Iron Man, these kind of heroes are usually nothing without their tech, which is not the case of the SoA.)

The only SoA I'd really feel inclined to call Tech-origin would be Crab Spiders, who draw their power from the much maligned backpack. The others fight mostly with their own bodies, aiding themselves with some tech.

Actually, from what I gather, psionics are available to every human in the CoX-verse if they just train hard enough. Read through the descriptions for the Psi-Division of the Paragon Police Department, for example. Even Sister Psyche says that her psionic powers are not purely of Mutant origin and that psychics had existed long before the first Mutants popped up (1938, when the atom was split). If Sister Psyche has a mutant ability, it's probably her capacity to stop from ageing while mind-riding, but the psychic powers are there for every human of Natural origin to unlock, even if hers are particularly strong.