Just something fresh to calm savages, draw fire, provide boosts or scan something

The new 3-pt piece shouldn't be any more versatile than the ones we have. There are plenty of ways to make another 3-point piece that can't turn into a useful swarm and doesn't displace any of the other 3-point pieces.

* Small base or slow so it's not useful for swapping (Brute's spot)
* Nothing to do with door control or extending CEs (mice and uggie's spots)
* Penalties for being near another copy of itself (either enemy or ally) to prevent swarms. Like maybe - "must attack a character with the same name if possible, even an ally".
* Un-boostable base stats
* Useless unless in a particular spot on the map (e.g. adjacent to a commander, in low objects, etc.)
* Activation automatically lost 50% of the time
* Easily activated by enemies (e.g. just by ending adjacent to them)
* Penalize nearby allies
* Emplacement

Penalties like these would make it so they aren't an easy choice. But if you have an extra ugnaught when you don't really need the door control, then there should be another option. Of course, with a penalty like that, why would you ever take one over a mouse, ugnaught or brute? They'd of course need to provide some sort of benefit...

* Empathy
* Combine fire (can't figure out the hate on this - especially if it were a relatively immobile piece or one where there are penalties for having too many of them.)
* Repair/Heal (that doesn't always work, plus add one of the above penalties on top of it)
* A "combine fire" type ability that works for melee attacks
* Defensive help - sacrifice self to give +2 or +4 defense boost to an adjacent ally (plus it has a penalty above)
* Limited It's a Trap... only works on enemies within 3 squares - or even adjacent enemies
* Like the Rodian Brute but drop the Stable Footing for slightly better stats: +15/+4 instead of +14/+4

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An example:
Snivvian Recruit: cost 3
HP: 10, Def: 14, Atk: 4, Dmg: 0
Melee Attack
Joint Attack: If an ally attacks an adjacent enemy when this character is unactivated, you may activate this character. The ally gains +2 attack.
New Recruit: This character may not move or attack unless an allied commander is within 6 squares.

Interesting! I'd call it an immobilized droid (so we have a RM that can be used and it makes more sense to call it a character). Still have it do absolutely nothing but activate. It just counts as an object (not a character or target or anything) and counts as low objects for cover and doesn't hinder enemy movement. Could be interesting for helping you get stealth at just the right spot on a map.

Actually, making it an object means you can't destroy it at all. Which is bad for activation control. Instead of making it an object, just give it DR20 but it doesn't count as the nearest enemy. So the enemy could ignore it if they wanted, but could destroy it if necessary with any 30dmg attack. Or just say it's an object and it's always considered activated in the first place. Either way would get rid of the "unkillable activation control" problem. Also, have it count as defeated from the outset for the purpose of points.

At any rate, an interesting idea.

Right - I meant to make it worse by making it not a legal target. I wanted to make it not act as a blocker for targeting purposes. I guess the wording would be "enemies may choose to not treat this character as a legal target". Something like that.

Anyway, your version is simpler. I think what you have there is probably a 2 point piece - maybe even 1 - ha! Still useful since it's an activation, but it really doesn't do anything but give cover to allies. In that case, why choose that over a Mouse Droid, which can at least move and block movement?

Add DR 10 and give it 20HP and I think that could be an interesting 3pt piece. Easier to hit than a Mouse, but harder to take down (usually 2 attacks) and it doesn't move. Oh - and change inanimate to say it also doesn't benefit from SA's. It shouldn't launch grenades either. :-)

This is all in the wrong thread anyway. My point was that you can come up with 3pt pieces that would in some circumstance be more useful than the ones we have without replacing the ones we have, and without being overpowered.