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Sneak Thief

“I never take anything for granted. I may slip any minute.” -Eartha Kitt

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 42 pp

STR 18 (+4)

DEX 24 (+7)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+14 melee/pistols)

DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +11

Grapple: +21

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +5 (+5 Con)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +10 (+7 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 16 pp=64 r

Acrobatics 4 (+11)

Bluff 13 (+15)*

Disable Device 13 (+13)*

Disguise 4 (+6/+31)*

Notice 7 (+10)*

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Stealth 8 (+15)

Feats: 31 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee (6)

Attack Specialization: Pistols (3)

Challenge (Fast Taunt)

Defensive Attack

Dodge Focus (7)

Equipment (3)

Grappling Finesse

Improved Initiative

Power Attack

Second Chance (Disable Device checks)

Skill Mastery (Bluff, Disable Device, Disguise, Notice)

Sneak Attack

Takedown Attack

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)

Powers: 18 pp

Morph 5 (any form) (PFs: Attractive, Covers Scent, Precise) [18 pp]

Equipment: 15 ep

Dual Machine Pistols: (Blast 4 (Extra: Autofire): 12 ep

Grapple Gun: (Speed 1 (10 MPH) and Super-Movement 1 (Swinging): 3 ep

costs

abilities 42 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 16/64 + feats 33 + powers 18 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes;

OK, here’s my take on a sneaky femme fatale-style sneak thief. She’s got a lot of options, putting her somewhere between Catwoman and Mystique on the scale of “cool things I can do.” She’s a pretty good anti-tech thief with her Disable Device Skill Mastery and Second Chance, but she’s _really_ good at subversion. Why break into the bank when you can seduce the bank manager, knock him out, and show up looking just like him the next morning? It’s a matter of taste, and this is definitely a character who may be popular with the fellas on both sides of the law. Is she a reformed bad girl made good, or an honest lady who just happens to have powers that make her very, very good at sneaking around and getting up to business?

Morph is a fun power. Is she naked all the time or does she have clothes? Is she as hot as Rebecca Romijn-Stamos in blue in her natural form, or does she look average (or not like a woman at all!) when her powers are turned off? I gave her Morph for any form: it lowers the overall rank, but she really can turn into ANYTHING. You can drop it to humanoids to make her better at Disguise if you want, that’ll raise the rank and thus give her a higher skill total. Or keep the relatively low rank and spend the points elsewhere. She’s a little ‘powers-heavy’ for a character like this, and might benefit from some higher skills.

She’s a good combatant, though very squishy, and vulnerable to being caught flat-footed. She can handle herself in melee, but works quite well as a two-guns-blazing gun-fu martial artist. It’ll be very easy for her to make a target flat-footed, especially if she’s made herself Attractive to them ahead of time; between her machine pistols and her martial arts skill, it won’t be hard at all for her to take the bad guys down if you play her as the smart, fast fighter she’ll have to be. Give her a complicated relationship with the local Cowl, natch...

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Transmuter

“I had discovered, early in my researches, that their doctrine was no mere

chemical fantasy, but a philosophy they applied to the world, to the elements,

and to man himself.”-W.B. Yeats

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 16 (+1)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +4 (+6 melee, +10 Corrosion/Transmutation)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +9

Grapple: +6

Saves: 7 pp

TOU: +8 (+5 Con, +3)

FORT: +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF: +7 (+5 Ref, +2)

WILL: +5 (+2 Wis, +3)

Skills: 12 pp=48 r

Acrobatics 4 (+9)

Bluff 8 (+9)

Craft: Mechanical 6 (+9)

Craft: Structural 6 (+9)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 6 (+9)

Knowledge: Technology 6 (+9)

Notice 6 (+8)

Search 6 (+9)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Feats: 18 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 2

Beginner’s Luck

Benefit: Status

Challenge: (Fast Taunt)

Defensive Attack

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Luck

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 61 pp

Alchemy Array [53+2=55 pp]

Transmutation 10 (Extra: Duration [Continuous]) (Flaw: Range [Touch]) (1000 lbs) [inanimate to inanimate] (PFs: Accurate 2, Innate) {53}

AP: Corrosion 10 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2, Reversible, Precise, Variable Descriptor 2 [any technological]) {48}

AP: Create Object 10 (Extras: Duration [Continuous], Moveable, Selective) (PFs: Innate, Progression 2 [25 ft cubes-250 ft objects]) {53}

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 32 + combat 20 + saves 7 + skills 12/48 + feats 18+ powers 61 = 150 pts

Design Notes:

This build is for a transmuter, a character who transform one kind of matter into another kind by a touch. This is a very powerful ability, especially since I’ve bought her ability all the way up to Continuous and added the Innate feat. This means that when she touches something, it _stays_ transformed, especially since the Innate feat means that it can’t be easily undone: when she turns glass into water, how do you undo it? It’s actually water! With her Create Object effect, she can make any kind of object you care to name, and again they last and are perfectly ‘real’ objects. They go away when she wants them, and she can shift them and shape them however she pleases. I figure her Corrosion is her blowing things up by touching them, or maybe by summoning a wrench to hit them on the head!

These are powerful abilities, but then notice she has spent a lot of points on them! The fact that she can’t change living flesh directly without a power stunt is a weakness she has, as is the fact that she has no ranged attacks other than trying to whack people with the things she makes. Bedevil her with a flying character with a high Reflex save if you think she’s too powerful. A lot of the possible abuses of Transmutation (and the Transform at its base) are helped out by the fact that she has to be standing there touching whatever it is she’s changing. But you know what, powerful characters deserve to be able to do cool and powerful things.

I’ve built her with the assumption that she’s parlayed her career into a useful occupation as a community mechanic or ‘shaper’ of things for people in the town or neighborhood where she lives, but you can adjust her status to be military rank or whatever else you care to name. Add some Super-Senses (maybe Analytical Touch, or Microscopic Vision) to get a more sophisticated idea of the things she’s making, as it is, she’s a good mechanic and builder who does most of her bigger stuff by instinct. Up her skills if you want to make her more of a gadgeteer with a trick rather than the other way around. I guess you could really recast this character and make her a living suit of armor if you want, but that would take some pretty steep revisions!

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Duplicator

“Duty is not collective; it is personal.” Calvin Coolidge

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 20 pp

STR 26 [10] (+8/+0)

DEX 24 [14] (+7/+2)

CON 26 [12] (+8/+2)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +14/+20

Saves : 7 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +8 (+8 Con)

REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 56 r=14 pp

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Bluff 11 (+15)

Climb 2 (+10)

Drive 3 (+10)

Intimidate 1 (+5)

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Knowledge: History 5 (+5)

Language 1 (Russian) (Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 2 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 1 (+3)

Feats: 16 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3,

Dodge Focus 6,

Evasion

Luck

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 69 pp

Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Miss Chance Only) [10 pp]

Duplication Array 8 (16 pp, PFs: Alternate Powers 4) [20 pp]

BE: Add Area [burst] and Selective to Unarmed

AP: Add Autofire, Secondary Effect to Unarmed

AP: Communication 3 (1000 ft) (auditory) and ESP 3 (1000 ft) (all senses) (PF: Rapid)

AP: Quickness 10 (x10000) and Speed 4 (100 MPH) (PFs: Wall Run, Water Run)

AP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: ~6 tons)

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced CON 12 [12 pp]

Enhanced STR 16 [16 pp]

Immunity 1 (aging) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 14/56 + feats 16 + powers 69 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

This is my revamping of my earlier Duplicator build, following up on angrydurf’s concept of a Duplicator without Duplication. Summon (which Duplication is a version of) is a very difficult (though not impossible) power to manage in play, and it has the additional downside of making you spend a lot of points and not be able to do a lot of the things that comic book duplicators can do. This lady, however, doesn’t have that problem. Her powers deserve a full explanation. I figure that she makes duplicates fast, is mentally linked with all of them, and can make ridiculous numbers at the same time. The duplicates all look alike; her concealment doesn’t mean she’s invisible, it just means you can’t tell which is her and which is the ‘duplicatee when you’re attacking her.

This lets her send out an ‘army’ to sweep a whole area, easily clearing a room in a standard action; she can also focus that army on one target and do a tremendous amount of damage with a volley of unarmed strikes. She can send out dupes as scouts or as communicators, acting as the ‘nerve center’ of a whole superhero army. Not a bad person to put near your team mastermind in a fight, honestly. She can also project herself very fast in a series of duplications, use that ‘team’ to research and accomplish tasks quickly, and can ‘gang up’ on a single object or person to lift them or it greatly. (That’s actually the origin of the book Duplicator, pulling a car off a trapped person, and I think it’s pretty cool)

I kept the Soviet stylings of the original build because I like the concept of the collectivist duplicator: it’s fun! If you like the ‘joke’ of Comrade Collective but don’t want to play an immortal Soviet, switch things up a little: maybe this is a Chinese super-soldier assigned to work with American heroes as a publicity gesture, or perhaps a Cuban doing the same thing. You can get a lot of mileage out of a patriotic ideologue slowly learning that maybe his country is wrong about America and its heroes; that maybe they’re wrong about a lot of things. You can discard that entirely if you want; I do like the origin story of the book Duplicator: a lonely, socially isolated person living in a very rural area, one with so few friends that she decided to make a few of her own to talk to. Duplication is a fun power, and it gives you lots of room for interesting powerstunts. One possible change is to add some kind of Perception Range Move Object to represent your dupes bringing something over to you, as it stands ‘you’ have to join them in muscling things around. OTOH, at least it keeps you from getting all lazy.

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Shadow-Man

“Are you ready?”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 20 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 18 (+4)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 Ranged)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +7/+20

Saves: 15 pp

TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +8 (+0 Dex, +8)

WILL +8 (+4 Will, +4)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Bluff 12 (+14)

Intimidate 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Arcane Lore 8 (+8)

Knowledge: History 4 (+4)

Languages 4 (Chinese, English, French, German)

Notice 8 (+12)

Sense Motive 4 (+8)

Stealth 12 (+15)

Feats: 22 pp

Attack Focus: Ranged (6)

Beginner’s Luck

Challenge 2 (Fast Startle, Fast Taunt)

Connected

Improved Initiative

Hide In Plain Sight

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Precise Shot

Ritualist

Skill Mastery (Bluff, Intimidate, Notice, Stealth)

Startle

Taunt

Ultimate Skill (Bluff)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 50 pp

Darkness Array [24+3=27 pp]

Darkness Control 8 (1000 ft) (Extras: Independent, Selective)

AP: Create Object 10 (PFs: Precise, Progression 2 (10 25 ft cubes, Stationary)

AP: Telekinesis 8 (Extra: Damaging) (Heavy Load: 3 tons) {24}

AP: Teleport 8 (250 ft/2500 miles) (Extra: Accurate) {24}

Flight 2 (25 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [5 pp]

Immortality [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Shield 6 [6 pp]

Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp]

costs

abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 15 + skills 15/60 + feats 22 + powers 50 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

You’ve been messing with the Shadow Man!?! Despite the picture, this is actually closer to a Year One Richard Swift than Dr. Facilier. Still, I think I’ve captured a PC that could stand in for both versions of the character in a pinch. This guy is a master shadow manipulator, capable of making solid objects out of shadow, deflecting bullets fired his way, teleporting his way across the continent by shadows, or tearing his enemies apart or tossing them around by summoning shadow-monsters (as a description for his TK). He can also drop a massive shadow blanket over a very wide area: 1000 ft radius may not sound like much until you think about how big buildings are even in major metropolitan areas. With Independent, that Darkness stays up, too, though it shrinks continuously till it goes away: luckily, he and his allies can see right through it the whole time.

What’s his background? Is he a former villain turned reluctant hero? An immortal Englishman, or Creole sorcerer, adapting as best he can to a rapidly changing world that may be leaving him behind? Or is he simply an elegant fellow who likes to do his superheroing work in top hat and tails? An obvious origin in Freedom City would give him a connection to Der Schattenwelt, the shadow dimension first discovered by Nazi magicians. Maybe he got the power but didn’t go mad like his contemporary Nacht-Krieger? You can drop the Immortality if you just want him to have more of a retro feel to him, but I think characters like this are more fun if they actually remember the good old days.

Mix him up however you want: less power, but more skills? A worse fighter? Maybe with more Arcane Lore to fuel that Ritualist? (Assume he stunted something off his Darkness array to Summon minions if you want to give him Shadowy goods.) Concealment is a natural for this kind of character, maybe limited to shadow. You can give him more points by limiting his Teleport; I chose to make shadow-step a complication rather than a flaw or drawback. After all, there are so many shadows out there. With ESP in his array, maybe he can watch you through them. A natural antagonist is my Frog Totem build on the other page, of course.

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Beast Genius

“God help the Beast in me." -Johnny Cash

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 50 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 22 (+6)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6 w/Growth (+10 Melee)

DEF: 10 (+3 flat-footed w/Growth)

Init: +5

Grapple: +24

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +10 (+7 Con, +3 Protection)

FORT +10 (+7 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 22 pp=88 r

Climb 5 (+11)

Craft: Chemical 6 (+12)

Craft: Electronic 6 (+12)

Craft: Mechanical 6 (+12)

Intimidate 10 (+10/+14)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+14)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+14)

Knowledge: Technology 8 (+14)

Languages 4 (Chinese, English, German, Russian)

Notice 12 (+15)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Swim 4 (+10)

Survival 4 (+7)

Feats: 20 pp

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Melee (4)

Benefit (Security Clearance)

Dodge Focus (4)

Challenge 2 (Acclerated Climb, Fast Startle)

Inventor

Luck

Master Plan

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (olfactory)

Powers: 21 pp

Growth 4 (Extra: Duration [Permanent] (+0) ) (PF: Innate) [13 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 4 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision, Tracking 2) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 50 + combat 28 + saves 9 + skills 22/88 + feats 20 + powers 21 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Inspired by Ecal’s Animal Scientist build, as well as my own love of Soviet kitsch, here is Comrade Bear, perhaps the greatest scientist of the Soviet Union’s super-program. (He’s pictured during his first meeting with his Western rival, Bee-Keeper I.) You wouldn’t know his genius to look at him, though: after the accident with the thought-transferal machine, now he’s their muscle and ‘power forward’, a monster capable of ripping his way through a crowd of enemies, shrugging off all but the most powerful bullets, and then climbing a tree and getting at that delicious honey inside. He can also track people right through the Siberian wilderness that was once his body's home. American superheroes look at him and see a ferocious Communist monster, as well they might!

And maybe they’re right. That’s up to you as his player, certainly. Is he a brutal scientist now with the physical power to crush and destroy where once he merely plotted and schemed? Or is he like the usual ‘truth’ about this kind of character; a gentle, sensitive soul now trapped in a body that makes even his own allies uneasy, a gentle man in a monster’s flesh. Is he a grim Iron Age killing machine, a Silver Age comedic villain, or a thoughtful Bronze Age fellow, a man with the heart of a hero and the body of a monster? It’s up to you, whether you’re playing him as a PC or as a rival to Western heroes in a pre-1991 game. Or maybe he’s a Cold War-era defector! In combat, roar (Startle as a Move Action), then charge into action, wrecking the joint and tearing through goons like they're not there.

Ecal’s got the best notes for customizing this sort of archetype. If you keep the Soviet background, make sure to give his inventions a sort of Zeerust chic to reflect where he got his education. Make him another big, ferocious animal if you want another kind of big, ferocious archetype, natch. In his own setting his security clearance gets him past most obstacles, but since you’ll be playing him most likely in a post Cold War setting in America, the fact that he is a gigantic Communist bear will probably prove a significant complication for him in play.

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Copycat

"Artificial Intelligence is whatever hasn't been done yet."-Larry Tesler

PL 10 (150 pp)

Abilities: 22 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON n/a (-)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +2

Grapple: +16

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Protection)

FORT +n/a

REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 13 pp=52 r

Craft: Mechanical 4 (+6)

Intimidate 12 (+12)

Investigate 4 (+6)

Knowledge: History 4 (+6)

Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+6)

Knowledge: Technology 8 (+10)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 9 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2,

Dodge Focus 4,

Startle,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 75 pp

Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Blending) (PF: Close Range) [5 pp] 'stealth mode'

Immunity 40 (Fortitude saves, Mental effects) [40 pp] 'is a robot'

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] 'robotic muscles'

Protection 10 (Extra: Impervious) [20 pp] 'armor-plating'

Regeneration 5 (+0 Recovery Bonus) (PF: Regrowth) [6 pp] 'smart metal body'

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] 'robotic servos'

Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp] 'sensors'

costs

abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 13/52 + feats 9 + powers 75 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

He awoke in a case, snapping his bonds free with ease even as he did his best to recall what had happened and how he'd gotten there. He'd been on patrol one day when there'd been a light in the sky and he'd recognized the Curator's ship. And then...was he in captivity? His utility harness was gone, but his captors had left him his costume and his wits. He wrapped his cape around his fist and punched through the glass surrounding him, stepping out into a strange gloom he recognized as his own headquarters but terribly changed! There were cobwebs everywhere, and dust, and a feel of long, long time having passed. When he tried to leave, the door had been nailed shut on the other side, and he heard strange voices through the wood. Retracing his steps to look for a weapon, or perhaps his long-neglected car, he found himself back at the place where he'd started. A glass case, and underneath a brass plaque: CURATOR'S ROBOT DOUBLE: JUNE 1 1970. His blood ran cold. Or rather, it would have if he'd had any blood to spill.

This character is a duplicate of a hero from a previous generation, a robot double originally built to infiltrate the heroes of Earth. But he was defeated all those years ago, his memory wiped, and put in the display case of a hero who's gone now. Did that hero die in action, retire and move down to Florida, pass away from too many cakes? Either way, he's gone now, and this robot double with reflections of his memories is the only version of him that's left. His old friends may accept him for what he is, or they may shun the once-enemy robot bearing the face of their absent friend. Either way, he is a true hero...even if sometimes he may not feel true at all. This is a grey-area character, a good way to bring a PC from a previous generation into a current campaign while giving them a whole host of Complications on the way.

Being a HARDAC fan, I went with the assumption that this is the robot double of a costumed adventurer, but you can tweak that however you want. He doesn't have to be a project of the Curator's, either: I went that way to better tie him into the Freedom City setting. But he could be made by Talos, the Labyrinth, ro really anyone else that comes to mind. I gave him Concealment and Speed/Leaping as substitutes for Stealth and movement equipment, mix that up however you want to. If you squeeze points around (maybe by dropping his monstrous Impervious some), you can afford to actually buy the old house where he lives: the assumption I have is that the equipment in his old cave is too old and broken down for him to use right now. And he doesn't really need his old heromobile these days...

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Gaseous Hero

"The sun is a mass of incandescent gas...” -They Might Be Giants

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 16 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 16 (+3)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 14 pp

ATK: +3

DEF: +7 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +3

Saves: 19 pp

TOU +13 (+3 Con, +10 Protection)

FORT +8 (+3 Con, +5)

REF +8 (+0 Dex, +8)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 14 pp=56 r

Craft (Chemical) 7 (+10)

Concentration 15 (+17)

Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 7 (+10)

Language 1 (Spanish; Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 10 (+10)

Feats: 7 pp

Dodge Focus 3

Improved Initiative

Luck

Move-By Action

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 80 pp

Alternate Form 16 (Gaseous Form) [80 pp]

Concealment 2 (Normal Vision) (Flaws: Blending, Passive) [1 pp]

Flight 2 (25 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [5 pp]

Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp]

Insubstantial 2 (gaseous form) [10 pp]

Protection 10 [10 pp]

Super-Senses 1 (Radius Sight) [1 pp]

Toxins Array [40+4=44 pp]

Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Area [shapeable], Selective)

AP: Fatigue 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective)

AP: Nauseate 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective)

AP: Paralyze 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective)

AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective, Sleep (+0))

costs

abilities 16 + combat 14 + saves 19 + skills 14/56 + feats 7 + powers 80 = 150 pts

----

Design Notes:

This is my take on a gaseous character, one who has the ability to turn into a variety of exciting aerosol-based toxins. You need someone to drop sleep gas? They can do that; you need a hero to come along and drop some tear gas, they can do that too! Suffocate’s not a great power, so I took some advice from an old idea of Shaen’s and gave her Strike with a Fortitude save extra: that’s what she busts out when she’s feeling especially nasty. She has radius sight because hey, gaseous cloud, and life support for similar reasons. This is a powerful character, able to drop selective area effects over a wide swath while at the same time (between her good saves, high Toughness, and Insubstantial 2) shrugging off a significant percentage of counterattacks. So what keeps her balanced?

She’s actually a pretty crummy fighter when you get down to it; area attacks are really only useful for goon sweeping and gradually debuffing big bads, and with her low attack she’s going to have a hard time power-stunting anything to hit someone fast and agile. She’s also really weak outside her alternate form, so if you sneak up on her and bop her on the head, or just win initiative, you can probably lay her out. With her low Concentration, she’s going to have trouble keeping up her gaseous body if you manage to stun her, thus leaving her open for further violent retaliation for her antics. Natural rivals in Freedom City include bad guys Sylph and Mr. Mist, both of whom share her gaseous gimmick.

OTOH, weaknesses aside, she’s still very good at what she does! Remember that as of Ultimate Power (typo aside), you do NOT need Affects Corporeal for an Insubstantial 2 character. Stunt Obscure if you want her dropping an opaque mist, maybe Move Object if you want her making use of ‘focused winds’. (Air Control is really not woth your time!) As it is she’s weak against objects, and robots with grenades and lasers could really annoy her. She’s got a fat array great for power-stunting, change some or all of her APs if you want to. You could drop her Flight some to up her Concealment; as it is I figure she becomes a visible cloud of gas when she’s actually attacking, but is hard to make out when she’s just a cloud of air.

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Speedster

“America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there.” -Laurence J. Peter

Abilities: 18 pp

STR: 10 (+0)

DEX: 16 (+3)

CON: 16 (+3)

INT: 10 (+0)

WIS: 16 (+3)

CHA: 10 (+0)

Combat: 22 pp

ATK: +5

DEF: +14 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +23

Grapple: +5

Saves: 12 pp

TOU: +6 (+3 Con, +3 Protection)

FORT: +7 (+3 Con, +3)

REF: +7 (+3 Dex, +3)

WILL: +7 (+3 Will, +3)

Feats: 12 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Improved Initiative 3

Interpose

Luck 3

Move-By Action

Seize Initiative

Set-Up

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Skills: 11 pp=44 r

Acrobatics 10 (+13)

Concentration 10 (+13)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 4 (+4)

Notice 10 (+13)

Sense Motive 10 (+13)

Powers: 75 pp

Alternate Form 8 (Light Body) [40 pp]

Enhanced Feats 10 (Dodge Focus 8, Improved Initiative 2) [10 pp]

Immunity 10 (Aging, Life Support) [10 pp]

Insubstantial 3 (PF: Selective) [16 pp]

Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]

Light Control 1 (5 feet) (Flaw: Touch Range) [1 pp]

Space Travel 1 (1c) [1 pp]

Light Array [30+2=32 pp]

Teleport 9 (anywhere on Earth) (Extra: Accurate) (PFs: Change Velocity, Easy, Turnabout)

AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Perception Range) {30}

AP: Dazzle 10 (visual) (Extra: Perception Range) {30}

Protection 3 [3 pp]

--

Design Notes:

Zing! She’s the fastest woman alive, easily capable of outpacing the vast majority of superheros even with super-speed. How do you do that? Skip Super-Speed entirely and go in a whole new direction: this lady has the power to transform her entire body into living light! She doesn’t speed so much as she teleports; traveling at the speed of light itself. She can fly in space at light speed, or else simply travel so fast it’s as if she hardly moved at all. With Seize Initiative and lots of Luck, she can be faster than your regular fleshy speedsters, and her impressive initiative helps her beat almost any other normal hero in initiative.

Note that she’s not without disadvantages! Her reliance on speed means she’s really vulnerable to being caught flat-footed...but then, isn’t that often the case for speedsters? She also doesn’t have quickness, a lack she may surely come to rue one of these days. But hey, she flies at the speed of light in or out of atmosphere, fires inescapable beams of light (how DO you dodge a laser, anyway?) and can make herself immune to most kinds of bodily harm. But still, she’s made of freakin’ lasers! How cool is that? (Answer: pretty cool) She can blast while made of light; badass!

She’s got a massive array: stunt from it! She can drop all kinds of effects; light is a very broad descriptor. She technically has concealment while going fast, since she’s a teleporter, but you could save up the points to actually give her the power as well. Trying to get through opaque objects is really more of a complication. Adjust her powers a bit if you want to make her more skill-heavy; though most speedsters aren’t Perception range, she’s not a great fighter because of that. As it is she’s like a lot of speedsters; fast, fragile, with a few good options in combat, but at the end of the day is as squishy as the next speedy person. But most of them have to push themselves a LITTLE to literally be faster than light.

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Clown Hero

"All the world loves a clown."-Cole Porter

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

STR 26 [16] (+8/+3)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 26 [16] (+8/+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+12 Pop Gun/Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +13

Grapple: +16

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +8 (+8 Con)

REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 16 pp=64 r

Acrobatics 10 (+15)

Bluff 10 (+13)

Climb 5 (+12)

Craft: Chemical 3 (+3)

Intimidate 8 (+11)

Notice 8 (+10)

Perform [Comedy] 10 (+13)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 23 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

All-Out Attack

Attack Specialization: Pop Gun (2)

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Improved Feint)

Distract (Bluff)

Dodge Focus (4)

Evasion

Improved Initiative (2)

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Set-Up

Takedown Attack

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 40 pp

Device 5 (Pop Gun) (Easy to Lose) [15 pp]

-Stun 8 (Extra: Ranged) (PF: Sedation) {25}

Device 1 (Really Big Mallet) [3 pp]

-Strike 4 (PF: Mighty)

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 32 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 16/64 + feats 23 + powers 40 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

She was just an ordinary clown, entertaining sick children at a hospital, when a chemical accident gave her superpowers beyond the ken of mortal clowns! So she picked up the tools of her trade...or is she a former supervillain's moll turned good, maybe part of a series of card-themed women, having gotten powers from her friend the plant controller...or is she a legacy of that weird clown-themed guy from back in the early 80s? She doesn't like to tell, a lady doesn't reveal her secrets! Yes, this is a clown superhero; a fast, tumbling, laughing rogue, bopping bad guys with giant hammers or shooting them with oversized pop guns, sweeping goons and turning heads with the best of them. So what if people are scared of clowns? She'll show them that _criminals_ are the only people who need to fear a clown acrobat with a hammer so powerful she can use it to batter through steel walls!

There are a couple of obvious ways to tweak this character: more Charisma, some clown-themed Equipment/gadgets, etc. I went with a Year One character who could go in a lot of potential directions: as it is, she's really good solo, but also good on teams, setting up even more damage-shifted powerhouses for really big hits. (A character as good at feinting and taunting as she is who is also damage-shifted is pretty darn formidable offensively!) Give her more Craft if you want to go the more Gadgets route. I figure her gun can either shoot big soft corks or knockout gas, whatever works best for the feel of your character. The hammer is good old-fashioned comedic violence, which is what a character like this can specialize in. Give her more Charisma and some Attractive if you want to play up the sexy lady in the clown suit thing.

You could REALLY tweak this character and give her magic powers like the Mask, but I like the 'hands-on' style of a character who's basically a weird sort of Costumed Adventurer. Tweak the devices too if you want; again, I just stuck with the classics. She could have everything from a Corrosion-squirting flower to a Stun joy-buzzer, but those seem a little mean for someone who's supposed to be on the side of justice. (Well, maybe not the joy-buzzer. Heh-heh-heh!) As always remember with this kind of character that odds are decent that your fellow players may not find her particularly funny, and if her stream of jokes and antics is taking away from other people's fun, it's time to tone it down a little. Threaten supervillains with the hammer, not the guy who took the last piece of bread from the sleeve and stuck you with the heel.

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Color Controller

“All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites.” -Marc Chagall

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 26 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 14 (+2)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +4 (+10 Ranged)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +12

Grapple: +6

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +7 (+2 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +6 (+2 Con, +4)

REF +6 (+4 Ref, +2)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 21 pp=84 r

Bluff 7 (+10)

Concentration 13 (+15)

Craft: Artistic 15 (+15)

Diplomacy 12 (+15)

Intimidate 2 (+4)

Knowledge: History 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 10 (+10)

Languages 2 (Chinese, Spanish) (Base: English)

Profession: Artist 3 (+5)

Notice 13 (+15)

Search 5 (+5)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 20 pp

Attack Focus: Ranged (6)

Dodge Focus (5)

Improved Initiative (2)

Luck (2)

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 49 pp

Immunity 2 (Visual Dazzles) [2 pp]

Flight 3 (50 MPH) (Drawback: Noticeable) [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Rainbow Array [30+7=37 pp]

Color Control 10 (50 foot radius) (Extra: Continuous)

AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) ‘lasers’

AP: Concealment 4 (all visual) (Extras: Affects Others, Ranged)

AP: Create Object 10 (Extra: Moveable) ‘rainbow walls’

AP: Dazzle 10 (visual) (Extra: Duration [Concentration]) ‘turning eyes colors’

AP: Obscure 7 (500 ft) (visual) (Extras: Independent (+0), Selective, Total Fade) 'color bomb'

AP: Stun 10 (Extra: Ranged) ‘blast of colors’

costs

abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 21/84 + feats 20 + powers 49 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This character is a color controller: an uncommon power but one with many different uses! He flies around on a rainbow trail, shooting blasts of multi-colored light at bad guys, building walls of rainbow light, hiding himself and others beneath a glowing ball of colors, and occasionally turning people’s eyes opaque and making them go blind. Hey, just because you’ve got pretty, happy powers doesn’t mean you have to be nice all the time. You can tweak the character’s many APs all you want: I went with the theory that he’s basically a variant light controller with a variety of different abilities. You could give him a true Roy G. Biv style rainbow array if you wanted.

Backstory is up to you! (as always, I just had a few more ideas this time)I went with a great artist who’s an experienced hero: the municipal defender of San Francisco, maybe? (Yes, he’s heard all the jokes.) That’s where the Chinese and Spanish came in, because he speaks the language of his people. Throw in a visit to Oz, that dimension first discovered by L. Frank Baum over a hundred years ago, and maybe you can work in a power origin for him besides just bog-standard mutant. Team him up with the Unicorn build up-thread for a rainbow adventure! Not to mention his natural enemy: leprechauns! Indeed, another origin, I suppose, is that he got his hands on their gold!

I bought the Color Control up to Continuous because otherwise it really is a useless power. The Affects Other Concealment is about turning solid objects transparent: good for looking through opaque objects or helping out in disaster relief! (i.e.; it’s a lot easier to find that trapped baby if you can look right through the sides of the well.) He’s got a fat array, don’t be afraid to power-stunt something really surprising! Colors are a surprisingly broad descriptor, especially if you let yourself go off the visible light spectrum.

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Ultiman Exile

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying." -Woody Allen

Abilities: 56 pp

STR: 30 (+10)

DEX: 14 (+2)

CON: 30 (+10)

INT: 14 (+2)

WIS: 14 (+2)

CHA: 14 (+2)

Saves: 10 pp

TOU: +10 (+10 Con)

FORT: +10 (+10 Con)

REF: +6 (+2 Ref, +4)

WILL: +8 (+2 Will, +6)

Skills: 8 pp=32 r

Concentration 8 (+10)

Knowledge: History 8 (+10)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 11 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (3)

Dodge Focus (6)

Eidetic Memory

Jack-of-all-Trades

Powers: 49 pp

Comprehend 2 (speak and understand all languages) [4 pp]

Cosmic Array [24+6=30 pp]

Cosmic Energy Control 10 (PFs: Accurate 3) [Dynamic]

DAP: Flight 10 (total of Flight 11 [15,000 MPH] )

DAP: Healing 10 (Extra: Action [standard]) (Flaws: Personal)

DAP: Super-Strength 10 (total of Super-Strength 11 [1440 Tons] )

Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]

Immunity 12 (aging, life support, starvation, sleep) [12 pp]

Regeneration 1 ([Resurrection 1/week] (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [3 pp]

Super Strength 1 (Heavy Load: 1.5 tons) [2 pp]

Combat: 16 pp

Attack +4 (+10 Cosmic Energy Control/+10 Unarmed),

Defense +10 (+2 flatfooted),

Knockback -5,

Initiative +2,

Grapple +24

----

Design Notes:

Criminy, it really, really is not easy to build an Ultiman (expies of Marvel's Eternals) at PL 10 (150 pp). Damn you, Steve Kenson! I made some massive modifications here to suit both our house rules and to try and trim down the ridiculous fat from the Kenson-built template. With Standard Action Personal Healing, this guy can concentrate and appear to regenerate quickly from most injuries, while with Dynamic Flight and Super-Strength in his big Cosmic Array he can go really, really fast and be really strong: with Flight and Super-Strength both outside the Array, he can also lift heavy objects and blast people with cosmic powers at full power while staying in the air. I dropped the low-level Telepathy entirely: he can still use it as a descriptor for his Comprehend, and if he really needs psychic communication, he can stunt it off his array. (Heck, maybe being 'mute' among his people is why he left home in the first place.)

He's still immortal thanks to Immunity and Regeneration, and still immune to most of the Earthly concerns of your average person for the same reasons. He's a crummy fighter. Hey, he's spent centuries living in contemplation in Hyperborea, he's not been brawling on the streets with human scumbags! But if he's active long enough as a superhero, he'll certainly change there! His origin, among the secret Ultimen who live in Hyperborea, is one heck of a complication for him. Stop and think about why he left; particularly when cast against the nature of his immortal existence. Was he inspired like his relative Kal-Zed by the Nazi intruders who came in the 1930s, except to protect rather than rule those people? Or did he come later, inspired by the heroes who came to visit Hyperborea in the decades since. Remember, to an Ultiman, a decade is just a few months, if that...

So many complications! Besides his origins, there's his treacherous 'cousin' Kal-Zed, aka Superior, the Nazi Superman, not to mention having no idea how to get along in the crazy world of modern humanity. He's gone from being among the weakest and youngest of his people to being among the most powerful beings on Earth, that's bound to have a certain impact on your personality! Since he's a hero, hopefully it'll be for the best. You can mix the sheet up however you want, this is just my attempt to trim down a very over-built template into an actually PC-sized character sheet. I'm sure there are lots of other ways to do it, but this is a way I think'll work OK!

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Lady Liberty

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." -Elmer Davis

Abilities: 30 pp

STR: 30 [14] (+10/+2)

DEX: 16 (+3)

CON: 14 (+2)

INT: 12 (+1)

WIS: 16 (+3)

CHA: 18 (+4)

Saves: 17 pp

TOU: +10 (+2 Con, +8 Protection)

FORT: +8 (+2 Con, +6)

REF: +7 (+3 Dex, +4)

WILL: +10 (+3 Wis, +8)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Bluff 6 (+10)

Diplomacy 11 (+15)

Knowledge: Civics 9 (+10)

Knowledge: History 9 (+10)

Languages 4 (ASL, Cantonese, French, Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 7 (+10)

Profession: Lawyer 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Feats: 19 pp

Attack Focus: Melee (4),

Benefit: Hero of the People,

Dodge Focus (4),

Inspire (4),

Luck,

Power Attack,

Quick Change,

Taunt,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 50 pp

All-American Array [22+4=26 pp]

Enhanced Strength 16 and Super-Strength 3 (180 tons),

AP: Deflect 11 [all ranged attacks],

AP: Light Control 11

AP: Healing 11,

AP: Nullify 11 [all binding and imprisoning effects at once]),

Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [11+2=13 pp],

DAP: Super-Strength 5

Protection 8 (Extra: Impervious) [16 pp],

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 melee),

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed),

INIT: +3

Grapple: +20/+28

Drawbacks: -5 pp

Power Loss (all powers, when bound or imprisoned, –5 points)

------

Design Notes:

This is my attempt at a PL 10 (150 pp) version of Lady Liberty, the premiere patriotic paragon of the Freedom City setting. This build would work OK as a Year One version of Beth Walton-Wright, the current Lady Liberty, or as a similar character empowered by her death/retirement. (There's a mention that she and her husband are thinking about kids, and as they're in their mid-40s, it's getting about time to deal with that or not!) It's one of my favorite Kenson builds and concepts, though as usual it needs significant reworking to make the build worth playing. Lady Liberty is an old legacy in the Freedom City universe stretching back to the American Revolution, with connections reaching out to democratic movements all over the world. The new Lady Liberty, having come to power by retirement or death, is instantly going to be an international celebrity.

So what exactly did I do? I made her powers more of an array, putting her Enhanced Strength together with the 'light of liberty'; she can fly at the speed of sound, deflect bullets and missiles with her liberty shield, heal the wounded, and with the power of Liberty itself shatter bonds both mental and physical! (The sample use of the power has her breaking a mind control effect on a teammate, and of course she could use it to break chains and such...assuming she wasn't bound herself! Yes, she does have the goofy Marstonian 'lose-my-powers-when-tied-up' weakness of the Golden Age Wonder Woman. But I think that's not so bad: at least it fits her backstory, and she's much less likely to take it as Fetish Fuel.)

Keep this build as a woman, please: all the known Lady Liberties are female. You can take or leave Southern Belle, the supposed 'Confederate' spirit of Liberty told in a really awful way in Worlds of Freedom. The spirit of Confederate liberty is a _villain_, not a hero. Consider it a dark chapter in a character's bright and shiny backstory, a suggestion that she really does get her powers from _America_ (a major source of complications) or even better look at it as a mystery for the character to uncover: who was Southern Belle? Where did her powers REALLY come from? Perhaps from a certain Infamous blockade runner who just didn't give a damn?

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Rock and Roll Hero

“When things go wrong, don’t go with them.”-Elvis Presley

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 14 pp

STR 30 [10] (+10/+0)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 30 [10] (+10/+0)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +6

Grapple: +16

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 13 pp=52 r

Bluff 11 (+14/+18 w/Attractive)

Drive 5 (+7)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 8 (+8)

Perform (Rock and Roll) 12 (+15)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 12 pp

Attractive

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Distract (Bluff)

Dodge Focus 2

Fascinate (Perform)

Improved Initiative

Luck

Power Attack

Quick Change

Uncanny Dodge (sonar)

Powers: 73 pp

Enhanced CON 20 [20 pp]

Enhanced STR 20 [20 pp]

Immortality (1 day) [5 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Rock and Roll Array [20+2=22 pp]

Sonic Control 10 (Extra: Area [Cone] (+0)) '

AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Area [Cone] (+0) )

AP: Trip 10 (Extras: Area [Cone] (+0), Knockback)

Super-Senses 5 (Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing, Analytical Normal Hearing) [5 pp]

costs

abilities 14 + combat 28 + saves 10 + skills 13/52 + feats 12 + powers 73 = 150 pts

----

Design Notes:

This is a reimagined version of the Silver Age archetype, influenced by my own earlier optimization of the build as well as taking an interest in building competent characters. He may not be the king of rock and roll, but he has an excellent claim to royal blood: he’s one of the world’s greatest musicians, as well as a low-grade powerhouse and master of musical blasts. The core book build is a pure blaster, but I went with the theory that people like punching bad guys! His music is suitable for goon-sweeping, or perhaps you can argue that while minions can yet be touched by the power of music, it takes a good right cross to deal with the real bad guys!

His skills are pretty generic, quite deliberately so, to better reinforce his flexibility. Put him in a doofy wig and he’d fit in fine with the Monkees, give him a psychedelic look to put him at Woodstock, put him in big hair to make him a metal guy! He’s not smart, not really, but he is very savvy about people, and he’s in touch with what the kids want to listen to. If he’s not a solo act, maybe his secret identity is the bassist in whatever band he’s a member of! (No one cares about the bassist) If your GM is a square about rock and roll being more than one Perform skill, shave some points here and there to pump up whatever you decide he specializes in.

I went with the theory that this is an immortal musician who’s been around for decades, perhaps having faked his death at least once along the way, but of course that only applies for a Silver Age character in a Modern Age game. You can drop the immortality for something else if you’re playing in his own era, but of course he may want that immunity to poison the first time he experiments with reefer. (Reefer will kill you dead in comics, man, deader than a doornail! And as for pills, well...) You can just give a modern look and put him in the context of contemporary pop music, but frankly I shudder at the thought of building a boy band member.

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Bionic Hero

“An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money-making machine.”-Marylin Monroe

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

STR 30 [16] (+10/+3)

DEX 30 [16] (+10/+3)

CON 30 [16] (+10/+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +14

Grapple: +16

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +10 (+10 Ref)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 20 pp=80 r

Acrobatics 15 (+25)*

Bluff 12 (+15)*

Climb 1 (+11)

Disable Device 10 (+10)*

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Languages 2 (Chinese, English) (Base: Albanian)

Notice 12 (+15)*

Pilot 5 (+15)

Sense Motive 4 (+6)

Stealth 10 (+20)

Swim 4 (+14)

Feats: 23 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

All-Out Attack

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Benefit (Security Clearance)

Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff)

Connected

Contacts

Dodge Focus 4

Evasion

Fearless

Improved Initiative

Luck 2

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Disable Device, Notice)

Takedown Attack 2

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 49 pp

Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp]

Enhanced DEX 14 [14 pp]

Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 5 (Extended Normal Hearing and Vision, Sonar [Accurate Ultrasonic Hearing]) [5 pp]

costs

abilities 28 + combat 24 + saves 6 + skills 20/80 + feats 21 + powers 49 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Here’s another reimagined Silver Age archetype, this time of the Bionic Hero. I dropped the Impervious Protection and the Blast, and made her a fairly straightforward representation of a Austin/Sommers-style cyborg. She’s stronger, faster, and tougher than any human being thanks to her enhancements, capable of vaulting over a high-wire fence, chasing down a car, and with significantly enhanced sight and hearing. The Blast was too expensive to appear regularly on network TV in the 70s (stunt it off her Enhanced STR if you want it), and I think the lack of Impervious fits a super-agent better. Sure, she’ll probably be OK in the end if that mook shoots her, but she stands a decent chance of getting hurt, and it might even be a serious injury if it misses her robotic parts and hits something vital.

She's a really good fighter: do some backflips and your opponent WILL (unless they're some freak) be flat-footed trying to resist a DC 35 Acrobatic Bluff as a move action. I could have limited her Enhanced Attributes to one limb, but that's real hard to police in play and a little janky. Figure she's got all new limbs everywhere! There are lots of ways to play a bionic hero, rebuilt by the government after some accident (I’ve deliberately left open this lady’s background before her accident, but she’s definitely an agent now!), our own Jackgarprime is hitting a lot of the high notes with his character Victory. The Silver Age book has some advice that I won’t repeat here, the better to promote people to get out there and buy 2nd edition Freedom City books! You can’t go too dark if you are an agent of a ‘friendly’ agency/government.

Freedom City is basically a lawful good setting; agencies like AEGIS and UNISON are on the side of justice, and they’re not going to be your enemy. But in the world of espionage, they may not always be your _friend_, either. It’s an important distinction that your character will have to learn the minute they switch from the Silver Age to the Bronze Age. If you do want to play a rogue agent on the run from her former masters, remember that AEGIS and UNISON aren’t the only super-agent builders in the world of Freedom, and most of the others aren’t as nice.

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Tycoon Hero

"I'd like to live as a poor man with lots of money." -Pablo Picasso

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 38 pp

STR 12 (+1)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 18 (+4)

INT 26 (+8)

WIS 18 (+4)

CHA 20 (+5)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8

DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed)

Grapple: +10

Init: +8

Saves: 12 pp

TOU +6 (+4 Con, +2 Shirt)

FORT +6 (+4 Con, +2)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +10 (+4 Wis, +6)

Skills: 22 pp=88 r

Bluff 10 (+15)

Craft: Chemical 7 (+15)

Craft: Electronic 7 (+15)

Craft: Mechanical 7 (+15)

Diplomacy 10 (+15)

Gather Info 10 (+15)

Intimidate 10 (+15)

Languages 4 (Cantonese, French, Russian, Spanish) (Base: English)

Knowledge: Business 7 (+15)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 7 (+15)

Knowledge: Technology 7 (+15)

Notice 11 (+15)

Sense Motive 11 (+15)

Feats: 18 pp

Benefit 3 (Wealth 3)

Challenge (Fast Distract)

Connected

Contacts

Distract (Bluff)

Dodge Focus 6

Eidetic Memory

Equipment

Inventor

Master Plan

Speed of Thought

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Well-Informed

Powers: 28 pp

Gadgets 4 (hard to lose, standard action to change allocation) {20 pp to spend} [28 pp]

Sample Gadgets:

-Blast 8 (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit, Precise) {20} ‘blaster pistol’

-Teleport 8 (Continental) (Extra: Accurate) (Flaw: Long-Range Only) (PFs: Change Velocity, Progression 3 (500 lbs) ) {20} ‘emergency teleporter’

Equipment: 5 pp

Cell Phone [1 ep]

PDA [1 ep]

Undercover Shirt (Protection 2) (PF: Subtle) [3 ep]

costs

abilities 38+ combat 32 + saves 12 + skills 22/88 + feats 18 + powers 28 = 150 pts

----

Design Notes:

What can I say, I always thought Lex Luthor had a point! There's something remarkable about a self-made billionaire genius, even if in the real world they tend to be more like Warren Buffet or Bill Gates than Lex Luthor. Well, this is a Lex Luthor type turned hero: a very rich, very powerful mastermind who's decided to get his hands dirty in a personal battle for justice. Sure, you could be like Bruce Wayne and spend your life training to be the world's greatest athlete and detective, but why not be the world's greatest scientist and one of the richest and most powerful people on Earth instead? (Unlike that costumed adventurer guy, you can go to those wild parties and actually enjoy them!)

His big weakness is the standard action it takes him to switch gadget allocations: I've put up a few sample construction that might be his 'default' arrangement of his Variable Power points. My advice in combat is to take advantage of his high Charisma, Bluff, and Move Action Distract to keep that (villainous) paragon distracted while you pull out the blaster pistol super-charged with that certain element to which he's so deliciously vulnerable. (Or your emergency teleporter, if you're just trying to get away.) Of course, since he can pull out 20 pp worth of ANYTHING that can be explained as a super-science gadget, his Variable Power isn't exactly a weakness...

You're one of the richest men on Earth, and one of the sneakiest; take advantage of it! If you get captured by bad guys, offer to double whatever Dr. Stratos is paying them. Or use your high Gather Info to donate ten million bucks to the orphanage where that one supervillain grew up if he'll tip you off to what his friends are getting up to. Drop the Gadgets some to buy more Feats and Skills, or maybe cut his base Attributes some for more points. Save up points to buy Move or Free Action allocation on those gadgets to really be dangerous!

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Horus the Avenger

“In Egypt, the living were subordinate to the dead.” -Stephen Gardiner

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 48 pp

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 20 (+5)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+8 melee/+10 Blast)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +16

Init: +7

Saves: 7 pp

TOU: +10 (+7 Con, +3 Protection)

FORT: +7 (+7 Con)

REF: +5 (+3 Ref, +2)

WILL: +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 19 pp=76 pp

Bluff 5 (+10)

Diplomacy 5 (+10)

Intimidate 15 (+20)

Knowledge: Arcane Lore 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 10 (+10)

Languages 2 (Arabic, English) (Base: Ancient Egyptian)

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 7 (+10)

Ride 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 4 (+6)

Feats: 20 pp

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Melee (2)

Challenge (Fast Startle)

Dodge Focus (4)

Improved Initiative

Inspire (5)

Luck

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack (2)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 29 pp

Device 5 (Ankh of Horus) (easy to lose) (PFs: Restrictedx2 [Horus]) [17 pp]

-Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2)

-AP: Dazzle 10 (visual) (PFs: Accurate 2)

-AP: Flight 5 (250 MPH) and Strike 5 (PF: Mighty) (Extra: Penetrating)

-AP: Nullify 10 (deceptions) (PFs: Accurate 2)

Immunity 1 (aging) [1 pp]

Impervious Toughness 6 [6 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Super-Strength 1 [2 pp]

costs

abilities 48 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 19/76 + feats 20 + powers 29 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my attempt at a PL 10 Horus the Avenger, the Thor analogue of the Freedom City universe who was active as a superhero in the Silver and Bronze Ages. This build assumes a new avatar for Horus, as before a mortal man imbued with the powers and memories of a god, but retaining his own basic humanity underneath. Thus, not a lot of immunities, since Horus’ divine essence is still technically in Heliopolis. (This is necessary in the Freedom City universe, since gods _can’t_ come into the mortal world without being invited, and even then generally only through avatars and other vessels. The nice ones do so voluntarily, the not nice ones...well.)

Horus has CHARISMA! After all, gods should chew the scenery a little! With his massive Intimidate and Startle, he’s very good at reducing all but the sternest bad guys to quavering jelly. After all, the Avenging Son of Heliopolis has come to Earth to crush them! He has a light-theme to his powers, shooting out blasts of blinding sunlight, hitting people with the power of his mighty ankh, and otherwise making a spectacle of himself in the way only a scenery-chewing god can. Does he speak in Shakespearean English? Hey, it makes about as much sense as a Norse god doing so! (Maybe that’s when he learned the language, or maybe he just thinks it makes him sound more impressive!)

You can build plenty of divine PCs, I have a couple on this very thread. Horus is fun, though, because of the connections to both Freedom City’s relatively recent past and Earthly mythology: why has the Avenger returned to Earth only a few decades after his last appearance? Is he eager to resume his relationship with the Freedom League, or does he seek to forge a new path this time? How does a god’s responsibility balance with a man’s, not to mention a hero’s? It’s a complicated road for the Avenging Son, one that he walks with considerably fewer friends these days...

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Hepcat II

“I really believe, or want to believe, really I am nuts, otherwise I’ll never be sane.” -Allen Ginsberg.

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

STR 26 [16] (+8/+3)

DEX 24 [14] (+7/+2)

CON 26 [16] (+8/+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 melee)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +11

Grapple: +20

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +10 (+8 Con, +2)

REF +10 (+8 Ref, +2)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 18 pp=72 r

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Bluff 11 (+15)

Craft: Artistic 12 (+12)

Intimidate 4 (+8)

Knowledge: Current Events 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 5 (+5)

Perform (Hip-Hop Poetry) 11 (+15)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 21 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee 6

Distract (Bluff)

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Quick Change

Takedown Attack

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (visual)

Powers: 45 pp

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Leaping 4 (x25) [4 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 10 (True Sight) [10 pp]

costs

abilities 28 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 18/72 + feats 21 + powers 45 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

The Bouncing Beatnik doesn’t get a lot of love on this site, or in Freedom City lore in general, so I thought I’d build a PL 10 playable version of Hepcat to try and raise awareness. Hepcat was a defender of the West End back in the 1950s and 1960s, a fast, acrobatic guy with a patter of taunts derived from beat poetry: no surprise, since he was a beat poet empowered by the spirit of freedom embodied by the movement itself! He gets a lot cooler when you realize that he was basically the Lee/Ditko Spiderman, roundly disliked by the authorities because he was operating in the mid-1950s in the period when superheroes were widely distrusted by the Freedom City public after the dissolution of the Liberty League after the McCarthy investigation. So it wasn’t just because the Freedom City public were big jerks, no indeed!

My assumption here is that this build is basically Hepcat II, not the Silver Age hero returned from the dead but rather another young artist empowered by the spirit of artistic freedom that the Hepcat spirit represents. Adjust her artistic style however you want; I made the assumption that she’s the modern day equivalent of a beat poet like the original: aka, a hip-hop artist, but you can tweak as necessary. She’s a very good poet, equally good composing or performing. In costume, she’s a fast, charismatic acrobat the way the original was. I added the True Sight with the fluff that the power of artistic truth lets her see right through the lies of the world straight through the pure untarnished heart of the matter!

Legacy heroes are always fun to play. One twist that might be interesting is taking the angle that this lady has no idea who the previous Hepcat was, but is engaged in her private investigation to find out about the last hero to bear her current name. Cross-generational legacies also open you up to time travel stories and ‘living up to the name.’ That’s worth thinking about Think about ways to keep up the legacy: Hepcat was a radical figure in his own era, how does Hepcat II measure up? Just make sure that if you play a political character that their poltiics are part of their story, not the point of their story.

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Supervillain Legacy

“There will always be bad guys out there in the world who will try to take advantage of people's vulnerabilities.” -Bill Clinton

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 34 pp

STR 16 (+3)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 16 (+3)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +8 (+12 Ranged)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +11/+20

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+3 Ref, +3)

WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 19 pp=76 pp

Acrobatics 12 (+15)

Climb 7 (+10)

Craft: Chemical 7 (+10)

Gather Information 8 (+10)

Intimidate 13 (+15)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 2 (+5)

Knowledge: Streetwise 12 (+15)

Languages 1 (Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Feats: 17 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Ranged (4)

Dodge Focus (6)

Evasion

Improved Initiative

Luck

Power Attack

Startle

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 43 pp

Glue Array [25+3=28 pp]

Move Object 8 (Extra: Damaging) (PF: Improved Crit)

AP: Snare 8 (Extra: Autofire) (PF: Reversible)

AP: Snare 10 (Extra: Area [Line] (+0)) (PFs: Precise, Progression 2, Reversible)

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Movement 4 (Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling 2) [8 pp]

costs

abilities 34 + combat 28 + saves 9 + skills 19/76 + feats 17 + powers 43 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

You had no idea you had superpowers till the cops busted down the door during dinner. From the startled look on your father’s face as you blasted the guys tackling him across the room, neither did he. But you were new to your powers and surprised by a guy with a taser, and when you woke up you were in power nullifiers and the people from Social Services were having a talk with you. You’d always wondered what your parents did for a living; your father’s “scientific career” and your mother’s “consultancy gigs” were getting more and more vague even for a sixteen year old.

But now you know: your mother was the famous assassin Triggerari, the deadliest gun on the Eastern Seaboard, and your dad was Glue-Gun-George, slightly goofy supervillain turned super-scientist for hire. Your folks had both settled down after your birth, sticking to hired-gun jobs to keep bread on the table, and truthfully they might have gotten away with it except for some good police work. The hell of it is, though, they actually raised you with fairly good values: when you saw the fiendish devices your father built and the body count left behind by your mom, you were shocked enough that when a man named Duncan Summers came to meet with you, you listened to what he said. And now you’re at Claremont Academy, putting the powers you absorbed from your mother’s training and your dad’s science to work for justice. But sometimes you think about your dad in his cell, and your mom. She’s still out there. Is she looking for you?

Season to taste, obviously. This is one archetype we don’t have at Claremont, and it’s one I think would be worth exploring further: supervillains have a history as rich as superheroes in-setting, after all. Teen heroes are all about having complicated relationships with their parents, and you don’t get a more rich series of complications than one parent in jail, one parent on the run, and a family name that’s going to get all over the school as soon as someone makes a Gather Info roll. That’s going to suck. Maybe you should make them _pay_.

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Well-Meaning International Hero

“A peaceful world is an inclusive world.”-Judith Umbach

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 36 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 18 (+4)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 melee)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +15

Saves: 11 pp

TOU +7 (+4 Con, +3)

FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3)

REF +9 (+4 Ref, +5)

WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 25 pp=100 r

Acrobatics 11 (+15)

Bluff 12 (+15)

Climb 3 (+5)

Intimidate 7 (+10)

Knowledge: Civics 3 (+5)

Languages 5 (English, French, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish) (Base: Arabic)

Notice 12 (+15)

Pilot 6 (+10)

Sense Motive 12 (+15)

Stealth 11 (+15)

Survival 8 (+10)

Swim 3 (+5)

Feats: 25 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Melee 5

Dodge Focus 5

Environmental Adaptation [Desert]

Evasion

Improved Crit (swords)

Improved Defense

Improved Initiative

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack (2)

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 21 pp

Device 1 (Flying Carpet) (Hard to Lose) [4 pp]

-Flight 5 (250 MPH) (Flaw: Platform) {5}

Strike 7 (Extra: Autofire) [14 pp] 'magic scimitars'

Protection 3 [3 pp] 'toughness of the desert'

costs

abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 25/100 + feats 25 + powers 21 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, superhero comics began noticing that people who weren’t white existed, some of whom had money. More to the point, their largely white male audiences were noticing that too, and some of them were liberal-minded enough (or their parents were) that they wanted to read about those non-white people. The rise of African-American superheroes is famous enough, but I’ve always been interested in the international heroes: the acknowledgement that nations besides America also had their superpowered champions. They were all nice and well-meaning, like the half-naked Brazilian pyrotechnic, the Irish luck controller, or in this case, an Arab champion with a flying carpet and wielding magic scimitars. Of course she is.

But hey, she’s actually fairly good at her job! Her swords are very effective at slicing and dicing: I figure they’re magic blades passed down through her family line, with her as the first female heir in who knows how many hundreds of years. She flies along at nearly jet speeds, slicing with her swords, staying mobile with her carpet to really go to town. She’s really good at surviving and navigating in the deep desert ‘of course she is’, and not a bad host for superheroes from other lands come to visit her home, as well as powerful enough to do well for herself even if her mission forces her to leave her motherland. In a world where she’s not likely to face anything more than mundane military and maybe PL 6-8 low-rent super-thugs, she really is the most powerful person in her nation.

A lot of ways to play a character like this: you don’t have to do any deconstruction at all! But maybe she’s smarter than she lets on, and consciously plays to stereotypes of the repressed sword-wielding Arab in order to get her enemies to let their guard down. She may have permanently relocated to the US if her home country has suffered something topical like a military coup d’etat or similar disaster, or maybe she’s just recently come back to the United States after staying long enough to deal with a problem like that. Either way, her home country is always going to be on her mind...

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Doc Metropolis II

“What is the city but the people?” William Shakespeare

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 24 pp

STR 12 (+1)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 22 pp

ATK: +3

DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +4/+20

Saves: 11 pp

TOU: +6 (+3 Con, +3 Protection

FORT: +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF: +6 (+3 Dex, +3)

WILL: 8 (+3 Will, +5)

Skills: 19 pp=76 r

Climb 2 (+3)

Concentration 10 (+13)

Craft: Structural 10 (+10)

Gather Information 5 (+7)

Knowledge: Current Events 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Streetwise 10 (+10)

Languages 4 (Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 10 (+13)

Search 10 (+10)

Sense Motive 10 (+13)

Feats: 15 pp

Beginner’s Luck

Dodge Focus

Evasion 2

Fearless

Improved Initiative 2

Luck 3

Second Chance (Climb checks)

Skill Mastery (Craft: Structural, Notice, Search, Sense Motive)

Trance

Uncanny Dodge (tactile)

Well-Informed

Powers: 59 pp

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Shield 5 [5 pp]

Super-Senses 5 ‘City Sense’ (Acute Analytical Tremorsense) [5 pp]

Urban Control Array [41 pp+5=46 pp]

Create Object 10 (Extras: Duration [Continous], Selective) (PF: Precise)

AP: ESP 6 (all senses) (20 miles) (Extras: Affects Others, Simultaneous) (PFs: Rapid 4 (x10000), Subtle)

AP: Snare 10 (Extras: Area [shapeable], Selective Attack) (PF: Reversible)

AP: Teleport 6 (20 miles) (Extras: Accurate, Duration [sustained], Portal) (PFs: Change Velocity, Easy, Progression 2 (25x25 squares), Turnabout)

AP: Telekinesis 10 (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception]) (PF: Precise)

costs

abilities 24 + combat 22 + saves 11 + skills 19/76 + feats 15 + powers 59 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my attempt at building a city controller like Freedom City’s Dr. Metropolis or the Wildstorm Universe’s Jack Hawksmoor. In the Freedom City universe, this character may well have gotten his powers from the same mysterious source as Freedom City’s city elemental: either by direct inspiration or a gift from the man himself. Maybe he was injured in a super-fight and Metropolis resurrected him in the aftermath? Perhaps he was a long-time lover of Freedom City, a native turned city booster, and was thus empowered by Freedom in his own right. Either way he’s a natural legacy for the ‘workhorse’ of the Freedom League, and not one that the ‘construct’ Metropolis might have had a chance to leave behind any other way. (Not a lot of ladies want to get with the guy made of concrete: sorry, Ben Grimm!)

Note that unlike typical builds for this character, he does _not_ have a Flaw limiting his powers to urban materials or a drawback that makes him sick if he goes outside city limits: since in our game we’re virtually always in city limits, that’s a complication for him, not anything worth actually getting points back at character creation. And he’ll want that HP, too. I figure he can do things like grow back damaged buildings with his Create Object, sense everything going on in the city with his ESP, walk through walls and across town with his Teleport, and grab and crush people with his Snare and Damaging Telekinesis. I didn’t give him a Blast: with Damaging TK, you really don’t need it! He’s got Luck 3 and a big array, if you need new tricks, stunt stunt stunt!

Stunt a bigger Teleport if you want to go to other cities: as it is, you’ll be spending a lot of time at home! You might think a character like this would be a natural rival for a plant controller, but I don’t think that’s true: cities need parks and tree-lined sidewalks to survive. Think about buying some immunities (say, to urban pollution) or Permeate with PP you get in play: he doesn’t need those to function well as a starting character, but they might come in handy in play. (One advantage of Permeate is that you don't have to switch array slots when you walk through walls, which is one thing he’d have to do with his current system of urban transportation.)

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Avian Hero

“I hope you love birds too. It is economical. It saves going to heaven.”

-Emily Dickinson

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

STR 30 [14] (+10/+2)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 30 [16] (+10/+3)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +26

Saves: 12 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +10 (+3 Dex, +7)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Aerobatics 12 (+15)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+10)

Medicine 8 (+10)

Languages 4 (Danish, English, German, Polish) (Base: Avian)

Notice 8 (+10)

Search 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 4 (+6)

Feats: 13 pp

Aerobatic Bluff

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Melee (2)

Defensive Attack

Dodge Focus (2)

Evasion

Improved Initiative

Luck

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 50 pp

Avian Array [20+2=22 pp]

Enhanced STR 14 and Super-Strength 3 (6 tons) ‘strength of the ostrich’

AP: Obscure 6 (visual and auditory) (250 ft) ‘flockswarm’

AP: Stun 10 (Extra: Area [Cone] (+0) ) ‘shriek of the kakapo’

Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals) (Limited: Birds Only) [2 pp]

Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp] ‘stamina of the albatross’

Flight 3 (50 MPH) (PF: Subtle) [6 pp] ‘flight of the peregrine’

Immunity 5 (Disease, Poison, Starvation and Thirst, Suffocation) (Flaw: Limited [Half]) [3 pp] ‘resiliency of birds’

Super-Senses 2 (Extended Hearing and Vision) [2 pp] ‘eagle eye’

costs

abilities 28 + combat 32 + saves 12 + skills 15/60 + feats 13 + powers 50 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is a build for a bird controller/themed hero, a generally common archetype that I don’t think we’ve seen around here. (No one cares about Freedom Eagle II, and anyway he doesn’t count) I’ve given her various bird-themed powers in the spirit of Spider-Man’s various spider-related abilities, some of them more loosely related to birds than others. She can punch like a powerhouse, shriek loud enough to stun legions of bad guys, and summon a huge flock of birds to hide her comings and goings. (I didn’t give her Animal Control, as that's actually a pretty crummy power, but I did give her Comprehend for when she needs to pump those pigeons ont he street for information) She flies about as fast as the fastest birds as a move action, but of course she can make herself go much much faster!

I didn’t give her talons, but you can use those as a descriptor for her unarmed attacks if you want: similarly, she gets an HP if someone entangles her wings, since she didn’t take Restrainable as a drawback. In Freedom City, she might be an Avian from their society in Greenland (home of Talona, the local Namor expy). The Avians are cool, living in ancient buildings high in the mountains of Greenland, with a strong suspicion of humanity: after all, the ground-bound humans are so quick to dump pollution in their air! (Yes, they're a bit preachy, but so are your typical comic book Atlanteans.) Maybe this is Talona's sister.

If you give her some bird-related character traits, you can have some fun; as someone who’s lived with birds for a while, they have just enough human-like traits to be really weird when they go do other things. She’s got that big array; as usual don’t be afraid to power-stunt a parrot’s audio Morph, an eagle’s Fearsome Presence, a vulture’s Nauseate, or anything else that suits your fancy. Like a lot of my builds, this is a fairly straightforward construction that could very easily get tweaked in all kinds of directions. What can I say, I like building generalists! Give her a big old mace if you want her to be more like JLU’s Hawkgirl (or like the Hawk-couple from the comics; add some Beginner’s Luck and Knowledge: History if you want to go THAT route, though), or a costume that helps her fly if you want to be more like Falcon from Marvel. You could make her themed for an entirely different flying animal if you tweak her powers even further, as well...maybe a very literal Batgirl?

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Braincase

“If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger.” Frank Lloyd Wright

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 38 pp

STR 26 (+8)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 14 (+2)

INT 20 (+5)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +5

Grapple: +14

Saves: 14 pp

TOU +8 (+2 Con, +6 Protection)

FORT +7 (+2 Con, +5)

REF +6 (+2 Ref, +4)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 19 pp=76 r

Computers 5 (+10)

Craft: Mechanical 8 (+13)

Craft: Electronic 8 (+13)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+13)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+13)

Knowledge: Technology 8 (+13)

Languages 2 (Latin, Spanish) (Base: English)

Medicine 8 (+10)

Notice 8 (+10)

Search 5 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 17 pp

Attak Specialization: Unarmed 3,

Dodge Focus 6,

Eidetic Memory,

Fearless,

Inventor,

Improvised Tools,

Master Plan,

Online Research,

Speed of Thought,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 38 pp

Brain-in-a-Jar Array [13+2=15 pp]

Communication 9 (anywhere on Earth) (radio) (PFs: Rapid 3 (1000), Subtle)

AP: Datalink 9 (anywhere on Earth) (radio) (PFs: Rapid 3 (1000), Subtle)

AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (visual and auditory) (Flaw: Medium [cameras]) (PF: Subtle)

Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Protection 6 (Extra: Impervious) [12 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 38+ combat 24 + saves 14 + skills 19/76 + feats 17+ powers 38 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is a revised version of my earlier build for the Braincase archetype, which in itself was a significant revision of the book’s Braincase build. The character is a Ghost in the Shell-style cyborg, a normal human brain installed in a completely robotic body. This gives him a lot of robotic powers and immunities, but keeps him a normal being underneath. The book builds this as a Hard-to-Lose device with all the physical traits included, along with a Disembodied Brain drawback: that certainly makes sense, but I think it’s something of a stretch: is the character REALLY going to be without their body often enough that it’s going to be worth the discount? And then there’s how exactly you police that massive drawback...

So instead, this lady’s unique nature is entirely a Complication! She was smart enough not to include an Eject button on her braincase, so you have to actually go in with tools and pop her out: changing bodies is a plot device or something that happens outside of combat threads entirely. Trust me, you would much rather get an HP for being reduced to a helpless brain in a jar with a little voder than get a couple of PP back at character creation! (I’d treat it as being helpless minus her Brain-in-a-Jar array, maybe figuring that it’s a result of the cybernetic implants in her brain.)

I played up her gadgeteer roots in this build, giving her some weaknesses like (relatively) low Toughness and crappy exotic saves. You can make her better at combat if you want by dropping her INT some; maybe she didn’t build her own body, but instead is a police officer or other government agent who got issued one by her employing agency? (Take some notes from the Bionic archetype upthread for some hints about how to do that.) Give her some Blast if you want to make him less of a hand-to-hand fighter, or give her some pistols to use to bust caps in folks!

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Golem

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: -4 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON n/a (-)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +6 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +2

Grapple: +18

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +14 (+3 Density, +11 Protection)

FORT n/a

REF +4 (+2 Dex, +2)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +2)

Skills: 40 r=10 pp

Diplomacy 5 (+5)

Intimidate 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Arcane Lore 5 (+5)

Knowledge: History 5 (+5)

Languages 4 (English, German, Russian, Polish) (Base: Hebrew)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 8 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Dodge Focus 2,

Fearless,

Interpose,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack

Powers: 102 pp

Density 7 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0]) (PFs: Innate, Subtle) [23 pp]

Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [11+2=13 pp]

DAP: Super-Strength 5 (total 7) (Heavy Load: 180 tons)

Immunity 40 (Fortitude Saves, Magical Damage) [40 pp]

Impervious TOU 6 [6 pp]

Incurable Unarmed Damage [1 pp]

Protection 11 [11 pp]

Regeneration 6 (+0 Recovery Bonus, Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [8 pp]

costs

abilities 4 + combat 20 + saves 6 + skills 10/40 + feats 8 + powers 102 = 150 pts

--

This is my attempt at a golem, a magical or psionic construct distinct in many ways from the robots I’ve built before. She lacks the immunity to mental effects that her robotic kinfolk have because she actually has a soul inside her iron or clay body, one either taken from a living human who is now dead or conjured up from the essence of the Earth itself. Instead she’s protected against magic given the dual nature of her body, whether or not she herself is a creature of magic. She has Incurable Unarmed Damage as a nod to the classic clay golems of D&D. I made her a paragon with the presumption that she’s a Golden Age heroine who’s been around for decades in various guises, but of course you can judge that however you want!

She's got some density, just enough to make her life difficult without making her overwhelmingly heavy. She weighs about as much as a marble statue version of herself would. She's tough, with nothing short of a bursting shell able to pierce her skin. Give her more INT and some Arcane Lore if you want to play up the magical side of her heritage, more Wisdom and Theo/Philo if you want to play up the divine origin that might be behind some of her powers. Maybe throw in some weapons if you want to play up her warrior heritage.

This kind of character can be born in tragedy, especially if you tie her back to the Golden Age moments where the sort of people who made golems were being murdered by the uncountable millions. But that’s a little depressing, and maybe a little tasteless; why not make her an immortal champion of justice, battling to build a better world so that what happened to her people will never again happen to anyone else? And maybe, just maybe, the powers that created her gave her flesh realer than carefully molded clay. A human soul resides best inside a human heart, whatever that heart happens to be made of.

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Hulking Blob

"Nom nom nom..."

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 22 pp

STR 30/24 (+10/+7)

DEX 12 (+1)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +4 (w/Growth) [+10 Melee)

DEF: +6 (w/Growth) (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +1

Grapple: +36 max

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +14 (+7 Con, +7 Protection)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +5 (+1 Ref, +4)

WILL +5 (+2 Wis, +3)

Skills: 3 pp=12 r

Notice 6 (+8)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Feats: 13 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 6

Dodge Focus 2

Fearless

Improved Overrun

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Powers: 89 pp

Growth 4 (Extra: Duration [Permanent] (+0) ) (PF: Innate) [13 pp]

Immunity 50 (aging, lethal damage, life support) (Flaw: Lethal Damage Converted to Non-Lethal) [30 pp]

Protection 7 (Extra: Impervious) [14 pp]

Nuclear Monster Array [30+2=32 pp]

Corrosion 10

AP: Enhanced STR 6 and Super-Strength 12

AP: Snare 10 (Extras: Engulf [+0], Suffocating [+1])

Drawback: (-4)

Normal ID (full-round action) [-4 pp]

costs

abilities 22 + combat 20 + saves 7 + skills 3/12 + feats 13 + powers 89 -drawbacks 4= 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Who says all rampaging atomic monsters have to be angry green giants? This fine fellow was once an atomic scientist (just use the Scientist archetype from the corebook if you don’t have anything specific in mind, or build a low-PL genius if you want to play up how smart he is when he’s not a monster) who was transformed into a horrible gelatinous blob monster! Now he roams the countryside with his little buddy in tow, battling against bad guys and protecting a world that fears and hates him while doing his best to escape the army that hunts him as a murderer!

He’s your standard horrible gelatinous blob: he rolls over people and crushes them, sucks them into his innards and holds them there, or just chews up solid objects. He doesn’t have Insubstantial: he doesn’t flow through his bonds, he eats them and punches the guy on the other side right in the face! I figure his base form doesn’t have arms as such, but he can make them as necessary (i.e., no drawback): buy him Additional Limbs if you want to make him even MORE of a ridiculous grappling fiend. He’s also effectively immortal: you can knock him unconscious, but he’ll survive anything from a flamethrower to a direct nuke to the face. A Continuous Snare (i.e.; freezing him) might do the trick, or maybe Draining off one or more of his attributes.

I’d give him a complication to say he changes when he’s in some emotional state: anger? Hunger? Characters like this develop in several different ways. One of the easiest is to integrate his two personalities, perhaps by really saving up your PP and buying up the skills and INT for the normal personality to be integrated at will into the blobby body. If you decided you want to be a monster 24-7, maybe have the ‘normal’ guy turn out to be the evil one all along, and have your Blob be the hero battling his ‘smart’ self’s wicked plans and schemes! You could also shoot him into space, I suppose. (He’d be fine)

This is a tough character to play in tabletop: make sure you know what you're doing before you even ask.

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Telekinetic

"I am America, and so can you."-Stephen Colbert

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +4

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed

Init: +7

Grapple: +6/+20

Saves: 11 pp

TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Force Field)

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+3 Ref, +3)

WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Bluff 12 (+15)

Concentration 7 (+10)

Diplomacy 12 (+15)

Gather Information 7 (+10)

Intimidate 6 (+9)

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 5 (+5)

Languages 2 (Spanish, German) (Base: English)

Notice 2 (+5)

Sense Motive 2 (+5)

Feats: 15 pp

Benefit 3 (Hero of the People, Security Clearance, Wealth)

Connected

Contacts

Dodge Focus 4

Luck

Move-By Action

Improved Initiative

Second Chance (Concentration checks to maintain powers)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Well-Informed

Powers: 61 pp

Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp]

Force Field 7 (Extra: Impervious) [14 pp]

Telekinesis 10 (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception], PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2) [42+1=43 pp]

AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Alt. Save [Fortitude], Range [Perception], PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2)

costs

abilities 28 + combat 20 + saves 11 + skills 15/60 + feats 15 + powers 61 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Telekinesis is a common power, so I thought I’d build a guy centered around it and some of its various uses. I chose to model Dave, aka the Sentinel, originally a Marvel Universe character who I’ve played in several superhero games. Dave is a handsome, well-connected guy who has a job as a government-employed super: a municipal defender in Aberrant terms. He flies around, beats up low-level bad guys, and generally does his best to make a good impression to better further the political career he has in mind for himself. He’s not terribly bright or terribly thoughtful, but he’s savvier than the people who’d like to use him give him credit for. If he does turn out to have a higher political career, he may come to surprise the people who think they know him when he does achieve power.

What made Dave fun as a PC (and what might make him fun as an NPC if he ever gets written up) is that Dave is an unthinking sellout of the super-minority group he’s a member of, gladly championing mutant or Terminus baby registration without stopping to think about the potential hazards to others less charming and handsome and powerful than he is. In his own setting he saw the light and became as heroic socially as he was physically, but he’d make a potent antagonist for heroes defending an oppressed minority, people who he’d dismiss as liberals playing identity politics. He's the mutant Graydon Creed could love, and this is not a good thing.

Mechanics-wise, he’s a standard telekinetic: he flies around, shrugs off bullets thanks to his impervious force field, and can grab and crush anything he can see with his telekinetic powers: that may not sound like much, but think about how incredibly broad telekinesis is! (Broad descriptors are definitely your friend and not your enemy in M&M.) He can power-stunt a very wide range of powers, everything from crushing someone’s inner organs (Fort save on his Damage) to whatever else can be reasonably fit under his descriptors. There are a lot of telekinetics in comics, and they’ve pulled off a lot of tricks over the years!

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