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Origami Thief

"I shall write peace upon your wings, and you shall fly around the world so that children will no longer have to die this way."- Sadako Sasaki

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 30 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 16 (+3)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 origami/melee)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +8

Grapple: +10

Saves: 10 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 13 pp=52 r

Bluff 8 (+9)

Craft: Artistic 4 (+7)

Disable Device 10 (+13)

Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+7)

Language 2 (Chinese, Japanese) (Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 8 (+12)

Feats: 22 pp

All-Out Attack,

Attack Focus: Melee 6,

Attack Specialization 3 (Origami Array),

Dodge Focus 4,

Elusive Target,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Second Chance (Disable Device checks)

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 47 pp

Animate Objects 4 (Extra: Horde) (Flaw: Paper Products Only) (PFs: Progression 3 [x10 objects]) 'origami minions'

Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] 'flying cranes'

Origami Mastery Array [16+4=20 pp]

Blast 8 'paper darts'

AP: Move Object 8 (Extra: Range [Perception]) (Flaw: Paper Products Only) 'origami by sight'

AP: Strike 6 (PFs: Improved Crit 2, Mighty, Precise) (Extra: Penetrating 6) 'paper sword'

AP: Snare 8 'paper snake'

Protection 5 [5 pp] 'paper armor'

costs

abilities 30 + combat 28 + saves 10 + skills 13/52 + feats 22 + powers 47 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

From an idea by Electra! It's not easy to be a master thief, especially if you're not as interested in being on top (and thus attracting attention) as your good buddy Magpie. So what you do is specialize. In this lady's case, she's a specialist in stealing and moving paper products. From treaties to trade secrets to copies of the Declaration of Independence, she's the lady you call. And with good reason. She's not just a master thief; she's a deadly melee combatant and not incidentally a superpowered paper controller in her own right! Yes, by mastering the ancient art of origami, as well as learning its true spiritual essence, she's learned to sculpt and mold paper however she will: summoning it from beneath her clothes to make a flexible suit of armor, sculpting it in her hands into blades or clubs that could break down a wooden door, and even flying on paper airplanes! She can also summon paper to hand, and shape it without the use of something so tawdry as a finger.

She's not the world's greatest thief, no, but with aggressive use of HP and Second Chance, you may not notice she's rolling less than the big dogs out there in the stealing world. She doesn't need to break into banks when the money can just come out to her. She's got a cool power and a cool look, what's not to like? The biggest challenge with a character like this is how you justify her lifestyle. Theft is not very heroic! One easy out is to say she's recently reformed: perhaps as a way of tapping the local Costumed Adventurer, or maybe just because she's looking to lay low on the good side of the law for a while. Or maybe she's not supposed to be working in this town at all, and she's just back visiting family when she gets sucked into doing good deeds.

Play with the theme all you want, but I like the idea of a character flying in through an open window in a giant paper airplane, stealing the secret documents that hold the bad guys' plans, then flying out again with a smile on her face and a sword made from paper in her hand. Don't laugh, man, papercuts hurt! Stunt off her various powers if you want her to do something really big with animated paper. It's pretty broad, and if you limit yourself to just origami shapes, well, you won't have any limits at all! And hey, who else gets a chance to fold the Constitution into a paper crane and fly off with it? Darn few!

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Nullifier

“Men are motivated and empowered when they feel needed. Women are motivated andempowered when they feel cherished.” -John Gray

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 20 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 10 (+0)

INT 18 (+4)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6 (+8 Nullify Array)

DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +6

Saves: 20 pp

TOU +6 (+0 Con, +6 Protection)

FORT +8 (+0 Con, +8)

REF +8 (+0 Ref, +8)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 14 pp=56 r

Bluff 8 (+10)

Diplomacy 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+12)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+12)

Medicine 8 (+10)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 11 pp

Dodge Focus 6,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Power Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 57 pp

Nullifier Array

Nullify 12 (all powers) (Extra: Effortless, PF: Accurate) [49+1=50 pp]

AP: Stun 12 (Extras: Autofire [10], Ranged, PF: Accurate, Reversible, Sedation)

Protection 6 [6 pp]

costs

abilities 20 + combat 28 + saves 20 + skills 14/56 + feats 13 + powers 57 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Here's a character built around the 3/pp per rank version of Nullify, the one that lets her potentially shut down all powers if she rolls well enough. There are lots of power nullifiers in comics, but the problem is that it's not a power you want to hang a character on in a game like this. You want your PL 10 PC to be able to do _something_ to affect that PL 2 thug, never mind that PL 10 martial artist, and that's not going to happen if all you can do is zap powered guys. For that matter, if the powered guy has a gun, he can still ruin your day. So my mental conception for this lady is that she has the power to affect brain function: she can zap the parts of your brain that control your powers, or she can just zap you and knock you out by hitting that part of her brain.

As written she can zap anybody. If there's someone who you don't think her descriptors are compatible with (magical, technological, whatever they are), just give her an HP for the Complications. The Effortless on her Nullify means she can zap people again and again without needing to use extra effort: this is an extremely useful extra, especially if Nullify is one of your primary abilities. You could easily switch the Stun out for something else: I could see this character with a Ranged Drain, representing another kind of attack on the brain and nervous system, or maybe if she's some kind of energy vampire in general. (Either magical or otherwise; ain't comics science grand?)

The general idea I have is that she's a scientist with an expertise in the science of superpowers, and got her powers either through deliberate experiment or laboratory accident. You can tweak that however you want, perhaps making her more of a streetwise adventurer or similar champion. It's easy to condemn people for making characters written around their powers, but I think there's nothing wrong with that assuming you do actually come up with a backstory for Lady Nullifier or Dr. Fire Blast, or whatever. If you think a power is cool, by all means, start there and build your character around it. Just make sure you do actually have a character there at the end of the day.

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The Pugilist

“I made a lot of mistakes out of the ring, but I never made any in it.” -Jack Johnson

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 40 pp

STR 22 (+6)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 22 (+6)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+14 melee)

DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +20

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +6 (+6 Con)

FORT +7 (+6 Con, +1)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +8)

Skills: 19 r=76 pp

Acrobatics 1 (+5)

Bluff 8 (+10)

Drive 1 (+5)

Gather Info 8 (+10)*

Intimidate 13 (+15)*

Languages 5 (Chinese, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish) (Base: English)

Knowledge: History 6 (+6)

Medicine 3 (+5)

Pilot 1 (+5)

Notice 13 (+15)*

Sense Motive 13 (+15)*

Survival 3 (+5)

Swim 1 (+7)

Feats: 33 pp

All-Out Attack,

Attack Focus: Melee 6,

Beginner’s Luck,

Defensive Attack,

Dodge Focus 6,

Eidetic Memory,

Elusive Target,

Evasion 2,

Fearless,

Improved Initiative,

Improved Throw,

Improved Trip,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Skill Mastery (Gather Info, Intimidate, Notice, Sense Motive)

Startle,

Stunning Attack,

Takedown Attack 2,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory),

Well-Informed

Powers: [12 pp]

Enhanced Feats 2 (Affects Insubstantial 2 on Unarmed) [2 pp]

Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3 pp]

Regeneration 4 (Resurrection 1/hour) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [6 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 19/76 + feats 33 + powers 12 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my build for the Pugilist, one of the 1st ed. M&M iconic characters. He was the iconic Martial Artist of the Meta-4 universe, and one of the most skilled, experienced heroes in the setting. An immortal champion of justice, he first appeared a century ago at the scene of a global crisis, and has made appearance after appearance since whenever the world needed saving. He’s an anti-social guy, having lost or outlived several teams, but he’s got a very good heart. I couldn’t find a picture, but he cuts a distinctive figure in black domino mask, plaid scotch cap, trunks and taped hands. The picture I used is of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight champion of the world and one of the greatest boxers of the early 20th century. If you like the picture, and Johnson’s biography, maybe you can say the character IS the historical Jack Johnson, a morally ambiguous man making up for his Earthly sins with an eternity of battling for justice.

He’s pretty much your standard boxer build: an effective hand-to-hand fighter, fast on his feet, with the particular Pugilist powers that let him punch ghosts (seriously, it’s a good power) and return from death. He’s scarier than my Boxing Champion build; he’s a Tyson or Frazier to my earlier Muhammed Ali. His big weaknesses are that ultimately he’s a human being, no more sturdy or stronger than any strong, powerful Badass Normal at the peak of his physical powers. Shoot him with a gun, and he’s probably going to be in a world of hurt. Granted, he’ll get _better_, but sometimes recovering from death can be more trouble than it’s worth. That’s why he comes back so fast, so he can avoid getting buried underground by his friends before he can wake up and explain the situation to them. I gave him the skills to represent a lifetime of being a two-fisted man of action, I’m sure he has plenty of good stories to tell.

The Pugilist is a reserve member of the government’s superhero team in his own setting, but things may be different in Freedom City. His long career will give him a whole host of complications, depending on what backstory you do wind up assigning him. A few changes include increasing his Regeneration so he can recover from conditions besides death more quickly, adding some Protection or more Con to increase his base Toughness, or adding more skills and feats if you can find the points for it. Pick the origin story you want for him: Irish boxer who returned from the grave after his family’s murder? Jack Johnson, restoring a name tarnished by his enemies as much as his deeds? Or perhaps he’s a practitioner of a different martial art altogether, a wrestler and a rival of...EL SPECTRO!

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Space Ranger

“The creative conquest of space will serve as a wonderful substitute for war.” -James McDonnel

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 24 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 Ranged)

DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +8

Grapple: +10

Saves: 10 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 19 pp=76 r

Acrobatics 10 (+14)

Bluff 6 (+6)

Climb 4 (+6)

Craft: Mechanical 6 (+6)

Craft: Electrical 6 (+6)

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Technology 5 (+5)

Languages 2 (Alien, Galstandard) (Base: English)

Notice 10 (+12)

Pilot 10 (+14)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Survival 4 (+6)

Swim 4 (+6)

Feats: 33 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

All-Out Attack,

Attack Focus: Ranged 5,

Defensive Attack,

Dodge Focus 6,

Elusive Target,

Equipment 10,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Precise Shot,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 32 pp

Device 3 (Blaster Pistol) (Easy to Lose) [9 pp]

-Blast 7 (PF: Precise) [15 pp]

Device 5 (Space Suit) (Hard to Lose) [20 pp]

-Communication 4 (radio) (1 mile) [4 pp]

-Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp]

-Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp]

-Protection 3 [3 pp]

-Space Flight 1 (1c) [1 pp]

-Super-Senses 2 (Extended Analytical Vision) [2 pp]

Super-Strength 1 (2+1=3 pp]

AP: Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] and Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Equipment: 50 ep

Camera [1 ep]

Space Fighter [49 ep]

costs

abilities 24 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 19/76 + feats 33 + powers 32 = 150 pts

----

Design Notes:

So you’re an all-American astronaut stranded on an alien world, using your hi-tech equipment and knowledge of super-technology to guard and protect the people of your adopted home. It happens, particularly in the Raygun Gothic era of the Silver Age! Many characters like this actually predate the renaissance of superhero comics in the early 1960s, but wound up getting merged with superhero comics when superheroes became popular with the little kids. Adam Strange, eat your heart out! Non-superheroic variants of this kind of character include people like Charlton Heston’s hero in Planet of the Apes, and various other stories of spacegoing castaways adrift on alien worlds.

Characters like this are usually ‘the space guy’ on super-teams, the human hero with alien friends who the team brings along when they need to go out into intergalactic space. What if you want to play one in our game? Well, you can say she’s like Adam Strange and popping home via some kind of intergalactic teleporter, or maybe she’s just recently returned home from time on an alien world and working on rebuilding her life on Earth. Or maybe she’s the daughter of a Silver Age human transported to an alien world, and she’s just now returning home to see what’s what! (You might want to give her a big sword and the power of an ancient castle for that one, naturally...)

She’s got a generic spaceship, you can easily dress that up with more PP if you want to give her a more impressive ride. As it is her spacesuit is pretty good transportation, letting her get around in-atmosphere, send radio signals, and even do some limited interplanetary stuff. (With the speed of light, you can go most anywhere in a star-system if you can navigate your way there, but going any further is going to be much more complicated) She’s got a ray gun for blasting people, because what better than that? You can save points by merging it into the spacesuit, assuming you’re willing to cut some corners elsewhere. Her movement powers are a result of her human anatomy interacting with an alien world, natch.

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Demon

“He who hesitates is a damned fool.” -Mae West

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 44 pp

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 12 (+1)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 12 (+1)

CHA 24 (+7)

Combat: 16 pp

ATK: +4 (+8 Infernal Array)

DEF: +8 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +1

Grapple: +11

Saves: 11 pp

TOU +12 (+7 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +5 (+1 Dex, +4)

WILL +8 (+1 Wis, +7)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Bluff 13 (+20, Skill Mastery)

Diplomacy 3 (+10, Skill Mastery)

Gather Info 8 (+15, Skill Mastery)

Intimidate 13 (+20, Skill Mastery)

Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 5 (+5)

Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 10 (+10)

Notice 4 (+5)

Sense Motive 4 (+5)

Feats: 14 pp

Distract (Bluff),

Dodge Focus (4),

Fearless,

Power Attack,

Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Info, Intimidate)

Takedown Attack,

Taunt,

Ultimate Check (Bluff),

Uncanny Dodge (auditory),

Well-Informed

Powers: 55 pp

Infernal Array 12 (PFs: Accurate 2, Alternate Powers 3, Precise) [28 pp]

Blast 12

AP: Drain Charisma 12 (Extra: Ranged)

AP: Emotion Control 10

AP: Strike 6 (Extras: Penetrating [6], Vampiric [6], PFs: Improved Crit 2, Improved Disarm, Improved Trip, Incurable, Mighty)

Flight 3 (50 MPH/500 ft per round) (Drawback: Restrainable) [5 pp]

Immunity 2 (aging, environmental heat) [2 pp]

Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Not Vs. Magic/Silver/Holy) [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Super-Senses 4 (Darkvision, Divine Awareness [visual], Infernal Awareness [visual]) [4 pp]

Unholy Movement Array 2 (PF: Alternate Power 1) [5 pp]

Teleport 2 (200 ft) (PF: Turnabout)

AP: Dimensional Movement 2 (any Hell)

Drawbacks: -6 pp

Vulnerable (Holy) (uncommon, major) [-3 pp]

Weakness: Holy Symbols (dazed for 1 round after failed CHA check) [-3 pp]

costs

abilities 44 + combat 16 + saves 11 + skills 15/60 + feats 15 + powers 55 - drawbacks 6 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

I built an angel upthread, so why not a demon? I differentiated her from Ecal’s excellent demon build over in his own thread by concentrating on social manipulation through superpowers: she’s something of a ‘silver-tongued devil’, specializing in doing damage with her words rather than the blazing fireballs she can also toss around. So you want to be scary but everyone and their brother has Fearless? Buy a Charisma Drain, give it the descriptor “fiery wrath”, and let them quail before your awesome power! She can also manipulate people with her words with gusto, either with her very high Bluff score or successful deployment of Emotion Control. She can change her shape, appear and disappear in a gout of flame, fly on leathery bat wings, whip out a red-hot pitchfork, and generally do everything your average demon should be able to do.

Heroic demon-infernalist is a surprisingly active trope in comics, so you’ve got a lot of potential backstories. Is she the daughter of a demon and a mortal, raised between both worlds? Give her more Arcane Lore and Ritualist if you want to make her more of an infernalist-style mage than a real demon. Or maybe she’s a damned soul who escaped Hell, permanently altered by the landscape there, and now she fights the minions of the Devil on Earth? Or for a more morally ambiguous background: maybe she’s a damned soul, or an actual demon, working to catch other escapees from Hell (various demons and the like) in the Devil’s name! (What can I say, I liked Brimstone.) That’ll give you some good moral dilemmas, not to mention your fellow heroes, and give you a chance to turn your back on Satan and all his empty promises!

Some variants include more powers in the array: Hellfire is a broad descriptor, and the book has plenty of possible options for you there. You could give her Enhanced Strength and Super-Strength to make her more of a powerhouse; this is very much a blaster-style build. As long as you’re sticking with the demonic theme, you could easily build her with a variety of different body types: slithering, wall-crawling? Who know what her true form looks like? You could easily shuffle things around a bit and make this an angel build, focused more on blasting than the melee fighter angel I built upthread. Change up the drawbacks as suits your fancy, natch.

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Vatican Hero

“When Catholicism goes bad it becomes the religion of amulets and holy places and priestcraft” -CS Lewis

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 24 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 18 (+4)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +6

Grapple: +8

Saves: 11 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +8 (+4 Wis, +4)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Bluff 4 (+5)

Concentration 4 (+8)

Diplomacy 12 (+13)

Investigate 4 (+4)

Intimidate 4 (+5)

Knowledge: Current Events 6 (+6)

Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 8 (+8)

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

Search 4 (+4)

Sense Motive 12 (+16)

Feats: 10 pp

Dodge Focus 4,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Second Chance (Mind Control checks),

Trance,

Ultimate Save (Will),

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 62 pp

Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp]

Immunity 1 (own powers) [1 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Voice Array [42+5=47 pp]

Mind Control 10 (Extras: Conscious, Duration [sustained], Effortless) (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) 'Do what I say'

AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Alt. Save [Will], Duration [Concentration], Range [Perception]) (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]) (PFs: Variable Descriptor 2 [any powers]) 'Punch yourself in the face'

AP: Emotion Control 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Duration [Continuous], Selective Attack) (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) 'Love thy neighbor as thyself'

AP: Mind Control 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Action [Move/Free], Selective) (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) 'Hearken to the Word'

AP: Stun 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Range [Perception] (+2), Selective Attack) (Flaws: Action [Full] Sense-Dependent [auditory]) (PFs: Sedation, Subtle) 'Take a nap'

costs

abilities 24 + combat 28 + saves 11 + skills 15/60 + feats 10 + powers 62 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

This is a build for a mentalist specializing in mind control, in particular in using his voice to manipulate and alter the will of others. He’s a very powerful character, balanced by the fact that a good set of earplugs, or just robots, will make him pretty darn powerless if you’re sending them in to beat him up. Drawing on established comic book characters, I’ve built this guy with the assumption that he’s a Catholic priest-turned-superhero: perhaps the first superhero of Vatican City? He’s a good-hearted, noble champion of justice and a good man, balancing the temptations of fantastic, terribly tempting powers with his own moral code. (The picture is of the former Fr. Alberto Cutie, a Miami priest who had some troubles of his own recently reconciling his moral code with the strictures of his oaths).

It’s tempting to say that clerical characters are off-limits in a game like this, but as long as you’re not trying to convert anyone, you’re fine. The smart player will play a character who prefers to set a positive moral example, one who prefers to show (by being a paragon of moral righteousness) rather than telling (by telling people long boring stories about theology). If you do want to play with some of the real-world issues raised by characters like this...well, be careful. People may buy comic books where Garth Ennis edgily tells off those naughty figures of monotheism, but no one wants to hear your issues with organized religion on our site.

So why play a character like this? For the challenge of playing within the complications, of course, you’re bound by a stiff moral code and operating within the confines of a strong hiearchy. On the other hand, though, the power and influence that you have as a superhero means that you can change what you don’t like about the system for the better. Mix it up a little if you want to have him be from a different unpopular organization, naturally. If you want to play a different kind of Vatican superhero, you could always make a martial artist who just happens to be an Irish priest...

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Gun-Toting Mutant From The Future

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” -Jean de La Fontaine

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

STR 22 [16] (+6/+3)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 BFG/+14 unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +8

Grapple: +14

Saves: 13 pp

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

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +8 (+4 Ref, +4)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 13 pp=52 r

Acrobatics 1 (+5)

Climb 1 (+7)

Craft: Electrical 5 (+5)

Craft: Mechanical 5 (+5)

Drive 1 (+5)

Knowledge: Current Events 5 (+5)

Knowledge: History 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Technology 5 (+5)

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

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 1 (+5)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 1 (+3)

Swim 1 (+7)

Feats: 19 pp

Beginner’s Luck,

Attack Specialization: BFG

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (3)

Dodge Focus 4,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Leadership,

Move-By Action,

Precise Shot 2,

Quick Draw [Draw]

Takedown Attack 2,

Taunt,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 41 pp

Device 6 (BFG) (Easy to Lose) [18 pp]

Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) {30}

Enhanced STR 6 (to STR 22/+6) [6 pp]

Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1 pp]

Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3 pp]

Mind Reading 10 (Extra: Penetrating; Flaws: Range (Touch) [-2]) [5 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Regeneration 1 (Resurrection 1/week) [1 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 3 (Accurate Hearing, Infravision) [3 pp]

costs

abilities 32 + combat 32 + saves 13 + skills 13/52 + feats 19 + powers 41 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Here’s a riff on the iconic build of the Iron Age; a gun-toting badass with mutant and cybernetic augmentation, a soldier from the grim and gritty postapocalyptic dystopias so beloved of 80s and 90s comic book writers. It was a bipolar decade, going from the cheery optimism of TV’s Ninja Turtles to the grim and gritty badassery of comics like Spawn and Cable. She’s traveled back in time to save the future, whatever she has to do, and she’s got the firepower, the skills, and the knowledge required to make a better world for everyone. The picture is of Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2, naturally.

How do you play such an insanely Iron Age build in a game like this? Well, note that her big gun doesn’t have to do lethal damage: maybe it’s a laser cannon like something from 80s Saturday morning cartoons. You can get some really interesting riffs by playing this as a character doubly out-of-time. Sure, she traveled back from 2525 to prevent the Final War that destroyed human civilization and paved the way for centuries of horrible nuclear nightmare...but that was back in 1995, and she’s been a little at loose ends ever since. How does a soldier keep going when her war is over, and when no one ever knows she fought it at all? The obvious way to do that is to turn superhero, fighting non-lethally now that she’s no longer fighting the terrible enemies that once stalked the landscape.

As it stands, she does good melee damage with her fists, but busts out the big blaster rifle for doing lots of damage. One easy way to change up her sheet is to have her be a melee specialist (with Super-Strength) with a blaster pistol or phaser that she pulls out to do less damage with more accuracy at range. You could give her more combat ability in general, rather than making her a sharply defined sort of fighter. You could mix up her special ability easily enough, maybe making it Concealment or something else, or put more points in it: as it is her ability to read minds is more of a surprise or a backup rather than a power to hang her abilities on in their own right. It does make for great special effects, though.

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Susquehanna Flyer

“You will believe a man can fly!” -Superman, 1978

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 54 pp

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 24 (+7)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 12 (+1)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 melee)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +11

Grapple: +20

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +7 (+7 Con)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1)

WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Acrobatics 8 (+15),

Bluff 8 (+10),

Diplomacy 8 (+10),

Gather Info 8 (+10),

Search 4 (+5)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 25 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

Attack Focus: Melee 5,

Benefit ([status]),

Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff),

Defensive Attack,

Dodge Focus 5,

Environmental Adaptation: High Altitudes,

Evasion,

Fast Overrun,

Improved Overrun,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Well-Informed,

Powers: 19 pp

Device 1 (Headset) (Easy to Lose) [3 pp]

Communication 5 (5 miles) (radio) {5}

Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp]

Immunity 3 (environmental cold, low pressure, suffocation [low pressure]) [3 pp]

Super-Senses 6 (Extended Hearing 2 [x100], Extended Vision 2 [x100], Low-Light Vision, Ultrahearing) [6 pp]

costs

abilities 54 + combat 32 + saves 6 + skills 15/60 + feats 21 + powers 22 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

JUST A SMALL TOWN...wait, wrong song. Who the hell is the Susquehanna Flyer? He’s the intro character for the superhero RPG Silver Age Sentinels, a guy with flying powers who’s just arrived in that game’s primary ‘super-city’ and is discovering that he’s a lot less powerful than all these famous heroes. I rather liked that idea, not to mention the concept of a guy whose only superpower is flight. I cheated just a little bit to give him some immunities and super-senses, but other than that his concept is “I fly like a bird!” So here’s a PL 10 version of the Susquehanna Flyer, the greatest hero of Wilkes-Barre, PA, no, of all of East-Central Pennsylvania!

I figure he’s the greatest hero in his region, since most superheroes don’t hang around in semi-rural Pennsylvania, so he’s very popular. He’s got a headset the local cops gave him so he can talk on the police band, as well as take calls from his admiring public when he’s in the air. (He should probably get a secretary to screen out the crazy ones). He can fly at 200 MPH going all-out, so about as fast as a helicopter or civilian airplane, see and hear a hundred times better than a normal man, and hear and see into high frequencies. Sure, he’s in trouble if a paragon shows up or a really high PL bad guy, but most of them don’t go knocking around the part of the country where he lives. He’s a _god_ vs. the PL 2-6 thugs he fights at home, ripping through mundane bad guys easily enough.

How can you use this guy? It’s a pretty good story to take a guy who used to be the baddest man around and bring him down to Earth by putting him alongside lots of other people with superheroes, particularly since he’s powerful enough that he can still function once he gets used to his new niche. He’s strong and tough, but he’s no paragon; he’s going to have to improvise something impressive if he runs into a falling airplane or similar big problem. He makes a good faceman for a group, probably because being the only hero around has gotten him so used to dealing with all sorts of different kinds of people. He’s a great way to tell stories outside the big city. With his Flight, he could commute to Freedom City and fly home to his family every night! (A lot of people do that in the PA-Jersey area anyway.)

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Sidekick

“Friends to the end.”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 36 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+11 Melee/+15 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +8

Grapple: +16

Saves: 9 pp

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

FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 20 pp=80 r

Bluff 8 (+10)

Climb 4 (+9)

Disable Device 8 (+8)

Drive 8 (+12)

Knowledge: Current Events 8 (+8)

Knowledge: History 6 (+6)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 8 (+8)

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

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 4 (+8)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 4 (+6)

Swim 4 (+9)

Feats: 17 pp

Attack Focus: Melee (3)

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Dodge Focus (4)

Evasion

Improved Initiative

Inspire (2)

Power Attack

Set-Up

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 36 pp

Container 7 (Half-Genie Heritage) (PF: Subtle) [36 pp]

Emotion Control 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective, Flaws: Hope Only, Range [Touch]) [10 pp] ‘inspiration!’

Immunity 2 (despair, fear) [2 pp] ‘plucky’

Luck Control 4 (cancel GM Fiat/HP expenditure, force reroll, spend HP for others, give HP to others) (PFs: Luck 5) [17 pp] ‘good ally, good friend’

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] ‘speedy legs’

Protection 3 [3 pp] ‘tougher than he looks’

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] ‘acrobatic training’

costs

abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 20/80 + feats 17 + powers 36 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

For those of you familiar with the backstory of my character Mark (Edge) Lucas and the tragic events of House of L, this is my attempt at a Year One version of Mark’s father Rick, the Silver Age sidekick-turned-reality-warper who broke the world to get his son back, then fled in shame when he realized he’d gone too far, that he’d been prepared to hurt children to build a world warped to match his own expectations and desires. This is Rick as he was when the Freedom League formed back in the early 1960s; a young, handsome fellow with an abiding love for superheroes, surprising skills and talents, a two-fisted combat style, and a powerful magical heritage of which even he is completely unaware. He still dresses like James Dean because he’s slow to catch up with fashion trends and thinks he’s cool, still talks like a watered-down version of a 1950s greaser.

This is my version of a sidekick build, a character who’s decently effective on his own but much more effective as part of a team or working with another superhero. Sometimes these are built as Badass Normal acrobats, sometimes as smaller, weaker versions of the hero, but Rick here really could team up with just about anyone and do them a world of good. (And indeed, it’s in his backstory that he in fact did just this.) He can also punch bad guys in the face and hold his own in superhero combat, but he’s not so great or so powerful that he’ll ever think of himself as anything less than another guy off the street who got extremely lucky.

You can use this as a build for Rick if you travel back to the Silver Age, where characters aware of the coming events of House of L can see in Rick’s naivete a firm, unflinching desire to build a better world for everyone, whatever the personal costs. It’s also a good build for a sidekick-style character in just about any setting; he’s a really, really good helpmates to heroes! Sure, most people don’t want to play sidekicks in a game like this, but if you do, here’s a pretty awesome sheet to do so! (He could use more Inspire, but again, this is Sidekick: Year One, before he learns all those awesome speeches). He’ll cost you 30 Sidekick points if you want to buy him, so if you want your own Rick Lucas, start saving now!

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Tornado Hero

“This’ll be a breeze!”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 20 (+5)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +4

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +4/+20

Saves: 11 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 12 pp=48 r

Bluff 7 (+10)

Concentration 8 (+10)

Intimidate 7 (+10)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+13)

Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 6 (+8)

Search 5 (+10)

Sense Motive 6 (+9)

Feats: 13 pp

Dodge Focus 4,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Luck 3,

Master Plan,

Move-By Action,

Taunt,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 58 pp

Tornado Array [42+1=43 pp]

Damage 10 (Extras: Area [Cylinder], Duration [Concentration], Selective Attack) (PFs: Indirect 2) ‘tornado swarm’

AP: Move Object 10 (Heavy Load) (12 tons) (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception]) (PFs: Indirect 2) ‘focused F5’

Flight 5 (250 MPH) (Flaw: Platform) [5 pp]

Immunity 5 (Weather Effects) [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

costs

abilities 32 + combat 24 + saves 11 + skills 12/48 + feats 13 + powers 58 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

Inspired by my earlier Weather Controller and Wizard of Oz builds, I give you a tornadokinetic, a character who specializes in the care, maintenance, and building of funnel clouds. He’ll fly in, hover over a target, and drop his big gun, a massive attack that’ll clear any group of minions close to his PL in a round or two. Tougher targets get knocked around by a focused F5, a titanic blast of wind strong enough to toss a man around like a toy, shake apart a tank like a ragdoll, and generally do some serious damage. Tornadoes are really ridiculously powerful, which means this guy can and will do some insane damage, particularly with power-stunting to let him summon the real ultimate power of the storm.

One possible niche for a character like this to fill is the “hick from out of town”, the country superhero who’s now surrounded with all y’all city heroes. Make him the greatest hero of Oklahoma, given the way the region is so ridiculously prone to tornadoes. (Why do people live there? Stubborn! :argh: ) Sure, he looks like a hillbilly (and maybe he is), but he’s a highly competent hero and very powerful. I’ve gone with the background that he was some kind of meteorologist, or maybe a storm chaser, who got his powers after being sucked into a tornado himself. Or maybe he’s a third or fourth generation legacy hero from Kansas, his grandma having gotten her powers after being sucked through a tornado in 1939.

I figure he flies inside the storm itself, riding the wind and giving him a platform from which he can be knocked off. Same visuals as the Tasmanian Devil, but in the air! Why doesn’t he have Air Control? Because Air Control sucks! He’s much better using ‘air control’ as a descriptor for powers like his Move Object and Damage than he is actually trying to do weird stuff like figure out a Perception Range Move Air around power: if you want him to backhand a regular storm or air elemental, have him stunt a Nullify off his big array and go to town. Other weather effects would also make sense, given the nature of his descriptors.

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Volcano Hero

“Puka pele!”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 26 pp

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

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Blast/Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +8/+20

Saves: 10 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+3 Ref, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 12 pp=48 r

Bluff 7 (+10)

Diplomacy 7 (+10)

Intimidate 7 (+10)

Knowledge: Current Events 4 (+4)

Knowledge: Physican Sciences 4 (+4)

Languages 1 (Native Hawaiian) (Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Search 4 (+4)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Feats: 16 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Dodge Focus (6)

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Fearless,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Precise Shot,

Uncanny Dodge (visual)

Powers: 62 pp

Volcano Array [24=4=28 pp]

Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2) 'lava blast'

AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [burst]) (PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2) 'eruption'

AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 4 (12 tons) 'Antean strength'

AP: Trip 10 (Extra: Knockback) (PFs: Accurate 2, Indirect 2) '

Flight 5 (250 MPH) [10+1=11 pp]

AP: Burrowing 10 (1000 MPH)

Immunity 14 (Heat Damage, Life Support) [14 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Super-Senses 6 (Darkvision, Vision Penetrates Concealment [Limited to Earth]) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 62 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

Continuing the theme for today, this is a hero who specializes in controlling volcanoes. He flies around on jets of magma, lifts things with “the strength of the earth” and can use various volcano-like effects against his enemies: localized tremors, jets of lava erupting from below, and generally does a pretty good job of being another kind of earth controller. He can fly around underground, too, navigating by sight with vision that cuts right through natural earth, and could potentially do a lot of damage if he confronted an enemy from the shelter of a couple hundred feet of rock. (True, that’s not very heroic, but it’s a really good trick for a one-off vs. a powerful foe!)

I figure this guy is the greatest hero of Hawaii, born from an accident with the volcanoes there, or perhaps the son of the famous Volcano Sisters who live there. Having a hero who specializes in dealing with the angry earth is a great advantage when you live in a place where there’s a whole lot of violent eruptions, but he can function pretty well in other settings too. You could make him a Japanese hero as well if you want, a sharp contrast to the usual “hi-tech martial artist yakuza” stereotypes that seem to creep up around Asian heroes like so much old cotton candy on a stick. Naturally his powers allow for a lot of complications: he can pull his punches and otherwise be discreet mechanically, but a guy who makes lava burst up through the street and blast his enemies is going to be doing some damage to the surroundings!

Give him actual Earth Control if you want him tossing rocks and such around: I figure he deals with volcanic eruptions by power-stunting Nullifys, or even more awesome by blasting holes and trenches in the earth to channel lava flows. He’s basically immune to anything a volcano could possibly throw at him (short of getting hit by a flung rock, which does happen around volcanos); don’t be afraid to go swimming in the lava pits or do something Superman-esque way down in the bowels of the Earth. They all thought putting you on the League was a waste of time, but when the Sub-Terrans show up or the Magmin invade, we’ll see who’s laughing then!

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Roleplaying Notes (The Crime League)

Dr. Stratos:

Think: Thaddeus Venture with weather control powers

Sebastian Stratos talks a good game about being a classy, world-conquering mad scientist. He drinks champagne, eats fine food, and often has classical music playing when he captures and interrogates superheroes. He talks grandly about ‘the game’ played between superhero and supervillain and his masterful plans for uplifting the human race beneath the magnificent power of his beneficent wisdom; he speaks admiringly of his ‘friendly rivalry’ with such luminaries as Overshadow and Dr. Sin, and of the ‘grand jousts’ they enjoy together. Why, even Captain Thunder is “my old foe, heh-heh-heh!”

But it’s a front. Stratos is a petty, scheming backstabber who’s much less clever than he imagines he is. These two qualities have helped him rise to power as head of the Crime League, and stay there. He drinks the champagne that the liquor salesman told him was top-quality, eats the overcooked and dry roast duck he got from cut-rate local caterers, and those interrogated by Stratos often have noted that he only seems to have about five or six classical pieces in rotation. He’s never met Overshadow or Dr. Sin; the first thinks he’s a worm and the second ‘has no idea who that is.’ He wants Captain Thunder to die, and be humiliated before he dies. He doesn’t really want to rule the world, not really: despite his genius and ambition, he’s just a petty thug in a lab coat who wants to use his inventions and superpowers to hurt people weaker than he is.

Medea

Think: Catharine Zeta-Jones as Azula and Mai in a dual role!

Medea is bored. Bored, bored bored. She’s been active as a supervillain for sixty-odd years now, ever since World War II pulled her out of an alcohol-induced stupor in Athens, and honestly it’s starting to get old. Maybe it’s time for a new pasttime, maybe a new face? At this point her main attachment to supercrime is the money she makes. She’s killed a few people, and that was fun, and humiliated a few superheroes, and that was fun, but she’s smart enough to realize that she’s not going to get anywhere doing this. She’s not powerful enough to conquer the world, she’s not even powerful enough to kill the _really_ annoying superheroes who she’d like to put down without mercy, and these things both frustrate her greatly. She’d never admit it, but she actually likes fighting scary badasses like Midnight or wisecracking jerks like Jack of all Blades: they at least make things _interesting_. It’s only when fighting them that the old fire returns to her voice, and she hisses with the melodramatic rage that makes life worth living.

She’s not anyone’s idea of a good person, having learned all the wrong things from thousands of years of immortal life, but she’s not the nihilistic monster that many sorceresses of her generation are. She could watch a human sacrifice without feeling anything more than annoyance at the possibility of bloodstains on her good dress, but she’d never take part in a plot to bring the Unspeakable One to Earth, or to help Malador destroy Adrian Eldritch, or anything else that would interfere with the hedonistic lifestyle to which she is accustomed. She likes this world, and she’d take action to save it if she thought it was in jeopardy. She’d gladly sell out her Crime League allies if the situation called for it, though she’s canny enough to go to ground for a long time afterwards. She’s got forever, after all. Though she has a reputation as a misandrist, truthfully at this point in her life she’s equally hostile to both genders. (She still prefers men, though, much to her ire, as a few very brave and canny superheroes have taken advantage of over the years)

Orion:

Think: Patrick Bateman with a gun

Jack O’Ryan is obsessive-compulsive. This has served him very well in his career as a supervillain, just as it did as an assassin. Other guys get distracted with stupid speeches about their power or stupid ridiculous plans, but he’s there to do a job, and it’s one he wants to get it done as quickly and efficiently as he can. He lets that mask slip a little with the rest of the League when he’s on assignment: Stratos expects a certain degree of crazy if you’re going to work under him, and the money and backup are too good for him to turn down. He’s a mortal man in a world of gods, and it’s only his sheer skill that’s let him get this far. Before a hunt, he checks, rechecks, then checks his weapons, his strategy, and his exit with as much energy and skill as he can, then carries it out with gusto. He has absolutely no regard for human life: the only thing that keeps him from killing more superheroes is his knowledge they’d be less gentle on capturing him.

O’Ryan has avoided long-term arrest or the death penalty by carrying out his killings outside the United States, using multiple fake IDs, and finally by the simple expedient of getting away with it most of the time. A vicious misogynist in the way only a Wall Street broker turned big game hunter can be, O’Ryan assumed that Lady Liberty (a soft liberal feminist with soft liberal feminine powers) would be an easy kill. When she survived the bazooka attack that would have killed her at the 4th of July march back when they first met, he blamed everyone but himself, then insisted it was his mistake that had let her live, not any powers of her own. He frequently patronizes prostitutes who dress like superheroines, especially Lady Liberty, and leaves them well-paid and with a strong desire to leave town for a few days. He never leaves a mark, but there’s something in his _eyes_...He thinks he could never kill a child, boy or girl, but if it ever happens he’d find out to his relief that it doesn’t actually bother him at all.

Hiroshima Shadow:

Think: Callisto from Xena, but made of radiation!

It’s not actually true that Hiroshima Shadow wants to kill all Americans. (Make no mistake; she would if given the opportunity, but she has far more elaborate plans in mind) She (yes, I’m using the suggested origin for her in Golden Age) thinks it would be hilarious to burn their cities and incinerate their children, laughing wickedly, leaving the pitiful few survivors to suffer and live miserable, long-foreshortened lives in the radioactive rubbles of their squalid world. Ahahaha! She’ll settle for killing superheroes if she can, and that’s something she has indeed done. She has fairly negative thoughts about her own country, given the way they ‘betrayed the people’ at the end of the Second World War, and has a horrible plan involving the nuclear incineration of the country’s leaders, transformation of herself into Neo-Ameratsu, the nuclear goddess, and a centuries-long rule of an increasingly-irradiated Japan where she is worshipped as she sees fit.

She speaks her Japanese with an archaic grammar that was old-fashioned even on her death in 1945. She works for the Crime League because she thinks they’ll give her the opportunity to wipe America off the map, and because (though they’d both deny it), she and Stratos think alike in that at the end of the day, they just want to hurt people weaker than they are. Occasionally she’ll adopt something, a pet or small child, and cosset it with affection before it finally dies of radiation poisoning hours or days later. When that happens, her constant fury will heat up even further, and she’ll begin hurting people with ever more gusto. She’s hit on Gamma, the Atom-Smasher a few times, but mostly to frighten him: Gamma is terrified of her, but often too embarrassed to fight off her affections when supervillains meet. She enjoys having that kind of power.

Blackstar:

Think Brian Blessed, circa Flash Gordon

Blackstar is not the man he used to be. The Star Knight who took over his world and made it a shining utopia of peace, order, and tranquility (enforced at the barrel of a gun) is now Omega’s agent, a man at once driven by monumental rage and monumental fear. He knows perfectly well what will happen to the universe if Omega does use him as a tool to destroy all reality, watching recordings made by refugees and personal witnessing of dying universes was part of his Star Knight training. While he’s a monumentally arrogant thug, he’s not a nihilist, there are many things he likes about this universe! But then he thinks of the Star Knights and thinks of his murderous, monumental rage towards each and every one of the bastards who destroyed his perfect world and banished him to utter humiliation like a common criminal, HIM, the breaker of Sol-arr, HIM, the champion of a thousand battles for justice! And then, oh yes, the destruction of everything doesn’t seem so bad. He masks his inner doubts with a booming voice and commanding presence, dominating battlefields via sheer charisma and skilled tactics. If there’s a Star Knight on the field, though, he drops the act and attacks them without a word save his cold laughter.

He doesn’t like Earth. Too cold, too primitive, too overrun with people as or more powerful than he is, people who he can’t bribe or intimidate to do what he wants. He misses the universe badly; the lovely men of Vega 9 with their soft bodies and angel hair, the green brandy analogue you can only get out in planets near the Galactic Core where the radiation chars the atoms of the wine ever so slightly as it ferments in orbital breweries, the music you can hear if you adjust your senses just right and fly up above the Sagittarius Arm and tune into the transmissions from Andromeda...when he thinks about it, it makes him sick at heart. He doesn’t just war against the Star Knights because he wants to see them all die in agony, perhaps their bodies piled atop the smoking ruins of Mentor, but because right now his hate is all he has left of the man he used to be.

Devil Ray:

Think Phil LaMarr, as himself!

Devil Ray is really kind of a jerk. He’s the least subtle of all the League members about being a bad guy. He’ll routinely beat up hostages for fun, threaten others for kicks, and make lewd comments to terrified women he thinks are attractive. He thinks of himself as a kingpin of aquatic crime, but he’s really just a petty thug and all-around jerk. Contrary to stereotypes, he was actually born into quite a bit of money: he joined the Navy when his wealthy Prince George County parents cut him off after he impregnated one of the famiy’s housemaids, and saw the chance to steal his power armor as a chance to get back at his family and make them sorry he’d ‘died’ in the service. The truth was, they didn’t really care, particularly now that they have Maryland’s only native superhero, Baltimore Crab on speed dial.

He thinks he’s a superstud but really isn’t; he thinks he’s a skilled tactician but he really isn’t. He’s something of an adrenaline junkie and at least has the virtue of physical courage: he’ll gladly mix it up with cops and superheroes alike, silent as befits a man who does a great deal of fighting underwater, barring the occasional burst of laughter when things are going his way. (Dragging non-powered guys underwater and watching their faces as they start to drown is one of his favorite things!) He’s currently in a physical relationship with Medea (he reminds her of her late husband, or at least her memories of him, and she unconsciously dates bastards so she never has to question her prejudices), and is self-confident enough to think that he’s man enough to trifle with her affections. If he ever pushes her far enough, he will find that he is sorely mistaken.

Wildcard:

Think Jim Carrey, circa 1996

Wildcard is...not that bad a guy? Sure, he’s no hero, but he’d never hurt anyone who wasn’t trying to hurt him first. He likes kids, puppies, and pretty girls, and a suitable sob story from any of those three are liable to get him to untie a hostage, look the other way as somebody is sneaking past him, and otherwise be pretty damn soft for a supervillain. He’s pretty manically cheerful half the time, and is the League member most likely to do cartwheels in a fight. If he gained knowledge of a superhero’s secret identity, he’d use it himself, he’s a very good gambler and not a man to give up a hole card, after all, but he’d never think of betraying that ID even to his friends in the League. Those guys are crazy half the time! He only drifted into supervillainy after getting his ass kicked by thugs repeatedly. When he’s sober, and calm, he’d rather be back in rural Nevada working at his dad’s filling station.

But he usually isn’t sober or calm, and doubts are usually totally foreign to the man’s nature. He wouldn’t shoot a hostage, but he might make a superhero believe he would; or even better, make it look like the superhero believes it and doesn’t care. He’ll actually stay on the battlefield longer than his Crime League allies: he knows he’s a good luck charm and nothing more, and is terrified of being tossed back into the world of independent supervillainy. (He made a lot of enemies with guys in the Syndicates, and if people in costumes weren’t around to back him up.) He’s terrified of the rest of the League, and will do anything they tell him to do short of outright murder. And even then, if the guy who had to die was a jerk...He gets genuinely upset when heroes make fun of him or hurt him physically: this is supposed to be a game, man! And he’s supposed to be winning!

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Dr. Simian

Think: Charlton Heston as a gorilla

Mentioning bananas is a pretty reliable taunt for Dr. Simian. Johnny Rocket, Jack of all Blades, all the smart-mouth heroes of Freedom City know that jokes about bananas really do make Simian angry. If you use them enough, he'll start screaming like a gorilla and threatening to rip you limb from limb! Everyone knows that Dr. Simian is a courtly fellow, sipping his cognac and listening to his classical music on 78 RPM, occasionally slipping into the high tech suit of armor he built with his own genius to crush the machinations of humanity and their destruction of the natural world. But the truth is, the refined courtesy is a something of a disguise too, one he wears to mock and shame the filthy, degenerate humans all around him.

The truth of the matter is that Dr. Simian loves bananas. When he's really alone, he sits in his easy chair like an addict with his cigarettes, peeling his bananas and imagining the wild. Dr. Simian never was in the wild; his parents were part of a semi-legal roadside attraction in rural New Jersey before they were bought up by Star Labs, but he bets the wild is really great. Animal against animal, the way it should be, with all this veneer of civilization stripped away and only brute force and raw cunning letting a man survive. But that world is forever barred to him: he's no forest-dweller, to give up all these niceties he enjoys so much. And if he went there, and surrounded himself with other gorillas, even found himself a mate, he'd...he'd be a pervert. If he mated with another gorilla, he'd be mating with an animal.

But that's all right, he comforts himself with his bananas and his wine, listening to soft classical music play on his old record player. One day he'll uplift all his people and crush the human beings who have inflicted countless horrors on them, and one day all this ridiculous supervillain playacting, a habit he adopted from watching people like Sebastian Stratos in the days after his first liberation, will be something he set aside as easily as he set aside his cage and diaper so many years ago. One day, he won't have to worry about human beings anymore. One day his people will recognize him as the hero he knows himself to be. And for that day, he'll do anything. Anything.

The Maestro

Think: F. Murray Abraham, circa Amadeus

The Maestro is one of the oldest lags in Freedom City, having debuted way back before the Second World War. He has the values of a different generation in a lot of ways; he still compliments black people on their fast-twitch muscle fibers and laments how unladylike modern-day female musicians are! That said, he does have some positive graces imbued by his age: he is the only Crime Leaguer never to have killed anyone in decades upon decades of supervillainy. That said, quite a few police officers have been left permanently deafened, for which he feels very little guilt. Honestly, he has no idea why he's still alive. Some quirk of genetics, musical talent, or perhaps decades upon decades of exposure to super-science, magic, and superpowers have transformed a mortal man into an ageless immortal. Truthfully, sometimes he wonders sometimes if he's alive at all: he's so old, and he's outlived so many people! He's even outlived classical music in general; composition in the genre having dried up and almost completely vanished in his lifetime.

If he's honest with himself, and sometimes he is, that's why he hates contemporary musicians, especially kids, so very much. It's not because their music is nothing but ridiculous chords and freakish melodies, souless corporate ballads, incomprehensible foreign shilly-shally, and the rantings of cocaine-addled schoolboys and shrieking viragos who wouldn't know the soul of music if it came along and screamed loudly into their ears! Well, it's not _just_ because of that. It's because, when he gets right down to it, it's because they're alive and he isn't. They have families, futures, lifetimes of promise, and he's just a man who's outlived his time, his place, and even his genre. He's played the same tunes over and over again for nearly seventy years now, and he's honestly not sure he can ever write that well again. When those thoughts are in his head, the only way to get them out is to find some fool child with a Walkpod or whatever they're called, and blow out their eardrums with a 200 decibel bombardment!

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Velociraptor Hero

“YOU THINK THIS IS FUNNY?” -XKCD

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 52 pp

STR 26 (+8)

DEX 24 (+7)

CON 26 (+8)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 28 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +11

Grapple: +14

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +8 (+8 Con)

REF +8 (+7 Dex, +1)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 13 pp=52 r

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Climb 2 (+10)

Diplomacy 4 (+5)

Intimidate 14 (+15)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 3 (+10)

Survival 5 (+7)

Feats: 21 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

All-Out Attack,

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (3)

Dodge Focus (4),

Evasion,

Fast Overrun,

Improved Crit (Unarmed) (2)

Improved Initiative,

Improved Overrun,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Startle,

Takedown Attack (2),

Uncanny Dodge (olfactory)

Powers: 32 pp

Comprehend 3 (speak and understand all languages simultaneously) [6 pp]

Device 3 (Holo-Watch) (Hard to Lose) [12 pp]

-Morph 3 (humanoids) (Extra: Continuous) (PF: Precise) {10}

Impervious Toughness 5 [5 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 7 (Infravision, Scent [Accurate, Acute, Tracking olfactory sense], Tremorsense) [7 pp]

Drawbacks: [-3 pp]

Weakness (Extreme Cold) (uncommon, major) (-3)

costs

abilities 52 + combat 28 + saves 6 + skills 13/52 + feats 21 + powers 32 - drawbacks 3= 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

A velociraptor superhero? Believe it! This character is a people-sized dinosaur who can run as fast as a car, leap over chain-link fences, and scythe through a crowd of bad guys like wheat through chaff. He can also scent-trail his way across a city, sense patterns of body heat, and pick up vibrations on his vibraty-lizard tongue. Yeah, he’s pretty badass. I gave him a little holographic generator so he can pass for human on the street, and the ability to speak all human languages: once he learned to do that vibration thing in the back of his throat, he really didn’t have a lot of problems getting by. He’s also got a vulnerability to cold: not cold-based attacks per se, but cold-based environments will render him torpid and sick very fast. We don’t really know if velociraptors had that problem in real life, but I’m going with the idea that he did.

So what’s this guy’s story? I can think of a lot of possible backgrounds. Maybe he’s a visitor from another dimension, a traveler or dimensionnaut who became stranded in this world of scuttling, soft-bodied mammals and has had to make his home here. Or maybe his dimension is a sinister one, run by a predatory saurian empire, and he’s chosen to change sides now that he’s in this place that’s so much nicer than the world he left behind. Or maybe he’s a time traveler, a member of a forgotten saurian civilization cast into the impossibly distant future millions and millions of years after his civilization’s death! Or maybe he’s a wild saurian trained to human ways, or a mutant or a lab experiment. Either way, he’s the great terror of a past age: a velociraptor on the loose!

He doesn’t have claws because I don’t like to give a Lethal-Only Strike to superheroes. Treat him Power Attacking or maybe Critting as using claws, carefully aimed so as not to do serious damage to puny humans. If you want to make him your Wolverine, just make sure he’s in combat versus a lot of robots or other acceptable targets. Treat his, ah, carnivorous diet as a complication, along with any other quirks of reptilian anatomy you’d care to give him. You could drop the Comprehend to free up more points, making him face the same challenges as any other immigrant to Earth. You could lose the watch, too, but you don’t want his nature to be a Complication ALL the time...

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Firefighter Hero

“I can think of no more stirring symbol of man's humanity to man than a fire engine.” -Kurt Vonnegut

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 16 pp

ATK: +4 (+10 Fireman powers)

DEF: +10 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +9

Saves: 16 pp

TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+0 Dex, +7)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 9 pp=36 r

Climb 5 (+10)

Demolitions 5 (+5)

Diplomacy 5 (+9)

Drive 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 5 (+5)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 3 (+5)

Feats: 13 pp

Distract (Diplomacy)

Dodge Focus 6,

Improved Initiative,

Power Attack,

Ultimate Save (Toughness)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 64 pp

Fireman Array 20 (PFs: Accurate 3, Alternate Powers 2) [45 pp]

Drain Energy 10 (Extra: Ranged, PFs: Slow Fade 2 [5 minutes])

AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire, Penetrating; PFs: Variable Descriptor 2 [any energy])

AP: Nullify 10 (any energy effect) (Extras: Targeted Area [burst], Effortless, PFs: Precise, Selective)

Immunity 4 (environmental heat, radiation, suffocation) [4 pp]

Impervious Toughness 10 (Flaw: Limited [Energy Only]) [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Super-Senses 5 (Infravision, Vision Penetrates Concealment) [5 pp]

costs

abilities 32 + combat 16 + saves 16 + skills 9/36 + feats 13 + powers 64 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is a build for the Fireman, one of the iconic setting NPCs of the now-defunct Aberrantsuperpowered gameline published by White Wolf. (If you have a copy of the corebook, he’s the, uh, fireman on the cover). I’ve always liked the Fireman; he’s a genuinely good man who wants the best for everybody, in his personality he’s one of the closest things the setting has to a genuine superhero. He was one of the first people with superpowers to appear in public in that setting, saving the life of a busload of children trapped in a burning bus on the day that superpowers first began appearing in 1998. He’s one of the nicest, most personable guys in a White Wolf game, and I love that one of the canned adventures the PCs can take part in is assisting the Fireman’s run for the Presidency. Unfortunately for the Fireman, he’s a character in a White Wolf universe, and thus he’s in pretty serious jeopardy without the help of the PCs. And that’s if he _wins_.

So why build this character? In game terms, because he helps me show “build for effects, not for power names”. The Fireman is an energy absorber built without Absorption, a power that’s not particularly well-put together or useful given that it breaks caps. He can absorb energy at a distance (I’d let him drain things like fires, electrical substations, and the like, as well as powers with energy descriptors), hold it in his body, and then fire it back at any target he likes. Mix Drain and Nullify to taste, depending your GM’s preferences. He can take some massive energy-based punishment thanks to his Impervious and Ultimate Toughness, letting him soak up a significant amount of damage. Structural fires and the like just aren’t going to do enough damage to get through his impervious. With his Immunities, he can walk into a burning building or a melting-down nuclear reactor and suck up everything there without a problem; he can also use his super-senses to _see_ inside a fire or a burning reactor without a worry.

This guy actually would make a very effective fireman, and has been built with that philosophy in mind. He’s in great physical shape and very charismatic. If you like the power construction but not the concept, shuffle points around at will. His 20 STR could be spent elsewhere, for all that scores like that are pretty important for people with his job. He could use more feats and skills, certainly, and maybe you like him better as a brainy scientist type, or something else. Another idea would be to make his powers all Perception-range, which would certainly fit the concept of his power construction as well! OTOH, fires generally don't do a lot of dodging. If you stick with the fireman concept, there already is a superpowered firefighter in Freedom City, so maybe you guys can commute to work together! (She’s just immune to all fire effects, though, so she might get a little worried you’re after her job...)

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Screaming Hero

“I praise loudly, I blame softly.” -Catharine the Great

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 40 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 Melee/+15 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +9

Grapple: +18

Saves: 8 pp

TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3)

FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 22 pp=88 r

Acrobatics 15 (+20)

Bluff 11 (+13/+17)

Diplomacy 5 (+7/+11)

Drive 5 (+10)

Intimidate 10 (+12)

Investigate 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5)

Languages 3 (Arabic, Japanese, Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 10 (+13)

Sense Motive 10 (+13)

Stealth 5 (+10)

Feats: 21 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee (5)

Attack Specialization: Unarmed

Attractive

Challenge: Fast Acrobatic Bluff

Dodge Focus 4

Improved Crit (Unarmed)

Improved Initiative

Luck (2)

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 27 pp

Screaming Array [22+2=24 pp]

Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) 'Aaaaaa!'

AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [Cone, PFs: Reverse Progression 2) 'Eeeeee!'

AP: Dazzle 10 (auditory) (Extra: Targeted Area [Cone], PFs: Longer-Lasting 2 (5 minutes)) 'Iiiiiii!"

Protection 3 [3 pp]

costs

abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 22/88 + feats 21 + powers 27 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my build for a screaming hero, a character with a powerful sonic scream they can use to pull off a variety of effects. Versions of this character in comics include Black Canary II, Screaming Mimi, Angar the Screamer, and Tyroc the poorly thought out Legion of Super-Heroes character. (Obviously, I went with a version of the first for this build!) This lady just happens to be a world-class martial artist to go along with her sonic abilities, able to sweep through a room of goons with kicks and punches, then shriek the boss’s head right off with a powerful sonic blast. She’s also a good detective, a streetwise observer, skilled on her motorbike, and she’s pretty good to look at too! (I went with the version of the character who is not dressed like a prostitute: yes, non-comics fans, this is the non-racy version of this character’s costume!)

How did she get her powers? Maybe she inherited them from her mother or another superhero parent; maybe she’s a cyborg who decided to get some technological help to upgrade her already formidable hand-to-hand abilities. Or maybe she’s a mutant! There are a lot of origins, and one that combines both formidable martial arts training and fantastic superabilities is one that’s going to give you a lead on a fantastic character. Maybe she’s part of a big super-team, or maybe she’s a gritty streetwise hero, perhaps accompanied by an archer sidekick...no, wait, forget the last part, he sucks. Maybe she’s on a team of fellow heroes, fighting the good fight.

You could mix this character up a little if you wanted: maybe she shoots eye-beams rather than sonic screams, or maybe she’s a low-level elementalist in addition to her formidable physical abilities. Another version of the character might be like my recent Gazer-Beam build, where they’re all walking blaster and only somewhat competent at hand-to-hand fighting. Personally, I think it’s more fun to do both! Note that she doesn’t have to pay for a motorcycle under our equipment rules, but that if you want her to have a cool custom ride, you need to invest in actual equipment for her. Take a look at Push's sheet, or Midnight’s, for good tips, or check out the book Agents of Freedom!

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Nullifying Acrobatic Hero

“I have a crush on every boy!” -Cheerleader, _Homestar Runner_

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 34 pp

STR 16 (+3)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+13 melee)

DEF: +13 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +5

Grapple: +16

Saves: 12 pp

TOU +7 (+4 Con, +3 Protection)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +10 (+5 Dex, +5)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 15 pp=60 r

Acrobatics 15 (+20)*

Bluff 11 (+13/+17)*

Escape Artist 5 (+10)

Climb 7 (+10)*

Diplomacy 3 (+5/+9)

Ride 5 (+10)

Notice 10 (+12)*

Feats: 28 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee 7

Attractive

Challenge 2 (Accelerated Climb, Fast Acrobatic Bluff)

Defensive Attack

Dodge Focus 7

Evasion 2

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Second Chance (Acrobatic Bluff checks)

Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Notice)

Ultimate Skill (Acrobatics)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 37 pp

Circus Freak Array [21+3=24 pp]

Strike 4 (PFs: Improved Crit, Mighty, Extras: Autofire and Penetrating on Strength and Strike)

AP: Nullify 7 (all powers) (PF: Improved Crit, Extra: Autofire, Flaw: Range [Touch])

AP: Paralyze 7 (PF: Improved Crit, Extra: Autofire)

AP: Stun 7 (PF: Improved Crit, Extra: Autofire)

Leaping 3 (x10) [3 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Sure-Footed, Swinging) [6 pp]

costs

abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 15/60 + feats 28 + powers 37 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

So you’re a normal person in a place overrun by people with superpowers, many of whom are jerks who want to smack you around. It’s not an easy way to live, even, or especially, if you have connections that put you close to the most powerful people in the land. You need some way to defend yourself that you can carry with you wherever you go, even into the corridors of power. What do you do? Well, you train yourself to fight them on their own terms, using your fantastic martial arts training and command of chi to fight superhumans in hand-to-hand combat. It helps that you’re an amazing acrobat yourself, easily capable of competing alongside the best in the world, and a master of hand-to-hand combat.

Yes, it’s Avatar: The Last Airbender’s Ty Lee as a PL 10 superhero. I think I’ve captured the character’s abilities decently well. She’d make a very effective chi martial artist in a superhero setting, with a special trick in hand-to-hand combat that makes her especially effective against many fellow superheroes. She can also paralyze normal people with a touch, or just punch them in the head. (I gave her the Strike to let her fight robots and things that wouldn’t normally be hurt by Nullifys or Will saves). She’s, for me, the most compelling of the show’s Quirky Miniboss Squad in the second season, largely because she’s a good demonstration of what happens to nice people when they grow up as parts of very not-nice societies.

She’s a world-class acrobat, has a crush on every boy, and she can fight and win against just about anybody at her PL. If you want to make her friends, give lots of Throwing Mastery, or even a Blast with a Power Loss drawback to represent knife-throwing; or invest in lots of points and buy a powerful elemental controller who just happens to be a skilled martial artist in the background. As it is, I think this character could function well on her own. Play her as a reformed bad guy, one who’s worked with some pretty bad customers while trying to be an OK person herself, out to do good now that she’s had a chance to see evil up close and personal!

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Meta-Grue II

“You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.”-Albert Einstein

Abilities: 30 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Melee/+12 Blast)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +2

Grapple: +20/+24

Saves: 8 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 32 r=8 pp

Bluff 11 (+15)

Concentration 5 (+8)

Disguise 1 (+5/+10/+25/+30)

Languages 1 (Grue) (Base: English)

Notice 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Feats: 13 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 4

Dodge Focus 4

Power Attack

Quick Change 2

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 67 pp

Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp]

Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp]

Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]

Grue Array [21+4=25 pp]

Blast 8 (PFs: Accurate 3, Improved Crit, Precise) 'Tess'

AP: Concealment 10 (all senses) (Flaw: Phantasm) and Mind Reading 10 (PF: Subtle) 'Chase'

AP: Impervious TOU 10 and Super-Strength 4 (PF: Groundstrike) 'Combo'

AP: Insubstantial 4 (Extra: Progressive [+0]) (PF: Subtle) 'Maximus'

AP: Morph 5 (relative mass) (Extra: Continous) (PF: Precise) 'Victoria'

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

Morph 1 (humanoids) [2 pp]

costs

abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 8/32 + feats 13 + powers 67 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

So the Meta-Grue, tired of his solitary life after a lifetime as part of the collective of the Unity, decided to bud off a daughter (he’s powerful enough shapeshifter to control his chromosones as they leave his body) and raise her as his own child. Really, he wasn’t that surprised when she turned out to be good; yes, of course she spurned him for Earth’s heroes, and yes of course she left his side to join the teen heroes at Claremont. That sort of thing happens to the Meta-Grue all the time. It’s part of the reason why he’s so testy. (Well, that and his desire to crush the freedom of Earth’s heroes and use their destruction as a tool to conquer the Meta-Mind and make himself sole god-king of the Grue Unity!)

OK, so this is my attempt to build a Meta-Grue, the setting’s answer to the Super-Skrull, as a PL 10 PC: it ain’t easy! The Meta-Grue has all the powers of a PL 10 superteam (in this case the Atom Family, aka What If the Power Pack were the Fantastic Four?), and fitting all that in 150 PP is not an easy purchase at all. Especially since an Array of Alternate Forms, the traditional way to build characters like this, suffers from being the devil’s work! (i.e., very confusing and hard to police in play.) So instead she’s a jack of all trades and master of none, but at least she can do a lot of things. She can fly, make herself hard and tough, fly through solid objects (though not at the same time), and shoot people with blasts of radiation. She can also change her shape because, you know, Grue! She can be your backup paragon, energy controller, mentalist, and sneak all in one. Note that the Progressive extra on her Insubstantial lets her assume the forms of Insubstantial 1, 2, 3, and 4 (which normally you can't do without APs), the downside being that she can only pop one a round. (i.e., to go Insub 4 she has to slowly 'dissolve' over three rounds)

Don't forget that she can do all those things while Morphed, an excellent way to maintain her secret even in her super-ID; she can also use her powers to be _really_ good at Morphing, at the cost of losing some versatility. Being a free Grue PC is a challenge. Everyone is suspicious of you: are you just a spy for the Unity? Certainly the Unity wants you dead, dead dead. Being a free Grue PC who is the offspring of a famous _supervillain_ is an even bigger challenge: so many Complication PP for you! Who doesn’t want to beat you up? She doesn’t share her dad’s desire to crush all who stand before her, but like a lot of free Grue she may have a desire to promote the freedom of others even when it’s not necessarily a good idea. As she would not be a slave, so she will not allow any others to be masters! This may be a challenging task given all the people who’ll be standing against her, but what better challenge for a free young warrior: the Gruen champion of Earth!

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Armored Costumed Detective

“Men like you can never change.” -Javert, Les Miserables

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA: 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Melee/+12 Boomerangs)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +6

Grapple: +12/+24

Saves: 14 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 72 r=18 pp

Bluff 5 (+7)

Craft: Electronic 4 (+6)

Intimidate 15 (+17)

Investigate 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Streetwise 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Technology 4 (+6)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 12 (+14)

Feats: 18 pp

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Melee (2)

Dodge Focus (2)

Equipment (4)

Improved Initiative

Inventor

Hide In Plain Sight

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 44 pp

Device 11 (Battlesuit) (Hard to Lose) [44 pp]

-Blast 8 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Accurate 2) 'boomerangs' {18+1=19}

AP: Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 4 (12 tons)

-Concealment 4 (all visual) (Flaw: Passive) (PF: Close Range) {5}

-Flight 1 (10 MPH) (PF: Subtle) {3}

-Leaping 1 (x2) {1}

-Protection 7 (Extra: Impervious) {14 pp}

-Super-Movement 2 (Wall-Crawling 2) {4}

-Super-Senses 8 [Analytical Darkvision, Commlink, Radar] {8}

Equipment: {20 ep}

-Stately Manor {18 ep]

-Walking Stick {Strike 1 (PF: Mighty) {2 ep}

Drawbacks:

Normal ID (Full Round to don suit) [-4]

costs

abilities 28 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 18/72 + feats 20 + powers 44 - drawbacks 4 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

So back in the day, this grim and gritty vigilante patrolled the streets of your city or neighborhood, righting wrongs and striking the fear of God into criminals. Then one day he went away, and he didn't come back, and the city changed. But now someone's back on the streets in that old costume, using the same gadgets and powers to fight back against the forces of darkness: the costumed detective, now in armor! Is this the detective himself, now too aged to carry on the fight without mechanical assistance, or is it a successor, perhaps his son or daughter, or a plucky teenager who stumbled across the suit and the chance of a lifetime? Either way, justice has a new face. That's the same as an old face! But it's a really badass-looking face.

I've tried to split the difference in this build about whether or not this is the old detective himself or his successor: the person inside the suit is smart and capable, but no genius on bar with a real gadgeteer or successful inventor. They can fix the suit and made additions to it, but they're not going to be whipping out any super-deluxe inventions to save the day. They're better than a normal human being in almost every respect, and certainly no bystander, but they're not up to a tremendous quality of adventuring outside the suit: at PL 5 or so, they're not helpless but they're definitely not a superhero. They've got a nice mansion to call home, but do they actually live there or are they just squatting in the old man's estate? It's up to you!

An easy way to tweak this archetype would be to make it a better combatant; I've built him without tradeoffs as I often do, but you could easily justify giving him a much higher Attack Bonus and just letting the suit boost his damage up to peak human levels. You could also dial the suit back a bit and buy up more feats and skills, or drop the man inside the suit down even further to reflect being old or some punk high school kid; this is something of a middle of the road build of that sort of concept. You could drop the suit concept entirely and say it's closer to a power ring, I suppose, but then you lose striking fear into the hearts of criminals all over again.

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Mythos Hero

“Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea/His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep"-Lord Tennyson

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 18 pp

STR 10 (+0)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 14 (+2)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +4 (+10 Ranged)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +4/+20

Saves: 17 pp

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

FORT +8 (+2 Con, +6)

REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 84 r=21 pp

Craft: Writing 12 (+14)

Investigate 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Arcane Lore 12 (+14)

Knowledge: History 12 (+14)

Languages 4 (Arabic, German, Latin, Swahili) (Base: English)

Intimidate 12 (+15)

Notice 12 (+14)

Sense Motive 12 (+14)

Feats: 18 pp

Attack Focus: Ranged (6)

Dodge Focus (5)

Fearless

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Ritualist

Startle

Ultimate Save (Will)

Uncanny Dodge (mental)

Powers: 52 pp

Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]

Immunity 2 (Aging, Madness) [2 pp]

Lovecraftian Array [30+6=36 pp]

Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) ‘gaze of Hastur’

AP: Blast 10 (Extra: Alt. Save [Will]) ‘Star-vampire’s flame’

AP: Confuse 10 (Extra: Area [burst]) ‘Azathoth’s blessing’

AP: Drain Wisdom 10 (Extra: Range [Perception]) ‘Nyarlathotep’s words’

AP: Mind Control 10 (Extra: Conscious) ‘Shaggai’s insects’

AP: Telekinesis 10 (12 tons) (Extra: Damaging) ‘tentacles of Cthulu’

AP: Teleport 9 (anywhere on Earth) (Extra: Accurate, PFs: Easy, Progression Turnabout) ‘Power of the Great Race’

Protection 5 (Extra: Impervious) [10 pp]

Super-Senses 1 (Mythos Awareness) [mental] [1 pp]

costs

abilities 18 + combat 24 + saves 17 + skills 21/84 + feats 18 + powers 52 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Woof. Hey, is it any worse than an infernalist when you stop to think about it? (Well, maybe: a demon presumably wants the world to survive, he just wants to rule it, or his dark monsters to rule it) But comic books are full of people using evil powers for good ends, just look at our own Kid Cthulhu! So the idea here is that this is an investigator of the Cthulhu Mythos, a skilled wizard who uses the power of the Elder Gods against them to defend our dimension against their terrible designs. The picture is of H.P. Lovecraft, naturally, and the build is actually made with the assumption that this is indeed the historical H.P. Lovecraft, having extended his life through sorcery to defend our world against the scum of the universe! (And yeah, H.P. Lovecraft espouses some racist, classist stuff in his time; the guy was a neurotic shut-in with Mom issues. He did get better at the end of his life, and actually repented the racism he’d used as a tool for so long.)

I want to use this space to talk about Confuse, a major part of this character’s build that I haven’t seen used in a lot of builds around here. As anyone who’s read Order of the Stick can tell you, Area Confuse is a great weapon to use in goon-sweeping situations, particularly when you’re in a generally nice setting that doesn’t worry too much about the consequences of bad guys suddenly turning on each other with all their force. You want to stop the bad guy’s goons? Put a Confuse in the middle of them; some may shoot at you, but most of them will be going crazy with fleeing, babbling, attacking each other, or doing any number of useless, irrational things. No wonder this character has such a high Intimidate score: he’s one scary dude!

Why the low Toughness and Impervious? The idea is that he’s a mortal man who is largely immune to the concerns of normal people, shrugging off punches and most bullets, but massive firepower and the rage of the creatures he fights will easily crush him: just like your average Investigator! In Freedom City, the Lovecraftian mythos is exemplified by the Unspeakable One, a monstrously powerful entity who threatens all realities, everywhere. Omega wants to end everything; the worst thing about the Unspeakable One is that it wants reality to live in its name. Fighting the Unspeakable One is an old story for Freedom City’s heroes, and if this guy has been around that long, he’s been their champion for ages...if perhaps one they’re a little uneasy about. Madness is just this close...

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Death

”One can survive everything these days, except death.” -Oscar Wilde

Abilities: 18 pp

STR: 10 (+0)

DEX: 16 (+3)

CON: 16 (+3)

INT: 10 (+0)

WIS: 16 (+3)

CHA: 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 melee)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +6

Init: +3

Saves: 12 pp

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

FORT: +7 (+3 Con, +4)

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

WILL: +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Feats: 12 pp

Attack Focus: Melee (4)

Dodge Focus (4)

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Skills: 14 pp=56 r

Diplomacy 4 (+4)

Intimidate 8 (+8)

Medicine 7 (+10)

Notice 12 (+15)

Sense Motive 13 (+15)

Stealth 12 (+15)

Powers: 70 pp

Death Array 23+4=27 pp

Concealment 10 (PFs: Close Range, Precise, Selective) (all senses)

AP: Drain Constitution 10 (Extra: Affects Corporeal) (PFs: Extended Reach, Precise, Reversible)

AP: Emotion Control 10 (PFs: Insidious, Mind Blank, Subtle)

AP: Healing 10 (Extra: Resurrection) (Flaw: Others Only) (PFs: Progression 3 [1 minute])

AP: Strike 10 (Extra: Affects Corporeal) (PFs: Extended Reach, Precise, Reversible)

Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]

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

Insubstantial 4 (Extra: Duration [Default] (+0) ) (incorporeal) [20 pp]

Protection 7 [7 pp]

Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) [2 pp]

-

Design Notes:

Yes, it’s Death! Thanatos, the Grim Reaper, embodiment of entropy and loss, as a PL 10 starting character. I’ve obviously had to leave off some of the bells and whistles that Death has demonstrated over the millennia, but this isn’t a bad representation as the End of All Things as a starting PC. Perhaps this is a version of Death who has recently been disempowered by some great cosmic upheaval, and has so found himself operating on the same level as anyone else. He’s a formidable fellow with many options in combat, letting him strike down his enemies, find those in need of his mercy, and generally do the sort of thing that you’d expect Death to be able to do. Note that he’s a very mortal Death, though one denied many of the usual human weaknesses and frailties thanks to his awesome powers.

In strange aeons, can even Death die? Yes; my assumption is that Death works as it does in the Incarnations of Immortality series by Piers Anthony, where the title is passed from mortal to mortal. He can take a life with a touch, but restore it just as easily: perhaps helping inculcate new life from what’s been lost? He’s impervious to almost all mundane harm, what with being Death and all, but people with superpowers can stave him off, at least for a little while. He’s also a fairly terrifying individual, again what with being Thanatos, but he can also make people content, letting them grieve and move on without lapsing into despair at the loss of their loved one. With judicious use of his Strike and Power Attack, he can cut through almost any barrier you’d care to name. (Why no Affects Insubstantial? Well, because ghosts have obviously transcended his power, naturally!)

Obviously Death is something of a novel choice for a PL 10 superheroic concept. Perhaps this is a fragment of Death cast loose on the world, or maybe it’s a necromatic deity rendered all-too-human. Or maybe it’s just a mutant with funky powers! I wrote this up to counteract the tendency that superhero comics, particularly Freedom City, have of presenting the avatar of Death as somehow a bad guy. (Fantasy comics can be even worse.) Death gods are actually traditionally fairly cordial, if somber fellows; after all, they meet everyone eventually in their line of work, and there’s no point in making enemies. Everyone’s equal in their eyes, and justice must be handed out surely to those who deserve it. When your time is up, your time is up.

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Gourmand Hero

“As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.” Buddy Hackett

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 34 pp

STR 16 (+3)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Blast/Melee)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +9

Saves: 8 pp

TOU +10 (+5 Con, +5 Protection)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +5 (4 Dex, +1)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 52 pp=13r

Bluff 8 (+11)

Craft: Chemical 8 (+8)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+8)

Knowledge: Technology 4 (+4)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 19 pp

Accurate Attack

Attack Focus (Melee) (4)

Dodge Focus (4)

Improved Initiative

Luck (2)

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Precise Shot (2)

Takedown Attack

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (olfactory)

Powers: 54 pp

Immunity 4 (disease, poison, radiation, starvation and thirst) [4 pp]

Impervious Toughness 8 [8 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Nuclear Furnace Array [30+2=32 pp]

Matter Eater 10 (PFs: Improved Crit 2, Precise) and Healing 10 (Flaw: Personal Only) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth)

AP: Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2, Precise)

AP: Corrosion 10

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 3 (Acute Analytical Olfactory) [3 pp]

costs

abilities 34 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 13/52 + feats 19 + powers 54 = 150 pts

---------------------

Design Notes:

As per an old request of Shaen’s, here’s my build for a hero with Matter Eating, the ability to eat and digest anything so long as they can fit it into their mouth. The power is named for the most famous hero to have that ability, the eponymous Matter-Eater Lad pictured above. (Look, the High Silver Age was a weird era. Everyone did things they’re not very proud of.) Despite the character’s reputation as a goofy refugee from the Silver Age (recently rewritten as a badass), Matter Eating is actually a pretty useful power if you flesh it out and give it the right descriptors, as I’ve tried to do here.

Matter-Eating is Immunity to what’s in your mouth [5 pp] +Drain Toughness, in case the mechanics are puzzling to anyone. My assumption is that this character has an internal nuclear furnace, one that lets him consume anything that can fit inside his body. He can heal his injuries by consuming matter and integrating it into his body-mass (suggesting a resilient, perhaps alien anatomy, with plenty of useful immunities), shoot blasts of radioactive energy from his mouth, or just fry things with a touch of his mouth. He can also leap and run faster thanks to his internal furnace, shrug off much damage thanks to skin hardened enough to hold the furnace burning inside him, and his experience with eating all sorts of things lets him determine a great deal about a object by eating it. (‘Taste’ in M&M is scent+taste; if it matters that his super-senses technically only work on what he’s nomming, give him an HP for it, unless you actually want his nose to be as sensitive as his tongue)

I figure he has the Bluff and Taunt because a guy with a goofy power like that has got to have a sense of humility about himself; he can take blows of his own and give them back to others! He’s got the Blast so you don’t go around trying to bite chunks off people with your superhero character, despite a hilarious moment the character got in a recent comic, that’s not cool! One possible way to tweak this would be to make his powers magical: perhaps he’s a wendigo from the frozen North, or otherwise possessed by the Spirit of Hunger itself. If this guy _is_ a time-traveler from an insane Silver Age future, perhaps going to an era where his abilities actually matter, you’ve got a whole host of potential complications for him.

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Armored Megalomaniac (Villanous NPC)

“Better to fall in battle against a god than live in shame!” -Ramses, 10 Commandments

PL: 15 (250)

Abilities: 45 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 30 (+10)

WIS 20 (+5)

CHA 20 (+5)

Combat: 40 pp

ATK: +10 (+15 ranged)

DEF: +12 (+5 flat-footed)

Init: +9

Grapple: +15/+30

Saves: 17 pp

TOU +18 (+5 Con, +13 Force Field)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +8 (+5 Dex, +3)

WILL +16 (+5 Wis, +11)

Skills: 31 pp=124 pp

Concentration 10 (+20)

Craft (electronic) 10 (+20)

Craft (mechanical) 10 (+20)

Diplomacy 10 (+15)

Gather Information 20 (+25)

Intimidate 15 (+20)

Knowledge (Civics) 5 (+15)

Knowledge (Streetwise) 5 (+15)

Knowledge: Technology 10 (+20)

Languages 4 (Arabic, English, Hindi, Urdu) (Base: Soqotri)

Notice 10 (+15)

Sense Motive 15 (+20)

Feats: 17 pp

Attack Focus: Ranged 5

Benefit 2 (Diplomatic Immunity, Security Clearance)

Dodge Focus 2

Eidetic Memory

Fearless

Improved Initiative

Inventor

Master Plan

Move-By Action

Uncanny Dodge (tactile)

Well-Informed

Powers: 100 pp

Device 3 (Hard to Lose) (Battlesuit) [12 pp]

Impervious Toughness 13 {13}

Supersenses 2 (Darkvision) {2}

Force Field 13 [13 pp]

Immunity 3 (cold, high pressure, suffocation [underwater]) [3 pp]

Movement Array 3 (6 points; PF: Alternate Power) [6+1=7 pp]

    BE: Flight 3 (50 MPH)

    AP: Swimming 6 (100 MPH)

Noahic Array 30.5 (61 points; PFs: Alternate Power x5) [61+5=66 pp]

    BE: Create Object 15 (Extras: Duration [Continous], Moveable; PF: Selective)

    AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Autofire (2) [10 ranks each], Ranged; PFs: Accurate Attack, Improved Crit 2, Improved Range 2, Indirect 3, Power Attack, Stunning Attack)

    AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Alt. Save [Fortitude], Range [Perception]; PF: Reversible)

    AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Duration [Concentration], Range [Perception]; PF: Knockback)

    AP: Move Object 20 (12.5 ktons; Extra: Range [Perception]; PF: Precise)

    AP: Trip 15 (Extras: Duration [sustained], Range [Perception])

Supersenses 2 (Tremorsenses) [2 pp]

costs

abilities 45 + combat 40 + saves 17 + skills 31/124 + feats 17 + powers 100 = 250

---

Design Notes:

This build is for Typhoon, my East Asian hydrokinetic Dr. Doom analogue for the Freedom City setting. The idea I have here is that he’s the head of state of Socotra, an island nation off the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It’s something of a cross between Latveria and Madripoor, a hi-tech meeting place for supervillains and the corporate tycoons that love them, where loose extradiction treaties let bad guys sip cocktails on the beach and wink at passing women in bikinis. From one perspective, he’s a good ruler, fanatically proud of defending his people against European and American colonialism and making the local standard of living the highest in the Indian Ocean. From another perspective, he’s a brutal despot, destroying dissent and smashing all those who dare oppose his rule under tidal waves. He’s getting older now, having been around since the late Silver Age (born in 1950, having come to power in 1972), but he’s just as insanely lethal as ever.

Yeah, he’s a freaking wrecking machine. He can throw up huge walls of water and fire jets of steel-bending water through them, fly through the water faster than the fastest boat, dessicate or drown his enemies with a look, and enwrap them in giant fists of water. He can solo against most of the Atlantean military, and score a guaranteed hit with almost any of his attacks. People think that his armor protects him, and it does, but as his enemies have discovered over the years, the suit just makes him bulletproof and able to see underwater. (He’s still not at all helpless underwater without it, given his immunities and his ability to sense vibrations underwater.) He’s also a technical genius and head of a secret police network that has spies everywhere. If he enters combat, there will be blood.

But he probably won’t! He’s actually a valuable resource for PCs, as he has no interest in the world dying or otherwise coming to serious harm, and will happily offer advice on old-time supervillains who he used to run with or aid in a crisis...if he finds them in his country illegally (perhaps to catch a runaway supercrook?), he will pull them into the abyssal plains on which his island sits and let them drown. He may be an ally, but he is never, ever your friend. His nation comes before you, and so does he. He thinks of Typhoon. Always. Typhoon.

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Mako

"GREAT FLAMING EYEBROWS!"

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 28 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 20 (+5)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +6

Grapple: +16

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 16 pp=64 r

Bluff 5 (+10)

Diplomacy 2 (+7)

Handle Animal 1 (+6)

Intimidate 15 (+20)

Knowledge: History 4 (+4)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 4 (+4)

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

Perform [Acting] 10 (+15)

Notice 5 (+7)

Sense Motive 5 (+7)

Survival 5 (+7)

Stealth 5 (+7)

Swim 1 (+11)

Feats: 20 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Distract 3 (Bluff, Intimidate, Perform)

Dodge Focus 4,

Environmental Adaptation (Underwater),

Fascinate 3 (Bluff, Intimidate, Perform)

Improved Grab,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Power Attack,

Startle,

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (olfactory)

Powers: 55 pp

Enhanced CON 20 [20 pp]

Enhanced STR 20 [20 pp]

Immunity 4 (aging, cold, high pressure, suffocation [underwater]) [4 pp]

Super-Senses 5 (Acute Accurate Tracking Olfactory, Low-Light Vision) [5 pp]

Swimming 5 (50 MPH) [5+1=6 pp]

AP: Leaping 3 (x10) and Speed 2 (25 MPH)

costs

abilities 28 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 16/64 + feats 20 + powers 51 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

That's right. This is a build for the late Mako Iwamatsu, pioneering Japanese-American actor most famous to my readers as the star of two hit animated series: Samurai Jack and Avatar: The Last Airbender, as a shark. Don't judge me. You don't even know me! (I'd been thinking of reasons to build a shark totem for a while, and this one said to me "Why not?") He's a charismatic actor with a wonderful voice able to make himself very scary indeed, both through sheer force of personality and because he is in fact a shark. How did he get that way? Maybe a dying old man took an experimental treatment to cure his cancer, or maybe he's _always_ been a shark. He'll make chum out of bad guys!

Note like most of my aquatic builds, he's perfectly competent on land. With his Speed and Tracking (given a shark's sensitive nose), he can follow a trail almost anywhere, and handle himself fairly effectively in combat when he gets there. He's very good underwater too, where the environmental penalties underwater make him the kind of monster that a man-shark should be. Shark biology is still a little mysterious, but I think I've covered most of the powers a shark should have: note that he doesn't have a Strike, because that's not very heroic! Think about giving him Corrosion to represent chomping down on something, preferably not someone's arm.

OK, so you're an old man with restored youth, superpowers and a formidable presence: go nuts! Faking his own death is one hell of a Complication, as is going from being a celebrity actor to a superhero. He's also an international hero, with ties to several countries and a role that makes him a symbol for Japanese-Americans: superhero! Does he try to balance all the sides of his life, or concentrate on one side of his career at the expense of another? I think you _can_ do a story about someone who prefers not to be a hero, so long as the Call comes frequently and they answer it with no more than a little bit of grumbling. Maybe all he wants to do is retire to his tea shop, but there's so much he has to get done first!

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Zoom Survivor

"Yeah, he's tweaked." -Brian, Family Guy

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 64 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 30 (+10)

CON 30 (+10)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +4 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +14

Grapple: +20

Saves: 4 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +10 (+10 Dex)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 48r=12 pp

Acrobatics 10 (+20)

Drive 5 (+15)

Knowledge: Pop Culture 6 (+6)

Notice 6 (+8)

Sense Motive 6 (+8)

Sleight Of Hand 5 (+15)

Stealth 10 (+20)

Feats: 16 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee (6)

Evasion,

Dodge Focus 2,

Fearless,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Seize Initiative,

Takedown Attack 2

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 30 pp

Leaping 2 (x5) [2 pp]

Super-Speed 1 (10 MPH) (PFs: Wall Run [Free], Water Run) [6 pp]

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

Zoom Array [20+1=21 pp]

Add Extra: Autofire and Penetrating on Unarmed

AP: Add Extra: Targeted Area [burst] and Selective on Unarmed

costs

abilities 64 + combat 24 + saves 4 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 30 = 150 pts

----

Design Notes:

You used to run with a bad crowd. A _really_ bad crowd, ravers and E-kids, a world of loud music, bright clothes and lights, and no real soul. One of your friends eventually brought something new to the parties: Zoom. Zoom was a sweet, sweet drug, pushing you to new and unexpected heights. Taking Zoom let you run faster than a car, faster than any human being ever could, and slowed the world down into a slow, beautiful dance. You and your friends took it all the time, running through the park at night almost faster than the human eye could see. And then came the nightmare: the day you took too much and collapsed, twitching madly as blood gushed out your eyes, nose, and mouth. Your friends ran off, leaving you to suffer and almost die before a superhero found you and took you to the hospital, where the doctors in the ER saved your life at 3 AM. You reevaluated your life, learned to walk and talk again, and were released...only to find that more things had changed than you expected! Your body had absorbed the Zoom permanently, giving you superhuman speed and reflexes. Determined to pay back the good deeds done on your behalf, you put on a costume and became a superhero.

Perhaps this is Seattle's best hero, pretending he got his powers from coffee so he doesn't lose any endorsement deals? Call this an experiment; what do you get if you build for superhuman _reflexes_ rather than superhuman _speed_? Note that Super-Speed 1 is still pretty darn effective in an urban setting, given that you can run down any normal human being on Earth, think and act twice as fast as a normal person, and your reflexes mean you can match all but the fastest people even with higher levels of Super-Speed. You've also got fantastic endurance and strength to propel you at your speed, and you're capable of being a straight-up wrecking machine given your ability to punch as fast as a machine gun fires and take out a whole baseball stadium of thugs in an action. (Well, if they're really packed in there...)

You can also run up walls and over water, because you're honestly kind of a chump if you can't do that, even with very low levels of speed. The radius sight comes from constantly 'checking your six.' If you want more speed or quickness, stunt it off the character's Zoom array. With the massive amount of PP sunk into that, it really shouldn't be that hard for you to get all the speed and quickness anyone is ever really going to want. Take a complication that you can't do the ridiculous physics-bending stunts that those other speed guys can do, but OTOH you can take a punch flat-footed a whole lot better than they can, and (since you've absorbed the Zoom into your body, making it a natural part of you) you're still a straight-up murder machine even when your powers are nullified. And you have CON 30, so you don't have any problems with stamina. In bed. Yeah, I went there.

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