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Steel Shade (PL10) - NPC Tier 2

Kaede Kimura

By Kaede Kimura,
in Non-Player Characters

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Kaede Kimura

Kaede Kimura

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Steel Shade
Power Level: 10 (187/187PP)
Unspent Power Points: 0
Trade-Offs:  -2 Defense/+2 Toughness

+2 Attack/-2 Damage (Unarmed, Railpistol)

None (Electrothermal Cannon Rapid Fire Mode)

-2 Attack/+2 Damage (Electrothermal Cannon Siege Mode
 
In Brief: Powerhouse using technology to enhance his abilities as a villain.
 
Alternate Identity: Aaron Armstrong (Secret)
Birthplace: Freedom City
Residence: The Theatre District, Freedom City
Occupation: Part-time Mechanic, Villain for Hire 
Affiliations: 
Family: Calvin Armstrong (Father), Linda Armstrong (Mother), Alice Armstrong (Sister)
 
Description:
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: Caucasian
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 216lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Aaron is tall and muscular, with broad shoulders and a thin waist. His hair is unruly in a perpetual bed head that refuses to be combed into submission he frequently forgets to shave, leaving him with a nine o'clock shadow most days, but he never lets it get longer than stubble, as he shaves it off before then. He has high cheekbones and a strong jaw and chin, a long straight nose and bright blue eyes that seem to invite people around him to look at them. He has a long curving cut along the right side of his jaw which he claims he got when a tool he was using broke.
As a civilian he wears jackets and jeans over band shirts, even in the summer, only sacrificing his jacket on the warmest days of the year. He tends to wear steel-toe boots on his feet, regardless of whether he needs them where he is going.
As a villain he wears a modified welding mask that covers his entire face, with numerous technological updates since its inception. For his suit he wears a black long coat over a white undershirt, with black denim jeans and leather gunslingers chaps on his lower half. He wears a pair of high tech boots and gauntlets and a rocket pack on his back.
Example Images: https://imgur.com/a/Df2EleX
 
History:
Aaron's family was poor even before he and his sister were born, but things were even harder afterwards, especially with the medical expenses for Alice's condition. So he grew up helping to care for his frail younger sister. Still he was happy, a star athlete at any school he attended, although his academic studies were average at best. Then on the day he turned seventeen, he quickly discovered two things. First, he had developed superpowers, he was stronger, quicker and smarter. Second he found out that Alice had been suddenly cured of her illness, likely by whatever had granted him his powers. His decision to become a villain was not a quick one, not like Alice's heroism, but he needed money both for himself and his family, and had powers. After he turned eighteen he put on a mask, and went out as muscle for hire. For now he'd get himself set up, then he'd work into being a true supervillain. It was easy at first, bust down some walls, take down some goons, and get the reward. He saved most of the money, hoping to support himself and Alice in the future, but some of it went into developing better equipment. His first powered gauntlets and boots he made using some stolen supertech. At the same time he did apprenticeships as an electrician and mechanic to help him further develop his supertech, and got himself an apartment in the Theatre District, close to his family but outside The Fens.
He was planning on making the jump to being a real villain when she ruined everything. Shooting Star turned up at a robbery and everything went sideways. The mask came off after she hit him, the edge of it tearing open a gash along his jaw and the heroine just stared. He knew right away that she recognised him, so he cut his losses and fled. No one he knew was acting differently, so she had to be just keeping an eye on him for now, and so he didn't dare make the jump to being a self-employed villain, since there's no way she'd stand aside. So for two years he's been developing his supertech to allow him to take her down, and secure his and his sister's future.
 
Personality & Motivation:
Aaron is of the opinion that himself, his family and his friends are what matters, and is willing to do whatever he feels is necessary to help and protect them. He feels especially protective of his sister Alice, who he helped with her condition for seven years before she was cured of her disease. The primary reason he works as a villain is to get the money to support himself and his sister in the future.
Aaron pushes himself to meet higher standards than he tends to hold others to, wanting to make a better life for the people he cares about even if it puts him at risk. He is reserved around people he doesn't know, but more open around his friends and family, although since moving out he's been in less contact with his family, wanting to keep his work as a villain a secret.
 
Powers & Tactics:
Aaron uses primarily non-lethal equipment, not wanting to get treated like a Moore-era villain, and preferring instead the maximum punishment of being sent to jail instead of ripped to pieces. Even his guns are able to be non-lethal mode to allow him to incapacitate targets instead of kill them, although some of his gear is dangerous if not handled carefully, and they have lethal modes. If he is forced to fight without his gadgets, between his powers and his gauntlets and boots he is still a formidable powerhouse at the street level, although maybe not as tough as some of the other ones out there. His enhanced quickness and intelligence do not generally help him in a straight up fight, but does let him work out plans and such on the fly.
The technology he carries with him are his powered gauntlets and boots, which enhance his strength and defence, they also contain a pair of shield generators, one very powerful generator that renders him impervious to almost all attacks without it even touching him, but they are limited to stopping five blows before they overheat and fall back entirely on the weaker shields they wrap around him. His mask penetrates concealment allowing him to see enemies behind cover and it also recycles the air he breathes, helping him avoid suffocation. While it doesn't perfectly protect him, it does roughly double the time he can avoid suffocation.
One of his most advanced pieces of tech is the Little Helper, a small semi-autonomous robot to open locks, help him search and investigate and keep an eye out for trouble. It has the issue of only being semi-autonomous and as such needing constant supervision which would be distracting in combat.
His primary weapon is the Railpistol he made, a high powered automatic pistol that he uses as his primary weapon. It is accurate and stealthy allowing him to use it without alerting enemies of his presence. He carries one other weapon with him, an electrothermal accelerator rifle with two modes, Rapid Fire and Siege. In Rapid Fire Mode the rifle is still super tech, using plasma to accelerate microprojectiles to many thousand meters per second. The Siege Mode is mostly the same, but fires a single larger, heavier projectile at much higher speeds. Each shot is devastating, creating a line of damage as the projectile flies, as the air is superheated by the object passing through it at such high speeds.
On his back he wears his jump pack which allows him to leap hundreds of feet, but only a handful of times so he uses it sparingly, it allows him manoeuvrability he normally does not possess, capable of quickly gaining ground, bypassing cover or reaching high places. Finally hidden all over his person are small gadgets that Aaron uses to get through various situations like a smoke generator to conceal himself, a collection of various grenades like his stun grenade to put normal civilians out of action without wasting time with his pistol and the Breathtaker, which thins the air in an area around it, making it hard to breath and move for regular humans.

 

Power Descriptions:
The powers Aaron possesses innately are the standard powerhouse ones, as well as enhanced intelligence and quickness, allowing him to perform well beyond the norm academically and physically. His gadgets and devices are all made by him working from experiments and pilfered pieces of super tech. His most refined pieces are his Electrothermal Cannon and Little Helper, more complicated and advanced than their counterparts.
 
Complications:
Fickle and Temperamental
Aaron's powers are derived from an artefact of the Greek Gods, and when they find out about it they will likely act on the information in some manner.
 
Blood runs thicker
Aaron's sister is also the superheroine Shooting Star and knows his identity. Aaron wants to keep his sister safe and use his work as a supervillain to provide for her and the rest of the family, and wants to take Shooting Star down to prevent her from using his identity against them, as he is unaware that they are the same person.
 
Abilities: 8 + 4 + 6 + 2 + 2+ 6 = 28PP
Strength: 26/24/18 (+8/+7/+4)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 22/16 (+6/+3)
Intelligence: 26/12 (+8/+1)
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 16 (+3)
 
Combat: 12 + 8 = 20PP
Initiative: +2
Attack: +6 Base, +10 Ranged, +12 Railpistol
Defense: +8 (+4 Base, +4 Dodge Focus), +2 Flat-Footed
Grapple: +14 (+8 Strength, +6)
Knockback: -13/-3 (-10 Impervious, -1 Toughness, -2 Immovable/-1 Toughness, -2 Immovable)
 
Saves: 4 + 4 + 5 = 13PP
Toughness: +12/+6/+3 (+3 Con, +3 Enhanced Con, +6 Protection) [Impervious 10]
Fortitude: +10/+7 (+3 Con, +3 Enhanced Con, +4)
Reflex: +6 (+2 Dex, +4)
Will: +6 (+1 Wis, +5)
 
Skills: 80R = 20PP
Bluff 2 (+5)
Computers 0/14 (+8/+22)
Craft (Electrical) 12 (+20)
Craft (Mechanical) 12 (+20)
Diplomacy 2 (+5)
Disable Device 0/18 (+8/+26) (Little Helper)
Gather Info 7 (+10)
Intimidate 2 (+5) 
Investigate 6/18 (+14/+26) Skill Mastery (Little Helper)
Knowledge (Streetwise) 6 (+14)
Knowledge (Technology) 7 (+15)
Notice 7/19 (+10/+22) Skill Mastery (Little Helper)
Search 0/16 (+8/+24) (Little Helper)
Sense Motive 9 (+10) Skill Mastery
Stealth 8 (+10) Skill Mastery
 
Feats: 13PP
Attack Focus (Ranged) 4
Dodge Focus 4
Inventor
Jack-of-All-Trades
Skill Mastery (Investigate, Notice, Sense Motive, Stealth) 
Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)
Well-Informed
Enhanced
Blind-Fight (Railpistol)
Eidetic Memory
Improvised Tools  (Little Helper)
Precise Shot (Railpistol)
 
Powers: 6 + 14 + 6 + 1 + 5 + 4 + 2 + 4 + 12 + 12 + 18 + 14 = 98PP
 
Enhanced Constitution 6 (to Constitution 22 [+6]) [6PP] (Divine, Mutation)
 
Enhanced Intelligence 14 (to Intelligence 26 [+8]) [14PP] (Divine, Mutation)
 
Enhanced Strength 6 (to Strength 24 [+7]) [6PP] (Divine, Mutation)
 
Enhanced Feats 1 (Eidetic Memory) [1PP] (Divine, Mutation)
 
Quickness 5 [5PP] (Divine, Mutation)
 
Device 1 (Mask; 5PP Container; Flaws: Hard-To-Lose) [4PP] (Technology)

Immunity 2 (All Suffocation Effects) (Air Recycler; Flaws: Limited) [1PP] (Air)
Super Senses 4 (Visual [Penetrates Concealment]) [4PP] (Light, X-Ray Vision)

 

Device 1 (Jump Pack; 5PP Container; Flaws: Easy-To-Lose, Unreliable [5 Uses]) [2PP] (Technology, Fire, Rockets)

Leaping 5 [5PP]

 
Device 2 (Little Helper; 10PP Container; Flaws: Distracting, Easy-to-Lose) [4PP]

Enhanced Skills 18 (Computers 14, Disable Device 18, Investigate 12, Notice 12, Search 16; Flaws: Duration [Sustained]) [9PP]
Enhanced Feat 1 (Improvised Tools; Flaws: Duration [Sustained]) [1PP]

 

Device 3 (Power Gauntlets and Boots; 15PP Container; Flaws: Hard-To-Lose) [12PP] (Technology)

Enhanced Strength 2 (to Strength 26 [+8]) [2PP]
Impervious Toughness 10 (Impervious Shields; Flaws: Unreliable [5 Uses]) [5PP]
Protection 6 (Shield Generator) [6PP]
Immovable 2 (Inertial Compensator) [2PP]

 
Device 4 (Railpistol; 20PP Container; Flaws: Easy-To-Lose) [12PP] (Technology, Magnetism)

Damage 8 (Railshot; Extras: Range; Feats: Accurate, Subtle) [17PP] (Piercing Damage, Ballistic Damage, Metal)
Enhanced Feat 3 (Blind-Fight, Precise Shot) [3PP] (Computer, Targeting System)

 
Device 6 (Electrothermal Cannon; 30PP Container; Flaws: Easy-To-Lose) [18PP] (Technology

Firing Mode Array 15 (30PP Array; Feats: Alternate Power 1; Drawbacks: Action [Standard Action]) [30PP]

BP: Damage 10 (Autofire Mode; Extras: Autofire 1, Range) {30PP/30PP}
AP: Damage 12 (Siege Mode; Extras: Area [Targeted, Line], Penetrating 6; Feats: Knockback 1, Progression 1 [Area]; Drawbacks: Full Power, Inaccurate) {30PP/30PP}
 


Gadgets 2 (Technological Assistants; 10PP Container; Flaws: Hard-To-Lose) [14PP] (Technology)

Example Gadgets
Stun 5 (Taser) {10PP/10PP} (Electromagnetic Energy, Electricity)
Obscure 5 (Smoke Generator; Visual Obscure) {10PP/10PP}  (Gas, Smoke)
Damage 5 (Stun Grenade; Extras: Area [General, Burst]; Feats: Thrown; Drawbacks: Non-Lethal) {10PP/10PP} (Sonic, Impact Damage)
Fatigue 3 (Breathtaker; Extras: Area [General, Burst]; Feats: Progression 2 [Area], Progression 2 [Save DC, +2]; Flaws: Limited to Fatigue) {10PP/10PP} (Air, Suffocation)

 
Drawbacks: -5PP
 
Vulnerability (Divine; Frequency: Very Common; Intensity: Major [+100% Effect Rank]) [-5PP]
 
DC Block
ATTACK              RANGE      SAVE                           EFFECT
Unarmed             Touch      DC 23 Toughness                Damage
Railpistol          Ranged     DC 23 Toughness                Damage
Rapid Fire Mode     Ranged     DC 25 Toughness                Damage
Siege Mode          Area       DC 27 Toughness                Damage
Taser               Touch      DC 15 Fortitude                Stun
Stun Grenade        Thrown     DC 20 Toughness                Damage

Breathtaker         Area       DC 15 Fortitude                Fatigue

 
Totals: Abilities (28) + Combat (20) + Saving Throws (13) + Skills (20) + Feats (13) + Powers (98) - Drawbacks (-5) = 187/187 Power Points

 

Edited by Kaede Kimura
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Kaede Kimura

Kaede Kimura

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If you mean about the switching out of weapons then that's because it takes him time to switch out guns, but if you mean the firing of the guns themselves then yeah, I was trying to keep him cheap on the PP for no apparent reason? Probably partly because of me thinking about how terribly my build for Dougal went and how bloated it got to the point of me using all 250PP available. I'll probably remove the action flaw honestly.

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Fox

Fox

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Since the Impervious Toughness here will wear down eventually, I recommend throwing the non-Impervious version of Knockback on the sheet as well, so that you don't have to recalculate on the fly during a fight.

 

Please specify how the Immunity is being limited; I'm guessing it's limited to half effect, but that should be explicit since one can get very inventive with limits.

 

The gauntlets & boots are a 15pp Container (and indeed contain 15pp of effects!), but are listed as a 20pp container in the Device line.

 

You cannot buy Alternate Power on a device (as you cannot have an array of devices!).

 

The railpistol is over-budget, I'm afraid; Damage with two extras would be 3pp/rank; 8 ranks is 24pp, plus a feat is 25pp, plus a separate 2pp power in the slot makes 27pp total.

 

We have House Rules limiting the acquisition of skills via variable powers; I'm afraid the Little Helper entry in the Gadgets example would be illegal, as a rank 2 variable power can't buy that much Disable Device or Search.

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  • 1 month later...
Kaede Kimura

Kaede Kimura

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On 2/8/2021 at 5:19 PM, Avenger Assembled said:

Let us know when it's ready or a second look

IT IS READY! WOOOOOOOO! I redid like the entire powers section to be Fox-compliant, although I am really unsure what he meant about the array of devices thing, especially since there is a section in the Modifiers and Power Structures house rules about Devices with Arrays on them with the Multiple Weapons feat which is what I used before. In this case, since I am no longer using it for the Electrothermal Cannon and instead have two modes rather than two devices should I change it so that the Alternate Power is attached to the damage power?

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Fox

Fox

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I think I was briefly out of my mind when I mentioned not allowing arrays of devices; I could have sworn it was forbidden, but I can't find the ruling. So! Never mind on that, for now, unless someone else comes back to correct me.

 

For what you're modelling, though, the Alternate Power still shouldn't be attached to the Device itself. A device with an alternate power would be, say, Tony Stark's many battlesuits (an array of devices; each slot in the array is a different suit entirely), or some kind of electric hero with a power suit and some out-of-suit powers (where they've arrayed their electric powers with a device that uses them as a battery - can't use the device while using other powers!).

 

Multiple Weapons is not an Alternate Power thing per se, it just says that the device is represented, thematically, by multiple objects. A gunslinger with four identical guns might have a device with Multiple Weapons, but only one Damage power inside; a character with several fancy rayguns may have a single device, tagged as Multiple Weapons, which contains an array, each slot of which represents a different gun's power. It's really just bookkeeping and some efficiency.

 

In this case, you've attached Alternate Power to the gun itself, which implies that there is an entirely different thing, which is not the cannon, that should be on the sheet as an alternate to the cannon itself. If it's a single gun with two modes, that's just a normal device, which contains an array, and the Alternate Power feat should belong to the array (or an actual power inside the device if you don't want to write out a full array power). Double-check the cannon's Device line, too; it currently says it's a rank 6 device that only gives 25pp, which is underselling it a bit.

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Kaede Kimura

Kaede Kimura

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17 minutes ago, Fox said:

In this case, you've attached Alternate Power to the gun itself, which implies that there is an entirely different thing, which is not the cannon, that should be on the sheet as an alternate to the cannon itself. If it's a single gun with two modes, that's just a normal device, which contains an array, and the Alternate Power feat should belong to the array (or an actual power inside the device if you don't want to write out a full array power). Double-check the cannon's Device line, too; it currently says it's a rank 6 device that only gives 25pp, which is underselling it a bit.

 

Thanks for clearing that up Fox, I fixed it so everything should be above board now.

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