Jump to content

Kakashi64 - Rictus - PL12 Villain (NPC Tier 2)


Recommended Posts

Player's Name: Kakashi64

Power Level : 12 (180 PP)

Trade-Offs: -2 Attack for +2 Damage, -2 Defense for +2 Toughness

Unspent PP: 0 (180-180)

NPC Tier : 2

Characters Name: Rictus

Alternate Identity: Dr. Martin Hamilton

Age: 47 (born 1962; Apparent Age early 50's)

Gender: Male

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 170 lbs.

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Brown (graying)

Description: Rictus wears his hair shaggy and unkempt, and has a patchy full beard. Because of the damage to his nervous system, his face is twisted into a permanent, hideous grin with wild, staring eyes. He basically looks like he's about to scream in animal agony at any second, and is just barely holding it back. He almost always wears his control suit, which is a dark red bodysuit imprinted with silver circuitry that extends from the suit itself to partially encompass his head in a crown-like structure. The lines of the wiring resemble an acupuncture chart.

History: Dr. Martin Hamilton was a leading neurologist in Freedom City, specializing in the neurological disorders of super-powered individuals. Considered a leader in the field, Dr. Hamilton was an expert in super-powered physiology, and often treated or provided consultation for injured heroes. His career came to an end as the result of an attack by the super-villain Madcap during a delicate surgical procedure involving cybernetic machinery. The feedback from the machinery overloaded and damaged Dr. Hamilton's nervous system, leaving his pain receptors in a continual state of agitation. This resulted in his musculature being distorted, and his face drawn up in a permanent grimace of pain. He was treated with more and more powerful drugs to stave off the constant agony, but he quickly grew immune to such treatments, and the unending pain drove him mad. He escaped from the hospital one evening, and was not heard from for many months.

Desperate for relief, Hamilton devised a cybernetic system that channeled some of the pain impulses from his system into the bodies of other people. Experimenting on homeless captives, he discovered that a feedback loop enabled the system to augment his physical and mental abilities by inflicting pain on the victims, and channeling the resultant psychic energy to a power suit. The more victims he was able to utilize in this manner, the less his own pain and the greater his power. In his madness, he blamed the super-heroes he had selflessly treated for failing to protect him at a vulnerable moment. He decided they must feel his pain, and set his course of revenge.

Personality & Motivation: Rictus' motivation is revenge. He wants to defeat the heroes he fells abandoned him to a cruel fate – but not before they feel the pain he feels every moment.

How player-characters might encounter him: Rictus is in constant need of equipment to further his evil aims. He also would be willing to work for other villains, since they usually pay quite well for his expertise, and Rictus knows that furthering the aims of other villains will hurt those lousy heroes!

Powers & Tactics: Rictus is supremely confident in his genius, and thinks the power he draws from his thralls is enough to defeat any bunch of heroes. He's not a subtle tactician: he'll look to either whomp on the nearest hero, or use his great strength to wreak havoc on his surroundings. However, he won't immediately want to wipe out a hero: first, he'll want to use his Paralyze attack, to make them feel the pain he feels every moment. Against a group of heroes, he'll send his minions to cause as much chaos as possible, and attempt to pick off heroes as they deal with his underlings.

Rictus will rarely start off an adventure at full power. He can be a suitable one-on-one villain when he has fewer thralls to draw from. At full power, he's a handful.

Complications:

Wish to inflict pain: Rictus will hold back a final, winning blow in order to use his Paralyze attack to inflict pain on a fallen hero.

Stats: 0+0+0+12+6+0 = 18pp

Str: 10/38 (+0/+14 Enhanced)

Dex: 10 (+0)

Con: 10 (+0)

Int: 22 (+6)

Wis: 16 (+3)

Cha: 10 (+0)

Combat: 20 + 20 = 40pp

Attack: +10

Grapple: +10 (+3 for each level of thralls on the Progression Table)

Defense: +10 (+5 flat-footed)

Knockback: -7

Initiative: +0

Saves: 0 + 4 + 2 = 6pp

Toughness: +0 (+0 Con, +0; +14/+12 Impervious w/Device)

Fortitude: +4 (+0 Con, +4 purchased)

Reflex: +0 (+0 Dex, +0)

Will: +5/+17 (+3 Wis, +2 purchased, +2 for each level of thralls on the Progressions Table)

Skills: 76r = 19pp

Climb 0/14 (+14)*

Computers 6 (+12)

Craft Electronic 9 (+15)

Craft Mechanical 9 (+15)

Disable Device 4 (+10)

Knowledge - Life Sciences 9 (+15)

Knowledge - Technology 6 (+12)

Knowledge - Medicine 12 (+15)

Notice 7 (+10)

Profession (neuromedical) 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Swim 0/14 (+14)*

* Varies from +0 to +14 based upon Rictus' current STR level.

Feats: 22pp

Equipment 4

Inventor

Minions 16

Master Plan

Headquarters [20 ep]

Size: Large

Communications

Computer

Concealed x3 (+20 DC)

Defense System

Fire Prevention System

Garage

Infirmary

Laboratory

Library

Living Space

Holding Cells

Power System

Security System

Toughness +5 (+10 total)

Workshop: Machine

Workshop: Electronic

1 PL4 Gang Leader from M&M

50 PL 2 thugs from M&M

These are The Wise Fools gang, Madcap's former minions.

Powers: 3 + 12 + 60 = 75pp

Example: Immunity 3 (Attacks with descriptor = pain, need for sleep, poisons) [3 pp]

Example: Mental Shield 12[12pp]

Example: Device 15 (control suit) [60pp]

Protection 14 (suit armor)

Impervious Protection 12 (suit armor)

Enhanced STR 28 Flaws Limited: 4 ranks per # of thralls on the Progression Table

Super-STR 14 Flaws:: Limited: 2 ranks per # of thralls on the Progression Table

Paralyze 12 (pain) Extras: Area Burst; Flaws: Full round action; Limited: 2 ranks per # of thralls on the Progression Table; Power Feats: Selective

Enhanced FORT Save +14 Flaws: Limited: 2 ranks per # of thralls on the Progression Table

Drawbacks: 0+0+0 = 0pp

None

DC Block:

Example: Melee 14 --- 29/Toughness --- Bruised, Staged

Paralyze 12 --- 22/Will --- Slowed/Paralyzed

Costs: Abilities (18) + Combat (40) + Saves (6) + Skills (19) + Feats (22) + Powers (75) - Drawbacks (00) = 180pp

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

Notes: Rictus is based on an obscure Marvel villain – so obscure I don't remember his name. I just remember as a boy reading a comic book where he appeared, and the idea of someone spending every moment of his life in constant, agonizing pain was so shocking to me it stuck with me all these years. As I dimly recall, the Marvel villain was mostly a mad scientist, so I borrowed the thrall concept from The Controller, and Rictus was born.

Abilities[/]b

Int 22 – Yes, he is a genius. His insanity likely boosted his intelligence into the mad scientist range.

Combat

Attack 10/Defense 10 – I have no specific explanation for this, other than "crazy comic book villains seem to be able to go toe-to-toe with trained superheroes."

Skills

All pretty straightforward, I think, and suitable for someone of his background. The guy knows his super-tech.

Feats

No combat feats for this guy, because he's not a trained combatant. If he ever earns any "xp," he should pick up good stuff like Master Plan, Ultimate Saves, things like that.

Headquarters: Hey, he needs someplace to put all those thralls, right? Not to mention his band of thugs.

Inventor: This gives the GM all kinds of fun options: perhaps he invents a special slave disc that transfers the powers of a hero to himself. Remember, the guy is twisted, likes to inflict pain, and has a chip on his shoulder against heroes.

Powers

Immunity: I realized early on that technically, Rictus could be defused by any hero with a Healing power: stop his pain, and the suit basically depowers. So I reasoned that the damage to his nervous system was so widespread and complex that it couldn't be healed. There's even the possibility that he unconsciously "controls" it, preventing healing from taking place. The same could go for his immunity to many medicines: it could be the damage he took, or it could be something more. Immunity to pain is obvious: the guy lives with excruciating agony, so what are you gonna do, hurt him? Immunity to sleep is a function both of his constant pain and his insanity. The guy is bent and his neuropathology is altered.

Mental Shield: Since Rictus might well be facing multiple heroes, he needed some mental protection, or else a quick mental grapple could end the adventure. I reasoned that his pain was so great, it basically consumes much of his consciousness, and anyone trying to take a peek in there would have a hard time getting past the endless waves of pain. If I'd had the points, I'd have devised some kind of mental aura power to zap the heck out of nosy telepaths with a blast of pure agony. I liked the addition to Will Save that mental Shield provides, since what's left of this guy is held together by a pure effort of will.

Device: Ah, the slave discs. Feel the love. Innocent bystanders, homeless people, the occasional hero's significant other… There's plenty of mook-types out there to be enthralled. Rictus' problem is that the more thralls he takes, the more likely he is to be discovered. He needs a full 100 thralls to be at full power, which is where his HQ comes in handy. Still, that many kidnappings is bound to attract some attention at some point.

I hope someone is able to draw a picture of Rictus someday. I really like the image of a high-tech bodysuit with the circuitry tracing acupuncture map lines. It looks cool in my head, anyway.

I made the original Madcap the instigator of the accident that damaged good Dr. Hamilton because Rictus is intended to be a nemesis for the current Madcap. I think poor Matt is going to need some help! (Which is part of the point in introducing Rictus in the first place. See, it all fits together…)

Link to comment

Looks like an interesting villain.

One thing though is the immunities, you don't actually need them for the reasons you described.

You can just say that painkillers/healing has no effect on his pain its a descriptor. Mechanically that can be described by the fact that his powers don't have a power loss drawback related to removing his pain. If you want him to be immune to general sedation etc, probably better to say that he has a poison immunity (all the drugs he was pumped full of have left him with huge tolerance for toxins).

Now the healing power could theoretically be used as a counter for his powers but I think in that case it would actually target the thralls or targets of his paralyze rather than him.

Link to comment

Attributes: good

Combat: defense +20? it looks like you mean +10 (+5 flatfooted)

Saves: Good

Skills: good

Feats: Good. On question however. the wise fools are not thralls correct?

Powers: the paralyze on the suit is capped at rank 12 unless its a targeted burst. If it is a targeted burst just note that in the write up (Area: Targeted (burst))

Link to comment

Correct: the Wise Fools are not thralls.

Modifications:

  • Defense set at +10 (+5 flat-footed)

    Toughness bonuses (+14/+12 Impervious) for Device included.

    Paralyze reduced to PL 12.

Note that reducing Paralyze and increasing Impervious to 12 left one device point unused. I'll hold it in reserve for now.

Link to comment

I don't think the full round action flaw can apply to enhanced fort and super-strength. If it takes an action to activate them its a drawback but it doesn't look like you were counting the points for them anyway (74pp in the device without them). So you can just remove those flaw and it should be good to go.

Link to comment
  • 2 weeks later...
×
×
  • Create New...