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Illusionist

“I am not what I appear to be.”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 26 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +8

Init: +7

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: 48 r=12 pp

Bluff 12 (+15)

Computers 6 (+6)

Concentration 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Technology 6 (+6)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 16 pp

Distract (Bluff)

Challenges 2 (Improved Taunt, Improved Trick)

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Luck 2

Second Chance (Illusion checks)

Set-Up

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 62 pp

Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp]

Hologram Array [45+1=46 pp]

Illusion 10 (all senses) (PFs: Precise, Progression 4 [100 ft radius])

AP: Move Object 10 (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception]) (12 tons) (PFs: Indirect 3, Precise, Subtle)

Immunity 5 (Magnetic Effects) [5 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

costs

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

---

Design Notes:

This is my build for an Illusionist, a character who specializes in fooling the mind and tricking the senses. The discerning reader will note that her sheet looks different than your typical Illusionist build: rather than a psychic or mystic as are the Instant Superheroes and Archetype Archive version of this archetype, I’ve gone with the idea that she’s a variant magnetic controller: her illusions are basically Star Trek holodeck-style projections that she controls. Unlike most illusionists in the book, she lacks both the Selective Extra and the Phantasms Flaw on her Illusion. This means she can affect machines and zombies and other mindless creatures, but it also means her tricks are going to fool the people around her, including allies who can’t see through them. This is a potential problem, but one that can easily be handled by the player being smart and using some complications when necessary.

I figure her damaging power (so that she can inflict direct damage and affect the world as more than just a con artist) is illusory constructs that walk up to someone and punch them in the eye; or a bombardment of particles from her hand, or anything else she wants it to look like (that’s what the Subtle is for on her Blast.) It’s not an Illusion as such, so it shouldn’t be that tough to see through, but I think it’s thematic with her powers. It’s Move Object so those figures can push and pull things around, and do a decent stand-in for Magnetic Control. Note that while she doesn’t have to make an attack roll for her illusions, she does if she wants them to, say, pick up a car or bucket of nails and hurl them at her opponent. (Why do that? Well, maybe they’re immune to magnetism but not immune to a bucket of nails upside the head.)

Her magnetic powers let her have her immunity and protection, and give her the ability to fly around as well. Hey, flying is awesome! I figure with her background, she’s maybe a computer tech in the special effects business? Movie stuntmen and the like have a decent presence in the world of superheroes, though I don’t think we have any PCs with that background. Ooh, maybe she actually makes money using her special talents in her work, and her superheroing is a way for her to feel like a better person. (This is not a setting friendly to super-sellouts, though we don’t _discourage it either. As is so often the case with characters, it’s all about the backstory! And the Benjamins. Which she can make appear.) Negotiate with your GM about how you’re going to police Illusion, it’s potentially a very broad power, and could arguably do the jobs of some others without too many mental gymnastics.

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Counterverse Hero

“People are strange, when you’re a stranger...” _The Doors_

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 36 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 16 (+2)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 12 (+1)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

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

DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed)

Grapple: +16

Init: +7

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +5 (+5 Con)

FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 48 r=12 pp

Bluff 4 (+6)

Intimidate 8 (+10)

Investigate 4 (+5)

Notice 12 (+14)

Sense Motive 12 (+14)

Stealth 8 (+10)

Feats: 20 pp

All-Out Attack,

Attack Focus: Melee (3)

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Dodge Focus (7),

Evasion,

Improved Initiative

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Startle,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 41 pp

Alternate Form 8 (Dimensional) (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0]) (PF: Innate)

    Affects Corporeal on Unarmed [5 pp]
    Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp]
    Immunity 10 (Life Support, Starvation and Thirst) [10 pp]
    Insubstantial 3 (dimensional) [15 pp]
    Super-Senses 8 (Hearing and Vision Penetrate Concealment) [8 pp]

costs

abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 12/48 + feats 20 + powers 41 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

The Counterverse isn’t quite like Anti-Earth. Sure, it’s run by a cold, militaristic empire with grim prospects for the future, but it’s not just a moral or historical inversion of our own world: it’s a physical and spiritual one as well. The colors even _look_ inverted to our eyes, the world resembling a fascist dystopia cast in a flipped color photograph. But things go deeper than that: the instinctive hostility that the Counterverse feels towards us and that we feel towards them is the instinctive _hatred_ that one feels towards their mirror image. And when the same people from the Counterverse and our own universe meet and touch, the subsequent explosion is a grim reminder of what happens when matter comes into contact with antimatter.

This fellow must have had potent reason indeed to come to our dimension, allowing his scientist friends to _alter_ him, to make him a man made of the strange stuff between dimensions, a being of neither one universe nor the other. My idea is that he was a policeman in his own world, an honorable man despite the brutal nature of its society, and from underneath that white sky dappled with black dots, he came to our world to catch criminals from his own. He has formidable abilities given that he exists between dimensions, letting him look and listen through walls, fly, and even pass right through solid objects. He’s a formidable fighter as well, a skilled boxer whose abilities make him essentially impervious to mundane threats.

He makes a striking appearance, doesn’t he, with a body that perpetually looks like a reversed negative and powers that make him function like a ghost? Play that up. He’s a man made of slightly altered antimatter, play that up as well. He’s far from home, fighting for justice in a world that fears and hates him. A classic for a superhero. Perhaps he’s here to catch Negator, the Counterverse madman and criminal who has bedeviled the police of two worlds. Another possible tweak: maybe this guy is actually a Silver Age refugee, a hero empowered by the 3RD DIMENSION! Owweeooo! (In that case, you should make sure to put on your red and blue goggles whenenver he’s about to go into action, so you can get a better glimpse of the action.)

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The Fearsome Five
A loose coterie of supervillains who have teamed up together for mutual protection despite their disparate goals

>Heka: Heka (no real name known) was a sorcerer in ancient Egypt, a student of certain arcane arts now lost to time. When he sacrificed a child for his own immortality, the high priest Tan-Aktor imprisoned him in his own tomb, neither alive nor dead, for an eternal punishment. (He and Tan-Aktor had quarreled over who would benefit from said sacrifice, you see...) When Egyptologists freed Heka a few years ago, he blasted them to pieces in gratitude and tried to take over the country. When the Spirit of Egypt defied him, Heka fled, and now the undead wizard practices his arcane arts in somewhat more humble surroundings. He looks the classic evil Egyptian wizard, mummy robes (worn for effect) underneath his arcane trappings. He communes every few weeks with his 'teacher', Malador the Undying, and together they spin their terrible plots. He is the interim leader of the Fearsome Five these days.

Blackfire: Blackfire (formerly John Smith) is the result of an experiment by Talos: can a human being be transformed reliably into a robot? So far Talos is cautiously optimistic: Smith, a vicious thug and murderer who'd worked for one of Keres' alternate identities, has turned out to be a model android, obeying Talos' commands and acting as the perfect infiltrator into the supervillian community. But Smith has begun to rebel secretly, memories of the agonizing nanite infusion that transformed him creeping back when he least expects it. Unfortunately, John Smith is the last man you want to be in a bulletproof, immortal robot body, even if he's not working for Talos. He'll stage robberies and your standard super-crimes frequently, just so Talos can test the responses of his body and the authorities, or he'll do it on his own time just because he enjoys their screaming.

>Khania: Spoiled princess Khania arrived in Freedom City some months ago and turned out to fit into the Fearsome Five like hand-in-glove. A jaded thrillseeker, she'll gladly start a fight with anyone just to see what would happen, or assume that all men (and most women) are interested in her sexually whether they admit it or not. She acts like she has noblesse oblige when she's in the mood, but frankly she wouldn't have been kicked out of her father's court if she had anything like even his limited sense of honor. While a lot of people think she's her father's agent on Earth, he actually can't stand her at all. Actually, unknown to anyone, she's one of the rare aliens who are lucky enough to be a paid informant for the Grue Unity!

>Diehard: Diehard used to be Wong Ahn-Li, a particularly enthusiastic Red Guardsman who volunteered for a government experiment during the Cultural Revolution that gave him superpowers. They'd hoped to make him invincible, and indeed, Diehard (to use the English translation) can indeed recover from any injury...except he feels the full effects of that hurt first. Decades of pain took their toll on Diehard's sanity, particularly after a few serious brain injuries left him with an unstable personality. When the political climate shifted back in China, Diehard fled the country, and is now muscle for various supervillains when he's not amusing himself as a "dojo-buster" in martial arts circles. He enjoys picking fights with young bloods who can't hurt him and then beating the crap out of them while lecturing them about the People's Revolution. Thanks to certain devices installed in his brain back in the late 70s, everything he sees and hears is broadcast directly back to Dr. Sin's laboratory.

>Guy Fawkes II: Guy Fawkes II, born Sean McIntyre in Belfast, used to be one of the most vicious terrorists in Ireland. A professional with no particular political motivations, he worked for Protestant and Catholic alike, going from 'counter-insurgency specialist' one week to 'freedom fighter' the next. The truth is, Sean just enjoyed hurting people, and he was lucky enough to live in a part of the world that let him do that. When peace came to Ireland, he tried to provoke a further confrontation and was caught at it: busting out of prison before he could be whacked by his many enemies, he made his way to America to break into supervillany. Still in great shape for a man pushing 50, he fancies himself an anarchist, but that's mostly just a cover for blowing people up or stabbing them with his knives. He's equally likely to work for pay (insurance jobs, muscle and the like) as he is to just be out blowing crap up. He's on OVERTHROW's payroll, naturally.

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Space Biker

“My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.” –Kelis

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 58 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Initiative: +8

Grapple: +20

Saves: 7 pp

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

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 36 r=9 pp

Craft: Mechanical 4 (+4)

Drive 2 (+5)

Intimidate 12 (+15)

Knowledge: Technology 4 (+4)

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

Notice 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Feats: 12 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 2,

Challenge (Fast Startle),

Dodge Focus 2,

Improved Initiative,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Startle,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 33 pp

Container 2 (Spacebike) [10 pp]

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

-Space Flight 10 (1000c) (Flaw: Platform) {5}

Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp]

Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 58 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 9/36 + feats 12 + powers 33 = 150 pts

Design Notes:

This is my build for your stereotypical space biker: a leather-jacketed badass who rides around on a spacebike and has wild space adventures. The most famous example of this is probably DC’s Lobo, but I’m sure you can think of plenty of examples: the name is big enough that this guy actually got to be a Villanous Archetype. And that’s often the role characters like this have. Characters like this are easy to build and play as ridiculous Iron Age chuckleheads, but I think you can do it convincingly with the right structure. What you really need to do is give the guy a gimmick and figure out what made a free-wheeling adventurer of the spaceways, a rough-edged wanderer and bare-knuckle fighter, settle down on Earth, something of a galactic backwater despite all the beings of great power around these parts, and become a superhero? Maybe he’s a bounty hunter tracking down intergalactic fugitives who’ve gone to ground here ‘south of the border’, or maybe he’s a fugitive on his own from some vicious interstellar empire, fighting for right here now that he’s had to make his home so far from everyone he’s ever loved.

He’s a pretty generic low-level powerhouse, running as fast as a car and punching hard enough to break through steel. He’s not a great fighter, but with Startle, Takedown Attack, Power Attack, and his high Intimidate he can brawl and goonsweep in any dive you’d care to name. He can survive the vacuum of space unaided without his bike, and depending on his relationship with the rest of the galaxy he may have actually done so at one time or another. I bought his bike as a power rather than a device or Equipment: I prefer buying something high-tech like that as a power when possible, and it makes it much easier for him to justify having it around all the time. I figure he stores the bike in a pocket dimension when he isn’t using it. The Platform flaw means he can be knocked off his bike if he’s grappled or takes knockback, but since it’s a power, not a device, he can’t actually be deprived of it.

A twist on this build would be to make him some variant of Space Cop: there’s no reason why an intergalactic policeman couldn’t be more of a John Wayne type than a bland FBI-middle-manager type like your usual Green Lantern types. (Well, like the most famous one, anyway.) You could give him a Blast for that, or else just assume he’s a two-fisted marshal of the space frontier. My theory is that he’s an alien, perhaps from one of the less-settled areas of the Lor Republic, but you could build him as a character from Earth’s future well enough: who’s to say that there aren’t a few people discontented with the glories of the shiny happy world of the Silver Age Future of the Legion?

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Aqua Tornado

"Time and tide wait for no man." -Anon

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 46 pp

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+9 Melee, +10 Blast/+13 Unarmed)

DEF +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Grapple: +16

Init: +4

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +7 (+7 Con)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +6 (+4 Dex, +2)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 40 r=10 pp

Acrobatics 11 (+15)

Bluff 8 (+10)

Notice 7 (+10)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Survival 4 (+7)

Swimming 3 (+10)

Feats: 16 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Dodge Focus 5

Environmental Adaptation 2 (high altitude/underwater)

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 40 pp

Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate, Variable Descriptor 1 [air/water]) [22 pp]

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

AP: Swimming 10 (2500 MPH)

Immunity 3 (cold, drowning, pressure) [3 pp]

Super-Senses 3 (Acute Scent, Darkvision) [3 pp]

costs

abilities 46 + combat 32 + saves 6 + skills 10/40 + feats 16 + powers 40 = 150 pts

Design Notes:

OK, so I took a bet, and here's the offspring of Aquaman and the Golden Age Red Tornado: an aquatic aerokinetic. She's fast, she's strong, and she can handle herself in both aerial and underwater combat. The Variable Descriptor on her blast represents blasting with either a firehose-type water blast or a focused tornado of air. She can handle herself in the air, and she can handle herself underwater very, very fast: Swimming 10 means she can easily break the sound barrier underwater, which doesn't really work without doing unspeakable things to the local water table, but hey, it's comics. Perhaps it's some offspring of her double heritage, letting her cut through the water without significantly disrupting the liquid around her. She's got the usual immunities I give to underwater characters: as I've said elsewhere, avoid Favored Environment for things like this, it's just not your friend!

She can also handle herself in melee and ranged combat, though she's not a true specialist at either. She's not really a master of any one style of combat, but someone who can fulfill many niches is always welcome. Give her more water-oriented powers if you want to play up her father, give her more aerokinesis (or maybe some super-strength or move object to _really_ reflect the Golden Age Red Tornado). One possibility is Tremorsense, which would make sense for someone who can presumably fight in the middle of a thunderstorm or underwater as well, but Darkvision is certainly a handy (and reasonably logical) power in its own right.

So how do you spin this in a Freedom City setting? Here's an idea. Her parents were part of a superteam back in the late 80s, champions of elemental justice who united to summon a superpowered champion. They fought terrible enemies and made many environmentally conscious friends, and ultimately split apart...well, some of them did. Others fell in love and had a daughter, taking care of her as best they could when they were just barely adults themselves. Raised in an idyllic community, perhaps the Utopia that once sponsored Envoy, she comes across as somewhat environmentally preachy, but she has a genuine commitment to defending the planet that's sometimes hard to bear for the less green. But there are worse flaws than recycling a little too much!

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Mind-Taker

"Ooowwweeooo!"

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 50 pp

STR 24 (+7)

DEX 24 (+7)

CON 24 (+7)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 melee)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +11

Grapple: +20

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +7 (+7 Con)

FORT +8 (+7 Con, +1)

REF +10 (+7 Dex, +3)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 60 r=15 pp

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Climb 3 (+10)

Concentration 8 (+10)

Disable Device 10 (+10)

Drive 3 (+10)

Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5)

Languages 1 (French) (Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 3 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 3 (+10)

Feats: 21 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

Attack Focus: Melee 5,

Beginner's Luck,

Dodge Focus 5,

Eidetic Memory,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Jack of all Trades,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 22 pp

Mental Duplication 7 (Flaw: Side-Effect [stun]) {14} and Drain INT 7 {7} (Extra: Alt. Save [Will]) [21 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 50 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 15/60 + feats 21 + powers 22 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

So you've never seen a PC or NPC with Mental Duplication? Well, you have now! This character has Mental Duplication, a limited form of Mimic that lets her copy the mental skills of someone she touches: in short, she knows everything they know assuming they fail the Will save they get after she latches on. And with that Drain INT, they probably forget whatever it is they knew for a while after she sucks out their intelligence. She's dangerous in combat, especially since she's equally good at just punching bad guys till they fall over: she's not as helpless vs. robots as your typical psi-vampire is. She gets 35 pp to put towards mental skills that she drains, which is certainly more than she's ever likely to need. Remember that being drained to 0 INT knocks you out but it doesn't kill you, so she can use it to disable opponents (and absorb their memories, something she keeps even after their return to the original).

With Beginner's Luck, Eidetic Memory, and Jack of all Trades, she can at least pretend to fake most skills, fluffing that as lingering memories that survive from her various mind-takings. I figure she has a background as a professional mind-thief, a bad guy now made good thanks to whatever face-heel turn you wanted her to make. Maybe she wound up reading a hero's mind and absorbed her conscience, or maybe she decided to make a transformation all on her own, to be her own person after having the memories of others for so long. Note that a DC 17 Will save doesn't seem that impressive, until you remember that it's subject to tradeoff feats since it's a melee attack. With her ability to bluff through Acrobatics and her OK sneaking, it wouldn't be that hard for her to catch an opponent flat-footed and take his mind, or just beat him into unconsciousness with her fists and then rip the stuff out of his head the old-fashioned way.

Be careful with that Mimic, and hope your GM lets you boost skills in a way that's thematic rather than a direct reflection of someone's sheet. Even with her 10 INT, getting 15 ranks in a Knowledge skill is still going to be pretty freaking handy. Power-stunt a different kind of Drain and Boost if you want to give her different kinds of abilities: an INT Boost linked to her Drain will let her get smarter without tying her directly to skills as such. Drain All Ability Scores will cost 3, and while it would drop the self-improvement angle it would certainly make her all the more effective in combat. Add Slow Fade to make her Drain better at putting people down and keeping them down. Don't forget that people drained to 1 or 2 INT still are conscious and not actually impeded mechanically. They still know who their friends are and who's attacking them, even if they may be easier to fool.

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Cat Burglar

"Stealin' stealin' doo-doo-doo."

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 56 pp

STR 20 (+5)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 20 (+5)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+9 Melee/+15 Unarmed)

DEF: +15 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +5

Grapple: +14

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +5 (+5 Con)

FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF +7 (+5 Dex, +2)

WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 116 r=29 pp

Acrobatics 15 (+20)*

Bluff 4 (+7)

Climb 10 (+15)

Disable Device 15 (+20)*

Escape Artist 15 (+20)*

Knowledge: Streetwise 1 (+6)

Language 2 (English, Russian) (Base: Bulgarian)

Notice 12 (+15)

Sense Motive 12 (+15)

Sleight of Hand 15 (+20)

Stealth 15 (+20)*

Feats: 26 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3

Challenge 2 (Accelerated Climb, Fast Acrobatic Bluff)

Blind-Fight

Dodge Focus 7

Equipment 2

Evasion

Hide in Plain Sight

Move-By Action

Luck

Power Attack

Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Disable Device, Escape Artist, Stealth)

Takedown Attack

Ultimate Skill (Disable Device)

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Equipment: 10 ep

Binoculars [1 ep]

Commlink [1 ep]

Grapple Gun (Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling) and Speed 1 [10 MPH]) [7 ep]

Rebreather [1 ep]

costs

abilities 56 + combat 32 + saves 7 + skills 29/116 + feats 26 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

Here's a Classy Cat Burglar for all your stealing needs. She hasn't got any powers, she hasn't got any particular hangups or a Frank Millerian past, and she hasn't got a cat theme. (As a recent Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal showed us, cats aren't actually sexy animals. Ducks, now, they get up to some times) She's smart, she's strong, she's fast, she's got some good gadgets, and she's very, very good at stealing things. Freedom City's Catwoman Expy is Magpie, a dapper, bearded gent who flirts with the Raven whenever he gets the chance: I went with a slightly more classic version of the hot lady thief. She's not a great fighter, but with Acrobatic Bluff, Power Attack, and Takedown Attack, it's not that tough for her to sweep her way through the low-PL security guards and goons she's likely to be dealing with most of the time. With her massive Climb, Acrobatics, Escape Artist, and Disable Device, there really are no locks that can keep her out, and no jail that can hold her if you do manage to put her away.

Why Ultimate Disable Device? Disable Device DCs tend to be pretty high, and generally with pretty bad consequences for missing them. She could certainly use Second Chance Disable Device if you get the points for it as well. She's got a custom grapple gun much better than the book version, one that lets her actually do most of the things that comic book characters traditionally do with grappling guns. Hopefully the Ref won't be a jerk and make you go through the hassle of buying it as a Device. Batman's probably not paying Device points for it, man. She makes a fine antagonist for a PL 10 hero, though you should consider putting her up a few PLs if she's interacting with someone above her weight class. She shouldn't be able to beat her Cowl in a straight-up fight, but she should be able to distract, delay, and evade him with lots of tricks and tactics.

OTOH, there's nothing to say she can't just decide to be a good guy like Freedom City's own (sadly now retired) Bombshell. Though characters like this are often paired off with male heroes (largely because they dress in particularly tight outfits, are 'bad girls', but don't do anything bad enough to really need to be put in jail and kept there), there's nothing to say they can't be independent agents. Maybe she's a Robin Hood who robs rich criminals and distributes their drug money to the poor, and only reluctantly gets sucked into open superheroing, or maybe she's out of jail and determined to make good for a lifetime of misdeeds. Or maybe she's been careful about only robbing people in places without an extradition treaty.

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Centuritron

“All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him.” -Clark Kent, 1978

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 22 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON n/a

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Unarmed)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +20

Init: +2

Saves: 7 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Protection)

FORT +n/a

REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 36 r=9 pp

Diplomacy 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Knowledge: History 5 (+5)

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

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 11 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2,

Dodge Focus 4,

Fearless,

Interpose,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Takedown Attack,

Powers: 77 pp

Flight 4 (100 MPH) [Dynamic] [8+1+2=11 pp]

DAP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons)

Immunity 40 (Mental Effects, Fortitude Saves) [40 pp]

Protection 10 (Extra: Impervious) [20 pp]

Regeneration 5 (+0 Recovery Bonus) (PF: Regrowth) [6 pp]

costs

abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 7 + skills 9/36 + feats 11 + powers 77 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

This is the ultimate Freedom City legacy. Mark Leeds built him decades ago to act as his agent and to impersonate him when Mark Leeds and the Centurion needed to be seen in two places at once. And then Mark Leeds died saving the world from Omega, and the Centuritrons were left to guard the Sanctum in the Arctic. But something changed for this guy, something made him different (and also less powerful) than his fellows. Maybe an accident transformed his mentality, giving him an intelligence beyond the preprogrammed directives to guard the Sanctum, or maybe a deliberate reprogramming (perhaps by a villain) changed him in more ways than one. Or maybe he was a different model only recently reactivated, and now he's on the loose in the big world!

Um. Change the costume. Wearing the Centurion's costume is not appropriate in the Freedom City universe at all, but his colors are fine. People will probably be a little weirded out at a robot that looks just like the Centurion anyway. In my mind, there was a War of the Centurions in 1994-1995 in the post-Terminus setting that ended with the bad ones destroyed or in jail and the good ones retiring or adopting their own heroic identity, with the general consensus being that none of them were the Centurion. Maybe this guy was part of that, and has decided he liked being a hero and has returned in his own costume with a new image! Keep the face if you want, though, most people won't know the Centurion by sight well enough to recognize him in a different costume, and it's one exciting complication!

He's got the standard robot powers. That is one of the problems with robot PCs, being a robot costs a lot of points and you don't have a lot of powers for anything else. But hey, he flies around, he's got super-strength, and he's bulletproof and very tough: he's got the whole paragon package. Give him some of the usual robot weaknesses if you want to up his paragon powers, maybe by giving him more Super-Senses. One thing to avoid is a lot of Internet connections, at least without adding more points on. Centuritron here is an old-fashioned robot from the pre-computer age, and he doesn't have your fancy wi-fi connections.

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Griffon

“God save the Queen!”

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 18 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 12 (+1)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +2

Grapple: +24

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +10 (+10 Con)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3)

WILL +7 (+1 Wis, +6)

Skills: 36 r=9 pp

Diplomacy 10 (+10)

Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5)

Languages 3 (German, Japanese, Russian) (Base: English)

Notice 9 (+10)

Sense Motive 9 (+10)

Feats: 8 pp

Attack Focus: Melee (2)

Dodge Focus (2)

Fearless

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 74 pp

Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp]

Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp]

Flight 4 (100 MPH) [Dynamic] [8+1+2=11 pp]

DAP: Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 24 tons)

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

Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp]

Luck Control 4 (spend an HP for another character, give HP to others, spend HP to negate HP/Fiat, force reroll) (PFs: Luck 5) [17 pp]

costs

abilities 18 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 9/36 + feats 8 + powers 74 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

This is my build for the Griffon, one of my favorite characters from the 3rd party Golden M&M supplement The Fires of War. The Griffon is a British paragon, a Walter Mitty type, a boring accountant, who gained his powers one day while waiting for the train. He found himself in a magic cave where a powerful wizard appeared and gave him a magic word to say. When he speaks that word, he becomes an unstoppable champion powered by ancient sorcery, a two-fisted paragon who sweeps the skies clean of Nazi bombers and goes home with a smile at the end of the day. He’s a little annoying to fight alongside; his smile is always a little too white, his manner a little too chipper, and his mood a little too good. He hums his theme music in battle sometimes, and sometimes you’d swear you can hear it around him even when he’s not making a sound. But he’s very powerful and very competent, and there’s no guarantee quite like success.

The Griffon’s secret is that he’s crazy. Well, not crazy so much as deluded. He’s actually one of the most powerful psychics on Earth, an incredibly gifted shaper of reality itself who created the wizard, the magic word, and everything else as an illusion because he was bored. That’s how he hits so far outside his weight class, and that’s why he’s so powerful. In his own setting, he eventually transcended into godhood after a bad guy psychic tried to drain his mind and instead awakened something else entirely. But you don’t have to do that, or indeed keep any other element of the backstory: the key thing here is that this is a very powerful man who is not consciously aware of just how powerful he is. With his Luck Control, he can hit hard, knock down bad guys, and shrug off virtually impossible damage saves thanks to his abilities. Buy lots of Ultimate Saves for him, and maybe up his Charisma and Inspire if you want him to somehow be a great leader.

This is a good character to build as one of those ridiculous Golden or Silver Age heroes. How he is stunting Super-Hypnotism and Super-Weaving? Well, he’s got really broad descriptors and a ridiculous quantity of HP, the best way to be able to stunt all sorts of madness. If you don’t want him to be a Luck Controller, there are lots of things you could do with those points: more Flight and Impervious? A big suite of super-senses? But I rather like the idea of the overpowered Golden or Silver Age-style paragon. Drop the Britishisms to taste, depending on what you’re going for. He might just actually be British! A modern version will probably not embrace his brand of old-fashioned nationalism.

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Robotic Policeman

"Part man. Part machine. All cop." -Robocop

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 32 pp

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

DEX 18 (+4)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Unarmed/+14 taser)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +4

Grapple: +19

Saves: 11 pp

TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3)

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3)

WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6)

Skills: 52 r=13 pp

Drive 6 (+10)

Gather Info 2 (+4)

Intimidate 8 (+10)

Investigate 10 (+10)

Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5)

Medicine 5 (+7)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 21 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed

Attack Specialization: Taser 3

Benefit 2 (Hero of the People, Security Clearance [cops])

Dodge Focus 4

Equipment 2

Interpose

Luck 2

Power Attack

Precise Shot

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (radio)

Powers: 41 pp

Device 4 (easy to lose) (Taser Pistol) [12 pp]

-Blast 6 (Extra: Autofire) (PF: Improved Crit)

-AP: Stun 6 (Extra: Ranged) (PF: Improved Crit)

Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp]

Impervious TOU 7 [7 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Super-Senses 3 (Darkvision, Radio) [3 pp]

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

costs

abilities 32 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 13/52 + feats 21 + powers 41 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my build for a robotic policeman, a cyborg cop who is the result of some program experimenting with combining advanced technology and police training. Freedom City is not a setting that's terribly friendly to officially sponsored superheroes, but I think if you're willing to go with it, a police officer hero can be a good source of drama/complications. Don't make the necessity of reading criminals their rights and such a problem, make it something that works in your favor! He's a good shot, a good hand-to-hand fighter, and a really good inspiration for the boys in blue. Maybe he's a STAR Squad officer who was injured in the line of duty and repaired by Daedalus-tech, thus giving him a profound advantage in the field.

I gave him enough Equipment to afford a good police motorcycle, but you could drop that to make him a foot patrolman. Reassign the Drive skill if you do that, of course. Another thing to do is give him a Minion or Sidekick that represents his partner, but as it is he's assigned as a solo cop: if he's got a partner, she's her own character, though I doubt you'll find many people who want to play a PL 3 cop in a supers game! Note that his service pistl is a taser, not a handgun: your superhero really, really shouldn't be busting caps in people. (I know I haven't been entirely consistent with this in this thread, but I do think there's a consistency here vs a vs devices)

If you don't like the cop angle, he'd make a fine cyborg trooper recently discharged: that would also let you ignore all the complications of working for the police in the Freedom City setting. Maybe his parts were old enough that the government didn't need him anymore, but the setting is nice enough that they didn't just take them back. If you're going to do that, change his Impervious and tradeoffs a bit: he's outright invulnerable vs. street-level thugs and their hardware, but he's going to have to start making saves in a hurry if he's fighting military-grade folks.

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Nemesis

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 26 pp

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

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

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

INT 12 (+1)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+12 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +12

Grapple: +16

Saves: 5 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +8 (+8 Con)

REF +8 (+8 Dex)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 52 r=13 pp

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Bluff 9 (+10)

Gather Info 9 (+10)

Investigate 4 (+5)

Knowledge: Streetwise 4 (+5)

Languges 1 (English) (Base: Spanish)

Notice 8 (+10)

Search 4 (+5)

Sense Motive 3 (+5)

Stealth 2 (+10)

Feats: 17 pp

Acrobatic Bluff,

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2,

Dodge Focus 4,

Evasion,

Improved Initiative,

Leadership,

Luck,

Move-By Action,

Power Attack,

Takedown Attack,

Uncanny Dodge (mental),

Well-Informed

Powers: 57 pp

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Immunity 1 (aging) [1 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Nemesis 2 (Extra: Controllable, PFs: Assessment, Subtle) [20 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 4 (Detect Weakness [mental]) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 26 + combat 32 + saves 5 + skills 13/52 + feats 17 + powers 57 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

Controllable is not a real extra for Nemesis, I made it up. But since you're already paying 9 for 5, and there are so few levels of it to begin with on this build, I think it's viable. We've generally suggested people avoid characters with Nemesis on this site. Since, as written, Nemesis requires the Ref to give your powers. This makes life very tough, especially since characters like the Instant Superheroes Nemesis build have very high levels of Nemesis, essentially forcing the Ref to make up a new character sheet for you every time you play. And no one wants to do that! So with this version of the character, I've gone with very low levels of Nemesis, and added the extra that lets you control what powers you get via Nemesis. (The Detect Weakness Super-Sense I added helps give a 'Required Secondary Power' for that Nemesis ability.) It's still a powerful ability, but with only 10 pp to allocate it shouldn't be that tough for an experienced player to handle. The character can also still handle himself just fine in regular melee combat, with the Nemesis more of a helpful surprise than the crutch you hang the sheet on.

10 pp can buy you a lot of things, but my advice is to use it to target the vulnerabilities of your opponents. 8 ranks of Drain Electricity to use vs. Captain Thunder? Super-Strength 4 to use to grapple Lady Liberty? (Though obviously your heroic character shouldn't be doing _that_...) Versus opponents you can't beat, Teleport or Dimensional Movement is a good idea. (In fact, it's a good way for the GM to send a message to the players that they're in over their heads if the guy with Nemesis suddenly has his powers lock on Teleport...) The _player_ has control over how the power works, but I think this archetype is much more fun if the character has no idea, or at least very little idea.

Note that Nemesis probably does _not_ apply to things like environmental conditions, at least not as written. Refs generally hesitate to allow power-stunting off Variable Powers, given that the flexibility of VPs is already very impressive indeed. So what happens if you get chucked in a river? That's another reason this guy has so many other powers, so you can always power-stunt something off his other abilities and fluff it as his body adapting. His Gather Info and Well-Informed are part of his general ability to know what's going on with his antagonists.

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Electrical Paragon

"“We believe that electricity exists, because the electric company keeps sending us bills for it, but we cannot figure out how it travels inside wires.” -Dave Barry

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 20 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Electrical Powers/Melee)

DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +6

Grapple: +9/+20/+24

Saves: 11 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 48 r=12 pp

Diplomacy 10 (+10)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 2 (+2)

Knowledge: Technology 10 (+10)

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

Notice 8 (+10)

Pilot 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 16 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 4

Dodge Focus 4

Improved Initiative

Interpose

Luck 2

Power Attack

Precise Shot

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (mental)

Powers: 67 pp

Electrical Array [22+3=25 pp]

Drain Electricity 10 (Extra: Ranged) (PFs: Accurate 2)

AP: Electrical Control 10 (PFs: Accurate 2)

AP: Enhanced STR 14 and Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 6 tons)

AP: Telekinesis 10 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) (PFs: Accurate 2)

Flight 5 (250 MPH) [10 pp]

Immunity 9 (life support) [9 pp]

Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp]

Protection 7 [7 pp]

Space Travel 1 (1c) [1 pp]

Super-Senses 5 (Darkvision, Detect Electricity [2] [mental] (Ranged)) [5 pp]

costs

abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 11 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 67 = 150 pts

Design Notes:

Here's a build for a flying brick with an electrical theme, like the Blue Superman of the 1990s or like Freedom City's own Captain Thunder. He's a powerful character who can do a wide variety of tricks related to his electromagnetic theme: he flies very fast, hits very hard, and can manipulate electricity in many exciting ways: blasting people with bolts of energy from his hands, draining the electrical energy from foes or from that overloaded substation that's about to blow and take half a city block with it!, or by moving things around magnetically. Note that I've given him regular Telekinesis with the magnetic descriptor, which means he can toss around anything with the descriptor of grabbing onto the electrical aura of people and things and moving them that way. He can actually lift more energy by projecting it than keeping it to hand, but there's just something about punching people in the face with an electro-fist that can't be beat!

As I mentioned, this could easily be a Year One Captain Thunder: feel free to adjust the skills I gave him accordingly if you don't like that. (Hmm, now that I think about it, there's something very clever about Captain Thunder, who 'replaced the Centurion' in people's minds for a while in the 1990s, much to their chagrin, being an electrically powered paragon. If nothing else, maybe CT used to wear the ridiculous blue costume.) This could be Captain Thunder II as well easily enough: maybe this is Bolt as an adult, or maybe it's a pilot who Ray Gardener saved via the proper application of multiple bolts of lightning, thus giving a part of his powers to this new guy!

If you like the theme, maybe this guy used to be active in the 90s and has recently come back out of action, maybe keeping the classic electrical suit (which wouldn't have been so bad on anyone but Superman) or going his own way. You could tweak the theme around any other element you wanted: Captain Thunder proper is more of a weather-controlling paragon, while someone like Captain Atom or Firestorm would be more focused on nuclear energy. Electricity does have the advantage over nuclear of not having Captain Greenpeace trying to hassle you at work with his endless environmental jiggerypokery, and over weather in that no one bothers you to change the temperature.

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Triplicate Hero

"In married life, three is company and two is none." Oscar Wilde

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: +15 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +12

Grapple: +15

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +5 (+5 Con)

FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2)

REF +6 (+4 Dex, +2)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 80 r=20 pp

Acrobatics 1 (+5)

Bluff 8 (+10)

Climb 1 (+6)

Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+10)

Drive 1 (+5)

Gather Into 8 (+10)

Knowledge: Technology 10 (+10)

Languages 4 (Algonquin, Dutch, German, Russian) (Base: English)

Medicine 8 (+10)

Notice 13 (+15)

Sense Motive 13 (+15)

Survival 3 (+5)

Feats: 18 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 3

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Dodge Focus 7

Improved Initiative 2

Luck 2

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Well-Informed

Powers: 35 pp

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

Enhanced Feats 11 (Beginner’s Luck, Eidetic Memory, Evasion 2, Improved Crit 2 (Unarmed), Jack of All Trades, Second Chance 2 (Notice, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack 2) [11 pp]

Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1 pp]

Triplicate Array [10+3=13 pp]

Add Autofire 2 to Unarmed

AP: Super-Movement 3 (Dimensional Movement) (any dimension) (Extra: Portal [+2]) (Flaw: Uncontrollable)

AP: ESP 3 (1000 ft) (visual and auditory) (PF: Rapid [x10])

AP: Teleport 10 (1000 ft) (Flaw: Short-Range Only)

costs

abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 9 + skills 20/80 + feats 18 + powers 35 = 150 pts

Design Notes:

This is a build for a hero like the Legion of Superheroes Triplicate Girl, a Silver Age heroine who had the power to turn herself into three equally vulnerable...look, it was the High Silver Age, just go with it. This version of the concept, like my other Duplicator build, is built without the Duplication power at all: rather than summoning minions, she deploys her other selves to punch many, many times at once, as scouts, shields, or just as ways of popping in and out of places. (i.e., it turns out that was the 'fake' Triplicate and the real one was elsewhere). She doesn't have the area-sweeping or ganging-up powers that the other Duplicator had, because she can only summon two other versions of herself rather than an infinite number, but she's still a pretty effective combatant, all things considered.

Fluffwise, I went with the idea that rather than being a mutated Human Alien, she actually has the ability to summon versions of herself from other dimensions, a little bit like Invincible's antagonist Angstrom Levy. Hence the ability to have slightly variable skills and knowledges, as well as the Dimensional Movement. This should be treated as a useful plot device by the GM (i.e., accidentally summoning the traumatized, about-to-be-executed Erde version of yourself is a great adventure seed for your first trip to Naziworld!) as long as it's not in the hands of a player liable to give you problems. Dimensional Movement is pretty problematic, but since she has no way of controlling exactly where she's going to land (at least without a power stunt), that shouldn't cause you problems either since the GM can just say "Well, you've opened a portal to After-Earth. Start making Fort saves vs. Radiation...)

The Dimensional Movement thing also lets you split the difference between panicking when "another self" is zapped and spending your dupes like water: assume for the most part that the dupes are just versions of you from similar universes who know this is part of the package deal, and don't be afraid to say "Oops, you got summoned by Ani-Earth You to go fight the Serpent Society for a while..." as an exciting complication. I've given her the languages and skills of someone who's found herself in some unpleasant places by accident, fluff those as necessary for your intentions. Hooking her up with a rubber bouncing man is your lookout, naturally. A character like this can fit into a lot of niches in your game, whether you're in High Silver Age action or a grittier reboot-style adventure. Triplicate Girl gets used for a lot of ribald humor in the Legion comics; I say foursome jokes are all fun and games till suddenly you get hit with three times the child support payments!

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Icy Genius

“This is how I shall always remember you: surrounded by winter, forever young, forever beautiful. Rest well, my love. The monster who took you from me will soon learn that revenge is a dish... best served COLD. .” -Mr. Freeze, Heart of Ice

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 40 pp

STR 30 [20] (+10/+5)

DEX 10 (+0)

CON 20 (+5)

INT 20 (+5)

WIS 20 (+5)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Cold Control/Unarmed)

DEF: +8 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +5

Grapple: +13/+22

Saves: 11 pp

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

FORT +8 (+5 Con, +3)

REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5)

WILL +8 (+5 Wis, +3)

Skills: 56 r=14 pp

Climb 5 (+10)

Craft: Mechanical 10 (+15)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 5 (+10)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 10 (+15)

Knowledge: Technology 10 (+15)

Medicine 5 (+10)

Notice 5 (+10)

Sense Motive 5 (+10)

Survival 1 (+6)

Feats: 5 pp

Inventor

Luck

Master Plan

Power Attack

Speed of Thought

Powers: 48 pp

Cold Control Array 10.5 (21 pp powers; PFs: Alternate Power x2) [21+2=23 pp]

    BE: Blast 10 (PF: Accurate) 'freezing blast'
    AP: Create Object 10 (Extra: Duration [Continuous]; Flaw: Permanent; PF: Precise) 'ice sculptures'
    AP: Snare 10 (PF: Accurate) 'ice snare'

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

Enhanced Feat 1 (Alternate Power for Cold Control Array) {1}

    Enhanced Feat 1 (Attack Specialization: Unarmed) and Enhanced STR 10 (to 30/+10) and Super-Strength 4 (effective Str 50; Heavy Load: 12 tons; PF: Groundstrike) {1+10+9=20/21}

Impervious Toughness 10 {10}

Flight 2 (25 MPH) {4}

Immunity 6 (aging, cold damage) [6 pp]

Protection 7 [7 pp]

costs

abilities 40 + combat 32 + saves 5 + skills 14/56 + feats 5 + powers 48 = 150 pts

-

Design Notes:

So a few years ago, this scientist was caught in a deadly industrial accident that changed him forever. He went a little mad, did some damage, but luckily he hooked up with a local costumed adventurer who helped him fix up his condition and treat his thought-terminally ill wife. So now he's better, and so is she, and he uses his formidable scientific abilities as a superhero. This is something of a merger of Mr. Freeze from Batman and Madame Zero from the Freedom City universe: he wears powered armor that increases his strength and makes him bulletproof, but the armor doesn't give him his powers and he doesn't have a freeze gun: those are innate to his nature nowadays. He's not a great fighter and he doesn't have great saves, he's focused on his wide variety of abilities and his many exciting superpowers.

One thing I didn't give him was the traditional vulnerability to non-freezing temperatures that characters like this often have in comics, largely because there are so many ways to do that. You could do everything from Vulnerability (extreme heat) (uncommon, major) which would essentially destroy him on a hot day (and net you about three points) vs a full-on Weakness where his Con is drained directly by being stuck outside of freezing temperatures. If the latter is the case, put Environmental Control in his powersuit for gods sake! That'll lower the points you get for the drawback, but at least you won't die. As it is, consider "is thrashed by normal temperatures" as a Complication. It wouldn't hurt to restrict his suit to people with Environmental Immunity: Cold while you're at it. If he's out of his suit, doing something boss like flying into a building on a column of ice from a broken fire hydrant is a powerstunt off his big array, of course.

Put his powers in an easy to lose freeze gun if you want to save even more points, or in the suit if you want to compromise. How's his relationship with his wife now that his body has changed; is she interested in seeing other people, helping him find a cure, or is she interested in getting the same treatment so they can live together in a frozen world? Then there's the issue of that Madame Zero, who offers him a world where he can go outside in full comfort without his suite, and one where he can finally get final revenge on that corporate fatcat he helped put away early in his career. And maybe, if it's a hot enough day and he's been watching the kids play in the park, forever unable to join them without technological shielding, it'll be just a little tempting...

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Master of Disguise

"Exactly the man you always wanted to be." -Princess and the Frog

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 24 pp

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

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

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+9 Melee/+13 Unarmed)

DEF: +13 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +16

Init: +7

Saves: 4 pp

TOU +7 (+7 Con)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +7 (+7 Dex)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 44 r=11 pp

Acrobatics 8 (+15)*

Bluff 15 (+19)*

Concentration 13 (+15)

Disguise 1 (+5/+55)

Stealth 3 (+10)*

Feats: 19 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee (3)

Attack Specialization: Unarmed (2)

Challenge (Improved Bluff)

Dodge Focus (7)

Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Disguise, Stealth)

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 67 pp

Container 7 (Face-Stealer) [35 pp]

Mimic 2 (all traits) (Extras: Range [Perception]) (PF: Subtle) [15 pp]

Morph 8 (humanoids) (PFs: Covers Scent, Precise, Second Chance 2 [bluff checks, Disguise checks] [20 pp]

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 24 + combat 24 + saves 4 + skills 11/44 + feats 19 + powers 67 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

I did a Mystique build upthread, but here's my take on a slightly alternate version of the world's best disguise artist. She's really, really good: her Morph is damn near undetectable by anyone even closer to her PL, her Mimic means she can imitate the skills, feats, and knowledges of the people she's copying with incredible accuracy (sure, she can only do 10 PP worth at a time, but 10 pp will buy you a lot of those: they're cheap!), and even their superpowers if she's suitably pressed. With her high Bluff, Acrobatic Bluff, and OK Stealth, she has a lot of options for feinting, tricking, and getting up close and personal before she knocks them out and copies them down to the smallest detail.

Her biggest weakness (what keeps her from being ridiculous) is that all her powers are Concentration based. While she's got a very high Concentration score, if nothing else she is still going to have to sleep eventually. But that's OK, heroes usually don't impersonate for longer than it takes to sneak in the door. Note that she doesn't actually have to grapple someone or knock them out to copy them, given that her Mimic is Perception Range. I'd say she'd need time to study someone for a really good Morph, but beating them up is more fun, and shoving them in your closet while imitating them is a lot more merciful than the villainous style of breaking their fool neck. It helps explain where that other guy went, anyway!

Sure, it's theoretically possible for specialists above her PL, or even at her own, to penetrate her disguise under the right circumstances, but she can still handle herself in a fight after that happens, especially given some good use of Morph and Mimic even in battle. There are better fighters than her, but that's OK, she can be nearly their equal when she can see them, but of course she can't break PL caps. A sample idea: "Shoot her, she's the fake one!" "No, shoot us both! It's the only way to be sure!" But then it turns out that the _real_ Master of Disguise is the one with the gun! (No, I'm not sure how that makes sense either, but it looks really badass when you see it on the screen)

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Animal Mimic

“Though boys throw stones at frogs in sport, the frogs do not die in sport, but in earnest.” -Plutarch

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 30 pp

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

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

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+12 Melee)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +8

Grapple: +20

Saves: 9 pp

TOU +8 (+8 Con)

FORT +10 (+8 Con, +2)

REF +10 (+8 Dex, +2)

WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5)

Skills: 72 r=18 pp

Acrobatics 7 (+15)

Climb 7 (+15)

Handle Animal 11 (+15)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 10 (+10)

Medicine 6 (+8)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Survival 13 (+15)

Swim 2 (+10)

Feats: 21 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Animal Empathy

Attack Focus: Melee 6

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Climb, Notice, Sense Motive)

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 48 pp

Animal Mimicry 2 [18 pp] '10 pp'

-Sample Allocation

Big Cat: Leaping 4 (x25) [4], Speed 3 (50 MPH) [3], Super-Senses 3 (Acute Tracking Olfactory, Low-Light Vision)

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

costs

abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 18/72 + feats 21 + powers 48 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

Here’s an Animal Mimic, one who is much more competent in many ways than the core book one. Animal Mimicry seems to be built with the assumption that your character will not meet caps and generally be inept: this is not a good thing! So instead I’ve gone with what it should be: this is a version of the character who is in her civilian life a badass adventurer and survivalist, but also happens to have the ability to adopt the special powers of animals! With just a thought she can give herself the speed and elegance of a great cat, the flight and eyesight of an eagle, or anything else you care to name. She can’t quite fully emulate, say, the strength and durability of an elephant, but she can come close with some Impervious and Super-Strength. Remember that realistically, animals aren’t actually that strong (in a superhero setting) and most of them aren’t exactly bulletproof. With a thought, the crushing depths of the undersea or the heights of the sky itself are yours!

Abuse Grant Morrison’s Animal Man for power ideas (come for the postmodernism, stay for the animal stuff!) or just watch lots of Discovery Channel shows: animals can do a whole lot of things, and if you can fit it into 10 PP, why not? Blast like the pistol shrimp, survive in space like the waterbear... Remember that animal mimics don’t actually change appearance, but there’ll be some visual signs of her power: maybe glowing eyes or (a look I liked from the DCAU) the outline of the animal she’s emulating appearing around her. It’s stylish! As written she’s got a very strong force of personality, so she could easily be a spokesman for animal rights, or with her strong physical skills maybe even an a latter-day Steve Irwin type. (Aw, I miss ol’ Steve)

Animal Mimicry is a free action and Continuous, so she doesn’t need Concentration. The Animal descriptor is broad, broad, broad: use it with as much gusto as you dare, keeping in mind that your Ref will close in on you if you’re going too crazy. Characters like this often wind up with a magic origin (which honestly makes sense), but there’s no reason you can’t make this a character with a science origin, as long as you’re willing to make that science a little rubber. “What’s that, you say, you were injected with the DNA of every animal in a fraternity hazing? Well, clearly that’ll give you superpowers!” Not to mention the famous visit to a radioactive zoo.

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Sentient Plant

"Have a veggie knuckle sandwich!"

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 58 pp

STR 30 (+10)

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 30 (+10)

INT 14 (+2)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 14 (+2)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +6

Init: +2

Grapple: +24

Saves: 6 pp

TOU +14 (+10 Con, +4 Protection)

FORT +10 (+10 Con)

REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3)

WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4)

Skills: 48 r=12 pp

Intimidate 12 (+15)

Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+10)

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

Medicine 7 (+10)

Notice 7 (+10)

Search 3 (+5)

Sense Motive 7 (+10)

Feats: 11 pp

Attack Focus: Melee (4)

Challenge (Fast Startle)

Move-By Action

Startle

Power Attack

Quick Change

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 43 pp

Immunity 7 (aging, disease, poison, sleep, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [7 pp]

Leaping 3 (x10) [3+1=4 pp]

AP: Speed 3 (50 MPH)

Protection 4 [4 pp]

Regeneration 19 (Bruised 3 [no action], Injured 6 [no action], Staggered 5 [standard action], Disabled 4 (5 minutes), Resurrection 1 [1 week]) (PF: Regrowth) [20 pp]

Super-Strength 4 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) [8 pp]

Drawback: -4 pp

Vulnerability (Fire) (Common, Major) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 58 + combat 24 + saves 6 + skills 12/48 + feats 11 + powers 43- drawback 4 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Here's my take on the Sentient Plant archetype. Rather than build a Poison Ivy or Swamp Thing takeoff, I was inspired by Sunflower, a memorable (if cannon fodder) character who made an appearance in a recent Marvel storyline as one of the superheroes of Kansas. Sunflower (who has you can see from the picture is basically Bob the Angry Sunflower hepped up on gamma radiation) is something unusual for Sentient Plant archetypes in that he's a straight-up brawler who could go toe-to-toe with a clone of Hyperion before graphically demonstrating his vulnerability to fire thanks to his opponents' heat vision. Still, plant-based characters have a way of coming back from all sorts of damage in combat. Obviously a Marvel Universe character should not appear in our game, but perhaps this character _is_ originally a Kansas superhero who has relocated to Freedom City after an encounter with a Centurion clone?

He's pretty freaking tough: he doesn't have the impervious that most powerhouses do, but with his Regeneration it's going to be really tough to put him down in combat. No Persistent on the Regeneration: if you run into someone doing Incurable Damage, just suck it up or power-stunt a healing effect as necessary. Save points by giving him a Flaw or Drawback where his Regeneration doesn't work without access to sunlight: I'd treat the first as requiring unobstructed natural sunlight during the day, the second as requiring being outside. I went ahead and gave him full immunity to various biological concerns that plants generally don't have: if you want him to have those sorts of issues, go ahead and spend those points elsewhere. Having the Complication "But Does Get Plant Diseases" and "But Does Hate Weedkiller" and "Needs Co2" is what I went with here, but those are good reasons to drop or alter those immunities too.

He's not a big fan of fire! I went with the idea that he is basically a Bruce Banner expy, perhaps the victim of a weedkiller bomb gone horribly awry. He's not a good candidate for team brain, really, but he's a lot smarter than your average powerhouse, and he can definitely use that to find a niche as a superhero. He's better at taking hits than dishing them out, and might be a good candidate for Impervious Toughness if you've got the points. It's your call whether he's stuck looking that way or not; it would certainly explain why he's so crabby! But OTOH, there is something to be said for being able to enjoy a fulfilling social life. It'd be an easy joke to make a character like this a loud vegan, but OTOH, you'd think he'd want to _discourage_ people from eating plant matter...

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Power Thief

"Robble robble!"-Hamburglar

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 24 pp

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

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

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 18 (+4)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+13 Melee)

DEF: +13 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +20

Init: +7

Saves: 4 pp

TOU +7 (+7 Con)

FORT +7 (+7 Con)

REF +7 (+7 Dex)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 44 r=11 pp

Acrobatics 8 (+15)

Bluff 11 (+15)

Diplomacy 4 (+8)

Concentration 13 (+15)

Stealth 8 (+15)

Feats: 19 pp

Acrobatic Bluff

Attack Focus: Melee 7

Dodge Focus 7

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 67 pp

Container 7 (Power Thief Suite) [35 pp]

Fatigue 7 LINKED Mimic 7 (all powers) (Flaw: Saving Throw [Reflex])

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

costs

abilities 24 + combat 24 + saves 4 + skills 11/44 + feats 19 + powers 67 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Transfer is a sucky power, both too complicated and it doesn't actually give you the ability to do what most power thieves can do in comics: grab people, knock them out, suck out their powers, and keep that power working until they're subdued/the encounter ends. So that's why I've built this lady, putting together Mimic and Fatigue to give you something that should let you grab people, 'drain' them, and copy and keep their powers at the same time. Fatigue isn't as severe an impairment as Stun, but it's more long-lasting, and multiple hits or surging will let you knock someone pretty thoroughly out. As for that Mimic, she can get up to 35 pp worth of powers and she can keep them as long as she can keep making Concentration checks when stunned or otherwise incapable of taking free actions. She meets her caps in combat without use of her Power Theft ability, just so you're not stuck in a crisis.

No Drain means she doesn't have to worry about her stolen powers fading. She's got the Save Required flaw for her Mimic, representing people pulling away in time to avoid being copied. With her manifold abilities to render someone flat-footed, she should be able to Power Attack most of the time. Even if she can't drain enough to zap someone (i.e, they make their save vs. Fatigue), she still has a chance of pulling out enough of their powers to use in combat against them. Side-Effect is another good one, representing that the consequences of too much energy are frying her own brain! I'm not a big fan of Tainted (you get the drawbacks of the people you copy) or Split Personality (sometimes their personalities can be sucked into your mind too) as Flaws for Mimic: I think the first is a better power drawback, and the second a complication.

Given her high combat abilities, she can fight Badass Normals just fine, punching them in the head and even using her powers to knock them out at the same time. She's pretty awesome! Her biggest weakness is that she doesn't do a whole lot besides trick people, sneak past people, and suck their powers out to use against them. There's nothing wrong with that if it's your concept (she's quite good at all those things!), but you might be interested in trying something else. Another possible Drawback is something where she has to get direct skin-to-skin contact on her targets to let her Power Theft work, thus giving people with full body suits or power armor an advantage against her in combat.

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Gunner

"I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity"-Dwight D. Eisenhower

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 26 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 16 (+3)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 16 (+3)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Blast)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Grapple: +8

Init: +7

Saves: 10 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 48 r=12 pp

Bluff 12 (+15)

Diplomacy 2 (+5)

Knowledge: History 10 (+10)

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

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 16 pp

All-Out Attack

Dodge Focus 6

Challenge 2 (Improved Feint, Improved Taunt)

Improved Initiative

Luck

Power Attack

Precise Shot

Set-Up

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (mental)

Powers: 62 pp

Blast 10 (Extra: Autofire) (PFs: Accurate 2, Variable Descriptor 2 [metal]) [34 pp]

Immunity 10 (metal) [10 pp]

Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp]

Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp]

Protection 5 [5 pp]

Super-Senses 4 (metal awareness [mental], Acute Radius Ranged) [4 pp]

costs

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

--

Design Notes:

This is my build for Gunner, the Golden Age kid sidekick hero brutally murdered by the Crimson Katana alongside his brother the Human Tank, the two young men becoming the last members of the Golden Age European superteam the Allies of Freedom to die. I've never been able to figure out why the Allies of Freedom came to such a spectacularly sticky end; surely they could have made Kantor and Nacht-Krieger imposing figures of menace without dumping _everyone_ in the refrigerator! (My favorite 'meta'-explanation for it is that the Allies of Freedom title, always the least-selling title of Freedom Comics' Golden Age-era line, was abruptly switched over to the new fad of horror comics in the postwar period and the writers decided to be particularly brutal in killing off their characters for the switch)

Anyway. Gunner has the power of absorbing metal into his body, holding it there, and firing it back at his enemies. Rather than the clunky Absorption construction that this power had in the book, I've given him a straight-up immunity to metal effects: stab him or shoot him a thousand times with blade or bullet, and he'll be just fine. In fact, he can fire those metal bits back at you in a dizzying array of bombardment. He can also find metal even when he can't see it, absorb decent physical punishment thanks to his metal-infused body, and taunt, trick, and set-up like any good Golden Age sidekick ought to be. He's got some Leaping for mobility on the Golden Age battlefields that the Allies haunted so well.

This build works just fine for a Gunner plucked from his death at the age of 19 in early 1946 to the modern era, I think with a few modifications it could work for a Gunner who chose to go into retirement under an assumed name after his brother's death. It's also not a bad choice for his successor: as young as he was, it's at least possible he fathered a child before his death, perhaps giving Japan a complicated legacy of a dead American hero and his illegitimate Japanese super-children, just in time for the 1960s! This would represent a later version of that legacy, but one I think no less compelling.

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Tectonic II

"In every man's heart there is a secret nerve that answers to the vibrations of beauty." -Christopher Morley

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 18 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 16 (+3)

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

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+10 Ranged)

DEF: +10 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +10

Saves: 8 pp

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

FORT: +7 (+7 Con)

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

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

Skills: 56 r=14 pp

Bluff 10 (+10)

Disable Device 10 (+10)

Drive 2 (+5)

Knowledge: Streetwise 10 (+10)

Language 1 (Spanish) (Base: English)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Stealth 7 (+10)

Feats: 13 pp

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Ranged 2

Dodge Focus 2

Improved Initiative

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Precise Shot 2

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 65 pp

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Immunity 1 (own powers) [1 pp]

Impervious TOU 7 [7 pp]

Protection 3 [3 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Vibratory Array [31+2=33 pp]

Vibration Control 10 (Extra: Penetrating) (PF: Precise)

AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [Cone] (+0), Selective) (PF: Precise)

AP: Drain TOU 10 (Extras: Affects Objects, Ranged)

costs

abilities 18 + combat 32 + saves 8 + skills 14/56 + feats 13 + powers 65 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

This is my build for Tectonic, the Silver/Bronze Age Freedom City hero who was a fairly obvious Vibe expy: a trash-talking Latino street fighter with a cocky grin, vibration powers, and who went down like a chump to prove how scary the latest bad guy was. At least Vibe got strangled by a robot assassin; Tectonic got backstabbed by a no-name Katanarchist ninja. (Halogen, the heroine who flew down to rescue him? Also backstabbed by a no-name ninja. What the hell, Bronze-to-Iron Age Freedom City writers, what the hell?) This version would work fine for Tectonic's successor (his brother's kids would be about his age now), a clone (in the boisterous Bronze Age tradition), or even the original himself, perhaps resurrected via an ancient ritual carried out over a mystic ninja blade that captured his soul. (It would explain why the sword was able to carry out the deaths of so many PL 10 superheroes).

I've tried to divide Vibration Control from Sonic Control: my idea is that his powers are like (really) flawed Telekinesis, letting him shake molecules apart without actually using sonic waves to do so. He's got a few secondary mutations to represent physical modifications, or mutations, that allow him to channel that much power. High Bluff but low Charisma means he's charming but unlikeable at the same time, perhaps what you'd expect from a young Latino teenager created by middle-aged white guys in the early 1980s. His Precise Penetrating Vibration Control lets him have really precise control over his powers while at the same time hurt even the toughest opponents. And you know, maybe other stuff. He's a devil with the ladies! (In my mind, this character (either as a young man or an adult), is voiced by Erik Estrada.

Why did he play up his Latino roots so heavily? Maybe he was proud of his ethnic heritage and eager to show Latino kids that even their people could be heroes; maybe he honestly did have a heavy accent and an outgoing personality. Or maybe it was Obfuscating Stupidity, and he figured that people would underestimate him if he just sounded like a kid from the Wrong Side of the Tracks. Like a lot of Bronze Age heroes, he died young and brash. Maybe all he needs is a little more time, and a little more seasoning.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bulk

"I'm the...you know the story."

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 44 p

STR 40 [30] (+15/+10)

DEX 12 (+1)

CON 40 [30] (+15/+10)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 12 (+1)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +5

DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +1

Grapple: +23

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +15 (+15 Con)

FORT +15 (+15 Con)

REF +6 (+1 Dex, +5)

WILL +6 (+1 Wis, +5)

Skills: 40 r=10 pp

Intimidate 15 (+15)

Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+5)

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

Notice 9 (+10)

Sense Motive 9 (+10)

Feats: 6 pp

All-Out Attack

Luck

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack

Ultimate Save (TOU)

Powers: 60 pp

Device 2 (Helmet) (Hard to Lose) [8 pp]

-Immunity 10 (mental effects) {10}

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Immunity 15 (critical hits, entrapment, knockback, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [15 pp]

Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 24 tons) [6 pp]

costs

abilities 44 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 10/40 + feats 6 + powers 60 = 150 pts

--

Design Notes:

This is my build for the Bulk, a Powerhouse variant from the Archetypes Archive. He's pretty obviously based on a particular Marvel character, one who I trust I don't have to name for you. He's not the strongest powerhouse, he's not the fastest powerhouse, but he can absorb an amazing amount of punishment: he cannot be knocked back, he cannot be held down, he will come for you and punch you in the head! His kicky hat blocks mental powers, though without it his Will save isn't actually awful either. He's also extremely tough, easily capable of shrugging off massive damage thanks to his extremely high Toughness, high Impervious, and finally his Ultimate Toughness. He doesn't have Immovable or Unstoppable: he doesn't need the first thanks to his broad immunities, and Unstoppable isn't really that great unless you're massively optimized to use Slam attacks. Given his massive ability to do damage, it's probably not going to be something he misses.

Obviously someone immune to all damage should be an NPC! In fact, if you want to adopt a recent story arc for this character, you can say the character was an invulnerable bad guy who lost power when he became good, going from an unstoppable villanous powerhouse to a still-very-formidable but more human PC. (If you are going to make him an NPC, I would definitely say kick him up and make him invulnerable with the 80 pp damage immunity, the helmet, the other immunities, etc. You don't want to scrimp! I would say someone with the broad immunities on this sheet is likely to be magical in origin, but you could cover it as a particularly helpful mutation or some other equally broad power origin. Up to you!

His natural rival is the Wheelchair Mentalist from upthread, of course. Maybe a family connection? Perhaps his father favored that damn egghead, forcing him to go out in the world! And now that the Mentalist is a mad villain, he's built his helmet to take his wicked brother down. Bricks can get branded one-dimensional, but as characters like Atlas have shown on our site, a relatively simple sheet can go in all kinds of directions. Geez3r's sheet (and thread) is a good source for Super-Strength PFs and stunts. Not all of those will sell on this site, but why not try? (I usually don't get creative like that: with a few exceptions, the majority of the builds here actually could get approved if you took the time to put them in the right format)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Golden Hero

All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue. -Plato

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 20 pp

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

DEX 14 (+2)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 14 (+2)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 24 pp

ATK: +6 (+10 Melee)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +7

Grapple: +22

Saves: 13 pp

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

FORT +8 (+3 Con, +5)

REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4)

Skills: 44 r=11 pp

Concentration 10 (+12)

Craft: Chemical 5 (+5)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 10 (+10)

Language 1 (Greek) (Base: English)

Medicine 2 (+4)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 16 pp

Attack Focus: Melee 4

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (auditory)

Powers: 66 pp

Alternate Form 7 (Midas) [35 pp]

-Enhanced STR 14 [14]

-Immunity 4 (own powers, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [4]

-Impervious TOU 8 [8]

-Protection 5 [5]

-Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 6 tons) [4]

Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp]

Transform 10 (Duration: Sustained) (flesh to gold) [30 pp]

costs

abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 11/44 + feats 16 + powers 66 = 150 pts

---

Design Notes:

Here's a lady with the powers of King Midas; whatever she touches turns to gold! Like Marvel's Grey Gargoyle, she turned that power on herself, and she can transform her entire body into living, breathing, walking and talking gold! Both powers are Sustained in duration, to prevent the complications of Continuous Transform when we're talking about 24K gold, as well as the potential hazards of kidnapping by greedy, greedy bad men. She functions decently well as a low-level powerhouse, getting around on foot and punching things, she's also nigh-bulletproof and the like. She's got relatively low TOU for somebody made of metal because gold of course isn't a particularly strong substance; she could also use a little higher Impervious in the process. My backstory for her is that she was a chemistry student exposed to a secret formula for making gold and, having absorbed said formula into her body, she's using her new abilities to fight crime.

Play around with a build like this, sticking with the theme of her native metal. Gold has a lot of different uses and legacies! Don't be afraid to stunt things off her big power; more Super-Strength, some Elongation or Insubstantial 1? Either one would fit the power theme tolerably well. Change things up a little by giving her Density; as it is the 'organic gold' that makes up her augmented body isn't appreciably heavier than a normal woman would be. One possible change would be higher Charisma; a person with a gold body might well be quite attractive! (As for her clothes, luckily if she's in Freedom City; she's in a universe where her clothes change with her OR where she's got a good costume to go with it!)

You could make her magical easily enough; perhaps she's the heir to the Midas family legacy. (That's why she's got the Greek language, just in case). You could also change up her base metal however you want: a lady made of plutonium would be an interesting character choice, as would diamonds or some other super-hard metal associated with beauty. An iron lady would be good for a British heroine, with the caveat that Margaret Thatcher was a terrible person and you shouldn't go around naming yourself after her. But maybe you got there first, and in the Freedom City universe sued her blind! Being made of a liquid or gas would be interesting too, just make sure you pick a good one!

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Gravity Controller

I've been noticing gravity since I was very young. -Cameron Diaz

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 Unarmed)

DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed)

Init: +3

Grapple: +8/+20/+24

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: 48 r=12 pp

Bluff 7 (+10)

Concentration 8 (+10)

Diplomacy 7 (+10)

Knowledge: Physical Sciences 10 (+10)

Notice 8 (+10)

Sense Motive 8 (+10)

Feats: 12 pp

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Dodge Focus 6

Improved Initiative

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Uncanny Dodge (tactile)

Powers: 66 pp

Immunity 7 (falling damage, gravitic powers) [7 pp]

Impervious TOU 5 [5 pp]

Flight 5 (250 MPH) [10 pp]

Force Field 5 [5 pp]

Gravitic Array [33+2=35 pp]

Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 8 (PF: Groundstrike) (Heavy Load: ~360 tons)

AP: Move Object 10 (Extras: Damaging, Range [Perception]) (Flaw: Up or Down Only) (PFs: Indirect 2, Subtle)

AP: Move Object 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Damaging) (Flaw: Up or Down Only) (PFs: Indirect 2, Subtle)

Super-Senses 4 (Analytical Extended Radius Ranged Tactile Sense) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 12/48 + feats 12 + powers 66 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

This is my build for a gravity controller, somewhat adjusting him from the bog-standard Energy Controller he appears to be in the book. He uses a low-level Force Field and has some minor Impervious, he's primarily a dodge monkey rather than the Toughness-shifted brute that energy controllers often are. He's fragile for someone so strong; after all, his 'strength' is just a product of greatly altering his localized gravity field. He can do the same thing at range, but not with the same kind of brute force that he can by touch. His primary attack is to fly around and punch people, but with his gravity control he can take out whole groups by slamming them to the ground or up against the ceiling, or he can do the same in a focused attack vs. a singular target. A formidable character, though as mentioned above something of a glass cannon on offense vs. defense.

His powers allow for some pretty broad stunting; Teleport with the Portal extra to represent making wormholes? His immunity deserves a little explanation: what I'm saying there is that he has an instinctive ability to slow his own falls enough that even when he's unconscious, he takes no damage from hitting the ground: in short, he's not only immune to gravitic powers, he's immune to gravity itself! (Will this cover the effects of being thrown into a black hole? Well, maybe. Hopefully your GM will be lenient about the definition of falling...but OTOH, if he's making you fall into a black hole, he's probably not the lenient type to begin with. Bring a space suit, since you don't have life support!)

He's got the Damaging so he can actually hurt people by smashing them to the ground: note that you do actually have to use the extra by the rules, so consider a Move Object (which is what Gravity Control is) without Damaging if you want to make people faceplant without actually breaking their teeth along the way. Throw in some Insubstantial if you want your character to actually be made of gravity, and of course more immunities if you want him to actually be space-worthy. Gravity seems like a narrow descriptor in the book, but you should feel free to use your imagination. Subtle Create Object with the solidified gravity descriptor? Hey, it's comics, you can be pretty rubber science about this stuff. Go gravity!

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Elephant Hero

"I have a memory like an elephant. In fact, elephants often consult me." -Noel Coward

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 44 p

STR 40 [30] (+15/+10)

DEX 12 (+1)

CON 40 [30] (+15/+10)

INT 10 (+0)

WIS 12 (+1)

CHA 10 (+0)

Combat: 20 pp

ATK: +5

DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed)

Init: +5

Grapple: +25

Saves: 10 pp

TOU +15 (+15 Con)

FORT +15 (+15 Con)

REF +6 (+1 Dex, +5)

WILL +6 (+1 Wis, +5)

Skills: 40 r=10 pp

Intimidate 10 (+10)

Languages 3 (French, Hindi, Swahili) (Base: English)

Notice 9 (+10)

Sense Motive 9 (+10)

Survival 9 (+10)

Feats: 11 pp

All-Out Attack

Eidetic Memory

Fast Overrun

Improved Initiative

Improved Overrun

Luck

Power Attack

Startle

Takedown Attack (2)

Ultimate Save (TOU)

Powers: 55 pp

Additional Limb 1 [1 pp]

Comprehend 2 (speak to and understand animals) (Flaw: Limited 2 [elephants]) [1 pp]

Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp]

Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp]

Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp]

Speed 3 (50 MPH) [3 pp]

Super-Senses 8 (Accurate Extended Hearing, Accurate Acute Extended Tracking Scent) [8 pp]

Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) (PFs: Groundstrike, Super-Breath) [12 pp]

costs

abilities 44 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 10/40 + feats 11 + powers 55 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

Here's a build inspired by Elephant Steve, perhaps the finest adult Marvel character of the new millennium. As you can see, he's an elephant totem with all the powers and abilities one might associate with the humble elephant. Who could have pictured a bulletproof elephant the size of a man, casually tossing around bad guys with his trunk, charging faster than a speeding car or tracking foes with his incredible sense of smell, or hunting them in the darkness thanks to his incredibly good hearing? Well, you can, right now! The elephant provides a unique blend of superpowers that's just tough to beat, and certainly a good twist on your usual totem-style build. No wussified spider here!

Is he an elephant who thinks he's a man? Perhaps a freakish mutant with opposable thumbs who has realized the horror of a world where his people are beasts to be hunted and killed by cruel poachers, or perhaps he's the survivor of some distant civilization of sentient elephant-men from deep in the past of our recent geological age. Or maybe, just maybe, he's an elephant man from a future where the elephants have evolved from men? Can you explain that with your so-called science? No. Or maybe he's a man who thinks he's an elephant: a victim of cruel scientific experiments that merged his genes with that of the largest living land animal, creating a creature half-man, half-elephant, and all hero! Or maybe he's some kind of weird alien or something from the planet of the elephant men, coming from a distant star to investigate rumors of elephant-men right here on Earth!

His code name should be Joseph Merrick, obviously. I trust I don't need to tell you why he has Eidetic Memory! (It's mostly fluff given his low mental abilities, but if you raise his INT and WIS a bit you can make him a formidable source of knowledge, especially if you add Beginner's Luck and Jack-of-all-Trades to the mix.) In combat he's a formidable trampling goonsweeper, charging into the thick of things and overrunning everyone he can't just beat up with his elephanty fists. You may want to think about the physics of the situation, since elephants don't really have great hands: take a drawback to explain that his trunk is actually his only manipulative digit? It's worth thinking about, muy frond! Perhaps a normal ID drawback is also in the cards.

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Green Sharpshooter

"I've been in bedrooms where women came in with knives and guns."-Dennis Rodman

PL: 10 (150)

Abilities: 30 pp

STR 14 (+2)

DEX 20 (+5)

CON 16 (+3)

INT 12 (+1)

WIS 16 (+3)

CHA 12 (+1)

Combat: 32 pp

ATK: +8 (+13 ranged)

DEF: +13 (+4 flat-footed)

Init: +9

Grapple: +10

Saves: 10 pp

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

FORT +6 (+3 Con, +3)

REF +10 (+5 Ref, +5)

WILL +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 100 r=25 pp

Acrobatics 15 (+20)

Craft: Electronic 9 (+10)

Knowledge: Current Events 14 (+15)

Knowledge: History 7 (+8)

Knowledge: Streetwise 9 (+10)

Knowledge: Technology 9 (+10)

Languages 4 (English, Galstandard, Grue, Spanish) (Base: Future English)

Notice 12 (+15)

Sense Motive 12 (+15)

Stealth 10 (+15)

Survival 5 (+8)

Feats: 25 pp

Accurate Attack

Acrobatic Bluff

All-Out Attack

Attack Focus: Ranged (5)

Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff)

Dodge Focus (5)

Evasion

Improved Initiative

Luck

Move-By Action

Power Attack

Precise Shot

Quick Draw [Draw]

Uncanny Dodge (mental)

Powers: 29 pp

Device 5 (Green Pistols) (Easy to Lose) [15 pp]

-Blast 7 (Extra: Autofire) [21+4=25 pp]

-AP: Damage 7 (Extras: Selective, Targeted Area [burst])

-AP: Snare 7 (Extra: Regenerating)

-AP: Stun 7 (Extra: Ranged)

-AP: Teleport 7 (200 miles) (Extra: Accurate, Affects Others) (Flaw: Long-Range Only)

Feature 1 (Temporal Inertia) [1 pp]

Protection 4 [4 pp]

Super-Senses 4 (Precognition) [4 pp]

Teleport 4 (400 ft/1 mile) (Flaw: Long-Range Only) [4 pp]

costs

abilities 30 + combat 32 + saves 10 + skills 25/100 + feats 25 + powers 29 = 150 pts

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Design Notes:

In the far-off future of 2525, the Green Sharpshooter is a member of the Freedom Legion. Long an admirer of Earth's heroes, the young heiress had no powers of her own until she was spaceship-wrecked on a deserted colony world where she was forced by the rough conditions and lack of replicators to use her technical know-how to build for herself the humblest and most ancient of mankind's weapons: the gun! Training herself as one of the finest markswomen in the galaxy as she hunted food for a living, she made her debut as a hero defeating the space pirates who had first made their lair on the planet that had become her new home. Once on the outside, she paid for a few cybernetic enhancements; armor on her bones to make her tough and an implanted teleporter in case she needed to make a hasty exit, and made her debut on the galactic stage!

But she made the future too hot to hold her; there were romantic entanglements along the way with pretty men in pretty outfits, vicious rivalries with other heroes that seemed to go in and out of fashion, an ever-changing roster of sidekicks with ever-more-trendy personal problems, and finally a good friend of hers went a little crazy and she decided the future wasn't all it was cracked up to be. So she acquired a time machine through certain deeds and traveled back to the past, hoping to make her mark as a hero in the age when everyone was packing heat. Unfortunately, she wasn't really a great student of history, and anyway the textbooks definitely did not get everything right.

The Green Sharpshooter should be played as a high-energy, High Silver Age Green Arrow; she's a little crazy, there's no denying it. But she's also a really good shot and really competent at what she does, for all that her high-tech gadgetry may rub other heroes the wrong way. (i.e., play to their complications about heroes who carry firearms!) Her abilities are designed with that in mind; for all that she can blast with laser bursts just like Vigilante on JLU, her Teleport bullets will no doubt make a lot of heroes concerned when she goes around shooting unconscious bad guys, causing them to disappear in a flare of futuristic energy. But it's OK, really, they're in jail! Honest! I think she'd be a gas to play, honestly.

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