Catalyst Build

[Aoiroo]

Here's my idea for my third character, though rewards are a ways off I had an idea so I went for it. No fluff yet, for now I want some math checking and build suggestions.

Character Name: Catalyst

Power Level: 8 (120pp/120pp)

Trade-Offs: +3 Attack / -3 Damage, +2 Defense / -2 Toughness

Unspent PP: 0

Progress To Bronze Status: 0/30

In Brief: Chemical weapon user with a paintball gun and good aim.

Alternate Identities: Jasmine Benoit

Identity: Secret

Birthplace: St. John, New Brunswick

Occupation: Lab Assistant

Affiliations: Franklin and Wesler Co.

Family: Laurette Benoit (mother), Jackson Benoit (father), Hazel Benoit(younger sister)

Age: 27 DoB: November 2nd 1983

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: Haitian/French Canadian

Height: 5'8"

Weight: 145 lbs

Eyes: Brown

Hair: Black

Description: Jasmine is not really skinny or fat, she has a pretty healthy build. She's a little bit above average height taking more from her father's side with a bit of it being from being pretty long waisted. She has dark complexion and dark hair which is kept at only a few inches in lengh if only because longer hair is inconvienent for chemical testing. On her upper arms, shoulders and neck she has several areas of scarring from an accident early in her career as a lab assistant. Her face is a long oval with a rounded nose, similiar oval shaped brown eyes set behind a pair of frameless glasses. Her clothing is generally fuctional and form fitting, mostly for the benefit of her work, though she is fond of long skirts and tanks whenever it's warm enough as well as brighter colors. Her costume is a full body pale yellow hazmat suit with blue gloves and boots that she managed to get fitted for easier movement. She removed the visor glass since it made it hard to line up with the scope, and replaced it with a pair of goggles. Her utility belt has several pouches which contains both her ammo, and her counterammo (paintballs specifically made to counter and reverse the effects of some of her more nasty chemicals).

Power Descriptions: She has no powers to speak up, just a paintball gun and some clever chemically altered paintballs the formula for each personally developed to be non-lethal, and exceptionally potent for such a small amount.

History: Laurette Quiner was born and raised in St. John, New Brunswick, and when she was twenty, married her high school sweetheart Edwin Samania. It wasn't long after that she was with child, and Jasmine was born. Edwin worked construction, so he kept a stable income while Laurette got a teaching degree and began teaching French classes at the local high schools in the morning, and taking care of her daughter after she got home from preschool/daycare in the afternoon. It was a good life, lots of fun, lots of laughs, until one day, her husband didn't come home. He was killed on site by a piece of fallen equipment after a machinery malfuction. The grieving was immense for the two person household, their was a problem in the fact that her income could not completely support her way of life, even with the insurance money which would only last so long. So, Laurette moved out of NewBrunswick and down to Courtland, New York to live with her cousins while she went back to college and eventually got a doctorate in education and became a professor. It was in this process that four years after her husbands death she fell in love with a linguistics major named Jackson Benoit. Two years later, they married, and not soon after Jasmine's half sister, Hazel was born.

Jasmine grew up in a loving household, when her mother was at college she was looked after by her cousins, and when she remarried she was glad to see her happy and that her new father was very kind, and was even willing to pay the additional fees to adopt her so she could share his name. Though, because he was a caucasion French Americans, there were often strange looks when she or her sister called him dad in public. Her step father also eventually got a doctorate, and they both worked as professors at various universities. For the next ten years or so, her parents worked at three different colleges each, and they moved from New York, to Illinois, than finally Freedom, where both her parents got teaching positions at Freedom University in the language department. By than Jasmine had already finished high school, and was looking at schools in the area and was able to get into HIT earning a masters in Chemistry. When she was twenty four, she got an on the spot offer to Franklin and Wesler Co. an industrial equipment and chemical treatment company that had only recently opened a branch in Freedom. Several weeks into the process a lot of which involved move and handling chemicals that had been sent from other branches, Jasmine was handling a mislabeled and mishandled box of chemicals which had been previously sealed, but caused a violent reaction that gave her scarring on her neck and upper arms burning right through her clothes. The person responsible was immediately fired, and she was paid reporations for her injury almost immediately. She personally didn't bare any bad will and continued working as per normal at Franklin and Wesler.

It was in early April that Jasmine got news over the phone that her younger sister Hazel (age 16), had gotten shot. It very nearly made her drop the phone right than and there, and drive to the hospital. Instead, she switched to her cell and drove instead. Though her parents and her sister lived in a nice neighborhood in North Freedom, Hazel had recently started dating a boy who she met at a friends party. The boy himself was nice and polite when she met him and seemed to be very protective of her. It happened when he was taking her to dinner, but needed to drop off of his house real quick to grab his wallet. When the boy was inside, apparently a local gang had mistaken his car for someone elses and opened fire. Hazel was in the passenger seat, got hit in the shoulder and chest before dropping to the floor and getting various scratches from the broken glass. The boy she was seeing was quick to call an ambulence and they were timely enough to save her sister who had suffered a punctured lunge and had to have surgery.

When she arrived to the hospital Hazel was already in surgery and her mother was crying. Not very far away was the boy her sister was dating. She asked him if he was hungry, and they went down to the lounge where she had a pleasant conversation with him about why someone shoot up his car. He denied it at first, saying it was a mistake, but eventually the truth came out. He had been a member of the Lowercase, a gang inspired by the Southside Cs who worked out of East Lincoln, and was for drug pocession during a police raid. He sold information on them to get out of it and left the gang officially, but this left some bad blood between them so he started living over in West End with some cousins to dodge them. He didn't know they found him until that night.

Jasmine left the boy to his quivering after that part, it was mostly him saying he didn't know it would happen, that he didn't want to get her sister involved, that it wasn't his fault. Jasmine didn't believe that part, she knew he was at fault, but he was already being punished. The real people who needed to be punished was the Lowercase. It took some time, finding the information she needed, it was a project she didn't share with anyone, but she got it, names, addresses, popular hang outs, and most of all evidence. All that was left was the delivery, which was far more literal than when she first planned it.

A month later, a woman in a flower delivery truck showed up at the leaders doorstep during a sanctioned 'meeting' with a box labeled for as a late valentines gift. Signing for it, he brought it inside. Fifteen minutes later, police cars started coming down the street, twenty gang members started running out of the front door of the house. Twenty minutes after that, ambulences arrived to take the still coughing gang members to the hospital, twenty after that the gas finally clears, and in looking for its sorce, the police find the stores of drugs being distributed by the gangs. The entire thing made the local news, though there was no mention of the flower delivery. Probably because she had walked in through the back and put the gas bomb in the kitchen when the flowers she ordered arrived.

The entire thing was a very rewarding sort of revenge. The gas she produced left them bed ridden for weeks, while at the same time the police had a case built around everything they had found in the gang leaders home from unregistered firearms, to drugs, to several pictures of there transaction(those she very proudly planted in a kitchen drawer after setting the gas bomb). Though after all of it was said and done, and her sister made her recovery, she couldn't help but think she could try doing this sort of thing more often, which after some preperations became entirely possible, and a new idenity, Catalyst was born.

Personality & Motivation:

Jasmine is a generally quiet and pleasant person. She's not very ambitius, and is pretty fond of her life as it is as she has friends and family. She loves classical music, cooking, and firearms. The last one throws people off, but when she was younger her mom's cousins was a cop who both showed and taught her how to shoot. In middle and high school her favorite past time was playing paintball, and for fun, every time she choose the location she would set up a few boomboxes and blast Ride of Valkeryies whenever they'd play. While she herself does not collect guns, she is kept up to date and in contact with the founder of her interest who does. She really loves her family, especially her little sister who's incident got her involved in the first place. She really started doing it for them, but there was a certain thrill in what she was doing that got her taking some time to properly invest into it.

Powers & Tactics:

Jasmine generally keeps her distance with most fighting, this doesn't mean that she doesn't make herself known. If she has the time to do some research, she usually chooses and stakes out her spots for known places of illecite activities, and much like in high school she will set speakers so she can blast classical music from her playlist while she picks off the baddies one by one. She almost always avoids close range fighting as well as any areas that might have some casualties in her area based chemical attacks. Even so, all of the chemicals have been thoroughly tested by and sometimes on herself to ensure that there is no long term damage inflicted if a civilian or fellow hero is in fact caught in the crossfire.

Complications

Nine to Five: Jasmine maintains a regular work schedule as a lab assistant, this sometimes takes priority.

Secret: Her idenity is secret, as she has taken some steps like tinting the glass on the face mask to insure.

Family: Her parents work as professors at Freedom University, and her sister is in High School, she tries to make time for them as best she can.

Sleep Deprivation: Jasmine has a hard time just saying no, and does have the tendency to spread herself too thin.

Can't See Without Them: Jasmine is very far-sighted and has to wear glasses(as a chemist contacts are dangerous).

Abilities: 0 + 4 + 4 + 8 + 8 + 0 = 24pp

Strengh: 10 (+0)

Dexterity: 14 (+2)

Constitution: 14 (+2)

Intelligence: 18 (+4)

Wisdom: 18 (+4)

Charisma: 10 (+0)

Combat: 8 + 8 = 16

Initiative: +10

Attack: +4 (+11 Attack Focus (Ranged))

Grapple: +4

Defense: +10 (+4, +6 Dodge Focus), +2 flat-footed

Knockback: -3

Saving Throws: 4 + 4 + 2 = 10pp

Toughness: +6 (+2 Con, +4 Defensive Roll), +2 flat-footed)

Fortitude: +6 (+2 Con, +4)

Reflex +6 (+2 Dex, +4)

Will +6 (+4 Wis, +2)

Skills: 48r=12pp

Computers 4 (+8)

Craft (Chemical) 11 (+15)

Drive 5 (+7)

Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 11 (+15)

Knowledge (Technology) 6 (+10)

Language 1 (Native: English, French)

Notice 6 (+10)

Stealth 4 (+6)

Feats: 27pp

Attack Focus (Ranged) 7

Defensive Roll 2

Dodge Focus 6

Equipment 4

Improved Initiative 2

Inventor

Luck

Precise Shot

Quick Draw

Skill Mastery: Craft (Chemical), Knowledge (Physical Sciences), Notice, Stealth

Uncanny Dodge (Hearing)

Equipment

Blue Tooth 0ep

Cell Phone 0ep

Flash Goggles 1ep

Handcuffs 1ep

Laptop 0ep

Mini Tracer 1ep

Night Vision Goggles 1ep

Van(Former Flower Delivery Van) Strengh 35 Speed 5 Defense 8 Toughness 9 Size Huge

Features: Alarm, Computer, Communications, Laboratory, Navigation System, Power System, Smokescreen, Workshop 16ep

Powers: 15 + 16 = 31pp

Device 5 (Easy-To-Lose) 15pp

Blast 5 (Extras: Autofire PFs: Improved Range 2, Progression 2, Alternate Power x5, Variable Descriptor (Burning, Freezing, Melting)) 20/20dp

AP: Nauseate 5 (Extras: Range, Area: Cloud) 20/20dp

AP: Obscure 5 (Visual) (Extras: Independant PFs: Progession 4 (50-ft Area)) 15/20dp

AP: Stun 5 (Extras: Range, Area: Cloud) 20/20dp

AP: Dazzle 5 (Visual) (Extras: Area: Cloud PFs: Reversible, Progression 4 (50-ft Area)) 20/20dp

AP: Drain 5 (Constitution) (Extras: Range, Area: Cloud PFs: Reversible, Slow Fade, Progression 3 (25-ft Area)) 20/20dp

Device 4 (Fitted Hazmat Suit) (Hard-To-Lose) 16pp

Immunity (Chemical Effects) 5dp

Immunity (Disease) 1dp

Immunity (Fire) 10dp

Immunity (Poison) 1dp

Super-Sense 3 (Infravision, Counters Obscure (Visual)(Fog)) 3dp

DC Block

Attack           Range                Save                   Effect

Unarmed          Touch                DC15 Toughness         Damage (Staged)

Blast            Ranged               DC20 Toughness         Damage (Staged)

Nauseate         Ranged/Area:Burst    DC15  Fortitude        Sicken/Nauseate/Helpless (Staged)

Stun             Ranged/Area:Burst    DC15  Fortitude        Stunned (Staged)

Dazzle           Ranged/Area:Burst    DC15 Fortitude         Blinded(Staged)

Abilities (24) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (10) + Skills (12) + Feats (27) + Powers (31) - Drawbacks (0) = 120/120 Power Points

[Fox]

Mechanics things I notice as I look through, though it's always possible that I'm just tired and mistaken:

Initiative should be +10 (+4 from each Improved Initiative, +2 from Dex)

A base defense of +5 is basically cheating yourself of points, but I'm assuming you did this because you're going to raise it to +6 when you can afford to? If not, I'd drop it down to +4, use one of the freed points to buy another rank of Dodge Focus, and use the second freed point to buy yourself something nice.

I count 18ep of equipment, and you bought 20. That's not wrong, but you could use the two points on something nice, if the character needed anything.

Your Blast power costs 21pp, plus 5pp of Alternate powers, for 26pp total. On the bright side, this means each individual power has 21pp to play with. On the down side, it means your device is over costs. I'm guessing you'll want to just drop a feat from the Blast to bring it back to 20pp base.

What is the Blast's progression feat applying to?

I'm not entirely sure what you're doing with Obscure. It is, by nature, an area power; that's not an extra, that's just how the power works. And if it's Independent, that needs to be listed as an extra. As it is you have a rank 5 Obscure power that only costs 10pp, not 20; you could double its rank (Obscure doesn't provoke a save, so it's not PL-capped), add extra sense types it obscures, or whatever you wanted.

Dazzle, like Blast, has progression listed but not what the progression's applying to. I'm not entirely sure what progression could be applying to.

Drain Constitution is a 1pp/rank power; +Range and +Area make it 3pp/rank. At rank 5 that's 15pp, plus two feats is 17pp, not 15.

A 2pp Immunity to Chemical powers protects you only from damage, not all chemical effects. All chemical effects would cost 5pp. Your fire immunity's okay, though, and protects you from all fire effects.

Infravision, not Infrared Vision. (I mess the name of this super-sense up all the time. Every dang time....)

For Counters Obscure, you should note what sense it's applied to (I'm assuming vision?).

Dazzle's DC in the DC Block should be updated.

The sum of costs under Powers should be updated.

Down in your final sum, your total's off - you only bought 10pp of Saving Throws, not 12. On the bright side, this means you have 2pp to spend elsewhere.

[Supercape]

I like the character!

Just a few things hit me you may want to think about... most of them concept rather than anything else...

1. For a gal in a HAZMAT suit (love it) lot of dodge not much protection. Is it worth lowering the dodge a bit and buying at least 1 or 2 ranks of protection with the suit?

2. On the subject of the Suit, thats a lot of points sunk into immunity. Perhaps make immuninty to fire effects limited so it only halves damage? to compensate you could also get a few "second chance" feats built into the suit (like second chance: fire damage).

3. The Gun is very cool. Cloud extra seems better than burst in my opinion - for at least some of the powers.

4. Obscure come in under PP. Perhaps add obscure olfactory into it too? I'm thinking smelly thick gas...

5. On that note, I cant see how Catalyst is going to see through that smoke... The Supersense Counters Obscure has to be against some particular descriptor, namely smoke I guess?

6. Worth getting Precise Shot 2 for such a crack aim?

7. Last point - She is going to be in big trouble if the easy-to-loose device is taken away - which is not that hard. +4 Unarmed Attack, +0 Damage for her attacks. You may want to think of a back up strategy, even buying a back up pistol would help - or perhaps the throwing mastery feat - which would her allow her to throw pencils or paperclips at +11 attack and +1 damage (a big improvement!)

[Aoiroo]

Well, actually I'll be honest SC, she if she's in the proper range required for most people to disarm her or up against a high range telepath, she's probably in a lot of trouble regardless. She'll probably have just a couple of extra paintball guns in her Van (just like the extra gas masks which she has for other heroes) because it's not the gun that's special, it's a standard model mass produced paint ball gun, it's the paintballs which she custom makes, and the immunity set up is just simply that she's immune to everything someone could shoot at her if they were to take her gun. As for the dodge focus and protection, I'll probably add that later, she has uncanny dodge so she's at least hard to flat foot, though I might get improvised weapons later so she can do the throw(though honestly, you can't do much damage with a paperclip or a pencil, they aren't very strong, no matter how accurately you throw it).

Also, I don't see the point in getting second chance fire damage if I can just make her immune to fire.