wip LV7 - The Channeler

The Channeler · October 8, 2016

The Channeler
Power Level: 7 (105/105PP)
Unspent Power Points: 0
Trade-Offs: +5 Attack, -5 Damage/+5 Defense, -5 Toughness

In Brief: Elemental hero who is still discovering how his powers work. Can control all four elements, but progresses slower with them.

Catchphrase: None

Theme: None

Alternate Identity: Samuel Glase (Secret)
Birthplace: Downtown Freedom City.

Residence: He never left Downtown Freedom City.
Base of Operations: He owns a three-room apartment at Parkside, and has converted one room into a sort of base. That's about it.
Occupation: He has a part-time job cooking at a diner. He's currently going to college so he can study to become a scientist, and perhaps discover what caused his powers to sort of "stall" for two years.
Affiliations: He is currently doing things alone.
Family: His sister, Cassie, lives across from him. He'd do anything to protect her.

Description:
Age: 23(Date of birth: September 6, 1993
Apparent Age: See real age.
Gender: Male
Ethnicity: American
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 185 lbs.
Eyes: Bright blue, turn white when channeling his abilities, or if he's attempting to appear threatening.
Hair: Brown, kinda messy. Covers his left eye when he's not suited up.

He appears fairly physically fit, even in his civilian guise. His head is kind of egg-shaped, with a ski-slope nose, and he normally wears glasses in his civilian guise.

His casual attire generally includes various T-shirts with pop culture references, jeans, and a pair of black shoes. He also owns a blue hoodie.

As the Channeler, he generally wears a blue domino mask. He has a blue, sleeveless "shirt" with dark blue shoulder pads, and small red, white, light blue and green circles in the center - he claims they represent the four elements he uses. He has blue gloves, as well as pretty basic blue spandex for the tights, and dark blue boots.

History:

Samuel "Sammy" Glase's story tends to remain ambiguous - what he believes to be the 'priming' event for his powers took place 2 years ago, and as such he doesn't remember the full details. To make a long story short, he took a tour of a laboratory owned by a company named Terracorp, and sort of...Well, he got distracted by a very odd-looking device and, always the curious type, wandered off. He stumbled into the machine, and got zapped with some sort of energy, going into a coma for 6 months. When he woke up, he thought everything was normal...2 years after the incident, he discovered his powers, creating a "misfire" which resulted in the burning of a painting he bought at a yard sale.

Afterwards, he began to study his powers. He's been practicing for a week, and has learned how to control the very basics of his abilities. Having been inspired by the other heroes of Freedom City, he decides to do the right thing - protect his city. Ordering what he called "a Halloween costume" custom-made, he suits up and prepares to fight crime as the Channeler.

Personality & Motivation:

Motivation - He's surrounded by heroes, and is in fact inspired by them. It's hard not to take the good path with heroes all around you. Is further explanation needed?

Personality - Since he's developed his powers, he's attempted to keep from getting too close to anyone, for fear of villains using them to their advantage. He's a bit of a deadpan one, and tends to make remarks in the middle of combat. He sometimes acts mysterious, dropping hints to what happened to him or who he really is. As with most siblings, he tends to tease his sister. He seems to have a zero-tolerance policy for criminals, in both his civilian and superhero guises.

His interrogation techniques are often similar to that of vigilantes, threatening pain or death upon someone, but he usually just knocks them out if needed, sets them down and moves on. In truth, he'll only kill if he absolutely has to.

Powers & Tactics:
He has been shown to create and manipulate all four elements - Fire, Air, Earth, and Ice. There are very few tactics used in his efforts, mostly just trying to hit the opponent a lot and not get hit back.

Power Descriptions:
Energy blasts can be orange(for fire,) green(for earth,) white(for air,) or light blue(for ice), though the element/color used is purely aesthetic. There is no visible "short-hand" for using his elemental manipulation abilities.

Complications:
Can't Go Back: On the contrary to the example flaw, he's too cautious - anyone who's done evil in the past, he won't trust. And he will confront people for just about any slip-up.

Family Matters: As stated, he'd do anything to keep his sister safe - grab her, and he'll do anything to save her. You can use this to your advantage, and even make a deal to get loose without charges - or worse.

Curiosity Killed the Cat: He is incredibly curious in his pursuits, and will likely investigate anything out of the ordinary, whether civilian or superhero. You can use this to catch him off guard.

Abilities: 0 + 4 + 4 + 6 + 6 + 0 = 20PP
Strength: 10 (+0)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 14 (+2)
Intelligence: 16 (+3)
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 10 (+0)

Combat: 2 (2PP / Base Attack) + 6 (2PP / Base Defense) = 16PP
Initiative: +0
Attack: +2 Melee, +2 Range
Defense: +12 (+6 Base, +6 Dodge Focus), +12 Flat-Footed (Uncanny Dodging)

Grapple: +0
Knockback: -0

Saving Throws: 2 (1PP / Fortitude) + 3 (1PP / Reflex) + 3 (1PP / Will) = 8PP
Toughness: +2 (+2 Con, +0)
Fortitude: +4 (+2 Con, +2)
Reflex: +5 (+2 Dex, +3)
Will: +6 (+3 Wis, +3)

Skills: 52R = 10PP (1PP = 4 Skill ranks)
Intimidate 12 (+12) - 12 ranks in Intimidate (3 PP)

Investigate 8 (+8) - 8 ranks in Investigate (2 PP)

Profession [Cooking] 8 (+8) - 8 ranks in Profession [Cooking] (2 PP)

Craft [Mechanical] 8 (+8) - 8 ranks in Craft [Mechanical] (2 PP)

Craft [Electronic] 4 (+4) - 4 ranks in Craft [Electronic] (1 PP)

Feats: 21PP

Uncanny Dodge 1

Invent 1

Taunt 1

Dodge Focus 6

Equipment: Leaving this area here because I will be getting the trait later down the line, but not yet...

Powers: Powers: 23 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 23PP

All a result of genetic alterations.
Elemental Control 11 (22PP Array, Feats: Alternate Power) [23PP]
Base Power: Blast 10 (100-1'000ft; Feats: Accurate) [21 PP]
Alternate Power: Telekinesis 10 (100-1000ft, Effective STR 50) [20 PP]

DC Block

ATTACK RANGE SAVE EFFECT
Unarmed Touch DC 15 Toughness Damage

Blast Ranged DC 25 Toughness Damage

Totals: Abilities (20) + Combat (16) + Saving Throws (8) + Skills (10) + Feats (21) + Powers (23) - Drawbacks (0) = 150/150 (or 105/105) Power Points

Edited October 12, 2016 by The Channeler
If it isn't done this time I'mma shoot somebody.

Avenger Assembled · October 8, 2016

Okay -

I know you're still working on this, so just some preliminary comments.

I'd like to see the backstory expanded a bit.

Remember ability modifiers work with +1 for every 2, so it works ike 10 (+0), 12 (+1), 14 (+2), etc.

Here's a good sample build for an elemental-type character.

http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?p=535277#p535277

The Channeler · October 8, 2016

Alright, thanks for the help.

Also, it's hard to flesh out the backstory more when even I have no idea what some of it is. I don't know about any major science groups...In fact, I'm still new to the Freedom City setting in general...So, I can't elaborate on what company the machine came from.

I'd like what the elemental metahuman machine was for to remain a mystery until Sam, himself, learns. Y'know, keep some things surprises. I've always liked keeping some details a surprise until people actually know in-universe.

The "Halloween costume" part was so that it didn't seem suspicious that someone ordered a superhero costume custom-made.

angrydurf · October 8, 2016

Ok so there is a sheet template Here, if you didn't find it already that has the preferred layout for building powers. This isn't just for us to more easily read them but it helps to guide people into building powers in the M&M style. I'll go into that a bit more further down. I know you just picked up the book so I'm not sure how much of this you've picked up on already but here's a few of the basics.

Rolling:

So this is based loosely off D&D, every roll is a D20(Twenty sided die) roll with a bonus based on relevant skills, saves, or what not. The total result needs to be higher than the result (ties go to the defender). Usually whoever is running a thread can tell you the DC but some are easy to derive oneself. Attacks for instance to do regular damage ar a DC of 15+Rank where rank is the rank of power used (like blast) or strength for unarmed attacks.

Power Level and Caps:

Every character and NPC has a Power Level (PL) that is an approximation of their potency, mostly in a fight though also some other contests. PL 7 is your daredevil or punish type level, brutal against low level gang mambers but against a superhuman foe will be in for a tough fight, PL 10-12 is the average full fledged hero (Your x-men, avengers, etc) getting up to Pl 15+ you're looking at the top end heroes/villains the supermen/darkseid's. This is primarily represented by what caps you can achieve. So for fighting the average of any given attack bonus and save DC bonus should be your PL. Tradeoffs allow you to have a higher attack and lower Save DC(damage) for like an accurate eyebeam, or higher damage at the cost of accuracy (Iron Mans chest beam) Caps also affect defenses in the same way Defense and save bonus average to PL but cna be traded off for a nimble but fragile hero or a sturdy but easy to hit hero. the max a trade off can go is +/-5 and the average still has to be your PL. So at PL 7 you could get an accurate attack at up to +12 but need to drop the save DC to +2 or the reverse or something inbetween. Skills and Stats also have caps (PL+5) but not tradeoffs.

Power Creation:

So Powers are effect based. You ask yourself first, "What do I want this power to do, hurt someone, put them to sleep, let me fly, make me tougher, etc." then you find the power that does that thing (damage, stun, flight, protection) and build it out to do that effect how you want it too. You do that through introducing extras, flaws, feats, and drawbacks to the base power. For example if you want to shoot an icebeam you need a damage effect, then you need it to be ranged (sometimes called blast which is damage with a ranged extra) and maybe you want the ice beam to be able to write your name on the side of a building so you buy the precise feat then since it's ice you add descriptors to it. Descriptors are free but you generally get only one from a catagory like origin or type or whatever. So a mutant with ice powers would have descriptors of (Mutation, Ice) an Ice mage woudl have (Magic, Ice) and alien would have (Alien Physiology, Ice), and a high tech ice gun might have (Tech, Ice) there is a variable power Feat that lets a given power use different or broader descriptors so like an magic elementalist might have a blast with variable descriptor for (Magic, Any elemental) and you pick usually once a round what kind of effect your doing but its all the same mechanical power. You don't need to buy an Ice blast, fireball, lightning bolt each individually.

The Channeler · October 8, 2016

So, uh, just gonna put what I need help with here;

I'm not sure how to do DC rolls still. Despite how much help I have gotten thus far. Yes I am a noob.

I'm also unsure of what stat array I want to give. He's mostly average physically, but he's definitely smart. He's currently on the way to becoming a scientist, last year in college.

That's about it, apart from deciding how to spend whatever remains, if any.

Edited October 8, 2016 by The Channeler

angrydurf · October 9, 2016

25 in a stat is peak human potential. Beyond that is superhuman. 14-18 is the smart guy range in general 19-25 is basically into the genius range. Of course with super-scientists etc the cap on genius a little wibbly. Basically though 20-24 is like stephen hawking, or Einstein, nobel laureates of our world kinda intellect. Super human is like comic super scientists and minds like your reed richards types.

DC's (Difficulty Class) are the number one has to roll over (with modifiers) for a given roll or 'Check' to succeed. When you try to shoot or punch a person you roll against their defense DC (normally 10+ defense) if you're total roll plus attack bonus for a given attack is higher you'll hit them. Then they roll a save against the DC dictated by the attack. What that DC is will be specific to the attack used. A punch or gun or fire blast generally will provoke a toughness save to prevent the damage. Damage save DC's are calculated as the rank of the damage effect (the rank of the power or Strength for an unarmed attack) + 15 so a rank 10 power provokes a DC 25 save, A strength 18 character has a +4 strength bonus so provokes a DC 19 save. This is almost always opposed by a Toughness save (Roll of 1d20 + Toughness save vs. the DC), No damage for succeeding if one fails there is a damage effect based on by how much. Some attacks might provoke a non damage based save, like a mental stun Vs. a will save or a power drain or nausea effect Vs. fortitude. We call those 'Exotic' Saves and the specific power dictates how failing affects the target. Those save DC's are normally 10 + the power rank so a rank 10 stun would be DC 20, a rank 7 snare would provoke a DC 17 reflex save.

On the sheet we ask for the DC's of your powers as those will be the common effects you toss out. So a Blast would be 15+(Blast ranks) for instance. It's a quick way for everyone to look and see what they need to Save against for a given power when it gets used.

The Channeler · October 12, 2016

Hopefully complete! Can anyone check to see if I did the maths right? If I did, I can forward it to official approval.

Vahnyu · October 12, 2016

Power Level: 10 (150/150PP)

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

In Brief: Elemental hero who is still discovering how his powers work. Can control all four elements, but progresses slower with them.

Catchphrase: None

Theme: None

Alternate Identity: Samuel Glase (Secret)
Birthplace: Downtown Freedom City.

Residence: He never left Downtown Freedom City.
Base of Operations: He owns a three-room apartment at Parkside. He has moved the stuff from his bedroom into the main room, and turned what was the bedroom into his base of operations as the Channeler.
Occupation: He has a part-time job cooking at a diner. He's currently going to college so he can study to become a scientist, and perhaps discover what caused his powers to sort of "stall" for two years.
Affiliations: He is currently doing things alone.
Family: His sister, Cassie, lives across from him. He'd do anything to protect her.