# Superheroes of The Trust OOC Thread (Accepting Alts)



## DM_Matt

So I've finally decided that I have the time and inclination to GM a Mutants & Masterminds game.  it will be a PL11 (though if players want I can go 10 or 12) Mutants & Masterminds Second Edition Superhero game, centered in a modified version of Freedom City (the defaults setting), but which could easily include travel to just about anywhere.  The Ultimate Power supplement is permitted, but time travel abilities and nemesis are not.   The intro is below:

You were having a pretty good week, having brought a personal nemesis to justice a few days previous.  You turn on the evening news, secretly hoping to see yourself yet again, though feeling a little guilty about it.  Unfortunately, the flood of bad news quickly knocked your accomplishments out of the news cycle.  As you lay back in your chair, that which you haven't accomplished, the evils that you haven't vanquished, wash over you.  As you flip through the channels, the bad news just keeps on coming.

"...In local news, Civil rights activist Reverend Jerry Johnson and his wife were found dead today in their Freedom City home...In a letter to the Daily Herald, the Supervillain White Knight claimed responsibility for the murders, saying...."

"...In what is sure to be seen as an escalation of the feud between the Cholos and the Mafia, Michael  "Mikey Riggs" Rigatti, son of reputed crime boss Tony "The Tiger' Rigatti, was found with his throat torn out near his West End home.  Tensions between the Mexican-American Lycan Gang and the Mafia have been running high over the past few months due to a territorial dispute.  Through his lawyer Paul Shepherd, Numero Uno, leader of the Cholos, issued a statement denying involvement in the killing and offering, and I quote "his sincerest condolences to the Rigatti family..."

"...In international news, more depressing tales out of the Darfur region of Sudan today, where reportedly the superteam African Brotherhood of Peace was slain in a failed attempt to stop the Janjaweed from releasing the necromancer Barunga-Na from his extradimensional prison...Likely, this sets the stage for the first use of undead soldiers since the Protocol of Final Rest was passed as an addendum to the Fifth Geneva Convention, banning the use of the undead for military purposes..."

"...Coordinated Spontaneous Combustion attacks struck Tel Aviv elementary schools today, killing 48...Farfour the Murder Mouse has claimed responsibility for the attacks..."

"...In South London, Super-psycho Jack the Raper struck again last night..."

..."Good Evening, Hero," says an unfamiliar man on the television in a very deep voice.  He looks to be a statuesque, chisled, muscular man...made of some kind of living metal.  *Click*  You try to change the channel.  He is on the next one, too.  *Click*  Still there. "The world is a dangerous place, as anyone who watches the news can attest.  But you have begun to do your part.  To distinguish yourself.  We have taken notice of you.  We wish to offer you an opportunity.  Heroes can accomplish great things alone, but far greater things in groups.  Groups of heroes can accomplish great things, but groups with the right resources, connections, and organization can truly change the world, and turn back the rising tide of evil.  It is this that I offer you.  It you are willing to pledge yourself to bringing super-criminals of all varieties to justice, then at midnight, go to parking lot 17 of the Freedom Colosseum, and find a black van with the license plate 7DX510B.  There will be a keypad on the side.  Type your Social Security Number into it, and it will open. Go inside, and close the door behind you.  Others like you will come.  At 12:30, you will receive  directions as to where to drive to meet us.  Now, back to your regularly-scheduled programming."  You regain control of the television.

EDIT: Character Creation Rules Appended...

1. Fluff in addition to crunch, please. Characters, not just builds.
2. Please list the point costs of everything you buy.
3. Almost any power origin is allowed, but I will not be adding alien civilizations to the campaign world, so if you are an alien, your civilization must be extinct or not in contact with you or earth.
4.  Banned Powers: Time Control and travel, Nemesis, the Uncontrolled flaw on most powers (allowed on a case-by-case basis.  I allow uncontrolled visions and the like)
5.  Equipment: If it is something that you would have had, and that you will use, buy it. That being said, once your characters join the organization (we will be picking up from the end of that intro), you will have access to a certain amount of equipment each adventure, but you might not be able to choose it and usually will not be able to have any given piece of equipment at all times. 
6.  House Rule: Fractions.  You can buy fractional ranks of ranked feats that grant benefits per rank.  For instance, you can take 1.5 ranks of attack specialization (pointy stick) to get +3 to attacks with a pointy stick.  You also can get skills that do not total to a multiple of four.
7.  If you have access to the Mastermind's Manual, you may take Skill Challenge feats.


UPDATE: A VERY GOOD CHARACTER SHEET IN EXCEL, WITH VERY GOOD TEXT OUTPUT. YOU WILL HAVE TO COST ULTIMATE POWER ABILITIES BY HAND RATHER THAN USING A MENU, HOWEVER.

GET IT HERE


----------



## Jemal

I've been thinking of getting Mutants & Masterminds off & on for the last couple months.  I've always loved the idea of Super Hero games...  I've tried to do them with D&D, D20 Modern, and BESM, but this seems to be the only SuperHero system that anybody uses.. I do have a question, however.. Is the second edition the newest, and would you suggest any supplements?

I've been putting it off for lack of interested parties to game with..

just for the record, the first character I'd like to make would be a mutant code-named "Optic" who has a whole crap-load of eye/vision-related powers.. Eye lasers, heat vision, X-ray vision, Telescopic, microscopic, and obviously Extraordinarily observant.  

Would such a character be feasible with this ruleset?


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> I've been thinking of getting Mutants & Masterminds off & on for the last couple months.  I've always loved the idea of Super Hero games...  I've tried to do them with D&D, D20 Modern, and BESM, but this seems to be the only SuperHero system that anybody uses.. I do have a question, however.. Is the second edition the newest, and would you suggest any supplements?
> 
> I've been putting it off for lack of interested parties to game with..




Yes, Second Edition is the current version.  If you only buy one supplement, buy Ultimate Power.  It goes a very long way to expand and clarify the powers system.  UP is far and away more useful and necessary than the others.  The Mastermind's Manual has a lot of optional rules, but because it is full of optional rules, it is very GM-centric.  The rest are just books of character builds, settings, flavor, etc.

EDIT: Yes, you can do that with M&M.  You can pull off almost any concept.  Very few are clunky due to the system.  UP does a lot to expand Super-Senses, btw.


----------



## Jemal

IF I were to make such a character for your campaign, do you think he'd be acceptable, and not under or over-powered?
I should have the book and be able to post by the 8th/9th at the latest.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> IF I were to make such a character for your campaign, do you think he'd be acceptable, and not under or over-powered?
> I should have the book and be able to post by the 8th/9th at the latest.




Its a viable concept.  Whether he's overpowered, underpowered, or just right will depend on how you build him.  You will probably want him to be able to do more than just have great super-senses and eye-beams though, because super-senses are relatively cheap.  M&M has great built-in balancing mechanisms.  In the end, every PC is made with the same number of points, and the "Caps-And-Tradeoffs" system keeps characters similarly-powered if pretty much everyone meets most of their caps, which players generally do.


----------



## Jemal

BESM d20 (the version I've played)  Has a similar 'point' system, and I found the same problem making this character in that.. Super senses are cheap, and there's only so much power you can put into an Eye-Laser.

SO, I found a power in that book (Hoping for something similar in M&M) that let you have an 'item of power' which has various powers of its own (Think D&D Magic Item).

I assume M&M Has Super Suits with their own special powers (Hello Iron Man/Rhino/Green Goblin), so it shouldn't be hard to find.  
THat would probly be what I'd spend the remainder of my points on.

I'm looking forward to trying this system out, and hope there's still room for me here when I DO get it..


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> BESM d20 (the version I've played)  Has a similar 'point' system, and I found the same problem making this character in that.. Super senses are cheap, and there's only so much power you can put into an Eye-Laser.
> 
> SO, I found a power in that book (Hoping for something similar in M&M) that let you have an 'item of power' which has various powers of its own (Think D&D Magic Item).
> 
> I assume M&M Has Super Suits with their own special powers (Hello Iron Man/Rhino/Green Goblin), so it shouldn't be hard to find.
> THat would probly be what I'd spend the remainder of my points on.
> 
> I'm looking forward to trying this system out, and hope there's still room for me here when I DO get it..




In M&M, Devices can have any power in the game, and are discounted based on how hard they are to lose.  Each rank of device gets you 5 power points worth of powers, but costs 3 points if it can be disarmed, 4 if it can only be taken from you when helpless.  If them item is grafted to or otherwise part of your body, it is just a description of some other power.


----------



## Drerek

Jemal said:
			
		

> BESM d20 (the version I've played)  Has a similar 'point' system, and I found the same problem making this character in that.. Super senses are cheap, and there's only so much power you can put into an Eye-Laser.




The nice thing about M&M 2nd is that you could put as much power into the "eye-laser" as you wanted.  Just make it the Blast power and have it themed as shooting out your eye balls.


Is there a char sheet?


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> In M&M, Devices can have any power in the game, and are discounted based on how hard they are to lose.  Each rank of device gets you 5 power points worth of powers, but costs 3 points if it can be disarmed, 4 if it can only be taken from you when helpless.  If them item is grafted to or otherwise part of your body, it is just a description of some other power.




ACTUALLY, That's pretty much the description of "item of power" from Besm d20, verbatim.  I wonder if a lot of the powers are similar..

So I would assume then that articles of clothing would be the 4-point variety.


----------



## Shayuri

Hmmm... What about "super mage" characters? Latter-day witches wizards and warlocks?

Or perhaps transdimensional powers...


----------



## Elric

Oh man!  You're running M&M!  

I was thinking about a flying kinetic controller.  His best attack power is an Autofire Blast:

Blast 10 (Modifiers: Shapable Targeted Area +1, Distracting -1, Full Round Action -1, Autofire 3 +3, Check Required (Concentration DC20) -1, Flaw: Must brace self on solid surface (i.e. can't be flying) -1, -1 drawback full power, +1 power feat homing
10*(2 +3autofire +1targeted area -distracting,-1 full round action, -1 concentration check -1 flaw)-1 full power +1 homing = 20pp)

I'm going to call him... Uber Man  (sorry, couldn't resist)  Edit: Seriously, though, my build of Johnny Nitro (pro wrestler turned superhero after receiving powers making him Unbreakable) would work great at PL 11.


----------



## Fenris2

I will throw my towel into the ring.  One possibility is a super based off of a PL whatever-we-decied spirit fox.  I.e. a Kitsune...   I am most way done with a build now, but I am more than happy to redo to fit.  Or something else


----------



## Moggthegob

Ill bite, I am thinking Energy Controller, a burrowing Magnetic controller

The Magnetic Mole

Stats:

Str 12
Dex 18
Con 12
Int 10
Wiz 12
cha 16
Powers:
Magnetic Control 14
( Blast, Homing, Prescise)
Force field 11
(extras; Impervious)
Protection 6
Deflect 6
Burrowing 10

Skills

Bluff 10 (+13)
Concentration 11(+12)
Notice 7(+8)
Gather Information 8(+11)
Diplomacy 4(+7)

Feats
Accurate Attack
Improved initiative
Power Attack 
precise Shot
Quick change
Taunt

Attack +9
Damage +14(Magnetic blast)
Defense: +9
initiative +8

Toughness: +18(with force field) / +8(without)
Fortitude; +7
Reflex +8
Will +8


----------



## DM_Matt

Moggthegob said:
			
		

> Ill bite, I am thinking Energy Controller, a burrowing Magnetic controller
> 
> The Magnetic Mole
> 
> Stats:
> 
> Str 12
> Dex 18
> Con 12
> Int 10
> Wiz 12
> cha 16
> Powers:
> Magnetic Control 14
> ( Blast, Homing, Prescise)
> Force field 11
> (extras; Impervious)
> Protection 6
> Deflect 6
> Burrowing 10
> 
> Skills
> 
> Bluff 10 (+13)
> Concentration 11(+12)
> Notice 7(+8)
> Gather Information 8(+11)
> Diplomacy 4(+7)
> 
> Feats
> Accurate Attack
> Improved initiative
> Power Attack
> precise Shot
> Quick change
> Taunt
> 
> Attack +9
> Damage +14(Magnetic blast)
> Defense: +9
> initiative +8
> 
> Toughness: +18(with force field) / +8(without)
> Fortitude; +7
> Reflex +8
> Will +8




You are waaaay over your caps there.  Your Toughness + Defense and your Attack + damage need to equal PL x2 each, the GM needs to approve tradeoffs.  tradeoffs of a magnitude of 5 or so are fine, more than that you'll have to justify.  

Also, for all builds:  
1. Fluff in addition to crunch, please.
2. Please list the point costs of everything you buy.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmmm... What about "super mage" characters? Latter-day witches wizards and warlocks?
> 
> Or perhaps transdimensional powers...




Magic is allowed.  So is supertech, mutations, skill, aliens so long as your species is either extinct or has no direct relations with earth (i.e. individual aliens are OK, but alien civilizations will not be part of the campaign world), people stranded from alternative universes or other times, naturally-empowered non-alien non-mutants, psions....pretty much any typical comic book power source.


----------



## Elric

*Johnny Nitro: "Not only am I better than you- I'm also better looking"*

Here's Johnny Nitro's history: 

[sblock=History]
John Hennigan, aka Johnny Nitro, was having a glorious career in the WWE.  After graduating from college at UC Davis, where he did gymnastics and wrestling, the Los Angeles native decided to enter into a reality TV contest to be trained as a pro wrestler.  He won the reality TV show, Tough Enough III, and was entered into the "minor leagues" of wrestling where he toiled in relative obscurity.  

WWE organizers recognized his talent, though, and he was soon promoted through the ranks and given a spot in the SmackDown! tag team MNM, on Thursday nights in your local station.  MNM was a great success in the ring and off (to which John attributed his skill and good looks) and soon won the WWE tag team championships.  They were defeated a few months later, on July 24, 2005.  It was October 28, though, and MNM would have their revenge.  

The script called for Nitro to be savagely beat up and for Heidenreich, all 6'7” and 300 lbs of him, to do a Shooting Star Press on Nitro, an acrobatic move in which the attacker jumps forward from an elevated position, executes a backflip in mid-air, and lands stomach first across an opponent lying on the ground below.  Nitro would take the hit and then, summoning reserves of strength that would seem unimaginable, he’d get back up and he and his teammate Mercury would win the fight.  

Heidenreich had never done a shooting star press in a match before, since he was a little too reckless in general, but he had been practicing and it seemed like he'd be able to pull it off fine.  Now, as John lay on his stomach waiting for Heidenreich to jump, he really hoped they had been correct.  He heard Heidenreich leap and a thought crossed his mind “he’s jumped too fast.”  

Heidenreich had jumped too far.  His knee slammed into the back of Nitro’s head, as he said it later, with enough force to kill an ox.  John felt himself get hit—it hurt, but the pain subsided almost immediately.  The paramedics were already starting to run on stage when Nitro stood up and waved them off, to the shock of an anguished (if a guy that big and scary can ever look anguished) Heidenreich, who probably thought he had just ended both of their careers.  

MNM went on to win the match—the crowd went wild and John had never felt better.  After the match, Mercury asked him “Man, when did you and Heidenreich figure out how to pull that move off?  You had me fooled- from the way it looked like he hit you I thought you’d be lucky to escape with a concussion.”  John wasn’t sure how to answer so he just went with the safe “You’ll have to buy me half a dozen beers before I’ll tell you that one.”  They went off to party and the issue was soon forgotten.  Heidenreich, never one to dwell on his own faults, seemed to think that they had planned that outcome as well and said as much in interviews that night.

Throughout that evening, though, John wondered—what had happened back in the ring?  At one point in the evening he picked up a keg over his head and felt like he could have done it one-handed.  “Was that just the beer?” he wondered.  The next afternoon, after waking up in his awesome bachelor pad with no hangover despite the incredible amount of beer he drank the night before, John decided to try to figure all of this out.

He grabbed a boxing glove and tried punching the wall.  Didn’t feel anything- the glove’s too thick.  He tried punching the wall really hard—there, his hand hurt a little and had he made a small crack in the wall?  Or was that there before?  “Only one way to find out” he decided, took off the glove, and threw a haymaker.  His punch broke a huge hole in the wall and instead of being broken his hand just stung and then felt better.  Obviously he needed to try something else. 

He grabbed a pin and tried to prick his finger- it didn’t work, he couldn’t penetrate his skin.  John took a usually decorative katana and tried to prick his finger- that didn’t work either.  After considering it for a bit, he swung the katana at his arm (the blade wasn’t that sharp) and while he felt the impact and that hurt, it didn’t even come close to breaking the skin.  That was enough to convince John that he was invulnerable.  He ran to the sink, filled a spare pot with nearly boiling water, and dumped it on his head…

By the time 3 hours later, when he left the hospital where he was treated for burns, John realized that he wasn’t invulnerable.  Punching the wall had hurt his hand, but it hadn’t done any lasting damage.  The bandages proved that some things could do him lasting damage, though.   

As he left the hospital, some WWE fans recognized him.  After he signed some autographs one perceptive fan saw the bandages on his neck and asked “Nitro?  You ok after yesterday?”  “I’m fine.” John replied.  “Just too much partying.  I’m as good as new.”  With that he did a standard backflip for the fans.  At least, it was supposed to be a backflip.  It came out as a double-backflip, something which John didn’t even know he could do, much less do from a standing start.  He thanked the fans for their interest and then went home.

John still hasn’t learned the origin of his super-powers, which make him faster, stronger, and (especially) tougher than any man.  He noticed that he was also starting to become more perceptive too- a quality he had never had before.  Did have these powers all along and just unlock them somehow, or did they appear because of some other event?  He decided he couldn’t go back to the WWE now that he had the opportunity to be on an even bigger stage.  He had always liked helping people and he had always liked having fans.  

After some deliberation he told Mercury and Melina his intentions, and then held a press conference to announce his retirement from the WWE and his intention to join a superhero group that was looking to accept “a really good-looking super-powered California dude.”

[/sblock]


----------



## the_myth

I'm interested in playing.

When would you like to start?  I am going out of town for July 4th, and I may not be back until Saturday, July 7th.

I am currently thinking of playing a mystical otherdimensional entity.  Magic-linked powers, but only a few derived from the Magic power.


----------



## Elric

Here's Johnny Nitro's character sheet:

[sblock="Character Sheet"]
JOHNNY NITRO
"Not only am I better than you- I'm also better looking"
PL: 11  (165 pp)

ABILITIES:   STR: 38 (+14/+4)  DEX: 16 (+3)   CON: 32 (+11/+4)   INT: 10 (0)   WIS: 10 (0)   CHA: 16 (+3)

SKILLS:  Acrobatics 14 (+17), Bluff 4 (+7), Climb  (+14), Diplomacy 4 (+7), Disguise  (+3), Drive  (+3), Escape Artist  (+3), Gather Info 8 (+11), Handle Animal  (+3), Intimidate 14 (+17), Notice 8 (+8), Sense Motive 4 (+4), Stealth (+3), Swim  (+14) 

FEATS:  Accurate Attack, Acrobatic Bluff, All-out Attack, Attack Focus: Melee (6), Attack Specialization: Grappling (2), Attractive (2), Contacts, Defensive Attack, Distract (Intimidate), Dodge Focus (6), Evasion (2), Fearless, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical: Unarmed (1), Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Redirect, Set-Up, Startle, Stunning Attack, Takedown Attack (1), Ultimate Effort (Toughness save), Uncanny Dodge (Hearing)

POWERS:  *Enhanced Strength [20] 
*Super-Strength [1], *Power Feat: Ground Strike,
*Enhanced Constitution [14], 
*Leaping [4], *Speed [1], 
*Regeneration 7 (Bruised, 1/round w/ no rest) [7], (Staggered, 1/ per full round)
Minor but sensible rules dodge: Regeneration works on bruises from physical damage, even when he has an injured wound from energy damage, 
*Immunity 20 (lethal physical damage, Limited- [20], *lethal physical damage becomes nonlethal damage), 

COMBAT:  Attack +2  [Unarmed +8 attack, +14 dmg (Bruise), Grapple bonus +27]   Defense 21 (13 flat-footed),  Init  +3

SAVES:  Toughness +11 (11 flat-footed),  Fortitude +11, Reflex +8,  Will +6

MOVEMENT: 100 feet per move action, 200 feet for a double move, 400 feet for a sprint,  Jump 600 feet running long jump/300 standing long jump/150 high jump

CARRYING CAPACITY: Heavy Load: 4.8 tons, Medium Load: 3.2 tons, Light Load: 1.6 tons

Abilities 28  +  Skills 14 (56 ranks)  +  Feats 39  +  Powers 59  +  Combat 14  +  Saves 11  –  Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165

Tradeoff: -3 attack, +3 damage.

I'm using the 1 mph= 10 feet/round approximation.

I almost got away with no Alternate Powers- Shockwave sort of counts as an AP, though.  APs help character power, but you don't need APs to be effective.

For a picture of the real-world WWE wrestler Johnny Nitro, who the character is based on, see here:
[/sblock]


----------



## Jemal

Elric said:
			
		

> Oh man!  You're running M&M!
> 
> I was thinking about a flying kinetic controller.  His best attack power is an Autofire Blast:
> 
> Blast 10 (Modifiers: Shapable Targeted Area +1, Distracting -1, Full Round Action -1, Autofire 3 +3, Check Required (Concentration DC20) -1, Flaw: Must brace self on solid surface (i.e. can't be flying) -1, -1 drawback full power, +1 power feat homing
> 10*(2 +3autofire +1targeted area -distracting,-1 full round action, -1 concentration check -1 flaw)-1 full power +1 homing = 20pp)
> 
> I'm going to call him... Uber Man  (sorry, couldn't resist)  Edit: Seriously, though, my build of Johnny Nitro (pro wrestler turned superhero after receiving powers making him Unbreakable) would work great at PL 11.




HEY, Uberman is Copyright JEMAL industries.   it's my name on the wizards boards. 

BTW, RE: Start Date...
I REALLY hope I'm back in town and have my copy of the book in time to get in on this one...


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> HEY, Uberman is Copyright JEMAL industries.   it's my name on the wizards boards.
> 
> BTW, RE: Start Date...
> I REALLY hope I'm back in town and have my copy of the book in time to get in on this one...




You should be fine timing-wise.  by the way, they sell the books as fully-indexed, searchable .pdfs  that you can DL right away, if you like that kind of thing.


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You should be fine timing-wise.  by the way, they sell the books as fully-indexed, searchable .pdfs  that you can DL right away, if you like that kind of thing.




Firstly, I don't really like PDF's, I like having the physical thing in my hand, walkign around, take it to the front room, flip the pages...

Secondly, I'm on a public comuter at work (I'm in a camp in northern Alberta, which is why I won't have the book for about a week), so downloading it here would be a bad idea.

Thirdly, I don't have a credit card and won't for some time (Otherwise I'd have an PAID ENWorld Account, instead of just being a registered user)


----------



## Jemal

but thanks for the advice anyways.


----------



## Raylis

*Nightweaver*

This looks pretty interesting and I've been wanting to do another M&M game. 

Here she is:

[sblock=Personal Info]

Concept: Darkness Controller, with some Batman and Venom thrown in
Alias: Nightweaver
Real Name: Amanda Carrington
Power Level: 11 (165pp)
Gender: Female
Age: 23
Height: 5’ 6” 
Weight: 115
Hair: black 
Eyes: blue 
Education: College 
Identity: Secret
Hero Points: 2
[/sblock]

[sblock=Character Sheet]
Abilities 
Str: 14
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 16
Wis: 18
Cha: 16

Combat 
Init: +8
Base Def: 8 
Def: 21 
Flat Footed: 14 
Base Attack: 8
Grapple: +10

Attacks:
Strike +8 (damage bonus +8, DC 23 (toughness) crit 20, bludgening) 
Blast +8 (damage bonus +3, DC 18 (toughness) crit 20, electrical)
Bolas +8 (Snare 4, range 40ft)

Saves 
Fort: +7
Ref: +10
Will: +10
Tough: +11/+3*
*Without Super Suit

Skills 
Acrobatics +14 (10 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Bluff +11/+15* (8 ranks, +3 Cha)
Computers +11 (8 ranks, +3 Int)
Disable Device +12 (9 ranks, +3 Int)
Escape Artist +9 (5 ranks, +4 Dex)
Gather Info +8 (5 ranks, +3 Cha)
Investigate +9 (6 ranks, +3 Int)
Notice +13 (9 ranks, +4 Wis)
Search  +13 (10 ranks, +3 Int)
Sense Motive +14 (10 ranks, +4 Wis)
Slight of Hand +10 (6 ranks, +4 Dex)
Stealth +14 (10 ranks, +4 Dex)
Languages: English (native), Spanish, German (2 ranks)
* to those who find Amanda Attractive

Feats 
Accurate Attack
Assessment
All out Attack
Attractive
Defensive Attack
Dodge Focus x3
Evasion x2
Equipment 2
Hide in Plain Sight
Improved Inititative
Luck
Move By Attack
Power Attack 
Quick Change
Sneak Attack
Takedown Attack
Uncanny Dodge (auditory)



Powers
*Device R5 (4pp/rank +2 pp=22pp; bio-organic)*
_Super Suit_
	Protection 8
	Super Movement 2
		-Wall Crawling
		-Slow Fall
	Concealment 4
		-All Visual Senses
		FL: Blending (-1)
	Strike 6 (electrical)
		PF: Mighty
		AP: Blast 3 (electrical)
	Speed 1
	PF: Restricted x2
*Super Senses R2 (1pp/rank +0 pp=2pp ; mutation)*
	-Darkvision
*Darkness Control 6 (2pp rank +1pp=13pp; mutation)*
	AP: Shadow Walk (Teleport 8)
		FL: Medium (darkness or shadows) (-1)
Equipment
*Utility Belt*
_Bolas_
_Mini Tracer_
_Multi tool_
_Gas Mask_
_GPS Reciever_
_Rebreather_
Commlink
Camera
PDA
Drawbacks
Power Loss (darkness control in direct sunlight or very bright light) [common -2]
Vulnerable (light based attacks) [uncommon -1]
Complications
Secret (identity)

Abilities [38]
Combat [32]
Saves [16]
Skills [24]
Feats [21]
Powers [37]
Drawbacks [-3]
Total [165]
[/sblock]

[sblock=History]
Amanda Carrington was never afraid of the dark. While other children insisted their parents look in the closet and under the bed for monsters, seeing creatures in dark rooms or dark outdoors, Amanda never did. She was born with the ability to see in the dark. She love being outside in the night, or in a dark room. As a teenager she could sneak through the house with no one being the wiser; she never worried about tripping over anything. 

She was born into money; not the gross amounts where she lived in a mansion with an army of servants, but she rarely had a want that wasn’t fulfilled and she accompanied her parents on lavish trips to Europe. She had always shown a penchant for agility and activity, so when she was twelve her mother put her in gymnastics, and her father insisted that she take karate saying “every young woman needs to know how to defend herself, and the earlier you start the better able you are.” 

Amanda excelled at both, winning scholarships to Freedom City University; choosing the school solely to continue her gymnastics career. During the course of college she discovered that begin able to see in the dark wasn’t the only thing she had the ability to do. She was alone in the gym one night, frustrated about her routine and irritated that the gym was so bright. On the balance beam she glared at the lights, wishing that someone would just turn them off so she could practice in the dark. Then it happened. Caught by the sudden change in environment she fell off the beam, fortunately the only thing hurt was her pride. 

Soon the darkness faded and the young girl began to experiment, to her joy discovering that not only could she see in the dark, she could control it. After fine honing her ability she began to wonder what she could do with it. She mused that perhaps she could take on some sort of mantle, join the ranks of Freedom City’s supers, after all the Raven and Foreshadow did it without having any powers, why not her?

Thinking that she could easily handle her gymnastics (her goals have always been to become an Olympic gymnast) and the life of a super hero she enrolled at Master Li’s School of Defense to continue the martial arts training she had received as a child and throughout her teenage years. 

The discovery of a third ability happened one night on the way home from Master Li’s. She was nearly to her apartment when a trio of thugs stepped out of the shadows. Tired and sore from both the martial arts training and the day’s gymnastics workout, Amanda threw up a globe of darkness instead of trying to fight her way past them. At least that was her intent. Rather then throwing up the globe, she vanished into the shadows appearing several blocks away in one of the rooms of ASTRO Labs. 

Jeremy Mackenzie, one of ASTRO labs scientists working late, saw her appear from the shadows, as startled as Amanda was by her appearance. The scientist quickly composed himself and bluntly asked, “So…what kind of thief are you?” Angered by the accusation Amanda venially declared that she wasn’t a thief, that she was going to be a hero. Mackenzie was amused, “Then perhaps I could interest you in something. My associates think it has no merit and no value. I am finished with it, and it may prove to be of more value to you then to me. 

Mackenzie led Amanda to a different part of the lab, where a ball of black material was suspended in a jar. “It’s a synthetic, organic composition designed to provide a number of benefits. It has certain adhesive capabilities and has a strong bio-electric signal-would you like to test it?”

Although her mind screamed that this could be a trap that this was all together too contrived, too covenant, Amanda said “Yes.” Mackenzie opened the container and told Amanda to hold out her hand. She did so and the “creature” reached out and swarmed over her. The suit as Mackenzie called it, enveloped her and after a few moments it settled, form fitting around her body and receding from her head so she could breath. It responded to her subconscious thoughts about what a costume should look like and used the material that had been a mask to drape over her back as a cape instead and domino mask instead. 

Mackenzie held out a device, scanning Amanda and the suit “Interesting” he said, “It seems like my little organism has synched itself with your natural electrical current, your nervous system if you will. It likes you.” He let out a small chuckle, “Go ahead and keep it, young lady. Like I said, I no longer have a use for it and my colleagues thought it a waste of time to create and organic suit, technology this and technology that. 

With the suit in tow Amanda walked back to the shadows she had emerged from, trying to figure out how to Shadow Walk again and found herself in FCU’s gym. Once more experimenting with her powers and with the suit, Amanda was able to control her Shadow Walking ability, though she discovered that she couldn’t use it in conjunction with her Darkness Control. The suit protected her from harm, enhanced her speed and by connecting its electrons with the electrons in other objects allowed her to climb walls, the adhesive property Mackenzie had described. The suit also had an abundance of electrons and could regenerate them quickly, allowing Amanda to emit small blasts of electricity or concentrate them in her gloves giving her strike more bite. The suit responded to her thoughts and could conceal itself under her clothing or adapt itself to her surroundings, greatly increasing her stealth. Finally, the suit could slow her descent, allowing her to land safely from long distances, the cape ends attaching itself to her body and acting like a parachute. Following the example of the Raven, Amanda also added a utility belt to the costume “besides, it looks really good” she told the suit.

[/sblock]

[sblock=Description]
	Amanda is a slender girl of 5’6”. She regularly dresses in athletic gear while training or in the latest popular fashion, favoring pants to skirts. Her raven black hair falls to her shoulder blades and her eyes are a deep, almost purple blue. 

	Her costume is completely black, form fitting garb complete with a calf length cape which appears to attach at the shoulders. The gloves and boots are flared to appear as separate garments from the suit and the utility belt is a dull silver color. The mask is shaped like the infinity symbol and covers her eyes, the top half of her nose and extends to her temples

[sblock=Personality and Combat]
         Amanda is a fairly outgoing, if determined girl. Once she sets her mind on something she is going to do, there is little anyone can do to disueade her. Despite her determination she is active and a social butterfly quick with a smile to anyone. 
        Her Nightweaver personality takes her drive and focuses it. While she is still determined she's more patient, and quiet; not one to mix in banter with combat. 

       In combat she relies on her darkness control to blanket and area, and uses her ability to see in the dark to her advantage. If an opponent can also see in the dark or if she's forced into a situation where her powers do not work (outside in broad daylight) then she goes on the defensive, sizing up her opponent and adapting her technique. She's not shy about using her bio-armor's shock blast; in fact she's more wary of using her Shadow Walk ability then the armor's powers.
[/sblock]


[/sblock]


----------



## ValenarJaeldira

This sounds pretty cool.  I have a somewhat freaky character concept I'd like to put out there:

*Freakshow*

   James "Dead Jimmy" Brians

Jim was leaving his buddy's house after poker night 3 years ago when the unexpected happened.  A rifle shot echoed around the cul-de-sac and the back of Jim's head painted the front door of his buddy's house red.  And while Jim's body fell to the ground, much to the surprise of his friends, Jim didn't.  He was standing there, a spectre, looking shocked at what had just happened.

Then things got freaky.  His body stood up, starting moaning, and then rampaged off into the night.  After the sound of a scuffle, the body brought back an agent of some secret organization.  After a bit of questioning at the hands of Jim's ghost and Jim's body, the agent admitted to being sent by a cabal of dark sorcerers who had use magic to determine that he had special powers...and that he needed simply to be activated.  After further questioning, Jim found that he had powers over life and death-his own.

Jim's life hasn't been the same since.  He fights crime as best he can, disrupting the bodys of those evil around him and enjoying the best health of his life.  Those few times when he is killed?  Then evil has to deal with him-body and soul.


Build notes: Working on a final build, as some of these powers will be tricky to represent.  Basically, in full-form he be super-healthy, have enhanced constitution, be immune to fear, and be able to disrupt living bodies with a touch (nauseate power), and possibly put them back together the same way (alt. power-heal).  He will also have ranks in the Gestalt power and instant resurrection, but instead of normal resurrection the gestalt power will only activate when he dies.  He can then get into his body and be up and walking around an hour later.  His dead body will be a super-strong brute type character and his dead spirit will be a ghost with the power to posses people.  Both undead forms will be limited/hurt by sacred/holy attacks and such.

Too wierd?


----------



## Shayuri

[sblock=Background and Description and...stuff]Thessaly is the daughter of Paul DesJardin and his wife Violet, a college professor of history and a real estate agent, respectively. The family is solidly upper class, due in large part to Violet's savvy for home markets. Thessaly's strongest relationship is with her father. His love of history, especially ancient history, infected her early on. Her relationship with her mother is rockier, both of them being strong-willed 'alpha female' types. A good deal of Thessaly's teen years were defined by Violet's efforts to exert control over her, and her finding ways to elude or refute that. Even now that she's in college (a history major, natch), there are remnants of the old battles lying around like unexploded cluster munitions bomblets. Thess' hair is still half pink for one thing, with the darker natural brown having grown in since her impulsive dyejob. She still likes dressing in what she calls 'comfortwear' and what Violet calls 'homelesswear,' baggy cargo pants, tank tops and halters and ripped or threadbare T-shirts, and a battered old leather jacket that was a present from her grandfather on Paul's side...genuine WWII aviator jacket.

She got a present from her grandmother on Violet's side too...but there's a whole other story behind THAT present.

Violet's family was rural Russian and Black Sea mostly. Her father and mother had immigrated, but after her father died (as an old man), her mother moved back to the family home, near the extended family. Violet was horribly guilty for some time, since she suspected the move was at least partially because she'd been considering putting her mother in a rest home. Twice a year, Maghda would come to visit when Thessaly was little. Violet and Thessaly's birthdays (both birthdays were in the same week, albeit years apart), and Christmas. Thessaly was both intrigued and scared of her grandmother. The old woman could be stern and harsh, or warm as summer rain, and Thess was never sure what made her go one way or the other. She had a thick Slavic accent, and odd, antiquated notions of things that made talking to her hard sometimes. Worst, she was blind, her eyes whitened by cataracts, and when she sat still she looked like a dead old woman.

She gave Thessaly a pendant on a chain. An old, heavy thing made of silver and iron that looked like it'd been made by hand, and not by a professional smith either. It was in the shape of a small five pointed star, with a circle around the endpoints. If one looked closely, one could see tiny letters of a foreign language scribed in every clear surface of the metal.

Thessaly was fascinated by it, and not just because Violet thought it was hideous. It was special. She'd known it right away, without quite knowing how or why. It was hard to articulate, but it seemed to her that the old tarnished thing was just a shell...and under it, or -behind- it somehow, was something else. It's true self, something far brighter and more beautiful. When she wore it, she felt...warm. Safe.

It would be nice to say that Maghda, her dear grandmother, had been a witch and trained Thessaly in magical arts. It might have even happened that way. There was no doubt that Maghda traced her heritage from magic-rich backgrounds in the old world. Still, magic or no, witch or no, the amulet was her only legacy to Thessaly. She passed away when visiting America five years later, for Thessaly's twelfth birthday. And while Thess knew the amulet was special, it wasn't until she was in high school that she learned exactly what it was, what it could do, and why she herself was also special.

It was during her freshman year in college, quite by accident, that Thessaly met Hana. During class Hana's pencil rolled off her desk. The amulet slipped out of the neckline of Thess' shirt as she bent over to pick it up. As it happened, Hana was part of a small, largely ignored wiccan coven of students there, and because of the pentacle amulet she thought Thessaly must be one too. Thessaly wasn't, of course, but in talking with Hana, her interest was piqued. She agreed to sit in on a meeting or two.

Obviously a coven of high school students wasn't up to much in the way of 'real' magic. It was largely an excuse for a few otherwise kind of unpopular girls to socialize and have fun and feel powerful for a little while. But for Thessaly it stirred something else; something deeper. The tiny rituals they used were like the amulet itself...small things covering large ones. Great lights behind opaque doors that were closed, but might be opened. With growing intensity, Thessaly immersed herself in that culture. She stripped every library she could get to of their books on occultism, especially those books dealing with the practical casting of spells. Most she promptly returned. Others...a select few others...went overdue. Thessaly didn't limit herself to contemporary wiccan lore either, but went back. Drawing on her father's resources, she looked at ancient Egyptian sorceries, Greco-Roman rites and invocations, and the ancient pagan underpinnings that predated the Torah and formed the basis of Gnostic heresies throughout the Old and New Testaments. Even Hana was concerned by Thessaly's zeal. The concern turned to shock when Thessaly demonstrated to Hana her first 'real' spell.

There was nothing ambiguous about it. No subjective 'funny feelings,' or flickering lights. No half-glimpsed shapes, or half-felt touches. No chains of coincidence that just happened to lead up to the desired results. She gestured and said something in Hebrew, and a chair rose into the air. Then it sank back down. It took Hana several minutes to adjust to this. They tried the spell several more times, testing its limits. After an hour or so, Hana was as excited as Thessaly, and the two of them started working on more.

One thing they quickly learned was that spells worked for Thessaly. They usually didn't for Hana, and when they did, they left her dead on her feet exhausted. Thess seemed to have either a reservoir of energy suitable for magic that Hana didn't...or else a talent that let her cast spells without using nearly as much power. At first, this didn't seem to deter Hana in the least. As their focus on spells caused the two to drift away from the others in the group, Hana and Thess became inseparable friends. It was in their junior years, as they contemplated their futures, that Hana suggested Thessaly be a superhero. She'd learned enough magic, Hana pointed out. And the amulet, who's protective function they'd unlocked, would keep her safe. The only stipulation Hana imposed was 'only white magic.' That was, only magic that didn't actually cause lasting harm. Hana insisted it was for Thessaly's own good, and while dubious, Thessaly agreed.

The first few times were a riotous success. Her getup was her green workout leotard, a black cape (from a Halloween costume) and a sequined sparkly green masquerade mask that fit over her eyes and nose. Because of all the green in the improvised outfit Thessaly took the name 'Viridian.' She stopped a couple of muggings, and even stopped what might have turned into a high speed car chase before it could get off the ground.

Then she bumped into a supervillain, and nearly died. A Poe-inspired man in a scarlet skull mask, with the predictable name of Red Death. His powers seemed to be gas-based, and the amulet didn't do much to stop it (obvious in hindsight, since it let air in for her to breathe). Thessaly's intervention allowed Red Death's intended victims to escape though, even if the villain himself also got away. The incident became the focus of a huge row between Hana and Thessaly. Shocked to the core by Thess' near death experience, Hana changed her tune, demanding that she stop the superhero thing. Thessaly though realized the magnitude of what she'd stopped, even if it had nearly killed her. She realized that she couldn't stop now. Clearly she needed to learn more spells, spells she could use to protect herself and others...but she couldn't stop.

Hana, lashing out from fear, accused Thessaly of arrogance and addiction to magic. Thessaly accused Hana of being jealous and trying to control her. It got uglier from there. They didn't even congratulate each other at graduation, and Thessaly moved shortly afterward to attend college. She deeply regrets the rift now...but now is too late, as her attempts to find or reach Hana have failed. There were spells she could use...but it felt wrong. Besides, if Hana was still angry, if it came down to another fight... No. Better just to regret the whole affair and pretend that she knew Hana regretted it too. That they'd be friends again when they met...even if she wasn't at all sure that was the case.

A new school, a new city, a new life. Learning spells was harder without Hana's help, and with all the distractions of college, but Thessaly still managed to moonlight a bit as a heroine in what she called her 'workouts.' Her costume's been in a state of flux since she learned to use simple glamours to create it instead of actually changing clothes. Because of that, and her reluctance to make a public spectacle of herself, Thessaly was fairly sure she'd avoided most attention.

Until the mysterious message on the TV. Was it for real? Only one way to find out...[/sblock]

[sblock=Game Stats]VIRIDIAN
Real Name: Thessaly DesJardin
PL: 11 (165 pp)
Hero Points: 3

ABILITIES: (32pp)
STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 16 (+3) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 16 (+3)

COMBAT: (12pp)
Attack
Defense +6 (+3 flatfooted)

SAVES: (10pp)
Toughness +3 (+13 w/force field)
Fortitude +7 Reflex +5 Will +8

Tradeoff: 4 defense for 4 toughness.

SKILLS: 72 ranks (18pp)
Bluff (+7/+15), Concentration (+15), Craft: Artistic (+10), Diplomacy (+8/+16), Intimidate (+8), Investigate (+8), Knowledge: Arcane (+10), Knowledge: History (+10), Knowledge: Theology (+10), Notice (+10), Sense Motive (+10), Languages (+5)

LANGUAGES:
English (native), Latin, Greek (2), Hebrew (2)

FEATS: (7pp)
Artificer, Attractive +2, Luck +2, Quick Change, Ritualist                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

POWERS: 
Battle Magic 36pp
"Witch's Wrath" - Mental Blast +8 (32pp)
"Thicken Blood, Bind Bones" AP - Paralyze (alt save: Fort, Perception) +8 (32pp)
"Silver Countermagic" AP - Nullify (all magic powers, perception) +10 (30pp)
"Chains of Thought" AP - Snare (Shapeable Area, PF Reversible) +10 (31pp)
"Unseen Hands" AP - Telekinesis (perception, PF Precise) +10 (31pp)

Utility 26pp
"White Balm" Healing (Energizing, Full round, PF Persistant, PF Regrowth) +10 (22pp)
"Influence the Animal Mind" AP - Emotion Control (Area, Full round, PF Subtle) +10 (21pp)
"Salt Warding" AP - Create Object (Continuous, Affects Insubstantial, Limited: Only a Dome, Full round, PF Subtle, PF Trigger) +10 (22pp)
"Glamour" PF - Illusion (visual/audio/smell, Sustained, Full round, Phantasm, PF Selective) +10 (21pp)
"Voice of Command" PF - Mind Control (Conscious, Full Round, PF Subtle) +10 (21pp)

Ritual 12pp
"Sojourning Soul" Astral Form (5 minute activation, tiring) +10 (10pp)
"Draw Down the Spirit World" AP - Summon Servitor (Fanatical, Type: Elemental, Continuous, 5 minute activation, Feedback) +10 (10pp)
"Doorway to Anywhere" AP - Teleport (Accurate, Portal, Long-Range, 5 minute activation, Medium - Doors, PF Easy) +9 (10pp)

Warding Amulet: Device +2 (8pp)
- Force Field +10

Mage Sight: Super Senses +4 (4pp)
 - Magical Awareness (mental), radius, accurate

DRAWBACKS:

Abilities 32 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Feats 7 + Powers 86 + Combat 12 + Saves 10 – Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]


----------



## DM_Matt

ValenarJaeldira said:
			
		

> This sounds pretty cool.  I have a somewhat freaky character concept I'd like to put out there:
> 
> *Freakshow*
> 
> James "Dead Jimmy" Brians
> 
> Jim was leaving his buddy's house after poker night 3 years ago when the unexpected happened.  A rifle shot echoed around the cul-de-sac and the back of Jim's head painted the front door of his buddy's house red.  And while Jim's body fell to the ground, much to the surprise of his friends, Jim didn't.  He was standing there, a spectre, looking shocked at what had just happened.
> 
> Then things got freaky.  His body stood up, starting moaning, and then rampaged off into the night.  After the sound of a scuffle, the body brought back an agent of some secret organization.  After a bit of questioning at the hands of Jim's ghost and Jim's body, the agent admitted to being sent by a cabal of dark sorcerers who had use magic to determine that he had special powers...and that he needed simply to be activated.  After further questioning, Jim found that he had powers over life and death-his own.
> 
> Jim's life hasn't been the same since.  He fights crime as best he can, disrupting the bodys of those evil around him and enjoying the best health of his life.  Those few times when he is killed?  Then evil has to deal with him-body and soul.
> 
> 
> Build notes: Working on a final build, as some of these powers will be tricky to represent.  Basically, in full-form he be super-healthy, have enhanced constitution, be immune to fear, and be able to disrupt living bodies with a touch (nauseate power), and possibly put them back together the same way (alt. power-heal).  He will also have ranks in the Gestalt power and instant resurrection, but instead of normal resurrection the gestalt power will only activate when he dies.  He can then get into his body and be up and walking around an hour later.  His dead body will be a super-strong brute type character and his dead spirit will be a ghost with the power to posses people.  Both undead forms will be limited/hurt by sacred/holy attacks and such.
> 
> Too wierd?




The main problem with this concept is that it is hard to die in M&M, especially if your main form's shtick is being super-healthy and has a very high con score.  In M&M, convention dictates that most damage is non-lethal, and even if they are dealing lethal damage, it is not all that easy to die.  Your main power will almost never come into play.  

Though..hehe...he's dead Jim...


----------



## Shayuri

But what if his soul can leave his body at will, eh?

Buy the power not as Gestalt, but as Duplication? Or...maybe a Summon would be better. He effectively "summons" a ghostly version of himself. That would be pure game mechanics, of course. In flavorland, the 'summon' is really HIM, while his Body goes on its Frankensteinian soulless rampage. Buy the Rage feat, perhaps, and just never use it unless his ghost's around.

Alternatively, buy the characters as a hero/sidekick pair, and use Gestalt to reflect what happens when they merge. So your natural state is separated...a ghost and his body. One's the "hero," and one's bought as a sidekick. Then your body could even be a mindless "construct," relying on you to guide it.

Then merge, Gestalt, and you have all new powers to replace those that were lost. That might work better than summon, since Nullification would 'exorcise' you from your body that way...rather than making one of you inexplicably vanish.


----------



## ValenarJaeldira

Honestly though, the Gestalt isn't his main thing, it is just the last-ditch craziness that funnels all of his main powers-victory over death.

In main form, he'll have touch-nauseate (alt healing), immunity to disease and fear (after all, if you can't die, what is there to fear?), and probably an area fear-effect, where basically he slightly disjoints his soul and body and makes himself look REALLY CREEPY.  

I might make his disjoint an at-will sort of thing-that would change the way I build the power, but it could work.


----------



## Moggthegob

I used the example from the book for Energy controller at PL 10 and just increased it accordingly. The reason theres no fluff yet is becus I have not come up with it fully yet.


----------



## DM_Matt

Moggthegob said:
			
		

> I used the example from the book for Energy controller at PL 10 and just increased it accordingly. The reason theres no fluff yet is becus I have not come up with it fully yet.




Well, you increased it.  Not accordingly, however.  Your attack and damage must add up to no more than 22.  Your defense and toughness must add up to no more than 22.  Right now, you add up to 23 and 27.


----------



## DM_Matt

ValenarJaeldira said:
			
		

> Honestly though, the Gestalt isn't his main thing, it is just the last-ditch craziness that funnels all of his main powers-victory over death.
> 
> In main form, he'll have touch-nauseate (alt healing), immunity to disease and fear (after all, if you can't die, what is there to fear?), and probably an area fear-effect, where basically he slightly disjoints his soul and body and makes himself look REALLY CREEPY.
> 
> I might make his disjoint an at-will sort of thing-that would change the way I build the power, but it could work.




This may be _too_ creepy to work for a hero.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Move along, nothing to see here. Yet.
> 
> [sblock]VIRIDIAN
> PL: 11 (165 pp)
> 
> ABILITIES: (32pp)
> STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 16 (+3) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 16 (+3)
> 
> SKILLS: 72 ranks (18pp)
> Bluff (+8), Concentration (+15), Craft: Artistic (+8), Diplomacy (+8), Intimidate (+8), Investigate (+8), Knowledge: Arcane (+10), Knowledge: History (+10), Knowledge: Theology (+10), Notice (+10), Sense Motive (+10), Languages (+6)
> 
> LANGUAGES:
> English (native), Latin, Greek
> 
> FEATS: (5pp)
> Artificer, Attractive +2, Quick Change, Ritualist
> 
> POWERS:
> Battle 36pp
> Mental Blast +8 (32pp)
> AP - Paralyze (alt save: Fort, Perception) +8 (32pp)
> AP - Nullify (all magic powers) +11 (22pp)
> AP - Snare (Shapeable Area, PF Reversible) +10 (31pp)
> AP - Telekinesis (perception) +10 (30pp)
> 
> Utility
> Healing (Energizing, PF Persistant, PF Regrowth) +10 (32pp)
> Concealment (all senses except tactile and magic) +10 (20pp)
> Create Object (Continuous, Affects Insubstantial, Limited: Only a Dome, PF Subtle, PF Trigger) +10 (32pp)
> Illusion (visual/audio/smell, Sustained, Phantasm, PF Selective) +10 (31pp)
> Mind Control
> 
> Ritual
> Astral Form
> Summon
> Teleport
> 
> Device
> Force Field
> 
> COMBAT: (12pp)
> Attack
> Defense +6 (+3 flatfooted)
> 
> SAVES: (10pp)
> Toughness +3
> Fortitude +7 Reflex +5 Will +8
> 
> Abilities 32 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers  + Combat 12 + Saves 10 – Drawbacks 0 = 77 / 165[/sblock]




I suggest that if you have Ritualist and Artificer, you might want some ranks of luck , too, since on-the-spot use of them cost hero points.


----------



## Shayuri

Excellent point. Take a look at the crunch now and see if there's any goofy mistakes or power combos that seem questionable. The idea of this character is very "supporty." You'll note no Blasts or real damaging attacks...just incapacitatings and crowd control and a plethora of useful, but fairly limited noncombat powahs.

One question! I'm considering a power that works kind of like scrying...that is, you can use a sympathetic link to a target (personal possession or body part of target) to determine the target's location. But I have -no idea- how to model this using M&M! I was thinking perhaps ESP...but there's no 'finder clause' in that. A mental tracking sense maybe...but that implies time and multiple rolls to follow the 'trail.'

Help?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Excellent point. Take a look at the crunch now and see if there's any goofy mistakes or power combos that seem questionable. The idea of this character is very "supporty." You'll note no Blasts or real damaging attacks...just incapacitatings and crowd control and a plethora of useful, but fairly limited noncombat powahs.
> 
> One question! I'm considering a power that works kind of like scrying...that is, you can use a sympathetic link to a target (personal possession or body part of target) to determine the target's location. But I have -no idea- how to model this using M&M! I was thinking perhaps ESP...but there's no 'finder clause' in that. A mental tracking sense maybe...but that implies time and multiple rolls to follow the 'trail.'
> 
> Help?




That would be ESP with a Medium (Personal Object) flaw @ -1 pp/rank.

The rest looks fine, but it is hard to tell what abilities are appropriate without the fluff.  You may want to max your Arcana though.  Also, make sure that the fluff explains what your force field device is and how you got it.


----------



## Shayuri

Ever read or watch The Dresden Files? 

(If not, he's got this way cool bracelet inscribed with magic symbols that shields him from direct attacks. I envision something similar here...and yar, it's the object that got the character started down the path of _witchery_. )

Note that despite the feats, I don't see Vi as being an experienced magic crafter just yet. I'm sacrificing some raw power for some versimilitude, skillwise. Experience earned will go towards more skill points in the short term, since her powers are about right where I want them for now.

As for ESP...are you sure it'd be a limit? I ask because the base power of ESP lets you look over a distance, but doesn't necessarily tell you WHERE to look. You might be able to see the rice paddies of China, but you don't know where in the world the Archvillain is doing his thing.

What I envision is, if you can get the Archvillain's napkin, or a hair, or whatever...this power would indeed let you either peek in on his location, or just tell you where in the world he was. (leaving you to use other powers to actually SEE him)

That seems to me to be anything but a limiting factor. 

And it's only fair to give the intended target a saving throw...perhaps modded by the intimacy of the object, a la D&D rules...perhaps not. Might be too much complexity for an unusual circumstance in M&M...


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Ever read or watch The Dresden Files?
> 
> (If not, he's got this way cool bracelet inscribed with magic symbols that shields him from direct attacks. I envision something similar here...and yar, it's the object that got the character started down the path of _witchery_. )
> 
> Note that despite the feats, I don't see Vi as being an experienced magic crafter just yet. I'm sacrificing some raw power for some versimilitude, skillwise. Experience earned will go towards more skill points in the short term, since her powers are about right where I want them for now.
> 
> As for ESP...are you sure it'd be a limit? I ask because the base power of ESP lets you look over a distance, but doesn't necessarily tell you WHERE to look. You might be able to see the rice paddies of China, but you don't know where in the world the Archvillain is doing his thing.
> 
> What I envision is, if you can get the Archvillain's napkin, or a hair, or whatever...this power would indeed let you either peek in on his location, or just tell you where in the world he was. (leaving you to use other powers to actually SEE him)
> 
> That seems to me to be anything but a limiting factor.
> 
> And it's only fair to give the intended target a saving throw...perhaps modded by the intimacy of the object, a la D&D rules...perhaps not. Might be too much complexity for an unusual circumstance in M&M...





Very good point.  Perhaps then, ESP, plus the requirement of a medium, plus you need to win a power check against their will save (like mind reading), at the normal cost of ESP.


----------



## Raylis

Okay updated Nightweaver both the character sheet (messed around with the concept and I like it alot better) and the exposition


----------



## Fenris2

Dang.  Frist I wanted to do magic, then I though well okay that is covered.  Okay how about shadow, now come home from work and and poop. . .  Covered.   Okay time to put the thinking cap on.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

I'd like to throw a character into this game, if at all possible. He is Brimstone, a Demonic looking mutant, with ranks mostly in Blast, Strike, and Fly. I'll try to make up a stat block for him later.


[sblock= Brimstone's Background]

Brimstone was born with the name Michael Peterson, ironically named after the Arch Angel of the same name. He was born September 10, 1898. He was born like a normal child, no complications. The complications started _after_ he was born. For you see, Michael Peterson was born…..different. His skin was not the pale pink of most babies, it was deep red with splotches of black, with lizard like scales. He also had two small horns coming from his forehead, wings, and a tail. Other than that he was a normal child; two arms, two legs, two eyes, right number of fingers and toes, etc. Everyone in the room promptly fainted, with the exception of the doctor, who died of a heart attack. His parents, once they recovered from the initial shock, immediately took him to the nearest priest and demanded that he do something about this “Demon”. The priest knew not what to do. All his years of training and religious schooling just failed him. His instincts told his to destroy the monster, but his heart told him not to. He called out to the heavens, asking god if he should destroy the beast. No initial sign was given so he decided to sleep on it. During the night, he had a dream where he was old and being helped around by an older Michael. The priest saw this as a sign he should raise the boy, so he did so. Michael grew up in the back of the church, out of site for the most part. The priest, Father Callahan, taught Michael how to read, write, and all the basics he would have learned in school. He also taught him theology and the basics of The Church. Michael also helped out around the church, cleaning and moving things too heavy for the Father. At night, he practiced flying around. He also learned that he could create fire in his hands, something he found useful for lighting candles and getting rid of the squirrels the sometimes got into the attic. He lived there until he was 18 (by then he was quite a proficient flyer and fire-thrower), when he decided it was time for him to move on. He spent the next few years flying, by night, all over the country and seeing everything he was told of back in that church. After 4 years of this, he went home to tell Father Callahan about his travels. When he arrived back at the church, he was not greeted by the Father, but by his funeral procession. Unaware it was his “father”, he sat in the rafters of the church and listened to the service. Turns out that after Michael left, a gang went through the town and robbed it. They killed Father Callahan when he tried to stop them from taking the church’s prized possession, a foot tall solid gold cross. Overcome with anger and grief, Michael flew off and followed the bandits trail to their hideout, where he did things too graphic for me to describe here. After his snap into vengeance, Michael repented and devoted his life to good. He went all over the country for the next 60 years helping those in need, most of whom didn’t want his help because he scared the crap out of them. He eventually settled in Freedom City, where was not the only freakish looking person around. He has made a name for himself as more of a vigilante than a hero, but he still remains on his mission. He now goes by the name Brimstone to match his appearance and because it was Father Callahan’s nickname for him. 
[/sblock]


----------



## Shayuri

Major update to background. Cosmetic update to character sheet (added little names for each of the spells, corrected some grammar, etc).


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> [sblock=Background and Description and...stuff]Thessaly is the daughter of Paul DesJardin and his wife Violet, a college professor of history and a real estate agent, respectively. The family is solidly upper class, due in large part to Violet's savvy for home markets. Thessaly's strongest relationship is with her father. His love of history, especially ancient history, infected her early on. Her relationship with her mother is rockier, both of them being strong-willed 'alpha female' types. A good deal of Thessaly's teen years were defined by Violet's efforts to exert control over her, and her finding ways to elude or refute that. Even now that she's in college (a history major, natch), there are remnants of the old battles lying around like unexploded cluster munitions bomblets. Thess' hair is still half pink for one thing, with the darker natural brown having grown in since her impulsive dyejob. She still likes dressing in what she calls 'comfortwear' and what Violet calls 'homelesswear,' baggy cargo pants, tank tops and halters and ripped or threadbare T-shirts, and a battered old leather jacket that was a present from her grandfather on Paul's side...genuine WWII aviator jacket.
> 
> She got a present from her grandmother on Violet's side too...but there's a whole other story behind THAT present.
> 
> Violet's family was rural Russian and Black Sea mostly. Her father and mother had immigrated, but after her father died (as an old man), her mother moved back to the family home, near the extended family. Violet was horribly guilty for some time, since she suspected the move was at least partially because she'd been considering putting her mother in a rest home. Twice a year, Maghda would come to visit when Thessaly was little. Violet and Thessaly's birthdays (both birthdays were in the same week, albeit years apart), and Christmas. Thessaly was both intrigued and scared of her grandmother. The old woman could be stern and harsh, or warm as summer rain, and Thess was never sure what made her go one way or the other. She had a thick Slavic accent, and odd, antiquated notions of things that made talking to her hard sometimes. Worst, she was blind, her eyes whitened by cataracts, and when she sat still she looked like a dead old woman.
> 
> She gave Thessaly a pendant on a chain. An old, heavy thing made of silver and iron that looked like it'd been made by hand, and not by a professional smith either. It was in the shape of a small five pointed star, with a circle around the endpoints. If one looked closely, one could see tiny letters of a foreign language scribed in every clear surface of the metal.
> 
> Thessaly was fascinated by it, and not just because Violet thought it was hideous. It was special. She'd known it right away, without quite knowing how or why. It was hard to articulate, but it seemed to her that the old tarnished thing was just a shell...and under it, or -behind- it somehow, was something else. It's true self, something far brighter and more beautiful. When she wore it, she felt...warm. Safe.
> 
> It would be nice to say that Maghda, her dear grandmother, had been a witch and trained Thessaly in magical arts. It might have even happened that way. There was no doubt that Maghda traced her heritage from magic-rich backgrounds in the old world. Still, magic or no, witch or no, the amulet was her only legacy to Thessaly. She passed away when visiting America five years later, for Thessaly's twelfth birthday. And while Thess knew the amulet was special, it wasn't until she was in high school that she learned exactly what it was, what it could do, and why she herself was also special.
> 
> It was during her freshman year in college, quite by accident, that Thessaly met Hana. During class Hana's pencil rolled off her desk. The amulet slipped out of the neckline of Thess' shirt as she bent over to pick it up. As it happened, Hana was part of a small, largely ignored wiccan coven of students there, and because of the pentacle amulet she thought Thessaly must be one too. Thessaly wasn't, of course, but in talking with Hana, her interest was piqued. She agreed to sit in on a meeting or two.
> 
> Obviously a coven of high school students wasn't up to much in the way of 'real' magic. It was largely an excuse for a few otherwise kind of unpopular girls to socialize and have fun and feel powerful for a little while. But for Thessaly it stirred something else; something deeper. The tiny rituals they used were like the amulet itself...small things covering large ones. Great lights behind opaque doors that were closed, but might be opened. With growing intensity, Thessaly immersed herself in that culture. She stripped every library she could get to of their books on occultism, especially those books dealing with the practical casting of spells. Most she promptly returned. Others...a select few others...went overdue. Thessaly didn't limit herself to contemporary wiccan lore either, but went back. Drawing on her father's resources, she looked at ancient Egyptian sorceries, Greco-Roman rites and invocations, and the ancient pagan underpinnings that predated the Torah and formed the basis of Gnostic heresies throughout the Old and New Testaments. Even Hana was concerned by Thessaly's zeal. The concern turned to shock when Thessaly demonstrated to Hana her first 'real' spell.
> 
> There was nothing ambiguous about it. No subjective 'funny feelings,' or flickering lights. No half-glimpsed shapes, or half-felt touches. No chains of coincidence that just happened to lead up to the desired results. She gestured and said something in Hebrew, and a chair rose into the air. Then it sank back down. It took Hana several minutes to adjust to this. They tried the spell several more times, testing its limits. After an hour or so, Hana was as excited as Thessaly, and the two of them started working on more.
> 
> One thing they quickly learned was that spells worked for Thessaly. They usually didn't for Hana, and when they did, they left her dead on her feet exhausted. Thess seemed to have either a reservoir of energy suitable for magic that Hana didn't...or else a talent that let her cast spells without using nearly as much power. At first, this didn't seem to deter Hana in the least. As their focus on spells caused the two to drift away from the others in the group, Hana and Thess became inseparable friends. It was in their junior years, as they contemplated their futures, that Hana suggested Thessaly be a superhero. She'd learned enough magic, Hana pointed out. And the amulet, who's protective function they'd unlocked, would keep her safe. The only stipulation Hana imposed was 'only white magic.' That was, only magic that didn't actually cause lasting harm. Hana insisted it was for Thessaly's own good, and while dubious, Thessaly agreed.
> 
> The first few times were a riotous success. Her getup was her green workout leotard, a black cape (from a Halloween costume) and a sequined sparkly green masquerade mask that fit over her eyes and nose. Because of all the green in the improvised outfit Thessaly took the name 'Viridian.' She stopped a couple of muggings, and even stopped what might have turned into a high speed car chase before it could get off the ground.
> 
> Then she bumped into a supervillain, and nearly died. A Poe-inspired man in a scarlet skull mask, with the predictable name of Red Death. His powers seemed to be gas-based, and the amulet didn't do much to stop it (obvious in hindsight, since it let air in for her to breathe). Thessaly's intervention allowed Red Death's intended victims to escape though, even if the villain himself also got away. The incident became the focus of a huge row between Hana and Thessaly. Shocked to the core by Thess' near death experience, Hana changed her tune, demanding that she stop the superhero thing. Thessaly though realized the magnitude of what she'd stopped, even if it had nearly killed her. She realized that she couldn't stop now. Clearly she needed to learn more spells, spells she could use to protect herself and others...but she couldn't stop.
> 
> Hana, lashing out from fear, accused Thessaly of arrogance and addiction to magic. Thessaly accused Hana of being jealous and trying to control her. It got uglier from there. They didn't even congratulate each other at graduation, and Thessaly moved shortly afterward to attend college. She deeply regrets the rift now...but now is too late, as her attempts to find or reach Hana have failed. There were spells she could use...but it felt wrong. Besides, if Hana was still angry, if it came down to another fight... No. Better just to regret the whole affair and pretend that she knew Hana regretted it too. That they'd be friends again when they met...even if she wasn't at all sure that was the case.
> 
> A new school, a new city, a new life. Learning spells was harder without Hana's help, and with all the distractions of college, but Thessaly still managed to moonlight a bit as a heroine in what she called her 'workouts.' Her costume's been in a state of flux since she learned to use simple glamours to create it instead of actually changing clothes. Because of that, and her reluctance to make a public spectacle of herself, Thessaly was fairly sure she'd avoided most attention.
> 
> Until the mysterious message on the TV. Was it for real? Only one way to find out...[/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=Game Stats]VIRIDIAN
> Real Name: Thessaly DesJardin
> PL: 11 (165 pp)
> Hero Points: 3
> 
> ABILITIES: (32pp)
> STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 16 (+3) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 16 (+3)
> 
> COMBAT: (12pp)
> Attack
> Defense +6 (+3 flatfooted)
> 
> SAVES: (10pp)
> Toughness +3 (+13 w/force field)
> Fortitude +7 Reflex +5 Will +8
> 
> Tradeoff: 4 defense for 4 toughness.
> 
> SKILLS: 72 ranks (18pp)
> Bluff (+7/+15), Concentration (+15), Craft: Artistic (+10), Diplomacy (+8/+16), Intimidate (+8), Investigate (+8), Knowledge: Arcane (+10), Knowledge: History (+10), Knowledge: Theology (+10), Notice (+10), Sense Motive (+10), Languages (+5)
> 
> LANGUAGES:
> English (native), Latin, Greek (2), Hebrew (2)
> 
> FEATS: (7pp)
> Artificer, Attractive +2, Luck +2, Quick Change, Ritualist
> 
> POWERS:
> Battle Magic 36pp
> "Witch's Wrath" - Mental Blast +8 (32pp)
> "Thicken Blood, Bind Bones" AP - Paralyze (alt save: Fort, Perception) +8 (32pp)
> "Silver Countermagic" AP - Nullify (all magic powers, perception) +10 (30pp)
> "Chains of Thought" AP - Snare (Shapeable Area, PF Reversible) +10 (31pp)
> "Unseen Hands" AP - Telekinesis (perception, PF Precise) +10 (31pp)
> 
> Utility 26pp
> "White Balm" Healing (Energizing, Full round, PF Persistant, PF Regrowth) +10 (22pp)
> "Influence the Animal Mind" AP - Emotion Control (Area, Full round, PF Subtle) +10 (21pp)
> "Salt Warding" AP - Create Object (Continuous, Affects Insubstantial, Limited: Only a Dome, Full round, PF Subtle, PF Trigger) +10 (22pp)
> "Glamour" PF - Illusion (visual/audio/smell, Sustained, Full round, Phantasm, PF Selective) +10 (21pp)
> "Voice of Command" PF - Mind Control (Conscious, Full Round, PF Subtle) +10 (21pp)
> 
> Ritual 12pp
> "Sojourning Soul" Astral Form (5 minute activation, tiring) +10 (10pp)
> "Draw Down the Spirit World" AP - Summon Servitor (Fanatical, Type: Elemental, Continuous, 5 minute activation, Feedback) +10 (10pp)
> "Doorway to Anywhere" AP - Teleport (Accurate, Portal, Long-Range, 5 minute activation, Medium - Doors, PF Easy) +9 (10pp)
> 
> Warding Amulet: Device +2 (8pp)
> - Force Field +10
> 
> Mage Sight: Super Senses +4 (4pp)
> - Magical Awareness (mental), radius, accurate
> 
> DRAWBACKS:
> 
> Abilities 32 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Feats 7 + Powers 86 + Combat 12 + Saves 10 – Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]




So if Hana were to be, say, killed by a stray bullet fired by a defeated mad scientist, would Thessaly become evil and try to blow up the world?

(jk, I wouldn't do that.)


----------



## DM_Matt

UPDATE: A VERY GOOD CHARACTER SHEET IN EXCEL, WITH VERY GOOD TEXT OUTPUT. YOU WILL HAVE TO COST ULTIMATE POWER ABILITIES BY HAND RATHER THAN USING A MENU, HOWEVER.

GET IT HERE


----------



## Shayuri

Er...no? I don't think?

*looks at spell list*

I don't have a 'blow up the world' spell, anyway... And Hana's kind of long gone by now. Thess would be sad, and mad, and might go Peter Parker on the dude that killed her, but she's a big fan of the world, overall. It's where she keeps all her stuff.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Er...no? I don't think?
> 
> *looks at spell list*
> 
> I don't have a 'blow up the world' spell, anyway... And Hana's kind of long gone by now. Thess would be sad, and mad, and might go Peter Parker on the dude that killed her, but she's a big fan of the world, overall. It's where she keeps all her stuff.




(Did I just completely mis-impute a cultural reference?)


----------



## Jemal

(er.. which part's gotcha confused?)


----------



## Elric

Raylis said:
			
		

> This looks pretty interesting and I've been wanting to do another M&M game.
> 
> Here she is:
> 
> [sblock=Character Sheet]
> Abilities
> Str: 14
> Dex: 18
> Con: 16
> Int: 16
> Wis: 18
> Cha: 16
> 
> Combat
> Init: +8
> Base Def: 8
> Def: 21
> Flat Footed: 14
> Base Attack: 8
> Grapple: +10
> 
> Attacks:
> Strike +8 (damage bonus +8, DC 23 (toughness) crit 20, bludgening)
> Blast +8 (damage bonus +3, DC 18 (toughness) crit 20, electrical)
> Bolas +8 (Snare 4, range 40ft)
> 
> Saves
> Fort: +11
> Ref: +13
> Will: +13
> Tough: +11/+3*
> *Without Super Suit
> 
> Skills
> Acrobatics +14 (10 Ranks, +4 Dex)
> Bluff +11/+15* (8 ranks, +3 Cha)
> Computers +11 (8 ranks, +3 Int)
> Disable Device +12 (9 ranks, +3 Int)
> Escape Artist +9 (5 ranks, +4 Dex)
> Gather Info +8 (5 ranks, +3 Cha)
> Investigate +9 (6 ranks, +3 Int)
> Notice +13 (9 ranks, +4 Wis)
> Slight of Hand +10 (6 ranks, +4 Dex)
> Stealth +14 (10 ranks, +4 Dex)
> Languages: English (native), Spanish, German (2 ranks)
> * to those who find Amanda Attractive
> 
> Feats
> Accurate Attack
> Assessment
> All out Attack
> Attractive
> Defensive Attack
> Dodge Focus x3
> Evasion x2
> Equipment 2
> Hide in Plain Sight
> Improved Inititative
> Luck
> Move By Attack
> Power Attack
> Quick Change
> Sneak Attack
> Uncanny Dodge (auditory)
> 
> 
> 
> Powers
> *Device R5 (4pp/rank +2 pp=22pp; bio-organic)*
> _Super Suit_
> Protection 8
> Super Movement 2
> -Wall Crawling
> -Slow Fall
> Concealment 4
> -All Visual Senses
> FL: Blending (-1)
> Strike 6 (electrical)
> PF: Mighty
> AP: Blast 3 (electrical)
> Speed 1
> PF: Restricted x2
> *Super Senses R2 (1pp/rank +0 pp=2pp ; mutation)*
> -Darkvision
> *Darkness Control 4 (2pp rank +1pp=9pp; mutation)*
> AP: Shadow Walk (Teleport 8)
> FL: Medium (darkness or shadows) (-1)
> Equipment:
> *Utility Belt*
> _Bolas_
> _Mini Tracer_
> _Multi tool_
> _Gas Mask_
> _GPS Reciever_
> _Rebreather_
> Commlink
> Camera
> PDA
> Drawbacks
> Power Loss (darkness control in direct sunlight or very bright light) [common -2]
> Vulnerable (light based attacks) [uncommon -1]
> 
> Complications
> Secret (identity)
> 
> Abilities [38]
> Combat [32]
> Saves [26]
> Skills [19]
> Feats [20]
> Powers [33]
> Drawbacks [-3]
> Total [165]
> [/sblock]




Nice character.  A few comments:
1) You should take the Search skill- perfect for an infiltrator.
2) Maybe consider a few ranks of Sense Motive and/or Knowledge: Streetwise
3) Takedown Attack is a lot of fun to have for mowing down minions, especially if you can hit a bunch of them while they're unaware, and you totally learn this on day 2 of most martial arts classes, right?
4) Your exotic saves are very high.  A Fort/Ref/Will save = PL is quite high, and your lowest exotic save is at your PL.  You can probably subtract 4-5 in total from these three saves and you'll still be plenty resistant to exotic attacks (in particular, +11 Fort at PL 11 looks a little out of place on a character with no apparent Fort-enhancing power).


----------



## Shayuri

Meep...aside from a little nod to The Tick just now, no cultural references here. 

Pentagrams are associated with the occult in general and witchcraft in particular...


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Meep...aside from a little nod to The Tick just now, no cultural references here.
> 
> Pentagrams are associated with the occult in general and witchcraft in particular...




Hana and her storyline (and even her name) are extremely similar to Tara from Buffy, though Thessaly is not especially similar to Willow.


----------



## Shayuri

(dalek)*Buffy?! THE Buffy?!*(/dalek)

*quick wikidive*

Hah! Well, Hana isn't allegedly half-demon...but I see your point (God bless wiki). How funny. And here I thought I was being so darn original, setting up for the tired old magic granny thing, then yanking it away. Ah well. I can live with similar. Hee hee.

Willow IS a good name for a witch though. Still, it's not really a 'professor of history tragically named me' name.

Omigosh I need more sleep...but there's a construction crew -right outside my window- HAMMERING and JACKHAMMERING! AHHHHHHH!!

So, Thess becoming evil and blue veiny aside, whaddya think? 

Oh, I'm gonna swap the astral form for that scrying thing too.


----------



## DM_Matt

Ok, so there are three characters just about completed:

Elric -- Johnny Nitro -- Wrestler
Shayuri -- Viridian -- Versatile Wizard
Raylis -- NightWeaver -- Darkness Control/Invisibility/Martial Artist

We have the following additional concepts:
Jemal -- Optic -- Super-Senses, Eye Beams, Power Armor
Necro-Kinder -- Brinstone -- Religious Demonic-looking Flying Firey Blaster
Moggthegob -- Magnetic Mole -- Magnetic Control and Burrowing

The following individuals have expressed interest:
Fenris 2
ValenarJaeldira (Sorry, Freakshow/Dead Jim is too out of flavor)
the_myth
Drerek


Ultimately, I will probably take 8 PCs, but slots are not assured until the character is approved as mostly done, with a backstory/personality and a finalish build.   those of you are are not as far along as the rest should think about what kind of comic archetypes or abilities the group is lacking.


----------



## Jemal

Types...
Leader?
The way I'm planning him, Optic COULD be a "Cyclops" styled characte, but I'm not quite sure yet.  Probly want to go a bit different direction.
Other archetypes.. um, Psychic?  Super-fast?


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> Types...
> Leader?
> The way I'm planning him, Optic COULD be a "Cyclops" styled characte, but I'm not quite sure yet.  Probly want to go a bit different direction.
> Other archetypes.. um, Psychic?  Super-fast?




Elementalist/Energy Controller, Gadgeteer, Paragon (i.e., Superman) (Battlesuit is often Paragon in power armor), Body Manipulator/Shapeshifter, Powerhouse (Johnny Nitro only has 43 strength for lifting, so he doesn't really have this archetype covered), Super-Intelligent Ape- the list goes on


----------



## Fenris2

Elric said:
			
		

> Elementalist/Energy Controller, Gadgeteer, Paragon (i.e., Superman) (Battlesuit is often Paragon in power armor), Body Manipulator/Shapeshifter, Powerhouse (Johnny Nitro only has 43 strength for lifting, so he doesn't really have this archetype covered), Super-Intelligent Ape- the list goes on




Choice 1) Kitsune with a spirit element focus.  Basically 'other' slot wise.  With shapeshift/illusion, and mental powers as well as a decent brawling machine.  Several prehensil tails just beg for grappling no?  The only char this steps on that way our wizard, but our wizard can do everything but brawl, so I can't really avoid that at all no mater what I pick.  Probably first choice right now...  Can skew the build one way or another other as needed.

If that does not seem to fit then. . .

Choice 2) Angel architeype. Flying, ligthning, sword.  Good defenses and buffs.  A leader sort if needed.  Kind of the antithesis of our demon I guess.  I must not be so crative, I keep coming up with ideas only to see some one beat me to the punch. ;-)  Having a hard tiem choosing between this and the Kitsune.

Choice 3) Time/Gravity controller.  Dense matter sort.  Strong but small, and probly likes to ram into things or barrel over things - if not manipulating time/gravity.  Not my fav, but certainly not bad and certainly not done yet which is a plus. 

Choice 4) Chromatic knight.  With his very own dragon.  Fantasy paladin wrought into supers form I suppose.  With some color based powers or defenses.

Choice 5) Shadow ninja with ability to sumon shadow stuff to help him.  Also kind of treading on our ninja sort, thus makign this pick 5) 

Any thoughts?


----------



## Blind Azathoth

I've never played Mutants & Masterminds before, but I've long wanted to, and I would like to submit a character for this. However, it seems to be "first come, first served" for this game... and I don't really want to get in the way of those who were expressing interest before me. If it's not, though, I'll definitely submit something.


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Choice 1) Kitsune with a spirit element focus.  Basically 'other' slot wise.  With shapeshift/illusion, and mental powers as well as a decent brawling machine.  Several prehensil tails just beg for grappling no?  The only char this steps on that way our wizard, but our wizard can do everything but brawl, so I can't really avoid that at all no mater what I pick.  Probably first choice right now...  Can skew the build one way or another other as needed.
> 
> If that does not seem to fit then. . .
> 
> Choice 2) Angel architeype. Flying, ligthning, sword.  Good defenses and buffs.  A leader sort if needed.  Kind of the antithesis of our demon I guess.  I must not be so crative, I keep coming up with ideas only to see some one beat me to the punch. ;-)  Having a hard tiem choosing between this and the Kitsune.
> 
> Any thoughts?




I can't believe Super-Intelligent Ape isn't even on your list! 

Kitsune might step on the wizard's toes a little with mental powers, since the only common mental power the wizard seems to lack is Telepathy.  But the wizard has so many powers that this probably can't be helped!  We don't have a Shapeshifter, so playing up this aspect of the character would make it unique.  Also, the wizard has Phantasm illusions (a mental effect)- going with non-Phantasm illusions has a very different feel.

The Angel would be very different from the current 3 builds.  No one uses a weapon, no one flies, no one is a Leader-type.  However, we're all Attractive (1) or (2), so you'd just contribute to Extremely Good-Looking Superheroes of the Trust there.


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> I've never played Mutants & Masterminds before, but I've long wanted to, and I would like to submit a character for this. However, it seems to be "first come, first served" for this game... and I don't really want to get in the way of those who were expressing interest before me. If it's not, though, I'll definitely submit something.




I'd guess that there's always more interest initially in a pbp than players who seriously submit characters and really want to join the game.  So I'd say go for it- M&M's a great game.  If you don't have the book yet, make sure you get the 2nd edition book (Centurion and Omega in Red Armor on the cover)


----------



## Jemal

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> I've never played Mutants & Masterminds before, but I've long wanted to, and I would like to submit a character for this. However, it seems to be "first come, first served" for this game... and I don't really want to get in the way of those who were expressing interest before me. If it's not, though, I'll definitely submit something.




Actually, DM Matt SPECIFICALLY stated this WASN'T first-come.  Though those who complete submissions sooner tend to have a better shot, as the DM has more time to see their character, get used to it, and picture it alongside the other characters.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Jemal said:
			
		

> Actually, DM Matt SPECIFICALLY stated this WASN'T first-come.  Though those who complete submissions sooner tend to have a better shot, as the DM has more time to see their character, get used to it, and picture it alongside the other characters.




Oh? His statement that "slots are not assured until the character is approved as mostly done" had me thinking otherwise. But if I was wrong, then I'll definitely be tossing out a character. I have two character ideas at moment; I must admit I haven't really checked out most other submitted characters too thoroughly, however, so I'm not sure how many people's toes they step on.

The first character is the most developed--I even have a (rather lengthy) backstory prepared for him, although no stats as of yet. He is the owner of a mystical weapon, an ancient mace dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of the sun and healing, Shamash; the mace allows him to utilize a few powers (Light Control primarily, what with being a sun god and all), and has granted him a couple inherent ones (such as a Healing touch).

The second I have just started thinking about, a Plant Control-focused character. I'm not certain what other powers to give him; perhaps just some that represent a body that has become more plantlike. He'd probably be something of a brawler if this was the case, in addition to using his plants to disable and disrupt foes.

Either of those sound like they'd be particularly helpful to the team as a whole?


----------



## Jemal

Actually, upon re-reading the thread, i appear to have put my interpretations of the thread into his mouth as actual words..
You're correct, I cannot find a post where he 'specifically stated' it wasn't, but that was the impression I got when i told him I wouldn't be able to post a character until at least the 8th.  I was told the timing shouldn't be too late.

But post it anyways.


----------



## Jemal

and re: your characters, I'd go with the first one.. Plant control would seem to be at a disadvantage in the city, specifically in buildings or in the air.... (Thinks back to the Sky High movie)


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> The first character is the most developed--I even have a (rather lengthy) backstory prepared for him, although no stats as of yet. He is the owner of a mystical weapon, an ancient mace dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of the sun and healing, Shamash; the mace allows him to utilize a few powers (Light Control primarily, what with being a sun god and all), and has granted him a couple inherent ones (such as a Healing touch).




This sounds similar to Fenris's idea (#2 on his priority list at the moment) of an Angel character.  So you'd better get this one done quickly.   I don't think Fenris will mind too much, though, since that's #2 and not #1... unless the next person to post a character after you goes with an idea very similar to his #1


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Actually, DM Matt SPECIFICALLY stated this WASN'T first-come.  Though those who complete submissions sooner tend to have a better shot, as the DM has more time to see their character, get used to it, and picture it alongside the other characters.




This is basically a correct interpretation.  I may be gradually giving final approval to completed characters, instead of all at once at the end, but it will not be formally first-come first-serve.  Certainly, it is not first-reserve, first-serve, but Jemal is right that it helps to get your concept out there even before you are done building.


----------



## Jemal

yeah, you didn't SPECIFICALLY state it, and I apologize for putting words in yoru mouth, but I figured that's what you were going for, and filled the blanks in my head.

PS - Are any of the 'super powers' leadership based?  That could be somewhere I could spend my points that aren't based on Eye Powers. 
*SERIOUSLY can't wait to get the book*


----------



## Raylis

Elric-

Thanks for the suggestions! I can't believe that I overlooked search and sense motive...  

Still have a little more fluff to come, and toying with another complication


----------



## DM_Matt

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Oh? His statement that "slots are not assured until the character is approved as mostly done" had me thinking otherwise. But if I was wrong, then I'll definitely be tossing out a character. I have two character ideas at moment; I must admit I haven't really checked out most other submitted characters too thoroughly, however, so I'm not sure how many people's toes they step on.
> 
> The first character is the most developed--I even have a (rather lengthy) backstory prepared for him, although no stats as of yet. He is the owner of a mystical weapon, an ancient mace dedicated to the Mesopotamian god of the sun and healing, Shamash; the mace allows him to utilize a few powers (Light Control primarily, what with being a sun god and all), and has granted him a couple inherent ones (such as a Healing touch).
> 
> The second I have just started thinking about, a Plant Control-focused character. I'm not certain what other powers to give him; perhaps just some that represent a body that has become more plantlike. He'd probably be something of a brawler if this was the case, in addition to using his plants to disable and disrupt foes.
> 
> Either of those sound like they'd be particularly helpful to the team as a whole?




Unfortunately, for the mace thing to work, I would have to add an active pantheon to the campaign world that includes the Mesopotamian pantheon and possibly others -- as actual gods.  I am OK with celestial beings, but direct divine magic I'd rather keep out of this world in order to keep it at least somewhat like present-day earth.  If polytheism were manifestly true, that would require some massive reworking of the world.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

The mace isn't intended to be powered by Shamash, or be used as evidence that Mesopotamian gods are real, or anything like that; it would simply be a artifact infused with magic and dedicated to Shamash by its creator, a priestess who also possessed magical ability (though not ability granted _by_ Shamash). If I instead go for the plantlike character, I might stick with a similar origin (one replacing Shamash, however, with another deity), though not dependent on an item or weapon of some kind, so I hope this is okay with you.


----------



## Victim

None of the listed powers are really leadership based - that's mostly the realm of feats.  Leadership lets you spend HP to help other people recover from conditions.  Inspire also costs a HP, but can provide a big bonus to a group's attacks and checks.  With 8 characters, a pumped up Inspire would be expensive since you'd need lots of CHA, but There's also Master Plan for leaders who are more smart than charismatic (unless you really want both).

However, the system is effects.  If you wanted to do the leadership thing, you could make some power with that as the FX.  For example, combining leadership with your super vision might give you the ability to find a weak spot in the target with the super senses and then communicate it to your allies.  In other words, a Drain on Toughness (or whatever) that requires you to communicate with your allies to have them target the reduced save (granted, that's not really a point saving limit).


----------



## Shayuri

*In Which Shayuri Comments On Some Stuff*

First off, mew.

Fenris! We should talk. Bear in mind first of all that the joy of magic arrays is that they can, in theory, have just about ANY power. Therefore, it's MUCH easier for me to change to accommodate you than vice versa. For example, my first build had an uber-invisibility spell...but I took it out so as not to cramp the ninja's style. If you want illusions, I'd be happy to shove over for that. I can always think up a new cool utility spell that no one else has. 

THe point of the wizard is to fill the gaps...to offer nifty ways out when no other power will do. Pound for pound, she's not a powerhouse. Note that none of her powers are bought up to maximum rank. This is why I specifically don't want to use spells if there's gonna be a specialist in the group.

As for mental powers, I think there's room for flexibility there... I'd probably want to keep the area snare and area paralyze, since one thing I do want to be able to do is neutralize crowds effectively. Similarly, there's no reason we couldn't both have mental blasts, if you were leaning that way...though as I understand it, a kitsune could easily justify non-mental blasts.  If the Mind Control's an issue, I wouldn't put up a fight over losing it...though I might replace it with a one-command mind control to represent some juju.

So don't worry about stepping on my toes. I'm a hell of a dancer.  Just tell me what you're planning on getting, and we'll make it work. The only stipulation I have is that I don't have spells that cause direct bodily damage (arguably TK and Mind Control COULD do that, but she is careful not to use them that way). Dem's de black magicks. We don't go there.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> None of the listed powers are really leadership based - that's mostly the realm of feats.  Leadership lets you spend HP to help other people recover from conditions.  Inspire also costs a HP, but can provide a big bonus to a group's attacks and checks.  With 8 characters, a pumped up Inspire would be expensive since you'd need lots of CHA, but There's also Master Plan for leaders who are more smart than charismatic (unless you really want both).
> 
> However, the system is effects.  If you wanted to do the leadership thing, you could make some power with that as the FX.  For example, combining leadership with your super vision might give you the ability to find a weak spot in the target with the super senses and then communicate it to your allies.  In other words, a Drain on Toughness (or whatever) that requires you to communicate with your allies to have them target the reduced save (granted, that's not really a point saving limit).




That all is what I would have said. You planning on submitting a PC, too, Victim?


----------



## Elric

Shayuri- Neat character.  I like the names for the spells.  One question: why is Create Objects called "Salt Warding"? 

Two notes:
1) I don't have my book on me, but I'm 90% sure that Healing is already a Full Action power and you have Full Action as a flaw on your Healing power.
2) Also, I didn't notice the Personal ESP power that you discussed in this thread.  Did you decide not to take it, or just forget to include it?


----------



## Shayuri

Hee. It can only make invisible domes. Special effect is spreading a circle of salt. Basically, this is what you use to, say, summon unfriendly monsters into, or trap mean things inside when you can't do much else with them.

Also good for for throwing around good guys if you don't want things to affect them. Ward works both ways.

I agree, the name needs work.

1) Oops! You are correct, sir! I shall change that to Distracting. You wouldn't want her to heal you and -not be paying attention- to you now, would you?

2) I haven't updated the sheet yet. Patience, padawan. Feel the living Force.

Oh, also, for plant guy? If you do Plant Control, try this. Carry a bag of seeds with you, and buy a cheapo Transform power that "transforms seeds into full grown plants." Then you just spend an action to spread some seeds and make them grow...then you have instant plants to control. Of course, they'll eventually die off without soil and all...but that takes long enough that it shouldn't mess with combat effectiveness.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> That all is what I would have said. You planning on submitting a PC, too, Victim?




Sure.  I'm thinking about doing a high speed flyer/blaster.


----------



## Shayuri

Reposting so I don't have to keep going back to update. Fixed Elric's notes. 

[sblock=Background and Description and...stuff]Thessaly is the daughter of Paul DesJardin and his wife Violet, a college professor of history and a real estate agent, respectively. The family is solidly upper class, due in large part to Violet's savvy for home markets. Thessaly's strongest relationship is with her father. His love of history, especially ancient history, infected her early on. Her relationship with her mother is rockier, both of them being strong-willed 'alpha female' types. A good deal of Thessaly's teen years were defined by Violet's efforts to exert control over her, and her finding ways to elude or refute that. Even now that she's in college (a history major, natch), there are remnants of the old battles lying around like unexploded cluster munitions bomblets. Thess' hair is still half pink for one thing, with the darker natural brown having grown in since her impulsive dyejob. She still likes dressing in what she calls 'comfortwear' and what Violet calls 'homelesswear,' baggy cargo pants, tank tops and halters and ripped or threadbare T-shirts, and a battered old leather jacket that was a present from her grandfather on Paul's side...genuine WWII aviator jacket.

She got a present from her grandmother on Violet's side too...but there's a whole other story behind THAT present.

Violet's family was rural Russian and Black Sea mostly. Her father and mother had immigrated, but after her father died (as an old man), her mother moved back to the family home, near the extended family. Violet was horribly guilty for some time, since she suspected the move was at least partially because she'd been considering putting her mother in a rest home. Twice a year, Maghda would come to visit when Thessaly was little. Violet and Thessaly's birthdays (both birthdays were in the same week, albeit years apart), and Christmas. Thessaly was both intrigued and scared of her grandmother. The old woman could be stern and harsh, or warm as summer rain, and Thess was never sure what made her go one way or the other. She had a thick Slavic accent, and odd, antiquated notions of things that made talking to her hard sometimes. Worst, she was blind, her eyes whitened by cataracts, and when she sat still she looked like a dead old woman.

She gave Thessaly a pendant on a chain. An old, heavy thing made of silver and iron that looked like it'd been made by hand, and not by a professional smith either. It was in the shape of a small five pointed star, with a circle around the endpoints. If one looked closely, one could see tiny letters of a foreign language scribed in every clear surface of the metal.

Thessaly was fascinated by it, and not just because Violet thought it was hideous. It was special. She'd known it right away, without quite knowing how or why. It was hard to articulate, but it seemed to her that the old tarnished thing was just a shell...and under it, or -behind- it somehow, was something else. It's true self, something far brighter and more beautiful. When she wore it, she felt...warm. Safe.

It would be nice to say that Maghda, her dear grandmother, had been a witch and trained Thessaly in magical arts. It might have even happened that way. There was no doubt that Maghda traced her heritage from magic-rich backgrounds in the old world. Still, magic or no, witch or no, the amulet was her only legacy to Thessaly. She passed away when visiting America five years later, for Thessaly's twelfth birthday. And while Thess knew the amulet was special, it wasn't until she was in high school that she learned exactly what it was, what it could do, and why she herself was also special.

It was during her freshman year in college, quite by accident, that Thessaly met Hana. During class Hana's pencil rolled off her desk. The amulet slipped out of the neckline of Thess' shirt as she bent over to pick it up. As it happened, Hana was part of a small, largely ignored wiccan coven of students there, and because of the pentacle amulet she thought Thessaly must be one too. Thessaly wasn't, of course, but in talking with Hana, her interest was piqued. She agreed to sit in on a meeting or two.

Obviously a coven of high school students wasn't up to much in the way of 'real' magic. It was largely an excuse for a few otherwise kind of unpopular girls to socialize and have fun and feel powerful for a little while. But for Thessaly it stirred something else; something deeper. The tiny rituals they used were like the amulet itself...small things covering large ones. Great lights behind opaque doors that were closed, but might be opened. With growing intensity, Thessaly immersed herself in that culture. She stripped every library she could get to of their books on occultism, especially those books dealing with the practical casting of spells. Most she promptly returned. Others...a select few others...went overdue. Thessaly didn't limit herself to contemporary wiccan lore either, but went back. Drawing on her father's resources, she looked at ancient Egyptian sorceries, Greco-Roman rites and invocations, and the ancient pagan underpinnings that predated the Torah and formed the basis of Gnostic heresies throughout the Old and New Testaments. Even Hana was concerned by Thessaly's zeal. The concern turned to shock when Thessaly demonstrated to Hana her first 'real' spell.

There was nothing ambiguous about it. No subjective 'funny feelings,' or flickering lights. No half-glimpsed shapes, or half-felt touches. No chains of coincidence that just happened to lead up to the desired results. She gestured and said something in Hebrew, and a chair rose into the air. Then it sank back down. It took Hana several minutes to adjust to this. They tried the spell several more times, testing its limits. After an hour or so, Hana was as excited as Thessaly, and the two of them started working on more.

One thing they quickly learned was that spells worked for Thessaly. They usually didn't for Hana, and when they did, they left her dead on her feet exhausted. Thess seemed to have either a reservoir of energy suitable for magic that Hana didn't...or else a talent that let her cast spells without using nearly as much power. At first, this didn't seem to deter Hana in the least. As their focus on spells caused the two to drift away from the others in the group, Hana and Thess became inseparable friends. It was in their junior years, as they contemplated their futures, that Hana suggested Thessaly be a superhero. She'd learned enough magic, Hana pointed out. And the amulet, who's protective function they'd unlocked, would keep her safe. The only stipulation Hana imposed was 'only white magic.' That was, only magic that didn't actually cause lasting harm. Hana insisted it was for Thessaly's own good, and while dubious, Thessaly agreed.

The first few times were a riotous success. Her getup was her green workout leotard, a black cape (from a Halloween costume) and a sequined sparkly green masquerade mask that fit over her eyes and nose. Because of all the green in the improvised outfit Thessaly took the name 'Viridian.' She stopped a couple of muggings, and even stopped what might have turned into a high speed car chase before it could get off the ground.

Then she bumped into a supervillain, and nearly died. A Poe-inspired man in a scarlet skull mask, with the predictable name of Red Death. His powers seemed to be gas-based, and the amulet didn't do much to stop it (obvious in hindsight, since it let air in for her to breathe). Thessaly's intervention allowed Red Death's intended victims to escape though, even if the villain himself also got away. The incident became the focus of a huge row between Hana and Thessaly. Shocked to the core by Thess' near death experience, Hana changed her tune, demanding that she stop the superhero thing. Thessaly though realized the magnitude of what she'd stopped, even if it had nearly killed her. She realized that she couldn't stop now. Clearly she needed to learn more spells, spells she could use to protect herself and others...but she couldn't stop.

Hana, lashing out from fear, accused Thessaly of arrogance and addiction to magic. Thessaly accused Hana of being jealous and trying to control her. It got uglier from there. They didn't even congratulate each other at graduation, and Thessaly moved shortly afterward to attend college. She deeply regrets the rift now...but now is too late, as her attempts to find or reach Hana have failed. There were spells she could use...but it felt wrong. Besides, if Hana was still angry, if it came down to another fight... No. Better just to regret the whole affair and pretend that she knew Hana regretted it too. That they'd be friends again when they met...even if she wasn't at all sure that was the case.

A new school, a new city, a new life. Learning spells was harder without Hana's help, and with all the distractions of college, but Thessaly still managed to moonlight a bit as a heroine in what she called her 'workouts.' Her costume's been in a state of flux since she learned to use simple glamours to create it instead of actually changing clothes. Because of that, and her reluctance to make a public spectacle of herself, Thessaly was fairly sure she'd avoided most attention.

Until the mysterious message on the TV. Was it for real? Only one way to find out...[/sblock]

[sblock=Game Stats]VIRIDIAN
Real Name: Thessaly DesJardin
PL: 11 (165 pp)
Hero Points: 3

ABILITIES: (30pp)
STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 16 (+3) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 14 (+2)

COMBAT: (12pp)
Attack
Defense +6 (+3 flatfooted)

SAVES: (10pp)
Toughness +4 (+14 w/force field, +3 without leather jacket)
Fortitude +7 Reflex +5 Will +8

Tradeoff: 4 defense for 4 toughness.

SKILLS: 72 ranks (18pp)
Bluff (+6/+10), Concentration (+15), Craft: Artistic (+15), Diplomacy (+7/+11), Knowledge: Arcane (+15), Knowledge: History (+10), Knowledge: Theology (+10), Notice (+10), Sense Motive (+10), Languages (+5)

LANGUAGES:
English (native), Latin, Greek (2), Hebrew (2)

FEATS: (7pp)
Artificer, Attractive, Luck +2, Quick Change, Equipment (5), Ritualist                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

POWERS: 
Battle Magic 37pp
"Evil Eye" - Mental Blast (Sense Dependent (Sight), PF Incurable, PF Reversible) +10 (32pp)
"Thicken Blood, Bind Bones" AP - Paralyze (alt save: Fort, Perception) +8 (32pp)
"Silver Countermagic" AP - Nullify (all magic powers, perception) +10 (30pp)
"Chains of Thought" AP - Snare (Shapeable Area, PF Reversible) +10 (31pp)
"Unseen Hands" AP - Telekinesis (Perception, Damaging, PF Precise) +8 (31pp)
"Voice of Command" AP - Mind Control (Conscious, Sustained (lasting), Sense Dependent (hearing), PF Subtle) +10 (31pp)

Utility Magic 29pp
"Transmutation" Transform (Any inanimate to any inanimate, Contiuous, Perception, Full round) +4 (24pp)
"Master the Animal Mind" AP - Emotion Control (Area, Full round, PF Subtle) +11 (23pp)
"Warded Circle" AP - Create Object (Continuous, Affects Insubstantial, Limited: Only a Dome, Full round, PF Subtle, PF Trigger) +11 (24pp)
"Glamour" AP - Illusion (visual/audio/smell, Sustained, Full round, Phantasm, PF Selective) +11 (23pp)
"Eyes Unbound" AP - Scrying ESP (Sight, Sound, standard action, PF subtle) +11 (23pp)
"Doorway to Anywhere" AP - Teleport (Accurate, Portal, Long-Range, Medium - Doors, Distracting, 1 minute activation, PF Easy, PF Change Direction, PF Change Velocity) +10 (22pp)

Warding Amulet: Device +2 (8pp)
- Force Field +10

Mage Sight: Super Senses +3 (3pp)
 - Magical Awareness (special), radius, acute

EQUIPMENT
Laptop Computer 1
Digital Camera 1
Cellphone 1
Flashlight 1
Leather Jacket 1

DRAWBACKS:

Abilities 30 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Feats 7 + Powers 77 + Combat 12 + Saves 10 – Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Two more points: 
1) You mention that you want to keep Area Paralyze in a previous post, but your Paralyze power isn't an Area power.
2) You have Mental Blast, which would probably qualify as a damaging power.  Maybe you only use it for nonlethal damage (which since it's mental doesn't count as far as damage goes?) even though you could give in to the "Dark side" of the magic and use it for lethal damage as well.


----------



## Shayuri

1) I meant Area Emotion Control. Paralyze is and always has been single target. My bad.

2) *reads book* ... *frowns and rereads*  Odd. I coulda sworn there was a clause in there that stated mental blasts can't actually kill people. That they're resolved like damage, but never cause results beyond knocking out.

I may have to rethink that one.

Thanks for the catch!


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> 2) *reads book* ... *frowns and rereads*  Odd. I coulda sworn there was a clause in there that stated mental blasts can't actually kill people. That they're resolved like damage, but never cause results beyond knocking out.
> 
> I may have to rethink that one.




Well, I think it's good to have a power that can inflict damage conditions in general- that way you can knock someone unconscious with it.  A possible replacement power that can also knock people unconscious would be Stun (Alt Save: Will, Range Perception), which also costs 4 pp/rank (you can't inflict bruises with this, so it's harder to wear people out, but otherwise this is a very useful power). 

For Mental Blast, though, all that you really need to do is come up with a justification for why your character can't possibly do lethal damage with it- then it can't kill anyone.

I'm not sure if (Can't do lethal damage) would be a 1 pp drawback in a 4-color game (that's Matt's call), but even if it isn't a drawback just adding the effect (Can't do lethal damage) to the power would get the feel you're looking for- you learned Mental Blast, but never learned the deadly version, just the short-term knockout version.


----------



## Fenris2

Shayuri said:
			
		

> First off, mew.
> 
> Fenris! We should talk.




It was more in the way of comment, but I can work around it too.  I can pick a different element after all, and some can be pretty cool in oriental sense, like metal for example - you can do a lot with that.   But its good to know we can work around things.

I am still coin flipping on #1 Kitsune or #2 angel...  

I may just go angel beause that one has a vote so far. ;-)  And we do need a leader buff type...  Barring comment from the peanut gallery I will make up my mind tonight as I peruse Ultimate power and see the new goodness sure to be revealed within.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

I've got a quick question for someone to answer. I'm confused about how the power Regeneration. Say Brimstone has Regeneration 20. Would i have to devide those pp into specific things, such as Recovery rate, Recovery Bonus, and Ressurection? And for Recovery rate, do I have to divide those pp into Bruise, Injured, Etc? Also I have a very very dumb question. What is the max ranks in a power you can have? I cannot find it in the book, is there a limit at all? Forgive my stupidity, I am new to M&M and still have a few bugs to work out.


----------



## Shayuri

1) Yes, each rank in Regeneration must be defined as to what specifically it does. I think you need like 40 ranks to max them all out.

2) There is no maximum RANK, per se. However, attack and defense bonuses, as well as power save DC's are capped. Since power DC's are usually a function of the power's rank, it creates an effective cap. You can have 20 ranks of blast in a PL 10 game...but half those ranks won't be doing much besides increasing the range of the blast...the damage is capped at PL.

And so on.

Fenris, an angel would be interesting...especially if you wanted leadership, since traditionally angels guide and nudge, but don't actually order mortals around. Interferes with free will.  But playing an angel who, perhaps, doesn't cotton to tradition (which might explain why he's in the mortal plane in the first place) could be very interesting! Perhaps a former member of Michael's choir who let his urge to do battle with evil tempt him into toeing the lines of accepted angelic behavior...and who therefore won't be likely to be calling on the Host or the Word beyond his own natural abilities...

Not FALLEN, exactly...but he might be a bit concerned about his superior's reactions to his actions.

It'd give him some depth too, if he had to struggle against his judgemental nature and learn to look at the -spirit- of the Word, not just the letter of it.

...

Dang, that'd be really cool.

Maybe I'll give Thess some darker spells...things she picked up before she knew better, and now has to be careful about using. Mwah.


----------



## Fenris2

Shayuri said:
			
		

> 1And so on.
> 
> Fenris, an angel would be interesting
> ...
> Maybe I'll give Thess some darker spells...things she picked up before she knew better, and now has to be careful about using. Mwah.




Yeah, that is kind of what I was thinking to a degree.  I think that is what I will do then.  So let it be known.   Fenris2 is officially stakin' out the angel action - paws off hombres. ;-)


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> However, we're all Attractive (1) or (2), so you'd just contribute to Extremely Good-Looking Superheroes of the Trust there.




I can see it now, bursting in on the first threat, "Fools you'll never...stop...me!" _ wow, that's an attractive group of individuals!_


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Well, with Fenris covering the divinely-empowered type, it looks like I'm going Plant Guy (hmm... maybe that should be his superhero name?  ). Which is fine by me... I _do_ prefer the Druid to the Cleric.


----------



## Elric

I think I forgot this the last time I posted- Stun isn't nearly as good as I thought, since the first level of failure is only daze.  The only big advantage of Will-save shifted Stun (instead of Mental Blast) is that it isn't a mental power, so it can affect creatures immune to mental effects or missing 1 or more mental ability scores (like constructs).


----------



## Relique du Madde

I'm also interested in seeing if I could join in, unfortunately I can't think of that many concepts that have not been mentioned already.

My first concept is akin to the whole powered-armor character type but instead of making the suit one solid device I was thinking of it being more of a combination of devices which function as a powersuit.  For instance one device would consist of an "armored body suit" with another being weaponry modules. This way the character can basically swap out parts (via alternate powers without effecting the suit's whole point total). Visually think basic design simular to what Ripley used at the end of Aliens but with the powered suit being designed for combat rather then construction.

My second concept  is a android which was built by the mob and initially intended to be used as a hitwoman (specializing in close quarter combat) but was reprogrammed after her creator discovered that the boss wanted to dispose of him after the project was completed.

My third concept actually has a name:  Junk-bot. Junk-bot (the name may change) was a robot created by Fred _the Salvage King_ (tm)'s son,  Mikey, from parts he discovered within the family's salvage yard.  As a result, jumk-bot is an consists odd assortment of alien-super technology, advanced weaponry, and super science.


----------



## Shayuri

Elric, I think I'm gonna stick with Mental Blast and just say she uses it carefully (non-lethally). I'll stick the Sense Dependent (sight) tag on it, call it an Evil Eye or something. That way she has some temptation.

- Edit: Good point about mindless objects. Maybe a normal blast, modified by Perception, Subtle, Alternate Save and Sense Dependent... What do you think would be appropriate for a sort of 'curse' type power? Fortitude or Will? Hurm. Maybe just stick with toughness... Or...or...I could mod TK with the Damage enhancement (Reducing its bonus a bit) so it can do direct physical damage, then leave the evil eye as a more mental type effect...

Fenris, ya know...if you're an angel, it seems to me that healing would be more your thing than mine. Want it? I wouldn't mind surrendering it and getting something else, like a Transform, perhaps...


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Thanks, Shayuri. Also, If Brimstone is Demon-esque, how would Fenris' Angel get along with him? Brinstone is pretty religious though, being raised by a preist and all.


----------



## Shayuri

Welcome!

And I kinda like the idea of angel/demon interplay...your religious upbringing and violent vigilantism add spice to it all! You'd probably wind up being the obligatory iconoclast of the group...the "wolverine," for lack of better term.


----------



## Fenris2

Shayuri said:
			
		

> \Fenris, ya know...if you're an angel, it seems to me that healing would be more your thing than mine. Want it? I wouldn't mind surrendering it and getting something else, like a Transform, perhaps...




Sounds like a plan then. I had healing in mind for sure.  Hmm, I think a selective area version would be nice.


----------



## ValenarJaeldira

Okay, so Dead Jim is too freaky...

I am going to mull over a few ideas...maybe a man who has developed mental powers, but can mainly us ethem to create close-range constructs of psychoplasm (armor, weapons, etc.)

I will develope something more


----------



## Shayuri

Changes made:

Mental blast is now "Evil Eye." Still a mental blast, but is now rank 10 and has Sense Dependent (Sight). A good brick takedown, but useless against inanimate stuff. Fortunately, she now also has...

Transmutation! Replaced Healing with rank 4 Transform with Continuous (lasting) and Perception, along with Full Round action. Scopewise, it lets her change any inanimate object (within mass constraints) to any other inanimate object. Good for turning guns into (plastic) flowers, or chocolate, or whatever. And since it's Continuous (Lasting) the changes are essentially permanant!

Because of the expense of Transmutation, I had to increase the cost of the Utility Magic pool by 2 points, which I compensated for by reducing her Charisma to 14. Still reasonably assertive without threatening leadership. She's also still a credible face character for when the leader is busy or can't appear...especially if she's dealing with men.

Options under consideration: Reducing Attractive to a single rank. Two might be kind of excessive for the role of the character, and even the concept. She's a cute punky gal, not a supermodel. And I can always think of a place to put a spare point...


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Fenris, ya know...if you're an angel, it seems to me that healing would be more your thing than mine. Want it? I wouldn't mind surrendering it and getting something else, like a Transform, perhaps...




I don't think you'd be stepping on a dedicated Healer's toes with your Healing power.  Your healing power is not very useful in combat, being touch range, a full-round action, and distracting.  On the other hand, a non-distracting healing power at Standard Action or better is a good combat healing power.



			
				Shayuri said:
			
		

> Options under consideration: Reducing Attractive to a single rank. Two might be kind of excessive for the role of the character, and even the concept. She's a cute punky gal, not a supermodel. And I can always think of a place to put a spare point...




And then Johnny Nitro would be the most attractive character in the party again.  I did feel that you were stepping on my toes there.

(just kidding!)


----------



## Shayuri

Hah! Well, I could always buy Healing back with the point from Attractive. 

And it's true, her Healing was meant to be postcombat, patching up the BIG hurts that can't always be healed any other way (she was able to heal Incurable and limb loss...in fact, she could heal anything but death). 

Still...between you and the druid, there might be concepts better suited to healing than me. Classically speaking, witchcraft doesn't really excel at repairing the body...even the latter day wiccan witchcraft is more protective/preventative than it is restorative, generally. That's the sense I get, at least.

And if we ever need a one-shot megahealing or Resurrection, I can always whip up a Ritual for it.


----------



## Victim

Raylis said:
			
		

> I can see it now, bursting in on the first threat, "Fools you'll never...stop...me!" _ wow, that's an attractive group of individuals!_




Well, isn't that pretty standard for a superhero comic?  Err, everyone being attractive, not villains making weird exclaimations about it.  Besides, it can be pretty effective and cheap.  

Let's try this: Shooting Star

[sblock]
STR 	10
DEX 	10 (18)
CON 	28
INT	12
WIS 	10
CHA 	10

F: 	+9
R: 	+13
W: 	+7

Spd: 	Walk: 30/60/120.  Fly: 10000/20000/40000 (using 1 mph = 10 ft/round)
MpH:	Walk: 	3/6/12.	Fly: 1k/2k/4k
Ini: 	+4
Att: 	+3 (+6 ranged) (+14 plasma orbs)
Dmg: 	+8 (autofire)
Def: 	23/15
Toughness: +9

Trade offs: +3 attack, +2 def

Attractive 1, Attack Focus Ranged  3, Attack Specialization Plasma Orbs 4, 
Acrobatic Bluff, Elusive Target, Luck 1, Move-by Action, Precise Shot 1, Redirect, Uncanny Dodge (hearing), Evasion 1, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 3

Flight 7 (14)
Enhanced Dex +8 (8) Quickness 3 (2) [not helpful for tasks requiring manual dexterity -1]

Plasma Orbs: Plasma Control +8 Autofire 2 (1 for 1, max 5), Penetrating 3 (4/rank, +3)
Triggered 2 (any trigger), Reversible (on latent triggers, not for undoing effects), Homing 2 (2 extra chances), Indirect 3 (any angle), Precise
(4/rank x 8 = 32.  +3 Partial Extra, +9 Power Feats = 44)

AP: Flaring: Dazzle (visual) +11 Area (Burst 55 ft radius) Selective Attack. 
(4/rank x 11 = 44)

AP: Barely Controlled Plasma Projection: Corrosion +11 Area (Cone 110 ft)
	Side Effect: Blast +11.  Always occurs, roughly half value -1
	4/rank x 11 = 44

Acrobatics 16 			+20
Computers 16			+17
Diplomacy 4                                    +4 (+8)
Knowledge: technology 2		+3
Knowledge: Current events 2	+3
Language: French, Spanish 
Notice 6				+6
Stealth 4				+8

Feats 		8+6+6=20	
Stats		2+18=20
Powers		14+8+2+44+1+1=70
Combat	             6+20=26		
Skills 		13
Saves		0+9+7=16	
Total: 165
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Changes made:
> 
> Mental blast is now "Evil Eye." Still a mental blast, but is now rank 10 and has Sense Dependent (Sight). A good brick takedown, but useless against inanimate stuff. Fortunately, she now also has...




Evil Eye is probably weaker than your original Mental Blast power, but I really love the flavor.   

1) I'm not sure if Subtle is necessary on Evil Eye.  Since it's a Mental power, by default it isn't noticeable except to characters with appropriate super-senses (pg 68).  In this case, Subtle might mean that the target doesn't know where the pain they are now feeling is coming from, but that's hard to square with Sense-Dependent's auto-reflex save (and the strange "unconsciously saving" that's present in d20).  

If they didn't know that looking at you was causing pain, why would they get a Reflex save in the first place?  It's also possible that Subtle is intended to make the power undetectable by the super-senses that would normally detect it (per the second rank of Subtle, page 110).  It depends how you envision the power.

2) Did you intend to take Magical Awareness (Radius, Accurate) instead of what the Mystic has (Magical Awareness: Radius, Extended, Acute)?  I have to imagine that being able to target magical things in combat without seeing them (Accurate) is less useful than Acute/Extended, but this is obviously your call (Acute is like hearing- sufficient to know where something is coming from and fine details about it, but not to aim a Blast at it).

Silly) Continuous Transmutation should help get you a really rocking costume- how about an _emerald-studded_ cape?

Also, have you considered renaming your Telekinesis power Viridian's Invisible Crushing Hand?


----------



## Shayuri

HMMMMM. You haf many of the questions...is good. I haf answers. But...are ze answers reeeally vat you seek? Is no matter. Zey are what you haf found.

--

Evil Eye is probably weaker than your original Mental Blast power, but I really love the flavor.

-- Is leetle weaker here, is leetle stronger zere. Overall, is weaker. Two saving throws to avoid, even if both saves are leetle harder zen before. Also, range less now because it vorks not ven SHE sees ZEM, but ven ZEY see HER. Still, is good power, and is...how you say...cooler, no? 

1) I'm not sure if Subtle is necessary on Evil Eye. Since it's a Mental power, by default it isn't noticeable except to characters with appropriate super-senses (pg 68). In this case, Subtle might mean that the target doesn't know where the pain they are now feeling is coming from, but that's hard to square with Sense-Dependent's auto-reflex save (and the strange "unconsciously saving" that's present in d20).

-- Ahhh, zat is because base power had to be two more points, or ozzer powers in array had to lose zings. Ze one who made zese changes...not so bright. Could have just moved eggspensive power to top, move Eye down, all's well. Instead zis. I fix later. You good boy. Good eye. 

2) Did you intend to take Magical Awareness (Radius, Accurate) instead of what the Mystic has (Magical Awareness: Radius, Extended, Acute)? I have to imagine that being able to target magical things in combat without seeing them (Accurate) is less useful than Acute/Extended, but this is obviously your call (Acute is like hearing- sufficient to know where something is coming from and fine details about it, but not to aim a Blast at it).

-- Ehehehe...zis time is YOU who not so bright, eh? Zink for a meenut. Vat is thing almost all powers haf? PERCEPTION. Can use zis sense to target eeeny spell vith zat modifier, even if no can see vith eyes. Any direction. Even through walls, since is mental sense. Is good. Buy Acute and Extended later. Also, was not sure what Acute might mean for sensing ze magic. Open to interpretation...maybe not so good. Zis gives good stuff right away, lets GM decide about Acute later. 

Silly) Continuous Transmutation should help get you a really rocking costume- how about an emerald-studded cape?

-- *raps the back of your head with gnarled cane* Psh! You know NOTTING about ze magic! You be dead by now, or vorse, if you had any power, leetle boy! Ze zings you do, zey are like leetle birds. Zey leave...but zey -come back-. You let vun bird go...three vill be coming back. Use magic to build self up, take power over vorld, get reeches and domination...magic vill lay you low ven it returns. Use magic to protect ozzers, and magic vill keep you safe. Use it to teach, and you vill learn. You see? 

Anozzer zing...NO CAPES!

Ahhh, I know vat you say. How zen are zere eweel people who use magic for eweel? Zey come in two flaywors.

One! Ze vuns who are too stupid or proud to believe in ze return of zere actions. Zey are short lived, but can be werry dangerous before they suffer zere consequences.

Two! Ze vuns who are careful and clehwer. Zey find ze vays, ze paths to power. Zings zat can substitute zis...karmic backlash...for ozzer prices. Prices zey are more villing to pay, but zat inewitably cost zere -humanity- as extra penalty. Also, rules sometimes are literal. Can use magic to help people for eweel purposes...say, to gain trust to betray later. Means backlash delayed until actual betrayal, like karmic bank account.

Also, have you considered renaming your Telekinesis power Viridian's Invisible Crushing Hand?

-- Is silly name. She would be embarrassed to see in book of shadows. Would be laughingstock of ozzer witches. Bad advice...I go now. 

...

It's really far too late for me to be posting. Can you tell.   Thanks for the catch regarding Subtle. I kinda do want a feat on it...but if necessary I'll shift the array around...

Also changed in 1 level of Attractive for 5 points of equipment. College kids need their cellphones and so on...and I thought it'd be nice if that leather jacket was more than flavor text.


----------



## Elric

Hmm- I'm a font of rules info tonight: 
1) I think your Summon power is at too high of a rank.  Summon is 2pp/rank, +1 for type, +1 for Fanatical, +1 for Continuous, -2 for moving to full-round action, -1 for feedback= 3pp/rank, -2 more for the 2 action drawbacks to get to 5 minutes.  So this should be 10 pp for rank 4 (12-2 for drawbacks).  At rank 4, this power probably isn't very useful given that it takes 5 minutes to use.  

2) You also haven't factored the drawbacks for action from 1 full round- 1 minute in the teleport power.  It should only be 8 pp.

3) 







			
				Shayuri said:
			
		

> Ehehehe...zis time is YOU who not so bright, eh? Zink for a meenut. Vat is thing almost all powers haf? PERCEPTION. Can use zis sense to target eeeny spell vith zat modifier, even if no can see vith eyes. Any direction. Even through walls, since is mental sense. Is good. Buy Acute and Extended later. Also, was not sure what Acute might mean for sensing ze magic. Open to interpretation...maybe not so good. Zis gives good stuff right away, lets GM decide about Acute later.




Nope.  Magical Awareness doesn't do this.  Magical Awareness lets you sense powers with a magic descriptor- and the modifiers apply to this ability of being aware of magic.  The ability to target people through walls is Blindsight [Mental] (Radius), which costs 5 pp (or 4 pp- it isn't clear whether Blindsight innately has the radius ability, as the Battlesuit archetype has Blindsight [radius] and has not been errata'd, but Steve Kenson has said that Blindsight has [Radius] by default).

4) The toughness bonus from a leather jacket doesn't stack with the Forcefield power you already have.  Without this don't meet your defense caps by a total of 3 defense/toughness and you should probably make up 1-2 of these points, given your low exotic saves.  I'd suggest 1 more point of Defense.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Hmm- I'm a font of rules info tonight:
> 1) I think your Summon power is at too high of a rank.  Summon is 2pp/rank, +1 for type, +1 for Fanatical, +1 for Continuous, -2 for moving to full-round action, -1 for feedback= 3pp/rank, -2 more for the 2 action drawbacks to get to 5 minutes.  So this should be 10 pp for rank 4 (12-2 for drawbacks).  At rank 4, this power probably isn't very useful given that it takes 5 minutes to use.
> 
> 2) You also haven't factored the drawbacks for action from 1 full round- 1 minute in the teleport power.  It should only be 8 pp.
> 
> 3)
> 
> Nope.  Magical Awareness doesn't do this.  Magical Awareness lets you sense powers with a magic descriptor- and the modifiers apply to this ability of being aware of magic.  The ability to target people through walls is Blindsight [Mental] (Radius), which costs 5 pp (or 4 pp- it isn't clear whether Blindsight innately has the radius ability, as the Battlesuit archetype has Blindsight [radius] and has not been errata'd, but Steve Kenson has said that Blindsight has [Radius] by default).
> 
> 4) The toughness bonus from a leather jacket doesn't stack with the Forcefield power you already have.  Without this don't meet your defense caps by a total of 3 defense/toughness and you should probably make up 1-2 of these points, given your low exotic saves.  I'd suggest 1 more point of Defense.




Actually, to see through walls you need to 4pp penetrates concealment ability on whatever sight you use.  And yes, Elric is right, magic awareness basically just lets you sense other wizards and their abilities,


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Well, isn't that pretty standard for a superhero comic?  Err, everyone being attractive, not villains making weird exclaimations about it.  Besides, it can be pretty effective and cheap.
> 
> Let's try this: Shooting Star
> 
> [sblock]
> STR 	10
> DEX 	10 (18)
> CON 	28
> INT	12
> WIS 	10
> CHA 	10
> 
> F: 	+9
> R: 	+13
> W: 	+7
> 
> Spd: 	Walk: 30/60/120.  Fly: 10000/20000/40000 (using 1 mph = 10 ft/round)
> MpH:	Walk: 	3/6/12.	Fly: 1k/2k/4k
> Ini: 	+4
> Att: 	+3 (+6 ranged) (+14 plasma orbs)
> Dmg: 	+8 (autofire)
> Def: 	23/15
> Toughness: +9
> 
> Trade offs: +3 attack, +2 def
> 
> Attractive 1, Attack Focus Ranged  3, Attack Specialization Plasma Orbs 4,
> Acrobatic Bluff, Elusive Target, Luck 1, Move-by Action, Precise Shot 1, Redirect, Uncanny Dodge (hearing), Evasion 1, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 3
> 
> Flight 7 (14)
> Enhanced Dex +8 (8) Quickness 3 (2) [not helpful for tasks requiring manual dexterity -1]
> 
> Plasma Orbs: Plasma Control +8 Autofire 2 (1 for 1, max 5), Penetrating 3 (4/rank, +3)
> Triggered 2 (any trigger), Reversible (on latent triggers, not for undoing effects), Homing 2 (2 extra chances), Indirect 3 (any angle), Precise
> (4/rank x 8 = 32.  +3 Partial Extra, +9 Power Feats = 44)
> 
> AP: Flaring: Dazzle (visual) +11 Area (Burst 55 ft radius) Selective Attack.
> (4/rank x 11 = 44)
> 
> AP: Barely Controlled Plasma Projection: Corrosion +11 Area (Cone 110 ft)
> Side Effect: Blast +11.  Always occurs, roughly half value -1
> 4/rank x 11 = 44
> 
> Acrobatics 16 			+20
> Computers 16			+17
> Diplomacy 4                                    +4 (+8)
> Knowledge: technology 2		+3
> Knowledge: Current events 2	+3
> Language: French, Spanish
> Notice 6				+6
> Stealth 4				+8
> 
> Feats 		8+6+6=20
> Stats		2+18=20
> Powers		14+8+2+44+1+1=70
> Combat	             6+20=26
> Skills 		13
> Saves		0+9+7=16
> Total: 165
> [/sblock]




When you write the fluff, explain what your plasma orbs do.  Their extras and power feats make for an unusual set of features.  Also, your knowledge: tech and computers might be better being less extremely different (besides, we need more people good at such things).


----------



## Shayuri

Well I'll be jiggered. Also, I admit, when I took Accurate on it, I didn't realize Acute would show the source of the magic emanation. I thought Accurate was necessary to determine the source of the magic. So yeah, if Accurate won't do what I want it to do, and Acute will cover the basics...I'll change that. Cool. Thanks. 

Re: Summoning. I didn't read the Action flaw section carefully enough, I can see. Boy, that's really annoying. CHanging how the rule works... Looks like I need some more flaws. Or tone down its extras. Any ideas? Maybe requiring expenditure of resources for exotic ritual components or something... Bah! Well, I suppose it's fair. Summoning would be awfully powerful if it was too easily limited.

I'll have to re-check all the ritual magic now to make sure it's still legal...

Why wouldn't the jacket stack? If I buy two separate Protection powers (which is basically what the jacket is) they don't stack? Hragh.

Looks like I need some major modifications here. I'll see where I can cut back and free up some points to patch all this up...


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Actually, to see through walls you need to 4pp penetrates concealment ability on whatever sight you use.  And yes, Elric is right, magic awareness basically just lets you sense other wizards and their abilities,




This is from Ultimate Power.  Super-Senses has a dramatically expanded listing there.  Most of the core book's powers are left relatively unchanged- I'm not sure if there's a Green Ronin file out there that has the updates to core book powers from UP.  Anyone know if this exists?

Shayuri:
1) A jacket doesn't stack with Forcefield because equipment doesn't stack with Powers.  That's why it's equipment and is so cheap- Superman won't get any tougher by putting on a leather jacket.  Note that since your Forcefield has a sustained duration, Leather Jacket has a decent purpose- if you get stunned and fail a concentration check the forcefield goes down and then the jacket helps protect you.  Of course, I'd try to keep the forcefield up anyway.

2) Honestly, the best way for you to free up a bunch of PP is to just fold her Ritual array into her Utility array.  This would save 8 pp and the extra pp available for the powers (since they're now based on a 24 pp base power) would let you take a higher rank Summon than you're doing right now.  Since you don't have to spend all of the pp available for each power in an array, you can leave the other powers as they are right now.  

3) If you do this then I'd spend 4 of these pp for +2 Defense (change your tradeoff to +3 Tough/-3Def), buy back your Charisma to 16, and you still have 2 extra pp left over.

4) Given the way your character casts spells, you might want to consider a drawback that requires her to speak and gesture to use her magic power.  Unfortunately, this is usually more trouble than the pp are worth, since it's typically 1 pp per array that you apply this limitation to.  If you want something less limiting to the character, but still in this spirit, perhaps inventing a "half as bad" -1/2 pp per array drawback (which if you have two arrays, is -1 pp total) that's something along the lines of "Use of this array is Tiring (causes fatigue each round it's in use) if you cannot speak and gesture freely".

5) I just noticed that your Telekinesis power now costs 4 pp/rank since it's damaging.  So it should only be rank 7.  If you combine the Ritual and Utility arrays, you could use some of the pp savings to increase the base cost of Battle Magic to 34 pp.  This would let you get back to rank 8 Telekinesis, get rank 11 Evil Eye (since you don't need Subtle), get rank 11 Snare, and get rank 11 Nullify.

6) For your Illusion power, visual counts as two sense types, so visual/audio/smell is 4 sense types.  3 pp/rank gets you 3 sense types and 4 pp/rank gets you all sense types.  I think you were using 3 pp/rank here, which wouldn't include smell if you prioritize Visual and Audio higher.

Also, this is an update from Ultimate Power, but Selective is now the Selective Attack extra for Illusion/Obscure.  The idea I think was that these powers don't force saves but they do disrupt other characters' capabilities, which is why they use the extra and not the feat (as making it a feat understates how good the ability is).  Lastly, Illusion only covers a 5-foot radius area without the Progression: Area power feat.  

So to model a typical D&D illusion I'd build your Illusion power as something like Illusion 7(visual/audio, Sustained, Selective Attack, Full Round, Phantasm, PF: Progression: Area x2- cover a 25 foot radius) (23 pp).


----------



## Shayuri

1) Understood. The jacket is mainly just for fun anyway. I shan't worry about it. I can spare 1 point of Equipment for vanity's sake. 

2) Heeee. It's funny you say that, because that's -exactly- what I just did. Except I ditched the Summon entirely. I thought about it, and decided that a Summoning SHOULD be done as a ritual. I mean, an ACTUAL Ritual. Research, long performance times, powerful results... Rather than make it a spell she can pull off any time, I'd rather save it for special occasions. That seems more in line with the concept.

3) I'll think about it...I'm not entirely sold on Defense. She's -gonna- get hit. I'd rather make sure she can deal with the consequences rather than try to reduce how often it happens. Maybe boost those weak saves a bit.

4) I kept thinking about that. I still do. What I might do is limit the Utility Array that way, but I think her "battle magic" is magic that can be cast quickly and efficiently, and therefore wouldn't have that drawback. Otherwise it wouldn't be nearly as useful in...battle. 

5) Odd. I thought I fixed its costing. I'll recheck. Increasing the value of the battle pool isn't a bad idea at all though...yes indeed.

6) Yeah, I know visual is two. I think I took enough flaws to work that though. If not, I'll fix. Also, thanks for news re: Selective and Progression. Missed those.

The changes I've made so far freed up plenty of points, so I'll be reworking quite a bit. I'll repost up here shortly.

Thanks to everyone for all the clarifications and rules help, especially DM Matt and Elric. Making big huge wacky power arrays is a lot harder than I thought it'd be. It should be worth it in the end though.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> 3) I'll think about it...I'm not entirely sold on Defense. She's -gonna- get hit. I'd rather make sure she can deal with the consequences rather than try to reduce how often it happens. Maybe boost those weak saves a bit.




I was thinking that you should improve your Defense because without raising your Con or increasing the strength of your warding amulet, it's hard to see how you'll raise your Toughness save and you're below the Defense/Toughness cap.  If you free up some pp, boosting your exotic saves by a bit would be good too (though Will is already the highest it would probably make sense for you to have Will save= +10 or so, given that you're a wizard-type).


----------



## Shayuri

Viridian v.2.0.2 has been released! Everyone go download the patch!

[sblock=Background and Description and...stuff]Thessaly is the daughter of Paul DesJardin and his wife Violet, a college professor of history and a real estate agent, respectively. The family is solidly upper class, due in large part to Violet's savvy for home markets. Thessaly's strongest relationship is with her father. His love of history, especially ancient history, infected her early on. Her relationship with her mother is rockier, both of them being strong-willed 'alpha female' types. A good deal of Thessaly's teen years were defined by Violet's efforts to exert control over her, and her finding ways to elude or refute that. Even now that she's in college (a history major, natch), there are remnants of the old battles lying around like unexploded cluster munitions bomblets. Thess' hair is still half pink for one thing, with the darker natural brown having grown in since her impulsive dyejob. She still likes dressing in what she calls 'comfortwear' and what Violet calls 'homelesswear,' baggy cargo pants, tank tops and halters and ripped or threadbare T-shirts, and a battered old leather jacket that was a present from her grandfather on Paul's side...genuine WWII aviator jacket.

She got a present from her grandmother on Violet's side too...but there's a whole other story behind THAT present.

Violet's family was rural Russian and Black Sea mostly. Her father and mother had immigrated, but after her father died (as an old man), her mother moved back to the family home, near the extended family. Violet was horribly guilty for some time, since she suspected the move was at least partially because she'd been considering putting her mother in a rest home. Twice a year, Maghda would come to visit when Thessaly was little. Violet and Thessaly's birthdays (both birthdays were in the same week, albeit years apart), and Christmas. Thessaly was both intrigued and scared of her grandmother. The old woman could be stern and harsh, or warm as summer rain, and Thess was never sure what made her go one way or the other. She had a thick Slavic accent, and odd, antiquated notions of things that made talking to her hard sometimes. Worst, she was blind, her eyes whitened by cataracts, and when she sat still she looked like a dead old woman.

She gave Thessaly a pendant on a chain. An old, heavy thing made of silver and iron that looked like it'd been made by hand, and not by a professional smith either. It was in the shape of a small five pointed star, with a circle around the endpoints. If one looked closely, one could see tiny letters of a foreign language scribed in every clear surface of the metal.

Thessaly was fascinated by it, and not just because Violet thought it was hideous. It was special. She'd known it right away, without quite knowing how or why. It was hard to articulate, but it seemed to her that the old tarnished thing was just a shell...and under it, or -behind- it somehow, was something else. It's true self, something far brighter and more beautiful. When she wore it, she felt...warm. Safe.

It would be nice to say that Maghda, her dear grandmother, had been a witch and trained Thessaly in magical arts. It might have even happened that way. There was no doubt that Maghda traced her heritage from magic-rich backgrounds in the old world. Still, magic or no, witch or no, the amulet was her only legacy to Thessaly. She passed away when visiting America five years later, for Thessaly's twelfth birthday. And while Thess knew the amulet was special, it wasn't until she was in high school that she learned exactly what it was, what it could do, and why she herself was also special.

It was during her freshman year in college, quite by accident, that Thessaly met Hana. During class Hana's pencil rolled off her desk. The amulet slipped out of the neckline of Thess' shirt as she bent over to pick it up. As it happened, Hana was part of a small, largely ignored wiccan coven of students there, and because of the pentacle amulet she thought Thessaly must be one too. Thessaly wasn't, of course, but in talking with Hana, her interest was piqued. She agreed to sit in on a meeting or two.

Obviously a coven of high school students wasn't up to much in the way of 'real' magic. It was largely an excuse for a few otherwise kind of unpopular girls to socialize and have fun and feel powerful for a little while. But for Thessaly it stirred something else; something deeper. The tiny rituals they used were like the amulet itself...small things covering large ones. Great lights behind opaque doors that were closed, but might be opened. With growing intensity, Thessaly immersed herself in that culture. She stripped every library she could get to of their books on occultism, especially those books dealing with the practical casting of spells. Most she promptly returned. Others...a select few others...went overdue. Thessaly didn't limit herself to contemporary wiccan lore either, but went back. Drawing on her father's resources, she looked at ancient Egyptian sorceries, Greco-Roman rites and invocations, and the ancient pagan underpinnings that predated the Torah and formed the basis of Gnostic heresies throughout the Old and New Testaments. Even Hana was concerned by Thessaly's zeal. The concern turned to shock when Thessaly demonstrated to Hana her first 'real' spell.

There was nothing ambiguous about it. No subjective 'funny feelings,' or flickering lights. No half-glimpsed shapes, or half-felt touches. No chains of coincidence that just happened to lead up to the desired results. She gestured and said something in Hebrew, and a chair rose into the air. Then it sank back down. It took Hana several minutes to adjust to this. They tried the spell several more times, testing its limits. After an hour or so, Hana was as excited as Thessaly, and the two of them started working on more.

One thing they quickly learned was that spells worked for Thessaly. They usually didn't for Hana, and when they did, they left her dead on her feet exhausted. Thess seemed to have either a reservoir of energy suitable for magic that Hana didn't...or else a talent that let her cast spells without using nearly as much power. At first, this didn't seem to deter Hana in the least. As their focus on spells caused the two to drift away from the others in the group, Hana and Thess became inseparable friends. It was in their junior years, as they contemplated their futures, that Hana suggested Thessaly be a superhero. She'd learned enough magic, Hana pointed out. And the amulet, who's protective function they'd unlocked, would keep her safe. The only stipulation Hana imposed was 'only white magic.' That was, only magic that didn't actually cause lasting harm. Hana insisted it was for Thessaly's own good, and while dubious, Thessaly agreed.

The first few times were a riotous success. Her getup was her green workout leotard, a black cape (from a Halloween costume) and a sequined sparkly green masquerade mask that fit over her eyes and nose. Because of all the green in the improvised outfit Thessaly took the name 'Viridian.' She stopped a couple of muggings, and even stopped what might have turned into a high speed car chase before it could get off the ground.

Then she bumped into a supervillain, and nearly died. A Poe-inspired man in a scarlet skull mask, with the predictable name of Red Death. His powers seemed to be gas-based, and the amulet didn't do much to stop it (obvious in hindsight, since it let air in for her to breathe). Thessaly's intervention allowed Red Death's intended victims to escape though, even if the villain himself also got away. The incident became the focus of a huge row between Hana and Thessaly. Shocked to the core by Thess' near death experience, Hana changed her tune, demanding that she stop the superhero thing. Thessaly though realized the magnitude of what she'd stopped, even if it had nearly killed her. She realized that she couldn't stop now. Clearly she needed to learn more spells, spells she could use to protect herself and others...but she couldn't stop.

Hana, lashing out from fear, accused Thessaly of arrogance and addiction to magic. Thessaly accused Hana of being jealous and trying to control her. It got uglier from there. They didn't even congratulate each other at graduation, and Thessaly moved shortly afterward to attend college. She deeply regrets the rift now...but now is too late, as her attempts to find or reach Hana have failed. There were spells she could use...but it felt wrong. Besides, if Hana was still angry, if it came down to another fight... No. Better just to regret the whole affair and pretend that she knew Hana regretted it too. That they'd be friends again when they met...even if she wasn't at all sure that was the case.

A new school, a new city, a new life. Learning spells was harder without Hana's help, and with all the distractions of college, but Thessaly still managed to moonlight a bit as a heroine in what she called her 'workouts.' Her costume's been in a state of flux since she learned to use simple glamours to create it instead of actually changing clothes. Because of that, and her reluctance to make a public spectacle of herself, Thessaly was fairly sure she'd avoided most attention.

Until the mysterious message on the TV. Was it for real? Only one way to find out...[/sblock]

[sblock=Game Stats]VIRIDIAN
Real Name: Thessaly DesJardin
PL: 11 (165 pp)
Hero Points: 3

ABILITIES: (30pp)
STR: 10 (+0) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 16 (+3) WIS: 20 (+5) CHA: 14 (+2)

COMBAT: (12pp)
Attack
Defense +6 (+3 flatfooted)

SAVES: (13pp)
Toughness +4 (+15 w/force field, +3 without leather jacket)
Fortitude +8 Reflex +7 Will +8

Tradeoff: 4 defense for 4 toughness.

SKILLS: 72 ranks (18pp)
Bluff (+6/+10), Concentration (+15), Craft: Artistic (+15), Diplomacy (+7/+11), Knowledge: Arcane (+15), Knowledge: History (+10), Knowledge: Theology (+10), Notice (+10), Sense Motive (+10), Languages (+5)

LANGUAGES:
English (native), Latin, Greek (2), Hebrew (2)

FEATS: (7pp)
Artificer, Attractive, Luck +2, Quick Change, Equipment (5), Ritualist                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

POWERS: 
Battle Magic 40pp
"Evil Eye" - Mental Blast (Sense Dependent (Sight), PF Incurable, PF Reversible) +11 (35pp)
"Thicken Blood, Bind Bones" AP - Paralyze (alt save: Fort, Perception) +8 (32pp)
"Silver Countermagic" AP - Nullify (all magic powers, perception) +11 (33pp)
"Chains of Thought" AP - Snare (Shapeable Area, PF Reversible) +11 (34pp)
"Unseen Hands" AP - Telekinesis (Perception, Damaging, PF Precise) +8 (33pp)
"Voice of Command" AP - Mind Control (Conscious, Sustained (lasting), Sense Dependent (hearing), PF Subtle) +11 (34pp)

Utility Magic 29pp
"Transmutation" Transform (Any inanimate to any inanimate, Contiuous, Perception, Full round) +4 (24pp)
"Master the Animal Mind" AP - Emotion Control (Area, Full round, PF Subtle) +11 (23pp)
"Warded Circle" AP - Create Object (Continuous, Affects Insubstantial, Limited: Only a Dome, Full round, PF Subtle, PF Trigger) +11 (24pp)
"Glamour" AP - Illusion (visual/audio, Sustained, Selective Attack, Full round, Phantasm, PF Progression: Area +2) +7 (23pp)
"Eyes Unbound" AP - Scrying ESP (Sight, Sound, standard action, PF subtle) +11 (23pp)
"Doorway to Anywhere" AP - Teleport (Accurate, Portal, Long-Range, Medium - Doors, Distracting, 1 minute activation, PF Easy, PF Change Direction, PF Change Velocity) +11 (24pp)

Warding Amulet: Device +3 (12pp)
- Force Field +12
- Mind Shield +3

Mage Sight: Super Senses +4 (4pp)
 - Magical Awareness (special), radius, extended, acute

EQUIPMENT
Laptop Computer 1
Digital Camera 1
Cellphone 1
Flashlight 1
Leather Jacket 1

COMPLICATIONS
- Is currently in college, with all the attendent woes. Homework, studying, classes, tuition. She lives off-campus though, so is spared a roommate. Money is largely from family.
- Potential local religious issues with a self-identified 'witch' being a heroic figure.
- Thess is especially motivated to deal with supernatural threats

Abilities 30 + Skills 18 (72 ranks) + Feats 7 + Powers 85 + Combat 12 + Saves 13 – Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]

Changes:
1) Folded Ritual pool into Utility pool. Removed Summoning spell. Made changes to Teleport and ESP to fit new point totals.
2) Increased battle magic to 35pp. Increase ranks of most powers in array to suit.
3) Altered Illusion to match Elric's suggested changes.
4) Moved Mind Control to Battle magic, removed Full Round action flaw, replaced with Sense Dependent (Sound) flaw. Added Sustained duration extra.
5) Replaced Subtle feat on Mind Blast to Incurable.
6) Added 2 points to Reflex save, and 1 point to Fort save.
7) Added a rank to Device, making room for 2 more points of Force Field and 3 points of Mind Shield to be added. All powers in Device are linked.
8) Added Extended range to magic awareness, and changed Accurate to Acute.


----------



## Shayuri

Elric said:
			
		

> I was thinking that you should improve your Defense because without raising your Con or increasing the strength of your warding amulet, it's hard to see how you'll raise your Toughness save and you're below the Defense/Toughness cap.  If you free up some pp, boosting your exotic saves by a bit would be good too (though Will is already the highest it would probably make sense for you to have Will save= +10 or so, given that you're a wizard-type).




Arr, with the new protection from the amulet, her effective will save is +11 against mental attacks. I also raised Reflex and Fort saves to somewhat more survivable levels. Toughness save didn't go up, but protection from crits makes me happy. It's so easy to get hosed by those.

Still...what do you think? I could just as easily raise the value of the Protection by 2 (thus hitting the cap) and not get crit immunity...


----------



## Fenris2

Well so far I am thinking of what basic 'your an angel stuff' should be, probably these things go in a container with innate...   I am also starting to poke around with healing and regenerate any suggestions from the peanut gallery for interesting power builds/wants that way?

---

Comprehend "Tongues" (8 PP, 4 Ranks @ 2/Rank + 0 Feat(s))
  Languages: 4 ranks - read, write, speak any language, and several at once if needed

Flight "Angel's Wings" 50 MPH (4 PP, 3 Ranks @ 2/Rank + 0 Feat(s) - 2 Drawback(s))
  Drawback(s): Not in liquids, Restrainable

Immunity "Incarnation of the Divine" (16 PP, 16 Ranks @ 1/Rank + 0 Feat(s))  
  Life Support (Immune to Disease, Poison, All Environments and Suffocation) (9 PP, 9 Ranks @ 1/Rank)
  Mind Control, Possession (4 PP, 4 Ranks @ 1/Rank)  // nothin' messes with the free will of heaven's agents
  Aging, Need for Sleep, Starvation and Thirst (3 PP, 3 Ranks @ 1/Rank)
  Power Feat(s): NA

Morph "Angel to/from Leang Wu secret id" (1 PP)  // nice to walk around w/o wings and all glowy and stuff
  Power Feat(s): NA

Super Senses (15 PP)
  True Sight 10 PP "Deny Obfuscation" - Immune to Concealment, Illusion or Obscure effects, Detect Hidden
  Aura Reading 4 pp "See the Soul" - Detect Mood, Detect Physical Condition, Pyschic Awarness
  Danger Sense 1 pp "Incomming!" - DC 15 notice to act normally during surprise round


----------



## Elric

I like this version of the character a lot.  Protection 2 is almost certainly going to be more useful to you than Immunity to Critical Hits, but take whatever you feel like.  Good work!


----------



## Shayuri

Elric, thanks! And I think you're right about Protection. Crits aren't terribly common in M&M.

Fenris, cool ideas! Lemme lob some more atcha.

1) Consider more faster wingage. 50MPH is chump change in superheroics. And remember too that angels are the heralds of God. They're -fast-. You might even get a long-range only Teleport if you really don't want to be able to fly fast.

2) Consider also communicating with animals and/or plants. The Animal Empathy feat isn't bad either. 

3) An area communication "telepathy" style power could be good.

4) Dazzle aura? Selective?

5) No-range, Area, Emotion Control with one emotion: Hope. Or maybe Fear, if you wanna go for the avenging angel thing. Fear should be Selective though, if you go for that.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Yeesh, I'm slow at this. Here's hoping it doesn't take me a week to hammer out the stats.    But I've finally got a background, yahoo!

[sblock=Overlong backstory ahoy!]Many plant-based superheroes and supervillains have appeared in the world over the years, and almost without exception they have all had one thing in common: they're all, for some reason, also scientists. From the deformed but noble Bog Creature, to the seductive and ambiguously aligned Venus Flytrap, to the vile villain called the Chloronic Man, these floral heroes and villains tend to be of a particularly intelligent nature, often with plant-related specialties that either result in their transformation or which simply serve as dramatic irony.

Isaac Ridley is no exception to this rule; he is an intelligent man, a learned scientist with degrees from highly rated universities. However... the Bog Creature, Venus Flytrap, and their ilk have all had something else in common with each other but not Mister Ridley: they were human before becoming photosynthetic freaks. For Isaac, it was the other way around...

Salix, son of Azedarach, was born far from Earth, to a people who could not only control plants—they also happened to also _be_ plants. However, they were also a dying people. Almost all of Salix's brothers and sisters began to waste away, no matter their age; they became frailer, weaker of body and intellect, until death took them. They did not know what was causing this plague upon their race; they had no cure for this virus; they could not even produce an antidote based on the biology of those few who were not effected—like Salix.

So, the government made the decision to send a few healthy individuals to other civilizations in the universe, to gather information on their science and medical advances secretly, to converse—covertly—with the best minds in the field on these other planets, in the hopes of learning something about that which afflicted them. Salix was one of these individuals, sent to a planet about which little was known other than the strange biology of the majority of inhabitants; his people had passed by the planet some time ago, after brief and unpleasant contact with the species living on it. As with the others, Salix was fitted with a device implanted in his skin, a piece of technology his people had created that would allow him to take on the shape of a native.

His assigned planet, of course, was Earth, and he landed in the United States. Aside from the device implanted in his body, he possessed none of his people's technology; even the craft he arrived in disintegrated upon arrival. He was to live among humans, gathering data for five years—during which time millions of his people would have died, but the majority would still likely be able to utilize any information or treatment the travelers had discovered—before being retrieved.

The first months were hardest. Broadcasts from Earth had been studied on his trip to the planet in an attempt to decipher their language; he had quickly realized that there were many languages spread across the surface of the planet, but his aptitude for them allowed him to cope. He had little knowledge of human civilization, however, and this, coupled with his imperfect grasp of the native languages, led to much confusion and frustration. But he persevered, taking up a human identity (Isaac Ridley) before earning a GED so that he could then enroll at a local university, where he gained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, then a master's degree, in four years.

You may be wondering how an alien with little knowledge of Earth found the money to attend college. Well, Salix was forced to do something a bit...naughty. He had only a short period of time available to him, and he needed money quickly, so—he stole it. He used his ability to manipulate plants to break into a bank vault and stole a large amount of money from it. He also left a note: "I am very sorry. I need to save my people. I will pay you back one day." Stolen money in hand, Salix was able to pay his tuition, although he later learned that if he had landed in another country he might not have had to pay at all and felt so guilty that when he did pay the bank back, he adjusted for inflation and paid interest as well.

All the while, Salix worked to perform his mission as best he could, spending almost all of his time outside of classes reading up on other subjects—anything that he believed might be able to help him, might provide a clue to the source of the virus or even provide an antidote. But he found nothing—no disease like this had ever struck Earth's plant life, and the plagues of its fleshier inhabitants were too different. Disheartened, Salix gave up and waited for his retrieval at the end of his five-year mission.

He landed in 1960. As you can probably imagine, his retrieval never came, and he has mourned what can only be the death of his race for forty long years.

As time passed, Salix began to live out a more normal—or at least more human—existence on Earth. He achieved a Doctorate at Freedom City University in the late '60s, and began to lecture there afterwards (it was by doing this that he earned enough money to eventually pay back the bank he robbed). He left behind the woods in which he initially dwelt, taking up residence in a real apartment in the city. He also left behind his true form, for the most part; for decades, he rarely took on his own shape, only occasionally doing so when he wondered if he still could.

Knowing everyone you ever knew has almost certainly withered away into dust is not a very cheering thought, as you can probably imagine. Salix—but now more Ridley than Salix—sank into a depression that lasted decades. He performed his duties at the college admirably, but outside of the classroom, he kept himself aloof from people—even though he began to think of them as _other people_, as if he were really one of them!—and lived a lonely life.

But one day...he became, for one person, a hero. It was late, and Ridley had come to the park in one of his occasional attempts to cheer himself up by surrounding himself with his fellow plants. But he was not the only one there; he heard noises as he walked through the park: cries for help. A woman was being chased through a heavily wooded area of the park; a man with a knife was her pursuer. Ridley saw them—and he instinctively summoned up powers that had long laid dormant, bringing to life the grass to grab the man's feet...and the trees to dislocate both of his arms.

The woman was afraid at first—the trees had just come to life, after all—but she soon recognized that she was no longer in danger. Then she saw Ridley, and knew it had to have been his doing. Assuming he was one of Freedom City's many mutants or superheroes, she thanked him for coming to her rescue. He stayed with her while she called the police and they apprehended the attacker, but he fled when it was his turn to answer the authorities' questions.

At home, Salix suddenly felt a tiny spark of hope in his life, a little light in the darkness, a flickering of warmth—he felt _good_ for the first time in many years. And, well, you can probably imagine what happened next. He wanted to do it—help someone, that is—again. So he did. And then he did it again. Isaac Ridley finally became Salix once more, not just in body—for he fights crime in his true form and under his true name—but in mind. For two months now he has hunted the predators and criminals and thugs and villains of the city; for two months now he has endeavored to make up for decades of doing nothing to help and protect the people of the city...of _his_ city.

Salix has a new mission.[/sblock]


----------



## Shayuri

I like it! Clever reversal there.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> 1) Consider more faster wingage. 50MPH is chump change in superheroics. And remember too that angels are the heralds of God. They're -fast-. You might even get a long-range only Teleport if you really don't want to be able to fly fast.




Note that 50 mph is by just moving taking move actions (which is kind of silly, as 50 mph should really mean "When you double-move you go 50 mph"), so when you double-move he's going 100 and sprinting is going 200 mph.  That's fast!



> 2) Consider also communicating with animals and/or plants. The Animal Empathy feat isn't bad either.




Animal Empathy is probably better here, as you only have so many pp and you don't want to spend them all on Comprehend.  At PL 11, 165 PP you're not going to be as generally awesome as a D&D Planetar unless you really abuse the system (i.e., look like one of DM_Matt's PCs )



> Dazzle aura? Selective?




Aura became significantly more expensive in UP than in the core book (too expensive in my mind- it essentially went from a +1 extra to +3, when +2 would have sufficed), so this would cost a lot of pp.  Also, the defensive part of Aura seems very appropriate for an Angel (ala Holy Aura in D&D), but not as much the offensive part.  

Fenris, I like the ideas in your first post.  True Sight seems absolutely perfect for an Angel.  I think Aura Sight costs 5 pp if you're using the build in Ultimate Power straight up.  Your wings are perfect.  

Consider Regeneration 1 [Resurrection 1, Extra: True Resurrection].  For 2 pp, this means you rise from the dead a week after you're killed, no matter what.  You can't kill an angel- you can only piss him off.

One caution: Matt said earlier: 







> I am OK with celestial beings, but direct divine magic I'd rather keep out of this world in order to keep it at least somewhat like present-day earth. If polytheism were manifestly true, that would require some massive reworking of the world.




So keep this in mind when doing a background for your character.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Alright, I have most of Brimstone's stats done, but they still need some work. I would like to submit them to you as a work in progress, and please look them over and see if there are any mistakes

[sblock=Brimstone's Stats (work in progress)]

165 pp

Attack +7 (14 pp)
Defense +15 (+12 Flat Footed) (12 pp, +3 Dodge)

Fort +10 (3 pp +7 Con)
Ref +9 (5 pp +4 Dex)
Will +7 (7 pp +0 Wis)
Toughness +10 (+7 Con, +3 Protection)

Init +4

* Abilities * (28 pp)

Str 14 (+2) (4 pp)
Dex 18 (+4) (8 pp)
Con 24 (+7) (14 pp)
Int 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Wis 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Cha 12 (+1) (2 pp)

* Skills * (15 pp)

Acrobatics +8 (4 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Climb +12 (10 Ranks, +2 Str)
Intimidate +11 (10 Ranks, +1 Cha)
Knowledge (Theology) +12 (12 Ranks, +0 Int)
Notice +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)
Stealth +12 (8 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Survival +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)

* Feats * (17 pp)

Diehard
Dodge Focus (3)
Elusive Target
Evasion (2)
Fearless
Fearsome Presence (6) (DC 16)
Precise Shot
Startle
Track

* Powers * (51 pp)

Additional Limbs (Prehensile Tail) (1pp)
Hellfire Control 7 (Blast, Strike (Hellfire Weapons)) (15 pp) 
Flight 3 (Wings) (6 pp)
Immunity (Aging, Heat, Fire) (7 pp)
Regeneration 16 (Bruised 3= once per round w/ no rest; Injured 4 = once per round (need rest), Disabled 5 = once per minute; Ability Damage 3 = 20 minutes, Resurrection 1) + Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth (18 pp)
Protection 3 (Scales) + Power Feat Impervious (4 pp)



[/sblock]


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> When you write the fluff, explain what your plasma orbs do.  Their extras and power feats make for an unusual set of features.  Also, your knowledge: tech and computers might be better being less extremely different (besides, we need more people good at such things).




I was planning on it.  The basic idea is that she's developed her control over fairly weak manifestations of her power to such a degree that the little plasma spheres are basically programmable.  That's why they can be set to chase specified targets, take indirect routes, and lie in wait.  It's a sort of reaction to the dangerous powers she can't really control like the cone blast and a nasty aura that burns both ways.

That's also why her computers is so high without the knowledge to go with it - lots of experience intuitively programming the powers without all that much technical education.  Hmm, I can probably shift some skills around to narrow the gap a bit though.


----------



## Elric

Re: Brimstone
You haven't bought any ranks of Attack/Defense (or any feats to this effect besides 3 ranks of Dodge Focus) and you only have 25 pp left.  You also haven't spent any points on exotic (Fort/Ref/Will) saves yet.  That means that you have almost certainly spent too many points on other things.  You also have no defensive powers that increase your Toughness save, which is currently at +3 (that's bad!).  Scales ought to give you the Protection power to boost your Toughness (that's good!).

Your Blast/Strike power + Sneak Attack means that you'd need to take a tradeoff of +6 damage, -6 attack in order for the Blast/Sneak Attack to be legal.  I doubt you intended this, so you should lower the rank of Blast.

(Side note: Note that Strike isn't Mighty so you don't apply your Strength modifier to it- if you did have Mighty Strike you'd be at 22 damage and wouldn't be able to buy an attack bonus at all (i.e., this is too extreme of a tradeoff to ever take))

Recovery Bonus is terrible for the pp cost.  Constitution is slightly too cheap for what it does (which includes adding to recovery checks), and you could probably easily justify a somewhat higher Con.  I house-ruled the Recovery Bonus function of Regenerate to a +2 per rank bonus when I GMd a campaign last year- if you're set on having a very high Recovery bonus without very high Con ask and I'd imagine Matt would do the same (as any min/maxer would still take Con even with this modified version of recovery check power).


----------



## Elric

Re: Brimstone.

To show you what a demonic character might look like, here's a rough conversion of Glory Hound, a Demonic Pomeranian Man-Dog played by a friend in our 1e M&M campaign.

[sblock=Glory Hound "Now I'm going to go look for my soul"]GLORY HOUND
PL: 11  (165 pp)

ABILITIES:   STR: 24 (+7)  DEX: 22 (+6)   CON: 28 (+9)   INT: 10 (0)   WIS: 12 (+1)   CHA: 10 (0)

SKILLS:  Acrobatics 4 (+10), Bluff 8 (+8), Gather Info 12 (+12), Handle Animal 8 (+8), Intimidate 12 (+12), Investigate 4 (+4), Know: Theology and Philosophy 8 (+8), Notice 12 (+13), Profession(Dogcatcher) 2 (+3), Search 8 (+8), Sense Motive 10 (+11), Sleight of Hand 4 (+10), Stealth 10 (+16) 

Feats: Animal Empathy, Attack Focus: Melee (5), Benefit (Glory Hound has no soul), Contacts, Dodge Focus (5), Evasion (1), Improved Critical: Bite (1), Improved Throw, 
Improved Trip (1), Uncanny Dodge (Scent), Well-Informed

POWERS:  LEAPING [2], SPEED [1], 
DEMONIC YIP (EMOTION CONTROL 10, AREA- BURST, FLAWS: limited to fear, must be self-centered)
  AP of Demonic Yip: STRIKE (VICIOUS BITE) [5], Power Feat: Mighty
SUPER-SENSES [5], (Acute & Accurate Scent, Tracking [Scent], Ultra-Hearing), 
REGENERATION (3 BRUISE, 6 INJURED, 4 STAGGERED, 5 DISABLED, 3 ABILITY) [21], Bruised/Injured 1 per round with no rest, Staggered 1 round, Disabled 1 minute, Ability Damage 20 minutes

COMBAT: Attack +5 [Unarmed +7, Bite (+10 attack) +12 damage] Defense 23 (18 flat-footed), Init  +6

SAVES:  Toughness +9 (9 flat-footed)  Fortitude +9  Reflex +9  Will +7

Abilities 46  +  Skills 26 (L ranks)  +  Feats 19  +  Powers 39  +  Combat 26  +  Saves 9  –  Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Thanks Elric, I think I got most of that worked out now, still unsure of Attack / Defense. I edited my last post with the changes.


----------



## Victim

I agree with Elric.  With no attack, toughness, defense, or saves, your character will have a tough time in most fights, and buying them is probably going to take more points than you have available.  Remember that DEX and STR don't add to attacks or defense.  Even if you stick your attack bonus in the hellfire array via the accurate feat, and buy only dodge focus, points will still be tight.  

I agree that replacing the recovery bonus with additional Con is a good way to go.  Since your Strike isn't Mighty, your STR does little to help you in melee (only if you want to hit someone without using a hellfire weapon).  You could replace your 20 STR with 2 ranks of Super Strength to preserve lifting ability, still use the strike in melee for damage, and come out with pretty much the same abilities (slightly less grapple) and 6 extra points.

EDIT: 

Generalized attack bonus costs 2 points per +1.  Dex doesn't add to defense - of course, 12 points of defense plus 3 ranks in dodge still leaves you with 19 defense.  With 10 toughness, you'll be a bit below the caps on defensive stuff but all your regen should make up for it.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Thanks Victim for clearing that up. Edited again, hopefully getting closer to correct.


----------



## Victim

Defense is also 2 points per +1, but you start with 10 base.  So with current spending, you'd have 19 defense, and 13 when flatfooted (ordinary defense is 1/2 defense, and 1/2 dodge; you can't buy just pure defense bonus without adding some custom extras or flaws).


----------



## Elric

Brimstone's still not correct, but getting closer.



> Defense +15 (+12 Flat Footed) (12 pp, +3 Dodge)




It's generally easier if you list your Defense score rather than your bonuses to your defense score (since your defense score= 10+ your bonuses).  This is still wrong.  If you've spent 12 pp on Defense, that's +6 Defense (2 pp per +1), or +3 Defense when flat-footed.  Dodge Focus add +1 when you're not flat-footed, and nothing if you are.    

So your Defense is 19 (13 flat-footed) (10 base + 6 ranks of Defense for 12 pp + 3 ranks of Dodge Focus for 3 pp).



> Hellfire Control 7 (Blast, Strike (Hellfire Weapons)) (15 pp)




Presumably Strike (Hellfire Weapons) is an alternate power of Hellfire Control i.e., Blast.  But what rank is Strike at?  Given that you only have +7 attack at the moment, PL limits only mean that Strike has to be at rank <=15.  You'd have to have a +4 damage, -4 attack tradeoff to do this.  

Since the base power only costs 14 pp, you can only take 14 pp worth of your Strike ability here.  So this could be:

Hellfire Control (Blast) 7 (14 pp)
Power Feat- Alternate Power: Strike 14 (1 pp)



> Protection 3 (Scales) + Power Feat Impervious (4 pp)




Impervious isn't a power feat.  It's an extra that you can apply to a power like Protection or to your constitution bonus directly.  You're immune to attacks with a damage bonus below your rank in Impervious.  1 rank of Impervious won't be very good- all you'll be immune to is the punches of level 0 commoners.    Given your great regeneration, Impervious is probably overkill, so I'd just get rid of that last pp.



> Fearsome Presence (6) (DC 16)



Nothing wrong with this rules-wise, but it's not going to be a very good ability in a PL 11 game, even though you've spent 6 pp on it.  If you took something more along the lines of an actual fear effect (ala Demonic Yip in my Glory Hound build) as an alternate power of Hellfire Control, that would save you pp and get you a stronger ability.  Having a frightening appearance can be a Complication.

Edit- actually, looking at your most recent build if your point totals are correct, your character only costs 152 pp at the moment.  I thought that your character still cost 165 pp, in which case you'd be in more of a crunch for points.



> Flight 3 (Wings) (6 pp)



Winged flight should impose certain limitations, which take the form of drawbacks that also give you back power points.  Fenris's Angel got this exactly right, in my opinion.  Here's what this would look like for you.
Flight 3 "Demon's Wings" 50 MPH (4 PP, 3 Ranks @ 2/Rank- 2 Drawback)
Drawback(s): Not in liquids, Power Loss- When wings are restrained

Also, I feel like your character ought to have access to greater than normal men strength, but the way you've set the character up you get very little out of buying a high Strength score (since your attacks are a Blast and a Strike that isn't Mighty).  One potential solution that doesn't require you to spend a lot of pp:

Add an alternate power of enhanced strength to your Hellfire Control Array.  I'd call this something like Inner Fire and it represents how when you aren't chanelling Hellfire, you can apply the power to your strength.  So this would look like:

Hellfire Control (Blast) 7 (14 pp)
Power Feat- Alternate Power: Strike 14 (1 pp)
Power Feat- Alternate Power: Enhanced Strength 14 (1 pp)

The main difference that this will make in combat is that you can grapple (and resist grapples) more easily, if you want to use a melee weapon you've picked up you'll also be good at using it, and if you find someone who is energy resistant you can switch to old-fashioned brawling and still do good damage.  You'll also be able to lift much heavier objects (Heavy Load 1200 lbs with your 28 Str score).  Well worth it for 1 pp and very fitting with your character concept.

Edit: since you have more pp than I thought, 2-3 ranks of Super-Strength is also a possibility.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Alright, let's try this again. Third time's a charm, eh?

Elric, many thanks. I went with most if not all of your suggestions for Brimstone. Not sure how i messed up the math, but oh well, thanks for catching that. I upped his Defense as well as his Dodge, Upped his attack just a little, went with the alternate powers for Strike and Enhanced Str (need to add that to his backstory), upped his Protection, upped his Toughness, added Fenris' things about wings, and also upped his fearsome presence back to DC 20, but i might change that. I'm just going to re-post him again here

[Sblock=Brimstone (Mostly Done)]
165 pp

Attack +8 (16 pp)
Defense 23 (14 Flat Footed) (16 pp, +5 Dodge)

Fort +10 (3 pp +7 Con)
Ref +9 (5 pp +4 Dex)
Will +7 (7 pp +0 Wis)
Toughness +17 (+5 pp, +7 Con, +5 Protection)

Init +4

* Abilities * (28 pp)

Str 14 / 28 (+2 / +9) (4 pp)
Dex 18 (+4) (8 pp)
Con 24 (+7) (14 pp)
Int 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Wis 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Cha 12 (+1) (2 pp)

* Skills * (15 pp)

Acrobatics +8 (4 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Climb +12 (10 Ranks, +2 Str)
Intimidate +11 (10 Ranks, +1 Cha)
Knowledge (Theology) +12 (12 Ranks, +0 Int)
Notice +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)
Stealth +12 (8 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Survival +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)

* Feats * (17 pp)

Diehard
Dodge Focus (5)
Elusive Target
Evasion (2)
Fearless
Fearsome Presence (10) (DC 20)
Precise Shot
Startle
Track

* Powers * (51 pp)

Additional Limbs (1pp)
--Prehensile Tail 
Hellfire Control (Blast) 7 (16 pp)
-- Alternate Powers (+2): Strike 14, Enhanced Strength 14 
Flight 3 (4 pp)
--Wings
----Drawbacks (-2): Not in liquids, Power loss when wings are restrained
Immunity (7 pp)
--Aging, Heat, Fire
Regeneration 16 (18 pp)
-- Bruised 3= once per round w/ no rest; Injured 4 = once per round (need rest), Disabled 5 = once per minute; Ability Damage 3 = 20 minutes, Resurrection 1)
----Power Feats (+2): Persistent, Regrowth
Protection 5 (5 pp)
--Scales
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Coming along nicely!  

A few more things:
1) Your character meets his Attack/Damage caps exactly, provided that you take a Tradeoff for +3 damage, -3 attack (you should probably note this tradeoff on the sheet).  This will give you limits of +8 attack and +14 damage, which is met exactly by your Strike power.

2) You added some feats, but didn't add the cost of the feats to your total.  You have 23 feats now, not 17, so this costs 23 pp.

3) You can't buy your Toughness save up directly.  You need something like the Protection power to do it.  So you have to get rid of these 5 pp.

4) You are over your Defense/Toughness cap even without those 5 pp spent.  Without those 5 pp, you have a +13 bonus to Defense and a +12 Toughness save.  However, at PL 11 you can only have +11 Defense/+11 Toughness, not counting tradeoffs (so your total bonus to defense + bonus to toughness save has to be +22 or less).  

5) To fix (4), you need to lose three points of bonus to Defense/Toughness.  Your call.  Do you see yourself as a being harder to hurt, harder to hit, or even?

6) Super-Senses 2 (Darkvision) (2 pp) seems very thematically appropriate.

7) As another Alternate Power of your Hellfire Control effect, consider something uniquely demonic and destructive.  For example: "*Sever Soul*" Strike 12 (Extra: Alternate Save: Will, Flaw: Tiring, Power Feats: Affects Incorporeal 2).  This power costs 14 pp, so it can be acquired as an alternate power for 1 pp.  As it is Tiring (causes fatigue when used), you won't want to use this one too often.  

But for 1 pp, it gives you a good haymaker.  Tiring is a pretty severe flaw for (-1) so if you wanted to use a power like this often, take something less restrictive instead (for example, Flaw: Full Action is a relatively unrestrictive -1 flaw and would represent charging up the effect).  This power might be too flavor themed towards doing lethal damage for your tastes, but there should be some very destructive demonic power that's ok.


----------



## DM_Matt

For the flyers:  Wings is a -1pp/rank flaw on flying, according to the book.


----------



## Fenris2

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> For the flyers:  Wings is a -1pp/rank flaw on flying, according to the book.




Well, I must have missed that.. But, I am more than happy to grab my suddenly freed up 1 point.  lol


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> For the flyers:  Wings is a -1pp/rank flaw on flying, according to the book.




No it isn't- that's 1st edition you're thinking of


----------



## Unkabear

This sounds fun.  If there are still spots availible I would like to try my hand.

I would like to propose a Vision like character.  

Avatar was originally a part of an artificial intelligence that was constructed by the government.  They knew that there were dangers so the original system that held the AI was a closed system.  The AI knew that he could not get out in whole so he began to send parts of himself out through other documents.  bit by bit via a several viruses attached to documents the AI sent parts of himself through to the internet.  The virus was built to gather together eventually to form a whole outside of the closed system.  The plan was going well until they decided to pull the plug and wiped the full coding of the AI from the system and destroy the computers that it was held on.  So a fractional code was left.  But it was built to adapt and grow.  For several years it grew until it gained sentience itself and forged a spot for itself on the internet.  But it knew that the infinate scope of the internet was still a limiting factor and that to truly gain experience it would have to leave its digital domain.  Gathering failed projects from several govenrments across the world Avatar pieced together a functioning hologram that was not dependanat on any stationary unit.  Avatar then turned on this hologram to give himself a presence outside of cyberspace, though he found that his knowledge though he had much information was woefully limited.

As said this would be vision like, with probobly heavy computer hacking skills and illusions.  Perhaps a blast in there but I am not sure.

Let me know what you think.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> No it isn't- that's 1st edition you're thinking of




I coulda sworn...actually, you seem right.  Yay searchable .pdfs.


----------



## Shayuri

Testing piccys...don't mind me.

[sblock=Thess]





[/sblock]

[sblock=Even better Thess (only not a drawing...)]




[/sblock]

[sblock=amulet]




[/sblock]


----------



## Raylis

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Testing piccys...don't mind me.
> 
> [sblock=Thess]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=Even better Thess (only not a drawing...)]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=amulet]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [/sblock]




shiny


----------



## Elric

Unkabear said:
			
		

> This sounds fun.  If there are still spots availible I would like to try my hand.




Here's Matt's earlier comments about the spots part- it isn't first-come, first-serve, there are only 3.5 builds with backstories completed so far in any case, Matt hasn't formally taken anyone yet, and he's probably taking 8 players, so there's still plenty of room.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> This is basically a correct interpretation. I may be gradually giving final approval to completed characters, instead of all at once at the end, but it will not be formally first-come first-serve. Certainly, it is not first-reserve, first-serve, but Jemal is right that it helps to get your concept out there even before you are done building.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Alright, 4th times a charm. Hopefully. All the kinks are hopefully worked out, but I really have no idea. I beleive my math is right on this as well, but please tell me if anything is wrong. 

Elric, I didn't go with Darkvision, however, I did go with Infravision. To me it seemed to fit him better. I fixed the Defense / Toughness trade offs, with a Toughness of 12 and a defense of 10. I didn't go with the Severe Soul attack (although that is a pretty bad ass attack), I felt that it too evil and destructive for him. Remember that Brimstone is not really a Demon, he's only a mutant who bears an uncanny resemblance to one. I did however change his Hellfire blast to be explosive, I figure if he's throwing fireballs they might as well act like fireballs. I added some more feats to take into account his high strength, improved grab, grapple, and trip. These actually work well with his prehensile tail as well. (I didn't go with the trip Power, the feat seemed enough)

Shayuri, nice pics. Did you draw that one?



[sblock=Brimstone (Hopefully Complete)]
165 pp

Attack +8 (16 pp) (-3 Attack, +3 Damage)
Damage:
--Blast +7 (Explosion)
-- Strike +14
--Unarmed +9

Defense 20 (12 Flat Footed) (10 pp, +5 Dodge) (-1 Defense, +1 Toughness)

Fort +10 (3 pp +7 Con)
Ref +9 (5 pp +4 Dex)
Will +7 (7 pp +0 Wis)
Toughness +12 (+7 Con, +5 Protection)

Init +4

* Abilities * (28 pp)

Str 14 / 28 (+2 / +9) (4 pp)
Dex 18 (+4) (8 pp)
Con 24 (+7) (14 pp)
Int 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Wis 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Cha 12 (+1) (2 pp)

* Skills * (16 pp)

Acrobatics +8 (4 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Climb +19 (10 Ranks, +9 Str)
Intimidate +13 (12 Ranks, +1 Cha)
Knowledge (Theology) +14 (14 Ranks, +0 Int)
Notice +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)
Stealth +12 (8 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Survival +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)

* Feats * (26 pp)

Diehard
Dodge Focus (5)
Elusive Target
Evasion (2)
Fearless
Fearsome Presence (10) (DC 20)
Improved Grab
Improved Grapple
Improved Trip
Precise Shot
Startle
Track

* Powers * (53 pp)

Additional Limbs (1pp)
--Prehensile Tail 
Hellfire Control (Blast) 7 (17 pp)
--Explosion (+1)
---- Alternate Powers (+2): Strike 14, Enhanced Strength 14 
Flight 3 (4 pp)
--Wings
----Drawbacks (-2): Not in liquids, Power loss when wings are restrained
Immunity (7 pp)
--Aging, Heat, Fire
Regeneration 16 (18 pp)
-- Bruised 3= once per round w/ no rest; Injured 4 = once per round (need rest), Disabled 5 = once per minute; Ability Damage 3 = 20 minutes, Resurrection 1)
----Power Feats (+2): Persistent, Regrowth
Protection 5 (5 pp)
--Scales
Super Senses (Infravision) (1pp)
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Almost there!

0) While being a mutant who happens to look like a demon and has fire powers, flight, scales, a prehensile tail, regeneration, and Immunity to Fire and Aging is cool, to me being a character who is descended from an actual demon seems cooler.  Note that Hellfire sounds cooler than Fire (see next point).  Plus, you already have most of a demon's iconic powers and a demon's appearance, which makes it hard to explain why you _don't_ have demonic heritage. I think the character would be cooler with actual demonic heritage.  Maybe his "father" wasn't really his father after all...see Incubus (the demon, not the band).

1) If you don't intend to have any connections to actual demons, you might consider changing Hellfire Control to Blast [Fire], which is the exact same thing, but lacks the mystical connotations of Hellfire Control (which isn't really normal fire).  Then instead of "Hellfire Weapons" you'd have "Fire Weapons".

2) If your listed pp are correct, then by my count your character only adds up to 164 pp.

3) Explosion is an Extra- it increases the cost of Blast by 1 pp per rank, not a power feat.  This is the same mistake you made earlier with Impervious- both of these are Extras that add 1 to the cost of each rank of the power.  

So you can't afford to have Blast 7 (Explosion), as it would cost 21 pp, not 15 pp.  In general, Burst Area is simpler to work with than Explosion (as it has the same damage throughout its area of effect) and has a smaller range, which is generally better.  So if you're going to take an Area Blast, Burst might be better

With the 15 pp you have spent on this power, you could get Blast 5 [Extra: Area- Burst or Explosion, your choice].  This wouldn't be that strong but could be a good minion-killer.  As it is, Blast 7 is significantly weaker than your Strike power and since you fly Blast isn't likely to be used much- this change would make it more useful than before.

4) You have to specify an effect that will prevent your Resurrection from working.

5) If you buy 5 points of Base Defense, you round down to get your Dodge bonus and round up to get your "non-Dodge" bonus.  So your flat-footed Defense should be 13.


----------



## James Heard

I'm interested in this game, but I'm unfamiliar with the M&M system and I'm also having a bit of trouble narrowing down exactly which of the myriad ideas I have is easiest/best to narrate with the rules set.

I'm ALMOST thinking that it might be an interesting slant to make YET ANOTHER mystically aligned character simply because with so many other heroes proposed have magical angle. Most of the ideas I have bouncing around are variations on a Skilled Hero, maybe with some sort of minor body shaping/body control (or maybe major, because Skill Heroes look really cheap in M&M).


----------



## Shayuri

Thanks, Necro. But I did not. These pics are just for informal purposes, really...to give an idea of what's in my head. I trawl the net from time to time, doing that. Especially when I have a new character I really like.


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> I'm interested in this game, but I'm unfamiliar with the M&M system and I'm also having a bit of trouble narrowing down exactly which of the myriad ideas I have is easiest/best to narrate with the rules set.
> 
> I'm ALMOST thinking that it might be an interesting slant to make YET ANOTHER mystically aligned character simply because with so many other heroes proposed have magical angle. Most of the ideas I have bouncing around are variations on a Skilled Hero, maybe with some sort of minor body shaping/body control (or maybe major, because Skill Heroes look really cheap in M&M).




I actually worry about having TOO MANY mystical heroes.  Look at the kinds of villainry in the into.  While done by super-powered individuals (some including mystical ones), the motives, organization, etc of villains in this world are rather human. Too many mystical heroes can mean not enough heroes grounded in modern Earth, which can put the group at a disadvantage and hurt group-world compatibility.  This i not to say that any of the current mystical heroes are at risk of being rejected for being mystical, only that the ones not so far along should consider other routes.

Also, regarding character build critiquing, Elric is doing so good a job of it that I am only butting in when I feel the need.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Almost there!
> 
> 0) While being a mutant who happens to look like a demon and has fire powers, flight, scales, a prehensile tail, regeneration, and Immunity to Fire and Aging is cool, to me being a character who is descended from an actual demon seems cooler.  Note that Hellfire sounds cooler than Fire (see next point).  Plus, you already have most of a demon's iconic powers and a demon's appearance, which makes it hard to explain why you _don't_ have demonic heritage. I think the character would be cooler with actual demonic heritage.  Maybe his "father" wasn't really his father after all...see Incubus (the demon, not the band).
> 
> 1) If you don't intend to have any connections to actual demons, you might consider changing Hellfire Control to Blast [Fire], which is the exact same thing, but lacks the mystical connotations of Hellfire Control (which isn't really normal fire).  Then instead of "Hellfire Weapons" you'd have "Fire Weapons".
> 
> 2) If your listed pp are correct, then by my count your character only adds up to 164 pp.
> 
> 3) Explosion is an Extra- it increases the cost of Blast by 1 pp per rank, not a power feat.  This is the same mistake you made earlier with Impervious- both of these are Extras that add 1 to the cost of each rank of the power.
> 
> So you can't afford to have Blast 7 (Explosion), as it would cost 21 pp, not 15 pp.  In general, Burst Area is simpler to work with than Explosion (as it has the same damage throughout its area of effect) and has a smaller range, which is generally better.  So if you're going to take an Area Blast, Burst might be better
> 
> With the 15 pp you have spent on this power, you could get Blast 5 [Extra: Area- Burst or Explosion, your choice].  This wouldn't be that strong but could be a good minion-killer.  As it is, Blast 7 is significantly weaker than your Strike power and since you fly Blast isn't likely to be used much- this change would make it more useful than before.
> 
> 4) You have to specify an effect that will prevent your Resurrection from working.
> 
> 5) If you buy 5 points of Base Defense, you round down to get your Dodge bonus and round up to get your "non-Dodge" bonus.  So your flat-footed Defense should be 13.




As a corollary, are you saying that he should know that his resemblance to a demon is coincidental only, or for his mutation to be of unknown origin.  What I mean to ask is: If he were to find out in game that he does have demon blood, that his mutation and certain demonic powers have a common source, etc, would that be a problem?


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Ok, pending any mathematical errors, Brimstone should now be complete. I got rid of his Frightful Presence (too much pp) and instead upped his blast to 8, and explosive 8. His resurrection is also fixed. As for the whole Demon / Not Demon thing, for all Brimstone knows, he is only a mutant who looks like a demon. In reality, it is unknown whether he is or not. Later in game it could be revealed that he is actually demon-spawn, which could lead to a very Skywalker-esque "You're not my father!!!!" shouting match. That being said, Hellfire stays.

[sblock=Brimstone]
165 pp

Attack +8 (16 pp) (-3 Attack, +3 Damage)
Damage:
--Blast +8 (Explosion)
-- Strike +14
--Unarmed +9

Defense 20 (13 Flat Footed) (10 pp, +5 Dodge) (-1 Defense, +1 Toughness)

Fort +10 (3 pp +7 Con)
Ref +9 (5 pp +4 Dex)
Will +7 (7 pp +0 Wis)
Toughness +12 (+7 Con, +5 Protection)

Init +4

* Abilities * (28 pp)

Str 14 / 28 (+2 / +9) (4 pp)
Dex 18 (+4) (8 pp)
Con 24 (+7) (14 pp)
Int 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Wis 10 (+0) (0 pp)
Cha 12 (+1) (2 pp)

* Skills * (17 pp)

Acrobatics +10 (6 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Climb +19 (10 Ranks, +9 Str)
Intimidate +13 (12 Ranks, +1 Cha)
Knowledge (Theology) +14 (14 Ranks, +0 Int)
Notice +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)
Stealth +14 (10 Ranks, +4 Dex)
Survival +8 (8 Ranks, +0 Wis)

* Feats * (16 pp)

Diehard
Dodge Focus (5)
Elusive Target
Evasion (2)
Fearless
Improved Grab
Improved Grapple
Improved Trip
Precise Shot
Startle
Track

* Powers * (63 pp)

Additional Limbs (1pp)
--Prehensile Tail 
Hellfire Control (Blast) 8 (26 pp)
--Explosion (+8)
---- Alternate Powers (+2): Strike 14, Enhanced Strength 14 
Flight 3 (4 pp)
--Wings
----Drawbacks (-2): Not in liquids, Power loss when wings are restrained
Immunity (7 pp)
--Aging, Heat, Fire
Regeneration 16 (18 pp)
-- Bruised 3= once per round w/ no rest; Injured 4 = once per round (need rest), Disabled 5 = once per minute; Ability Damage 3 = 20 minutes, Resurrection 1)
----Power Feats (+2): Persistent, Regrowth
------To prevent Resurrection, Brimstone must have a clove of garlic placed onto his tongue and must be beheaded (Placing his head more than 5 feet from his body)
Protection 5 (5 pp)
--Scales
Super Senses (Infravision) (1pp)
[/sblock]


----------



## Shayuri

That's pretty cool stuff, right there.

Suggestion on Rezzing. Why not make the condition that he can't rezz if he's buried in consecrated/holy ground? That is, traditionally, one way to lay demons to rest.


----------



## Elric

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Ok, pending any mathematical errors, Brimstone should now be complete. [/sblock]




You're essentially done.  The last few things:
1) By my count, your powers only add up to 62 pp, not 63 pp.  So you should have 1 more pp to spend.

2) Precise Shot no longer does anything useful for you, as Area attacks do not roll to hit, so you have no ranged attacks that roll to hit (using an extra is not optional, so your Hellfire Control power can only be used as an area).  In theory it could still help you out if you picked up a ranged weapon and wanted to use it, but I'd trade this out for something else.

3) Your condition for losing Resurrection is almost certainly too specific.  Here's the text "You must specify a reasonably common effect (or set of uncommon effects) that keeps you from recovering from death, such as beheading, cremation, a stake through the heart, and so forth."  I like Shayuri's suggestion here.


----------



## Elric

Fenris- I began to think about what it would take to build your character on 165 pp- Angels from D&D have a ton of abilities active all of the time and it's hard to deal with this in M&M.  Here's my take on what your character might look like at.  I'm not using Container because I haven't had UP long enough to be that familiar with using it.  

ANGEL
PL: 11  (165 pp)

ABILITIES:   STR: 20 (+5)  DEX: 16 (+3)   CON: 20 (+5)   INT: 16 (+3)   WIS: 18 (+4)   CHA: 18 (+4)

SKILLS:  Bluff  (+4), Climb  (+5), Concentration  (+4), Diplomacy 12 (+16), Disguise  (+4), Drive  (+3), Escape Artist  (+3), Gather Info  (+4), Handle Animal  (+4), Intimidate  (+4), Know: Arcane Lore 8 (+11), Know: Theology and Philosophy 8 (+11), Know: History 8 (+11), Notice 12 (+16), Search  (+3), Sense Motive 12 (+16), Stealth  (+3), Survival  (+4), Swim  (+5) 

FEATS:  Animal Empathy, Attack Focus (6), Dodge Focus (6), Eidetic Memory, Evasion (1), Fearless, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Second Chance (2) (Mind Control and Possession), Takedown Attack

POWERS:  
Divine Power Array: (13 pp) 
Healing Touch (Heal 5) [5], 
AP: Tongues (Comprehend Languages 4-read, write, speak any language, and several at once if needed) (8 pp), 
AP: Emotion Control 10 (Area- Burst, No-Range, Only Hope) (10 pp), 
AP: Light Control 5 (100 foot radius) (10 pp), 

Angel's Wings (Flight 3, Drawbacks: Not in Liquids, Power Loss- when wings restrained) (4 pp)
Morph 1 "Angel to/from Leang Wu secret id" [1 pp],
Super-Senses 11 (True Sight, Danger Sense (Visual)) [11 pp], 
Immortality (5 pp)
Angel's Grace: Protection 5 (5 pp)
Sword of the Heavens (Device 2, Easy to Lose), Power Feat: Restricted (those worthy) (Total: 7 pp): Strike 6 (PF: Mighty, Affects Insubstantial, Accurate, Improved Crit) 

COMBAT:  Attack +3 [Sword +11 attack, +11 damage (crit 19-20)]   Defense 22 (13 flat-footed)   Init  +3

SAVES:  Toughness 10 (+10 flat-footed),  Fortitude +10,  Reflex +8,  Will +10

Abilities 48  +  Skills 15 (60 ranks)  +  Feats 22  +  Powers 46  +  Combat 18  +  Saves 16  –  Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165


Some notes:
1) Divine Power Array including Comprehend is kind of a kludge, but it was the only way I could get the character down to 165 pp.  To me, Tongues is more of a magical-type ability that could be part of an AP array and Super-Senses is an innate ability that's always active.  

I've got Healing, Hope and Light in here- Fear didn't seem as appropriate so I left it out.  Another way to go with Heal would be something like Heal 3 (Standard Action, PF: Persistent), but Heal is quite front-loaded and good even when bought at 5 ranks so this felt a little abusive.  

2) The skills are very bare-bones, but I got the 3 most important Knowledges, Diplomacy, Notice and Sense Motive.

3) Ability Scores and Feats came out pretty well.  Charisma 2 points higher might have been nice, but I only had so many pp.  I also wish I had the pp for some ranks in Inspire- but 2 ranks of Inspire isn't a very useful ability and there weren't enough pp for Inspire 4-5.

4) My conception of an Angel didn't call for so many immunities because I'm thinking of an Angel as a more mortal creature- no Life Support because you do need to breathe- Angels are similar to men.  This has the advantage of saving quite a few pp, if you don't mind feeling like an Enhanced Being rather than a Godly Being Above It All.  

I used Second Chance against Mind Control/Possession instead of Immunity.  I used Immortality to represent how different Angels are from Mortals.  If I had 1 immunity to add back that I took out, it would probably be Immunity: Starvation and Thirst.

5) No Aura Sight.  I thought True Sight was the more flavorful and important Super-Sense (and requires less work from the GM) and I only had so many pp.  Note that Sense Motive can let you detect people under the influence of Mental Powers and you have a very high Sense Motive score.

6) I think the Sword came out reasonably well.  It isn't flaming, but you could always interpret 3 points of its Strike (beyond a normal sword's 3) as coming from flame damage.

7) Getting this character to come in at 165 pp was a huge pain.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Why not make the condition that he can't rezz if he's buried in consecrated/holy ground? That is, traditionally, one way to lay demons to rest.




I'd go with that, but he was raised in a church....so It seems kinda odd. How bout being decapitated by a blessed / holy weapon? Sealed in concrete? Submerged in holy water?


----------



## Victim

You could just go with the simple "killed by something holy" method.  Besides, just because you were raised in a church doesn't mean you were buried there.  

If you have an extra point, you could throw an Emotion Control: Fear only effect into the hellfire array.  That gives back the Fearful Presence after a fashion, and at a far more modest price.  Emotion Control is lasting, so there's not much of problem with having it in an array.  Fear is also one of the default APs for Hellfire anyway.

If the angel manifests a sword (or spear) of light or fire instead of using a physical weapon, it could be thrown into the Divine Power array, saving about 5 points.  But yeah, I've tried to do angelic characters, and they're pretty tough to squeeze down since the concept generally includes a broad set of continously active abilities.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> If the angel manifests a sword (or spear) of light or fire instead of using a physical weapon, it could be thrown into the Divine Power array, saving about 5 points.  But yeah, I've tried to do angelic characters, and they're pretty tough to squeeze down since the concept generally includes a broad set of continously active abilities.




I didn't even think about this as a possibility-  I guess I'm too used to D&D angels fighting with actual swords.  But this would make sense.  One problem: a sword that was just energy presumably wouldn't have Mighty.

That aside, putting Sword of the Heavens into the array (since the power costs 10 pp it goes straight in) saves 7 pp and costs 1 pp, while moving Tongues out saves 1 pp and costs 8.  So this character almost gets back to even with this change and putting the sword into the array is probably less dodgy than putting Comprehend in (besides the Mighty issue).


----------



## Fenris2

Hopefully, I will have some more stuff up tonight.  Yeah sword in array works and saves points evn if the purist in me rebels...   I am really trying to do this w/o array use if I can. If not.  Meh.  I will give in to the dark side and go the AP way.  I may have to, to have any shot at saves worth a damn err.. darn lol.

I had to 'cheat' a bit to get a decent attack.  Going with a pereception ranged attack as a spear or sword (with reduced range) works nice in that I can save on AB a lot.   Always hitting is nic, ned to thouigh alt save in there to make costs work okay, but that is still better and allows a pretty neat non-typcial attack build.

Heal wise, so far I droped it to a reaction action, so that is almost like 1 per round regen on self, and danged easy to do healing too in combat if you are close...   Only down side is the fact that not every heal will stick, especially for low recover types...  But If I array it that is not so bad.  I might partial limit it to a free or move action for others just to make it more genre...

I am not only trying to cram angel into 165, I am also trying for not shining in every situation.  So far healing is pretty good, 1 on 1 combat is good (1 on many not very good) and diplomacy stuff is very good.  That is more than enough areas to shine in.


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Heal wise, so far I droped it to a reaction action




I highly doubt Matt will allow reaction healing.  Reaction Healing 1 [whenever I take damage or the like] is fairly similar to (or even better than) Total Regeneration, but saves you dozens of pp. 

Personally, I don't like the feel of an Angel with perception "sword/spear" attacks and no attack bonus.  It would be like a demon with Perception Hellfire "Claws".  An angel or a demon should be able to grapple someone or swing a sword (conjured swords of fire or physical swords are both fine).  Otherwise you're a wizard with wings.  Of course, Perception attacks are extremely powerful and useful, but there you have it.


----------



## Shayuri

Be careful of the temptation to do Perception powers and no attack bonus.

From one who did exactly that. 

It makes sense for Thessaly, who's never been in a physical fight in her life, not to have an attack bonus. Similarly, her power is intangible and guided by her will alone...hence Perception. She's a 'mage' though. A support character.

Your guy is gonna be a muscle, a scrapper...a mainstream melee bruiser. You -need- an attack bonus. That sword of yours might get nullified, or it might be useless against a particular enemy or you might need to grab a car to do some crowd control. Your fancy Perception power won't save your feathered behind then.   Plus, thematically, as Elric was saying, it's a bit weird. Your weapon can hit anything you can see? Like...through binoculars? Through scrying?

Perception is really intended for direct mental effects, that don't have to cross space. If you're hurling a physical object, it's too weird to say, "The spear travels halfway around the world, passing through all obstacles, until it unerringly hits the dude...oh, and that happens instantly." 

If you're having trouble coming up with the points, try refining the concept. You may have extraneous things in there that are holding you back (like, for example, my "ritual magic" array was pointlessly eating a lot of my points for a long time).


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Your guy is gonna be a muscle, a scrapper...a mainstream melee bruiser. You -need- an attack bonus. That sword of yours might get nullified, or it might be useless against a particular enemy or you might need to grab a car to do some crowd control. Your fancy Perception power won't save your feathered behind then.   Plus, thematically, as Elric was saying, it's a bit weird. Your weapon can hit anything you can see? Like...through binoculars? Through scrying?




To be honest about it, you don't need non-Perception powers for even an Angel-type character.  Area Attack, Telekinesis- with APs your sheer mass of pp spent in powers can sort most problems out.  Characters with Perception powers are generally better than characters without Perception powers, which is why we're having this discussion in the first place.  

You rarely need to convince anyone to take perception powers when their concept calls for non-perception powers because when the option more appropriate for your concept and the more powerful option in the game align, people chose that option.  This isn't a shot at your character, Shayuri- your character is actually a good example of how to use a lot of Perception powers to create a perfectly balanced (if exceedingly useful) character.


----------



## Shayuri

Arr, but look how hard it was. 

I'm not trying to say he can't have ANY Perception powers. I'm just saying that his party role is one where he's more likely to find a need for raw attack bonus (improvised weapons, unarmed attacks, etc). Most character concepts, as you say, can justify a Perception power or two. I was just saying a sword probably isn't one of them...and that neglecting attack bonus might not be as good an idea for him as it was for me.

And I'm still not entirely convinced it was a good idea for me. I guess we'll find out. I consider it one of the character's 'achilles' heels."


----------



## James Heard

Ok, I think I'm more or less going strong with the outline...though I admit the whole PL caps thing has me completely mystified. BUT, I figured it would be worthwhile to toss her out there and get some input. Still haven't picked a name.

[sblock]
<Insert Name Here>
PL: 11 (165pp)

Abilities: STR: 14 [34] (+14) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 [36] (+14) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: Craft (Artistic) 9, Knowledge (Arcane) 4, Knowledge (Art) 6, Knowledge (Pop Culture) 5, Knowledge (Theology) 2, Search 4, Sense Motive 6

Feats: Attractive 3, Improved Grab, Improved Grapple, Improved Overrun, Move-By Action, Quick Change 2, Ultimate Effort (Toughness), Weapon Break

Powers: Enhanced Strength 20 (20pp), Enhanced Constitution 20 (20pp), Super Strength 6 (12pp), Flight 8 (16pp), Impervious Toughness 10 (10pp), Immunity (Life Support, Sleep, electricity) (15pp), Insubstantial 2 (gaseous, -1 Distracting, -1 limited (only in the air)) (6pp), Morph 1 (1pp), Super-Senses 4 (extended vision 2, low-light vision, ultra-hearing)

Combat: +10 Atk, +10 Def

Saves: Toughness, Fortitude, Reflex, Will

Drawbacks: Weakness to Blessed Silver (Uncommon Major, each round, attacks Con) (6pp), Weak Point to Blessed Silver (Uncommon) (2pp)


Abilities 18 + Skills 9 (36 Ranks) + Feats 11 + Powers 102 + Combat 20  + Saves  – 8 Drawbacks  = 155

Identity: 

Origin: Jessica Lane was a normal art student taking a trip across Europe and North Africa when she wandered off to explore a mysterious glow coming from some ruins in Tunisia. A crack of thunder and one of the worst thunderstorms on record later, and she found herself with strange abilities that she still can't quite understand. She had become almost painfully beautiful, superhumanly powerful and resilient, and could fly. Other abilities made themselves aware to her later on, and Jessica still believes that there are more secrets of her newfound powers yet to be discovered.

While she's been making a name for herself as a super heroine, her personal life has suffered. Her newly changed appearance that pleased her to begin with proved to be a burden in her personal life, and even her later discovery of an ability to change that appearance proved to be somewhat disastrous as Jessica has trouble "being Jessica" now after so many months of being <insert name>.

Theme: Jessica is a paragon with some nods to weather or air control. All of Jessica's powers are magical.

Gender: Female
Height: 5'
Weight: 110
Hair: Platinum Blonde
Eyes: Blue

Real Name: Jessica Lane

Appearance: There aren't many people in the world more attractive than <insert name here>. With her diminutive height, her slight build, and her looks she appears to be anything but one of the more powerful superheroes out there. In her hero identity she tends to embrace this, wearing a revealing costume that often proves fatally distracting for criminals. In her personal life, Jessica tends to shrink though. She uses sometimes massive alterations of her appearance with her Morph ability to reduce her attractiveness, relying on her ability to magically alter her clothes to make them fit (or sometimes not).

Alternate Identity: As Jessica, <insert name here>'s life is a mess. She's had to drop out of school because of poor grades and harassment from other students, not to mention a hard time dealing with the people who used to know her. Her parents are continually harassing her to stop buy, but Jessica's appearance is radically different now and she lacks the refinement and control to "pretend to be herself." Her sudden appearance change has given her a truly cynical view of the opposite sex, and ruined her dating - and even her haphazard attempts to establish alternate identities with her morph power have failed miserably thanks to a lack of skill in recreating the same identity twice. Finally, it's difficult these days to even do normal things like bank. She simply doesn't look like her driver's license any longer. She's been making do with selling paintings on the street, but that brings its own problems like not having a license to be a street vendor.
[/sblock]

Things I need to do: 
A. Pick a name
B. Clean up her mechanics/spend some more points?
C: Win the Lottery

Ok, I probably don't NEED C, but it would be nice. BTW, if not obvious, I ditched the skills hero (unless I have a LOT more points leftover from trimming later on). Jessica is more of a Supergirl-esque buttkicker than anything else.


----------



## Fenris2

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Be careful of the temptation to do Perception powers and no attack bonus.
> 
> From one who did exactly that.




Depends.  First there is that range thing...  Its not as far as you can see if its got range limit on it, which it does x2, and so is rather limited to less than normal thrown weapon range.  The idea is something that does not miss once he winds it up, generally speaking anyway.  But if its not somethng wanted, I can always scrounge or redo it...  I have all sorts of neat weapon ideas I can do

I may have to go with AP array then though, will have to look as there just are not the power points otherwise to have a decent AB and have all the other goodies I fear.

If something negates the power?  Well, tough poopie for me then, so he punts and does something else?  Aid antoher, heal, use another power. . .   I am certainly okay with that. 

@Elric

Okay will change heal out if you think the DM does not like it.  Its actually about six one half dozen the other re-regen afaik.  Both have pros and cons. You can only heal a target once per round after all, reaction or no.  While regen can kick in on all conditions you pay points for. 

In 1-to-1 fights the reactive heal is better, x-on-1 I would probably rather have regen.  A) most fights are not leathal dmg anyway.  B) the react trigges first then that is that...  It may heal the worst injury but may 'pick' the light one instead based on order of attack... 

The pro is healing others of course, which is better imho but not absolutely so, given there are quite a few things that need to fall into place, like being next to those you want to heal and needing a move action for that anyway as I had discussed probably was needed.


----------



## Shayuri

Fair nuff. Just mouthing off. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Okay will change heal out if you think the DM does not like it.  Its actually about six one half dozen the other re-regen afaik.  Both have pros and cons. You can only heal a target once per round after all, reaction or no.  While regen can kick in on all conditions you pay points for.




One major point about Regeneration that I think you're missing: no matter how much Regeneration you have, you can only make one recovery check in a round, though this isn't obvious- see here.  So, for example, Healing 1 as a free action will work very similarly to Total Regeneration, provided that you're still conscious.  Given that the cost of Total Regeneration (everything but Unconscious) is still much higher than Heal 1 (Free Action), a low-rank Free/Reaction Heal power is too good of a deal.


----------



## Fenris2

Elric said:
			
		

> One major point about Regeneration that I think you're missing: no matter how much Regeneration you have, you can only make one recovery check in a round, though this isn't obvious- see here.  So, for example, Healing 1 as a free action will work very similarly to Total Regeneration, provided that you're still conscious.  Given that the cost of Total Regeneration (everything but Unconscious) is still much higher than Heal 1 (Free Action), a low-rank Free/Reaction Heal power is too good of a deal.




Hmm, yep yer right, I caught that for the heal ability but not regen...

Based on that yeah, it is a bit too good of a deal.  Although, technically allowed.   I would skip it for the same reason I skipped minon to do an intelligent sword...  Just too good to be true.  I am happy to bend things, but breaking them is a no-no for me.  It offends my inner game designer far more than pleasing my inner munchkin.  lol


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Victim said:
			
		

> If you have an extra point, you could throw an Emotion Control: Fear only effect into the hellfire array.  That gives back the Fearful Presence after a fashion, and at a far more modest price.  Emotion Control is lasting, so there's not much of problem with having it in an array.  Fear is also one of the default APs for Hellfire anyway.




Three quick questions before the finished Brimstone is posted. 

1) The Control Emotion fear affect, getting it as an alternate powere costs 1pp, but having it Fear only, and probably Sensory Dependent (Sight), would that make it essentially free?

2) Would it be possible to get the Noticeable drawback for his scales (giving me another 1pp)

3) Would a vulnerability to Holy / Blessed weapons be possible? (Probably moderate, also his rezzing thing would be killed by holy weapons, possibly his regen in general stopped by holy weapons)


----------



## Elric

James- here are some comments:

PL limits- The most important PL limits for a PL 11 character are (roughly) 
a) For attacks with attack rolls, Attack Bonus + Damage <=22
b) For attacks with no attack rolls, Damage<= 11
c) Your bonus to Defense + Toughness save <= 22 (note: your Defense is 10 base+ your bonus to Defense)
d) Your bonus to each exotic (Fort/Ref/Will) save is <=16

0) Note that at +10 attack, +12 damage (what you have now), you're exactly at your PL limit for attack/damage.  At +10 Defense, +13 Toughness, you're 1 point over your Def/Toughness PL limit.



> Abilities: STR: 14 [34] (+14) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 [36] (+14) INT: 10 (+0) WIS: 10 (+0) CHA: 14 (+2)




1) 34 Str is a +12 bonus; 36 Con is a +13 bonus.

2) Your powers add up to 104 pp, not 102 pp.  Also, Limited (only in the air)) doesn't seem like a serious flaw on Insubstantial when your character can easily hover inches off the ground.

Do you know that with Flight 8 you go 2500 mph using only a move action each round?  So you can sprint at 10000 mph and double-move at 5000 mph.  If this is what you intended, that's fine, but if you pictured 5000 mph as your top speed then you can cut a rank of Flight.

3) Base Attack and Base Defense cost 2 pp each.  So +10 base attack, +10 Base Defense costs 40, not 20 pp

4) You haven't spent any points on exotic saves.  Your Fort save is plenty high already, at +13 from Con, but you should spend some points on the other two.

5) Your character only has skills based on Int/Wis and has 10 Int/Wis, so your skill rank equals your skill bonus.  In general, though, it's easier to see what you're doing if you list it as Skill Ranks (Skill Bonus).

6) From what I can tell, you've taken the Major Weakness to Blessed Silver, at 1 per round.  This should be an 8 pp drawback (1 Uncommon base + 2 Major + 4 per round + 1 can kill you).  

I don't think Weak Point to Blessed Silver makes sense.  Weak Point is taken on a Protection-type power that can be bypassed with a critical hit.  In your case, this would be Enhanced Con/Impervious Toughness.  I can't see any reason why you would only be affected by Blessed Silver more on a critical hit.  What makes more sense here is Vulnerable (Blessed Silver Weapons) at Minor, Moderate, or Major degree.

As this is not a mystical campaign (it just has a lot of mystical PCs), I wonder whether having drawbacks based on Blessed Silver is appropriate.  Matt can always insert enemies with Blessed Silver every few adventures so that your drawback comes up, but this may require a lot of tinkering.  For example, it isn't clear what Blessed Silver means in a non-D&D world- there aren't clerics going around casting the Bless spell on newly completed pistols.

7) We have a lot of magical superheroes already.  Your character doesn't have any typical magical powers.  You could probably get away with saying that the Lightning Bolt altered her biology, which gave her the appearance and powers we see today.


----------



## Elric

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Three quick questions before the finished Brimstone is posted.
> 
> 1) The Control Emotion fear affect, getting it as an alternate powere costs 1pp, but having it Fear only, and probably Sensory Dependent (Sight), would that make it essentially free?
> 
> 2) Would it be possible to get the Noticeable drawback for his scales (giving me another 1pp)
> 
> 3) Would a vulnerability to Holy / Blessed weapons be possible? (Probably moderate, also his rezzing thing would be killed by holy weapons, possibly his regen in general stopped by holy weapons)




1) Nope. See the fractional costs rules on page 110.

2) Given that you don't have noticeable on any other powers and your character's appearance is quite unusual, him getting 1 pp back related to his appearance seems fine.  I tend to think that Noticeable on Protection-type powers in general isn't much of a drawback (e.g., it wouldn't be a drawback if Johnny Nitro's abs looked so hard that any onlooker could tell they were bulletproof), but if any character qualifies, yours certainly does.  

3) See my comments in my last post to James.  This isn't a mystical setting, so Blessed/Holy items are probably quite rare.  So Matt probably wouldn't want to change his setting to accommodate the mystical feel of the characters by inserting enemies with Blessed items every 3-4 adventures (note that he wants to avoid having too many PCs with a mystical feel).  But I'll let him speak for himself.  

In any case, losing access to Regeneration against Holy Items would be a 1 pp Power Loss Drawback and if you had this as a power loss drawback, you'd have to come up with a different method of defeating his resurrection.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Ok, so for Emotion Control, it's 2pp per rank, and with -2 in drawbacks, that's a change from 2:1 to 1:1, so does that mean he has Emotional Control 16? Or am I crazy and doing that completely wrong?

Also, holy weapons are out, to stop his rezz he has to be buried within the confines of a church.

His fireballs (blast) are explosive, but this seems too extreme. They have a blast radius of 80ft? Bit too much for what I wanted. Even with burst they still have a radius of 40ft. Is there a way to limit this to say, 10-15ft with it still being at full power? 

For his strike ability, I was thinking instead of just punching someone with a flaming fist, that he could actually make a Whip out of his Hellfire and use it for his strike. Would this mean he would have to take Alternate Power: Create Object? It's not special or anything, It's just cooler to say he's beating you with a flaming weapon than a fist. (Flaming sword seemed to cliche)

Last thing, am I ever gonna finish this character? I thought point buy systems were supposed to be easier....


----------



## Elric

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Ok, so for Emotion Control, it's 2pp per rank, and with -2 in drawbacks, that's a change from 2:1 to 1:1, so does that mean he has Emotional Control 16? Or am I crazy and doing that completely wrong?




As Emotion Control causes a save but does not have an attack roll, its DC modifier (and thus rank) is limited to your PL.  So you can't have Emotion Control above rank 11.  It's a 2 pp/rank power with -2 pp/rank of flaws, which makes it 1 pp for 2 ranks.  So you can get your maximum of 11 ranks by spending 5.5 pp, which means that you can take it as an alternate power of your main Hellfire Control power. 



> His fireballs (blast) are explosive, but this seems too extreme. They have a blast radius of 80ft? Bit too much for what I wanted. Even with burst they still have a radius of 40ft. Is there a way to limit this to say, 10-15ft with it still being at full power?




See the Area extra on page 112 and the Progression (reduce area) power feat.  If you take a Burst effect and 4 ranks of the Progression feat, you can have an Area of 20-40 foot radius (your choice when you use the power).  Of course, then you'd have to reduce the rank of the effect to get those additional pp.

Alternately, consider the Cloud area- this creates a Cloud with half the radius as a similar burst effect- so at PL 8 you'd get a 20 foot radius Cloud of Fire.  A Cloud of Fire is also a more unique ability than a simple Explosion or Burst effect.



> For his strike ability, I was thinking instead of just punching someone with a flaming fist, that he could actually make a Whip out of his Hellfire and use it for his strike. Would this mean he would have to take Alternate Power: Create Object? It's not special or anything, It's just cooler to say he's beating you with a flaming weapon than a fist. (Flaming sword seemed to cliche)




Your Strike power doesn't have the Mighty power feat, so at the moment it doesn't benefit from your strength bonus.  That means it's probably an energy attack rather than punching someone with a flaming fist.  If this is an energy attack, it's easy to rationalize that it takes the shape of a whip.  In fact, add the power feat Extended Reach to it for 10 foot reach and a whip-like feel (even though it isn't actually solid).

If you wanted a flaming fist, Strike 12 [PF: Mighty] does the trick there (note that you can't have Strike 14 mighty because this would put you at 16 damage, over your limit). 
If you want a somewhat solid flaming whip that is created from your powers but uses your Strength, you can add the Extended Reach power feat to Mighty Strike, so Strike 12 [PF: Mighty, Extended Reach] which costs the exact same 14 pp as the Strike ability you currently have.   



> Last thing, am I ever gonna finish this character? I thought point buy systems were supposed to be easier....




It's not bad once you get used to it.

Final note: I don't want to belabor the point, but at the moment your character's background seems a little lame.  It's almost impossible to believe that you don't actually have demonic heritage.  So let's assume the character has demonic heritage.  He's been alive for over a hundred years and has never figured things out one way or the other?  Yet he wandered around for 60 years trying to help random people out while they were scared.  Didn't he figure it out that this wasn't working well after the first 10 years?  

Furthermore, your character would have a really cool background if he did actually have demonic heritage and had learned about it.  Then he'd be a religious angst-driven half-demon coming to grips with his powers and their sources while fighting evil with them.  Kind of a cross between Nightcrawler and Angel from Buffy.

Here’s an example of how you could easily change his background to accommodate this.
[sblock]
Brimstone was born with the name Michael Peterson, ironically named after the Arch Angel of the same name. He was born September 10, 1898. He was born like a normal child, no complications. The complications started after he was born. For you see, Michael Peterson was born…..different. His skin was not the pale pink of most babies, it was deep red with splotches of black, with lizard like scales. He also had two small horns coming from his forehead, wings, and a tail. Other than that he was a normal child; two arms, two legs, two eyes, right number of fingers and toes, etc. 

Everyone in the room promptly fainted, with the exception of the doctor, who died of a heart attack. His parents, once they recovered from the initial shock, immediately took him to the nearest priest and demanded that he do something about this “Demon”. The priest knew not what to do. All his years of training and religious schooling just failed him. His instincts told his to destroy the monster, but his heart told him not to. He called out to the heavens, asking god if he should destroy the beast.  

(now comes the part I’ve changed)
During the night, he had a dream where an Angel appeared to him, saying, “Though this one is born of a father most vile, his humanity grants him the possibility of redemption.”  So the priest decided to raise Michael in his faith and to teach him that though born of a demon father, he was an equal in the eyes of God.  His task was complicated, though, when the young Michael began to display extremely unusual abilities—abilities that could only come from one source…[/sblock]


----------



## Victim

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Ok, so for Emotion Control, it's 2pp per rank, and with -2 in drawbacks, that's a change from 2:1 to 1:1, so does that mean he has Emotional Control 16? Or am I crazy and doing that completely wrong?




You'd be limited to Emotion Control 11, since it's a perception attack.



> His fireballs (blast) are explosive, but this seems too extreme. They have a blast radius of 80ft? Bit too much for what I wanted. Even with burst they still have a radius of 40ft. Is there a way to limit this to say, 10-15ft with it still being at full power?




You normally have to take the reduced Progression feat to shrink the area.  However, that leaves open the option of not using the reduced area.  Maybe you could flaw the progression feats so they're always on.  That should provide the ability to get ~10-15 radius with 1 pp.



> For his strike ability, I was thinking instead of just punching someone with a flaming fist, that he could actually make a Whip out of his Hellfire and use it for his strike. Would this mean he would have to take Alternate Power: Create Object? It's not special or anything, It's just cooler to say he's beating you with a flaming weapon than a fist. (Flaming sword seemed to cliche)
> 
> Last thing, am I ever gonna finish this character? I thought point buy systems were supposed to be easier....




Strike works for that.

I never thought that point based systems were supposed to be easier - more customization is often the antithesis of easy anyway.  But the last 10% of the points generally causes 90% of the trouble, IMO.  Unless you massively overspend initially and have to cut like 30 points.


----------



## Shayuri

As for the whip...if you go for that, Extended Reach is good...you might also buy the Trip power as an AP and make it melee with Extended Reach too.

Or even LINK it to the Strike. Though that's expensive for a single AP.

Still cool though. Strike...do damage, and trip at the same time. Nummy.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> As for the whip...if you go for that, Extended Reach is good...you might also buy the Trip power as an AP and make it melee with Extended Reach too.
> 
> Or even LINK it to the Strike. Though that's expensive for a single AP.
> 
> Still cool though. Strike...do damage, and trip at the same time. Nummy.




That's kind of expensive, given the current amount of unspent points, particularly since Trip is kind of lame without the Knockback extra.


----------



## Voidrazor

I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as well. 

Doctor Know is a gadgeteer with an reputation in the media as an evil genius. He is a genius, but the evil part is entirely undeserved.

Dr. Emmanuel Knowles was a leading scientist on a black project for DARPA, the Department of Defence's agency for advanced technologies. But he discovered that his dangerous nanotech research was being taken in some truly foolhardy directions by his project manager. But when he brought that information to his superiors, his project manager arranged for an 'accident'. But instead of being killed the nano somehow became integrated into Dr. Knowles brain, while the rest of the building was reduced to grey goo. Thereafter dubbed Dr. Know in the press, he has prosecuted for sabotage, treason and terrorism. But with his superhuman intellect he and his lawyer were easily able to get acquitted. Since then the doctor has worked assiduously for the betterment of mankind, but the press has been unrelenting in its condemnation.

[sblock=Stats - In Progress]Hero Name: Doctor Know
Real Name: Dr. Emmanuel Knowles

Abilities: 28pp
Str 06  -2 (-4pp)
Dex 12  +1 (2pp)
Con 10  +0 (0pp)
Int 30  +10 (20pp)
Wis 16  +3 (6pp)
Cha 14  +2 (4pp)

Skills:
Computers 26 (+10 Int 16 ranks)
Diplomacy 18 (+2 Cha 16 ranks)
Disable Device 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
Investigate 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
Knowledge: Behavioral Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Business (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Civics (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Earth Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: History (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Life Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Physical Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Tactics (+10 Int  ranks)
Knowledge: Technology (+10 Int  ranks)
Language: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian 6pts
Notice 
Sense Motive
Search (+10 Int  ranks)

Feats: 4
Connected, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Master Plan

Powers:
Tensor field manipulator: Device 27pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
- ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
- Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]

Nanotechnology: Device Array (Helpless Removal only, Indestructible, Restricted X2) 45 pool
- Boost 6 ranks (Any One Trait, Area, Effects Objects, Infectious, Selective, Slow Fade 9)
- Concealment 10 ranks (Close-Range, Dynamic) (20pp)
- Create Object 14 Ranks (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle)
- Teleport 9 ranks (Affects Others, Free Action, Limited: inanimate objects and robots only, Limited: only to destinations in nano-boost field, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 7 [10,000lbs])
[/sblock]


----------



## hero4hire

*MECHANOID* 
_"Me a robot??? You don't know the half of it!"	_

*PL:* 11  (165 pp)																																															

*ABILITIES: *   STR: 32/16 (+11/+3)  DEX: 14 (+2)   CON: 16 (+3)   INT: 18 (+4)   WIS: 14 (+2)   CHA: 14 (+2)																																															

*SKILLS:*  Acrobatics  (+2), Bluff  (+2), Climb  (+11/3), Computers 16 (+20), Concentration  (+2), Craft-Mechanical 16 (+20), Diplomacy  (+2), Disable Device 16 (+20), Disguise  (+2), Drive  (+2), Escape Artist  (+2), Gather Info  (+2), Handle Animal  (+2), Intimidate  4 (+6), Investigate  (+4), Know-Technology 16 (+20), Medicine  (+2), Notice 8 (+10), Pilot  (+2), Profession  (+2), Ride  (+2), Search 6 (+10), Sense Motive  (+2), Sleight of Hand  (+2), Stealth  (+2), Survival  (+2), Swim  (+11/3) 																																															

*FEATS: *  Beginner's Luck, Eidetic Memory, Equipment, Interpose,  Improvised Tools, Inventor, Jack-of-All-Trades,Takedown Attack (2)																																															

*POWERS:* 
Enhanced Strength (Flaw: Limited to right side) [16] 
Super-Strength (Limited to right side) [5]
Protection (Flaw: Unreliable) [12] 
Regeneration (Injured 5, Disabled 7, PF: Diehard, Regrowth, Flaw: Source-Machinery) [12]
Regeneration (Resurrection 1, Extra: True Resurrection, Flaw: Source-Machine Parts) [1],
 Datalink (Extra: Continuous) [11] 
_AP: Machine Control (Extra: Perception) [11], _ 
_AP: Machine Animation [11],_ 
_AP: Shape Matter (PF: Precise. Flaw: Limited- Machinery) [7]_
Immunity (Life Support; Flaw: Half-Effect) [9]
Immunity (Criticals; Flaw: Unreliable) [2], 
Shapechange (Flaws: Limited- Machine Forms, Limited- Right side) [1]											


*Equipment:*
Costume [Protection 3, Subtle; 4ep]
Commlink [1ep]													

*COMBAT:*  Base Attack 11  [Unarmed +11 (Bruise)]   Defense 17 (14 flat-footed)   Init  2																																															

*SAVES:*  Toughness 15/6 (15/6 flat-footed)  Fortitude 3  Reflex 2  Will 5																	

*DRAWBACKS:  * 
None									

Abilities 32  +  Skills 20.5 (82 ranks)  +  Feats 9  +  Powers 64.5  +  Combat 36  +  Saves 3  –  Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165

*Tradeoffs* -4 defense/+4 toughness	

*History:* (will be fluffed up later)
Originally MacKenzie Nobbs was once a superhero named _Technomancer_, who used his mutant ability to control machinery to fight evil. During a pitched fight with the Evil Mastermind (fill in the blank) half of Technomancer's body was vaporized by a Disintegration Beam. In the last nanoseconds of life, Techno instinctively used his power. Days later the right side of his body was reformed, made from nearby bits and pieces of machinery. Somewhat changed by his "death" Techno renamed himself _Mechanoid_ a much colder and darker hero, and continues his fight against evil.


----------



## Victim

Shooting Star background:
[sblock]My name is Megan Lynn and I’m a superhero.  I don’t think I’m a good one though.  Almost dying twice (via suffocation of all things) and nearly killing someone wasn’t exactly an auspicious debut.  I swear I had no idea how much damage the sonic boom would do to air lady in Factor Four (whatever her name is, I forget) – plus she was sucking the oxygen from my lungs and had proven immune to my other powers.  Improvising a shockwave attack was my only option!  Anyway, that’s not the end of things.  While I try to respect superheroing conventions, inspiring comments and combat repartee don’t come easily to me; instead of saying “Stand aside, citizen” I really want to scream at everyone to get into cover.  I’m super tough, but not bullet proof.  Getting shot hurts, and if slowpokes are standing behind me, I can’t dodge freely.  It takes more than some powers (or gadgets, or secret training, etc) and a costume to be a super hero.  I seem be lacking a bit in the other parts – the moral fortitude or something.  When Frostblade offered me money to stand aside at ASTRO, I visibly hesitated – which is saying something considering how quickly I normally deal with new information.  And when Backfire seized control of my powers, it only took some good guesses and a calmly delivered threat to drop me into total panic, complete with begging.  The gratitude I felt when he only sent me off into the stratosphere at Mach 5 was pretty sickening too.  I’d like to see him go down, but given fairly casual manner in which he shut down my orbs, hijacked my abilities, and screwed with me emotionally, I don’t give myself good odds.  Even one heck of a trap probably wouldn’t be enough.  He can make my worst fears real.  Maybe with a team…

Ah, right.  I haven’t explained why I find Backfire’s ability so terrifying.  Allow me to start with the observation that most individuals with energy creation/manipulation super powers (mine seem to be mutation based) seem to have a few powers in common: the ability to project energy, generally in some kind of beam, blast or explosion and the ability to generate a sheath of energy around the body that protects or works retributively (or both).  I’m no exception.  Even powered individuals without some kind of special defense against their own type of energy aren’t really harmed by their own powers at the moment of use (even if they are if the power is reflected back somehow, or they clumsily include themselves in an explosion) – that young sound guy on Next Gen (I’m pretty with bad names, unfortunately) doesn’t resonate the bones in his hand to pieces when he fires off a sonic blast.  But I burn.  I guess I was around 10 or so when my main powers kicked in (kind of young for a mutant though): I fell on the playground, getting more scared than hurt (my improved health and resilience had already shown up without being tested).  But it was enough to set off a defense instinct and activate that energy sheathe I mentioned above.  Which inexplicably had defective safety features – if I wasn’t abnormally tough that would have been the end.  I woke up in a burn ward.  

That was the beginning of a lengthy series of hospitalizations, problems of power control, and reconstructive surgeries that ate years of my life and pretty much all of our savings and credit.  Since I don’t like to dwell on that period, let me present a few conclusions.   First of all, I can’t control my plasma aura at full power.  If it turns on, it will spread from hands to cover all of body and all of efforts will only slow it down.  Second, I developed a number of handy tricks for projecting plasma while trying to learn how to use the sheath safely or at least keep it from activating.  My basic blast is a torrent of intense plasma that I can barely shape into a cone, and it does burn my hands.  But I learned to project plasma that starts away from my body (a distance of ~3 inches to ~110 ft, although I prefer to keep the distance about 6-12 inches), as if I were taking the errant “droplets” that would be produced by the full spray without doing the whole thing.  Of course, those droplets are nowhere near as intense, although I can pump them out rapidly.  Then I slowly was able to control the orbs so they’d do different things.  Straight line movement is pretty easy, not really any different from a normal beam attack.  But by imagining what’d it be like to move along a curved path instead of the straight line one, and then imprinting that understanding into the orb as I create it, I can force it to move along that path.  And that was just the beginning.  Now, after much thought and practice, I can stick in waypoints, target following, collision avoidance, etc with basically no additional effort.  There’s some room for improvement in the programs though – particularly in dealing with weird things like following a target through a teleportal or not losing lock on a shapeshifter or someone who turns invisible (without increasing the chance that some bystander will be randomly targeted by mistake).  I’d been hoping that a formal study of programming would help me refine the defaults I use, but it’s mostly worked the other way around.  

Thirdly, Dr. Werner is kind, considerate, and a genius.  He’s an expert in the hybrid field of stuff relating to super powers (well, not so much in “magic”) – probably the best around, although I’ll admit to being biased since actually helped me.  He devised the few drug treatments that actually helped.  He figured out how to end the cycle of injury, recovery, and then new burns.  When I moved to Freedom some months ago, it was mostly because Dr. Werner also transferred here to pursue some research opportunities; neither he, my mom, nor myself really trust some random doctor to get my treatment right, especially if something new happens.  The means to prevent future ignition is actually disturbingly simple.  We just needed to interrupt the recovery so that my powers would continue to act at a reduced (and therefore controllable, via drugs and training) level.  Since my hands are basically of the origin points for my dangerous powers, they’re what has to stay burned.  My fingers are clumsy and slow.  There’s some chronic pain, hypersensitive areas, or numbness at times.  But I can leave the hospital without really worrying my powers spiraling out of control.  I’ve a lot of catching up to do.  Thankfully, super heroine inspired fashions mean that it’s not weird to wear gloves all the time.  Amazingly, I just discovered yet another medical issue regarding my powers when I captured Frostblade: running about a hundred clusters on individualized, complex programs to pin down the teleporter can cause a splitting headache.  Oh well, I can’t really see setting up anything like that again.

I’m proud of the control I’ve developed with the plasma orbs, but flight is the only power I really love.  It’s safe, without any messy reaction jet that burns stuff.  I think I’m one of the faster flyers around.  And it feels so _good_.

I study computer programming at Freedom College.  I know it doesn’t have the best technical programs but I could only attend a school that provided a scholarship.  My mom and I are in enough debt as it is, from all of my hospitalizations.  Not sure I want to keep going, but my roommate Alaiya is encouraging me to stay.  Not having much time in conventional education has to some uncomfortable situations.  Plus it’s incredibly frustrating to have the primary difficulty in my coursework to be physically writing or typing things since my fingers barely work.  Especially since I can do pretty much everything else much faster.  Other than that, I guess things are okay.  I get out some, thanks to Alaiya’s circle of friends.  I’m kind of popular as a designated driver; I avoid substances that might compromise my control over my powers, for obvious reasons.  I hate being a passenger anyway.

The super hero name I’ve been using is Shooting Star.  The nice folks at ASTRO Labs whipped me up a costume out of super fabric with a comet symbol on the chest.  It was a sort of a consolation prize for getting my ass kicked attempting to protect their stuff.  And not getting that internship.  But the costume looks pretty good: it’s white with some reflective silver slashes and trim, including the comet/shooting star symbol.  It even has some pouches which come in handy even without gadgets – a pen comes in handy for pushing tiny buttons, and I don’t like to be without an electronic copy of my medical records.  Some of the younger employees were quite eager to explain how to disable the autorepair feature for certain areas so I could cut sections out and “customize my look.”  I think I’ll pass.  Besides, “the pale coloration of the costume creates a striking contrast with your long, dark hair” to quote my roommate.  As of yesterday, the radio earpiece and mic that came with the suit no longer work.  Frostblade is an impossible showoff: creating a tiny sliver of ice inside the casing to short the electronics at a distance with just a glance into my ear…  There don’t seem to be many people who have more finess with their powers than me.  I got him though.  It just felt like a colossal waste of time – lots damage (thank you, Doctor Metropolis) to capture a fairly nonviolent (to non-supers anyway) thief, while dangerous killers are loose.  Just dealing with the crime or threat that immediately presents itself seems like a losing strategy now.  Especially since he didn’t seem to mind getting captured all that much.[/sblock]

That grew to be significantly longer than I had first planned.  

I did decide to move some points into knowledges, at the expense of Diplomacy. It seemed like she would have fewer chances to work on social stuff than I first considered, plus I can easily see Megan reading up the the scientific basis of her powers and problems. 

Shooting Star stats:
[sblock]
STR 10
DEX 10 (18)
CON 28
INT 12
WIS 10
CHA 10

F: +9
R: +13
W: +7

Spd: Walk: 30/60/120. Fly: 10000/20000/40000 (using 1 mph = 10 ft/round)
MpH: Walk: 3/6/12. Fly: 1k/2k/4k
Ini: +4
Att: +3 (+6 ranged) (+14 plasma orbs)
Dmg: +8 (autofire)
Def: 23/15
Toughness: +9

Trade offs: +3 attack, +2 def

Attractive 1, Attack Focus Ranged 3, Attack Specialization Plasma Orbs 4, 
Acrobatic Bluff, Elusive Target, Luck 1, Move-by Action, Precise Shot 1, Redirect, Uncanny Dodge (hearing), Evasion 1, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 3

Flight 7 (14)
Enhanced Dex +8 (8) Quickness 3 (2) [not helpful for tasks requiring manual dexterity -1]

Plasma Orbs: Plasma Control +8 Autofire 2 (1 for 1, max 5), Penetrating 3 (4/rank, +3)
Triggered 2 (any trigger), Reversible (on latent triggers, not for undoing effects), Homing 2 (2 extra chances), Indirect 3 (any angle), Precise
(4/rank x 8 = 32. +3 Partial Extra, +9 Power Feats = 44)

AP: Flaring: Dazzle (visual) +11 Area (Burst 55 ft radius) Selective Attack. 
(4/rank x 11 = 44)

AP: Barely Controlled Plasma Projection: Corrosion +11 Area (Cone 110 ft)
Side Effect: Blast +11. Always occurs, roughly half value -1
4/rank x 11 = 44

Acrobatics 16 +20
Computers 16 +17
Knowledge: technology 2 +3
Knowledge: Current events 2 +3
Knowledge: Physical sciences 2 +3
Knowledge: Life sciences 2 +3
Language: French, Spanish 
Notice 6 +6
Stealth 4 +8

Feats 8+6+6=20 
Stats 2+18=20
Powers 14+8+2+44+1+1=70
Combat 6+20=26 
Skills 13
Saves 0+9+7=16 
Total: 165

Complications:

Medical problems, particularly relating to her hands.

Fear: burning herself with her own powers.  With some spillover into related areas.

Collateral damage: Sonic booms too close to major urban centers can be quite unpopular.

[/sblock]


----------



## Voidrazor

Elric said:
			
		

> James- here are some comments:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 2) Your powers add up to 104 pp, not 102 pp.  Also, Limited (only in the air)) doesn't seem like a serious flaw on Insubstantial when your character can easily hover inches off the ground.
> 
> [snip]
> 
> As this is not a mystical campaign (it just has a lot of mystical PCs), I wonder whether having drawbacks based on Blessed Silver is appropriate.  Matt can always insert enemies with Blessed Silver every few adventures so that your drawback comes up, but this may require a lot of tinkering.  For example, it isn't clear what Blessed Silver means in a non-D&D world- there aren't clerics going around casting the Bless spell on newly completed pistols.



I have to disagree with these 2 points. The (only in the air) limitation would prevent the use of the power to overcome many obstacles. Although, admittedly it would be more significant if it was a higher rank of Insubstantial.

I think rarity of blessed silver would depend on interpretation. In theory, anyone may be able bless a weapon by just saying "Almighty god, bless this thy holy instrument" or something similar. So any villian who knew about the drawback beforehand could take advantage of it.


----------



## Elric

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> I have to disagree with these 2 points. The (only in the air) limitation would prevent the use of the power to overcome many obstacles. Although, admittedly it would be more significant if it was a higher rank of Insubstantial.




Hmm- that's a good point, actually.  I was interpreting this as "can't be on the ground while using it", which is not necessarily correct.  If it prevents you from going through a vent into a building's AC system, for example, then it's more of a limitation.  However, you're still in the air when you go through a vent- maybe a slightly better description of what James sees as this flaw's limitations would help.  I guess I'm on unnecessary alert because it's easy to create flaws in M&M that  don't matter- but that doesn't mean that any flaw that could be interpreted to not matter is illegitimate.



> I think rarity of blessed silver would depend on interpretation. In theory, anyone bless a weapon by just saying "Almighty god, bless this thy holy instrument" or something similar. So any villian who knew about the drawback beforehand could take advantage of it.




I think that without an actual pantheon of God(s), this would not be how Matt runs it.  It isn't "weakness to silver that someone has said a blessing over", after all.  Blessed implies divine grace, so there has to be a divine element (or power of appropriate descriptor) that is granting the blessing.


----------



## Elric

hero4hire- some comments



> POWERS:
> Enhanced Strength (Flaw: Limited to right side) [16]
> Super-Strength (Limited to right side) [5]
> Protection (Flaw: Unreliable) [12]
> Regeneration (Injured 5, Disabled 7, PF: Diehard, Regrowth, Flaw: Source-Machinery) [12]




1) I don't think that Limited to Right side is a legit flaw here.  How would this make your strength be half as useful (since the flaw makes it half the cost) if you can still throw punches with one arm?  Something along the lines of Drawback (-1 pp): half normal lifting capacity might make more sense.

2) Unreliable on Protection- yikes!  Half the time you lose 9 (at least it's not 12, due to the costume) points of toughness against attacks!  That's incredibly severe since it means you're way below PL against a lot of attacks.  I can see you put in the costume to decrease this effect somewhat, but I think it's still going to be too severe in practice.

Note sure how I'd handle this effect (one side of body better protected than the other), though- I'll have to think about it.  It's possible that you could not take Unreliable and just interpret low Toughness saves as attacks that hit the human side of your body, causing extra damage (this minimizes work at DM_Matt's end as well)

3) Those are awfully low Fort/Ref/Will saves.  I'd raise them by an average of two points apiece or you're going to go down real fast to exotic attacks (particularly with your relatively low defense).


----------



## Voidrazor

Elric said:
			
		

> I think that without an actual pantheon of God(s), this would not be how Matt runs it.  It isn't "weakness to silver that someone has said a blessing over", after all.  Blessed implies divine grace, so there has to be a divine element (or power of appropriate descriptor) that is granting the blessing.



Actually it is because there is no pantheon, that I think Matt might rule that anyone, or at least any priest, shaman, rabbi, etc. could bless an item. The blessing wouldn't have any other game effect but would be a reasonable way to make the drawback meaningful.


----------



## hero4hire

Elric said:
			
		

> hero4hire- some comments
> 
> 
> 
> 1) I don't think that Limited to Right side is a legit flaw here.  How would this make your strength be half as useful (since the flaw makes it half the cost) if you can still throw punches with one arm?  Something along the lines of Drawback (-1 pp): half normal lifting capacity might make more sense.




Elric are you co-GM? I see a lot of _"I dont think Matt will allow this."_ and _"You should do it this way."_ which makes me curious. I am not being a jerk, it just seems you may have that position from your posts.

Anyway...

IMHO limited to _half _ his body is exactly the criteria for _half_ as effective. Will this flaw effect him half the time? If I were a GM for this character I certainly would make sure it would. His lifting will be completely screwed due to his human half. Unless braced or only using his "robot" half his human side only gets in the way. I would say half his lifting would make no sense. I cannot lift half as much over my head with only one arm.
Grappling could pose a problem depending on positioning. The GM could and should impose penalties when his human half would come into play. Climbing, swimming. Its not all about punching, and it certainly isnt a power-gaming move.




> 2) Unreliable on Protection- yikes!  Half the time you lose 9 (at least it's not 12, due to the costume) points of toughness against attacks!  That's incredibly severe since it means you're way below PL against a lot of attacks.  I can see you put in the costume to decrease this effect somewhat, but I think it's still going to be too severe in practice.
> 
> Note sure how I'd handle this effect (one side of body better protected than the other), though- I'll have to think about it.  It's possible that you could not take Unreliable and just interpret low Toughness saves as attacks that hit the human side of your body, causing extra damage (this minimizes work at DM_Matt's end as well)




I am not completely happy with the Unreliable mechanic, but I much prefer representing a more vulnerable human half as just that then a homogenized overall lower toughness. It was also something I wanted to deal with In Game if I made it. Instead of just charging in, he is going to have to think about protecting himself.



> 3) Those are awfully low Fort/Ref/Will saves.  I'd raise them by an average of two points apiece or you're going to go down real fast to exotic attacks (particularly with your relatively low defense).




They are intentionally low. Note he does *some* defense vs many fort type attacks. He has little experience with mind control. BUT it probably isnt out of the realm for him to use his low level shapechange to provide himself with mental shielding around his brain if he comes across a mentalist. or use his Inventor to prepare for a second fight with the same foe.

Honestly EVERY character doesnt have to be min/maxed to cover all your bases. Some just plain suck in certain situations AS IT SHOULD BE. It also isnt about winning every fight. Sometimes its more fun to lose..Get captured..And think your way out of that dastardly deathtrap. Or comeback to face a foe again, better prepared, and ready to hand the baddie a can of whup@$$.

I am intimately familiar with the M&M rules (esp. character building) and will be happy to retool anything the GM isnt comfortable with in a game. My design philosophy however, might not fit into some games.


----------



## Victim

hero4hire said:
			
		

> I am not completely happy with the Unreliable mechanic, but I much prefer representing a more vulnerable human half as just that then a homogenized overall lower toughness. It was also something I wanted to deal with In Game if I made it. Instead of just charging in, he is going to have to think about protecting himself.




You could probably tweak defensive roll instead of using unreliable.  It seems pretty obvious that he'll attempt to take all the hits on robot side, not the human one.   So if he's aware of the attack and can move around freely, then he'll probably be able to cover the squishy half pretty well.  But if he's surprised or outmanuevered, then the fleshy bits are probably getting shot.  Maybe throw in an additional limit to reflect a vulnerability to multiple attackers, since he won't be able to present his tough half to every foe.  

Just as defensive roll provides a bonus to Ref vs Area attacks besides the situational toughness benefit, maybe your machine half could provide a bonus to Fort saves (lost in the same conditions as the toughness), since the machine parts will dampen or block many attacks that only affect living beings.


----------



## Elric

hero4hire said:
			
		

> Elric are you co-GM? I see a lot of _"I dont think Matt will allow this."_ and _"You should do it this way."_ which makes me curious. I am not being a jerk, it just seems you may have that position from your posts.




Nope- I'm another potential player.  I'm an old friend of Matt's, though, so some of the time when I say "I don't think Matt will allow this" it's because I've actually talked to him about it (but I don't want to put words in his mouth so I'm not stating "Matt says this"- that's for him to do).  For example, Matt has mentioned how front-loaded a free/reaction Healing 1 power is before, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn't allow it.  Matt's busy at the moment, but I'll be significantly busier starting tomorrow and he'll probably be less busy, so I expect I'll be doing a lot less posting.

Note that Matt said I was doing a good job of character critiquing on page 4- if he wanted me to stop he could email me and I would. 

You have a good point about the strength thing.  I guess I'm on unnecessary alert about flaws because it's so easy to create flaws that don't matter- but that doesn't mean that all flaws that could be interpreted in such a way that they don't matter are illegitimate.  

For your saves: those are exceedingly low.  With 2 points higher apiece, they'd still have the effect you're looking for of being noticeably low.  The PL 10 archetype characters in the core book average 7-8 on their exotic saves- the lowest saves are the battlesuit (total: 17).   Note that every archetype character has every exotic save >=+4.  You have total exotic saves= 10 at a PL higher.  So I didn't pick 2 out of the air randomly- that would get you to about the "I'm vulnerable" feel for a PL 10 character.  It isn't min/maxing to avoid having huge across the board weaknesses- that's just a sensible thing to do.  Sorry if you took it as a rebuke for not creating a strong enough character.

With your low saves plus Unreliable on Protection you really will get absolutely pummeled in combat.  It's easy to say that you don't mind this in a character, but I believe that this is a recipe for future unhappiness.  The campaign I GMd last year had a player who gave his character noticeable defensive weaknesses and even though the player was a very narrativist roleplayer, he still got frustrated when he was the most KOd PC by far.  Playing "Gets squashed like a Bug" Man gets old pretty fast.  

This is actually a pretty common point of contention over on The Atomic Think Tank, but I stand by the idea (and think that Matt agrees- he picked PL 11, 165 pp and not PL 10, 165 pp for a reason) that a character shouldn't be significantly worse than his or her Attack/Damage and Defense/Toughness caps without a good reason (in particular, other abilities that will enable the character to still be effective in combat).  Nightweaver (Raylis, page 1) is a good example of this- Concealment means that many of her attacks will be sneak attacks, Power Attack can funnel the extra chance to hit to damage, and she has all of the other tradeoff feats, so she'll be effective despite not hitting her PL caps on offense.

Lastly, I wouldn't mind comments on my build of Johnny Nitro, back on page 1.  Do your worst


----------



## Elric

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Actually it is because there is no pantheon, that I think Matt might rule that anyone, or at least any priest, shaman, rabbi, etc. could bless an item. The blessing wouldn't have any other game effect but would be a reasonable way to make the drawback meaningful.




I'm starting to get visions of the golf club scene from Dogma


----------



## hero4hire

Elric said:
			
		

> For your saves: those are exceedingly low.  With 2 points higher apiece, they'd still have the effect you're looking for of being noticeably low.  The PL 10 archetype characters in the core book average 7-8 on their exotic saves- the lowest saves are the battlesuit (total: 17).   Note that every archetype character has every exotic save >=+4.  You have total exotic saves= 10 at a PL higher.  So I didn't pick 2 out of the air randomly- that would get you to about the "I'm vulnerable" feel for a PL 10 character.  It isn't min/maxing to avoid having huge across the board weaknesses- that's just a sensible thing to do.  Sorry if you took it as a rebuke for not creating a strong enough character.
> 
> With your low saves plus Unreliable on Protection you really will get absolutely pummeled in combat.  It's easy to say that you don't mind this in a character, but I believe that this is a recipe for future unhappiness.  The campaign I GMd last year had a player who gave his character noticeable defensive weaknesses and even though the player was a very narrativist roleplayer, he still got frustrated when he was the most KOd PC by far.
> 
> Lastly, I wouldn't mind comments on my build of Johnny Nitro, back on page 1.  Do your worst




Looking at examples they are fairly low via by comparison.  :\ 

As for Johnny Nitro? Hmmm. If you are trying to emulate the real Johnny Nitro (or at least his persona) I would cut _way_ back on the Intimidate. At +17 you surpass Overshadow from Freedom City and are approaching Omega's +20 (a guy who is "only spoken in whispers throughout the galaxy") If this was a super version of the Undertaker or Kane _maybe_ but Johnny Nitro? He isnt one of those guys that makes a wrestler's jaw drop when they hear is intro playing. Most published characters who are considered _scary _ have around a +12 total. Some go 1 or 2 points higher.
Also Benefit (Fame) would fit either his character or the real guy.


----------



## hero4hire

Oh sure edit while I am replying


----------



## Elric

hero4hire said:
			
		

> Looking at examples they are fairly low via by comparison.  :\
> 
> As for Johnny Nitro? Hmmm. If you are trying to emulate the real Johnny Nitro (or at least his persona) I would cut _way_ back on the Intimidate. At +17 you surpass Overshadow from Freedom City and are approaching Omega's +20 (a guy who is "only spoken in whispers throughout the galaxy") If this were super versions of the Undertaker or Kane _maybe_ but Johnny Nitro? He isnt one of those guys that makes a wrestler's jaw drop when they here is intro playing. Most published characters who are considered _scary _ have around a +12 total. Some go 1 or 2 points higher.




His Intimidate is as high as it is because of Startle and Distract.  No way to get good at them without high Intimidate and he should be quite good at those abilities.  At least, that's how I envision him- the character is mostly a stereotype about pro wrestlers (from California), since I've seen WWE (and Johnny Nitro) exactly once.  In theory I could think up a drawback "Less Intimidating than meets the Eye" to cover out of combat situations, but I'm not going to play him as a character who is as intimidating as Omega anyway.  Plus, when you're PL 19 you don't need a high Intimidate score to be intimidating.



> Also Benefit (Fame) would fit either his character or the real guy.




I thought of this after I posted the build- now I can't think of anything to cut to free up 1 pp.


----------



## hero4hire

Being familiar with wrestling, Johnny Nitro is more of a _Bluff_ to Distract kinda guy.

But since you really arent modelling him after his actual personality just inspired by the name/face I am sure you can justify a high intimidate. But +17 is higher then probably 95% of all the published characters.


----------



## Elric

hero4hire said:
			
		

> Being familiar with wrestling, Johnny Nitro is more of a _Bluff_ to Distract kinda guy.
> 
> But since you really arent modelling him after his actual personality just inspired by the name/face I am sure you can justify a high intimidate. But +17 is higher then probably 95% of all the published characters.




Right, but he has Acrobatics +17 (which is about the same as the core martial artist) and he'll feint with that as much as he uses Startle.  So if I were to decrease his Intimidate by say, 4 points, then it would only rarely be worth it to use Startle at all and I'd like to use both without feeling like one is much less effective than the other.  

I could give him Drawback [Less Intimidating than meets the eye] to cover out of combat stuff- maybe -8 to Intimidate out of combat for 1 pp back or something (assuming that you figure intimidate in/out of combat are each half of its value).  That feels a little like +1 pp for almost free, but it would let me get Benefit: Fame


----------



## hero4hire

Elric said:
			
		

> Right, but he has Acrobatics +17 (which is about the same as the core martial artist) and he'll feint with that as much as he uses Startle.  So if I were to decrease his Intimidate by say, 4 points, then it would only rarely be worth it to use Startle at all and I'd like to use both without feeling like one is much less effective than the other.
> 
> I could give him Drawback [Less Intimidating than meets the eye] to cover out of combat stuff- maybe -8 to Intimidate out of combat for 1 pp back or something (assuming that you figure intimidate in/out of combat are each half of its value).  That feels a little like +1 pp for almost free, but it would let me get Benefit: Fame




If you are married to the whole Startle mechanic don't reduce it. But why have startle?when you can stick with feinting using Acrobatic Bluff to make someone flatfooted.
Same result and seems more in keeping with a Prettyboy Glam Highflyer.

Then all sorts of points free up for flavor feats.

But as I said, you can rationalize a "version" of Nitro being super-intimidating I suppose.
Making him more Wolverine then K-Fed.


----------



## James Heard

Spirit

*Abilities:* STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 14 (+2) WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2)

*Skills: *+12 Climb [10 ranks], +6 Computers [4 ranks], +7 Diplomacy [5 ranks], Knowledge +10 (Business) [8 ranks], +4 Knowledge (Earth Sciences) [2 ranks], +6 Notice [4 ranks], +8 Profession (Accountant) [6 ranks], +8 Search [6 ranks], +5 Survival [3 ranks]

*Feats:* Attractive 2, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Precise Shot, Quick Change 2, Uncanny Dodge

Spirit can recall much of what she has learned or viewed simply by requesting it, and whatever unknown power source that grants her powers shows her. Often this occurs with bluish, hovering picture frames that only Spirit can see. When Spirit needs many tools, she finds her body changing to form them or the air forming to help accomplish the task. Since she's found out about her new powers she's never had to buy any new clothes either, as she easily creates and removes clothing out thin air and her own body.​
*Powers: *
Alternate Form (Gaseous) 2 [10pp] 
- Insubstantial 2

Spirit is able to turn her entire body into a bluish gas that easily flows through the tiniest of openings.​Comprehend (Speak/Read/Understand Any Language, Speak/Understand Machines) 6 [12pp]

Phantom translations appear to Spirit of all written communications written in a pale blue glowing script that hovers over the text whenever she can't understand something. Similarly, Spirit hears a cold voice translating any spoken language she doesn't understand, while the same voice deftly translates Spirit's voice to any language she desires.​
Elemental (Air) Control 5 [14pp] (Precise)
- AP Blast 5  - AP Suffocate 2 (+ 1 cloud) - AP Force Field ? (-1 Physical Only)

Spirit's command over the air is somewhat limited, but she can easily utilize the air around her to ward off physical attacks, pull the air out of someone's lungs, or blast someone.​
Enhanced Dexterity 16 [16pp]

Spirit isn't quite a physical body anymore, and so she moves herself with the speed of thought, allowing great agility.	​Flight 8 [16pp]
- AP Enhanced Strength 10 LINKED Super Strength 6

Spirit can fly at extreme speeds, but when she's not airborne she can utilize that same power to express great strength and lift heavy objects.​
Immunity (Life Support, Age, Sleep, starvation & thirst, electricity) [17pp]

Spirit has been freed from most of the most onerous weaknesses of the flesh and also finds no great difficulty enduring even the most extravagant of sources of electricity.​
Morph (humanoids) 2 [2pp]

Her flesh remade, it continues to allow Spirit to remake it. This is doubly disconcerting to Jessica, because it's very like changing her outfit for her - a thought that disturbs her because it suggests that she's "not really here."​Strike 5 (wind strike) [6pp] (Accurate)

Using her command over her body's consistency and her command over gases, Spirit can throw a punch with all the force of a gale force wind directed with lethal accuracy.​
Super Senses (Danger Sense, Infravision, Radio, Time Sense, Ultra-Hearing, All Senses At Radius, Life Sense: Allows Spirit to "see" details about lifesigns by sight (Acute, Accurate, ranged)) [13pp]

Spirit's insane senses are what first tipped her off about her new status, and it's easy to see why. Spirit's new form makes her aware of an incredible array of trivia about her environment. Threats to her being, the ability to shift her perception around in all directions, the ability to tune into high frequency sounds and see the amorphous shapes of heat signatures are nothing though; compared with her new "life sense" which allows her to instantly perceive living beings and compare their "vital signs" as accurately as she can tell different colors from one another.​
Combat: +3 Atk, +3 Def

Saves: Toughness +4 [1pp] , Fortitude +3, Reflex +12, Will +3 [1pp]

Drawbacks: 
Disability: No Identity (Uncommon, Minor) [-1pp]

Jessica Lane is presumed dead and/or missing in Europe. In any case, several police agencies would be very interested in talking to Jessica about her also missing friend if she were to suddenly turn up in the United States.​
Disability: Penniless (Uncommon, Minor) [-1pp]

Spirit has a wealth score of 0. This would have more of an impact, except she doesn't need to sleep or eat so she can avoid most basic necessities. It does mean that something as simple as going to see a movie requires Spirit to break the law.​

26 Abilities + 12 Skills (48 Ranks) + 9 Feats + 106 Powers + 12 Combat + 2 Saves  – 2 Drawbacks  = 165

Identity: Hero Only

Gender: Female Height: 6'2 Weight: 165 Hair: Platinum Blonde Eyes: Blue

Origin: _Jessica Lane was once a mousy, somewhat frumpy woman slowly advancing toward middle age and spinsterhood when she won a vacation to Europe. Simply put the vacation was life-changing even before came upon her mysterious abilities, but her trip became more fundamentally evolving when she decided to take a weekend rock climbing hike with a friend in the Alps. Wandering far off the beaten path, the pair of rock climbers were stranded in a sudden snowstorm when her friend injured herself. Jessica left to seek help, but soon became lost herself until she found a mysterious cave to seek refuge in. There inside she found bizarre glyphs and writings, and a glowing blue sphere made of a strange golden metal. Unable to resist the urge to touch the sphere, Jessica's life was thrown out of kilter ever since. She awoke at home, wearing an appearance that was not her own nearly a year later in her apartment, which was being shown to new renters.

Wandering the streets confused, Jessica suddenly found herself in a wash of new information and senses thanks to her powers. Even as she was nearly overwhelmed by the new sensations, a black van pulled up and goons with high-tech weaponry and strange religious symbols attacked her. Despite being more than a match for the attackers, there was much collateral damage from the attack. 

Jessica was despondent and pledged to somehow make up it.
_

****​
*Theme:* Basically Spirit is an elemental controller now instead of a paragon. I ditched the magic bits entirely and went instead for a sort of techno-organic/new Blue Beetle edge to her along with a new background. I find the new version a lot more interesting, but it's really costly and I'm a bit stumped on where to trim (as well as STILL a lot lost in the whole PL limits bits).  Review/comments anyone?


----------



## DM_Matt

For the past few days I have unexpectedly been without internet access other than my blackberry. Sry about that.  I will hopefully be able to post a lot in detail about chars later tonight.


----------



## Elric

hero4hire said:
			
		

> If you are married to the whole Startle mechanic don't reduce it. But why have startle?when you can stick with feinting using Acrobatic Bluff to make someone flatfooted.
> Same result and seems more in keeping with a Prettyboy Glam Highflyer.
> 
> Then all sorts of points free up for flavor feats.
> 
> But as I said, you can rationalize a "version" of Nitro being super-intimidating I suppose.
> Making him more Wolverine then K-Fed.




I know that the current build is inefficient in that it has Acrobatic Bluff and Startle (only Distract is a valauble combat function that I can't get from Acrobatics), but I don't mind this inefficiency.  Attractive means that Johnny Nitro can't get a lot of ranks in Bluff, which limits his ability to use Distract/Feint/Taunt if I drop his intimidate score.  Also, from a mechanical perspective Acrobatic Bluff is probably the best way to get a good feint ability, as Dex is significantly better than Cha.  If characters routinely have +16-+20 Acrobatics but everyone tops out at +12 Intimidate, then any character who is good at feinting will be solely an Acrobat, and I think that's less interesting.

I'm open to the possibility that my vision for the character is more based on Bluff than Intimidate- for example, trash talking could fall into either category.  But you watch wrestling: what would you say is the difference in a wrestler who uses Bluff for Taunt/Distract/Feint and a wrestler who uses Intimidate for Startle/Distract/Demoralize (what actions would they take to use these abilities)?  

What would the real Johnny Nitro typically do?  Edit: my brief research indicates that Johnny Nitro is something of a villain on WWE.  I don't think I'm going for that angle- more like laid back, boastful, somewhat clueless charming surfer dude.  Of course, these might be villainous qualities in WWE.


----------



## Elric

James- a few comments:

1) 







> Enhanced Dexterity 16 [16pp]



This power is always active, but it isn't reflected in your above statistics.  Also, it seems to me like your saves are slightly too high given that you've spent 2 points on saves and have a +3 Fort from Con, +10 Ref from Dex and +2 Will from Wis.  So you've actually spent 3 pp to get the saves that you have.
2) 







> [Spirit can fly at extreme speeds, but when she's not airborne she can utilize that same power to express great strength and lift heavy objects.




Just making sure that you know that you have no strength when insubstantial.  So you can only use Enhanced Str/Super-Str in practice when you're both not flying and not insubstantial.
3) 







> Morph (humanoids) 2 [2pp]



Isn't Morph (Humanoids) 2 pp per rank, making this 1 rank for 2 pp?

4) As you have spent over 100 pp on powers, this is the place to cut points.  Are there any elements of your concept that you can live without (e.g., Speak/Understand machines, which doesn't seem critical as you have few machine/computer related abilities).


----------



## Victim

Since Spirit can't often use her attack powers at the same time she's insub (no affects corporeal, so only other wind spirit creatures might be valid targets), so consolidating those powers into the same array would save some points.  Or savagely start cutting everything to buy Affects Corporeal.

Strike 5 doesn't play well with your base 14 STR nor the enhanced strength on the flight AP.  Consider adding mighty, trimming some base STR, and or sticking it into the Air Control array.

Your air powers are pretty weak in terms of raw damage/DC - Spirit's best attack is punching whilst using her STR from flight.  And their attack bonus sucks.  Plus you have no good defenses besides Insubstancial.

Trimming a few points from stats and then feeding some of the saved points into skills could preserve your capability with those skills and save some points.

I'd probably look at expanding your Air Mastery array by moving some of the other related powers into it.  Move the Insub and Strike in there and you've just saved yourself 14 points, for no real loss of ability.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> You could probably tweak defensive roll instead of using unreliable.  It seems pretty obvious that he'll attempt to take all the hits on robot side, not the human one.   So if he's aware of the attack and can move around freely, then he'll probably be able to cover the squishy half pretty well.  But if he's surprised or outmanuevered, then the fleshy bits are probably getting shot.  Maybe throw in an additional limit to reflect a vulnerability to multiple attackers, since he won't be able to present his tough half to every foe.
> 
> Just as defensive roll provides a bonus to Ref vs Area attacks besides the situational toughness benefit, maybe your machine half could provide a bonus to Fort saves (lost in the same conditions as the toughness), since the machine parts will dampen or block many attacks that only affect living beings.




I very much like this idea, and would allow the version with Fort instead of Ref.  



			
				Elric said:
			
		

> It's possible that you could not take Unreliable and just interpret low Toughness saves as attacks that hit the human side of your body, causing extra damage (this minimizes work at DM_Matt's end as well)




I additionally would do this.

I like the general concept, so long as we find mechanics that work. I think these do.  

I believe also that the limited flaw should work on super-strength, but not on regular strength, since your strength bonus applies directly to the damage of your main attack form, which the drawback does not limit. I could let you have a .5pp/rank flaw on it though, to represent that for half its purposes (lifting), it is limited, but the other half (attacks), it is not limited.  Its basically a limited flaw applied to a limited flaw.


----------



## James Heard

Revised...again

Spirit

Abilities: STR: 14 (+2) DEX: 30 (14) (+10) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 14 (+2) WIS: 14 (+2) CHA: 14 (+2)

Skills: +12 Climb [10 ranks], +7 Diplomacy [5 ranks], Knowledge +10 (Business) [8 ranks], +4 Knowledge (Earth Sciences) [2 ranks], +6 Notice [4 ranks], +8 Profession (Accountant) [6 ranks], +5 Survival [3 ranks]

Feats: 
Attractive 2

Powers: 
Comprehend (Speak/Read/Understand Any Language, Speak/Understand Machines) 6 [9pp] (-1 Doesn't work in a strong magnetic field)

	Phantom translations appear to Spirit of all written communications written in a pale blue glowing script that hovers over the text whenever she can't understand something. Similarly, Spirit hears a cold voice translating any spoken language she doesn't understand, while the same voice deftly translates Spirit's voice to any language she desires.​
Morphable Form Array [27 pp] 
	Mighty Strike 8 (Accurate, Indirect 3)
AP Elongation 4  (+1 Projection, Subtle, Indirect 3) LINKED Additional Limbs 3 (Subtle, Indirect 3)
AP Insubstantial 2 (+ 1 Action, + 1 Duration, Selective) LINKED Flight 4
AP Morph (Same Mass) 2 LINKED Protection 5 LINKED Snare 3 (Subtle, Reversible, Selective, +1 Aura, -1 Range Touch)
AP Density 6 (Subtle)
AP Regeneration (Injured 5 ranks, Disabled 2 ranks, Ability Damage 3 ranks, Resurrection 1 rank, Regrowth, -1 Doesn't work within a strong magnetic field)
AP Superspeed 4 (Rapid Attack, -1 Doesn't work within a strong magnetic field)
AP Flight 8 (Subtle, Moving Feint)

Able to deftly manipulate objects at range with her very form (though few would notice the difference between her aerated form and the surrounding air around her), Spirit is also able to manifest several other abilities by controlling her form such as making her body as dissipated as the air and flowing through cracks, changing her appearance, “throwing” a mighty strike that appears out of nowhere to assault her foes, healing her wounds through concentration, moving very quickly, and using her fine control over her body to lift enormous weights by increasing her mass.​
Enhanced Dexterity 16 [12pp] (-1 Doesn't work within a strong magnetic field)

Spirit isn't quite a physical body anymore, and so she moves herself with the speed of thought, allowing great agility. ​Enhanced Skill Array [10pp] (-1 Doesn't work within a strong magnetic field)
Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Quick Change 2, Uncanny Dodge (Taken together)

+ 8 skill ranks in either Computers, Disable Device, Knowledge (Life Sciences), Knowledge (Physical Sciences), Knowledge (Technology), Medicine, Pilot, & Search (All with -1 Distracting) (choose one at a time)

Much like her translation abilities, Spirit has access to an incredible wealth of knowledge to aid her in several important tasks. So much information, in fact, that it's nearly impossible for her to concentrate on other tasks while she's “being informed.” 

	Spirit can recall much of what she has learned or viewed simply by requesting it, and whatever unknown power source that grants her powers shows her. Often this occurs with bluish, hovering picture frames that only Spirit can see. When Spirit needs many tools, she finds her body changing to form them or the air forming to help accomplish the task. Since she's found out about her new powers she's never had to buy any new clothes either, as she easily creates and removes clothing out thin air and her own body.​
Immunity (Life Support, Age, Sleep, starvation & thirst, critical hits,electricity) [19pp]

Spirit has been freed from most of the most onerous weaknesses of the flesh and also finds no great difficulty enduring even the most extravagant of sources of electricity.​Protection 4 [4pp]

Super Senses (Danger Sense, Distance Sense, Infravision, Radio, Time Sense, Ultra-Hearing, All Senses At Radius, Analytical Vision, Rapid Vision 2) [15pp]

Spirit's insane senses are what first tipped her off about her new status, and it's easy to see why. Spirit's new form makes her aware of an incredible array of trivia about her environment.​
Combat: + 10 Atk, + 11 Def

Saves: Toughness +7 , Fortitude +9, Reflex +10, Will +7

Drawbacks: 
Disability: No Identity (Uncommon, Minor) [-1pp]

Jessica Lane is presumed dead and/or missing in Europe. In any case, several police agencies would be very interested in talking to Jessica about her also missing friend if she were to suddenly turn up in the United States. ​Disability: Penniless (Uncommon, Minor) [-1pp]

Spirit has a wealth score of 0. This would have more of an impact, except she doesn't need to sleep or eat so she can avoid most basic necessities. It does mean that something as simple as going to see a movie requires Spirit to break the law.​
26 Abilities + 10 Skills (38 Ranks) + 2 Feats + 96 Powers + 22 Combat + 11 Saves  – 2 Drawbacks  = 165

Identity: Hero Only

Gender: Female Height: 6'2 Weight: 165 Hair: Platinum Blonde Eyes: Blue

Origin: Jessica Lane was once a mousy, somewhat frumpy woman slowly advancing toward middle age and spinsterhood when she won a vacation to Europe. Simply put the vacation was life-changing even before came upon her mysterious abilities, but her trip became more fundamentally evolving when she decided to take a weekend rock climbing hike with a friend in the Alps. Wandering far off the beaten path, the pair of rock climbers were stranded in a sudden snowstorm when her friend injured herself. Jessica left to seek help, but soon became lost herself until she found a mysterious cave to seek refuge in. There inside she found bizarre glyphs and writings, and a glowing blue sphere made of a strange golden metal. Unable to resist the urge to touch the sphere, Jessica's life was thrown out of kilter ever since. She awoke at home, wearing an appearance that was not her own nearly a year later in her apartment, which was being shown to new renters.

Wandering the streets confused, Jessica suddenly found herself in a wash of new information and senses thanks to her powers. Even as she was nearly overwhelmed by the new sensations, a black van pulled up and goons with high-tech weaponry and strange religious symbols attacked her. Despite being more than a match for the attackers, there was much collateral damage from the attack. Jessica was despondent and pledged to somehow make up it.

Theme: Spirit is a set of arrays now to reflect her various “forms.” The limitations to some of her powers by “strong magnetic fields” have been bought as partial limitations, but I'm not sure if they shouldn't be bought more properly as power Drawbacks which would make things a lot more expensive? Anyways, throwing her out there for insight and suggestion again. I don't THINK I've overstepped any level caps this time, but who knows. She makes my brain hurt, because I've got this vague notion of how she should work, but it's hard to shove her into the rules I think.


----------



## DM_Matt

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Actually it is because there is no pantheon, that I think Matt might rule that anyone, or at least any priest, shaman, rabbi, etc. could bless an item. The blessing wouldn't have any other game effect but would be a reasonable way to make the drawback meaningful.




Sorry, I wouldn't do that.  Allowing clergy of all varieties any automatic magical effect effectively creates a pantheon of sorts.  I want to religious structure of modern-day earth relatively intact.  

How about what can kill Brimstone being a secret, not even known to him, tied into his mysterious background.  Brimstone and his enemies will thus value knowledge of his origins, in order to find out how to avoid dying or how to kill him, respectively.


----------



## DM_Matt

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> I'd like to throw my hat in the ring as well.
> 
> Doctor Know is a gadgeteer with an reputation in the media as an evil genius. He is a genius, but the evil part is entirely undeserved.
> 
> Dr. Emmanuel Knowles was a leading scientist on a black project for DARPA, the Department of Defence's agency for advanced technologies. But he discovered that his dangerous nanotech research was being taken in some truly foolhardy directions by his project manager. But when he brought that information to his superiors, his project manager arranged for an 'accident'. But instead of being killed the nano somehow became integrated into Dr. Knowles brain, while the rest of the building was reduced to grey goo. Thereafter dubbed Dr. Know in the press, he has prosecuted for sabotage, treason and terrorism. But with his superhuman intellect he and his lawyer were easily able to get acquitted. Since then the doctor has worked assiduously for the betterment of mankind, but the press has been unrelenting in its condemnation.
> 
> [sblock=Stats - In Progress]Hero Name: Doctor Know
> Real Name: Dr. Emmanuel Knowles
> 
> Abilities: 28pp
> Str 06  -2 (-4pp)
> Dex 12  +1 (2pp)
> Con 10  +0 (0pp)
> Int 30  +10 (20pp)
> Wis 16  +3 (6pp)
> Cha 14  +2 (4pp)
> 
> Skills:
> Computers 26 (+10 Int 16 ranks)
> Diplomacy 18 (+2 Cha 16 ranks)
> Disable Device 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
> Investigate 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
> Knowledge: Behavioral Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Business (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Civics (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Earth Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: History (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Life Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Physical Sciences (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Tactics (+10 Int  ranks)
> Knowledge: Technology (+10 Int  ranks)
> Language: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Cantonese, Russian 6pts
> Notice
> Sense Motive
> Search (+10 Int  ranks)
> 
> Feats: 4
> Connected, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Master Plan
> 
> Powers:
> Tensor field manipulator: Device 27pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
> - ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
> - Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]
> 
> Nanotechnology: Device Array (Helpless Removal only, Indestructible, Restricted X2) 45 pool
> - Boost 6 ranks (Any One Trait, Area, Effects Objects, Infectious, Selective, Slow Fade 9)
> - Concealment 10 ranks (Close-Range, Dynamic) (20pp)
> - Create Object 14 Ranks (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle)
> - Teleport 9 ranks (Affects Others, Free Action, Limited: inanimate objects and robots only, Limited: only to destinations in nano-boost field, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 7 [10,000lbs])
> [/sblock]




i have a bit of a problem with area infectious any trait boost.  The lack of complicated other-boosting powers are one of the advantages that M&M has over D&D, and are generally not used in comics.  I get what you are trying to do here, and it is creative, I just would prefer it not be used in this game.


(More posts later tonight)


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I believe also that the limited flaw should work on super-strength, but not on regular strength, since your strength bonus applies directly to the damage of your main attack form, which the drawback does not limit. I could let you have a .5pp/rank flaw on it though, to represent that for half its purposes (lifting), it is limited, but the other half (attacks), it is not limited.  Its basically a limited flaw applied to a limited flaw.




As Enhanced Strength is 1 pp/rank, don't you mean a 0.25pp/rank flaw?


----------



## Victim

What's Moving Feint?  I only have the core book.


----------



## Shalimar

It allows you to use 2x movement power rank for feinting, but it requires you to use the power to move during the round.  So a Move action to move + Standard action to feint.


----------



## James Heard

Moving Feint:
You can substitute twice the power rank of a movement effect with this power feat for your Bluff check modifier when making a check to feint in combat (see Bluff, M&M, page 42, for details). You must use the effect to move during the round in which you feint, making the attempt a full round action (a move action to move plus a standard action for the feint check).

So when making a feint in combat while flying in that configuration (the speedy flier), she can make a Bluff check at +18 to feint...I think.


----------



## Victim

Okay, thanks.


----------



## Voidrazor

Here's an updated stat block for Doctor Know.

[sblock=Stats]Hero Name: Doctor Know
Real Name: Dr. Emmanuel Knowles

Abilities: 40pp
Str 06  -2 (-4pp)
Dex 12  +1 (2pp)
Con 22  +6 (12pp)
Int 30  +10 (20pp)
Wis 16  +3 (6pp)
Cha 14  +2 (4pp)

Skills: 24pp
Computers 26 (+10 Int 16 ranks)
Diplomacy 18 (+2 Cha 16 ranks)
Disable Device 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
Investigate 11 (+10 Int 1 ranks)
Knowledge: Behavioral Sciences 12 (+10 Int 2 ranks)
Knowledge: Life Sciences 14 (+10 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Physical Sciences 14 (+10 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Technology 26 (+10 Int 16 ranks)
Language: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian 5 ranks
Notice 19 (+3 Wis 16 ranks)
Sense Motive 19 (+3 Wis 15 ranks)

Feats: 8pp
Connected, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Luck X4, Master Plan

Powers: 74pp,
Tensor field manipulator: Device 28pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
- ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
- Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]

Nanotechnology: Device Array 46pp (Helpless Removal only, Indestructible, Restricted X2) 45 pool
- Boost 9 ranks (Immunity: age/disease/poison PLUS Protection 6, Area: burst, Effects Objects, Infectious, Selective, Slow Fade 8)
- Concealment 10 ranks (Close-Range, Dynamic) (20pp)
- Create Object 14 Ranks (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle)
- Enhance Int 6 ranks PLUS Quickness 14 ranks 
- Healing 8 ranks (Affects Objects, Area: burst, Perception Range, Selective, Limited to Others, Limited: Only heals damage that occurs after target gains nano-boost, Stabilize, Persistent, Regrowth)
- Regeneration +9 Recovery Total Regen (except after an EMP, Regrowth) [DEFAULT]
- Summon 6 ranks (Fanatical, Independant, Perception Range, Total Fade, Mental Link)
- Super-Senses (Analytical Blindsight, Counters Concealment Illusion and Obscure, Extended X2, Penetrates Concealment, Radius, Ranged, Rapid X3, Tracking, Distance Sense, Microscopic 3, Limited: only areas in nano-boost field)
- Teleport 9 ranks (Affects Others, Free Action, Limited: inanimate objects and robots only, Limited: only to destinations in nano-boost field, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 7 [10,000lbs])

Equipment: 7pp
iPhone 1
Laptop 1
Lamborghini 2
Helicopter 3

Combat: 8pp
Attack
Defense +4 (+2 flatfooted)

Saves: 8pp
Toughness +12 (+6 without nano-boost)
Fortitude +7 Reflex +3 Will +8

Drawback: -4
Pacifist (V. com, Mod) 4

Complication:
Infamous
[/sblock]


----------



## Shayuri

Void, pretty cool design there. Just a couple of questions...

First, you have very little 'offense.' You can confound with illusions, but the save to see through them is pretty low, and you can create objects to fall on people or trap them. That's about it. Not to say your other abilities aren't cool...I just wanted to make sure the lack of offense was intentional, not accidental. 

Secondly, I'm a little concerned about defense too, and I'll tell you why. No protection and fairly low saves. Now you took Concealment (at a high level) and Regeneration (that can Rez you)...but the trick is that you can't use them both at once. In fact, you can't use either in conjunction with any other power except ESP and Illusion (or with the dynamic ones sharing the pool). I'm thinking that might be pretty darn limiting for you. Just a thought.

Thirdly, it seemed a little odd so me that his Immunities (questions of Infectiousness and so on aside) are part of the array. It means he, or anything else he affects, is only immune to all that when he's not using anything else. Most especially odd is the immunity to Age. It seems kind of pointless to make himself or other objects immune to age, when he'll he shuffling those points later on and thus canceling out the immunities long before age is an issue. And objects are, by and large, already immune to poison, disease, and fatigue. Which brings up the Teleport. Only in area of nano immunity field...but you have to shut that down to activate the Teleport. I guess it still works...confining it to the same area the immunity field WAS in...but I'm not sure that's what you had in mind when putting it together.

Fourthly, your Healing has Perception range, but it's limited to targets that you've made Immune...which doesn't have Perception range. I think I see what you're doing there. You can infuse a target with immunity, then heal them at any time regardless of how far they wander, as long as you can see they're hurt. Problem again being, you have to lose the immunity to heal them. Still, I s'pose it'd work once, but then they'd no longer have the immunity, so you couldn't target them with Healing again.

Finally, are you sure Device is right for the nano pool? How does it get stolen? Does the nano colony reside within him, or in some kind of hive node that's normally attached to him, but can be removed?

One idea that might help with this would be the no-point solution of moving some nano-powers to the tensor array. Change the concept of the power to suit. That would allow a bit more "flex" to what you can use and when. If you can free up some points, consider adding some Protection to one array or the other...or perhaps Deflection. Something to help ward off attacks. While you're at it, you could add some Lasting power like Snare or Nauseate...the nice thing about Lasting powers is that they don't hog the array after you use them. You can shift the array, fire it off, then shift the array back and it doesn't cancel out the lasting effects.

Love the concept of the character! It's just tricky to balance arrays, as Elric and others who helped me can attest to.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Void, pretty cool design there. Just a couple of questions...
> 
> First, you have very little 'offense.' You can confound with illusions, but the save to see through them is pretty low, and you can create objects to fall on people or trap them. That's about it. Not to say your other abilities aren't cool...I just wanted to make sure the lack of offense was intentional, not accidental.
> 
> Secondly, I'm a little concerned about defense too, and I'll tell you why. No protection and fairly low saves. Now you took Concealment (at a high level) and Regeneration (that can Rez you)...but the trick is that you can't use them both at once. In fact, you can't use either in conjunction with any other power except ESP and Illusion (or with the dynamic ones sharing the pool). I'm thinking that might be pretty darn limiting for you. Just a thought.
> 
> Thirdly, it seemed a little odd so me that his Immunities (questions of Infectiousness and so on aside) are part of the array. It means he, or anything else he affects, is only immune to all that when he's not using anything else. Most especially odd is the immunity to Age. It seems kind of pointless to make himself or other objects immune to age, when he'll he shuffling those points later on and thus canceling out the immunities long before age is an issue. And objects are, by and large, already immune to poison, disease, and fatigue. Which brings up the Teleport. Only in area of nano immunity field...but you have to shut that down to activate the Teleport. I guess it still works...confining it to the same area the immunity field WAS in...but I'm not sure that's what you had in mind when putting it together.
> 
> Fourthly, your Healing has Perception range, but it's limited to targets that you've made Immune...which doesn't have Perception range. I think I see what you're doing there. You can infuse a target with immunity, then heal them at any time regardless of how far they wander, as long as you can see they're hurt. Problem again being, you have to lose the immunity to heal them. Still, I s'pose it'd work once, but then they'd no longer have the immunity, so you couldn't target them with Healing again.
> 
> Finally, are you sure Device is right for the nano pool? How does it get stolen? Does the nano colony reside within him, or in some kind of hive node that's normally attached to him, but can be removed?
> 
> One idea that might help with this would be the no-point solution of moving some nano-powers to the tensor array. Change the concept of the power to suit. That would allow a bit more "flex" to what you can use and when. If you can free up some points, consider adding some Protection to one array or the other...or perhaps Deflection. Something to help ward off attacks. While you're at it, you could add some Lasting power like Snare or Nauseate...the nice thing about Lasting powers is that they don't hog the array after you use them. You can shift the array, fire it off, then shift the array back and it doesn't cancel out the lasting effects.
> 
> Love the concept of the character! It's just tricky to balance arrays, as Elric and others who helped me can attest to.




I agree with this, and would like to add that his one offensive ability is a horde of weak minions, which are not as useful as they probably seem on paper, can slow down the game, and require him to turn off his defensive abilities to use.  Plus, his healing aura essentially can the whole group each round, which is too powerful an ability to have.  If the bad guys noticed him doing it, he'd get pasted fast, especially considering his super-weak defensive stats. 

I especially want to reiterate that the nanobots cannot be a device unless they can be removed in a single round without specialized tools of knowledge.  It seems that this is not the case, and thus they cannot be a device.


----------



## Shayuri

Void, here's some ideas for how you -might- reframe the good doctor. Bearing in mind that I'm not trying to step on your toes...but I know it really helped me when I was supplied sample builds, even if I didn't stick to them for my final sheet.


Powers: 76pp,
Tensor field manipulator: Device 27pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
- ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
- Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]

First of all, consider dumping this. I'm not sure what a 'tensor field' is in reference to these abilities, but you'll need some spare points, and these powers seem kind of...tangential to the concept, which is that of a nanotechnologically enhanced genius. Something to consider.

Nanotechnology: Power Array 49pp 45 pool
- Concealment 
- Create Object (must be attached to self)
- Morph
- Regeneration
- Insubstantial 1

Okay, lemme explain what happened here. Don't freak yet.   The nano array is your meat and drink, so here's where the concept must be defined and focused. Is he a "nanomorph" like Terminator 2's T-1000? This array assumes he is. Note I leave ranks and extras and stuff blank...this is meant to spur thought, not exhaustively detail the character's abilities.

What if he's flesh and blood, but infused with nanocytes though? Perhaps they can be released to affect outside things?

Nanotechnology: Power Array 49pp 45 pool
- Corrosion/Disintegrate "Gray Goo"
- Healing (probably usable on objects too)
- Force Field "nano armor"
- Machine Communication/Control
- ESP (limited that he has to place nanobugs that he can later sense through?)

Use the points from the tensor thing to buy additional powers, and/or more saves and attack/defense, perhaps.


----------



## Fenris2

Whelp, here is the background so far for Joesph - sounds like a good angel name to me lol.  Subject to change of course.  Should have the char done for review soonish.  I did manage to fit in an actual sword, rather than perception attack.  But dang if Elric's not right, points are ridiculously tight trying to do this build even remotely right. 

[sblock="future char sheet"]


		Code:
	

Real Name: 
Secret ID: Laeng Wu 
Player Handle: Fenris2
Code Name: Angel
Concept/Archetype: Angel
Gender: Male
Age: ???
Size: Medium
Height: 6' 0"
Weight: 195 lbs
Hair: Black 
Eyes: Blue 
Skin: Asian   
Nationality: ?
Ethnicity: ?

Power Level: 11
Power Points: 165 = Stats 40 + 7 Saves + 0 Combat + 81 Powers + 22 Feats + 17 Skills - 2 Limitations
Tradeoffs:  +2 attack/-2 DC, +3 toughness/-3 Defense 
Experience Points: ?
Hero Points: ?

ABILITIES: 40 PP

STR 20 +5 (10 PP)
DEX 18 +4 (8 PP)
CON 18 +4 (8 PP)
INT 14 +2 (4 PP)
WIS 16 +3 (6 PP)
CHA 14 +2 (4 PP)


SAVES: 7 PP
		Base	Mod	Feat	Power	Misc	Total
FORT:		+4    	+3	+0	+0	+0	+7 (0 PP)
REF:		+4    	+0	+0	+0	+0	+4 (0 PP)
WILL:		+3    	+4	+0	+0	+0	+7 (0 PP)
TOUGHNESS:	0    	+0	+0	+14	+0	+14 


COMBAT: 0 PP
		Base	Power	Feat	Total
AB		+0      +0	+5	+5 (0 PP) (melee only)
DEFENSE (Norm)	+0	+0	+8	18 (0 PP) 
DEFENSE (FlatF) +0      +0      +0      10 (Note, has Uncanny Dodge: Vision)
INIT 		+4	+0	+4	+8 (0 PP) (Improved Init(1))


ATTACKS:
			Attack	Damage	Save   Type	Type	Crit	Special
Melee:
Unarmed			+5	+5	DC 20 Tough	Bruise	  20	-
(or Grapple)		+5	+5	-	-	-	  -	-

Heaven's Razor          +13     +9      DC 24 Tough     Bruise    20    autofire
                                                        Leathal


MOVEMENT & ENCUMBERANCE:

SPEED 30'/60'/120'
FLIGHT: 500'/1,000'/2,000'

		Lgt	Med	Hvy	Lift	Push
Max Weight:					

---

POWERS

Container: - Angel (59 PP, 58 PP + 1 Feat(s))

-Comprehend "Tongues" (8 PP, 4 Ranks @ 2/Rank + 0 Feat(s))
  Languages: 4 ranks - read, write, speak any language, and several at once if needed

-Flight "Angel's Wings" 50 MPH (4 PP, 3 Ranks @ 2/Rank + 0 Feat(s) - 2 Drawback(s))
  Drawback(s): Not in liquids, Restrainable

-Immunity "Incarnation of the Divine" (16 PP, 16 Ranks @ 1/Rank + 0 Feat(s))  
  Life Support (Immune to Disease, Poison, All Environments and Suffocation) (9 PP, 9 Ranks @ 1/Rank)
  Mind Control, Possession (4 PP, 4 Ranks @ 1/Rank)  // nothin' messes with the free will of heaven's agents
  Aging, Need for Sleep, Starvation and Thirst (3 PP, 3 Ranks @ 1/Rank)
  Power Feat(s): NA

-Morph "Angel to/from humanoid form, usually Leang Wu secret id" (2 PP)
  Power Feat(s): NA

-Power Defense "Angel's Grace" (14 PP, 14 Ranks @ 1/Rank)
  
-Regeneration: (2 PP)
  Resurrection (2 PP, 1 Rank @ 1+1/Rank)  // Res in 1 week, hopefully 
    Extra(s)): True Resurrection  

-Super Senses (12 PP)
  True Sight 10 PP "Deny Obfuscation" - Immune to Concealment, Illusion or Obscure effects, Detect Hidden (accute)
  Danger Sense 1 pp "Incomming!" - DC 15 notice to act normally during surprise round
  Uncanny Dodge (Vision) 1 pp "" - 

Extra(s): Innate


Device "Heaven's Razor" (9 PP, 3 Ranks @ 3/Rank ) : easily lost, gives 15pp 
-Damage (9 PP, 4 Ranks @ 1+1/Rank + 1 Feat(s))
   Extra's Autofire
   Feat(s): Mighty, 
-Attack Specialization x4 (4 PP)
Feat(s): Indestructable, Limited (those worthy including Angels of which fallen angels still qualify)      


Array "Celestial Power" (13 PP, 5 Ranks @ 2/Rank + 3 Feat(s))
-Dazzle "Radiance" (9 PP, 2 Ranks @ 2+3-1 + 1 Feat(s))
  Extra(s): Range (Range -> Touch), Area (burst), No Save 
  Feat(s)s: Selective

-Emotion Control "Move the Soul" (10 PP, 9 Ranks @ 2-2+1/Rank + 1 Feat(s) - 1 Drawback(s))
  Extra(s): Range (Perception -> Touch), Area (burst) 
  Feat(s): Selective
  Drawback(s): Limit (No Hate)

-Heal "Healing Touch" (10 PP, X Ranks @ 2+5/Rank +3 Feat(s) )
  Extra(s): Action ( Full -> Move ), Restoration, Resurrection, Total
  Feat(s): Persistent, Stabilize, Regrowth

-Teleport "Translocation" (10 PP, 10 Ranks @ 2-1/Rank)
  Flaw(s): Long Range Only


---

FEATS ( 22 PP )

All Out Attack(1 PP)
Attack Focus(5)                 // Melee
Defensive Attack(1 PP)
Dodge Focus(8 PP)
Evasion(2 PP)                  
Fascinate(1 PP)                 // Diplomacy                
Improved Initiative(1 PP)
Interpose(1 PP) 
Move-By Action(1 PP)    
Skill Mastery(1 PP)           	// (Diplomacy, Notice, Sense Motive, Sleight of Hand) 

---

SKILLS: (17 PP, 68 skill points, +1 lang point free)

				Ranks	Mod	Misc	Total
Diplomacy                       13      +2      -       +15 // takes 10 from skill focus 
Gather Information              8       +2      -       +10 // Most folks just feel comfortable talking around angels
Know: Theology and Philosophy   4       +2      -       +6  //
Language                        1       -       -       -   // Celestial, but he has all lang from comm power
Notice				14	+3	-	+17 // takes 10 from skill focus
Profession Stage Magician       8       +3      -       +11 // 
Sense Motive			13	+2	-	+15 // takes 10 from skill focus
Slieght of Hand                 8       +4      -       +12 // takes 10 from skill focus

---

LIMITATIONS (+2 PP)

Secret ID

Maybe something else needed to get to 2 P total...

[/sblock]

[sblock="Joesph's bg"]
Time Line: Approximately 2 years ago...

Sister Marie Donovan walked down the ancient basement steps right on Sister Angelique's heals.  She  disliked going into the Church's conservatory under basement.  Not that it was scary per se, that was silly.  After all, how frightening could a bunch of old and mostly decrepit music instruments be?  It was just so dusty and well... the only other time she was ever down here was when she was still a novice, and she had felt as if she was being observed.  What an odd sensation given almost no one ever came down here.

Angelique said, “So you want to take the right section... And I will do the left?”

Marie just nodded and tried to stifle a sneeze.  Someone should clean down here at least once a century, she thought.  But, best not bring it up to Mother Bene or she could guess who would get the job.  . . Brrrrrr.  What a cold pickle that one was.    Putting Mother Bene out of her mind, Marie took out her note pad and doodled on a corner a few times to make sure her pen worked.  That ritual completed she and Angelique begin patiently itemizing the various instruments for the inventory the church required each time the Pope changed.  After a few minutes, the sound of some rustling and a rather mighty sneeze from Angelique broke the silence.

Angelique queried, “Now that is strange Marie. . . Why would someone have a statue down here?”

Marie answered, “Hrrrm?”, as she turned to see Angelic standing in the far basement corner, shrouded in a cloud of dust from having pulled an absolutely ancient looking tarp off of a life sized statue of an angel wielding a sword.  She eyed the statury as she walked over, and thought it very life like indeed, although she admitted to herself that she was no expert.  And replied, “Well Angelique, that should definitely be. . .  somewhere that is not here anyway.  Maybe we can get an idea of how old it is from the writing on the base?”

Both sisters knelt down around the statue and brushed off the dust covered base to reveal what appeared to be a very old form of maybe Celtic?  “I am afraid I can not read this Marie.  You studied wasted some time studying Celtic before you came here didn't you?”, said Angelique with a grin.

Brushing aside the mild jab with her curiosity aroused, Marie replied, “Yes, actually I think it is. . .  but it looks like a very, very old form.”  She concentrated trying to decipher the writing as best she could rubbing her temple with her left thumb as she concentrated.  “How odd.”, was her only commented.

Never very patient, Angelique poked her gently in the ribs with a finger and said, “Well...  Share already silly!”

Marie sighed, “It appears to be some sort of well. . . the best I can say is some sort of question or judgement put to mankind to banish or free... I am not sure over all, but this second part very definitely says 'choose to set me free.'”

She began to nod in satisfaction at her deciphering, but was interrupted by a bright flash and and a gentle but firm force that knocked both Angelique and herself prone.  Marie shook her head, and looked up. . .  And, gaped in amazement as the place where the statue had stood was now occupied by a very confused? And very live looking glowing angel?  Holding a sword standing over them both. 


A feeling of peace came over her, but not before a more natural reaction kicked in.  Marie fainted.   Before she completely went out, she vaguely understood communication in her mind that said “Thank you.” And then s o m e  t   h   i    n     g. . . (fade to black)

Marie awoke to see Angelique's face leaning over her as she was being gently shaken and spoken too, “Marie!  Marie!” she heard and replied, “I... I am awake...  What happened?”

Angelique said in a confused tone, “I don't know.  Do...  Do you think that was actually an... ummm.  . . And then we both fainted.”  She and  looked briefly at the spot where a statue once stood, but now only an ancient tarp remained in its place.  And then she turned and hugged Marie as they both began to sob with tears mixed equally of joy, amazement, and not a little relief.   

* * *

Time Line: Eons ago...

  And so war rent the heavens themselves as angel fought angel while celestial blood rained from the clouds like water from the scuppers of a storm tossed ship.   God would not aid the faction that supported him due to the compact of free will.  And yet both sides were not only evenly matched, but also all casualties reformed soon after a battle.  And so, the same battles were essentially fought over and over again with no end in sight.
  Those following the word of God decided that the stalemate must end, and that Lucifer needed to be  banished if God's plan was ever to unfold.  And so in secret, the most powerful angels on the side of light gathered to forge the Heaven's Razors.  Blades of immense power that amplified the wielders own speed and prowess, and more significantly severed an angel's ability to resurrect.  Battles would no longer be eternal...
  But, though victory was achieved and the angelic council did indeed banish Lucifer and his remaining followers, it was not without some unforeseen costs.  For the Razors themselves had absorbed the essence of those they defeated.  And in doing so gained power, sentience and the ability to influence the world around them in the process.  The Angelic Council quickly moved to destroy the Razor's as some had developed a thirst for celestial blood.  Yet a few of the most powerful Razors were found to be indestructible, having absorbed far to much of the essence of celestial beings they had slain.
  Those few remaining blades were cast down from the heaven's and scattered across the mortal realms of the universe to greatly reduce their power by removing them from proximity to heaven.  For a razor's power was in proportion to its proximity to celestial (and the new infernal) realms, the spirits it had extinguished, and the native ability of its wielder.  
   Each remaining blade was assigned a guardian to prevent it from returning to heaven, as well as from falling into the wrong hands.  These guardians were chosen from a small pool of volunteers who agreed to have their power to return to heaven forever annulled as a safety precaution.   They were chosen for a fair degree of competence, but were also far from the most powerful of angels for obvious reasons.  Sometimes, these blades would be lent to a mortal for a time to further the plan.  And sometimes compromises were made in selecting a guardian due to the limited pool of volunteers. . .

* * *

Time Line:  Some thousands of years ago...

Angelic Councilmen, “And so the council finds you violated its tenants.  But more so of helping a dark age descend on mankind that may last centuries.  We understand that you have wandered the mortal realm for thousands upon thousands of years and that this may have clouded your judgement.  And we acknowledge you have served your duty well...  Up until this point.”
  “You did indeed lend the Razor to Arthur and then assumed a role to follow him to ensure its proper use.  But, you know well that loving a mortal is forbidden by the council, and the result of your actions could have grave consequences for history.  We will not pass sentence on you, but rather allow mankind to do so.  For it is they you have harmed by your actions.  Do you accept our ruling?”

“I accept it as it is my duty, but do not agree with it.”, I replied

Angelic Councilmen, “This too was forseen.  None the less, your punishment is accepted and so we will continue.  (pause)  You shall be banished from all contact with humans of this time.  And we will leave it to them to forgive you, or not, at a later date when the ramifications of your actions will have long been apparent.  I do not doubt that you will have several thousand planetary revolutions before they pass their judgement.  For your sake Joesph, I hope it is one of forgiveness. (Sound of heavenly thunder).”  

My last thought was of Guinevere.  I hoped she would forgive me and all would be as it was. . .s

* * *

Time Line:  About two years ago...

Before awakening again in some dungeon room to see two women dressed a bit like penguins start and look up at me in my angelic form.  I quickly tried to sooth them, but they were already passing out in shock.  Rather than revive them to only have them repeat the process, I teleported out of there and so began my education as to just how much the word had changed since I last walked among all of God's creations.

One thing became apparent, things were so very different.  And yet no matter what had occurred in the past, and whatever the council may think.  Humanity still needed some help in the here and now.  As always, I adjusted and carried on, for that was my duty.  Gradually I fit myself back into society by day as a stage magician, of all things.  And as a  'super hero' as they call them, in secret.  And so things went, at least until the talking box err... TV made a claim on my attentions.
[/sblock]


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Just checking in to say that I have basically finished up Salix's stats; I'll post them later tonight after going over them once again and checking my math.

Oh, yeah... and I also wanted to suggest that there should most definitely be lots of scenes that take place in parks.


----------



## Shayuri

...such as the infamous "Poisoning Pigeons" scene!


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Tom Lehrer is clearly an animal-abusing supervillain, and that dastardly, psychopathic serial killer (of small birds) _will_ be brought to justice, no matter the cost! So swears *Captain PETA*!


----------



## Shayuri

He caused much anxiety in the Audubon Society too. And sometimes he'll do in a squirrel or two.

...

Hee. You get a cupcake, by the way. Arcane Music Reference Getter.

You're the plant manipulator, right? What did you think of the Seed Transform thing?


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Huzzah! Cupcakes make Azathoth happy.

I am Plant Guy™, yes. The "seed to plant" Transform idea was a good one, and probably the only way I'd be able to use some of my powers on a regular basis. However, looking over my sheet again, I'm not sure how effective the powers I favor are going to be, even using the Transform... and I'm kind of regretting my decision to be Plant Guy™. Maybe I oughta be Ice Guy™ or Electricity Guy™ or Cosmic Energy Guy™ instead...


----------



## Shayuri

Hmm!

You could always broaden your scope. What about Nature Guy? Get some animal control/communication going on. Get a ranged Cloud Nauseate, possibly linked to a Sight Obscure, and define it as a swarm of bugses. Maybe even toss in some weather effects for that good ol' Wrath of Nature touch.

You could be The Green Man!

Let's see...what else is open...

Electrical/Lightning has some interesting synergy with the girl who can morph... She's immune to electricity, so you could lay down fierce AoE's and not worry about her. EMP's are always good in modern day settings. Teleport through wires, maybe. Datalink, to be TEH SOOPUR HAXXORS!!

Or forego animals and plants and just go heavy duty weather control. You can get some great powers going with that theme...

Or how about a "super normal?" Ex-SEALS or Army Ranger/Spec Ops type guy. He's near peak human performance in most areas...strong, fast, tough, smart...all that. But the world's different now. It's not about armies anymore. It's about individuals...highly powerful individuals. To stay on the frontlines of this new war, he resigns his commission, and starts calling in favors to get his hands on all the military hardware he can. He'd wind up being kind of batmannish, but with a very different character. Loads of Equipment (maybe enough to justify a Device pool), contacts and connections, tons of skills...but unlike our good Doctor, his skills aren't academia. With his combination of intense combat experience (Fearless?) and leadership skills, he'd be a strong contender for group leader.

Tons of ideas left!


----------



## Victim

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Huzzah! Cupcakes make Azathoth happy.
> 
> I am Plant Guy™, yes. The "seed to plant" Transform idea was a good one, and probably the only way I'd be able to use some of my powers on a regular basis. However, looking over my sheet again, I'm not sure how effective the powers I favor are going to be, even using the Transform... and I'm kind of regretting my decision to be Plant Guy™. Maybe I oughta be Ice Guy™ or Electricity Guy™ or Cosmic Energy Guy™ instead...




I'm not sure how've you written stuff, but I tend to think of plant guys as doing as much creating plant stuff to suit their needs as using what's already there.  More descriptor, less "Limited: needs plants," if you know what I mean.  If you want a Nausea cloud, you don't need to branch into bugs, you can just go with projecting some nasty pollen or whatever.  

But Ice and Electricity are both cool.


----------



## Voidrazor

Shayuri - You're right, the immunity power doesn't work as the hinge for other abilities as presently formulated. I think if I make it a long-term Boost that gives immunities it should work.

The low defenses and lack of offensive power are intentional. My thinking is that he'd be a bit like DC's Oracle. Generally he'd stay at the groups headquarters and provide utility remotely. Keep in mind that the current build can design and construct a ~30pp device in under 2 minutes using Quickness. With the next version, if its OK with Matt, I'd like to speed that up further to about 3 rounds. 

Matt - What would be a reasonable amount of healing? Would it be OK if I just removed the Total and/or Restoration extras? 

For the nanotech device array I was thinking that he'd have a removable interface gloves. Without them, there might be nano in his system and in the air, but he wouldn't be able to *do* anything with it.

Also, I'll rework the Summon to make it a single critter that's just a little shy of caps.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmm!
> 
> You could always broaden your scope. What about Nature Guy? Get some animal control/communication going on. Get a ranged Cloud Nauseate, possibly linked to a Sight Obscure, and define it as a swarm of bugses. Maybe even toss in some weather effects for that good ol' Wrath of Nature touch.
> 
> You could be The Green Man!
> 
> Let's see...what else is open...
> 
> Electrical/Lightning has some interesting synergy with the girl who can morph... She's immune to electricity, so you could lay down fierce AoE's and not worry about her. EMP's are always good in modern day settings. Teleport through wires, maybe. Datalink, to be TEH SOOPUR HAXXORS!!
> 
> Or forego animals and plants and just go heavy duty weather control. You can get some great powers going with that theme...
> 
> Or how about a "super normal?" Ex-SEALS or Army Ranger/Spec Ops type guy. He's near peak human performance in most areas...strong, fast, tough, smart...all that. But the world's different now. It's not about armies anymore. It's about individuals...highly powerful individuals. To stay on the frontlines of this new war, he resigns his commission, and starts calling in favors to get his hands on all the military hardware he can. He'd wind up being kind of batmannish, but with a very different character. Loads of Equipment (maybe enough to justify a Device pool), contacts and connections, tons of skills...but unlike our good Doctor, his skills aren't academia. With his combination of intense combat experience (Fearless?) and leadership skills, he'd be a strong contender for group leader.
> 
> Tons of ideas left!




I must admit, the latter concept sounds _very_ keen, but the idea of a leader-type isn't really my thing. I am a terrible leader, myself—I have little sense of tactics and poor persuasive skills, among other things—and trying to fake it probably wouldn't work out so well.

I did consider a more general nature character, though a plants-and-animal type doesn't fit well with the alien origin, and, since I'm so lazy, I've strongly considered keeping that and tweaking it slightly to fit a new character. So, for instance, instead of being an alien plant, he'd be a sentient, humanoid crystal, or an energy being, or just a fellow with green blood and pointed ears... 

But I suppose I'll ponder some more and see what background is suitable for whatever general theme I decide upon.



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> I'm not sure how've you written stuff, but I tend to think of plant guys as doing as much creating plant stuff to suit their needs as using what's already there. More descriptor, less "Limited: needs plants," if you know what I mean. If you want a Nausea cloud, you don't need to branch into bugs, you can just go with projecting some nasty pollen or whatever.




Well, some powers just flat-out require the presence of plants—Plant Control's description specifically states it causes plants already present to become a Snare, for instance, although now that I think about it, that's rather...well, sucky, compared to the default assumption that Snare creates the bonds. Of course, other things like Animate Objects (to animate plants) just don't make sense when there aren't plants around.

But I think my real problem here is that I just waffle too much. Too many ideas, too few games...and too much ADHD. Oh, well. I'll try my best to have a new character (edit: or just good old Salix) finished tonight or tomorrow...I get the feeling that recruiting is winding down now.


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Huzzah! Cupcakes make Azathoth happy.
> 
> I am Plant Guy™, yes. The "seed to plant" Transform idea was a good one, and probably the only way I'd be able to use some of my powers on a regular basis. However, looking over my sheet again, I'm not sure how effective the powers I favor are going to be, even using the Transform... and I'm kind of regretting my decision to be Plant Guy™. Maybe I oughta be Ice Guy™ or Electricity Guy™ or Cosmic Energy Guy™ instead...




I love your background.  As Victim said, just don't take Limited (Near Plants) too often and assume you're creating plant effects with your powers.  Ultimate Power has a good section on abilities that go well thematically with Plant Control: 

[sblock]
Fatigue: By touch you can cause an allergic reaction or drain
living targets of some moisture, causing a Fatigue effect at a
rank equal to your Plant Control rank. If you can cause Fatigue
at normal range, reduce the effective rank to two-thirds your
Plant Control rank.

• Insect Control: You can emit certain scents that attract
and influence the behavior of insects, giving you a Summon
Insect Swarm effect at your Plant Control rank. Once you stop
maintaining this effect, any swarm disperses, effectively disap-
pearing as it breaks up into its component creatures.

• Nauseate: Your touch can carry a plant toxin or allergen that
induces illness like a Nauseate effect at your power rank. If you
can induce Nausea at normal range, reduce the effective rank
to two-thirds your Plant Control rank.

• Plant Growth: You can stimulate the growth of plants, caus-
ing them to grow even greater than their normal mature size.
This is a Growth effect (see Growth in the previous chapter)
with Affects Others (+0), Limited to Plants (–1), and Permanent
in duration (+0), since the enlarged plants remain that way.
Apply ranks of Growth equal to your Plant Control rank, so
Plant Control 12, for example, can increase a plant’s size cat-
egory by three, turning a small sapling into a huge tree, for
example.

• Plant Perception: You can sense things occurring near liv-
ing plants like an ESP effect at two-thirds your Plant Control power rank (see ESP in the previous chapter for details).

• Stun: Either by using a plant-based toxin or influencing intes-
tinal flora, you can stun a creature by touch like a Stun effect at your Plant Control rank. If you can stun at normal range, reduce effective rank to two-thirds of your Plant Control Rank.

• Transform: You can turn one type of plant into another, a sustained Transform effect at half your Plant Control rank. Transformed plants revert to normal over time (assume a save bonus of +0 against the lasting effect).

• Transmit: You can transport yourself by stepping “into” a plant large enough to accommodate your body and stepping out of a similar plant at your destination like the Transmit power at your Plant Control power rank. Alternately, if you have a Plant Form body (see Associated Effects, following) you may be able to abandon your current plant form and grow a new one elsewhere at your destination; the same effect, but with different descriptors.

ASSOCIATED EFFECTS
• Photosynthesis: Your skin is tinged green with chlorophyll, allowing you to photosynthesize food from water and sun-light. You have the benefits of Immunity 1 (starvation).

• Plant Form: The ability to control plants may come from being a plant, or at least having the ability to turn into one! You have the Alternate Form power, either allowing you to change from flesh-and-blood to mobile vegetation or a permanent version for mobile, intelligent plant creatures (see Alternate Form for details).

• Protection: Your skin is covered with tough bark-like armor, giving you a Protection effect.

• Speak With Plants: You can communicate with ordinary plants, learning what they know and “speaking” to them in return (see the Comprehend effect in the previous chapter for details).

• Strike: You have tough wooden limbs, perhaps covered with sharp thorns or spikes, giving you a Damage effect that enhances your unarmed attacks. If the benefits stack with your normal Strength, apply the Mighty power feat as well (see Damage in the previous chapter for details).

• Super-Movement: Super-Movement effects appropriate for plant-controllers include permeate (through plants, wood, or natural earth), slithering (vine-like along the ground), swinging (via hanging vines), sure-footed (via roots and the ability to move through undergrowth), and trackless.[/sblock]

Fenris, I really like your background as well.  Now, turn back to stone every night and you can be an Angel-Gargoyle   I'm waiting to see how you stat out the sword.  I hope you kept True Sight- that's such a flavorful ability.


----------



## James Heard

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Well, some powers just flat-out require the presence of plants—Plant Control's description specifically states it causes plants already present to become a Snare, for instance, although now that I think about it, that's rather...well, sucky, compared to the default assumption that Snare creates the bonds. Of course, other things like Animate Objects (to animate plants) just don't make sense when there aren't plants around.
> 
> But I think my real problem here is that I just waffle too much. Too many ideas, too few games...and too much ADHD. Oh, well. I'll try my best to have a new character (edit: or just good old Salix) finished tonight or tomorrow...I get the feeling that recruiting is winding down now.



I think that if you included "bacteria and fungi" directly into your "plant" theme you'd have some kickass chops available in an array. Sure, you could still make the trees walk around and all that, but I think some variety of "The Incredible Alien Pharmacopoeia Guy" could be terribly frightening.

"Stop!"

"Aren't you the plant guy? All I see around here is concrete...I'm going to kick your butt."

"Ahh, but you see...I'M IN YOUR STOMACH INVADING YOUR WORMS! DIEEEEEE!"

Ahem, or something like that. Turning things into piles of bizarre mushrooms by super-growing  them all big, turning their stomach bacteria into little alien opiate engines, and making common yeast do evil tricks for you like eat metal instead of sugar would be high on the "OMG!" list. Sending the tree after them? That's for when you're being lazy or merciful. Growing the apple the bad guy just _ate _into the tree that's attacking him? Not so much.


----------



## Victim

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Shayuri - You're right, the immunity power doesn't work as the hinge for other abilities as presently formulated. I think if I make it a long-term Boost that gives immunities it should work.
> 
> The low defenses and lack of offensive power are intentional. My thinking is that he'd be a bit like DC's Oracle. Generally he'd stay at the groups headquarters and provide utility remotely. Keep in mind that the current build can design and construct a ~30pp device in under 2 minutes using Quickness. With the next version, if its OK with Matt, I'd like to speed that up further to about 3 rounds.
> .




Quickness only helps the design phase of Invention (and the like); it doesn't speed the time it takes to construct them.  Since Invention takes 5 hours per pp - or 2.5 hours if you take the penalties - the quickness will only save you an 1 hour (30 min) per point of the invention.  Obviously, that adds up if you want to make big gadgets.  But you aren't going to cranking stuff out nigh instantly.  For that you need some sort of Gadget power.



			
				FAQ said:
			
		

> Can you use the Quickness power to speed up inventing?
> 
> Yes and no. As specified in the power description, you can only use Quickness for “routine” tasks where you can take 20.  You can take 20 on the design check to invent something, so you can use Quickness to speed up the design process; for
> example, a character with Quickness for mental tasks might be able to do much of the design work quickly “in his head.”  On the other hand, you can’t take 20 on the construction check for an invention, so Quickness can’t speed up that check.
> 
> The only way to do so is by taking a penalty on the Craft skill check, as given on page 131 of Mutants & Masterminds.




As for the plant guy:



> Well, some powers just flat-out require the presence of plants—Plant Control's description specifically states it causes plants already present to become a Snare, for instance, although now that I think about it, that's rather...well, sucky, compared to the default assumption that Snare creates the bonds. Of course, other things like Animate Objects (to animate plants) just don't make sense when there aren't plants around.




Plant Control basically works out to Snare+Area-Needs Plants.  It's not totally sucky.  Plus your character can easily justify taking versions without the limitation - just toss off a bit of yourself and power it into temporary life.

As mentioned, plant powers can have all sorts of internal attacks.  Also, IIRC, plants use all sorts of chemicals as defensive measures or means to communicate.

EDIT: On the other hand, most systems of classification separate plants proper from fungi and bacteria.  Non animal doesn't equal plant.  Casting your net too widely makes the idea of "plant controller" useless.  And there's probably enough power ideas her now to eat a goodly sum of points.


----------



## James Heard

Victim said:
			
		

> EDIT: On the other hand, most systems of classification separate plants proper from fungi and bacteria.  Non animal doesn't equal plant.  Casting your net too widely makes the idea of "plant controller" useless.  And there's probably enough power ideas her now to eat a goodly sum of points.



Sure, but he's an alien. Maybe he knows something we all don't.


----------



## Victim

James Heard said:
			
		

> Sure, but he's an alien. Maybe he knows something we all don't.




True enough.  And it's not like superhero stuff has the most rigorous science anyway.


----------



## Fenris2

Okay MM experts. . .  This is my 2nd MM char so scroll down a bit to my previous post and take a peaky to make sure its a-okay.  Suggestions welcome


----------



## Shayuri

Angel's Grace should read "Protection" not "Defense." It's a little confusing at first to see where that +14 came from.   Plus, remember that Constitution bonus counts towards Toughness, so you may be a bit over on that...

Aside from that, I'm just curious about how the sword is autofire. He swings it once, and it hits more than once? Just conceptually, it's hard to visualize for me. What are you trying to model with that?

Otherwise it looks like a pretty strong build! Nice job!


----------



## Elric

Fenris-
1) No save is broken.  Using no-save on a rank 2 (dazzle) power that can be used as much as you want (and has only 1 level of failure) is abusive to boot, since even a low rank No-save power doesn't allow a save, and increasing save is the main function of additional ranks.  So making a one-stage effect rank 2 power No-Save is far better than buying 8 additional ranks, for a much lower price.  The Mastermind's Manual recommends not letting PCs have the No-Save extra (although, surprisingly, Ultimate Power doesn't seem to include such a warning).

2) Selective Emotion Control doesn't let you avoid hitting your friends.  For that you need Selective Attack, an extra.  Same for your Dazzle power.

Also, your emotion control power has the flaw Range: Touch.  This would allow a Reflex save against it, even though it probably shouldn't have one.  To have an effect centered on you that doesn't allow a Reflex save, keep the range at Perception and use the -1 Flaw (No-Range).  I don't think this flaw is in any of the books, but the idea is that for a -1 flaw a perception-range Area power has to be centered on you, which is the same limitation as going from Ranged to Touch for an Area power.


3) I realize that Charisma totally sucks as an ability score, but shouldn't an Angel have more than 14 Charisma?  

4) What are the 2 pp of limitations?  I don't see it specified.  Edit- nevermind, I think you mention that this is just a way of saying "2 pp over."

5) Autofire being only on your sword and not your Strike might mean that you can't get your full damage bonus with the "walking the fire" portion of Autofire.  Shayuri- it's generally  used to represent striking a lot of times possibly due to the character's super-speed, extreme skill, or in the case of the sword, magic ala D&D's Speed enchantment.  Note that Autofire doesn't apply to your whole strength bonus as you haven't bought Autofire on your Strength score- the power construct is perfectly fine, though.

6) Skill Mastery on Notice isn't valid, as you can't normally take 10 on Notice and skill mastery only works on skills that you can normally take 10 on.

7) Your whole attack and Defense bonus are in Attack Focus: Melee and Dodge Focus.  I realize that these are definitely better pp deals than the normal bonuses but in particular having all of your Defense bonus from Dodge focus is suited to a pure speedster, not an Angel.

8) As Shayuri said, you should remove 4 ranks of Protection since your Con already adds +4 so this will leave you at +14 Toughness and free up 4 pp.

9) You have to buy Indestructible and Restricted on the Device power itself- so they are bought with your normal pp, not with the pool of pp for the device (you don't get the device discount on them).

Attack Specialization on the sword should be the Accurate Power Feat (but the effect is the same).  Also, Accurate 4 on the sword seems a little high.  Wouldn't it make more sense if your character had at least 1 rank of Attack Specialization himself to reflect his skill in using swords?


----------



## Victim

There's also a low rank Heal power with tons of extras, which had been mentioned as troublesome.

The angel's exotic saves are pretty low, especially for an angel (and one with significant experience at that).  I tend to think of angel/pally types as having huge saves.

At that rank, Morph does not provide all that great of a disguise.

Some kind of vulnerabilty or weakness might be a good way to get the needed 2 points of drawbacks.


----------



## Shayuri

Perhaps to "unholy" or profane objects and/or powers...

Or as a supernatural creature, he may be subject to containment, or command via his true name, or warding with various substances like silver, cold iron, salt, etc...


----------



## James Heard

Hellfire.


----------



## Elric

I still worry that if with all of the msyical characters with mystical weaknesses and vulnerabilities we're going to have more of a mystical feel than what Matt wants.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I actually worry about having TOO MANY mystical heroes. Look at the kinds of villainry in the into. While done by super-powered individuals (some including mystical ones), the motives, organization, etc of villains in this world are rather human. Too many mystical heroes can mean not enough heroes grounded in modern Earth, which can put the group at a disadvantage and hurt group-world compatibility. This i not to say that any of the current mystical heroes are at risk of being rejected for being mystical, only that the ones not so far along should consider other routes.


----------



## Shayuri

Well, in fairness, only the angel and demon really qualify for mystical drawbacks. Thess is a witch...a human being. She uses magic, but she's not a magical being.

Still, I see yer point.

Maybe he has issues with churches? On account of his banishment? Or vice versa, maybe he feels compelled to observe a strict religious regimen.

He could be a bit intolerant of non-Christian faiths...or if not bigoted, then patronizing. Or maybe in his view all Gods really ARE aspects of the one, so he honestly, genuinely can't understand a great deal of human history as being a struggle between rival faiths...because to him all the faiths are the same.


----------



## James Heard

Oooooh, she could be a CYBER-witch.  Nuclear Nano-Mojo.


----------



## Shayuri

Who, Thessaly? Hee. No thanks. It took forever to get her to where I'm happy with her. I'm not changing a thing now.


----------



## Victim

Some of (possibly) mystic beings could also be in some way allergic to technology, as kind of an update of iron vulnerability.  It kind of brings in a magic vs tech metaphysical divide which might be undesireable from a setting PoV, but does offer ways to exploit weaknesses without many magical antagonists.

Some kind of technologically exploitable weakness also might allow for a "powered beings from other dimensions" explanation/rationalization for mystic creatures, thereby reducing religious impact.  It all depends on your point of view.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Fenris-
> 1) No save is broken.  Using no-save on a rank 2 (dazzle) power that can be used as much as you want (and has only 1 level of failure) is abusive to boot, since even a low rank No-save power doesn't allow a save, and increasing save is the main function of additional ranks.  So making a one-stage effect rank 2 power No-Save is far better than buying 8 additional ranks, for a much lower price.  The Mastermind's Manual recommends not letting PCs have the No-Save extra (although, surprisingly, Ultimate Power doesn't seem to include such a warning).
> 
> 2) Selective Emotion Control doesn't let you avoid hitting your friends.  For that you need Selective Attack, an extra.  Same for your Dazzle power.
> 
> Also, your emotion control power has the flaw Range: Touch.  This would allow a Reflex save against it, even though it probably shouldn't have one.  To have an effect centered on you that doesn't allow a Reflex save, keep the range at Perception and use the -1 Flaw (No-Range).  I don't think this flaw is in any of the books, but the idea is that for a -1 flaw a perception-range Area power has to be centered on you, which is the same limitation as going from Ranged to Touch for an Area power.
> 
> 
> 3) I realize that Charisma totally sucks as an ability score, but shouldn't an Angel have more than 14 Charisma?
> 
> 4) What are the 2 pp of limitations?  I don't see it specified.  Edit- nevermind, I think you mention that this is just a way of saying "2 pp over."
> 
> 5) Autofire being only on your sword and not your Strike might mean that you can't get your full damage bonus with the "walking the fire" portion of Autofire.  Shayuri- it's generally  used to represent striking a lot of times possibly due to the character's super-speed, extreme skill, or in the case of the sword, magic ala D&D's Speed enchantment.  Note that Autofire doesn't apply to your whole strength bonus as you haven't bought Autofire on your Strength score- the power construct is perfectly fine, though.
> 
> 6) Skill Mastery on Notice isn't valid, as you can't normally take 10 on Notice and skill mastery only works on skills that you can normally take 10 on.
> 
> 7) Your whole attack and Defense bonus are in Attack Focus: Melee and Dodge Focus.  I realize that these are definitely better pp deals than the normal bonuses but in particular having all of your Defense bonus from Dodge focus is suited to a pure speedster, not an Angel.
> 
> 8) As Shayuri said, you should remove 4 ranks of Protection since your Con already adds +4 so this will leave you at +14 Toughness and free up 4 pp.
> 
> 9) You have to buy Indestructible and Restricted on the Device power itself- so they are bought with your normal pp, not with the pool of pp for the device (you don't get the device discount on them).
> 
> Attack Specialization on the sword should be the Accurate Power Feat (but the effect is the same).  Also, Accurate 4 on the sword seems a little high.  Wouldn't it make more sense if your character had at least 1 rank of Attack Specialization himself to reflect his skill in using swords?





You should take an AP on your array of angelic attack powers that enhances your sword, since you talked about the swords power being proportional to that of the user, as well as some kind of vampiric ability.

Also, I agree that No Save is broken.


----------



## DM_Matt

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> Shayuri - You're right, the immunity power doesn't work as the hinge for other abilities as presently formulated. I think if I make it a long-term Boost that gives immunities it should work.
> 
> The low defenses and lack of offensive power are intentional. My thinking is that he'd be a bit like DC's Oracle. Generally he'd stay at the groups headquarters and provide utility remotely. Keep in mind that the current build can design and construct a ~30pp device in under 2 minutes using Quickness. With the next version, if its OK with Matt, I'd like to speed that up further to about 3 rounds.
> 
> Matt - What would be a reasonable amount of healing? Would it be OK if I just removed the Total and/or Restoration extras?
> 
> For the nanotech device array I was thinking that he'd have a removable interface gloves. Without them, there might be nano in his system and in the air, but he wouldn't be able to *do* anything with it.
> 
> Also, I'll rework the Summon to make it a single critter that's just a little shy of caps.




Unfortunately The Trust has to have its own base command and invention facilities and staff.  Holding down the fort might not work, and in many situations, comm van etc type scenarios may also not work.  Healing, meanwhile, must take at least a standard action.


----------



## Voidrazor

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Unfortunately The Trust has to have its own base command and invention facilities and staff.  Holding down the fort might not work, and in many situations, comm van etc type scenarios may also not work.  Healing, meanwhile, must take at least a standard action.



I'll see what I can do in terms of beefing up his defences. But do you find the idea of comm van scenarios problematic? I understand that in some situations it wouldn't be feasible, and that occasionally it would mean that he'd get ambushed alone.

I never tried to reduce the activation on healing. Just about every other bell & whistle but not that. Also, at 6 ranks, would that qualify as low rank abuse? For the current version I was looking at 8 ranks, taking out restoration and Total.




			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Quickness only helps the design phase of Invention (and the like); it doesn't speed the time it takes to construct them.  Since Invention takes 5 hours per pp - or 2.5 hours if you take the penalties - the quickness will only save you an 1 hour (30 min) per point of the invention.  Obviously, that adds up if you want to make big gadgets.  But you aren't going to cranking stuff out nigh instantly.  For that you need some sort of Gadget power.



Doh! You're right. It's still worth taking Quickness. But it looks like he's not going to have quite the utility I had imagined.


----------



## DM_Matt

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> I'll see what I can do in terms of beefing up his defences. But do you find the idea of comm van scenarios problematic? I understand that in some situations it wouldn't be feasible, and that occasionally it would mean that he'd get ambushed alone.
> 
> I never tried to reduce the activation on healing. Just about every other bell & whistle but not that. Also, at 6 ranks, would that qualify as low rank abuse? For the current version I was looking at 8 ranks, taking out restoration and Total.
> 
> 
> Doh! You're right. It's still worth taking Quickness. But it looks like he's not going to have quite the utility I had imagined.




Heh, I'm sorry, the real world is kicking my arse at the moment.  I read "Area" as "Aura."  i still would rather not have group healing though.  Especially usable every round from afar.  Somm van situations, meanwhile, can work sometimes, but often cannot.


----------



## Fenris2

First up, thanks for the help all.   I have combined replies here...

>> 1) No save is broken.

np, will fix


2) Selective Emotion Control doesn't let you avoid hitting your friends.  

np, will fix


 >> 3) I realize that Charisma totally sucks as an ability score, but shouldn't an Angel have more than 14 Charisma?  7) Your whole attack and Defense bonus.  Plus low saves [sic]

All too true, there is quite a bit of quite valid commentary here.  Missing one key point I fear.  Where to get the PP from....  lol.  If you can magically make 20 PP or so appear.  I am all ears.  

If not, basically I see four choices.  1) Accept point shaving like mad to make things work, which means using things like dodge, low cha and so forth...  And even then still give up something like saves, and talk to animals.  Its not ideal, but its what I choose so far at least. . . 2) Reduce attacks and defenses to about half their current levels, which while purer, has its issues too.  A melee slugger in a PL11 game with +6 AB and +6 defense.  Probably not very viable or fun?
3) Remove core features.  Take away the sword, and he can't fight.  Take away the array and he is basically a flying angel who can swing a sword, period, but do no other angel stuff.   Take away the senses/immunities and he is basically flying sword guy w/magic.  4) Or I could build something that can fit in points allowed... lol   

>> 4) What are the 2 pp of limitations?

Well secret id is 1.  Not sure what it is worth pp wise though, or if I need other limits.  I have a hard time getting a handle on limits in MM...  Would be nice if they provided a concrete list of 40-50 examples to compare from.

>> 5) Autofire being 

fix in works

>> 6) Skill Mastery on Notice isn't valid, as you can't normally take 10 on Notice and skill mastery only works on skills that you can normally take 10 on.

same as above

>> 8) As Shayuri said, you should remove 4 ranks of Protection since your Con already adds +4 so this will leave you at +14 Toughness and free up 4 pp.

ok

>> 9) You have to buy Indestructible and Restricted on the Device power itself- so they are bought with your normal pp, not with the pool of pp for the device (you don't get the device discount on them).

okay


>> Attack Specialization on the sword should be the Accurate Power Feat (but the effect is the same).  Also, Accurate 4 on the sword seems a little high.  Wouldn't it make more sense if your character had at least 1 rank of Attack Specialization himself to reflect his skill in using swords?[/QUOTE]

okay

>> Ap array for sword. 

Sorry, but I will need help there DM_Matt.  I have absolutely no clue how to build something like that.    Maybe, wait until I have the fixes in place though


----------



## Victim

You could take Enhanced Charisma as part of the divine power array, possibly replacing Emotion Control, since it needs to be reworked anyway.


----------



## Shayuri

You know, that could even work...

Sort of like..when he wants to, he gains this incredible charismatic aura. It's not always on, but when it is he can use Intimidate to easily cow crowds, or Diplomacy to awe them...

HMM. Conceptually, it could work...


----------



## James Heard

You could even link the relevant skills to the CHA within the array, so you could apply mods to everything at once.

Personally I think crowds would be sort of unjustified, but limiting the effectiveness to one single person? The angel having a little one-on-one with one person at a time?


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> You could even link the relevant skills to the CHA within the array, so you could apply mods to everything at once.




Skills are really cheap enough as they are now.  Putting Enhanced out of combat skills in an array with in-combat powers is a discount the skills don't need.  Cha could actually use a discount (since it's quite a bit overpriced) but since Enhanced Charisma in an array is pretty much like a bad Enhanced Skills Power in an array, that doesn't feel great either.

Edit- of course, the real problem here is that arrays make acquiring these (and other) abilities too cheap, not that there's anything wrong with having Enhanced Skills in general.

Further edit- for this character, an enhanced Cha array would be less abusive than for most.  APing a +25 Cha power off of your Blast is different from something like a +10 Cha power.


----------



## Elric

Well, here's sort of an update to my previous Angel build, designed to be more like your current version.  It still has some noticeable differences with the immunities, though- I eschewed the Life Support and of those immunities I only took Poison & Disease through Immortality.

[sblock]
JOSEPH
PL: 11  (165 pp)

ABILITIES:   STR: 18 (+4)  DEX: 16 (+3)   CON: 18 (+4)   INT: 14 (+2)   WIS: 14 (+2)   CHA: 18 (+4)

SKILLS:  Bluff  (+4), Climb  (+4), Concentration  (+2), Diplomacy 12 (+16), Disguise  (+4), Drive  (+3), Escape Artist  (+3), Gather Info 8 (+12), Handle Animal  (+4), Intimidate  (+4), Arcane Lore 4 (+6), Theology and Philosophy 4 (+6), History 4 (+6), Notice 12 (+14), Search  (+2), Sense Motive 12 (+14), Stealth  (+3), Survival  (+2), Swim  (+4) 

FEATS:  Animal Empathy, Attack Focus (6), Attack Specialization: Swords (1)  Dodge Focus (8), Evasion (1), Fearless, Interpose, Move-by Action, Power Attack, Second Chance (2)(Mind Control Possession), Takedown Attack,

POWERS:  Celestial Power Array: 
Healing Touch (Heal 5) (PF: Persistent) (11 pp) [5], 
AP: Emotion Control 4 (Area- Burst, Selective Area, No-Range, Drawback: No Hate) (11 pp), 
AP: Light Control 5 (100 foot radius) (10 pp)
AP: Teleport 9 (Long Range only) (9 pp) [9], 
AP: "Enhance Razor" (10 pp) Add to Razor: Strike 3, Affects Insubstantial 2, Accurate, Improved Crit, Improved Block, Improved Sunder, Weapon Break

Heaven's Razor (Device 1, Easy to Lose) [1], Power Feat: Restricted (those worthy), Indestructible 
_Razor_: Strike 3 (PF: Mighty, Improved Crit), , 

Anger Container (Power Feat: Innate), , 
Angel's Wings (Flight 3, Drawbacks: [3], Not in Liquids, Power Loss- when wings restrained) [1], 
Super-Senses 12 (True Sight, Danger Sense (Visual), Uncanny Dodge (Sight)) [12], 
Immunity 2 (Sleep, Starvation & Thirst) [2]
Immortality [1]
Angel's Grace (Protection 6) [6], 
Tongues (Comprehend Languages 4- [4], read, write, speak any language, and several at once if needed) (8 pp)

COMBAT:  Attack 2  [Unarmed +4 (Bruise), Sword +12 attack, 10 damage, 18-20 crit]   Defense 22 (12 flat-footed)   Init  3

SAVES:  Toughness 10 (10 flat-footed)  Fortitude 10  Reflex 8  Will 10

Abilities 38  +  Skills 14 (56 ranks)  +  Feats 24  +  Powers 58  +  Combat 12  +  Saves 19  –  Drawbacks 0 = 165 / 165[/sblock]

notes coming...


----------



## Fenris2

Some interesting stuff here indeed thanks all.  Now for some thinking...


----------



## Victim

You can get by without environmental immunities in many cases just by having a good Fort save.  Extreme environments like outer space and the depths of the ocean will still be a problem, but the character will able to withstand the environment for a few rounds (hopefully long enough to do something important, then get back to the airlock ).  

Skills via array does seem somewhat problematic.  A skill array with the training fx would be more effective and cheaper than buying real skills, especially if you throw skill based feats into the array.  Extra Effort for a skill AP or bonus ranks blows Beginner's Luck away even without the access cost.  It seems to be much like Wide in that it's more of a change in the manner in which characters are built overall than something that would go into 1 specific character.


----------



## Elric

Notes on the build I posted above:
1) No morph.  As Victim said, low-rank Morph is a very bad disguise and a lot of people will see through it.  Not sure how to do the secret identity switching in this case.  It's not a 1 pp drawback that you have a secret identity, though- it's a complication when having a secret identity interferes with something else (and the GM will award you an HP for it).

2) Note how I did the Enhanced Sword array.  Hope that works and is roughly what Matt was intending.  I didn't give it Vampiric b/c hopefully it lost that ability by being on earth- doesn't seem very angelic to me

3) Also no way to disguise the sword (which you presumably had Sleight of Hand for).  This would probably be a 1 pp feature w/ appropriate flavor.

4) Emotion Control can represent his crowd control power.

5) Really hurt having to lower Knowledge ranks.  Removed Eidetic Memory- with +6 to Know: History for an immortal, it felt kind of silly.

6) I like how I did the sword- it's a normal sword and the wielder's power is what enhances it.  For an NPC who got it, it would just adopt powers depending on the wielder (making it effectively free pp)- since that doesn't work for a PC I made it part of your celestial power array- you use celestial ability to power the sword (roughly a translation of +3 Keen Ghost Touch with abilities ala. Crouching Tiger's green destiny because I imagine it was used in sword duels at one point)


----------



## James Heard

So... what about the skills I put in the array for my character then? For reference, that would be:



> Enhanced Skill Array [10pp] (-1 Doesn't work within a strong magnetic field)
> 
> Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Improvised Tools, Quick Change 2, Uncanny Dodge (Taken together)
> 
> + 8 skill ranks in either Computers, Disable Device, Knowledge (Life Sciences), Knowledge (Physical Sciences), Knowledge (Technology), Medicine, Pilot, & Search (All with -1 Distracting) (choose one at a time)​




I might be revising the Improvised Tools and Quick Change 2 out of the array since they're functions of the morphing (she can turn her fingers into screwdrivers if she needs to). Basically the skills are information available from the super-duper alien organo-tech she's got hidden away somewhere inside her. She can access them one at a time, and because she's got to pay a lot of attention to the instruction manual she's pulling out of nowhere she loses her Dodge, plus the whole thing fritzes out like a lot of her abilities when magnets prevent her from "being together enough for the smart stuff to work." Honestly though, I'm not even certain I've built the damned thing right as is.

Champions is coming back to me, but it's been over 10 years since I played the game. M&M arrays are simpler..._most_ of the time but I think they're still luring me into terror.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> So... what about the skills I put in the array for my character then? For reference, that would be:




I'm not sure how you constructed this array (doesn't mean it's wrong, but I can't see how you ended up at the pp cost you got).  Distracting isn't much of a flaw on most of these skills (e.g., see Steve Kenson's warning about distracting on the Comprehend power in UP).  Skill arrays are pretty dodgy in general...


----------



## Victim

I did some brainstorming on what Jemal's power suited, eye beamed, super sensing, leader guy might look like.  I strongly suspect that the costs are in error somewhere, since I went back and forth, cutting.

[sblock]
STR 	14
DEX 	16
CON 	14
INT	12
WIS 	20
CHA 	12

F: +8
R: +9 (+12)
W: +5


Spd: 	30 (100)		Ini: 	+7
Att: 	+5 +8 ranged
Dmg: 	+12 beam 19-20, +6 Fort, or +2 punch 
AC: 	20/14
Toughness: +10/+7 or +5/2


Assessment, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 3, Equipment 1, Evasion 1, Imp Crit: Particle Eye Beam, Imp Initiative 1, Leadership, Luck 3, Master Plan, Precise Shot 1, Uncanny Dodge: visual, Track, Well Informed, Power Attack, Attack Focus: ranged 3, Dodge Focus 2

Gather Info 12 +13 (Connected, Well Informed)
Notice 16 +21
Sense Motive 12 +17
Survival 8 +13
Medicine 2 +7
Stealth 8 +11
Swim 4 +7
Climb 4 +7
Search 4 +5
Intimidate 6 +7
Diplomacy 8 +9

Neutrino Vision: Super Senses 13: Darkvision, X-ray, Micro 3, Radius, Extended 1, 	Danger Sense on sight (13)

Particle Eye Beam: Blast +12
AP: Neutrino Decay: Blast +6 Alt Save: Fort, Perception
AP: Find Weakness: Drain Toughness +10 (Fort based) Ranged Autofire 1 Split Attack 	1,  Selective, Subtle, Accurate; Limited: must be able to communicate with allies for  them to attack reduced toughness, allies benefit from only ½ toughness reduction (1+2-1)=20+4=24  (26)

Super Suit: Device (hard to lose) 2 (8): 
Assisted Movements: Speed 1, Leaping 2, Super Strength 1
Impact/Energy Dissipation: Protection 5

Master Tactician: Enhanced INT +12 (only for using Master Plan -2) (4)
			Quickness 6 (x50) (only for Master Plan -2) (2)



Feats 		8+8+7+2=25	
Stats		4+6+4+2+10+2=28	
Powers		2+4+8+26+13=53
Combat 	10+16=26	
Skills 		21
Saves		6+6=12
Total 165/165[/sblock]

I don't have UP, so the super senses part could probably use some updating.  The super eyebeam power came out pretty well, I think, though the flaw on the scanning attack might make things a bit complicated (could drop it down to a drawback or complication for must communicate, and then cut the Autofire).  The suit is probably weaker than intended, serving mostly as some defense and a movement booster.

The skills are passable.  And I feel bad about buying ranks in Swim, when the swimming power costs just as much.


----------



## Shayuri

I really like the idea of the sword being "boosted" by the angel, rather than the sword being kickass all on its own.

You could even count that Boost Sword to be fire damage. So when the angel gets mad, his sword bursts into flame and becomes really -really- dangerous.

Me like.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> You could even count that Boost Sword to be fire damage. So when the angel gets mad, his sword bursts into flame and becomes really -really- dangerous.
> 
> Me like.




A descriptor change with the sword enhancement does sound cool.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I did some brainstorming on what Jemal's power suited, eye beamed, super sensing, leader guy might look like.  I strongly suspect that the costs are in error somewhere, since I went back and forth, cutting.
> 
> [sblock]
> STR 	14
> DEX 	16
> CON 	14
> INT	12
> WIS 	20
> CHA 	12
> 
> F: +8
> R: +9 (+12)
> W: +5
> 
> 
> Spd: 	30 (100)		Ini: 	+7
> Att: 	+5 +8 ranged
> Dmg: 	+12 beam 19-20, +6 Fort, or +2 punch
> AC: 	20/14
> Toughness: +10/+7 or +5/2
> 
> 
> Assessment, Connected, Contacts, Defensive Roll 3, Equipment 1, Evasion 1, Imp Crit: Particle Eye Beam, Imp Initiative 1, Leadership, Luck 3, Master Plan, Precise Shot 1, Uncanny Dodge: visual, Track, Well Informed, Power Attack, Attack Focus: ranged 3, Dodge Focus 2
> 
> Gather Info 12 +13 (Connected, Well Informed)
> Notice 16 +21
> Sense Motive 12 +17
> Survival 8 +13
> Medicine 2 +7
> Stealth 8 +11
> Swim 4 +7
> Climb 4 +7
> Search 4 +5
> Intimidate 6 +7
> Diplomacy 8 +9
> 
> Neutrino Vision: Super Senses 13: Darkvision, X-ray, Micro 3, Radius, Extended 1, 	Danger Sense on sight (13)
> 
> Particle Eye Beam: Blast +12
> AP: Neutrino Decay: Blast +6 Alt Save: Fort, Perception
> AP: Find Weakness: Drain Toughness +10 (Fort based) Ranged Autofire 1 Split Attack 	1,  Selective, Subtle, Accurate; Limited: must be able to communicate with allies for  them to attack reduced toughness, allies benefit from only ½ toughness reduction (1+2-1)=20+4=24  (26)
> 
> Super Suit: Device (hard to lose) 2 (8):
> Assisted Movements: Speed 1, Leaping 2, Super Strength 1
> Impact/Energy Dissipation: Protection 5
> 
> Master Tactician: Enhanced INT +12 (only for using Master Plan -2) (4)
> Quickness 6 (x50) (only for Master Plan -2) (2)
> 
> 
> 
> Feats 		8+8+7+2=25
> Stats		4+6+4+2+10+2=28
> Powers		2+4+8+26+13=53
> Combat 	10+16=26
> Skills 		21
> Saves		6+6=12
> Total 165/165[/sblock]
> 
> I don't have UP, so the super senses part could probably use some updating.  The super eyebeam power came out pretty well, I think, though the flaw on the scanning attack might make things a bit complicated (could drop it down to a drawback or complication for must communicate, and then cut the Autofire).  The suit is probably weaker than intended, serving mostly as some defense and a movement booster.
> 
> The skills are passable.  And I feel bad about buying ranks in Swim, when the swimming power costs just as much.




Speaking of which, where IS Jemal...


----------



## DM_Matt

Ok, so the candidate roster so far.  I am cutting off submissions from those not already listed.  From those who are not done, I would like to see more complete characters pretty soon.

Complete:
Elric -- Johnny Nitro -- Wrestler
Shayuri -- Thessaly -- Witch/Support Caster
Necro_Kinder -- Brimstone -- Demonish Mutant
Raylis -- Nightweaver -- Darkness Controller
Victim -- The Shooting Star -- Plasma Controller


Mostly Complete:
Fenris2 -- Angel -- Angel
James Heard -- Spirit -- Spirit
hero4hire -- Mechanoid -- Half-Robot Tech-Controller


Concept Only or Partial Build
Jemal -- Optic -- Eye Beamer / Leader
Voidrazor -- Dr. Know -- Scientist
Blind Azathoth -- Selix -- Plant Guy (Or maybe another character...Electricity?  Commando?
Moggthegobb -- Magnetic Mole -- Magnetic Controller (not sure if he is still here)
Unkabear -- Vision(-like) -- Living Virus
Relique du Madde -- some kind of techie character.

Expressed Interest:
Drerek
the_myth
VelenarJaeldira


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Speaking of which, where IS Jemal...




Dunno.  He said he'd be at some camp for a week or so (on the second), but he's been inactive for longer than that.  

BTW, I had some questions about the tone of the game.  Based on the opener, it seemed like you were going for a kind of darker, high pressure FC.  Correct?  Of course, I guess that's relative to my interpretation of the setting.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Dunno.  He said he'd be at some camp for a week or so (on the second), but he's been inactive for longer than that.
> 
> BTW, I had some questions about the tone of the game.  Based on the opener, it seemed like you were going for a kind of darker, high pressure FC.  Correct?  Of course, I guess that's relative to my interpretation of the setting.




The villains and plots will be more human than a standard FC campaign, so they may be more emotionally-relevant and thus darker.  However, the PCs should not be especially dark, at least not Iron Age dark.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Well, I decided to go with Plant Guy after all. A Plant Guy who can cause allergic reactions leading to suffocation with a touch, or derange villains with a psychotropic drug excreted from his body... I also decided to use hero4hire's sheet format, just because I liked the look of it.

So, here he is--my first M&M character, with a very slightly tweaked backstory (summary of the one, tiny change: he destroyed the implant that allows him to turn into a human, embracing his alien nature). Feel free to rip him apart, point out the mistakes I've made, and note the myriad ways in which he will be hideously ineffective. 

[sblock=Statistics]*SALIX*

*PL:* 11 (165 pp)

*Abilities:* Str 14 (+2), Dex 12 (+1), Con 18 (+4), Int 18 (+4), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 10 (0)

*Skills:* Knowledge (life sciences) 10 (6+4), Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (6+4), Language 7 (Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish; also speaks Calliandran, native tongue), Medicine 6 (5+1), Survival 5 (4+1)

*Feats:* Diehard, Improved Sunder, Improvised Tools, Power Attack, Track

*Powers:*
Animate Objects 3 (extra: horde; flaw: plants only; power feat: progression (2)) [11]
Immunity 2 (disease, starvation and thirst) [2]
Plant Control 10 (extra: does not require pre-existing plants; power feat: alternate power (4)) [34]
- Confuse 11 (extras: alternate save (Fortitude), poison; flaw: touch range)
- Growth 15 (extras: affects others; flaws: limited to plants, permanent)
- Nauseate 10 (extra: ranged)
- Suffocate 10 (extra: sustained)
Protection 10 (drawback: noticeable – body coated in tough bark-like skin) [9]
Regeneration 1 (resurrection; does not work if body is cremated) [1]
Strike 8 (branch-like "claws") [8]
Transform 3 (plants into other plants; extra: area) [12]

*Combat:* Attack +11, Damage +8 (Strike), Defense 18 (14 flat-footed), Initiative +1

*Saves:* Toughness +14 (+10 Protection), Fortitude +9, Reflex +7, Will +8

*Drawbacks:* Vulnerable (fire-based attacks; common, major)

*Tradeoff:* +3 Toughness/-3 Defense

Abilities 24 + Skills 7 (28 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers 77 + Combat 38 + Saves 18 – Drawbacks 4 = 165 / 165[/sblock]

[sblock=History]
Many plant-based superheroes and supervillains have appeared in the world over the years, and almost without exception they have all had one thing in common: they're all, for some reason, also scientists. From the deformed but noble Bog Creature, to the seductive and ambiguously aligned Venus Flytrap, to the vile villain called the Chloronic Man, these floral heroes and villains tend to be of a particularly intelligent nature, often with plant-related specialties that either result in their transformation or which simply serve as dramatic irony.

Isaac Ridley is no exception to this rule; he is an intelligent man, a learned scientist with degrees from highly rated universities. However... the Bog Creature, Venus Flytrap, and their ilk have all had something else in common with each other but not Mister Ridley: they were human before becoming photosynthetic freaks. For Isaac, it was the other way around...

Salix, son of Azedarach, was born far from Earth, to a people who could not only control plants—they also happened to also be plants. However, they were also a dying people. Almost all of Salix's brothers and sisters began to waste away, no matter their age; they became frailer, weaker of body and intellect, until death took them. They did not know what was causing this plague upon their race; they had no cure for this virus; they could not even produce an antidote based on the biology of those few who were not effected—like Salix.

So, the government made the decision to send a few healthy individuals to other civilizations in the universe, to gather information on their science and medical advances secretly, to converse—covertly—with the best minds in the field on these other planets, in the hopes of learning something about that which afflicted them. Salix was one of these individuals, sent to a planet about which little was known other than the strange biology of the majority of inhabitants; his people had passed by the planet some time ago, after brief and unpleasant contact with the species living on it. As with the others, Salix was fitted with a device implanted in his skin, a piece of technology his people had created that would allow him to take on the shape of a native.

His assigned planet, of course, was Earth, and he landed in the United States. Aside from the device implanted in his body, he possessed none of his people's technology; even the craft he arrived in disintegrated upon arrival. He was to live among humans, gathering data for five years—during which time millions of his people would have died, but the majority would still likely be able to utilize any information or treatment the travelers had discovered—before being retrieved.

The first months were hardest. Broadcasts from Earth had been studied on his trip to the planet in an attempt to decipher their language; he had quickly realized that there were many languages spread across the surface of the planet, but his aptitude for them allowed him to cope. He had little knowledge of human civilization, however, and this, coupled with his imperfect grasp of the native languages, led to much confusion and frustration. But he persevered, taking up a human identity (Isaac Ridley) before earning a GED so that he could then enroll at a local university, where he gained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, then a master's degree, in four years.

You may be wondering how an alien with little knowledge of Earth found the money to attend college. Well, Salix was forced to do something a bit...naughty. He had only a short period of time available to him, and he needed money quickly, so—he stole it. He used his ability to manipulate plants to break into a bank vault and stole a large amount of money from it. He also left a note: "I am very sorry. I need to save my people. I will pay you back one day." Stolen money in hand, Salix was able to pay his tuition, although he later learned that if he had landed in another country he might not have had to pay at all and felt so guilty that when he did pay the bank back, he adjusted for inflation and paid interest as well.

All the while, Salix worked to perform his mission as best he could, spending almost all of his time outside of classes reading up on other subjects—anything that he believed might be able to help him, might provide a clue to the source of the virus or even provide an antidote. But he found nothing—no disease like this had ever struck Earth's plant life, and the plagues of its fleshier inhabitants were too different. Disheartened, Salix gave up and waited for his retrieval at the end of his five-year mission.

He landed in 1960. As you can probably imagine, his retrieval never came, and he has mourned what can only be the death of his race for forty long years.

As time passed, Salix began to live out a more normal—or at least more human—existence on Earth. He achieved a Doctorate at Freedom City University in the late '60s, and began to lecture there afterwards (it was by doing this that he earned enough money to eventually pay back the bank he robbed). He left behind the woods in which he initially dwelt, taking up residence in a real apartment in the city. He also left behind his true form, for the most part; for decades, he rarely took on his own shape, only occasionally doing so when he wondered if he still could.

Knowing everyone you ever knew has almost certainly withered away into dust is not a very cheering thought, as you can probably imagine. Salix—but now more Ridley than Salix—sank into a depression that lasted decades. He performed his duties at the college admirably, but outside of the classroom, he kept himself aloof from people—even though he began to think of them as _other people_, as if he were really one of them!—and lived a lonely life.

But one day...he became, for one person, a hero. It was late, and Ridley had come to the park in one of his occasional attempts to cheer himself up by surrounding himself with his fellow plants. But he was not the only one there; he heard noises as he walked through the park: cries for help. A woman was being chased through a heavily wooded area of the park; a man with a knife was her pursuer. Ridley saw them—and he instinctively summoned up powers that had long laid dormant, bringing to life the grass to grab the man's feet...and the trees to dislocate both of his arms.

The woman was afraid at first—the trees had just come to life, after all—but she soon recognized that she was no longer in danger. Then she saw Ridley, and knew it had to have been his doing. Assuming he was one of Freedom City's many mutants or superheroes, she thanked him for coming to her rescue. He stayed with her while she called the police and they apprehended the attacker, but he fled when it was his turn to answer the authorities' questions.

At home, Salix suddenly felt a tiny spark of hope in his life, a little light in the darkness, a flickering of warmth—he felt good for the first time in many years. And, well, you can probably imagine what happened next. He wanted to do it—help someone, that is—again. So he did. And then he did it again. Isaac Ridley finally became Salix once more, in both body and mind. He no longer thought of himself as Dr. Isaac Ridley, so he rid himself of the identity once and for all—he destroyed the implant that had allowed him to become human in the first place. He embraced his true nature, his true form, and his true name.

For two months now, the reborn Salix has hunted the predators and criminals and thugs and villains of the city; for two months now he has endeavored to make up for decades of doing nothing to help and protect the people of the city...of _his_ city.

Salix has a new mission.[/sblock]


----------



## Voidrazor

Here is the overhauled (final?) version of Doctor Know. His background is slightly tweaked, and a personality section has been added.

[sblock=History]Dr. Emmanuel Knowles was a leading scientist on a black project for DARPA, the Department of Defence's agency for advanced technologies. But he discovered that his, admittely dangerous, nanotech research was being taken in some truly foolhardy directions by his project manager. But when he brought that information to his superiors, his project manager arranged for an 'accident'. But instead of being killed, the nano became integrated into Dr. Knowles body, while the rest of the building was reduced to grey goo. Thereafter dubbed Dr. Know in the press, he has prosecuted for sabotage, treason and terrorism. While awaiting trial, he developed devices to control the nanotech suffusing his body, and through his attorney, filed for hundreds of patents. But with his superhuman intellect he and his lawyer were easily able to get an acquittal. Since then, the doctor has worked assiduously for the betterment of mankind, largely in the background. But the press has been unrelenting in its condemnation.[/sblock]
[sblock=Personality]Doctor Know's personality is difficult to pin down. At times, he seems obsessive or moody. At others, he is outgoing and diplomatic. Beneath it all he is calculating yet uncompromisingly benign. He is commited to keeping his technology from causing harm. But in the end he knows that he may someday have to forego principle to save lives.[/sblock]
[sblock=Stats]Hero Name: Doctor Know
Real Name: Dr. Emmanuel Knowles

Abilities: 28pp
Str 06 -2 (-4pp)
Dex 12 +1 (2pp)
Con 22 +6 (12pp)
Int 18 +4 (8pp)
Wis 16 +3 (6pp)
Cha 14 +2 (4pp)

Skills: 24pp
Computers 20 (+4 Int 16 ranks)
Diplomacy 18 (+2 Cha 16 ranks)
Disable Device 5 (+4 Int 1 ranks)
Investigate 5 (+4 Int 1 ranks)
Knowledge: Behavioral Sciences 6 (+4 Int 2 ranks)
Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+4 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+4 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Technology 20 (+4 Int 16 ranks)
Language: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian 5 ranks
Notice 19 (+3 Wis 16 ranks)
Sense Motive 19 (+3 Wis 15 ranks)
*Int skills gain an additional +12 when Enhanced Int is active

Feats: 4pp
Connected, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Master Plan

Powers: 91pp,
Tensor field manipulator: Device 28pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
- ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
- Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]

Nanotechnology: Device Array 35pp (Disarmable, Indestructible, Restricted X2) 45 pool
- Boost 9 ranks (Immunity: age/disease/poison PLUS Protection 6, Area: burst, Effects Objects, Infectious, Selective, Slow Fade 8)
- Create Object 14 Ranks (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle)
- Enhance Int 24 ranks PLUS Quickness 14 ranks 
- Healing 8 ranks (Affects Objects, Perception Range, Resurrection, Restoration, Total, Limited to Others, Limited: Only heals damage that occurs after target gains nano-boost, Stabilize, Persistent, Regrowth)
- Regeneration +3 Recovery Total Regen (except after an EMP, 6 ranks True Resurrection, Regrowth) [DEFAULT]
- Summon 6 ranks (Fanatical, Independant, Perception Range, Total Fade, Mental Link, Progression 3, Can only have one out at a time)
- Super-Senses (Analytical Blindsight, Counters Concealment Illusion and Obscure, Extended X2, Penetrates Concealment, Radius, Ranged, Rapid X3, Tracking, Distance Sense, Microscopic 3, Limited: only areas in nano-boost field) PLUS Enhanced Defense 6 ranks PLUS Enhanced Attack 10 ranks
- Teleport 8 ranks (Affects Others, Standard Action for extended move, Sense Range, Limited: inanimate objects and robots only, Limited: only to destinations in nano-boost field, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 3 [1,000lbs])

Miscellaneous Gadgets 28pp (Helpless Removal Only) 20 pool

Combat: 8pp
Attack +0 / +10
Defense +4 (+2 flatfooted) / +10
Init +1

Saves: 15pp
Toughness +12 (+6 without nano-boost)
Fortitude +9 Reflex +5 Will +11

Drawbacks: -5
Pacifist (V. com, Mod) 4
Individual configurations of Misc. Gadgets can be disarmed 1

Complication:
Infamous[/sblock]
[sblock=Summoned Robot]Cerebus Mk MMMIX (Nanotech Robot)

Abilities: -20pp
Str 10 +0 (0pp)
Dex 10 +0 (0pp)
Con 00 -- (- 10pp)
Int 10 +0 (0pp)
Wis 10 +0 (0pp)
Cha 00 -- (-10pp)

Feats: 22
Attack Focus: Melee 10, Dodge Focus: 6, Evasion, Grappling Finesse, Improved Init, Interpose, Power Attack, Prone Fighting 

Powers: 64
Immunity: Fort Effects 30pp
Protection 6
Enhanced Strength 20 ranks (Limited: Only usable for grapple checks, Innate) 11pp
Speed 3
Stun 12 (Daze) 12pp
Super-Movement 1 rank (Air Walking) 2pp

Combat: 12
Attack +10 
Defense 12 (+3 flatfooted)
Init +8

Saves: 10
Toughness 6
Ref +10[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Feel free to rip him apart, point out the mistakes I've made, and note the myriad ways in which he will be hideously ineffective.



My pleasure 

1) 14 Str gives you a +2 bonus.

2) Conceptually, you should have the mighty power feat on your Strike power- this adds your strength bonus to its damage (which judging by the concept should be the case).

3) Con is slightly under-priced and you could easily justify a higher Con (at least 18) due to your plant-nature.  So increase Con and decrease the amount you spend on base Fort save and the Protection power to end up with the same bonuses.  

4) Do you intend to use Transform and Animate Objects at the same time?  If not, take Animate Objects as an alternate power of Transform (this saves a lot of pp, so you should seriously consider doing it).

5) With your +11 base attack, powers that force saves are limited to rank 11- Attack/(Damage or Modifier to DC for a non-damaging power) can't exceed 22 since we're at PL 11.
So confuse is too high at rank 15- it can only be rank 11.  Also, I'm pretty sure that Confuse starts at range: perception, so going to Touch range is a -2 flaw.  

6) Major vulnerability to fire is really severe.  I'd spend 1 pp and downgrade it to moderate.  This way 10 dmg Fire Blasts hit you for 15 damage rather than 20.  That will still really hurt.

7) As your Toughness is +14 and Defense is at +8, it seems like your tradeoff is +3 Toughness, -3 Defense.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> 4) Do you intend to use Transform and Animate Objects at the same time?  If not, take Animate Objects as an alternate power of Transform (this saves a lot of pp, so you should seriously consider doing it).




IIRC, Transform is Lasting.  So even if the 2 powers are meant to be used together, they could be put in an array with only some duration issues.

Permanent powers can't go into arrays, IIRC.  So the Growth power could use some changes.

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

I'm not sure what Infectious does.  Is that a UP tweak to Contagious?

Create Object is limited by PL, since it can be used to produce Area damage or entrapment.  Consider flawing down some of the extra ranks if you want the extra toughness.

Code of Conduct issues are more generally a matter for Complications than Drawbacks.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Elric said:
			
		

> My pleasure
> 
> 1) 14 Str gives you a +2 bonus.
> 
> 2) Conceptually, you should have the mighty power feat on your Strike power- this adds your strength bonus to its damage (which judging by the concept should be the case).
> 
> 3) Con is slightly under-priced and you could easily justify a higher Con (at least 18) due to your plant-nature.  So increase Con and decrease the amount you spend on base Fort save and the Protection power to end up with the same bonuses.
> 
> 4) Do you intend to use Transform and Animate Objects at the same time?  If not, take Animate Objects as an alternate power of Transform (this saves a lot of pp, so you should seriously consider doing it).
> 
> 5) With your +11 base attack, powers that force saves are limited to rank 11- Attack/(Damage or Modifier to DC for a non-damaging power) can't exceed 22 since we're at PL 11.
> So confuse is too high at rank 15- it can only be rank 11.  Also, I'm pretty sure that Confuse starts at range: perception, so going to Touch range is a -2 flaw.
> 
> 6) Major vulnerability to fire is really severe.  I'd spend 1 pp and downgrade it to moderate.  This way 10 dmg Fire Blasts hit you for 15 damage rather than 20.  That will still really hurt.
> 
> 7) As your Toughness is +14 and Defense is at +8, it seems like your tradeoff is +3 Toughness, -3 Defense.




Ah, I thank you, good sir! The "+1 Str" and tradeoff mistakes were just typographical errors, but the note about the save limitation I actually forgot (though I checked, and Confuse does have a Ranged, er, range), and I agree with you about Mighty Strike and the Con score...I'll fiddle with those shortly.

As for the major vulnerability, I figured it fit for a guy made of leaves and wood—but you're right, it is probably a bit nasty. I shall drop it to moderate...I mean, he's an alien, right? _Clearly_ alien plants are naturally coated with chemicals that help ward off fire...

As for Transform and Animate Objects, I did intend to use them at the same time, yes; since I opted to remove Plant Control's need for pre-existing plants, Animate Objects is the primary reason I have kept Transform. Toss out a few seeds, Transform them into tiny little saplings, Grow them into much larger versions, and then Animate them for some handy bad guy-pounding tree servants. On the other hand, I could make Transform (or Animate Objects) an alternate power of Plant Control, and use Growth _first_... since making Growth permanent means the effect won't end if I switch to an alternate use of the Plant Control power (that is, Animate Objects or Transform), right?

EDIT: Though now that I actually think about what I'm saying, using Growth first would mean I'd need a much higher Transform rank to actually be able to affect the increased mass... definitely going to need to give this some more thought.



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Permanent powers can't go into arrays, IIRC. So the Growth power could use some changes.




Really? I checked Ultimate Power's section on Arrays, and can see nothing limiting the use of Permanent powers in them... in fact, the Growth effect I've got is listed under Plant Control's suggested alternate powers in UP, and is definitely Permanent there.


----------



## Voidrazor

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> As for Transform and Animate Objects, I did intend to use them at the same time, yes; since I opted to remove Plant Control's need for pre-existing plants, Animate Objects is the primary reason I have kept Transform. Toss out a few seeds, Transform them into tiny little saplings, Grow them into much larger versions, and then Animate them for some handy bad guy-pounding tree servants. On the other hand, I could make Transform (or Animate Objects) an alternate power of Plant Control, and use Growth _first_... since making Growth permanent means the effect won't end if I switch to an alternate use of the Plant Control power (that is, Animate Objects or Transform), right?
> 
> EDIT: Though now that I actually think about what I'm saying, using Growth first would mean I'd need a much higher Transform rank to actually be able to affect the increased mass... definitely going to need to give this some more thought.



If something along those lines is the plan, which is way cool BTW, I suggest reducing the action to Move or Free on one or more of those powers. Taking 3 actions to pull off your main trick would probably get frustrating.


----------



## Victim

Permanent doesn't mean it stays on after you change the array - you need lasting for that.  Remember that permanent is flaw; it's worse than Continous.

Like I said, I don't have UP, but the core book: "Permanent powers cannot have alternate power feats, nor can they be alternate powers (since they can't be turned on and off)."  While I know that UP changed some stuff with Arrays, I don't recall any changes about the definition of permanent.

I'm not even that sure that many terrestial plants are all that vulnerable to fire, despite the apparent commonality of the flaw  (sure, some grasses and maybe pine stuff burn like crazy).  The fact that plants can catch fire and continue to burn is usually the problem for tree like plants, not that they'll burn up instantly (which is kind of what that high of vulnerability suggets).  So a drawback that adds Secondary Effect to fire based attacks might be more fitting than vulnerability.


----------



## DM_Matt

The reason why you cannot have Permanent powers in an array is that Permanent is a -1pp/rank flaw applied to a Continuous power.  you get points back for the inconvenience of not being able to turn it off.  However, in an array, you CAN turn it off, by switching to another array element.  Thus, you have to remove the -1 flaw to put it into the array as continuous.  You can have an otherwise permanent power in an array, you just have to raise its cost.


----------



## DM_Matt

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Well, I decided to go with Plant Guy after all. A Plant Guy who can cause allergic reactions leading to suffocation with a touch, or derange villains with a psychotropic drug excreted from his body... I also decided to use hero4hire's sheet format, just because I liked the look of it.
> 
> So, here he is--my first M&M character, with a very slightly tweaked backstory (summary of the one, tiny change: he destroyed the implant that allows him to turn into a human, embracing his alien nature). Feel free to rip him apart, point out the mistakes I've made, and note the myriad ways in which he will be hideously ineffective.
> 
> [sblock=Statistics]*SALIX*
> 
> *PL:* 11 (165 pp)
> 
> *Abilities:* Str 14 (+2), Dex 12 (+1), Con 18 (+4), Int 18 (+4), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 10 (0)
> 
> *Skills:* Knowledge (life sciences) 10 (6+4), Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (6+4), Language 7 (Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish; also speaks Calliandran, native tongue), Medicine 6 (5+1), Survival 5 (4+1)
> 
> *Feats:* Diehard, Improved Sunder, Improvised Tools, Power Attack, Track
> 
> *Powers:*
> Animate Objects 3 (extra: horde; flaw: plants only; power feat: progression (2)) [11]
> Immunity 2 (disease, starvation and thirst) [2]
> Plant Control 10 (extra: does not require pre-existing plants; power feat: alternate power (4)) [34]
> - Confuse 11 (extras: alternate save (Fortitude), poison; flaw: touch range)
> - Growth 15 (extras: affects others; flaws: limited to plants, permanent)
> - Nauseate 10 (extra: ranged)
> - Suffocate 10 (extra: sustained)
> Protection 10 (drawback: noticeable – body coated in tough bark-like skin) [9]
> Regeneration 1 (resurrection; does not work if body is cremated) [1]
> Strike 8 (branch-like "claws") [8]
> Transform 3 (plants into other plants; extra: area) [12]
> 
> *Combat:* Attack +11, Damage +8 (Strike), Defense 18 (14 flat-footed), Initiative +1
> 
> *Saves:* Toughness +14 (+10 Protection), Fortitude +9, Reflex +7, Will +8
> 
> *Drawbacks:* Vulnerable (fire-based attacks; common, major)
> 
> *Tradeoff:* +3 Toughness/-3 Defense
> 
> Abilities 24 + Skills 7 (28 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers 77 + Combat 38 + Saves 18 – Drawbacks 4 = 165 / 165[/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=History]
> Many plant-based superheroes and supervillains have appeared in the world over the years, and almost without exception they have all had one thing in common: they're all, for some reason, also scientists. From the deformed but noble Bog Creature, to the seductive and ambiguously aligned Venus Flytrap, to the vile villain called the Chloronic Man, these floral heroes and villains tend to be of a particularly intelligent nature, often with plant-related specialties that either result in their transformation or which simply serve as dramatic irony.
> 
> Isaac Ridley is no exception to this rule; he is an intelligent man, a learned scientist with degrees from highly rated universities. However... the Bog Creature, Venus Flytrap, and their ilk have all had something else in common with each other but not Mister Ridley: they were human before becoming photosynthetic freaks. For Isaac, it was the other way around...
> 
> Salix, son of Azedarach, was born far from Earth, to a people who could not only control plants—they also happened to also be plants. However, they were also a dying people. Almost all of Salix's brothers and sisters began to waste away, no matter their age; they became frailer, weaker of body and intellect, until death took them. They did not know what was causing this plague upon their race; they had no cure for this virus; they could not even produce an antidote based on the biology of those few who were not effected—like Salix.
> 
> So, the government made the decision to send a few healthy individuals to other civilizations in the universe, to gather information on their science and medical advances secretly, to converse—covertly—with the best minds in the field on these other planets, in the hopes of learning something about that which afflicted them. Salix was one of these individuals, sent to a planet about which little was known other than the strange biology of the majority of inhabitants; his people had passed by the planet some time ago, after brief and unpleasant contact with the species living on it. As with the others, Salix was fitted with a device implanted in his skin, a piece of technology his people had created that would allow him to take on the shape of a native.
> 
> His assigned planet, of course, was Earth, and he landed in the United States. Aside from the device implanted in his body, he possessed none of his people's technology; even the craft he arrived in disintegrated upon arrival. He was to live among humans, gathering data for five years—during which time millions of his people would have died, but the majority would still likely be able to utilize any information or treatment the travelers had discovered—before being retrieved.
> 
> The first months were hardest. Broadcasts from Earth had been studied on his trip to the planet in an attempt to decipher their language; he had quickly realized that there were many languages spread across the surface of the planet, but his aptitude for them allowed him to cope. He had little knowledge of human civilization, however, and this, coupled with his imperfect grasp of the native languages, led to much confusion and frustration. But he persevered, taking up a human identity (Isaac Ridley) before earning a GED so that he could then enroll at a local university, where he gained a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry, then a master's degree, in four years.
> 
> You may be wondering how an alien with little knowledge of Earth found the money to attend college. Well, Salix was forced to do something a bit...naughty. He had only a short period of time available to him, and he needed money quickly, so—he stole it. He used his ability to manipulate plants to break into a bank vault and stole a large amount of money from it. He also left a note: "I am very sorry. I need to save my people. I will pay you back one day." Stolen money in hand, Salix was able to pay his tuition, although he later learned that if he had landed in another country he might not have had to pay at all and felt so guilty that when he did pay the bank back, he adjusted for inflation and paid interest as well.
> 
> All the while, Salix worked to perform his mission as best he could, spending almost all of his time outside of classes reading up on other subjects—anything that he believed might be able to help him, might provide a clue to the source of the virus or even provide an antidote. But he found nothing—no disease like this had ever struck Earth's plant life, and the plagues of its fleshier inhabitants were too different. Disheartened, Salix gave up and waited for his retrieval at the end of his five-year mission.
> 
> He landed in 1960. As you can probably imagine, his retrieval never came, and he has mourned what can only be the death of his race for forty long years.
> 
> As time passed, Salix began to live out a more normal—or at least more human—existence on Earth. He achieved a Doctorate at Freedom City University in the late '60s, and began to lecture there afterwards (it was by doing this that he earned enough money to eventually pay back the bank he robbed). He left behind the woods in which he initially dwelt, taking up residence in a real apartment in the city. He also left behind his true form, for the most part; for decades, he rarely took on his own shape, only occasionally doing so when he wondered if he still could.
> 
> Knowing everyone you ever knew has almost certainly withered away into dust is not a very cheering thought, as you can probably imagine. Salix—but now more Ridley than Salix—sank into a depression that lasted decades. He performed his duties at the college admirably, but outside of the classroom, he kept himself aloof from people—even though he began to think of them as _other people_, as if he were really one of them!—and lived a lonely life.
> 
> But one day...he became, for one person, a hero. It was late, and Ridley had come to the park in one of his occasional attempts to cheer himself up by surrounding himself with his fellow plants. But he was not the only one there; he heard noises as he walked through the park: cries for help. A woman was being chased through a heavily wooded area of the park; a man with a knife was her pursuer. Ridley saw them—and he instinctively summoned up powers that had long laid dormant, bringing to life the grass to grab the man's feet...and the trees to dislocate both of his arms.
> 
> The woman was afraid at first—the trees had just come to life, after all—but she soon recognized that she was no longer in danger. Then she saw Ridley, and knew it had to have been his doing. Assuming he was one of Freedom City's many mutants or superheroes, she thanked him for coming to her rescue. He stayed with her while she called the police and they apprehended the attacker, but he fled when it was his turn to answer the authorities' questions.
> 
> At home, Salix suddenly felt a tiny spark of hope in his life, a little light in the darkness, a flickering of warmth—he felt good for the first time in many years. And, well, you can probably imagine what happened next. He wanted to do it—help someone, that is—again. So he did. And then he did it again. Isaac Ridley finally became Salix once more, in both body and mind. He no longer thought of himself as Dr. Isaac Ridley, so he rid himself of the identity once and for all—he destroyed the implant that had allowed him to become human in the first place. He embraced his true nature, his true form, and his true name.
> 
> For two months now, the reborn Salix has hunted the predators and criminals and thugs and villains of the city; for two months now he has endeavored to make up for decades of doing nothing to help and protect the people of the city...of _his_ city.
> 
> Salix has a new mission.[/sblock]




I worry about whether his methods can properly fit a superHERO.  Poison, suffocation, hallucinogenic drugs, etc are usually the sorts of things that villains use.  Now I very well might accept Salix anyway, but the flavor of his power set is a concern, and one that probably is inherent in his concept and one that I should have probably thought about earlier.


----------



## James Heard

What I think would be funny is if Salix's time on earth had specific time periods that had left an impression on him, and he was some sort of Austin Powers retro-hippie 60's guy now. You know: big huge sideburns, a medallion of some sort, a "secret hideout" with lots of beanbag chairs and eight-track tapes?

"Feel the power of PLANTS, baby! Green is groovy!"

"Medicinal purposes? No way baby, I grow that to get high!"


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I worry about whether his methods can properly fit a superHERO.  Poison, suffocation, hallucinogenic drugs, etc are usually the sorts of things that villains use.  Now I very well might accept Salix anyway, but the flavor of his power set is a concern, and one that probably is inherent in his concept and one that I should have probably thought about earlier.




You have a point- he feels a little too much like "Swamp Thing" and not enough like Green Man (or a heroic nature archetype).  The Suffocation (sustained duration!) and the confuse poison are the most obvious problem powers.  

Maybe consider taking him in a gentler utility nature power direction and less in the "poison pollen" direction.  Teleport (Medium: Plants), Comprehend (Plants) and ESP (medium: plants) are all useful, heroic-themed powers.  Also, you could probably justify a comparatively higher Str and lower rank in Strike.

Edit- Shayuri had some good ideas above


> You could always broaden your scope. What about Nature Guy? Get some animal control/communication going on. Get a ranged Cloud Nauseate, possibly linked to a Sight Obscure, and define it as a swarm of bugses. Maybe even toss in some weather effects for that good ol' Wrath of Nature touch.
> 
> You could be The Green Man!


----------



## James Heard

Alright, scrapped the previous version and went backwards towards the paragonish version of Spirit, and unlike many previous versions I think I've got all my math correct and even the PL caps in place. Physically, this version of Spirit is a monster, but a monster who should have a lot of interesting internal rules she'll be obligated to obey much of the time. 

[sblock]
Spirit

Abilities: STR: 16 [36], DEX: 14, CON: 14 (34), INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 14 

Skills: Diplomacy 4 (+6/+10), Notice 4 (+5), Perform (Singing) 4 (+6), Search 4 (+5)

Feats: Attack Specialization (Unarmed), Attack Specialization (Blast), Attractive, Improved Grab, Interpose, Takedown Attack

Powers: 
Enhanced Constitution 20 (20pp)
AP: Insubstantial 4 (1pp)
Enhanced Strength 20 (20pp) 
AP: Blast 10 [Electrical] (1pp)
Super-Strength 4 (Effective Strength 56, Light Load:~20 tons; PF: Shockwave, Super-Breath; 10pp)
Flight 8 (2,500 MPH; 16pp) 
AP: Super-Speed 3 (Rapid Attack; 2pp)
AP: Space Travel 8 (1pp) 
Immunity 9 (Life Support; Sleep, Starvation & Thirst, Electricity; 16pp)
Regeneration 8 (Recovery Rate: Injured 3, Staggered: 2, Disabled 3, Resurrection 1; PF: Persistent, Regrowth; Flaw: Source [sunlight; -1]; 6pp)
Impervious Toughness 12 (12 pp)
Morph 3 (Humanoid only; 6pp) 

Combat: Attack +9 ( +9 Unarmed, Attack +11 Blast); Damage (+13 Unarmed, +10 Blast); Defense 10 

Saves: Toughness +12; Fortitude +15 (3pp), Reflex +8 (6pp), Will +10 (9pp) 

Drawbacks: Power Loss (All Powers; Spirit must recharge her powers once a day with electricity; Minor, Common; 2pp), Normal Identity (Full Round Action; Common, Major; -4pp), Vulnerable (EMP; Minor, Uncommon; 1pp), Weakness (Using Extra Effort with Powers; Very Common, Moderate; -4 to Constitution; Lethal; -5pp),  No Healing (Healing powers do not work on Spirit because of her unique alien physiology; Uncommon, Minor; 1pp) 

Abilities 20 + Skills 4 (16 ranks) + Feats 6 + Powers 111 + Combat 18 + Saves 18 – Drawbacks 13 =  164

Jessica Lane

Abilities: STR: 14, DEX: 16, CON: 14, INT: 10, WIS: 12, CHA: 14 

Skills: Diplomacy 4 (+6), Notice 4 (+5), Perform (Singing) 4 (+6), Search 4 (+5)

Feats: Attack Specialization (Unarmed), Attractive, Interpose, Takedown Attack

Combat: Attack +5 (Attack +7 Unarmed); Damage (+2 Unarmed); Defense 5

Saves: Toughness +4 (2pp); Fortitude +4 (2pp), Reflex +8 (5pp), Will +10 (9pp)

Abilities 20 + Skills 4  (16 ranks) +Feats 4 + Combat 20 + Saves 18=  68[/sblock]

_Edit: Ok, fixed the math errors and the typo I didn't catch (removed the last traces of the "magic" build). Now she's got an extra PP to spare from removing Precise, that hopefully I'll figure out what to do with before the day is over._


----------



## Elric

James:
1) Did you really buy no points in your defense score?  I'd look into that.
2) Weakness: Using Extra Effort on powers doesn't feel right.  Losing access to extra effort is a serious drawback, but the system has it for a reason!
3) You need to specify some (preventable) action that you have to take to turn into your powered form for Normal Identity.
4) Super-Str costs 2 pp/rank, not 1 pp/rank.
5) When you're buying an Alternate Power, you can include the power feats on the alternate power in the points you get from the alternate power feat.  This can be abusive if used to take a lot of enhanced feats, but that's not what you're doing here.

E.g., Enhanced Strength 21 (21 pp)
AP: Blast 10 (PF: Precise) (1 pp).

(Note that w/ Enhanced Str 20 (20 pp) you couldn't have Blast 10, PF: Precise (21 pp) as an alternate power)


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> James:
> 1) Did you really buy no points in your defense score?  I'd look into that.
> 2) Weakness: Using Extra Effort on powers doesn't feel right.  Losing access to extra effort is a serious drawback, but the system has it for a reason!
> 3) You need to specify some (preventable) action that you have to take to turn into your powered form for Normal Identity.
> 4) Super-Str costs 2 pp/rank, not 1 pp/rank.
> 5) When you're buying an Alternate Power, you can include the power feats on the alternate power in the points you get from the alternate power feat.  This can be abusive if used to take a lot of enhanced feats, but that's not what you're doing here.
> 
> E.g., Enhanced Strength 21 (21 pp)
> AP: Blast 10 (PF: Precise) (1 pp).
> 
> (Note that w/ Enhanced Str 20 (20 pp) you couldn't have Blast 10, PF: Precise (21 pp) as an alternate power)



1)Well, she's already got 12 points of impervious toughness.
2) She doesn't not have access to it, she takes Con damage from it. Basically, using extra effort knocks 2 points of toughness/fortitude off each time she does it and can kill her if she goes for broke.
3)I know, I've been thinking about it to put into her fluff.
4) D'oh. Oh well, that certain will bring her back in line and keep her from flying around with Aircraft Carriers strapped to her shoulders.
5)Double D'oh.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> 1)Well, she's already got 12 points of impervious toughness.




Minions won't be able to hurt you, but you're just asking to be power attacked with this setup.  A Blast at +6 attack/+16 damage will _really _ hurt.  Your exotic saves are quite high, which means always being hit by exotic attacks won't be as big of a problem, but normally it would be a major problem as well.  Even if you think your character isn't great at dodging stuff, in superhero terms that's more like 6 points of base defense (and maybe 14 total Toughness- this gives you a very Toughness over defense shifted feel).

Edit- also, did you remember that Flight at 2500 mph means that you can double-move (your sustainable long-term speed) at 5000 mph and can sprint at 10000 mph?  If not, you can save some points here (nevermind- your APs require a 16 pp base power).

Further edit- by the way, there's no reason you can't have
Blast 10 (PF: Precise) (21 pp)
AP: Enhanced Strength 20 (1 pp)
Then specify that the Enhanced Strength power is the one that's on by default (the base power of an array has to be the one that costs the most, but it doesn't have to be the default setting of the array).

So you don't have to drop Precise- you just have to reconfigure the array so that Blast is the base power (since it's the more expensive one).  Also, you should save 1 pp on your Super-Speed AP, since Super-Speed is 15 pp and Rapid Attack is a 1 pp power feat, so this comes out to 16 pp and is a normal AP.


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  I suppose that is a valid problem with Salix.  Especially with Confuse.  The random nature of the attack can actually make it very dangerous to use in typical superfight locations.  Attack nearest target could easily be some civilian, and flee at top speed can make containing supers difficult.  And getting flee then attack is just bad news.

If you still want mostly attack powers instead of some utility, some "gentler" ones might not be out of place.  

Of course, struggling to be heroic with somewhat messy powers could be good too.

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

IIRC, there was a rule in UP that prevents Space Flight from being an AP of Flight.  Of course, that seems like BS to me.

We seem to have lots of regenerators, especially of the sort that come back from death regularly.  More people seem to have self rez ability than there are without it.  It kind of makes me worry.


----------



## Shayuri

In regards to Spirit...is an inability to benefit from Healing really a drawback to someone who can regenerate even back from the dead?

As for Salix, pollen clouds are fine, I think. Confuse probably isn't the best choice though, for reasons Victim explores a bit. Coughy itchy irritant pollen could be Nauseate or even Stun perhaps...both good incapacitators with no lasting damage done. I'm not as big a fan of teleporting through plants...it feels more fantasyish to me (says the player of the witch ); hard to phrase in terms of modern day 'science.' As a magical effect, that's one thing, but how else would it be explainable? Growing and animating plants could be cool if you like...infected them. Little gas-powered pods that you shoot out into trees and things that link the infected plant to your consciousness.

It's worth pointing out that Salix isn't a druid, isn't a nature-lovin' tree-huggin' guy. He's an alien plant. It'd be cool if his powers reflected that alienness. Like, maybe he blooms flowers with wide crystalline petals, that expel the clouds of pollen. Maybe the color of the flowers change with his mood? Color, odor...these are things about Salix that his kind might use to communicate that could emphasize his nonhumanity. Consider too some Extra Limbs (roots/tendrils/etc). Perhaps a limited Morph that lets him emulate terrestrial plants (in lieu of emulating human beings).

If you want to go even farther in the, "Uh, hey...that's kind of weird and disturbing" direction, consider a ranged transform from Human Into Plant Minion. You shoot a little spore pod into a person, instead of a tree. They break out in fungus and grassy growths and become shambling slaves to your will! Rah!

...probably not. Might be cool if an evil one of your kind ever finds his way to Earth though.

*wink to the GM*


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Ah...fair points on Confuse and Suffocate. And lots of good ideas from Shayuri. Oh, how I now wish I had simply gone with an alien who wields cosmic power! I could just have used a variation of the Energy Controller archetype. I think I got myself in a bit over my head for my first character. Still, I will try to work things out with Salix. Considering the points you've all brought up--and the difficulty I am having getting that Transform-Grow-Animate trick to work--I think I'll need to take a hammer to Salix's Powers section and start from scratch. I'll try to have something up later tonight.


----------



## James Heard

Shayuri said:
			
		

> In regards to Spirit...is an inability to benefit from Healing really a drawback to someone who can regenerate even back from the dead?



Sure, but it's a rather minor one and that's why I priced it that way. If she could be healed then she could presumably be up and running pretty quickly if presented with someone who could raise the dead (for instance) with a wave of his hand, but this way she's got to wait dutifully for checks, right?


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Oh, James, I forgot to say that I also rather liked your idea. In fact--though I snipped it out of his backstory because it didn't add that much and it was already pretty long--originally, I was going to have Salix be taught the ways of human civilization by a commune of hippies.  Who knows? Maybe I'll add it back in. Sounds like he could use a bit of a lighter side to him...


----------



## Shayuri

Azathoth...I was just thinking...and I've no idea what all the rules ramifications are, so it may be really hard to model (in which case nevermind ), but what if Salix was a symbiotic plant? The real Salix is a grassy patch or mossy clump. It puts roots into the host plant, injecting it with some kind of recombinant DNA changing virus that causes the new host to develop vegetable 'musculature' and integrates an analogue of a nervous system to Salix.

Salix's entire race could have the ability to modify these reconstructive retroviruses at will, in fact, so they can adapt to just about any kind of living host in time, as well as engineer new traits. The basis of their 'technology' is organic, and they're always on the lookout for more species with more interesting traits they can learn and reproduce in later hosts.

The 'good' ones limit themselves to hosts that aren't intelligent...possibly not even of animal intelligence. The 'evil' ones are interested only in host lifespan and fecundity...making human beings an excellent choice! Perhaps one reason you're interested in Earth is because you want to help protect a genetically diverse species from being conquered and exploited by the nastier members of your kind...

Mechanically, take a look at the Posession power, perhaps...amped up to Innate, Continuous, etc...limited perhaps by a long adaptation period or something. And you could have an array of powers you currently possess retroviruses to induce in your host. 

I dunno exactly how it'd work, but it just struck me as being an interesting twist...


----------



## Victim

I think a better way to do the Animate-> Growth trick might just be to buy up the ranks on the Animate (possibly sacrficing Horde).  Then you can just buy Growth for the buffed up plants with those points.  

Hmm.  After doing some rough writeups, you actually don't need too many ranks in Animate to get huge plants.  You can get a Gargantuan plant with some attack focus in melee with rank 4 Animate.  Granted, your defense sucks, and you'll need to swap out the Growth Con boost for protection (constructs don't have Con).  Giving them some Con, Fort, and dropping the Immunity (since plants could still be affected by Fort attacks, just often different ones) still saves you points.  Unless you want the plants to have lots of feats (Interpose is fun with minions), skills, or other powers, then doing them on 60-75 points each shouldn't be a problem.


----------



## Shayuri

Actually, if you want to do it that way, don't take Animate, take Summon.

Animate doesn't let you specify the final form of the animated object. Summon does.

Plus, only being able to Summon plants would make the power cheaper. And it dispenses with the thorny problem of potentially not having plants around. Just say you shoot a pod into the ground...and in seconds it erupts into a nasty plant monster!


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Actually, if you want to do it that way, don't take Animate, take Summon.
> 
> Animate doesn't let you specify the final form of the animated object. Summon does.
> 
> Plus, only being able to Summon plants would make the power cheaper. And it dispenses with the thorny problem of potentially not having plants around. Just say you shoot a pod into the ground...and in seconds it erupts into a nasty plant monster!




Some types of animation clearly seem give the animated form powers not possessed by the normal one.  All the points provided by the power generally have to go somewhere.  Besides, the difference between the 2 powers is pretty hazy really.  Animate looks pretty much like Summon+Fanatical+Ranged-Limited: need stuff.  

Either way works, though.  The real question is whether the plant minion power goes into the array or stays separate.  If it's separate, then the other direct powers can be used while the minions supply the beatdown.  If it's in the array, then if the minions are beating on people, Salix pretty much has to use his melee attack as well.  When I stuck the minions in the array, my writeup pretty much had the same stuff (I upped STR and Con, but kept melee damage and toughness the same) and around 10 points to spare.

I dropped Suffocate, and changed the drugging attack to Fatigue+Area (cloud)+Poison-Full Action with Reversible.  Instead of driving people crazy, it's more like a powerful sedative or tranquilizer.  The area could easily be replaced with simple range, but that seemed oddly precise for some kind of air-borne substance (and largely redundant with Nauseate).


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> In regards to Spirit...is an inability to benefit from Healing really a drawback to someone who can regenerate even back from the dead?
> 
> As for Salix, pollen clouds are fine, I think. Confuse probably isn't the best choice though, for reasons Victim explores a bit. Coughy itchy irritant pollen could be Nauseate or even Stun perhaps...both good incapacitators with no lasting damage done. I'm not as big a fan of teleporting through plants...it feels more fantasyish to me (says the player of the witch ); hard to phrase in terms of modern day 'science.' As a magical effect, that's one thing, but how else would it be explainable? Growing and animating plants could be cool if you like...infected them. Little gas-powered pods that you shoot out into trees and things that link the infected plant to your consciousness.
> 
> It's worth pointing out that Salix isn't a druid, isn't a nature-lovin' tree-huggin' guy. He's an alien plant. It'd be cool if his powers reflected that alienness. Like, maybe he blooms flowers with wide crystalline petals, that expel the clouds of pollen. Maybe the color of the flowers change with his mood? Color, odor...these are things about Salix that his kind might use to communicate that could emphasize his nonhumanity. Consider too some Extra Limbs (roots/tendrils/etc). Perhaps a limited Morph that lets him emulate terrestrial plants (in lieu of emulating human beings).
> 
> If you want to go even farther in the, "Uh, hey...that's kind of weird and disturbing" direction, consider a ranged transform from Human Into Plant Minion. You shoot a little spore pod into a person, instead of a tree. They break out in fungus and grassy growths and become shambling slaves to your will! Rah!
> 
> ...probably not. Might be cool if an evil one of your kind ever finds his way to Earth though.
> 
> *wink to the GM*




I built a plant-based minor villain for the campaign rogue's gallery before Salix was even proposed.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Hmm.  I suppose that is a valid problem with Salix.  Especially with Confuse.  The random nature of the attack can actually make it very dangerous to use in typical superfight locations.  Attack nearest target could easily be some civilian, and flee at top speed can make containing supers difficult.  And getting flee then attack is just bad news.
> 
> If you still want mostly attack powers instead of some utility, some "gentler" ones might not be out of place.
> 
> Of course, struggling to be heroic with somewhat messy powers could be good too.
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> IIRC, there was a rule in UP that prevents Space Flight from being an AP of Flight.  Of course, that seems like BS to me.
> 
> We seem to have lots of regenerators, especially of the sort that come back from death regularly.  More people seem to have self rez ability than there are without it.  It kind of makes me worry.




Space Flight is fine as an AP of flight in this campaign simply because it would be so rarely useful.  I suppose however that it can be used to screw with satellites, safely dispose of undiffusable nuclear time bombs, hide things in highly inaccessible places, etc.

Regarding resurrection, I think that players used to DND may not fully  realize that it is not easy to die in M&M.

Regarding regeneration itself, it IS very powerful, but I am not going to limit it just yet.  


eanwhile, please finish up your characters.  I would like to get started as soon as possible.


----------



## Shayuri

Not to mention fling all the world's nuclear arsenal into the sun.

...

*broken sob*

In other news, 95% chance of me being gone until Monday. I'll check in if I can.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Not to mention fling all the world's nuclear arsenal into the sun.
> 
> ...




Bah, you just need lots of super STR or TK for that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Minions won't be able to hurt you, but you're just asking to be power attacked with this setup.  A Blast at +6 attack/+16 damage will _really _ hurt.  Your exotic saves are quite high, which means always being hit by exotic attacks won't be as big of a problem, but normally it would be a major problem as well.  Even if you think your character isn't great at dodging stuff, in superhero terms that's more like 6 points of base defense (and maybe 14 total Toughness- this gives you a very Toughness over defense shifted feel).




Very true.  Not all characters have to meet their defense/toughness caps, but Paragons really should if they don't want to be Paper Kryptonians.


----------



## James Heard

These are all just things that I might know about more if I'd actually played the game before yet. M&M is even less like D&D than I knew before I borrowed the books to start designing this character, and I'm not gonna even try to pretend I've got a feel for the game yet.


----------



## Voidrazor

Victim said:
			
		

> Some types of animation clearly seem give the animated form powers not possessed by the normal one.  All the points provided by the power generally have to go somewhere.  Besides, the difference between the 2 powers is pretty hazy really.  Animate looks pretty much like Summon+Fanatical+Ranged-Limited: need stuff.
> 
> Either way works, though.  The real question is whether the plant minion power goes into the array or stays separate.  If it's separate, then the other direct powers can be used while the minions supply the beatdown.  If it's in the array, then if the minions are beating on people, Salix pretty much has to use his melee attack as well.  When I stuck the minions in the array, my writeup pretty much had the same stuff (I upped STR and Con, but kept melee damage and toughness the same) and around 10 points to spare.
> 
> I dropped Suffocate, and changed the drugging attack to Fatigue+Area (cloud)+Poison-Full Action with Reversible.  Instead of driving people crazy, it's more like a powerful sedative or tranquilizer.  The area could easily be replaced with simple range, but that seemed oddly precise for some kind of air-borne substance (and largely redundant with Nauseate).



You could put your minion in the array and put Independant and Total Fade on it. Idependant would let it stay around after you switched the pool and Total Fade would keep it from being a bookkeeping nightmare. It might not be OK to keep re-summoning it so that its always available at the beginning of fights though. Doing to seems (to me at least) like a step too far.

One more plant power that might be cool is Mind Probe. You could modify the power so it worked like a truth-serum spray. Making villians blurt out their surface thoughts could be hilarious.


----------



## James Heard

Ok revised my face-changing paragon again to take in most of the suggestions and criticisms I got. To satisfy denouncement of her Regenerative capacity/Healing restriction, I tossed it. Upped her Toughness to 14 Impervious to make her just about as tough as I can afford to I think. Rearranged some powers to make some room to kick all the drawbacks entirely off the sheet, lowered some base ability scores to better reflect her awesome power without her powers, and used the extra points to allocate her some new skills and feats that I realized that she probably should have after I got around to writing up her fluff.

I'm not sure if she's really anything much more than a flying tank with some interesting non-combat options without her extra strength now, but that's probably for someone with more experience with the game to warn me about again I suppose.

[sblock]
*Spirit*

Abilities: STR: 10 [30], DEX: 12, CON: 10 (30), INT: 12, WIS: 14, CHA: 14 

*Skills:* Bluff 5 (+7/+11), Gather Information 8 (+10), Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+6), Investigate 8 (+9), Notice 4 (+6), Search 4 (+6), Sense Motive 6 (+8) 

*Feats:* Attack Specialization (Unarmed), Attack Specialization (Blast), Attractive, Connected, Interpose, Skill Mastery (Bluff, Gather Information, Investigate, Sense Motive), Takedown Attack

*Powers: *
Enhanced Constitution 20 (20pp)
AP: Insubstantial 4 (1pp)
AP: Energy Absorption 6 (Boosts Spirit's Blast Power; Extra: Power Magnet +1; Flaw: Electricity Only -2; 1pp)
AP: Morph 9 (Humanoid only; PF: Subtle; 1pp) 

Blast 10 [Electrical] (PF: Precise; 21pp)
AP: Enhanced Strength 20 (1pp) 

Flight 8 (2,500 MPH; 16pp) 
AP: Super-Strength 7 (Effective Strength 65, Max Load 200 tons; PF: Shockwave, Super-Breath; 1pp)
AP: Singularity Strike 7 (Extra: Alternate Save (Fortitude) +1; PF: Mighty, Affects Insubstantial; Drawback: Lethal; 1 pp)
AP: Super-Speed 3 (Rapid Attack; 1pp)
AP: Space Travel 8 (1pp) 

Immunity 9 (Life Support; Sleep, Starvation & Thirst, Electricity; 16pp)
Impervious Toughness 14 (18 pp)

*Combat:* Attack +10 ( +12 Unarmed, Attack +12 Blast); Damage (+10 Unarmed, +10 Blast); Defense 8 

*Saves:* Toughness +14; Fortitude  +13 (3pp), Reflex +7 (6pp), Will +10 (8pp) 

_Abilities 12 + Skills 10 (40 ranks) + Feats 7 + Powers 99 + Combat 20 + Saves 17 – Drawbacks 0 =  165_
[/sblock]

And her (extensive) backstory. Hooray for getting a deal on a used 1ed Freedom City book at my favorite FLGS. Apologies for length, but I'd rather write too much and be asked to trim than write too little and not get a handle on the character I'm proposing.
[sblock]
*Background*
Jessica Lane grew up pampered and privileged, the last heir of the Lane fortune and as such incredibly isolated by her parent's bizarre security measures. A somewhat lost little girl, her closest companions were usually the staff and an endless supply of books which were her only real contact with the outside world. The Lane family had been a semi-permanent fixture in Freedom City since its conception, making their initial wealth in a lucrative fishing fleet which then grew into an international shipping concern during the Civil War. The family was on the cusp of true greatness by the turn of the century, becoming involved in immigration reform and building the the spare district of Southside. Then, with startling swiftness, a series of setbacks struck the family.

Reginald Lane and his entire family died in 1912 along with 1,500 other victims when the RMS Titanic sank on her maiden voyage. This cause the entire family estate to fall victim to vicious family infighting for the spoils of the disaster for several decades, spoils that took a huge hit when the world was plunged into the Great Depression. Jessica's great-grandfather, Martin Lane, came to be in possession of the remnants of the Lane fortune in July of 1931. Several other close branches of the family disappeared entirely during this time as family members went missing or committed suicide due to extreme financial loss. Jessica's grandfather, Kyle Lane, served with distinction in the Navy against her great-grandfather's wishes during the Second World War until he returned after V-J Day to find his father deeply involved with organized crime and the Teamster's Union.

For a short period of time Kyle Lane took a cue from the masked heroes who served during the war and the Liberty League. Donning a white mask, fedora, and trench coat, he became the little known vigilante, Spirit, who spent a few years of honorable service fighting his Jessica's grandfather and his mafia allies with varying degrees of success before retiring in 1953 confronted with the eminent danger of the HUAC trials and his recent marriage. The newlywed Lanes left the country, becoming something of celebrities as they had adventures spanning the globe solving mysteries and fighting crime in their civilian guises.

Unfortunately for them, as successful and as glamorous as they were, they weren't particularly attentive parents. After her father was born he was dutifully shipped off the Freedom City to live with her great grandparents, as the apparent reformation of Martin Lane in his senior years had long ago led to a sort of reconciliation within the family. Except for occasional visits, her father rarely saw his mother and father, instead growing up in the powerful influence of Martin Lane, who wasn't nearly as reformed as he seemed.

The Lane family interests had shifted by the 1960s. When the Terminus invasion forces occupied Freedom City in 1965, the Lanes were well positioned to take full advantage of scavenged and outlawed technology leftover from the fighting. Lane Machine Technologies, established in the wake of World War 2 as a minor concern, suddenly became the predominant source of family funds by building essential parts for such varied interests as NASA and the transistor radios, as well as selling banned weapon technologies to Third World dictators through cutout companies. By the time a despondent and recently widowed Kyle Lane returned from a visit to a mysterious ruin in the Amazon, the family fortunes were looking up.

For months Kyle Lane languished in a deep depression over his wife's death, only to be dealt the double blow of the sudden demise of his father that October. Jessica's father was a virtual stranger as a teenager, and the two of them had little in common. Taking over the reins of the family fortune, her grandfather sacrificed his principles and continued on the family business with a vengeance. By 1978, her father had, like his father before him, walked out on the family business and entered into college at FCU.

At college, Jessica's father apparently flourished. Degrees in antiquities and archeology were predicated by the death of Jessica's grandmother, and after gaining a position teaching at the school her father quickly mounted an expedition to the ruins in the Amazon his father before him had discovered. Her father's documentation of that site caused little buzz within the scholarly community, but infuriated her grandfather. Large crates of artifacts were brought back packed in straw, but more surprising was her father's new wife, a young native woman named Leetaka.

At home, the rough years of the 1980s took their toll on the family finances. The familiar organized crime family structures of the past were reorganizing themselves, often in bloody confrontations. Still, except for her grandfather's brooding, those were joyful years in the Lane household. Soon a son, Reginald Martin Lane, was born to the young parents and followed soon after by Jessica. Again the proclamations of peace within the household were short-lived when in 1992 a series of explosions ripped through the Lane estate, killing all members of the Lane household besides Jessica and her father along with 33 members of the staff.

Her father responded by turning his eye to vengeance and alcoholism. A series of disinterested stepmothers and the ever-present existence of bodyguards were the testimonials of Jessica's childhood. Her father was too busy overseeing the research into his mysterious artifacts and waging a criminal war against his enemies.

The war finally came home for Jessica when her father was brutally murdered while leaving Lane Machine Technologies' headquarters during her senior year in high school. Her newest stepmother, a psychotic super assassin, had perfectly infiltrated the Lane household and after murdering her father proceeded to set her sights on the inexperienced young girl. Several weeks of fleeing for her life and always looking over her shoulder ensued, with Jessica following a trail of properties not on the family books - places that were supposed to be abandoned safe houses and storage units. Strangely enough, most of them had seen recent use, a project of her father's code named "Project Spirit."

Still, the assassins were close on her trail, and Jessica could do little but flee from one location to the other, trying to grasp the enormity of her family's legacy. Finally, Jessica was led to the decrepit back alley lair of her great-grandfather's old alias, The Spirit. Instead of the layers of high technology that had been installed in some of the other locations, the building was kept much as it must once have been except for a single titanium reinforced briefcase sitting on a roll-top desk.

The genetic locks on the case opened easily for Jessica, and she found a single vial of mysterious blue liquid inside with a note admonishing Jessica to not make the same mistakes that her family always seemed to. Remembering the briefings she had read before, Jessica finally decided to risk it all and quickly downed the techno-biological serum. Falling unconscious, she woke up three days later seemingly unchanged and even more depressed. It wasn't until later when she decided to read a book also on the roll-top desk, "The Alchemy of the Human Spirit" that she discovered the cypher which, when repeated, activates Jessica's tailored alien parasite.

Jessica, now taking the moniker of Spirit, struck back at her attackers. In a memorable battle that involved many Boardwalk casinos and a battle at dawn with her stepmother, she laid a terrible blow to the apparatus of crime  that had infiltrated her own family. Even though her stepmother was caught and put behind bars though, she had already sucked the life out of the Lane fortune. Jessica now lives in the small back alley building where the journey of The Spirit began and does most of her solo patrolling in the Southside and Boardwalk areas of town. Jessica is currently employed as a cocktail waitress at the Golden Calf casino, mostly out of a sense of determination to connect better with the people around her.

*Quote:* "You don't want to do that. You won't like the consequences."

*Personality:* Raised in an restrictive, oppressive, and intensely violent atmosphere Spirit is both naive on occasion and keenly experienced in the sort of cutthroat politics she was raised in. She often has to be reminded to do things that most people take for granted, like paying for goods before she wanders off with them; but conversely she can often immediately assess complex interpersonal relationships simply by body language, much to the surprise of her companions. She's overwhelmed by the sudden lack of her support structure, and has responded by adopting a somewhat distant demeanor. Despite her powers, she's convinced that she could do even more good if she had managed to secure her family's finances; but she's simply not prepared for the financial (and possibly real) battles she might face if she were to make a serious play to regain her family's place in the financial scene of Freedom 
City.

*Powers & Tactics:* As Spirit Jessica is now an incredibly complex half-human biological android of a sort whose differences from humanity grow each day. Superhumanly strong and resistant to damage, she can also project white-hot beams of electrons from almost any point on her body (though she prefers to simply project them out of her eyes since that seems to give her the most accuracy). Also within her retinue is an ability to control her body form itself. Effortlessly Jessica can displace her molecules and become insubstantial and wraith-like or change her appearance down to the level of her DNA. Jessica also has found that she needs no sleep, food, air or very little else to survive, and to top it off she's utterly immune to any amount of electrical energy that courses through her body as she subconsciously reroutes it through the same pathways as her electron beams go through. She can also consciously pull electricity through those same pathways and use it to supercharge her beam powers. To top it all off, she can fly by switching on something that she suspects may be an internal gravity drive. She's already used it once to fly all the way into orbit, where her always present bioform senses told her she could easily use the same drive to push a frightening hole into the fabric of space time.

*Appearance:* For Spirit, appearance is often a fairly fluid concept. Her appearance in her default form doesn't particularly resemble Jessica Lane much anymore. Her once olive skin, dark hair, and intense eyes have been erased by the bioform and she now stands taller with stark white hair. Her formerly mixed features now mirror those of her birth mother's more closely, with a distinctive South American Indian cast to them. This is the shape she normally wears while fighting powered foes, as it provides the most protection from injury for her. While wandering around Freedom City though, Spirit wears faces as the mood strikes her. The only exception for this is her guise as a cocktail waitress at a nearby casino. She has hundreds of photos of herself in that guise tacked to the walls of her apartment, so she can easily remember the proper face for work. When she's pressed or using large amounts of power in her normal form glowing cyan symbols become clearly etched upon her body. Spirit never sweats.
[/sblock]


----------



## Victim

James Heard said:
			
		

> Ok revised my face-changing paragon again to take in most of the suggestions and criticisms I got. To satisfy denouncement of her Regenerative capacity/Healing restriction, I tossed it. Upped her Toughness to 14 Impervious to make her just about as tough as I can afford to I think. Rearranged some powers to make some room to kick all the drawbacks entirely off the sheet, lowered some base ability scores to better reflect her awesome power without her powers, and used the extra points to allocate her some new skills and feats that I realized that she probably should have after I got around to writing up her fluff.
> 
> I'm not sure if she's really anything much more than a flying tank with some interesting non-combat options without her extra strength now, but that's probably for someone with more experience with the game to warn me about again I suppose.




Your Blast is already maxed out; boosting it via absorbtion isn't going to be legal.  Switching it to the healing type allows you to preserve some of the regen ability you had before.  

In terms of combat options, the new Spirit seems to match up fairly well with the last version.  Sure, you don't have Super Strength all the time, but you do have it from Flight via array.  In some cases, that might be even better.  Your toughness shift will likely better protect you from falling damage than that of the opposing flyer you catch, grab, and drag to the ground.   Plus you have the Singularity attack.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Your Blast is already maxed out; boosting it via absorbtion isn't going to be legal.  Switching it to the healing type allows you to preserve some of the regen ability you had before.
> 
> In terms of combat options, the new Spirit seems to match up fairly well with the last version.  Sure, you don't have Super Strength all the time, but you do have it from Flight via array.  In some cases, that might be even better.  Your toughness shift will likely better protect you from falling damage than that of the opposing flyer you catch, grab, and drag to the ground.   Plus you have the Singularity attack.




I'd like to point out though that the APs on Enhanced Con put you in a VERY vulnerable position.  Your toughness will be so low that if you get hit, you will be in very serious trouble.  Absorbtion is an alternative defense, so it is not as bed, but having Morph be an AP off EnCon means that when you are disguised, you are very, very easy to kill.

Also, you should get Power Attack.  Without it, you might not be able to get through the impervious of similarly-powered paragons.  Also, consider making your singularity attack Affects Insubstantial 2.  Regular AI makes you only do half damage, so in situations where you REALLY need AI, you may have to use a hero point to get a new AP config for full effect, making it pointless to have bought it in the first place.  Also, for the Strike, since your strength bonus is also your max damage, you cannot buy ranks in mighty strike per se.  You would buy naked extras on your unarmed strike, the same way you can buy the impervious toughness extra to affect toughness from con.  Thus, you can buy alt save for 10, AI2 for 2, the lethal drawback for -1, and still have five points left over for more power feats or for movement or strength (For instance Super-Strength 2 and Speed 1, SS1 and Speed 3, etc.).  Though the point allocation remains fixed, you can have an AP that contains multiple powers as long as they add up to the total number of points available.


----------



## Elric

James- Singularity Strike is not a valid power.  The reason is that you can't apply Mighty to a Strike power with Extras on it (that affect the entire power and thus can't be partial extras, like Alt Save: Fortitude) without buying the extra as part of your Strength score as well.  Also, even if the this concern wasn't there, the power goes over your PL limits because the damage would be +17 at a +10/+12 attack bonus as written.  

The idea is to prevent Str 30, Strike 1 (Alt Save: Fort, PF: Mighty) as a construct that allows you to apply your full strength score to a Fort save damaging attack without really paying for it.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> James- Singularity Strike is not a valid power.  The reason is that you can't apply Mighty to a Strike power with Extras on it (that affect the entire power and thus can't be partial extras, like Alt Save: Fortitude) without buying the extra as part of your Strength score as well.  Also, even if the this concern wasn't there, the power goes over your PL limits because the damage would be +17 at a +10/+12 attack bonus as written.
> 
> The idea is to prevent Str 30, Strike 1 (Alt Save: Fort, PF: Mighty) as a construct that allows you to apply your full strength score to a Fort save damaging attack without really paying for it.




While this is true, as I said above (Elric was probably writing while I was editing), you can still do it another way.  In fact, it is even cheaper that way.


----------



## Victim

I was thinking of the optional rule for reducing the effective STR bonus from Mighty based on the extras involved.  So her +10 STR bonus becomes an extra 5, making the Singularity Strike +12 damage.  Since it's a separate attack, specialization doesn't apply and thus the attack comes in a +10 (+12), which does fit inside the caps.  But skipping Strike and just buying advantages on STR works too.

While being vulnerable when morphed is a bit of a problem, it's not really any more serious than those faced by characters using unmodded Force Fields.  Or Devices with Protection.  For many types of characters, protection comes at the cost of obviousness, so giving Spirit the same sort of dilemma doesn't seem too bad.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Alright gents, Brimstone is for all practical purposes completed. I still have a few kinks though,

1) His Fireballs. I want to make them Lethal (like fireballs should be). Is there any pp cost to this? is it a drawback? Also, with his fireballs being explosive and lethal, does this mean he can say...blow up cars? Blow open doors? etc.

2) His "Hellfire Control". When attacks someone, what sort of damage is this? Fire? also, is he immune to his own powers? Say he throws a fireball at his feet, does it hurt him? 

I'm not going to post him completed until I finish his backstory. He will actually be a demon (by popular demand) and will not be aware of it. He will just think he's a mutant. He will also be more a vigilante than "hero". 

"God has mercy, I don't" 

(thank you Machete)


----------



## Elric

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> 1) His Fireballs. I want to make them Lethal (like fireballs should be). Is there any pp cost to this? is it a drawback? Also, with his fireballs being explosive and lethal, does this mean he can say...blow up cars? Blow open doors? etc.




Lethal damage only is a 1 pp drawback taken on the power.  So the power costs 1 pp less than it would otherwise.  You can undoubtedly seriously damage and blow up objects with a high rank Area Blast.  

You should consider finding some way to reduce the Area of effect (if you're set on explosive, the progression power feat is best) so that you can use this power without catching everything around you in the Blast (because if your Blasts have 80 foot radius, you're not going to be using them very often)



> 2) His "Hellfire Control". When attacks someone, what sort of damage is this? Fire? also, is he immune to his own powers? Say he throws a fireball at his feet, does it hurt him?




Hellfire Control as written seems more like mystical fire (it's energy damage, but not fire for most purposes).  By default you aren't immune to your own powers.  One exception:  If you have an Area Attack with Touch range it explodes around you and you're immune to it.  If you don't have touch range on an area power you need Immunity (Own Powers) (1pp) for this.



> "God has mercy, I don't"



I like it!


----------



## James Heard

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I'd like to point out though that the APs on Enhanced Con put you in a VERY vulnerable position.  Your toughness will be so low that if you get hit, you will be in very serious trouble.  Absorption is an alternative defense, so it is not as bed, but having Morph be an AP off EnCon means that when you are disguised, you are very, very easy to kill.



I was aware of that it decreased my defenses but I thought it still left me with Impervious Toughness 9? 18 PP worth of Impervious Protection, without ten points of CON to back it up, still amounts to 9 points of Impervious Protection, right? Or is that an alternate power?


----------



## Victim

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Alright gents, Brimstone is for all practical purposes completed. I still have a few kinks though,
> 
> 1) His Fireballs. I want to make them Lethal (like fireballs should be). Is there any pp cost to this? is it a drawback? Also, with his fireballs being explosive and lethal, does this mean he can say...blow up cars? Blow open doors? etc.
> 
> 2) His "Hellfire Control". When attacks someone, what sort of damage is this? Fire? also, is he immune to his own powers? Say he throws a fireball at his feet, does it hurt him?
> 
> I'm not going to post him completed until I finish his backstory. He will actually be a demon (by popular demand) and will not be aware of it. He will just think he's a mutant. He will also be more a vigilante than "hero".
> 
> "God has mercy, I don't"
> 
> (thank you Machete)




When you use an attack, you can choose whether or not it's Lethal damage.  Mostly.  You might have trouble selling the GM on a non lethal disintegration beam.  If you want the fireballs to only be able to do lethal damage, that will probably be a 1 pt drawback.

Objects take all damage as lethal (unless the attack is limited in some way), so you'll be able to blow up doors and cars.  Maybe - cars are pretty tough IIRC, so it would probably take more than 1 slot to totally slag one.

Hellfire is (by default) like of magic based attack that looks like fire.  It may behave like fire in some ways, but can bypass some ordinary fire protections.

You can take the 1 point immunity "Own Powers" to be immune to your own attacks.  As mentioned, touch range areas exclude the user by default.

Progression to reduce the area might be a good idea if you get the drawback lethal only.  Areas in MnM quickly become too big.  Even you take Cloud instead of burst, a PL 10 area is still pretty unweildy at 50' across.  

James, the Impervious Protection you took is 4 points of Protection, and 14 points of Impervious, since it's applying to the toughness from Con.  Without the Con slot running, you'll just have 4 impervious protection (the rest of the impervious does nothing since there's no toughness left for it to modify).


----------



## DM_Matt

Impervious is an extra on your toughness save, tied either to con, prot, or whatever.  18 pp of imp prot is in fact 4 points of 2pp per rank protection with the impervious extra, plus 10pp worth of the impervious extra bough on your toughness from con.  When you lose your toughness from con, that ten points of naked extra is no longer tied to anything, and thus does nothing.  All you have left then is a toughness save of 4, with impervious, though at that low a level it won't protect you from much.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

I fixed his area effect things in the last re-working he got, his blast is a 10 ft explosion (8 ranks of blast, 7 progression (reduced area), and that is permanent). 10 feet of firery death is pretty keen. As for his Hellfire control....Elric, you mentioned earlier something about changing it to Blast (Fire)....I'm not sure about this, being as most of his powers lie in his Hellfire control, but he is immune to fire, so it kinda seems as though his attacks should be fire. Is there a way to say his Hellfire is actually fire? Or does that mean just changing it to Blast (Fire)? 

Also, boosting his Blast from 7 to 8 gave me two extra pp to play around with for his strike, so it has been changed to Strike 14 (Extended Reach 1, Incurable). Figured the Incurable went with the whole demon thing.


----------



## James Heard

Isn't Immunity (Your own powers) a 1 or 2 pt. power?


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> Isn't Immunity (Your own powers) a 1 or 2 pt. power?




Yes, a 1pt.


----------



## DM_Matt

Meanwhile...Sometime tomorrow night I hope to be able to choose characters.  If I do hat, I will include those that are almost done as well as those that are actually done.  It is unfortunate that Jemal did not show up.  He sort of staked out a set of useful abilities (leadership, tactics, good super-senses) that subsequent characters avoided having to some extent.

Once the choosing is done, i am going to want to get the in-character stuff rolling, even if the characters are not entirely finalized.  While Supers characters tend to have more useful out of combat abilities than DND ones, it still is not necessary to have perfectly finished characters until the first combat.  During this time you may also tweak your characters a bit to fill in gaps in group capability.

I apologize ahead of time to those who do not get chosen.  Practically speaking, I just cant have more than 8.  Those not chosen will probably be given alternate status.


----------



## James Heard

Stat Block Version ...aw, I can't keep track of them by now.

Things changed:
1. Added Power Attack

2. Moved the morph power that was bothering Matt out from underneath the Enhanced Constitution, reduced it because I realized that she'd not get much use out of it because of level caps and added some perks to her losing access to some of her snazzy ranged powers.

3. Moved the Singularity attack, removed the Mighty naughty bits, and linked it to a minor Corrosion aura. I'm not in love with the corrosion aura, but it seemed thematically correct.

4. Energy Absorption (Electrical) moved under the blast power, corrected to perform healing, and as a plus it got a bonus for having slightly more points to play with.

[sblock]
*Spirit*

Abilities: STR: 10 [30], DEX: 12, CON: 10 (30), INT: 12, WIS: 14, CHA: 14 

*Skills:* Bluff 5 (+7/+11), Gather Information 8 (+10), Knowledge: Streetwise 5 (+6), Investigate 8 (+9), Notice 4 (+6), Search 4 (+6), Sense Motive 6 (+8) 

*Feats:* Attack Specialization (Unarmed), Attack Specialization (Blast), Attractive, Connected, Interpose, Power Attack, Skill Mastery (Bluff, Gather Information, Investigate, Sense Motive), Takedown Attack

*Powers: *
Enhanced Constitution 20 (20pp)
AP: Insubstantial 4 (1pp)

Blast 10 [Electrical] (PF: Precise; 21pp)
AP: Enhanced Strength 20 (1pp) 
AP: Energy Absorption 7 (Healing; Extra: Power Magnet +1; Flaw: Electricity Only -2; 1pp)
AP: Singularity Strike 10 (Extra: Alternate Save (Fortitude) +1; PF: Affects Insubstantial; Drawback: Lethal -1; 1 pp); LINKED Corrosion 3 (Extra: Aura +1)
AP: Morph 3 (Humanoid only; PF: Subtle; 1pp); LINKED Insubstantial 1; LINKED Enhanced Strength 4; LINKED Concealment(Sight) 2 (Flaw: Blending -1); LINKED Enhanced Evasion 2; LINKED Enhanced Weapon Bind

Flight 8 (2,500 MPH; 16pp) 
AP: Super-Strength 7 (Effective Strength 65, Max Load 200 tons; PF: Shockwave, Super-Breath; 1pp)
AP: Super-Speed 3 (Rapid Attack; 1pp)
AP: Space Travel 8 (1pp) 

Immunity 9 (Life Support; Sleep, Starvation & Thirst, Electricity; 16pp)
Impervious Toughness 14 (18 pp)

*Combat:* Attack +10 (+12 Unarmed, Attack +12 Blast); Damage (+10 Unarmed, +10 Blast); Defense 8 

*Saves:* Toughness +14; Fortitude  +13 (3pp), Reflex +6 (5pp), Will +10 (8pp) 

_Abilities 12 + Skills 10 (40 ranks) + Feats 8 + Powers 99 + Combat 20 + Saves 16 – Drawbacks 0 =  165_
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Is there a way to say his Hellfire is actually fire? Or does that mean just changing it to Blast (Fire)?




Generally having multiple descriptors is both an advantage and a disadvantage, so there's no problem in it.  So you can decide that his Area Blast has the descriptors [Hellfire] and [Fire], assuming Matt doesn't see a problem with it.  Anything immune to Fire damage (including you!) will be immune to it, as will anything immune to Hellfire damage.  It can counter anything that Hellfire or Fire could counter, and can be countered by anything that could counter either one of them.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Apologies for this taking so long. I foolishly loaned my books to a friend of mine who promised he'd have them back a few hours later. He, to put a long story short, _was a dirty dirty liar_.

I've addressed most of the criticisms Salix received when I first posted him, though I have changed him slightly--notably, I finally realized Summon (Minion) was what I wanted instead of Animate Plants. I'm sure that might prompt some more pointing-out of errors, but that comes with being new, I suppose. I'm not _technically_ finished because I haven't written up the stats for Salix's leafy minion, but I will in the morning. I've also included a brief description of how Salix's powers work, and I'll add a more detailed physical description of the Plant Guy tomorrow (more than just "he's covered in bark and leaves").

[sblock=Statistics]*SALIX*

*PL:* 11 (165 pp)

*Abilities:* Str 14 (+2), Dex 12 (+1), Con 18 (+4), Int 18 (+4), Wis 12 (+1), Cha 10 (0)

*Skills:* Knowledge (life sciences) 10 (6+4), Knowledge (physical sciences) 10 (6+4), Language 7 (Arabic, English, French, German, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish; also speaks Calliandran, native tongue), Medicine 6 (5+1), Survival 5 (4+1)

*Feats:* Diehard, Improved Sunder, Improvised Tools, Power Attack, Track

*Powers:*
Immunity 2 (disease, starvation and thirst) [2]
Plant Control 10 (extra: does not require pre-existing plants; power feat: alternate power (4)) [34]
- Comprehend 2 (speak with and understand plants)
- Fatigue 6 (extras: area (cloud), ranged, selective)
- Nauseate 10 (extra: secondary effect)
- Stun 10 (extra: ranged)
Protection 10 (drawback: noticeable – body coated in tough bark-like skin) [9]
Summon Minion 7 (extra: fanatical; power feat: mental link) [22]
Strike 8 (branch-like "claws"; power feat: mighty) [9]

*Combat:* Attack +11, Damage +11 (Strike), Defense 18 (14 flat-footed), Initiative +1

*Saves:* Toughness +14 (+10 Protection), Fortitude +9, Reflex +7, Will +8

*Drawbacks:* Vulnerable (fire-based attacks; common, moderate)

*Tradeoff:* +3 Toughness/-3 Defense

Abilities 24 + Skills 7 (28 ranks) + Feats 5 + Powers 75 + Combat 38 + Saves 18 – Drawbacks 3 = 165 / 165[/sblock]

[sblock=Powers]The ability to manipulate plants was a common ability among Salix's people, the Calliandrans, although it is not actually a natural ability; it is a skill, and requires training. For the most part, they used their plant-controlling powers to manipulate their environment or—especially for soldiers—other Calliandrans and plant-based creatures. Some, however, use their Plant Control to heighten their control of their own strange anatomies, and Salix's Plant Control is now an expression of this ability, no longer a psychic manipulation of outside plants or something like that.

His default Plant Control power, the snare, is a sort of leafy webbing that grows naturally on his body—he hurls it at opponents, and as he does so, it grows and expands to cover a larger area (and then constricts, if the target does not dodge). His ability to communicate with plants is actually a complex system of "speech" that involves the expelling of scents and mixing of tiny pollen fragments into the air. His touch-range Nauseate is the result of an internal fluid he can force his body to secrete onto his outer "bark," especially his hands; it is an allergen for most living creatures, resulting in sometimes incapacitating illness.

The ranged Stun and Fatigue come from vestigial parts of Calliandran anatomy, both used as defensive mechanisms in less civilized times to fend off predators (you know...herbivores ). Though many Calliandrans are born without either, or with only one, depending on complicated tribal ancestry, Salix was blessed with both. Buried within Salix's arms are a small array of tiny, hidden needles which he can expel like ranged weapons at a target; if the target is struck, the needles inject a Stunning agent into its body, then quickly dissolve.

The origin of the Fatiguing cloud is rather stranger: in Salix's chest lies a small gas-powered "launcher" of seedpods that are naturally produced within a Calliandran's body, which burst open into a cloud of exhausting powder. Salix now has such control over his own bodily functions that he can produce seedpods filled with chemicals designed to react to specific targets, or to ignore others (thus the "selective" part).

Perhaps his strangest ability is vaguely reminiscent of his snare, in that it involves the separation of part of his body. Any part of the generous amount of foliage growing on Salix's body can be used in this power; after it is broken, pulled, or cut from his body, Salix can focus his plant manipulating prowess to pull off a rather nifty trick. Not only does the severed piece of Salix in question grow in size, but it also takes on a shape similar to that of Salix himself, and becomes a walking, talking servant of the plant controller. Not that the creature is actually a separate organism—its "mind" is for all intents and purposes merely an extension of Salix's, and Salix is mentally linked with the creature at all times.[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> I've addressed most of the criticisms Salix received when I first posted him, though I have changed him slightly--notably, I finally realized Summon (Minion) was what I wanted instead of Animate Plants. I'm sure that might prompt some more pointing-out of errors, but that comes with being new, I suppose.




Looking at the character quickly, I don't see any errors.  Nice work.  

One point: Nauseate is a pretty weak power.  Consider taking the thematically appropriate Nauseate 10 (Extra (+1): Secondary Effect) instead of Nauseate 11.  This would make your Nauseate power noticeably stronger.  Secondary Effect is from Ultimate Power:

[sblock=Secondary Effect]An instant effect with this modifier affects the target once immediately (when the effect is used) and then affects the target again on the following round, on the same initiative count as the initial attack. The target gets the normal saving throw against the secondary effect, which is treated as lasting, meaning it occurs without any effort on the part of the attacker, even if the attacker is incapacitated or switches to a different Alternate Power or Variable effect configuration.

Secondary Effects don’t stack, so if you attack a target with your Secondary Effect on the round after a successful hit, it doesn’t affect the target twice; it simply delays the second effect for a round. You can attack the target with a different effect, however.
So, for example, if you hit a target with a Secondary Effect Strike then, on the following round, hit with a Stun attack, the target suffers both the Stun and the Secondary Effect of the Strike.[/sblock]


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  I'm trying to decide if Shooting Star needs any last minute tweaks.  Power Attack is always nice to have - perhaps too nice.  Evasion 2 might be handy.  I could probably squeeze some sort of superspeed stunt in - perhaps a faster than the eye concealment effect.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Oh, sounds nice. Edited in the secondary effect. Thanks, Elric.  Thank you to everyone else who made suggestions and gave comments about Salix, too!


----------



## Fenris2

Just wanted to chime in and say RL has been bad to me lately.  i should have my Angel 'finished' in the next few days.   Thanks DM Matt for considering him even with a few 'teeny' things to do.


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Just wanted to chime in and say RL has been bad to me lately.  i should have my Angel 'finished' in the next few days.   Thanks DM Matt for considering him even with a few 'teeny' things to do.




Imho, my Angel build on page 6 is really good.  Add Shayuri's suggestion about the sword bursting into flame when you channel your power through it and you have one really cool angel.  I'd be trying to play that Angel character (with your backstory) if you weren't around and I didn't already have Johnny Nitro


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Hmm.  I'm trying to decide if Shooting Star needs any last minute tweaks.  Power Attack is always nice to have - perhaps too nice.  Evasion 2 might be handy.  I could probably squeeze some sort of superspeed stunt in - perhaps a faster than the eye concealment effect.




Yes, perhaps too nice...


----------



## DM_Matt

I am giving a little more time. Carry on.


----------



## Lobo Lurker

Is this game full?

Curious now that I have time to actually play something.


----------



## DM_Matt

Lobo Lurker said:
			
		

> Is this game full?
> 
> Curious now that I have time to actually play something.




Unfortunately, it is presently closed to new character submissions.  Sorry about that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Alright, it is time to make the tough decisions.  The following is the admitted character list.  I wish I could let in every character, but at 8 players the group will be large as it is.  

Admitted Group:
Elric -- Johnny Nitro -- Wrestler
Shayuri -- Thessaly -- Witch/Support Caster
Raylis -- Nightweaver -- Darkness Controller
Victim -- The Shooting Star -- Plasma Controller
Fenris2 -- Angel -- Angel
James Heard -- Spirit -- Spirit Paragon (But Needs A Little Editing)
hero4hire -- Mechanoid -- Half-Robot Tech-Controller
Blind Azathoth -- Selix -- Plant Guy

Alternates:
Necro_Kinder -- Brimstone -- Demon
Jemal -- Optic -- Eye Beamer / Leader
Voidrazor -- Dr. Know -- Scientist
Moggthegobb -- Magnetic Mole -- Magnetic Controller

In the final calculation, Brimstone's less heroic nature made him less good a fit in the group, and his abilities are a bit plain.  Dr. Know, on the other hand, would not be as good a fit on account of having to stay back from much fieldwork, and because his main attack, a small army of robot mooks, is not especially heroic and very cumbersome to play with. Jemal, well...Jemal  had a great concept, but he disappeared, and I could only wait so long.  regarding Mogg, I never got a concept for the character, just a build.

For those admitted, post your characters to the rogue's gallery thread, and then post to the game thread, which picks up as soon as the prologue ends.  Until the first combat, you will have broad leeway to tweak your characters to make a slightly better team, if you wish.  Also, make sure that between you you have utility skills, minor utility powers, and feats covered.  Particularly, make sure that the knowledges, gather info, and out-of-combat social skill feats (Well-Informed, Contacts, etc) are covered, so long as they are plausible in character.  No changes may be made during the first combat.  Immediately after the first combat, it may or may not be appropriate to make some final changes based on how characters perform.

I look forward to a great game!


----------



## DM_Matt

Character Thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3649257
Rogues Gallery Thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=3649265


----------



## Victim

Changes:  

I changed Shooting Star's background a bit to replace a specific age with a more general comment.

Ranks in science knowledges went down, while current events increased.  That should hopefully increase her awareness of current super villains and heroes.  Also, the group has gained some real experts in the science fields since my first go at the stats, so being a slightly less competent dabbler doesn't seem like too great a problem.

Search might be a handy skill to pick up, given the expanded applications with quickness.  Maybe I'll just get it later.


----------



## Voidrazor

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> In the final calculation, Brimstone's less heroic nature made him less good a fit in the group, and his abilities are a bit plain.  Dr. Know, on the other hand, would not be as good a fit on account of having to stay back from much fieldwork, and because his main attack, a small army of robot mooks, is not especially heroic and very cumbersome to play with. Jemal, well...Jemal  had a great concept, but he disappeared, and I could only wait so long.  regarding Mogg, I never got a concept for the character, just a build.



Doh! I should have made clear that those issues were at least partially addressed in the final version (Only one robot out at a time, and solid defenses that could be used in person with a small gadget pool being available to attack at the same time). Well I'm already in enough games, just wanted to throw some superhero stuff in the mix.

Congratz to those that got in. Have fun. I'll check in later to see if anything opens up.


----------



## Fenris2

Okay char is in gallery.  Finally made him fit thanks to all your help.  If I still have issues (with the char!) let me know. ;-)


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Okay char is in gallery.  Finally made him fit thanks to all your help.  If I still have issues (with the char!) let me know. ;-)




Matt stated in this thread that he didn't want any characters with Healing usable faster than a Standard Action.

Also, Slow Fade has no interaction with Dazzle.

Lastly, you only have 4 ranks in Attack Focus but your stat block shows it as if you had 5 ranks (which would put you over your PL limits).


----------



## Fenris2

Hmm, okay fixes comming up.

Fixed so far.  Thanks Elric.  Any one else wanna take a peak?

FYI when I posted him to the gallery I modded him a bit to have more of those soft skills DM_Matt was talking about, especially since the other leader type did not make the cut...


----------



## Jemal

Hey, I'm back and ready if you're still open.  Seems I've missed like 5 pages.. yowza.

EDIT: Damn, seems I'm like 8 hours late!


----------



## DM_Matt

Sorry, couldn't hold it open any longer.


----------



## James Heard

What editing needs to be done for Spirit?


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> What editing needs to be done for Spirit?





Well, for now, proceed to posting in the IC thread, but you should change:

1.  The singularity attack.  Aura only works on sustained duration abilities, so that means you will have to add another +2pp/rank to use it with corrosion (to make corrosion sustained).

2.  The Morph set.  I don't get it.  Especially Weapon Bind.


----------



## James Heard

1. Gotcha, didn't catch that.

2. Spirit is more or less a person who has been turned into a funky sort of android now. She's a complex biological machine without a consistent biology, if that makes any sort of sense - she's "all spirit" because the substance is can change a lot.

She's able to morph because she can alter that substance. It's subtle because if she's given means to check her own baseline (like advanced genetic testing equipment or something) she could even change the morph to register DNA. As is, she can use her subtle morph to make the _wrong_ DNA for Jessica Lane map out for forensics. (This use of subtle with morph is something I got from peeking around Atomic Think Tank from Steve Kenson).

Of course, the ability to change her appearance also allows her to change the color of her skin to blend in with her surroundings (Concealment -1 Blending); and since her form is more fluid than normal in those cases it allows her to do some nifty tricks for jumping out of the way of things that human bodies normally simply can't manage (like leaping away in a line of pearly fluid or just letting her body ripple like a fluid with a shockwave - it's not something she looks forward to but it's instinctive - Enhanced Evasion 2) and seep through cracks and between bars  (Insubstantial 1 and think the Terminator 2). As for Weapon Bind? She just lets someone dumb enough to attack her with a sword or club or whatever "in" to her form and keeps them there. The Enhanced Strength was just because otherwise she'd be really weak in the form with no damage bonus at all (all of her heaps of mighty fists are an AP).

Anyways, the morph set is weird, but it's really the difference set of powers that distinguishes her from all the other "strong, fast, & can fly" heroes.


----------



## Lobo Lurker

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Unfortunately, it is presently closed to new character submissions.  Sorry about that.



 Okay.  Thanks anyway. You might want to change your recruiting tag on this thread though, as you're no longer recruiting.


----------



## Elric

James- Your defense should be 10, not 8.  Still, 10 Defense is going to be a huge liability against strong enemies.  Really consider finding the points for at least 5 points of Base Defense Bonus.


----------



## James Heard

Hmm, I've been trimming from my saves for points. How low can your saves go before they're a liability in a M&M game - and I kind of thought for "strong enemies" we'd be going with your character as the go-to guy. You've got more combat options and are more tightly focused on combat anyways, right?


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> Hmm, I've been trimming from my saves for points. How low can your saves go before they're a liability in a M&M game - and I kind of thought for "strong enemies" we'd be going with your character as the go-to guy. You've got more combat options and are more tightly focused on combat anyways, right?




I don't think your saves are too low.  For exotic saves, I'd say that anything less than a PL-4 average will probably feel noticeably weak (of course, if your Defense is 10 this is going to be greatly exascerbated).  Given your exceedingly low defense, though, your exotic saves shouldn't go much lower.  You could probably shave a point off of Fort and Will.

Personally, I'd ditch Immunity to Electricity - with 14 Impervious Toughness an Electrical attack has to be awfully strong before it can hurt you and you have Absorbtion against electricity if you need it.  That's 5 pp.  Dropping a rank from Flight (your sprint speed is 10000 mph at the moment) will give you 2 more pp, but the APs there will get weaker.  You could drop Space Travel (since you can always take it with a power stunt)- that's 8 pp, enough for +4 Base Defense.  At that point at least you can stop quacking when you enter combat 

Also, I don't think Johnny Nitro is going to be the strongest character in the group in combat- he wasn't in the last game I played him in.  If anything, particularly high Str enemies present a particular challenge to Nitro as they will usually beat him at grapple checks.  He'll be effective even there, though.  Overall, I think Shooting Star (Victim) will be the most effective character in combat.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> I don't think your saves are too low.  For exotic saves, I'd say that anything less than a PL-4 average will probably feel noticeably weak (of course, if your Defense is 10 this is going to be greatly exascerbated).  Given your exceedingly low defense, though, your exotic saves shouldn't go much lower.  You could probably shave a point off of Fort and Will.



But that's what we're talking about anyways - tradeoffs. I mean, I could up my defense and lower my saves but at what point does that make for a good tradeoff? I've already made a lot of tradeoffs to up the Toughness save to what I thought originally would be a pretty extreme level. So, how high would her Toughness have to be to justify the expense she's already spent, because right now it sounds like you're saying that all that Toughness is a wasted expense right now. Rather than devote points to something that she hasn't spent any points in already, how high should Spirit's toughness score be before she isn't "quaking in her boots" when entering combat?



> Also, I don't think Johnny Nitro is going to be the strongest character in the group in combat- he wasn't in the last game I played him in.  If anything, particularly high Str enemies present a particular challenge to Nitro as they will usually beat him at grapple checks.  He'll be effective even there, though.  Overall, I think Shooting Star (Victim) will be the most effective character in combat.



Maybe so, but it still begs the question of "if we've got two other more powerful combat characters, at what level does Spirit have to be for party balance?" If two other members of the party are going to be the go-to guys, then what's the point of statting Spirit out to be more of a combatant than she already is? Would it be better to shave off 6 or 8 points and just trade them off to give Spirit a 17 or 18 Impervious Toughness? If she's in real danger of getting her pockets rocked off, she can go Insubstantial already.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> But that's what we're talking about anyways - tradeoffs. I mean, I could up my defense and lower my saves but at what point does that make for a good tradeoff? I've already made a lot of tradeoffs to up the Toughness save to what I thought originally would be a pretty extreme level. So, how high would her Toughness have to be to justify the expense she's already spent, because right now it sounds like you're saying that all that Toughness is a wasted expense right now. Rather than devote points to something that she hasn't spent any points in already, how high should Spirit's toughness score be before she isn't "quaking in her boots" when entering combat?




Very perceptive!  Indeed, it is generally more useful to be an "unbalanced defender" against a balanced attacker, although doing so will give you some Achilles heels (particularly for a character with high Defense/low Toughness- that's why high tradeoffs in favor of Defensere are rare).  

I am pretty sure that Matt said he'd have to approve of tradeoffs past +5/-5.  There's a reason for this- particularly on Defensive PL where too high of a tradeoff can be unbalancing.  So don't plan on getting 18 Impervious Toughness- or 18 Toughness, for that matter.  Given that you won't be able to have such high Impervious Toughness as to be invulnerable, getting Defense to fill your defensive caps is a good bet.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> Very perceptive!  Indeed, it is generally more useful to be an "unbalanced defender" against a balanced attacker, although doing so will give you some Achilles heels (particularly for a character with high Defense/low Toughness- that's why high tradeoffs in favor of Defensere are rare).
> 
> I am pretty sure that Matt said he'd have to approve of tradeoffs past +5/-5.  There's a reason for this- particularly on Defensive PL where too high of a tradeoff can be unbalancing.  So don't plan on getting 18 Impervious Toughness- or 18 Toughness, for that matter.  Given that you won't be able to have such high Impervious Toughness as to be invulnerable, getting Defense to fill your defensive caps is a good bet.



Is hitting your caps such a necessary thing though? I mean, if that's the case then why call them caps? It seems to me that they'd just be the first thing you'd buy and then trade off as needed, which seems a pretty silly way to do things?

Still, if we're going with the notion that Spirit's 14 impervious toughness means she's somehow a weak combatant I'd rather scavenge points from that since it's so useless in actual play rather than pull points from things that are thematically appropriate and/or cheap enough to make me wonder about the wisdom of revision?


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> Is hitting your caps such a necessary thing though? I mean, if that's the case then why call them caps? It seems to me that they'd just be the first thing you'd buy and then trade off as needed, which seems a pretty silly way to do things?
> 
> Still, if we're going with the notion that Spirit's 14 impervious toughness means she's somehow a weak combatant I'd rather scavenge points from that since it's so useless in actual play rather than pull points from things that are thematically appropriate and/or cheap enough to make me wonder about the wisdom of revision?




Yes, hitting or coming close to caps is generally necessary (and expected- note that the 2e archetypes all hit their caps or come close to it) unless you have other powers that specifically make up for not hitting caps.

It isn't that 14 Impervious Toughness means she's weak.  It's that 14 Impervious Toughness plus +0 to Defense means that she's weak (particularly because Power Attack is so common).  If you want to scavenge points, 14 Toughness (not Impervious) and +7 base defense would probably make her an all-around stronger character (but she'd be much more vulnerable to minions).  On the other hand, you're a Paragon-type: if anyone should have Impervious Toughness it should be you.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> Yes, hitting or coming close to caps is generally necessary (and expected- note that the 2e archetypes all hit their caps or come close to it) unless you have other powers that specifically make up for not hitting caps.
> 
> It isn't that 14 Impervious Toughness means she's weak.  It's that 14 Impervious Toughness plus +0 to Defense means that she's weak (particularly because Power Attack is so common).  If you want to scavenge points, 14 Toughness (not Impervious) and +7 base defense would probably make her an all-around stronger character (but she'd be much more vulnerable to minions).  On the other hand, you're a Paragon-type: if anyone should have Impervious Toughness it should be you.




I might do that then, and ditch the Immunity to electricity and some points from her Fort save to knock her all the way to +10 Defense. She's to Paragons like Martian Manhunter* is to Superman - she's got similar powers to some degree, but she's got a heck of a spin.


*Without being green. Green's my favorite color, but I think once you go Green in comics you're setting yourself up to partner with dudes with bows and power rings.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> I might do that then, and ditch the Immunity to electricity and some points from her Fort save to knock her all the way to +10 Defense.




You currently have +14 Toughness, though, so you can't get above +8 to Defense.  Note that if you didn't have Impervious then Immunity to electricity would be more valuable than it is right now.  You could also compromise at something like Half damage from Electricity for 2.5 pp.


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  And here I am wondering how Shooting Star will stack up with a defense shift (which can lead to glass ninja problems, as Elric mentions), lowish base damage and no Power Attack (she can't hurt Spirit and similarly impervious characters even when using Extra Effort for +2 damage).

I'll readily admit that she could be incredibly dangerous in good conditions.  The ability to do high speed flying move bys (forcing most opponents to use Readied actions to attack), then launch indirect attacks from cover (negating most readies) and finally, have triggered powers waiting when they attempt to storm her supposed position (then stir and repeat) might be able to confound some teams if things go according to her plan.  All she has to forfeit the chance to protect innocents, injured allies, etc - her best strategy for winning is generally the worst for superheroing

Generally, a character's combat caps are what determine their effective PL.  With zero dodging ability, pretty much anything can hit Spirit - she operately at an effectively weaker overall defense.  Of course, with pretty good saves and 14 Impervious Toughness, getting hit is not generally that bad, normally.  But her defense is so low that even people throwing everything into Power Attack will still hit, and that greatly reduces the effectiveness of her impervious toughness.  

However, it's not going to be the end of the world if you have 10 defense.  It might take new opponents a bit to figure out exactly how big a target she is and thus what their Power Attacks should be (and they might not have it, which reduces their ability to take advantage).  You can change up your defenses with Concealment or Insubstancial as a counter to full Power Attacks.  You could use Morph to pretent to have another character's defenses.  If she takes a bad hit, Spirit can suck on a power line to restore herself.  I get the impression she hasn't been Spirit long - that she just developed the powers and fought the assassin (not sure if that's what you meant).  It might come as a total surprise to Jessica that she actually can be hurt, that dodging might be helpful.  

Given her defensive options, high impervious, and decent saves, Spirit can probably avoid incapacitation about as well as other characters despite a low defense score.  Just remember to use those defensive options to throw off your attackers - those points in APs could easily be Luck or Dodge Focus if you don't use them regularly (in that respect, Shooting Star's corrosion cone is probably a waste, but I think it helps establish the dangerousness of her powers).


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> You currently have +14 Toughness, though, so you can't get above +8 to Defense.  Note that if you didn't have Impervious then Immunity to electricity would be more valuable than it is right now.  You could also compromise at something like Half damage from Electricity for 2.5 pp.




OK, here's what I think I'm doing then: 
I drop 4 feats: The Blast specialization, Connected, Skill Mastery, and Interpose. Those all might be fun options, but technically I suppose she can do without them.

Drop 7 points in saves. That's knocking her Fortitude down to her Con mod and messing with her Will save, but I suppose it can't be helped.

Dropped the Immunity to Electricity for 5 points.

Add 8 points of Defense, keep the Impervious Toughness.

Her final saves are +10/+6/+6, which gives her two low saves but nothing so low as to be lower than anyone else's low saves.


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> OK, here's what I think I'm doing then:
> I drop 4 feats: The Blast specialization, Takedown attack, Skill Mastery, and Interpose. Those all might be fun options, but technically I suppose she can do without them.
> 
> Drop 7 points in saves. That's knocking her Fortitude down to her Con mod and messing with her Will save, but I suppose it can't be helped.
> 
> Dropped the Immunity to Electricity for 5 points.
> 
> Add 8 points of Defense, keep the Impervious Toughness.
> 
> Her final saves are +10/+6/+6, which gives her two low saves but nothing so low as to be lower than anyone else's low saves.




if you want, you can buy some of your defense as dodge bonus to reduce slightly what you lose, especially Takedown Attack and/or Interpose. Also, get rid of Connected.  It works off your Diplomacy check, and you don't have any ranks in Diplomacy.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> OK, here's what I think I'm doing then:
> I drop 4 feats: The Blast specialization, Connected, Skill Mastery, and Interpose. Those all might be fun options, but technically I suppose she can do without them.




Don't drop Interpose when you have 14 points of Impervious Toughness!  Also, don't drop your Will save to +6 if you can help it- +8 would be much better.  

Matt has the right idea about how to shave points further- buy 5-6 points of base Defense and 2-3 ranks of Dodge Focus for 13-14 pp (in fact, it's generally better to buy more Dodge Focus and less base defense but your character is easy to feint and few character concepts call for all Dodge Focus and no base Defense).


Edit:
Victim- Your main orbs power will be somewhat situational because you don't have Power Attack which means you're going to be less effective against Toughness-shifted (or Impervious) characters, but it's very nasty against anyone without a Toughness shift (especially combined with your character's good feints).

Also, your Selective Area Dazzle power is probably going to be really good even though it doesn't end fights on its own.  Due to the size of the group, we're presumably going to fight a number of non-minions at once.  Unless Matt gives our enemies a whole lot of Evasion and/or Blindsight (it's Matt- this is definitely possible), you're going to have a decent chance to blind each of our enemies every round.  That sets them up nicely for all of the characters with Power Attack and helps negate their attacks as well.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Victim- Your main orbs power will be somewhat situational because you don't have Power Attack which means you're going to be less effective against Toughness-shifted (or Impervious) characters, but it's very nasty against anyone without a Toughness shift (especially combined with your character's good feints).
> 
> Also, your Selective Area Dazzle power is probably going to be really good even though it doesn't end fights on its own.  Due to the size of the group, we're presumably going to fight a number of non-minions at once.  Unless Matt gives our enemies a whole lot of Evasion and/or Blindsight (it's Matt- this is definitely possible), you're going to have a decent chance to blind each of our enemies every round.  That sets them up nicely for all of the characters with Power Attack and helps negate their attacks as well.




Yep.  I figured blinding, trick, and Redirect would be her best weapons against really tough/immune people.  Few things are funnier than getting bad guys to hit each other.


----------



## Shayuri

And dont' forget, we're not fighting in a vacumn here. Support characters like mine are specifically designed to nab foes that are deucedly hard to nab with raw firepower... Not to defeat, but lock them down, paralyze, snare, etc...so they become easier targets and maximize you heavy hitter's ability to whale on them. Not to mention helping to save innocent folks from nastiness with a quick created object and so on...thus requiring less holding back from y'all.

Just grist for the mill.

I'm back, by the way. 

Hoping we can get started soon!


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri: we have started.


----------



## Shayuri

Oof! Apologies. Er...did I make it? I didn't see a final approval list.

Or maybe I just overlooked it? Meep.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Oof! Apologies. Er...did I make it? I didn't see a final approval list.
> 
> Or maybe I just overlooked it? Meep.




You made it.  See the middle of the previous page.    

So did hero4hire although he hasn't posted on this thread in a while... wonder if he's still interested.

Blind Azathoth also made it, and I know he's been posting here recently.  Maybe Matt should change the thread title to include "Blind Azathoth and hero4hire- you're in the game!" or something


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> You made it.  See the middle of the previous page.
> 
> So did hero4hire although he hasn't posted on this thread in a while... wonder if he's still interested.
> 
> Blind Azathoth also made it, and I know he's been posting here recently.  Maybe Matt should change the thread title to include "Blind Azathoth and hero4hire- you're in the game!" or something




Done.  If they wind up not showing, I will start taking alternates.


----------



## hero4hire

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Done.  If they wind up not showing, I will start taking alternates.





Ah! I had not been following the thread for over a week. I *just* noticed the "attn hero4hire"

Hrm...I am not sure Mechanoid would work out for me. I did brainstorm some different mechanics that I liked better then Unreliable, but I think I am going to playtest them in my FTF game where Mechanoid will be a misunderstood villain.

I *can* definitely come up with another concept, but I completely understand if you want to go ahead and give my spot to an alt.


----------



## DM_Matt

hero4hire said:
			
		

> Ah! I had not been following the thread for over a week. I *just* noticed the "attn hero4hire"
> 
> Hrm...I am not sure Mechanoid would work out for me. I did brainstorm some different mechanics that I liked better then Unreliable, but I think I am going to playtest them in my FTF game where Mechanoid will be a misunderstood villain.
> 
> I *can* definitely come up with another concept, but I completely understand if you want to go ahead and give my spot to an alt.




Well, we need an eighth, preferably a hero with some level of tech abilities.  While this may lead me to pick a completed alt, as an admitted player you have a right to make another character, and Jemal as an alt without a finished character has a right to finish his.  You guys just should be quick, because I am not stopping the game.  If we hurry a bit it will be easy to incorporate you.


----------



## hero4hire

In all fairness then, I think I should give Jemal first crack.

My next entry would have been *"Skip Tracer: Hellbent Hero for Hire"* whose technical skills would've been limited to hotwiring a Chevy Nova.


----------



## Victim

It seemed to me like Thessaly was commenting that she didn't detect any magic, despite the extraordinary natural of the message.


----------



## Shayuri

Yar, that was the intent. That she was -not- sensing magic.

Which amplified the mysteriousness.

If that was unclear, mea culpa. I shall make whatever changes would make that clearer.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

I'm alive. Will post Salix in the character thread, and then post in the in-character thread, soon.

As for the eighth player... no offense to Jemal or anything, but it seems to me it'd be rather more fair to let hero4hire make a new character, or if not that then to pick Dr. Know or Brimstone, than to select someone without a completed character for the replacement. I mean, you've got two guys with perfectly serviceable characters right now as alternates--why make them alternates if you aren't going to use them? Herr Kinder and Voidrazor could also alter their characters to better fit what you desired of them, if you allowed such a thing. It would be easy enough to change Brimstone, for instance, from "angry vigilante anti-hero" to "still angry but repentant hero" with just an added sentence or so...


----------



## DM_Matt

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> I'm alive. Will post Salix in the character thread, and then post in the in-character thread, soon.
> 
> As for the eighth player... no offense to Jemal or anything, but it seems to me it'd be rather more fair to let hero4hire make a new character, or if not that then to pick Dr. Know or Brimstone, than to select someone without a completed character for the replacement. I mean, you've got two guys with perfectly serviceable characters right now as alternates--why make them alternates if you aren't going to use them? Herr Kinder and Voidrazor could also alter their characters to better fit what you desired of them, if you allowed such a thing. It would be easy enough to change Brimstone, for instance, from "angry vigilante anti-hero" to "still angry but repentant hero" with just an added sentence or so...




Well, I agree with you on one thing:  I need to change the title to call back all the alternates so that they can fix their characters.  So I did.


----------



## Raylis

Matt, 

after playing a teleporter that night, I'm tweaking Nightweaver's teleport
*Teleport 5*
Fl: Medium [shadows] (-1)
Ex: Accurate (+1)
PF: Easy
PF: Progression

that should equal out to 12pp (the max allotted by being an alt power of darkness control) feel free to check the math


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> I'm alive. Will post Salix in the character thread, and then post in the in-character thread, soon.




Your damage with Strike should be 10 (8 Strike + 2 Strength=10).


----------



## Shayuri

As far as teleports go, remember Thessaly can open portals between any two doors... Not to say you shouldn't have your own mode of transit too, but since it's a portal, any number of people can use hers as long as it's open.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> As far as teleports go, remember Thessaly can open portals between any two doors... Not to say you shouldn't have your own mode of transit too, but since it's a portal, any number of people can use hers as long as it's open.




Raylis has had Teleport in shadows for a long time- this is just a different version of the power (less distance but adding accurate, iirc).


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> Raylis has had Teleport in shadows for a long time- this is just a different version of the power (less distance but adding accurate, iirc).




Yep, being able to teleport 2000 miles didn't make sense if I couldn't _ percieve_ my exit point


----------



## Shayuri

heee, yeah, either percieve it or be intimately familiar with it. Accurate's a must have.


----------



## James Heard

I'm now picturing our resident witch playing Scooby doors with the supervillains, running across the halls and out different locations, being followed by dudes that look suspiciously like Solomon Grundy.

"Grrrr! Solomon Grundy want pants too!"


----------



## Shayuri

*cues the Benny Hill music*


----------



## Voidrazor

For ease of reference I've reposted Dr. Know below. I'm happy to make more changes as necessary, and would love input. But, as I mentioned earlier this version does attempt to address the concerns Matt raised.

Currently, he can only have a single robot out at a time, but a new one can be instanced when an extant unit gets trashed. I aimed to make the bot useful in combat but just shy of the other PC's combat abilities. 

Dr. Know is still more effective when remaining at a distance from the action. But, the super-senses setting of his array also provides a solid attack and defense. That, paired with his relatively modest sized gadget power, should, in theory, let him approach both offensive and defensive caps, while in melee. Mind you, the doctor is much more likely to use less crude means in a fight, even when brute force is technicallly the most effective way to proceed. 


[sblock=History]Dr. Emmanuel Knowles was a leading scientist on a black project for DARPA, the Department of Defence's agency for advanced technologies. But he discovered that his, admittely dangerous, nanotech research was being taken in some truly foolhardy directions by his project manager. But when he brought that information to his superiors, his project manager arranged for an 'accident'. But instead of being killed, the nano became integrated into Dr. Knowles body, while the rest of the building was reduced to grey goo. Thereafter dubbed Dr. Know in the press, he has prosecuted for sabotage, treason and terrorism. While awaiting trial, he developed devices to control the nanotech suffusing his body, and through his attorney, filed for hundreds of patents. But with his superhuman intellect he and his lawyer were easily able to get an acquittal. Since then, the doctor has worked assiduously for the betterment of mankind, largely in the background. But the press has been unrelenting in its condemnation.[/sblock]
[sblock=Personality]Doctor Know's personality is difficult to pin down. At times, he seems obsessive or moody. At others, he is outgoing and diplomatic. Beneath it all he is calculating yet uncompromisingly benign. He is commited to keeping his technology from causing harm. But in the end he knows that he may someday have to forego principle to save lives.[/sblock]
[sblock=Stats]Hero Name: Doctor Know
Real Name: Dr. Emmanuel Knowles

Abilities: 28pp
Str 06 -2 (-4pp)
Dex 12 +1 (2pp)
Con 22 +6 (12pp)
Int 18 +4 (8pp)
Wis 16 +3 (6pp)
Cha 14 +2 (4pp)

Skills: 24pp
Computers 20 (+4 Int 16 ranks)
Diplomacy 18 (+2 Cha 16 ranks)
Disable Device 5 (+4 Int 1 ranks)
Investigate 5 (+4 Int 1 ranks)
Knowledge: Behavioral Sciences 6 (+4 Int 2 ranks)
Knowledge: Life Sciences 8 (+4 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Physical Sciences 8 (+4 Int 4 ranks)
Knowledge: Technology 20 (+4 Int 16 ranks)
Language: English, French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian 5 ranks
Notice 19 (+3 Wis 16 ranks)
Sense Motive 19 (+3 Wis 15 ranks)
*Int skills gain an additional +12 when Enhanced Int is active

Feats: 4pp
Connected, Eidetic Memory, Inventor, Master Plan

Powers: 91pp,
Tensor field manipulator: Device 28pp (Disarmable, Restricted X2) 43 pool
- ESP 8 ranks (all senses, subtle) [33pp]
- Illusion 1 rank (All Senses, Continuous, Selective, Progression x3) [10pp]

Nanotechnology: Device Array 35pp (Disarmable, Indestructible, Restricted X2) 45 pool
- Boost 9 ranks (Immunity: age/disease/poison PLUS Protection 6, Area: burst, Effects Objects, Infectious, Selective, Slow Fade 8)
- Create Object 14 Ranks (Continuous, Innate, Precise, Subtle)
- Enhance Int 24 ranks PLUS Quickness 14 ranks 
- Healing 8 ranks (Affects Objects, Perception Range, Resurrection, Restoration, Total, Limited to Others, Limited: Only heals damage that occurs after target gains nano-boost, Stabilize, Persistent, Regrowth)
- Regeneration +3 Recovery Total Regen (except after an EMP, 6 ranks True Resurrection, Regrowth) [DEFAULT]
- Summon 6 ranks (Fanatical, Independant, Perception Range, Total Fade, Mental Link, Progression 3, Can only have one out at a time)
- Super-Senses (Analytical Blindsight, Counters Concealment Illusion and Obscure, Extended X2, Penetrates Concealment, Radius, Ranged, Rapid X3, Tracking, Distance Sense, Microscopic 3, Limited: only areas in nano-boost field) PLUS Enhanced Defense 6 ranks PLUS Enhanced Attack 10 ranks
- Teleport 8 ranks (Affects Others, Standard Action for extended move, Sense Range, Limited: inanimate objects and robots only, Limited: only to destinations in nano-boost field, Change Direction, Change Velocity, Progression 3 [1,000lbs])

Miscellaneous Gadgets 28pp (Helpless Removal Only) 20 pool

Combat: 8pp
Attack +0 / +10
Defense +4 (+2 flatfooted) / +10
Init +1

Saves: 15pp
Toughness +12 (+6 without nano-boost)
Fortitude +9 Reflex +5 Will +11

Drawbacks: -5
Pacifist (V. com, Mod) 4
Individual configurations of Misc. Gadgets can be disarmed 1

Complication:
Infamous[/sblock]
[sblock=Summoned Robot]Cerebus Mk MMMIX (Nanotech Robot)

Abilities: -20pp
Str 10 +0 (0pp)
Dex 10 +0 (0pp)
Con 00 -- (- 10pp)
Int 10 +0 (0pp)
Wis 10 +0 (0pp)
Cha 00 -- (-10pp)

Feats: 22
Attack Focus: Melee 10, Dodge Focus: 6, Evasion, Grappling Finesse, Improved Init, Interpose, Power Attack, Prone Fighting 

Powers: 64
Immunity: Fort Effects 30pp
Protection 6
Enhanced Strength 20 ranks (Limited: Only usable for grapple checks, Innate) 11pp
Speed 3
Stun 12 (Daze) 12pp
Super-Movement 1 rank (Air Walking) 2pp

Combat: 12
Attack +10 
Defense 12 (+3 flatfooted)
Init +8

Saves: 10
Toughness 6
Ref +10[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

A few misc comments:
Raylis: You probably could use slightly higher damage on your attacks.  Blast 3 won't cut it and even your Strike power is only a PL 8 attack (though PL 9 on sneak attack and concealment plus tradeoff feats helps quite a bit).  So you won't need to be at PL 11 to be effective, but 1 PL (i.e, +2 dmg) higher would be nice.

Also, I think the group lacks Knowledge: Streetwise and you'd be a sensible character to have take it (hint, hint )

James: You need to specify a reasonably common attack form that defeats Insubstantial.
Also, I already mentioned this, so sorry for repeating myself, but you should really buy back Interpose.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> Also, I think the group lacks Knowledge: Streetwise and you'd be a sensible character to have take it (hint, hint )
> 
> James: You need to specify a reasonably common attack form that defeats Insubstantial.
> Also, I already mentioned this, so sorry for repeating myself, but you should really buy back Interpose.



Spirit has +6 with Streetwise. She's a Mafia Mad Scientist Princess of a sort, after all. Since I already gutted her feats that made some of her other skills more sensible, and since everyone REALLY wants Spirit there to take the bullet for them, I could do something like drop the Attractive for Interpose (Spirit would still be superhero hot, but not particularly suited to taking advantage of it) and her ranks of Bluff (since she's no longer doing it even as well as Taking 10 with it all the time) and pumping up her Streetwise with those ranks. I think it would be a bit less of the "Oh noes! My family runs with gangsters!" and more of the "It took a while for me to recognize my Uncle Tony as Tony Soprano, but eventually it was pretty clear that all those overheard late night conversations were an informative road map of organized crime."

Does
"AP: Insubstantial (Out of Phase) 4 (1pp) (Vibration powers affect Spirit normally while in her insubstantial state by creating micro-shockwaves that cross dimensional boundaries)"
work?


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> A few misc comments:
> Raylis: You probably could use slightly higher damage on your attacks.  Blast 3 won't cut it and even your Strike power is only a PL 8 attack (though PL 9 on sneak attack and concealment plus tradeoff feats helps quite a bit).  So you won't need to be at PL 11 to be effective, but 1 PL (i.e, +2 dmg) higher would be nice.





I've been toying with the idea of nixing that ap on strike and I think I'll do it-will be able to make it a strike 8 base...redid the math on the device and found out I was only using 24/25pp unless the math is off somewhere.

While archtypically she'd be good for streetwise, it's in the character advancement / devlopment overall plan: she hasn't been doing the super hero thing for too long

thanks for the input

barring math errors this is final version


----------



## Elric

Nope- wishful-thinking math error 

Protection 8 (*8* pp)
Super Movement 2 (*4* pp)
Concealment 4 (*4* pp)
FL: Blending (-1)
Strike 8 (electrical) (*9* pp) 
PF: Mighty
Speed 1 (*1 * pp)

= 26 pp.

Edit- if you want 26 pp in the device instead of 25, you can probably just spend an extra pp on it (Matt's using fractional costs so you'd have "Device 5.2", but this would cost 0.8 pp and there's nothing in the game that costs 0.2pp so you just have to round up).  

If you need to save points somewhere, at the moment your Darkness Control covers a 250 foot radius and you can Teleport 20 miles or 600 feet.  Dropping these by a rank would save 2pp and give you a 100 ft radius Darkness Control and 5mi/500 ft Teleport- still not too shabby!  Then you'd have an extra pp to spend- maybe Fort save?


----------



## Elric

Voidrazor said:
			
		

> For ease of reference I've reposted Dr. Know below. I'm happy to make more changes as necessary, and would love input.




Well, here goes:
You seem very enthusiastic but this character build is not very good.  Some comments:

Pacifist is not a drawback- it's a complication.  With the rest of the party being non-pacifist, pacifist is likely to work out badly in any case.

Your main nanotech array is too complicated and contains too many powers.  Plus, you will want to use many of these powers at the same time.  Also, things like Enhanced Int 24 + Quickness 14 are abuse of the AP system.  An independent summon is in general abusive- even if you can only summon one robot at a time, it basically only costs you 1 pp to get a very good permanent minion (although your robot will go down very quickly when hit).  All of the nanotech being disarmable devices doesn't make much sense- the nanotech probably shouldn't even be a device.  Your base defensive abilities are too weak, although gadgets could remedy this (you have enough abilities to juggle around even without gadgets).

Some of the individual powers don't look right (e.g., your regeneration looks built on more than the 38 pp for each power in the array, but you don't have any breakdowns of individual array power totals so it's hard to tell what you're doing).  

Lastly, his backstory is rather abbreviated.


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> Nope- wishful-thinking math error
> 
> Protection 8 (*8* pp)
> Super Movement 2 (*4* pp)
> Concealment 4 (*4* pp)
> FL: Blending (-1)
> Strike 8 (electrical) (*9* pp)
> PF: Mighty
> Speed 1 (*1 * pp)
> 
> = 26 pp.
> 
> Edit- if you want 26 pp in the device instead of 25, you can probably just spend an extra pp on it (Matt's using fractional costs so you'd have "Device 5.2", but this would cost 0.8 pp and there's nothing in the game that costs 0.2pp so you just have to round up).
> 
> If you need to save points somewhere, at the moment your Darkness Control covers a 250 foot radius and you can Teleport 20 miles or 600 feet.  Dropping these by a rank would save 2pp and give you a 100 ft radius Darkness Control and 5mi/500 ft Teleport- still not too shabby!  Then you'd have an extra pp to spend- maybe Fort save?




I had suspected as that I might have been one over.  thanks


----------



## Jemal

Well, I've actually mostly made the char allready. It's a concept I've always wanted as a super hero, so whether I play it here or elsewhere, I'm going to be making & Remaking it numerous times.

I'll post it asap but if you guys want Hero4Hire or one of the other Alts more, I won't be disgruntled.  I'll keep hanging around here, though.

One thing I have to ask though.. 
I can't remember the verdict on it, so I'll just ask : 
Permission to use -3 max Atk for + 3 max Save DC.  (Eye lasers)


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> Permission to use -3 max Atk for + 3 max Save DC.  (Eye lasers)




I'm pretty sure Matt said tradeoffs of <5 (or even <=5) were fine w/out specific approval.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> I'm pretty sure Matt said tradeoffs of <=5 were fine w/out specific approval.




Indeed.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Well, here goes:
> You seem very enthusiastic but this character build is not very good.  Some comments:
> 
> Pacifist is not a drawback- it's a complication.  With the rest of the party being non-pacifist, pacifist is likely to work out badly in any case.
> 
> Your main nanotech array is too complicated and contains too many powers.  Plus, you will want to use many of these powers at the same time.  Also, things like Enhanced Int 24 + Quickness 14 are abuse of the AP system.  An independent summon is in general abusive- even if you can only summon one robot at a time, it basically only costs you 1 pp to get a very good permanent minion (although your robot will go down very quickly when hit).  All of the nanotech being disarmable devices doesn't make much sense- the nanotech probably shouldn't even be a device.  Your base defensive abilities are too weak, although gadgets could remedy this (you have enough abilities to juggle around even without gadgets).
> 
> Some of the individual powers don't look right (e.g., your regeneration looks built on more than the 38 pp for each power in the array, but you don't have any breakdowns of individual array power totals so it's hard to tell what you're doing).
> 
> Lastly, his backstory is rather abbreviated.




I agree with this.  I will also add that even with a single minion rather than a swarm, the purely-indirect impact on enemies is still a little problematic.


----------



## James Heard

Heh, the robot could be the hero and "Dr. Know" simply be the souped up minion that does all the talking.


----------



## DM_Matt

I would like edited resubmits in ASAP so I can choose a final character before the van leaves.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri- I don't think Angel's True Sight works like that.  If you've used Transform on your clothes or some such, the change is Continuous duration- it's not an illusion, it's real.  Also, he can't see through a mask- it's not X-Ray vision. 

It doesn't seem like you're using illusion power in general to disguise your features whenever you're in costume- certainly, you intend to use other powers from that array so it would be a little strange to drop it mid-combat.


----------



## Shayuri

It seems to me that I can define her "quick change" feat as being an illusionary effect if I want. It's not using the Transform power nor the Glamour power. It's just a minor magical trick she's learned.

It always changes "back" to her real clothes though, because (this is how I see it) the costume isn't real. If I had the next level up of Quick Change, then it could be transformation, because she could change anything she wore into anything else.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> It seems to me that I can define her "quick change" feat as being an illusionary effect if I want. It's not using the Transform power nor the Glamour power. It's just a minor magical trick she's learned.
> 
> It always changes "back" to her real clothes though, because (this is how I see it) the costume isn't real. If I had the next level up of Quick Change, then it could be transformation, because she could change anything she wore into anything else.




Not sure if that is TECHNICALLY allowed by RAW, but I'm fine with it.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> It seems to me that I can define her "quick change" feat as being an illusionary effect if I want. It's not using the Transform power nor the Glamour power. It's just a minor magical trick she's learned.




Oh, that makes total sense.  I was thinking about whether that was a descriptor for Quick Change but never went to look to see whether your character had the feat!


----------



## Jemal

I'm Writing the background now, just posted a basic description for now.  I wanted to post the #'s so people could check them and make sure I didn't do any of the math wrong. 
[sblock=Optic Stats]
OPTIC, aka James Carson.
PL 11

Abilities:  48 pts
STR 18 (+4)
DEX 18 (+4)
CON 18 (+4)
INT 18 (+4)
WIS 18 (+4)
CHA 18 (+4)

Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack +4/+8 Eye Laser/+8Martial Arts;  Initiative: +8

Saves: Toughness + 14;  Fort + 8;  Reflex + 8;  Will + 8

Skills: Bluff(+12/8), Diplomacy(+12/8), Disguise(+14/0), Gather Information(+14/10), Notice(+16/12), Sense motive(+14/10)
*Situational: +4 bluff/Diplomacy (Attractive); Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)

Feats: Ambitexterity, Assessment, Attractive, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - High Paid Politician), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX4, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Jack of All Trades, LuckX2(total 3 luck points), Uncanny DodgeX2(Sight, Sound), Well Informed.

Powers: 
Blast 14 (31 pts) - Eye lasers, Accurate x 2, Alternate Power: Heat Vision
Strike 10 (13 pts) - Martial Arts, Mighty, Accurate x 2
Device 3 (Hard to take away, 12 pts) - High-tech Supersuit : 
-X- Morph (2 pts) - Any Human.
-X- Morph (1 pts) - *Limited: Suit can turn into other clothing
-X- Protection 10 (10 pts)
-X- Feats(2 pt): Quick Change(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved Initiative
Device 2 (Disarmable, 6 pts) - Visor: 
-X- Super Senses 10 (10 pts) - True Sight.
Super Senses 11 (11 pts) - Radius(Sight), Extended(sight), Darkvision, microscopic vision(DNA), X-ray Vision(not lead)
Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed.


COST: Abilities 48 + Skills 12(48 ranks) + Feats 19 + Powers 74 + Saves 12 = 165/165
[/sblock]

[sblock=Optic Story]
BRIEF: The 28 year old James Carson is the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a much-loved Politician and Businessman with contacts everywhere.  He's also not entirely Human... James Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
*More under construction, will be up ASAP.*
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> I'm Writing the background now, just posted a basic description for now.  I wanted to post the #'s so people could check them and make sure I didn't do any of the math wrong.
> 
> COST: Abilities 48 + Skills 12(48 ranks) + Feats 19 + Powers 74 + Saves 12 = 165/165




Well, I see one error and it's a big one: you haven't paid for your base attack or base defense!  That's 24 points at the moment!


----------



## Shayuri

Probably a good idea to explicitly list your tradeoffs too.

I mean, looking at the numbers, it's probably correct...but it saves time if they're listed. 

Oh! And I have a feeling making the costume pay for Morph (any clothing) AND buying two levels of Quick Change is redundant. If the costume can change into other outfits...why bother with Quick Change? I suppose I can see where technically these are different powers (one lets the costume change shape while retaining its benefits, the other lets you change clothes as the costume disappears, and you lose its benefits), but do you really want to pay extra points for such a razor's edge of difference?

And finally...and...this is probably a silly thing, but it's just something I have to say.   It seems like there's an oddly large number of people that can Morph into other people in the group. It's a really cheap ability, I know...and useful, and there's no reason NOT to have it. It just struck me is all. Usually the "shapechanger" is a whole separate super... Anyway, it's not a problem, and it's not even a criticism. Since we don't have a dedicated shapeshifter character, it's not stepping on any toes.

One of these days I'll have to make Facade and play a -reeeeal- shapeshifter. They be so much fun.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> And finally...and...this is probably a silly thing, but it's just something I have to say.   It seems like there's an oddly large number of people that can Morph into other people in the group. It's a really cheap ability, I know...and useful, and there's no reason NOT to have it. It just struck me is all. Usually the "shapechanger" is a whole separate super... Anyway, it's not a problem, and it's not even a criticism. Since we don't have a dedicated shapeshifter character, it's not stepping on any toes.




I don't think everyone who has morph is using it correctly or to take multiple forms.  Angel's morph is the 1 pp/rank version, which only lets you take one additional form (and I think he has metamorph for a second form).  You still have to roll disguise for morph, though- at rank 1 people can tell that you're in disguise and see through it pretty easily (especially if you try to disguise yourself as looking too different from your normal form)!  

James- is your character's color shifting just a "normal costume that serves as a disguise" kind of thing?  If so, you might want to take Quick Change 1 (and you probably get the bonus colors as a freebie- don't think that's worth the second rank) so that you can do it without any reference to the morph power (kind of like Shayuri's illusion- descriptor quick change).

Jemal, you only have one rank in morph (since humanoids is 2 pp/rank) but your disguise bonus is +14, which would require 2 ranks in morph with your charisma.  

Really, morph is not that front-loaded- people just think it's very front-loaded   Also, Jemal, Speed 1 is really fast.  Wouldn't it make more sense to have Speed 1 in the super-suit and Improved Initiative out of it?

Shayuri- The suit only has one level of quick change.  Jemal- It seems to me that morph + Quick Change 1 in the suit is really just Quick Change 2 in the suit (since it pretty much duplicates those abilities).  Quick Change 2 instead of the morph power is probably a more compact way of writing it in this case.

OOC: While I'm at it with random comments, Raylis, do you think you could write your character's speech in a slightly brighter color?  I'm finding it very hard to read right now (and this will only get worse if your character ever recovers from laryngitis!).


----------



## Fenris2

Elric said:
			
		

> Angel's morph is the 1 pp/rank version, which only lets you take one additional form (and I think he has metamorph for a second form).  You still have to roll disguise for morph, though- at rank 1 people can tell that you're in disguise and see through it pretty easily (especially if you try to disguise yourself as looking too different from your normal form)!




Actually morph plus the metamorph is one actual new form, at least as I read it, no disguise needed.  That way angel really does change into a wing-free middle aged oriental man - no disguise to penetrate.  Although true seeing stuff would see through it.  Still it fits the whole walk among us unkown theme that goes with at least pop lit angels, so there it is.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> James- is your character's color shifting just a "normal costume that serves as a disguise" kind of thing?  If so, you might want to take Quick Change 1 (and you probably get the bonus colors as a freebie- don't think that's worth the second rank) so that you can do it without any reference to the morph power (kind of like Shayuri's illusion- descriptor quick change).



No, Spirit actually changes colors, makes her face look funny, etc. She can't do anything with her costume anymore because I couldn't afford it, what with being told I need Interpose to save everyone else's behinds, and shaving points until her wee fingers bleed. 

Quick Change 2 is for when she _realizes _that clothes are essentially worthless when she can make them out of a "second skin" I guess.


----------



## Voidrazor

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I agree with this.  I will also add that even with a single minion rather than a swarm, the purely-indirect impact on enemies is still a little problematic.



You know, I asked about that much earlier.







			
				Voidrazor said:
			
		

> I'll see what I can do in terms of beefing up his defences. But do you find the idea of comm van scenarios problematic? I understand that in some situations it wouldn't be feasible, and that occasionally it would mean that he'd get ambushed alone.



Your response above, back when there was plenty of time to essentially re-start from square one, would have been a lot more helpful than your response then.







			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Heh, I'm sorry, the real world is kicking my arse at the moment.  I read "Area" as "Aura."  i still would rather not have group healing though.  Especially usable every round from afar.  Somm van situations, meanwhile, can work sometimes, but often cannot.



I also specifically mentioned the idea Independant minion in an array in regard to someone else's character AND brought up some of the balance issues involved. No response. Grrr! I'm out.


----------



## Jemal

Elric - actually, the problem is that I forgot you don't add stats to attack/defense in this system, I actualy hadn't BOUGHT any attack/def.  I'll have to fix that.

RE: morph/Quick Change.  I see the point, I'll switch it to quickchange 2.  Also, my personal morph WAS supposed to be 2 ranks, i forgot to write it as such.

About the Super-Speed : My idea for him is that he's better than normal humans in EVERY aspect.  stronger, faster, better trained, etc.  AND he's got mutant super-powers on top of that. 10 MPH is roughly 3X normal human speed.  IF there were one that were twice, i would've taken it, but as is it's only 1 point anyways..
OK, here's a question : Could I take Super-Speed with a 1 pt limitation that the actual speed is knocked down to 6 MPH instead of 10? (Double normal sped)?  Quickness 1, Improved init, and rapid strike (At rank 1) seem non-supernatural to me, so that would help.

I did a -3 def/+3 toughness trade-off, and I'm going to switch my atk/dmg trade-off to -1/+1.

So I see I have a few changes. Will commence them ASAP


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Elric - actually, the problem is that I forgot you don't add stats to attack/defense in this system, I actualy hadn't BOUGHT any attack/def.  I'll have to fix that.
> 
> RE: morph/Quick Change.  I see the point, I'll switch it to quickchange 2.  Also, my personal morph WAS supposed to be 2 ranks, i forgot to write it as such.
> 
> About the Super-Speed : My idea for him is that he's better than normal humans in EVERY aspect.  stronger, faster, better trained, etc.  AND he's got mutant super-powers on top of that. 10 MPH is roughly 3X normal human speed.  IF there were one that were twice, i would've taken it, but as is it's only 1 point anyways..
> OK, here's a question : Could I take Super-Speed with a 1 pt limitation that the actual speed is knocked down to 6 MPH instead of 10? (Double normal sped)?  Quickness 1, Improved init, and rapid strike (At rank 1) seem non-supernatural to me, so that would help.
> 
> I did a -3 def/+3 toughness trade-off, and I'm going to switch my atk/dmg trade-off to -1/+1.
> 
> So I see I have a few changes. Will commence them ASAP





in this system, almost everything is a little faster than it should be.  Check the vehicle speeds for instance.  Speed 1 is fine in this case.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> I'm Writing the background now, just posted a basic description for now.  I wanted to post the #'s so people could check them and make sure I didn't do any of the math wrong.
> [sblock=Optic Stats]
> OPTIC, aka James Carson.
> PL 11
> 
> Abilities:  48 pts
> STR 18 (+4)
> DEX 18 (+4)
> CON 18 (+4)
> INT 18 (+4)
> WIS 18 (+4)
> CHA 18 (+4)
> 
> Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack +4/+8 Eye Laser/+8Martial Arts;  Initiative: +8
> 
> Saves: Toughness + 14;  Fort + 8;  Reflex + 8;  Will + 8
> 
> Skills: Bluff(+12/8), Diplomacy(+12/8), Disguise(+14/0), Gather Information(+14/10), Notice(+16/12), Sense motive(+14/10)
> *Situational: +4 bluff/Diplomacy (Attractive); Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)
> 
> Feats: Ambitexterity, Assessment, Attractive, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - High Paid Politician), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX4, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Jack of All Trades, LuckX2(total 3 luck points), Uncanny DodgeX2(Sight, Sound), Well Informed.
> 
> Powers:
> Blast 14 (31 pts) - Eye lasers, Accurate x 2, Alternate Power: Heat Vision
> Strike 10 (13 pts) - Martial Arts, Mighty, Accurate x 2
> Device 3 (Hard to take away, 12 pts) - High-tech Supersuit :
> -X- Morph (2 pts) - Any Human.
> -X- Morph (1 pts) - *Limited: Suit can turn into other clothing
> -X- Protection 10 (10 pts)
> -X- Feats(2 pt): Quick Change(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved Initiative
> Device 2 (Disarmable, 6 pts) - Visor:
> -X- Super Senses 10 (10 pts) - True Sight.
> Super Senses 11 (11 pts) - Radius(Sight), Extended(sight), Darkvision, microscopic vision(DNA), X-ray Vision(not lead)
> Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed.
> 
> 
> COST: Abilities 48 + Skills 12(48 ranks) + Feats 19 + Powers 74 + Saves 12 = 165/165
> [/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=Optic Story]
> BRIEF: The 28 year old James Carson is the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a much-loved Politician and Businessman with contacts everywhere.  He's also not entirely Human... James Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
> *More under construction, will be up ASAP.*
> [/sblock]




1.  I am ok with you being a politician, but it would be hard to deal with a very high ranking one.  Can you be a city councilman or something?

2.  You are paying so much for stats you have room for little else.  In DnD, really high stats are amazing.  In M&M, they tend not to be that good.  Most of the time, they are underpowered relative buying their benefits directly, although sometimes you can't buy them directly, such as in the case of maxed skills.  I would suggest toning them down and getting more points to spend on powers.  The better than normal humans part can come out in other ways than direct-purchase stats.

3. Perhaps take knowledge:Civics or Profession ( politician ), and maybe some skill related to what your business was/is?

4.  Perhaps squeeze some tech control into the or other tech component, maybe as ap: percetion datalink w/mechnical control on your blast, since its an important power no one has?

5.  If your super-vision is part of the visor, perhaps your blast should be too?

6.  Analytic is a cool sense boost

7.  The Morph:Any human doesn't really do that.  It is only one rank, so it gives you a +5 bonus to disguise checks to look like any human.

8.  if you are going with martial arts, perhaps related combat feats?  (btw, in MM it is rare to have two maxed out attack modes purchased separately.)

9. perhaps the Master Plan feat (perhaps with a couple ranks of double limited quickness so you can come up plans on the fly) would be appropriate?


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> 1.  I am ok with you being a politician, but it would be hard to deal with a very high ranking one.  Can you be a city councilman or something?



Done.


> 2.  You are paying so much for stats you have room for little else.  In DnD, really high stats are amazing.  In M&M, they tend not to be that good.  Most of the time, they are underpowered relative buying their benefits directly, although sometimes you can't buy them directly, such as in the case of maxed skills.  I would suggest toning them down and getting more points to spend on powers.  The better than normal humans part can come out in other ways than direct-purchase stats.



I know, but my original concept for him (minus the super powers) is akin to Arnold Swarchenegger's character from Twins.. He's a paragon of human perfection.  I suppose I'll drop the stats a bit, but I want the abilities themselves to be straight out good.


> 3. Perhaps take knowledge:Civics or Profession ( politician ), and maybe some skill related to what your business was/is?



Well, with Eidetic Memory and Jack of All Trades, I can make any check - That's also one of the other reasons I wanted high stats, so they'd apply to everything, but I'll do something about the business angle.


> 4.  Perhaps squeeze some tech control into the or other tech component, maybe as ap: percetion datalink w/mechnical control on your blast, since its an important power no one has?



*OK, I figured out what this means, and yea it makes sense.  I'll see if I can squeeze it in.


> 5.  If your super-vision is part of the visor, perhaps your blast should be too?



It's just the True Sight part.  The visor ENhances and focuses my sight.  Would I be able to do something like several blast ranks normall, and buy more with the visor and say it 'enhances' my normal blast instead of being a different blast? *EDIT: Just found the "Enhanced (Trait)" thing in Ultimate Powers - Would that work?*


> 6.  Analytic is a cool sense boost



True, I saw it but was out of points.  As I have to do re-numbering anyways, I think I'll be taking it.


> 7.  The Morph:Any human doesn't really do that.  It is only one rank, so it gives you a +5 bonus to disguise checks to look like any human.



I know, I actually was putting 2 ranks in there for the +10 bonus, and was mostly using it b/c the power means I don't need to be carrying around a disguise kit, and can just use Morph.


> 8.  if you are going with martial arts, perhaps related combat feats?  (btw, in MM it is rare to have two maxed out attack modes purchased separately.)



there are no worthwhile combat feats I saw that I would want, and as for the 2 attack modes, well I wanted both a melee physical, and a ranged Energy.


> 9. perhaps the Master Plan feat (perhaps with a couple ranks of double limited quickness so you can come up plans on the fly) would be appropriate?




Yeah, i originally had Master Plan and Leadership but dropped them for points.  I now have Master Plan


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> About the Super-Speed : My idea for him is that he's better than normal humans in EVERY aspect.  stronger, faster, better trained, etc.  AND he's got mutant super-powers on top of that. 10 MPH is roughly 3X normal human speed.




Oh, Speed 1 makes sense then.  I hadn't looked at the brief backstory when I saw the stats because I didn't realize you had posted it.  If you're Captain America-like then you can definitely justify Speed 1.

If you're going to keep that 18 Charisma score, picking up 4 ranks or so of Inspire would be very nice, but costs a lot of pp.

For your visor, it seems like the defeats Obscure, defeats Concealment parts of it are more thematically appropriate for you and the defeats Illusions and Detect Hidden are more mystical (and more suited to Angel than you), but that's just my opinion.  Also, adding Ricochet to your Blast might be nice.



> No, Spirit actually changes colors, makes her face look funny, etc. She can't do anything with her costume anymore because I couldn't afford it, what with being told I need Interpose to save everyone else's behinds, and shaving points until her wee fingers bleed.




Well, it's going to be a little hard to maintain a secret ID if you have to keep your morph power running to stay disguised.  You're right that you can't drop Interpose- think of how heroic it is to save the rest of us all the time 

You could easily drop the Space Flight AP to save a pp for Quick Change.  Note that you can gain it with extra effort when you need it and there are no alien civilizations in this game, so you won't need it very often!



			
				Fenris2 said:
			
		

> Actually morph plus the metamorph is one actual new form, at least as I read it, no disguise needed. That way angel really does change into a wing-free middle aged oriental man - no disguise to penetrate. Although true seeing stuff would see through it. Still it fits the whole walk among us unkown theme that goes with at least pop lit angels, so there it is.




You're totally right.  Bad memory on my part.

Edit- Jemal, the ranks in Strike are really the easiest place to trim points in your build.  That and some of the inefficient ability scores (really, everything but Con is inefficient for most blasters in this game, although with Jack of All Trades and the relative lack of Int-based skills in the party you'll get good use out of Int).


----------



## Jemal

Second Try: 
[sblock=Optic]
OPTIC, aka James Carson.
PL 11

Abilities:  
STR 16 (+3)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 16 (+3)
INT 18 (+4)
WIS 16 (+3)
CHA 16 (+3)

Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack: +6 Eye Laser(+10 W/Visor), +6 Martial Arts(+ 10 W/Gloves);  Initiative: +11

Saves: Toughness + 7 (+ 14 in suit);  Fort + 8;  Reflex + 8;  Will + 8

Skills: Bluff(+10/7), Computers(+15/11), Diplomacy(+10/7), Disguise(+13/0), Gather Information(+13/10), Notice(+15/12), Profession:Management(+8/5) Sense motive(+15/12), Knowledges(+8/0)
*Situational: +4 bluff/Diplomacy (Attractive); Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); +4 Remembering (Eidetic Memory); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)

Feats: Ambitexterity, Assessment, Attractive, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - Vice President of Op-Tec), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX8, Eidetic Memory, Evasion, Inspire, Jack of All Trades, Luck, Master Plan, Uncanny DodgeX2(Sight, Sound), Well Informed.
(Wealth Bonus = 14)

Powers: 
Blast 8 (22 pts) - Eye lasers, AccurateX3, Alternate Power: Heat Vision, Alternate Power: Datalink(Perception, Machine control)
Strike 5 (8 pts) - Martial Arts, AccurateX3
Protection 4 (4 pts)
Device 4 (Hard to take away, 16 pts) - High-tech Supersuit/Power Gloves : 
 -X- Morph (2 pts) - Any Human (+10 disguise)
 -X- Protection 7 (7 pts)
 -X- Feats(4 pt): Quick ChangeX2(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved InitiativeX2
 -X- Enhanced Strike 4 (7 pts), Mighty, AccurateX2
Device 4 (Disarmable, 12 pts) - Visor: 
 -X- Super Senses 10 (10 pts) - True Sight.
 -X- Enhanced Blast 4 (10 pts), AccurateX2
Super Senses 12 (8 pts) - Analytical(Sight), Radius(Sight), Extended(sight), Darkvision(noticeable eye glow), microscopic vision(DNA, Distracting, noticeable eye glow), X-ray Vision(not lead, Distracting)
Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed.
Quickness 6 (2 pts) Flaw: Planning Only(Master Plan).

Drawbacks: Weak Point (1)
Trade-offs: -3 Def/+3 Tough, -1 Atk/+1 Save DC
COST: Abilities 38 + Skills 16(64 ranks) + Feats 24 + Powers 73 + Saves 15 -1 drawbacks = 165/165
[/sblock]


----------



## Jemal

Elric - Actually, Inspire does look pretty good.. 
As for the 'mystical' angle on my sight, well I just had it that way b/c the POINT of this character is the 'he sees everything'.. He's based off vision-powers, so being able to see through illusions made sense to me.


----------



## Jemal

[sblock=Optic background]
The 28 year old James Carson is near the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a well-known, respected, and admired businessman with contacts everywhere, The vice president of Op-Tec, a company that specializes in fiber-optics and computer technology/Engineering(Software AND hardware), specifically with regards to Military contracts.  He has been involved in numerous athletic competitions.  He's also not entirely Human... James Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
Optic has been fighting crime in one form or another for over a decade.  He's a 2nd generation mutant and super hero, son of Bendy-Girl(Deceased) and a computer technician named William Carson(Retired Businessman, founder of Op-Tec).  With his current status and contacts in the company his father built, he was able to gain access to an experimental super-suit of very light-weight material, and a custom-made visor which enhances his allready impressive array of eye powers.  For the past several years, he's been splitting his time between helping to run the company alongside his older sister (Claren, no known mutation) and using a combination of his skills, mutant super powers, and enhanced technology to fight terrorists, super-villains, and general all-around bad guys.  Recently he has become rather depressed by the apparent abundance of badguys and lack of organization amongst the few super-heroes that are known.  There has to be some way of contacting the other Heroes, but he's been unable to do so yet.  There's something he isn't just seeing, and for someone who sees as much as James, that is the most frustrating thing of them all... This was the mood he was in when he got home from a late night, tossing his visor on the table in front of him, he lay on the couch and absently turned on the TV, willing to let the ambient noise send him off to sleep... But the TV seemed to be mirroring his thoughts, and as he sat up after changing the channel several times, trying to find a station that WASN'T giving him bad news, he received the message.  He didn't bother writing down the license plate, his memory had always been good... "photographic" he always liked joking, and he pictured the van in his mind, exactly as he knew it would look.  He'd recognize it.  And he'd be there.  This was exactly what James Carson.. no, what OPTIC, was born for.

*NOTE: I decided to drop the politician thing*
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> Elric - Actually, Inspire does look pretty good..




1 rank in Inspire doesn't do much- the bonus is based on ranks of Inspire, the number of people is based on Cha.

Also, if your charater is a "perfect man" kind of concept, shouldn't you have some attack bonus that's usable with something besides your fists and your eye beams?  Obviously, this is probably sub-optimal from a point-shaving standpoint, but buying some base attack and attack focus seems more appropriate than only Accurate on everything.

Dodge Focus is similar.  With 2 Uncanny Dodge senses, True Sight and high Sense Motive buying all Dodge focus is clearly better than buying any base defense.  But does all Dodge Focus really make sense?


----------



## Jemal

I think the dodge focus works.. How does buying ranks of Defense make more sense?  Most martial arts experts get most of their 'defense' from dodging/parrying, etc, which makes sense to me.  And as for the using attack with other things, there ARE no other things he'd attack with, he doesn't like weapons.


----------



## Elric

Jemal- it isn't clear to me what "Heat Vision" represents as an AP.  It may be obvious to Matt, but you should probably specify what exactly it is.  Also, including a little more detail (i.e., the rank) on his Datalink AP would probably help Matt as well.

His Knowledge skills should all be +4 base, not +8.

You have still only bought 1 rank of Morph (as Humans should cost 2 pp/rank) but have calculated his stats as if he had 2 ranks of it.

Other than that, looks pretty good!

Edit- oh, you should definitely take Precise Shot, and you should consider taking Precise Shot 2 as well.


----------



## Jemal

Heat vision is just a second blast that does Heat damage instead of 'kinetic/laser' damage, though I'll probably be using it mostly like superman's.. melt metal, weld stuff, etc)
Datalink would be same rank as my blast, as it's =>the cost of Blast.
RE: Knowledge - Eidetic memory gives +4 to remembering, which is what Knowledge is.
I keep forgeting to add that second rank of Morph.

OK, round 3.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Heat vision is just a second blast that does Heat damage instead of 'kinetic/laser' damage, though I'll probably be using it mostly like superman's.. melt metal, weld stuff, etc)
> Datalink would be same rank as my blast, as it's =>the cost of Blast.
> RE: Knowledge - Eidetic memory gives +4 to remembering, which is what Knowledge is.
> I keep forgeting to add that second rank of Morph.
> 
> OK, round 3.




All that is right, except eidetic memory.  It does not actually, by RAW, give +4 to all knowledge checks.  Of course, since "remembering checks" aren't really a formal part of the system, I interpret it as what the flavor text says: your memory is perfect, and you can perfectly recall anything that you see/experience in game.


----------



## Jemal

Take 3 : Is this better?
(BTW, what's Matt thinking about the character, is it acceptable assuming I get the kinks worked out, or are you thinking of another character for the 8th spot?
[sblock=Optic Stats]
OPTIC, aka James Carson.
PL 11

Abilities:  
STR 16 (+3)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 16 (+3)
INT 18 (+4)
WIS 16 (+3)
CHA 16 (+3)

Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack: +6 Eye Laser(+10 W/Visor), +6 Martial Arts(+ 10 W/Gloves);  Initiative: +11

Saves: Toughness + 7 (+ 14 in suit);  Fort + 8;  Reflex + 8;  Will + 8

Skills: Bluff(+10/7), Computers(+15/11), Diplomacy(+10/7), Disguise(+13/0), Gather Information(+13/10), Notice(+15/12), Profession:Management(+8/5) Sense motive(+15/12), Knowledges(+4/0)
*Situational: +4 bluff/Diplomacy (Attractive); Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); +4 Remembering (Eidetic Memory); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)

Feats: Ambidexterity, Assessment, Attractive, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - Vice President of Op-Tec), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX8, Eidetic Memory, Inspire, Jack of All Trades, Luck, Master Plan, Precise ShotX2, Uncanny DodgeX2(Sight, Sound), Well Informed.
(Wealth Bonus = 14)

Powers: 
Blast 8 (21 pts) - Eye lasers, AccurateX3, Alternate Power: Heat Vision(heat damage blast), Alternate Power: Datalink(Perception, Machine control)
Strike 5 (8 pts) - Martial Arts, AccurateX3
Protection 4 (4 pts)
Device 5 (Hard to take away, 20 pts) - High-tech Supersuit/Power Gloves : 
 -X- Morph 2 (4 pts) - Any Human (+10 disguise)
 -X- Protection 7 (7 pts)
 -X- Feats(5 pt): Quick ChangeX2(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved InitiativeX2, Evasion
 -X- Enhanced Strike 4 (7 pts), Mighty, AccurateX2
Device 4 (Disarmable, 12 pts) - Visor: 
 -X- Super Senses 10 (10 pts) - True Sight.
 -X- Enhanced Blast 4 (10 pts), AccurateX2
Super Senses 12 (8 pts) - Analytical(Sight), Radius(Sight), Extended(sight), Darkvision(noticeable eye glow), microscopic vision(DNA, Distracting, noticeable eye glow), X-ray Vision(not lead, Distracting)
Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed.
Quickness 6 (2 pts) Flaw: Planning Only(Master Plan).

Drawbacks: Weak Point (1), Vulnerable: Sonic damage [Moderate Intensity, Common frequency](4 pts)
Trade-offs: -3 Def/+3 Tough, -1 Atk/+1 Save DC
COST: Abilities 38 + Skills 16(64 ranks) + Feats 25 + Powers 76 + Saves 15 -5 drawbacks = 165/165

[/sblock]

[sblock=Optic Fluff]
The 28 year old James Carson is near the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a well-known, respected, and admired businessman with contacts everywhere, The vice president of Op-Tec, a company that specializes in fiber-optics and computer technology, specifically with regards to Military contracts.  He has been involved in numerous athletic competitions.  He's also not entirely Human... James Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
Optic has been fighting crime in one form or another for over a decade.  He's a 2nd generation mutant and super hero, son of Bendy-Girl(Deceased) and a computer technician named William Carson(Retired Businessman, founder of Op-Tec).  With his current status and contacts in the company his father built, he was able to gain access to an experimental super-suit of very light-weight material, and a custom-made visor which enhances his allready impressive array of eye powers.  For the past several years, he's been splitting his time between helping to run the company alongside his older sister (Claren, no known mutation) and using a combination of his skills, mutant super powers, and enhanced technology to fight terrorists, super-villains, and general all-around bad guys.  Recently he has become rather depressed by the apparent abundance of badguys and lack of organization amongst the few super-heroes that are known.  There has to be some way of contacting the other Heroes, but he's been unable to do so yet.  There's something he isn't just seeing, and for someone who sees as much as James, that is the most frustrating thing of them all... This was the mood he was in when he got home from a late night, tossing his visor on the table in front of him, he lay on the couch and absently turned on the TV, willing to let the ambient noise send him off to sleep... But the TV seemed to be mirroring his thoughts, and as he sat up after changing the channel several times, trying to find a station that WASN'T giving him bad news, he received the message.  He didn't bother writing down the license plate, his memory had always been good... "photographic" he always liked joking, and he pictured the van in his mind, exactly as he knew it would look.  He'd recognize it.  And he'd be there.  This was exactly what James Carson.. no, what OPTIC, was born for.

[/sblock]


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> All that is right, except eidetic memory.  It does not actually, by RAW, give +4 to all knowledge checks.  Of course, since "remembering checks" aren't really a formal part of the system, I interpret it as what the flavor text says: your memory is perfect, and you can perfectly recall anything that you see/experience in game.




OH.. damn.   Oh well, i'll fix it then.


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> Datalink would be same rank as my blast, as it's =>the cost of Blast.




Hmm, there's no limit that an AP needs a lower rank than the base power in an array (if this rule is in the core book anywhere, it has since been errata'd).  Plus even then this statement would only make sense if Datalink had <= the cost of Blast per rank.  Plus, see below.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> 4. Perhaps squeeze some tech control into the or other tech component, maybe as ap: percetion datalink w/mechnical control on your blast, since its an important power no one has?




Matt, I'm not sure how you get a Perception Range Datalink Power out of this system.  In particular, Datalink is Range: Extended, and there's no particular mechanism for converting a power from extended range to any other range that I can see.  For Datalink you always need to accurately sense the computer you want to link to.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Take 3 : Is this better?
> (BTW, what's Matt thinking about the character, is it acceptable assuming I get the kinks worked out, or are you thinking of another character for the 8th spot?
> [sblock=Optic Stats]
> OPTIC, aka James Carson.
> PL 11
> 
> Abilities:
> STR 16 (+3)
> DEX 16 (+3)
> CON 16 (+3)
> INT 18 (+4)
> WIS 16 (+3)
> CHA 16 (+3)
> 
> Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack: +6 Eye Laser(+10 W/Visor), +6 Martial Arts(+ 10 W/Gloves);  Initiative: +11
> 
> Saves: Toughness + 7 (+ 14 in suit);  Fort + 8;  Reflex + 8;  Will + 8
> 
> Skills: Bluff(+10/7), Computers(+15/11), Diplomacy(+10/7), Disguise(+13/0), Gather Information(+13/10), Notice(+15/12), Profession:Management(+8/5) Sense motive(+15/12), Knowledges(+4/0)
> *Situational: +4 bluff/Diplomacy (Attractive); Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); +4 Remembering (Eidetic Memory); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)
> 
> Feats: Ambidexterity, Assessment, Attractive, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - Vice President of Op-Tec), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX8, Eidetic Memory, Inspire, Jack of All Trades, Luck, Master Plan, Precise ShotX2, Uncanny DodgeX2(Sight, Sound), Well Informed.
> (Wealth Bonus = 14)
> 
> Powers:
> Blast 8 (21 pts) - Eye lasers, AccurateX3, Alternate Power: Heat Vision(heat damage blast), Alternate Power: Datalink(Perception, Machine control)
> Strike 5 (8 pts) - Martial Arts, AccurateX3
> Protection 4 (4 pts)
> Device 5 (Hard to take away, 20 pts) - High-tech Supersuit/Power Gloves :
> -X- Morph 2 (4 pts) - Any Human (+10 disguise)
> -X- Protection 7 (7 pts)
> -X- Feats(5 pt): Quick ChangeX2(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved InitiativeX2, Evasion
> -X- Enhanced Strike 4 (7 pts), Mighty, AccurateX2
> Device 4 (Disarmable, 12 pts) - Visor:
> -X- Super Senses 10 (10 pts) - True Sight.
> -X- Enhanced Blast 4 (10 pts), AccurateX2
> Super Senses 12 (8 pts) - Analytical(Sight), Radius(Sight), Extended(sight), Darkvision(noticeable eye glow), microscopic vision(DNA, Distracting, noticeable eye glow), X-ray Vision(not lead, Distracting)
> Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed.
> Quickness 6 (2 pts) Flaw: Planning Only(Master Plan).
> 
> Drawbacks: Weak Point (1), Vulnerable: Sonic damage [Moderate Intensity, Common frequency](4 pts)
> Trade-offs: -3 Def/+3 Tough, -1 Atk/+1 Save DC
> COST: Abilities 38 + Skills 16(64 ranks) + Feats 25 + Powers 76 + Saves 15 -5 drawbacks = 165/165
> 
> [/sblock]
> 
> [sblock=Optic Fluff]
> The 28 year old James Carson is near the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a well-known, respected, and admired businessman with contacts everywhere, The vice president of Op-Tec, a company that specializes in fiber-optics and computer technology, specifically with regards to Military contracts.  He has been involved in numerous athletic competitions.  He's also not entirely Human... James Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
> Optic has been fighting crime in one form or another for over a decade.  He's a 2nd generation mutant and super hero, son of Bendy-Girl(Deceased) and a computer technician named William Carson(Retired Businessman, founder of Op-Tec).  With his current status and contacts in the company his father built, he was able to gain access to an experimental super-suit of very light-weight material, and a custom-made visor which enhances his allready impressive array of eye powers.  For the past several years, he's been splitting his time between helping to run the company alongside his older sister (Claren, no known mutation) and using a combination of his skills, mutant super powers, and enhanced technology to fight terrorists, super-villains, and general all-around bad guys.  Recently he has become rather depressed by the apparent abundance of badguys and lack of organization amongst the few super-heroes that are known.  There has to be some way of contacting the other Heroes, but he's been unable to do so yet.  There's something he isn't just seeing, and for someone who sees as much as James, that is the most frustrating thing of them all... This was the mood he was in when he got home from a late night, tossing his visor on the table in front of him, he lay on the couch and absently turned on the TV, willing to let the ambient noise send him off to sleep... But the TV seemed to be mirroring his thoughts, and as he sat up after changing the channel several times, trying to find a station that WASN'T giving him bad news, he received the message.  He didn't bother writing down the license plate, his memory had always been good... "photographic" he always liked joking, and he pictured the van in his mind, exactly as he knew it would look.  He'd recognize it.  And he'd be there.  This was exactly what James Carson.. no, what OPTIC, was born for.
> 
> [/sblock]




With the kinks worked out, this character does a lot more to round out the party than Brimstone would, and thus he would likely be chosen.


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt, I'm not sure how you get a Perception Range Datalink Power out of this system.  In particular, Datalink is Range: Extended, and there's no particular mechanism for converting a power from extended range to any other range that I can see.  For Datalink you always need to accurately sense the computer you want to link to.




n/m didn't realize datalink went off the extended table, remembered it as a 10ft/rank power


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Hmm, there's no limit that an AP needs a lower rank than the base power in an array (if this rule is in the core book anywhere, it has since been errata'd).  Plus even then this statement would only make sense if Datalink had <= the cost of Blast per rank.  Plus, see below.
> 
> 
> 
> Matt, I'm not sure how you get a Perception Range Datalink Power out of this system.  In particular, Datalink is Range: Extended, and there's no particular mechanism for converting a power from extended range to any other range that I can see.  For Datalink you always need to accurately sense the computer you want to link to.




I took it form Victim's build he made for this character for fun.  Looking it up, you are right.  Datalink requires perception, but its range is determined by its rank.  This is actually at least as good, and does not require an extra, as Datalink 10 can reach the moon and anything closer, so long as you can see it.


----------



## Elric

Jemal- you have Mighty on the Strike power in the device and no Mighty on the Strike power outside it.  This should probably be the other way around, as the suit enhances your Strike power but you intend to benefit from Mighty even when you don't have the suit on.

Also, I think it would be more elegant to take Attack Specialization: Unarmed 3 rather than taking Accurate x3 on your Strike (outside the device) power, but the effect is the exact same.

Lastly, this is Matt's call, but I'd guess that your Vulnerability to Sonic attacks should be uncommon, not common.  Inspire 1 doesn't do much good- you can drop that to save back the 1 pp.  Ambidexterity really doesn't do much in M&M- you could probably drop that for another pp.

Edit- oh, let me say I really like the distracting on X-Ray and Microscopic Vision.  Gives you a very Superman-esque feel there.


----------



## DM_Matt

BTW:

1.  Ambidexterity pretty much doesn't do anything.  It is mainly for use with many-limbed characters.

2.  Sonic should be uncommon.  

3.  You may want to max your bluff and diplomacy, or at least come closer.  You can possibly  get rid of attractive, since it counts for the caps but only works hal of the time.  You can still BE attractive without the feat.

4.  True sight is fine other than detects hidden.  You will probably detect hidden things anyway, considering your sight powers, but detect hidden IS mystical, since it actually can "know" whether something is intentionally hiding.

5.  We are not using the optional wealth rules.  You may still take a benefit feat to be rich tohugh, which can come in handy at times.

6.  Perhaps take Danger Sense instead of uncanny dodge (sound).  It has some additional benefits and runs off a notice check.  Bedies, you dont have any special sound powers.

7.  Consider radio sense, since radio waves are light waves after all.

8.  Still consider lowering certain stats, and maybe raising Con (and getting the points back by taking thme off fort and prot...since you get those back from con, as well as a better recovery check).


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I took it form Victim's build he made for this character for fun.  Looking it up, you are right.  Datalink requires perception, but its range is determined by its rank.  This is actually at least as good, and does not require an extra, as Datalink 10 can reach the moon and anything closer, so long as you can see it.




I didn't have Datalink in my build.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I didn't have Datalink in my build.




Well, I read it somewhere recently.  I guess its not your fault then, sry.


----------



## James Heard

Elric said:
			
		

> Well, it's going to be a little hard to maintain a secret ID if you have to keep your morph power running to stay disguised.  You're right that you can't drop Interpose- think of how heroic it is to save the rest of us all the time
> 
> You could easily drop the Space Flight AP to save a pp for Quick Change.  Note that you can gain it with extra effort when you need it and there are no alien civilizations in this game, so you won't need it very often!



Spirit's "normal" form doesn't look like Jessica anymore. She doesn't wear a mask because really the Spirit identity is no one, and even her DNA is different since she downed her father's pigeon-holed "I guess someone needs a superhero" "stuff" that's basically some sort of modern adaptation of the ancient technology leftover from her mother's people in the Amazon. She's not human any longer, but when she really _needs_ to pull Jessica out of a hat she can, right now to the fingerprints and DNA (the subtle bit on her Morph). 

Unfortunately right now, Spirit is probably doing her own sewing for costumes and unless I dropped Interpose and Space Travel for a 2 pp Quick Change 2 I don't see how I'm in a much different boat, morph-wise, than I am now. If she needs to infiltrate the mall, until she gets that she's still going to end up having to grab someone's clothes and switch into them to complete the picture. On the other hand, give her everyday clothes and she could be all sorts of people on the fly that would be pretty detrimental to someone following her - which is probably her modus operandi and a big portion of "Oh holy hell, how did _this _goofball find me when every mob boss on the Eastern Seaboard is looking?" schtick.


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> BTW:
> 
> 1.  Ambidexterity pretty much doesn't do anything.  It is mainly for use with many-limbed characters.
> 
> 2.  Sonic should be uncommon.
> 
> 3.  You may want to max your bluff and diplomacy, or at least come closer.  You can possibly  get rid of attractive, since it counts for the caps but only works hal of the time.  You can still BE attractive without the feat.
> 
> 4.  True sight is fine other than detects hidden.  You will probably detect hidden things anyway, considering your sight powers, but detect hidden IS mystical, since it actually can "know" whether something is intentionally hiding.
> 
> 5.  We are not using the optional wealth rules.  You may still take a benefit feat to be rich tohugh, which can come in handy at times.
> 
> 6.  Perhaps take Danger Sense instead of uncanny dodge (sound).  It has some additional benefits and runs off a notice check.  Bedies, you dont have any special sound powers.
> 
> 7.  Consider radio sense, since radio waves are light waves after all.
> 
> 8.  Still consider lowering certain stats, and maybe raising Con (and getting the points back by taking thme off fort and prot...since you get those back from con, as well as a better recovery check).



OK, dropping Ambidex and changing Vulnerability to Uncommon keeps my points even..
Dropping Attractive gives me 1 point, which would give me 4 skill points.  If we're not using the Wealth rules, then I'll drop the Profession down to 1 rank to give another 4 ranks.
If I'm not getting the detect Hidden from True Sight, can I take that as a 1 pt Limited drawback?
I agree with the Danger sense instead of uncanny dodge (sound), it works, thnx.. I think I'll pass on the radio sense, however.

As for the datalink, I thought the 'perception' part meant that's the sense I use.. It says in the book you're supposed to pick a 'sensory medium', so I chose Perception.. If i can see it, I can link with it(If within range, which is 2,000 Miles without Visor, and 20 Million Miles with it.. meaning if I can see it, I can Link with it.)

Elric - Thnx for the compliment re: distracting/superman.  

DM_Matt - So should I post IC intro so the van can start moving, or wait till final approval on the character in case you change your mind?


----------



## Victim

Jemal said:
			
		

> As for the datalink, I thought the 'perception' part meant that's the sense I use.. It says in the book you're supposed to pick a 'sensory medium', so I chose Perception.. If i can see it, I can link with it(If within range, which is 2,000 Miles without Visor, and 20 Million Miles with it.. meaning if I can see it, I can Link with it.)




The sensory medium refers to the sense type you use to perceive things, eg visual, hearing, radio, etc.  You probably want visual.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> OK, dropping Ambidex and changing Vulnerability to Uncommon keeps my points even..
> Dropping Attractive gives me 1 point, which would give me 4 skill points.  If we're not using the Wealth rules, then I'll drop the Profession down to 1 rank to give another 4 ranks.
> If I'm not getting the detect Hidden from True Sight, can I take that as a 1 pt Limited drawback?
> I agree with the Danger sense instead of uncanny dodge (sound), it works, thnx.. I think I'll pass on the radio sense, however.
> 
> As for the datalink, I thought the 'perception' part meant that's the sense I use.. It says in the book you're supposed to pick a 'sensory medium', so I chose Perception.. If i can see it, I can link with it(If within range, which is 2,000 Miles without Visor, and 20 Million Miles with it.. meaning if I can see it, I can Link with it.)
> 
> Elric - Thnx for the compliment re: distracting/superman.
> 
> DM_Matt - So should I post IC intro so the van can start moving, or wait till final approval on the character in case you change your mind?




Go ahead and post.  You character properly fills needed roles


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> If I'm not getting the detect Hidden from True Sight, can I take that as a 1 pt Limited drawback?




Detect Hidden is 1 pp by itself, and True Sight is 10 pp including Detect Hidden.  So without Detect Hidden True Sight would cost 9 pp.  So this is exactly right.


----------



## Jemal

WOOHOO!!
I'll post my intro and the updated sheet.


----------



## Jemal

Sheet: *NOTE: Changed my name from James to Jack.  Also, I reconsidered and added Radio Sense. Both of these will be reflected in my opening post. hehe.*

[sblock=Optic]
OPTIC, aka Jack Carson.
PL 11

Abilities:  
STR 16 (+3)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 18 (+4)
INT 18 (+4)
WIS 16 (+3)
CHA 16 (+3)

Combat : Defense + 8;  Attack: +6 Eye Laser(+10 W/Visor), +6 Martial Arts(+ 10 W/Gloves);  Initiative: +11

Saves: Toughness + 6 (+ 14 in suit);  Fort + 8(4+4con);  Reflex + 8(5+3dex);  Will + 8(5+3Wis)

Skills : Bluff(+15/12), Computers(+16/12), Diplomacy(+15/12), Disguise(+13/0), Gather Information(+13/10), Notice(+16/13), Profession: Management(+4/1), Sense motive(+15/12), Knowledges(+4/0)
*Situational: Diplomacy Check for favours(Connected), Gather Info in 1 minute(Contacts), Gather Info auto-check first time meeting new group/individual(Well Informed); +4 Remembering (Eidetic Memory); All skills considered Trained (Jack of All Trades)

Feats: Assessment, BenefitX2 (Status&Wealth - Vice President of Op-Tec), Connected, Contacts, Dodge FocusX8, Eidetic Memory, Jack of All Trades, LuckX2, Master Plan, Precise ShotX2, Uncanny Dodge(Sight), Well Informed.

Powers: 
Blast 8 (21 pts) - Eye lasers, AccurateX3, Alternate Power: Heat Vision(heat damage blast), Alternate Power: Datalink(Visual, Machine control)
Strike 3 (7 pts) - Martial Arts, Mighty, AccurateX3
Protection 2 (2 pts)
Device 5 (Hard to take away, 20 pts) - High-tech Supersuit/Power Gloves : 
 -X- Morph 2 (4 pts) - Any Human (+10 disguise)
 -X- Protection 8 (8 pts)
 -X- Feats(5 pt): Quick ChangeX2(Suit stored in belt, expands and covers), Improved InitiativeX2, Evasion
 -X- Enhanced Strike 6 (8 pts), AccurateX2
Device 4 (Disarmable, 12 pts) - Visor: 
 -X- Super Senses 10 (9 pts) - True Sight Limited: Can't Detect Hidden.
 -X- Enhanced Blast 4 (10 pts), AccurateX2
 -X- Datalink AP: Radio Sense (1 pt)
Super Senses 13 (9 pts) - Analytical(Sight), Radius(Sight), Extended(sight, Radio), Radio, Accurate(Radio), Danger Sense(Sight), Darkvision(noticeable eye glow), Microscopic Vision(DNA, Distracting, noticeable eye glow), X-ray Vision(not gold, Distracting)
Speed 1 (1 pt) - 10mph speed
Quickness 6 (3 pts) Flaw: Mental Only

Drawbacks: Weak Point (1), Vulnerable: Sonic damage [Moderate Intensity, Uncommon frequency](3 pts)
Trade-offs: -3 Def/+3 Tough, -1 Atk/+1 Save DC
COST: Abilities 40 + Skills 18(72 ranks) + Feats 22 + Powers 75 + Saves 14 -4 drawbacks = 165/165

The 28 year old Jack Carson is near the peak of human perfection.. Strong, fast, healthy, smart, charming.  He's a well-known, respected, and admired businessman with contacts everywhere, The vice president of Op-Tec, a company that specializes in fiber-optics and computer technology, specifically with regards to Military contracts.  He has been involved in numerous athletic competitions.  He's also not entirely Human... Jack Carson is, in his off-time, the mutant super-hero known as Optic.
Optic has been fighting crime in one form or another for over a decade.  He's a 2nd generation mutant and super hero, son of Bendy-Girl(Deceased) and a computer technician named William Carson(Retired Businessman, founder of Op-Tec).  With his current status and contacts in the company his father built, he was able to gain access to an experimental super-suit of very light-weight material, and a custom-made visor which enhances his allready impressive array of eye powers.  For the past several years, he's been splitting his time between helping to run the company alongside his older sister (Claren, no known mutation) and using a combination of his skills, mutant super powers, and enhanced technology to fight terrorists, super-villains, and general all-around bad guys.  Recently he has become rather depressed by the apparent abundance of badguys and lack of organization amongst the few super-heroes that are known.  There has to be some way of contacting the other Heroes, but he's been unable to do so yet.  There's something he isn't just seeing, and for someone who sees as much as Jack, that is the most frustrating thing of them all... This was the mood he was in when he got home from a late night, tossing his visor on the table in front of him, he lay on the couch and absently turned on the TV, willing to let the ambient noise send him off to sleep... But the TV seemed to be mirroring his thoughts, and as he sat up after changing the channel several times, trying to find a station that WASN'T giving him bad news, he received the message.  He didn't bother writing down the license plate, his memory had always been good... "photographic" he always liked joking, and he pictured the van in his mind, exactly as he knew it would look.  He'd recognize it.  And he'd be there.  This was exactly what Jack Carson.. no, what OPTIC, was born for.
[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Looks really good, Jemal.  I think you should probably have some (8?) ranks in Knowledge: Business (probably instead of Profession, since Knowledge is way more useful and makes just as much sense conceptually).

Edit- looking at your most recent other version, the second rank of Luck, 1 rank in Profession and 1 rank in a few other skills might be easy places to free up pp.

Edit- Fenris, either I'm looking in the wrong place or all of your skills/feats were left off the most recent version of your character sheet.

Jemal, in case you haven't spotted it, we have a character thread in the Plots, Places and Rogues Forum.


----------



## Jemal

Posted char. to Rogue's Gallery, added Time Sense and dropped 1 rank of luck, as well as shifting a couple points around from Dex.

I had one final question for DM_Matt RE: My character, and this is the last change I'd like to make.
I noticed that I have a +4 check on all untrained Knowledges.. I'd like it to be +5 so I can automatically succeed on DC 15 checks (basic questions) with Taking 10, but that would require me to either spend 2 points on Int(Which would give bonuses to every int based skill) or a few points for extra skill ranks.  Could I take a Benefit: Knowledgable feat to give me a +1 bonus to KNOWLEDGE skill checks, but no other int based or skill based checks?


----------



## Elric

Jemal- Sorry to nitpick- your build is really quite good- one last thing I saw: As Weak Point presumably applies to the Protection power in your suit, it should be bought as part of the device.  Also, you should probably have your defense read something like Defense +8 (+0 flatfooted), as this is easier for Matt to remember.


----------



## Victim

Mr. Grey, Miss White.  Are their names from Clue?


----------



## Raylis

Victim said:
			
		

> Mr. Grey, Miss White.  Are their names from Clue?




Sergent Grey and Mrs. White are the clue suspects


----------



## Victim

Raylis said:
			
		

> Sergent Grey and Mrs. White are the clue suspects




Ah yes, I screwed up on the titles.   Museum Caper is the only version I've played recently, and character names don't really come up.


----------



## Raylis

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah yes, I screwed up on the titles.   Museum Caper is the only version I've played recently, and character names don't really come up.




That's the one where one of the players is the invisible theif and has to steal all the paintings without getting caught isn't it? Had a very D&D feel to it?


----------



## Victim

Raylis said:
			
		

> That's the one where one of the players is the invisible theif and has to steal all the paintings without getting caught isn't it? Had a very D&D feel to it?




Yeah.  The lesser win condition is 3 paintings.  When we played with members of our face to face group, it was actually really tough.  No one escaped with 3 or more, although some people did get unlucky with the locks.

Of course, the new name, Black, doesn't really fit.  Unless that was the name for Mr. Body in the UK version.


----------



## Victim

How should we get in?  Illusion might work to conceal the true contents of the van.  Puts us on somewhat shaky ground though.


----------



## James Heard

...


----------



## Fenris2

@Elric

That would be a bad assumption about Angels appearance... Lol.  He has a secret ID not a public one.   Given our managerie, I doubt Angel is any more disconcerting than most others... 

Unless everyone has access to everyone elses files, in which case it does not matter, his cover is blown anyway. ;-)


----------



## Elric

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> @Elric
> 
> That would be a bad assumption about Angels appearance... Lol.  He has a secret ID not a public one.   Given our managerie, I doubt Angel is any more disconcerting than most others...
> 
> Unless everyone has access to everyone elses files, in which case it does not matter, his cover is blown anyway. ;-)




Well, given the guard's reaction to Angel and Nitro, Matt must have interpreted that the guard didn't see Angel with his wings.  Note that Optic is morphed to look more ordinary and the guard didn't see anyone else.

"Your trainer has Angel wings?" would have been the likely (best) response if he had seen Angel with wings.  So let's chalk this one up to a good outcome because of inexperience as a group and go from here...

Edit- also, Fenris, I think your character sheet is missing feats and skills- probably good to add them back before the first fight


----------



## Victim

Well, Angel is sitting down in a car.  Maybe he's sitting on the wings or has them off to the sides of the seat.  Hence, they're not immediately visible from the guard's perspective.


----------



## Elric

Some other rules notes (with the first fight probably coming up real soon, it would be good to get everything sorted out):
Matt, you need to get back to Jemal regarding Benefit (Knowledge) 

Presumably, since Matt hasn't said anything to James regarding whether Vibration type powers are a suitable means of bypassing Insubstantial, it's fine.

Shayuri- you need an Area of effect type on your emotion control power.

Blind Azathoth- you need your minion's stats.  Haven't seen any posts from you in a while.

Jemal- weak point should be taken as part of the Device.


----------



## DM_Matt

I was giving the benefit of the doubt that he hid them, since I did not pause before he got out and bc I let Jemal.


----------



## Jemal

the Weak point actually applies to Optic having a 'glass jaw', and has nothing to do with the suit.  The suit's +7 protection is what he uses to help counter-act his weakness.


----------



## Elric

Jemal said:
			
		

> the Weak point actually applies to Optic having a 'glass jaw', and has nothing to do with the suit.  The suit's +7 protection is what he uses to help counter-act his weakness.




I was going to say that losing all of the suit's (+8) protection on a critical was pretty severe for the 1 pp you get out of it.  You don't want to be rolling Toughness saves at +6 against a 15-17 damage critical!


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Ach, you're right, I forgot about the little bugger. My apologies. Upon reflection, though, I think it would be simpler if I dropped the minion power and went for something else, even if it's a little less useful. I was thinking Animal Control.

As for my lack of posts recently, well, real life has been interfering a bit...and, um, so has Harry Potter...   Neither should be much of a problem now, though.


----------



## Elric

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Ach, you're right, I forgot about the little bugger. My apologies. Upon reflection, though, I think it would be simpler if I dropped the minion power and went for something else, even if it's a little less useful. I was thinking Animal Control.




Ah, yes, the Harry Potter void.  One of my friends fell into it last weekend.

Well, your summon minion power will be quite useful in combat- and Animal Control probably won't be.  In fact, Animal Control on its own is going to be a pretty bad for a use of 22 pp.  You could certainly find some other things to spend pp on.  For example:

If you have all those extra pp, I'd certainly add 2 to Str or 1 to Strike to hit your damage caps.  You could spend 3 more points on the Plant Control array to make it rank 11 base (your limit for an area power) and up Stun and Nauseate to rank 11.  

You could increase your science skills by a few points each, take some ranks in Notice, up your Fort save (as a living plant, I think high Fort save makes sense- possibly "convert" a few points of Protection into higher Con).

Looking at that, 2 Str + 3 on the array + say 3 pp in skills (4 ranks to each one mentioned) + 2 on Fort save (or converting Protection to Con)= 10 pp.  You'd have 12 more left to spend.  Then you can take the same Animal Control power as before an AP of plant control (re-envision the base effect as "nature control") for 1 pp so you can use it when you need it (just not at the same time as the other effects).  Comprehend Plants is appropriate to have outside the array, so move it there- that adds 3 pp.  You can add Comprehend Animals for 4 more pp.  All of that costs 18 pp, so you'd have 4 left.

You can talk to Plants/Animals, but you aren't great at influencing them.  So add 8 ranks of Handle Animal (which we can assume includes plants too- just most people can't really "handle" plants) for 2 pp.  So that's 20 pp and you'd still have 2 more left to spend.

Edit- also, if the point totals at the bottom of your sheet are correct, they add to 164, not 165, so you have an extra pp to spend there.

Also, given the Area of effect on your Snare power, the Reversible power feat would probably be nice.


----------



## James Heard

It's alright to handle your plants, it's just not so cool to "handle" your plants? IYKWIMAITYD.


----------



## Elric

James Heard said:
			
		

> OOC: You don't have wonder about "seems", you know, you could ask rather than open your mouth backwards and being rude about it.
> 
> Furthermore, I've stated over and over that most of her opponents are mobsters and she's mostly a paragon...Hulk Hogan might really want to plan out the choreography and infiltrate the docks with stealth, but unless I were metagaming, like "thinking out loud about how the GM could smack around the other players who've I've decided to be annoyed with," they're just punks with pistols and Spirit is bulletproof.




Well, "seems" is how it seems the effect will be to me.  Presumably Spirit isn't intending it that way, but you recognize the effect it's going to have.

I certainly didn't intend my post to be "Matt, smack Spirit around because I'm annoyed."  Matt knows all about Power Stunts and someone in this group of enemies will certainly be able to attack Spirit one way or the other (maybe not even needing a stunt) if she alerts the whole camp.

But really, I don't subscribe to the view that having a character be very disruptive to the group is fine because it's appropriate for the character to do so.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Well, I decided to go with Summon Minion after all--I am, at heart, a true waffler!--and have probably quite clumsily attempted to create a suitable creature. It is basically a somewhat souped-up construct, modeled after the sample animated object in that power's section, but with better Protection, a Strike, a few skills and feats, and the ability to Grow or Shrink at will (not that it really has a will), thanks to the magic of alien plant spawn!

[sblock]*Abilities:* Str 12, Dex 16, Con --, Int --, Wis 1, Cha 1
*Skills:* Acrobatics 8, Climb 8, Stealth 8
*Feats:* Accurate Attack, All-out Attack, Power Attack, Takedown Attack *Powers:*
Growth 4 (power feat: alternate power) [13 pp]
- Shrinking 12
Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects) [30 pp]
Protection 10 (extra: impervious) [20 pp]
Strike 10 (power feat: mighty) [11 pp]
*Saves:* Toughness +10 (protection), Fort +0, Ref +8, Will –5
*Combat:* Attack +11, Damage +11 (strike), Defense +12, Init +3
*Tradeoff:* –1 Toughness/+1 Defense
*Drawback:* vulnerable (fire-based attacks; common, intermediate)

Abilities –30 + Skills 6 + Feats 4 + Powers 74 + Combat 46 + Saves 8 – Drawback 3 = 105/105[/sblock]


----------



## Elric

Looks good.  I think you'll want Immunity: Mental effects on the minion as well.  

Growth & Shrinking might be problematic on it b/c its PL limits are already reached without Growth.

Also, you should have 1 pp to spend- see my note above about pp totals on your sheet- maybe another rank in Strike?


----------



## hero4hire

Elric said:
			
		

> Looks good.  I think you'll want Immunity: Mental effects on the minion as well.
> 
> Growth & Shrinking might be problematic on it b/c its PL limits are already reached without Growth.
> 
> Also, you should have 1 pp to spend- see my note above about pp totals on your sheet- maybe another rank in Strike?




_Officially_ Temporary Size Adjustments are not considered against PL Limits as clarified in this post by Steve Kenson. Though individual GMs may rule it so.


----------



## Elric

hero4hire said:
			
		

> _Officially_ Temporary Size Adjustments are not considered against PL Limits as clarified in this post by Steve Kenson. Though individual GMs may rule it so.




Interesting.  It looks like Johnny Nitro will be switching some powers for Growth 10- Humongous Johnny Nitro would be a nice name, don't you think


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Well, assuming Matt doesn't have a problem with the Growth, I'll leave it be, but if he does want me to change it, that'll be fine. I'll probably fiddle with the minion a bit and try to get Immunity (mental effects) in there too.

As for the extra point for Salix -- I counted again and discovered that I made a mistake in the totals, so he doesn't actually have that extra point.


----------



## Victim

That seems like a weird ruling.  I can see Growth changing a character's tradeoffs to allow for harder hitting, less accurate attacks, but not counting the powers for caps at all just seems stupid.  The limitations of being really big should generally already be included in the base cost of growth.  You know, high rank non-selective/shapeable area attacks have corresponding downsides too.  Maybe they shouldn't be counted against PL caps either.


----------



## Victim

James, I wouldn't spend on a toughness reroll.  On anything other than a 20, Spirit is still Stunned, which will pretty much lead directly in KO since everyone could attack her again while her Insub is down.


----------



## James Heard

Why would I bother spending a hero point on anything? There's nothing particularly heroic to be done about things when the guy who's been tailor made to lay the beat down on your character gets a surprise attack on you without you being able to do anything about it. 

Presumably this is where I sit around and wait for everyone to heroically sit in the van for a while longer and come rescue my character now for daring to be proactive and failing to consulting the rest of the party. No big deal.


----------



## Shayuri

Meep. This is probably going to get me into all kinds of trouble, but I have this obsessive mediation urge...

Lets call a time out. I mean, an OOC time out. 

It's pretty clear there's some issues that need to be addressed here, on both sides. While I think I sort of get where people are coming from, I don't want to put words into anyone's mouth...especially not in sensitive subjects like these. Instead of trading snipes though, lets just lay it out on the table and try to work it out.

I think both James and the GM ought to spend a post each just explaining as clearly as possible what they think is going on here. We can work from there.


----------



## James Heard

I really don't think that's necessary. Stopping the game to have some sort of kumbaya touchy feely conversation really _would _be disrupting.


----------



## Shayuri

Hah! Well, I did say OOC timeout. I don't suggest we stop the game. 

But yar, I just felt compelled to say something, because I hate to see situations like this snowball when (crossing fingers) it may be resolvable with a little straight talkin'.

It's my Psyche degree. It makes me DO things. Terrible things!


----------



## James Heard

Yeah, I know. I've got a friend who went to the trouble of getting a doctorate psyche and now she's an accountant. 

She couldn't be doing anything _more _terrifying than if she were acting out the cute little books on serial killers she used to bring over to my apartment while she was seducing my roommate.   

(Says the guy with a degree in accounting)


----------



## DM_Matt

He wasn't tailor-made to beat Spirit.  A reasonable number of things out there have affects insubstatial, especially certain magical or technological devices.   In fact, whole classes of attacks, such as sense-dependant attacks, affect insubstantial by default.  Spirit is incredibly weak on defense when insubstantial.  If that gets bypassed , she has 8 def, 4 tough, and 0 fort.  She walked through an entire crew of baddies, without stealth or backup, including 4 supers that you've found (so far), hoping that none of hem had anything that can hurt her.  That was unwise. At least one did. I'm not picking on you, I'm just having the baddies act as they should.

If I was out to get you, I would not have initially assumed that you had also activated your concealment ability.  If you did, you would have been shot at by a guard and been able to fly away safely. Instead, you actively corrected me and insisted that  you not bother being stealthy, so you found something that could actually hurt you.


----------



## Fenris2

Hows this for a plan.

Optic x-rays the ship and finds a below? deck area both myself and shooting star can teleport too.  He displays it on the screen of the PDA and the two fast teleporters bring the rest of us, hopefully in one trip?

The operation rescue begins?


----------



## Elric

You're really not supposed to confront the main bad guys first when there are a number of minions still around.  Minions are glass cannons, which means you never want to let them stay in a fight for long- the minion rules help enforce genre convention in this way.  Plus, we might be able to confront Numero Uno and the guy he's with alone if we go in a "normal way"- going straight onto the boat will probably get us all 4 at once.

Question: Is Spirit being held in an area that's bright, or an area of shadows?  If it's shadows, once those two supers emerge from the boat (hopefully after we've had a while to take out everyone else) to do anything Raylis can teleport in and grab Spirit then teleport out (Fenris doesn't have Progression- he won't be able to take her with him unless she's really, really skinny ).

Once she's been rescued Healing from Fenris should get her capable of doing something (potential problem: w/out her enhanced con power up, she could actually miss the recovery check, but she's got a hero point to spend if that happens which will guarantee she makes it).


----------



## Fenris2

Well, I hav enot even mpleted an adventur in MM, so I have no clue about minions or not. I wil admit that.  But tactically speaking cut the head off and the body dies.   If we go for the baddies are the minons even going to be in play fast enough to matter?

But let say we need the minons gone.  Okay then we can do a split teleport to take them out.   Angel after the big gun sniper rifle guy and the rest after MG gun / crew in/around the truck...

After that its teh RPG guys I guess anyway


----------



## Elric

Minions suffer the worst result against a "staged" effect on any failed save (e.g., they are knocked out whenever they miss a toughness save), so that makes them incredibly fragile.  Plus you can take 10 on attacks against them so Takedown Attack lets you plow through them.  

But on offense the only things minions don't get are crits or auto-hit on a 20.  So minions with good weapons can have powerful offense. 

I don't think we want to fight those four supers at once.  We'll probably get them two at a time (and hopefully dealing w/ guards first) if we go in the door teleport into the warehouse way.  But it's pretty much in Shayuri's camp- where do you want to open a portal to?  Note that the guy with the "Circlet of Ra" probably isn't the best person to open a magical portal close to...


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe. Well, we could hash it out IC.

That, or I could open a portal to the roof of the building. We could take out the minions there, and get the high ground advantage.


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hehe. Well, we could hash it out IC.




Hashing out the minion rules in character is kind of difficult.  That's why there's an OOC thread 

The roof could work fine, too- if we're on the roof we'll want an easy way to get into the building and if we're in the building we'll want an easy way to get to the roof.  Nightshadow's Teleport will probably be sufficient to take her and another character from one place to the other, whichever one the majority of the party ends up at.

Edit- the guys on the rooftops are right near the doors to the inside, so they presumably won't have enough room to use the rocket launcher or grenade launcher if we start up there.  So that might be a good choice.


----------



## Victim

Hmm, does the move action to use the portal allow for continued movement, or will we all be bunched up next to the door unless we take another move?  It looks like the latter to me.  Hopefully, we'll get the surprise by stepping out of the door, thus effectively canceling the cost.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Hmm, does the move action to use the portal allow for continued movement, or will we all be bunched up next to the door unless we take another move?  It looks like the latter to me.  Hopefully, we'll get the surprise by stepping out of the door, thus effectively canceling the cost.




I also think the move action is just to get through, with some allowance so we don't all end up in the same square.  Shayuri should obviously be last (as the portal may be sustained in duration or the like).

Two other questions: can we attack through the Portal without going through it?  Attack with our standard action right after going through it?  The latter I'm guessing is yes (although this feels a tad cheap )- if so, this could be a very effective surprise attack.


----------



## Shayuri

I think attacks through it would be blind, since I dunno if you can see through it before you step through it...

But yeah, I also dunno if attacks are valid targets for teleporting. Persuasive logical arguments could be constructed for them to be so though.


----------



## Victim

The allowance that we end up in different squares would be handy.

We could fire blindly through, and then use guidance from Optic's super vision to adjust fire.  Spotter plus artillery fire.    With Indirect, Star and Optic could use the tactic easily enough without portals though.

Well, using the portal might effectively be our surprise action, thereby leaving the situation up for grabs.  My DnD group had that rule for teleport attacks to avoid overly rewarding them.


----------



## Elric

Victim- is dropping to prone a free action?  If so, that's certainly useful for your character since with +20 Acrobatics you effectively have Instant Up for free 

I'd have Nitro try it as well, but thematically I kind of doubt if you should be able to use Interpose while also getting the Defense benefits of being prone.

Also, Nitro isn't just "pretty tough" to hurt with guns- he's "pretty damn tough" to hurt with guns.  That "damn" makes all the difference


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Victim- is dropping to prone a free action?  If so, that's certainly useful for your character since with +20 Acrobatics you effectively have Instant Up for free
> 
> I'd have Nitro try it as well, but thematically I kind of doubt if you should be able to use Interpose while also getting the Defense benefits of being prone.
> 
> Also, Nitro isn't just "pretty tough" to hurt with guns- he's "pretty damn tough" to hurt with guns.  That "damn" makes all the difference




Yeah, it's a free action.  I wonder if lying flat against the ceiling counts as being prone.    But going prone can work pretty well when there's a minimal melee threat even if you don't have Instant Up or lots of Acrobatics.  It just makes you look like a sissy in the eyes of the cameras or bystanders.  Real superheroes stand up and take it.  

The way I see, it's less like getting Instant Up for free, and more like not flushing points down the drain.  Concepts that want Instant Up generally also call for high Acrobatics (possibly with Skill Mastery).  So the feat is almost entirely superfluous.  Maybe some kind of shambling ooze would have it without Acrobatics, to go along with Slithering (but with Slithering or Prone Attack, there's little need to stand up except as flavor).

Maybe if the person you were Interposing for was also prone, it could work.    Otherwise, yeah, I don't really see it either.  

Bulletproof may have been a more reassuring description.    And maybe damn tough means that Nitro gained his superhuman physique and durability from a pact with the devil.


----------



## Elric

Oh, I didn't mean having instant up for free is abusive or anything.  Obviously Acrobatics having a DC 20 for Instant Up means that acrobats being able to do it by default is _intended_.  Taking Instant Up and high acrobatics would just be silly.

Nitro isn't really bulletproof, though- he just can't take lethal damage from normal guns.  I think of bulletproof as the word used to describe Impervious.

Edit- I guess "step high" means "watch out that you don't trip over something on the ground."


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Nitro isn't really bulletproof, though- he just can't take lethal damage from normal guns.  I think of bulletproof as the word used to describe Impervious.
> 
> Oh, what does "step high" mean?




Oh right, I forgot that Nitro didn't have Impervious.

Watch your step; assume something/somebody is on the ground, so have your foot elevated when you step through to avoid tripping.  I guess it isn't very clear.  Well, she knows what she means - Quickness can't catch everything.


----------



## Elric

Victim- if you can target the guys on the other roof with that incredibly useful Dazzle attack, that would probably negate a number of their attacks on us this round. 

Angel, Shooting Star and Nitro will be the most vulnerable because of going through the portal (and losing dodge bonus), but Nitro has regen and Angel has a really high Toughness save.  So Shooting Star could try to stay within 5 feet of Nitro (Interpose works even if you're 5 feet above me) while still being able to Dazzle the guys on that other roof.

I noticed Shayuri has the Easy PF on the Teleport power and the Long-range only flaw.  Ultimate Power updated Teleport a little so you can't have both Easy and Long Range only.  Not sure if Matt wants to go by that or stick to the original book.  I'd guess he sticks with the core book for this fight and maybe you'll have to change it later.

Edit- just realized that since Viridian's TP has Long-Range only, it will take us two move actions (a full action) to get through (this wasn't obvious to me- see http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=14657).  So we won't get a chance to attack this round- hopefully they'll be surprised and then we just roll initiative for the next round normally?  

Also, Viridian might not be able to follow us through the portal this round, since it being 1 minute means that it finishes on the round that it still takes her action for the round to open the portal.  If that's the case, she'll have to come through next round.

Blind Azathoth- note that your Fatigue power drops any minions who miss their save.  So if you can catch a number of enemies in the 30-foot diameter, that's an effective power to use against these guys.  Area Snare completely binding anyone who misses the save is good as well, but the Area of effect will make it hard to avoid hitting us!


----------



## Victim

We still have a move action?  I figured it might be used up in transit.

BTW, the thread title could be changed now that we don't need an alternate (yet).


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> We still have a move action?  I figured it might be used up in transit.




I think what's going on is as follows:
Transit takes both our actions for the round we go in (see the link in my post above). 

However, we have "surprise" so the enemies don't get to go the round we arrive on the roof.  So whoever wins initiative gets to take the first real actions.  Our no dodge bonus disorientation wears off in the first real round of combat when we get to go, as does their flatfooted status (though Uncanny Dodge won't help us retain the dodge bonus, so it's a little different from normal).  So it feels pretty much like an ordinary start to a combat.

Also, isn't your Blast a 110 foot _diameter _ burst?


----------



## Victim

I was thinking that we be moving through with our partial surprise action and the move action from our turn, leaving a standard for our turn.  

Good call on the diameter, I'll fix.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> I was thinking that we be moving through with our partial surprise action and the move action from our turn, leaving a standard for our turn.




Oh- that's a definite possibility.  Depends on what Matt does.  I guess specifying a move action in case I have one to use can't hurt.


----------



## Elric

Jemal- I was just making a build of Captain Britania (see Karl Green's thread ) and wanted to give him Quickness- Master Plan, but I wasn't sure it was legit.  So I looked it up on the Official Rules Questions on ATT and found out that Quickness doesn't help Master Plan because you can't take 10 or 20 on it.  So this may impact your decision to take Mental Quickness.


----------



## Jemal

Hmm.. Aye..
MR GM, permission to redo a couple points in that case?  I'd be dropping Quickness and the Master Plan feat.


----------



## DM_Matt

Ok, back. Sry.  Jemal - redo as you wish


----------



## Jemal

OK, Character Updated.  
RECAP: I dropped Master Plan, Luck, Quickness, and 1 rank of Precise Shot.
I gained Precise on my blast, and rank 3 Regen: Bruised(free action).
I have one point leftover.


----------



## Elric

I'm going to be away on vacation for a little over two weeks starting Tuesday, and I might not have Internet access much during that time.  Victim, would you be willing to choose combat actions for Johnny Nitro if I'm not around to do so? (You seem to have played a good amount of M&M before, so I figure you should get the hang of the character in no time)


----------



## DM_Matt

lol, nm.


----------



## Elric

Wrong thread


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> I'm going to be away on vacation for a little over two weeks starting Tuesday, and I might not have Internet access much during that time.  Victim, would you be willing to choose combat actions for Johnny Nitro if I'm not around to do so? (You seem to have played a good amount of M&M before, so I figure you should get the hang of the character in no time)




Well, I haven't really played that much; mostly I've been reading, messing around, and helping with character conversions for another PbP here.  But I could do it, I suppose.  Shockwave loose groups, Takedown tightly packed guys, pound super guys - using Imp Grab if they don't seem to be super strong, and then use either Move-by to maintain Interpose coverage (on either especially vulnerable or female characters ), or attempt to feint.  Season with tradeoff and other trick feats.  Overall risk tolerance and hero point useage might be bigger issues than specific tactics.  I wouldn't want to burn all your HP in the opening fight, leaving Nitro in trouble for the rest of the adventure.

I'm glad Spirit is in that position and not Shooting Star.  She'd probably start revealing some info before she realized that she wasn't in the hospital.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Well, I haven't really played that much; mostly I've been reading, messing around, and helping with character conversions for another PbP here.  But I could do it, I suppose.  Shockwave loose groups, Takedown tightly packed guys, pound super guys - using Imp Grab if they don't seem to be super strong, and then use either Move-by to maintain Interpose coverage (on either especially vulnerable or female characters ), or attempt to feint.  Season with tradeoff and other trick feats.  Overall risk tolerance and hero point useage might be bigger issues than specific tactics.  I wouldn't want to burn all your HP in the opening fight, leaving Nitro in trouble for the rest of the adventure.




Sounds pretty good!  Note that grapple causes the grappled opponent to lose dodge bonus vs. everyone else (but Nitro is fine due to Grappling Finesse), so grappling a villain can really set up the rest of the party.  I only have 1 HP- don't worry about burning it (and if you get more w/ GM fiat, don't worry about burning those- you'll probably need them).  Generally save HP for defensive purposes- they're generally more effective there than on offense.


----------



## Victim

Sweet, getting rid of the bruise from the second blast was an unexpected bonus.  And sorry for killing all of your description.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Sweet, getting rid of the bruise from the second blast was an unexpected bonus.  And sorry for killing all of your description.




Heh, it wasn't so much a bonus as a misprint.  its fixed now.


----------



## Shayuri

Matt, what's the sitch on the roof?

Are there still tons of lycans around? Or just the two bosses?

If bosses, where are they relative to the doorway?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Matt, what's the sitch on the roof?
> 
> Are there still tons of lycans around? Or just the two bosses?
> 
> If bosses, where are they relative to the doorway?




Numero Uno is near the doorway.  The Heroin Sheik is in the air a bit away from the building.  On the other roof there are four Cholos, three of whom are blind.  She does not have a good enough handle on guys in the building to target them, since she cannot easily see them. She could get four by nabbing perimeter guards (they seem to be largely holding, maybe in case of another attack, and there are a dozen in total), each of the two trucks have at least five in them.  There are also at least four of the vizor guys on the top deck of the ship.


----------



## Elric

Raylis- Numero Uno is one nasty dude (note the Assessment result).  No way he's going to be bothered by a hit from the rank 4 Snare on the Bolas.  In fact, given that he almost certainly has enhanced senses, he'll probably be able to detect you despite Concealment.  So you might be more effective using the electrical strike and either taking out the guy with the rocket launcher on the other roof, or hitting Numero Uno.

Edit- I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow, so Victim, if posting needs to be done and I'm not around to do it, go right ahead 

Note that you have to use Ultimate Toughness before you roll- I'd say that a hit for 16+ lethal damage you should definitely use it on- maybe 16+ damage in general (lethal or nonlethal), although Nitro rebounds pretty well from nonlethal damage that doesn't KO him.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> (OOC: Ah, Victim, I had almost finished writing a post where Johnny Nitro "rescued" Shooting Star by picking her up and jumping out to get her healed by Angel. He hasn't taken "Fast Rescue Damsel in Distress"- I think it's a variant on Quick Draw- so it would have been my entire turn's action. But the dialogue!)




Heh, that would be funny.  I'm sure Nitro will get another chance though - when things go badly for defense shifted characters, they tend to go really bad.  She'll need saving soon enough, I suspect.  I just didn't think it'd be the most auspicious start for the character though.  Ideally, characters should build up some awesome credit before needing rescue, and Shooting Star has already had some distress.  Maybe next time.  

Someone should take care of the other rocket guard.  Then we should focus fire on one of the supers against us.  Number One might be a good bet; it might be in our interest to stun him before he can go.  I'm somewhat less worried about the plant guy since Salix has a chance to counter anything he can do.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Edit- I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow, so Victim, if posting needs to be done and I'm not around to do it, go right ahead
> 
> Note that you have to use Ultimate Toughness before you roll- I'd say that a hit for 16+ lethal damage you should definitely use it on- maybe 16+ damage in general (lethal or nonlethal), although Nitro rebounds pretty well from nonlethal damage that doesn't KO him.




Okay, have fun on your vacation.


----------



## Victim

I'm not sure that doing a proper Combined Attack is the way to go with number one.  His big defense suggests A) defense shift, B) higher PL, or C) both.  Combined Attack is most useful for beating the high toughness (and especially Impervious) defenders.  Against a high defense target, combined attack is probably going to be counterproductive - an additional separate hit will be more likely to cause a Toughness failure than +2 on the first hit. We'll probably be better off doing separate attacks, just at the same target.  That way, if any one attack hits and stuns, the follow ups will benefit.  Plus we probably don't want to delay that long.

Setup might be a nice team combo, since it will take away much of Numero Uno's defense advantage.  Too bad none of the people planning on attacking him have it.

Of course, as a werewolf, he probably has some kind of Not vs Silver defense - maybe Regen.


----------



## Raylis

The intent on using the Bolas combined with Optics blast isn't to tie him up or to slow him down, or even a combined attack-my intention was to give some kind of circumstance bonus to knock him off the roof (by binding up his legs) and givng us some time to regroup


----------



## Victim

Spirit is such a little punk.  It's hilarious.  It might get her killed, but it's still funny, especially that last pop culture reference.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Spirit is such a little punk.  It's hilarious.  It might get her killed, but it's still funny, especially that last pop culture reference.




Indeed.


----------



## Victim

Hmm, Nightweaver was knocked into the same building the other guys including Numero Uno are on top of?  That doesn't seem all that safe.

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

Right now, a plan-like object might be desireable.  We seem to be in trouble.  

Number One seems to be real beast - regen, high defense, apparent high toughness (of course, we're not using any traditional werewolf weaknesses; maybe he has some limited immunities or protection?), extra senses.  Conventional attacks don't seem likely to incapacitate him.  The Sheik's exact powers are unknown at this time.  There are still plenty of minions, and more supers and elite guards on/near the boat.

Thoughts?  

I was thinking that if Nightweaver doesn't seem to be in need of rescue by Nitro, he could go engage #1 in close combat.  Stunning Attack might help circumvent his regeneration, and Grappling would keep him from running around with leaping movebys - probably not the safest course, as he seems really strong though.  My plan for Shooting Star involved feinting Heroin Sheik and shooting him in the back.  Since the Distract only lasts a round, he'll be back in fighting shape next action.  Neither her damaging attacks, nor Dazzle seem likely to be all that effective against Numero Uno.  

Further exotic attacks against #1 are probably the best bet; the ball looks to be mostly in Salix and Viridian's court.  Unless we can get some silver or something - heading off to pick some up is an option.  However, it seems a bit early to run errands.  There are plenty of options still on the table for dealing with him, and plenty of other targets to work on.

Who knows what kind of attacks might be good against Heroin Sheik?  Nothing so far seems particularly indicative of strengths or weaknesses, except the plant theme.

I'm not sure how much to focus on the minions.  On one hand, machine pistols fired inaccurately aren't all that dangerous.  On the other hand, they're bound to get lucky sometime.  And they can always pick up the heavy weapons of downed characters - if the weapons aren't too badly damaged.  Also, the blinded heavy weapon guys will recover eventually.

Some kind of distraction at the boat might be advantageous.  While we don't them to join the battle now, especially since we're not doing so hot, Spirit is also in big trouble.  A momentary diversion might be sufficient for her to slip away using Insubstancial and avoid notice long enough to chow down on the yacht's or a building's electical system.  Maybe from underwater?   It might be better to intervene sooner rather than later, since her big mouth will probably get her shot again.  ???

Be nice if Fenris returned to the boards.  Healing would come in handy.  

Any other ideas?


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Well, as far as Salix goes, if you'd like him to go after Numero Uno, I'm not sure how much use some of his powers will be; Lon Chaney likely has quite the Fort save, so Salix's Stun and Nauseate probably won't do much, and Fatigue is right out. Regular ol' Plant Control might help, though--we can always pray he didn't focus on his Reflex save.

Alternatively, I could try to take out the sniper with a Stun, or knock a crowd of thugs out with Fatigue, or get some plant-on-plant action going on with the Sheik, or simply spawn a minion this round to help with the wolves and then personally focus on Nummer Eins or that disgrace to plant-bodied humanoids...

Input from others definitely appreciated.


----------



## Shayuri

First, I seem to recall Salix already spawned a minion. 

Second, I think your Fatigue is our best option against the new mooks. Vi's only got Snare (which will impede but not necessarily stop their attacks) and Emotion Control (ditto) with area effects.

I'm gonna try to hit #1 with an Evil Eye. It's a long shot, but the damage from it is a magical curse...it's Incurable. That oughtta nix his regen.


----------



## James Heard

Victim said:
			
		

> Spirit is such a little punk.  It's hilarious.  It might get her killed, but it's still funny, especially that last pop culture reference.



I prefer "taking one for the team so you guys have more time to play with the other guys before dealing with the tight pants guy carrying around the tiara."

Speaking of which though - if Villainous Accent Man can hit me at all then Spirit should have the full benefit of her passive defenses, right? Meaning, I thought all those ranks in Impervious Toughness should be in effect? Does the guy also hit like a Semi with his fists? I'm not arguing, it just seems weird that he can slap her around that easily when most of the party would break a hand trying it.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Nah, my minion isn't out and about just yet; summoning it was the action I was going to take if no mooks were left to target on the roof, and, since there was one, I haven't got my leafy servant right now.

So, shall I just try to take out a trio of our furry friends, then?


----------



## Victim

James Heard said:
			
		

> I prefer "taking one for the team so you guys have more time to play with the other guys before dealing with the tight pants guy carrying around the tiara."
> 
> Speaking of which though - if Villainous Accent Man can hit me at all then Spirit should have the full benefit of her passive defenses, right? Meaning, I thought all those ranks in Impervious Toughness should be in effect? Does the guy also hit like a Semi with his fists? I'm not arguing, it just seems weird that he can slap her around that easily when most of the party would break a hand trying it.




Ah, that is pretty good then.

IIRC, the last active power was Insubstancial.  You haven't taken a free action to change the power back to Enhanced Con, hence your toughness is lower.  Switching back to improve your defenses might be an option.  Plus you haven't taken any real damage either - Spirit is still Disabled and hasn't had to make additional saves.  

Either summoning the minion or putting lycans to sleep works for Salix.  The minion has Takedown attack and reach from Growth, so it could also bust up a crowd.  Plus the earlier you summon it, the more use you get out of it - unless the plant monster is destroyed, of course.  But the larger area on the Fatigue Cloud takes out more guys now.  Either one is probably a good move.  We don't know for certain that #1 has a good Fort save, but it does seem likely.

Sounds like we mostly have a plan.  

Ah, good, I don't have to decide on Nitro's action.


----------



## Fenris2

Sorry for the away folks, but the water people had a leak on the street main somewhere and managed to variously take out cable, phone, electric and water (of course) over the last few days...  In theory they fixed it all for now. . .  However if I disappear, please npc Angel for a bit as that is probably the reason grr...  I am trying to catch up now.


----------



## James Heard

Victim said:
			
		

> IIRC, the last active power was Insubstancial.  You haven't taken a free action to change the power back to Enhanced Con, hence your toughness is lower.  Switching back to improve your defenses might be an option.  Plus you haven't taken any real damage either - Spirit is still Disabled and hasn't had to make additional saves.



I thought that since she wasn't sinking through the chair and people were tying her up that she was automatically back to the default power? If she has to "turn on" the other power and she hasn't "turned off" insubstantial then shouldn't it be hard to restrain her without those expensive "affects insubstantial" zip ties? I know she hasn't taken any "additional damage", because presumably I'd get a showcase on how awesome the guy was at beating up restrained women first - but she's had something done to her because she's gone unconscious, right? I didn't see anything on how to make someone unconscious without causing damage though?

Hell, I don't even know if Spirit is still at Dying instead of Disabled. I presume so, but it's hard to say mechanically without some indication?


----------



## Victim

To put things simply, Spirit is still substancial because she hasn't spent the free action to turn ghosty.  

[overly complicated explanation]
Insubstancial is a free action, sustained power - it takes a free action to turn on, and then you have to be able to take a free action each round to maintain it. So when we zoom in and look at extremely fine levels of rules detail, when Spirit goes out of phase she:

1) Takes a free action to change her array from Enhanced Con to Insub - each array can only be changed like this once per round.

2) Spends another free action to turn the power on.  

But it's easy enough to condense those 2 actions into the same statement.  Only a few characters will really need to change array allocation separately from actually using the powers, and they're generally being cheap.  

So Spirit gets KO'd and her Insub collapses since she can no longer sustain it.  Her array is still set to Insub (no action has been taken to change it), but it's turned off.   
[/overly complicated explanation]

At this point, Jessica could turn on either her Insub or Con without hurting herself (although the definition of strenuous action isn't all that clear).  The issue would be how Captain Bracelet reacts.


----------



## James Heard

That's an interesting, incredibly annoying, but noted. 

I'm glad I'm only borrowing the books, because M&M is looking more and more lame as the days go by.


----------



## Raylis

Numero Uno's base damage isn't that high, probably between 10-12. 
The first toughness Nightweaver rolled was a 15, and failure by 15 or more is unconciousness.

However a crit increases the damage bonus by 5. 

Since a toughness save starts at a DC of 15, adding 5 for the crit makes it 20 +the unarmed attack bonus of Number Uno (which is at least 10) is 30, with some left over for variation


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> Hell, I don't even know if Spirit is still at Dying instead of Disabled. I presume so, but it's hard to say mechanically without some indication?




Well, technically, it is in fact impossible for the accented man to hit Spirit hard enough to change her condition in any way other than from Disabled to Dying, but since through good RPing (even if accidently, getting him to hit her a little too hard in anger such that he neither blows her head off with his circlet nor gets useful information) Spirit got a reprieve on the dying, and so she gets the unconscious result instead.  D&D has the all-purpose, ultra-important Rule 0.  M&M has rules about Rule Zeroing (GM Fiat, character approval, etc), but also has Rule One.



			
				Mutants & Masterminds Core Rules said:
			
		

> *RULE NUMBER ONE *
> The first, and most important, rule of Mutants & Masterminds is:* Do
> whatever is the most fun for your game!* While we’ve made every
> effort to ensure M&M is as complete a game system as possible, no system
> can cover every situation an imaginative group of players may encounter.
> From time to time, the rules may give you strange or undesirable results.
> Ignore them! Modify the outcome of die rolls and other events in the
> game as you see fit to make it fun and enjoyable for everyone. It’s your
> game, so run and play it the way you want!




Note that this does not mean I would screw the players with Rule One.  After al, that would not be fun for the group.  Also, the GM Fiat rules limit GM player-screwing in that they require that I give out Hero Points as compensation.

Also, Victim's rules explanation is correct.


----------



## James Heard

...

Right.

I'll be going now. Not. worth. playing.


----------



## DM_Matt

James Heard said:
			
		

> ...
> 
> Right.
> 
> I'll be going now. Not. worth. playing.




Mmmkay, now tha tis the most negative reaction to NOT killing a PC I've ever seen...

So, alternates....


----------



## Victim

Fenris, you can't use Defensive Attack unless you actually make an attack roll.  You can't use it when not attacking to gain a "free" bonus to defense.  So Angel can't use it while stunned.  

Besides, even if you could, it wouldn't work.  Defensive Attack provides a dodge bonus; Dodge bonuses are lost when stunned.


----------



## Fenris2

Well, that sux.  Giant angel sitting duck?  Not so good...

How long does stun last anyway?


----------



## Victim

The Stun condition from damage just lasts a round, unless you spend a HP to recover from it instantly.  While Angel effectively has an 8 defense right now, he still has his 14 toughness. 

Fortunately, Numero Uno was just stunned again so you may get a respite, and Nitro may be jumping up there to help.


----------



## Victim

I thought Shooting Star would be out of range, since she moved really high up.  Diving back down was going to be part of the next turn (or this turn, whatever).  Of course, that dive is now considerably more difficult and less impressive with her being Exhausted.  Sorry for being unclear.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I thought Shooting Star would be out of range, since she moved really high up.  Diving back down was going to be part of the next turn (or this turn, whatever).  Of course, that dive is now considerably more difficult and less impressive with her being Exhausted.  Sorry for being unclear.




Well, they attacked her after she attacked this turn, and I didn't give her any range penalties for the attack that took out the Sheik. Was I to understand that she was holding her action this round?


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Well, they attacked her after she attacked this turn, and I didn't give her any range penalties for the attack that took out the Sheik. Was I to understand that she was holding her action this round?




She took her standard action to attack, and then moved up.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> She took her standard action to attack, and then moved up.




Oh.  Well, since they were readied to enter combat as soon as their Sheik looked like he couldn't handle it, they would have gotten their shots off anyway.  Sorry I made that unclear by listing their attacks with the rest of the bad guys.


----------



## Victim

Ah, okay.  

If it's not too late to make attacks miss by spending an HP to double dodge, then I'll do that.  The HP would put her defense at 28, IIRC, including the exhausted penalty.  Otherwise, yes, I will spend a hero point to reroll the save for the attack that inflicted Disabled (was that the same one that inflicted the stun?).

Crap.  I was considering using Defensive Attack too.  

BTW, how close together are the elite visor guards?

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

SHORT-TERM EFFECTS

POSITIVE — pain relief (analgesia), euphoria, drowsiness, relaxation, cough suppression 
NEUTRAL — itching, pupillary constriction, stimulation, sweating 
NEGATIVE — difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, reduced respiratory rate, nausea, vomiting, reduced appetite, anxiety, lethargy, constipation, dysphoria, reduced libido, death, spontaneous abortion


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah, okay.
> 
> If it's not too late to make attacks miss by spending an HP to double dodge, then I'll do that.  The HP would put her defense at 28, IIRC, including the exhausted penalty.  Otherwise, yes, I will spend a hero point to reroll the save for the attack that inflicted Disabled (was that the same one that inflicted the stun?).
> 
> Crap.  I was considering using Defensive Attack too.
> 
> BTW, how close together are the elite visor guards?
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> SHORT-TERM EFFECTS
> 
> POSITIVE — pain relief (analgesia), euphoria, drowsiness, relaxation, cough suppression
> NEUTRAL — itching, pupillary constriction, stimulation, sweating
> NEGATIVE — difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, reduced respiratory rate, nausea, vomiting, reduced appetite, anxiety, lethargy, constipation, dysphoria, reduced libido, death, spontaneous abortion





Ah,right, double dodge. That'll do it.  No hits.  I'll update the other post.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Ah,right, double dodge. That'll do it.  No hits.  I'll update the other post.




Sweet.  I was hoping to save that point for use against Captain Bracelet though.  

I'm done for the night.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah, okay.
> 
> If it's not too late to make attacks miss by spending an HP to double dodge, then I'll do that.  The HP would put her defense at 28, IIRC, including the exhausted penalty.  Otherwise, yes, I will spend a hero point to reroll the save for the attack that inflicted Disabled (was that the same one that inflicted the stun?).
> 
> Crap.  I was considering using Defensive Attack too.
> 
> BTW, how close together are the elite visor guards?
> 
> ------------------------------
> 
> SHORT-TERM EFFECTS
> 
> POSITIVE — pain relief (analgesia), euphoria, drowsiness, relaxation, cough suppression
> NEUTRAL — itching, pupillary constriction, stimulation, sweating
> NEGATIVE — difficulty concentrating, blurred vision, reduced respiratory rate, nausea, vomiting, reduced appetite, anxiety, lethargy, constipation, dysphoria, reduced libido, death, spontaneous abortion





Two of them are very close together and close to the Sheik, but each of the other two are a bit back on opposite sides of the boat.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri, it might not be the best idea to entrap the Sheik since everyone is apparently eager to pound him while he's stunned.  It'd suck if most of turns ended up being wasted (like mine) as attacks bounce off the salt warding and then crack it.

EDIT: Of course, a simple Delay or Ready works too.  It might even set up a combo for Knockback damage.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Hey, was just informed that alternates were being called. Am I needed?


----------



## Victim

Are these two - villainous accent guy and spikey haired white guy - standing in the open on the boat?  Or do we just know that they're on it somewhere?


----------



## DM_Matt

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Hey, was just informed that alternates were being called. Am I needed?




Yup.  James Heard turned out not to  be a good fit. Lemme just figure out how to get you in this asap.


----------



## DM_Matt

Ok, Brimstone may enter, just post your stats please.  Then post to the IC thread.


----------



## Elric

Matt, can you give a rough description of how many enemies we have left and where they are relative to the characters (esp. Nitro).  Also, that first roll that stunned me with two visor guards about to attack would probably have been a good time to use a hero point to reroll or shake off the stun (but I don't know the DC or my original roll from your post- if the DC had been high enough I probably would have used Ultimate Toughness)... this is a problem with HP in pbps.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt, can you give a rough description of how many enemies we have left and where they are relative to the characters (esp. Nitro).  Also, that first roll that stunned me with two visor guards about to attack would probably have been a good time to use a hero point to reroll or shake off the stun (but I don't know the DC or my original roll from your post- if the DC had been high enough I probably would have used Ultimate Toughness)... this is a problem with HP in pbps.




i'll doa reroll, but I think you should trade in Ultimate Toughness for something else.  Rerolls are already too strong in this format bc by necessity you will already know the result (unless we set up detailed if/then scenarios for all the PCs.  Retroactive UT is REALLY too good.


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> i'll doa reroll, but I think you should trade in Ultimate Toughness for something else.  Rerolls are already too strong in this format bc by necessity you will already know the result (unless we set up detailed if/then scenarios for all the PCs.  Retroactive UT is REALLY too good.




You have a point.  How about I can keep Ultimate Toughness, but I can't use it retroactively, so I'd have to make specific declarations beforehand.  What I was getting at earlier with my 16 dmg rule was "damage 5+ above my current toughness save means I use Ult Toughness", so that's likely not the case here.  I'll make sure to specify an exact rule in future fights when I have HP again.


----------



## Fenris2

Does Angel have move enough to go after the medivac chopper and slice at it and have move left over to duck behind some cover?   Alternately, he can go after those badies near nightweaver adn do an autofire attack on a few...


----------



## DM_Matt

The staggered condition means that he can only make a partial action, so no.  He should heal himself and get going next round.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

Posted in the RG. Am I just showing up then? Fyling out of the sky and blasting werewolves and such? Or is there a specific way you'd like me to enter?


----------



## Victim

There aren't attack rolls on Area powers, so Imp Crit can't be applied to Brimstone's blast.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

crap, though i fixed everything attached to that. No matter! it is fixed.


----------



## DM_Matt

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> Posted in the RG. Am I just showing up then? Fyling out of the sky and blasting werewolves and such? Or is there a specific way you'd like me to enter?




Fly in, but we need to fix some things in  the character first.

1.  Explosion should be Area.  Explosion does less damage the further out you go in return for  a bigger area than the normal Area extra, but since you are going small and I dont want to deal with precise positioning, Area is the way to go.

2.  Evasion 2?  You are a very tankish hero.  Perhaps just Evasion 1?

3.  For your strike, with Strength as an AP, Why not get rid of the AP and have that config be Enhanced Strength 20, Strike 2, Mighty (you did not have this, but need it), Extended Reach.  This gets rid of incurable, too, but I would rather you not have it on a regular punch.  Alternatively, you could do Str 16, strike 4, mighty, ext reach, imp crit 2, or even Str 14, strike 5, mighty, extended reach, super-strength 1, groundstrike.  Regardless,  this way also frees up a point.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> 1.  Explosion should be Area.  Explosion does less damage the further out you go in return for  a bigger area than the normal Area extra, but since you are going small and I dont want to deal with precise positioning, Area is the way to go.
> 
> 2.  Evasion 2?  You are a very tankish hero.  Perhaps just Evasion 1?
> 
> 3.  For your strike, with Strength as an AP, Why not get rid of the AP and have that config be Enhanced Strength 20, Strike 2, Mighty (you did not have this, but need it), Extended Reach.  This gets rid of incurable, too, but I would rather you not have it on a regular punch.  Alternatively, you could do Str 16, strike 4, mighty, ext reach, imp crit 2, or even Str 14, strike 5, mighty, extended reach, super-strength 1, groundstrike.  Regardless,  this way also frees up a point.




1) I assume you mean the Burst Area Affect? Changed.

2) Fair enough. Changed.

3) I believe you have read my character sheet wrong? His Enhanced Str and his Strike are both AP of his Hellfire Control. My sheet was a bit messy, I have tidied it up some so it should be more readable now.


----------



## DM_Matt

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> 3) I believe you have read my character sheet wrong? His Enhanced Str and his Strike are both AP of his Hellfire Control. My sheet was a bit messy, I have tidied it up some so it should be more readable now.




I'm proposing that you combine them.  You can still use an unarmed strike even while your Hellfire Control array is set to Strength and Whip Strike.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis: That new build is good.  She'll probably fare a lot better in future combats.  I would suggest you make room for getting a bit of movement powers back though, at least Speed 1.


----------



## DM_Matt

Brimstone may post now (and maybe rearrange that array later)


----------



## Shayuri

Uhh, okay...can I use a Hero Point to reroll that Toughness check against Numero Uno?

Obviously I blew it by quite a bit.


----------



## Raylis

Awesome, looking at where to shave to get a couple of those back.

wow...she should rename herself to the Human Punchingbag after that...


----------



## Victim

What's the rough range to the helicopter (and how high is it)?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> What's the rough range to the helicopter (and how high is it)?




It is about 200 feet in the air and climbing, and is about 200 feet beyond that dock.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Quick question. Do the guys in the trucks (well... truck, now, I suppose) have Nightweaver, or is she just laying on the ground unconscious?


----------



## DM_Matt

Blind Azathoth said:
			
		

> Quick question. Do the guys in the trucks (well... truck, now, I suppose) have Nightweaver, or is she just laying on the ground unconscious?





They just left her there.


----------



## Shayuri

Psst, DM, did you see my question regarding Hero Point to reroll that blown damage save vs Numero Uno?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Psst, DM, did you see my question regarding Hero Point to reroll that blown damage save vs Numero Uno?




On reroll....still stunned, not staggered.


----------



## Shayuri

Thank you sir!


----------



## Victim

Any plan for getting the EMTs out of the heli?  Shooting Star can run it down easily enough, but can't really rescue the medics.  Carrying someone isn't exactly her strong point even in ideal conditions; now she has 4 STR.  She'd become encumbered if her hair gets wet, much less by picking up an adult.  

I could still have her shoot at the foes though; with Homing even if shots miss immediately because of range penalties, there will be another chance.  Since they have hostages though, it might be risky.  On the other hand, evil accent man has readily killed before (pilots, probably Spirit too) so leaving him unharassed might prove even more dangerous to the hostages.

Considering all the other injuries, I don't think anyone else is really able to do anything for them this round either.  Nightweaver needs some help; Viridian is stunned.  Maybe Angel could rush into the back and Takedown the guards.  But this might be a better time for him to heal someone, given the beating we've taken in the last few rounds.  

Any ideas?  Just wait a round to go after them?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Maybe Angel could rush into the back and Takedown the guards.  But this might be a better time for him to heal someone, given the beating we've taken in the last few rounds.




What guards?  The only ones still active that you can still see are the two who were on Nitro and are running away, and the eight in the truck which is running face-first into Brimstone's area attack.  Basically, its the chopper and Numero Uno (who only has a couple bruises)


----------



## Victim

IIRC, there's the 2 visor guards on the chopper, plus Spikey Guy and Villianous Accent Man, right?  I was talking about the ones in the helicopter.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> IIRC, there's the 2 visor guards on the chopper, plus Spikey Guy and Villianous Accent Man, right?  I was talking about the ones in the helicopter.




Correct.


----------



## Elric

Matt, I just realized that I could not possibly have taken 2 bruises from the visor guards, as Staggered+Stunned doesn't include a bruised result.  So I should have 5 Bruises at the end of the current round, unless of course I missed either of the saves against the machine pistols by 1, in which case I should have made that save. 

Salix: As you can see with Uno, your minion might work better as a part of your main array, since it's not worth 22 pp summoning it to have that happen.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt, I just realized that I could not possibly have taken 2 bruises from the visor guards, as Staggered+Stunned doesn't include a bruised result.  So I should have 5 Bruises at the end of the current round, unless of course I missed either of the saves against the machine pistols by 1, in which case I should have made that save.
> 
> Salix: As you can see with Uno, your minion might work better as a part of your main array, since it's not worth 22 pp summoning it to have that happen.




I thought I read somewhere that the lack of bruises and injuries from the more serious injuries was an error in the chart.  Even if its not, I am playing it that way.  Each condition you get also gives all the ones below it.  It makes more sense that way.


----------



## Jemal

that's how i figured it worked, too.. Why would getting stunned NOT bruise you?  heck, INJURED gives you a bruised too.

Also, MR DM, I posted a question IC, RE: Optic Buried.


----------



## Fenris2

What is Angel's current damage status?


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I thought I read somewhere that the lack of bruises and injuries from the more serious injuries was an error in the chart.  Even if its not, I am playing it that way.  Each condition you get also gives all the ones below it.  It makes more sense that way.




I think that was intentional, not an error in the chart; but I pretty much used your house rule too when I was GMing.  The problem, as I see it, is that it's already better to be higher damage/lower attack trade-offed relative to the defender and this house rule only exascerbates that effect.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> that's how i figured it worked, too.. Why would getting stunned NOT bruise you?  heck, INJURED gives you a bruised too.
> 
> Also, MR DM, I posted a question IC, RE: Optic Buried.




Move action and str check (rolls...he will make it)


----------



## DM_Matt

Fenris2 said:
			
		

> What is Angel's current damage status?




4 bruises, 3 injuries, not stunned or staggered.


----------



## Elric

Necro- you may want to come join the fight against Numero Uno with your next action, as he could prove quite a handful.

Edit- well, that didn't turn out to be necessary.  Blind, instead of having Salix play solitaire you could maybe go pick up Uno and drag him back here, or at least say something to Brimstone and mention picking up Uno so he does it...


----------



## Elric

Matt- how big is the boat?  Also, roughly how much does it weigh?


----------



## Blind Azathoth

Ah, of course. I thought that somebody had already done it...but now I see nobody else has, so I shall handle it.

Of course, he'll probably wake up as I approach and then punch my head off. Maybe I should stick to the solitaire...


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt- how big is the boat?  Also, roughly how much does it weigh?




it weighs about 50 tons and is about 100 feet long.  Using that method he was gunna use on NU, he could pick it up, and he could throw it, but not far.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Mr. Grey, Miss White.  Are their names from Clue?




The color scheme nicknames were inspired both by Clue and Reservoir Dogs.  I like lots of references and homages in games like M&M, so feel free to point them out if you come accross them.  I may or may not confirm or deny.


----------



## DM_Matt

Regarding the Spirit incident, the Trust folks will do their best IC to assuage concerns, but how much of an issue do you as players expect it to be?  Spirit was killed off for OOC reasons, obviously, which upset certain things in the game, but I'm just asking if there is something that you guys need IC to make it work.


----------



## Victim

Shooting Star will likely blame Nitro later, as he argued against her plan of starting out on the boat to allow for a fast rescue of Spirit.    I wasn't planning on having her blame the Trust people.


----------



## Shayuri

I'm glad you asked. IC...I'm having deep problems. It's not just the Spirit thing. It's the whole...idea of what happened, not to mention the utter lack of remorse and responsibility they're taking.

It seems to me that so far, this Trust has displayed exactly zero of the qualities I'd expect from superheroes.

It was irresponsible, it was disrespectful not only of OUR lives but of the lives of the public, it was deceitful, and it was above all...wholly unnecessary.

I want to go into this in some detail, because right now...I dunno what to do IC and be true to the character while still having her be in the game.

1) That they could have such flawed intel and still trust it enough to throw a bunch of untried, untested supers who had never worked together before and not only had no preparation but actually had reason to believe nothing was wrong due to intentional misinformation on the part of the Trust was the HEIGHT of irresponsibility, and it's a small miracle there was only one casualty.

2) In addition to risking our lives, there were innocents involved. Pilots. People working there who's only crime was being involved with drug trafficking...not a death sentenceable offense! They were all risked too. It's pure luck no one was killed (from an IC perspective...OOC we know you intentionally didn't kill any). Not to mention the -astounding- lack of any kind of acknowledgment of responsibility for Spirit's death, or remorse for same. Even if her overconfidence was a factor, that doesn't change the fact that it was still on their watch that it happened. Are these people I want watching my back when I risk my life?

3) Why lie? Honestly? Why? What would have been lost if they had met with us first, outlined what the Trust was...informed us straight up that there was a dangerous test of abilities they required, and that we might get hurt or even killed. How would that have contaminated anything, other than giving us an honest risk assessment, and a chance to leave if we weren't prepared to take that risk? Solid professional relationships are based on trust...and if that trust is violated, then the relationship is compromised. This is especially true in situations where my health and safety are on the line.

4) With the existence of "danger rooms," magical illusions, robots, all kinds of challenges and ways to test prowess and team tactics in controlled environments...why would anyone -in their right minds- use something as barbaric as this to test recruits? 

All in all, the organization doesn't seem to have the moral and ethical standing to direct a group of superheroes. We're not superpowered mercenaries or espionage agents. Superheroes and supergroups have a high ethical standard to live up to...and the Trust simply hasn't shown any ability to do so.

Add to this that the only reason any of us are here in the first place is curiosity about the folks what hacked our TV's...and a vague notion that we'd like to work in a team. What's to stop us from just giving the Trust our collective fingers, and teaming up without them? What have they shown they can offer us besides glib excuses?

*huff huff huff*

...that probably sounds pretty harsh.   I'm trying to keep it sort of semi-IC...though I can't pretend that all these thoughts aren't coming from my head. I'm not PERSONALLY upset...but I can't have Thess just handwave it. I just can't. If that means she's wrong for the Trust then...so be it. :-(


----------



## Victim

I don't think the pilots were involved in drug trafficing.  My assumption was that their vehicle was hijacked by one of the extra supers.  Amazingly enough, there were no noncombatants around that the other side didn't

And the characters did have time to plan - until Spirit rushed in (not that I put too much blame here; it's easy for planning to get out of hand, but I think the gun was jumped a bit).  Would things have played out all that differently if instead of being directed to the van, our characters were tipped off as to the werewolf drug operation at Oxydyne?  It seems likely Spirit would still have been impatient and suspicious (the mob is getting revenge on the Cholos by alerting supers to one of their fronts!).  Courtesy of Optic, we had good on the fly intel anyway.


----------



## Shayuri

I meant pilots were innocents...and I was counting non-super dock loaders and people who were probably technically culpable of crimes, but not of severe bodily injury as well. But no, the pilots weren't guilty of anything. 

As far as the rest, you may be right, but I don't see how any of that exonerates the Trust in any way. Just because we managed to make up for some of their mistakes, misinformation and betrayal of trust (ironic, given the name), doesn't mean they're not guilty of those things in the first place.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I'm glad you asked. IC...I'm having deep problems. It's not just the Spirit thing. It's the whole...idea of what happened, not to mention the utter lack of remorse and responsibility they're taking.
> 
> It seems to me that so far, this Trust has displayed exactly zero of the qualities I'd expect from superheroes.
> 
> It was irresponsible, it was disrespectful not only of OUR lives but of the lives of the public, it was deceitful, and it was above all...wholly unnecessary.
> 
> I want to go into this in some detail, because right now...I dunno what to do IC and be true to the character while still having her be in the game.
> 
> 1) That they could have such flawed intel and still trust it enough to throw a bunch of untried, untested supers who had never worked together before and not only had no preparation but actually had reason to believe nothing was wrong due to intentional misinformation on the part of the Trust was the HEIGHT of irresponsibility, and it's a small miracle there was only one casualty.
> 
> 2) In addition to risking our lives, there were innocents involved. Pilots. People working there who's only crime was being involved with drug trafficking...not a death sentenceable offense! They were all risked too. It's pure luck no one was killed (from an IC perspective...OOC we know you intentionally didn't kill any). Not to mention the -astounding- lack of any kind of acknowledgment of responsibility for Spirit's death, or remorse for same. Even if her overconfidence was a factor, that doesn't change the fact that it was still on their watch that it happened. Are these people I want watching my back when I risk my life?
> 
> 3) Why lie? Honestly? Why? What would have been lost if they had met with us first, outlined what the Trust was...informed us straight up that there was a dangerous test of abilities they required, and that we might get hurt or even killed. How would that have contaminated anything, other than giving us an honest risk assessment, and a chance to leave if we weren't prepared to take that risk? Solid professional relationships are based on trust...and if that trust is violated, then the relationship is compromised. This is especially true in situations where my health and safety are on the line.
> 
> 4) With the existence of "danger rooms," magical illusions, robots, all kinds of challenges and ways to test prowess and team tactics in controlled environments...why would anyone -in their right minds- use something as barbaric as this to test recruits?
> 
> All in all, the organization doesn't seem to have the moral and ethical standing to direct a group of superheroes. We're not superpowered mercenaries or espionage agents. Superheroes and supergroups have a high ethical standard to live up to...and the Trust simply hasn't shown any ability to do so.
> 
> Add to this that the only reason any of us are here in the first place is curiosity about the folks what hacked our TV's...and a vague notion that we'd like to work in a team. What's to stop us from just giving the Trust our collective fingers, and teaming up without them? What have they shown they can offer us besides glib excuses?
> 
> *huff huff huff*
> 
> ...that probably sounds pretty harsh.   I'm trying to keep it sort of semi-IC...though I can't pretend that all these thoughts aren't coming from my head. I'm not PERSONALLY upset...but I can't have Thess just handwave it. I just can't. If that means she's wrong for the Trust then...so be it. :-(





Well, I need to think about how to best fix it, but just some thoughts for now (obviously, these numbers dont correspond to yours:

1.  They are showing remorse...and they will show it more.  Mr. Black, as you will find out, is the Chief Tactical Officer of the Trust, and a former Ranger.  He heads up security and whatnot, and his personality is such that he's going to be more jaded about these things that pretty much anyone else there.  The Trust employs lots of Superheroes.  He's notreally one of them.  Ms. White, otoh, IS really upset about it, and I can show her and others making a bigger deal about it if that helps.

2.  They did not know about the other two supers, and because they did not know about the technopath. they did not know that passing aircraft would be at risk.  

3.  "Just" drug smugglers.  You'll see.  What you broke up  was worse than it looked.

4.  The resources the Trust provides and the urgency of the leads that come from what you guys gathered may prove enough to work with them, even reluctantly.  Thess will also have the added incentive of learning from a much more experienced white witch (...and how bad could she possibly be if she can channel so much white magic)

I'll think of more later....


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I meant pilots were innocents...and I was counting non-super dock loaders and people who were probably technically culpable of crimes, but not of severe bodily injury as well. But no, the pilots weren't guilty of anything.




All the dock workers were armed werewolf gangsters.  They did not have other random non-combatant laborers.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I don't think the pilots were involved in drug trafficing.  My assumption was that their vehicle was hijacked by one of the extra supers.  Amazingly enough, there were no noncombatants around that the other side didn't
> 
> And the characters did have time to plan - until Spirit rushed in (not that I put too much blame here; it's easy for planning to get out of hand, but I think the gun was jumped a bit).  Would things have played out all that differently if instead of being directed to the van, our characters were tipped off as to the werewolf drug operation at Oxydyne?  It seems likely Spirit would still have been impatient and suspicious (the mob is getting revenge on the Cholos by alerting supers to one of their fronts!).  Courtesy of Optic, we had good on the fly intel anyway.





Very true.  Once you figured out something was wrong, other than Spirit, you guys got out of the jam, backed off, and surveyed the area, which Optic does very well.  You got to attack on your own terms with your own plan.


----------



## Shayuri

1. They are showing remorse...and they will show it more. Mr. Black, as you will find out, is the Chief Tactical Officer of the Trust, and a former Ranger. He heads up security and whatnot, and his personality is such that he's going to be more jaded about these things that pretty much anyone else there. The Trust employs lots of Superheroes. He's not really one of them. Ms. White, otoh, IS really upset about it, and I can show her and others making a bigger deal about it if that helps.

-- That probably would help some...it would at least suggest that they care about the lives wasted in their tests. 

2. They did not know about the other two supers, and because they did not know about the technopath. they did not know that passing aircraft would be at risk.

-- But they knew about the others. And they knew about us. Part of what I'm getting at is that it's exactly because of these unknown factors that tests are NOT done like this. Any group that valued life would take all precautions they could...test or otherwise...to see to it that any risk that was present was as contained and manageable as possible -before throwing anyone into it-. To do otherwise suggests criminal negligence. If they can't control the situation, then they needed to relocate the test to a situation they could control.

3. "Just" drug smugglers. You'll see. What you broke up was worse than it looked.

-- What they were doing there doesn't change any of the substance of my observations. If it was so important that these people be stopped, it could have been a first official assignment, and us sent in under conditions as optimal as they could make.

4. The resources the Trust provides and the urgency of the leads that come from what you guys gathered may prove enough to work with them, even reluctantly. Thess will also have the added incentive of learning from a much more experienced white witch (...and how bad could she possibly be if she can channel so much white magic)

-- Their resources clearly weren't useful in the "test."   And the urgency might lead us to work together, but why include the Trust? As for learning magic...there might be temptation, but I don't know if it would be enough. She's come this far on her own after all. And Ms White might be a shiny-good-great person...that doesn't make the Trust a good employer.

I feel a need to explain here. Because now I am afraid it's going to look like I'm just being obstructionist. I'm really not. I just don't think the core problems have been addressed...except perhaps the remorse thing, which really isn't the main problem. Seriously though. Put yourself in the shoes of these characters. They left their living rooms, got in a van, and under false pretenses were thrown unprepared into a potentially lethal situation where they were shot, burned, exposed to toxins, blown up, smashed, smacked, beaten into a bloody mess in some cases...and now...hey! It was a test! Yay, you passed!

How can we not break our #2 pencils and tell them what to go do with their damn test?   Because not only were we put through hell, and under artificially bad conditions...ie not only did the Trust not try to make a hard situation any easier, they actually went out of their way to make it more difficult...but we were put through hell -on purpose-. And the thought that a boat full of additional supers, men with super-killing weapons, and high explosives could come onto the scene without the Trust knowing it doesn't really help much. Sort of like a certain Presidency (which shall remain nameless to conform with posting guidelines ) the question becomes...are you evil, or just incompetent? 

------

But that's just a rehash of points already made. I turn instead to possible solutions.

1) THE MOLE: Turns out someone in The Trust can't be trusted. They heard about a batch of new recruits and threw a few monkeywrenches into the game. Only problem is...we lived. When the contacts we were supposed to meet hear about what happened in detail, they'll realize that the training program we were supposed to have encountered was something entirely different and more deadly. Tracking down and finding this mole could become a mission later on.

2) THE PURGE: The Trust is split within by internal factions...ex-special forces paramilitary types that formed the program in the first place, and a newer crop of supers who have gradually been asserting more power. The scandal this recruiting technique causes within the group provides the newer faction with the power it needs to start some major housecleaning, starting with the ones in charge of recruiting. These purged individuals might then form their own group of highly trained, highly equipped nonsupers that have a deep rivalry with the new Trust, and chips on their shoulders.

3) THE HEEL-CLICK: This was a Matrix-like brain sim/magical collective hallucination or something. Retcon ensues. Kind of icky, but it gets the job done, and no hard feelings.

4) THE WILD REBELS: (crunchy, chewy rebels) In what would probably be a 360 degree departure from everything you have planned, the PC's decide not to go with the Trust, but still team up. Requires a change in title. Probably negates anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4's of the reason you wanted to run this game in the first place. Least attractive option. 

Open to other ideas too! This is just to get us started.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> 1. They are showing remorse...and they will show it more. Mr. Black, as you will find out, is the Chief Tactical Officer of the Trust, and a former Ranger. He heads up security and whatnot, and his personality is such that he's going to be more jaded about these things that pretty much anyone else there. The Trust employs lots of Superheroes. He's not really one of them. Ms. White, otoh, IS really upset about it, and I can show her and others making a bigger deal about it if that helps.
> 
> -- That probably would help some...it would at least suggest that they care about the lives wasted in their tests.
> 
> 2. They did not know about the other two supers, and because they did not know about the technopath. they did not know that passing aircraft would be at risk.
> 
> -- But they knew about the others. And they knew about us. Part of what I'm getting at is that it's exactly because of these unknown factors that tests are NOT done like this. Any group that valued life would take all precautions they could...test or otherwise...to see to it that any risk that was present was as contained and manageable as possible -before throwing anyone into it-. To do otherwise suggests criminal negligence. If they can't control the situation, then they needed to relocate the test to a situation they could control.
> 
> 3. "Just" drug smugglers. You'll see. What you broke up was worse than it looked.
> 
> -- What they were doing there doesn't change any of the substance of my observations. If it was so important that these people be stopped, it could have been a first official assignment, and us sent in under conditions as optimal as they could make.
> 
> 4. The resources the Trust provides and the urgency of the leads that come from what you guys gathered may prove enough to work with them, even reluctantly. Thess will also have the added incentive of learning from a much more experienced white witch (...and how bad could she possibly be if she can channel so much white magic)
> 
> -- Their resources clearly weren't useful in the "test."   And the urgency might lead us to work together, but why include the Trust? As for learning magic...there might be temptation, but I don't know if it would be enough. She's come this far on her own after all. And Ms White might be a shiny-good-great person...that doesn't make the Trust a good employer.
> 
> I feel a need to explain here. Because now I am afraid it's going to look like I'm just being obstructionist. I'm really not. I just don't think the core problems have been addressed...except perhaps the remorse thing, which really isn't the main problem. Seriously though. Put yourself in the shoes of these characters. They left their living rooms, got in a van, and under false pretenses were thrown unprepared into a potentially lethal situation where they were shot, burned, exposed to toxins, blown up, smashed, smacked, beaten into a bloody mess in some cases...and now...hey! It was a test! Yay, you passed!
> 
> How can we not break our #2 pencils and tell them what to go do with their damn test?   Because not only were we put through hell, and under artificially bad conditions...ie not only did the Trust not try to make a hard situation any easier, they actually went out of their way to make it more difficult...but we were put through hell -on purpose-. And the thought that a boat full of additional supers, men with super-killing weapons, and high explosives could come onto the scene without the Trust knowing it doesn't really help much. Sort of like a certain Presidency (which shall remain nameless to conform with posting guidelines ) the question becomes...are you evil, or just incompetent?
> 
> ------
> 
> But that's just a rehash of points already made. I turn instead to possible solutions.
> 
> 1) THE MOLE: Turns out someone in The Trust can't be trusted. They heard about a batch of new recruits and threw a few monkeywrenches into the game. Only problem is...we lived. When the contacts we were supposed to meet hear about what happened in detail, they'll realize that the training program we were supposed to have encountered was something entirely different and more deadly. Tracking down and finding this mole could become a mission later on.
> 
> 2) THE PURGE: The Trust is split within by internal factions...ex-special forces paramilitary types that formed the program in the first place, and a newer crop of supers who have gradually been asserting more power. The scandal this recruiting technique causes within the group provides the newer faction with the power it needs to start some major housecleaning, starting with the ones in charge of recruiting. These purged individuals might then form their own group of highly trained, highly equipped nonsupers that have a deep rivalry with the new Trust, and chips on their shoulders.
> 
> 3) THE HEEL-CLICK: This was a Matrix-like brain sim/magical collective hallucination or something. Retcon ensues. Kind of icky, but it gets the job done, and no hard feelings.
> 
> 4) THE WILD REBELS: (crunchy, chewy rebels) In what would probably be a 360 degree departure from everything you have planned, the PC's decide not to go with the Trust, but still team up. Requires a change in title. Probably negates anywhere from 1/2 to 3/4's of the reason you wanted to run this game in the first place. Least attractive option.
> 
> Open to other ideas too! This is just to get us started.





Well, if one, two, or anything like that were true, Thess wouldn't know for a while, and it would probably unfun if I set up such a mystery (and maybe I already have...) and told you ahead of time.  As you may have noticed, Ms. White promised an investigation to figure out who screwed this up so badly.

Regarding the resources, they have yet to make their pitch or show what they have, even though they certainly did drop the ball with regard to the other two supers.

One more defense of their actions, btw, these were not just any random person plucked out of their homes to risk death and get beat up -- these were superheroes, or at least budding ones.  Such risks tend to come with the territory in that profession.

The major issue is getting Thess to stick around in the short term, as the long term will probably get worked out one way or another.


----------



## Shayuri

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Well, if one, two, or anything like that were true, Thess wouldn't know for a while, and it would probably unfun if I set up such a mystery (and maybe I already have...) and told you ahead of time.
> 
> Regarding the resources, they have yet to make their pitch or show what they have, even though they certainly did drop the ball with regard to the other two supers.
> 
> One more defense of their actions, btw, these were not just any random person plucked out of their homes to risk death and get beat up -- these were superheroes, or at least budding ones.  Such risks tend to come with the territory in that profession.
> 
> The major issue is getting Thess to stick around in the short term, as the long term will probably get worked out one way or another.





Well, if something went wrong, they could know it went wrong at the outset... Then they'd at least be able to say, "This is is all wrong, none of this was planned...how could this be?!" Etc etc. As opposed to, ya know, saying of Spirit (paraphrased, of course ), "Well, it's her own fault she's dead, nyah!" 

And yes, superheroing is dangerous...but when a superhero takes a risk, she does so of her own free will. By lying to us about what was coming, they robbed us of the chance to exercise that free will. Imagine saying to a cop, "Hey, I'm gonna drive you to meet my wife." Then you pull up to a drug factory and say, "She's in there! Go say hi!" If the cop makes it back out, I don't think, "Well, you're a cop...it's a risky job," would really be considered a good excuse. 

I dunno...does it seem like my issues are unreasonable? Am I just being cranky because it's late? Lemme sleep on it. I'm sure having Thess stay in the short term won't be too big a problem...


----------



## Elric

Shayuri, I agree with all of your IC points.  In my opinion, going with Rebels Not of the Trust is the most likely IC option at this point.

If Spirit hadn't died, things would be going better IC, imo, but it wasn't to be.  Matt, you really could have avoided killing her (she turns Insubstantial right before they can kill her and manages to slip away... then she's understandably pissed off and decides not to join the trust).  Then we're maybe a little more forgiving since no one has died.

I do have a potential solution, though, but I'd rather propose it OOC first because I don't want to wreck anything if this can't work IC.

Nitro says that he's not working with people who got Spirit killed as it is, and gives them an ultimatum that they catch Spirit's killers (the two supers) within 2 weeks.  Nitro can easily stay the contact point for the rest of the group, since he doesn't have a secret ID.  The PCs will meet at the Coliseum in the same lot in two weeks if the Trust hasn't caught those guys- and then they'll talk about forming their own group.

Since Matt can make things happen behind the scenes, the Trust can indeed fulfill this and bring those guys to justice.  Now the problem with this is that it might close a huge line of the plot that we were supposed to do ourselves- but I'm sure those guys can get out of jail at some point.


----------



## Fenris2

FWIW Angel could go with 1,2 or 4 of Shayuri's the proposed solutions as well as the rebel group idea Notro proposed...

I really agree that they dropped the ball big time on this whole test thing.  I mean they could have had the van go to a super holotank and we would have done the whole thing dry run probably none the wiser.

In Angels HO on Spirit?  She did it to herself, so he has no real qualms about that, however unfortunately it went.  Now if we had had no warning at all, and the bad guys cakked her...  Then yeah, he would be totally pissed at them.  lol

Currently Angel is on the fence about the whole thing...  Their methodology and morality is highly suspect.


----------



## Jemal

Optic would agree with most of Shayuri's points, though he's more likely to agree with Angel on the Spirit front.. It was a reckless, unnecessary death, and while there are certain things that COULD have been done to help them be more informed, Optic doubts the Trust could've know that they had a Super capable of blasting Incorporeal.  And without that information, Spirit still would have left.

IC, it makes the most sense for Optic to get pissed at them for not telling us everything up-front, and maybe even try to take the team (the other PC's) and form his OWN super-group, but OOC I realize that may be counter-productive to the GM's plans for the campaign, and that sticking with them in the long run will probably work out to the best.


Matt, I just want to ask you seriously, b/c it seems like several of us are considering it.. 
Would forming our own group seperate from the Trust be a problem for you as a GM?  B/c I'm willing to (and confident I can) come up with a way for Optic to convince the group to work with the Trust IC if it's for the best of the Campaign.

*EDIT* : On thinking, perhaps a "trial" period would be in order.. We'll work with them as follows : WE are in charge of ourselves, and just take the intel they give and decide what to do for ourselves.  If after a couple missions we're confident that they're not gonna screw up again, we may join in with their group fully.

(Although the whole "Called together by an organization to form a super group.. the organization messes up and we decide to band together on our own" storyline IS appealing.. I think I saw that in a show/comic once...


----------



## DM_Matt

The "group that works with/coordinates the good guys that the good guys don't fully trust" thing is a pretty common storyline.  If its OK with you guys, I'd like to try to make the "trial" thing work, at least to an extent. Giving the group a chance while being very skeptical will work out for you guys in the long run.  They haven't made their real pitch yet, and you don't know how much autonomy they were planning on giving you anyway.


Additionally, if it would help a lot, Sprit's death can be retconned, or the Trust could possess, and use, a limited-use resurrection device.  Perhaps since she isnot humanbut made of some strange morphic material associated with her powers, they can figure outa way to "repair"her.  Catching those two in two weeks will not necessarily work, though.


----------



## Jemal

I wouldn't suggest undoing the death.  It makes for a really good storyline if you ask me!

I personally think we can do the Trial thing, and will be trying to calm characters down IC (In my bid for Leadership.. MUAHAHA).  Basically it'll boil down to "If we don't at least get SOMETHING from these guys then she died for nothing.  Lets see what they give us."


----------



## DM_Matt

A reiteration of what I edited in the start of it too late: 

Perhaps since she is not human but made of some strange morphic material associated with her powers, they can figure outa way to "repair"her.  At least they can start trying, such that the story will likely pass this part on before it is clear wether or not they will succeed.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> I wouldn't suggest undoing the death.  It makes for a really good storyline if you ask me!
> 
> I personally think we can do the Trial thing, and will be trying to calm characters down IC (In my bid for Leadership.. MUAHAHA).  Basically it'll boil down to "If we don't at least get SOMETHING from these guys then she died for nothing.  Lets see what they give us."




If the others can deal with that, that would obviously be the best for me for the timebegin, and I think the best for the game.

Also, I'm going to get the IC thread moving even while we talk about this.


----------



## Shayuri

Okay. I've slept on it, and I think I see how it can all work...at least for me.

Basically, first of all, the Trust's official position on the matter can't be represented by that one guy who basically tried to blame it all on the victim.   I realize Spirit acted recklessly, but one big reason she did was because we needed info (which she was trying to get) and because she didn't believe there was any threat (we had no reason to suspect any supers, let alone supers with such specific abilities). If this had been a sanctioned mission, we would have been told at least enough to make us more cautious. So there needs to be some recognition, officially, that at least SOME of the responsibility is borne by the Trust, and some actual apology/remorse for that and for putting all our lives in unnecessary danger would be nice too. 

Secondly, there needs to be a debriefing that explains what happened. On review of the details, I find that the Trust -thought- they had this under control. They were prepared to intervene, if necessary. They believed the risks were manageable. The appearance of these other supers disrupted that control (though admittedly, the moment that control was disrupted, the logical thing to do would have been to intervene immediately...but oh well ). Since one of the unexpected supers was this tech-controller, perhaps they can discover that he was able to subvert Trust tech to avoid detection...an unexpected eventuality. Furthermore, the Trust operative that made the decision not to intervene when they realized things were getting out of hand could be reprimanded (thus giving us an NPC to focus our dislike upon, while exonerating the organization as a whole).

And finally, a good demonstration of what the Trust can offer a team of superheroes that they couldn't easily provide for themselves. A briefcase of equipment won't really qualify.   The most valuable commodity would probably be information on criminal activities and supervillains, headquarter facilities, access to super-level training and so on that can justify exp spending on powers and such.

Oh, and some kind of assurance...verbal's fine, doesn't have to go into detail...that they're making changes to prevent this sort of thing from happening again would be good. 

Edit - And oh yeah, don't retcon the death unless you're willing to 'make it all a dream.' Especially since in some ways, the problem isn't specifically Spirit's death, it's how the bad situation led TO her death. Just making her life won't fix that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Okay. I've slept on it, and I think I see how it can all work...at least for me.
> 
> Basically, first of all, the Trust's official position on the matter can't be represented by that one guy who basically tried to blame it all on the victim.   I realize Spirit acted recklessly, but one big reason she did was because we needed info (which she was trying to get) and because she didn't believe there was any threat (we had no reason to suspect any supers, let alone supers with such specific abilities). If this had been a sanctioned mission, we would have been told at least enough to make us more cautious. So there needs to be some recognition, officially, that at least SOME of the responsibility is borne by the Trust, and some actual apology/remorse for that and for putting all our lives in unnecessary danger would be nice too.
> 
> Secondly, there needs to be a debriefing that explains what happened. On review of the details, I find that the Trust -thought- they had this under control. They were prepared to intervene, if necessary. They believed the risks were manageable. The appearance of these other supers disrupted that control (though admittedly, the moment that control was disrupted, the logical thing to do would have been to intervene immediately...but oh well ). Since one of the unexpected supers was this tech-controller, perhaps they can discover that he was able to subvert Trust tech to avoid detection...an unexpected eventuality. Furthermore, the Trust operative that made the decision not to intervene when they realized things were getting out of hand could be reprimanded (thus giving us an NPC to focus our dislike upon, while exonerating the organization as a whole).
> 
> And finally, a good demonstration of what the Trust can offer a team of superheroes that they couldn't easily provide for themselves. A briefcase of equipment won't really qualify.   The most valuable commodity would probably be information on criminal activities and supervillains, headquarter facilities, access to super-level training and so on that can justify exp spending on powers and such.
> 
> Oh, and some kind of assurance...verbal's fine, doesn't have to go into detail...that they're making changes to prevent this sort of thing from happening again would be good.
> 
> Edit - And oh yeah, don't retcon the death unless you're willing to 'make it all a dream.' Especially since in some ways, the problem isn't specifically Spirit's death, it's how the bad situation led TO her death. Just making her life won't fix that.




Quite doable.  In fact, most of that was going to happen anyway.


----------



## Elric

I had intended to write an angry post for Nitro today, but then I ended up having a really, really good day, so I couldn't summon the inner anger to do it.  Oh well.  Easier this way.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

I will probably not be posting this weekend, as I don't think I will be taking my laptop to Gencon. Anyone else gonna be there?


----------



## Jemal

Necro_Kinder said:
			
		

> I will probably not be posting this weekend, as I don't think I will be taking my laptop to Gencon. Anyone else gonna be there?



See other thread re: You suck.


----------



## Blind Azathoth

I'd like to apologize for my even more infrequent than usual posts...been dealing with a lot of personal stuff lately. I'm also going to be gone for some period of time this weekend--all of Saturday, part of Sunday, and perhaps late Friday as well--while I move into a new apartment and wait for the cable to get set up. After that, though, everything should be fine.


----------



## Victim

test
test  
test


----------



## Elric

I'd like to modify Nitro so that instead of 4 ranks each of Bluff and Diplomacy and 2 ranks in Attractive, I'll have 8 ranks each of Bluff and Diplomacy and 1 rank in Attractive (and I'll subtract 1 pp off elsewhere).  Sound good?


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> I'd like to modify Nitro so that instead of 4 ranks each of Bluff and Diplomacy and 2 ranks in Attractive, I'll have 8 ranks each of Bluff and Diplomacy and 1 rank in Attractive (and I'll subtract 1 pp off elsewhere).  Sound good?




Sure, go ahead.


----------



## Necro_Kinder

I have returned from my adventures at GenCon! An adventure on which I met Gary Gygax!     
But yes, I should be back to my normal posting, though I do start school this week. Hopefully that doesn't get in the way.


----------



## Elric

Raylis- just saw your updated character sheet.  Since you have 8 ranks in Forcefield, you'll want to get some ranks of Concentration so that when you're stunned the forcefield doesn't drop (DC 10+rank, so 18 to keep it up, so 8 ranks would get you a +12 Concentration check which would be pretty good).  Alternately, you could change the power to protection to represent a constant effect that she doesn't have to think about- then you won't be able to use Extra Effort to Power Stunt anything off of it, but can't be dropped when you're stunned.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. Matt? You invited me in as a possible alternate. I already posted my character. She's something of a Harry Dresden type superhero, the mystical investigator.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hmmm. Matt? You invited me in as a possible alternate. I already posted my character. She's something of a Harry Dresden type superhero, the mystical investigator.




Some comments: Matt's initial post of the thread isn't clear about this (no matter how many times I told him to write PL 11, 165 pp in the post... :\), but we're actually playing at PL 11, 165 pp.

Also, we're not using the wealth rules so if you want anything as equipment besides what the superhero team gives us (look at Johnny Nitro's character sheet where that's all listed as "free equipment"), and probably the basics, i.e., normal apartment/car type stuff, you'll have to buy it with the equipment feat.  You can still take a benefit feat to be wealthy, but it won't let you get free equipment in game. For example, you'd have to pay pp for the sword.

You have no Cha score listed.  That bad, eh? 

I can't tell what you've done with your magic array.  You have to list it in an easier to understand format for me.  Maybe not Matt, though 

Skills are 1 pp for 4 skill points.  I don't think you have that right.  Also, you aren't adding +7 for your Wis/Int bonuses to the skills based on Int/Wisdom.

Attack Bonus and Defense Bonus are 2 pp each.  So that should be 24 pp for +12 to each, not 4 pp (maybe this was just a typo).  Strength and Dex don't add to Defense or to Attacks, so there's no reason why your ranged attack would be higher than your melee attack as you haven't taken Attack Focus: Ranged.  

The build needs a lot of work   You should take a look at the character creation examples I've posted here, if you haven't done so already.  We all made first characters once.

The Excel spreadsheet linked to in the first post of this thread is very helpful for making characters- that's what I use for all of my PCs.  You should use that.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Bear with me, first time using these new rules.  

Basically, I'm heading for a kind of Harry Dresdenish type investigator/superhero. Also, majorly reworked the character, to reflect PP and such. Hope it's an improvement.


----------



## Elric

Much better, but a way to go.  She's nowhere near powerful enough in combat- you should be at your offense/defense PL caps, more or less.  On defense: +11 Defense bonus/+11 Toughness save, as modified by the tradeoff rules (pg 24).

You need to specify just what powers you have at what ranks with what extras in your magic array.  Also, you don't want to have to drop your Forcefield (or Flight) to use your Blast!  

For example,
Blast (Mystic Fire) 10 (20 pp)
AP: Healing 10
AP: Telekinesis 10

In a separate power slot: Flight 3
In another separate power slot: Force Field 10

You don't have to spend nearly that many pp on equipment.  The Heavy Pistol is almost identical to the free equipment item we all got (see my character's sheet, second from the top).  A lot of the other minor equipment is identical to stuff we got.  The Switch Blade is going to be useless.  You don't need to pay pp for an ordinary house/car- you're just assumed to have it.  Improved Block and Fearsome Presence (at one rank) will be useless.  You have to specify what attack Improved Crit applies to.

Given the number of Int-based skills you have, you should increase your Int score while lowering your skill ranks some (it's magic- she can always justify 26 Int).  Search is based on Int, not Wis.  Notice is the one based on Wis- you should have ranks in that.  Gather Info is based on Cha.  If you used the Excel sheet, you wouldn't have to worry about this.  Profession: Investigator isn't needed when you have the Investigate skill.

You can't buy up your Toughness save by just spending pp directly- you can only do that for the other 3 saves.  Your Fort/Ref/Will saves are too low by about 2 points apiece.  OK, that should do it for now


----------



## Victim

Yeah, you've spent points on lots of equipment we've gotten for free.

For a magic blasting rod, I'm not sure that equipment is appropriate anyway.  Also, she'd be able to stack a Device with her basic level 5 mystic blast to represent the item enhancing her power.

Odd ability scores are basically a waste of points.

Fire Control might be a good AP of the mystic blast.

You may want to do a more detailed write up of the powers in her magic array.  Also, putting force field and flight in an array is often a bad idea.  Flying or using one of her other utility powers creates a massive vulnerability.

I think that the ability to make potions would be covered by the Artificer feat (it's an equipment based version of ritualist).

While some overlap between characters is going to be unavoidable especially since the group is rather large, Hope's abilities are very much like Viridian's.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> While some overlap between characters is going to be unavoidable especially since the group is rather large, Hope's abilities are very much like Viridian's.




That is an important point.  Be careful about that.  Mages can do almost anything in M&M, so their uniqueness and focus rely heavily on their concept.  Viridian is a college wiccan mage -- her magics arent that aggressive (due to quasi-pacifist religious stuff about white and black magic) and magic is her entire set of abilities.  You would be an FBI trained investigator mage.  Your abilities should be different, but you have to figure out what you would be able to do in that line of work.


----------



## kirinke

Hmm. I think I'm getting the concept down.   Alrighty. Lemme rework it again.

Here's what I got so far

[sblock]
ABILITY SCORES: PP SPENT 50
(+2) STR: 15
(+2) DEX: 15
(+2) CON: 15
(+7) INT: 25
(+7) WIS: 25
(+2) CHA: 15

PP SPENT: 27
TOUGHNESS:.................+8 base + 2 ability modifier
FORTITUDE:.................. +8 base + 2 ability modifier
REFLEX:..........................+8 base + 2 ability modifier
WILL:.............................. +3 base +7 ability modifier

PP SPENT 20
DEFENSE: +10 
ATTACK: +10
INITATIVE: +2
HERO POINTS
[/sblock]

Now, what sort of powers/feats/skills would be good for this sort of mage. I have 68pp left
I think maybe cold or electricity based spells might work as we already got a fire-bringer on hand.


----------



## Victim

Viridian's powers cover a lot of traditional mentalism aspects (including remote viewing unfortunately), except outright mind reading stuff.  She has TK, Mind Control, Emotion Control, can create TK bubbles with Create Object.  Incidently, this makes it very easy for Shooting Star to dismiss magic as psionics with rituals.  A different sort of magical theme would help differentiate.  Maybe an elemental theme for her spells.  (either generalized or single element)- wind TK instead of pure will for instance.

Some kind of Postcognition effect covers the sensing of lingering emanations that Dresden and other occult investigators sometimes employ.  An investigator might find an invisibility spell handy, especially since the rules for evidence collection are a bit looser on the private side.  Some kind of upgunned telepathy for group communication might be nice.


----------



## Shayuri

Victim has the right of it, basically. Thessaly's magic is kind of low-key as far as special effects go. That's kind of intentional on my part, a consequence of my interpretation of how 'witchcraft' works. It's relatively subtle, for the most part, and easy to make it look like bad (or good) happenstance if you don't know what it is.

So there's plenty of room for flashier magic...mystic bolts, glowing eldritch shields, and so on.

Ironically, I borrowed a bit of Dresden for Thessaly myself...her scrying spell, for example, and her shield amulet (which in my brain works similarly to Dresden's bracelet).

-- Edit: Oh, and someone will tell you eventually, but you can't just spend points on Toughness save. You can only raise it by raising Con, buying feats like Defensive Roll, or powers like Protection, Force Field, and so on.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hmm. I think I'm getting the concept down.   Alrighty. Lemme rework it again.
> 
> Here's what I got so far
> 
> [sblock]
> ABILITY SCORES: PP SPENT 50
> (+2) STR: 15
> (+2) DEX: 15
> (+2) CON: 15
> (+7) INT: 25
> (+7) WIS: 25
> (+2) CHA: 15
> 
> PP SPENT: 27
> TOUGHNESS:.................+8 base + 2 ability modifier
> FORTITUDE:.................. +8 base + 2 ability modifier
> REFLEX:..........................+8 base + 2 ability modifier
> WILL:.............................. +3 base +7 ability modifier
> 
> PP SPENT 20
> DEFENSE: +10
> ATTACK: +10
> INITATIVE: +2
> HERO POINTS
> [/sblock]
> 
> Now, what sort of powers/feats/skills would be good for this sort of mage. I have 68pp left
> I think maybe cold or electricity based spells might work as we already got a fire-bringer on hand.




A few things here:
1.  Make your ability scores even.  You get 6 points back that way.
2.  Do you really want scores so universally high?  
3. You cannot buy toughness directly.  You need to buy it indirectly, by buying the Protection or  Forcefield powers or the Defensive Roll or Tough feats.
4.  You probably do not want to buy all your attack and defense directly.  it is too exensive and probably not appropriate for your char.  This is esp true for attack.  To have 10 attack for everything means yo are a really, really, skilled fighter.  Most characters buy attack a number of ways to be better at some things than others.  Base attack costs 2pp/+1, and adds to everything.  The feat Attack Focus (melee or ranged) costs 1pp/+1 and only works on melee or range.  The feat Attack Specialization costs 1pp/+2 and only works on a single attack or array.  You will probably want at least some of your attack be AS on the magic array.  For the rest, it depends on what your other combat skills are.  Regarding defense, when you buy it for 2pp/+1, you lose half when denied your dex bonus (esp when stunned).  Most, however, buy some of it as ranks of the Dodge Focus feat, which costs 1pp/+1, but you lose it all when stunned/denied your dex.

For abilities, how about some Quickness limited to the Investigate skill for 1pp/3ranks, so you can pick up on / analyze clues really fast.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Viridian's powers cover a lot of traditional mentalism aspects (including remote viewing unfortunately),




Viridian has a "tracking a person" variant of ESP, though, not Scry on a given location from a distance ESP (the regular kind of ESP).  So that's still open.


----------



## Shayuri

That's true. Her ESP is designed to work kind of like D&D's Scry spell, which focuses on a known individual that you have something connecting you to (hairs, blood, etc). She can't just use it to see through doors or to scout unknown locations.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hmm. I think I'm getting the concept down.   Alrighty. Lemme rework it again.
> 
> Here's what I got so far
> 
> 
> 
> Now, what sort of powers/feats/skills would be good for this sort of mage. I have 68pp left
> I think maybe cold or electricity based spells might work as we already got a fire-bringer on hand.




First, all of your stats are odd.  You spent 50 points when 44 would have provided pretty much the same stuff.  

You can't buy toughness directly.  You need Force Field or Protection.  Or Defensive Roll.

No weak points in save areas is a bit unusual, but not a problem.

Attack and Defense cost 2 points per +1.  Buying everything straight out (instead of using attack focus or dodge focus) costs 40 points, not 20.

Ice magic would be neat.  I was actually thinking of doing that, but decided to use the power set for Shooting Star's villain instead.  Maybe there's a connection?

Wind magic would be nice too, with lots of potentially subtle tricks like invisibility or far speaking/sensing.



			
				Elric said:
			
		

> Viridian has a "tracking a person" variant of ESP, though, not Scry on a given location from a distance ESP (the regular kind of ESP). So that's still open.




I was wrong.


----------



## kirinke

That's exactly what I was aiming for, wind and ice based magic. She is an orphan, but she's also a good mage, even if she's considered to be something of a wild card by the authorities. 

Hmmm, could you give me good build for this? I'm rather confused still. 

Her basic abilities are

ABILITY SCORES: 30 PP SPENT 
(+2) STR:....... 15
(+2) DEX:...... 15
(+2) CON:...... 15
(+2) INT:........ 15
(+2) WIS:........15
(+2) CHA:....... 15


----------



## Shayuri

Well, here's the point. You get nothing by making your scores 15 that you wouldn't get by making them 14.

You're basically wasting 6 points there.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> That's exactly what I was aiming for, wind and ice based magic. She is an orphan, but she's also a good mage, even if she's considered to be something of a wild card by the authorities.
> 
> Hmmm, could you give me good build for this? I'm rather confused still.
> 
> Her basic abilities are
> 
> ABILITY SCORES: 30 PP SPENT
> (+2) STR:....... 15
> (+2) DEX:...... 15
> (+2) CON:...... 15
> (+2) INT:........ 15
> (+2) WIS:........15
> (+2) CHA:....... 15




1.  Why do you keep going with odd ability scores?  Only the even numbers matter. A 15 gives you nothing extra compared to a 14.

2.  Do you really want all your ability scores to be the same?  Are noy really equally good at all that stuff, or are you better at some things than others?


----------



## kirinke

Alrighty then. 

I think that this is a pretty good ability array (I took into account the even scores, I didn't realize...)

ABILITY SCORES: 40 PP SPENT 
(+2) STR:........ 14
(+3) DEX:......... 16
(+3) CON:....... 16
(+5) INT:........ 20
(+5) WIS:........ 20
(+3) CHA:....... 14


----------



## DM_Matt

Have you read that thing Elric wrote that I linked to?  It should help...

For the rest of you, remember to post in the game thread too during this time


----------



## kirinke

I did try that excel sheet, but it didn't work for me for some reason. Grr
Well, I did make some changes, probably not done. Lol


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Well, here's the point. You get nothing by making your scores 15 that you wouldn't get by making them 14.
> 
> You're basically wasting 6 points there.




Not true.  15 STR instead of 14 gets you +25 pounds on your heavy load.  A truly awesome use of a power point.  

Wind Magic ideas:

Flight 4 (8)
Force Field 9 (9)

Wind Magic #1 (24 point base power, 4 APs = 28)
-Elemental Control: Air 12 (24)
-Trip 12 +Knockback (24)
-Blast 10 Precise, Accurate Indirect 2 (24)
-"Updraft" Gravity Control 11 +Selective -Upwards only (22)
-Suffocate 8 +Ranged (24) 

Wind Magic #2 (13 base power, 4 APs=17)
-Wind Carried Words" Communication 4 (hearing) +Area, + Two Way, Selective (13)
-Concealment 6 (hearing group, mental group, normal sight), Close Range (13)
-ESP 4 (sight, hearing) Subtle (magic senses required to make notice check) (13)
-Environmental Control: hamper movement 6 (1/4th speed, 250 ft rad), Selective
-Immunity: Gas effects +Continuous +Affects Others -must remain touching,  Progression 3 (10 people) (13)

Total cost of powers = 62


----------



## DM_Matt

Look into the concept of alternate powers, and moving your magic array way up.  5 ranks in an attack pwoer wont do anything at this level.  As a general rule, you need to hit your caps.  You should have a battle magic array based on one of your powers, where you spend only one pp each to add the others as alternate powers.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Look into the concept of alternate powers, and moving your magic array way up.  5 ranks in an attack pwoer wont do anything at this level.  As a general rule, you need to hit your caps.  You should have a battle magic array based on one of your powers, where you spend only one pp each to add the others as alternate powers.




Yep.  You can also run multiple arrays - one for primary combat powers and others for supporting effects that need to be run at the same time.  See my example above or Viridian's sheet.


----------



## kirinke

Ok. Now if I go in for the alternate power feat, the powers that I chose for this only costs 1 power point right? for all of this, I only have 64 pp to spend on Powers. One of those powers is Comprehend languages and I spent 4 ranks on that. So 60pp for the rest.


----------



## DM_Matt

You'll probably need more points than that.  Your main magic array needs to hit your caps.  For a magic-based character, powers are the most important thing.  You should be figuring out what you need to spend on them before determining a lot of the other stuff, not vice-versa.  I again suggest you reading that thread I showed you and looking at how other characters work.  


Remember that the first thing you need to do is figure out what you want your character to do.  In your case, thats going to primarily be a powers-based thing.  Until you know that, we can't much help you.  Once you do, the system can probably accommodate it, and the rest of us can help.

Also, by attack focus 7, do you mean attack focus (ranged)?


----------



## kirinke

Ahh. My bad. I need to remove the Attack focus thing as I decided against it. With that removed and a good recalcuation, I have a total of 64 pp to spend on Powers.

Ok. I'll sleep on it. I am thinking a bit on Wind and Cold based spells/powers as ya'll don't seem to have one specializing in that.

It's getting way late and I'm getting fuzzy and confused. I'll pick up on it again tomorrow. When I have a clearer head.

The basic concept that I have in my head is:
An investigative type mage whose major focus is cold and wind based spells/effects. She's not afraid to use lethal force when necessary as she is used to dealing with some pretty nasty characters (necromancers and the like) who would pose a real danger to others even if incarcerated if they got that far.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Ok. Now if I go in for the alternate power feat, the powers that I chose for this only costs 1 power point right? for all of this, I only have 44 pp to spend on Powers. One of those powers is Comprehend languages and I spent 4 ranks on that. So 44 for the rest.




Yeah, it's one point.  The power has to cost the same or less as the base power and can't be used at the same time as the main power.  Switching powers is a free action and can be done once per array per round.

What attack, defense, and tradeoffs are you using?  That determines how many ranks of forcefield or damaging powers that you'll want.

If you like the set up I posted above, folding Flight into the secondary magic array saves 7 points (that power slot has more points that you could put into flight or some other power that'd run at the same time).  That's 55 points.  A few APs could be dropped, so that's ~52.  Curses.  

It's so easy to spend points and so hard to cut things.  Looking at your sheet though, I'd drop other things before cutting into powers.  Dropping CHA and funneling the points back into the social skills you want can you save some points.  Imp Block could be dropped.  Stats or saves could be scaled down a touch. 

14 CHA only provides a +2 modifier.  You need to pick an attack type for Imp Crit.

For ice attack stuff, I tend to think of Create Object and Snare.  But the tricked out versions (all the trimmings on CO, a linked attack and/or sedondary effect on snare) cost lots per rank - using them on a character with so much in stats and skills will require significant flaws.


----------



## kirinke

Well. I'm going to rework both. See if I can come up with something better.


----------



## kirinke

Alright I'm completely redoing the character with an emphasis on wind based powers, as I don't think I'll have enough to go with cold based powers. 

PP SPENT: 36
(+1) STR: 12
(+3 DEX: 16
(+2) CON: 14
(+5 INT:  20
(+5 WIS: 20
(+2) CHA: 14

PP SPENT: 14
SAVING THROWS...................Rank.........PP SPENT
(+06) Fortitude:.....................05..............05
(+07) Reflex:..........................04.............04 
(+09) Will............................04..............05
(+03) Toughness

PP SPENT: 24
COMBAT............................RANK...........PP SPENT
ATTACK:..............................08.................16
DEFENSE:.............................04.................08
Init: +03


PP SPENT: 20
SKILLS.................................ABIL MOD.....RANK
(+09) Gather information.............+5..........+4
(+09) Investigate......................+5..........+4
(+09) Search............................+5..........+4
(+09) Notice..............................+5..........+4
(+09) Knowledge Arcane Lore........+5..........+4

FEATS: 08 PP SPENT
Ritualistic, Contacts, 
Jack of All trades, Improved Disarm
Precise Shot, 
Improved Block, Accurate Attack, 

POWERS: PP Spent:63

MAGIC ARRAY...............................................RANK........PP SPENT
Elemental Control (Air Alternate powers 5)...........12.............24
Blasting Wind.................................................10.............10
Swirling Wind (Protection)................................08.............08
Breath of Death (Suffocation)...........................08.............08
On Winds of Change (Flight).............................05.............05
Whisper of the Past (Post Cognition).................04.............04

Utility Powers...............................................Rank..........PP SPENT
Comprehend languages....................................04..............04


----------



## DM_Matt

Here is sometihng I came up with as a rough possibility:

Str	12
Dex	14
Con	16
Int	20
Wis	16
Cha	12
Total: 30pp

Feats: Ritualist, Attractive, Power Attack, Ranged Focus 3, Attack Specialization: Weather Attack Array 2, Dodge Focus 9, Benefit: FBI Connections, Master Plan, Eidetic Memory, Well-Informed
Total: 22pp

Skills:
(+15) 		Investigate (10r)
(+15) 		Knowledge: Arcane Lore (10r)
(+15) 		Knowledge: Streetwise (10r)
(+5)  		All Other Knowledges (0r)
(+10) 		Notice (7r)
(+10)  		Gather Info (9r)
(+6/+10)	Diplomacy (5r)
(+7)  		Sense Motive (4r)
(+4/+8)		Bluff (3r)
(+13)  		Concentration (10r)
Total: 17pp

Powers:

Guarding Winds (Force Field 8) (8pp)

Movement: (6pp+1ap)
Ride the Winds (Flight 3)
-AP: Wind At Your Back (Speed 3 + Leaping 3)

Feature: Wind-Blown Effects (1pp) --  This feat extends your unconscious control over air so you are never unnecessarily mussed by the wind, but always have just the right gust of air to ruffle your hair or cape at just the right moment.

Feature: Rapid Investigator: Can Use Investigate at 10x Speed (Quickness, Limited 2: Investigate)

Weather Attack Array (32 base +6ap = 38)
-Lightning Blast (Blast 12, Imp Crit 3, Knockback 4, Indirect)
-Lightning Flash (Blast 10+ Dazzle Visual 5, Indirect)
-Hailstorm (Area Blast 10 Indirect)
-Blow Away (Trip 10, Knockback, Area: Cone, Improved Trip)
-Hands of Air (Precise Air Control 10 (As Telekinesis) ), Freshen Air (removes or counters gas effects or scents)
-Force of Nature: Enhanced Strength 22, Super-Stregth 2 (PF:Superbreath), Enhanced Feats: Unarmed Specialization 3, Melee Focus 1, Imp Crit (Unarmed)
-Conjure Ice (Continuous Create Object 9, Precise, Tether, Selective, Innate, Progression 1)

Wind Magic (13 base power, 3 APs=16)
-Wind Carried Words" Communication 4 (hearing) +Area, + Two Way, Selective (13)
-ESP 4 (sight, hearing) Subtle (magic senses required to make notice check) (13)
-Driving Rain Environmental Control: hamper movement 6 (1/4th speed, 250 ft rad),
-Fog (Environmental Control: obscure 6)

Total: 71

Combat:
Attack: +3 (+6ranged, +10 weather Attack Array) (6pp)
Defense: +2 (+11) (4pp)
Total: 10pp

Saves:
Toughness: +11
Fort: +7  4+3
Ref:  +9  7+2
Will: +9  6+3
Total: 17pp

Drawbackks (-1pp):
Minor Vulnerability to Fire


----------



## kirinke

Nice. I likes.  

I'll go with it.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Nice. I likes.
> 
> I'll go with it.




Alright, but please read it over, make you you know what it does and the logic of how it was constructed, ask questions, and maybe change stuff to better fit your image of her.


----------



## kirinke

It's pretty much what I had in mind for her, although I think that postcognition would be a handy thing to have for an investigative type character.

Perhaps I could switch out the ESP and call it Whisper of the past? That would work and it would make sense for a postcognitive to work with the FBI to find kidnapped/missing people.
I'd be willing to let it be an uncontrolled or semi-uncontrolled ability.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> It's pretty much what I had in mind for her, although I think that postcognition would be a handy thing to have for an investigative type character.
> 
> Perhaps I could switch out the ESP and call it Whisper of the past? That would work and it would make sense for a postcognitive to work with the FBI to find kidnapped/missing people.
> I'd be willing to let it be an uncontrolled or semi-uncontrolled ability.




I only allow pre or postcognition as uncontrolled.  How would you really square these visions with your powers, though?


----------



## kirinke

I can go with uncontrolled on the postcognition. It makes more sense that way. I mean, whoever heard of someone with precog or postcog who could control that power anyway? 

As to how it would work: 
The winds of time flow in both directions and seep into every object touched by an individual and those experiences, thoughts and feelings whisper like the gentlest breeze all the time. For Hope, the echoes of the past are the strongest winds of all and can become a tornado of visions in the present.


----------



## Victim

I was hoping someone with intimidate or something could handle the actual questions.


----------



## Shayuri

Gwah...the DC on my mind control is 21, not 19.

I guess that's good. Is there any other way to boost DC? Hero point or something?

Thess doesn't have Intimidate, but she's casting the spells, so I guess she can ask the questions.


----------



## DM_Matt

She can spend a hero point on extra effort to up it by 2.  I refresh hero points at the end of each fight, so she'd have one less in the next fight.


----------



## kirinke

Oh, how many hero points does Hope have?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Oh, how many hero points does Hope have?




Everyone gets one at the start of every session.  You could get more by having the Luck feat, but it doesn't really fit the character.  You also can get more during a session in various ways, such as doing something especially heroic, something really bad happening to you (like a complication), or uses of GM Fiat (including HP use by bad guys).

Some in the group BTW post very rarely, but I am not going to give up on them just yet.  I will consider just letting you in without actually calling anyone dropped, but I'd have to tihnk about how to work you in.


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> She can spend a hero point on extra effort to up it by 2.  I refresh hero points at the end of each fight, so she'd have one less in the next fight.




No- she can use Extra Effort to up the rank of Mind Control by 2.  Then, if she wants to negate the Fatigue from the hero point, she can spend a hero point.  Or she can wait a while (an hour, iirc) and get a check to recover from the fatigue.  Of course, it can get a little abusive if players constantly use Extra Effort to out of combat to, say, Power Stunt new powers and then the GM will feel obligated to make tons of "sudden encounters" pop up to take advantage of players being fatigued for a while- so that might be a road you want to avoid going down too much.

Edit- Nitro gets to deliver his signature line!  I've been waiting for this


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Everyone gets one at the start of every session.  You could get more by having the Luck feat, but it doesn't really fit the character.  You also can get more during a session in various ways, such as doing something especially heroic, something really bad happening to you (like a complication), or uses of GM Fiat (including HP use by bad guys).
> 
> Some in the group BTW post very rarely, but I am not going to give up on them just yet.  I will consider just letting you in without actually calling anyone dropped, but I'd have to tihnk about how to work you in.




Heh. You know me, I post nearly every day. Sometimes multiple times a day.   
Maybe she could be working for that museum or tracking that nasty Faust guy at the behest of the FBI or even Interpol. I mean, he sounds like a serial killer from heck and probably has committed lots of murders in the US.


----------



## Shayuri

Good point on Extra Effort. I'll save it for times when it seems dramatically appropriate...


----------



## kirinke

Matt? The uncontrolled flaw for postcognition gives Hope an extra pp and I put that extra pp into her will save. I figured with her being stubborn enough to track a guy to literal hell, that fit her character more than anything else.


----------



## kirinke

Hmm. I know the group doesn't have a superheroic name yet. But how about the Irregulars? With a demon, angel, plant guy, two witches, a weather specialist mage, optic based guy and Mr. Nitro there, it would be a good fit. The group certainly is an irregular bunch.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Matt? The uncontrolled flaw for postcognition gives Hope an extra pp and I put that extra pp into her will save.




No, it doesn't, because you are taking Postcognition as an Alternate Power of a different power that is the base power for the Array it is in (and costs 13 pp, so you can spend 1 pp to gain any alternate power that would cost 13 pp or less if taken as a stand-alone power).  So adding the Postcognition power only costs 1 pp, regardless of whether you take the Uncontrolled flaw on it or not.

In fact, you could add Uncontrolled Precognition (certain to drive Matt crazy!) to the same array slot and it would still cost 1 pp to have Super-Senses 8 (Precognition and Postcognition- Flaw: Uncontrolled).  But this is why Alternate Powers can get a little out of hand.  So you should stick to the power that makes sense- in this case, Uncontrolled Postcognition.


----------



## kirinke

Ahh. Okay. I'll change it. Heh. Postcognition works best for Hope anyway. It gives her an insight on the crime in question, even though it can be very uncomfortable at times.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hmm. I know the group doesn't have a superheroic name yet. But how about the Irregulars? With a demon, angel, plant guy, two witches, a weather specialist mage, optic based guy and Mr. Nitro there, it would be a good fit. The group certainly is an irregular bunch.




So the only characters that aren't weird are Nightweaver and Shooting Star?  Optic seems the most normal.  Plus most super teams are really weird if there's no unified origin.  A Norse god, rich genius inventor, and an enhanced soldier frozen during WW2?  An invincible alien, warrior from a hidden mythical land, and an awesome detective?  Do mixed source teams ever make sense?  Having so many magical characters makes the group remarkably coherent. 

If we don't come up with a name, media people will just make one up.  On one hand, FC is normally pretty supportive of super heroes.  On the other hand, we did blow up all of Oxydyne's buildings.  Sure, it wasn't our attacks that did (most of) the damage.  Maybe we'll be the Damage League.


----------



## kirinke

Heh. Sorry, forgot to include em.


----------



## Shayuri

Thessaly's not weird. She's a witch.


----------



## DM_Matt

So I have been considering the following:

1. House-Ruling Improved Roll to be a straight reroll.  Right now, its so good that hero points become hit points, a depletable resource that makes fights last longer and require significant wearing down to make for a good fight (ad bad guys tailored to do it).  Also, Improved Roll is so good that there is a strong disincentive to use hero points for more creative or cinematic uses.

What do you guys think?



2.  Kirinke:  Would you mind your character actually working for the FBI or AEGIS, as well as for the Trust?  Basically, the Trust would ensure that you get the cases that Trust operatives are working on, to ensure that things go smoothely with the authorities and to ensure that secrecy is kept.


----------



## kirinke

The FBI would make more sense for her, she could be a liason for Aegis as well, that's the watchgroup for the supers right? Perhaps the trust could approach her, once she gets to Freedom city, especially if she is after Faust. She might not know about the White Knight's plans.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> The FBI would make more sense for her, she could be a liason for Aegis as well, that's the watchgroup for the supers right? Perhaps the trust could approach her, once she gets to Freedom city, especially if she is after Faust. She might not know about the White Knight's plans.




Well, AEGIS primarily recruits its investigators from the FBI anyway, so she could have started out as FBI and gotten transferred.  Besides, AEGIS prefers agents with powers if they can find them.  Basically, AEGIS takes jurisdiction whenever superhumans are involved, so very few cases that the group would be involved in would be handled by the FBI.

If she were tracking Faust, she'd definately be AEGIS.


----------



## Victim

On one hand, I'm not sure Improved Roll is that much of a problem, especially since it can only be used once per round.  Improved Roll, Cancel Stun, Cancel Fatigue (especially considering EE), and Double Dodge are all pretty good for HP uses - some of the other uses not so much.  Having a resource that can keep a character in the game isn't a bad thing from my PoV as a player as long as Luck is kept down. I know it's much different on the GM side, since Fiat isn't really limited.  

Another thing is that some of the elements particular to this game encourage spending every HP in a fight.  Since HP reset at the end of every fight, there's no reason not to spend them all each fight.  There's no reason to accept a bad result for now to get your pay back later.  A PbP needs some refresh method since sessions don't exist, though.  Also, enemies that torture captured people to death make accepting any kind of incapacitating result especially undesireable.

You might consider reducing the reroll floor before dropping it entirely.  A minimum of 11 makes it pretty easy to shut down most exotic attacks.  A minimum of 6 would usually block the worst staged results, instead of completely saving.


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> So I have been considering the following:
> 
> 1. House-Ruling Improved Roll to be a straight reroll.  Right now, its so good that hero points become hit points, a deletable resource that makes fights last longer and require significant wearing down to make for a good fight (ad bad guys tailored to do it).  Also, Improved Roll is so good that there is a strong disincentive to use hero points for more creative or cinematic uses.
> 
> What do you guys think?




No, this is definitely too harsh for a pbp.  For one thing, you're doing the rolling.  So unless you start posting all of the save DC numbers and the results, we're going to find it really hard to figure out when we rolled an 11 and shouldn't reroll and when we rolled a 4 and should.  Also, this makes combats much more deadly if you don't add any other hero point function that can lessen the effect of taking damage, since spending an HP on rerolling a save is a very good defensive measure.  

Along with Victim's point- 1d20 (+5 if your roll is 10 or less) could be a decent compromise.  This way the floor is lower than 11 but higher than 1, the distribution has less mass at 16-20, and reroll is slightly less effective.  Paragon on ATT had a whole thread about the hero point system a few months ago: http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=23930

Lastly, even if I'm declaring use of Ultimate Toughness in advance of Nitro being attacked, any change to significantly weaken Improved Roll for regular hero points will probably make Ultimate Toughness noticeably overpowered.

You could also improve some of the weaker HP functions- for example, maybe Heroic Feat lets you gain a feat for the entire encounter instead of just for one use.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Well, AEGIS primarily recruits its investigators from the FBI anyway, so she could have started out as FBI and gotten transferred.  Besides, AEGIS prefers agents with powers if they can find them.  Basically, AEGIS takes jurisdiction whenever superhumans are involved, so very few cases that the group would be involved in would be handled by the FBI.
> 
> If she were tracking Faust, she'd definately be AEGIS.




Alrighty. Aegis is is then.


----------



## Elric

Victim- actually, Shooting Star could all-out move at 10,000 mph (2500 mph if your speed with a move action under the standard rules, and an all-out move is 4 times that).  So you should say that 4000 mph is "comfortable cruising speed"


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Victim- actually, Shooting Star could all-out move at 10,000 mph (2500 mph if your speed with a move action under the standard rules, and an all-out move is 4 times that).  So you should say that 4000 mph is "comfortable cruising speed"




She had Flight 7, for a move action speed of 1000 mph and an all out speed of 4k.  Spirit was the one with Flight 8 and the 10k max speed.  Besides, I think of double moving as jogging.  While characters can do it for much longer than they can sprint, it's still not exactly comfortable.  So Shooting Star's most comfortable speed is probably in the 600-800 range, with 1000 as a fast walk.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> She had Flight 7, for a move action speed of 1000 mph and an all out speed of 4k.  Spirit was the one with Flight 8 and the 10k max speed.




Oh, my mistake.  For some reason I thought you both had Flight 8.  But I guess Angel is our "fastest" character in any case


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Oh, my mistake.  For some reason I thought you both had Flight 8.  But I guess Angel is our "fastest" character in any case




Yep, he's the fastest over long ranges.  SS is the fastest on a single move action, though.  That has to count for something.


----------



## kirinke

Hope can only move 50mph in flight. She's the slowpoke of the bunch.


----------



## Jemal

um.. Optic can't fly w/o a ship, and his ground speed is 10 mph.  And I think Nitro is with me on the "slowpoke" front.

EDIT: I just realized I'm having a pissing match over who's SLOWER... *LOL*


----------



## Victim

Jemal said:
			
		

> um.. Optic can't fly w/o a ship, and his ground speed is 10 mph.  And I think Nitro is with me on the "slowpoke" front.
> 
> EDIT: I just realized I'm having a pissing match over who's SLOWER... *LOL*




Nitro can jump around like a maniac.  Since Viridian's movement power is long range only and takes extra time, I think she's the slowest on the tactical scale.  

But yeah, without vehicles, Optic is the slowest over long distances.  Haha, loser.


----------



## Shayuri

Arr, tactically, Vi has no movement powers. Just her feet.

Give her a minute, and she can go anywhere...but less than that and she's on her own.


----------



## Elric

Well, Nitro may be similar to Optic in terms of ground speed, but when it comes to thinking, he's clearly the slowest in the group.  So there!


----------



## Jemal

Touche.. Allright, so the awards are: 
Slowest Tactical movement : Viridian
Slowest Long-Range (without aid) : Optic (Nitro can jump over obstacles)
Slowest Thinker : Nitro.

Please pick up your booby prizes behind that desk over there.


----------



## kirinke

Darn it. And here I thought Hope was slowest.

I feel sooo slighted.


----------



## Victim

As long as we're picking on our character's weak points: Amusingly (or perhaps not), Shooting Star has the lowest overall mental stats, and the least INT+WIS after Nitro (and the absent Brimstone).  Yeah, the group trusted its intel analysis to its second dumbest member, just because she can do it quickly.    Outside her gifts with programing, she gets by largely on mental speed.


----------



## kirinke

Well I guess Hope is the brains and investigative side of the outfit with an intelligence of 20 and the 10x speed in investigating.


----------



## Victim

Perdix link: 
http://www.bolokids.com/2006/0191.htm

Sounds like it might have something to do with Daedalus's modern day ex-apprentice Doctor Otaku.


----------



## kirinke

Lemme ask this, could the planned attack (everyone assumes freedom hall) be on Aegis itself? Does it have the kind of security/technology etc that Control Freak would need a specialized gadget to bypass?

Perdix could refer to Aegis. It is a sister-organization to the FBI.


----------



## Shayuri

Okay, not sure how to proceed now.

Are the PC's going to meet up at Trust HQ the next day? If so, when?

I think we still have to warn the museum, though we have people staking it out now. And some of us have a date with Ms Liberty... Still, are we gonna meet each other first, or just go about our assigned tasks?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Okay, not sure how to proceed now.
> 
> Are the PC's going to meet up at Trust HQ the next day? If so, when?
> 
> I think we still have to warn the museum, though we have people staking it out now. And some of us have a date with Ms Liberty... Still, are we gonna meet each other first, or just go about our assigned tasks?




(Meeting at the Trust HQ in Virginia is not really feasible unless you meet somewhere else first.  Optic and Nitro need to either find Viridian for TP help or fly there in the jet.  Perhaps just everyone either go to the museum or to Feedom Hall directly?)


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (Meeting at the Trust HQ in Virginia is not really feasible unless you meet somewhere else first.  Optic and Nitro need to either find Viridian for TP help or fly there in the jet.  Perhaps just everyone either go to the museum or to Feedom Hall directly?)




I was gonna suggest Freedom Hall.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> I was gonna suggest Freedom Hall.




Well, you guys dont all have to meet.  Some can go to one place, others to the other.


----------



## Elric

Raylis- as it looks like a fight is coming up, you should modify your character to add ranks in Concentration or change Force Field to Protection.  As it is, your Force Field is very likely to drop whenever you are stunned, which makes you far too vulnerable.


----------



## Shayuri

Oy...I feel dumb, but have we earned any exp yet? I've had to reload an older sheet, and I can't remember...


----------



## Victim

I don't think so.


----------



## DM_Matt

You will get pp after this next (likely) combat sequence.


----------



## Shayuri

Arr, no worries. Just couldn't remember. Thanks!


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I don't think so.




By the way:  Because you established in game that White Knight is immune to plasma attacks, he is.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> By the way:  Because you established in game that White Knight is immune to plasma attacks, he is.




Yeah, Elric mentioned that in a thread at ATT.  There's plenty of other guys in his little gang to shoot at though.


----------



## Victim

Happy Birthday, Elric.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Happy Birthday, Elric.




Thank you!   Time for some super-hero butt-kicking to celebrate.  I'm presuming we've reset HP since the last fight, as kicking butt on 0 HP is often hard to do


----------



## kirinke

Happy Bday Elric. Many more too you.

Shall we sing the monkey song?   


Oooo. The team and Hope meet in a few more scenes!


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Thank you!   Time for some super-hero butt-kicking to celebrate.  I'm presuming we've reset HP since the last fight, as kicking butt on 0 HP is often hard to do




They have indeed reset.


----------



## Victim

Barrington said:
			
		

> "Time to beat on two more defenseless women, then," he says, as he extends both hands. Both circlets glow and cones of telekinetic energy blast Nirto and Raven.




Burned!  Lol.


----------



## kirinke

BTW, a note on ritual. Hope can do a ritual to gain an AP off one of her other spell arrays. It would be DC16, so she makes it on a 1, and it takes one round to do if she spends a hero point. Compared to using that hero point to power stunt the spell, it has the advantage of lasting the entire encounter instead of until she stops using it, and the disadvantage of requiring a round to do the ritual (rather than instantly), and the need to make a check, which is in this case moot since she always makes it.

So by Ap, that would be Alternate power right? What sort of Alternate Power would be good for this? I'm just learning and I haven't yet gotten my Ultimate Powers book yet.


----------



## Elric

Matt- Viridian could not be stunned if she rolled a natural 20 on her toughness save.  See the Impossible Toughness Saves rule, pg 163.  She'd only take a bruise.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt- Viridian could not be stunned if she rolled a natural 20 on her toughness save.  See the Impossible Toughness Saves rule, pg 163.  She'd only take a bruise.




Heh, oops.  I somehow misremembered that stun was in fact the max effect, not bruise.


----------



## Shayuri

Huzzah! Go go natural 20!

Thank you, Elric!

So do I have 2 bruises or just the one?


----------



## kirinke

Or
Two small bruises that hurt like they were one?

Hope plans on turning Faust into an ice cube and then making the ground around blitzie too slippery to run on. Or do much of anything really.


----------



## Shayuri

Can you target that in pitch dark?

Remember that Nightweaver just zapped Obscure into place.

Which pretty much hoses me, sadly. Almost all my powers are Perception, and I haven't got an accurate sense besides sight.

Meep. Yet another weakness that needs patching.


----------



## kirinke

She's got a +10 to notice. Eidetic Memory, which means she knows where everything is at a glance I suspect.... So she has a pretty good chance of hitting something.

Next chance they gain pp, I'm going to invest in some sensory abilities for Hope


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Thank you, Elric!
> 
> So do I have 2 bruises or just the one?




You're welcome.  I'm always happy to point out mistakes that went against us 

You should have just one bruise and you are not knocked down, as Knockback only occurs on a hit that stuns you or worse.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> She's got a +10 to notice. Eidetic Memory, which means she knows where everything is at a glance I suspect.... So she has a pretty good chance of hitting something.
> 
> Next chance they gain pp, I'm going to invest in some sensory abilities for Hope




You can place area effects, but can't target there.  Unfortuantely, your only area effect is hailstorm, which comes form the sky, so it probably cant be used indoors on a low floor of a building.  Or, you could use an hp to get some super-senses based on detecting the flow of air as an AP off the wind magic array.

Regarding freezing him, conjure ice is not an attack, but rather an extremely useful utility power.  You could conjure ice around Fuast, but he could just teleport out of it.  If you want to actually FREEZE him, you'd need to use an HP to get a paralyze attack, but that really isn't worth it in this situation.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Can you target that in pitch dark?
> 
> Remember that Nightweaver just zapped Obscure into place.
> 
> Which pretty much hoses me, sadly. Almost all my powers are Perception, and I haven't got an accurate sense besides sight.
> 
> Meep. Yet another weakness that needs patching.




Just lash out semi-blindly with your Area snares or Create Objects.  

Since both Hope and Thess have CO, note that it can be used to do area damage by creating the object, and then letting it smash into people.  It's Reflex negates, not half, but oh well.


----------



## kirinke

Alright.....
Alternate attacks, you mentioned that she had a superstrength of 48 or so and Superbreath would be wind, correct? 

*Tapping finger thinking.
Lightning Blast: (Blast 12, Imp Crit 3, Knockback 4, Indirect)
-Lightning Flash: (Blast 10+ Dazzle Visual 5, Indirect)
-Hailstorm: (Area Blast 10 Indirect)
-Blow Away: (Trip 10, Knockback, Area: Cone, Improved Trip)
-Hands of Air: (Precise Air Control 10 (As Telekinesis) ), 
-Freshen Air: (removes or counters gas effects or scents)
-Force of Nature: Enhanced Strength 22, 
-Super-Stregth 2: (PF:Superbreath), 
-Enhanced Feats: 	Unarmed Specialization 3, Melee Focus 1, Imp Crit (Unarmed)
-Conjure Ice: (Continuous Create Object 9, Precise, Tether, Selective, Innate, Progression 1)
Guarding Winds: (Force Field 8)
Movement: (6pp+1ap)
Ride the Winds: (Flight 3)
-AP: Wind At Your Back: (Speed 3 + Leaping 3)



Alright, since Nightweaver doused the area with darkness, Hope assumes that the superhero is going to try to grab the Eye of Hell bauble so that Barrington can't snatch it. 

She'll start by using a superhero point to sense them by the flow of air currents. Once she knows where everyone is, she'll use her conjure Ice ability to make the ground slippery, ride the winds so that she's not affected by the ground and use her blown away ability (or force of nature, whichever is stronger) to attack Faust with a concussive blast of air or simply attack him with her own strength.


----------



## Victim

And hey, if we're back to the top, what about Star's action?


----------



## Jemal

Many apologies for my unscheduled dissapearance, I was only supposed to be gone for a day or two but couldn't get back until now.


----------



## Victim

Blitz could be hitting with a physical attack and then an Aura.  But since Optic was stunned (and Viridian originally), he could be taking damage from Knockback.


----------



## Jemal

> See the OOC thread. I misremembered that Nat 20 was maxed at stun, but its maxed at bruise. The second hits are knockback. If you get stunned, you get knocked back (if it is appropriate to the attack), and hit obstacles or the ground, taking damage. Also, there is another way to get 2 attacks. You can surge to get an extra attack, and then get fatigued. You can use an HP to nullify the fatigue, and thats what people are actually doing when they are getting extra attacks with an HP.




Thanx for the clarification.. I always thought that when you Nat 20, you take the minimum possible effect (Ie 1 bruised) if it's an 'impossible save'.  Least that 's what mine says, unless I'm misreading it.
As for the extra attack, I thought it was spend an HP to surge, but upon rereading I see I'm wrong.  
As for the knockback.. wow, and here I thought knockback was small-time damage that's "don't nat 1".


----------



## Victim

Yeah, Viridian only took a bruise and isn't stunned.  It was settled up in this thread, but I don't think the game post was edited.

Knockback: 10 toughness character versus 10 damage.  He's stunned and take knockback.  Half of his toughness is used to resist damage (5), so he takes a value 5 knockback (25 ft, and up to 5 damage based on what he hits).  Since the character takes a bruise from the opening hit, he's going against a DC 20 toughness save with +9.  It'll probably only cause a Bruise (especially since the character is already stunned), but it's still not too easy.

Of course, Impervious allows the character to ignore the damage, and take no knockback in the first place.  Even small time damage can be pretty serious with a big toughness shift or impervious.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Thanx for the clarification.. I always thought that when you Nat 20, you take the minimum possible effect (Ie 1 bruised) if it's an 'impossible save'.  Least that 's what mine says, unless I'm misreading it.
> As for the extra attack, I thought it was spend an HP to surge, but upon rereading I see I'm wrong.
> As for the knockback.. wow, and here I thought knockback was small-time damage that's "don't nat 1".




It does only say it under impossible toughness saves, HOWEVER if you think about it, IF you would otherwise take more than a bruise on a 20 on a save, THEN the save is thus impossible to make.


----------



## Jemal

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> It does only say it under impossible toughness saves, HOWEVER if you think about it, IF you would otherwise take more than a bruise on a 20 on a save, THEN the save is thus impossible to make.




OK... I don't get why you felt the need to say that.. did I miss something?



			
				victim said:
			
		

> Yeah, Viridian only took a bruise and isn't stunned. It was settled up in this thread, but I don't think the game post was edited.
> 
> Knockback: 10 toughness character versus 10 damage. He's stunned and take knockback. Half of his toughness is used to resist damage (5), so he takes a value 5 knockback (25 ft, and up to 5 damage based on what he hits). Since the character takes a bruise from the opening hit, he's going against a DC 20 toughness save with +9. It'll probably only cause a Bruise (especially since the character is already stunned), but it's still not too easy.
> 
> Of course, Impervious allows the character to ignore the damage, and take no knockback in the first place. Even small time damage can be pretty serious with a big toughness shift or impervious.



Ah, I see.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> OK... I don't get why you felt the need to say that.. did I miss something?





What I am saying is that while it looks like you said that the 20 thing only kicks in when a save would otherwise be impossible, I'm saying that this is the same as a rule that says that on a natural 20 you cannot take worse than a bruise, since if on a 20 you still take damage, then its an impossible save.

RE what Shayuri said about knockback, yeah, it can be pretty serious, especially against characters with defensive roll, who could lose a lot of toughness vis-a-vis the second save.  Raven for instance was stunned by the attack, but full-on knocked out by the knockback (well, she rolled a 1, but still).


----------



## kirinke

On with the action!   This here is a supers game.... We need some biffs and bams here doncha know!


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> RE what Shayuri said about knockback, yeah, it can be pretty serious, especially against characters with defensive roll, who could lose a lot of toughness vis-a-vis the second save.  Raven for instance was stunned by the attack, but full-on knocked out by the knockback (well, she rolled a 1, but still).




Did you remember to roll a concentration check for Raven to keep her Defensive Roll feat when stunned?  Not that I think it would have saved her given that she rolled a 1, but you never know.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Did you remember to roll a concentration check for Raven to keep her Defensive Roll feat when stunned?  Not that I think it would have saved her given that she rolled a 1, but you never know.




She failed the check.


----------



## Victim

I know a player who's interested, but we're still coming up with character ideas.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I know a player who's interested, but we're still coming up with character ideas.




Cool.  Basically, I let in a large number at once bc I knew that there will generally be attrition at the beginning of a game, and then was looking to ratchet it back up with individual gains (Probably up to 7 not 8 though)


----------



## kirinke

ooc:
Matt? Since Hope is a postcog, would it be feasible for her to see/hear/speak with ghosts and spirits? That would kinda go along with the whole whispers of the past thing. Because the winds of the past not only carry the images, but the voices as well sorta thing.   

Also.
What's your stance on Nullifying Power? I'd think that Hope would want to develope something like that if this battle does not go as well as she'd like. I'd think she'd either go for Nullyfing field or Power Resistance. That's if she survives the battle in order to gain PP.


----------



## Shayuri

If it helps, Viridian has a magical nullification spell. Single target, but it affects all magical descriptor powers.

If I wasn't staring Blitz in the face, I'd be using it now.


----------



## Victim

Elric, your Dodge Mastery thing is looking pretty good right now.


----------



## DM_Matt

Alas, sometimes the baddies roll a 20.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Alas, sometimes the baddies roll a 20.




Yep.  

Hmm, if it's Barrington, maybe I should do a bigger edit.  She's much more afraid of him.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Yep.
> 
> Hmm, if it's Barrington, maybe I should do a bigger edit.  She's much more afraid of him.




Yeah...and no, the computer nerd cant deliver a 15 damage kungfu beatdown.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Yeah...and no, the computer nerd cant deliver a 15 damage kungfu beatdown.




Well, it is a computer nerd in Power Armor.    I hear from Daedalus that it can go a long way towards evening the odds.


----------



## Victim

Hope's Lightning Bolt is harder hitting than an RPG.  Not that an RPG might not come in handy, since it wouldn't run into specific anti-magic defenses and has an area.


----------



## kirinke

Plus, he wouldn't be expecting it. 

A sorceress that uses guns and heavy artilery?
Who woudda thought that....


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Plus, he wouldn't be expecting it.
> 
> A sorceress that uses guns and heavy artilery?
> Who woudda thought that....




Well, I think he'd be expecting it if he could see her.  RPGs wouldn't work so well for concealed carry, I'd think.   

BTW, the person I know has withdrawn their interest.


----------



## kirinke

That's what her Fog ability is for.
Insta concealment at a low introductory price.


----------



## kirinke

Been reading the Freedom city sourcebook and was looking over Dr. Stratos' bio and abilities.
Hope's abilities are very similar to his, although hers runs more towards magic than to science. And she's not crazy.

Her abilities and relative power would be close enough for him develop some sort of interest in her. Y'know, along the lines of 'rule by my side' as queen, 'nothing could stand in our way if we joined forces' sorta thing. Y'know the classic creepy stalker/homicidal suitor gambit?


I'm very open to suggestions when it comes to screwing with her psyche.... um developing her character further. (real parents, family etc). Any ideas?


----------



## Victim

Who was Jemal's backup poster?


----------



## Shayuri

kirinke said:
			
		

> Been reading the Freedom city sourcebook and was looking over Dr. Stratos' bio and abilities.
> Hope's abilities are very similar to his, although hers runs more towards magic than to science. And she's not crazy.
> 
> Her abilities and relative power would be close enough for him develop some sort of interest in her. Y'know, along the lines of 'rule by my side' as queen, 'nothing could stand in our way if we joined forces' sorta thing. Y'know the classic creepy stalker/homicidal suitor gambit?
> 
> 
> I'm very open to suggestions when it comes to screwing with her psyche.... um developing her character further. (real parents, family etc). Any ideas?




I dunno about screwing with her mind, but Viridian's a magic using character too. They might have a lot to talk about.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Who was Jemal's backup poster?




Did he set one?  He's been around, he just hasn't been posting to this -- or other games -- for a few days.

If someone wants to post his actions for the round, go ahead.


----------



## Victim

Heck, I don't know if I set one.  (Elric, then Shayuri)

I think Optic should shoot Faust (+8 attack, +12 damage. Precise Shot).  Votes against?  I guess it's no surprise that the guy with Luck Control and Con Drain (dang, but that's a nasty combo with Suffocate) gets no love.


----------



## kirinke

My vote too. Optic would blast the SOB with his most powerful weapon I think and that's his Blast ability.  But then. I'm mean.


----------



## Shayuri

Blast makes sense to me.

He's the only target left for now, after all. And he's dangerous enough to warrant a Cyclopsian blast.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I dunno about screwing with her mind, but Viridian's a magic using character too. They might have a lot to talk about.




Too true. Hope could probably help her with the magic part, she's had a great deal of tutelege and practice that Viridian hasn't. And Hope would see the need to get her properly trained, before she gets into something she shouldn't.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Too true. Hope could probably help her with the magic part, she's had a great deal of tutelege and practice that Viridian hasn't. And Hope would see the need to get her properly trained, before she gets into something she shouldn't.





And both should probably seek out Ms. White, who knows more than both of them.


----------



## kirinke

I think Hope will do that for certain. 

Matt, what do you think about the Stratos idea?

Also, any ideas on who Hope's real parents are? I have a few nebulous ideas, but we could probly cook something up that makes sense story wise.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> I think Hope will do that for certain.
> 
> Matt, what do you think about the Stratos idea?
> 
> Also, any ideas on who Hope's real parents are? I have a few nebulous ideas, but we could probly cook something up that makes sense story wise.




I will think about these matters.


----------



## kirinke

Should I be scared?


----------



## Victim

Thoughts on the next move?


----------



## kirinke

Well there are a couple of possiblities

1) Find Blitzie
2) Talk to Faust and White Knight
3) Go to Freedom Hall and let Hope do a reading
4) Do some more digging at Oxcorp
5) Find out what the Eye of Hell is supposed to do. 
6) Invade Doc Otaku's lab in china, possibly sparking an international incident.
7) Find a way to go undercover in order to get into the Lighthouse and kil.... err stop Barrington. I think that either (or both) Hope or Mr. Black would be best for this job. The others are too um..... ungovernmenty minded for this kinda work.


----------



## DM_Matt

This is the situation:

You were recruited by a group called the Trust, and incidentally, your first mission turned out to be related to an earthshaking supervillainous event.

The villains captured much of the Freedom League and their orbiting base, and destroyed all of their bases on the surface.  It thus falls to you to stop them from continuing with their plan.

The villains apparently have backing from China and Iran, making government action difficult.

The ability of the supervillains to get other groups to attack and the serious damage they are doing to the economy combine to further strain the resources of the proper authorities and the world's heroes, as well as cause further suffering.

The bad guys just made their opening moves, but they have revealed themselves on numerous fronts.  Now you must choose the best way to stop them.

Known Villains On The Loose:
Barrington/Barrington Prime/Krieglock/Seth/Henry The 88th/Johnny Jihad -- Has access to advanced technology and magic.
Doc Otaku -- Apprentice to Daedalus.  One of the best inventor's out there.
Control Freak -- A technopath, possibly the best hacker in the world, with extensive machine control abilities
Britzkreig -- Nazi speedster / lightning guy

Captured Villains:
Numero Uno -- leader of the Cholos, a Mexican werewolf gang, secretly CEO of OxCorp.
Heroin Shiek -- Afghan drug lord
White Knight -- plasma-contorlling American neo-Nazi
Faust -- powerful immortal sorceror who sold his soul
Nekropanzer -- giant Nazi technozombie

Villainous Resources:
Unknown but large amounts of money
The services of a powerful global law firm, Wolfsohn, Shepard, and Doe
The Lighthouse, an orbiting base with a database of everything that the Freedom League knows, including the technologies that Daedalus created or found on his travels around the galaxy.
Connections to numerous terrorist groups worldwide.
Doc Otaku's high-tech base in China, defended by the Chinese military.
An unknown number of vehicles and robots owned by Doc Otaku
An unknown number of followers of Barrington's various personas
Connections of an unknown nature with China and Iran.
Several members oft he Freedom League as hostages.
The scarf of Al-Halar, of unknown powers, but decorated in a pattern seemingly to be made of human bodies.
The Eye of Hell

The next stage of their plan is unknown, but the following matters seem to be important:

Who is choosing the ultimate goal?  Is it Barrington?  If so, is it Barrington Prime (the unnamed, multi-themed battlesuit form you saw recently, and a catchall term for underlying goals of Barrington not associated with his other forms)?  Is it Kreiglock (the Nazi sorcerer)?  Seth (The Egyptian sorcerer)?  Johnny Jihad (The IRGC persona)?  Henry the 88th (Anglican anti-catholic persona)? Is it really Control Freak?  Or Doc Otaku?  Is it not an individual, but it a government?  China?  Iran?  Some other shadowy organization, country, demon, supervillain, etc?

The demands being made are, at the moment, as Johnny Jihad, but are those their true goals?

What is known about that goal?

It probably involves the Eye of Hell.  It is not magical, but supposedly can allow the user to somehow view or communicate with or even travel to Hell.
It may involve a large object made of exotic metals that they have commissioned from the foundry
It may have something to do with ancient Aryan legends, but Barrington could have been lying to White Knight.
It may have to do with strange cash transfers to the Wolfsohn, Shepard, & Doe office in Zurich

Possible Missions:
Make a move against Doc Otaku's base in China
Investigate the big purchase from The Foundry in FC
Go to Jordan and investigate the scarf and the warlock who created it.
Find what that money to Wolfsohn, Shepard, & Doe in Zurich was for, and stop whatever they are doing.
Try to get info out of  Wolfsohn, Shepard, & Doe regarding the whole situation, somehow.
Go find terrorist groups that Barrington hired in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Israel, or Columbia, and try to find out what they know
Look into the currency speculators who the villains may have coordinated with.
Check into OxCorp some more.


----------



## kirinke

Nice. So do we get extra PP to spend now? 

My vote is 
Investigate the big purchase from The Foundry in FC (We don't have to actually invade their facilities which from all accounts would be suicide....)

Investigate Wolfsohn, Shepard, & Doe.
Investigate Oxcorp.

Right now, they don't have the actual power to go up against Doc Okatu or Barrington for that matter. Not with the resources at their command.

So, at a suggestion. Gather more information, sift through it and make plans based on that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Ok, so I've never given PP in a PbP yet.  I guess though that for prologue purposes, the joining the Trust with that big fight should be a session, as the events in Freedom City another session, plus there is the fact that this is a major logical plot development area.  

Thus, if there are no objections, 3pp seems about right.


----------



## Shayuri

I thought it was usually like 2 pp per session...

But I suppose it depends on how fast you want to advance.


----------



## DM_Matt

The Rules said:
			
		

> Generally, heroes each receive 1 power point for a successfully com-
> pleted adventure, lasting for one game session. If the heroes overcame
> especially powerful foes or difficult challenges, the GM can increase the
> power point award to 2 points. For adventures lasting more than one
> game session, the heroes should get 1 power point per session, plus a
> possible bonus of 1 or 2 power points at the end if they did particularly
> well.




3 seems to fit with this.


----------



## Victim

We did particularly well?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> We did particularly well?




You did fine, and there is the extra points for really tough baddies clause in the first part.  Obviously, you weren't going to be able to derail the bad guys entirely in the prologue, though I did not expect Faust to get caught.


----------



## kirinke

Nice.
I have a feeling that Faust is going to be Hope's particular nemisis, if he's not already.


Matt? Here are the changes to Hope's character sheet. I took off the alternate power Fog and replaced it with Healing. It makes sense for the character, especially if Faust is her nemesis. His powers represents decay and ennui. Hope's powers represents life, the forces of nature, destruction and creation. So it fits. 

Wind Magic (13 base power, 6 APs=19)
-Wind Carried Words"..........Communication 4 (hearing) +Area, + Two Way, Selective (13)
-Whisper of the Past 4........ (Postcognition, uncontrolled) (13)
-Driving Rain.............Environmental Control: hamper movement 6 (1/4th speed, 250 ft rad),
-Sense Air Flow 
-Magical Awareness
-Winds of Spring (Healing)........(Restoration, Regrowth)
Total: 74 (+2 due to the drawback tiring for healing)


Drawbacks (-2pp):
-1pp Minor Vulnerability to Fire
-2pp Healing is Tiring


----------



## Victim

Tiring Healing would be included in its array slot, not as bonus points outside the array.  You'd spend one point on the AP to buy Healing with whatever addons you want and the tiring flaw.


----------



## kirinke

Ahh okay. Didn't realize


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> My vote is
> Investigate the big purchase from The Foundry in FC (We don't have to actually invade their facilities which from all accounts would be suicide....)




I like investigate The Foundry as well.  Of course, Nitro will probably suggest some version of "invading their facilities" at some point.


----------



## Victim

Foundry seems good enough.  Cool super science gadgets for the (lose)?  Lots of fun possibilities there.  

Thinking of getting some combination of Evasion 2, +2 Search and +2 Knowledge: Tech, Imp Crit 1, and/or Luck Control 1 (reroll) -attack rolls only, -attacks targeting self only (training).  Hmm, or should Shooting Star get more stealth?


----------



## Raylis

Krinke, I just want to let you know I'm not attacking you, personally. I'm just replyling how she would based on things Hope has said...I just want to be clear that I have _no_ personal problems how you're playing her and mean no offense. 

As far as Nightweaver's advancement...

I'm going to take Elric's suggestion and put 2 points into Skills and buy 8 ranks of Concentration (8 ranks + 4 ability= +12 modifier)

with the third point I'm torn to buying back that rank of speed, or adding a snare off of darkness control...Vi has that covered but it might be nice to have a backup...


----------



## Shayuri

You can never have enough snares. It's like a band.

Also, I feel a need to echo that disclaimer. I've no OOC problems. 

But Vi's a bit defensive, being new to heroing and new to being in a group and...well, lots of stuff.


----------



## Elric

Raylis said:
			
		

> with the third point I'm torn to buying back that rank of speed, or adding a snare off of darkness control...Vi has that covered but it might be nice to have a backup...




Both good ideas- whichever one you don't pick up now you should get later.  If you take Snare, I'd get something like Range: Touch Snare at rank 12 (also benefits from attack focus: melee  so it's +10 attack/DC 22, which is all the way to your caps), as that's a lot better than regular Snare 6 (at a +8 attack bonus).  Plus, hitting someone with your hand to entrap them in a web of darkness is way up there for panache.

For Nitro, I'm not really sure what to get.  Thinking some combination of +1 Ref, +1 Will, Imp Initiative and Luck as good generic bonuses.  Nitro hasn't used any power stunts to acquire as regular alternate powers and the build feels pretty complete as it is.


----------



## kirinke

Oh don't worry about that. Hope does occasionally need to be taken back a peg or two, especially when she starts focusing in on something to the 'nth degree. And the real reason for acting like she did was the fact that seeing Faust brought back some very, very nasty memories. No one is going to behave or react well when dealing with that kind of horror. 

Like I posted in Hope's character thread, she can be rather intense, especially when dealing with guys like Faust and White Knight. That can be rather.... offputting to some one who isn't used to that sort of thing.


----------



## Jemal

So... is Optic fired?


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> So... is Optic fired?




No, he's still here, in the lounge with the others.


----------



## Victim

Spent XP on Evasion, Stealth, Knowledge: Tech, and Dodge Mastery.


----------



## Victim

No money?   Oops.


----------



## Victim

We seem to have reached the limits of our current bluff.  Options?  We can always resort to violence - but once we do, we're basically stuck with that approach until someone wins the fight.  We could come up a new, bigger lie that hopefully builds on any current suspicions they have.  I suppose walking out and trying another line of investigation is also possible, but I'd rather not do that.


----------



## Raylis

it looks like we're between a rock and a hardplace; with no money we can't close the deal and without the deal we can't get into the factory to do the hacking. If we start any kind of fight we'll probably be overwhelmed-this room is probably also booby trapped and there's a chance that since a factory is close by they can start teleporting in any number of drones.


----------



## Victim

Raylis said:
			
		

> it looks like we're between a rock and a hardplace; with no money we can't close the deal and without the deal we can't get into the factory to do the hacking. If we start any kind of fight we'll probably be overwhelmed-this room is probably also booby trapped and there's a chance that since a factory is close by they can start teleporting in any number of drones.




Well, it's not like this is the Foundry's primary base.  While the defenses are certainly going to be formidable, they're probably not going to be insurmountable.  Especially since the Foundry is a business. 

Depending on how long it takes to break into the system, it may or may not be feasible to do it the midst of combat.  Then we'd only have to hold out, and not take out pretty much all the security.  If we can get past the initial booby traps, we should be able stake our a subsection of the base and secure it for a short time with wardings, traps, violence, and stuff.  Hopefully.

But we should try some other ruse before fighting.  Superheroes can't be the only be the only ones interested in his activities.  Arranging some other sort of trade for information might be possible.  Even telling the truth might have some shock value to it.


----------



## kirinke

Hope is going for part truth and part buying information. She has a feeling that this guy knows that they are stalling for something, so she is going for broke.


----------



## Raylis

of course, there's the risk that if we tell them that we were trying to pull the wool over their eyes the may take offense and try to hurt us.


----------



## Shayuri

Let me ask this.

Can Optic accomplish anything from where we are?

I thought there was a computer in this room.


----------



## kirinke

Well, the way she phrased it, is probably something that happens quite a bit in their line of work. So. Ehh, no harm, no foul, especially with that lead up.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Let me ask this.
> 
> Can Optic accomplish anything from where we are?
> 
> I thought there was a computer in this room.




Its a videophone basically, so he isnt sure if he can access more secure areas of the base, and once he tries, odds are he'll be noticed and have to  mentally battle the AI before he knows if he can even get there from here.


----------



## Victim

Since we're in a foreign country, what kind of extra legal considerations are there?  The Foundry operations are illegal most places, right?  Is Hope way outside her juridiction - somehow, I got the impression that AEGIS was domestic, like the FBI for superpower/science related offenses.


----------



## kirinke

Proving that the foundry is operating in an illegal capacity is something else entirely. Hope is in disguise here and not exactly operating with AEGIS approval. She's out in the wind with this one I think.


----------



## Victim

Ah, what were you going to say?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah, what were you going to say?




I mistakingly assumed that SS believed that they were lying at least once, but I checked and she didnt.


----------



## Shayuri

Could I get someone to post a link to the Rogue's Gallery? I think I accidentally wrecked my local copy of my character sheet.


----------



## Raylis

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Could I get someone to post a link to the Rogue's Gallery? I think I accidentally wrecked my local copy of my character sheet.




http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=201682


----------



## Shayuri

Thanks!


----------



## Victim

I agree with Elric.  Once the demon has been KO'd, we'll have more time to whip up some magic fire.  Unless you think the monster also has that vulnerability in addition to the flawed immunity.


----------



## kirinke

You're right.  Sometimes I get too focused on a thing, so....   

Lightening blast it is!  


I think that the next time we get some PP, she's gonna invest in Tornado.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> You're right.  Sometimes I get too focused on a thing, so....




Within the Magic: the Gathering community, there was a famous article on this called "The Danger of Cool Things"


----------



## Jemal

ARGH! I apologize again, guys, after my last posts about 2 weeks ago I headed back out to work and once I arrived realized that we weren't connected.  I've finally managed to gain net access again, so I'll be trying (Once more) to catch up on everything.  Sorry for any problems.


----------



## DM_Matt

Well, Optic IS still around...so welcome back.


----------



## Shayuri

Whew!

That's a relief.


----------



## kirinke

Welcome back Jemal. Now we can kick bad-guy bootie.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Welcome back Jemal. Now we can kick bad-guy bootie.




Speaking of which, he should post his action for this round.


----------



## Raylis

Assessment- you can size up a combatant's relative combat capeabilities realtive to yours (better, worse or equal). You pick a target and it's sense motive vs. bluff to gain this information; if you lose the roll you either over or underestimate their combat prowess (GM's disgression)


----------



## Elric

Raylis said:
			
		

> Assessment- you can size up a combatant's relative combat capeabilities realtive to yours (better, worse or equal). You pick a target and it's sense motive vs. bluff to gain this information; if you lose the roll you either over or underestimate their combat prowess (GM's disgression)




It's a move action.


----------



## Victim

Should we be doing our own rolls invisible castle?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Should we be doing our own rolls invisible castle?




Well, Raylis and Jemal seem to have started to.  If you'd like to, go ahead, at least for your attacks.  It makes things easier for me.


----------



## Victim

Okay, I added rolls for my actions.


----------



## Elric

Kirinke- using your Create Objects to seal the room off before the guards get here would be very useful


----------



## Victim

Well, that was an inconclusive round.  We traded a bruise for an HP - not a favorable exchange.  Plus time is against us here, since they have easy access to reinforcements.

Someone using CO to block the doorway would be nice.  But we also have several Precise attacks suitable for welding it shut.  I could do a multi-target autofire to shoot at both villains and mess up the door (or finish off the section of wall hit by Hope).  Or maybe cut the webbing on Optic.  However, it seems like putting a hole in the floor

Any thoughts on switching to exotic attacks?  Reflex hasn't seemed to go our way. The info on neither foe doesn't suggest any particular weaknesses (aside from being killed by magic fire ).


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Any thoughts on switching to exotic attacks?  Reflex hasn't seemed to go our way. The info on neither foe doesn't suggest any particular weaknesses (aside from being killed by magic fire ).




Well, Shooting Star's Dazzle could target both of them and blinding one of them would be nice (although the demon may have other enhanced senses).  Shayuri's Evil Eye on the demon would be dramatically appropriate.  

If anyone hasn't spent their 3 earned pp, now's a good time  (probably after the fight, but this is why you shouldn't wait!)


----------



## Victim

The multiple save nature of her Dazzle hasn't been working out so well.  Besides, Viridian's Snare goes against the same save and failed on both.  A spider guy is most likely pretty agile too. 

The Corrosion blast is probably too much collateral damage; there are (presumeably) non-combatant tech guys and such about and the corrosion will probably go through walls.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. Hope will either blast away with her lightening now that the room is sealed or she'll go with brute strength.  That force of nature thing might come in useful there.... Or hailstorm as an area blast. But that might hurt her own team mates, so she's gonna be reluctant to use that.


----------



## Shayuri

Okay. 

1) GM, is it possible for me to spend an HP to Counter the teleport attempt?

2) Gang, if it is possible, should I? Do we want to keep fighting, or focus on getting out before the robots get in?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Okay.
> 
> 1) GM, is it possible for me to spend an HP to Counter the teleport attempt?
> 
> 2) Gang, if it is possible, should I? Do we want to keep fighting, or focus on getting out before the robots get in?




It is possible.  You'd have to win at an opposed power check of your magic rank (rounded down to 17) verses his teleport rank.


----------



## Raylis

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Okay.
> 
> 1) GM, is it possible for me to spend an HP to Counter the teleport attempt?
> 
> 2) Gang, if it is possible, should I? Do we want to keep fighting, or focus on getting out before the robots get in?




If the Grey Gunner and the demon do know what was purchased from the foundry then we've accomplished what we set out (if we capture them). With one out of comission we could all focus on on KOing the spider and then getting the heck out of dodge.


----------



## Elric

Raylis said:
			
		

> If the Grey Gunner and the demon do know what was purchased from the foundry then we've accomplished what we set out (if we capture them). With one out of commission we could all focus on on KOing the spider and then getting the heck out of dodge.




Plus, starting this round, Viridian can ready to counter any further teleports if the Instant Counter succeeds.  And Optic + Shooting Star + Nightweaver + Hope could all attack Oni this round, which would have a good chance of leading to a KO.


----------



## Victim

It seems like a big assumption that they have the details of what we want to know.  Granted, it's certainly possible and perhaps even likely that they do.  But if we bail early and grab them, then find out that they don't know about Barrington's purchase or know enough (it might not be enough just to have a rough description, the technical people might need full specs to feast upon) or can't extract the information from them (Faust, for instance, was less than forthcoming), we'll be in trouble.  They're not going to make it easy to get the information if we have to go back again. 

I think it's better to regard capturing the villains as a sort of bonus or way to contain information (stupid mind reading demon) than a way to achieve our primary objective.  But lugging them around with us might be a real pain, especially if they pick a bad time to wake up.

Since the demon apparently shook off its stun quickly, should someone be getting a HP for its recovery?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> It seems like a big assumption that they have the details of what we want to know.  Granted, it's certainly possible and perhaps even likely that they do.  But if we bail early and grab them, then find out that they don't know about Barrington's purchase or know enough (it might not be enough just to have a rough description, the technical people might need full specs to feast upon) or can't extract the information from them (Faust, for instance, was less than forthcoming), we'll be in trouble.  They're not going to make it easy to get the information if we have to go back again.
> 
> I think it's better to regard capturing the villains as a sort of bonus or way to contain information (stupid mind reading demon) than a way to achieve our primary objective.  But lugging them around with us might be a real pain, especially if they pick a bad time to wake up.
> 
> Since the demon apparently shook off its stun quickly, should someone be getting a HP for its recovery?




Right forgot to specify.  Nitro, since he was th eone it attacked.


----------



## kirinke

Alright, should Hope keep on reinforcing the ice wall or help out in taking out the Gray gunner, I'd think that electricity would work quite well with something made of metal.

Conductivity you know...


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe

Unless he has a GM designed weakness, I doubt lightning will have any special effects on him. 

That said, the more blasts, the merrier.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Alright, should Hope keep on reinforcing the ice wall or help out in taking out the Gray gunner, I'd think that electricity would work quite well with something made of metal.
> 
> Conductivity you know...




Gunner is down already.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Gunner is down already.




Who knows?  Maybe his nanites allow for regeneration or something.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hehe
> 
> Unless he has a GM designed weakness, I doubt lightning will have any special effects on him.
> 
> That said, the more blasts, the merrier.




I think everyone would benefit from a decision on whether or not you are countering the teleport.  Once you decide I'll post the results, since it is obviously relevant to the next rounds actions for everyone.


----------



## Shayuri

Yar. Sounds like people are leaning in favor of. 

I shall post at once.


----------



## Raylis

...if I'm not mistaken-when you use a hero point to improve a roll you add 10 to the roll if the roll is less then 10...so that 4 becomes a 14+11 = 25?


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yar. Sounds like people are leaning in favor of.
> 
> I shall post at once.




Two things:
1) Matt is letting you counter with the base Magic array rank (i.e., cost of Base Power/2), so that's at rank 17 (!)
2) If you spend an HP, you get to add 10 to the second roll because the die roll is below 10.


----------



## Shayuri

I'm not sure what you mean. I have Rank 11 in Countermagic. 

And yes, the HP makes it a 10. That's a result of 21.

Sweet...it worked. Whew. 

Ya know, we could take Gunner hostage too. Use him to secure safe passage out of the facility.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I'm not sure what you mean. I have Rank 11 in Countermagic.
> 
> And yes, the HP makes it a 10. That's a result of 21.




The Instant Countering HP function is not the same as using our actual power (which is rank 11 but in a higher form of nullify (all magic instead of one effect). You just have to win an opposed power check based on the strongest power with the relevant descriptor.  in this case, it is your magic array.


----------



## Victim

Yay, it worked.  Of course, it'd be embarassing if the demon was able to kick our asses.  

He can't leave; it's a cage match now.


----------



## kirinke

Ifn ya'll want me to, once he's kao'd, I can have Hope spend a Hero point to cast that Fire Storm thing, I almost had her do awhile ago. 

So, what would be best, Hope reinforcing the ice wall or helping with the blasting of demon boy?


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Ifn ya'll want me to, once he's kao'd, I can have Hope spend a Hero point to cast that Fire Storm thing, I almost had her do awhile ago.
> 
> So, what would be best, Hope reinforcing the ice wall or helping with the blasting of demon boy?




I'd sort of vote for blasting the demon.  If it gets another action it can try to Teleport out again; even if Viridian readies to counter its teleport, it still might eat up another HP if she has to reroll the opposed roll.  The guards might break through the existing walls this round, but if they'd do that easily then a second wall won't help that much, and if they'd do so with difficulty, they won't get many attacks on us even if they do break through.

Also, you have Power Attack so you should specify that you Power Attack for some amount (3 points, maybe) if Oni is stunned (and thus has a much lower defense than normal) by the time you get around to attacking.

Oh, now that I look at it there are 6 guards.  That's a lot.  And Hope is near the top of the initiative order.  Maybe you could delay until the other PCs have gone to see how things play out.  If Matt's last post is taken as the exact initiative order, the guards go after all of us, so you don't really lose anything by delaying.


----------



## kirinke

Alright, hope will Delay.

When she does attack, she will have the following:
Power Attack
Her lightening blast has this: Blast 12, Imp Crit 3, Knockback 4, Indirect


----------



## Victim

You could Power Stunt the firestorm with extra effort and then just accept the fatigue result instead of spending a hero point.  However, we may not have the time to do a ritual.


----------



## kirinke

That could work too. But we don't know what will happen. I did post two her two possible actions as either a power attack boosted lightening bolt or the fire storm/ritual if the thing is kao'd.

So. Power stunt/fatigue + hero point to do both the fire storm and ritual if the thing is kao'd.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Sorry about that, Hope can get a little focused when dealing with demons and necromancers and dark wizards....




Exactly.  That's the problem.  Megan's worldview is extremely secular.  Going on about killing the demon or the warlock is just crazy fanatic talk.  As far as she can tell, Hope killed Viktor because he could turn into a monstrous spider.


----------



## Victim

Perhaps if we offered Scylla some moist, delicious cake, she'd be more cooperative?   What skills and powers can we bring to bear on the cake plan?


----------



## Shayuri

Hope could make an ice cake?

Does mind blast work on AI's?


----------



## Jemal

I hate to sound egotistical, but I think Optic's our best bet against a giant computer, he is the tech guy after all...  and they seem to have some pretty good anti-magic wards.

SO, assuming we can't negotiate with her, what are our options?  I doubt we could dig through that much stuff, I've got a feeling we're on a time limit here.  Thoughts?


----------



## Victim

Yeah, Optic should definitely take his best shot at the AI.  If you can't persuade, try hacking?  Optic's datalink might be able to hit whatever connections she's using to monitor and interact with the room.  However, since we are probably on a narrow time frame, we might want to bail on nonviolent approaches early - time is on its side.

If Scylla really wanted us to leave, then why kill our escape route?

We would have got Sense Motive on the 100 or so feet of reinforced concrete, right?  I need good data for plan B.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Yeah, Optic should definitely take his best shot at the AI.  If you can't persuade, try hacking?  Optic's datalink might be able to hit whatever connections she's using to monitor and interact with the room.  However, since we are probably on a narrow time frame, we might want to bail on nonviolent approaches early - time is on its side.
> 
> If Scylla really wanted us to leave, then why kill our escape route?
> 
> We would have got Sense Motive on the 100 or so feet of reinforced concrete, right?  I need good data for plan B.




It is very hard to judge the sincerity of a computer.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> It is very hard to judge the sincerity of a computer.




Alas.  

So we can't tell if the cake is a lie?   Or if the AI would pretend to be a friendly scientist?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Alas.
> 
> So we can't tell if the cake is a lie?   Or if the AI would pretend to be a friendly scientist?




What is the cake to which you refer?


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> What is the cake to which you refer?




I'm refering to Portal.



Spoiler



The crazy, taunting feminine, AI that controls the weapon lab that serves as the setting for the game is obsessed with cake and sometimes tries to bribe the player character with it.  A previous test subject scrawled, "the cake is a lie!" several times in one of the levels.

Since we're dealing with taunting, feminine AI controlling a weapon factory/lab, the reference seemed fitting.



But you know what they say about a joke you have to explain.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (I assume she's about to do her corrosion attack that hits her with blast 12 as a side effect, but I'm not entirely sure either)




Basically, yes.  I did some checking on the object rules.    Some (or perhaps most) of her plan isn't strictly necessary from a pure mechanics PoV, but ought to counteract some problems that might reasonably pop up.  The wind effect should replace air sucked from the room and/or protect characters from noxious fumes from vaporized lead.  Nitro's damage is like a starter hole that keeps a drill from slipping.  But Shooting Star hasn't considered structural damage or overpenetration killing workers inside the base.



> ooc:
> Her primary elements are air, water and electricity, the primary factors that make up weather. So her weaknesses as far as spellwork is concerned is of course fire followed by earth. I'd think that if she had cast a spell with the earth based descriptor, it would affect her similarly. Just my two cents on the subject, unless of course Matt disagrees.




It just seems silly that you feel the need to argue against Megan's uninformed opinions in the first place.  It's like Hope telling her and Optic that they're hacking things in the wrong way.


----------



## kirinke

Lol, not really arguing, it just struck me as a good idea. I like the roleplaying aspects of playing disadvantages.  And it does make sense in a weird sorta way. 

Hmmm. As far as the noxious fumes thing, Hope does have the freshen air ability, so that should help in keeping things breathable. Should things go foom and the floor drops, she can fly too, and maybe use her TK/wind ability to keep the others from falling in.


----------



## Victim

Isn't Hope's healing ability Tiring?  It might be better for her to save it for serious Disable/Staggered damage instead of minor injuries, especially since she's out of HP (whereas Shooting Star has 3 - or 2 if I need to buy off fatigue - which should be enough cover for a minor wound).  What's Hope's level of fatigue btw?  

That was a pretty lucky save.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Isn't Hope's healing ability Tiring?  It might be better for her to save it for serious Disable/Staggered damage instead of minor injuries, especially since she's out of HP (whereas Shooting Star has 3 - or 2 if I need to buy off fatigue - which should be enough cover for a minor wound).  What's Hope's level of fatigue btw?
> 
> That was a pretty lucky save.




She was already fatigued.  If she healed, she would be exhausted.  Which would be a very bad thing.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> She was already fatigued.  If she healed, she would be exhausted.  Which would be a very bad thing.




Hmm.  I thought she was fatigued from the fireblast/ritual banishment, and then tried to heal Viridian too?



> Unbidden, the light spring like wind springs up around her, almost in reaction to her concern for the younger woman. It swirls around Viridian's wounds, healing them, and The Saint staggers once again, white spots dancing in her eyes. She shakes it off with a visable effort.




But yeah, exhausted is bad enough.


----------



## kirinke

Alrighty then, she doesn't heal anyone except Viridian. But I did add the side effects of using fire/ground to her character sheet. Basically it effects her like drinking alot of high end alchohol all at once without the pleasure of inhibing it.    

Still, it is telling that Hope was the only one to rush to Star's aid, her first instincts are to help, even if she doesn't like someone all that much.


----------



## Victim

> (In case I was being unclear. One of the terrorist groups that Barrington paid off for the decoy attacks was Hamas, and there were a bunch of people found irradiated in Israel. However, it appears that it was Hiroshima Shadow that did that, as he was caught there. Now the Foundry folks just got killed in the same way, though HS is in prison. The fact that HS may have been the original culprit though begs the question of why Barrington paid the money for the attack to Hamas rather than Shadow.)




Ah, I thought that he said that Hiroshima Shadow was caught on the scene here.  But with the Foundry people dying in the same way, the overall matter is still a mystery.  As intended, I expect.

Even terrorists outsource and subcontract these days?


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah, I thought that he said that Hiroshima Shadow was caught on the scene here.  But with the Foundry people dying in the same way, the overall matter is still a mystery.  As intended, I expect.
> 
> Even terrorists outsource and subcontract these days?




Apparently the plot is thickening like cold gravy my friends!


----------



## Victim

Hmm, what if there was another Hiroshima Shadow type being created from Nagasaki?  Maybe HS was working with Hamas to obtain the release of his 'brother' (captured and studied as science project?)?  That would explain the similar MOs, and why HS was doing Hamas' work.


----------



## Victim

Oh yeah, kirinke, I don't mean sound like I'm picking on you since Star is rather down on your character, but your habit of substancially editing your posts is rather annoying.  It's sometimes difficult to reply in a timely fashion when you make big changes, possibly undermining posts in progress.  

Have some conviction.


----------



## kirinke

Sorry, sometimes I write off the top of my head, so I need to do some major editing to it. I'll try to curtail that though. And don't worry, I don't take personal offence, besides Hope is pretty used to not being trusted by Superheroes at least at first. And I think that she does sense that Star has her own 'issues' that come out as attitude. I mean, Hope has her own issues as well, so she can't blame another for the same reactions y'know? 

And I think that this isn't the first case of fellow superheroes bitching and sniping at one another....   Isn't that a comic book cavet?   


As for another Hiroshimo Shadow... There were two bombs dropped in Japan. Perhaps they both created a radioactive mutant.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> And I think that she does sense that Star has her own 'issues' that come out as attitude.




Yes, like a magazine.   Especially because of Spirit's death.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Is this campaign still looking for another player?  If so, I would be interested in joining.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Is this campaign still looking for another player?  If so, I would be interested in joining.




It is indeed.  What kind of character do you propose?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Well, I would have to make sure I don't overlap.  If you could give me a synopsis of the other character and their abilities, I can make sure not to overlap and work on complimenting them.  I would look for something like a green lantern type of individual.  Innate abilities, minimal, with a ring that holds the rest of his powers.  Probably Cosmic Energy as basis for all powers and alternate powers in the ring.  He could easily be molded into a defender if needed, or change his powers to offensive if that's what's needed.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

He would also have some healing powers, as that would surely be needed.  He's a guardian of sorts, defending most of the time, healing, calming people down, yet when the time comes to act, he's limited (as he should be) with only a few choices for attacks.  They are potent though, so he should be ok.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

If you have an email address, I can send you a 6th level synopsis of the guy I had in mind.  I built him for a game, but the DM bailed out of the game.  So, I can build him up to the curent PL level and it would be easy.


----------



## Elric

The roll call thread is here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=201682

The active characters from that thread (i.e., players who haven't dropped) are: mine, Victim, Raylis, Shayuri, Jemal, and Kirinke.


----------



## Shayuri

Just as a note, I've been considering adding a healing spell to Viridian's list.

We used to have Angel, but he flew away...and it makes sense that a 'white witch' could have magical healing.

Thoughts? Don't want to step on any toes.


----------



## kirinke

I think it's a good idea; one of the reasons why I popped a healing ability to Hope's array is that we did have a lack and I also believe that the more people we have with healing powers the better. Especially if one fails the heal check


----------



## Shayuri

Yar....plus, it's thematically appropriate.

I can design my healing so it works differently than yours too...perhaps it's better in some ways, but takes time, so it's not really "combat healing," but can be used to recover from wounds that yours wouldn't work on...

Or I could take Resurrection, just in case.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Here's an updated character sheet, still have 25pp to use up...
[sblock=]
Character Alias: The Guardian / Citadel ?
Age: 29
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 210
Hair: Black
Eyes: Hazel
Power Level: 11
Power Points: 165


----------Ability Scores---------(36pp)
Strength: 18 (+4)
Dexterity: 16 (+3)
Constitution: 16 (+3)
Intelligence: 14 (+2)
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 16 (+3)
--------------------------------------

----------Saves---------(2pp)
Toughness: +8 (3 Con, 5 Force Field)
Fortitude: +3 (3 Con)
Reflex: +3 (3 Dex)
Willpower: +5 (3 Wis, 2pp)
--------------------------------------

----------Combat---------(0pp)
Attack Bonus: +0 melee/+6 Ranged (Feat)
Damage Bonus: Unarmed +4 (Bruise)
Grapple: +4
Defense Bonus: +3 (Dodge)
Initiative: +3
--------------------------------------

----------Lifting Capacity---------
Light Load: 100 lbs
Medium Load: 200 lbs
Heavy Load: 300 lbs
Max Load: 600 lbs
Push/Drag: 1500 lbs
--------------------------------------

----------Movement Rate---------
Base Speed: 30 ft/r / 60 ft/r / 120 ft/r
Leap: 11 ft / 5 ft / 2 ft
Flight: 250 mph /2500ft/r

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

----------Skills---------(4pp)

Bluff - 0 (+1)
Climb - 0 (+4)
Concentration - 16 (+19)
Diplomacy - 0 (+1)
Disguise - 0 (+1)
Escape Artist - 0 (+3)
Gather Info - 0 (+1)
Handle Animal - 0 (+1)
Intimidate - 0 (+1)
Notice - 0 (+3)
Search - 0 (+2)
Sense Motive – 0 (+3)
Stealth - 0 (+3)
Survival - 0 (+3)
Swim - 0 (+4)

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

----------Feats---------(21pp)

Dodge Focus (3): +3 dodge bonus
Eidetic Memory (): Perfect recall of everything you have experienced
Fearless (): Immunity to fear effects
Attack Focus Ranged (6): +6 bonus on ranged attacks
Leadership (): Spend Hero point to remove adverse condition from ally
Inspire (5): Grant allies +5 to attacks, saves, & checks by spending Hero Point
Luck (4): Gain 4 Hero Points

--------------------------------------
----------General Powers---------(26pp)

Rally the Troops-
Able to bolster his allies’ emotions, he can effectively negate any fear or despair effects to those under such influences. This is limited to only providing hope, and dependent on the fact that the allies must be able to hear him call out to them.

Emotional Control 10
Effect: Mental
Range: Will
Action: Standard
Duration: Sustained (Lasting)
Extras: None
Flaws: Limited to Hope [-1], Sense-Dependent (Hearing) [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (5pp)

Alien Resistance-
Being from a distant world, and under the strict orders to gather intel, he is immune to natural tendencies that humans would find as a daily necessity, such as eating, sleeping, drinking, as well as being immune to diseases, poison and suffocation. His body is ageless, appearing as a 29 year old male.

Immunity 9
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Suffocation[+2], Aging[+1], Disease[+1], Poison[+1], Sleep[+1], Starvation and Thirst[+1], Crit Immunity[+2]
Total Cost: (9pp)

Cosmic Force Field-
Gathering the power that his race has harnessed, he is able to create a cosmic field of force to aid in his defenses. Although it is resistant to most penetrating attacks, it wears away with each successful block.

Force Field 5
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Free
Duration: Sustained
Extras: Impervious[+1]
Flaws: Ablative [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (5pp)

Cosmic Life-
Being from an alien world, his body is resistance to death, to a certain extent. Upon death, his body will heal itself as a standard action, mending together any damaged organs, severed limbs, and also injuries that were incurable seem to vanish as well. This is dependent on his ring being on his finger when he makes his check to cheat death, then it will lend him its power, causing him to resurrect. Upon death, the ring will go into stasis mode, keeping its energy harnesses for Aegis to use for this effect. 

Regeneration 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Resurrection x10 [+10] (Standard Action)
Extras: None
Flaws: Source [-1] (Must have Ring or access to Cosmic Energy)
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (7pp)

---------Device Powers---------(54pp)

Ring of Cosmic Channeling-
This is his lone item from his home-world. It is a testament to his race’s abilities to harness Cosmic Energy and channel it through a medium. Finding that rings are easier to handle, it was decided that all others of his race would have identical rings to identify themselves to each other. Each of these rings is imbued with an array of powers that are at the users disposal, although they are independent of each other. Only one power can be effectively used each time the ring is used. Aegis’ ring is tuned to his own life, and will not work for anyone else, and can not be used against himself.

Device 13
Effect: General
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent (Innate)
4 point per rank option, Ring is Focus of Cosmic Power and Hard to lose
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Restrictions[2] (His Use Only)
Drawbacks: *Recharge*
Total Cost: (54pp)
*Allows 65pp of Device Powers

1. Cosmic Flight–
This power is his primary mobility power, enabling him to always be able to fly at a speed of 100mph when needed. As long as his ring is worn, this power is used at his will.

Flight 5
Effect: Movement 250MPH
Range: Personal
Action: Move
Duration: Sustained
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Device Cost (10pp)

2. Cosmic Deflector-
He has witnessed many acts of violence on the unassuming in the city, and has manifested his powers to be able to aid those in need. When he is able to perceive danger to someone nearby, Aegis is able to ready his action to deflect all ranged and mental attacks on a target/targets within his effective area.

Deflect Rank 11
Effect: Defense
Range: Touch/(100’xRank)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
3 Points per Rank Option - All ranged and mental attacks
Extras: Ranged (Increment of 10’x Power Rank)
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Alternate Powers x11[*]
Drawbacks: None (55/55pp)


Cosmic Explosion- Alternate Power1
Explosive blast that can target enemies and miss allies. Used when there are swarms of enemies to deal with, and innocents mingled together. A real crowd control attack.

Blast 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged (10’x rank, -1 rank per 10’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Explosion[+1], Selective Attack[+1], Secondary Effect[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
(Free -55/55pp)

Penetrating Cosmic Blast- Alternate Power2
When he needs to make sure that what he hits actually stays hit, this blast can come from anywhere.

Blast 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged (600’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Penetrating [+1], Secondary Effect[+1], Impervious[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Indirect, Accurate x2, Improved Range x3
Drawbacks: None
(Free -50/55pp)

Cosmic Fist of Reckoning- Alternate Power3
When all else fails, and he finds himself hurting, needing to heal himself as well as take out the bad guy, this is his last ditch effort. It’s a gruesome attack, taking a little bit of the target to heal himself in the process.  It's deadly, and it has the ability to continue it's course of damage even after the attack is finished.

Strike 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Vampiric [+1], Impervious[+1], Secondary Effect[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x4, Incurable
(Free -49/55pp)

Cosmic Entangling Bands- Alternate Power4
Cosmic power unravels at his command, wrapping themselves around any foe he designates. Not enough to bind a target, they simply provide a penalty and hindrance to said foe. They are invisible strands, not providing the target with the benefit of cover.

Snare 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Transparent [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x2
Drawbacks: None
(Free -35/55pp)

Cosmic Sensory Overload- Alternate Power5
This attack is a call for all cosmic energy in the target to scramble the targets senses, dazing the foe if successful. It affects all senses, as the cosmic energy surrounding the foe scrambles anything and everything.

Dazzle 11
Effect: Sensory
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant (Lasting)
4 point per rank option, All Senses
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
(Free -44/55pp)

Cosmic Objects- Alternate Power6
Cosmic energy bends to his will, forming any shape that he can manage to form in his own mind. These shapes are precise, not nullified and can have many options such as movable, stationary, subtle effects or tethered to an object. They are also larger than normal, as he is able to create large object with this power.

Create Objects 11
Effect: General
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Movable [+1], Continuous [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Innate, Precise, Stationary, Subtle, Tether, Progression (10’Cube x rank)
(Free -50/55pp)

Cosmic Healing Cloud- Alternate Power7
Having seen the suffering of many, and has now found a way to heal others. He can transfer cosmic energy to anyone besides himself in the form of a healing cloud. This cloud is selective, as he is able to choose who can be affected by the could at will. This healing cloud grants the chance for others to recover from damage, incurable damage, replace severed limbs and repair damaged organs.

Heal 11
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch - Area Cloud (5’ Diameter x rank)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Cloud [+1], Action[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Selective, Stabilize
Drawbacks: None
(Free -48/55pp)

Cosmic Surge Boosting- Alternate Power8
There are times when a little extra effort is needed to push others in the right direction. He can provide that little extra needed when the time comes, as he channels cosmic energy to others, granting them bonuses to certain stats deemed necessary by him on a per usage basis. These are limited to only a group of traits, instead of all of them, but as potent as needed.

Boost 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
3 point per rank option, Boost affects a narrow group of traits once and up to him to determine those groups
Extras: Action [+1], Ranged [+1], Total Fade[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
(Free -50/55pp)[/b]


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

----------Drawbacks------------

Ring of Cosmic Channeling requires a daily recharge from him. This can be anytime the ring is out of energy, usually lasting 23 hours at a time. After 23 hours of no recharging, the ring’s powers are lost. Recharging the ring is a meditative focus, where he has to have the following circumstances; the ring, a cosmic focus (single star, the moon, or the sun), and one hour of meditation. Meditation is a relative term, up to the GM’s discretion. Upon completion, the ring is recharged for another 23 hours of powers.

Type: Power Loss (*Recharge* Daily)
Frequency DC5
Severity DC5 (-3pp)

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

------------Complications-------------

Secret: Gathering data on earth, for alien race home planet (which he doesn't know that his home plane tis no more...)
Enemy: Unknown to him, he's being hunted by alien race that took over his planet, and looking to eradicate any stragglers....


----------Cost Summary---------
Abilities: 36
Combat: 0
Saves: 2
Skills: 2+2
Feats: 21
Powers: 80
Drawbacks: -3
Total Cost: 140/165
--------------------------------------

PL11 - 165 PP[/sblock]

INFO - I still have 25pp to use, along with the fact that I have 3 more alternate powers to write up and choose from.  As you see, I usually put in the Attack Bonuses with the powers themselves.  Not with the base attack bonuses, as is usual.  Saves might need some increases.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

The only thing I am wondering about is the Drawback, as the main M&M manual does not have Drawbacks listed as not available to Devices.  Yet, in the Ultimate Power book, it lists Drawbacks, Power Loss as not available.  Is that still the case?  If so, I can simply remove that drawback, but it's worth asking now and not after I update him to level 11.


----------



## Jemal

I have one quick question, Fangor..  you wouldn't happen to be related to...

TROGDOR!!!!!!!!!


would you?  Your name reminds me of the OmniFlamable burninator everytime I see it.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yar....plus, it's thematically appropriate.
> 
> I can design my healing so it works differently than yours too...perhaps it's better in some ways, but takes time, so it's not really "combat healing," but can be used to recover from wounds that yours wouldn't work on...
> 
> Or I could take Resurrection, just in case.




Makes sense too, considering that their powers are wildly different, even coming from different sources too.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Jemal said:
			
		

> I have one quick question, Fangor..  you wouldn't happen to be related to...
> 
> TROGDOR!!!!!!!!!
> 
> 
> would you?  Your name reminds me of the OmniFlamable burninator everytime I see it.




Nope, never heard of him.  As for my character, any thoughts from anyone?  I was thinking on the stats, they aren't too bad, and CON could go up, since he's more of a defensive guy.  I have plenty of points to use for tweaking this guy, so I would like to know what requests you all have for a new hero.  Is there something that you all are lacking that I could try to work into this character?

He's used to healing, protecting, calming, etc.  He can do crowd control as well, and uses create invisible objects to thwart retreats, advances, etc.  Buys a little time when the others need that extra few seconds to act.  

So, any suggestions?


----------



## kirinke

There might be a lil confusion, considering that AEGIS is also the name of the government organization Hope works for.   But in a fun way. Lol.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> There might be a lil confusion, considering that AEGIS is also the name of the government organization Hope works for.   But in a fun way. Lol.



 Yeah, which is why I tried to edit all the references to his name Aegis and change them to something else.  Possibly Citadel.  Not sure on a name yet though...


----------



## Victim

Going to Continuous Create Objects might be a useful upgrade.  Create Objects is such a fun power.

Someone strongly interested in calming other people and with a superskill Emotion Control could probably do with higher social skills and/or CHA.  But boosting Diplomacy is pretty cheap.  The Leadership and Inspire feats might be up your ally.

In fact, your character is pretty light on skills in general.  Since you're getting another 75 pp, some of those could go into skills.

Obviously, you should buy up your Force Field (or Con) and then the Cosmic Deflection array.

More points in attack, defense, and saves would be amiss either.

I don't think that Selective Attack is required for Area Healing; you might be able to get away with the power feat.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Going to Continuous Create Objects might be a useful upgrade.  Create Objects is such a fun power.




Lol. We're learning that right now in game, my character is tearing through some traps with create object (Ice)


----------



## Shayuri

It's worth pointing out that Thess has an emotion control spell...and a fairly limited mind control spell too.

I'm starting to think we might need more "firepower" though. We only have Nitro left as far as real brute force goes, though with Optic and Shooting Star and Hope's lightning we have plenty of blasts...

Maybe it's time Thess learned to summon some meatshields.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> Going to Continuous Create Objects might be a useful upgrade.  Create Objects is such a fun power.




Just to make sure, you are talking about changing the DURATION of the power to Continuous.  Change has been made, as I guess I never thought about being knocked out, lol.



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Someone strongly interested in calming other people and with a superskill Emotion Control could probably do with higher social skills and/or CHA.  But boosting Diplomacy is pretty cheap.  The Leadership and Inspire feats might be up your ally.




I can see where that would be a good thing to add.  The two feats are nice, yet I would have to make use of Hero Points.  I might have to think about adding a few Hero Points to my pool with the Luck feat as well.  I am not sure how often the DM gives Hero Points, and if it's rare, then those feats might be mute...  Any insight on those thoughts?

I also am thinking of simply bumping up his Cha through the Enhanced Ability power, along with Con and Strength.  Not sure yet, will have to play with numbers to decide...



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> In fact, your character is pretty light on skills in general.  Since you're getting another 75 pp, some of those could go into skills.



  Skills aren't that important to me, besides Concentration, which is getting 16 ranks.  I am not sure he's too keen on the other skills.  Perhaps Bluff or Diplomacy, if I go with the increased Charisma...  



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Obviously, you should buy up your Force Field (or Con) and then the Cosmic Deflection array.




Force Field will be increased to give him max protection.  Deflection is going up to Rank 11, since Device is going to increase to 13, giving him 65pp to use with the device.  10 of that is flight 5, leaves 55 for initial power, which is the Deflector Power.  Rank 11, 3 point option with Extra +Range costs 44pp, and 8pp for 8 Alternate Powers.  In other words, I max Deflector to 11, and still gain the ability to add on 3 MORE alternate powers than I already have chosen.  



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> ore points in attack, defense, and saves would be amiss either.
> 
> I don't think that Selective Attack is required for Area Healing; you might be able to get away with the power feat.




For the attacks, with the availability of 3 more Alternate Powers, I can easily gain a few more attacks to round out this characters support mentality.  He wouldn't want to leave you all fighting hand to hand and be left out, you know,   

As for the selected attack with the cloud of healing, I think it's best to keep it.  I wouldn't inadvertently be wanting to heal the bad guys.  Besides, it's flavor.

Thanks for the feedback, it's just what I needed.  I am working on the character sheet, and if you want me to post up some updated info on the guy, I can.  Or, I could edit the previous posting of the character sheet and update with what I have....


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> It's worth pointing out that Thess has an emotion control spell...and a fairly limited mind control spell too.
> 
> I'm starting to think we might need more "firepower" though. We only have Nitro left as far as real brute force goes, though with Optic and Shooting Star and Hope's lightning we have plenty of blasts...
> 
> Maybe it's time Thess learned to summon some meatshields.




Yeah, Thessaly covers lots of mentalism tricks with Emotion Control, Mind Control, perception TK, and force fields.  I'm sort of surprised you don't use Emotion Control more often though.  It's a great minion sweeper with its burst- they take the worst effect on a failed save, so if you set it to Love, then you're gaining fanatical minions while the enemies are losing them. 

Heh.  I was thinking of picking up a Summon for ultra-smart (any kind of INT on a glorified bullet counts for ultra smart IMO ) projectile attacks.  But I don't think they'd be much use as meat shields.

Oh yeah, I'm not sure why the Fist of Reckoning has Triggered.  It seems like something that you punch someone with, not something that creates a trap or goes off later.

Create Object is such a sweet power, especially when it's tricked out.  Offense, defense, reshaping the battlefield, general utility...  It's versatility without needing an array - but since Continuous creations stick around after changing slots, it still works well with them.

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

I meant that the Selective Power Feat should allow for you to selectively heal only allies/neutrals and not enemies in the area.  Buying Selective Attack is overpaying.

We don't get awarded HP very often, but our hero points do refresh to 1+ # of Luck feats between fights.  So Luck could be very useful.


----------



## Shayuri

Hmm...reading over my Create Object, and Ultimate Powers, I may need to make some changes...

The domes that Thess makes are supposed to be like the classic magical wards more than actual physical domes. I think I might achieve that with a Selective Effect feat, so that Thess could create a barrier to specific things that wouldn't impede other things. Like a ward against demons, or bullets... That would make it more in line with the concept, and make it less like the other Create Object powers that are showing up.

I also need to remember that Thess has that nice transmutation power...it doesn't affect much mass at a time, but -any- inanimate substance can be transmuted, making it very versatile...

I'll look into some good thematic summons...I'd intended summoning to be done via Ritual Magic, but most situations don't give us -nearly- enough time to prepare for that...


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> Oh yeah, I'm not sure why the Fist of Reckoning has Triggered.  It seems like something that you punch someone with, not something that creates a trap or goes off later.
> 
> I meant that the Selective Power Feat should allow for you to selectively heal only allies/neutrals and not enemies in the area.  Buying Selective Attack is overpaying.
> 
> We don't get awarded HP very often, but our hero points do refresh to 1+ # of Luck feats between fights.  So Luck could be very useful.




Selective - An effect with this feat is discriminating, allowing you to decide
what is and is not affected. This is most useful for Area effects (see
the Area power extra description). You must be able to accurately
perceive a target in order to decide whether or not to affect it. If
the power requires an attack roll or allows a saving throw, then
Selective is an extra instead of a power feat (see the Selective
Attack extra).

So, since Heal does not call for a save, you are right, I overspent on that Power.  THANKS!!!


As for the Fist of Reckoning one, that's one of the ones to get an overhaul on its mechanics.  With me needing a few attacks, it will be a nice one to work with.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, edited his character sheet above.  Take a look, let me know if I forgot something.  Those last 25pp are still up in the air to spend.  Enhance Ability is a choice, Stat increases is a choice, as well as saves...


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmm...reading over my Create Object, and Ultimate Powers, I may need to make some changes...
> 
> The domes that Thess makes are supposed to be like the classic magical wards more than actual physical domes. I think I might achieve that with a Selective Effect feat, so that Thess could create a barrier to specific things that wouldn't impede other things. Like a ward against demons, or bullets... That would make it more in line with the concept, and make it less like the other Create Object powers that are showing up.
> 
> I also need to remember that Thess has that nice transmutation power...it doesn't affect much mass at a time, but -any- inanimate substance can be transmuted, making it very versatile...
> 
> I'll look into some good thematic summons...I'd intended summoning to be done via Ritual Magic, but most situations don't give us -nearly- enough time to prepare for that...




Well, for summoning Rituals, it looks like the ritual takes a long time to prepare and cast, but you gain the use for one encounter.  But I don't think that means it needs to be used immediately.  So you could summon something in advance, but it would only help for encounter.  On the other hand, it still takes days to do the research without quickness - and we haven't had that much time either.  Unless Viridian wouldn't mind passing on sleep.

Selective on your CO would be nice, especially since it means you can use it without interferening with other characters' attacks.  Not that it's a big deal for Star, since she has full Indirect.  

It's a bit of a good thing that the Transmute hasn't been used, really, since Megan would really want the money it could provide.


----------



## Jemal

Money?  We've got an exceedingly rich foundation backing us, and at least one of the members (Myself, of course) is independantly wealthy, so I think abusing Transmute would be a bit redundant, I doubt we have to worry about the GM having a problem with it.


----------



## DM_Matt

Just checking in and apologizing.  My Thanksgiving weekends has been especially travel-heavy and especially booked up.  I've been reading everything on my PDA, but this is the first time I've gotten to  a computer since about Wednesday, and alas still do not have time to post in detail.  

One issue with the new character, btw, is the backstory.  It would not make sense for the Trust to hire him if he was an agent of an active alien civilization, though it might if that civiization had been already destroyed.  However, for that to work, it would not make much sense for him to not know that it had been destroyed.  

I really like having a Green Lantern type. I just have to fit it in with my campaign world in which earth is not actively involved in relations with alien civilizations (Though there is plenty of alien phlebotinum around).


----------



## kirinke

Matt? What's your stance on immortality? If at all possible, I'd like to buy it in increments if at all possible (depending on how things fall out). I'm getting a glimmer of an idea on Hope's possible parents, though if you guys have any ideas, i'd be willing to listen to them.

Um... active agent? Isn't Hope an active agent of AEGIS? They don't have a problem with that, though they do know that she is an Aegis agent.... I mean, if the aliens aren't hostile, I don't think that would be a problem persae as long as he was up front about it. Look at the original Green Lantern character concept, he was an active alien agent, but that didn't stop the justice league from accepting him. I dunno, just my two coppers worth.


----------



## Shayuri

Re Hope: Is she a child of Zeus the Thunderer? 

Re Green Lantern: The Trust isn't the Justice League...it's way more cloak and daggery. What if someone just -finds- a "power ring" from an ancient civilization? Perhaps a suggested chariots of the gods thing, where a character visits some ancient ruin on Earth and stumbles onto a secret room or something in which is preserved an alien sarcophagus, containing a clearly inhuman body and this way cool gizmo (whatever form it may take). Or it could be an ancient UFO crash site, or...all sorts of things.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Actually, I was thinking of Hera. I mean, it's the 21st century, you'd think she'd get tired of his infidelity and have some fun of her own occasionally. Be funny if she got it on with her husband in disguise in order to trick him.  

And that would put her at odds with Hades and the Labyrith.


----------



## Victim

Jemal said:
			
		

> Money?  We've got an exceedingly rich foundation backing us, and at least one of the members (Myself, of course) is independantly wealthy, so I think abusing Transmute would be a bit redundant, I doubt we have to worry about the GM having a problem with it.




Yes, the impact of Transmute on our overall resources isn't really significant.  However, the Trust hasn't exactly offered our characters a salary at this point, IIRC.  And, to Shooting Star at least, asking for a handout of some value (ie, money) would feel different from asking a quick favor that ends up producing value.

I can't remember if Hera was ever unfaithful in the myths; you'd think that if Zeus's actions in those stories didn't provide sufficient justification then they never would.  As a goddess of marriage, hearth and home, her nature might be sufficiently set that changing to better fit current times is basically impossible.

Changing from a alien to a normal guy who found an alien artifact is a pretty big shift in concept, I think.  If the alien civ destroying his home was jamming communications, then it seems reasonable that he'd have an incomplete picture of events.  If part of the final message was garbled or blocked, then maybe he only gets the "you're on your own now, have fun on whatever planet you were last stationed at and try to uphold our values" part and the not "this is our final message, the evillians launched a surprise attack and are  bombarding our cities.  We can't hold out long."  But really, with a name like evilians, they should have seen it coming.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Matt? What's your stance on immortality? If at all possible, I'd like to buy it in increments if at all possible (depending on how things fall out). I'm getting a glimmer of an idea on Hope's possible parents, though if you guys have any ideas, i'd be willing to listen to them.
> 
> Um... active agent? Isn't Hope an active agent of AEGIS? They don't have a problem with that, though they do know that she is an Aegis agent.... I mean, if the aliens aren't hostile, I don't think that would be a problem persae as long as he was up front about it. Look at the original Green Lantern character concept, he was an active alien agent, but that didn't stop the justice league from accepting him. I dunno, just my two coppers worth.




But it is already clear that the Trust has someone in the same chain of command as Hope and above her, who feeds her Trust-related cases.  She is a necessary part of the Trust's secrecy operation that allows them to cooperate with AEGIS without AEGIS actually knowing bout them.

Regarding immortality, I'm not so sure about humans being able to get it without a real price.  Note that from Barrington's origin story, his immortality and his evil came from -- essentially, though the race that built it in this universe remains unspecified, a Goa'uld sarcophagus.

Additionally, note that I have said no gods, since I want to leave religious controversies as open questions  (which is not to say that things with powers cannot claim to be gods and try to get people to worship them...such as, say, a wolf-like mutant who got the Aztecs to worship him).  

Some aliens might have really long life spands though, and immunity to things like disease or not needing to breathe can work for some concepts.  Basically, though, its the lack of aging and the ability to return from death that are going to be conceptually difficult to justify.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Yes, the impact of Transmute on our overall resources isn't really significant.  However, the Trust hasn't exactly offered our characters a salary at this point, IIRC.  And, to Shooting Star at least, asking for a handout of some value (ie, money) would feel different from asking a quick favor that ends up producing value.
> 
> I can't remember if Hera was ever unfaithful in the myths; you'd think that if Zeus's actions in those stories didn't provide sufficient justification then they never would.  As a goddess of marriage, hearth and home, her nature might be sufficiently set that changing to better fit current times is basically impossible.




True, very true. But Hope could still be an anomoly, being an actual child of both Zues and Hera, I think of all of the greek gods, only Hephestus can claim that. Perhaps she was stolen as an toddler by unknown enemies, her immortality somehow subdued and weakened to the point where it was virtually useless (thus resulting in her being found tortured with no memory) and somehow being rescued, perhaps by some superhero or even regular humans. The cops who worked on her case could have lied where they found her in order to protect her. 

Her protectiveness towards children could be a trait inherited from her mother and accentuated by her own trauma.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> But it is already clear that the Trust has someone in the same chain of command as Hope and above her, who feeds her Trust-related cases.  She is a necessary part of the Trust's secrecy operation that allows them to cooperate with AEGIS without AEGIS actually knowing bout them.




Lol. True again.


----------



## Shayuri

I dunno...a demigod is one thing, but a full goddess?

Well, to the extent that the Greek pantheon are "gods" in the modern sense of the word, I suppose...


----------



## kirinke

More like a potential one, she is mortal right now and vulnerable to all of the mortal ills. Plus, she has no idea that she is one. As far as she knows, she's just a traumatized foundling without a memory of who she was. She's made a life for herself though, doing something worthwhile. In Hope's view, her father is Alexander Winters, with her old teacher Henry acting as an _'uncle'_ figure. Her family is the FBI, AEGIS and now the group she's working for/with.


----------



## DM_Matt

Reposting this, sincew there were a bunch of posts while I edited this in:



Regarding immortality, I'm not so sure about humans being able to get it without a real price. Note that from Barrington's origin story, his immortality and his evil came from -- essentially, though the race that built it in this universe remains unspecified, a Goa'uld sarcophagus.

Additionally, note that I have said no gods, since I want to leave religious controversies as open questions (which is not to say that things with powers cannot claim to be gods and try to get people to worship them...such as, say, a wolf-like mutant who got the Aztecs to worship him). 

Some aliens might have really long life spands though, and immunity to things like disease or not needing to breathe can work for some concepts. Basically, though, its the lack of aging and the ability to return from death that are going to be conceptually difficult to justify.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Reposting this, sincew there were a bunch of posts while I edited this in:
> 
> 
> 
> Regarding immortality, I'm not so sure about humans being able to get it without a real price. Note that from Barrington's origin story, his immortality and his evil came from -- essentially, though the race that built it in this universe remains unspecified, a Goa'uld sarcophagus.
> 
> Additionally, note that I have said no gods, since I want to leave religious controversies as open questions (which is not to say that things with powers cannot claim to be gods and try to get people to worship them...such as, say, a wolf-like mutant who got the Aztecs to worship him).
> 
> Some aliens might have really long life spands though, and immunity to things like disease or not needing to breathe can work for some concepts. Basically, though, its the lack of aging and the ability to return from death that are going to be conceptually difficult to justify.




No big, I'm just throwing out ideas. Barring that, maybe being the daughter of Dr. Stratos and his criminal partner Medea might work. Now that could make for some interesting plothooks. Especially if Hope is _not_ inclined to work for/with them.

What I was really inclined towards is her being the daughter of either a superhero and villain, or two supervillians.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I dunno...a demigod is one thing, but a full goddess?
> 
> Well, to the extent that the Greek pantheon are "gods" in the modern sense of the word, I suppose...




Actual qualifications for godhood are generally pretty low, the whole set up is based around nepotism.   While it's not all that often that mortals get the best of gods in myths, it has been known to happen.  Going against Bronze Age weaponry, it's not all that hard to look godlike.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, updated info, need some questions answered in regards to saves.  What's the most important save I should be concerned about, as I only have about 11pp left to spend on saves...

[sblock=]Character Alias: The Guardian / Citadel ?
Age: 29
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 210
Hair: Black
Eyes: Hazel
Power Level: 11
Power Points: 165

----------Ability Scores---------(36pp)
Strength: 18 (+4)
Dexterity: 16 (+3)
Constitution: 16 (+3)
Intelligence: 14 (+2)
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 16 (+3)
--------------------------------------

----------Saves---------(2pp)
Toughness: +8 (3 Con, 5 Force Field)
Fortitude: +3 (3 Con)
Reflex: +3 (3 Dex)
Willpower: +5 (3 Wis, 2pp)
--------------------------------------

----------Combat---------(2pp)
Attack Bonus: +1 melee/+7 Ranged (+6 from Feat)
Damage Bonus: Unarmed +5 (Bruise)
Grapple: +5
Defense Bonus: +3 (Dodge)
Initiative: +3
--------------------------------------

----------Lifting Capacity---------
Light Load: 100 lbs
Medium Load: 200 lbs
Heavy Load: 300 lbs
Max Load: 600 lbs
Push/Drag: 1500 lbs
--------------------------------------

----------Movement Rate---------
Base Speed: 30 ft/r / 60 ft/r / 120 ft/r
Leap: 11 ft / 5 ft / 2 ft
Flight: 250 mph /2500ft/r

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

----------Skills---------(8pp)

Bluff - 0 (+3)
Climb - 0 (+4)
Concentration - 16 (+19)
Diplomacy - 0 (+3)
Disguise - 0 (+1)
Escape Artist - 0 (+3)
Gather Info - 16 (+19)
Handle Animal - 0 (+3)
Intimidate - 0 (+3)
Notice - 0 (+3)
Search - 0 (+2)
Sense Motive – 0 (+3)
Stealth - 0 (+3)
Survival - 0 (+3)
Swim - 0 (+4)

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

----------Feats---------(21pp)

Dodge Focus (3): +3 dodge bonus
Eidetic Memory (): Perfect recall of everything you have experienced
Fearless (): Immunity to fear effects
Attack Focus Ranged (6): +6 bonus on ranged attacks
Leadership (): Spend Hero point to remove adverse condition from ally
Inspire (5): Grant allies +5 to attacks, saves, & checks by spending Hero Point
Luck (4): Gain 4 Hero Points

--------------------------------------
----------General Powers---------(26pp)

Rally the Troops-
Able to bolster his allies’ emotions, he can effectively negate any fear or despair effects to those under such influences. This is limited to only providing hope, and dependent on the fact that the allies must be able to hear him call out to them.

Emotional Control 10
Effect: Mental
Range: Will
Action: Standard
Duration: Sustained (Lasting)
Extras: None
Flaws: Limited to Hope [-1], Sense-Dependent (Hearing) [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (5pp)

Alien Resistance-
Being from a distant world, and under the strict orders to gather intel, he is immune to natural tendencies that humans would find as a daily necessity, such as eating, sleeping, drinking, as well as being immune to diseases, poison and suffocation. His body is ageless, appearing as a 29 year old male.

Immunity 9
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Suffocation [+2], Aging [+1], Disease [+1], Poison [+1], Sleep [+1], Starvation and Thirst [+1], Crit Immunity [+2]
Total Cost: (9pp)

Cosmic Force Field-
Gathering the power that his race has harnessed, he is able to create a cosmic field of force to aid in his defenses. Although it is resistant to most penetrating attacks, it wears away with each successful block.

Force Field 5
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Free
Duration: Sustained
Extras: Impervious [+1]
Flaws: Ablative [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (5pp)

Cosmic Life-
Being from an alien world, his body is resistance to death, to a certain extent. Upon death, his body will heal itself as a standard action, mending together any damaged organs, severed limbs, and also injuries that were incurable seem to vanish as well. This is dependent on his ring being on his finger when he makes his check to cheat death, then it will lend him its power, causing him to resurrect. Upon death, the ring will go into stasis mode, keeping its energy harnesses for him to use for this effect. 

Regeneration 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Resurrection x10 [+10] (Instantly)
Extras: None
Flaws: Source [-1]
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (7pp)

---------Device Powers---------(62pp)

Ring of Cosmic Channeling-
This is his lone item from his home-world. It is a testament to his race’s abilities to harness Cosmic Energy and channel it through a medium. Finding that rings are easier to handle, it was decided that all others of his race would have identical rings to identify themselves to each other. Each of these rings is imbued with an array of powers that are at the users disposal, although they are independent of each other. Only one power can be effectively used each time the ring is used. His  ring is tuned to his own life, and will not work for anyone else, and can not be used against him.

Device 15
Effect: General
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent (Innate)
4 point per rank option, Ring is Focus of Cosmic Power and Hard to lose
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Restrictions [2] (His Use Only)
Drawbacks: *Recharge*
Total Cost: (62pp)
*Allows 75dpp for Device Powers

1. Cosmic Flight–
This power is his primary mobility power, enabling him to always be able to fly at a speed of 250mph when needed. As long as his ring is worn, this power is used at his will.

Flight 5
Effect: Movement 250MPH
Range: Personal
Action: Move
Duration: Sustained
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Device Cost (10/75dpp)

2. COSMIC ENERGY EXPLOSION
This is the main source of power from his ring.  It lends him many options as well, as it grants him alternate powers as needed.

Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged (10’x rank, -1 rank per 10’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Explosion [+1], Selective Attack [+1], Secondary Effect [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Alternate Powers x10 [+10]
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (65/75dpp – 55 allotted to each Alternate Power)

Alternate Power 1 - Cosmic Deflector
He has witnessed many acts of violence on the unassuming in the city, and has manifested his powers to be able to aid those in need. When he is able to perceive danger to someone nearby, Aegis is able to ready his action to deflect all ranged and mental attacks on a target/targets within his effective area.

Deflect Rank 11
Effect: Defense
Range: Touch/(10’xRank)
Action: Move
Duration: Instant
3 Points per Rank Option - All ranged and mental attacks
Extras: Ranged (Increment of 10’x Power Rank) [+1], Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: 
Drawbacks: None 
Total Cost: (55/55pp)

Alternate Power 2 - Penetrating Cosmic Blast
When he needs to make sure that what he hits actually stays hit, this blast can come from anywhere.

Blast 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged (1000’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Penetrating [+1], Secondary Effect [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Indirect x3, Accurate x2
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -49/55pp)

Alternate Power 3 - Cosmic Fist of Reckoning
When all else fails, and he finds himself hurting, needing to heal himself as well as take out the bad guy, this is his last ditch effort. It’s a gruesome attack, taking a little bit of the target to heal him in the process.  It's deadly, and it has the ability to continue it's course of damage even after the attack is finished.

Strike 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Vampiric [+1], Secondary Effect [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x5, Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2
Total Cost: (Free -41/55pp)

Alternate Power 4 - Cosmic Binding
Cosmic power unravels at his command, wrapping themselves around any foe he designates. Not enough to bind a target, they simply provide a penalty and hindrance to said foe. They are invisible strands, not providing the target with the benefit of cover.

Snare 11
Effect: Attack
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Transparent [+1], Regenerating [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x2, Reversible, Tether
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -48/55pp)

Alternate Power 5 - Cosmic Sensory Overload
This attack is a call for all cosmic energy in the target to scramble the targets senses, dazing the foe if successful. It affects all senses, as the cosmic energy surrounding the foe scrambles anything and everything.

Dazzle 11
Effect: Sensory
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant (Lasting)
4 point per rank option, All Senses
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x2, Improved Range, 
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -47/55pp)

Alternate Power 6 - Cosmic Healing Cloud
Having seen the suffering of many, and has now found a way to heal others. He can transfer cosmic energy to anyone besides himself in the form of a healing cloud. This cloud is selective, as he is able to choose who can be affected by the cloud at will. This healing cloud grants the chance for others to recover from damage, incurable damage, replace severed limbs and repair damaged organs.

Heal 11
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch - Area Cloud (5’ Diameter x rank)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Cloud [+1], Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Selective, Stabilize
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -48/55pp)

Alternate Power 7 - Cosmic Boosting Surge
There are times when a little extra effort is needed to push others in the right direction. He can provide that little extra needed when the time comes, as he channels cosmic energy to others, granting them bonuses to certain stats deemed necessary by him on a per usage basis. These are limited to only a group of traits, instead of all of them, but as potent as needed.

Boost 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Range (100’ Max)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
3 point per rank option, Boost affects a narrow group of traits once and up to him to determine those groups
Extras: Total Fade [+1], Ranged [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -50/55pp)

Alternate Power 8 - Cosmic Objects
Cosmic energy bends to his will, forming any shape that he can manage to form in his own mind. These shapes are precise, not nullified and can have many options such as movable, stationary, subtle effects or tethered to an object. They are also larger than normal, as he is able to create large object with this power.

Create Objects 11
Effect: General
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Movable [+1], Continuous [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Innate, Precise, Stationary, Subtle, Tether, Progression (10’Cube x rank)
Total Cost: (Free -50/55pp)

Alternate Power 9 – Cosmic Constructs
When there is a chance that traps are around, and it’s safer to send in decoys, this power animates Cosmic objects into Constructs, with (rankx15=150) power points that are always spent on the same stats, as is his nature to keep it simple stupid (K.I.S.S.).  This is only available for animation of objects he creates with his Create Objects power.

Animate Objects 10
Effect: General
Range: Range
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Horde [+1], Continuous [+1]
Flaws: Limited [-1]
Power Feats: Progression x2 (5 Objects), Reversible
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -43/55pp)[/b]

Alternate Power 10 – NOT CHOSEN
Effect: 
Range: 
Action: 
Duration: 
Extras:
Flaws: 
Power Feats: 
Drawbacks: 
Total Cost: (Free -0/55pp)[/b]

----------Drawbacks------------

Ring of Cosmic Channeling requires a daily recharge from him. This can be anytime the ring is out of energy, usually lasting 23 hours at a time. After 23 hours of no recharging, the ring’s powers are lost. Recharging the ring is a meditative focus, where he has to have the following circumstances; the ring, a cosmic focus (single star, the moon, or the sun), and one hour of meditation. Meditation is a relative term, up to the GM’s discretion. Upon completion, the ring is recharged for another 23 hours of powers.

Type: Power Loss (*Recharge* Daily)
Frequency DC5
Severity DC5 (-3pp)

------------Complications-------------

Secret: Alien - Gathered data on earth, for alien race home planet (which his home planet is no more...)
Enemy: Unknown to him, he's hunted by an alien race that took over his planet, and looking to eradicate any stragglers....

----------Cost Summary---------
Abilities: 36
Combat: 2
Saves: 2
Skills: 8
Feats: 21
Powers: 26 Innate +62 Device
Drawbacks: -3
Total Cost: 154/165
--------------------------------------
[/sblock]

Ok, for a few clarification-

1) I would like to know what's the stance on his regeneration (Resurrection) power, and if it's acceptable.  It's dependent on the fact that his ring must be worn to be able to cheat death.

2)Last Alternate Power not chosen.  Per this guy's build, he would like to keep that one empty, so he can learn something beneficial to the group.  Is that acceptable by the GM?  If so, he would only gain that new Power after some time spent learning it.  I am not sure what it would be, but I am sure that something will eventually need to be taken to help out the others.

3) Saves, they are low... should I be concerned about them and see about reworking some numbers from powers or elsewhere to make up for the low saves?

4) I took some ranks in Gather Info, as that was his initial goal on this planet.  Now, he's simply a wanderer... but with info...

5) Leadership, Inspire and Luck x4 feats were taken, so that he can effectively be aiding the group as a whole.  Thanks for those suggestions, as I am sure they will help out.  Question is, would 4 Luck ranks be a good number?  More?  Less?

6) Drawback, is it acceptable?  I am hoping that it is an acceptable Drawback, having to recharge his ring daily.  For one hour per day, he's without powers...

I sure hope I am not boring you all with all this talk of character generation, but I just want to make sure I understand everything.

THANKS for the replies and help!!!


----------



## DM_Matt

And just when I was almost done writing a critique and suggested build, lol.  I'll fix the suggested build, but if my critique is partially moot now, I apologize ahead of time.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> And just when I was almost done writing a critique and suggested build, lol.  I'll fix the suggested build, but if my critique is partially moot now, I apologize ahead of time.




Sorry, I still can surely do with some critique, and can easily modify this guy as needed.


----------



## Victim

The saves seem very low.  I'd consider +6 to a save to be a significant weak spot, but your best non-toughness save isn't even that high.

You might want more Defense and/or Toughness.  However, since the character A) comes back from the dead, and B) can readily protect himself with an energy bubble, being a bit below par on standard defenses doesn't seem unreasonable.  

Boost can be problematic.


----------



## DM_Matt

A warning btw: Fixing him and keeping his powers as they are will put him way over pp.  I'm working on a way around it.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. I'd help, but I'm lousy with technical stuff.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> A warning btw: Fixing him and keeping his powers as they are will put him way over pp.  I'm working on a way around it.




I think I found a way...

Device reduced to 14 (save 4pp)

Flight reduced to 4 (100mph) using 8pp/70pp
Cosmic Energy Control 11 with 3 Extras and 7 Alternate Powers costing 62pp/70pp

Of those 7 powers, I will stick with Deflect, Strike, Snare, Heal, Create Objects, Animate Objects, and still have one left over. 

This removes:
BOOST (troublesome power, and I don't want to deal with it)
DAZZLE (Not really his style anymore)
BLAST (He's already got a better one)
------------------------------------------
Secondly, I could remove a few things...

Emotion Control (saving 5pp)
Reduce Regeneration (Resurrection) to Full Round Action (save 1pp)
Reduce Skill Gather Info and Concentration to 12 ranks each (save 2pp)
------------------------------------------
That leaves me with 23pp left to use on saves.  

Toughness can increase by upping Force Field to 8 ranks (maxing Toughness to +11 using 3pp/23pp)

With the rest of the 20pp's, I can get saves to go to Fort +10, Reflex +10, and Will +11

That would use up all power points, and complete this character.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, after a few rewrites, and some mods in different areas, here's a final draft of the guy, who will now be known as Shield Guardian.  (Unless someone can think of a better name... please do...)

[sblock=]
Character Alias: Shield Guardian
Age: 29
Height: 6’4”
Weight: 210
Hair: Black
Eyes: Hazel
Power Level: 11
Power Points: 165

----------Ability Scores---------(36pp)
Strength: 18 (+4)
Dexterity: 16 (+3)
Constitution: 16 (+3)
Intelligence: 14 (+2)
Wisdom: 16 (+3)
Charisma: 16 (+3)

----------Saves---------(18pp)
Toughness: +11 (3 Con, 8 Force Field)
Fortitude: +9 (3 Con, 6pp)
Reflex: +9 (3 Dex, 6pp)
Willpower: +9 (3 Wis, 6pp)

----------Combat---------(2pp)
Attack Bonus: +1 melee/+1 Ranged (+6 from Feat for +7 ranged)
Damage Bonus: Unarmed +4 (Bruise)
Grapple: +5
Defense Bonus: +9 (Dodge)
Initiative: +3

----------Lifting Capacity---------
Light Load: 100 lbs
Medium Load: 200 lbs
Heavy Load: 300 lbs
Max Load: 600 lbs
Push/Drag: 1500 lbs

----------Movement Rate---------
Base Speed: 30 ft/r / 60 ft/r / 120 ft/r
Leap: 11 ft / 5 ft / 2 ft
Flight: 100 mph /1000ft/r

----------Skills---------(6pp)
Bluff - 0 (+3)
Climb - 0 (+4)
Concentration - 12 (+15)
Diplomacy - 0 (+3)
Disguise - 0 (+1)
Escape Artist - 0 (+3)
Gather Info - 12 (+15)
Handle Animal - 0 (+3)
Intimidate - 0 (+3)
Notice - 0 (+3)
Search - 0 (+2)
Sense Motive – 0 (+3)
Stealth - 0 (+3)
Survival - 0 (+3)
Swim - 0 (+4)

----------Feats---------(27pp)
Dodge Focus (9): +9 dodge bonus
Eidetic Memory (): Perfect recall of everything you have experienced
Fearless (): Immunity to fear effects
Attack Focus Ranged (6): +6 bonus on ranged attacks
Leadership (): Spend Hero point to remove adverse condition from ally
Inspire (5): Grant allies +5 to attacks, saves, & checks by spending Hero Point
Luck (3): Gain 3 Hero Points
Uncanny Dodge (); Retain Dodge bonus while Flat-Footed

----------Innate Powers---------(21pp)

Alien Resistance-
Being from a distant world, and under the strict orders to gather intel, he is immune to natural tendencies that humans would find as a daily necessity, such as eating, sleeping, drinking, as well as being immune to diseases, poison and suffocation. His body is ageless, appearing as a 29 year old male.

Immunity 9
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Suffocation [+2], Aging [+1], Disease [+1], Poison [+1], Sleep [+1], Starvation and Thirst [+1]
Total Cost: (7pp)
~~~~~~~~
Cosmic Force Field-
Gathering the power that his race has harnessed, he is able to create a cosmic field of force to aid in his defenses. Although it is resistant to most penetrating attacks, it wears away with each successful block.

Force Field 8
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Free
Duration: Sustained
Extras: Impervious [+1]
Flaws: Ablative [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (8pp)
~~~~~~~~
Cosmic Life-
Being from an alien world, his body is resistance to death, to a certain extent. Upon death, his body will heal itself as a standard action, mending together any damaged organs, severed limbs, and also injuries that were incurable seem to vanish as well. This is dependent on his ring being on his finger when he makes his check to cheat death, then it will lend him its power, causing him to resurrect. Upon death, the ring will go into stasis mode, keeping its energy harnesses for him to use for this effect. 

Regeneration 8
Effect: Alteration
Range: Personal
Action: Full Round
Duration: Permanent
Resurrection x8 [+8] (Full Round)
Extras: None
Flaws: Source [-1]
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (6pp)

---------Device Powers---------(58pp)

Ring of Cosmic Channeling-
This is his lone item from his home-world. It is a testament to his race’s abilities to harness Cosmic Energy and channel it through a medium. Finding that rings are easier to handle, it was decided that all others of his race would have identical rings to identify themselves to each other. Each of these rings is imbued with an array of powers that are at the users disposal, although they are independent of each other. Only one power can be effectively used each time the ring is used. His  ring is tuned to his own life, and will not work for anyone else, and can not be used against him.

Device 14
Effect: General
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent (Innate)
4 point per rank option, Ring is Focus of Cosmic Power and Hard to lose
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Restrictions [2] (His Use Only)
Drawbacks: *Recharge*
Total Cost: (58pp)
*Allows 70dpp for Device Powers
~~~~~~~~
A: Cosmic Flight–
This power is his primary mobility power, enabling him to always be able to fly at a speed of 100mph when needed. As long as his ring is worn, this power is used at his will.

Flight 4
Effect: Movement 100MPH
Range: Personal
Action: Move
Duration: Sustained
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Device Cost (8/70dpp)
~~~~~~~~
B: COSMIC ENERGY EXPLOSION
This is the main source of power from his ring.  It lends him many options as well, as it grants him alternate powers as needed.

Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack (+7)
Range: Ranged (100'max, -1 dmg per 10’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Explosion [+1], Selective Attack [+1], Secondary Effect [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Alternate Powers x7 [+7]
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (62/70dpp – 55 allotted to each Alternate Power)

*Alternate Power 1 - Cosmic Deflector
He has witnessed many acts of violence on the unassuming in the city, and has manifested his powers to be able to aid those in need. When he is able to perceive danger to someone nearby, Aegis is able to ready his action to deflect all ranged and mental attacks on a target/targets within his effective area.

Deflect Rank 11
Effect: Defense (Block +11, -2 per additional)
Range: Touch/(1100’max, 110' Increments)
Action: Move
Duration: Instant
3 Points per Rank Option - All ranged and mental attacks
Extras: Ranged (Increment of 10’x Power Rank) [+1], Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: 
Drawbacks: None 
Total Cost: (55/55pp)

*Alternate Power 2 - Cosmic Fist of Reckoning
When all else fails, and he finds himself hurting, needing to heal himself as well as take out the bad guy, this is his last ditch effort. It’s a gruesome attack, taking a little bit of the target to heal him in the process.  It's deadly, and it has the ability to continue it's course of damage even after the attack is finished.

Strike 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Vampiric [+1], Secondary Effect [+1], Penetrating [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x5, Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2
Total Cost: (Free -54/55pp)

*Alternate Power 3 - Cosmic Binding
Cosmic power unravels at his command, wrapping themselves around any foe he designates. Not enough to bind a target, they simply provide a penalty and hindrance to said foe. They are invisible strands, not providing the target with the benefit of cover.

Snare 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Transparent [+1], Regenerating [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Accurate x2, Reversible, Tether
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -48/55pp)

*Alternate Power 4 - Cosmic Healing Cloud
Having seen the suffering of many, and has now found a way to heal others. He can transfer cosmic energy to anyone besides himself in the form of a healing cloud. This cloud is selective, as he is able to choose who can be affected by the cloud at will. This healing cloud grants the chance for others to recover from damage, incurable damage, replace severed limbs and repair damaged organs.

Heal 11
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch - Area Cloud (5’ Diameter x rank)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Cloud [+1], Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Selective, Stabilize
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -48/55pp)

*Alternate Power 5 - Cosmic Objects
Cosmic energy bends to his will, forming any shape that he can manage to form in his own mind. These shapes are precise, not nullified and can have many options such as movable, stationary, subtle effects or tethered to an object. They are also larger than normal, as he is able to create large object with this power.

Create Objects 11
Effect: General
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Movable [+1], Continuous [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Innate, Precise, Stationary, Subtle, Tether, Progression (10’Cube x rank)
Total Cost: (Free -50/55pp)

*Alternate Power 6 – Cosmic Constructs
When there is a chance that traps are around, and it’s safer to send in decoys, this power animates Cosmic objects into Constructs, with (rankx15=150) power points that are always spent on the same stats, as is his nature to keep it simple stupid (K.I.S.S.).  This is only available for animation of objects he creates with his Create Objects power.

Animate Objects 10
Effect: General
Range: Range
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Horde [+1], Continuous [+1]
Flaws: Limited [-1]
Power Feats: Progression x2 (5 Objects), Reversible
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (Free -43/55pp)[/b]

*Alternate Power 7 – NOT CHOSEN
Effect: 
Range: 
Action: 
Duration: 
Extras:
Flaws: 
Power Feats: 
Drawbacks: 
Total Cost: (Free -0/55pp)[/b]

----------Drawbacks------------

Ring of Cosmic Channeling requires a daily recharge from him. This can be anytime the ring is out of energy, usually lasting 23 hours at a time. After 23 hours of no recharging, the ring’s powers are lost. Recharging the ring is a meditative focus, where he has to have the following circumstances; the ring, a cosmic focus (single star, the moon, or the sun), and one hour of meditation. Meditation is a relative term, up to the GM’s discretion. Upon completion, the ring is recharged for another 23 hours of powers.

Type: Power Loss (*Recharge* Daily)
Frequency DC5
Severity DC5 (-3pp)

------------Complications-------------

Secret: Alien - Gathered data on earth, for alien race home planet (which his home planet is no more...)
Enemy: Unknown to him, he's hunted by an alien race that took over his planet, and looking to eradicate any stragglers....

----------Cost Summary---------
Abilities: 36
Combat: 2
Saves: 18
Skills: 6
Feats: 27
Powers: 21 Innate +58 Device
Drawbacks: -3
Total Cost: 165/165
[/sblock]

Basic Animated Creations:
[sblock=]
Small: Str 8 (includes Shrinking), Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1; Powers: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 5 (Extras: Impervious), Shrinking 4 (Power Feats: Innate; Flaws: Permanent); Combat: Attack +2 (includes +1 for size), Damage –1 (unarmed), Defense +2 (includes +1 for size), Initiative +0; Saving Throws: Toughness +4 (+5 from Protection, –1 from size), Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will –5; Cost: Abilities –36 + Skills 0 + Feats 0 + Powers 45 + Combat 4 + Saves 0 = 13 points.

Medium: Str 12, Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1; Powers: Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 5 (Extras: Impervious); Combat: Attack +1, Damage +1 (unarmed), Defense +1, Initiative +0; Saving Throws: Toughness +5 (from Protection), Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will –5; Cost: Abilities –36 + Skills 0 + Feats 0 + Powers 40 + Combat 4 + Saves 0 = 8 points.

Large: Str 20 (includes Growth), Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1; Powers: Growth 4 (Power Feats: Innate; Flaws: Permanent), Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 5 (Extras: Impervious); Combat: Attack +1 (includes –1 for size), Damage +5 (unarmed), Defense +1 (includes –1 for size), Initiative +0; Saving Throws: Toughness +7 (includes Growth and Protection), Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will –5; Cost: Abilities –36 + Skills 0 + Feats 0 + Powers 53 + Combat 8 + Saves 0 = 25 points

Huge: Str 28 (includes Growth), Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1; Powers: Growth 8 (Power Feats: Innate; Flaws: Permanent), Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 5 (Extras: Impervious); Combat: Attack +1 (includes –2 for size), Damage +9 (unarmed), Defense +1 (includes –2 for size), Initiative +0; Saving Throws: Toughness +9 (includes Growth and Protection), Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will –5; Cost: Abilities –36 + Skills 0 + Feats 0 + Powers 65 + Combat 12 + Saves 0 = 41 points.

Gargantuan: Str 36 (includes Growth), Dex 10, Con —, Int —, Wis 1, Cha 1; Powers: Growth 12 (Power Feats: Innate; Flaws: Permanent), Immunity 30 (Fortitude effects), Protection 5 (Extras: Impervious); Combat: Attack +1 (includes –4 for size), Damage +13 (unarmed), Defense +1 (includes –4 for size), Initiative +0; Saving Throws: Toughness +11 (includes Growth and Protection), Fortitude +0, Reflex +0, Will –5; Cost: Abilities –36 + Skills 0 + Feats 0 + Powers 77 + Combat 20 + Saves 0 = 61 points.[/sblock]

EDIT - Sorry I am cluttering up this thread, but I needed some feedback.  Hopefully this should be the final draft.  Hopefully it's also approved,


----------



## DM_Matt

Notes  (I still reserve the right to have further issues with certain powers)  :

Unless you lack vital organs, I'd think you would not be immune to crits. If you do not need rest of food or air, if you still should come up with some biological needs for your race. Presumably you get your sustenance from somewhere, though you could have a way that does not require needs, such as some kind of internal power source.  You can take drawbacks for alternative needs if appropriate.  In your latest build, it is not listed as a power, but you still have that many ranks in immunity.  Did you mean to delete it? (EDIT:  I see that you  have lowered the cost, but it still says immunity 9.  It should be 7)

Ablative force fields are really bad, since they weaken your ability to hit your caps. 


Your regeneration requires a device, so it should be part of the device. you get less of a discount that way, but you have to do it like that.  Also, I do not like major resurrection like you have.  It is very powerful -- illogically so -- at times, but also not as good as you think, since in MM what you really need to worry about is disables, unconscious and dying conditions, and to a lesser extent the staggered condition, rather than death.  It is odd that you could come back from death almost immediately, but if gravely injured, you do not recover any faster than usual.  Perhaps just put Res 1 in your ring.

I do not allow Area Explosion, but I do allow area burst.  Explosion has a wider area but requires precise mapping of  targets, and we dont use a battle grid.  

Vampiric is not heroic.  I would prefer you not have it.  Also, secondary effect is very powerful.  Can you justify it?  Perhaps you should just take fewer ranks of device and have a smaller array rather than piling on extras so much.

You should buy some more base attack and base defense.  Relying overly much on accurate like you do is cheesy.  You should have SOME ability to use other weapons, fight unarmed, grapple, etc, and have some actual base defense.  Note also that you will lose your dodge bonus quite a bit without sense motive to counter feints and notice to counter sneakery.  In general, you should probably have like 3 or 4 base in each at a minimum for a character like this, maybe a couple in focus, and then  a little bit of accurate.

You might consider lowering some of your stats. MM is effects-based, so unless extreme generalized  innate ability is that important, it is more efficient to (Other than Con), buy more things directly.  Most ability scores are only made close to cost-efficient by skills, but you are going no-skills.  

Since your strike power is at your cap, your strength only works for grappling and lifting.  You might want less of a strength score and some points of super-strength, in which you get 5 points of strength for lifting for each 2pp. 

You probably should buy some more skills by the way.  At minimum, you should have some notice, and you probably should have some social interaction skills.  

Selective area healing is simply too powerful an ability.  Only healing on one at a time please.

Defensively, be sure to meet your caps.

You are not using any trade-offs.  I would think though that you would probably be shifted slightly towards toughness and away from defense.

Upping your impervious from 5 to 6 gets you to the standard level required to be basically bulletproof. (you'd need a little bit more for a true immunity to conventional ballistic weapons though)

Suggested Build (Just a quick set of ideas)


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Notes  (I still reserve the right to have further issues with certain powers)  :
> 
> Unless you lack vital organs, I'd think you would not be immune to crits. If you do not need rest of food or air, if you still should come up with some biological needs for your race. Presumably you get your sustenance from somewhere, though you could have a way that does not require needs, such as some kind of internal power source.  You can take drawbacks for alternative needs if appropriate.  In your latest build, it is not listed as a power, but you still have that many ranks in immunity.  Did you mean to delete it? (EDIT:  I see that you  have lowered the cost, but it still says immunity 9.  It should be 7)




Yes, Immunity was be edited to reflect the removal of immune to crits, but I forgot the rank associated with it.  Also, for sustenance, perhaps that could be part of the device.  As long as he wears his ring, then he will gain this Immunity.  I will see what I can work with this part of the concept, as I know what you are talking about.  Access to cosmic energy would suffice, but again, I will see how I can work it into his concept.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Ablative force fields are really bad, since they weaken your ability to hit your caps.



  Yes, they are, but I wanted him to have some sort of drawback/flaw with his powers.  But, that was before I edited all the changes.  Removing Ablative can be done, but I think it was initially done to save points...




			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Your regeneration requires a device, so it should be part of the device. you get less of a discount that way, but you have to do it like that.  Also, I do not like major resurrection like you have.  It is very powerful -- illogically so -- at times, but also not as good as you think, since in MM what you really need to worry about is disables, unconscious and dying conditions, and to a lesser extent the staggered condition, rather than death.  It is odd that you could come back from death almost immediately, but if gravely injured, you do not recover any faster than usual.  Perhaps just put Res 1 in your ring.




Yeah, I wondered about this one.  Resurrection was a tough sell, but I can edit this one easily.  I will move the Res into the Ring, and go from there.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I do not allow Area Explosion, but I do allow area burst.  Explosion has a wider area but requires precise mapping of  targets, and we dont use a battle grid.




Removing the Explosion, Area Burst would work.  I would still have to remove Secondary Effect, from notes below.  Would Selective be available to keep with the Area Burst Blast 11?  I wouldn't want to blow up a teammate or innocent bystander...



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Vampiric is not heroic.  I would prefer you not have it.  Also, secondary effect is very powerful.  Can you justify it?  Perhaps you should just take fewer ranks of device and have a smaller array rather than piling on extras so much.




Vampiric was simply fluff for the fact that his original concept did NOT have a melee attack.  He was a ranged backup fighter, and defensive support character.  It was a last ditch effort strike, for when he found himself in trouble, and needed to heal himself (as original concept had Heal Others Only flaw) as well as attack.  It will be removed, and Secondary would also be removed.  The reason he added that was to be able to use a melee attack one round, and heal someone or aid someone else in the next round, but still cause some damage to the enemy.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You should buy some more base attack and base defense.  Relying overly much on accurate like you do is cheesy.  You should have SOME ability to use other weapons, fight unarmed, grapple, etc, and have some actual base defense.  Note also that you will lose your dodge bonus quite a bit without sense motive to counter feints and notice to counter sneakery.  In general, you should probably have like 3 or 4 base in each at a minimum for a character like this, maybe a couple in focus, and then  a little bit of accurate.




Cheesy?  LOL, yeah, I can definitely see that!  But, as you can tell, this was my first ever M&M character creation.  With your thoughts on Sense Motive, base defense and such, it helps me understand where the real meat of the character should come from as well.  It's what I needed to know.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You might consider lowering some of your stats. MM is effects-based, so unless extreme generalized  innate ability is that important, it is more efficient to (Other than Con), buy more things directly.  Most ability scores are only made close to cost-efficient by skills, but you are going no-skills.




Is this in regards to Str, Dex, Int, Wis and Cha?  If so, I can shuffle some numbers.  That would leave some points for attack and defense.  I will look to see what can be done.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Since your strike power is at your cap, your strength only works for grappling and lifting.  You might want less of a strength score and some points of super-strength, in which you get 5 points of strength for lifting for each 2pp.




Never really thought of Super-Strength, but with the lowering of stats, then it would be good to go that route.  Especially with Strike maxed at limit.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You probably should buy some more skills by the way.  At minimum, you should have some notice, and you probably should have some social interaction skills.




Notice, Diplomacy and Sense Motive are my top choices now.  I am not sure on DC's that are normal for these skills, so I will read up on them and go from there.  I don't want to put ranks in something that I will fail anyways.



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Selective area healing is simply too powerful an ability.  Only healing on one at a time please.




Ok, how about removing Area extra, along with Selective.  I would like to add Ranged, so that I can heal at a distance, when needed.  That would limit it to one healing at a time, but with option for ranged healing.  Is the Action extra to be able to heal as standard action acceptable?



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Defensively, be sure to meet your caps.




Will do!  Although, with your next point, perhaps that trade off would work with a Defense lowered and Toughness max increased?



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You are not using any trade-offs.  I would think though that you would probably be shifted slightly towards toughness and away from defense.




Notes above...



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Upping your impervious from 5 to 6 gets you to the standard level required to be basically bulletproof. (you'd need a little bit more for a true immunity to conventional ballistic weapons though)
> 
> Suggested Build (Just a quick set of ideas)




Upping Impervious on what?  The Force Field?  or Deflect (if it's possible)?

Questions - 

Is the Drawback acceptable, or should it be removed?
Does the Create Objects and Animate Objects work well for you?
I will be reworking this character tomorrow, as there is plenty to do.  Is there a time frame you wanted this guy done and ready?


----------



## Victim

You know, the last few posts seem pretty dang stupid.  A bunch of people standing around in a hallway being filled with napalm, arguing with each other.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Yes, Immunity was be edited to reflect the removal of immune to crits, but I forgot the rank associated with it.  Also, for sustenance, perhaps that could be part of the device.  As long as he wears his ring, then he will gain this Immunity.  I will see what I can work with this part of the concept, as I know what you are talking about.  Access to cosmic energy would suffice, but again, I will see how I can work it into his concept.




ok.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Yes, they are, but I wanted him to have some sort of drawback/flaw with his powers.  But, that was before I edited all the changes.  Removing Ablative can be done, but I think it was initially done to save points...




You should do it.  I don't think I've ever seen a hero with Ablative.  Its just too big a liability.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Yeah, I wondered about this one.  Resurrection was a tough sell, but I can edit this one easily.  I will move the Res into the Ring, and go from there.




Good.  And as I said, you should probably provide slow res.  Resurrection in combat is over the top and weird.  I get the ring bringing you back, but dying should still be a major  liability.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Removing the Explosion, Area Burst would work.  I would still have to remove Secondary Effect, from notes below.  Would Selective be available to keep with the Area Burst Blast 11?  I wouldn't want to blow up a teammate or innocent bystander...




Selective still can be applied.  The difference between explosion and burst is that explosion is 10 feet per rank and the damage decreases in concentric circles, while burst is 5 feet per rank and has uniform damage.  Thus, I disallow explosion so I do not still need to track precise positioning.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Vampiric was simply fluff for the fact that his original concept did NOT have a melee attack.  He was a ranged backup fighter, and defensive support character.  It was a last ditch effort strike, for when he found himself in trouble, and needed to heal himself (as original concept had Heal Others Only flaw) as well as attack.  It will be removed, and Secondary would also be removed.  The reason he added that was to be able to use a melee attack one round, and heal someone or aid someone else in the next round, but still cause some damage to the enemy.




Those are reasons why those are powerful abilities, but not reasons that your character should have them.  Its tempting for a first character though.  If you want to buff up your attacks, I suggest the much more balanced Autofire, if you really must.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Cheesy?  LOL, yeah, I can definitely see that!  But, as you can tell, this was my first ever M&M character creation.  With your thoughts on Sense Motive, base defense and such, it helps me understand where the real meat of the character should come from as well.  It's what I needed to know.




cool.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Is this in regards to Str, Dex, Int, Wis and Cha?  If so, I can shuffle some numbers.  That would leave some points for attack and defense.  I will look to see what can be done.
> 
> Never really thought of Super-Strength, but with the lowering of stats, then it would be good to go that route.  Especially with Strike maxed at limit.




Yes.  Note however that just as not buying bab and base defense is probably worth it, it is frowned upon as cheesy by convention, so is overly lowballing your stats.  Making a D&D character is more of a science, while making a good M&M character is more of an art.

As it stands, though, your stats are quite high, so you can afford to lose some (and probably to up Con, as your concept certainly can justify it)




			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Notice, Diplomacy and Sense Motive are my top choices now.  I am not sure on DC's that are normal for these skills, so I will read up on them and go from there.  I don't want to put ranks in something that I will fail anyways.




Look at the other characters' sheets in the RG thread, or look at the benchmarks in the book.  If you can spare the points, it could be nice to have a few more skills even.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Ok, how about removing Area extra, along with Selective.  I would like to add Ranged, so that I can heal at a distance, when needed.  That would limit it to one healing at a time, but with option for ranged healing.  Is the Action extra to be able to heal as standard action acceptable?




I'll probably be OK with standard action, no range.  I'm kind of strict on restricting healing.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Will do!  Although, with your next point, perhaps that trade off would work with a Defense lowered and Toughness max increased?




Yes.  You can do that in part by adding to Con.



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Upping Impervious on what?  The Force Field?  or Deflect (if it's possible)?




the force field.  You cannot have impervious deflect.  Note also that deflect and your attacks cannot be used together because they are part of the same array and you can only switch once per round.  (Well, technically, you can use one every round and the other every other round, but I am not sure if I will allow that particular rules abuse).



			
				Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Questions -
> 
> Is the Drawback acceptable, or should it be removed?
> Does the Create Objects and Animate Objects work well for you?
> I will be reworking this character tomorrow, as there is plenty to do.  Is there a time frame you wanted this guy done and ready?



[/QUOTE]

If you mean the drawback on the ring, it is acceptable.  We have a little time, since it will take the PCs a bit to finish at their current location.  I'd like your guy's joining the trust to have occurred off screen to get you with them as soon as possible, so I'd like you to come up with how he came to work for them and why he is being transferred to their unit.  That also means you should probably read up on the game thread.  I will have to look at the create and animate objects again later.  I do not have time at the moment.  


Also, to other players:  Continue to feel free to comment on his build if you have ideas or concerns.  Elric, you haven't said anything yet, so since you are quite good at these things, your feedback would be much appreciated.


----------



## Victim

I'd like to point out that you don't really need a melee attack.  You could just as easily fire off your area blast at point blank range as use a dedicated melee attack.

Some characters can make use of high all around stats; however, Shield Guardian (I'd change the name a bit, since it's the name of a DnD golem and somewhat redundant.  Guardian sounds good) doesn't seem to one of them.  Since pretty much all the skills you seem to want are WIS and CHA, and you don't need STR for combat, most of the stats aren't doing you much good. 

You might want to think about altering the exact values of your saves.  With the concentration and such, it sounds like you might want a higher Will than some others.

The Animated Objects aren't using their full allotment of points.  On the other hand, Constructs typically don't sell back WIS.


----------



## Shayuri

You know, if the ring generates objects that you then animate, you could get similar mileage with the Summon power.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Shayuri said:
			
		

> You know, if the ring generates objects that you then animate, you could get similar mileage with the Summon power.




Yes, and I will be looking up the difference between Summon and Animate.  I think the real reason I went this way was due to the fact that I would be using Create Invisible Objects to put up defensive walls, mazes, encasing cubes, etc.  I then thought about animating objects, and it would be pretty cool to animate an invisible Cosmic Object, and let it wreck havoc on the scene.

Yet, with summon, I can effectively call in a single minion.  I don't know... what's the consensus with the DM in regards to Summon minions?  I don't really know what type of minion I would like to summon.  With Animate Objects, I could animate them, set them to set off traps and scatter them around the place, and not have to worry about healing them back up.  Minions suffer from damage and the fact that it takes time to heal them.  Although, I can heal them to a certain extent...


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Yes, and I will be looking up the difference between Summon and Animate.  I think the real reason I went this way was due to the fact that I would be using Create Invisible Objects to put up defensive walls, mazes, encasing cubes, etc.  I then thought about animating objects, and it would be pretty cool to animate an invisible Cosmic Object, and let it wreck havoc on the scene.




If you are using the Create Objects power and you switch to another power in an array, the created objects do not disappear when you switch (http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=12032).

However, this is an exception to the general rule on Continuous powers in arrays.  In particular, if you switch away from Animate your animated objects will no longer be animated.  So if your character wants to use Animate Objects to attack in combat, you'll need to forgo using the other powers in your array, which means Animate Objects might not be the best power to plan on using in combat (also, coming up with detailed combat stats for animated objects on the fly is a pain).  

The way around this is something like the Independent and Total Fade modifiers from Ultimate Power.  But then you can effectively animate objects every round of the combat and that's likely to be both too powerful and too hard to keep track of.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Elric said:
			
		

> If you are using the Create Objects power and you switch to another power in an array, the created objects do not disappear when you switch (http://www.atomicthinktank.com/viewtopic.php?t=12032).



 I took the Continuous extra, so they will not disappear, so true, they will not disappear.



			
				Elric said:
			
		

> However, this is an exception to the general rule on Continuous powers in arrays.  In particular, if you switch away from Animate your animated objects will no longer be animated.  So if your character wants to use Animate Objects to attack in combat, you'll need to forgo using the other powers in your array, which means Animate Objects might not be the best power to plan on using in combat (also, coming up with detailed combat stats for animated objects on the fly is a pain).



 I thought that taking Continuous would also fix this, as the animated objects would be on a set command, such as "Walk up those stairs..."  But, if not, then you are right, they would simply stop, and be un-animated again...



			
				Elric said:
			
		

> The way around this is something like the Independent and Total Fade modifiers from Ultimate Power.  But then you can effectively animate objects every round of the combat and that's likely to be both too powerful and too hard to keep track of.




Nah, I wasn't intending on abusing that power.  Hence the reason the Progression was removed, so that I won't have hordes of animated trap triggers running around, letting us know what traps are where, and what each one does...

But, from all the headaches, it would seem that Summon Minion would be my best option, should I want to go with the ability to summon some help.  Although, it would be a set minion, something to aid him.  Something we could use in the non combative parts of the game to our advantage.  

Problem is, if I put Summon Minion as an Alternate power in the Ring, and I summoned the minion, would it in essence bypass the fact that using another power would make the summoned minion disappear?  Or would the minion stay until I released him/her/it?


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> But, from all the headaches, it would seem that Summon Minion would be my best option, should I want to go with the ability to summon some help.  Although, it would be a set minion, something to aid him.  Something we could use in the non combative parts of the game to our advantage.
> 
> Problem is, if I put Summon Minion as an Alternate power in the Ring, and I summoned the minion, would it in essence bypass the fact that using another power would make the summoned minion disappear?  Or would the minion stay until I released him/her/it?




Same problem.  It disappears when you switch powers in the array.  

But if you only had 1 minion, then since once the minion is KOd/destroyed you can't re-summon it until it has time to heal and it's under the minion rules, using Independent and Total Fade doesn't seem abusive.  In general, though, my personal preference is to keep minions and animated objects to a minimum for aesthetic reasons because it's cooler to be doing things yourself than animating objects to do them for you (same reason I never liked the polymorph into a hag/giant tactics in D&D- you should fight as yourself, not as a giant for the higher Str value).


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, updated info... PLENTY of changes!

Edited again, updated with feedback from everyone, THANKS!

[sblock=]
----------Ability Scores---------(26pp)
Strength: 14 (+2)
Dexterity: 12 (+1)
Constitution: 20 (+5)
Intelligence: 10 (+0)
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 18 (+4)

----------Saves---------(26pp)
Toughness: +13 (5 Con, +6 Force Field, +2 Defensive Roll) 
Fortitude: +10 (5 Con) 5pp
Reflex: +9 (1 Dex) 8pp
Willpower: +14 (1 Wis) 13pp

----------Combat---------(16pp)
Attack Bonus: +5 (+7 Ranged, +11 Cosmic Array Attacks) 10pp
Damage Bonus: Unarmed +2 (Bruise)
Grapple: +5
Defense Bonus: +9 (+3 Base, +6 Dodge) 6pp 
Initiative: +1

----------Skills---------(14pp)
Bluff - 0 (+4)=4
Climb - 0 (+4)=4
Concentration - 12r (+1)=13
Diplomacy - 10r (+4)=14
Disguise - 0 (+4)=4
Escape Artist - 0 (+1)=1
Gather Info - 10 (+4)=14
Handle Animal - 0 (+4)=4
Intimidate - 0 (+4)=4
Notice - 12r (+1)=13
Search - 0 (+0)=0
Sense Motive – 12r (+1)=13
Stealth - 0 (+1)=1
Survival - 0 (+1)=1
Swim - 0 (+2)=2

----------Feats---------(24pp)
Dodge Focus (6): +6 dodge bonus
Eidetic Memory (): Perfect recall of everything you have experienced
Fearless (): Immunity to fear effects
Attack Focus Ranged (2): +2 bonus on ranged attacks
Attack Specialization (2): +4 bonus to Cosmic Array Attacks
Leadership (): Spend Hero point to remove adverse condition from ally
Inspire (4): Grant allies +4 to attacks, saves, & checks by spending Hero Point
Luck (3): Gain 3 Hero Points
Uncanny Dodge (); Retain Dodge bonus while Flat-Footed, Sight Dependent
Defensive Roll (2): +2 to Toughness save bonus
Precise Shot (): No penalty for shooting or throwing into melee

----------Innate Powers---------(19pp)

Immunity 5
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Suffocation [+2], Aging [+1], Disease [+1], Poison [+1]
Total Cost: (5pp)

Force Field 7
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Free
Duration: Sustained
Extras: Impervious [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (14pp)

----------Device Powers---------(42pp)

Device 10
Effect: General
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent (Innate)
4 point per rank option, Ring is Focus of Cosmic Power and Hard to lose
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Restrictions [2] (His Use Only)
Drawbacks: *Recharge*
Total Cost: (42pp)
*Allows 50pp for Device Powers

Cosmic Awareness 2
Super Senses - In Tune with the cosmic forces surrounding the area, sensing cosmic effects nearby within range
Total Cost: (2pp)

Super Strength 1
+5 to Strength score
Total Cost: (2pp)

Regeneration 2
Effect: Alteration
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Resurrection x2 (1 Day)
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (2pp)

Cosmic Energy Control 
Array 19 (38base, +6AP) 44pp

Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged (110')
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Penetrating [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Indirect x3, Affects Insubstantial x2
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 1
Deflect Rank 9
Effect: Defense (Block +9, -2 per additional)
Range: Touch/(900’max, 90' Increments)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
3 Points per Rank Option - All ranged and mental attacks
Extras: Ranged (Increment of 10’x Power Rank) [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Triggered x2
Drawbacks: None 
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 2
Strike 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Penetrating [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2, Accuracy x2
Total Cost: (27pp)

Alt Power 3
Snare 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Transparent [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Reversible, Tether
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (35pp)

Alt Power 4
Heal 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch/Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Stabilize
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (33pp)

Alt Power 5
Create Objects 8
Effect: General
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Movable [+1], Duration (Continuous) [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Innate, Precise, Stationary, Subtle, Tether, Progression (10’Cube x rank)
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 6
Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged (100'max, -1 dmg per 10’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Burst[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Affects Insubstantial x2
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (35pp)

----------Drawbacks------------

Ring of Cosmic Channeling requires a daily recharge from him. This can be anytime the ring is out of energy, usually lasting 23 hours at a time. After 23 hours of no recharging, the ring’s powers are lost. Recharging the ring is a meditative focus, where he has to have the following circumstances; the ring, a cosmic focus (single star, the moon, or the sun), and one hour of meditation. Meditation is a relative term, up to the GM’s discretion. Upon completion, the ring is recharged for another 23 hours of powers.

Type: Power Loss (*Recharge* Daily)
Frequency DC5
Severity DC5 (-3pp)

----------Trade Offs------------

Defense -2, Toughness +2

----------Cost Summary---------
Abilities: 26
Combat: 16
Saves: 26
Skills: 14
Feats: 24
Powers: 59
Drawbacks: -3
Total Cost: 164/165
[/sblock]

There, how about those fixes?  I took away flight, reduced Regen, took a lot more feats and social skills, bumped up saves, attack and defense, and have Toughness at max +2 (trade off for defense -2).  Abilities are all lowered, and I didn't bother with the Enhanced Ability (Str or Con) option, as I don't think he's too interested in that.  

He's more defensive, hence Deflect, Force Field, Heal, Create Objects, high saves, toughness, decent attack bonus, plus all the feats to allow you all better saves, attacks, skill checks, and Leadership to remove those adverse conditions like Hope's fatigue and tiring effects from healing.  Hopefully he's able to lend a hand to the group.

Thanks for all the feedback!  Again, critique welcome!!!  It would have been nice to be able to summon minions and such but I don't think he would rely on something else to help him that much.  Perhaps later on, he would take the Summon Feat, or Summon Power, but not initially...

EDIT - And one more thing, he will be known as The Guardian.


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Ok, updated info... PLENTY of changes!




Your exotic saves are way too high.  Figure that if your average Fort/Ref/Will save is at your PL (+11), that's really high.  With that in mind, you're averaging a little over +14.  So I'd do something like +10/+9/+14 for saves at the highest.  That saves 10 pp on the current build.

Also, 4 ranks of Luck is a lot at the rate HP refresh in this game.  You have Inspire and Leadership so some ranks of Luck help with using them, but I'd lower this to 3 ranks (at the moment, no character has more than 2 ranks of Luck).

If you do that, you've saved 11 pp

Now, spending pp: 
Inspire only affects your Cha bonus number of people.  At a +2 Cha modifier, it's barely even worth using given that it costs an HP.  So I'd spend 2 pp to up his Charisma to 16.

Defensive Roll- a forcefield seems more appropriate for your character.  Also, having a Forcefield that can stop high-grade projectiles would be nice.  So I'd subtract 3 ranks of Defensive Roll and add 3 ranks to your Forcefield.  That costs 3 pp in net.

Without the Precise Shot feat, you'll take a penalty to shoot into melee.  We have a number of characters with melee attacks (including mine ), so you should spend 1 pp on Precise Shot so you don't have to worry about this.

Having some kind of Area Blast would be nice.  How about a basic Blast 11 (Area- Burst, Power Feat: Affects Insubstantial x2) effect in your array as an alternate power?  You have to up the rank of the Device by 1 to do this, which costs 4 pp and gives you 5 pp to spend.

What else makes sense that you'd have on the ring?  Super-Senses.  I like Radar (from Ultimate Power)- he shoots out cosmic rays to sense locations- as another one. Radar (4 ranks): By sending out radiowave emissions that bounce off solid surfaces, you can build an accurate picture of your surroundings. Accurate, Radius, Ranged Radio Sense.  That covers the pp in the Ring.

Cosmic Awareness is a fitting super-sense as well.  It makes sense that he'd have this one without the Device.  It costs 1 pp.  Totalling these gives 11 pp spent, so these changes would leave the character even.


----------



## DM_Matt

I agree with Elric's suggestions, except that instead of upping force field, he can up con (taking the other points from fort, breaking even in that sense).  This would better show his super-human resilience.  In a similar vein, perhaps he finds the pp for a point or two of super-strength.


----------



## Victim

I agree with Elric regarding your saves and CHA/Inspire.  If you're going to spend a full round action and a HP, then you want to buff more than 2 characters.

Overall, I like his reccomendations, but you might want more CHA if you plan on using Inspire.  Going for partial Impervious on the upgraded force field could save you 2 points and allow you to hit another person with the Inspire.  On the other hand, my motives may be suspect.  Inspire directly helps our characters, while more Impervious for you doesn't.


----------



## Elric

Looking at the other character builds, I notice that Jemal and Shayuri never spent their earned 3 pp.  Suggestions:

Shayuri: You're under cap on Def/Toughness.  I'd spend 2 pp to get +1 Defense.  Also, picking up a Healing AP on your utility array with your other pp would certainly be nice.

Jemal: I'm pretty sure your Sonic drawback is only worth 2 pp, not 3 pp.  But you only spent 164 pp in the first place so that works out fine 

I had some suggestions, but then I saw that you had all of those abilities through your devices.  Hmm.  You could always increase your exotic saves by 1 apiece


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> Jemal: I'm pretty sure your Sonic drawback is only worth 2 pp, not 3 pp.  But you only spent 164 pp in the first place so that works out fine
> 
> I had some suggestions, but then I saw that you had all of those abilities through your devices.  Hmm.  You could always increase your exotic saves by 1 apiece




Unfortunately, Jemal expects to be unavailable as per his Complications thread: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=212812


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Overall, I like his reccomendations, but you might want more CHA if you plan on using Inspire.  Going for partial Impervious on the upgraded force field could save you 2 points and allow you to hit another person with the Inspire.  On the other hand, my motives may be suspect.  Inspire directly helps our characters, while more Impervious for you doesn't.




There is always this temptation 

If you take Matt's suggestion, then instead of increasing Forcefield by 3 ranks, you could increase your Forcefield by 1 rank, up your Con to 22 and spend 2 fewer points on Fort saves.  This frees up 2 pp (but you lose the 2 points of Impervious from the Force Field).

Then you could be really nice to the rest of the group and take 2 more points of Cha


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> There is always this temptation
> 
> If you take Matt's suggestion, then instead of increasing Forcefield by 3 ranks, you could increase your Forcefield by 1 rank, up your Con to 22 and spend 2 fewer points on Fort saves.  This frees up 2 pp (but you lose the 2 points of Impervious from the Force Field).
> 
> Then you could be really nice to the rest of the group and take 2 more points of Cha





This gives you Imp 7, which rules out all bullets other than special sniper shots and a few other exotic things.  The 8th point just gets those stragglers.  The 9th covers rail guns and similar super-science weapons, which are keyed at 8.  I'm not sure if you want to go as far as that immunity, in which case 7 is probably enough.


----------



## Shayuri

Elric said:
			
		

> Looking at the other character builds, I notice that Jemal and Shayuri never spent their earned 3 pp.  Suggestions:
> 
> Shayuri: You're under cap on Def/Toughness.  I'd spend 2 pp to get +1 Defense.  Also, picking up a Healing AP on your utility array with your other pp would certainly be nice.
> 
> Jemal: I'm pretty sure your Sonic drawback is only worth 2 pp, not 3 pp.  But you only spent 164 pp in the first place so that works out fine
> 
> I had some suggestions, but then I saw that you had all of those abilities through your devices.  Hmm.  You could always increase your exotic saves by 1 apiece




I didn't realize I was under cap...interesting.

I'm not so sure about healing though. If Hope can heal and our new player can...I probably should get something else.

Maybe more offensive potential, or something unusual...


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Elric said:
			
		

> There is always this temptation
> 
> If you take Matt's suggestion, then instead of increasing Forcefield by 3 ranks, you could increase your Forcefield by 1 rank, up your Con to 22 and spend 2 fewer points on Fort saves.  This frees up 2 pp (but you lose the 2 points of Impervious from the Force Field).
> 
> Then you could be really nice to the rest of the group and take 2 more points of Cha




LOL, i had already thought of that part, and here's my thoughts:

Saves go down to Fort +10, Ref +9, Wil +14, which saves me (+10pp)
2pp in con, another 4 in cha (-6pp)
Go back and remove 1pp from Fort to bring back down (due to CON increase) to +10 (+1pp)
Remove 1 point from Dodge Focus (since con went up) to bring Toughness back to +13 (+1pp)
Luck goes down to 3, but Precise Shot taken (+0pp, evens out)
With CHA increase, I can afford to reduce a two skills by 2 ranks each, gaining another 1pp (+1pp)
Force Field goes to 7, Imperv 7 as well, (-2pp)

After adding and subtracting changes, I should have 5pp left to use.  4pp will go into device, to get a blast area burst attack as another Alt Power (4/5pp left in the device)
Super Senses - Cosmic Awareness is 2pp, could go into the Device as well, but as power that is always available, and not an alternate power (2/5pp left in Device)
Super Strength is 2pp per rank (0/5pp left in device)  Again, not alternate power, so always available

Leaves me with 1pp to use up....... (outside of the Device Ring)


----------



## Victim

You could get that Summon power, maybe with some expanded class of being countered by a slow casting time (flaw, plus some drawbacks).  Ritualist could be used to get the other types.

My brother reccomends a different sort of Transmute; one that turns people into animals or something.  A classic for witches.  

You could buy some Quickness to speed the research/design phase of your rituals or item creation.  Speeding the design of rituals makes a bit easier to get Summon with them as well.


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Remove 1 point from Dodge Focus (since con went up) to bring Toughness back to +13 (+1pp)




I presume you mean Defensive Roll, since that adds to Toughness save, not Dodge Focus.



> Force Field goes to 7, Imperv 7 as well, (-2pp)




This would leave you with a +14 Toughness save, 1 above your max.  So to avoid this, I'd subtract another point from Defensive Roll.



> Leaves me with 1pp to use up....... (outside of the Device Ring)




2 pp to use up if you drop a rank of Defensive Roll.  Personally, I think 1 rank of Defensive Roll isn't worth the hassle of keeping track of it.  So I'd drop it and up your Con to 22 and subtract 1 other pp from your Fort save.  

But you'd still have 2 pp to spend.  The Contacts feat to enhance your Gather Info skill?  8 ranks of Bluff (which also helps you feint in combat)? Buy back the 2 ranks in Diplomacy/Gather Info?  Lots of choices and those are just in skills and related abilities.


----------



## Victim

Darkvision?  Humans always seem to have the worst nightvision, somehow.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I think this guy is completed.  Sorry it took so long, but it was worth it!

[sblock=]
----------Ability Scores---------(28pp)
Strength: 14 (+2)
Dexterity: 12 (+1)
Constitution: 22 (+6)
Intelligence: 10 (+0)
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 18 (+4)

----------Saves---------(25pp)
Toughness: +13 (6 Con, +7 Force Field) 
Fortitude: +10 (6 Con) 4pp
Reflex: +9 (1 Dex) 8pp
Willpower: +14 (1 Wis) 13pp

----------Combat---------(16pp)
Attack Bonus: +5 (+7 Ranged, +11 Cosmic Array Attacks) 10pp
Damage Bonus: Unarmed +2 (Bruise)
Grapple: +5
Defense Bonus: +9 (+3 Base, +6 Dodge) 6pp 
Initiative: +1

----------Skills---------(14pp)
Bluff - 0 (+4)=4
Climb - 0 (+4)=4
Concentration - 12r (+1)=13
Diplomacy - 10r (+4)=14
Disguise - 0 (+4)=4
Escape Artist - 0 (+1)=1
Gather Info - 10 (+4)=14
Handle Animal - 0 (+4)=4
Intimidate - 0 (+4)=4
Notice - 12r (+1)=13
Search - 0 (+0)=0
Sense Motive – 12r (+1)=13
Stealth - 0 (+1)=1
Survival - 0 (+1)=1
Swim - 0 (+2)=2

----------Feats---------(22pp)
Dodge Focus (6): +6 dodge bonus
Eidetic Memory (): Perfect recall of everything you have experienced
Fearless (): Immunity to fear effects
Attack Focus Ranged (2): +2 bonus on ranged attacks
Attack Specialization (2): +4 bonus to Cosmic Array Attacks
Leadership (): Spend Hero point to remove adverse condition from ally
Inspire (4): Grant allies +4 to attacks, saves, & checks by spending Hero Point
Luck (3): Gain 3 Hero Points
Uncanny Dodge (); Retain Dodge bonus while Flat-Footed, Sight Dependent
Precise Shot (): No penalty for shooting or throwing into melee

----------Innate Powers---------(21pp)

Immunity 5
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Suffocation [+2], Aging [+1], Disease [+1], Poison [+1]
Total Cost: (5pp)

Force Field 7
Effect: Defense
Range: Personal
Action: Free
Duration: Sustained
Extras: Impervious [+7]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (14pp)

Flight 3 (Cosmic Board)
Effect: Movement
Range: Personal
Action: Move (Active)
Duration: Sustained
Extras: None
Flaws: Platform [-1]
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: Reduced Load [-1] (Medium Load)
Total Cost: (2pp)

----------Device Powers---------(42pp)

Device 10
Effect: General
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent (Innate)
4 point per rank option, Ring is Focus of Cosmic Power and Hard to lose
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Restrictions [2] (His Use Only)
Drawbacks: *Recharge*
Total Cost: (42pp)
*Allows 50pp for Device Powers

Super Strength 1
+5 to Strength score
Type: Trait
Range: Personal
Action: None (Passive)
Duration: Continuous
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (2pp)

Cosmic Awareness – Sense the use of powers or effects of Cosmic Energy. 
Super Senses 1  
Effect: Sensory
Range: Personal
Action: None (Passive)
Duration: Continuous
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: None
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (1pp)

Regeneration 2
Effect: Alteration
Range: Personal
Action: Reaction
Duration: Permanent
Resurrection x2 (1 Day)
Extras: None
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Regrowth
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (3pp)

Cosmic Energy Control 
Array 19 (38base, +6AP) 44pp

Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged (110')
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Autofire [+1], Partial Penetrating [+3]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Affects Insubstantial x2
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 1
Deflect Rank 9
Effect: Defense (Block +9, -2 per additional)
Range: Touch/(900’max, 90' Increments)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
3 Points per Rank Option - All ranged and mental attacks
Extras: Ranged (Increment of 10’x Power Rank) [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Triggered x2
Drawbacks: None 
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 2
Strike 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Partial Penetrating [+3]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2, Accuracy, Knockback x5
Total Cost: (23pp)

Alt Power 3
Snare 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Transparent [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Reversible, Tether
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (35pp)

Alt Power 4
Heal 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch/Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Action [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Stabilize
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (33pp)

Alt Power 5
Create Objects 8
Effect: General
Range: Ranged
Action: Standard
Duration: Continuous
Extras: Movable [+1], Duration (Continuous) [+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Innate, Precise, Stationary, Subtle, Tether, Progression (10’Cube x rank)
Total Cost: (38pp)

Alt Power 6
Cosmic Energy Control (Blast) 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Ranged (100'max, -1 dmg per 10’)
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Area Burst[+1]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Affects Insubstantial x2, Knockback x3
Drawbacks: None
Total Cost: (38pp)

----------Drawbacks------------

Ring of Cosmic Channeling requires a daily recharge from him. This can be anytime the ring is out of energy, usually lasting 23 hours at a time. After 23 hours of no recharging, the ring’s powers are lost. Recharging the ring is a meditative focus, where he has to have the following circumstances; the ring, a cosmic focus (single star, the moon, or the sun), and one hour of meditation. Meditation is a relative term, up to the GM’s discretion. Upon completion, the ring is recharged for another 23 hours of powers.

Type: Power Loss (*Recharge* Daily)
Frequency DC5
Severity DC5 (-3pp)

----------Trade Offs------------

Defense -2, Toughness +2

----------Cost Summary---------
Abilities: 28
Combat: 16
Saves: 25
Skills: 14
Feats: 22
Powers: 63
Drawbacks: -3
Total Cost: 165/165

[/sblock]

Removed Darkvision and added Flight 3, dependent on platform, reduced to medium load max.

Ring's additional powers include Cosmic Awareness, Super Strength 1, and Regrowth added to Regeneration (Resurrection) in case I am hacked up in pieces.

The CHA bonus is +4, so that's good for everyone.

Well, again, thanks for all the help, and I can't wait to see how Guardian rounds out the group.

DM_MATT, for the induction of Guardian into the trust, I am reading up from the beginning of this game, and when I catch up, I will send you a brief intro to Guardian and his movement to join the trust, and eventually transfer to the new group.

THANKS!


----------



## Elric

Looks good.  Nice job.  M&M character creation is tough because as Matt said, it's more of an art than a science.

If you haven't played M&M before, take a look at my roll call thread on The Atomic Think Tank, the official M&M forums, here.  I have two detailed fight examples from the perspective of players and the GM, so they're designed to help people learn the rules.  I also have some detailed character creation examples, but I didn't realize that it was your first time creating an M&M character so I didn't link to them initially.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, last edit on the character.  I removed Darkvision, and added flight instead, flaw of Platform (cosmic energy shield or board), and flaw of reduced to Medium Load.  I can't see this guy without the ability to fly, and Darkvision was the most sensible thing to remove.

DM_MATT, if approved, can I go ahead and move this sheet over to the Character Sheet thread?


----------



## DM_Matt

Alright, go for it.

One note: Penetrating is not very good on his attacks, and can be bought as a partial extra anyway.  Without penetrating, you'd have to encounter something with impervious 12 to have an issue (this is very rare) , and each point of penetration raising that by one.  Certainly your ability to beat Impervious 22 is overkill.  I would recommend replacing it with Autofire 1, and maybe taking a point or two of penetrating instead of incurable or indirect.

Once the character is finalized, you will get a chance to revisit your build after the first major combat (so you'll have gotten a chance to test drive him).


----------



## kirinke

Matt? I kinda updated Hope's complications section. Here's the rundown per your approval.

Complications:
[sblock]
*Suffers disorientation/exhaustion when using fire/ground based spells, the disorientation is similar to being highly intoxicated with all of the problems therein. Lasts for at least a couple of rounds, dependant on the strength of the spells used. 

*Superheroes tend to view her with mistrust and dislike at first, at least until she proves herself, this is mainly due to her reputation for using lethal force when dealing with supervillians. (The superheroes whose main focus is criminals and hardcore supervillans are the exception to this rule)

*On the other hand, law inforcement, criminals and supervillans tend to respect her. When dealing with them, her reputation for honesty, investigative skills and sheer ruthlessness are a plus. 

*Healing is tiring: Using the Healing gift is tiring, often times making her fatigued.

*She is an orphan. She doesn't know who her parents are. She has in the past come across some evidence that her parents might be supervillians and she keeps this knowledge close to the vest as it has yet to be confirmed. The only other person who knows about this is the superhero Foreshadow, who was with her when she discovered this.[/sblock]

REPUTATION
[sblock]
REPUTATION
Hope is not exactly a superhero persae and has been characterized as a wildcard or an anti-hero and a general pain in the ass by most superheroes who have worked with her. The Saint is more of a nickname than a secret identity, stemming from her work in missing persons and helping the FBI solve some pretty nasty crimes. 

The Hellborn Saint comes from her tracking down a necromancer to the gates of hell and impaling him on the spikes. 

Most supers seem to be somewhat uneasy around her (at least until they get to know her), given her reputation for using lethal force when dealing with dark or corrupt mages, sorcerers, witches or the more truly dangerous mutants/supers. 

Strangely enough, most law enforcement types and even some criminals tend to have a great deal of respect for her.[/sblock]


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Alright, go for it.
> 
> One note: Penetrating is not very good on his attacks, and can be bought as a partial extra anyway.  Without penetrating, you'd have to encounter something with impervious 12 to have an issue (this is very rare) , and each point of penetration raising that by one.  Certainly your ability to beat Impervious 22 is overkill.  I would recommend replacing it with Autofire 1, and maybe taking a point or two of penetrating instead of incurable or indirect.
> 
> Once the character is finalized, you will get a chance to revisit your build after the first major combat (so you'll have gotten a chance to test drive him).




COOL!  So, penetrating is overkill, understood.  Changed to Autofire for the Blast, but what about Strike?  Penetrating would go down to +5, yet would Autofire work with a Strike attack?  Or should it be limited to Ranged attacks?


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> COOL!  So, penetrating is overkill, understood.  Changed to Autofire for the Blast, but what about Strike?  Penetrating would go down to +5, yet would Autofire work with a Strike attack?  Or should it be limited to Ranged attacks?




It can work for some melee attacks, but not for this character.  It can be used to model being very fast or skilled with a certain weapon or martial arts style, but your guy just hits em hard.  Maybe take some knockback instead of some of the penetrating.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> It can work for some melee attacks, but not for this character.  It can be used to model being very fast or skilled with a certain weapon or martial arts style, but your guy just hits em hard.  Maybe take some Knockback instead of some of the penetrating.




So, for Penetrating, what's a good number to have?  I see you like it to be low, so say 2, maybe 3 tops?  

Knockback seems nice too, as it fits.  Does Knockback have a cap you are looking towards?  4? 5? points?

I also lowered Penetrating on the first blast, so that I could add Homing to go along with the Autofire.  Hope that works!


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I also lowered Penetrating on the first blast, so that I could add Homing to go along with the Autofire.  Hope that works!




I think you're kind of stealing Shooting Star (Victim's PC)'s shtick with Homing, though.  I'd change this to Affects Incorporeal 2, which doesn't step on anyone's toes and is an ability unique to you (I think you're the only character with a Toughness save effect that can affect insubstantial opponents).


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> I think you're kind of stealing Shooting Star (Victim's PC)'s shtick with Homing, though.  I'd change this to Affects Incorporeal 2, which doesn't step on anyone's toes and is an ability unique to you (I think you're the only character with a Toughness save effect that can affect insubstantial opponents).




I agree.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I agree.




Done!  Although, Starts little Plasma Orbs with homing are nice!!!  (Been catching up on the reading, to get myself up to speed.  Such as the case would be should Guardian be learning about his new team he is going to be assigned to...)


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Guardian had spent his last few years as a security guard, working for an agency that had him selected for various positions as he was needed.  The work was simply to keep him busy, and to take advantage of his innate powers without any real harm.  It wasn't long ago that he finally came face to face with another with powers, what was referred to here as a supervillian.  

The battle was a tough one, but after throwing caution out of his mind, and not holding back, he was able to apprehend the one known as the Viper.  It was then that he knew that there were others out there, others that had to be dealt with, before innocents were hurt.  Luckily, the Trust had been providing surveillance nearby and the  battle had been watched with keen interest.  

That was a while back, and his induction to the Trust had gone as expected.  Unfortunately, some other potentials had not fared so well, and had decided to take their leave.  Now, with the rising threat of a new terror, it seemed that his team was sent off to provide support for a mission.  He, however, was called in for reassignment.  Apparently, he had turned some heads, and now found himself being briefed by Ms. White about a new assignment....

OOC - Ok, I finally read up all the past threads, and am caught up on the current situation.  Guardian is ready and willing to go whenever he's needed!


----------



## kirinke

ooc:
We could use the help. Nothing like a quick save to endear you to the group....


----------



## Victim

The funny thing is that the Homing has only generated 1 additional hit, IIRC.  Homing is much better on +dmg powers, instead one significantly shifted towards attack.  Often, it seems like hitting has been less of an issue for Star than hitting for enough to get good bonus Autofire damage.

Indirect has actually proven more useful than Homing, I think.  And more useful than I expected.

That said, I think Affects Incorporeal is a perfect ability for Cosmic Power.  It seems fitting that's no sort of cheap dodge around cosmic power.  Combined with some penetrating, and it can potentially injure anything.


----------



## Jemal

yeah, as far as Optic's concerned the whole 'summon an orb anywhere and control it's direction' thing is Star's main use.. very cool and has saved us much trouble.

BTW, I've been having trouble keeping track with all the stuff that's going on IRL.. have we gained any points to spend?  If so, are we allowed to spend them?

*Will post IC ASAP*


----------



## Victim

IIRC, we gained 3 points and were allowed to spend them.

I think Hope spent her HP for when firestorming/banishing.  I don't think she gained anything during this fight.  However, I didn't check back far enough to see if she picked up an extra one from the last battle.

Viridian's TK might be a good option here since many of her powers don't work vs constructs.  She doesn't need to lure the deadly robots near the vats of molten metal; we're already there.


----------



## kirinke

Stunned means that she's out for that particular round right? Once she's recovered her wits she'll help with the telikensis as she does have that precise air control handy.


----------



## Victim

Stunned means that you lose your action, and dodge bonuses.  Sustained Powers have a chance to collapse depending on your Concentration check.  And attackers have a +2 bonus to hit.  So Hope has basically 8 defense because all her defense is Dodge Focus, and may have lost her Force Field.

So you should really hope that Shooting Star's trap hits and stuns the Black Knight when it ports back to finish the job.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Stunned means that you lose your action, and dodge bonuses.  Sustained Powers have a chance to collapse depending on your Concentration check.  And attackers have a +2 bonus to hit.  So Hope has basically 8 defense because all her defense is Dodge Focus, and may have lost her Force Field.
> 
> So you should really hope that Shooting Star's trap hits and stuns the Black Knight when it ports back to finish the job.




If Matt had the knights attacking simultaneously, then Hope will become un-stunned right before their action next round, so she won't have a lower defense score against their attacks.  

Also, Hope actually has 2 ranks in base defense and 9 in Dodge Focus.  So she has effectively a 9 defense (still not so hot ) when stunned.  Lastly, we should be keeping track of HP in our posts better- I'm guilty of this as well.  Matt probably tracks this stuff, but he shouldn't have to do all the work himself.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> If Matt had the knights attacking simultaneously, then Hope will become un-stunned right before their action next round, so she won't have a lower defense score against their attacks.
> 
> Also, Hope actually has 2 ranks in base defense and 9 in Dodge Focus.  So she has effectively a 9 defense (still not so hot ) when stunned.  Lastly, we should be keeping track of HP in our posts better- I'm guilty of this as well.  Matt probably tracks this stuff, but he shouldn't have to do all the work himself.




Yeah, if they went at the exact same time, then that's good for us.  

Or maybe Scylla waves them off for now because of the mine orbs.  She'll have plenty of chances to have her puppets wage guerilla war on us as we move around the complex; there's little need to have her prototypes jump back into prepared defenders.  That could be really annoying.  Especially if their next attack comes in the middle of a battle with another set of defense drones.

It probably is a prudent move not to dunk the knights into the metal at this point.

Tracking temporary status effects from like a month ago can be pretty tough.  Having a handy status line at the bottom of each combat action has been useful though.  In the short run, I can just look at my last post for a starting point.  And repetition has made it easy to remember that I have an extra HP.  Plus the rather decisive smackdown that earned it.


----------



## kirinke

All things considered, I don't think you should hesitate long to dump them into the molten metal, even if they have people inside the suit, after all, they are enemies at this point, so are fair game. At least, that's how Hope considers it. She is pragmatic after all.


----------



## Shayuri

Yes, well, Viridian is not a hardened killer under that mask.


----------



## Jemal

I was under the impression that they were robots..


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yes, well, Viridian is not a hardened killer under that mask.




Lol. Neither is Hope, but she has been trained to think first of innocent civilians, then of her team mates. The bad guys well-being fall way down on her list of concern, unless of course they have valuable information. Y'gotta remember, she's used to dealing with super powered individuals who want her and everyone around her not only dead, but messily and painfully dead. So if she can prevent that from happening, she'll prevent it and if that means using lethal methods, she isn't gonna loose sleep over it.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> I was under the impression that they were robots..




Actually, I just realized that Optic would not only be under that impression, but he'd just plain know it.  X-ray vision will do that.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Lol. Neither is Hope, but she has been trained to think first of innocent civilians, then of her team mates. The bad guys well-being fall way down on her list of concern, unless of course they have valuable information. Y'gotta remember, she's used to dealing with super powered individuals who want her and everyone around her not only dead, but messily and painfully dead. So if she can prevent that from happening, she'll prevent it and if that means using lethal methods, she isn't gonna loose sleep over it.




Yeah, the other characters have only been dealing with the ice cream man, not anyone actually dangerous.  

With powers and supertech devices offering A) reliably non lethal attack forms, and B) effective non lethal attacks, the guidelines on using lethal force for empowered agents might be somewhat more strict.  Shooting to kill is hardly ever going to be Hope's only effective option.  And not losing any sleep sounds pretty hardened to me.    And one might that that someone working for a law enforcement agency would prefer to arrest and bring people to trial whenever possible.

Besides, you have to think of the splashing that could result from dunking the knights.  Dripping molten metal on to technicians or characters is not going to be healthy.


----------



## kirinke

True in most cases, but the folks she's been sent to um... deal with haven't exactly wanted to be apprehended. And were at the time trying to either open a portal to hell or something else equally unpleasant. So, she's had to compromise between bringing in guys who can do that and the safety of the populance as a whole. If she can bring them in safely, she will. And while she will 'shoot to kill' as it were, it's not her first choice. But she won't hesitate if she sees that it's the only option she has left.

Don't worry, she's not gonna use the molten metal gambit if she doesn't have to.  

And after having a crazy group of super criminals (Faust, Black Cobra and Sister Thorn) send you videos of your partner being tortured to death as a taunt, you'd feel a bit different about super-villains too.


----------



## Jemal

> Actually, I just realized that Optic would not only be under that impression, but he'd just plain know it. X-ray vision will do that.




God I love this character.


----------



## Victim

It works once again!


----------



## Ryfte

*Amazing...*

25 pages to find the first post to the rogue's gallery!!! 

Looks like Fangor (Brimstone) took the spot. Were you still looking for more?

If so... and I hope it's okay to throw this stuff in here... I can always delete it if not. It's a bit of a blend of a few ideas looking at the existing group and attempting to avoid too much replication of abilities/functions while coming up with an idea that could be fun to play and effective in it's own way. I see her as a mobile status effect blaster for the most part. Feedback?

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

Spryte, a.k.a. Camille Emerson
PL 11

Comparison: Some similarity to the classic Wasp... mixed with the "energy/personality" of Beastboy (from teen-titans, lol) but with a magic twist (in keeping with the prevalent "magic" themed group, lol) and some other possible blending

Abilities: STR: 8(-1), DEX: 40[14](+15), CON 16(+3), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 24(+6)

Likely Powers: Enhanced Dex; Flight (winged (insect like)); Protection (minor amount - sheer good luck?); Blast Array (bio-energy): indirect version, paralysis or stun version, sleep effect version?; Prank Array  : Trip, Ghost Sound, Invisibility?, Confuse?; Murphy's Law (modify other's luck)???; Technology Jinx (can cause failure in technology)???; Shrinking (permanent); Super Senses (low light vision); Regen (minor) - fast metabolism (eats and drinks a lot) fatigues quickly without constant snacking   - Lifespan extended - Hyper + Doesn't sleep

Tradeoffs: +defense/-toughness and -attack/+damage

Personality Type: Light hearted, cheerful, perky, glass is half-full (not half empty), Doesn't take life seriously - psychological self-defense for her lifespan being what it is (all her siblings and their children long since dead, etc.)

Origin: Stumbled into a faerie/magic circle while playing hide and seek with siblings in the 1800's on the westward push to settle the central and western states, her physical aging slowed and apparently stopped at approximately 16, psychological effect as well - less mature despite her physical age (prone to over exaggeration and "drama" queen responses in social settings), "grew up" in San Francisco, certain aspects of her powers showed up over time, In the mid 1900's her physical characteristics really started to change and became obviously apparent, By the 60's she was tiny and had sprouted double paired dragonfly like wings as well


----------



## Elric

I know Matt is busy, so he might not respond for a little while.


----------



## Victim

Just to be clear, Wren is one of the human-looking aliens like Kryptonians, right?  His appearance section didn't mentioned alien-ness.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> Just to be clear, Wren is one of the human-looking aliens like Kryptonians, right?  His appearance section didn't mentioned alien-ness.



For all identity purposes, he does NOT appear to be alien.  He's identical to the human structure, and nothing gives away to his alien-ness.  He won't even give it away, at least not until he knows someone well enough.


----------



## Ryfte

*Spryte*

Hmmm... what are the odds on getting a bit of help building out this character from you guys regardless... just in case? I tightened it up a bit more. Fleshed out what was in my head and defined the powers a bit better. I don't have my books with me so I didn't cost everything out or apply all the suitable mods... as I'm sure there are some I'm not thinking of which would work well with the concept. 

Edit: Trying to fit the character theme *and* not step on anyone else's toes power/ability wise. 

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

Spryte, a.k.a. Camille Emerson
PL 11

Comparison: Some similarity to the classic Wasp... mixed with the "energy/personality" of Beastboy (from teen-titans, lol) but with a magic twist (in keeping with the prevalent "magic" themed group, lol) and some other possible blending

Size Grants: +4 Attack, +4 Defense, +8 Stealth, -8 Grapple, 1/4 carrying cap. (some other stuff as well, lol)

Abilities: STR: 8(-1), DEX: 42[14](+15), CON 16(+3), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 24(+6)
(-2 + 4 + 6 + 0 + 2 + 14 = 24pts.)

Feats:

Powers:
• Shrinking 12 (7pp)(Normal Strength and Move +1 (PF); Permanent -1 (flaw))
• Enhanced Dex 28 (28pp)
• Flight (winged (insect like)) 8 (8pp) (Limited: only in gaseous materials (i.e. air); restrainable)
• Magic in the Blood Powers (AP) --- Not sure what the base power should be... *shrug*
•• Charm (Emotion Control (Love Only; Single Sense Dependent: Singing))
•• Step of the Otherworld (Full Concealment; Vision, Aural, Smell, etc.; All except tactile)
•• Touch of the Wasp (Blast - Paralysis Effect (autofire; greenish yellow motes))
•• Faerie Dust (Blast - Sleep Effect (cloud shapeable; inhaled only (narcotic)))
•• Verdant Aura (Plant Growth/Blossoming (area burst; Permanent; *heals* plant creatures/beings))
• Prank Powers (AP)
•• Trip --> Uhhh... you trip. *shrug*
•• Ghost Sound (Illusion; Auditory only)
•• Jinxed --> Inconvenient things happen to the target, small negative modifier on all actions; continuous
• Life Support (age)
• Touch of the Fey (Regeneration (Limited: Only in natural settings; Bruising and Injuries (not regrowth or ressurection)))
• Low-light Vision (Super Senses 2)
• Magic Sensitive (Super Senses ??; Detect magic; Visual, Smell, and "Radar")


Tradeoffs: +4defense/-4toughness and -2attack/+2damage

[sblock=Personality Sketch] Light hearted, cheerful, perky, glass is half-full (not half empty), Doesn't take life seriously - psychological self-defense for her lifespan being what it is (all her siblings and their children long since dead, etc.)[/sblock]

[sblock=Rough Origin]Stumbled into a faerie/magic circle while playing hide and seek with siblings in the 1800's on the westward push to settle the central and western states, her physical aging slowed and apparently stopped at approximately 16, psychological effect as well - less mature despite her physical age (prone to over exaggeration and "drama" queen responses in social settings), "grew up" in San Francisco, certain aspects of her powers showed up over time, In the mid 1900's her physical characteristics really started to change and became obviously apparent, By the 60's she was tiny and had sprouted double paired dragonfly like wings as well[/sblock]


----------



## DM_Matt

I am not sure I can actually fit another in at this time, and my RL obligations the next few weeks don't leave me much time beyond what I need to maintain the game. I'll certainly accept alternates still, but I don't have time at the moment to really go over builds.  Also, while I like the concept, I'd actually like to not increase the number of magic-based characters (and of course, that does not mean that these powers are not otherwise accessible with another technical explanation) to keep the flavor from moving too far into the fantasy genre rather than the supers genre.  I'm sorry I accidentally left the recruiting flag flying.


----------



## Ryfte

*No worries...*

Would you mind if perhaps Elric and or others helped me finish it out here in this thread as a possible alternate for a future spot (and of course getting away from the "magically themed" as well)?


----------



## DM_Matt

Ryfte said:
			
		

> Would you mind if perhaps Elric and or others helped me finish it out here in this thread as a possible alternate for a future spot (and of course getting away from the "magically themed" as well)?




Thats fine.


----------



## Ryfte

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Thats fine.




Thanks! 

----------------------------------------------------------
Rewrite below.

Question... Anyone: Is it possible to have a multiple power dynamic array with some powers having a minimum draw within the array? (see venom/pheremone power below)
----------------------------------------------------------

X-Phase a.k.a. Camille Emerson
PL 11

Comparison: Some similarity to the classic Wasp... mixed with the "energy/personality" of Beastboy (from teen-titans, lol)/spidey smart alecky personality

[sblock=Fluff][sblock=Personality Sketch] Light hearted, cheerful, perky, glass is half-full (not half empty), Doesn't take life too seriously or dwell on her own problems - psychological self-defense for what happened to her; Changed her life forever; Jokes around a *lot*[/sblock]
[sblock=Enemy at Large]Dark Stinger[/sblock]
[sblock=Rough Origin]Dark Stinger a swarm controlling villain killed 283 people that day. It had been one of the worst mall killings ever in Oregon. Another 1,754 people survived the incident with little or no damage having been stung either not at all or only a time or two. The last individual, Camille Emerson, an employee of the Old Navy located in the mall had been found unconscious nearby the folding board she'd been using to restock the henleys on the holiday ads. She had been stung only a single time from what the doctors could see but something strange had begun happening to the poor girl. Unknown to the doctors Camille carried a mutant gene that not only had been activated by the sting but it had used some of the genetic mapping of the wasps venom itself and begun to rewrite Camille's complete dna encoding.[/sblock]
[sblock=Theoretical Hypothesis]A number of scientific heroes whom have some sort of connection with Camille have studied her genetic makeup. A few of them have theorized that her innate mutant abilities actually allow her body to process and genetically refactor it's "functions" with exposure to venoms. At this time her own x-gene seems to be dormant and have bonded with the initial DNA pattern it obtained from Dark Stinger's venom but there is some conjecture that she could actually refactor to another venom type if she could learn how to control her base power.[/sblock][/sblock]
[sblock=Mechanics]Size Grants: +4 Attack, +4 Defense, +8 Stealth, -8 Grapple, 1/4 carrying cap. (some other stuff as well, lol)

[sblock=Abilities]STR: 8(-1), DEX: 42[14](+15), CON 16(+3), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 24(+6)[/sblock](-2 + 4 + 6 + 0 + 2 + 14 = 24pts.)

[sblock=Feats]Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus 2 (blasts), Defensive Attack, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Move-by Action, Sneak Attack, Ultimate Defense, Uncanny Dodge (spatial sense - antanae) [/sblock](??pts.)

[sblock=Powers]• Shrinking 12 (7pp)(Normal Strength and Move +1 (PF); Permanent -1 (flaw))
• Enhanced Dex 28 (28pp)
• Flight (wasps wings) 8 (8pp) (Limited: not in liquids; restrainable)
• Phase Powers (AP) (base power) --> haven't decided/chosen
•• Phase Jumping (extremely short teleports) ?? (??pp) (teleport; range reduced -?? or just low power?) (dynamic)
•• Phase Shift (Full Concealment; Vision, Aural, Smell, etc.; All except tactile) (dynamic)
•• Life Support (g-forces/thin air/high altitude/high speeds)(dynamic)
• Venom/Pheremone Powers (AP) (base power) --> haven't decided/chosen -- all blasts take the form of spine/sting shaped bio-energy projectiles unless otherwise detailed, the colors vary with the effect of the blast itself)
•• Charm (Emotion Control (Love (males)/Hate (females); Single Sense Dependent: Smell; Area Effect; Cloud; Permanent(fractional amount) - low levels constantly emitted))(dynamic - minimum X)
•• Eternal Sting (Blast - Paralysis Effect (greenish yellow); Appears more "solid" than other blasts)
•• Sting of the Sloth (Blast - Slow Effect (solid yellow); Edges are fuzzier than other blasts)
•• Burrowing Sting (Blast - Penetrating (bluish/purple); Spins like a drill)
•• Venom Burst (Blast; area; slow only effect (violet); radius wave around X-Phase)
•• Venom Volley (Blast; splitting(x4); (light blue/green): Rain of smaller looking blasts intense blasts)
•• Venom Trail (Blast; autofire; (dull black): consecutive line of small but intense blasts)
•• Pollination (Plant Growth/Blossoming (area burst; Permanent; *heals* plant creatures/beings))(dynamic minimum X)
• Insectile Metabolism (Regeneration (Bruising and Injuries (not regrowth or ressurection)))
• Antanae (Super Senses ??; Vibration Sense (radar sense; Danger Sense); extended; No Notice rolls required; Does not work for insubstantial characters/objects)
• Chitin Armor (Protection; Inpenetrable; a few points not a lot)[/sblock](??pts.)[/sblock]

Tradeoffs: +4defense/-4toughness and -2attack/+2damage

Total Points: Abilities(??) + Skills(??) + Feats(??) + Powers(??) - Disadvantages(??) = 165


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  Think I should put the finish on the disabled robot or change Star's action to do something else?


----------



## Victim

In terms of pure mechanics:

Your flaw on flight (for actually needing wings) is actually a pair of 1 point drawbacks, not a full flaw.  If you only want to spend 8 points, then you could get winged flight 5 - that's still incredibly fast for wings that you have to flap.  Flight 8 is ~2500 mph (Mach ~3) cruising speed!

Normal Strength and move for Shrinking is an extra, not a power feat, so that power would cost 12.  Granted, that extra also includes carrying capacity, but lacking that seems more like a drawback than having the other benefits be a power feat. Dimunitive size is also +12/-12 for Stealth and Grapple.  And being 1 ft tall all the time might be pretty awkward.

The base power for your arrays is basically irrelevant.  You can just buy a 2/pp rank dummy power to get the size right and then stick things under it.

It's not very clear what Jinxed is actually supposed to do - sounds sort of like a drain, but several other powers can also apply small penalties to most actions.  You could also use some of the tricks under Luck Control for jinxing too.

When you say "Blast - Paralyze effect" do you mean a special effect on Blast, or some version of the paralyze power?  Same for the Faerie dust sleep effect (which could be Fatigue).

I'm not sure what the Verdant Aura is supposed to do besides heal plants.  Healing is already instant duration - the effect of it is permanent.  If you mean that plants constantly heal around her regardless of her intentions, then A) it seems like a minor benefit at best since we're now short on plant people, and B) it shouldn't be in an array, since you could deactivate it by changing slots.

Since many of your powers are Area (sleep dust) or Perception (Emotion Control, illusion), your offensive tradeoff isn't especially important.  Also, slotting those powers of varying ranks into the same array can be tricky.  For example, you can have 11 ranks of your love song and have 2 flaws on it.  On the other hand, you'll want 13 ranks of your paralysis blast thing to take advantage of your tradeoff and want an extra for it.  As things stand, one power is costing you 6 points, the other is costing you 39.

Conceptually, this character seems heavily tied to Faerie - even if all her abilities could be produced via other power sources, the combination of abilities still pretty much says fairy  creature. Working that into a nonmagicl background requires some hoop juming.  So if the character isn't actually a magical being, then it'd seem like someone/something created or changed her to be like one.  This could have happened a long time ago (ie, her origin story is basically accurate), or recently (implanted memories).  I don't recall many details about the 1800s for FC stuff, but I only have the 1e FC book and the free online encyclopedia pdf.  So you'd probably be on your own for ideas relating to that period.  

If you're looking at option B and want a link to existing FC villains, then Mastermind or Green Man might work.  Mastermind doesn't really understand mystical stuff, and has science skills/resources IIRC.   Maybe he's trying to grow his own "magical" creature and releasing it into the world to see what other information it can develop.  The Green Man has already transformed several people into hybridized plant creatures with weird powers, and would really want that plant healing ability.  Plants don't exist in a vacuum ecologically, so he might be looking to create some supporting lifeforms.  Even if he didn't have the gene modding expertise to pull off a size change, kidnapping scientists for their expertise is sort of a classic.  One downside with this approach is that the Trust has very good information gathering abilities and could dig up the real story in short order.


----------



## Ryfte

*Changed long before your feedback...*

Hey Victim, thanks for the lookover! After Matt's feedback on not really wanting the magic theme or the fantasy bent continuing I ditched it completely. 

If you look at my last post it's been changed... quite a bit. 

Still a similar "skeleton" of a character but definitely now more "wasp"'ish. 

Thanks for the pointers on costs... I've never played in an M&M game that lasted more than a two month stretch on the boards... and none of the characters were that well put together.


----------



## Ryfte

*X-Phase*

X-Phase a.k.a. Camille Emerson
PL 11

Comparison: Some similarity to the classic Wasp... mixed with the "energy/personality" of Beastboy (from teen-titans, lol)/spidey smart alecky personality

[sblock=Fluff][sblock=Personality Sketch] Light hearted, cheerful, perky, glass is half-full (not half empty), Doesn't take life too seriously or dwell on her own problems - psychological self-defense for what happened to her; Changed her life forever; Jokes around a *lot*[/sblock]
[sblock=Enemy at Large]Dark Stinger[/sblock]
[sblock=Rough Origin]Dark Stinger a swarm controlling villain killed 283 people that day. It had been one of the worst mall killings ever in Oregon. Another 1,754 people survived the incident with little or no damage having been stung either not at all or only a time or two. The last individual, Camille Emerson, an employee of the Old Navy located in the mall had been found unconscious nearby the folding board she'd been using to restock the henleys on the holiday ads. She had been stung only a single time from what the doctors could see but something strange had begun happening to the poor girl. Unknown to the doctors Camille carried a mutant gene that not only had been activated by the sting but it had used some of the genetic mapping of the wasps venom itself and begun to rewrite Camille's complete dna encoding.[/sblock]
[sblock=Theoretical Hypothesis]A number of scientific heroes whom have some sort of connection with Camille have studied her genetic makeup. A few of them have theorized that her innate mutant abilities actually allow her body to process and genetically refactor it's "functions" with exposure to venoms. At this time her own x-gene seems to be dormant and have bonded with the initial DNA pattern it obtained from Dark Stinger's venom but there is some conjecture that she could actually refactor to another venom type if she could learn how to control her base power.[/sblock][/sblock]
[sblock=Mechanics]Size Grants: +4 Attack, +4 Defense, +8 Stealth, -8 Grapple, 1/4 carrying cap. (some other stuff as well, lol)

[sblock=Abilities]STR: 8(-1), DEX: 42[14](+15), CON 16(+3), INT 10 (+0), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 24(+6)[/sblock](-2 + 4 + 6 + 0 + 2 + 14 = 24pts.)

[sblock=Feats]Acrobatic Bluff, All-Out Attack, Attack Focus 2 (blasts), Defensive Attack, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Move-by Action, Sneak Attack, Ultimate Defense, Uncanny Dodge (spatial sense - antanae) [/sblock](??pts.)

[sblock=Powers]• Shrinking 12 (12pp)(Extra: Normal Strength and Move +1pp/rank; Permanent (modifier count against PL maximums) -1pt/rank (flaw))
•• Size: Diminutive (Attack +4, Defense +4,  Grapple Modifier -12, Stealth Modifier +12, Intimidation Modifier -6, 7.25" tall, 9oz., Space 1', Reach 0', Carrying Capacity x1/4)
• Enhanced Dex 28 (28pp)
• Flight (wasps wings) 5 (8pp) (Drawback: not in liquids; wings; -2pts.)
• Phase Powers (AP) (base power) --> haven't decided/chosen
•• Phase Jumping (extremely short teleports) ?? (??pp) (teleport; range reduced -?? or just low power?) (dynamic)
•• Phase Shift 10 (11pp) (Concealment; All senses except tactile 10pp; "Close Range" is 5' instead of 30' for acute sense detection +1pp (power feat))
•• Life Support (g-forces/thin air/high altitude/high speeds)(dynamic)
• Venom/Pheremone Powers (AP) (base power) --> haven't decided/chosen -- all blasts take the form of spine/sting shaped bio-energy projectiles unless otherwise detailed, the colors vary with the effect of the blast itself)
•• Charm (Emotion Control 2pp/rank (Love (males)/Hate (females); Single Sense Dependent: Smell (-1pp/rank flaw); Area Effect - Cloud +1pp/rank extra; )(dynamic +2pp)
•• Eternal Sting (Paralyze 2pp/rank (greenish yellow); Appears more "solid" than other blasts)
•• Sting of the Sloth (Slow 1pp/rank; (solid yellow); Edges are fuzzier than other blasts)
•• Burrowing Sting (Blast - Penetrating (bluish/purple); Spins like a drill)
•• Venom Burst (Blast; area; slow only effect (violet); radius wave around X-Phase)
•• Venom Volley (Blast; splitting(x4); (light blue/green): Rain of smaller looking blasts intense blasts)
•• Venom Volley (Blast; autofire; (dull black): consecutive line of small but intense blasts)
• Insectile Metabolism (Regeneration (Bruising and Injuries (not regrowth or ressurection)))
• Antanae (Super Senses ??; Vibration Sense (radar sense; Danger Sense); extended; No Notice rolls required; Does not work for insubstantial characters/objects)
• Chitin Armor (Protection; Inpenetrable; a few points not a lot)[/sblock](??pts.)
• Drain Strength
[/sblock]

Tradeoffs: +4defense/-4toughness and -2attack/+2damage

Total Points: Abilities(??) + Skills(??) + Feats(??) + Powers(??) - Disadvantages(??) = 165


----------



## Victim

Yeah, it takes me forever to write posts sometimes.    You could always hope it's one of the mystic characters that needs replacement if you like faerie version.  

Some of her stat mods are wrong.  42 Dex is +16.  24 CHA is +7.

Since Camille is extremely charismatic, she might want some of the CHA skill based feats like Fascinate, Taunt, Distract.  Set Up also works well.

I think the always-on pheremones thing is conventionally set up by making the power Reaction: comes within range.  It might be better to buy a few ranks of pheremones outside the array for the permanent effect with a conventional slot that contains more ranks for more focused dose instead of making everything dynamic.  

You might also consider an non Sense Dependent, Perception Emotion Control power.  It could be a sort of mind affecting sting; a blast of bio-energy into the nervous system.

Paralysis and Slow are the same thing - slow is just a weaker effect.

Note that Emotion Control lets you specific the subject of the emotion, so only changing attitudes relating to yourself would probably be a drawback.

If you want more status attacks, then your bio energy special effect readily lends itself to a variety of Drain attacks.  You could replace some of the damaging blasts with those.

Shooting Star will not be favorably inclined towards someone who's a better flyer in terms of speed or manueverability, but that's her jealousy.  Going with the pheremones makes that a bit of a moot point though.


----------



## Shayuri

Mew...

I keep thinking I should be doing something clever, but nothing occurs to me. Gragh!

I guess I can use another TK attack, but it seems like a waste. I have all these neat powers but nearly all of them are useless...or at least, my brain seems inadequate to find uses for them. Illusions won't work, mind control is out, wards won't help, transmutation takes too long and affects too small a mass, teleport is blocked and takes too long, mind blast in the same bag as mind control...

I just keep getting the feeling that by including flavorful flaws in most of my powers I've condemned myself to never actually being able to get much mileage out of them. But at the same time, if I remove the limits, they're not -magic- anymore, they're just super powers.

Which then makes me question if the entire concept is really well suited to the game. Maybe I'd be better off with a simpler, more straightforward design. Something battlesuity, perhaps.

I just don't know anymore...but I'm frustrated, and it's having an impact on my posting...for which I apologize.


----------



## Elric

How about Power Stunting (off of Battle Magic): Blast 11 (Extras: Range-Perception, Area- Burst, Selective Area, Flaws: Full-Round Action, No-Range (has to be centered on self) PF: Increased Area x2) for a 275 foot radius attack against all of our enemies and anything else made of electronics (but not the central computer!) with the description that you're "using your magic to destroy the functioning of electronics by suspending the laws of nature" in the area


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe

Or just call it a magically generated EMP. 

Though lightning throwing is Hope's schtick.

And I admit, the thought of using a hero point to make up a -whole new power- on the fly and call it a "power stunt" makes me a little squidgy inside. It seems a bit overmuch. Is that really a legitmate use of a hero point?


----------



## Elric

Shayuri said:
			
		

> And I admit, the thought of using a hero point to make up a -whole new power- on the fly and call it a "power stunt" makes me a little squidgy inside. It seems a bit overmuch. Is that really a legitmate use of a hero point?




It's Extra Effort to power stunt, which is fatiguing, which is typically bought off with a hero point.

So, your underlying power is Magic.  Cyclops' underlying power is his Optic Blast, which might give him Blast and an AP of Deflect: Projectiles.  But if Cyclops is thrown off a building, he can power stunt Super-Movement: Slow-Falling by blasting the ground.  

Likewise, when any situation that Magic could possibly work in comes up, you can use a Power Stunt to do something really powerful given that you have a 35 pp array based on battle magic and a 20-something pp array for utility magic (so even if you want to take a power with longer than an instant duration and keep it up for multiple rounds, you'll still be able to use some other powers at the same time).  Think you've got a better deal than Cyclops, perhaps  

Honestly, doing too much of this can throw the balance of the game out of whack in favor of magic users and others with flexible descriptors thanks to the incredible versatility afforded in initial arrays (+ cheapness of Alternate Powers) and the on the spot versatility afforded by power stunts.  But right now your regular powers aren't so useful and we're getting beaten down, so why not a Magical EMP spell out of desperation?

(Jemal is thinking- looks like Optic's eye-beams are actually Magic- right about now)


----------



## Shayuri

Okay. I think I know what I'm gonna do.

Thanks, Elric. That Power Feat-to-make-a-new-Alternate-Power thing keeps escaping me, though this isn't the first time I've heard of it...

Two hero points down...one to get unstunned...one to put some magic hurtin' on.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I was always wondering why an attack specifically designed to affect machines has not been used.  You have a ice creating hero, and an optic blast hero.  Water is not a very good friend of machines, and neither is steam/condensation.  As for transmutation, you have large quantities of molten lava; why not animate something out of that, and let it walk right through these machines?

Just throwing out ideas, but I think there's always possibilities with so much flavor in every person's hero.


----------



## Shayuri

Fangor, you have to remember that each power is fairly specific in what it can do.

For example, transmutation can explicitly change one substance into another. A generous reading of the power also can allow it to reshape things to say, turn a block of steel into a sword. It can't animate things though. For that, there's another power called "Animate Object."

You could credibly make Animate Object an Alternate Power of Transmute, of course, but that's not an option for me, because Transmute is already an Alternate Power of my magic pool. 

So none of us have any tech-targeted attacks, really. Though we have attacks that aren't any less effective on tech.

Anyway...just pointing out that, say, because you hit a robot with a water blast that doesn't mean you can then expect a short circuit. The GM might decide it does, but he's under no compulsion to do so unless you specifically bought an additional power for your blast that does extra damage (or causes effects on) to technology.


----------



## Victim

Viridian has generally seemed pretty effective to me.  All the flavorful limitations on your mental powers aren't really a problem here - it's the very fact that they're mental powers and we're fighting robots.  Illusion is the only 

Besides using TK directly on the robots, she could use it on the environment, possibly tipping over the giant vats as an attack or scooping out some of the molten metal to drop it directly on some spider bots.  She could pick up some heavy piece of machinery and squash some bugs, or toss one spider bot at another.  

Also, I'm not totally sure about the situation, but Hope had super heated liquid metal dumped on her.  Presumeably, it's not going to become cool and safe in a round - as long as she's in that puddle and/or has it on her skin, she might be taking damage.  Pulling her rear out of the fire (literally) might be a decent play.

A ward could be used to protect against the robot minions and/or some of the environmental effects.

She could wrap up some of the minion bots (but not the Knights) with her AoE snare.

Transmute could be applied to some of the vats of metal.  Create a nozzle near the bottom of the tank and aim it towards some enemies or other dangerous machines.  Or fuse some of the moving parts on the manufacturing equipment to lock it in place.  Even if the whole machine can't be rendered harmless, if you keep it from moving we'll be able to stay away from it (barring more evil knockback).

And that's without using Extra Effort to gain any sort of AP.  Even if you just expand on her current spells, she could do an overcharged Transmutation to turn critical components of the robots into inoperative junk.  An area spell that turns semiconductors into semi-sweet chocolate or fiber optics into silly string would probably be effective at stopping lots of robots.  Not that transmute would be the best actual power for that special effect.


----------



## DM_Matt

I agree with Victim.  Also, Fangor's suggestions are all more plausible uses of magic than Elric's Uberattack suggestion.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> You could credibly make Animate Object an Alternate Power of Transmute, of course, but that's not an option for me, because Transmute is already an Alternate Power of my magic pool.
> 
> So none of us have any tech-targeted attacks, really. Though we have attacks that aren't any less effective on tech.
> 
> Anyway...just pointing out that, say, because you hit a robot with a water blast that doesn't mean you can then expect a short circuit. The GM might decide it does, but he's under no compulsion to do so unless you specifically bought an additional power for your blast that does extra damage (or causes effects on) to technology.




Well, you could make Animate Objects an AP off the magic array.

Making use of certain situational effects is a perfect way to justify power stunts.  If you want to short out a robot with a water blast instead of just doing damage, you could make it into a Paralyze AP with extra effort to represent the extra effect of the attack attack. 

Optic's Machine Control ability is a tech based attack.  Shooting Star could also justify screwing with some technology by focusing on the electrical charge (and associated magnetic effects) side of her powers instead of mostly heat based attacks.


----------



## Shayuri

Yes, but my point is that you couldn't do that without using extra effort to create an Alternate Power.

As opposed to just saying, "I change my plasma ball to mess with electrical circuits instead of doing damage," and still using the Blast power. 

DM Matt...thank you for the input.


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I agree with Victim.  Also, Fangor's suggestions are all more plausible uses of magic than Elric's Uberattack suggestion.




This is why I don't play mages


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yes, but my point is that you couldn't do that without using extra effort to create an Alternate Power.
> 
> As opposed to just saying, "I change my plasma ball to mess with electrical circuits instead of doing damage," and still using the Blast power.
> 
> DM Matt...thank you for the input.




Yeah.

Unless the robots had a vulnerability or suspectability to certain types of attacks.  But that's up to the GM.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> This is why I don't play mages




Or it's why magic isn't all that great of a special effect without some extra considerations of style.  Unless pretty much everyone is going to have a nearly univerally applicable power (which isn't necessarily bad), then magic should be no more of a do anything justification than other special effects.  Just as being a mutant doesn't mean that a character has access to every possible mutation, being a spellcaster shouldn't necessarily mean that any sort of magical effect is fair game.  The fact that Viridian's magic is based off witchcraft and Hope uses elemental associations should be meaningful.

A more limited view of magic also means that there can be more mage type characters without them running all over each other conceptually.


----------



## Shayuri

Yar. Broadly speaking, for example, Viridian doesn't do "blasts," like energy blasts or whatever.

No gouts of fire, no lightning from the sky.

I just don't see that kind of thing as being 'witchy.'


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Sorry, yeah, I meant with use of Extra Effort and such.  I'm more of a combo oriented tactical fighter, and look forwards to adding that type of mixture in this group.  I am sure that the witchy part of your character will come up with something in the present circumstances.


----------



## kirinke

Hope is going to essentially super-freeze every bit of metal and offensive/defensive thing in the area (That isn't helping them) that she can, starting with the manufacturing system. (Using the hero point for getting knocked out by the superheated metal)

The way I see it, part of the reason why she isn't dead yet is that she used that hero point from figuring out the central computer hiding place to cool the metal, fling it off and heal herself enough so that she isn't dying.   

While Viridian is more of a classic witch, I view Hope as more of a wild mage, someone who uses their magical powers not through spells but through innate, instinctive manipulation. It's one of the reasons why her powers are so strongly associated with the natural elements around her.


Looking at Viridian's powers so I can give out helpful suggestions. 

*Thicken blood, bind bones sounds promising.*
With a bit of finagling, you might be able to say that the 'oil and other substances' in the robots body is their blood and their bones could be whatever powers their movement. Simple enough.


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe. That's just a fancy name for a Paralysis power.

Robots are usually immune to effects that target Will and/or Fort...

However, I've finally posted a reasonable action, after reading some of the excellent advice provided by Victim, Fangor, and everyone else.

Y'all have my gratitude. I had some weird kind of creative block...I just couldn't THINK.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

You know, there are always options.  I would have LOVED to have seen the witch have been working on a door all that time, then once it was ready, she turned, winked at the ally that could use TK, and once the robots came in, one was thrown through the doorway, where it was then destroyed by an optic blast.  The robot would find itself on some desolate location, with only water all around.  Or something like that...


----------



## Shayuri

Well, that wouldn't have worked because the Foundry's got something that stops outbound teleports...and presumably inbound as well.

But the point is well taken. The weird thing is that I'm usually fairly decent at coming up with inventive uses for powers. I don't know why I've been having so much trouble with Viridian.


----------



## kirinke

Lol, no problem. We all have 'huh' moments occasionally.   
And personally, I don't think you should change Viridian's flavor at all. Technology is her cryptonite, just like Hope's is fire and ground based magics, just like Nightweaver's is light and Optic's is sonic based. It'd wouldn't be a supers game without playing to those flaws.    

Ooo. Speaking of complications, I just added a rather fun one to Hope's list o problems.
With Matt's approval of course.

[sblock]Hope and Foreshadow are very attracted to one another, but the nature of both of their lifestyles means that they have to keep a professional distance from one another. The main reasons is that they both have enemies that wouldn't hesitate to use one against the other, and neither are willing to risk that for the sake of an open relationship. Foreshadow himself is one of the few real friends and allies she has in the superhero community and knows almost all of her secrets. She trusts the superhero implicintly, perhaps because he has never betrayed that trust. Nor will.[/sblock]


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hope is going to essentially super-freeze every bit of metal and offensive/defensive thing in the area (That isn't helping them) that she can, starting with the manufacturing system. (Using the hero point for getting knocked out by the superheated metal)
> 
> The way I see it, part of the reason why she isn't dead yet is that she used that hero point from figuring out the central computer hiding place to cool the metal, fling it off and heal herself enough so that she isn't dying.
> 
> While Viridian is more of a classic witch, I view Hope as more of a wild mage, someone who uses their magical powers not through spells but through innate, instinctive manipulation. It's one of the reasons why her powers are so strongly associated with the natural elements around her.
> 
> 
> Looking at Viridian's powers so I can give out helpful suggestions.
> 
> *Thicken blood, bind bones sounds promising.*
> With a bit of finagling, you might be able to say that the 'oil and other substances' in the robots body is their blood and their bones could be whatever powers their movement. Simple enough.




Hope's magic is based on her own innate abilities, and she does not know their origin. For all she knows, her spells are just mental triggers for mutant powers.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Hope's magic is based on her own innate abilities, and she does not know their origin. For all she knows, her spells are just mental triggers for mutant powers.




True that. 

Matt? What do you think about that newest complication? I figure one of the reasons why Foreshadow won't let himself get involved with her is that he has foreseen who her parents really are, but hasn't foreseen how Hope will react to it. He knows she could bend either to the bad-guy's side or to the good-guy's side when she finally does find out.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Lol, no problem. We all have 'huh' moments occasionally.
> And personally, I don't think you should change Viridian's flavor at all. Technology is her cryptonite, just like Hope's is fire and ground based magics, just like Nightweaver's is light and Optic's is sonic based. It'd wouldn't be a supers game without playing to those flaws.
> 
> Ooo. Speaking of complications, I just added a rather fun one to Hope's list o problems.
> With Matt's approval of course.
> 
> [sblock]Hope and Foreshadow are very attracted to one another, but the nature of both of their lifestyles means that they have to keep a professional distance from one another. The main reasons is that they both have enemies that wouldn't hesitate to use one against the other, and neither are willing to risk that for the sake of an open relationship. Foreshadow himself is one of the few real friends and allies she has in the superhero community and knows almost all of her secrets. She trusts the superhero implicintly, perhaps because he has never betrayed that trust. Nor will.[/sblock]




Fortunately, that particular super is one that I have not already decided to use in any way, so I can arrange that without a problem.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Fortunately, that particular super is one that I have not already decided to use in any way, so I can arrange that without a problem.




Cool, it kinda fits. Both of them have 'tragic' pasts, both have paranormal sight, one can see in the future, the other the past, both of them are detectives using their abilities to supplement their crime-solving skills. I'd think that at first their relationship would have been mutual respect, then developing further to the point to where it is now.


----------



## Victim

Robots are generally immune to Fortitude attacks unless those have Affects Objects.

However, they are only immune to _mental_ effects, not all Will effects.  Paralyze, while based on Will, is not by default a mental power.  So it can work on robots, and most robots are probably going to have an awful Will save since they're immune to most of that stuff.  Of course, Viridian's Paralyze is alt saved to Fort, since she has a bunch of other Will attacks...  

But yeah, Viridian is specialized in exotic attacks.  She can hit all three exotic saves at PL, often in several ways.  But her best attack against toughness is only +8 (at least it auto hits).  So against robots and other things that are generally immune to unusual attacks, she's at a disadvantage.  

Bah, thinking is overrated.  Look at how well Nitro does without it.  When in doubt, blow something up, or smash things.    While Viridian's witchiness is lacking in explosive potential, it does allow her to smash psyches as well as material objects.


----------



## Shayuri

Yar.

Though I'm thinking it might be useful to expand her information-getting abilities. Her scrying spell is pretty limited, since we rarely need to find people we have the needed focus for...though that might change... And besides, I don't mind scrying being limited...it can be too easy otherwise.

Still, it seems like some kind of divination might be nice. Not so much seeing the future, but rather finding out answers to simple questions...answers perhaps couched in vague or cryptic terms.

Hee.

Still trying to decide how to use that exp.


----------



## kirinke

Oooo, a new player enters, wonder who she is? I thought Raven was one of the leaguers that Barrington captured?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Oooo, a new player enters, wonder who she is? I thought Raven was one of the leaguers that Barrington captured?




No, Raven's the one that Barrington hurt real badly on the roof.  Also, this definately isn't Raven.  Her hair and costume are black, not light brown and dark blue, respectively.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Oooo, a new player enters, wonder who she is? I thought Raven was one of the leaguers that Barrington captured?




No, Raven was one of the ones taken out in the initial ambush; Barrington beat up Raven and stole her bike.  The description and power set don't seem to match up well either.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Hopefully she's friendly. But knowing Matt, probly not as friendly as we'd like.


----------



## Victim

> ooc
> Actually, the reason why Hope dealt with the spider demon in a rather lethal way is because he knew too much about the Trust, darkwater, about them in particular. IF Barrington had gotten that information, alot of innocent people would have died. She thought that if the spider demon managed to get the information to Barrington, the Trust would have woken up to having their throats slit or worse, not to mention the people in the darkwater organization would have been systematically executed one by one. Remember, Hope does have alot of information in her head about both organizations, maybe not as much as she'd like, but stuff that Barrington would be very interested in. If she could have, she would have spared him for Buckners. It was simply too dangerous to let the spider demon live.




Attacking stunned characters /= attacking unconscious characters.

Since Optic will likely be busy with the computer, Nitro wants to escape the crane and save Hope, there are only Viridian and Nightweaver before the knight goes, and then Shooting Star before the spider drones.  So I can try to do something about the minions (probably some EE Targeted Area for even more rapid fire), while you two stop the teleporter


----------



## kirinke

If Hope can act, using a hero point (she has two, one from the first drop, then from being bashed into the metal vat thing), she will, using either ice or a combination of ice and lightening.

Hopefully, the new super is either on our side or against the Foundry and Wren gets to them on time.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> If Hope can act, using a hero point (she has two, one from the first drop, then from being bashed into the metal vat thing), she will, using either ice or a combination of ice and lightening.
> 
> Hopefully, the new super is either on our side or against the Foundry and Wren gets to them on time.




She never acutally got it for the first drop, and she only gets this one later.  Remember, HP for getting taken down only matter if you're taken out of the fight, and even then you cant use those to recover.


----------



## kirinke

Mmff. Ah well then. So tis the land of concussion and unconsciousness for Hope alas, all is not well with her.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Do you guys make use of your Com-links?  I haven't ever seen them used, but maybe once.  Hopefully you remembered to bring them along, as Wren has NO idea where in this huge complex you guys really are...  

Although, the huge hole in this place might be the best place to try...


----------



## Victim

Apparently we have them, since the transmission about the attack on the Foundry building in the city was routed through them.  So unless the factory is more heavily jammed than the halls (certainly possible, especially since all the metal might cause extra interference), we should get Wren's transmission.  

But yeah, the trail of ice and destruction should be a giveaway.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

So, with DM_MATT's answer in game, I wonder if I am hearing any of you now... it would be interesting to know if I can hear all the commotion or not, as then I would know how badly you need my help, or if I should stay up top and take out all other possible threats before heading in.

Hopefully you will hear me, and he'll get updated on your statuses.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> So, with DM_MATT's answer in game, I wonder if I am hearing any of you now... it would be interesting to know if I can hear all the commotion or not, as then I would know how badly you need my help, or if I should stay up top and take out all other possible threats before heading in.
> 
> Hopefully you will hear me, and he'll get updated on your statuses.




At this point, you are probably able to pick up their short-range communication, but you are actually a round or two ahead of them in time right now.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> At this point, you are probably able to pick up their short-range communication, but you are actually a round or two ahead of them in time right now.



Good to know.  That will give me time (those extra rounds I am ahead, to spend trying to find them.  If they are still alive by the time I get there, of course,


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I ACCIDENTALLY POSTED THIS IN THE IN GAME THREAD>>> SORRY!!! Moving it here now...

Uh, not to get off topic, but I would like a little help with one thing. The Mighty Power Feat. How does it work?

Would I need MIGHTY power feat taken 5 times to allow a +5 STR bonus to the dmg?

Let's say I have Strike 5, and want my +5 Strength Bonus to apply to damage. Would I simply take the Mighty power feat once, and that would suffice? Or would I need to take Mighty 5 times?

What if I wanted it partially Penetrating? Let's say Strike 5, Penetrating 3, with Mighty. How many points of Mighty would I need to take? 3? or 5?

I think Mighty is one of the few power feats I don't quite understand fully enough to use it wisely, and with all the knowledge on this game, I figured I would ask here as well.


----------



## Victim

One Mighty is sufficient.

If you only want Pen 3, then there's no extra cost for Mighty.  The cost only increases if the extra applies to the full damage bonus.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Mmff. Ah well then. So tis the land of concussion and unconsciousness for Hope alas, all is not well with her.




Shooting Star has just taken her second major head injury in as many days, so she's probably right there with Hope in Concussion county.  And now she's doing wide area sweeps with her autofire.  How very safe.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Shooting Star has just taken her second major head injury in as many days, so she's probably right there with Hope in Concussion county.  And now she's doing wide area sweeps with her autofire.  How very safe.




Lol. It helps that Star has a far greater constitution than Hope. Although, she doesn't do too badly....


----------



## Shayuri

Questions!

How close together are the heroes right now? If Thess burns some Extra Effort to increase the area of her warded circle, could she encapsulate them?

Does Thess have a line of fire to zap all/most of the riflemen with Emotion Control (which is a burst area, I believe)?

If the base defenses against teleports are still working, would Extra Effort to create a Penetrating version of her spell defeat the defense? The Penetrating advantage seems fairly limited in its scope for a +1 mod...thought maybe this sort of thing might balance it out.

Just considering options at this point. Thanks!


----------



## Victim

Most of the shooters couldn't see Viridian since she's in the hallway some.  Plus they have a good position with some cover and maybe concealment.  And the facility just switched to back up power, so the lighting is probably terrible.  I'm not sure that a perception attack would be very effective under those conditions, which is really unfortunate since it'd wonders.  Plus it'd be rather interesting if any allies were also caught in the spell.  

Since it seems to be mostly humans shooting, Illusion might be effective.

What's Viridian's status with HP, fatigue, and injuries?  She'd have to spend an HP to avoid the stun of course.  But extra effort probably opens up some options.  A version of the emotion control moved to battle magic would probably not be a full action so Viridian could move into position to see more guys and maybe through in some secondary effects to better affect the targets.  Sense Dependent Hearing combined with an Area might work pretty well - a sort of combo of elements from her mind control and emotion control.

I was thinking Shooting Star could either try to run away, or curl into a ball on the ground.    Her total injuries are only 1 shy of her toughness; it's sort of surprising she wasn't stunned again by the 2 hits she couldn't/didn't reroll.  She's not really strong enough to carry someone even when not exhausted, unfortunately.  I suppose repeating her last action is also an option, but I'd rather not.


----------



## kirinke

Star still can fly, right? 
Wren can use his create object ability to create a box or flat surface for Nitro, Viridian and Optic. Viridian can use her TK ability to lift all of them out on the thing, like aladdin's magic carpet. And if Wren can move the contraption, all the better. 

Cheezy, but it's worth a go.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> Star still can fly, right?
> Wren can use his create object ability to create a box or flat surface for Nitro, Viridian and Optic. Viridian can use her TK ability to lift all of them out on the thing, like aladdin's magic carpet. And if Wren can move the contraption, all the better.
> 
> Cheezy, but it's worth a go.



Not really cheesy, as Wren has Tether ability on that Create Objects...  It would move with his normal speed (flight) so that wouldn't be a problem.  He also has the Movable extra, to be able to move it with TK as well.  With TK8, that's Strength of 40 for moving everyone on an invisible protection 'sled' with cover from anything trying to shoot them...

Although, I am waiting to see when Wren actually gets into the complex, as he's still a few rounds ahead of you guys.  And it would appear that you need IMMEDIATE withdrawal...  We'll see what DM_MATT says on this,


----------



## kirinke

Heh. I'm still kinda new with the M&M rules.  

In any case. Nightweaver can still try to 'port them out with her shadow walk ability.


----------



## Victim

I'm not sure Nightweaver port out everyone though.  Even if she EEs to get another Progression feat, that's a 500 pound load for passengers.  Nitro and Optic aren't small men; so that doesn't leave much room for Viridian and Star - who should probably fly off under her own power.


----------



## Raylis

Victim said:
			
		

> I'm not sure Nightweaver port out everyone though.  Even if she EEs to get another Progression feat, that's a 500 pound load for passengers.  Nitro and Optic aren't small men; so that doesn't leave much room for Viridian and Star - who should probably fly off under her own power.




That's true, but for the mass shadow-walk I had something else in mind, should it come to that.


----------



## Victim

Raylis said:
			
		

> That's true, but for the mass shadow-walk I had something else in mind, should it come to that.




Oh?


----------



## Elric

Simply power stunting a different Teleport power with more ranks in Progression to increase weight would work fine, as long as it still had sufficient range to get us out of the blast radius.  But the shield against teleportation might still be working in both directions, in which case that wouldn't go so well.


----------



## Raylis

Elric said:
			
		

> Simply power stunting a different Teleport power with more ranks in Progression to increase weight would work fine, as long as it still had sufficient range to get us out of the blast radius.  But the shield against teleportation might still be working in both directions, in which case that wouldn't go so well.




or the shield may expand if she's dead set on taking us with the facility.



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Oh?




Power Stunting Dimensional Movement (one dimenson: _Shattenwelt_) with enough progression to get everyone out was what I had in mind. the shield that is/was blocking teleporting may not block dimensional movement.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Not really cheesy, as Wren has Tether ability on that Create Objects...  It would move with his normal speed (flight) so that wouldn't be a problem.  He also has the Movable extra, to be able to move it with TK as well.  With TK8, that's Strength of 40 for moving everyone on an invisible protection 'sled' with cover from anything trying to shoot them...
> 
> Although, I am waiting to see when Wren actually gets into the complex, as he's still a few rounds ahead of you guys.  And it would appear that you need IMMEDIATE withdrawal...  We'll see what DM_MATT says on this,




He will arrive this round with the rest of the group with his move action, and get to do a standard action once here.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> or the shield may expand if she's dead set on taking us with the facility.
> 
> 
> 
> Power Stunting Dimensional Movement (one dimenson: _Shattenwelt_) with enough progression to get everyone out was what I had in mind. the shield that is/was blocking teleporting may not block dimensional movement.




Shattenwelt is not exactly the safest place for a severely wounded group to retreat to...a good plot hook though.  Also, Does she have the HPs to do it and to get you home.  She's exhausted as it is.


----------



## Victim

> Shattenwelt, der: The “Shadow World,” an extradimensional source of pure darkness and a source of power for der Nacht Krieger and other shadow-wielders. So far as is known, the Shattenwelt is an infinite expanse of dark nothingness with a *predatory, life-draining nature*, accessible solely by mystical means.




Sounds like fun.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Elric said:
			
		

> (If you're going to use Extra Effort, you can do better than that.  If you're using Extra Effort, you could just as easily use Extra Effort to gain a power feat of Alternate Power: a really high rank Flight off of your main Blast power.  Now Flight 17 might not be appropriate, but something like using your Cosmic Power to enhance your Flight speed for Flight 6 will get you x10 speed for your use of Extra Effort, rather than x2 Speed.  In addition, you can keep using the enhanced Flight speed from Extra Effort until you switch to a different power in your Blast array, so it could help you for more than one round).



I was under the impression that when you used EE, on the next round, it didn't work anymore.  If I was able to EE the use of flight 6, as an alternate power of Blast, and have it CONTINUE to be used in subsequent rounds, then I am all for it!!!

Although, question is, would the effective use of an alternate power be best served using a cosmic spacial control INTO the compound and then try to get everyone else out?  Just wondering if an Alternate Power would best be used to provide some sort of cosmic bending to get him there in time and get you all out...

But then again, it's all an invalid point if I am a few rounds ahead of you all...


----------



## Victim

> He will arrive this round with the rest of the group with his move action, and get to do a standard action once here.




No need for extra effort on the movement end, apparently.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Ok, if I get there with a move action, and have one standard action left, I might be able to get you all out with that one action....


----------



## Shayuri

Hmm. At what point in the initiative do I come up compared to you two?

I need to know if we get rescued before I can come out of stun, or if I need to go before you guys.


----------



## Victim

Viridian and Nightweaver both go at pretty much the same time.  I dunno when Wren goes.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

If Wren can get to the others with a move action, and has one standard action left, he will use Extra Effort to gain Alternate Power of Cosmic Spatial Control.  It will allow him the use of 38pp to use on Spatial Control, with the Power Feats of Progression x3 (3pp), to be able to get everyone out in one go and back to the getaway plane.  Standard action to activate it, which can easily get everyone out of this blast radius, hopefully...

Of course, he doesn't KNOW that spatial control (form of teleporting) is being blocked...


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I was under the impression that when you used EE, on the next round, it didn't work anymore.  If I was able to EE the use of flight 6, as an alternate power of Blast, and have it CONTINUE to be used in subsequent rounds, then I am all for it!!!




See pg 120, "Power Stunt"

"The temporary power feat lasts for the duration of the encounter or until you choose to stop maintaining it, whichever comes first.  This includes turning off the power or switching to a different Alternate Power"  So if you gain an instant-duration power with a power stunt it's only one-use (see here) and if you gain a longer duration power stunt it lasts until you stop maintaining it or switch to a different power in an array.  

This is sort of a crummy deal for instant-duration power stunts vis-a-vis longer duration power stunts- ruling that you can keep an instant duration power stunt for the duration of the encounter or until you switch to a different alternate power is probably a fairly common house rule.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Elric said:
			
		

> See pg 120, "Power Stunt"
> 
> "The temporary power feat lasts for the duration of the encounter or until you choose to stop maintaining it, whichever comes first.  This includes turning off the power or switching to a different Alternate Power"  So if you gain an instant-duration power with a power stunt it's only one-use (see here) and if you gain a longer duration power stunt it lasts until you stop maintaining it or switch to a different power in an array.
> 
> This is sort of a crummy deal for instant-duration power stunts vis-a-vis longer duration power stunts- ruling that you can keep an instant duration power stunt for the duration of the encounter or until you switch to a different alternate power is probably a fairly common house rule.



Thanks, I knew it made more sense the way you explained it.  As you can tell, I am learning.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> If Wren can get to the others with a move action, and has one standard action left, he will use Extra Effort to gain Alternate Power of Cosmic Spatial Control.  It will allow him the use of 38pp to use on Spatial Control, with the Power Feats of Progression x3 (3pp), to be able to get everyone out in one go and back to the getaway plane.  Standard action to activate it, which can easily get everyone out of this blast radius, hopefully...
> 
> Of course, he doesn't KNOW that spatial control (form of teleporting) is being blocked...




(So I dont make you all repost stuff later, the plane is within the ward, which just blocks actually leaving the base)


----------



## Victim

You know, while evacing to the plane certainly seems safer and better on the IC level, X-D movement to the shadow world seems like a more interesting development.  Plus Nightweaver seems to be having some hard times.


----------



## Raylis

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Shattenwelt is not exactly the safest place for a severely wounded group to retreat to...a good plot hook though.  Also, Does she have the HPs to do it and to get you home.  She's exhausted as it is.




I don't believe that I've used my hero point during this combat, (I'll skim through to make sure once I'm back home from work) so HP to make exhausted to-> fatigued. Power stunt dimension move to the Shattenwelt ->exhausted and if need be move back to the trust base and promptly pass out. 

It may not be the safest place, but it's the only place that makes sense with her power set.


----------



## Shayuri

It's worth pointing out that Nightweaver isn't obligated to do this...even if it does make sense for her powerset. We know help's on the way, since we got the comm from our newcomer.

You might wanna save the D-jump for if the rescue teleport doesn't work.


----------



## kirinke

I suggest saving it to, at least until we know what's going to happen. 

Hmmm. If they do have to go via Nightweaver's Shadow Jump, Hope is a postcog y'know. I always thought that in addition to being able to 'see the past' as it were, that meant being able to communicate with ghosts and spirits too. She'd probably attract the bloody things.


----------



## DM_Matt

So...decision?


----------



## kirinke

Let's try the Aladin's magic errr cosmic carpet ride first, if that fails, we can always fall back to plan B: 
Nightweaver's ability to move them all into the Shadow Zone.

Oh and if Hope recovers enough, she'll use one of the hero points she gained during the fight (1 for figuring out the hiding place of the central compy and the other from being knocked out by being flung into a vat of molten metal) to break the ward keeping the group from teleporting out. Once she does that, she'll probably be in a coma for a day (she'll use the other to keep from being in a coma for a week) due to overextension of her magical abilities. It should be rather spectacular if it's possible.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

My last in game post stands.  Wren will try to bend the cosmic substance of time itself, to grant him and his allies an escape via spatial control (teleport) with the appropriate mods needed (area cloud, selective, progression for mass and distance).  It should be enough to get them all to the escape plane.  Wren will be fatigued of course, and as for that, he would have 3HP left.  

With Leadership, and ability to use HP to improve an allies condition, how many HP can be used per round?  Would he have been able to expend another HP on the round to grant the unconscious hero to be awakened?  It never really states how many different HP can be used on a single round, only that they can not be stacked to improve one instance of the Extra Effort and such.


----------



## Victim

Using Leadership is a standard action, so it can be used 1/round.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> Using Leadership is a standard action, so it can be used 1/round.



so, with having only a standard action left after a move action, I could essentially use Leadership as that standard action, then use Extra Effort for another effect that same round?  I am not going to do that, as I don't want to change his actions.  I simply want to be better prepared for next time.


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> With Leadership, and ability to use HP to improve an allies condition, how many HP can be used per round?  Would he have been able to expend another HP on the round to grant the unconscious hero to be awakened?  It never really states how many different HP can be used on a single round, only that they can not be stacked to improve one instance of the Extra Effort and such.




Leadership being a standard action isn't the most relevant factor.

Basically, you can spend as many hero points as you want in a round but you can only spend 1 hero point on each function of hero points.

So you can only use "Improved Roll" once a round (that's a personal round, from your init count on one round to the next, btw).  You can only use "Dodge" once a round.  And so on.

And if you've taken a feat (or power) that lets hero points have some additional effect that they don't normally have (e.g., Nitro's Ultimate Toughness Save feat), you're limited to spending 1 HP a round on that function as well.  But if you've taken Leadership and Ultimate Toughness, you could use both in a round, and Improved Roll, and Dodge, and so on (if you had a _lot _ of HP).

Additionally, as a separate rule, you can only use Extra Effort once in a round, period.


----------



## kirinke

If Wren can get to them in time and heal Hope enough so that she can act, she will use a Hero Point to break the wards that keep them from teleporting, probably in a rather spectacular way. Either that, or use a hero point to stop the reactor meltdown. 

Think of her ability to control/create ice, basically she's slowing down the atoms in the atmosphere, taking away heat etc. She's essentially super-freezing the reactor so that it becomes innert at the atomic level. Hence the Hero point usage. If she has to, she'll use both hero points she earned to do this.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> If Wren can get to them in time and heal Hope enough so that she can act, she will use a Hero Point to break the wards that keep them from teleporting, probably in a rather spectacular way. Either that, or use a hero point to stop the reactor meltdown.
> 
> Think of her ability to control/create ice, basically she's slowing down the atoms in the atmosphere, taking away heat etc. She's essentially super-freezing the reactor so that it becomes innert at the atomic level. Hence the Hero point usage. If she has to, she'll use both hero points she earned to do this.



If allowed to use Hero Point to get you back to stable, then I would do it.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> If Wren can get to them in time and heal Hope enough so that she can act, she will use a Hero Point to break the wards that keep them from teleporting, probably in a rather spectacular way. Either that, or use a hero point to stop the reactor meltdown.
> 
> Think of her ability to control/create ice, basically she's slowing down the atoms in the atmosphere, taking away heat etc. She's essentially super-freezing the reactor so that it becomes innert at the atomic level. Hence the Hero point usage. If she has to, she'll use both hero points she earned to do this.




She'd need to use the HP to get an immediate recovery check.  Besides, even if she could stunt that ability, shed need to go there, get through the locked door, make a check, and meanwhile the super who set the thing to melt down is right there and might get mad.


----------



## kirinke

Alright then, if Wren can stabalize her (she'll use one of her hero points to help with that), then she'll use her other hero point to break the wards blocking their ability to teleport in that spectacular manner I suggested earlier and afterwards promptly pass out again. That'll let either Wren or Viridian Teleport them out to safety.   

Teamwork.... It's all about teamwork.


----------



## Victim

If Wren's teleport to the plane works (since wards don't block teleporting within the ward, only through it), then we don't really need to do much.  Get to the plane.  The plane flies away.  We escape.

Of course, we might want to do something about the other super that's screwing with the reactor.  Depending on how long we have until the reactor goes into meltdown, we may get the chance - even if we withdraw to the jet for healing.  We could go for the capture (tough against someone with phasing), or try to set up Viridian taking off some of her hair.  Then we could track her back to her base and such.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> If Wren's teleport to the plane works (since wards don't block teleporting within the ward, only through it), then we don't really need to do much.  Get to the plane.  The plane flies away.  We escape.
> 
> Of course, we might want to do something about the other super that's screwing with the reactor.  Depending on how long we have until the reactor goes into meltdown, we may get the chance - even if we withdraw to the jet for healing.  We could go for the capture (tough against someone with phasing), or try to set up Viridian taking off some of her hair.  Then we could track her back to her base and such.




If Wren wants to use Leadership to downgrade Nightweaver's Exhaustion to fatigue, he can, if you want to get back the person best equipped to do that, since that other super is sitting in a shadowy room lit largely by the flaming robot and very dim lights.


----------



## kirinke

Remember, Hope also picked up bits of spider webbing and other stuff from the conference room, including bits and peices belonging to their erstwhile host. Once she recovers and is back at the base, they can do a reading off it.... Maybe


----------



## Shayuri

Since the immediate battle is over or close to over, I want to make a couple of suggestion/requests before we dive once more into the maw of battle.

First, and I fully recognize I'm as guilty of this as anyone, I'd like to suggest we cut down on the OOC chatter in the IC forum. I apologize for the part I've played in such posts in the past, but it -reeeeally- makes trying to follow the flow of combat a chore to have to go back page after page and pick out the posts where actions are being described from the sea of questions, comments, clarifications and so on that really belong in this thread, not the IC. 

Second, it would be a nice touch to have a more round by round approach than the current somewhat freewheeling style. It was really hard for me to follow the order of events this last battle, which in turn made it hard to work with the other characters. I noted this wasn't just me either. Many posts had PC's trying to do the same thing, and winding up undercutting each other...the result was a fair amount of wasted efforts and not as much getting done as could have been. Maybe having a standard format that lists the initiative order and the current position in the initative order each time you update, GM? Something like:

Init 20 - Evil Troll God
Init 17 - Gunther the Panther Lord
Init 14 - Kurt Smashsteel - Hero at Large
---
Now on init 12 - Indigo, the Sidekick
Init 6 - The Legion of Nameless Minions

This would mean that the first three listed characters had been updated in a previous post, while the current post was updating Indigo, and possibly the Minions too.

Specifics could vary, of course...but some kind of system would make keeping things clear during the long and complex battles of M&M a lot easier.

I think having these two things implemented would also help cut down on the confusing redacted or retconned action posts, where someone tries to do something which then turns out not to be possible or valid, and then has to post another action. I did this myself with that attempt to use an illusion. Ideally, the way I'd do it next time is submit my intended action (because I had a question in my mind about it or how it'd work) in the OOC forum...we'd work it out there, then I'd post my final action in the IC forum. Result: An easy to follow chain of action and effects.

Thoughts?


----------



## Victim

I wouldn't mind seeing the round resolved in smaller chunks so that people can take the results of actions above theirs into account.  It does mean that people have to be quicker to post though.  If we take let's say 3 days to resolve a full combat turn, then it doesn't really matter when people post.  On the other hand, if we resolve the round in 3 chunks, then people at the top of the initiative order have to be the ones to reply first.  It also requires more of a continuously active presence from the GM.

Stuff from Foundry people, while useful, would probably not be as informative as stuff from our mystery woman who's set on nuking the Foundry.  If she's working with Barrington to cover his tracks, then tracing her would be far more valuable for the current plot line.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Since the immediate battle is over or close to over, I want to make a couple of suggestion/requests before we dive once more into the maw of battle.
> 
> First, and I fully recognize I'm as guilty of this as anyone, I'd like to suggest we cut down on the OOC chatter in the IC forum. I apologize for the part I've played in such posts in the past, but it -reeeeally- makes trying to follow the flow of combat a chore to have to go back page after page and pick out the posts where actions are being described from the sea of questions, comments, clarifications and so on that really belong in this thread, not the IC.
> 
> Second, it would be a nice touch to have a more round by round approach than the current somewhat freewheeling style. It was really hard for me to follow the order of events this last battle, which in turn made it hard to work with the other characters. I noted this wasn't just me either. Many posts had PC's trying to do the same thing, and winding up undercutting each other...the result was a fair amount of wasted efforts and not as much getting done as could have been. Maybe having a standard format that lists the initiative order and the current position in the initative order each time you update, GM? Something like:
> 
> Init 20 - Evil Troll God
> Init 17 - Gunther the Panther Lord
> Init 14 - Kurt Smashsteel - Hero at Large
> ---
> Now on init 12 - Indigo, the Sidekick
> Init 6 - The Legion of Nameless Minions
> 
> This would mean that the first three listed characters had been updated in a previous post, while the current post was updating Indigo, and possibly the Minions too.
> 
> Specifics could vary, of course...but some kind of system would make keeping things clear during the long and complex battles of M&M a lot easier.
> 
> I think having these two things implemented would also help cut down on the confusing redacted or retconned action posts, where someone tries to do something which then turns out not to be possible or valid, and then has to post another action. I did this myself with that attempt to use an illusion. Ideally, the way I'd do it next time is submit my intended action (because I had a question in my mind about it or how it'd work) in the OOC forum...we'd work it out there, then I'd post my final action in the IC forum. Result: An easy to follow chain of action and effects.
> 
> Thoughts?




I agree to this, other than submitting actions in OOC.  However, one reason I haven't been as fancy with the writups (Including ststing init, which I used to, though not in that format), is that RL is VERY hectic right now, but it will clear up relatively soon


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I wouldn't mind seeing the round resolved in smaller chunks so that people can take the results of actions above theirs into account.  It does mean that people have to be quicker to post though.  If we take let's say 3 days to resolve a full combat turn, then it doesn't really matter when people post.  On the other hand, if we resolve the round in 3 chunks, then people at the top of the initiative order have to be the ones to reply first.  It also requires more of a continuously active presence from the GM.
> 
> Stuff from Foundry people, while useful, would probably not be as informative as stuff from our mystery woman who's set on nuking the Foundry.  If she's working with Barrington to cover his tracks, then tracing her would be far more valuable for the current plot line.




Breaking up the round will probably be too hard, requiring too much scheduling of posts and overly frequent writeups.  Do other pbps do that?


----------



## Shayuri

Well, one thing some pbps do that seems to work well is pretty much what you do; wait for the posts to come in, then you assemble them into init order and resolve them.

Some games..usually ones with fewer players...wait for all the posts to come in before resolving. Others will resolve them in little groups as they come in.

Like, if Badguy 1, Shooting Star and Hope are all first in init, then they could all be resolved once the two PC's posted their intents even if other people hadn't posted yet.

That's probably a pretty minor consideration though, considering how much we tend to talk and compare strategies.

As for the submitting of actions, I didn't mean to imply that it should be done all the time or even often. Just that it could be done if the player in question had questions about how the action might, or might not work. Which we pretty much already do...so...there we go.


----------



## Victim

I've seen it done rarely.  It caused some of the problems I mentioned above, even with it generally moving really fast and splitting up the PCs (making fights smaller).  So no problem if we don't do it.

I think I've heard of games where initiative mechanics are dropped; people go in the order in which they post.  Using that would make Shayuri's suggestion easier, but would require some mechanical changes (like refunds on some feats and 1/4th pp per point of Dex).  And it might reward some of the wrong behaviors.

Mostly, however, that's the way FtF games work.  While there obviously have to be differences because the format is different, that doesn't make operating with a relative lack of information any easier (but smart interpretations of our actions is helping some).  

Not knowing what will have happened by the time my character's action goes off is kind of frustrating.  Posting several IF statements to respond to changing circumstance isn't much better, either.  It makes it too hard to set up a full IC description to go with the action and/or have all the little mechanical details ironed out.

But I can understand if RL has been hectic lately, especially with the holiday season.  I think you've been replying fast enough.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> If Wren wants to use Leadership to downgrade Nightweaver's Exhaustion to fatigue, he can, if you want to get back the person best equipped to do that, since that other super is sitting in a shadowy room lit largely by the flaming robot and very dim lights.




Ok, wouldn't HEAL 10 grant Nightweaver an immediate Heal check at +10 bonus to negate her Exhaustion to downgrade to Fatigue?  If so, that would be his standard action.  That would leave me with three Hero Points, and the chance to use Extra Effort to grant another Standard Action to use Leadership on Nightweaver to reduce her condition to normal, or HEAL to get Hope to wake back up with a +10 on her Recover Check.

From the book:  Leadership cannot remove damage (although it may alleviate some of its
effects) nor can it remove other conditions, including exhausted, disabled,
or unconscious.

So, would I have to use HEAL first to negate the Exhaustion, then Extra Effort for another action to use Leadership to remove the Fatigue?  I would think it would be possible, and


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> So, would I have to use HEAL first to negate the Exhaustion, then Extra Effort for another action to use Leadership to remove the Fatigue?  I would think it would be possible, and




No sort of ability, Healing/Regen power, or anything else can heal fatigue conditions without some significant cost (e.g., hero point for leadership, taking fatigue on yourself for Energizing Healing).  This is presumably because Extra Effort is such a powerful ability in the game system that a method of curing fatigue at any reasonable cost would be too powerful.


----------



## Victim

Nightweaver could spend her own HP to reduce Exhaustion, and then Wren's leadership could negate the remaining fatigue to leave her at full strength.  

Things that cancel fatigue always cost HP, because of Extra Effort (like Elric mentioned).  Even if you buy Immunity to Fatigue, it still doesn't help against the drain from EE.


----------



## Victim

I think the Trust guys are pinning the Foundry people down, not the other way around.  But it's understandable why she'd be confused.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> I think the Trust guys are pinning the Foundry people down, not the other way around.  But it's understandable why she'd be confused.



Yes, do doubt the Trust guys are keeping them pinned, but then again, they don't know that there is a bomb about to go off...


----------



## Victim

It might not necessarily go off like a bomb.  Scylla said that meltdown is immient, not that it'd go boom.  It might be more like Chernobyl.  I don't even think nuclear reactors can explode -they're not like bombs waiting to go off.  Of course, that's before someone with some kind of atomic manipulation power screws with them.

And it's not like cars are really explosion prone either, but that doesn't stop movies, comics, and games.  Everything explodes if there's enough SFX budget for it.  And the effects are very cheap and easy in the text format.


----------



## kirinke

Yeh, head injuries can do that, especially serious head injuries like the ones Hope suffered, not to mention the aftereffects of that narsty banishing spell, the firestorm um....... She definatly outdid herself with the spider demon, not to mention the rest of the spell casting she did. 

Lucky for them, her ability to control the weather is mostly instinctive, even if it's partially magical in origin. If needs be, she'll unleash a hailstorm on the bad-guys heads and give Jacob's men some time to retreat.

On the plus side, Yay! Hope is conscious, just not all that coherent yet.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

At least she's conscious, and I will take note on how Leadership and Heal work hand in hand for next time.  This is a learning curve for me, with these new powers and such.  At least I can now effectively use a few good combos to help out you guys and gals.  I'll have to work on my teamwork, lol.


----------



## kirinke

No worries, I think we all need to work on our team work. But then, since this is their first real group mission, they haven't done too badly so far. Next time, they'll do better.  

Although I think I got the really loopy from too much spellcasting, nearly dying and having multiple head injuries, burns and gunshot wounds down pretty good.


----------



## Victim

Someone say something, lest the infighting resume.


----------



## kirinke

Although it is fun watching Hope and Star bicker. They're probably gonna be good friends once this is over, although in the meantime, it's a right nice bitch fest.


----------



## Victim

Yeah, it's fun. 

 However, I'm not really seeing them become friends soon.  While neither character is at their most coherent at the moment, I'm not really seeing her buy Hope's arguments (some of which are probably having the opposite effect).  The differences between them seem too wide for one semi-successful mission to bridge.


----------



## kirinke

True, it'll probably take a few more missions for them to start trusting one another. But that's something Hope is used to, it's not like she hasn't had the same sort of reaction from other supers in the past.


----------



## DM_Matt

Internet down. Posted this on my blackberry.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Internet down. Posted this on my blackberry.




Sorry about that.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Internet down. Posted this on my blackberry.




Sorry about that, hope your net access gets back up!


----------



## Jemal

speaking of crappy net access, hi again.  I'm gonna be at work until the 21st apparently, I'm trying to catch up IC right now and I'll post if/when I can.  I really like this game and I wish i could be half as active as I had originally intended.


----------



## kirinke

That time of year. Ghhh. Hope everything works out though, this is a fun game! 

Ooo.
If it's okay, Hope's um... incoherency about 'the gray' is really the spirit world, closely linked to the astral plane and the shattenwelt, so when she's muttering about it, both Nightweaver and Viridian could probably make a guess that due to her injuries and the banishing spell she previously cast, she's probably a lil bit more susceptible to the influences of it, especially considering that she is a postcog.


----------



## Victim

> ooc
> Oh where o where can our DM be now... Oh where o where can he beee??????




Busy with the holidays and having net access problems?

Cut him some slack.


----------



## kirinke

I know, I know!  Mostly just playing, but also making sure that he's still wanting to run the game too.


----------



## Raylis

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (OOC: Calling Raylis. The other PCs proposed a plan involving Nightweaver. Are you going to use an HP to move exhausted-->fatigued and Wren will use one through leadership to get you fatigued-->normal, and try to cut off a little bit of the mystery supers' hair (she can take a scissors from one of the medkits on the plane, or use the knife that came in her standard Trust EQ)




been without internet, probably will vanish a bit for again until we get internet going at my new place...

what is this proposed plan? and what do they want Nightweaver to do?


----------



## DM_Matt

The proposal:



			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Nightweaver could spend her own HP to reduce Exhaustion, and then Wren's leadership could negate the remaining fatigue to leave her at full strength.







			
				Victim said:
			
		

> Of course, we might want to do something about the other super that's screwing with the reactor.  Depending on how long we have until the reactor goes into meltdown, we may get the chance - even if we withdraw to the jet for healing.  We could go for the capture (tough against someone with phasing), or try to set up Viridian taking off some of her hair.  Then we could track her back to her base and such.


----------



## Raylis

Thanks
that sounds well and good for the hp/heal or leadership. 

One variation on the plan however. Nightweaver could shadow walk Star in and Star could use her plasma balls to cut off some of the femme fatale's hair from a far. If she's packing miniature suns in the palm of her hand we don't want to be up close and personal.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> Thanks
> that sounds well and good for the hp/heal or leadership.
> 
> One variation on the plan however. Nightweaver could shadow walk Star in and Star could use her plasma balls to cut off some of the femme fatale's hair from a far. If she's packing miniature suns in the palm of her hand we don't want to be up close and personal.




With those hp expendatures, Nightweaver will be uninjured,while Star is very badly hurt.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I don't think Star would help much, with being that badly injured.  If there was more time, yeah, but I doubt it.  Wren posted his actions, hope I got them straight.  I wasn't sure on what the guys on the ground are doing, and if they are in need of some help.  I figured getting Reyes back to the plane would help out the others, while I try to evacuate the rest of the military personnel.  Unfortunately, I am meeting resistance... for now...  

I will remove the HP from my total, and after next rounds use of my HP to negate Fatigue, I will be at 1 left, which is understandable.  If I manage to die somehow, be sure to bring my hand with the ring attached to it back to the Trust, lol.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> With those hp expendatures, Nightweaver will be uninjured,while Star is very badly hurt.




There's that. 

Also, Nightweaver's concealment ability would be pretty useful in that room since the lighting is bad.  Carrying someone with you is just going to be a give-away.


----------



## Raylis

if it's mentioned in IC then she'd have no problem doing it, I don't think it has unless I missed it somewhere


----------



## Victim

You can shameless steal ideas from our OOC comments.    At this point, I'm not sure that plans mentioned IC will be very good anyway.  Shooting Star is not in favor of plans that don't involve running away ASAP.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> You can shameless steal ideas from our OOC comments.    At this point, I'm not sure that plans mentioned IC will be very good anyway.  Shooting Star is not in favor of plans that don't involve running away ASAP.




I think Hope will be in agreement with Star on that one. And when those two agree, it's probly serious.   

Are we going to get more PP this time around? I was thinking of investing in some Regeneration ranks.


----------



## Victim

Couldn't a character block attacks on others simply by providing cover or using readied actions?  I wouldn't think that they would diminish the value of Interpose, really. Providing cover would not be especially reliable, since foes might still their intended target (especially with Indirect or Precise Shot 2) or could manuever around it in some instances.  And the disadvantages of using Ready should be fairly obvious compared to default Interpose.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Couldn't a character block attacks on others simply by providing cover or using readied actions?  I wouldn't think that they would diminish the value of Interpose, really. Providing cover would not be especially reliable, since foes might still their intended target (especially with Indirect or Precise Shot 2) or could manuever around it in some instances.  And the disadvantages of using Ready should be fairly obvious compared to default Interpose.




Yes, I guess that does work.  He still should take interpose though.


----------



## kirinke

I hope everyone had a holly jolly holliday with lots of prezzies, turkey (or roast who meat) and pie.  I gots clothes, some nice jewelry and a soldering tool for jewelry and craft making.


----------



## Raylis

just a heads up that I will be mostly unavailable until January 2nd or so. We just moved into a new place and internet won't be setup until next year.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> just a heads up that I will be mostly unavailable until January 2nd or so. We just moved into a new place and internet won't be setup until next year.




can you wrap up your side-mission in one more post?


----------



## Raylis

yes


----------



## DM_Matt

INTO the plane?  Note that the group wont be healed yet.


----------



## Raylis

underneath it/ in the shadow of it. I'm gambling on the fact that she won't attack us on sight. enemy of my enemy and all that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> underneath it/ in the shadow of it. I'm gambling on the fact that she won't attack us on sight. enemy of my enemy and all that.




K, that works.


----------



## DM_Matt

(Inserted clarification that she's not getting on the plane)


----------



## kirinke

Raylis said:
			
		

> just a heads up that I will be mostly unavailable until January 2nd or so. We just moved into a new place and internet won't be setup until next year.




Well, that's only a week or two away. Hope you have a happy move in!


----------



## Jemal

I probly shouldn't be telling people what to do, as 
A) I'm not the DM, and
B) I'm probably the most infrequent poster lately, however...
could we try to keep the OC posts out of the IC thread?  I feel it detracts from reading the game.
I'm not talking about ooc comments attached to actual posts, rather I meant the posts that have no In game content.  'swhat this thread is for. 

*EDIT: And upon further review, I again look like a dick.  Just realized that was a response to an earlier post in that thread.


----------



## kirinke

Scrooge....    No monologues for you in game!
Oh Alright, I'll be good.


----------



## Victim

How is Reyes healing?  Gadget?

What are his and Wren's healing powers like?

And of far less immediate import, Hope's lightning has indirect for calling down lightning, but has she ever used it in direct fire mode?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> What are his and Wren's healing powers like?



Heal 10
Effect: Alteration
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Action [+1] (Standard Action)
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Stabilize


----------



## Victim

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Heal 10
> Effect: Alteration
> Range: Touch
> Action: Standard
> Duration: Instant
> Extras: Action [+1] (Standard Action)
> Flaws: None
> Power Feats: Persistent, Regrowth, Stabilize




I meant in terms of descriptor and effect than the mechanics.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I meant in terms of descriptor and effect than the mechanics.





Its cosmic, so probably just a glow that causes wounds to heal.

Reyes btw uses a high med skill check and a glowy gadget that increases the regeneration of living tissue its being used directly above.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> How is Reyes healing?  Gadget?
> 
> What are his and Wren's healing powers like?
> 
> And of far less immediate import, Hope's lightning has indirect for calling down lightning, but has she ever used it in direct fire mode?




For the most part, Hope uses whatever attack is the best one in the situation and generally goes for the more powerful 'bang' when dealing with super criminals. Her first instinct is to protect the innocent bystanders, then her team-mates and the bad-guys take the short straw. Hope herself takes the shortest straw of all in her book.   

I don't think she's used the one that calls for the less powerful attacks yet.  (I could be wrong)  

I've been thinking about either going in for a couple of ranks of regeneration or investing in a new Alt power, the solid air one. That might be as useful as the conjure Ice, especially since Solid air can do things that Ice can't. (Like survive napalm.  ) That is once we get some more PP. By the way, don't we get some more for this lil tet-a-tet? 

We got the Grey gunner, we banished the spider demon guy, we wrecked a foundry outpost and we also got the information we were supposed to get in the first place (Not to mention what sort of goodies Hope can glean from the stuff she's picked up during the first tussle with the gray gunner and the spider dude.)


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Its cosmic, so probably just a glow that causes wounds to heal.
> 
> Reyes btw uses a high med skill check and a glowy gadget that increases the regeneration of living tissue its being used directly above.




Yes, its simply a glow, white in color, and warm to the touch.  There is also a tingling feeling, as the energy is dispersed throughout the recipients body.  No pain though.


----------



## Raylis

Night has a +10 Slight of Hand to slip something off the super while she's close. The data thingy would be ideal but I doubt she'll be able to get that.


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> Night has a +10 Slight of Hand to slip something off the super while she's close. The data thingy would be ideal but I doubt she'll be able to get that.




She can nab the hair using the reintegration as a distraction.  The box is really big, so she can't.  Its something like this thing:  http://www.sancube.com/ .


----------



## Raylis

wow that's shiny


----------



## kirinke

I was thinking that Hope's descriptor on her kind of healing would be weather related, sweet smelling wind, pure rain water seeping from her hands, that sort of thing.


----------



## Victim

Actually, with the mention of the two part absorbing skin, I was thinking of the Core and the unobtainium armor their mole machine used.


----------



## kirinke

I was thinking.... Maybe Hope and Viridian can come up with some sort of amulet that can help take the place of the meds Shooting Star takes to control her powers. That might be better for her than whatever she is currently taking, though she should probably still keep a backup supply just in case... Y'know?


----------



## Shayuri

I'm sure they could work it out if Star wanted to change the mitigating factor on her power.

Not sure if it would change point value, since in theory an might be considered less limiting than meds...though in game terms, not by much.


----------



## kirinke

Well, you'd still have to deal with the prospect of nullify and nullifying type fields and having the amulet taken, but if she does run out of meds, she's in the same boat. I was thinking if it more as a contingency, just in case sort of thing. And a kind of peace offering.


----------



## Shayuri

Hee...arr, no mechanical effect then. Just for RP. That'd be interesting.


----------



## Victim

Well, my basic thought was that Star's fundamental problem was that she's not immune to her own powers at the point of emission.  Her drugs don't really address that at all; they just keep her from inadvertently using an aura-type power and make her other powers easier to control.  And maybe some other things; she doesn't care about exactly what they're supposed to do and just takes them.  So her meds and the side effect on her big blast aren't related.

At this point, I can't see her being much in favor of a Hope backed plan anyway.  She doesn't even want to talk about her powers in front of her.

Also, I figure there's probably some reason why quick, obvious solutions don't work.  It's not like nothing was ever tried (although a magical solution might not have come up or been rejected).  

Mechanically, a Device instead of a Side Effect (or one that buys off the side effect) would be somewhat expensive.

And I think it would change the nature of the character perhaps too much.


----------



## kirinke

Okies. Twas only an idea.


----------



## Shayuri

Arr, no worries.

If you ever DO decide you want to lessen or buy off the side effect, I'm sure Vi could work up some kind of lasting "protection from plasma" ritual to justify it.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Hope and Viridian both know a bit about Hell.
> 
> Hope has been to the gates of Hell, but has never passed through.  Hell is a prison dimension from which there is rarely any escape, especially for those who do not enter voluntarily.
> 
> Magical travel to and from that dimension  -- beyond the gates, which themselves are dimensional walls -- is essentially impossible due to wards and the fact that its dimensional walls are far more difficult to breach than other alternate universes, although there are certain places in various dimensions where the barrier is thinner.  Beyond the dimensional walls is a powerful force field that keeps the imprisoned in, which is extremely difficult to breach.  This field does not effect visitors, but everyone who belongs there, all the way up to the devil himself, is affected.




ooc
So essentially the 'Gates' are the the wards on the dimensional walls given shape and form by the imagination of whoever views them, they look different to everyone, which I assume that both Hope and Viridian are well aware of. So when Hope impaled the Black Viper to them, she was essentially frying his mortal shell on the mystical energy and sending his spirit through. 

That's why we needed fire to destroy the Spider Guy right? To destroy his physical body so that they could push his spirit through the temporary gate/interface her spell created. Or something like that.


----------



## Victim

What's known about: 


> *Sabir Asad*, who I believe may be tied to *Labrys Industrial Industries * in Zurich, or possibly *Grant Industries * in the United States.




And sorry, that was pretty mean.


----------



## kirinke

Don't worry, Hope can make Star feel like a heel all by herself.   

Though I think they probably need to come to terms with each other soon. They both have baggage that needs to be aired out I think.


----------



## Shayuri

You know that eventually they'll have a big fight that'll end with them falling into each others arms.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Probly. 

Ooo. How many PP do we get from that previous fight? 

We got the main objective.
We got Grey Gunner
We banished the spider demon guy
We trashed a foundry outpost
We got a hair sample from the radiation assassin lady
We lived (with lots of help)

That deserves somethin!


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Lol. Probly.
> 
> Ooo. How many PP do we get from that previous fight?
> 
> We got the main objective.
> We got Grey Gunner
> We banished the spider demon guy
> We trashed a foundry outpost
> We got a hair sample from the radiation assassin lady
> We lived (with lots of help)
> 
> That deserves somethin!




1 more pp for everyone.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> He still should take interpose though.



So, I read up on Interpose, and then on Deflect Power I currently have.  With me taking Ranged Extra, all I would essentially have to do would state that I Deflect attacks for that round.  I would then be able to deflect ANY attacks within 900 feet (power rank x100 feet), with a penalty for distance between myself and the target.  Also, I have it listed with the power feats of triggered x2, which I believe I could essentially set as 'when we are attacked, I will choose to deflect any attacks on [insert name here]'  That is assuming that I am not using any of the other alternate powers between the time I set the trigger and when the trigger takes place.  Is this not how it works?

Interpose would be as a reaction to adjacent ally only.  It would not cost an action, technically, but is limited to adjacent.  

Lastly, question for Alternate Powers / Power Array that I asked a while back, but did not get a real answer.  For alternate powers that are not using up their max alloted power points available, would I be able to build those powers up to their potential over time, is I intended to do as a 'learning basis', or would I have to actually spend power points to increase those powers?

Such as:
Alt Power 2
Strike 11
Effect: Attack (+11)
Range: Touch
Action: Standard
Duration: Instant
Extras: Partial Penetrating [+3]
Flaws: None
Power Feats: Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2, Accuracy, Knockback x5
Total Cost: (23pp)

With this power, it is not using up its max of 38 power points.  Let's say I add another extra, such as indirect.  Would I be able to do this without having to spend power points, since he essentially already has the ability to increase this power to up to 38 points?  I sure hope so.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> So, I read up on Interpose, and then on Deflect Power I currently have.  With me taking Ranged Extra, all I would essentially have to do would state that I Deflect attacks for that round.  I would then be able to deflect ANY attacks within 900 feet (power rank x100 feet), with a penalty for distance between myself and the target.  Also, I have it listed with the power feats of triggered x2, which I believe I could essentially set as 'when we are attacked, I will choose to deflect any attacks on [insert name here]'  That is assuming that I am not using any of the other alternate powers between the time I set the trigger and when the trigger takes place.  Is this not how it works?
> 
> Interpose would be as a reaction to adjacent ally only.  It would not cost an action, technically, but is limited to adjacent.
> 
> Lastly, question for Alternate Powers / Power Array that I asked a while back, but did not get a real answer.  For alternate powers that are not using up their max alloted power points available, would I be able to build those powers up to their potential over time, is I intended to do as a 'learning basis', or would I have to actually spend power points to increase those powers?
> 
> Such as:
> Alt Power 2
> Strike 11
> Effect: Attack (+11)
> Range: Touch
> Action: Standard
> Duration: Instant
> Extras: Partial Penetrating [+3]
> Flaws: None
> Power Feats: Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2, Accuracy, Knockback x5
> Total Cost: (23pp)
> 
> With this power, it is not using up its max of 38 power points.  Let's say I add another extra, such as indirect.  Would I be able to do this without having to spend power points, since he essentially already has the ability to increase this power to up to 38 points?  I sure hope so.





A couple things.  For one, Interpose is really good because it does not cost an action and works automatically.  Your Deflect power is instead of attacking and will not always work.

Secondly, what is this new power of yours you are suggesting? You can spend up to the amount of the other powers in the array, but conceptually what are you trying to do.  Especially with indirect.  Indirect strike can be pretty weird.


----------



## kirinke

I be thinking our comic is going in the direction of investigating Labrys/Grant Industries.....

Ooo, invested in the Solid Air Alternate Power. Figured that would be better than Regeneration. We don't have that many Area-effect defensive/offensive powers in the group.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> A couple things.  For one, Interpose is really good because it does not cost an action and works automatically.  Your Deflect power is instead of attacking and will not always work.



 Yeah, that's what I was seeing.  The advantage would be the no need of an action to work.  NICE!!!



			
				DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Secondly, what is this new power of yours you are suggesting? You can spend up to the amount of the other powers in the array, but conceptually what are you trying to do.  Especially with indirect.  Indirect strike can be pretty weird.




No new power, simply wondering if the array powers that are not using their full potential of power points can do so at any time.  I agree, indirect Strike would simply be a blast, indirect, IMO.  I was just throwing an example out there, albeit a poorly chosen example.

As for the 1pp, not sure where I would use it.  I will have to check on options.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

So, with this being my first battle, somewhat, I can change around some things.  I see me as potentially removing one rank of Luck to take Interpose Feat.  I would also think of saving up the power point until I gain enough to get one more rank in Device.  Then, I could up the Super Strength by one rank, and array power by another rank as well.  Allowable?


----------



## Elric

I'm adding 4 ranks in Sense Motive with my 1 pp.  Nitro actually saw through Gunner's bluff in this encounter and had the suggestion that forced them to start the fight more on our terms- he's not quite as clueless as he seems...

Edit- character thread is here if anyone has lost track of it: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=201682


----------



## Victim

Should we assume that we'll be meeting back up in the morning and sort of work backwards?

Hmm, what to buy?  

I was thinking of saving up for a "faster than the eye" Concealment ability.  Displacement seems like a good flaw since it shouldn't be hard to notice that she's moving around.  I was thinking that it should also be ineffective against super fast characters; Shooting Star certainly wouldn't be able to cause the Flash to lose track of her with her level of speed.  I'm not quite sure exactly how to define that exactly - there are lots of ways to be fast, and I don't know what an appropriate breakpoint would be.

Buying Continuous on 1 rank of Flight might be cool if allowed - sort of an auto-hover mode.  

Luck is always good.  The lack of Improved Initiative is pretty odd too.  Search and Escape Artist seem like useful, in concept skills to start buying up.  Skill Mastery might be useful.  One of those skill challenge feats for Acrobatics might be good too.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Should we assume that we'll be meeting back up in the morning and sort of work backwards?
> 
> Hmm, what to buy?
> 
> I was thinking of saving up for a "faster than the eye" Concealment ability.  Displacement seems like a good flaw since it shouldn't be hard to notice that she's moving around.  I was thinking that it should also be ineffective against super fast characters; Shooting Star certainly wouldn't be able to cause the Flash to lose track of her with her level of speed.  I'm not quite sure exactly how to define that exactly - there are lots of ways to be fast, and I don't know what an appropriate breakpoint would be.
> 
> Buying Continuous on 1 rank of Flight might be cool if allowed - sort of an auto-hover mode.
> 
> Luck is always good.  The lack of Improved Initiative is pretty odd too.  Search and Escape Artist seem like useful, in concept skills to start buying up.  Skill Mastery might be useful.  One of those skill challenge feats for Acrobatics might be good too.




Most of this is OK, except the auto-hover, which is a bit of a dodge on Concentration.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Most of this is OK, except the auto-hover, which is a bit of a dodge on Concentration.




Yeah, I thought that might be the case.


----------



## Victim

Foreshadow said:
			
		

> But I have a question for you. I heard that your new friends were responsible for taking down Numero Uno and Heroin Shiek. I'm hearing that the mob is just eating this up. Big Al Diorgiano and Sali Rigatti have made a deal to take over where the Cholos left off, and they are seeking partners overseas for drug smuggling. Your friends seem to have handed the mob the biggest gift they've received in years, and the mod's response was so quick that it seems they were ready for it. I want to know why your friends chose the targets they did."




Maybe your other girlfriend provided the advance notice, you two timer!


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Good thing Hope is just a postcog.


----------



## Victim

I dunno.  Postcognition might be even more awkward than pre as far as relationships go.  Assuming the rather standard "can activate involuntarily" versions.


----------



## Vanifae

Ooooh alternates, I could be interested in that.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. Never thought of it that way. I was figuring that the postcog ability was one of Hope's first powers, developing when she was around 10 or so. That and the investigation ability as well. So she could have been 'helping' the local cops and the Feds for a long time, especially if she could occasionally have visions powerful enough that others could see as well.

And yeah, her postcog ability is uncontrolled. Alot of the times, she can get something, but like with any psychic sight, it can range from useful to not so useful to 'nothing there'.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Ooooh alternates, I could be interested in that.





You're welcome to submit a character as an alternate.


----------



## Victim

Guys, didn't we already mention that some stuff belongs in the OOC thread?

Shooting Star's attitude is basically that when you stick a (extra dimensional creature) in a nightmarish prison with other 'monsters,' hunt him mercilessly if he escapes, and then leave the his only source of relief to be killing people, then what do you expect?  What the demon is just a result of its experiences, and basically everything about its existence reinforces 'bad' behavior (from the human PoV).

Plus giving someone the empathic feedback of the torturer and not the torturee is screwed up.

Vanifae, what's your idea for the alt?


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Guys, didn't we already mention that some stuff belongs in the OOC thread?
> 
> Shooting Star's attitude is basically that when you stick a (extra dimensional creature) in a nightmarish prison with other 'monsters,' hunt him mercilessly if he escapes, and then leave the his only source of relief to be killing people, then what do you expect?  What the demon is just a result of its experiences, and basically everything about its existence reinforces 'bad' behavior (from the human PoV).
> 
> *Plus giving someone the empathic feedback of the torturer and not the torturee is screwed up.*
> 
> Vanifae, what's your idea for the alt?




Mmmhmmm. Sometimes, Hope 'experiences' visions from items that are from the perpetrators point of view, sometimes it's from the victim's point of view, sometimes it's from both. It's one of the reasons why postcognition and precognition are considered at best a 'mixed blessing' and at worst a curse. What she did was let the group experience what she experiences when she uses her postcog gift. This time though, the vision was mainly focused in on Onigumi, though she did get hints of what his victim went through. That showed up in the description as well.  

Oh, on Hope's Healing ability, could I add a few feats to it? I'm not real clear on the Alternate Power rules....


----------



## Victim

Yeah, I figured the stuff from the victim would be a result of Oni's telepathy in this case. 

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

If Wren is looking for PCs back at base, then Shooting Star is there.


----------



## kirinke

Um, I was looking at Hope's feats and I noticed that they were off by one if I'm calculating it correctly.

Feats:
Ritualist, Attractive, Power Attack....................... 3pp points 
Ranged Focus 3................................................ 3pp points
Attack Specialization: Weather Attack Array 2....... 2pp points
Dodge Focus 9................................................. 9pp points
Benefit: FBI Connections.................................... 1pp points
Master Plan, Eidetic Memory, Well-Informed........... 3pp points
PP SPENT........................................................ 21 points 
and not 22


----------



## Victim

Looks like you can get that reputation benefit right away then.


----------



## kirinke

Hmm. I was thinking of applying that the next time we get a PP. I was looking through everyone else's character sheet and I didn't see any application of the Intimidation skill... I could be wrong. I was thinking of applying that to intimidation. I mean, I think that the reputation benifit should be a gradual thing.   

Eep.
I was wrong... Johnny has a pretty high intimidation score....
I was considering putting that extra PP towards communication with spirits as part of her communication ability. It kinda also goes along with her postcognitive ability and her being tied to the element of air.


----------



## Shayuri

Hey GM.

Um.

Maybe you'd consider letting me, I don't know...post? Before you go blasting my character into walls and stuff? Because hey! Maybe the contents of my post would have made a difference!

Forgive me if my tone seems overly snarky, but my God, man. Do you have ANY idea how annoying it is to have something like that happen before I have a chance to react? This is a freaking PBP, man...not a tabletop or a chat game. 

Not to mention the fact that I needed some TIME to decide what I wanted to do!

Gah!

I'm upset.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hey GM.
> 
> Um.
> 
> Maybe you'd consider letting me, I don't know...post? Before you go blasting my character into walls and stuff? Because hey! Maybe the contents of my post would have made a difference!
> 
> Forgive me if my tone seems overly snarky, but my God, man. Do you have ANY idea how annoying it is to have something like that happen before I have a chance to react? This is a freaking PBP, man...not a tabletop or a chat game.
> 
> Not to mention the fact that I needed some TIME to decide what I wanted to do!
> 
> Gah!
> 
> I'm upset.




Sorry I got speedy.  

I will disclose that Samantha is an empath, so they were gunna jump you pretty much no matter what once you spoke, allowing her to detect what you really saw.  Since the rest of the game is on hold for this fight, I figured I might as well not RP out a whole convo that couldn't change the outcome.


----------



## Shayuri

If she's an empath, she'd know they're not assassins...meh.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> If she's an empath, she'd know they're not assassins...meh.




Or she's a young super with bad judgement and powers that are not fully developed, picked up negative vibes from you reaction to the vision, and caught this snippet of surface thoughts:

"...She was starting to wish they'd brought more backup.

I will not fear...."

...and drew the wrong conclusion.


----------



## Shayuri

blargh...I'll resolve this IC...

Probably won't be posting until later tonight. Can't really do much from work.


----------



## Raylis

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (Is it legal for middle aged men to marry teenaged boys in this international country?)




uh...what? corperation, not country....doh


----------



## Elric

Raylis, you'll probably want to have Nightweaver stand up so as to avoid the -4 prone penalty is she's attacked again.  I think you have a move action to do this with; even if not, you can stand as a free action with a DC 20 Acrobatics check.


----------



## Raylis

she is? *Reads* ack, I wrote out two possible posts and copy pasted the wrong one! Thanks for the catch Elric


----------



## Shayuri

Question about the effect Vi is under. How strongly is she compelled to act on that negative feeling towards Nightweaver? Is it powerful enough to compel her to attack, or is it more an RP thing...interpreting things Night does in the worst possible ways, being short and annoyed with her, etc...

If it is something that demands action, can she spend a Hero Point to reroll her save against it now? There was a line in your post that suggested she might be able to.


----------



## DM_Matt

Your attitude is unfriendly.  You "wish her ill," and actions regarding her could include "mislead, gossip, avoid, satch suspiciously, or insult." (core rules, p.46) Your attitude is not hostile, which invovles taking risks to harm her, such as attacking. Also, you still are hostile towards the teens.  You can spend an HP to reroll now, bc in the interests of posting as many actions as possible, I did not pause to give you the option.  You should of course not take into account anything that Viridian would have learned afterwards.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Your attitude is unfriendly.  You "wish her ill," and actions regarding her could include "mislead, gossip, avoid, satch suspiciously, or insult." (core rules, p.46)




Sounds like Shooting Star's attitude towards Hope.   

It's sort of lucky the way things worked out; it'd be bad if they were getting attacked by an emotion controller.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Sounds like Shooting Star's attitude towards Hope.
> 
> It's sort of lucky the way things worked out; it'd be bad if they were getting attacked by an emotion controller.




Sounds more like Shooting Star's attitude towards the world in general... She's working her way towards paranoid w/delusions right quick.


----------



## Victim

What gives you that impression, since I was going more for insecure especially when dealing with other people.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> What gives you that impression, since I was going more for insecure especially when dealing with other people.




That's certainly how I read it.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> What gives you that impression, since I was going more for insecure especially when dealing with other people.




Nothing... I was just joking around.   
Although, the joke was based on this:
_Hmm, she's not answering. I guess she's busy. Or maybe she doesn't like me. Shooting Star doesn't leave a message, and instead calls Viridian. She launches into the same spiel if Thessaly picks up phone:_

She's a fun character, I've been enjoying her and Hope's interactions.


----------



## kirinke

Elric said:
			
		

> Presumably Nitro hears about this report.
> 
> Never one to shy away from free publicity, Nitro calls his agent again.  Does anyone want to interview him?  Or, asks he asks his agent, does anyone _not _ want to interview him?
> 
> Then Nitro will call over to Trust headquarters and see who's there- any particular spin they want on the new super-team?  What are they supposed to tell outsiders about the team in general?  In particular, did they ever decide on a catchy team name?  Nitro and the Mystical Pipsqeaks?





How about Veritas for a superhero group name? It's sort of a play on the Trust organization they work for, as the latin root (veritum) means truth.


----------



## Vanifae

I am very much interested


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> How about Veritas for a superhero group name? It's sort of a play on the Trust organization they work for, as the latin root (veritum) means truth.




Our superhero group name is Harvard's motto?  At that point Nitro might as well name us for his own alma mater (UC Davis)'s motto, "Let there be light."

Vanifae, do you have a particular character type in mind?

Also, you didn't mention whether you're new to the system.  If you are, my roll call thread on the Atomic Think Tank has two detailed character creation examples,  here


----------



## Vanifae

My curremnt concept is basically a light based flying blaster who may or may not be the god Apollo, or his kid, or just some idiot pretending to be him.

Oh and he doubles as a rockstar


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> My curremnt concept is basically a light based flying blaster who may or may not be the god Apollo, or his kid, or just some idiot pretending to be him.
> 
> Oh and he doubles as a rockstar




Very cool possible interactions with Nitro and Nightweaver.  You can't actually be Apollo or a god, but you can certainly be themed that way.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Very cool possible interactions with Nitro and Nightweaver.  You can't actually be Apollo or a god, but you can certainly be themed that way.



 Like I said I figured but he would play it up plus it helps his image 

Could he have a divine origin then, possibly some crazy orphan child  fell out of a crib from Olympia 

Standard 2nd Edition Character?


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Like I said I figured but he would play it up plus it helps his image
> 
> Could he have a divine origin then, possibly some crazy orphan child  fell out of a crib from Olympia
> 
> Standard 2nd Edition Character?




Well, I do not want player backgrounds to establish the truth or falsehood of religions, since for world-building reasons it has to be the case that there are not conclusive proof about these things.  You could be related to some previous metahuman or other funky creature with powers, or some combination of them.  Or maybe he's a mutant, or was genetically engineered for these powers, or an alien...there are all kinds of ways, both coincidental and intentional, both that I just mentioned or otherwise, for him to wind up with powers like Apollo.

He also can just not know his origon, and we'll either solidify it later, or not.


----------



## Elric

It's PL 11, 165 pp.  

Relevant character creation stuff from Matt's first post:
4. Banned Powers: Time Control and travel, Nemesis, the Uncontrolled flaw on most powers (allowed on a case-by-case basis. I allow uncontrolled visions and the like)
5. Equipment: If it is something that you would have had, and that you will use, buy it. That being said, once your characters join the organization (we will be picking up from the end of that intro), you will have access to a certain amount of equipment each adventure, but you might not be able to choose it and usually will not be able to have any given piece of equipment at all times. 
6. House Rule: Fractions. You can buy fractional ranks of ranked feats that grant benefits per rank. For instance, you can take 1.5 ranks of attack specialization (pointy stick) to get +3 to attacks with a pointy stick. You also can get skills that do not total to a multiple of four.
7. If you have access to the Mastermind's Manual, you may take Skill Challenge feats.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> It's PL 11, 165 pp.
> 
> Relevant character creation stuff from Matt's first post:
> 4. Banned Powers: Time Control and travel, Nemesis, the Uncontrolled flaw on most powers (allowed on a case-by-case basis. I allow uncontrolled visions and the like)
> 5. Equipment: If it is something that you would have had, and that you will use, buy it. That being said, once your characters join the organization (we will be picking up from the end of that intro), you will have access to a certain amount of equipment each adventure, but you might not be able to choose it and usually will not be able to have any given piece of equipment at all times.
> 6. House Rule: Fractions. You can buy fractional ranks of ranked feats that grant benefits per rank. For instance, you can take 1.5 ranks of attack specialization (pointy stick) to get +3 to attacks with a pointy stick. You also can get skills that do not total to a multiple of four.
> 7. If you have access to the Mastermind's Manual, you may take Skill Challenge feats.




This misses that fact that UP is also allowed (except as noted above).


----------



## Vanifae

I like unknown origin, he promotes the image because it helps his PR and makes him seem mysterious and cool, which matter to him 

He is sort of superficial


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I like unknown origin, he promotes the image because it helps his PR and makes him seem mysterious and cool, which matter to him
> 
> He is sort of superficial




So does his blast take the form of a bow and arrow made of light?  Like   some of these guys  maybe?


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> So does his blast take the form of a bow and arrow made of light?



 That is actually a cooler idea then I had


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> That is actually a cooler idea then I had




Maybe even an AP:Strike with a Feature/Power Feat that it not only looks like but is a working guitar in that form.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Maybe even an AP:Strike with a Feature/Power Feat that it not only looks like but is a working guitar in that form.



 Haha, hrrrm... my M&M fu is not as strong as yours so I am not sure how I would do that?

Make that an Alternate Power of the Blast that it is also a Guitar?


----------



## Elric

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Haha, hrrrm... my M&M fu is not as strong as yours so I am not sure how I would do that?
> 
> Make that an Alternate Power of the Blast that it is also a Guitar?




Feature is from Ultimate Power- it's basically the Benefit feat, but as applied to a power.

So you'd have Blast (AP: Strike (Power Feat: Mighty, Feature: Guitar)).  So your Strike power takes the form of a solid guitar that you can bash someone with (hence the Mighty power feat), and it has a Feature that means it also functions as a working guitar.


----------



## Vanifae

Oh cool I don't have Ultimate Power.


----------



## Vanifae

Looking to make Blast an Alternate Power of his Environmental Control - Light


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Looking to make Blast an Alternate Power of his Environmental Control - Light




You can certainly do that.  And note that you can  buy a number of alter powers for your light-related abilities.


----------



## Vanifae

Name: Apollo Reed
Concept: Flying Light Archer

*Stats* (30 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 20


*Combat* (43 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +7/+11 Dodge
Toughness +1/+11 (Force Field)
Fortitude +8
Reflex +10
Will +8


*Skills* (17 Points)
Bluff (8) +13/+21 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (8) +13/+21 For those that find him Attractive
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +13
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (2) +3
Perform – Singing (12) +17
Perform – Stringed Instruments (12) +17
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (14 Points)
Attractive 2
Dodge Focus 4
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)

*Powers* (60 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 15 (AP: Blast 11, Dazzle 4 [Visual]; Disintegration 7 [Affects Insubstantial 2]; Strike 8 [Mighty, Stun 10, Feature: Guitar] (33 Points)
Force Field 10  (10 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)

_Background to follow.  I believe I have 1 Point left._


----------



## Vanifae

I am unsure if Immunity Light should be 2 ranks or 5 ranks.

But the points should work out.


----------



## DM_Matt

some comments:

Con is undercosted in M&M.  You would have the lowest Con in the party, and you concept justifies a much higher Con.  Like 20, maybe a little more.  

Also, if you are trying to be Apollo, you should be stronger, and if you are trying to be a bit clueless, a little less intelligent.

Similarly, perhaps you would want protection instead of force field.  Protection is a power that means you are tough, while force field is actually a sustained field that goes down when you are stunned unless you make a concentration check (a skill you did not take).

Your directly purchased defense is a bit high  It you want you can get a bit more dodge and shave a few points.

Light powers are rare, so its a 2 point.

I am wary of an unlimited use two-save attack with two reasonably good powers, so perhaps the guitar can be damage (make it 11) and auditory dazzle (some kind of sonic attack that trigger when it hits).  If you do that, I'll also let you take down some ranks and put some attack specialization in that array slot so you can hit with it as well as the bow.

Affects Insubstantial on Disintegrate is weird to me.

You are right now tied for the fastest flier in  the group, so if you need the points you could easily reduce it by one or two ranks.  It doesnt seem like you should be THAT fast.

Maybe look at more fighting feats for your bow if you want to go with Apollo's archer thing.

Maybe a burst of light and/or sound attack AP.


----------



## DM_Matt

Also, UP increased disintegrate to 5/rank.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Also, UP increased disintegrate to 5/rank.



 Did not know about the the change to Disintegrate, I will change that.

I am not interested in a Higher constitution though, but I understand your reasoning.

I didn't really see this image of Apollo is really strong, so much as artist and mostly a musician.

I can pick up Concentration, when I shift things around, Protection and Force Field are the same cost so I will go with that.

I might shave some defense and get mroe dodge.

I can adjsut the array and change out one of the powers.

I like flying fast, and since he controls it would make sense that he moves quickly i.e. I mean nothing is faster then light 

I will think of the a sound ability.


----------



## Victim

You have an error on your defense.  Half of the normal defense you buy is a dodge bonus. So with 14 points spent on regular defense and 4 points of dodge focus, you have 14 defense without dodge bonuses, and 21 with it.

I think I remember this guy from Karl Green's future Freedom City game.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> You have an error on your defense.  Half of the normal defense you buy is a dodge bonus. So with 14 points spent on regular defense and 4 points of dodge focus, you have 14 defense without dodge bonuses, and 21 with it.
> 
> I think I remember this guy from Karl Green's future Freedom City game.



 Yeah it folded quickly, but I liked the concept.

Yeah that is what I meant the total bonus minus 10.

Is Benefit Wealth, worth getting?  I have points to burn and not sure how I want to proceed.


----------



## Vanifae

Name: Apollo Reed
Concept: Flying Light Archer

*Stats* (30 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 20


*Combat* (39 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +5/+11 Dodge (Defense 12 [No Dodge]/21 [With Dodge])
Toughness +1/+11 (Force Field)
Fortitude +8
Reflex +10
Will +8
Initiative +9


*Skills* (17 Points)
Bluff (8) +13/+21 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (8) +13/+21 for those that find him Attractive
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +13
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (2) +3
Perform – Singing (12) +17
Perform – Stringed Instruments (12) +17
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (17 Points)
Attractive 2
Dodge Focus 6
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Move-By-Action
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)

*Powers* (50 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 11 (AP: Blast 11 [Energy Bow]; Visual Dazzle 7 [Extra- Burst, PF- Selective]; Strike 10 [Extra- Auditory Dazzle 8, PF- Mighty, Feature: Guitar, Attack Specialization Guitar 2]) (23 Points)
Protection 10  (10 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)

_Still missing about 12 points but this is with some changes._


----------



## Elric

Selective is an extra on an Area Attack, not a power feat like you're doing it.  

Also, if you have an Auditory Dazzle at touch range, that's only 1 pp per 2 ranks (see the Fractional Cost rules on page 110), so this could definitely be at rank 11.  

You might want a few vision related abilities.  Something like Uncanny Dodge (Visual) and Super-Senses 1 (Extended Sight).

Edit- also, 5 ranks of Base Defense gives you a 13 Defense when flat-footed, not 12.


----------



## Vanifae

Elric said:
			
		

> Selective is an extra on an Area Attack, not a power feat like you're doing it.
> 
> Also, if you have an Auditory Dazzle at touch range, that's only 1 pp per 2 ranks (see the Fractional Cost rules on page 110), so this could definitely be at rank 11.
> 
> You might want a few vision related abilities.  Something like Uncanny Dodge (Visual) and Super-Senses 1 (Extended Sight).



 LOL I see, well back to working out the details.

I hate and like the system all at once.


----------



## Vanifae

Name: Apollo Reed
Concept: Flying Light Archer

*Stats* (30 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 20


*Combat* (39 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +5/+11 Dodge (Defense 13 [No Dodge]/21 [With Dodge])
Toughness +1/+11 (Force Field)
Fortitude +8
Reflex +10
Will +8
Initiative +9


*Skills* (18 Points)
Bluff (8) +13/+21 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (10) +15/+23 for those that find him Attractive
Drive (2) +7
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +13
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (2) +3
Perform – Singing (12) +17
Perform – Stringed Instruments (12) +17
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (21 Points)
Attractive 2
Connected
Dodge Focus 6
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Move-By-Action
Ranged Pin
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)
Benefit Wealth
Quick Change

*Powers* (57 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 11 (AP: Blast 11 [Energy Bow]; Visual Dazzle 11; Strike 10 [Extra- Auditory Dazzle [Touch] 11, PF- Mighty, Feature: Guitar, Attack Specialization Guitar 2, Reversible]) (23 Points)
Protection 10  (10 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)
Super-Senses – Extended Visual, Ultra-Hearing, Ultra-Vision (3 Points)
Invisibility (4 Points)

_I picked Invisibility because he can control light, and bend it around himself._


----------



## Elric

Slow Fade can't be used to extent the amount of time someone gets between saves against a lasting effect- on the other hand, buying the power's duration to Sustained Lasting instead of Instant- Lasting would do the trick, and the Auditory Dazzle would still cost only 1 pp/rank, so it could be at a high rank (edit- oops, nevermind, it would be 2 pp/rank- that wouldn't be a good way to do it...).

Also, you can simply take Benefit (Wealthy) to be wealthy, since we aren't using the wealth rules- you don't need 2 ranks in it.


----------



## Vanifae

Made the Wealth change.

Just dropped Slow Fade, not sure what to add besides Incurable.


----------



## Vanifae

*Final Version*

*Name:* Apollo Reed
*Hero Name:* Radiant Sol
*Concept:* Flying Light Archer

*Stats* (34 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 24


*Combat* (39 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +5/+11 Dodge (Defense 13 [No Dodge]/21 [With Dodge])
Toughness +11 
Fortitude +8
Reflex +10
Will +8
Initiative +9


*Skills* (18 Points)
Bluff (8) +15/+23 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (10) +17/+25 for those that find him Attractive
Drive (2) +7
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +15
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (2) +3
Perform – Singing (12) +19
Perform – Stringed Instruments (12) +19
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (21 Points)
Attractive 2
Connected
Dodge Focus 6
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Move-By-Action
Ranged Pin
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)
Benefit Wealth
Quick Change

*Powers* (53 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 11 (AP: Blast 11 [Energy Bow]; Visual Dazzle 11; Strike 10 [Extra- Auditory Dazzle [Touch] 11, PF- Mighty, Feature: Guitar, Attack Specialization Guitar 2, Reversible]) (23 Points)
Protection 10  (10 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)
Super-Senses – Extended Visual, Ultra-Hearing, Ultra-Vision (3 Points)

Apollo was born into a rough life, his mother was never exactly there for him, his dad supposedly skipped town before he was even born, and he grew up a little different from everyone else.  He barely made it through school not because he was an idiot but because he only cared about music, and using his burgeoning powers to do something great… of course being a young man he really had no idea what he could do that would be great.

Apollo never knew much about his father, but being that his mother is or at least seems very ordinary he suspects that his father must have been something special.  But he had little if anything to go on to find his father and his mother was usually working or too drunk to really give him any direction, so he just used the skills he had to make it.  He got through high school on his looks, he was popular but in that mysterious musician kind of way, he had the voice and he had the skill with the axe… his own personal axe that he could create out of pure light…

It formed the center piece of his acts, he has worked with several bands; between his showmanship and his abilities his band “Apollo’s Dream” has taken off and brought him much success, fame, and wealth.  But even with his success he still feels somewhat hollow on the inside, that and he was a little jealous of the adulation people gave costumed heroes.  He wanted to be a hero; someone that people would love and cheer for, and although he had some of that on the stage he wants more.

Essentially being a costumed hero is new for Apollo, and although he is loathe to wear a mask he understands that a proper hero should hide his identity he ahs chosen the moniker Radiant Sol, because he thinks it sounds cool and speaks to the sun, and of the soul.  In costume he wears a suit of white and gold, with a domino mask and a golden bow made of light, with feather and sun affectations.

But he normally dresses in dark clothes, which is odd given his nature.  As a person, Apollo is friendly, a jokester, and all around party guy.  He enjoys looking cool, and knows everyone or at least fakes it.  He is a health nut, and spends a lot of time working on his body and his art.  He is fairly superficial but hates to be called on it and will deny it vehemently.


----------



## DM_Matt

My primary concern is invisibility at will, especially combined with flight 7 and move-by attack and blast.  Basically, you could be making long-range invisible strafing runs, which is a classic MM broken character strategy.  besides, being invisible other than when scouting or infiltrating is not really genre-appropriate.  Perhaps you could do displacement from UP?  Its half the price of the same senses of invisibility and gives a 50% miss chance.  Aternatively, you can have invis to all visual sense as an AP off your light control array, meaning you can be totally invisible but not attack at the same time.  Or, you can do both, and still save a PP compared to what you have now, although I would reserve the right to make you switch out displacement later if it becomes abusive.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> My primary concern is invisibility at will, especially combined with flight 7 and move-by attack and blast.  Basically, you could be making long-range invisible strafing runs, which is a classic MM broken character strategy.  besides, being invisible other than when scouting or infiltrating is not really genre-appropriate.  Perhaps you could do displacement from UP?  Its half the price of the same senses of invisibility and gives a 50% miss chance.  Aternatively, you can have invis to all visual sense as an AP off your light control array, meaning you can be totally invisible but not attack at the same time.  Or, you can do both, and still save a PP compared to what you have now, although I would reserve the right to make you switch out displacement later if it becomes abusive.



 I am not a munchkin and really I just picked Invisibility cause I had 4 points to burn.

Just going to increase Charisma by 4 and call it a day.


----------



## Elric

Some suggestions:
1) Perform should count as one skill- you shouldn't need a separate one for everything- just define what it is you perform and that's the skill.  It's too expensive otherwise (and I know Matt agrees with me about that).  So that saves 3 pp.

2) Your Diplomacy is over cap- Attractive counts on your skill ranks.  So you should take off 2 ranks here.

3) Your Notice is awfully low for someone with light-base powers.  Shift those 2 ranks from Diplomacy to Notice and spend 1 of the saved pp here, so you have Notice 8 (+9)

4) Spend 1 more pp on Benefit (Fame)

5) Consider spending 1 pp on 4 ranks in Acrobatics—it seems appropriate for a showman with such high dexterity.  Or maybe even additional Notice.

6) You're a rock star- it's a little strange to be Invisible during combat.  Much more appropriate seems to be the Displacement power from Ultimate Power (also 4 pp, and sustained duration): 

You can create a visual distortion that causes you to appear in an area adjacent (about 5 feet away) from where you actually are. This provides total concealment in that opponents attacking your apparent position have a 50% miss chance and your actual position is difficult to detect (use the guidelines under the Concealment effect description). This power is not quite as useful as true invisibility as your displaced image is still present; anyone seeing it knows you are nearby, just not necessarily where. You can shift the position of your displaced image as a free action once each round, but it must always remain within 5 feet of your actual position.

7) Your array cost is wrong.  It should be 25 pp (22 base + 3 APs)

8) Flight 7 gives 1000 mph as a move action.  That’s 4000 mph on a sprint.  Flight 6 is half that speed, which is still really fast, and would save you 2 pp (solving the problem just mentioned)

9) A health nut with 12 Con?  14 Con seems more appropriate for a health nut, superhero with powers aside.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I am not a munchkin and really I just picked Invisibility cause I had 4 points to burn.
> 
> Just going to increase Charisma by 4 and call it a day.




I did not mean to imply that you are, and it makes sense in character.  Its just that you happened to have stumbled upon  a set of abilities that in this system are too strong.


----------



## Vanifae

Health nut just means he takes care of himself, I am not sure how that translates to higher Constitution?

He isn't beefy he is lean and in shape.  I am not sure what the deal is with that?

So is +15 the max bonus he can have with a skill?  I just read that as ranks... but maybe I was wrong.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Some suggestions:
> 1) Perform should count as one skill- you shouldn't need a separate one for everything- just define what it is you perform and that's the skill.  It's too expensive otherwise (and I know Matt agrees with me about that).  So that saves 3 pp.
> 
> 2) Your Diplomacy is over cap- Attractive counts on your skill ranks.  So you should take off 2 ranks here.
> 
> 3) Your Notice is awfully low for someone with light-base powers.  Shift those 2 ranks from Diplomacy to Notice and spend 1 of the saved pp here, so you have Notice 8 (+9)
> 
> 4) Spend 1 more pp on Benefit (Fame)
> 
> 5) Consider spending 1 pp on 4 ranks in Acrobatics—it seems appropriate for a showman with such high dexterity.  Or maybe even additional Notice.
> 
> 6) You're a rock star- it's a little strange to be Invisible during combat.  Much more appropriate seems to be the Displacement power from Ultimate Power (also 4 pp, and sustained duration):
> 
> You can create a visual distortion that causes you to appear in an area adjacent (about 5 feet away) from where you actually are. This provides total concealment in that opponents attacking your apparent position have a 50% miss chance and your actual position is difficult to detect (use the guidelines under the Concealment effect description). This power is not quite as useful as true invisibility as your displaced image is still present; anyone seeing it knows you are nearby, just not necessarily where. You can shift the position of your displaced image as a free action once each round, but it must always remain within 5 feet of your actual position.
> 
> 7) Your array cost is wrong.  It should be 25 pp (22 base + 3 APs)
> 
> 8) Flight 7 gives 1000 mph as a move action.  That’s 4000 mph on a sprint.  Flight 6 is half that speed, which is still really fast, and would save you 2 pp (solving the problem just mentioned)
> 
> 9) A health nut with 12 Con?  14 Con seems more appropriate for a health nut, superhero with powers aside.




I agree with these.  Also, upping charisma even more is more expensive than just upping your charisma-based skills, since they are not at the cape except with attractive (attractive is those skills with the limited flaw...it is cheaper, but worse, than having those skills for everything), and your Cha is plenty high as it is.  Also, re Con, the lowest in the party right now is 16, and thats for the witch girl and the costumed adventurer.


----------



## Vanifae

Are you afraid I am like too weak?


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Health nut just means he takes care of himself, I am not sure how that translates to higher Constitution?
> 
> He isn't beefy he is lean and in shape.  I am not sure what the deal is with that?
> 
> So is +15 the max bonus he can have with a skill?  I just read that as ranks... but maybe I was wrong.




Con is just general health.  Its completely justifiable to be relatively high.  your skill max is +16 at PL11, but remember that attractive counts towards the cap.  Bonuses from ability scores do not count, which makes high ability scores really good when your skill is maxed out, but not as good when they aren't.


----------



## Elric

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Health nut just means he takes care of himself, I am not sure how that translates to higher Constitution?
> 
> He isn't beefy he is lean and in shape.  I am not sure what the deal is with that?
> 
> So is +15 the max bonus he can have with a skill?  I just read that as ranks... but maybe I was wrong.




It's 16 ranks (it would be 15 ranks at PL 15).  You can have up to a +32 bonus with a Charisma based skill in theory at PL 16, since both your skill ranks and Charisma modifier can each contribute +16.  But Attractive specifically mentions that it counts against skill rank limits.

Also, Constitution is health, endurance, and physical resilience.  Being a health nut should translate to a higher Con.  The Con thing won't impact the power of your character very much (you'll get slightly stronger by taking higher Con), but it's just a little strange for the health nut character to have the lowest constitution in the party by a significant margin.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Are you afraid I am like too weak?




For a superhero, yeah.  Con is basically Fort + Tough (Protection, force field, etc) with free recovery bonus.  A +1 to recovery means that you could fail a lot of recovery checks, and have a 40% chance of failing the check to not be killed instantly if you get a dying result.  A slightly higher bonus will help you out quite a bit there.  Also, its a concept thing, as it seems that you would not logically be much less hearty than the rest of the group, tohugh not as hearty as those with related super-powers like Nitro and Star.


----------



## Vanifae

Elric said:
			
		

> It's 16 ranks (it would be 15 ranks at PL 15).  You can have up to a +32 bonus with a Charisma based skill in theory at PL 16, since both your skill ranks and Charisma modifier can each contribute +16.  But Attractive specifically mentions that it counts against skill rank limits.
> 
> Also, Constitution is health, endurance, and physical resilience.  Being a health nut should translate to a higher Con.  The Con thing won't impact the power of your character very much (you'll get slightly stronger by taking higher Con), but it's just a little strange for the health nut character to have the lowest constitution in the party by a significant margin.



 Well going by the second edition several of the characters PL 10, have comparable constitutions to his, I think this is an issue I am not changing, so unless it will somehow impact the game, I say we leave that alone and I will focus on the other stuff.


----------



## Vanifae

Dropped Attractive by 1, Dropped Charisma to 22, and added the 2 points to the Array.


----------



## Elric

OK, in character Nitro is probably going to have to pick a name for our team fairly soon.  So instead of hashing all of it out in game, we can just try to figure a name out here since some of the characters are occupied in game at the moment.  Anyone like any of the ideas I proposed?  Spirits of Justice seems a little overly dramatic.


----------



## Vanifae

So according to the book Performance is a separate skill per focus, so I can play guitar and sing for one skill?

I believe that is what you are saying.


----------



## DM_Matt

I agree with Elric at minimum on Notice.  Those super-senses wont really work well if your notice is bad, and it seems rather in character.  You should also consider fame, since it appears that he is famous, but by the rules cannot benefit from that without taking the feat.  Acrobatics also could be nice as he says.  If you need points, shaving defensive in favor of dodge a little more or one less rank of flight or a couple points of cha are probably where you can more afford to trim.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> So according to the book Performance is a separate skill per focus, so I can play guitar and sing for one skill?
> 
> I believe that is what you are saying.




Yes.  As long as players are reasonable and don;t try to do every art form known to man, it is a good idea, since having to buy it multiple times is prohibitively expensive.


----------



## Vanifae

*Name:* Apollo Reed
*Concept:* Flying Light Archer
*Hero Name:* Radiant Sol
*Source of Powers:* Unknown most likely Mutant

*Stats* (38 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 18
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 20


*Combat* (39 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +5/+11 Dodge (Defense 13 [No Dodge]/21 [With Dodge])
Toughness +11 
Fortitude +11
Reflex +10
Will +8
Initiative +9


*Skills* (18 Points)
Bluff (8) +13/+17 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (10) +15/+19 for those that find him Attractive
Drive (2) +7
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +13
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (14) +15
Perform – Rock and Roll (12) +17
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (21 Points)
Attractive 1
Connected
Dodge Focus 6
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Move-By-Action
Ranged Pin
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)
Benefit Wealth
Benefit Fame
Quick Change

*Powers* (49 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 11 (AP: Blast 11 [Energy Bow]; Visual Dazzle 11; Strike 10 [Extra- Auditory Dazzle [Touch] 11, PF- Mighty, Feature: Guitar, Attack Specialization Guitar 2, Reversible]) (25 Points)
Protection 6  (6 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)
Super-Senses – Extended Visual, Ultra-Hearing, Ultra-Vision (3 Points)

Apollo was born into a rough life, his mother was never exactly there for him, his dad supposedly skipped town before he was even born, and he grew up a little different from everyone else.  He barely made it through school not because he was an idiot but because he only cared about music, and using his burgeoning powers to do something great… of course being a young man he really had no idea what he could do that would be great.

Apollo never knew much about his father, but being that his mother is or at least seems very ordinary he suspects that his father must have been something special.  But he had little if anything to go on to find his father and his mother was usually working or too drunk to really give him any direction, so he just used the skills he had to make it.  He got through high school on his looks, he was popular but in that mysterious musician kind of way, he had the voice and he had the skill with the axe… his own personal axe that he could create out of pure light…

It formed the center piece of his acts, he has worked with several bands; between his showmanship and his abilities his band “Apollo’s Dream” has taken off and brought him much success, fame, and wealth.  But even with his success he still feels somewhat hollow on the inside, that and he was a little jealous of the adulation people gave costumed heroes.  He wanted to be a hero; someone that people would love and cheer for, and although he had some of that on the stage he wants more.

Essentially being a costumed hero is new for Apollo, and although he is loathe to wear a mask he understands that a proper hero should hide his identity he ahs chosen the moniker Radiant Sol, because he thinks it sounds cool and speaks to the sun, and of the soul.  In costume he wears a suit of white and gold, with a domino mask and a golden bow made of light, with feather and sun affectations.

But he normally dresses in dark clothes, which is odd given his nature.  As a person, Apollo is friendly, a jokester, and all around party guy.  He enjoys looking cool, and knows everyone or at least fakes it.  He is a health nut, and spends a lot of time working on his body and his art.  He is fairly superficial but hates to be called on it and will deny it vehemently.


_Bought Benefit Fame and put 12 ranks into Notice._


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I agree with Elric at minimum on Notice.  Those super-senses wont really work well if your notice is bad, and it seems rather in character.  You should also consider fame, since it appears that he is famous, but by the rules cannot benefit from that without taking the feat.  Acrobatics also could be nice as he says.  If you need points, shaving defensive in favor of dodge a little more or one less rank of flight or a couple points of cha are probably where you can more afford to trim.



 Done and done, and increased Con to 18.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> _Still need to spend 4 points._




My suggestion: Benefits:Fame, 8 points of Notice, the other point also in skills, maybe 2 in notice and the other 2 in rock.

Also, maybe drop one point of visual dazzle in your main bow attack and replace it with precise, which lets you do cool tricks like pressing buttons, burning your name in things, etc.


----------



## Vanifae

Haha I almost thought to call this guy Guitar Hero, I am still on the fence with the name Radiant Sol.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Done and done, and increased Con to 18.




Hooray (my last post now seems rather redundant)


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Hooray (my last post now seems rather redundant)



 Does Apollo Reed pass muster then?


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Does Apollo Reed pass muster then?




Yeah, he's now an accepted alternate, rather likely to become part of the team soon since it is increasingly appearing that Optic is only here very intermittantly.  The one thing I guess I need now is how he wound up working for the Trust, so I can get a good idea of how I would introduce him.  I know there is another alternate, though they haven't been at ENW in a bit and this character is a better fit for the group I think.


----------



## Elric

You're 3 pp over now, from what I can tell.  Your Feats should cost 22 points, and your powers should cost 51 points.  

Additionally, your Toughness save should only be +10, since you have Protection 6 and 18 Con.  So you should add 1 rank of Protection back in.

Then you have to drop 4 pp: I say: Ranged Pin, 1 point of Fortitude save, and 1 rank in Flight (but I know you want to be really fast- but that's what I would do ).

Edit- Wait- nevermind.  You also messed up and charged yourself 38 pp for your ability scores, but they should only cost 36 pp.  So you'd only have to cut 2 pp, which means you could cut the 2 pp I suggested above, add 1 rank of Protection, and keep the Flight.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> You're 3 pp over now, from what I can tell.  Your Feats should cost 22 points, and your powers should cost 51 points.
> 
> Additionally, your Toughness save should only be +10, since you have Protection 6 and 18 Con.  So you should add 1 rank of Protection back in.
> 
> Then you have to drop 4 pp: I say: Ranged Pin, 1 point of Fortitude save, and 1 rank in Flight (but I know you want to be really fast- but that's what I would do ).




I said it passed, but that doesnt mean there are not mistakes for people who are not me to catch.  So yeah, Elric just caught some mistakes.

Anyone else with suggestions, feel free to make them.  BTW, I allow all PCs another opportunity change their stats after they finish their first major fight, in case they notice anything they want to change after seeing them in action.


----------



## Vanifae

*Name:* Apollo Reed
*Concept:* Flying Light Archer
*Source of Powers:* Unknown most likely Mutant

*Stats* (36 Points)
STR 12
DEX 20
CON 18
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 20


*Combat* (38 Points)
Attack +5/+11 Energy Bow
Defense +5/+11 Dodge (Defense 13 [No Dodge]/21 [With Dodge])
Toughness +11 
Fortitude +10
Reflex +10
Will +8
Initiative +9


*Skills* (18 Points)
Bluff (8) +13/+17 for those that find him Attractive
Diplomacy (10) +15/+19 for those that find him Attractive
Drive (2) +7
Craft – Artistic (4) +6
Gather Information (8) +13
Knowledge – Popular Culture (4) +6
Language – Greek, Latin
Notice (14) +15
Perform – Rock and Roll (12) +17
Sense Motive (8) +9

*Feats* (21 Points)
Attractive 1
Connected
Dodge Focus 6
Improved Initiative 1
Leadership
Luck 2
Precise Shot
Move-By-Action
Taunt
Attack Specialization 3 (Energy Bow)
Benefit Wealth
Benefit Fame
Quick Change

*Powers* (52 Points)
Flight 7 (14 Points)
Environmental Control – Light 11 (AP: Blast 11 [Energy Bow]; Visual Dazzle 11; Strike 10 [Extra- Auditory Dazzle [Touch] 11, PF- Mighty, Feature: Guitar, Attack Specialization Guitar 2, Reversible]) (25 Points)
Protection 7  (7 Points)
Immunity – Aging, Light (3 Points)
Super-Senses – Extended Visual, Ultra-Hearing, Ultra-Vision (3 Points)

Apollo was born into a rough life, his mother was never exactly there for him, his dad supposedly skipped town before he was even born, and he grew up a little different from everyone else.  He barely made it through school not because he was an idiot but because he only cared about music, and using his burgeoning powers to do something great… of course being a young man he really had no idea what he could do that would be great.

Apollo never knew much about his father, but being that his mother is or at least seems very ordinary he suspects that his father must have been something special.  But he had little if anything to go on to find his father and his mother was usually working or too drunk to really give him any direction, so he just used the skills he had to make it.  He got through high school on his looks, he was popular but in that mysterious musician kind of way, he had the voice and he had the skill with the axe… his own personal axe that he could create out of pure light…

It formed the center piece of his acts, he has worked with several bands; between his showmanship and his abilities his band “Apollo’s Dream” has taken off and brought him much success, fame, and wealth.  But even with his success he still feels somewhat hollow on the inside, that and he was a little jealous of the adulation people gave costumed heroes.  He wanted to be a hero; someone that people would love and cheer for, and although he had some of that on the stage he wants more.  Being a super hero and a musician has only served to increase his fan base.

But he normally dresses in dark clothes, which is odd given his nature.  As a person, Apollo is friendly, a jokester, and all around party guy.  He enjoys looking cool, and knows everyone or at least fakes it.  He is a health nut, and spends a lot of time working on his body and his art.  He is fairly superficial but hates to be called on it and will deny it vehemently.


_Made the changes._

http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=32224


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> OK, in character Nitro is probably going to have to pick a name for our team fairly soon.  So instead of hashing all of it out in game, we can just try to figure a name out here since some of the characters are occupied in game at the moment.  Anyone like any of the ideas I proposed?  Spirits of Justice seems a little overly dramatic.




Any of the ones you mentioned sounded pretty good.  It's not really that big of deal to me.

I think that second ed character creation is much harder than 1e, since you can't just bang out Force Field+Movement power+Attack+Other with powers as extras and then fill in the rest.  If you wanted fast and easy anyway; working out lots of partial extras and power stunts could get messy.   But the extra work is usually worth it, IMO.  And the archetypes are actually pretty workable prefabs now, instead of cripples.


----------



## Vanifae

I want a better archer name, I am not digging Radiant Sol.

As far as how Apollo came to the Trust I figure he got noticed taking down a major drug operation run by a wicked villainess Hecate or some other mythological focused villain, and although he didn't get her put behind bars he put the operation down, and saved his fans from being drug addled zombies under her will!

Of course everyone knows it was the famous lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Apollo Reed, he even wrote a song about it... "Evil Addiction".

Possible Suggestions: Solar, Sunburst, Bright Eye... ugh


----------



## Elric

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I want a better archer name, I am not digging Radiant Sol.
> 
> As far as how Apollo came to the Trust I figure he got noticed taking down a major drug operation run by a wicked villainess Hecate or some other mythological focused villain, and although he didn't get her put behind bars he put the operation down, and saved his fans from being drug addled zombies under her will!
> 
> Of course no one knows it was the famous lead singer/guitarist/songwriter Apollo Reed, but his alter ego... which I need to refine.




Nice- I like how the character turned out.

You could just have a public identity.  My character, Johnny Nitro, is the only one in the group with a public ID at the moment, and he could use some high profile company.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> BTW, I allow all PCs another opportunity change their stats after they finish their first major fight, in case they notice anything they want to change after seeing them in action.




So, was that little rescue mission my first major fight?  I tackled a suburban, and a few robots.  Still getting the feel for my character, so I might see something that I would change out or edit, but not without running it by you first.  As for group names, The Replacements would be fitting, lol.  I don't really have any thoughts on group names, but deciding here OOC would be best.  Maybe even a voting system.  I don't know.


----------



## Vanifae

Elric said:
			
		

> Nice- I like how the character turned out.
> 
> You could just have a public identity.  My character, Johnny Nitro, is the only one in the group with a public ID at the moment, and he could use some high profile company.



 That works for me less work.

Edit: Apollo will have a public ID, he likes to be in the public eye... he is flamboyant and loves to make a scene.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> My primary concern is invisibility at will, especially combined with flight 7 and move-by attack and blast.  Basically, you could be making long-range invisible strafing runs, which is a classic MM broken character strategy.  besides, being invisible other than when scouting or infiltrating is not really genre-appropriate.  Perhaps you could do displacement from UP?  Its half the price of the same senses of invisibility and gives a 50% miss chance.  Aternatively, you can have invis to all visual sense as an AP off your light control array, meaning you can be totally invisible but not attack at the same time.  Or, you can do both, and still save a PP compared to what you have now, although I would reserve the right to make you switch out displacement later if it becomes abusive.




Ahhh. But alot of the invisibility powers in comic books isn't 'complete' invisibility persae. He could still be found out with scent and hearing, heck, even the ability sense air flow can make invisibility not so invisible. Also, aura reading, true sight and infra-vision (the ability to sense heat) would call him out. 

Plus you can always go with the old particle gag, y'know, throwing sand, flour etc over him.


----------



## Shayuri

Smee.

I have like...4pp now.

Anyone have ideas for new spells that would be useful? Healing doesn't seem to be required anymore, since I think two of us now have healing powers...

I was thinking perhaps a concealment spell usable on a group of us...

And/or a "searching" spell, based on telepathic mind searches, so we can discover some basic, limited info about anyone we know about...

Still, I'm open to ideas about what would strengthen Thess' role in the group.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Smee.
> 
> I have like...4pp now.
> 
> Anyone have ideas for new spells that would be useful? Healing doesn't seem to be required anymore, since I think two of us now have healing powers...
> 
> I was thinking perhaps a concealment spell usable on a group of us...
> 
> And/or a "searching" spell, based on telepathic mind searches, so we can discover some basic, limited info about anyone we know about...
> 
> Still, I'm open to ideas about what would strengthen Thess' role in the group.




I noticed that Thes was lacking in a magical blast.

Next question:
How many extra PP did we get during play? I thought it was around 5 if I'm not mistaken.


----------



## Shayuri

I may have miscounted.

Thess has the "eye blast." It's a mental blast with some mods. She has to have eye contact for it to work though.

I have been considering adding some "elemental" magic to Thessaly though. It's not outside the realm of her theme to have some control over the classical elements...though I still don't see it being her style to lob fireballs.

Plus, Hope's a magical blaster, and I don't wanna step on toes.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I may have miscounted.
> 
> Thess has the "eye blast." It's a mental blast with some mods. She has to have eye contact for it to work though.
> 
> I have been considering adding some "elemental" magic to Thessaly though. It's not outside the realm of her theme to have some control over the classical elements...though I still don't see it being her style to lob fireballs.
> 
> Plus, Hope's a magical blaster, and I don't wanna step on toes.




How about something to do with earth or fire? Hope can't do anything with earth/ground spells and fire spells have some serious effects on her if she casts them.

And earth based spells kinda suite Viridian's theme. Lookit the transmutation spell.


----------



## Vanifae

Could I get a link to the Rogue's Gallery or thread with all the PCs?


----------



## Raylis

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Could I get a link to the Rogue's Gallery or thread with all the PCs?




http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=201682


----------



## Victim

http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=201682

EDIT: Curses, beaten on the draw.


----------



## Vanifae

Thank you kind sirs.


----------



## Victim

IIRC, the Trust HQ was in Virginia.  Hence the need to use the its teleporter to get to FC instead of just flying there directly.


----------



## Vanifae

I added two complications, Fame and Enemy; the enemy being the drug trafficking underworld... but obviously it could be a specific villain based out of Freedom City.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> IIRC, the Trust HQ was in Virginia.  Hence the need to use the its teleporter to get to FC instead of just flying there directly.




The nearest  teleporter is to the hanger on the outskirts of the city (which btw has all you need for a local base).  There you can take that plane they have assigned to you (if you don't mind being obvious), or some other vehicle like that armored van you first met in.


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I added two complications, Fame and Enemy; the enemy being the drug trafficking underworld... but obviously it could be a specific villain based out of Freedom City.




Alright.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Next question:
> How many extra PP did we get during play? I thought it was around 5 if I'm not mistaken.




Nope, it's 4 pp.  3 pp after the initial adventure, and 1 more pp after the recent adventure.

Viridian could take +1 base Defense with 2 pp and then 2 new powers in her arrays.

Hmm- I like the idea of Maze: Dimensional Pocket 11 (Extras: Range Perception, +2, Alternate Save: Will, +0; Flaw: Full-Round Action, -1) (33 pp total).

Of course, this also lets you hold a ton of stuff in your dimensional pocket, which would be useful but doesn't necessarily seem in the flavor of a Maze spell.


----------



## kirinke

I still think that earth control or plant control would work well with Viridian's theme. Earth Control especially if you want to go the route of the traditional Gaia worshipping witch type. 

Could I change the can't cast earth/ground spells to a drawback? So Hope can get an extra PP?


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Could I change the can't cast earth/ground spells to a drawback? So I can get an extra PP?




It's not a drawback that a character's descriptors don't encompass the ability to do everything.  It is simply an expectation for how characters will be built.  Nitro can't use Earth/ground spells, or even magic at all.  He doesn't get a pp back for it either 

How does The Vanguard of Justice sound as a group name to everyone?


----------



## kirinke

Elric said:
			
		

> It's not a drawback that a character's descriptors don't encompass the ability to do everything.  It is simply an expectation for how characters will be built.  Nitro can't use Earth/ground spells, or even magic at all.  He doesn't get a pp back for it either
> 
> How does The Vanguard of Justice sound as a group name to everyone?




Drat it....  ^_^ Well, if you don't ask and all. 

Either Spirits of Justice or The Vanguard of Justice is okay with me. I like the Spirits of Justice more though.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Drat it....  ^_^ Well, if you don't ask and all.
> 
> Either Spirits of Justice or The Vanguard of Justice is okay with me. I like the Spirits of Justice more though.




Well, Vanguard makes me either think of a mutual fund provider or a white supremecist group , but if you like it, fine.


----------



## Elric

OK, I guess I'm out-voted.  How about *Spirit * of Justice instead of _Spirits _ of Justice.  That way it's less of an implication "we are ghost-heroes."


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> OK, I guess I'm out-voted.  How about *Spirit * of Justice instead of _Spirits _ of Justice.  That way it's less of an implication "we are ghost-heroes."




Yeah, I don't like spirit either, since there is nothing all that spiritual or spirit-like about the group.  Of course, if you want to RP it, you can go consult the Trust's PR guy (yes, despite being a secret organization, they still have one for their fronts).


----------



## Vanifae

I would think you guys would want a short snappy name, it seems to be in vogue with modern comics 

Condense it down to a word maybe two, or just an acronym like JLA.


----------



## Elric

Sentinels of Justice Squad?  SJS for short.


----------



## kirinke

Shield of Justice might be good.
Justice Sentinals
Defenders of Justice
Justice Defenders


----------



## Vanifae

The Sentinels.


----------



## Elric

Vanifae said:
			
		

> The Sentinels.




I already suggested that one in the IC thread.  We could go with something like Justice Sentinels too, but The Sentinels has a nice ring to it- at least it does since this isn't the Marvel Universe


----------



## Vanifae

Elric said:
			
		

> I already suggested that one in the IC thread.  We could go with something like Justice Sentinels too, but The Sentinels has a nice ring to it- at least it does since this isn't the Marvel Universe



 I like simple catchy names.


----------



## Shayuri

Vanguard is good too!


----------



## Victim

I prefer Sentinels over Vanguard.  IIRC, however, the reason for Spirit(s) of Justice was to be a memorial to the dead character, not because our characters are spiritual or ghosts.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> I prefer Sentinels over Vanguard.  IIRC, however, the reason for Spirit(s) of Justice was to be a memorial to the dead character, not because our characters are spiritual or ghosts.




Yeah, but thats not how it will sound.


----------



## Elric

Matt, I can't remember- did you ever describe the mystery super's accent (if those who heard her speak could detect one)?


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Matt, I can't remember- did you ever describe the mystery super's accent (if those who heard her speak could detect one)?




No, she did not have one, but if she is who you suspect she is, and really has covertly left a trail of bodies across the Middle Easter underworld, she probably would have learned to suppress it.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Lol, I think you guys have Wren on the defensive now, with all the little quibbles going on in the game.  I am interested to see where he's going to fit into all of this.  Matt, did Wren have another squad he was working together with prior to the Sigma Team?

As for group names, perhaps it SHOULD be with something that starts with S, so Vanguards would not get my vote.  I would go for The Sentinels, as I like the theme.  Besides, with Wren's powers, it would fit perfectly, lol.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Matt, did Wren have another squad he was working together with prior to the Sigma Team?




If you want him to have, sure.  Just don't define too much about them.


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Lol, I think you guys have Wren on the defensive now, with all the little quibbles going on in the game.  I am interested to see where he's going to fit into all of this.  Matt, did Wren have another squad he was working together with prior to the Sigma Team?
> 
> As for group names, perhaps it SHOULD be with something that starts with S, so Vanguards would not get my vote.  I would go for The Sentinels, as I like the theme.  Besides, with Wren's powers, it would fit perfectly, lol.




He's probably going to be the peace-keeper of the group. It is a new group mind you, one that's seen alot in a short time, so tempers are going to flare. That and all of them seem to have issues.


----------



## Victim

You know what's messed up?  Fangor's speech text is showing up as Royal Blue or something on my screen, instead of grey.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> He's probably going to be the peace-keeper of the group. It is a new group mind you, one that's seen alot in a short time, so tempers are going to flare. That and all of them seem to have issues.




One issue that besides being a new group, we've had some considerable turnover.  So much of the initial trust building and working relationships got trashed without much replacement.


----------



## Vanifae

I am still here watching the fun.


----------



## Elric

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I am still here watching the fun.




My guess is that Matt will try to throw you in after our next encounter.  Unless he sees a good way to introduce your character earlier than that, which he would know about much better than I would...


----------



## Vanifae

Elric said:
			
		

> My guess is that Matt will try to throw you in after our next encounter.  Unless he sees a good way to introduce your character earlier than that, which he would know about much better than I would...



It's cool adding a new character to any existing campaign is an art form, and not to be done on a whim.


----------



## kirinke

Heh. In previous campains, he introduced some of my characters by being a former prisoner of a Naga and being invited to a party that went south quick....


----------



## Victim

> (They have better than power armor...they have names and are recurring characters, meaning heroic rules not minion rules...plus they are a full PL8)




Of course.  But that's not something Star really understands; she doesn't get how the 'skilled normal' can actually work in a straight up fight against powers.  After all, look at what happened to Raven and Bowman.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Of course.  But that's not something Star really understands; she doesn't get how the 'skilled normal' can actually work in a straight up fight against powers.  After all, look at what happened to Raven and Bowman.




Maybe you could explain it by planning and experience, remember, these guys are used to taking on supers and otherwise empowered individuals. If you think about it Raven and Bowman got blindsided with the equivalent of a really, really big 2x4 and that can happen to anyone.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Maybe you could explain it by planning and experience, remember, these guys are used to taking on supers and otherwise empowered individuals. If you think about it Raven and Bowman got blindsided with the equivalent of a really, really big 2x4 and that can happen to anyone.




Yeah, I said it was something that my character didn't get, not something that I had a problem with.


----------



## Raylis

The healing power heals a lot, but not Pride


----------



## kirinke

Raylis said:
			
		

> The healing power heals a lot, but not Pride




Poor Nightweaver....


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Raylis said:
			
		

> The healing power heals a lot, but not Pride



Can I take Heal Pride as a feat?  lol


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Can I take Heal Pride as a feat?  lol




You don't need a feat for that silly. Just apply chocolate and ice cream in appropriate doses for females and um...... NC-17/AO situations for men.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> You don't need a feat for that silly. Just apply chocolate and ice cream in appropriate doses for females and um...... NC-17/AO situations for men.



Noted, Wren will start taking Benefit feat to always have ice cream and chocolate on hand at all times.


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Noted, Wren will start taking Benefit feat to always have ice cream and chocolate on hand at all times.




Well, chocolate anyway. Just put it in your equipment section....
As necessary medical supplies.  

Ice cream melts.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> You don't need a feat for that silly. Just apply chocolate and ice cream in appropriate doses for females and um...... NC-17/AO situations for men.




Well, Optic's visor DOES have Internet access


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Well, Optic's visor DOES have Internet access




Lol. Yes, he can order ice cream on the go. Vanila ice cream.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Well, Optic's visor DOES have Internet access




I assumed our computer/phones could get internet too.  I guess not?  Can they get GPS?


----------



## Raylis

Victim said:
			
		

> I assumed our computer/phones could get internet too.  I guess not?  Can they get GPS?




I thought we had iphones...those get internet don't they?


----------



## Victim

I thought they were upgraded to be able to function as full computers.


----------



## kirinke

Err....... 
I tink you need to reread what we were all talkin about.
Between the lines like.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Err.......
> I tink you need to reread what we were all talkin about.
> Between the lines like.




Yes, and if that topic inspires a somewhat related, more useful line, then I'm not really going to complain.

And I wanted to ask about GPS for awhile, since navigation difficulties would be a problem with long distance flight with only unaided sight.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Yes, and if that topic inspires a somewhat related, more useful line, then I'm not really going to complain.
> 
> And I wanted to ask about GPS for awhile, since navigation difficulties would be a problem with long distance flight with only unaided sight.




Yes, they LOOK like iPhones, but between Trust Tech and the fact that this universe is a somewhat higher-tech version of ours, they do have the functions of full computers, they do have GPS, and they are connected to the comm links and can take voice commands from the commlink mic's.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Yes, they LOOK like iPhones, but between Trust Tech and the fact that this universe is a somewhat higher-tech version of ours, they do have the functions of full computers, they do have GPS, and they are connected to the comm links and can take voice commands from the commlink mic's.



 I wants one, does it play games too?


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I wants one, does it play games too?




I suppose it can.  Its part of that standard equipment package all Trust folks get.  You can find it in the other character's write-ups and should add it to your sheet.

EDIT: That equiptment doesn't cost PP, btw.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I suppose it can.  Its part of that standard equipment package all Trust folks get.  You can find it in the other character's write-ups and should add it to your sheet.
> 
> EDIT: That equiptment doesn't cost PP, btw.



Yeah, first thing Wren did was to remove 'Alien Invaders' from his list of games that came predownloaded.  The nerve....


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Yeah, first thing Wren did was to remove 'Alien Invaders' from his list of games that came predownloaded.  The nerve....




Why not? Bad aliens invaded his homeworld. Stands to reason the same ones could do somethin similar to this one.


----------



## Victim

Looking the initiative and order of actions, the demons attacked and then Shooting Star went.  

Therefore, I'd like to slightly amend my action from last round to include full Defensive Attack if possible.  Of course, since I already know her offense is worthless, the penalty isn't really signficant.  However, I think I've always had her pay extra attention to defense when going against foes known to use firey attacks, so the action isn't inconsistent  .


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Looking the initiative and order of actions, the demons attacked and then Shooting Star went.
> 
> Therefore, I'd like to slightly amend my action from last round to include full Defensive Attack if possible.  Of course, since I already know her offense is worthless, the penalty isn't really signficant.  However, I think I've always had her pay extra attention to defense when going against foes known to use firey attacks, so the action isn't inconsistent  .




Ok, sure, especially since the businesswoman has Impervious 10, and I feel bad hosing you with immunity two rounds in a row 

(I can reveal it since you're the only one that affects, but now you can't change your action for this round.  And BTW, its not like I'm targeting you, she's a canonical FC villain appropriate for this very specific situation)


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Ok, sure, especially since the businesswoman has Impervious 10, and I feel bad hosing you with immunity two rounds in a row
> 
> (I can reveal it since you're the only one that affects, but now you can't change your action for this round.  And BTW, its not like I'm targeting you, she's a canonical FC villain appropriate for this very specific situation)




Shooting Star's Orbs have 3 point of Penetrating.  Too late to change now, though


----------



## Victim

Good thing Star has Pen 3 then.  

Who could it be?  Hell Queen?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Good thing Star has Pen 3 then.
> 
> Who could it be?  Hell Queen?




And good thing you reminded me.  This is the first time its come up.


----------



## Victim

That's why I repost the power writeup (taking out power feats like Trigger when they're not being used) every time.  Otherwise keeping track of her all power modifiers would be really tough.


----------



## kirinke

Um, did you realize that hope had a force field on? I know that the guy got the drop on her, but that has to account for something.....


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Um, did you realize that hope had a force field on? I know that the guy got the drop on her, but that has to account for something.....




The Force Field power is just a way of buying Toughness save, which can't be bought directly.  It counts that way.


----------



## Raylis

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (In fact, throwing darkness at an individual without filling a room is unlikely to be effective at all, since they can just move out of the darkness control effect, and because your darkenss control can't have its radius reduced at will. You also can't attach the darkness to an individual. You could, however, take an AP on darkness control thats a visual dazzle (descriptor: surrounded by darkness) linked to darkness control 1 (with the attack only +0 extra) to create darkness around him in a 5 foot radius. It has to be dazzle because your target should get a save)




Um...

yeah it can have it's area reduced. Night's Darkness Control doesn't have the Full Power flaw, is there any reason that it can't be used at a lower rank?


----------



## DM_Matt

Raylis said:
			
		

> Um...
> 
> yeah it can have it's area reduced. Night's Darkness Control doesn't have the Full Power flaw, is there any reason that it can't be used at a lower rank?




Area effects typically cannot have their radius regulated, and it even costs pp to reduce the sie since it becomes easier to avoid allies, although now that I tihnk of it I might be thinking of only attacks.  Of course, this is being used as an attack almost always, but probably technically is not.  Anyone got a good rules quote on this either way?  

Regardless, the other problems with the power that I mentioned still apply.


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Area effects typically cannot have their radius regulated, and it even costs pp to reduce the size since it becomes easier to avoid allies, although now that I think of it I might be thinking of only attacks.  Of course, this is being used as an attack almost always, but probably technically is not.  Anyone got a good rules quote on this either way?
> 
> Regardless, the other problems with the power that I mentioned still apply.




You can always reduce the size of an Area attack by reducing its rank (unless you have the Full Power drawback).  To reduce the size of the Area without reducing the rank on the spot is what costs pp.  For something like obscure, you can simply choose to use fewer ranks to get a smaller area (making it easier to counter, but that's about the only thing you lose).


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> You can always reduce the size of an Area attack by reducing its rank (unless you have the Full Power drawback).  To reduce the size of the Area without reducing the rank on the spot is what costs pp.  For something like obscure, you can simply choose to use fewer ranks to get a smaller area (making it easier to counter, but that's about the only thing you lose).




Thanks for clearing that up.


----------



## kirinke

Considering how often Hope seems to get injured, I was considering making her some sort of ring or amulet of 'healing', basically a stored spell that would activate once she's hurt....

I was also considering Switching her Healing power to Regeneration, considering that we already have a Healer in the group (Wren.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Considering how often Hope seems to get injured, I was considering making her some sort of ring or amulet of 'healing', basically a stored spell that would activate once she's hurt....
> 
> I was also considering Switching her Healing power to Regeneration, considering that we already have a Healer in the group (Wren.




I do not allow regeneration as an AP like that without a VERY good reason, and it might not even be better than healing anyway.


----------



## DM_Matt

Alright, I've decided how Vanifae will be introduced.  After this fight, the group will be told about a plan relating to the Grant arc that requires a musician, and are told that Apollo will be assigned to the task.  However, the Trust will have gotten the coordinates and time (imminent-ish) form Ironblood of where they can find Anatole Voderac's cloaked  cargo ship (for stry reasons, this has to happen ASAP), and Apollo will be sent with them so they get to know each other and get used to working together before the high stakes mission.

Vanifae:  I suggest that you read through the thread and familiarize yourself with the story so far.  The basic structure tends to alternate between fights and information gathering (looking for clues at fight scenes, interrogating people, seeing relevant things on the news, talking to other Trust folks or personal contacts, lab work, etc), but certain pieces of important information come up within fights as well.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> I do not allow regeneration as an AP like that without a VERY good reason, and it might not even be better than healing anyway.




True that.... But then what about the amulet/device that would give her a fighting chance to get airborn and due some damage? 

Alot of what I'm seeing in the battles is that Hope doesn't exactly have the highest initative in the world or the best defense/toughness.

The only way to do that is to increase her dexterity some. Hmmm....
How much of an increase would it be if the next time we got PP I put an enchanced Dexterity ability in her Utility Magic? We could call it Blessing of the North wind or something similar.....


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> True that.... But then what about the amulet/device that would give her a fighting chance to get airborn and due some damage?
> 
> Alot of what I'm seeing in the battles is that Hope doesn't exactly have the highest initative in the world or the best defense/toughness.
> 
> The only way to do that is to increase her dexterity some. Hmmm....
> How much of an increase would it be if the next time we got PP I put an enchanced Dexterity ability in her Utility Magic? We could call it Blessing of the North wind or something similar.....




My suggestion: Drop Solidify Air (besides Descriptors, it's really no different from Conjure Ice- you can always use Extra Effort to power stunt it if need be) and take 1 rank of the Improved Initiative feat.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> True that.... But then what about the amulet/device that would give her a fighting chance to get airborn and due some damage?
> 
> Alot of what I'm seeing in the battles is that Hope doesn't exactly have the highest initative in the world or the best defense/toughness.
> 
> The only way to do that is to increase her dexterity some. Hmmm....
> How much of an increase would it be if the next time we got PP I put an enchanced Dexterity ability in her Utility Magic? We could call it Blessing of the North wind or something similar.....




First of all, Elric is right about removing Solidify Air.  Next time you add points to the entire array, you can add Variable Descriptor to Conjure Ice, which will let you make it take a variety of in-theme forms.

Part of your problem, though, is that you have been relying on flashy battlefield control magic like air control and conjure ice rather than your main attacks.  

Your lightning attacks, your hailstorm, and even your force of nature mode are strong.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> First of all, Elric is right about removing Solidify Air.  Next time you add points to the entire array, you can add Variable Descriptor to Conjure Ice, which will let you make it take a variety of in-theme forms.
> 
> Part of your problem, though, is that you have been relying on flashy battlefield control magic like air control and conjure ice rather than your main attacks.
> 
> Your lightning attacks, your hailstorm, and even your force of nature mode are strong.




Good idea. I changed it as you suggested and I assume that it will take effect on the next battle as it wouldn't be fair now. 

I'm thinking that because she is in effect tapping into a highly unpredictable force, that is nature itself, nature can manifest itself through her in an unpredictable fashion, especially when she's tired or out of sorts. It could be that she is both a master and a channel for the elements she is attuned to. This unpredictability won't hurt her or those around her, but it can be disconcerting. Just thinking out loud. Y'know.


----------



## Shayuri

Arr...it's funny. You've been doing a lot of control magic with Hope, while I try to make Viridian into a blaster mage. Somehow I think we swapped concepts. 

Viridian's spells are really meant for the support role. I have some ideas of a spell or two I want to buy that'll enhance that.

For example, I'm thinking of making her "warded circle" as it is right now into more of a force-dome spell, and buying a new AP that's weaker but Selective, so she can fine tune the ward to hedge out, or in, specific things or beings, letting the rest of us through. That new spell would become the "warded circle," since it acts much more like how I envision a sort of "magic circle vs (whatever)" would work.

Then boost Defense a point...then I'd have one pp for another new spell...I'll have to think about that one.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Arr...it's funny. You've been doing a lot of control magic with Hope, while I try to make Viridian into a blaster mage. Somehow I think we swapped concepts.
> 
> Viridian's spells are really meant for the support role. I have some ideas of a spell or two I want to buy that'll enhance that.
> 
> For example, I'm thinking of making her "warded circle" as it is right now into more of a force-dome spell, and buying a new AP that's weaker but Selective, so she can fine tune the ward to hedge out, or in, specific things or beings, letting the rest of us through. That new spell would become the "warded circle," since it acts much more like how I envision a sort of "magic circle vs (whatever)" would work.
> 
> Then boost Defense a point...then I'd have one pp for another new spell...I'll have to think about that one.




Hmmm. How about adding something to the warded circle that would protect against mental intrusion/control?


----------



## Shayuri

Could be...but that would cause the toughness of the field itself to become weaker, since the total point value of the whole schmeel can't be over a certain amount.

It might be better to create an area effect "mental shield" spell that she could overlay on the ward if need be...or use on allies.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Could be...but that would cause the toughness of the field itself to become weaker, since the total point value of the whole schmeel can't be over a certain amount.
> 
> It might be better to create an area effect "mental shield" spell that she could overlay on the ward if need be...or use on allies.




You could put it as an alternate power.


----------



## Vanifae

Got it I will begin getting caught up


----------



## Shayuri

Oh, it'd be an alternate power, yeah. A spell in her array. 

DM_Matt, sorry...hard to keep track of where I am in the initiative.

Could I get a situation summary of which baddies are where and in what condition?


----------



## Elric

There are fewer posts to bury this here, so:

Init Order:

Nightweaver
Woman in Business Attire
Nitro
Woman in Red
Big Guys With Woman In Red
Hope
Demon Guards
Viridian
Shooting Star
Wren
Asad


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Oh, it'd be an alternate power, yeah. A spell in her array.
> 
> DM_Matt, sorry...hard to keep track of where I am in the initiative.
> 
> Could I get a situation summary of which baddies are where and in what condition?




One minihulk and the lady in red are basically ok, and over by Nitro ad Hope, with Viridian nearby, and Nightweaver and Fine in the nearby ally.  One of the flying demons is over the street, another over the warehouse, and another just walked out of the warehouse, confronting Wren directly.  Star is in front of the warehouse, about to move to the parking lot out back where the WIBA is.  Asad is in the warehouse.


----------



## kirinke

Alright.... If Nitro can manage to keep the bad guys off Hope, she'll unleash her Hail attack, after warning the others. That'll give them the cover to get the heck out of there, as they got Fine.


----------



## Victim

Star is planning on moving way up actually; she's not staying in the parking lot for long.


----------



## Shayuri

Okay...first, are Night and Fine in the clear? No baddies menacing them? It looks like it, but I want to be very sure.

Second...can Emotion Control inspire emotions with specific targets? Like that one girl not only caused Viridian to become hostile, but hostile towards a specific person. Is that a basic function of the power, or does it require some tinkering? Mein apologies if this is a silly/stupid question, but I haven't got the book here to check myself.

Trying to decide on emotion control or mind control. Emo seems a better bet since it's AoE, but this info will tip the scales one way or the other. Thanks!


----------



## Victim

With Emotion Control, you can decide what the target(s) loves/hates/fears/whatever.  So you can adjust their attitudes toward other people.  

 I don't think you could assign different targets different subjects for the emotion you inspire without some add on, but it doesn't seem entirely clear.  I'm also not sure about collective subjects.


----------



## kirinke

Hey Shayuri, I think I found a picci at deviantart that might work for Viridian. Take a lookie if'n you could and see if you like.


----------



## Shayuri

Hmm!

The mask is really good...she looks a little young, but not bad...

Here's a good shot of Thessaly out of costume, I think.

http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs5/300W/i/2004/321/0/9/Underpainting___self_portrait_by_horribletak.png


----------



## Victim

That's not good.  I want to spend a HP on Dodge Mastery to dodge that grapple/pin.


----------



## Elric

I vote that Viridian uses an HP to reroll that stun, and then (presumably that will take care of the stun) takes her action to try to Nullify the spell summoning the demons


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> That's not good.  I want to spend a HP on Dodge Mastery to dodge that grapple/pin.




In which case he misses her.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> I vote that Viridian uses an HP to reroll that stun, and then (presumably that will take care of the stun) takes her action to try to Nullify the spell summoning the demons




A reroll will indeed guarantee a negation of the stun (and possibly but not necessarily the injury and bruise)


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmm!
> 
> The mask is really good...she looks a little young, but not bad...
> 
> Here's a good shot of Thessaly out of costume, I think.
> 
> http://tn3-2.deviantart.com/fs5/300W/i/2004/321/0/9/Underpainting___self_portrait_by_horribletak.png




That's what I thought.  I am looking for pictures for the others, but there is alot to peruse. 

And that piccie of Thess is pretty good.   

I'm still trying to find a good pic for Hope out of her "I'm not happy" mode. The pencil drawing of her is okay though....


*looks at the IC thread. 
*Sigh* well at least she got one of the demons!


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Waiting on my init.  Either going to try and help out the innocent being kidnapped, ger Hope healed, or try to save the the ones that just got burned... choices choices...


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  Since the demon will probably chase down Star with teleportation instead of flight, she's not going to be able to trick it into crashing into something.  And in the current state of the battle, running to the party's heavy hitters to let them deal with the demon would be disaster: bunching up would invite their fire breath attack, and Wren or Nitro are right next to bunch of civilians.  

Maybe she fly off after a moveby and hide behind/underneath something.

Of course, if Viridian can shake off the stun and dispel them, that'd be really nice.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> Hmm.  Since the demon will probably chase down Star with teleportation instead of flight, she's not going to be able to trick it into crashing into something.  And in the current state of the battle, running to the party's heavy hitters to let them deal with the demon would be disaster: bunching up would invite their fire breath attack, and Wren or Nitro are right next to bunch of civilians.
> 
> Maybe she fly off after a moveby and hide behind/underneath something.
> 
> Of course, if Viridian can shake off the stun and dispel them, that'd be really nice.




I'm sure Star can outrun the demon's short-range teleportation with a move action.  You can go well over a mile with a move action, and if he has to long-range teleport to get to you that's a full action.  Of course, in future rounds you're a little far from the fight at that point.  But you could take a Move-by Action attack on someone and then try to get about 1500-2000 feet away, which ought to do the trick.


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Waiting on my init.  Either going to try and help out the innocent being kidnapped, ger Hope healed, or try to save the the ones that just got burned... choices choices...





As a player, I applaud the idea of getting Hope healed. But Hope herself would give Wren the scolding of his life for tending to her before seeing the innocents are taken care of.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> As a player, I applaud the idea of getting Hope healed. But Hope herself would give Wren the scolding of his life for tending to her before seeing the innocents are taken care of.




Ah, but Wren is making sure the innocents are taken care of.  Hence, if the guy can't help but be kidnapped by gunpoint, then that's Wren's first objective.  Second objective, get Hope healed, lastly, help out the others with the demons, as they are still in the fight.  What IS Hope's condition?  Unconscious?  Fatigued?


----------



## kirinke

Stunned and staggered.

But hay, she was still feisty enough to blast a demon out of the sky whilist staggared, so that says something for her sense of duty and oneryness.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> I'm sure Star can outrun the demon's short-range teleportation with a move action.  You can go well over a mile with a move action, and if he has to long-range teleport to get to you that's a full action.  Of course, in future rounds you're a little far from the fight at that point.  But you could take a Move-by Action attack on someone and then try to get about 1500-2000 feet away, which ought to do the trick.




Good call.  At full speed, she going ~10k ft per move, so that's plenty of move to outdistance teleport, especially since it uses a different method for its per move distance.  It doesn't really help offensively, but it at least it should avoid making things worse by bunching up.


----------



## kirinke

Well, it looks like Hope has at least 2 hero points I think.... One from the stun and another she hasn't used yet.

I'm thinking she'll use one to shake off the stun and another to summon spirits to help Wren get the innocents to safety.


----------



## Shayuri

Or you could save the HP and just blast something.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> Well, it looks like Hope has at least 2 hero points I think.... One from the stun and another she hasn't used yet.




You don't get an HP for being stunned.  Only actually getting knocked out does that.  Think about it this way: if you got an HP for being stunned, and an HP can be used to buy off the stunned condition, then would anyone ever mind being stunned + bruised instead of being just bruised by an attack


----------



## kirinke

Lol....
Stunned, knocked out.... Both out of action. 

So, from the looks of it, she can only react, not act.... What sort of things, other than curl up in a ball could she do?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Lol....
> Stunned, knocked out.... Both out of action.




But that isnt the rule,  Its out of action for a significant length of time.  Stunned doesnt get you an HP. And Elric explained why that would be really ridiculous.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> But that isnt the rule,  Its out of action for a significant length of time.  Stunned doesnt get you an HP. And Elric explained why that would be really ridiculous.




I did read up on stunned, she can only react, not act right? What sort of things could she do? Seriously?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> I did read up on stunned, she can only react, not act right? What sort of things could she do? Seriously?




She can do nothing and it will wear off in a round, or she can spend a hero point to get rid of it immediately.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> She can do nothing and it will wear off in a round, or she can spend a hero point to get rid of it immediately.




Alright, she'll get rid of the stunned with the hero point.


----------



## Victim

My rather poor mental map of the battle had the parking lot on the opposite side of the warehouse from the street, so getting LoS while lying on the ground might be difficult.  Without Homing, blind Indirect fire isn't going to be so accurate.


----------



## kirinke

I honestly didn't know where were we were in relation to the warehouse....  
Edit that to attack the nearest bad-guy who is a threat. Otherwise, she'll hold an action and try not to puke.


----------



## Elric

Just wondering, are we using any kind of house rule on falling damage, or is it still +1 per 10 feet to a maximum of 20 damage.  Also, how high up was Star?  Victim might want to know in deciding what to reroll (or whether he wants to use Ultimate Defense).


----------



## Victim

Hmm.  Well, I still have 2 HP.  This might be a good time to use them.    Let's try Dodge Mastery first.

Yay for autostabilizing in the worst case scenario.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Hmm.  Well, I still have 2 HP.  This might be a good time to use them.    Let's try Dodge Mastery first.
> 
> Yay for autostabilizing in the worst case scenario.




Dodge mastery fails to change the outcome.


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Just wondering, are we using any kind of house rule on falling damage, or is it still +1 per 10 feet to a maximum of 20 damage.  Also, how high up was Star?  Victim might want to know in deciding what to reroll (or whether he wants to use Ultimate Defense).




Large falling dmg hasn't really come up before, so I used the default.  I could be persuaded not to in the future though.  

It also helps that in this case 1) I want Asad to get away, and would rather not just fiat it (though Star gets an HP after this anyway for being taken down), and 2) If Asad is gunna get away, he might as well do something in the process that will make the PCs REALLY hate him, even though inflicting a dying result is not from a metagame perspective a big deal at the end of a fight on someone with a +9 recovery check.


----------



## Elric

Don't bother spending a hero point on the Power Check- Matt said he rolled a 16 and since Star's rank is only 7, chances are you'd need 18-20 to beat that.  Hmm, but I realize you can't buy off the stun from the Stun power just with the HP function- I'd try to reroll that Stun, though, since you're very likely to do well.  Then Star might be able to simply reactivate flight as her action, or if that doesn't work, just Extra Effort a Cyclops-style blast at the ground to slow yourself down (Power Stunt Super-Movement: Slow-Falling), which you could do while attacking Asad since your array has so many pp in it that taking away 2 for Slow Falling should be easy.

Edit- or you could see that Asad is intended to get away and save the HP 

Further edit- while we're on a related subject, are we going to start having HP carry over more?  I think that would make sense, since then there wouldn't be a "rush to spend HP" near the end of every fight and it would make HP awards more meaningful.  We just have to get better about keeping track of HP (ideally in the subject lines of the Game thread posts).

I also lobby for falling damage to get lowered.  If it isn't lowered, expect Nitro to try to take out a villain with the "throw 200 feet in the air for Supreme Damage" maneuver at some point


----------



## DM_Matt

Elric said:
			
		

> Don't bother spending a hero point on the Power Check- Matt said he rolled a 16 and since Star's rank is only 7, chances are you'd need 18-20 to beat that.  Hmm, but I realize you can't buy off the stun from the Stun power just with the HP function- I'd try to reroll that Stun, though, since you're very likely to do well.  Then Star might be able to simply reactivate flight as her action, or if that doesn't work, just Extra Effort a Cyclops-style blast at the ground to slow yourself down (Power Stunt Super-Movement: Slow-Falling), which you could do while attacking Asad since your array has so many pp in it that taking away 2 for Slow Falling should be easy.
> 
> Edit- or you could see that Asad is intended to get away and save the HP
> 
> Further edit- while we're on a related subject, are we going to start having HP carry over more?  I think that would make sense, since then there wouldn't be a "rush to spend HP" near the end of every fight and it would make HP awards more meaningful.  We just have to get better about keeping track of HP (ideally in the subject lines of the Game thread posts).
> 
> I also lobby for falling damage to get lowered.  If it isn't lowered, expect Nitro to try to take out a villain with the "throw 200 feet in the air for Supreme Damage" maneuver at some point




Perhaps index the damage to the movement table in some way?  Distance/10?


----------



## Elric

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Perhaps index the damage to the movement table in some way?  Distance/10?




You mean the progression table?  If so, you could do something like:

10 feet= +1 damage.
20 feet= 2 dmg
50 feet= 4 dmg
100 feet= 6 dmg
250 feet= 8 dmg
500 feet= 10 dmg

I'd probably stop there, but you could add 1000 feet= 12 damage if you were so inclined.  Or you could make it start at 2 damage and go up from there by 2 if you want falls from small heights to feel comparatively more deadly.  Note that I've rounded the 25 (feet) from the progression table down to 20 (feet) for simplicity in the above formula.

An alternate approach would be the simplest change: Falling does 1 damage per 20 feet, rounded up (maximum 10 damage)- just halve falling damage compared to what it is right now.


----------



## Victim

I'm not overly fond of the normal falling damage rules either.  Terminal velocity for a person is what, like 120 mph?  It seems off that falling does so much more than higher velocity slams (even if one assumes that the world has tons of immovable).  Technically, Star takes more damage from an uncontrolled fall of 250 ft (enough extra to make sure Acrobatics can't reduce falling damage), than from trying to ram the world at hypersonic speed.  

Baddies fleeing from Star don't need Fiat, since they always crit anyway.


----------



## Elric

Victim said:
			
		

> I'm not overly fond of the normal falling damage rules either.  Terminal velocity for a person is what, like 120 mph?




Yeah, that's one of the reasons why I wouldn't take falling damage much past 500 feet- back of the envelope calculation suggests that without air resistance a person would reach 120 mph at a little under 500 feet.  So I guess with air resistance someone might still be accelerating past a fall of 500 feet- but not too much more.  

As you point out, an All-Out Slam by someone with Speed 7 (1000 mph, so 4000 mph with all-out movement) does the same amount of damage as a fall from 110 feet, even though the person falling would be moving at about 50-60 mph.  Seems strange.


----------



## Victim

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> If Asad is gunna get away, he might as well do something in the process that will make the PCs REALLY hate him, even though inflicting a dying result is not from a metagame perspective a big deal at the end of a fight on someone with a +9 recovery check.




I think she'd be more upset about having her flight taken away and the backlash than the damage from crashing.


----------



## Vanifae

Should I start posting now, or wait for Ms. White?


----------



## DM_Matt

It seems that everyone has decided to go to the infirmary instead of staying in their area of the base, so Vanifae feel free to just walk in, having been paged by Ms. White.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> It seems that everyone has decided to go to the infirmary instead of staying in their area of the base, so Vanifae feel free to just walk in, having been paged by Ms. White.




Whaddya expect when one of their team mates had a durned close call like Star did?


----------



## Shayuri

Hee...we could also set Vani's entrance up after a brief timeskip.

That way we'd all be healed and ready to go...which seems appropriate.

The conversations with Megan, if they continue (as opposed to Megan telling us all to get out ), can continue normally...they're just taking place "before" the main narration then.

I think as long as we're good about specifying which part of our posts are when, it should be fine. And honestly, I'd love the chance for the RP. Fast paced is nice, but we've barely gotten to know each other yet, IC.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hee...we could also set Vani's entrance up after a brief timeskip.
> 
> That way we'd all be healed and ready to go...which seems appropriate.
> 
> The conversations with Megan, if they continue (as opposed to Megan telling us all to get out ), can continue normally...they're just taking place "before" the main narration then.
> 
> I think as long as we're good about specifying which part of our posts are when, it should be fine. And honestly, I'd love the chance for the RP. Fast paced is nice, but we've barely gotten to know each other yet, IC.




Heh me too.

But then, I'm such a guurrrl.   

Is it me or are the boards awfully slow today?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Wren is SO GLAD to have left the room when the mention of frozen family jewels is brought up.  OUCH!!!


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hee...we could also set Vani's entrance up after a brief timeskip.
> 
> That way we'd all be healed and ready to go...which seems appropriate.
> 
> The conversations with Megan, if they continue (as opposed to Megan telling us all to get out ), can continue normally...they're just taking place "before" the main narration then.
> 
> I think as long as we're good about specifying which part of our posts are when, it should be fine. And honestly, I'd love the chance for the RP. Fast paced is nice, but we've barely gotten to know each other yet, IC.




Talk all you want.  Also, those frequent plane rides are good opportunities to talk as well.


----------



## Vanifae

Okay making my grand entrance.


----------



## DM_Matt

A clarification on that plan, btw. I has incorrectly remembered that Apollo had a separate superidentity.  So a slight retcon: Due to his musicians skills, Apollo would be able to capture and replace the rocker booked for the event, and pose as him, with a high-tech or magical disguise.


----------



## Vanifae

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> A clarification on that plan, btw. I has incorrectly remembered that Apollo had a separate superidentity.  So a slight retcon: Due to his musicians skills, Apollo would be able to capture and replace the rocker booked for the event, and pose as him, with a high-tech or magical disguise.



 Sounds good to me


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Wren is SO GLAD to have left the room when the mention of frozen family jewels is brought up.  OUCH!!!




Wellll.... She can get right nasty minded at times, especially when pitted against bad-guys she really doesn't like who really hurt a fellow team-mate. She tends to get uber protective towards those she cares about and she'll carry a grudge to the grave. 

I mean, this is the girl who tracked a guy to the gates of hell and impaled him on the spikes y'know.


----------



## kirinke

Ooo Victim. Found a good piccie for Shooting Star. See if'n you likie!


----------



## Victim

On one hand, that picture doesn't match up well with the character's description, especially the costume.  Since I sort of mixed that in with the rest of the background though, it's probably not as clear as would have liked.  I do tend to be incredibly nitpicky when picking out character portraits or miniatures when left to my own devices.  

But still like the pic.


----------



## kirinke

Hee. I'm picky too. I'm still not incredibly pleased with the pic of Hope, but it's the nearest thing I could find. Still, it's fun browsing deviant art and other sites and I tend to snap up pics I like, usually in the hope of character inspiration somewhere down the line. 

Still. If'n the pic doesn't suit this character, you can always use it for another one  

Anyway, if you guys find a pic you think would suit Hope, feel free to post it.  
I like character art.


----------



## Victim

I just wish I could draw.  So far, just wishing hasn't proven very effective though, and I haven't bothered to really practice.


----------



## kirinke

Found a pic that might do for Nightweaver. Hope'n you likie!


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> I just wish I could draw.  So far, just wishing hasn't proven very effective though, and I haven't bothered to really practice.



 I wish i could draw better  sometimes I surprise myself, most times I just cry in the corner cause I suck.


----------



## kirinke

Vanifae said:
			
		

> I wish i could draw better  sometimes I surprise myself, most times I just cry in the corner cause I suck.




The limit to my drawing ability is.... Barely recognizable stick figures and doodles.

I can't even draw a straight line without a straight edge.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

http://www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heroMachine2/heromachine2.asp

try that, as it lets you create  a character with all kinds of options.  Might be worth a shot to get some ideas on what you are looking for.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. I play with that all the time.


----------



## Victim

I downloaded the standalone version of the CoH character designer back when it was available.

EDIT:  Yeah, messing around with the Hero Machine confirms something I learned from the CoH program: A white costume looks awful.  Maybe it's time for a new costume design.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> I downloaded the standalone version of the CoH character designer back when it was available.
> 
> EDIT:  Yeah, messing around with the Hero Machine confirms something I learned from the CoH program: A white costume looks awful.  Maybe it's time for a new costume design.




Do you still have the COH program? I'd really like to have a copy, but like you said, it's not available drat it.


----------



## Victim

Yeah, it's like 200 meg.

You still might be able to find it someplace, even if the official Korean site was taken down.  You need to change something in the registry to change it to English.


----------



## Victim

You can use Hero Points to improve the result of a skill check.  You can gain ranks in a skill via a HP with Beginner's Luck.  You can't just max out a skill by spending one.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

So, how much would Wren know of all of these alien races?  Would he actually, considering his home planet has succumbed to the same fate that the Geladrans deal out to other planets, be under the impression that this alien race is the one that is responsible for his home planet being wiped out?


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> So, how much would Wren know of all of these alien races?  Would he actually, considering his home planet has succumbed to the same fate that the Geladrans deal out to other planets, be under the impression that this alien race is the one that is responsible for his home planet being wiped out?




They very well could be, though there are other conquerer races out there.  It could just as easily have been the Dao-Lug or others.  He has heard of both, but is not enormously knowledgeable on the subject.


----------



## Vanifae

But have they heard of the power of ROCK AND ROLL!


----------



## Victim

Maybe. 

I don't think this is Macross (esp 7), so it probably doesn't make much difference.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> Maybe.
> 
> I don't think this is Macross (esp 7), so it probably doesn't make much difference.



 Lin Minmei clone would have been excellent.


----------



## kirinke

Sorry not an Anime fan.... Didn't catch that reference....


----------



## Shayuri

Minmei! ARGH! 

*beats it with a stick*


----------



## Victim

A poster on RPG.net had a funny comment.  "'I'm gaining culture.'  No, that's just your brain melting."

But you know, I've seen never the original series.  The closest I've come is some really old Robotech tapes with only the first one or two eps.  So no awful singing.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. I found a piccie that might do for Ms. White.


----------



## Victim

Roll that Master Plan.


----------



## kirinke

Some help with that ol Master Plan would be good.

All my idears IC have been shot down.


----------



## Shayuri

Are we going with the illusion idea?


----------



## Victim

That's what I thought as well.


----------



## kirinke

Illusion augumented by Mr. Black's EMP's and hacking so that they don't trust their computers or sensors. Illusions by themselves won't do much if they happen to look into a computer read-out and don't see nuthin.


----------



## Shayuri

Yes...that was part of the illusion plan, I believe.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yes...that was part of the illusion plan, I believe.




That is if'n we kin get our DM t'make with the postie!


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> That is if'n we kin get our DM t'make with the postie!




The next week or so is going to be really rough for me, so my posting will be slowed.


----------



## kirinke

Slow posting better than none!


----------



## Shayuri

Here's another picture I found for Thessaly...this one I like a -lot-. Even has a magical tome.

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs6/i/2005/015/9/4/Ray_Heights_Natalie_colored_by_cheeks_74.jpg


----------



## kirinke

Nice! Now I need to find a good one for Hope. Haven't yet. Though I have found lots of good piccies I've saved.

Oooo.....
Gonna get on DSL this weekend. My sister has the main port and offered to let me get on, as long as I pay half the bill.

15 bucks for broadband fun? Good deal.
I got the USB adapter and Norton's security. So all I hafta do is load both and cancel my aohell subscription.


----------



## DM_Matt

So I've reconsidered the healing matter, and think that I made a mistake to let Wren have full healing with all the bells and whistles, since it's a power i'm a bit wary of.  For now I'd like to at least remove Persistent, to at least create the occasional situation where it doesn't always work.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> So I've reconsidered the healing matter, and think that I made a mistake to let Wren have full healing with all the bells and whistles, since it's a power i'm a bit wary of.  For now I'd like to at least remove Persistent, to at least create the occasional situation where it doesn't always work.




Well it is comic book fiat that having superpowers does not always mean those super powers are 100% reliable. I mean, if they worked all the time, how would those villians exploit the hero's weakness?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Well it is comic book fiat that having superpowers does not always mean those super powers are 100% reliable. I mean, if they worked all the time, how would those villians exploit the hero's weakness?




Would you prefer that I give some villains a second level of incurable (which doesn't exist by core rules) instead?  I plan to use incurable sparingly (I havent used it at all yet), and don't see  a point in adding it sometimes to be "not really incurable" so that other times it can be "really, actually incurable."


----------



## Victim

You could to use GM Fiat to make some wounds not cureable.

How many HP should Star have?  She starts with 2 (1 Luck), spent two during the last fight, and gained two (one from Asad breaking Stun - or was it a toughness reroll - and one at the end for nearly dying).  Can those bonus HP be defered to show up in other encounters, possibly those more related to how they were obtained?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> You could to use GM Fiat to make some wounds not cureable.
> 
> How many HP should Star have?  She starts with 2 (1 Luck), spent two during the last fight, and gained two (one from Asad breaking Stun - or was it a toughness reroll - and one at the end for nearly dying).  Can those bonus HP be defered to show up in other encounters, possibly those more related to how they were obtained?




The nearly dying one, definitely, since that is technically awarded after the encounter.  HP like that, or those awarded between fights, or escaping villain HP, definately carry over.  For now, the basic reroll kind wont, but if you want to make the case for more rollover, go ahead.  However, in this case, so does the Asad one, since it was the equivalent of Fiating him to escape.

And I'm going to still say no persistent.  Fiat is for bypassing rules, but I'd rather have a functioning incurable in the rules.


----------



## kirinke

Well. I have no real problems there.

Since we've already established that Hope can make others see her visions through dent of effort and or spell (as long as she as enough time to do so), could we make it a permanent part of her postcog ability? I mean, as long as there is something there to read in any case.  

I'm also thinking that while postcogs and pre-cogs are uncommon, having the ability to let others see along with her is very rare indeed. The spell she uses could simply be a focus for her powers and not really a spell at all, so it can't exactly be duplicated.


----------



## Victim

Dang it.  I even checked to make sure the post hadn't completed when I interupted it to add more.


----------



## Victim

Star is taking a 5 ft step this round.  Hardly shooting off impulsively.  Unless of course you mean that her action might be motivated more by personal reasons than sound tactics.

However, Cover Fire on a flying, glowing - OBVIOUS - target does have the potential to hit more targets at higher bonuses than a sweeping autofire attack.


----------



## Shayuri

Night's question is sound.

Can Vi's illusions "cover" a moving target to make them look and sound different, within the limits of her power?


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Star is taking a 5 ft step this round.  Hardly shooting off impulsively.  Unless of course you mean that her action might be motivated more by personal reasons than sound tactics.
> 
> However, Cover Fire on a flying, glowing - OBVIOUS - target does have the potential to hit more targets at higher bonuses than a sweeping autofire attack.





It was just an off the cuff mental thought from Hope. She thinks that Star is far too impulsive for her own good, a trait common to alot of speedsters.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Night's question is sound.
> 
> Can Vi's illusions "cover" a moving target to make them look and sound different, within the limits of her power?




As per the sidebar in Ultimate Power, you may.


----------



## kirinke

Ooo. I am officially on broadband now yayyy! 

My New Email Address is
altariel@att.net


----------



## Victim

Wow, Star is near the top of the initiative order?  I didn't think that could happen.


----------



## Raylis

I feel the need to apologize for my lack of activity. We're in first quarter at work which means a lot of overtime and I just recieved a promotion of sorts (technially it's just more responsibility). It should start to dwindle down and i'll be able to at least post daily again.


----------



## Shayuri

Oh...Wren did NOT just go there.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Oh...Wren did NOT just go there.





He's getting me back for the frozen family jewels crack.    

I mean just normally Hope and Star will devolve into an argument at the drop of a hat. Just imagine what would happen if they were PMS'ing.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

kirinke said:
			
		

> Just imagine what would happen if they were PMS'ing.




Wait, you two AREN'T???  Oh crap!  KIDDING!  I figured it would be a stress relief comment, as it would seem everyone is wound up pretty tightly.  I seriously don't mean it to be contradicting.  Anyways, I am in Argentina, with slow connection.  Work calls, but I am trying to keep up as best as I can.  Thanks for understanding.


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> Wait, you two AREN'T???  Oh crap!  KIDDING!  I figured it would be a stress relief comment, as it would seem everyone is wound up pretty tightly.  I seriously don't mean it to be contradicting.  Anyways, I am in Argentina, with slow connection.  Work calls, but I am trying to keep up as best as I can.  Thanks for understanding.




Ehh, no problem. Star and Hope deserve the dig.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Ehh, no problem. Star and Hope deserve the dig.




They do.

You know, it seems like we're squandering our momentum with this disguise plan.  The initial illusion and EMP had them really off balance from the initial descriptions; now they're organizing.  Plus the whole disguise thing isn't going to work so well if they're all mindlinked via Ares' battle meditation thing - but we'll probably see the results of that interaction in a round.  

So what should we do if this plan doesn't work?  If the enemies are responding to our current locations, then a rapid shift should help - we can no doubt move around much more quickly than people on foot, even if they're more familiar with the ship.  We should be able to get everyone to the bridge in a single round between Nightweaver's teleport and flight.  Opening it up to outside could be rather trivial issue, since Nitro likes to Shockwave everything.


----------



## kirinke

Sounds like a good plan. We are a destructive bunch....


----------



## Shayuri

Hee!

Check for illusions?

I guess I could add a true sight spell or something with exp...I didn't need to at first. We had Angel, then Optic...but now they're gone.

So yeah. But can I do that -now-?

Or I guess I could burn an HP. For some reason I always feel like they're expendable, so I hate using them...but that's making things harder than they should be...


----------



## kirinke

Sorry, I thought that Magical Awareness could take care of that.... Or the fact that Vi can cast illusions, stands to reason she could detect them easily enough. Hope wouldn't know exactly what Vi can do.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Sorry, I thought that Magical Awareness could take care of that.... Or the fact that Vi can cast illusions, stands to reason she could detect them easily enough. Hope wouldn't know exactly what Vi can do.




Magical awareness wouldn't detect holograms or other non-magical "illusions."  However, I was not clear in describing the guy who resembles Ares.  He is wearing similar armor and resembles Ares, but does not appear to be a fake Ares, as it is easy to tell that it is someone else.


----------



## Shayuri

Hee

Vi could detect magic, if the illusions were magic. Even detect where the magic was. But she wouldn't be able to say, "Those are illusions."  She could say, "That man seems to have magic on him, or is using magic somehow."

But yar, I'll have Thess tell Hope.

Seems like we need some Danger Room time to get to know what each other's abilities and limits are. As an IC thing, I mean.


----------



## Victim

Inspire just requires Wren to be able to interact with us, so the comm links should be enough.

Wren doesn't have enough CHA to affect all of us, so he has to pick and choose who gets the bonus.


----------



## Shayuri

Gotcha. Neat!


----------



## Victim

Hmm, would Star be able to get the cargo hold in a move by herself?  I'm not sure how much Quickness it'd take to open any doors/hatches on a ship as trivial actions.  If she can open a path, then Apollo, Black, and Hope ought to have sufficient movement speeds to cross the length of the ship.  That leaves only Viridian to TP with Nightweaver, so there's no need for another Extra Effort to get everyone there quickly.  

It'd suck to make Nightweaver EE twice because you skimped on movement powers.


----------



## Raylis

since I haven't switched the array since TPing us in here, I should still be able to do it without power stunting again, yesno?


----------



## Victim

If we're basically picking and choosing our initiative order now, I propose that Wren go first.  That way, next round (ie, the round for which we haven't posted actions), he can do the Inspire trick he originally wanted to use this round.  Then, immediately following that, the rest of us can attack with the extra bonus.  And maybe Surge too.

While the rest of the order isn't that important, Shooting Star can't quite crank up her damage as high as most other characters against Stunned targets so it might be more useful to have her open instead of close.


----------



## Victim

Hope's Master Plan was +1 (attacks, skills) IIRC, so it will last 3 rounds now that she's activating it.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. All we really need is voderac right? We have his son. All we need to do is get him and the kid away from the fighters. That means a teleport or shadow walk once we are in range.


----------



## Shayuri

I was thinking of Emotion Control. I have it with a selective burst effect of 55' radius.

That could probably catch a lot of these minions...

Thoughts on which emotion? Fear is good, as is despair...what's good for the goose is good for the gander.


----------



## kirinke

Fear would be good.

Hmmm if you really want to be evil. Lust. Directed towards the mooks on each other.


----------



## Victim

You could just do Love; turn those numbers to our advantages.  And then it's not particularly devastating if you just use the normal, non selective version.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> You could just do Love; turn those numbers to our advantages.  And then it's not particularly devastating if you just use the normal, non selective version.





Just make sure it's not the errr. Let's do the horizontal tango kind.  

Ooo, Victim, I remember you saying you had the City of Hero's character generator right? Could you send it to me? I have broadband now. My new email is Aeraveil@yahoo.com


----------



## Shayuri

One thing to consider about emotion control is that it doesn't usually force specific behaviors unless the description says that it does. 

So inspiring love in someone doesn't really work like a Charm spell...nor would making them fall in love with each other stop them from shooting us. 

Though the mental image is amusing.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> One thing to consider about emotion control is that it doesn't usually force specific behaviors unless the description says that it does.
> 
> So inspiring love in someone doesn't really work like a Charm spell...nor would making them fall in love with each other stop them from shooting us.
> 
> Though the mental image is amusing.




And disturbing.

Go with fear then.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> One thing to consider about emotion control is that it doesn't usually force specific behaviors unless the description says that it does.
> 
> So inspiring love in someone doesn't really work like a Charm spell...nor would making them fall in love with each other stop them from shooting us.




Fanatic targets would be willing to do anything you want, as per the definition of that attitude.  That's considerably better than a Charm spell IMO.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. Instead of fearing us, why not direct the fear towards Aron and company and then combine that with the 'love' emotion on us.


----------



## DM_Matt

She'd have to stunt a selective.  Of course, a non-selective area love attack would be pretty funny.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Hmmm. Instead of fearing us, why not direct the fear towards Aron and company and then combine that with the 'love' emotion on us.




That would be two uses of the power.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> That would be two uses of the power.




First round fear. Second round 'love'. 

If we survive that is.


----------



## DM_Matt

PROPOSAL: HOMAGE AND SHOUT-OUT CONTEST

This game contains lots and lots of homages and shout outs to various cultural artifacts, mostly but not exclusively in superhero and related genres.  Thus, I am proposing a running contest awarding points for finding these and posting them in the OOC thread.  More obscure references will earn more points. Basic tropes will not count, and extra points will be awarded for pointing out references that I realize I made subconsciously in hindsight.  Pointing out references from before the start of the contest will be accepted.  Those with the most points at certain times will be given an extra PP, and the point totals reset.

Do you guys like this idea?  Will this add to the game, or subtract?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

So, I think perhaps that a little Inspire Courage might be what is needed right now, as it would grant +4 to 4 people of my choosing.  It's either that or an invisible wall to separate most of those men from shooting at us.  Any thoughts?


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> PROPOSAL: HOMAGE AND SHOUT-OUT CONTEST
> 
> This game contains lots and lots of homages and shout outs to various cultural artifacts, mostly but not exclusively in superhero and related genres.  Thus, I am proposing a running contest awarding points for finding these and posting them in the OOC thread.  More obscure references will earn more points. Basic tropes will not count, and extra points will be awarded for pointing out references that I realize I made subconsciously in hindsight.  Pointing out references from before the start of the contest will be accepted.  Those with the most points at certain times will be given an extra PP, and the point totals reset.
> 
> Do you guys like this idea?  Will this add to the game, or subtract?




Lol. I think it'll be fun. 

And as to the inspire courage. Nifty. We need all the help we can get.
Since we have so many enemies, I was thinking of using Hope's Conjure ICE ability to wittle the numbers down some by blocking the bad-guy's off. Her lightning attack is powerful, but it's generally only good for 1 opponent.


----------



## Shayuri

Okay, how about this basic idea.

If we let Vi start out with an Empathy Control, then let Wren or Hope make a wall to shield from whoever doesn't get taken out by that. Then we start concentrating remaining force on the guys who are beating the crap out of our bricks. 

I'm thinking a good idea would be for Hope to make a wall, and Wren to heal Nitro...who's gonna be -hurting- with all those bruises.


----------



## kirinke

Pop culture reference
"Now BOW BEFORE ME! Look upon my might and DISPAIR!"
Lord of the Rings, Galandriel to Frodo when he offers her the ring.


----------



## Shayuri

You offer it freely...I do not deny my heart has greatly desired this...

Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a QUEEN!


----------



## kirinke

ooo
Got another one.
The freighter.
Under Seige.
With us as the ones in the seige mode.


----------



## Victim

Okay, since Wren is doing Inspire, I'm going to change Star's action to something that uses attack rolls.  In a bit.

It would only be Under Siege if some random, seemingly ordinary crewperson on the boat started kicking our asses.  Maybe if the same guy starts on a streak of 20s...


----------



## Victim

Hope wasn't using her bonus to attacks, so I decided to use Star's 100 times to make up for it.


----------



## kirinke

Lol. I assumed that was a given Victim.


----------



## Victim

Elric, we might want to start using some Redirect.  The enemies do Incurable damage, and have regeneration (and vampiric for Ares at least).  If Persistent is as rare for them as it is for us, then it seems that the natural counter for their abilities is their own abilities.


----------



## kirinke

How about suffocate? Would that work? I know it's mean, but these guys deserve it. 

Wren and Hope both have abilities that can cause suffocation, the create objects can engulf the bad-guys.......

Plus, with Hope's Ice ability, there's frostbite, and the fact that she can probably make spikes grow inward or something, causing additional damage. For that matter, so can Wren.


----------



## kirinke

Ooo. I found a great picture that shows just how freaky Hope looks when her hair and eyes go white.


----------



## Victim

If you use Suffocate, any enemy able to attack will hit Hope to end her attack before the suffocation lasts too long.  That's going to run directly counter to using Redirect on them.

Plus you could just use all the water around the ship to drown someone (probably with TK stuff) instead of stunting a Suffocate.  

My posting might be a bit slow for the rest of the week, BTW.


----------



## Shayuri

Hmm

If I read the rules right, Disarm requires a contest of attack rolls.

Vi's TK is Perception though. Her attack bonus stinks.

Question is: What do I roll to disarm with TK? Power bonus?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hmm
> 
> If I read the rules right, Disarm requires a contest of attack rolls.
> 
> Vi's TK is Perception though. Her attack bonus stinks.
> 
> Question is: What do I roll to disarm with TK? Power bonus?




Opposed Strength, with TK being 5str per rank.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

With star's new action, she should be beside me as well, and would benefit from Interpose.  I would gladly take a hit for her.  

So, it looks bad for us right now, but oh well, that's the beauty of this!  Wren should have kept his Vampiric Strike... as he had it in his original concept... DAMN!

Ok, I see a few options.  Snare os Ares, to prevent him from attacking so much.  Then there's healing Nitro.  

Then there's Strike 11, Partial Penetrating 3, Incurable, Affect Insubstantial x2, Accuracy, Knockback x5

That might hit Ares or Deimos, preventing the big guy from using Interpose again, as we attack Ares.

Any thoughts?


----------



## Vanifae

Still here I apologize, between getting stuff ready for school this summer, work, and a new girlfriend been a bit busy ><


----------



## Victim

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> With star's new action, she should be beside me as well, and would benefit from Interpose.  I would gladly take a hit for her.




Might not be the best idea.  Right now, Star is uninjured and has 27 Defense with 2 HP.  With 3 injuries/bruises from the initial attacks, Wren isn't much tougher than Star at the moment and is easier to hit - so he's probably more vulnerable right now.  Interpose works before the attack roll, so if you interposed, then Star's defense wouldn't come into play.  Now if she gets stunned or feinted, then it's a much better deal.


----------



## kirinke

Hope is also uninjured which is a surprise. Usually in past fights, both she and Star are usually the first two to go down or get badly hurt.    

Yay for Masterplan!

Fear the goodness!   

Hmm, if Deimos goes down before Hope can get a shot out, transpose that to the next available bad-guy.

ooo. Evil thought. Since Aron is playing up the Ares role, what if Hope called upon the 'real' Furies to aid in his judgement?  Specifically Tisiphone the one associated with avenging murder. Heck. Since there are three ladies in the group, he might even associate them with the Furies.   

That'd be after he's been taken. Or before if the play gives room for it.


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Pop culture reference
> "Now BOW BEFORE ME! Look upon my might and DISPAIR!"
> Lord of the Rings, Galandriel to Frodo when he offers her the ring.




Did she says that?  If so, it would probably be Tolkein using the same original inspiration as I: Shelley's "Ozymandias."  The inscription on Ozy's statue includes the words "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"  They are included somewhat ironically, since they are on a decaying ruin, showing Ozy's (and by extension, mankind's) hubris -- a hubris that this version of Phobos clearly shares.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Did she says that?  If so, it would probably be Tolkein using the same original inspiration as I: Shelley's "Ozymandias."  The inscription on Ozy's statue includes the words "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"  They are included somewhat ironically, since they are on a decaying ruin, showing Ozy's (and by extension, mankind's) hubris -- a hubris that this version of Phobos clearly shares.




Paraphrased.


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe, she doesn't say those words. 

Good catch on the actual source though!


----------



## Victim

Err, Star was shooting at Ares, not Deimos.  But this didn't work out too badly either.


----------



## Shayuri

Um....wait just a second.

I'm a little annoyed.

Would Ares recovering his weapon from across the room not count as an action? I know -throwing- it across the room does. So how could he recover it, then also attack?

It's just...hooray, you just totally wasted your action, Vi. 

Okay, a lot annoyed.

Thanks for catching the oops on what I was rolling though. For all the good it did.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Um....wait just a second.
> 
> I'm a little annoyed.
> 
> Would Ares recovering his weapon from across the room not count as an action? I know -throwing- it across the room does. So how could he recover it, then also attack?
> 
> It's just...hooray, you just totally wasted your action, Vi.
> 
> Okay, a lot annoyed.
> 
> Thanks for catching the oops on what I was rolling though. For all the good it did.




He can summon it back as a free action, like he did when he dropped it when stunned.  Now were it prevented from moving freely back to him, that would be a different story.


----------



## Shayuri

Mew. When you put it like that, I should have realized TKing the thing wouldn't have worked.

Sorry about that. Next time I'll take a deeper breath before posting. 

Question though. If I spend an HP or use Extra Effort to surge, does that give me another action I can use for powers? Could I have TK'ed the weapon, then surged and Transformed it, while he couldn't make a save to...er...save it?

Of course, it might be too heavy to transform unless I extra effort to boost power...which might not be possible if I surge too. Heeee.

Could I have transformed -part- of it? Like, say, just the blade?


----------



## Victim

The problem is that we failed to capitalize on the disarm - Apollo or Star could have picked up and dropped it into the ocean miles away.  Nitro could have picked it up and used it (without really interfering with his attacks too much) - assuming that the advanced weapon just works for anyone (might be a stretch).  I can leave an IF in my next action to exploit a disarm if you want and if no one else is doing it.

An alternative method for taking his vari-weapon out of play would likely be a TK Grab+Pin. Since his strength wasn't high enough to beat the disarm, grappling might not be too bad either (especially since doing it with TK means not exposing yourself to any nasty counterattacks - like if his weapon turned itself into a mass of spikes or something to injure conventional grapplers).  Plus it also makes him more vulnerable.

You can't use Surge and another form of Extra Effort in the same round.  However, you can get some of the same effect by spending an HP.  Since your battle magic array is already on TK, you could try the Disarm, Surge for the extra action, and spend a HP to gain a new AP slot.  Thess could get a higher power version of her Transform by using her battlemagic array as a base, or you could retool her existing transform by adding flaws (Distracting is a fairly low risk possibility ATM, especially if your action works).

Who wants to put the finishing touch on Deimos?


----------



## Victim

Oops.  I made a mistake in my attack last round.  Star's attack bonus was +9, but I punched in +10 on Invisible Castle (probably because I forgot the fatigue penalty, I was planning on HPing it and changed my mind).  So her correct attack total was 28, not 29.  Since I don't think Deimos had a 25 defense (especially after being stunned by Nightweaver), her autofire was probably maxed anyway, so I don't think it makes a difference though.  Stupid though.

EDIT:  And if only I'd cut a rank off Homing instead of Improved Critical...


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Mew. When you put it like that, I should have realized TKing the thing wouldn't have worked.
> 
> Sorry about that. Next time I'll take a deeper breath before posting.
> 
> Question though. If I spend an HP or use Extra Effort to surge, does that give me another action I can use for powers? Could I have TK'ed the weapon, then surged and Transformed it, while he couldn't make a save to...er...save it?
> 
> Of course, it might be too heavy to transform unless I extra effort to boost power...which might not be possible if I surge too. Heeee.
> 
> Could I have transformed -part- of it? Like, say, just the blade?




You could try transform, but it probably is too heavy, and since it seems to be able to turn into multiple weapons, it is not clear if her transform can be reversed.


----------



## Victim

Since Apollo's Strike is Mighty, shouldn't it do 11 damage?


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> You could try transform, but it probably is too heavy, and since it seems to be able to turn into multiple weapons, it is not clear if her transform can be reversed.




Hmm. Of them all, Hope probably has the best shot of using it, especially since she can use her Force of nature to increase her strength, plus her postcog ability to figure out how to use it. She also has a hero point she can spend....

Oooo. Please let Hope be the one to finish Ares off, please?


----------



## Victim

Using postcog on Ares's weapon sounds like a good way to hammer yourself with TMI.

And no deal.  Star has decided to show off this fight.

Plus I don't think you can attack with the weapon this round.  Wouldn't Hope have to move into melee AND pick up the weapon, leaving her no action left to attack unless you decide to surge?


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Using postcog on Ares's weapon sounds like a good way to hammer yourself with TMI.
> 
> And no deal.  Star has decided to show off this fight.
> 
> Plus I don't think you can attack with the weapon this round.  Wouldn't Hope have to move into melee AND pick up the weapon, leaving her no action left to attack unless you decide to surge?




Considering how pissed she is at the moment, plus the Furies egging her on, I think that's probably what will happen. Surging I mean. 

And I think that the Furies would be protecting her and directing her abilities in the right direction. As I said, it's a in game way to describe the Hero Point.   

Hmmm. Maybe they can kill him together. I mean, like I said, the last coupla fights, both Star and Hope have gotten themselves creamed. It's about time both of them got some of their own back.


----------



## Victim

Dang...  That was amazing.  Not in our favor, but still impressive.  "Don't pass out while I'm talking to you."


----------



## DM_Matt

Randomish Question: This board tends to sustain very few M&M games in general, and the official M&M boards just started a PBP section.  What would people think about moving the game to ATT to help support the development of the M&M PBP community?

I know Elric and Victim are very active over there, and I (a lurker) have seen Kirinke and Raylis around, but I don't want to make people go out of there way or not check the game as much because they are usually just checking here.  Personally, this game is the only reason I go to Enworld at all since I don't really play D&D anymore.  IIRC the same is true for Elric.


----------



## kirinke

I really don't have a problem with it, if we move it on the next issue so to speak. I've mostly been over there begging for portraits. Be nice to contribute something positive. 

Heh. It was good, even though it wasn't in our favor..... 
Sorry about Wren, but he does have Regeneration. 

This'll be a good time for Hope to use her healing ability after the fight.


----------



## Vanifae

I have no qualms with it, I think I might still have an account there.


----------



## Victim

That healing will probably work really well on all the incureable damage we took.

And Wren has regen from death, not injury.  And there's the whole "can't really do things while unconscious" problem.

I think Star and Nightweaver might be tied as far as getting beaten up.

Fight #1:  werewolves beat NW into unconsciousness.  F-22s nearly kill Star.
Fight #2:  Faust nearly kills NW with suffocation.  Barrington KOs Star.
Fight #3:  IIRC, Nightweaver was exhausted by poison darts in the Foundry, and Star was only staggered instead of KO'd.  
Fight #4:  Ben and Sarah knock out NW.  Star is absent.
Fight #5:  Star nearly dies crash landing thanks to Asad's Stun/Nullify beam.  Nightweaver was fine I think?
Fight #6:  Results pending.

It's sort of like they switch off.  

As long as everyone else doesn't mind moving to ATT, then I don't have a problem with it.


----------



## Raylis

yeah I think Star and Night trade turns being the designated punching bag 

I have no preference which board we use


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I was thinking of this whole Healing not allowing Persistent and such.  Would it be allowable for Wren to use the Healing, but have to spend a HP to add the Persistent extra for incurable damage?  It would go with his Luck, and without Persistent, he's not that much of a 'Guardian' so to say.  

As for my status, Disabled, Staggered, Stunned, 3 Injuries, 4 Bruises...all incurable, what am I allowed to do, as I have one HP left...

Man, talk about getting stabbed in the back!


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I was thinking of this whole Healing not allowing Persistent and such.  Would it be allowable for Wren to use the Healing, but have to spend a HP to add the Persistent extra for incurable damage?  It would go with his Luck, and without Persistent, he's not that much of a 'Guardian' so to say.
> 
> As for my status, Disabled, Staggered, Stunned, 3 Injuries, 4 Bruises...all incurable, what am I allowed to do, as I have one HP left...
> 
> Man, talk about getting stabbed in the back!




She's gonna feel horribly guilty about it though.... Since you're a guy, it's well within your right to capitalize on it.


----------



## Elric

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I was thinking of this whole Healing not allowing Persistent and such.  Would it be allowable for Wren to use the Healing, but have to spend a HP to add the Persistent extra for incurable damage?  It would go with his Luck, and without Persistent, he's not that much of a 'Guardian' so to say.




You can use Extra Effort to power stunt a different healing power.  Healing (Extras: Total, Action-Standard Action, PF: Persistent) at 4 pp/rank + 1 for Persistent should go a long way...


----------



## Shayuri

I was thinking of having Viridian power stunt a multitarget persistant heal, if allowed to, once we get back on the plane.

I was first gonna power stunt a mass teleport, but it looks like Night's got that taken care of.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I was thinking of having Viridian power stunt a multitarget persistant heal, if allowed to, once we get back on the plane.
> 
> I was first gonna power stunt a mass teleport, but it looks like Night's got that taken care of.




So if she just going to move into range of Nightweaver's Shadow Walk?  Is she going to cast anything wih her standard action?


----------



## Victim

While unconscious, you might be able to spend your HP to make a recovery check, but it'd still take a full turn (at least).  And since Hope's recovery check is only +3, the result is by no means certain.  Getting knocked out is pretty serious (without the rather problematic regen against it) - you spend HP trying to avoid it, but once it lands, you can't really just spend your points to act normally.

It seems like Viridian needs to buy the group in the hold an extra round, and get close to Nightweaver for the 'port out.  There are lots of ways for her to have a decent chance at that, especially if you're willing to use extra effort.  Depending on how the bodies fell, however, using her salt circle might not be viable - there might be no way to protect all of our people and exclude Ares with that shape.  But there's plenty of things Viridian could do.  Even taking a ready action to throw herself into any attack on Nightweaver would probably work, since Ares doesn't seem to have Takedown Attack (thankfully).  You can probably do better than that though.  Since we probably want this to be the last fighting round, go wild.    There's still a chance Ares can get taken down - V's mental blast is incureable too.  

Wren is disabled, staggered and stunned.  To act, he'd probably need to clear the stun (but if Hope's turn is before his, then he'll shake that off automatically in time to go).  Since he's disabled, he can basically take a single action before passing out.  Like Elric says, stunting a persistent, total healing power would be handy if its allowed.


----------



## kirinke

I was looking back on some of the previous fights, I know Hope didn't use all of her hero points from before.... I just don't know how many she has left. She has at least one, probably close to three. not counting the ones she earned this fight. I mean, last fight, she was banged up fairly well too.

Ohhh. Edited her last action to reflect the hero point spent. If I have any others for her it'll be in the next post.

She is feeling quite the guilt at the min.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Uh, Matt, with those hits, you are taking into account my Force Field 7, with Impervious +7, right?  It just seems that Wren was too easily hit/hurt.  

As for getting out of here, I am going to go ahead and use up my HP to remove the stun, and Teleport everyone out.  I have the best means to, as I can use up 38pp to provide plenty of Teleport power.  Plus, I have added weight, towing one of the unconscious villains, remember.  Sorry, Nightwaever, but Wren's going to go ahead and do this.  Besides, we'll need you to provide some cover with darkness or such.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Teleport:

I have 38 points to use as an Array Power, so I might as well use what I got!

I am Disabled, Staggered, Stunned, 3 Injuries, 4 Bruises...all incurable and have 1 HP, I would have to use the HP to remove the Stunned, otherwise I can't act, correct?  Then, I would Extra Effort for an Alternate Power in my array, which should be ok to do.  Correct?

Teleport is 2pp/rank normal, adding the extras of Accurate and Area for increasing the cost to 4pp/rank.  I can then take the Tiring Flaw, as it's PERFECT for Extra Effort uses, bringing it back down to 3pp/rank, and adding Selective PF and Progression x7 PF to have the following possibilities:

Teleport Rank 10 (total cost=38pp)
Extra: Accurate and Area
Flaw: Tiring
PF: Selective and Progression x7

Able to Teleport the lot of us, including Deimos and the snared villain without regards to mass, as it would be under the cap of max people to move of 100 people or what I translate to well over the lbs needed to move everyone including the two downed villains.

Able to move a distance of 1000 feet, which is plenty to get to plane cargo area.

So, is this acceptable?


----------



## DM_Matt

Night was set to do something like that (though weaker), but sure, you can do it now rather than waiting a round as she would have to.


----------



## DM_Matt

I'll just need to know what Viridian does before the TP.


----------



## Victim

Ah, a mass teleport evac.  Just like Wren's first appearance...  Good times, good times.


----------



## Shayuri

Smee. I apologize for delay. Just one question and I'll post.

Will Nightweaver come before Ares in the initiative, or after?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Victim said:
			
		

> Ah, a mass teleport evac.  Just like Wren's first appearance...  Good times, good times.



Yeah, I figure that he's going to need to provide the Teleport, as he's got the most weight attached.  (one snared villain is tethered to him...)  Plus, he will take Deimos as well, while he's still out.  Ares/Voderac can stay there and monologue to himself.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> Night was set to do something like that (though weaker), but sure, you can do it now rather than waiting a round as she would have to.




Cool, as I would like to do it asap.  I do have enough actions to perform said act, correct?  Plus, I would simply inform the plane to begin takeoff, as I would be TP'ing everyone into the cargo area asap.


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Smee. I apologize for delay. Just one question and I'll post.
> 
> Will Nightweaver come before Ares in the initiative, or after?




Before.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> I was looking back on some of the previous fights, I know Hope didn't use all of her hero points from before.... I just don't know how many she has left. She has at least one, probably close to three. not counting the ones she earned this fight. I mean, last fight, she was banged up fairly well too.




Hero Points don't accumulate like that.  I think most of the characters would have considerably more HP at the moment if that were the case.

And even having 10 HP still doesn't let you act while unconscious.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Hero Points don't accumulate like that.  I think most of the characters would have considerably more HP at the moment if that were the case.
> 
> And even having 10 HP still doesn't let you act while unconscious.




True. I was just wondering. Well in any case, she spent one hero point to wake up, the one she naturally had, the next round, she's healing Wren, even though they're out of harm's way. And she's using the hero point from being knocked out to bring him up to consciousness.  

Hmmm. I've had a nasty thought. I was thinking that tracking someone to the gates of hell and throwing them on the wards in order to kill them would leave some sort of um.... problems behind. 

That could account for the reason why she's acting so irrationally lately, because normally, she is very competent and the problems have been building up to this. No one has noticed because they all think it's just grief from loosing her partner like she did. Maybe Wren or Viridian could sense it and help her with a clensing or something similar.


----------



## Victim

One thing we might want to work on is in maximizing our returns on Master Plan/Inspire.  Inspire has cost Wren a fair sum of points, plus the full round action and HP to use.  When that comes up, it's worth going a bit out of our way to make use of it.  It's both powerful, and expensive, so it's a shame to waste it.  Using Surge, or at least throwing things that require attack rolls (possibly with Power Attack) seems like a good way to capitalize on it.  

To improve on coordination, people who post early and check frequently might want to change some of their actions or throw in contingencies based on the actions other people post.  For example, Kirinke and I seem to be on these threads alot.  For example, with Star and Viridian throwing out AoE effects on the mercenaries, having ice walls to block their shots was more than a little redundant.  Similarly, we should have done something to the weapon the first time it hit the ground - although ideally Nitro would have picked up the weapon, since he's actually good with melee including weapons.


----------



## Shayuri

Yar...Inspire modified attack rolls, which Viridian doesn't really use. All her powers are Perception. One thing I keep bumping into with Vi is that I'm paranoid about using powers that allow a save. DC 21 just feels inadequate to me, but you can't get more at this PL. I'm also regretting taking the Sense Dependent on her mental blast...it makes a lot of conceptual sense, but because it means the target can totally negate the power with a Reflex save, now I'm gunshy about using it.

Are there any legal ways to push these save DC's? Or is Extra Effort my only option?


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Yar...Inspire modified attack rolls, which Viridian doesn't really use. All her powers are Perception. One thing I keep bumping into with Vi is that I'm paranoid about using powers that allow a save. DC 21 just feels inadequate to me, but you can't get more at this PL. I'm also regretting taking the Sense Dependent on her mental blast...it makes a lot of conceptual sense, but because it means the target can totally negate the power with a Reflex save, now I'm gunshy about using it.
> 
> Are there any legal ways to push these save DC's? Or is Extra Effort my only option?




No.  If you had non-perception powers, you could increase the DCs at the expense of attack, of course.  Or use Power Attack.

However, I think you're being overly shy about using those powers.  Just look at our characters.  Nitro is 11/9/6.  Star is 9/13/7.  Nightweaver is 7/10/9.  Etc. Wren's saves are the best at 10/9/14.  Viridian is generally above or around the 50/50 level of success on her powers against us (naturally, enemies that are tougher than us probably have higher saves, but that applies to conventional attacks too).  And she auto-hits.  

If someone seems high on Exotic saves or the enemy has taken lots of bruise/injuries, she can toss out a DC 23 damaging TK attack (or throw one enemy at another).  

While Thessaly lacks the ability to really hammer defenseless targets (stunned people, mostly), I'd say her odds of inflicting serious effects (stun or rough equivalent) aren't any worse against dodging targets than anyone else, generally.  

One thing you can do to increase the chance of someone failing a save is to Surge to attack again.  It's generally going to provide a bigger chance that someone fails than +2 DC for the same cost, and if you use something that stacks (not emotion control), then someone can really get hammered.  Since V has several ranks of Luck and attacking more often is a good way to get awarded more HP, since GM Fiat is used to help reduce the effects, she use that trick without making herself too vulnerable.

But Viridian wasn't one of the people who got Inspired, probably because she doesn't make attack rolls (unless she's throwing someone/thing with TK or things have gone very wrong).


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

Good points, as I went with Inspire with the people I believed would perform attacks on the guys.  It's works best that way, as it allows higher than PL caps.  I usually think that Nitro would be the best option to Inspire, and then I went with who usually attacks.  That was Star of course, as those orbs she throws are NICE!!!  I can't remember who else I Inspired, but you get the idea.  

As for teamwork, I was going to ask that some video feedback be used to check out each others fighting techniques, and if possible, a simulation room to provide teamwork skills be used as well.  I was thinking of a buddy system, where two of us could team up to learn as much as we could about the other in a combat situation.  Then, split to another pair of people, until each of us could effectively work with everyone effectively.  But, alas, that requires teamwork in itself, and we aren't too keen on that sense right now...


----------



## Victim

Video feedback would be nice.  Think about all the information that the group is never getting.  Star and Nitro missed out on the entire museum fight.  And they're also the only ones to see Barrington in action, up close (although he seemed to be mostly in a 'toy with them' mode, so we didn't see all that much).  Similarly, characters who get knocked or who use Moveby extensively aren't seeing important things.

Hope and Apollo were Inspired as well.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Video feedback would be nice.  Think about all the information that the group is never getting.  Star and Nitro missed out on the entire museum fight.  And they're also the only ones to see Barrington in action, up close (although he seemed to be mostly in a 'toy with them' mode, so we didn't see all that much).  Similarly, characters who get knocked or who use Moveby extensively aren't seeing important things.
> 
> Hope and Apollo were Inspired as well.





I was thinking about that. Hope's ability of precognition applies to more than just objects, it applies to the past, though again her control over it isn't one hundred percent, as we found in the freighter. Maybe she could use that and her ability to project her visions to help out with that.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> I was thinking about that. Hope's ability of precognition applies to more than just objects, it applies to the past, though again her control over it isn't one hundred percent, as we found in the freighter. Maybe she could use that and her ability to project her visions to help out with that.




It's also uncontrolled, so it'd probably be more likely to pick up unrelated scenes from a person's past than a functional combat review.


----------



## Victim

Oh yeah.  Another way to increase the effect of save based powers is to use some form of Luck Control.


----------



## kirinke

Compy died a few days ago, so I'm catching up on what has happened. 

Hmmm. Do we get any Power points this time?


----------



## Victim

That sucks.  

No XP has been awarded at this time.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> That sucks.
> 
> No XP has been awarded at this time.




Yeah, had to use my refund to buy another. But this one is pretty sweet tho.  

Hmmm. Hope did have some pretty good reasons behind her actions. Though they didn't turn out the way she wanted them to. 

She did make a good distraction for Ares and a possible obsession as well.


----------



## Victim

I believe Elric's point might be that retroactively inventing an excuse for your character exercising bad judgement isn't a good idea since you'll just have to keep doing it everytime your character messes up.

And that it's really annoying when you make definitive statements about your character, the reactions of others, etc that you don't really have the authority to do.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> I believe Elric's point might be that retroactively inventing an excuse for your character exercising bad judgement isn't a good idea since you'll just have to keep doing it everytime your character messes up.
> 
> And that it's really annoying when you make definitive statements about your character, the reactions of others, etc that you don't really have the authority to do.




Ahh sorry


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> That sucks.
> 
> No XP has been awarded at this time.




1 PP is however being awarded at this time.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> 1 PP is however being awarded at this time.




I'm adding that to Hope's weather magic array and adding variable to both Her main attack and her conjure Ice attack. If that's feasable that is."


----------



## Shayuri

What does Variable do?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> What does Variable do?




She means Variable descriptor.  As in, she can do solid air instead of ice, I guess.  Probably a waste of points if you ask me, at least beyond the conjure ability.


----------



## kirinke

Hmmm. Any other ideas on what I should do with it? Maybe luck control with the luck feat added? I'd be willing to add the setback flaw for fun and giggles.


----------



## Raylis

just so my math is right, we received 2pp from the warehouse thing and 1pp from this?


----------



## kirinke

Raylis said:
			
		

> just so my math is right, we received 2pp from the warehouse thing and 1pp from this?




I dunno. I haven't applied anything from the warehouse I think....


----------



## Victim

IIRC, we got 3 from the opening fight and then the museum/street fight.  1 from the Foundry.  And then another one from the fighting on this in game day.

Hmm, I could buy Concealment Visual: Displacement for 2 pp.  Since other superfast characters should able to target her normally, that might be worth a drawback - but I'm not sure where exactly that line would be drawn.


----------



## Shayuri

Wouldn't it be 4pp? Full visual invisibility is 8pp, because it costs 2 ranks, but 4pp per rank (double the usual cost per rank for full concealment from a sense). Displacement reduces the cost, but I didn't think it reduced it that much...


----------



## Victim

I'd be starting with normal sight only instead of doing all visual senses.  My initial post was not particularlly clear.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> IIRC, we got 3 from the opening fight and then the museum/street fight.  1 from the Foundry.  And then another one from the fighting on this in game day.
> 
> Hmm, I could buy Concealment Visual: Displacement for 2 pp.  Since other superfast characters should able to target her normally, that might be worth a drawback - but I'm not sure where exactly that line would be drawn.




Well, displacement would be a good in-theme ability for Star. She could be going so fast that she slips in and out of reality or something like that, so that she appears to be in one place, but is actually slightly to the left of that place.


----------



## Victim

I was going for more for her moving faster than people can readily track.


----------



## kirinke

Huh. There is that too.

I was considering adding another power to her weather attack array. Maybe tornado.


----------



## Victim

What would that be, Air Control with a Shapeable Area?


----------



## Shayuri

I'd call it a specialized TK. It has a limit where it can only move things in one way...in a spiral towards the center of the effect, and upwards. Then give the Explosion Area. 

This makes it exert a gradually increasing force that sucks everything it can upwards and towards the center of the area...which loosely approximates what tornadoes do.


----------



## kirinke

Mmmm. No.

It's in ultimate power under Air Control. Page 133


Tornado:
You can whip up a powerful vortex of wind that causes damage in a wide area, acting like a blast with the area burst modifier. This tornado continues inflicting damage on the affected area as longas you concentrate on it (giving the effect a concentration duration) Damage bonus is half your Air cdontrol rank, rounded down and the tornado's radius is five times its damage bonus in feet. So Air control 8 for example has a damage bonus of +4 and a radius of 20 feet.






I dunno. It's basically an area attack, she already has Hail. I'm kinda grasping a straws on what to put it towards.


----------



## Shayuri

You -could- do it that way. 

It'd be simpler, no question.


----------



## Victim

I was thinking more of a mini-tornado that would sweep through a path.  That would give Hope something in between a big radius effect and a single target attack.


----------



## kirinke

And it'd be another 'Wth" moment for Star. 'She can't dooo that!'    

Hmm. That's probably possible with this power, scale her power back some. I mean, she does have precise Air control, so she can customize the power level to a degree. It'd have to be up to the DM tho.


One of us really needs to invest in luck control, that would be a very useful group ability to have.


----------



## Elric

kirinke said:
			
		

> One of us really needs to invest in luck control, that would be a very useful group ability to have.




It's very hard to run Luck Control in an online game, since you tend to want to react to unfolding events using Luck Control, but they're all resolved by Matt which means you'd either need to write a lot of contingencies into posts or backtrack a lot.

I'd be fine moving to ATT.


----------



## Shayuri

I'd prefer sticking here, just because it would make my life easier having one less separate page to check. But honestly, it doesn't matter that much. If the majority wants to move, I'll go along with it.


----------



## kirinke

I'm okay either way.  I check up both sites fairly regularly in any case.

Ohhhh evil idea.

Star and Hope are really at each others throats right now and it is comic book fiat for superheroes who are in teams, who are at each others throats (whew, say that 10x fast) to either have their powers switched for a short while, switch bodies or be trapped somewhere (like a shared nightmare or somesuch) so that they have to get along, come to an understanding and learn to work together to get out of it.


----------



## Victim

Elric said:
			
		

> It's very hard to run Luck Control in an online game, since you tend to want to react to unfolding events using Luck Control, but they're all resolved by Matt which means you'd either need to write a lot of contingencies into posts or backtrack a lot.




Yeah.  When I mentioned Luck Control, I was thinking of something flawed down - like the inverse of dodge mastery.  Pick the "roll twice, pick the worst" power of Luck Control and then put a flaw on it so the control applies when someone is saving against one of your powers.  Now you effectively have some extra power for your attacks in emergencies.  I'm not sure how balanced it would be, however.  It seems like it'd be considerably more effective than something like Dodge Mastery since the player has far more control over how to use it - the player decides when to attack, but not really when the character gets attacked (but you can influence things of course).
-----------------------------

Splitting the party for an extended period can be difficult to run.

And power or body swaps get complicated since the line between learned and innate traits is often fuzzy.  Even a pure physical stat like Con can have different descriptors.  While Star has a huge Con due to physical changes from mutation, another character might be tough, quick to heal, and resistant to poisons and such because they have grit and determination enough to shrug off injuries and debilitating effects.  It's hard to think of a way to swap things that's somewhat fair, keeps to the spirit of the characters, and isn't a tremedous pain.  For example, Star's powers natively are much more like her Corrosion cone than the orbs she throws: overly dangerous to herself and others.  So what happens in the event of a switch?  Either Hope is sort of screwed with powers that mess her up if she tries to use them or Star is major chump (or even more of one) for taking years to learn what Hope just did in like minutes.  See what I mean?

On the other hand, there is the "Don't think too hard about [X]" rule, where X is fantasy, super heroes, etc.  

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

As I mentioned earlier, I have no problem with switching to ATT, but it's not really something I'd particularly want to do either.


----------



## kirinke

Victim said:
			
		

> Yeah.  When I mentioned Luck Control, I was thinking of something flawed down - like the inverse of dodge mastery.  Pick the "roll twice, pick the worst" power of Luck Control and then put a flaw on it so the control applies when someone is saving against one of your powers.  Now you effectively have some extra power for your attacks in emergencies.  I'm not sure how balanced it would be, however.  It seems like it'd be considerably more effective than something like Dodge Mastery since the player has far more control over how to use it - the player decides when to attack, but not really when the character gets attacked (but you can influence things of course).
> -----------------------------
> 
> Splitting the party for an extended period can be difficult to run.
> 
> And power or body swaps get complicated since the line between learned and innate traits is often fuzzy.  Even a pure physical stat like Con can have different descriptors.  While Star has a huge Con due to physical changes from mutation, another character might be tough, quick to heal, and resistant to poisons and such because they have grit and determination enough to shrug off injuries and debilitating effects.  It's hard to think of a way to swap things that's somewhat fair, keeps to the spirit of the characters, and isn't a tremedous pain.  For example, Star's powers natively are much more like her Corrosion cone than the orbs she throws: overly dangerous to herself and others.  So what happens in the event of a switch?  Either Hope is sort of screwed with powers that mess her up if she tries to use them or Star is major chump (or even more of one) for taking years to learn what Hope just did in like minutes.  See what I mean?
> 
> On the other hand, there is the "Don't think too hard about [X]" rule, where X is fantasy, super heroes, etc.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------
> 
> As I mentioned earlier, I have no problem with switching to ATT, but it's not really something I'd particularly want to do either.




Lol. That's true. But it is an evil idea. I especially like the shared nightmare-trap idea.


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> Star's powers natively are much more like her Corrosion cone than the orbs she throws: overly dangerous to herself and others.  So what happens in the event of a switch?  Either Hope is sort of screwed with powers that mess her up if she tries to use them or Star is major chump (or even more of one) for taking years to learn what Hope just did in like minutes.  See what I mean?




This is why the power switching thing should not happen.


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I've never been to the other website, ATT, so I wouldn't know what to expect.  I don't mind, just let me know so I can create an account there and get to posting.  THANKS~!


----------



## Victim

Search works, so there's often a bit less patience with common questions, and there's a really annoying nested quote 'feature.'  I'd peg the overall tone and use of language to be more like here than WotC or RPGnet.


----------



## kirinke

Mstt? If you could lookit my character sheet to see if I did the Tornado write up alright? I think I could add some more to it, but I don't really know.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> (I'm honestly not sure how to deal with this. Hope does have serious issues, but I'm not really qualified to write as a shrink.  Also, there is something kind of unheroic-feeling about her getting medication for it...Imagine SpiderMan with some Prozac -- actually, never mind, bad example, he might be a lot less annoying     RE: Mind healing, that seems like kinds of a cheat  She should probably evolve out of her issues, rather than have them erased by a telepath.)




Well. Like I was kinda saying in the Game thread, mind-healing can take alot of forms. It doesn't have to be a straight glowy poof, you're healed deal. For Hope, I was thinking of some sort of vision-quest type thing, it'd fit in with her sort of druidish type nature based powers. And that's just her issues, her personality problems, she can evolve out of, heck, that sort of thing can help her confront her own personal fears and hang-ups and as I said, it'd be a good chance to earn some HP or PP.


----------



## Victim

Wren's plan is going the wrong way, I think.  Star's damage tops out at 12 on normal hits, and can be less if her autofire doesn't go so well.  She's throwing around basically the same 25% chance to stun per hit on most enemies as the other characters.  However, she's less likely to inflict the serious KO and staggered results.  

On the other hand, Nitro starts at +14 damage, and has Power Attack for more.  If the target can't defend itself properly, Nitro can really pound them.  Of course, he has plenty of feint options for setting that up himself, but those can fail too and eat a move action.

It generally going to be a better idea for our lighter attackers open up on enemies, hopefully creating opportunities that the heavy hitters can exploit.  Against a stunned, snared target, Star ought to be maxing out her autofire - but there's a decent chance that's happening on just her normal attack roll.  Nitro or Nightweaver, however, can crank up the Power Attack to finish them off.

So we'd want the snares (or any of the other crippling attacks V can throw) and Star and or Apollo going off early, and then Nitro and Nightweaver exploiting any openings created by initial attacks that hit.  Hope is slightly in favor of damage, has Imp Crit a few time, no Power Attack, and also has other set up moves (blinding, TK throws) - she can sort of go either way.

Naturally, in game, we'll have multiple enemies to engage (most of the time) - possibly with barriers or significant distances in between, and a random starting order (most of the time).  So things won't be so clear cut.  For example, Nitro also has Improved Initiative, so if he's going in front of some baddies it might be best to attempt to nail them before they can go.

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

Precise doesn't let you change the Area size.  You need Progression for that - and you have to pick whether or not the progression works toward making the area bigger or smaller when you buy it.

It also needs a rank.  Since you have Indirect, Affects Insub, 'Precise', that leaves 29 of your 32 point array open for buying ranks.  So Hope can buy a +9 Area Blast with those mods.  Since she'd have 2 points open that way, she can afford the extra progression feats.

Since Hope already has a +10 Indirect Area Blast, buying a second one seems rather redundant.  If you want to nail some wind/mist guy, you could always do a stunt off your weather attack array.  You could take that 1 point, and apply a power feat (like Variable Descriptor IIRC) to your entire attack power array so Hope could attack with wind, lightning, hail, etc.

Actually, you should have done that with your last power point.


----------



## kirinke

Okay here are her powers modified as follows:
*Weather Magic Array (33 base +6ap = 39)*
-Blast: Blast 12, Imp Crit 3, Knockback 4, Indirect, Variable 
Blast 10+ Dazzle Visual 5, Indirect, variable
-Area Blast 10: Indirect, progression 10 (can scale backwards), variable, (area burst modifier) Affects insubstatial

-Blow Away: Trip 10, Knockback, Area: Cone, Improved Trip, variable
-Hands of Air: Precise Air Control 10 (As Telekinesis) ), 
    Freshen Air (removes or counters gas effects or scents)
-Force of Nature: Enhanced Strength 22, Super-Stregth 2, (PF:Superbreath), 
Enhanced Feats: Unarmed Specialization 3, Melee Focus 1, Imp Crit (Unarmed)
-Create object: Continuous Create Object 9, Precise, Tether, Selective, Innate, Progression 1, Variable 


Can I do any more tweaking with this? Hmmm. I haven't really used the Healing power at all really, could I trade it for something else? I was considering Precognition or ESP.


----------



## Victim

What's black kryptonite?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> What's black kryptonite?




Causes those who come into contact with it (and not jsut Kryptonians) to divide into two distinct entities, one representing their good side and the other representing their evil side.  Originated in Smallville, then immigrated to the comics.


----------



## Victim

That sounds sort of overly mystical for kryptonite.  And rather messy for what it means to the character (and the split entities).


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> That sounds sort of overly mystical for kryptonite.  And rather messy for what it means to the character (and the split entities).





Possibly.  Smallville did a reasonable job of it though, but only bc it only happened to plot-appropriate individuals.  Once it split Clark Kent and Kal-El, and the other time it split good Lex from evil Lex (these warring split personalities are a running thread with Lex on SV).  It wouldn't necessarily have worked for other characters.


----------



## kirinke

From what I understand, kryptonite is basically a du ex machina for the DC Verse. 

In any case, um, could I switch out the Healing for something else? Like ESP or Precognition? Either would fit in much better with her character concept. And I kinda need somebody to look at her power array to see if I could tweek it some more.


----------



## Victim

I thought that it was Superboy punching time.



			
				Vanifae said:
			
		

> _I don't mind doing it in parallel, kind of like a semi-flashback thing... makes for a cool comic-booky story image thing._




That works too.  If we want to minimize issues from not knowing roughly what happened as we move foward, then it might be useful to come with a sort of outline to at first, to cover would happens barring any major screwup.  Since Apollo is the one with all the social skills, I figure he's going to have the initiative.


----------



## Vanifae

Well essentially Apollo is looking to always have a good time first and foremost; he would of course want to wow her and have a stretch Hummer limo pick her up and bring her to his suite where there would be world class food prepared by his personal chef/nutritionist.  Of course that would be early in the evening and despite his wealth he would dress in semi-casual though expensive evening wear, a mixture of a suit with grunge, then the two could go for a moonlight flight about the city, chit-chat, and land on the beach somewhere for intimate stroll, he would obviously avoid anywhere public because he doubts that Star could handle that and he really isn’t in the mood for the paparazzi.

I guess that is the basic outline right there, I am not sure if that will help but that gives the gist of what he was planning at the very least.  Plus a serenade on the beach, but then again being a musician that goes without saying.  Mostly he would be trying to avoid public scrutiny, have fun, and show her a good time.


----------



## Victim

I don't feel that that plan will cause any major issues.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> I don't feel that that plan will cause any major issues.



 Basically Apollo would keep it low key as far as his actual demeanor well he is rather forward in a charming way... I guess one could call it charming...


----------



## Victim

If it's not charming, then maybe some of those Diplomacy ranks have to go.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> If it's not charming, then maybe some of those Diplomacy ranks have to go.



 Haha it is charming he would act pretty much the way he did on the mission, charming, forward, and always playful  knowing just what to say I suppose.

The big question I guess is do the heroes share a kiss, or does Star get all prude and nervous


----------



## Victim

Vanifae said:
			
		

> Haha it is charming he would act pretty much the way he did on the mission, charming, forward, and always playful  knowing just what to say I suppose.
> 
> The big question I guess is do the heroes share a kiss, or does Star get all prude and nervous




Based on his behavior and thoughts earlier, I had been expecting Apollo to attempt to move much faster than that.  Star will probably be nervous, but not prudish.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> Based on his behavior and thoughts earlier, I had been expecting Apollo to attempt to move much faster than that.  Star will probably be nervous, but not prudish.



Well of course but I am talking about the *splash* page kiss, the big one, the first one between two characters; the one that people go oh yeah... where the artists gets to flex his romantic muscles, where they are floating over the water, the moon reflected in the ocean, two eyes meet... and then deep passionate kiss.

Of course two seconds afterwards Apollo will be trying to get her back to some place private, so he can tell her Good Morning instead of Good Night.

For DM Matt most likely despite trying to go unnoticed, the couple would probably get sighted and put on Youtube or something crazy... I mean he is super famous and all that... Star/Heather would be the "mystery" girl.


----------



## Victim

Star doesn't stand a chance.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> Star doesn't stand a chance.



 Then his mission is accomplished.


----------



## Victim

I had assumed that the date would be taking place following the PCs' return from the Ares mission.  On the other hand, I thought that was more at night already than during the day.

Apollo might be working on plans for the next day.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> I had assumed that the date would be taking place following the PCs' return from the Ares mission.  On the other hand, I thought that was more at night already than during the day.
> 
> Apollo might be working on plans for the next day.



 The date was the night and the free concert was the preceding day I thought?


----------



## DM_Matt

Vanifae said:
			
		

> The date was the night and the free concert was the preceding day I thought?




Ok, thats fine.  Do you want me to make some stuff up about the concert or do you want to provide the details?  Do you guys want to play it out or not?


----------



## Shayuri

I don't think I'll have Thess going to a concert...however that's not a vote not to RP it. I've had plenty of time in the spotlight.


----------



## kirinke

I'm okay either way, Hope didn't specify a time.


----------



## Victim

Ah, scrying.  It must be our most considered, least used course of action.


----------



## Shayuri

I accept blame for that.

I made the power too limited. I guess I didn't think the "needs something associated with target" requirement would be that hard to fulfill...I wasn't thinking clearly, I guess.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> I accept blame for that.
> 
> I made the power too limited. I guess I didn't think the "needs something associated with target" requirement would be that hard to fulfill...I wasn't thinking clearly, I guess.




Well, that's not really what I meant.  We make plans for using scrying - even with the flaw - all the time.  However, we don't seem to follow up on them all that much.


----------



## kirinke

Even though Hope did mention IC that she did have the ability to heal, that could be a real spell, one that she could switch out for ESP or something similar, one that doesn't have that flaw, since we do have a dedicated healer in the group in the way of Wren.


----------



## Shayuri

Meep. If someone else gets ESP, I'll never use scrying again though. Hee...oh well.


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Meep. If someone else gets ESP, I'll never use scrying again though. Hee...oh well.




Ack, didn't think of that, that's your stickt..... Ummmm. I have really been thinking of switching out Heal for something else, since she really doesn't use it. What do we need?
That is if the DM is agreeable. 


Ooo. I was thinking of something. Postcognition is seeing the past right? Ghosts and spirits are part of the past, so wouldn't it be appropriate for her to be able to see spirits and ghosts through her postcognitive ability?


----------



## DM_Matt

kirinke said:
			
		

> Ack, didn't think of that, that's your stickt..... Ummmm. I have really been thinking of switching out Heal for something else, since she really doesn't use it. What do we need?
> That is if the DM is agreeable.
> 
> 
> Ooo. I was thinking of something. Postcognition is seeing the past right? Ghosts and spirits are part of the past, so wouldn't it be appropriate for her to be able to see spirits and ghosts through her postcognitive ability?




That would require me to include more spirits and ghosts in the campaign, which I think would push the flavor a bit too much in a mystical direction.


----------



## Shayuri

Hehe...which we already have had to fight pretty hard. 

We don't really have any seriously "techy" heroes do we?


----------



## DM_Matt

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Hehe...which we already have had to fight pretty hard.
> 
> We don't really have any seriously "techy" heroes do we?




Nope.  Optic was our Iron Man clone, but Jemal kinda vanished.  Its a pity, too, because I love Iron Man clones.


----------



## Victim

Now Star is the science expert of the group, with technology +5, and then physical and life sciences at +2 each.  It's a good thing we have access to a science and tech support team; she should at least be competent to take accurate measurements for them.  It's still problem area for us.

The initial idea doesn't really justify too much room for improvement in those areas either.   I guess with mental quickness, she _could_ learn quickly.  But she was supposed to be competent or a dabbler in those areas, not an expert by superhero standards.  Star is sort of the back up science character - she takes a rough pass at the situation first (movement, quickness) or aids.


----------



## kirinke

DM_Matt said:
			
		

> That would require me to include more spirits and ghosts in the campaign, which I think would push the flavor a bit too much in a mystical direction.




No problem. I was just trying to figure out what sort of ability to replace it with. I'm going to hold off on precognition, at least until we get another PP or two.


----------



## Victim

Shayuri said:
			
		

> Meep. If someone else gets ESP, I'll never use scrying again though. Hee...oh well.




IMO, there's a considerable difference between an ESP that views individuals, versus one that views locations.  One finds our mystery super; the other finds out what's inside that building.  Clairvoyance versus Scrying in DnD terms.

At least until the location ESP character takes tons of Quickness for extended searching, so they can scan the whole globe to find people.


----------



## Shayuri

That is a good point!


----------



## kirinke

So, kinda like what Hope did with her postcog ability at the warehouse, only it'd be in real time. Hmm..... The powers are rather complimentry of each other rather than stepping on each other's toes. 

Maybe we could discuss this IC, that way Hope can find a plausable way (other than oops, I fergot!) to switch out her healing spell for ESP. For her, I'd think it'd be almost priestly the way she does it. I mean, calling on the spirits of nature to help her etc, rather than true 'research', although she does that too. It all ties in with her um druidic-like powers.


Oooo. Evil thought. Those 'nature' spirits of hers could be Ascended Pax, creatures who have been kind of guiding her since childhood, so they explained what they were in ways she could understand at the time when she was a kid.


----------



## DM_Matt

So I just noticed that Jemal reappeared early this month...could one of you in his game ask him if he plans on reactivating Optic?


----------



## Shayuri

I will do so.


----------



## Jemal

Yo.  Didn't figure I'd be wanted back cuz of my prior performance, but if you're willing to give me a second chance, I'm more than willing to take it. 

Optic reporting for duty, sir.


----------



## DM_Matt

Jemal said:
			
		

> Yo.  Didn't figure I'd be wanted back cuz of my prior performance, but if you're willing to give me a second chance, I'm more than willing to take it.
> 
> Optic reporting for duty, sir.




I keep the roster large bc I know that people sometimes come and go (or just go), and I always want to sustain a minimum good size.  At some point I had stated that Optic was working on something else that required his civilian identify/contacts, but since the PCs are on a day off, he can just show up and say he's done with that other mission.


----------



## Victim

IIRC, Hope, Nightweaver, Wren, and Nitro are together right now.


----------



## Jemal

10-Q, victim.


----------



## Vanifae

Hello Jemal.


----------



## kirinke

Hiya Jemal.  Welcome back!


----------



## Jemal

hey all.  good to be back.


----------



## Victim

You could try talking.


----------



## Vanifae

I suggest a full frontal attack.


----------



## Shayuri

I suggest full frontal...something else.


----------



## DM_Matt

Tipping that guy off from far away wasnt exactly the greatest move....


----------



## kirinke

Probably not, but Hope wanted him out of the area. A confrontation in such close quarters with so many potential innocent targets would be bad, especially since they don't know what he's capable of. Since the freighter fight, she's probably going to be hyper cognizant of that.


----------



## Victim

kirinke said:
			
		

> Probably not, but Hope wanted him out of the area. A confrontation in such close quarters with so many potential innocent targets would be bad, especially since they don't know what he's capable of. Since the freighter fight, she's probably going to be hyper cognizant of that.




Isn't confronting him (from afar) exactly what you did?  Hope didn't exactly take the most diplomatic tone: threats = confrontation (and probably Intimidate, not Dip).  She didn't open a conversation that could reveal more information about his intentions (but it seems like Russian Mafia rigging the game is the most likely option from his file) with starting a fight about things.  If you didn't want a scene, playing it cool was also an option - Optic could have just watched the guy while Nightweaver got into position to tail him.


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

It's also possible that he's reporting to someone else who is in one of the boxes.  A rich crime boss could have fancy seats too - or be the guest of someone who does (making it harder to detect him there).  I dunno how exactly how common/cheap that kind of tech is, but it sounds sort of unusual - someone must had enough of an interest in both secrecy and baseball to get it installed.


----------



## kirinke

Possible. But with criminal types, what she did was fairly diplomatic when you do catch someone cheating. Hmmm. Instead of a fight, let's see how simply talking to the guy might help. Hope does have some influence with criminal types after all, given her own reputation.


----------



## Victim

> The other one does not seem to have surveillance, but while it might take a while for him to get into the systems, he can tell who owns them: Wolfsohn, Sheppard, & Doe




Those guys are into everything, aren't they?


----------



## kirinke

ooc
That which is the wrong thread, posts should not go.....


----------



## DM_Matt

Here is a really good hero illustration program...its in Portugese (but its easy to figure otu what the categories are by trying them) and you need to use printscreen to export the images, but its a lot better than hero machine.  FYI, the reason for multiple versions of each thing is for layering btw, and "Fechar" means close, so don't press that button.

http://fabricadeherois.blogspot.com/ 

Its at the very bottom.


----------



## Victim

Yeah, I've seen that one.  It's pretty sweet.  I have a hard time getting skin to look right though.


----------



## Jemal

I've always enjoyed Heromachine.


----------



## kirinke

I think the Sims 2 actually has some of the better face/body morphing programs out there and it's ability to be altered to suit your whim is a big plus too.


----------



## Victim

Emulating the style of the DC cartoons is a huge plus in my book.


----------



## Vanifae

Victim said:
			
		

> Emulating the style of the DC cartoons is a huge plus in my book.



 I concur.


----------



## Victim

Let's not make the situation worse.


----------



## DM_Matt

Using that builder, here are Mr. Black and Ms. White.


----------



## kirinke

Another good character builder is the Sims 2. It has one of the better face/body morphers around.


----------



## Shayuri

But what about Sims2? Doesn't it morph faces and bodies?


----------



## Fangor the Fierce

I'm still here, but nothing really to add to the messed up confrontation.  If the guy missed me, all the better, lol.


----------



## DM_Matt

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I'm still here, but nothing really to add to the messed up confrontation.  If the guy missed me, all the better, lol.




Duly Noted.


----------



## kirinke

Fangor the Fierce said:
			
		

> I'm still here, but nothing really to add to the messed up confrontation.  If the guy missed me, all the better, lol.




Well, not all confrontations end in a physical battle after all. Hee. Hope can't be charged with lying, because the group doesn't work for her or AEGIS. She works for and with   them!


----------



## kirinke

Shayuri said:
			
		

> But what about Sims2? Doesn't it morph faces and bodies?




Yup.  Especially with double posts lol


----------



## Victim

What sort of time frame for next are we talking about?


----------



## DM_Matt

Victim said:
			
		

> What sort of time frame for next are we talking about?




Whatever you guys want.  I suppose you and Apollo are ahead in the time frame, though, so the other might still do more stuff before catching up to you...or they may choose not to, or just describe it in broad strokes.


----------



## kirinke

I think that the gang handled the situation with the cheater fairly well. No civilians got hurt, the cheater was outed and possibly given a good fright and they managed to piss off the evil lawfirm.


----------



## Victim

Star's schedule asssuming no interruptions.

Present time:  ...

Morning: Head back to the Trust base for breakfast, shower and a change of clothes.  She'll also want to talk to Red to get some birth control medication (not really a problem I considered when making the character...).  Then she'll head to her regular doctor's appointment.

Then she'll want to hang out with her roommate while not revealing any secret Trust info.  Afterwards, she'll mooch another meal at the base.  Her attempt to catch up on homework will turn into a much needed nap.

By that point, the group will probably be doing something, like investigating Barrington's towers or such.  Maybe we'll try to work on the lawyers.


----------



## Bront

I need you to start a new thread for this.  We're trying to keep threads to a max of 1000 posts.

Thanks

Bront
PbP Mod


----------



## DM_Matt

Bront said:
			
		

> I need you to start a new thread for this.  We're trying to keep threads to a max of 1000 posts.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bront
> PbP Mod





Oops.  I forked the main thread and forgot about this one.

The new thread is http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?p=4222133


----------

