Avenger Assembled

"Sit down, Mr. Salazar." Mr. Summers had been terrifying with such apparent little effort during Blake's tenure at Claremont, but now there was a look of real concern on the old man's face. He studied Blake silently for a moment, something in his eyes keeping the teenager from speaking as well. There was only the ticking of Summers' grandfather clock, the grim face of Edgar Allen Poe studying the teen from a bookshelf-mounted bust, and Summers himself, his face like a cigar store Indian. "Tell me what happened."

The beams scorched a visible hole in the metallic sheen encasing the transformed Willow, exposing the dryad's bare flesh underneath for a moment before the hole melted itself together again in a flash: despite the recovery, though, there was still a divot visible in Willow's skin, showing where Miss Americana had done some damage. "AAAGH!" screamed the warped avatar of the Gorgon, the metallic snakes in her hair hissing and snapping in chorus with their 'master's' pain. Miss Americana certainly had the rampaging plant controller's attention, for all that was something of a mixed blessing. "PUNY THING OF FLESH AND BONE! THE STINK OF CORRUPTION IS IN YOUR SOUL!"

Bruised! All right, JoaB is up once Miss A posts IC.

33 Ah, so close. All right, do you want to surge and try again?

For all that Citizen sometimes looked down on the technological and cultural developments of Earth, he found the implications of Columbus Day endlessly fascinating. Only five hundred and some years earlier, this civilization had been burning unprocessed wood for fuel and only barely aware of the existence of half its planet: now they had space travel and their citizens were traveling not just across oceans in leaky atmospheric-powered boats, but to other planets in chemical-fueled rockets! And that was just the common people, not to mention super-tech: that they weren't as advanced as the Lor didn't mean they weren't endlessly fascinating. Negotiating the crowd with any kind of grace wasn't easy given that he was after all an electronic projection, but at least all the wi-fi networks and electronic equipment set up to photograph the parade made it easy enough for him to get around. So he hung out in the middle of the crowd within eyesight of the rest of Young Freedom, looking like any other angsty teenager in a black leather trenchcoat, shades in his front pocket, and tried to keep track both of the parade and of any supervillain threats. Despite his ongoing worries about the Curator, alien menaces and computer hazards seemed very far away on this day devoted to the primitive past.

When he found nothing, Sharl hmmed. While not one to snoop into someone's personal effects (he'd never touched Koshiro's desk, especially not with all the 'magic' paper the other teen kept there), he had an inveterate curiosity, especially about the usually taciturn Koshiro. And maybe because, having confessed the secret of his own origin to his room-mate, he was curious about Koshiro's comings and goings as well. He sat in his computer to wait for Koshiro's return, which the other teenager finally did through the window after some hours. Unable to resist the urge, as Koshiro passed the computer Sharl called from his 'viewing window': "Hey, Koshiro!"

Heh, I wasn't using the NPC to remonstrate with your character, quote! (You did the right and heroic thing there) I was using that to show that Willow is still in control enough that she's not dropping her big Targeted Area attack as long as there are civilians present; and that even now that it's only 'enemies' she's talking a good game but she hasn't actually gone so far as to drop the bomb. If clearing away the civilians does become an issue that impedes you, we'll see about HP: after all, doing the right thing hasn't actually hurt you yet.

Calamity Jane Abilities: 22 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 24 (+7) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 14 pp ATK: +3 (+5 Fireball) DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +4 Grapple: +3 Saves: 13 pp TOU +15 (+7 Con, +8 Protection) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +5 (+0 Ref, +5) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 13 pp=52 r Concentration 8 (+10) Intimidate 12 (+14) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 10 (+10) Language 1 (Afrikaans) (Base: English) Medicine 8 (+10) Notice 3 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 11 pp All-Out Attack Dodge Focus Fearless Improved Initiative Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Ritualist Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 82 pp Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Hematokinesis Array [50+4=54 pp] Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Duration [Concentration], Range [Perception], Secondary Effect) ‘bloodfire’ AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Alternate Save [Fortitude], Area [burst], Secondary Effect, Selective Attack) ‘bloodfirestorm’ AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Duration [Concentration], Range [Perception], Secondary Effect) 'ignition' AP: Damage 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Duration [Concentration], Secondary Effect, Selective Attack) 'firestorm' AP: Damage 15 (Extras: Range [Ranged], Secondary Effect; PFs: Accurate 2, Improved Crit 2, Precise) 'fireball' Immunity 8 (aging, disease, environmental cold and heat, poison, sleep, suffocation) [8 pp] Impervious Toughness 6 (Flaw: Not vs. Magic/Silver/Holy) [3 pp] Protection 8 [8 pp] Super-Senses 7 (Acute Scent, Darkvision, Detect Blood 3 [visual], Ultrahearing) [7 pp] Drawbacks: -3 pp Vulnerable (vs. holy) (uncommon, major) [-3 pp] costs abilities 22+ combat 14 + saves 13 + skills 13/52 + feats 9 + powers 82 -drawbacks 3= 150 pts --------- Design Notes: Here’s a hematokinetic like Marvel’s Adam-X the X-Treme, a character with the power to set your blood on fire! I went with the idea that this is the adult version of Jane, the kid Electra’s character and mine had in an old paranormal investigation game; the offspring of her pyrokinetic witch and my vampire agent from upthread. (Yes, I have ridden at the “spellcaster and vampire have an unlikely kid” rodeo before) The overall idea is that Jane’s innate power is a combination of her mother’s heritage and her father’s, giving her tremendous power over fire and blood both: she can burn targets up from the inside out just by looking at them, either singly or in groups, or just be a plain old firestarter who burns objects with a glance or hurls tremendously destructive fire blasts at people. She doesn’t have Fire Control except as a power-stunt; she’s much more a straight-forward howitzer, taking heavy punishment herself while burning everything around her with hit after hit. Even with some vampiric weaknesses, she’s much much tougher than a normal person, with keen senses to go with her tremendous magical power. Sure, she’s not as smart or as diverse as most other mystics, but she can set them on fire with gusto, attacking a save that most squishy wizards don’t have a lot invested in. I went with the idea that Detect Blood is about as common as Detect Life for purposes of point-costs; sure, there are things that are alive that don’t have any blood, but OTOH (especially in a comic book universe) there’s plenty of blood around that isn’t in someone alive. Yes, her powers are a bit Iron Age if played the wrong way, but the base idea is that she does have the finesse not to pop heads every time she uses her abilities: think of a non-lethal use of the power as being more like giving someone a sunburn on the inside. Power stunts might include a Vampiric Blast or Healing, as well as the various suggested stunts under Fire Control. Or you could take a page from Doc’s Biomancer and let her move organic things around by blood manipulation; a Perception-range Damaging Move Object that only works on targets with blood in them, alive or otherwise. This makes a fine teen prodigy magician, a powerful character without much finesse, but she could be a uniquely empowered mutant as well. Perhaps her powers come not from vampiric, but infernal heritage! If her powers are the result of spells rather than innate abilities, perhaps you should pick up the “not if bound/gagged” drawback for her magic. This build could be a decent stand-in for an alternate version of Ember Psion, or maybe the (good-aligned) twin sister Ember never knew she had! (If one set of kids can be twins, perhaps it’s something that runs in the Psion side of the family) Another possibility might be the villainous blood controller from the Time of Vengeance adventure, reformed and stripped of part of her powers by abandoning her dark bargain with Mr. Infamy. Shuffle the drawback points around if you’re removing the supernatural elements from her backstory. She has decent first aid, and she’ll be better at it if you drop the magical stuff and give her skills to go with being a scientist; perhaps she got her powers from an experimental blood serum? She can do some minor stuff with rituals and can help out with big projects, but she’s more likely to be there blasting away at bad guys in the background while the more knowledgeable mystics work the really big stuff. With her background and skills, she’d make a fine employee at the local blood bank. Indeed, given her preternatural skill at burning things (even vampires, who are vulnerable to plain old-fashioned getting burned to ash, some even more than humans) and all the new vampire NPCs running around this thread and over in Doc’s Laboratory, perhaps she’s newly been put on retainer by your local blood bank to keep out all the night-going riffraff who are trying to steal the merchandise. (Responsible vampires know you secure the blood bags discarded by blood banks as unsuitable, that way nothing is taken out of the local stock for humans. There’s a shortage, you know!)

Vampire Necromancer PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 0 pp STR 16 [10] (+3/+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON - INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 12 (+1) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+6 Ranged) DEF: +7 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +0 Grapple: +7/+20 Saves: 11 pp TOU +13 (+6 Force Field, +7 Protection) FORT - REF +5 (+0, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Concentration 8 (+10) Diplomacy 4 (+5) Intimidate 9 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 8 (+10)* Knowledge (History) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Theology and Philosophy) 3 (+5) Languages 3 (Greek, Italian, Latin) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10)* Search 3 (+5)* Sense Motive 8 (+10)* Stealth 8 (+8) Feats: 10 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 2 Dodge Focus 3 Fearless Ritualist Second Chance (Concentration checks) Skill Mastery (Knowledge [Arcane Lore], Notice, Search, Sense Motive) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 109 pp Comprehend 1 (spirits) [2 pp] Drain Constitution 2 (Flaw: Requires Grapple) [1 pp] Enhanced STR 6 [6 pp] Feature 7 (Buys Off Sunlight Drawback) (Extra: Duration [sustained [+0]) [7 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Force Field 6 [6 pp] Immunity 30 (Fortitude Saves) [30 pp] Magic Array [20+5=25 pp] Blast 8 (PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2, Improved Crit 2) AP: Drain Charisma 8 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Ranged; PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2, Slow Fade 2 [1 pp per 5 minutes) AP: ESP 5 (5 miles) (visual and auditory) (PFs: Rapid 4 (x10k), Subtle) AP: Healing 5 (Extra: Affects Objects [+1]) AP: Move Object 8 (Heavy Load: 3 tons) (PFs: Affects Insubstantial 2, Precise, Subtle) AP: Summon Undead 4 (summons any undead of up to 60 pp; Extras: Attitude [Fanatical], Type [General]; PFs: Progression 2 [5 additional]) Protection 7 (Extra: Impervious; Flaw: Not Vs. Fire/Silver/Holy) [7 pp] Regeneration 6 (Recovery Bonus +0, Resurrection 1/week) (Flaw: Source [blood]) [3 pp] Super-Senses 4 (Darkvision, Detect Undead [visual], Undead Awareness) [4 pp] Vampiric Magic Array [12+5-1=16 pp] (Drawback: Not in Daylight) Blast 6 [to Blast 14] [12 pp] AP: Drain Charisma 6 (Extras: Alternate Save [Will], Ranged) [to Drain 14] AP: ESP 4 (visual and auditory) (1 mile) [to ESP 9 (anywhere on Earth)] AP: Healing 4 (Extra: Affects Objects [+1]) AP: Move Object 6 (Heavy Load: 1500 lbs) [to Move Object 14 (Heavy Load: 180 tons)] AP: Summon Undead 3 (summons any undead up to 45 pp; Extras: Attitude [Fanatical], Type [General]) [to Summon Undead 7 (105 pp)] Drawbacks: -10 pp Weakness (dazed by holy symbols via Charisma check) [-3 pp] Weakness (destroyed by sunlight; dead in 1 minute) [-7 pp] costs abilities 0 + combat 16 + saves 11 + skills 15/60 + feats 9 + powers 109- drawbacks 10 = 150 pts -------------------- Design Notes: Alice first heard ghosts talking when she was eight years old, and cast her first spell when she was twelve. It was natural, all things considered, that she'd grow up to be a necromancer. Lacking drive and ambition, and mostly learning what she could from the Internet, she traveled the country's back roads after high school, consulting with the dead for where to go and supporting herself as a medium and spirit consultant. She wasn't Adrian Eldritch or Nick Cimiterie, but she could summon ghosts, fire blasts of black soulfire, and surround herself in a protective blanket of ectoplasm; she could also repair injured undead (a good way to help ghosts who had no Earthly fetters these days), as well as search an entire city by sending out waves of summoned ghosts to do her bidding. She might have continued that way for years if she hadn't met a beautiful man in the cemetery one night, a handsome, smooth-talking man in black robes who persuaded her to show her what kind of power she had. Impressed, he offered to take her into his family and show her what real magic was all about! And so he did, ushering her into the aristocracy of the night and transforming her into a powerful vampire! Being the walking dead herself greatly empowered her magic, not to mention making her tougher and stronger in her flesh; a shield of ghosts could let her walk in the daylight at the price of betraying her secret identity, but she'd never been much of a sun-going girl. It didn't take her long to realize the mistake she'd made: her maker and his circle weren't just admirers of the dead, they were devotees of Malador the Undying who had promised them great spiritual power in return for plunging the Earth into unholy darkness! She pulled herself back from the brink and turned on her master, defeating his circle and fleeing for Freedom City, where she could hide among fellow practioners as she studied more about her condition. She'd wasted her life, but she wouldn't waste her unlife! Here's your typical vampire necromancer, based on Doc's idea of converting the Vampire: the Masquerade clans into superheroes. (In this case, the Giovanni) She's got some disadvantages versus her fellow necromancers since she's the walking dead herself (and thus vulnerable to many of their specialized abilities), but on the other hand her supernatural toughness and resiliency means she can take a lot of punishment. Being a magus herself, she's a lot more resistant to spells than most vampires; since she's tapping into her innate undead nature these nights rather than casting spells per se, she doesn't need to make the old gestures and chants to cast spells. She's focused on spell-like abilities rather than vampire powers per se, but she could easily stunt Insubstantial 2 or Mind Control 10 (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [auditory]), or even a Mighty Strike if you were so inclined.

Brer Rabbit PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 30 pp STR 26 [16] (+8/+3) DEX 26 [16] (+8/+3) CON 26 [16] (+8/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+12 Melee) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +20 Saves: 8 pp TOU +8 (+8 Con) FORT +8 (+8 Con) REF +10 (+8 Dex, +2) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 76 r=19 pp Acrobatics 7 (+15)* Bluff 11 (+15)* Climb 2 (+5/+10) Diplomacy 6 (+10) Gather Info 6 (+10) Intimidate 6 (+10) Knowledge (History) 5 (+5) Languages 3 (Cherokee, French, Yoruba) (Base: English) Notice 13 (+15)* Sense Motive 8 (+10)* Stealth 7 (+15) Survival 2 (+4) Feats: 26 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 6 Challenge 3 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Fast Taunt, Fast Trick) Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus 6 Evasion Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Acrobatics, Bluff, Notice, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack Taunt Ultimate Skill (Bluff) Uncanny Dodge (olfactory) Powers: 43 pp Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Lapine Array [5+1=6 pp] Leaping 5 (x50) AP: Speed 3 (50 MPH) and Super-Movement 1 (Wall-Crawling) Super-Senses 7 (Accurate Acute Tracking [quarter-speed] Olfactory, Low-Light Vision, Tremorsense, Ultrahearing) [7 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 19/76 + feats 26 + powers 43 = 150 pts ---------------- Design Notes: Here's my build for the native hero of the state of Georgia, Brer Rabbit. The idea I have here is that he's a rabbit totem and trickster from ancient lore, a cultural legacy passed down from West Africa, merged with Native American and Creole traditions, and finally adopted as the sort of cultural totem and mystic cachet in the Deep South that can inspire a superpowered legacy. He's got the superpowered traits you'd expect from a giant rabbit; he's able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, run as fast as a car on city streets, or claw his way right up the side of a building. He's also got great super-senses from his whiskers and his ears, and is able to sense vibrations, follow trails by scent, as well as hear into high frequencies and fight just fine while blind-folded. (In fact, talking his opponents into blind-folding him would be an excellent use of that high Bluff of his.) He'll probably play a lot like Peter Parker with bunny ears and a fluffy tail in place of web-shooters. Note that despite their association with The Song of the South, the Brer Rabbit stories are generally empowering ones about cunningly outsmarting the powerful, dangerous predators all around you. (i.e., they were perfect stories for slaves and freedmen to tell each other, and to somewhat bowdlerize for mass white consumption back before the days of civil rights.) Naturally he's a master feinter and tricker, as befits an iconic trickster character of American folklore. (Like most of my animal totem characters, he can just about survive and forage on his own if he has to.) His INT is a bit low, true, but if you read the stories he's more about getting into trouble and talking his enemies into getting him out of it (and getting themselves laid low) than he is about a lot of plans and schemes. I didn't give him any kind of Perform skills, I figure he uses Bluff and Diplomacy to tell his best stories, leaving those for the entertainment of the audience. If you don't like the magic angle, he could easily be a rabbit-themed mutant, or an uplifted animal, or even a refugee from the planet of the bunnies! (He could be from Ani-Earth too, I suppose, but that world's laws are a bit more cartoony than I see this guy being. A good trickster will have lots of Complications; this is a character who if played right will have a thousand enemies. (All of them bad guys, naturally) For another take on fictional rabbits (without adding lots of Shrinking), give him some Precognition to represent that far-seeing rabbit who saw poison gas about to destroy his home, or maybe lots of Penetrating Unarmed Damage to represent a bite that can go right through a knight's full plate. Both of those make good native heroes of the United Kingdom!

Street-Level Gadgeteer PL: 7 (105) Abilities: 6 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 10 (+0) CON 12 (+1) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 DEF: +7 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +0 Grapple: +6 Saves: 18 pp TOU +6 (+1 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +8 (+1 Con, +7) REF +5 (+0 Dex, +5) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 68 r=17 pp Computers 10 (+15) Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15) Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+15) Disable Device 10 (+15) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15) Notice 8 (+10) Search 4 (+9) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 9 pp Beginner’s Luck Eidetic Memory Equipment 3 Jack of all Trades Improvised Tools Inventor Skill Mastery (Computers, Craft (Mechanical), Craft (Electronic), Knowledge [Technology]) Powers: 31 pp Device 4 (Armored Costume) (Hard to Lose) [16 pp] Enhanced Feats 5 (Accurate Attack, All-Out Attack, Defensive Attack, Dodge Focus 1, Power Attack) [5dp] Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6dp] Immunity 3 (environmental cold and heat, own powers) [3dp] Protection 5 [5dp] Super-Senses 1 (Infravision) [1dp] Device 5 (Freeze Ray) (Easy to Lose) [15 pp] Blast 8 (Extra: Autofire) [24+1=24dp] AP: Snare 8 (Extra: Transparent) costs abilities 6 + combat 24 + saves 18 + skills 17/68 + feats 9 + powers 31 = 105 pts -------------- Design Notes: Here's a street-level PL 7 gadgeteer, a super-scientist who takes care of bad guys in his neighborhood with the help of his armored labcoat and his trusty freeze ray, fluffed here as the ability to slow down molecular motion. (The picture is of Neil Patrick Harris as Dr. Horrible, but fans of that work will notice that this isn't a straight conversion.) He doesn't have the budget for a force field generator or a suit of armor, but with enough time he could probably whip one up for in his trusty basement laboratory. (The hard part is getting the darn thing to work consistently; i.e., saving up the PP to buy it as another device rather than just another invention.) I took a lot of leads from Ecal's Gadgeteer build for this one, building him so he can work just about any skill and so that he's a sigificantly better fighter while in his labcoat. (I figure the goggles, with their targeting scanners and trackers, are built right into the suit itself.) Where does this guy come from? Maybe he's a self-taught mutant genius whose impressive technical abilities let him stand out from the crowd; or maybe he's just a local prodigy who hasn't yet caught enough attention for himself to get a grant or a job at a good government lab. Maybe he's a professional scientist just moonlighting in his spare time who hasn't yet made the step towards being a true hero; or maybe he's an ex-mad scientist looking to go straight in the name of that pretty girl down the block he's in love with. I went with the cold control theme because that's a good, iconic power-set for a scientist type in a superhero game, it's also got lots of good stunting opportunities available. But you could mix that up however you want: maybe give him a 50s movie scientist style and equip him with a gun that fires clean, pure, nuclear energy! In Freedom City, this guy is an obvious successor to the mighty Madame Zero, the setting's iconic scientist-cold controller. (Note that MZ, a local Mr. Freeze expy, is PL 14, so she's way outside his scope) Maybe this is a former employee of hers who saw the error of his ways and grabbed some gear to make amends for all the evil science he was a part of, or a heroic scientist who found some of her stuff (maybe he works CSI or in some other capacity at analyzing captured supervillain gear) and he decided to repurpose all this stuff for heroic ends! If that's the case, he'd better hope she doesn't mind the copycat, or he goes up some PLs and gets some friends before she goes to track him down.

"FOOL!" As the metal bonds wrapped around her body, the Gorgon-hued Willow flexed cosmically-empowered muscles and shattered the tons of steel and iron encasing her as if they'd been so many licorice whips encasing a rampaging powerhouse. As she did so, Geckoman began to feel the voices in his head dying out as the severed connection to the control spores meant that they began to wither and decay where they lodged inside his body. To the others, she added, "THE STEEL AND STONE OF A THOUSAND WORLDS HAVE TRIED TO ENSNARE THE GORGON AND HER VASSALS! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM GOD AND MONSTER AND YOU ARE INSECT AND GERM!" Freed, she hurled a mighty blow at Miss Americana, a fist writhing with cosmic vines coming so close to the gynoid's face that far away in her cradle Gina could feel the rush of wind. Whatever was controlling Willow wasn't pulling its punches either; one good hit and the Miss Americana robot would look more like a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em patriot than the piece of high technology she was, not to mention what it would do to Gina herself through the connection. Having missed, she took stock of the situation and gave a hiss like an alien snake as she seemed to come to a satisfactory solution. With the civilians rescued, she pointed at Ferros and added a menacing "GOOD! YOU HAVE DONE MY WORK, LITTLE POLESTAR! NOW THAT THE WASPS HAVE REMOVED THE ANTS, THE PRUNING OF THE WEEDS CAN BEGIN!" She began gesturing and plants began erupting everywhere, massive spiked weeds like something from a gardener's nightmare, pointed at the heroes like so many loaded guns ready to go off. If she wasn't stopped soon, something very bad was going to happen!

Cosmic Willow's Reflex vs. 20 (18) All right, I'll keep that roll: she is entangled. -2 Attack and Defense, -4 Dexterity, and she's stuck to the spot where she is. Cosmic Willow Free Action: She'll drop the Mind Control bedeviling Geckoman and switch to the Cosmic Strength portion of her array. Free Action: She has STR 50 (+20) and Super-Strength 5, so she has a +15 bonus for breaking objects like the Snare. That means she can do so as a free action. Crackatoom! Standard Action: All right, Geckoman is mind-controlled and I'll say she has the power to resist hitting Jack of all Blades. Miss Americana and Ferros have both attacked her this round, but Ferros actually impeded her. Hmmm...I'll say she attempts to grapple Miss Americana and throw her at Ferros! She'll All-Out Attack, dropping her to-hit to 15 and making it easier for other people to Power Attack her. 27 OK, that does hit Miss Americana's Defense of 22, but it misses by 1 if you choose to spend an HP to double Miss A's Dodge bonus. Electra has indicated that Miss Americana intends to spend an HP to double her dodge bonus, thus raising her to-hit to 30 (+4 Dodge Focus and +4 half base Defense=8=a to-hit of 30) Miss A is down an HP. Geckoman is up. I don't have the book handy; I don't recall if he's automatically freed of the Mind Control or if he just gets his first save (vs. the rank 15 Alt Save [Fort]) effect), either way, it's his go!

Sharl fails to beat that, and is outfoxed!

Armored Chimp PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 42 pp STR 36 [24] (+13/+7) DEX 12 (+1) CON 24 (+7) INT 20 (+5) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 16 pp ATK: +4 (+7 melee in suit) DEF: +7 (+4 w/out suit, +2 flat-footed) Init: +1 Grapple: +12/+24 Saves: 11 pp TOU +13 (+7 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +7 (+7 Con) REF +7 (+1 Dex, +6) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 64 r=16 pp Climb 3 (+10/+15) Computers 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Craft (Electronic) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Craft (Mechanical) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 5 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 10 (+15, Skill Mastery) Languages 2 (French, Swahili; Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 6 pp Challenge (Accelerated Climb) Eidetic Memory Inventor Jack of all Trades Second Chance (Climb checks) Skill Mastery (Computers, Craft (Electronic), Craft (Mechanical), Knowledge (Technology) Powers: 57 pp Device 12 (Power Armor) (PF: Restricted [apes]) [49 pp] Enhanced Feats 7 (Attack Focus: Melee 3, Dodge Focus 3, Takedown Attack) [7] Enhanced STR 12 and Super-Strength 4 [5 total] (Heavy Load: 48 tons) [20+1=21 pp] AP: Damage 10 (Extras: General Area [Cone], Selective; Flaw: Action [Full]) Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9] Protection 6 (Extra: Impervious 7) [13] Super-Senses 4 (Accurate Radio Sense, Uncanny Dodge [radio]) [4] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Movement 1 (Swinging) [2 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Acute Scent, Low-Light Vision) [2 pp] Super-Strength 1 (Heavy Load: ~1500 lbs) [2 pp] costs abilities 42 + combat 16 + saves 11 + skills 16/64 + feats 6 + powers 57 = 150 pts ------------ Design Notes: On Earth-Ape, a genius inventor had a wakeup call after witnessing the carnage weapons he had helped design for the government had brought to a Middle Eastern country wracked by civil war. (The government, trying to overthrow an anti-Western dictatorship, had sold his weapons to the gorilla forces in the mountains, only to see those gorilla leaders become promoters of vicious terrorism once they came to power.) Realizing that science and engineering weren’t as morally neutral as he’d once believed, he decided to use his technical expertise, no longer for his own gain, but rather for the betterment of ape and monkey alike! He constructed a badass suit of armor for himself with an onboard combat computer, a jetpack, a built-in radar and early-warning system, a completely sealed airtight environment, powerful weapons like strength-enhancing servos and explosive mini-missiles, and steel plating that made him tough enough to stand up to anything short of military-grade heavy weapons. But as the years went on, he began to grow uneasy: he wasn’t smart enough to replace the scientists and engineers on the more established super-teams, and his armor wasn’t really powerful enough for him to replace their strongapes and blasters either. So after some consideration, when the Primate Patrol opened up an exchange program with the Freedom League on Earth-Prime, the Armored Ape volunteered and headed off to Freedom City to be a superhero on this alien world! OK, so this is my attempt at a chimpanzee in power armor. (Note that at four feet tall, he’s juuust large enough to be considered Medium-sized.) Outside of his armor, he’s a fast, agile climber and just as brilliant an inventor and engineer: he’s PL 5 without the armor, about right for a chimpanzee who’s had some combat training. (Chimpanzees are scary, scary animals). He’s strong, has an animal’s keen senses, and can monkey his way up a wall without any concerns. In his armor, he’s your standard battlesuit user, albeit not quite as fast as those squishy humans who put all their points into their tin cans. He’s got a big array for stunting off; he’s also got respectable super-senses and the technical expertise to plausibly upgrade his suit. Since he’s from another dimension, he doesn’t have Handle Animal or Comprehend (simians); the apes he’s used to are fully sentient and live in cities, and he’s probably a little creeped out by the treatment of his wild cousins (not to mention by them proper) here on Earth-Prime! He’s an experienced hero, though, and he knows this is an alien world, so he’s not going to go around blasting open animal research laboratories: Freedom City’s own Dr. Simian is a natural rival for him (especially since Earth-Ape’s Dr. Simian is a power-mad Lex Luthor type who attempted to brainwash all of his own world’s heroes into being his mind-controlled pawns), especially if he’s not interested in leading an ape revolution on this world. he Golden Age’s Aryan Ape is another serious threat. Earth-Ape is a nice place, basically a Silver Age vision of a sentient ape society, and a good place to live; there are no mindless human slaves there, just apes and records of the pale-skinned, nearly furless creatures they evolved from hundreds of thousands of years ago. If you don’t like the Earth-Ape angle, this could easily be an uplifted ape from our world, one who has built himself a suit of armor to make relations with other heroes and human beings a little easier to understand. Or maybe he used to be a human and was mutated by an enemy, and he’s modded his suit to accommodate his new physiology while working on a cure in his spare time. He could be from another dimension altogether, though; perhaps he’s a refugee from Earth-Affe, still trapped under the tyrannical paw of Nazi Gibbony after all these years. For a slightly darker take on the character, he could be from a future society where apes have largely replaced mankind as the dominant species, whether by being uplifted by a humanity who’s left the planet, or by a war or plague that cut down on human numbers. If he’s a villain, he’s come back to ensure that the fall of man and the rise of the planet of the primates comes; whatever the consequences!

"In their current state, Grue are half-souled; their wills and minds enslaved near-inescapably to the Meta-Mind," said the angel of Freedom, sorrow and grief in his voice for the predicament of the shapeshifting aliens. "Those who are away long enough, and around enough other free species, may be lucky enough to free their souls and become fully sentient beings in their own right. It is a blasphemy what the Meta-Mind does to its people, telling even those with their own wills that it is their holy destiny to serve a collective consciousness that does naught but grope for its own power." And if anyone should know, it was the angel! "If they recaptured him, perhaps they sought ways to make sure the 'taint' of freedom did not spread to others." He studied the Grue for a moment, and the frightened little girl at his side who looked just barely able to hold her own shape. "He tells the truth as he knows it, Grue telepathy or otherwise. I doubt the Meta-Mind could give him illusions of escape like that. Slavemasters never can understand the motivations of free men. And the rest of you?" he asked the other heroes.

Sharl went around to all of Young Freedom that night, having learned his lesson with Koshiro about keeping things short and to the point: he was from a world of the Lor Republic that had been destroyed by a supernova, the Curator had preserved his home city on an alien computer, and Miss Americana had helped rescue him when he was lost. He felt awkward the whole way through; Dr. Marquez had told him confession was good for the soul, but he told himself that was only true in wide-open, underpopulated Earth-Prime: all he could think about here was what his friends would think of him now that they'd learned what he'd been keeping from them all this time. He obviously wasn't in much of a mood to talk about it, and went from person to person without much hesitation. When he got back to the room he shared with Koshiro, Sharl found it empty. He told himself he should be celebrating having all that tremendous space to himself, but the realization that Koshiro was out after hours made him curious. He respected Koshiro's privacy, so he'd certainly never tattle on him for being out when he wasn't supposed to. But curiousity was a vice of Sharl's, and one he couldn't quite resist: so with his true origins successfully shared with everyone he succumbed to the urge to snoop: Koshiro had said something about Lantern Hill and the Fens, and so Sharl fired up his computer connection and began connecting to the networked security cameras in the region, directly accessing their video feeds on this dark night to see if he'd catch any glimpse of his erstwhile room-mate.

Despite their mutual worries about the dire fate awaiting Blake, when Corbin and Blake Salazar got to the Claremont campus they found it going on about as it always had: evidently the spiritual welfare of one particular former student didn't get in the way of regular students going to classes, teachers going about their duties, or even the red and yellow leaves falling from the many trees on the lush Claremont campus to celebrate the fall. At the Summers administration building, Quo-Dis was waiting to greet them, looking serious in the women's business suit she wore when working her job as a student helper in the front office. Excusing herself to talk to the boys for a moment, she said, "Mr. Summers is ready for you, Blake Salazar," she said seriously. Turning to Corbin, she said, a little more warmly, "He said it's better if you wait out here, Corbin."

Eric, There are a lot of things here that you need to work on. Right now, I'll start with the basic stuff: Please take a look at the other character sheets and write your 'fluff' accordingly; your character's backstory, description, powers and tactics, etc should be written from a third-person perspective, not a first-person one. With powers like Morph, Elongation, and Super-Strength, make sure to put down what mechanical effects they actually give you: look at the Strength chart in the corebook to get an idea of what your character can lift, put down in brackets what disguise bonus he gets from his Morph, how far his Elongation can stretch, and the like. It's not necessary for you to have +10s in every save at PL 10; it's much more fun (and a lot more honest, since you do have +0s in all those attributes) to have areas with strengths and weaknesses: it's a good idea to have saves that average out to PL-1 or so. I'd also prefer if you were a bit clearer about how his Power Loss drawback works. In general, while the mechanical side of things is much better put together than the fluff, there's still some tremendous room for improvement here. Here are some "stretchy guy" builds that should be helpful to you in recrafting the mechanics of this character. One last thing: your screen name is cute, and it makes a good nickname for your PC, but you want your character to have a real supername that's a little more appropriate for the semi-serious tone of our site. After all, though "The Big Red Cheese" is what some people call Captain Marvel, at the end of the day he actually goes by Captain Marvel...

Gladiator PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 40 pp STR 30 [20] (+10/+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [20] (+10/+5) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 22 pp ATK: +5 (+10 melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +25 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +7 (+3 Dex, +4) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Bluff 7 (+10) Diplomacy 7 (+10) Drive 2 (+4) Intimidate 12 (+15) Languages 3 (French, German, Mayan) (Base: English) Notice 12 (+15) Pilot 2 (+4) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 20 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee 5 Beginner’s Luck Dodge Focus 4 Eidetic Memory Improved Initiative Jack of all Trades Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 47 pp Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Immunity 1 (aging) [1 pp] Impervious TOU 10 (Flaw: Not Vs. Energy) [5 pp] Leaping 4 (x25) [4+1=5 pp] AP: Speed 4 (100 MPH) Regeneration 6 (Bruised 3 [no action], Injured 3 [20 minutes]) [6 pp] Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 24 tons) [10 pp] costs abilities 40 + combat 22 + saves 9 + skills 13/52 + feats 20 + powers 47 = 150 pts ------------ Design Notes: Phillip Wylie’s 1930 novel Gladiator is almost totally forgotten today (if Wylie is remembered for anything, it’s most likely for his novel When Worlds Collide that became the 1951 movie of that title), but with his character Hugo Danner, a Colorado-born young man who was experimented on in the womb by his scientist father, Wylie created a pretty obvious inspiration for Superman. (Though Jerry Siegel denied having read the novel, he was a pulp fan growing up and the similarities are pretty striking). Hugo Danner was basically the Action Comics #1 Superman in a world without superheroes; able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, lift tremendous weights and run incredibly fast, and survive years of trench warfare in the Western Front during WWI, only finally being hurt when he was struck by multiple large artillery shells. Feared and hated by a world that resents his power, Danner travels the world and accomplishes much, but can’t ever work any lasting changes: finally at the end of the novel, he tampers in God’s domain and is struck by lightning and killed. Yeah, it’s that kind of story. I’ve tried to base this writeup on what I’ve read about the character in the novel, as well as somewhat on Iron Munro, the Gladiator legacy that Roy Thomas used as a Golden Age Supes stand-in after 1986. (That’s his picture up above). He’s fast, he’s strong, and what injuries he does take he can heal remarkably quickly. With his high mental attributes and skills, he can work a variety of jobs without any trouble the way Danner did, and with his high Impervious “nothing short of a bursting shell can pierce his skin.” (That’s also why he doesn’t have Evasion)! The character is extremely successful with women when he puts his mind to do it, but they usually kick him out of bed afterwards: hence a good Charisma and decent interaction skills but Intimidate above all else. (His success with the ladies is also where young “Arn” comes from, but that’s another story). He’s got good all-around saves, so he can hold his own if he runs into mentalists, mad scientists, and other threats that pulp novel/Golden Age heroes like him face. (One change I did make; the book Danner has Disabled Regeneration and lots of it, but since that condition comes up very rarely for PCs in our game I just left it off his sheet) This works just fine as a build for a modern-age low-grade powerhouse, one who’s more skilled and more charismatic than most at the price of physical might; but I think he works even better as a Golden Age hero or legacy. Maybe he’s the original, having been in retirement for some years and lost some of his mojo, or maybe this is his son: perhaps you could take a page from the original Iron Munro and say that his scientist father had gone mad and now seeks to build an unstoppable army of supermen! In a post-WWII origin, his powers are likely to be atomic rather than chemical, while if created today he’s more likely to be the product of genetic engineering.

Atlantean Mentalist PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 56 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 (+10) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +4 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +26 Saves: 10 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 60 pp=15 r Bluff 8 (+10) Diplomacy 13 (+15) Intimidate 3 (+5) Knowledge (Civics) 3 (+5) Knowledge (Life Sciences) 13 (+15) Languages 1 (English) (Base: Atlantean) Notice 8 (+10) Search 3 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Melee 6 Connected Dodge Focus 4 Environmental Adapation [underwater] Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 30 pp Atlantean Mental Array [6+2=8 pp] Communication 6 (20 miles) [mental] (Extra: Two-Way; Flaw: Limited [Animals] AP: ESP 6 (visual) (20 miles) (Flaw: Medium [animals]) AP: Mind Reading 10 (Flaw: Duration [instant/Lasting]; PF: Subtle) Comprehend 2 (animals) (Flaw: Limited [sea Life]) [2 pp] Immunity 3 (drowning, environmental cold, high pressure) [3 pp] Super-Senses 4 (Acute Scent, Darkvision, Ultrahearing) [4 pp] Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 6 tons) [6 pp] Swimming 6 (100 MPH) [6+1=7 pp] AP: Leaping 3 (x10) and Speed 3 (50 MPH) costs abilities 55 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 15/60 + feats 15 + powers 30 = 150 pts ---------- Design Notes: Here’s a two-fisted Atlantean mentalist powerhouse in the best tradition of Silver Age Aquaman (hence my use of the Superfriends character for the pic). He’s strong, fast on the water or on land, and he’s got the keen senses you’d expect from someone who lives underwater. He’s got the Diplomacy he needs to try and talk down evil pirates and polluters; he’s also got the physical abilities to wade in and engage them in melee before leaving them tied up in a net for the cops. He’s got the Life Sciences you’d expect from someone who probably does a lot of Earth Day PSAs. (This guy would make a decent Preachy 90s Environmentalist Hero build in the bargain). He’s also got some limited mental abilities; enough to read the minds of surface dwellers (with some effort, using the alternate Mind Reading mechanic discussed in Doc A and Shaen’s thread) as well as enough to talk to animals (particularly aquatic sea life) and to look through their eyes. (I could have flawed his mental powers like ESP and Communication to only work on sea life, but that would have had very low utility and anyway, as it is he can only talk to marine animals anyway: good thing Freedom City’s on the Atlantic Ocean!) People may underestimate him because he’s so nice, but he is a mobile fighter and good PL 10 powerhouse, albeit one without Impervious. It’s up to you what his Connected represents, depending on the backstory you settle on for him: he could be a member of the Atlantean royal family (perhaps one who has gone to the surface to explore the dimensions of his mental abilities) who has taken a more proactive approach to dealing with oceanic criminals, or maybe he’s just an ocean biologist mutated by exposure to pollution into a powerful superhero with connections at universities and the media. You could recast it as a version of the Cult Hero feat from Silver Age (which gives bonuses on dealings with your friends and problems while dealing with your enemies) and say he’s just really popular with those dolphin-saving types. Just one feat may not seem like much to represent being part of a royal family, but on the other hand Atlantis is very far away from Freedom City! This also might work (like Amphibian, the Champions character from Vibora Bay) as an aquatic sidekick grown up to be a full-bore superhero! This should be the nice Silver Age ambassador who occasionally shouts at people because he's used to talking underwater and who has to explain that yes, of course he eats fish, what do people expect Atlanteans to eat. He doesn't have Favored Environment (underwater); Favored Environment is a mistake to give a PC build. Rather, he just has Environmental Adaptation for underwater survival: that way he doesn't take the heavy penalties that regular PCs take for underwater movement and combat. That way he's just as competent as they are on the surface, but is a very powerful, highly competent hero below. You want to be careful about being The Water Guy, after all, since that is a common hazard for this archetype! Buying up more skills and feats for him is an excellent idea, with the specifics depending on exactly where you want to take the concept: another idea would be to pump up his mental attributes at the expense of the physical and make him more primarily a mentalist: as it is in play he’ll probably come across as a powerhouse with mental powers, which is what he is! A fast, easy way to get him points will be to give him some oceanic-related drawbacks like drying out or being vulnerable to heat-based attacks.

Remember that he only sees unholy while actively looking for it unless you buy Awareness. Approved

Detect looks good. Make sure to give him an actual prose description, not just stats and the pic. (Though those are good to have!)

"The Fens is the poorest neighborhood," said Sharl automatically, "and Lantern Hill is the oldest." He closed the computer with an audible click and added, "Lantern Hill's rich and really well-digitized, so I've been up there a lot. There's a lot to see." The age of the buildings out there didn't impress him much, but the idea that the people on this planet had once lived in those two hundred year-old houses was fascinating. "The Fens is poor, but I hear it's better than it has been. I shouldn't have gone there at night carrying a projector; a guy tried to mug me in the Fens. Didn't do much for him."

Sharl squinched his eyes at Koshiro and put on his sunglasses. "Okay then. I guess I'll go tell the others." Given the rust-covered hellhole Koshiro had come out of, and what Sharl had heard about his education there, he supposed it wasn't his fault he had no idea what he was talking about. I'd better have visual aids for the others. "Oh, and if you meet anyone else from Tronik, it's most likely to be a woman named Rogue who works for the Foundry and wants to kill all organic life because she thinks they've been keeping us in chains." He picked up his laptop from the desk and started disconnecting it. "So, uh, watch out for that, I guess."