Avenger Assembled

Opal II PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 24 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 18 (+4) CON 14 (+2) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+12 ranged) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +20 Saves: 14 pp TOU: +8 (+2 Con, +6 Protection) FORT: +6 (+2 Con, +4) REF: +8 (+4 Dex, +4) WILL: +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Acrobatics 11 (+15) Bluff 8 (+10) Concentration 5 (+7) Disable Device 10 (+10) Notice 4 (+6) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 6 (+10) Feats: 18 pp Acrobatic Bluff All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Ranged 6 Challenge (Fast Acrobatic Bluff) Dodge Focus 4 Evasion Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 50 pp Enhanced Feats 3 (Environmental Adaptation [underwater], Quick Change 2) [3] Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9] Protection 6 [6] Telekinesis 8 (Heavy Load: 3 tons) (Extra: Damaging) (PFs: Precise [2]) [26] costs abilities 24 + combat 28 + saves 14 + skills 14/56 + feats 18 + powers 50 = 150 pts ------ Design Notes: Here’s a build for an Opal legacy; Opal being the Golden Age Star Sapphire expy of the Freedom City setting. Karen Farrell’s addiction to cocaine cost her her college scholarship, her relationship with her family, and most of her self-respect. A court-ordered rehab program got her off drugs, but her criminal record and lack of education kept her from working all but the most menial jobs. She hated that life, she hated almost as much as she hated her lingering desire to have some more cocaine. When Scrounge, aka Eugene Jergens, broke into the private storage facility whose floors she was mopping, she didn’t just point him to the storage locker full of seized mad science gear left over from the 1970s: she asked if she could join him. Flattered at the idea of having a sidekick, he agreed, and the two became partners, then on-again off-again lovers, for several long, very enjoyable months. Then the crisis came: their break-in at an abandoned Liberty League storage facility triggered an explosion amid long-neglected super-gear. Scrouge escaped unhurt; Karen, closer to the blast, was hospitalized with fragments of steel, wood, and other things embedded in her flesh. (Eugene made sure she got safely to the hospital on his own, then scarpered: while not a monster, he’s no hero!) Karen awoke in the hospital to find the doctors had managed to take out most of the debris lodged in her body, but not the shimmering purple jewel that had lodged itself just under the skin of her forehead. Still injured, she was in the middle of spinning a fantastic story about how she’d been injured when suddenly the Crime League attacked to kidnap her. When she fought back, she found herself with new strength and power: she blasted Wildcard through the wall and threw a car at Orion, and held them both off until Captain Thunder arrived. Acclaimed as a hero, she decided she liked the feeling, and confessed her secret to the commander of the Freedom League. It turned out the jewel lodged in her body was a fragment of the Eye of Argon, the mystic Atlantean jewel that had corrupted and empowered the Golden Age super-crook Opal. But while the first Opal had been a goody-two-shoes corrupted by power, her successor was a former addict who knew what it was like to control her appetites and impulses. Sentenced to community service for her crimes, Karen has just completed her service with Project Freedom and hopes to have a clean record from now on. She makes it a point to avoid any police reports about her former boyfriend. Okay, so the idea here was to make a fast, acrobatic blaster with some thief skills: I think I succeeded pretty well. Damaging Telekinesis is a very handy power if you can afford it; she’s got the precision to do very fine tasks with her TK as well as some solid damage with it: her high Bluff and Acrobatic Bluff makes it very easy for her to catch bad guys flat-footed and lay them out. If you have damaging TK, you really never need any kind of regular ranged damage. You can fluff it as energy constructs if you want her to be a little Green Lanterny. She’s a former bad guy, but luckily her shiny new costume will help keep that a complication for her rather than a more serious complication for her. I threw in the Underwater stuff as a nod to the Eye of Argon’s origins: perhaps she decides to do some undersea adventures alongside Atlanteans! OTOH, she might get one in her rogue’s gallery, since surely someone down there will be bigoted enough to want their artifact out of the hands of a surface-dweller, heroic or otherwise. She works just fine as an antagonist too, if you want to say she’s used the jewel to carry out bigger and better crimes, she makes a sly, lovely jewel thief who’s not nearly as groundbound as her more feline sisters.

So she blows up

As the undead obscenity that had once been Martha Lucas entered Mark's life for a moment then departed, Mark took a moment to thank God for Wander. Whatever he'd have done in response to that shambling mockery, it wouldn't have been any good. He swallowed hard, and nodded at her words. "They aren't real, and soon, none of this will be! Quo-Dis, I am sending you back to the place from which you came!" He fired a devastating blast of energy at Quo-Dis, one that struck her in the midsection, catching her by surprise as she was about to open another box. She gave an eerie shriek, dead skin flaking away, as reality itself tore apart inside her to reveal the churning Terminus energy within. This had never been the real Quo-Dis, just a hideous empty shell of corrupted energy surrounded by a corpse's skin. "Now, Sage!" Edge called. "Finish her off!"

APPROVED

Galatea PL: 10 (150) Abilities: -4 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON n/a (-) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +17 Saves: 9 pp TOU +15 (+3 Density, +12 Protection) FORT n/a REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+2 Wis, +6) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Intimidate 10 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 5 (+5) Knowledge (History) 5 (+5) Languages 4 (English, French, Hebrew, Latin) (Base: Greek) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 6 pp All-Out Attack Fearless, Power Attack, Startle, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (Mental) Powers: 101 pp Density 7 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0]) (PFs: Innate, Subtle) [23 pp] -Enhanced STR 14, Impervious TOU 3, Immovable 2, Super-Strength 2, Mass x6 [weighs about 900 lbs] Device 4 (Ring of Hades) (Hard to Lose) (PFs: Indestructible, Restricted [unliving]) [18 pp] -Enhanced Feat 4 (Quick Change [2], Ultimate Save [Toughness]) [3] -Flight 1 (10 MPH) (PF: Move-By Action) [3] -Impervious TOU 7 [7] -Strike 5 (PFs: Extended Reach, Mighty) [7] Immunity 50 (Fortitude Saves, Magical Effects; Flaw: Limited [half effect for magical effect immunity]) [40 pp] Protection 12 [12 pp] Regeneration 6 (+0 Recovery Bonus, Resurrection 1/week) (PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [8 pp] costs abilities -4 + combat 20 + saves 9 + skills 10/40 + feats 6 + powers 101 = 150 pts ----------- Design Notes: Here's a build for Galatea, a character based on Greek mythology. My idea is this: on Pygmalion's death of old age, Galatea roamed all of Greece, looking for a way to gain mortality and join her lover in the afterlife. After years of wandering and adventuring, she finally fell in with Hades. He couldn't change her condition, or so he said, but he could let her join Pygmalion in the Elysian Fields while still 'living' in her body of living marble. And she did, and was happy for a while, but she wasn't a living soul and could never fully appreciate the eternal bliss of the Fields. She left Pygmalion to his bliss, and roamed the Underworld. Sensing her dissatisfaction, Hades came to her again and told her how terrible it was the gods had made her neither alive or dead, denied eternal peace with her lover thanks to Aphrodite's whims. Perhaps she could help him gain more power on Olympus, so that one day he could have the power of Zeus? And so she did, becoming his vassal and a captain in his armies, and warred against the other Olympians, battling the tyrannical gods whose whims could make and break mortal lives with a thought. When the gods retreated, she went with them, and settled in the Underworld as Hades' knight and warrior; battling the fiends below, children of the Christian god, who sought to take Hades' realm away from him, even as she battled on the slopes of Olympus against the other gods. As the centuries went by, she visited Pygmalion less and less, all the while promising herself that one day they might yet be together again. Finally, some decades ago, when Hades came to Earth, she came with him as a captain in his armies, only to see how much Hades had changed in his eons below, or worse, how much and how often she'd been lying to her: his ambitions to overthrow Zeus were simple greed, his war with Daedalus, simple pettiness. Rejecting her old alliances, she stole a ring from Hades' throne and escaped his service, becoming a roaming warrior and hero in the modern era. She still hates the Olympians for their petty cruelty, but has expanded her focus to all the pagan gods: no more will men and women be subject to the tyranny of others. She knows Pygmalion is safe in his bliss, where even the gods can't touch him, and she's glad of that. She's not the woman who loved him anymore. Of her old contemporaries: she remembers Medea's cruel laughter ages ago when she begged for the sorceress's help in becoming human, and the curse she placed on her that it took years to lift. That Medea hasn't changed, she has no surprise. She and Daedalus are become new allies these days, both glad to have someone around who remembers the old days. As for she and Taurus, the Great Bull knows her old and has fought before her in more than one battle. He actually feels bad for what's necessary. He will make sure that her death is as painless and swift as he can arrange. For her own part, should Galatea encounter Taurus in battle, she will smile a grim acknowledgement to her old ally and fight him to the death. She doesn't understand Talos at all, and was more than a little freaked out when he made a robot with her name. Doesn't he understand the problem was always with the gods, never with men? OK, so this is an animate marble statue wearing a necromantic power ring from the finger of Hades himself. She can lift about three tons thanks to her Density. She's not at war against _religion_, just the petty gods and wicked men who would play with men's lives like wanton boys play with flies. She's a magic robot _from Hell_, and is pretty badass with her massive tradeoffs: I figure she all-out power-attacks every time with her Hades-forged ax, trusting that her massive TOU and Impervious will let her shrug off almost any attack. It and her razored scourge are considered part of the ring's effect, so she can't lose her weapons or armor while wearing the ring. She's absolutely murder versus your typical evil sorceror who may not think to throw things at her telekinetically, her divinely empowered body giving her a tremendous resistance to mortal magic. She's pretty tough, her big weakness being a lack of ranged attack, but other than that she's quite thoroughly badass. If you don't like her as a hero, she makes a damn fine captain in the armies of Hades: a nigh-invincible warrior who can be defeated but who will never ever quit.

"Ow! My face!" Quo-Dis snarled at Wander, her lovely face pulling back to reveal the grey teeth and foul breath of a zombie for a moment as she reset her jaw. "I'm going to enjoy watching them break you in the pits," she spat, black ichor on her teeth as she turned and blasted one of the nearby boxes open. "Here, you fear the walking dead so much? Why don't you have all the walking dead you can handle?" A beam of pure black light washed out and sliced the top off one of the boxes, its occupant sitting up with a smile on her face just like all the others. It was Martha Lucas, and she had a hole in the center of her forehead. "Why, it's you!" she said, sliding out of her coffin and taking a few steps towards her suddenly ashen-faced son. "They told me I'd get to have you back, my boy," she said, arms extended as she shuffled forward. She showed no sign of superpowers, just a burning intent in her black eyes as she headed straight for Mark. "Your father and I were so devastated after that bus accident crushed you like a grape, we just couldn't bear it," she said with a wickedly maternal frown. "Well, I was devastated But let's face it, your father, he went a little CRAZY! So when I started coughing on the way back from the funeral, he took his gun out, and well..." She laughed, and added, "he's around here somewhere! You can join us!"

Round 2 Quo-Dis is up. I'll fiat that she shakes her stun. (Have an HP, Wander) She goes ahead and spends her round blasting open boxes. Let's call it Mark's! Wander is up.

Winterfire PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 34 pp STR 20 (+5) DEX 14 (+2) CON 20 (+5) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 28 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Cold Control/Unarmed) DEF: +12 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +15 Saves: 12 pp TOU +8 (+5 Con, +3 Protection) FORT +7 (+5 Con, +2) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Concentration 5 (+7) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 4 (+5) Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 4 (+5) Notice 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 12 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot Startle Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 52 pp Cold Control Array [22+4=26 pp] Frozen Aura 5 (PFs: Incurable, Precise) 'winterfire' AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Ranged) (PFs: Accurate 2) 'frozen blast' AP: Damage 10 (Extra: Area [Cone]) (PFs: Progression on Area 2) 'ice breath' AP: Obscure 10 (1 mile) (visual and auditory) (Extra: Independent) (Flaw: Range [Touch]) (PFs: Slow Fade 2 [5 minutes]) 'snowstorm' AP: Snare 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) 'ice cage' Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] Immunity 15 (all cold effects, fire damage) [15 pp] Protection 3 [3 pp] Super-Senses 2 (Infravision, Tracking (visual) [quarter-speed] [2 pp] costs abilities 34 + combat 28 + saves 12 + skills 10/40 + feats 12 + powers 52 = 150 pts ------------- Design Notes: Here's my build for Winterfire, an ice and cold controller based on the look of White Lantern Firestorm. My general idea is that Winterfire is basically a living dire snowstorm, capable of firing blasts of cold and encasing enemies in ice, or just surrounding his body with cold so profound he freezes anything he touches. He's either some guy possessed by the elemental spirit of winter (like happens) or a hapless research scientist whose accidental exposure to ice-nine transformed him into an ice elemental. He's a very powerful cold controller, shrugging off all cold-based effects and even fire! He's so cold, he can't burn from even the hottest flames! He can also track people by their heat signatures, see by heat, and get around by means of convection-powered flight. He's pretty scary; I mean just look at him! Man's a pretty tough customer. He's got just a little Survival to represent a guy who can get along just fine in Arctic conditions. Note that he can see through his own Obscure since it has the cold descriptor, but he can't see through typical weather effects that may be more broadly based. He has some weaknesses in other areas too; He'll have to powerstunt while fighting other cold controllers, since all his damage has the cold descriptor. One good way to do that is streams of icicles: it doesn't matter if you can shrug off the cold if you get smacked in the face by a big heavy icicle. Note that while he's immune to fire _damage_ (no doubt to the horror of your local Johnny Storm expy), he's not immune to fire effects: a savvy heat controller will cook him with a Ranged Stun or blind him with a fireball, and go from there against an opponent who may have thought he was invincible earlier. He's also not bulletproof, though he is tougher than a normal human being. Remember that Damage Auras do stack with Unarmed Damage, so he's doing a whopping +10 damage with his unarmed strikes when he punches people with his Aura up: I'd assume that the visual effects of that power are on all the time, but he can only actually do damage with it while punching. He's good in melee and ranged combat, either wading in with frozen punches or hanging back and tossing iceballs at people. If you want to make this an international hero, I think he'd work just fine as the champion of Russia: call him General Winter, like the Sentinel's antagonist in Silver Age Sentinels! You could also make this Antarctica's native superhero: perhaps he was a scientist posted to one of the stations there who saw his mutation emerge at a very good time, or perhaps he got lost in a storm one day and made contact with a _thing_ that lives in the ice and cold that took a liking to him...

Agent Orange Abilities: 20 pp STR 14 (+2) DEX 16 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +3 Grapple: +12 Saves: 12 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +5 (+3 Con, +2) REF +5 (+3 Dex, +2) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 52 r=13 pp Concentration 10 (+10) Craft (Mechanical) 5 (+5) Gather Information 5 (+5) Knowledge: Technology 5 (+5) Notice 8 (+10) Pilot 2 (+5) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Stealth 4 (+7) Feats: 11 pp Attack Focus: Melee (4) Dodge Focus (4) Power Attack, Takedown Attack, Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 74 pp Device 18 (Agent Orange Suit) (Hard to Lose) (PFs: Restricted 2) [74 pp] Concealment 2 (normal vision) (Flaw: Blending) (PF: Close Range) [3 pp] Enhanced Feat 1 (Well-Informed) [1 pp] Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] Immunity 4 (disease, poison, suffocation) [4 pp] Mimic 10 (all powers at once) (Extra: Range [Perception]) [60 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Radio) [1 pp] Drawbacks: -4 pp Normal ID (full round action to don suit) [-4 pp] costs abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 13/52 + feats 11 + powers 74 -drawbacks 4= 150 pts -------- Design Notes: Here’s Agent Orange, based on the general concept of the DC Universe’s Orange Lanterns. My general idea here is that Agent Orange is a battlesuit designed to fight supercriminals. Using his stealthy armor, he flies up close and copies bad guys, then shifts into combat mode and goes to town. (Note that he can copy any superhuman he sees, but the stealth mode lets him study his targets and decide which would be the most useful to copy.) Inside his armor, he’s got 50 pp to reallocate however he likes and can handle just about any situation, assuming there’s somebody around for him to copy. He meets his PL 10 defensive caps in the suit, but he needs to use his Mimic power to hit his caps offensively. He’s an OK fighter for someone with such a low PL outside of his suit, furthering my theory that he’s military or police personnel. He can only mimic one target at a time and he loses his allocation if he’s stunned or knocked out, but he doesn’t acquire his targets drawbacks or flaws in the process. He’s a very powerful character! He doesn’t have a fully sealed environment as a default, but he’s got some protection against the hazards of the outside. Note that Mimicing doesn’t actually remove the powers of the target, and it’ll probably annoy them enough that you’ll be next on the target list! If you’re using this guy as an NPC (he’d make a great street thug flying around in power armor he stole), I’d change his Mimic power as follows: add the Saving Throw Required flaw to his Mimic (probably Will) as well as the Tainted flaw. That means targeted people (i.e., mostly likely PCs) get a Will save to resist having their powers copies, and that the suit wearer acquires all the problems that go with their powers too. (i.e., the guy Mimicing Superman with Tainted had better not hang out around Kryptonite Man...) That’ll let you afford extras like Progression (letting you copy multiple people simultaneously), Continuous (so he keeps his copied powers even while sleeping), Stacking (so multiple stolen powers do stack), and many other cool stuff depending on your preference. I left those off here just for game balance purposes and to make life easier for the player: he can't push his powers too far, but what he does have is nice and reliable when he needs it.. I figure his Enhanced Well-Informed represents some sort of Wikipedia function built into the suit (it also gives him a shot at knowing the powers he can get from particular bad guys even if they haven’t demonstrated them yet), and of course I like to give most powersuits at least some kind of radio function. He’s got the skills to be a melee fighter, but you could easily copy enough to make him a tremendously powerful ranged attacker too. Let the GM decide exactly how much control you have over allocating your Mimic points. He’s got just enough skills to maintain the suit if it breaks down, but he’s not the builder by any stretch of the imagination. If he’s not a government agent, maybe he’s a former supervillain turned straight, or someone who’s inherited their suit from someone else and decided to go hero. Perhaps he was the test pilot for a bad guy’s new project, or an evil military project, and he’s decided to go on the lam with his fine new toy!

Ouch! Want to extra effort that one, Giz?

Midnight is up. The ladies sheets, with daka crystals in place of kryptonite

Mark missed, bleah. Midnight is up.

"We've got wounded," called Edge, feeling heartsick as he saw Faith's cosmic blast hurl her cousin into the wall behind him. He could see how badly hurt Sage was, and he knew they couldn't hesitate. Any opening the false reflections of their friends had could be disastrous for all of them. "C'mon, Cobalt Templar, keep it together! This Quo-Dis died three years ago!" For his own part, he focused on the villain who'd so badly hurt his friend. He remembered Faith, remembered her laugh, her smell, her voice. This wasn't her. That helped, a lot. "You have no business being here when so many good people have suffered already. Go away, Faith!" He fired and missed, the hall's ceiling vanishing against his blow in a flash of black ink, sending a cascade of foul debris from upstairs cascading down on everyone. "Damn!"

Have an HP for fighting such a jerk, Sage.

Quo-Dis' head jerked back as Wander punched her, the battered paragon smacking into the ceiling overhead before she righted herself. She was still in the fight, but looked surprised at the sheer power Wander was packing in her fists. Nearby, Faith said in sudden French, addressing her erstwhile cousin, "" she taunted with a nasty smile, "<I've gone to great lengths to be the last and the greatest of the Martels, and done many great and terrible things to do. So as long as you're here and not a scum-sucking zombie, my work isn't finished. Say hello to Mother and Father for me!>" she gloated with a malevolent laugh, firing a blast of deadly cosmic radiation that struck her all-too-human cousin right in the face.

Faith blasts Sage That's a crit! I was really hoping to save Mark's HP, but we'll need Sage later. Not that much of a help Aaand that's a DC 29 Tou save, Sage.

Okay, she's flat-footed, but that'll only give you +3 additional damage. 29 Okay, she's bruised and stunned.

Quo-Dis: 38 Wander: 31 (7 HP (-1 earlier, +1 for FINISH HIM) Faith: 30 Edge: 20 (9 HP, -1 earlier) Midnight: 14 (6 HP) Sage: 12 (2 (+1 for Faith) Cobalt Templar: 1 (1 HP+2 HP for good RP) Quo-Dis is going to go ahead and and use her Cosmic Blast against Cobalt Templar, since he's the guy she was supposed to take out in the first place. I'll say this isn't a surprise round, since they're not being very sneaky about it. She will all-out power attack. 24. That does hit! That'll be a DC 34 Tou save, though I suspect Wander will be Interposing for you there...

23: Edge 38 for Quo-Dis; 30 for Faith

Inside the box, up sat Faith Martel! She was looking remarkably well-preserved in her blue skin and red and black jumper, a malevolent smile on her face as she confronted her live cousin. "Hello, cousin," she said with a wicked smile, flying up into the air to join a now very confident-looking Quo-Dis. "I'm so glad you could join us here." In their Annihilist costumes of red and black, they were a matched set of lithe, blonde, lovely monsters. Reaching down to Sage, Faith said with a smile and in eerie unison with her floating comrade, "Come and stay with us forever and hear the song of the Coil. Open your mind to the touch of darkness. None of you need die like all the heroes of this world," she added over the sound of plasma fire outside as Furion fought Omegadrone. "You can know the kiss of Omega instead!" At her final words, the skin of Faith's face seemed to pull back into a skeletal rictus, her eyes a malignant black, and she leaned close to her cousin's face to whisper "Give us a kiss!" "Geez, Faith! You're such a drama queen," said Quo-Dis good-naturedly, her voice an eerie reflection of the girl they all knew. She smiled, looking like a predatory shark. "Look, I don't know any of you that well, I just know some version of me in some stupid other dimension where everyone's alive has been sleeping with that guy," she pointed to Cobalt Templar, "and that you all need to burn in Omega's name. So! BURN IN THE FIRES OF THE TERMINUS, YOU MISERABLE WORM!" she spat, gathering up a black, flaming ball of sizzling entropy in her hands, hurling it at Cobalt Templar in a blow that would surely devastate him!

Thundermind PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 30 [14] (+10/+2) DEX 12 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 12 (+1) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Telekinesis/Unarmed) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +3 Grapple: +8/+19/+20 Saves: 17 pp TOU +10 (+3 Con, +7 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +6 (+1 Dex, +5) WILL +10 (+2 Wis, +8) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Concentration 8 (+10) Diplomacy 4 (+6) Knowledge: History 4 (+5) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 4 (+5) Languages 4 (Cantonese, English, Japanese, Russian) (Base: Mandarin) Notice 4 (+6) Search 4 (+5) Sense Motive 4 (+5) Feats: 16 pp All-Out Attack Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Benefit (Hey, It's Thundermind!) Challenge (Lip-Reading) Dodge Focus 4 Fearless Interpose Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 62 pp Flight 2 (25 MPH) [4 pp] Impervious TOU 10 [10 pp] Protection 7 [7 pp] Sutra Array [22+7=29 pp] Enhanced STR 16 and Super-Strength 3 (Heavy Load: 6 tons) AP: Communication 6 (20 miles) (mental) (Extras: Area, Two-Way) (PFs: Rapid 2 (100), Selective, Subtle) AP: Concealment 10 (all senses) (Extra: Affects Others) (Flaw: Phantasm) (PFs: Progression 2 [5 others]) AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (visual) (Extra: Simultaneous) (PFs: Rapid 3 (1k), Subtle) AP: Illusion 6 (visual and auditory) (PFs: Precise, Progression 3 [25 ft]) AP: Mental Blast 10 (Flaws: Unreliable 2 [1 use a day]) (PFs: Incurable, Reversible) AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extra: Area [burst], Selective) (Flaws: Duration [instant]) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) AP: Telekinesis 10 (Heavy Load: 12 tons) (PFs: Accurate 2) Teleport 6 (600 ft/20 miles) [12 pp] Drawbacks: (3 pp) Normal ID (say magic sutra) (free action) costs abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 17 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 62 -drawbacks 3= 150 pts --------- Design Notes: For my last Great Ten build, here's Thundermind, the most beloved superhero in the DCU's Communist China. Thundermind is pretty explicitly the Chinese Superman: he's got lots and lots of powers, he's got a nerdy secret ID (as a public school history teacher), he's got a crush on a lovely lady who thinks his secret ID is the best ever, and he's the man everybody loves. That's what his benefit is for: treat it as basically a version of Connected. He's the guy everybody loves and wants to be like, and something of the conscience of his own team. He's no alien from another planet, though; he's basically a Buddhist Captain Marvel in his origins, having learned the secret magic phrase that unlocked the mystic powers of his pure soul. I was something at a loss about how to build his powers till I decided to just take the guy and do some heavy arraying: most of his powers are tied up in a formidable mental array with a mystic theme. He's likable, he can take a hit, and he can do a hell of a lot of things for your team. (I figure, BTW, that his Illusion is what lets him do ridiculous-looking things without power-stunting all the time.) I figure a typical day for Thundermind involves him flying around the city while scanning it with his ESP. (With Simultaneous, he can do that and not lose track of where he himself is.) If he sees something bad going on, he'll teleport over there and make with the Blow of a Thousand Buddhas or smacking people around telekinetically. If need be, he'll hit them with a powerful mental blow as a last resort; it disturbs his chakras, though, so he can only use it once a day. This lets him look like he has a lot of abilities, and indeed he does, without actually going ridiculously overcost. His Mind Reading has the Area extra to represent opening his mind to all the universe; note that his superiors may not be aware of just how much Thundermind knows, and just how many minds he's been inside over the years. He's Buddhist magical Superman; what's not to like? OK, you could surely flavor him with the enlightened texts of any other major religion, even Christianity or Islam! He could go without the religious symbolism entirely, and just be a powerful psychic paragon. Paragon-types like Thundermind, beloved and respected by the people, have a lot of complications: This is the sort of guy who should never take the easy way out. Whatever team he's on, he should always be their compass, their center: he can't actually make the Great Ten better people, (well, maybe he could with Mental Transform), but he can show them the right road and trust that they will eventually follow him. That applies to whatever team he's on, and whatever source you choose to give him (enlightenment, patriotism, corn-fed Kansas upbringing) for those strong values: wherever he's from, he's there to catch the others when they fall.

Immortal Man In Darkness PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 32 pp STR 34 [18] (+12/+4) DEX 14 (+2) CON 26 [18] (+8/+4) INT 14 (+2) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (-2 Growth, +4 Unarmed: +8 Unarmed) DEF: +6 (-2 Growth, +2 Dodge, +6/+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +22 Saves: 10 pp TOU +14 (+8 Con, +6 Protection) FORT +10 (+8 Con, +2) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +6 (+2 Wis, +4) Skills: 56 r=14 pp Craft (Mechanical) 8 (+10) Knowledge (Technology) 8 (+10) Languages 3 (Cantonese, English, Russian) (Base: Mandarin) Notice 13 (+15) Pilot 8 (+10) Search 8 (+10) Sense Motive 8 (+10) Feats: 8 pp Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2 Dodge Focus 2 Fearless Move-By Action Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (radio) Powers: 65 pp Device 16 (Dragonwing) (Hard to Lose) (PF: Restricted [Pilot +8 ranks] [65 pp] Damage 10 (Extra: Targeted Area [Cone]) (PFs: Accurate 3, Homing 2 (x10), Variable Descriptor 2 [any technological]) [17] 'weapons array' Growth 8 (Extra: Duration [Permanent]) (Huge size) (PF: Innate) [25] (-2 ATK/DEF, +8 Grapple, -8 Stealth, +4 Intimidate, 16 ft tall, 4K-32K lbs, 15 ft space, 10 ft reach, x2 carrying capacity) Flight 5 (250 MPH) [Dynamic] [10+1+2=13] DAP: Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 720 tons) Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9] Impervious TOU 10 [10+1=11] AP: Insubstantial 2 (gaseous) Protection 6 [6] Super-Senses 1 (Radio) [1] Drawbacks: No Hands while using suit [-2 pp] Drawback: (-3 pp) Normal ID (say activation code) (free action) (-3 pp) costs abilities 32 + combat 24 + saves 10 + skills 14/56 + feats 8 + powers 65 - drawback 3 = 150 pts ------- Design Notes: Okay, after a lot of finessing, here's Immortal-Man-in-Darkness, one of the more challenging constructions of the Great Ten. The Immortal-Man-in-Darkness is one of a series of volunteer Chinese Air Force pilots who wear an experimental battlesuit made of alien technology. While in that suit, they can transform themselves into the Dragonwing, the most powerful and advanced fighter jet in the world! The secret of the IMD, of course, is that the Immortal part is something of a wry jest: the suit actually kills the pilot, each use taking a year off their life until finally the flesh dissolves from their very bones thanks to the alien fluid required to bond to the craft. But each time someone else steps up to fly the Dragonwing, young pilot after pilot willing to die If it means flying the finest aircraft ever made in the service of their country. I've tried to build IMD as a fighter jet superhero, giving him most of the abilities you'd expect and that he's described as having in the comics. I kludged a bit with his weapons array a bit, and for good reason: it is really, really tough to build a character with Growth and a ranged attack, since they are actually significantly impeded by Growth thanks to its attack penalties and lack of a boost to things like Blast. (I guess you could make a giant with a discus or something, but that's not this build!) As it is, he should be able to drop things like missiles, lasers, and other kinds of bombardment in the area in front of him without too much worry. In combat he's probably best off ramming his enemies with his impervious hide, doing tremendous damage even given his lack of hands. With Takedown Attack and his speed, he shouldn't have any trouble clearing the skies of Nazi fighter planes, ravening demon-birds, or whatever it is you're putting him up against: note that he doesn't have the usual drawbacks of a jet fighter, and can hover, fly VTOL, and generally do all the other things that comic book superheroes do with their flight. He might have trouble grabbing onto things since he's got no hands, but he can always push falling planes back into the sky or something. In our game, you're probably best off making his suit be Grue in origin, the result of Chinese experimental technology. In fact, Grue technology is probably not a bad expy for Durlan technology in Freedom City, given how feared they are and how many powerful, but dangerous abilities you can get from just a little experimentation. That said, playing this as a guy bonded to a Grue supersuit would be pretty fun! (It would explain the shapeshifting too.) Maybe he's a super-soldier empowered by illicit technology, or maybe he's a pilot who was a victim of Grue experimentation during the last invasion. Note that I didn't represent "kills you" on his sheet; that's at best a Complication, and really awfully dark for here. Throw in something about the usage of the suit being hazardous to his health and how he's working on that, and you're good.

Physician Friendly, the arch-torturer, arch-fiend, the greatest monster among the greatest of monsters, fell down, still impaled on Wander's bat, and collapsed to the ground beneath her feet. Her blow had holed his face and done worse to the back of his head: the great mad scientist was now yet another mutilated corpse, twitching. For his own part, Edge studied the dead body and found it impossible to feel bad. He knew what Annihilists were, he'd been raised on tales of their horrors and the monstrous place that was the Terminus. Whatever man Physician Friendly had once been had died years before. "Okay," he finally said, breaking the long silence. "Okay, that's done. Midnight, why don't you see about-" Across the room, the box Cobalt Templar had opened snapped open all the way and its occupant sat up. He recognized her immediately, of course: he'd held that supple body in his arms and flown with her under an evening sky. Quo-Dis still looked beautiful, even with eerily-cast bluish skin and in her usual slightly risque costume, but this time cut in the unmistakeable red and black of the Terminus. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, and her eyes were all black. "Why hello there!" she said with a wicked smile. "You must be the interlopers we were supposed to deal with...hey!" she said suddenly, looking around. "He was supposed to open all the boxes!"

22 He's dead all right.

Have an HP, Midnight