Avenger Assembled

"I am familiar with Dr. Archeville. I was not aware he possessed robot servitors. I am sure he is a good boyfriend." It was hard to tell how Harrier felt about that; it was hard to tell how he felt about most things. "Thank you." He ate the apples straight through, core and all, his teeth crunching through the hard stuff in the middle. When he'd finished eating, he fell silent, and there was no sound but the birds and insects, and the distant chatter of the family across the way. Despite himself, Harrier's eyes strayed over there for a moment. Eventually, he said, "I am grateful for the food, and will give you hospitality in return." And then a moment later: "We are not friendly with each other, Fulcrum. And there are those more deserving of so bountiful a meal than I. You had a reason to call me."

Psychic Paragon Abilities: 30 pp STR 30 [16] (+10/+3) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [16] (+10/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +21/+26 Saves: 8 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 32 r=8 pp Bluff 6 (+10) Concentration 5 (+8) Language 1 (Russian) (Base: English) Perform (bass) 6 (+10) Notice 7 (+10) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 13 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Quick Change Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 67 pp Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp] Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp] Flight 1 (10 MPH) [2 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Mental Array [22+4=26 pp] Add Flight 5 [total Flight 6 (500 MPH)] and Super-Strength 5 [total Super-Strength 6 (Heavy Load: 96 tons) (PFs: Countering Punch, Super-Breath) AP: ESP 4 (1 miles) (all senses) (PFs: Rapid 4 [x10k], Subtle) AP: Impervious TOU 10 (Extra: Reflective [ranged]) (PFs: Selective, Subtle) AP: Mind Reading 10 (Extras: Area [burst], Selective) (Flaw: Duration [instant]) (PFs: Insidious, Subtle) AP: Telekinesis 7 (Heavy Load: 1.5 tons) (Extra: Range [Perception]) (PF: Subtle) Super-Strength 1 (Heavy Load: 1.5 tons) [2 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 8 + skills 8/32 + feats 13 + powers 67 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: From another possible future, here's a child of Psyche and Phalanx that's a pretty straightforward psychic paragon: she has formidable psychic abilities backed up by the power to punch you so hard, you'll wish she hadn't punched you so hard! If she turns on her 'telekinetic force field', she can make herself bulletproof and even spin those bullets around so they bounce back at the people who fired them off. I'm not gonna lie; she's pretty badass. She can focus her powers and be a successful paragon, she can read your mind or search most of the city with a couple of actions (a nice way of faking Superman-style super-speed), and she can even catch things with her mind without touching them. She also has a powerful force of personality, good looks, and she can play a mean bass guitar. (Everyone always forgets about the bassist) When Shaen built this character, he went with a speedster: this is no criticism of his excellent Zephyr build, rather it's simply an alternate take on a similar concept. Depending on what descriptors you like, I think this works great if you want to play a John Byrne-style 'psychic Superman', who flies around carrying heavy objects without them falling apart because of her powerful psychic abilities. As mentioned in the Lucky Psychic build up-thread, you can get away with a lot with psychic descriptors, they're quite broad. I deliberately gave her both Enhanced STR and Super-Strength outside her big psychic array so she can stunt and still act like a paragon. (Note that she can lift as much with her Perception range TK as she can with her base Super-Strength. A mere coincidence!?! Yes, actually, but it certainly has a nice flavor to it about her total lifting strength and similar abilities.) If you want someone more Martian Manhunter-y, give her Insubstantial or some kind of crazy eye-blasts; paragons are meant to be flexible and this lady has lots of different options to choose from both inside and outside of combat. She's a strong woman in control of her sexuality, but one who may not make a lot of great choices with her personal life. But that's OK, a complicated backstory and difficult personal life is nothing more and nothing less than a great font of HP, as I've tried to suggest here and elsewhere in the thread. If you do make her a time-traveler like her original version (though with a different background, obviously), pick up some Temporal Inertia for her and maybe have her pick up more and more time-travely traits as the game goes on. With time as your backyard, there are no limits!

Combat Magician PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 36 pp STR 16 (+3) DEX 18 (+4) CON 18 (+4) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 32 pp ATK: +8 (+12 melee/+13 playing cards) DEF: +14 (+4 flat-footed) Init: +8 Grapple: +15 Saves: 11 pp TOU +6 (+4 Con, +2 Costume) FORT +7 (+4 Con, +3) REF +7 (+4 Dex, +3) WILL +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 96 r=24 pp Acrobatics 11 (+15) Bluff 11 (+15)* Craft (mechanical) 5 (+5) Escape Artist 11 (+15)* Knowledge: Arcane Lore 1 (+1) Notice 12 (+15) Perform [stage magic] 11 (+15)* Sense Motive 12 (+15) Sleight of Hand 11 (+15)* Stealth 11 (+15) Feats: 29 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 4 Attack Specialization: Playing Cards 2 Challenge 2 (Fast Acrobatic Bluff, Fast Distract) Distract (Bluff) Dodge Focus 6 Equipment 5 Evasion Improved Initiative Power Attack Skill Mastery (Bluff, Escape Artist, Perform [stage magic], Sleight of Hand) Sneak Attack Quick Draw [Draw] Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 18 pp Device 1 (Combat Wand) (easy to lose) (PF: Subtle [collapsible]) [4 pp] Strike 3 (PFs: Mighty, Precise) Device 1 (Magician’s Outfit) (hard to lose) [4 pp] Feature 1 (Compartments), Protection 2, Quick Change 2 Mind Control 10 (Flaw: Sense-Dependent [visual]) [10 pp] Equipment: 25 ep Grappling hook and line gun: Super-Movement 3 (Slow Fall, Swinging, Wall-Crawling) [6 ep] Playing Cards: Blast 2 (PFs: Masterwork, Mighty 3, Improved Range—50 foot range increment, Improved Ranged Disarm, Subtle) [11 ep] Smoke Bombs: Obscure 4 (25 ft) (visual) [8 ep] costs abilities 36 + combat 32 + saves 11 + skills 24/96 + feats 29 + powers 18 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Based on the never actually played Magnificent, here's my build for a Combat Magician: she's an incredibly talented stage musician who uses her knowledge of human behavior and the laws of illusion to fight crime. She has basically no idea how real magic works; she may not even believe in any of that stuff. Instead she's an entertainer and illusionist by day and a crime-fighter by night! My half-thought out backstory for her is that her dad, the famous stage magician and adventurer, was killed saving some friends of his from a common mugger when she was a little girl: luckily that family took her in, raised her, and she decided to use her family business to make sure no family ever suffered as hers did! (Too bad about her dad's trunk getting lost in the shuffle before her adoption...ah well) With her high Stealth, Bluff, and Acrobatics (not to mention well-placed use of a smoke bomb), she should have no problem catching opponents flat-footed: perhaps pretending to teleport in via cunning use of her grappling gun, thus being able to sneak attack with her 'wand'; i.e., a solidly-built combat baton, or disarm them with a well-placed reinforced throwing card that just happens to be able to dent a solid oak door! (They basically have the same stats as a well-built boomerang; I don't think it's over the limit for what you should reasonably be able to do with equipment: they're on the line, but I'd argue not actually over it.) Her Mind Control is her only power: it lets her pull off what mundane hypnotists can do in comics without actually functioning as a magic spell. It's also a really effective interrogation tactic in the wake of a nice solid savage beating laid down on a room full of bad guys. This would be a fun character to play, especially with the ID confusion when your fellow superheroes may expect you to have any idea what all that mumbo-jumbo stuff is all about. But you know magic is just all tricks and mummery, even if there's real power behind it. You saw that fancy world come to an end when a criminal put two bullets in your dad before he could say a word, and you know that real power comes from smarts, strength, and the sheer power of human cunning and preparation pitted against the bad people of the world. Your work on the stage is about entertainment and education: making people gasp while teaching them all you can do with just clever tricks; you probably spend some time busting phony psychics and such when you're not working. Criminals are a cowardly, superstitious lot, and luckily you know a lot of superstitions...

Atlas of all Blades Abilities: 44 p STR 40 [30] (+15/+10) DEX 12 (+1) CON 40 [30] (+15/+10) INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10 (+0) Combat: 20 pp ATK: +5 DEF: +5 (+2 flat-footed) Init: +1 Grapple: +25 Saves: 10 pp TOU +15 (+15 Con) FORT +15 (+15 Con) REF +5 (+1 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+1 Wis, +6) Skills: 40 r=10 pp Bluff 15 (+15) Disguise 0 (+15 w/Morph) Knowledge: History 5 (+5) Languages 2 (Russian, Spanish) (Base: English) Notice 9 (+10) Perform (jug) 5 (+5) Sense Motive 4 (+5) Feats: 6 pp All-Out Attack Fearless Power Attack Takedown Attack Taunt Ultimate Save (TOU) Powers: 60 pp Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced Feats 4 (Affects Insubstantial 2, Extended Reach, Improved Crit [unarmed]) [4 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Leaping 2 (x5) [2 pp] Morph 3 (any humanoid) [6 pp] Super-Senses 1 (Acute Scent) [1 pp] Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 180 tons) [10 pp] costs abilities 44 + combat 20 + saves 10 + skills 10/40 + feats 6 + powers 60 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: Did you know Grue reproduce by skin-to-skin contact? Well you do now! Alternatively, AoAB hails from the same universe as the Lucky Psychic upthread. Back when Mark Lucas thought that touching boobs got you pregnant, it worked across the universe for anyone from Freedom City, and since Atlas has no shirt and those massive pectorals...well. So here's my attempt to wed together two massive character sheets: Atlas, Freedom City's Hulk expy, and Jack of all Blades, another popular Freedom City character. What you get is something decidedly odd: a powerhouse who specializes in tricking and bluffing rather than Intimidate, with a massive sword he can summon at will and subsequently use to smite his foes: or he can just punch them in the face since he doesn't actually get additional damage from wielding his massive blade. Either way, he's a powerful character, and certainly has many more options in combat than your typical powerhouse or your typical swordsman. Low Charisma, as I can't imagine he's had a great childhood. But he speaks the various languages of both his dads, and I assume that the Espadas' and Samael are both stand-up enough people to take care of the son that spawned off Atlas like a bud from a leaf one very strange day. His Morph doesn't look that great, but remember he can always take 20 on it near the beginning of a thread and come out fine, and even +15 has a decent chance of fooling bystanders and low-level NPCs. He's totally spaceworthy with his Immunity, but really should get a device or two if he's going to go off on any space battles. OTOH, at least his base Leaping isn't that awful considering his very high Leaping score with his high STR. (Let me just note: I really don't like the way they did Leaping in 3.0; how on Earth do you nerf an already really-badly written power?) He's got Fearless, because what the Patton could possibly faze him? This character is going to have a lot of complications and thus, many HP! What a great way to get integrated into the setting, and also make sure there's always something going on for you. With his Morph and his pretty good Taunt, he has a decent chance of catching foes flat-footed and laying them out with Power Attack. I gave him Takedown Attack because melee specialists _all_ need Takedown Attack unless they have some form of Selective Area or other goon-sweeping strategy. Do you want to be the guy who spends the entire fight doing nothing but punching out one mook at a time? Didn't think so. Didn't think so.

Devil Brick PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 58 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 (+10) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +21 Saves: 9 pp TOU: +10 (+10 Con) FORT: +10 (+10 Con) REF: +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL: +8 (+3 Wis, +5) Skills: 60 r=15 pp Bluff 8 (+10) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge: Arcane Lore 8 (+10) Knowledge: Theology and Philosophy 4 (+6) Languages 4 (Ancient Egyptian, Aramaic, Old Norse, Latin) (Base: English) Notice 8 (+10) Perform (electric guitar) 4 (+6) Sense Motive 4 (+6) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 4 (+6) Feats: 21 pp All-Out Attack Attack Focus: Melee 4 Challenge (Fast Startle) Dodge Focus: 4 Fearless Improved Init Luck Move-By Action Power Attack Takedown Attack Ritualist Second Chance (arcane lore checks) Startle Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 23 pp Enhanced Feats 4 (Affects Insubstantial 2, Extended Reach [unarmed], Improved Crit [unarmed]) ‘hell weapons’ [4 pp] Immunity 5 (aging, disease, environmental heat, poison, starvation and thirst) [5 pp] Impervious TOU 8 (Flaw: Not Vs. Magic/Holy/Silver) [4 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 6 Infernal Awareness [mental], Detect Infernal 2 (Acute, Analytical, Extended, Radius) [mental] [6 pp] Super-Strength 1 (Heavy Load: 1.5 tons) [2 pp] costs abilities 58 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 15/60 + feats 21 + powers 23 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: And so it came to pass in a universe closer to this one than we might want to admit that Hellion and Wander became man and wife. Hellion's fiery temper and tragic past proved a good match for Wander's own dark history and vigorous nature, while savage beatings helped make sure he never stayed from the path of right. Or monogamy, which is pretty much the same thing in this situation. Their son was born with the last legacy of his grandfather's demonic taint, but trained as an adventurer and champion by his parents to battle the dark forces of Satan and to generally tear it up when the situation called for it: thus was born a new generation of heroes, a legacy of two people determined to escape the horror that birthed them through the sheer power of heroism. So here's one way to play an infernal hero without going full demon like I did above in this very thread; he doesn't have particularly many demonic drawbacks, he can face holy symbols down without a problem, and indeed his biggest issue is that magic and divine powers hurt him! But he has his parents' durability and skill, if not quite his father's supernatural charisma. He's a very effective melee fighter, just like his mother, summoning a wide variety of bladed weapons from the arsenals of hell itself to battle the forces of darkness! He's determined to make sure that nothing befalls this world! (Why doesn't he have the Prophet family money? Well, because James is still alive, and not looking likely to die any time soon, and maybe his mom doesn't want him running around spending everything just yet. I see this as a character likely to make frequent use of the Ritualist feat: make frequent use of his Second Chance feats and HP (perhaps even before an adventure begins) to give him a one-shot device handy. If not, do all you can to jury-rig. He lacks a really fast movement power, so if you need that best to produce it off a Ritualist use: perhaps Teleporting in gouts of flame? His physical abilities are natural, inherited from his mother: unlike the demonic powers inherited from his dad, which are ultimately most unnatural indeed. Maybe if he's really lucky, his dad will let him ride that spaceship of his one of these days...

Lucky Strike PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 22 pp STR 30 [16] (+10/+3) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 [16] (+10/+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +25 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +5 (+2 Dex, +3) WILL +7 (+1 Wis, +6) Skills: 48 r=12 pp Diplomacy 4 (+6) Intimidate 8 (+10) Knowledge: Civics 5 (+5) Knowledge: History 5 (+5) Perform (rap) 4 (+6) Notice 9 (+10) Sense Motive 9 (+10) Survival 4 (+5) Feats: 12 pp Attack Focus: Melee (4) Dodge Focus (4) Fearless Power Attack Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 71 pp Enhanced CON 14 [14 pp] Enhanced STR 14 [14 pp] Immunity 4 (disease, poison, sleep, starvation and thirst) [4 pp] Impervious TOU 8 [8 pp] Luck Control 4 (spend an HP for another character, give HP to others, spend HP to negate HP/Fiat, force reroll) (PFs: Luck 5) [17 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Strength 5 (Heavy Load: 24 tons) [Dynamic] [10+1+2=13 pp] DAP: Leaping 10 (x2500) costs abilities 22 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 12/48 + feats 12 + powers 71 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Since the subject of Lucky Strike came up in chat, here's my build for Wander and Edge's kid from the FC2 timeline. (Check out the cool art, courtesy of Gizmo!) Clara White was born when her parents married hastily after the defeat of a big world-shattering threat, conceived on the night that a much more callow version of Mark Lucas accidentally-on-purpose made his new wife's birth control not work. She had it pretty tough after her dad left (she calls Mark Lucas 'Mark', something he's never really tried to discourage), but luckily Erin had faced problems much more serious than being a single mom with a superpowered kid: And Mark did pay child support, at least when he wasn't busy blowing his money elsewhere or generally ruining his very promising life. For all the bad circumstances of her life, Clara was lucky: her mom loved her, she had a good job to support her, and even her dad wasn't really a bad guy. He just never grew up. Clara herself grew up to join the Freedom League, a few years ahead of her FC2 contemporaries since Mark and Erin hooked up so very fast, and in a branch timeline survived the cataclysm of Zephyr's home timeline when a teleporter accident stranded her and her team from the Northwest outside Freedom City. She's got a bright future ahead of her, and with her strength and luck control, she's going to do just fine with that. She can stay in a fight much longer than you'd think a pocket powerhouse like her could reasonably get away with, given that she's got the HP reserves of a battleship. (And with her tough life, Complications to go with them!) With her OK Super-Strength, she can stunt what she likes, and with her Enhanced abilities and various other powers she can get around just fine. She's more of a people person than her mom, but she lacks her dad's nigh-preternatural gift for gab: a kid raised by Wander is not going to be particularly deceptive, but she's not going to be all anger and unpleasantness either: luckily her mom was able to keep things together, maybe because she had her kid around with her. She doesn't use melee weapons, unlike her mom as a teen: she had good combat training from an early age, and never had to be taught not to rip the heads off dudes. Unlike her cross-universal half-sibling, Lucky Strike does have Fearless. Her mom had a few rougher spots than our Erin, and wasn't able to shield her from the reality of the world as much as she might have liked. Good luck only takes you so far, especially if that luck isn't actually yours...

Lucky Psychic PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 26 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 16 (+3) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 18 (+4) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+8 ranged) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +7 Grapple: +20 w/TK Saves: 12 pp TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +5 (+3 Con, +2) REF +6 (+3 Dex, +3) WILL +10 (+3 Wis, +7) Skills: 12 pp=48 r Bluff 10 (+14) Diplomacy 6 (+10) Knowledge: Current Events 4 (+4) Languages 1 (German) (Base: English) Notice 7 (+10) Perform (keyboard) 6 (+10) Search 5 (+5) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Feats: 16 pp Attack Focus: Ranged 2, Dodge Focus 6 Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Improved Initiative, Move-By Action, Precise Shot 2, Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (mental) Powers: 60 pp Concealment 3 (Extra: Duration (Permanent) [+0]) (PF: Close Range) (all mental senses, ESP) [4 pp] Flight 3 (50 MPH) [6 pp] Luck Control 4 (spend an HP for another character, give HP to others, spend HP to negate HP/Fiat, force reroll) (PFs: Luck 5) [17 pp] Mental Array [24+2=26 pp] Blast 12 'telekinetic blast' AP: ESP 6 (20 miles) (visual and auditory) (PFs: Rapid 5 (100k), Subtle) 'extra-sensory perception' AP: Telekinesis 12 (Heavy Load: 48 tons) Protection 5 [5 pp] Telepathy 1 [2 pp] costs abilities 26 + combat 24 + saves 12 + skills 12/48 + feats 16 + powers 60 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: It's true what Psyche said above. You can't get pregnant from touching someone's breast. But what if Mark Lucas hadn't gone to health class? What if he thought you could? Then Psyche just might, nine months later, have birthed a child like this: a very powerful psychic carrying her mother's great power, her father's reality-warping abilities, and the sheer insanity of her own creation making her an incredibly powerful character in her own right. This is the sort of character who comes back from a grim and gritty dystopian future, has lots of ill-defined abilities, and gets downplayed or taken out whenever the writers don't want to explain why the ridiculously powerful character couldn't just go beat this new bad guy up. (Luck Control is a good way of saying 'this character is really powerful' while keeping them within caps; they have a massive lot of oomph, but they're still vulnerable, and they do eventually run out of HPs...) Naturally, this character's insane conception and birth will give her quite a few complications to deal with! I figure she picked up the German from spending so much time around Viktor Archeville. That's also where she learned the Bluff, since her nature requires a certain flexibility. She lacks her mother's incredible insight and intelligence, but OTOH the lack of both actually makes it much easier to relate to her dad. With her mother engaged to another man, her father shocked but not displeased, I'm sure her childhood was a world of very strange things happening, with possibly some trips to the Moon to find where Phalanx has thrown her dad this time. (Luckily, Mark has always had a spacesuit along...) If you want to play a PL 10 Phoenix (as opposed to Jean Grey), this isn't a bad way to do it: she's a powerful psychic with a massive array and reality-warping abiliies to go with it. She can't actually do anything, but with her broad descriptors and vast powers (not to mention huge HP pool) she may well convince you that she can! (Particularly if she powerstunts Mind Control or Emotion Control). If you do want to make her a refugee from a dystopian future, perhaps a good buddy of the Gun-Toting Mutant from the Future upthread, that would make a lot of sense, and let you get away from a direct connection to PCs on our site.

Midnight IV PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 58 pp STR 30 (+10) DEX 14 (+2) CON 30 (+10) INT 14 (+2) WIS 16 (+3) CHA 14 (+2) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Melee) DEF: +10 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +2 Grapple: +22 Saves: 9 pp TOU +10 (+10 Con) FORT +10 (+10 Con) REF +7 (+2 Dex, +5) WILL +7 (+3 Wis, +4) Skills: 60 pp=15 r Craft: Mechanical 4 (+6) Drive 3 (+5) Gather Info 4 (+6) Intimidate 8 (+10) Investigate 8 (+10) Language 1 (ASL) (Base: English) Notice 7 (+10) Perform (dance) 3 (+5) Perform (woodwinds) 4 (+6) Sense Motive 7 (+10) Stealth 8 (+10) Survival 3 (+5) Feats: 15 pp Attack Focus: Melee 4 Dodge Focus 4 Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Intimidate, Investigate, Notice, Sense Motive) Startle Takedown Attack Ultimate Save (Will) Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 27 pp Immunity 1 (own powers) [1 pp] Impervious TOU 6 [6 pp] Leaping 1 (x2) [1 pp] Obscure 4 (50 ft) (visual and olfactory) (midnight mist) [12 pp] Speed 1 (10 MPH) [1 pp] Super-Senses 4 (Accurate Hearing, Darkvision) [4 pp] Super-Strength 2 (Heavy Load: 3 tons) [4 pp] costs abilities 58 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 15/60 + feats 15 + powers 27 = 150 pts ---- Design Notes: Here's my build for Midnight IV, the future scion of Midnight II and Wander. (Midnight III was introduced in the currently-active Full Circle thread). He's a blend of the talents of his mother and father: he's a low-grade powerhouse/costumed adventurer who makes his own smoke bombs via midnight mist. He's not as smart as his dad or as fast and strong as his mom, but he can still pretty well hold his own. He doesn't have the Midnight Cycle Mk. V or the Midnight Manor because his parents, still active heroes, still pay for that out of their own Equipment pool: this is Trevor W. Hunter the first time he puts on his tights and goes out hunting in the night for bad guys. (Similarly, his mom is still using that bat, just as he doesn't get to use his dad's gadget belt until he's made it clear that the incident won't happen again) His Impervious may seem a little low, but given the street-level thugs a costumed adventurer is likely to fight, that and his high TOU will basically make him invincible vs. anything but high-level foes. When the skells on the street of Freedom City Beyond say that the new Midnight is bulletproof, they're right! He's something of a generalist, but that also means he can play multiple roles on whatever future team you put him on. I repped his dad's mental immunity with Ultimate Will, the Midnight men have always had very solidly-built psyches. He's not Fearless yet, though, his mom has managed to shield him from the sorts of horrors she grew up with: she knows they're no place to raise a child! He learned ASL to talk to Aunt Eve, naturally, as well as to have a useful hand signal when silent communication is required. I (deliberately) didn't look at either Wander or Midnight's sheet while building this, but I think a midnight mist that works visually and olfactorally makes sense for something that's an opaque, strong-smelling gas. As Giz has done, you can use the midnight mist array to stunt a variety of things as necessary: more Super-Strength, more immunities? It's all good. I figure the innate high abilities are a result of absorbing powers from his mother's genes: he's not a mutant (at least, not because of that), it's natural for him to be strong enough to punch through steel. If you want more things for him to stunt off, though, feel free to buy those abilities as Enhanced. (That's what's really important, that you have _something_ on your sheet for power-stunting, something that really is a good game mechanic) If not playing Wander and Midnight's kid, this sheet would work fine for a Batman/Wonder Woman offspring, or any other hero who has reason to fuse a costumed adventurer's skills and feats with a powerhouse's sheer physical power. So sneak into the fray, drop Midnight Mist to make your foes flat-footed, and power attack away, sweeping goons and ripping up the place in style!

Four-Leaf Clover PL: 10 (150) Abilities: 20 pp STR 10 (+0) DEX 14 (+2) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 14 (+2) CHA 16 (+3) Combat: 24 pp ATK: +6 (+10 Plant Control) DEF: +12 (+3 flat-footed) Init: +6 Grapple: +6 Saves: 13 pp TOU +8 (+3 Con, +5 Protection) FORT +7 (+3 Con, +4) REF +6 (+2 Dex, +4) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 44 r=11 pp Bluff 7 (+10) Knowledge: Life Sciences 10 (+10) Notice 7 (+10 Perform (brass) 4 (+6) Profession (florist) 3 (+5) Sense Motive 3 (+5) Survival 3 (+5) Stealth 7 (+10) Feats: 13 pp All-Out Attack Dodge Focus 6 Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Precise Shot 2 Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 72 pp Immunity 6 (aging, disease, poison, starvation and thirst, suffocation) [6 pp] Luck Control 4 (spend an HP for another character, give HP to others, spend HP to negate HP/Fiat, force reroll) (PFs: Luck 5) [17 pp] Plant Control Array [22+2=24 pp] Blast 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) 'flower bomb' AP: Snare 10 (PFs: Accurate 2) 'entangling vines' AP: Teleport 6 (600 ft/20 miles) (Extra: Accurate) (PFs: Easy, Progression 2 [x500 lbs], Turnabout) 'plant-walking' Protection 5 [5 pp] Regeneration 19 (Bruised 3 [no action], Injured 6 [no action], Staggered 5 [standard action], Disabled 4 (5 minutes), Resurrection 1 [1 week]) (PF: Regrowth) [20 pp] Drawbacks: Vulnerable (fire) (common, moderate) [-3 pp] costs abilities 20 + combat 24 + saves 13 + skills 11/44 + feats 13 + powers 72 -drawbacks 3= 150 pts ---- Design Notes: In response to a challenge, here's Four-Leaf Clover, a luck controller/plant controller mashup. The son of Edge and Fleur de Joie in a very, very alternate timeline? Maybe! He could also function perfectly well as a native Irish, or Irish-American superhero, if you don't mind the Bronze Age Unfortunate Implications. ("An Irish superhero with Luck Control and a shamrock theme, eh? Reaaaaally.") He's got many of the biological properties of a plant: living on carbon dioxide and sunlight, growing back from injuries with remarkable speed, along with an unfortunate tendency to burst into flames if exposed to too much heat. Perhaps he just needs a good watering. He's got a decent-sized plant array for power-stunting off, and of course that'll be much easier thanks to his huge pool of HP and his many Luck Controlling abilities. His array is pretty basic: he throws exploding flowers that knock people to the ground, he also entangles them in bursts of vines he throws at them (fast-grown from seeds to hand), or just steps right through plants to come out anywhere in the city. One thing I wanted to note here is how uneasy I am personally at how Irishness is often depicted in comics: Ireland is a successful, developing country that's moving away from its long dependence on the Catholic Church to take it place as a prosperous part of Europe. There is and was an unfortunate terrorism problem in Northern Ireland (though it's gotten much better in recent years), but most actual Irish people didn't really have an investment there either way. (For all that there was strong resentment of British occupation in the North, no one actually wanted to take in those people...) Ireland is, in particular, not a demon-haunted land with the Celtic gods just waiting to jump out like a bugaboo and make everyone dance a leprechaun's jig. That stuff is about taking your money and putting it in the pocket of those nice folks working in the Irish tourist industry. So you can play an Irish hero who doesn't seem likely to put on a tam o'shanter and dance a jig, honestly. He could use a bit more Impervious, but given his massive Regeneration he can absorb tremendous punishment and still get up and fight at the end of the day. Even if he burns to ashes, he'll still put himself together, it'll just take him a while. You could use this build to make any sort of luck controller/something else you want, it's just a matter of shuffling things around so that you can have the right descriptors for it. Luck Controllers are good at being team players, and natural fits for buying things like Inspire and Leadership if you can scramble together the points for them: kick up the Charisma as high as you want if you've got the points for it. Don't be afraid to let him grow a little once he's in play. After all, he is a plant...

Harrier made his introductions to the giant bee and her family, marveling at the wonders of this place and how easily humanoid coexisted with giant insect. While he'd known destruction, he'd also known the vicious conflict on the streets of Nihilor, and to see such spectacularly different creatures living together was really quite lovely. "And they co-exist with the humans? Magnificent! I recall seeing them during the incident at Freedom Hall, but not...not like this." One of the little bees had abandoned the flower and was sniffing his hand; he offered his palm to its antenna without fear. "ZTINKY!" The little bee commented, and Harrier actually guffawed.

By Tronik standards, anyway, the area by the closed-down oxygen-scrubbing plant was a ghost town: the industrial spires that reached into the sky here were only about as big as skyscrapers back in Freedom City, and the population of red-uniformed industrial workers and what looked to be non-sentient humanoid robots: the synthezoids Sharl had dropped a few hints about in conversations with Protectron, were only about as densely packed as workers would be in any human industrial district: evidently much of the work in these great factories was done by automation. There wasn't much automation going on at OXYGEN PLANT #324-ZED, though, unless you counted the militia vehicles hovering on the streets outside and the armed, uniformed soldiers standing guard outside in their black body armor and full-face masks. The industrial flitters going hither and yon gave the closed-down plant a wide berth and the walls nearby glowed with RESTRICTED AREA: NO ADMITTANCE.

As his 'leader' was knocked out, Heka jerked his head back at the last minute, just ducking a powerful blow from Wisp. When she'd gone, he shook his head and rose in the air, his mystic wrappings floating around him as he began to chant in the ancient languages of the Blood Pharoahs. When he was done, a smile crossed his lips as he called, "They are only children! Destroy them!" And with that, deliberately ignoring the hand-to-hand fighter who'd failed to strike him, he swooped down on Zap and fired a blast at her through the broken remains of the glass doors: sending shards of glass sizzling along a road of terrible Apepian sorcery as they blasted straight into the heroic young woman!

Heka: Free Action: Since he has no reason to believe there are any more teleporters around (and the one that is there can evidently beat his magic) Heka stops maintaining his Nullify Teleport. It's still in his array for the encounter, but he'll have to switch back to it to maintain it. Luckily, he has made plans for what to do when interfering busybodys show up. Nat 20 on a Master Plan for a total of 23 (very good plans) (The assumption with NPCs being that they had time to do this ahead of time, natch) That'll be a +2 bonus for the next three rounds to his allies for all checks. Move Action: Fly to within blasting range of Zap. Standard Action: He is going to blast Zap. Put in the wrong value for the first roll; the second time: 30 I believe that hits. That's a DC 25 TOU save, Zap. Remember that your Force Field is not yet up. Move Action: He flies out of melee range.

"Hello, Eve," said Sharl readily, giving her a firm handshake as his body's slight translucency seemed to even out. "Like Cobalt Templar said, I'm Citizen. If you watch the news or anything, you may know me from being Miss Americana's sidekick." He studied the little white-haired flier. "That was really pretty what you were doing up there in the sky," he commented, pointing up. "I've seen a lot of people flying around in Freedom City," certainly more than he saw at home, anyway, "but nobody who can do cool effects in the air like that. Do you really use the wings to fly?"

Murdock ate without further conversation, proving himself quite the trencherman as he put away as much as he could eat. He wasn't a savage, mind, he evidently had learned table manners from somewhere. But he hadn't yet made the leap that food went with talk. Eventually, he offered, "The nourishment is quite palatable. Did you prepare it yourself?" Though there was a family some dozens of yards distant on the far side of the large picnic ground, they were largely alone with each other, the good, and the fresh spring air.

Hey Griffalo, would you mind A: making your post closer to our required minimum length (400 characters) and B: writing in the past tense? Thanks!

"Don't tell dat broad nuffin' about da club on da oil derrick...aw, nuts!" said Boss Moxie. "Look, it wuz a perfectly legitimate criminal operation to beat up dis computer guy, waddya call him, Mistah E!" Ox ahemed. "Uh, yeah, it's on dis old oil derrick out in the ocean. We got there with this big flashy gizmo Boss Moxie got from Miss S." "That floozie!" called Roxie. "If you see her, give her a beatin'! She tried ta put da moves on my boys!" And with that, the police arrived on the darkened corner with flashing lights and howling sirens, the officers of the law there to take the criminals away from the teen heroes. The first officer out recognized what was going on. "The Toon Gang! We'd better get the rubber manacles for this one!"

At Wander's approach, Ox blushed and looked away before shooting a bashful glance back at her. "Well, uh...Mistah R owns dis gentleman's club, see? Where gentlemen, and, uh, sometimes ladies, if they're into that sort of thing, they fight and people can place bets on it. And he sez to Boss Moxie," who was in the background as Ox talked, yelling up a storm, "that he'll let da Toon Gang in on some of the action if we do a little job for him at USN...US...uh, at dat building dere! Mistah R said the man in there, he don't pay, so we make him pay! For real!"

"It was pleasant," replied Harrier. "The landscape is very unspoiled once you leave the confines of the city." He'd actually walked all the way there, not wanting to risk detection in the sky and lacking the money for a bus ride. He shook her hand firmly, looking up to meet her eyes as he'd been taught: up close you could see that some of those lines on his face went through the eye as well. "Thank you for the food. I am sorry I have nothing to give you in return." Outside of his armor, his voice lacked that eerie mechanical affect; he sounded perfectly human, if decidedly odd.

Murdock crested the nearest hill some moments later, a faint sheen of sweat visible on his completely hairless head. From a distance, the lines that ran over every square inch of his body were all but invisible beneath the long-sleeved white tees and blue jeans that seemed to be his only casual wear. He caught her eye and gave a short wave, then continued a slow, ponderous walk down the hill and towards her. He gave no sign of exertion from the strain, and come to think of it she'd heard neither a car or the unholy shriek of his armor's engines.

It wouldn't have been easy traveling in Tronik without the ability to go invisible and intangible to the computerized world around them, but luckily Miss Americana and Dragonfly did indeed both have those fantastic abilities. Traveling on the ground as a local would, going by the slideways that hummed along as fast as a car might in Freedom City, or riding in antigrav 'buses' that seemed to fly via no particular means of propulsion, gave them a perspective like a citizen of the city might have. And what a city it was; gigantic towers of alien steel as wide as the entire Pyramid Plaza complex at their tips stretching miles high towards an impossibly green alien sky, streets crowded with a torrent of humanity as reserved as commuters on a Freedom City busline, spectacular technology all kept locked away within a black box of acceptance. In general terms, Tronik was a city much more aware of its inhabitants than Freedom: people were often greeted by name by faces flashing to life on walls that could evidently function as well as screens, and all those antigravs they took around the city to navigate seemed to flying with perfect functionality without any human pilots. The people were quiet, certainly, but from what Sharl had said that was just the way of things, not a result of the mutant fear that was clearly being layered onto the culture from the semi-frequent public service announcements that came and went on every wall. The people all bore a faint resemblance to each other, too, the way any confined population might after a few generations of breeding. No wonder Sharl had been so surprised by the diversity of Freedom City. As they headed towards the edge of the city, the number of travelers dropped away substantially, leaving them with more space in the automated antigravs heading out to the oxygen factories and food reprocessors.

The rest of the visit went much better, maybe because Joan didn't say much else except to cheer on her daughter as she talked about computers with Miss Americana. She had a lot to think about, after all, and none of it was about the scientific wonders before her. Lois seemed conscious of a change in her mom too, and clung almost as close to her as she did to Miss A through the remainder of the tour. When they were done, after Lois had gotten Miss A's card and promised to email her with her newest project as soon as she thought it up, Joan shook her hand with a surprisingly strong grip. "Thanks for the tour, Miss Americana," she commented. "I know I certainly learned a lot."

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-a ... -Hair.html

Skill Mimic 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: 9 pp TOU +8 (+8 Con) FORT +10 (+8 Con, +2) REF +10 (+8 Dex, +2) WILL +7 (+2 Wis, +5) Skills: 72 r=18 pp Acrobatics 7 (+15) Bluff 11 (+15)* Diplomacy 11 (+15)* Drive 2 (+10) Intimidate 6 (+10) Notice 13 (+15)* Pilot 2 (+10) Sense Motive 13 (+15)* Stealth 7 (+15) Feats: 20 pp Acrobatic Bluff Attack Focus: Melee 6 Dodge Focus 6 Evasion Improved Initiative Move-By Action Power Attack Skill Mastery (Bluff, Diplomacy, Notice, Sense Motive) Takedown Attack Uncanny Dodge (auditory) Powers: 49 pp Enhanced CON 10 [10 pp] Enhanced DEX 10 [10 pp] Enhanced STR 10 [10 pp] Mimic 2 (skills and feats) (Extras: Action [Free], Duration [Continous], Range [Perception], PF: Subtle) [19 pp] costs abilities 30 + combat 24 + saves 9 + skills 18/72 + feats 20 + powers 49 = 150 pts --- Design Notes: As part of my ongoing efforts to make a polymath character that isn't brain-bustingly broken or useless, here's the Skill Mimic. She's fast, strong, and tough, and very personable: and at any time she can have up to 10 pp in any skills or feats she wants as long as she's near someone who's a specialist in the field, or has been near a specialist of that sort in the recent past. (She has to 'forget' if she wants to adopt the skills and training of others). She can hold onto those abilities for as long as she wants, since she can keep them even while sleeping, but the relatively low rank of her Variable Power does render her pretty susceptible to Nullifies. Even with that, though, she's pretty badass, and can function just fine with her non-mimicky abilities. She makes an interesting savant style character, as well as one who can function in a lot of ways: after all, she can have the abilities of a lot of superheroes! While she can also function as part of a science-type or magic-type team, her average INT means she's never going to outshine a science specialist. That's just fine by me; she can be part of the team and a good helper in a magical or scientific setting, but she's never going to outshine the people who've actually sunk a significant number of points towards their area of interest. She's sneaky in a lot of ways, both socially and physically: I see her as the sort of person who has been on a lot of super-teams and has quite an active career before people realize that she seems to be able to do just about anything! She can't break her PL with her Mimic (basically a better version of Reflex Memory), but she can push it to the limit. Normally mimicking someone's mental skills means "you know everything they know", but that's way unfair without a saving throw! Knowledge skills are one thing, social security number and mother's maiden name are entirely another. Characters like this are generally mutant in origin, perhaps latent telepaths with particularly flexible muscles to go with them, 'reflex memory' without the Reflex Memory power, but with comic books and Jack LaLanne Superpowers, you could fluff her abilities as being of the training descriptor: no doubt with quite a lot of training to boot! She'd also have been a natural secret agent type, and perhaps she's gone from fighting as one of AEGIS or UNISON's secret agent types to being her own person. There are several NPCs with similar powers in Freedom's Most Wanted; you could always take a page from Marvel's Finesse and give this lady a very personal connection to those guys.

As Wisp made her triumphant debut onto the stage of justice, the assembled hostages gave a cheer! As an unconscious Angel crashed to the ground, tumbling ungracefully down the steps that had once led the way to the Easter Bunny's throne, Guy Fawkes made a disgruntled noise. "Ah, for the love of...you see, mummy-man!" he called out to Heka. "I told you!" He ahemed at that, and dropped into 'character'. "Villain viper vamooser," he called in the direction of where Wisp had ended up, "If you can face a foe without fleeing, come find one who can fight!" And with that, he nimbly pulled a blade from his sleeve, hurled it at the neon sign overhead, creating a cascade of sparks down below that let him disappear into the welter of overturned stands by the fountain.