The Spartan - Bendigeidfran - PL 11 Hero

[Bendigeidfran]

Players Name: Bendigeidfran

Power Level: 11 (150/163 pp)

Unspent PP: 13

Characters Name: Aristodemus

Alternate Identity: The Spartan

Height: 5’4’’

Weight: 178lbs.

Hair: Black with a few streaks of grey

Eyes: Brown

Description: A man who has clearly weathered many a year, The Spartan looks like a quite well preserved man in his fifties or early sixties. Moreover he looks like he was carved from granite rather than born; rock hard muscles and sinews of steel can be glimpsed beneath a somewhat tanned skin covered with numerous faint scars. Hardly what you’d call tall, he’s somewhat stocky with not much body fat left.

History: Following his apparent demise at the battle of Platea didn’t quite get the afterlife he’d expected. Instead he found himself returned to life some time after the fighting had concluded; awakening atop his own grave by the light of a half moon. Half-formed and vague memories of an offering from the gods swam to the surface of his thoughts as he read his name on the gravestone; an offer involving both immortality and exile, an offer which was both non-negotiable and irrefusable.

While the exact details of the offer would remain clouded, and he would in time form a nagging suspicion that this was a part of the package, the implications of it where soon obvious to him. He was compelled to leave the Peloponnesus and travel, exploring the world and testing himself as he went. During his travels he came to both meet, and in many cases subsequently fight, with or against, many of the early superhuman beings and individuals around the world.

Over the centuries he, unlike so many of the other immortal beings connected with Greece he slowly moved closer to magic and mysticism rather than away from it. He came to work loosely with several different mystics over the years, and more than once did he leave Earth to do business somewhere else along the Cosmic Coil. Back on Earth he almost inevitably found himself involved various military conflicts ranging from minor border disputes to massive conflicts like the 30 years or Napoleonic wars.

He came to work more openly following the emergence of Centurion and many other "super"-heroes, adopting the name Spartan as did so though largely eschewing the showy costumes of so many others. Though it should be said that he's spent almost as much time away from Earth as on it during the last century, in fact missing part of WW2, the whole of Vietnam, and most recently the second Terminus invasion. In fact he went missing in the wake of Hades' invasion of Freedom, though it was a while before anyone started to think there might be anything actually amiss about that; it wouldn't be the first time he'd simple gone off somewhere after all.

It was actually only fairly recently that even the gods of Olympus started to wonder what had become of him. What with champions of so many other pantheons running around, and when the one for Heliopolis came out of retirement several of the Olympians decided to find the missing Spartan and then boot him back to Earth so they wouldn't get left out. It took a little while, but eventually, mainly with the help of Persephone, they found him.

He’d been snatched up by Hades’ agents in the wake of the Lord of Tartarus’ failed invasion of Freedom, the god of the dead had been ‘annoyed’ at the Spartan’s interference and decided to see just how much his fellow divinities cared about the immortal. Luckily, and fortunately, Hades was in a fairly good mood and freely relinquished the warrior claiming he’d merely wanted to test his kins’ interested in the champion from the fields of Platea.

Now Aristodemus has returned from yet another jaunt to other dimensions and is looking up what has changed in his absence this time around.

Powers/Tactics: Apart from his divinely granted immortality Aristodemus is very nearly all natural human, albeit one who has had millennia to get into shape and a little divine aid. He currently disdains external aids such as armour and weaponry and instead relies on his own physical prowess, experience and mind to get the job done, and if it all goes pear-shaped he can rely on his immortality to keep it from being permanent.

Abilities: 60pp

Strength 26 (+8)

Dexterity 24 (+7)

Constitution 26 (+8)

Intelligence 12 (+1)

Wisdom 18 (+4)

Charisma 14 (+2)

Saves: 7pp

Toughness +8

Fortitude +8

Reflex +7

Will +11

Combat: 32pp

Attack +8 (ranged), +12 (melee)

Grapple +20

Defence +12 [+4 Flatfooted]

Knockback: -4

Initiative +7

Feats: 21pp

Accurate Attack

Acrobatic Bluff

All-out Attack

Assessment

Attack Focus [Melee] 4

Defensive Attack

Diehard

Dodge Focus 4

Endurance

Improved Critical [unarmed] 2

Luck 2

Power Attack

Takedown Attack

Skills: 92r=23pp

Acrobatics 14 (+21)

Bluff 4 (+6)

Climb 2 (+10)

Intimidate 10 (+12

Knowledge (arcane lore) 8 (+9)

Knowledge (history) 4 (+5)

Knowledge (theology and philosophy) 8 (+9)

Language 16 (Ancient Celtic, Old Norse, English, Latin, Persian, Arabic, Hindi, Mandarin, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Magyar, Italian, and Modern Greek; Ancient Greek is native)

Notice 8 (+12)

Sense Motive 8 (+12)

Stealth 4 (+11)

Survival 4 (+8)

Swim 2 (+10)

Powers: 7pp

Immunity 1 (Aging) [1pp]

Regeneration 2 (Resurrection 2/1 day; Extra: True Resurrection [+1 Extra]; PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [6pp]

DC Block

Unarmed -- DC 23/Toughness -- Damage

Costs: Abilities (60) + Combat (32) + Saves (07) + Skills (23) + Feats (21) + Powers (07) - Drawbacks (00) = 150 / 163

Historical Notes: Aristodemus is actually a minor historic figure, the last of the Leonidas’ Hippeis (royal bodyguard). When Xerxes’ massive army, and its equally massive food consumption, at last forced out a collaborator who gave away the route around the pass there were three amongst the Spartans who could have survived to reach their homeland. The first was then in Thessaly as a liaison officer, he hanged himself in shame after the battle since he had not been able to fight by the side of his king at the end. The other two had fallen sick with an eye inflammation and been order to recuperate away from the pass itself, one of these ordered a helot to dress him for battle and then lead him into the fray during the last day of fighting. The last one was Aristodemus, the one who chose to obey his king’s express command.

Upon returning to Sparta he was shunned, deemed a “tremblerâ€Â; the worst possible position a Spartiatoi could have without being either killed or banished. If he didn’t manage to redeem himself of the stigma of having even a tiny sliver of possible cowardice in him his bloodline would die out, his daughters unable to marry, he himself would never enjoy the companionship of the warriors again. When the full might of the Spartans, and the Teagans, and the surviving soldiers from Platea, and the Athenians, and the many other city states, marched forth to meet the enemy outside the by then ruined city of Platea he was certainly glad for the chance to once more prove himself worthy of being a Spartan.

When the battle, in all its confused glory, was finally going to be joined the Spartans had to delay their advance in order to procure favourable omens from the gods even as the Athenians clashed with the Thebans who had sided with the Persians and the other city states hustled to get within striking distance of their foe. As at last the signs came the Teagans, who stood next to the Spartans, had finally had their discipline eroded away by the showering arrows and begun a charge at the Persian infantry, and with them stormed a lone Spartiatoi; Aristodemus. Though he died in the fighting it was agreed by all of his fellows that he, despite his un-Spartan like lack of discipline, had redeemed himself. His berserker like fury coupled with the training from the agoge had pushed him to tear through the foe until he died, surrounded by the bodies of those he had slain.

Yes! After, um, "I lost track" amount of time, my first character is finally done. Poking Nyrath into making him finally paid off. Now I'm finally ready for an approval.

[Heridfel]

All the numbers add up, but there's one thing I want to clarify before sanctioning. In your description, you note that the Spartan is all natural human with the exception of his immortality. The maximum value for a natural human's ability scores is 25, and his Strength and Constitution are both 26. This makes him very slightly superhuman in those abilities. Do you want to change the description or the ability scores?

[Nyrath]

Borrowed my brother's account for a few minutes and edited the description slightly.

[Heridfel]

That works for me. You have your first approval.

[Dr Archeville]

To paraphrase a sidebar Kenson wrote in Silver Age Sentinels, normal humans can have stats higher than 25 when "maximum human potential/peak of human achievement" is defined as the greatest achievement possible using currently living humans as the standard. Humans of today may have a 'cap' of 25, but humans from 480 BC may have a higher cap.

Anyway, character looks good to me. APPROVED.

[Dr Archeville]

Archived due to two months of no posting.