Shooting Star (PL8) - Kaede Kimura

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

Power Level: 10 (150/150PP) built as PL8
Unspent Power Points: 0
Trade-Offs: -5 Attack / +5 Damage

-4 Defense / +4 Toughness

 

In Brief: Once crippled girl gains superpowers fixing her body, which she uses to help those around her.

 

Alternate Identity: Alice Armstrong (Secret)

Birthplace: Freedom City

Residence: The Fens, Freedom City

Occupation: Student

Affiliations: None

Family: Calvin Armstrong (Father), Linda Armstrong (Mother), Aaron Armstrong (Brother)

 

Description:

Age: 16 

Gender: Female

Ethnicity: Caucasian

Height: 5'10

Weight: 14824lbs (185.3 sans Density)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Black

Alice is tall and well developed, with a well toned muscles and a curvy hourglass figure. Her hair has grown to be halfway between a pixie cut and a bob, it looks light and bouncy, but anyone who touches it finds that it is heavier than it appears, although still soft. She has full lips and a slightly concave button nose. She has high cheekbones and large expressive blue eyes that seem to invite people around her to be comfortable.

As a civilian Alice wears dull, often very loose clothes, many are hand-me-downs from her brother that have been modified to fit her figure better, although they still hang loose off of her.

As Shooting Star she wears a white bodyglove with sky blue boots and gloves, her cape is similarly white, with a blue trim around the edges. To conceal her identity she wears a cowl that lets her hair out but covers her eyes and nose.

 

History

Alice grew up in the Fens suffering from a condition that caused her muscles to atrophy, straining her parents already tight funds further. She spent the majority of her childhood tied to a wheelchair, only able to walk with help from others. Her parents both worked full time to make ends meet, while she and her older brother went to school. Even when very young she was very intelligent for her age, excelling in all her subjects while her brother, four years older than her excelled in the physical areas where she could not.

Then on her twelfth birthday she woke up to a nest of splinters as her bed shattered beneath her. On reflex she tried to escape the collapsing bed, and found herself flying. Quickly she calmed down, lowering herself to the floor, and finding that her once atrophied muscles were now developed and toned. Her parents and brother burst into the room having heard the noise to find their daughter standing next to a bed that looked like a freight train had been dropped on it while staring at a body that was no longer scrawny and weak. 

Quickly she decided to become a superhero, as she had enormous strength, was incredibly tough and could fly incredibly fast, even capable of flying outside the atmosphere, and surviving up there, although she did ruin one of her favourite outfits discovering that she could survive reentry. Soon she became the hero Shooting Star, and fought to protect people. When she was fourteen, she fought a local super who was hiring themselves out to anyone willing to pay, including super villains, as hired muscle, only to find out that it was her brother. He didn't find out her identity, but she was shaken, knowing that he was out there doing mercenary work for villains.

Her and her brother both developing powers for no reason intrigued her and she investigated, finding that beneath their house was a now inert divine artefact that had been leaking power into the house since before her or her brother's conception, causing a mutation in both her and her brother. As a result they are both more susceptible to divine powers as now that they have been effected so strongly by the divine, it is easier to do again.

Still she goes out almost every day outside school to fight crime, although so far she has avoided another confrontation with her brother.

 

Personality & Motivation:

Alice believes in doing good for goodness' sake. People need helping and she has the ability to do so, so she does so, but she would be lying if she said that that was the only reason. She enjoys the thrill of using her powers, pushing herself to the limits, the rush of dropping from orbit as flames curl around her. The adrenaline as she throws down with a villain, she laughs as villains try to pummel her to no avail, and grins when they can hurt her, savouring the chance to flex her muscles against a worthy opponent.

 

Alice's love of both conflict and peace seem an oxymoron, but she enjoys a life without limits, she can fly to the Moon or Mars, or even further on a whim, and she takes full advantage of this fact. She has freedom and power and sees no point restricting herself as Shooting Star, living a life she would call 'sublime', with peaks and valleys taller and deeper than those of others, she allows herself to be more joyous and more melancholy, greater anger and humour, but she knows that to live like that all the time is not something she can do, so she treasures her time as Alice, living a poor but happy life, and occasionally taking breaks, floating in orbit and just looking down at the Earth or out at the stars, taking time to relax and emotionally recharge.

 

Power & Tactics:

Alice enjoys a straight fight, using her paragon power set to overpower her foes, relishing the challenge of a powerful foe. That is not to say Alice is simple however, while she enjoys her fights she also wants to protect people and stop the villains. If she finds that brute strength in a slug match won't win the day she will change up her tactics, fighting smarter if she has to, although her tendency to pick straight fights can get her in a lot of trouble.

Her powers are her enormous density and strength, an incredibly high flight speed and the ability to fly and survive in space. She can fly at FTL speeds outside atmosphere, but has never tested to see her upper limits. Her mutation has left her vulnerable to divine powers, as the circumstances that caused her 

 

Power Descriptions:

Her powers are simple, she is denser than osmium and incredibly tough and strong due to this fact, capable of propelling herself through both atmosphere and void and immune to the dangers involved.

 

Complications:

Wealth: Struggling

Alice's parents struggle to make ends meet, both working full time to barely cover all of the bills and groceries.

Alice may find herself in a position where her lack of funds disadvantages her.

 

Accident: Mass and Speed

Alice's density and speed are both capable of causing large amounts of damage to public property or people.

Alice's power can cause problems for her such as getting trapped due to her density or causing damage by flying too low and too fast.

 

Responsibility: School

Alice goes to a public school, not Claremont, as such she cannot slip away to be a superhero at will.

Alice's superhero duties get in the way of school, causing her trouble with the staff.

 

Enemy/Secret: Aaron Armstrong

Alice's brother works as a super powered mercenary working for the highest bidder. She does not know why he went down this path or how far he has gone. She is conflicted about this situation because she does not want to fight her brother, whilst wanting to stop him from pursuing his current path and wanting to keep him out of jail while also wanting to preserve her own identity.

Due to the complex feelings and difficult decisions regarding her brother, Alice is not sure how to handle a situation which involves her brother, and may worsen the situation by either hesitating too long or acting too quickly.

 

Disability: Muscle Atrophy

If something causes Alice's density power to stop her muscles will revert to their previously atrophied state. She cannot move without assistance like that and cannot fight at all.

If something interrupts Alice's Density power she cannot take any strenuous action. If she cannot fly she will not be able to move under her own power, needing either assistance or a wheelchair.

 

Abilities: -8 + 4 + 8 + 8 + -2 + 10 = 20PP
Strength: 36/2 (+13/-4)
Dexterity: 14 (+2)
Constitution: 18 (+4)
Intelligence: 18 (+4)
Wisdom: 8 (-1)
Charisma: 20 (+5)

Combat: 4 + 4 = 8PP
Initiative: +0
Attack: +3 Melee (+2 Base, +1 Melee Attack Focus), +2 Ranged (+2 Base)
Defense: +4 (+2 Base, +2 Dodge Focus), +1 Flat-Footed

Grapple: +26 (+8 Melee, +13 Strength, +5 Super-Strength)
Knockback: -15

Saving Throws: 4 + 6 + 5 = 15PP
Toughness: +12 (+4 Con, +8 Density), 8 Impervious
Fortitude: +8 (+4 Con, +4 Base)
Reflex: +8 (+2 Dex, +6 Base)
Will: +4 (-1 Wis, +5 Base)

Skills: 32R = 8PP
Bluff 5 (+10) 

Diplomacy 5 (+10) 

Gather Information 5 (+10) 

Knowledge (Physical Sciences) 6 (+10) 

Notice 6 (+5)

Sense Motive 5 (+4)

Feats: 8PP
Attack Focus [Melee] 1

Attractive

Dodge Focus 2

Interpose

Luck 3

Powers: 58 + 25 + 4 + 9 = 96PP

Density 17 (Hyperdense Body; Extras: Increase Duration (Continuous) Unstoppable 5 (Applies to Immovable), Flaws: Permanent, Feats: Subtle 2) [58PP] (Divine, Mutation)

Density Sub-Powers:

Enhanced Strength 34

Immovable 5 

Impervious Protection 8

Super-Strength 5

Flight 12 (50,000mph; Feats: Subtle) [25PP] (Divine, Mutation)

Super Movement (Space Travel) 2 [4PP] (Divine, Mutation)

Immunity 9 (Life Support) [9PP] (Divine, Mutation)

Drawbacks: -5PP

 

Vulnerability (Divine; Frequency: Very Common; Intensity: Major [+100% Effect Rank]) [-5PP]

 

DC Block

 

ATTACK          RANGE              SAVE                     EFFECT

Unarmed         Touch              DC28 Toughness (Staged)  Damage (Physical)

 

Totals: Abilities (20) + Combat (8) + Saving Throws (15) + Skills (8) + Feats (8) + Powers (96) - Drawbacks (-5) = 150/150

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Kaede Kimura

[Amelia]

Life Support includes environmental radiation, so you don't need to buy that separately.

And I assume that the environmental heat Immunity that Life Support includes allows you to fly into and out of the atmosphere without taking damage; it would be weird if all the sample paragon builds didn't actually work. So I don't think you need the fire damage Immunity either.

 

You need to write which skills Skill Mastery applies to next to the feat.

Bluff and Diplomacy are good candidates for Skill Mastery. Gather Info and Knowledge aren't. You generally want a skill you'd actually be using while being "threatened" or in a high-stakes situation. DokA wrote a good article on that in this forum.

That being said, none of those skill bonuses are high enough that you'd want to take 10, so I don't think this character benefits from Skill Mastery at all.

 

Those Notice and Sense Motive bonuses are so low I'm wondering why you bothered investing any ranks there at all.

 

You should write down all the powers that Density gives you.

 

Density gives you Super-Strength, which affects your grapple bonus and your carry capacity.

 

Density gives you Impervious to go with those free Protection ranks. You should note that in your Toughness save, and that also affects your knockback resistance.

 

Why PL8 and not PL10?

Why another teenager?

 

[Kaede Kimura]

1 hour ago, Grumblefloof said:

Life Support includes environmental radiation, so you don't need to buy that separately.

And I assume that the environmental heat Immunity that Life Support includes allows you to fly into and out of the atmosphere without taking damage; it would be weird if all the sample paragon builds didn't actually work. So I don't think you need the fire damage Immunity either.

 

I'll cut out the Radiation Immunity, thanks for pointing that out.

As for the Fire Immunity, I just figured they were bright enough to slow down so as to not burn up on reentry, or their powers just negated the air flow. I was tempted to put damage as a side effect on her flight, but I'm not sure how to put it on so that it only kicks in at the high velocities, and also given her limited immunity and impervious toughness it would have to be mega high to even effect her so it felt like cheating to put it on and reap the points.

 

You need to write which skills Skill Mastery applies to next to the feat.

Bluff and Diplomacy are good candidates for Skill Mastery. Gather Info and Knowledge aren't. You generally want a skill you'd actually be using while being "threatened" or in a high-stakes situation. DokA wrote a good article on that in this forum.

That being said, none of those skill bonuses are high enough that you'd want to take 10, so I don't think this character benefits from Skill Mastery at all.

 

Those Notice and Sense Motive bonuses are so low I'm wondering why you bothered investing any ranks there at all.

 

That's a good point, I'll probably cut out skill mastery. The main reason I bothered putting points in notice and sense motive was so she even could, since she has a really low wisdom.

 

You should write down all the powers that Density gives you.

 

I'll do that, thanks.

 

Density gives you Super-Strength, which affects your grapple bonus and your carry capacity.

 

I knew about the carry capacity part, but I didn't know about the grapple, thank you for pointing that out.

 

Density gives you Impervious to go with those free Protection ranks. You should note that in your Toughness save, and that also affects your knockback resistance.

 

Yeah I'll note that down. The knockback resistance is already accounted for, since it gives her immovable which is what unstoppable is applied to.

 

Why PL8 and not PL10?

Why another teenager?

 

I just think they're neat. If I make another character I'll probably go for a higher age, since I think three would be a bit much.

 

[Amelia]

Quote

The knockback resistance is already accounted for, since it gives her immovable which is what unstoppable is applied to.

 

No, it isn't.

Immovable does add to your KB resistance, yes.

But so does Impervious Toughness.

When you calculate your KB resistance, you halve non-Impervious Toughness, but you don't halve Impervious Toughness.

 

I really, really don't think any Immunity beyond environmental heat (which comes with Life Support) is necessary for atmospheric re-entry. We have a lot of PCs who can fly up into space and back down again, and, to my knowledge, no one has ever made an issue of it for any of them.