Ace Danger (PL13/15) - Angrydurf (Silver)

[angrydurf]

Ace Danger

Power Level: 13/15 (200/223PP)

Trade-Offs: None

Unspent PP: 23

 

Alternate Identity: None

Height: 6'

Weight: 185

Hair: Blonde

Eyes: Blue

 

Description: Ace has a sturdy six foot frame not overly muscled but certainly well defined in an almost careless way that suggests given effort he could develop quite the physique. His head is topped by thick blonde locks that are maintained in a perfect semblance of disarray. He retains much of his fathers classic lines but softened slightly, a strong jaw and chin, but not quite chiseled, his bright blue eyes always have a slight twinkle of mischief dancing in them. Despite his advanced age he appears an attractive man of 24. He dresses well socially though favors a somewhat beaten down Fedora and bomber jacket while "on duty", and favors a kind of retro chic look without looking like he can't keep up with the times.

 

History: The first of the Danger children was born on July 4th 1925, named Ace after Ace Adams his godfather also his fathers pilot and close campanion through many an adventure. His early childhood was fairly normal despite his fathers extended absences with two more sibblings following A brother and a sister (the youngest) over the next five years. The family relocated to Africa where his famed father made his fortune in diamonds of dubious origins by todays standards. Once Ace reached the age of eight his father decided to make up for lost time and Ace joined him on his various adventures throughout the 30's and into the early 40's despite the dangers Ace enjoyed this time though he was always felt he had fallen short of his fathers larger than life expectations of his first born.

 

As Ace came of age his brother was included in more and more of his fathers travels and Ace found himself at loose ends. While he could certainly claim a unique education it was perhaps even worse suited than he was to acedemia. Eventually, out of boredom as much as anythign else, he joined the military. By the time he was out of basic of course the war had drawn to a close and his family name was considered more of an asset than any of his skills. It wasn't long before his mavrick stylings and controversial activities had him discharged (honorably thanks to family connections) to his fathers deep disapointment.

 

After his socialy disasterous military career Ace fell to the baser accusations of his father and became the exact layabout his father claimed him to be and dear old dad seemed to just give up and instead focused on his second born Rex. By 1950 Ace had earned quite the reputation as a libertine and despite the efforts of Little sister Donna to control the rumors he was steadily erroding the familys reputation. Her answer was simple and with some manuevering of family money and contacts she neatly made him some one elses problem as he was inducted into service with the CIA where he was the very picture of the dashing spy later immortalized in print and film. He roamed the world much as he had with his father only now it was a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Soviets rather than twarting Nazi schemes. He was well suited to the work and relished the risk. Due to his unique contacts and knowledge from his days traveling with his father he was assighned to the more esoteric missions no simple spying on abasadors for Johnny Dagers son when there were communist backed voodoo cults in Havana or Soviet reaserchers developing doomsday devices in the himalayas. His fast and loose interpretation of regulations kept him fairly stationary in the organization despite his successes but at least he wasn't bored. It was during this time that his training with Shambala monks and blessings from witch doctors and voodoo queens led to some of his more extrodinary abilities though he carefully hid these from his antsy employers given the political climate.

 

It was only natural that whent he fledgling AEGIS organization cropped up he was optioned off to it though that barely lasted a year before he was drummed out for disrespecting a superior officer. The family stepped in once more to keep the specifics quiet but he was still blacklisted form government work. By this time his sister and her children were fully running Danger Industries and hsi father was retired having passed the torch to Rex who continued to live up to all of the Danger elders expectations. Ace for his part also prided himself on living up to every claim his father made. He with pride says that his actions alone supported the feldgling tabloid industry through the sixties and early seventies and its not far from the truth. He publicly partook of much of the worst the decades had to offer and was teh center of most major scandels of the era.

 

Likely he much like the rest of the counrty would have continued on the self destructive course they were on if not for the Big One. The Terminus invasion was a rather brutal wake-up call for everyone but it was particularly so for Ace. His brother Rex had recently spirited him away from yet another party gone too far when the call came in. The city was under attack. Rex being Rex immediatly spun the car in the direction of the trouble and told Ace to stay out of the way if he could. They never even had a chance as the burning lance of energy sliced through the car. Ace's last memory was his brothers scream as they were both vaporized. Ace woke up still in the tangled wreckage of the car after it was all over. In the end Rex was yet another in a long list of Heroes who fell in the invasion, Ace was sure to embelish the story the press got, to everyone else Rex went out like a Hero should.

 

His brothers death affected Ace strongly, he had experiance and more than a few tricks up his sleeve, he would do what Rex would have wanted. He became a Hero too, though granted still with his own specific idiom. In hero work a handsome smile and flare for the dramatic turned out to be as much a benefit as it had been a hindrance in his days at the agency. Of course he still had his fathers globe trotting tendancies and soon was swept up in events throughout the world. His niece Rachel is fairly supportive of such activities but has slowly convinced him to stick to freedom city for now on and with Ace Danger is back in town the funs sure to start soon.

 

Personality & Motivation: Ace has really been training for the Hero gig almost since birth and despite some unorthodox methods he's good at it. He's a larger than life presonality from a larger than life family and lives it up as such. To most appearances he's a shallow attention grabbing playboy with too many toys, and thats not entirely inaccurate but he does have a strong sense of justice and feels a responsbility for the people of freedom. Rex's death puled him out of a pretty self destructive spiral but that hasn't kept him form havign fun while doing good in the here and now.

 

Powers & Tactics: Every person who asks how Ace got his talents gets a different answer each more unbelievable than the last some of them are probably even true. He has been blessed by mystics of many traditions for long life and thats likely the actual core reason for his immortality, He most often will say however that he's to pretty to die. In his travels he has also picked up more than a few tricks. He has learned many martial arts forms from various groups through the years that has left him a capeable hand to hand fighter though no specific style really take preeminance and his fathers wicked left hook is still his most signature move. He has also trained with various yogi's and mystics throughout the world to hone his mind and has picked up on the tricks that he most liked granting him a suite of mind tricks harnessing the power of his mind. He has also made some upgrades to his home to better fit with his new "super" lifestyle, using daka crystals he has pulled it off the grid and aplified his own mind clouding abilities to hide the entire structure from prying eyes, hte instalation of a comunacations and computing suite made it in his mind the perfect luxurious base of operations. Also it helps with dodging the ever present paparrazi.

 

 

---

Complications:

Disarmed!: Aces gadget power is hard to lose as he has to be stripped of all of his devices to completely lose access. However many of the individual items are hand held and can be disarmed as normal.

Fame

Honor (Hero code: don't kill or main, no torture, protect innocents etc)

Reputation (Wastrel playboy)

 

 

Stats: 8+0+12+6+0+14=40pp

Str: 18 (+4)

Dex: 10 (+0)

Con: 22 (+6)

Int: 16 (+3)

Wis: 10 (+0)

Cha: 24 (+7)

 

 

Combat: 28pp

Attack: +8 (+12 melee, +16 Unarmed)

Grapple: +16

Defense: +13 (+3 flat-footed)

Knockback: -4

Initiative: +0

 

 

Saves: 19pp

Toughness: +9 (+6 Con, +3 Hidden Vest)

Fortitude: +9 (+6 Con, +3)

Reflex: +8 (+0 Dex, +8)

Will: +8 (+0 Wis, +8)

 

 

Skills: 104r = 26pp

Bluff 17 (+24)

Diplomacy 7 (+14, +20 with Wealth)

Disguise 9 (+16)

Gather Information 7 (+14, +20 with wealth)

Investigation 2 (+5)

Language 4 (Cantonese, Dakanan, French, Tibetan; English is native)

Notice 17 (+17)

Search 7 (+10)

Sense motive 17 (+17)

Stealth 17 (+17)

 

 

Feats: 53pp

Attack Focus: Melee 4

Attack Specialization: Unarmed 2

Beginners Luck

Benefit (Wealth 3/Filthy Rich)

Challenge 2 (Fast Feint, Fast Taunt)

Connected

Contacts

Distract (bluff)

Dodge Focus 7

Equipment 6

Hide In Plain Sight

Improvised Tools

Inspire 5

Jack of all Trades

Leadership

Luck 4

Power Attack

Quick Change 2

Redirect

Set-Up

Skill Mastery (Bluff, Disguise, Notice, Stealth)

Sneak Attack

Teamwork 3

Taunt

Uncanny Dodge (mental)

Well Informed

 

 

Quote

Possessions

Ace day to day carries his smartphone (Cell/PDA/wireless internets, whichever brand/model is 'hot') and for business keeps a laptop in his briefcase. When driving himself he prefers a snazzy sports car but for formal events will arrive by limo unless he feels the need to "make an entrance" he maintains a membership at the Northbay Yacht Club and participates in the regatta aboard his sailboat 'Albatross'. He maintains a penthouse downtown for business and discrete liaisons in addition to the less well known Danger Manor.

 

Equipment [30 equipment points]

Hidden vest [4]

Smoke Grenade (Obscure 2 [Visual; Independent]) [5]

AP: Shuriken, Masterwork (Blast 1 [Autofire] w/ +1 to hit)

 

Danger Manor [total 21]

Toughness 10 [1]

Size Large [2]

Combat Simulator [1]

Communications [1]

Computer [1]

Dock [1]

Defense system (Stun 12 [Crazy Purple Knockout Gas; Extra: Sleep, area; Flaws: Limitation{Gas attack, stopped by Immunity suffocation, or Immunity poison}][1]

Fire prevention system [1]

Garage [1]

Gym [1]

Hangar [1]

Infirmary [1]

Library [1]

Living space [1]

Personnel [1]

Pool [1]

Power system [1]

Security System x 3 (DC 30) [3]

 

 

Powers: 14 + 3 + 16 = 33pp.

 

Gadgets 2 (Be Prepared; 10pp; Flaw: Hard to Lose) [14pp]

 

Immunity 3 (aging, disease, poison) [3pp]

 

Regeneration 14 (Disabled 6 [1/round], True Resurrection 8 [1/round]; PFs: Persistent, Regrowth) [12pp]

 

 

Drawbacks: 0pp

 

 

DC Block:

ATTACKS: SAVE DC: DAMAGE TYPE:

(Name of Attack) (Save DC/Type) (Type of Damage: Bruise/Injury, or other)

Unarmed ------ 19/Toughness ----- Bruise/injury

Sneak Attack Unarmed ------ 21/Toughness ------ Bruise Injury

Shuriken ------ 16/Toughness ------ Bruise/Injury

Sneak Attack Shuriken ------ 18/Toughness ------ Bruise/Injury

 

 

Totals: Abilities 40 + Combat 28 + Saves 19 + Skills 26 (104r) + Feats 54 + Powers 33 - Drawbacks 0 = 200/223

Edited October 21, 2018 by Fox
+2pp for September 2018

[Dr Archeville]

Background and other fluff look mostly good.

The very low base attack/ranged attack (should he really be less proficient with firearms than an average police officer?) I'm a bit leery of.

I'm even more leery of the very low base defense + high Dodge Focus + Uncanny Dodge.

As I'm sure you're aware, we're working on re-doing the Wealth rules, so you may be able to save some points there.

What Benefit do you expect from "Well-Traveled"? I'd think Connected, Contacts, and Well-Informed (plus a good Diplomacy and Gather Information bonus) would be sufficient.

What sort of Equipment does he have?

Why is his Strike Innate? Innate is typically for powers that are some inherent, natural part of the character, like an elephant's Growth. Also, how is it they strike as hard as greataxes? A rank or two in Strike I can easily see as being from Training, but 4 ranks seems a bit high to me.

So the Mind Control is that he just talks them into doing what he wants, and the Stun is that he talks them to sleep (backed by psionic power)?

[angrydurf]

Background and other fluff look mostly good.

The very low base attack/ranged attack (should he really be less proficient with firearms than an average police officer?) I'm a bit leery of.

the Idea is that he's not really a fighter though the realist in me realizes that combat is inevitable so I gave him martial arts training but he really hasn't maintained any other skills. What is average proficiency for a police officer? If the points can do it I can try to pull that up a bit.

I'm even more leery of the very low base defense + high Dodge Focus + Uncanny Dodge.

It was actually tough for me to figure out exactly what the non dodge portion of defense is supposed to represent. That led to focusing on dodge as his real defense mechanism, he knows how to get out of hte way of a blow kinda deal.

On both this and the base attack issue I am trying to keep him relevant in combat if lower overall scores in those areas could still allow that then I woudl happily drop them somewhat.

As I'm sure you're aware, we're working on re-doing the Wealth rules, so you may be able to save some points there.

What Benefit do you expect from "Well-Traveled"? I'd think Connected, Contacts, and Well-Informed (plus a god Diplomacy and Gather Information bonus) would be sufficient.

Yea I'm monitoring how wealth is gonna settle out. Well as a child he was basically johnny quest he's been to dakana, the wildlands 5 or 6 false shamballa vales (that he knows to be false) and other "mysterious places TM" I was looking for a knowledge skill that would cover that kinda knowledge none of the ones int he book really fit being more "book learning" in scope so I made up this. If the background is sufficient for him to go "hey I saw something like this when we were being chased by the beastmen of Arr in the depths of the amazon." I would drop it. I guess the jack of all trades does give him knowledege checks on any subject though so its probably unneccisary.

What sort of Equipment does he have?

DOH i forgot to paste that part over. Should I edit it into the post above?

Why is his Strike Innate? Innate is typically for powers that are some inherent, natural part of the character, like an elephant's Growth. Also, how is it they strike as hard as greataxes? A rank or two in Strike I can easily see as being from Training, but 4 ranks seems a bit high to me.

He doesn't have mystic damaging powers so the strike is supposed to be along the lines of "he has a wicked left cross." which is why its innate its not super powered, can't be boosted/nullified. I can drop it down to whatever max you say is possible for that though. I mean for the same points I could get more bang by dumping it into raw strength with the same basic effect but He's not that strong just hits hard.

So the Mind Control is that he just talks them into doing what he wants, and the Stun is that he talks them to sleep (backed by psionic power)?

The mind control is my attempt at the "jedi mind trick" he says like one sentance(a few words in combat) that they obey/believe like "Drop the gun!" or "Our identifacation is sufficient." The stun is basically the same deal only he just says "Sleep" and they do. Thematically its "ancient vocal techniques and meditive focus fromt eh mysterious east" but mechanically I think psionic is the best catagory for a descriptor though I'm open to a better suggestion.

Let me know what numbers are satisfactory to you on the Combat stats and I'll adjust them I really just have them there to participate in the inevatable combats. With bruisers like Hellbound or knieval I figured I should really try aand reach for the caps so I don't go down too easy to the stuff designed to chalenge them. But he's a Face/infiltrator not a bruiser so I'm not attatched to the combat stats.

[Dr Archeville]

Police Officers have +3 base Attack. (Soldiers have +4, SWAT Officers have +6.)

If he's not really a fighter, you could go a point of two under on his PL caps for combat stuff. Especially if he's a face/infiltrator.

Jack of All Trades (and the feats/skills I mentioned earlier) sound exactly like what you'd want for "Well-Traveled."

Yes, please edit the original post to show any changes.

"Wicked left cross" could just as easily be a combo of Power Attack and Sneak Attack. I'm still not seeing how training alone (and not, say, training + semi-latent telekinesis) can let his punches do as much damage as if he were wielding a greataxe.

"Unlocked psionic potential" is a fine descriptor for those "Jedi mind tricks." However, have you considered just using skills & feats for those? Very high Interaction skills can be almost as Mind Control.

Oh, I meant to ask, how old does he look? I'm guessing he doesn't look like a typical 84 year old man.

[angrydurf]

Ok adjusted his Base attack and dodge up and his feats for those down a bit so theres not so much of a gap.

tweaked a few feats (mostly the combat ones but dropped well traveled and added power attack)

I dropped the strike to 2 and gave it the non-lethal only drawback, and added the equipment list

Added that he still looks 24 to physical description and a brief explanation of his HQ under powers and abilities.

Considering dropping the mind control power for skill mastery with some interaction skills how would that work for in combat type commands? Would it just be the penalty for hostile target or woudl some stuff just not work since there isn't a Power backing it up?

[Dr Archeville]

Skill Mastery just means you can Take 10, but there are penalties for some uses of interaction skills in combat (and some cannot be used in combat because they take too long). But are Jedi Mind Tricks used that often in combat?

Also, for the Distract feat you have listed, do you mean Fascinate?

[angrydurf]

Yea in combat would be pretty limited anyway withthe mind trick I suppose. Plus being able to combine it with the illusions brings a smile to my face. (droped the mind control AP for skill mastery)

For distract I mean the distract feat from the M&M2E core book

Distract Skill, Ranked

You can make a Bluff or Intimidate check (choose

one when you acquire the feat) to cause an opponent

to hesitate in combat. Take a standard action

and make a skill check against your target’s opposing

check (the same skill, Sense Motive, or Will save,

whichever has the highest bonus). If you succeed, your

target is dazed for one round (defending normally, but

taking no action). Targets gain a +1 bonus on checks

to resist Distract per attempt against them in the

same encounter. You can take this feat twice (gaining

the ability to use it with either Bluff or Intimidate).

[Dr Archeville]

Hunh, I somehow never noticed that feat in the book before. Cool.

Is the Stun something he should be able to do in the heat of combat? (I'm not outright saying he cannot have it, I'm just asking for a bit more thinking-through of it, as I did with Mind Control. It seems to me like your going for a Shadow-type character.)

[angrydurf]

Yea it's a neat feat, I can totally just go "Look the good year blimp." *points* and it works

The Shadow is deffinately one of the inspirations, especialy for the powers.

I like the stun usable in combat with the aplication of his will he is able to command his foes into a deep sleep (well kinda ) with but a word. Really its alot more brute force than most of his techniques just kinda throwing his mental weight around rather than the more subtle use of illusions and concealment. Plus he's designed to kinda be a controller in combat keeping the enemies distracted etc for the brawlers to take out, well for group combatat least, solo he tries to minimize how many guys can focus on him at a time and mostly tries to take on one at a time from hiding if he can't just avoid the fight entirely.

[angrydurf]

Quick edit to fix really bad math on my skills

[Dr Archeville]

Alright, two more (relatively minor) things:

I'd like to see the time needed for Resurrection listed in his Regen. (Also, be aware the regrowth occurs at the same rate as recovering from the Disabled damage condition.)

I'm not sure "Nonlethal only" is a sufficient Drawback for this board, where the default assumption is that you do nonlethal damage. Also, doing nonlethal only, he would be unable to damage objects (which can only be damaged by lethal damage).

[angrydurf]

Edited the resurrection time, his other healing is at the base rate still.

the strike is really to represent a solid punch so I figure it shouldn't be lethal, he's not like breaking boards kung fu master more a brawling mixed martial arts with a solid punch, so I figure he can't hurt/break non living things and while he can knock a guy out with a punch he can't kill a guy with one. I get that the assumption is non-lethal but he can't do lethal with the strike (honestly I don't get why a normal punch can be lethal but thats M&M for ya) so it doesn't work on objects or constructs/zombies for that matter still seems limiting but its one point so *shrug*)

[Dr Archeville]

(honestly I don't get why a normal punch can be lethal but thats M&M for ya)

You don't get that you can beat a man to death with your bare hands?

[angrydurf]

Oh I get that but usualyy thats a thing of you knock a guy out then continue to beat him after that point or use some other method to "finish him".

Plus I kinda use the genre as a guide and punches don't just kill people (arguably due to the attacker choosing not too) in comics it really isn't until weapons come in that real lethality enters the picture. I mean if he could Jugernaut woudl always do lethal and Scott woudl be dead in one hit but he gets flung through walls for non-lethal and lives. Granted all of that is story driven and not actually taking into account anyhting like mechanics.

I'm just used to with RPGs using lethal and non-lethal damage that you need a weapon/power to do lethal and bare fists are non-lethal so thats certainly part of it.

But its the way of M&M it doesn't really follow the RPG standards.

[Dr Archeville]

I can live with that

He looks fine to me, but I'm going to wait until we settle the Wealth thing before giving my approval.

[Dr Archeville]

Oh, I did just notice one more thing that concerns me: his Concealment. Specifically, the Affects Others + Self, Area, and Progression 3 combo. That can get a 250-ft. area, though it can't work on anyone who is unwilling. That's.... that's really big for someone who's not a dedicated Psion.

I'm also curious as to what you want the Selective feat for, since I'm not sure that's appropriate and may instead require the Selective Attack extra.

[angrydurf]

the idea of hte selective feat was that it will only conceal the targets I want in that area not turn everything in the area invisible. The area is mostly so if I'm workign with others and we split up to go to each end of a house or whatever they can remain invisible, the full three ranks was to fill out to the points in the array, I have since redone the math on the other powers though and they came out to fewer points.

I can drop some of the progression I just wanted to make sure we didn't all have to be standing right next to each other if I use it on others.

[angrydurf]

ok I dropped progression down to 1 (50') which I think should cover fine I thought the starting area was much smaller.

I also dropped sedation off the stun as Shaen pointed out that it basically did the same thing as the sleep extra (extends time between recovery checks)

This does leave me room to drop the array to a level 9 (18pps) but I'm gonna wait to finalize that and spend the points until I know whats what with the wealth benefit.

[angrydurf]

Edited for the wealth rule change. Also dropped the progression from concealment and sedation from the stun (it already had sleep so wasn't needed) this let me drop the array to an 18 point array instead of 20.

Bought status and equipment with the extra points

[Dr Archeville]

Energizing won't work for an HQ-based Healing: Energizing Healing lets you 'heal' someone else's fatigue or exhaustion by transferring it to yourself. Which'd make the HQ itself fatigued, which... no.

[angrydurf]

Sorry I misread that, thought it just healed the fatigue result not took it on itself. Removed energizing upped the healing rank to 9.

[Dr Archeville]

Equipment looks fine, but you really don't need to spend a point on Benefit/Status simply to be able to call himself Captain or to represent inactive/retired military status (that can mostly be covered by his Connected and Contacts feats).

Also, please bold the names of his powers, and bold & underline the "section headings" (stats, combat, saves, skills, etc.). :)

[angrydurf]

Ok cool. So I switched the superfluous status to 4 ranks of notice and bolded stuff.

[angrydurf]

Just wanted to make sure this wasn't lost in the crush.

[Dr Archeville]

D'oh! Yeah, here's his first approval.